Queens International

by Emily

NYC readers – did you march/attend Pride Parade yesterday?? It was my weekend to cover work but I did manage to snag some on-theme treats (x2). And we didn’t have the energy to do much dinner cooking but we did have amazing Asian food in Queens (x2!).

Thursday through Sunday I worked every day but one so I’ve been drinking all of the coffee. Thanks to caffeine, this post is mostly a complete recap, I think I’m only missing one meal from each category. Here’s what I’ve got…

Seriously, all of the coffee. Always in the morning and a few times as an afternoon snack as well. Highlights include a latte from Hungry Ghost and a cold brew from Starbucks that I ordered full-strength (usually they add water).

With yummy bars. Coconut Chocolate Chip.

Caramel Almond.

A creamy tropical smoothie. Frozen mango, guava paste, avocado, and vanilla almond milk. I used a whole avocado (split into two servings) and I think next time I’d only use half, the creaminess was great but the flavor was a bit much for me.

Doughnut Plant‘s Pride doughnut = yeast with raspberry glaze.

Yogurt bowl. Strawberry lingonberry with real berries and Heritage Flakes.

Trail mix bags. The standout ingredient was cinnamon roasted chickpeas.

Mini peanut butter cups (x ten thousand) make the afternoons seem less lengthy.

Sandwich and fries on a busy day. I was worried about mealy tomatoes when I bought this but they ended up being roasted and the chew and smokiness totally made the sandwich. There was a nice layer of spinach on there too, it was actually a pretty sandwich.

Salad / mac and cheese / hardboiled eggs.

Another Pride treat, from Ample Hills. In a cone with oatmeal lace.

The Queens International Night Market was fun, like a smaller, more focused Smorgasburg.

We split a taro shaved ice with mango, scm, boba, and mochi.

I had a very disappointing duck bao.

And Filipino tacos that were absolutely one of the best dishes we’ve ever tasted. Chicken sigsig, crispy shells, and lemon mayo. They were such a pleasing mix of textures and flavors!

The Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens is basically just the storefront version of the market. I want to try something in practically ever window we walked by! I loved what I had too. Bahn Mi at JoJu.

My “Hot Chicken” had grilled lemongrass chicken with spicy mayo and kimchi, plus pickled vegetables, and a soft cooked egg. And for $5.99 it was giant, that picture only shows one half!

And afterwards we walked to Red Ribbon Bakeshop. The Ube Overload cake was gorgeous but bland and the Halo Halo was fantasmic. Shaved ice with various sweetened beans and fruits, milk , leche flan, and whipped mango topping.

My only “homecooked” meal was basically an assembly of parts but I ate chips and dips and three day old roasted broccoli for dinner while I wrote this post so I’ll pat myself on the back for it. Plus it was delicious.

Potato and onion pierogis with tons of roasted zucchini, tossed in a sauce made of cream cheese and chicken stock, topped with hot smoked salmon.

I only work four days this week thanks to the weekend shift, woo-hoo!

23Jun2016

Similar To Cake By The Ocean

by Emily

I’m mashing last weekend’s post into this week’s – and we’ve done a lot of good eating! – so I had to filter down to only the most delicious things. Here are the best bites from the top five categories…

{1} all the coffee!

We ordered The Unicorn at Box Kite, obviously.

We went to Birch Coffee and loved it so much that we went back at the end of the day to buy a bag of beans.

Then went back again a few days later for another latte!

Locally roasted coffee that comes in cups with trees on them is just too exciting. And there were birch trees etched into the sidewalk out front!

{2} protein-packed salads

Beans, eggs, and lots of fish. At Whole Foods – spring mix with tangerine vinaigrette / salmon / two kinds of bean salads / parmesan / and a hard-boiled egg.

At the cafeteria – romaine with blue cheese / veggies / corn / kidney beans / cheddar / egg. Plus my coworker brought me a giant piece of baked salmon and I tossed that on top too.

At the cafeteria when I worked last Sunday and pickings were getting slim – I did the best I could with fried fish and a steamed vegetable mix.

It wasn’t bad, but I did buy a train snack that night.

{3} killer sandwiches

Breakfast: egg and cheese on a croissant with turkey bacon.

Lunch: do taquitos count as sandwiches? I’m including them either way, because this lunch was too good not to share. Tortaria knocked our socks off. Adam and I split a platter with mahi and cauliflower (and pork for him). Plus spicy fries and tons of guacamole. And a tamarind agua fresca.

The sauces sitting on the tables – green salsa, blended salsa, and something creamy and smoky – were astonishingly good. And that ridiculous quantity of food (why include chips and fries in the same deal?!) cost less than twenty dollars.

Dinner: cod bahn mi at a new Vietnamese/taco spot in Park Slope.

Don’t question it, the combo worked, I went with a girlfriend who got tacos and we were both very pleased.

{4} sweet stuff

~~Cake by the ocean.~~ Cookies by the Hudson. We got giant chocolate chip walnut cookies from Levain and enjoyed them in Riverside Park.

Tropical smoothie at home. Frozen mango and soursop with guava paste and vanilla almond milk.

Ben & Jerry’s Empower-Mint flavor is yummy and it supports an important cause.

Siggi’s yogurt with berries and shredded halvah.

Birthday cake croissant from Union Fare. It’s topped with ground sprinkle dust and filled with sprinkle-studded pastry cream!

It was also just one of the best croissant we’ve ever tasted.

{5} hearty homemade dinners

Spanish flavors reigned supreme on the home front this week. Tomato garlic crock pot chicken served with brown rice tossed with garlic, tomato paste, raisins, and chopped olives. Plus roasted broccoli.

I also made fantastic enchiladas.

Whole Foods’ roasted garlic green chile enchilada sauce costs a ridiculous $4+ per can and it is soooo good. Our filling was ground turkey breast cooked with TJ’s vegan chorizo and tons of roasted yellow squash and zucchini. Plus cheese galore.

10Jun2016

Destination City

by Emily

this week I loved…

Neutrogena Revitalizing Lip Balm. It took me forever to find a balm with both tint and spf but this one fits the bill perfectly!

A blog book review. Dawn Lerman’s My Fat Dad was sent to me free of charge to try/read for the blog. Her chapter on moving to New York City walked the reader through the different cultural food neighborhoods in a way that made my mouth water.

Living in a destination city. I had two different sets of friends visiting NYC for work trips this week. It was fantastic to get to catch up with them! However, I went out after work for dinner and/or drinks multiple times and I am flipping exhausted.

P.S. My favorite bar (Pork Slope in Park Slope) now has $1 jello shots, clearly I backed the right horse!

this week I ate…

Vietnamese-ish iced coffee.

A killer smoothie – with banana, blueberry, and avocado. So creamy.

Poppy seed bagel with olive cream cheese.

Oatmeal bowl. With cookie butter and a pixie tangerine.

Greek yogurt bowl with Cheerios and plums. I also crumbled a brownie in there (see below) and it was pretty fantastic.

Taboule salad from the cafeteria.

Whole Foods hot bar. Lots of veggies, rice with black beans and cheddar, and broccoli mac and cheese.

I needed a 2nd coffee snack more than once.

Turkey jerky.

Best ever brownies. Just this recipe without the fluff.

Baby carrots with great feta dip.

I had Thai food in Williamsburg with Adam and a girlfriend. Drunken noodles with mock duck that were as spicy as they were delicious.

We cooled our mouths down with soft-serve from Milk Bar. Fruity pebble soft-serve(!!) with fudge sauce and sprinkles.

Indian at the Grand Central food court. And yes, I realize that is a lame spot to take an out-of-towner.

Starbucks sandwich for a quick dinner on the train and then I went straight to bed!

I did make dinner at home one night! Whole-wheat vermicelli noodles with ginger and garlic chicken, shredded cabbage, bell pepper, and a tahini lime sauce. With cashews on top plus tons of Sriracha after the picture.

We snacked on a servings’ worth of cashews and sliced bell pepper while we cooked.

Good friends, good eats, it was a good week!

3Jun2016

It’s Time For BBQ And Hot Dogs

by Emily

Here were this week’s top three…

{breakfast}

Killer breakfast sandwich. Turkey bacon, egg, and cheddar on a croissant. If I could get the cafeteria to scramble me an egg with peppers to put on a sandwich I’d be in heaven.

Coffee always makes the top of the list! Black Hand with chocolate milk.

With a Lavender Love kombucha.

{lunch}

Yogurt bowls for the win. With blueberries and chopped nectarine and modest variation in toppings. 2% Fage with Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

4% Siggis with pecans, chia, and cookie butter.

Passionfruit Chobani with Heritage Flakes, pecans, and chia.

{snack}

This kettle corn is some of the best packaged popcorn I’ve ever tasted, it is super crispy.

Another sweet and salty, a pixie tangerine with a chicken Wilde Bar.

My coworker brought me in a grass jelly drink to try after I raved about the jelly at Boba Guys. It was good! Not very sweet at all and mildly grassy in a pleasant way. I mixed it with vanilla soy milk.

{dinner}

Our cooking took place indoors and up North but we still made the most of Southern bbq flavors for two of our meals this week. Nacho night! Carolina bbq chips, sharp cheddar, pulled turkey with bbq sauce, pinto beans, red onion, and roasted broccoli.

A similar concept on salad – arugula with ranch / bbq turkey / pinto beans / red onion / cucumber / bell pepper. With corn on the cob. This was a fun dinner but it desperately needed some crunch and we ended up dumping kettle chips on our salads to act as de facto croutons.

Hot dogs in scrambled eggs sounds low-brow but tastes amazing. Our eggs included ‘dogs, red onion, arugula, and cheddar. With avocado and roasted asparagus on the side.

Now I just need to find myself some watermelon this weekend!

27May2016

Five For Ten

by Emily

I worked all last weekend so I didn’t take the time to blog. Good news – that means I have tomorrow off with a three day weekend! Here were the top five eats for the last ten days…

{1} Oatmeal for lunch

Prepackaged with vanilla almond butter and citrus on the side.

And a homemade mix with chia seeds and sliced almonds.

With fresh strawberries stirred in and melty cookie butter on top. P.S. Cookie butter probably should have gotten its own bullet point!

{2} The last of the Tahini Granola in yogurt bowls

With plain Greek yogurt and fresh blueberries and blackberries.

I need to make a 2nd batch of granola asap, it made the last two weeks of lunches an absolute delight. I’m going to give myself a lower sugar week with Heritage Flakes first though.

{3} Epic sandwiches

The cafeteria-assembled breakfast sandwiches were particularly epic but this turkey ‘which from home was nothing to sneeze at.

TJ’s quinoa bread with turkey and cheddar. I put the chips inside the sandwich for some needed crunch.

Cinnamon-raisin toast with smashed hard-boiled egg, veggie sausage, and Greek yogurt cream cheese.

Egg and cheese croissantwich.

I’ve decided I don’t eat egg sandwiches often enough, a gap in my culinary habits that desperately needs to be filled.

{4} Starbucks’ s’mores bar

Holy crap this was good!

I swear the graham cracker layer has coffee in it.

{5} Mexican-flavors dinners

Deconstructed tacos, aka taco filling bowls scooped with tortilla chips.

Shredded chicken, sautéed orange bell peppers and onion, cheese, plain Greek yogurt, and fresh cilantro. Plus brussels sprouts that I roasted with taco seasoning. <– so good

Another night we made chicken and zucchini enchiladas.

I don’t know why I never make enchiladas, these were so easy!

{Bonus} Near misses – don’t try this at home

These two seemed like they’d be great and instead were total let downs. I did not want a 2nd bite of this cookie dough bar.

And we were expecting to love Bunsmith, they have a cookie butter bun for god sake. And a boozy banana milk and spice cocktail.

Mega meh. The veggies in our bowls came out of a can and there was entirely too much rice. We’ll have to stay loyal to Bao Haus. In fact, it’s on the agenda for the three-day weekend!

20May2016

Eating Madison Square

by Emily

This week’s flavor themes: coffee (always), cheese (almost always), lavender, yogurt, fresh herbs, and tahini granola (<– my newest, greatest recipe!).

We work all weekend – actually we work every day straight until next Friday – and we made the most of our shared Thursday off. And we went on a dinner date on Tuesday! Good times.

My seasonal allergies hit hard this week and I was a sneezy, disoriented mess so dinners were basically a disaster but my lunches were on point. And dinners were fun, just lacking in greens; the “healthiest” meal of the week was veggie-packed nachos!

foods that were good

This week’s coffee – Black Hand with lavender sugar. Very yummy with fat-free milk and half & half.

Also with the last of the Nutchello.

And paired alongside a lavender kombucha.

Important note – this pomegranate sangria seltzer tastes and smells exactly like Pez candy!

The serenity now blend from David’s Tea also deserves a mention, the spearmint is lovely.

Bonus – maple iced latte from Brooklyn Roasting Company.

My packed lunches were all about the tahini granola. With plain yogurt and berries.

Though one day I did have Chobani watermelon with fresh watermelon. If you haven’t had watermelon in a yogurt bowl yet, go for it, the combo is fantastic.

And yesterday we did a lunch date at Madison Square Eats. <– a food tent situation similar to Smorgasburg

It was great to sit outside and eat in the sun. We shared a salmon belly dosa waffle from Inday.

And a green papaya salad with lemongrass chicken from Hong Kong Kitchen. Served on a giant bed of lettuce.

But our true raison d’être was the Ice & Vice ice cream and Squish marshmallow collaboration. We had a scoop of Detention (malted vanilla with brownie and fruity pebble dust) with a toasted Birthday Party (sprinkles) marshmallow. Yummmm! Best marshmallow we’ve ever tasted.

The days I didn’t eat granola at lunch I had it as an evening snack! I’m a woman obsessed; that stuff is delicious. This was caramel Noosa with granola, melty cookie butter, and blackberries.

Speaking of evening snacks, the cookie butter is a very tempting thing to have open.

Take-out Pad Thai for dinner. This wasn’t even my weak take-out, this was Adam’s leftovers from a night shift. Like I said, dinners weren’t fantastic.

Pizza pizza.

Our dinner date at Pok Pok was a win.

That’s a tamarind whiskey sour. Enjoyed with complimentary chili lime peanuts.

The food is served family-style and the waitress recommended sharing three dishes so that’s what we did. Khao Soi Kai – Northern Thai mild curry noodle soup made with a secret curry paste recipe and coconut milk. With chicken on the bone and crispy noodles. Served with house pickled mustard greens, shallots, and roasted chili paste.

Cha Ca “La Vong” – Vietnamese catfish marinated in turmeric and sour sticky rice, fried in turmeric oil with scallions and dill, served on rice vermicelli with peanuts, mint, cilantro, and mam nem (fish sauce). The fresh herbs took this over the top! I have been loving the use of mint in our restaurant dishes lately.

Finally, Hoi Thawt – crispy broken crepe with steamed fresh mussels, eggs, garlic, chives and bean sprouts. This was my favorite dish, you can’t go wrong with fried eggs. I only recently started eating mussels but I really enjoyed them served this way.

We also had an amazing dessert. A clever play on Thai iced coffee, this was a condensed milk ice cream affagato in Stumptown espresso. With Thai doughnuts on the side.

Our homecooked dinner for the week was loaded nachos. Corn chips, shredded cheese, shredded chicken, pinto beans, roasted broccoli, sautéed orange bell pepper and onion, avocado, and tons of fresh cilantro.

The dog was pretty pleased with this too, because he got several bites of chicken and avocado during the assembly stage.

three exciting non-food things

{1} How long the dog is in this photo Adam snapped of us in bed.

{2} The Egg and the Spoon. I’m halfway done and loving it. All of Gregory Maguire’s books are enchanting but this story is particularly so. I’m going back and rereading every other page because the wording is just so beautiful.

{3} I convinced one of my friends to start watching Hart of Dixie and now she texts me regular updates about how great it is! I’m way too excited to have someone sharing my shame.

16May2016

Bushwick And Beyond

by Emily

Weekend theme flavors: rose, tahini, coffee, and duck.

I am super lucky that my husband feels the same way that I do about trying new foods and sharing foods; splitting things means we get to have tons of tastes! I feel lucky to have him in general too! (<– see also: the gorgeous flowers below that he surprised me with after work on Friday)

For Saturday breakfast we shared a soursop smoothie. It couldn’t compare to the fresh stuff I had at home but was still yummy. Frozen soursop puree, caramel almond milk, and cinnamon and nutmeg.

I also had an iced Americano while we did a big grocery restock trip. Pro tip – ask for “light water” so you can add some milk without losing espresso.

Lunch was a smorgasbord at Smorgasburg. Duck bun, smothered in sweet chili sauce. The crunch from the fried shallots makes this our favorite bao in the city. {A+}

I cooled my mouth down with an earl grey egg cream. {A}

We tried a savory crepe with egg, chili sauce, and a crunchy cracker. {B} The texture ended up not really being our speed, we both wished we had gone for the extra egg in it.

Palm sugar with tamarind caramel ice cream for dessert. {A+} This had such a unique flavor.

I tasted a bite of cinnamon rose and it was pretty amazing as well. We grabbed an unphotographed coffee at some point in there too.

Our evening plans included a tasting/tour of Owney’s Rum at The Noble Experiment so we wandered around Bushwick a bit. We were parked about a mile from the distillery so we got to see a few cool spots. And the tour was great; we really love factory/brewery/etc visits.

I also had a vodka soda with cherries. <– desperately needed lime

For dinner we fell head over heals in love with Faro. Gorgeous tableware, locally and humanely sourced foods, and delicious dishes.

We started with ricotta gnocchi with ramps, morel mushrooms, fava beans, and cured egg.

Plus a little gem lettuce salad with miso anchovy vinaigrette, pistachio, soft-boiled egg, and mint. It was amazing, truly the very best salad we’ve ever had! Adam and I both thought it was the best dish of the day. The mint made it absolutely perfect.

Drinks were a meh rosé and a sour porter which we loved.

We shared our entrées (more tastes!). Squid ink corzetti with peekytoe crab, uni, shiro dashi, and sorrel. I really dislike long pasta – I should have looked up corzetti before I ordered – but Adam was swooning.

And I lost my mind over our dry aged duck breast. It was served on a fantastic turnip puree.

Key lime tart with fresh strawberry sorbet for dessert.

We will be back!

Sunday baking project – tahini granola. Best granola I’ve ever made; I ended up eating a big bowl with milk for dessert at the end of the day.

For breakfast I ate it on top of plain Greek yogurt, with fresh berries, and a single Luxardo cherry.

Plus a rose latte in an amazing cup.

We spent our afternoon wandering around Chelsea Market to get out of the unseasonable cold.

Lunch was a sharp cheddar grilled cheese with a chocolate milk stout.

Seed + Mill served the highlight of the day – goats milk yogurt with the best tahini I’ve ever had. We couldn’t believe how delicious this was! I can’t wait to take my parents there this summer.

My home-cooked dinner was delicious as well, thanks, crockpot!

Chicken, potatoes, and baby carrots were cooking away with 40 cloves of garlic while we spent the day out of the house.

Served with roasted green beans with a sprinkle of almonds and cheese.

Yum. And I am basically stuffed again reading through this post!

14May2016

Back At It

by Emily

We are back at the old grind. The first week of real life after vacation felt loooooong. It’s good to be back at work though, and great to be back with the dog!

Here were some of the best bites this week…

This week’s coffee was fan-freaking-tastic! Blackhand that I brought home from my trip to Richmond. It was super strong and roasty.

With strawberry watermelon Polar that’s my new favorite flavor.

I also tried the caramel almond Nutchello. It was pleasant but not as strongly flavored as I was hoping for.

Midmorning snack of baby carrots and wonderful red cherries.

Cafeteria lunch. They are making a fancy new hybrid burger that is half turkey half veggie; it was good! My korma veggies were not so good, I ended up swapping them for fries.

Yogurt bowl. Salted caramel noosa (<– yum!) with blueberries and blackberries and awesome gorp-style trail mix my aunt gave us. Plus a golden nugget mandarin orange on the side.

Better yogurt bowl. Plain Greek yogurt, berries, red plum, Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes, nature’s sprinkles (chia) for healthy fat, and Amy Sedaris’ sprinkles for joy.

This ridiculously adorable cookie from Starbucks made for a fun end of the day snack.

And carrots with caramelized onion dip was the perfect thing to crunch through while I cooked this week.

We also really enjoyed lemonade with pink lemon! Perfect with mint sparkling water. The lemons were orange on the outside, pinkish on the inside, and sweeter than their yellow counterparts.

Brinner for the win. Banana pecan pancakes, berries, and amazing turkey bacon, with maple syrup poured on after the picture.

Breakfast for dinner is always a good idea, but it’s a great idea when your drink and dessert are also on theme. We planned the pancakes because we both had coffee-flavored beers to try.

And we tried the crazy expensive, crazy good Compartes donuts & coffee bar. I thought it was totally worth the price.

Our other dinners were also winners. Nachos! Maple bacon kettle chips with TJ’s low-fat three cheese blend, turkey bacon, shredded turkey breast, broccoli, and green pepper.

And Greek salad night. Greens with Greek feta dressing, cucumber, tabouli, TJ’s stuffed grape leaves, and crunchy roasted chickpeas.

Last night we ate Chipotle and caught up on TV. <– kind of the best date night

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: salad

Queens International

Similar To Cake By The Ocean

Destination City

this week I loved…

this week I ate…

It’s Time For BBQ And Hot Dogs

Five For Ten

Eating Madison Square

foods that were good

three exciting non-food things

Bushwick And Beyond

Back At It