Coconut tres leches iced latte! Espresso with a blend of coconut milk, condensed milk, and half and half. I was making a rose coffee syup at the same time so I went ahead and dyed it pink!
Yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with chia seeds and strawberry jam, yellow peach, passionfruit, and praline granola.
My birthday is this weekend so these felt appropriate. We have loved every single thing we’ve tried from Made Good.
Boozy grape slushie – grape soda ice cubes blended with vodka. <– my best idea of the summer
A take on callaloo. Collard greens, turkey bacon, and crab meat cooked with coconut milk, onion, scotch bonnet pepper, ginger, and chili flakes.
Adam paired his with rice like an adult and I paired mine with pizza like a winner.
Creamy, spicy, peanut noodles. Ramen noodles + stir-fried cabbage and red bell pepper + a sauce with cream cheese, peanut butter, and gojuchang.
I gussied up store-bought marinara to make a delicious meat sauce – turkey bacon, ground turkey, onion, chili flake, urfa pepper, fish sauce, and tons of garlic. Served on Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocci with a side of garlic bok choy.
We also used meat sauce on homemade pizza. Plus sauteed broccoli with butter, chili flake, and garlic.
Adam and I randomly had one of the Best! Weekends! Ever! (TM) this past weekend. We lucked out with a good chunk of time to spend together and nice weather. Friday night we took a long walk in our neighborhood and went to a fancy yet lackluster dinner near our apartment. Saturday we drove into Brooklyn for a bridge walk and took long walks around Williamsburg + SoHo + Thompkin’s Square Park. Sunday we took the LIRR into the city and took long walks around Koreatown + Midtown + Central Park. You’ll notice a theme there! Food highlights included…
Fantastic mochi doughnuts and black sesame iced coffee at Bear Donut.
We went to a different Felix Roasting Co location each day! For an espresso tonic and a smoked s’mores latte.
We scored new flavors in two of our favorite drinks.
Best beverages of the weekend were this combo from Blue Bottle – Nola Cola (New Orleans-style coffee with vanilla and sparkling water) and a yuzu lemon fizz.
Hanoi House has a dessert window pop-up this summer and it is my new favorite place. I got a Bright Eyes Sundae – vanilla soft-serve, hot fudge, egg custard, chocolate sesame crunch, and Vietnamese coffee over crushed ice.
Egyptian food at Zooba. We loved the tamarind chicken rice bowl.
Plus hawawshi and falafel with hibiscus tahini.
Lebanese food at Au Za’atar. We knuafe plus some of the best lamb we’ve ever tasted (no photo due to lighting but it was a truly gigantic serving and we’ll be happily eating leftovers all week!).
Sushi at Maki Kosaka. We ordered practically the whole menu; both of our favorites were the bluefin toro preparations.
This is a delayed post because we got back from vacation and both immediately had crazy work schedules including weekend coverage. But I declared last week “Sandwich Week,” which meant that all of our take-out was actually on-theme!
First – vacation was amazing. Truly one of the best weeks of our lives. We road-tripped to Provincetown Cape Cod –> Boston –> Portland, Maine –> Hudson, NY –> home. We got lucky with beautiful weather, admired astonishingly pretty flowers/landscaping, and ate some of the best meals of our marriage. I don’t have a single photo to share but I will link to some of our favorites.
Cape Cod: Bookstore (great lobster rolls and view) / Scott’s Cakes (yellow cake with pink buttercream only, best I’ve ever tasted)
Portland: Bao Bao (our favorites – bang bang chicken salad, crab rangoon spring rolls) / Crispy Gai (wonderful Thai, plus cocktails) / Duck Fat (duck on duck on duck poutine) / HiFi (all-time best doughnuts) / Izakaya Minato (amazing crudo and okonomiyaki) / Time and Tide (inventive lattes)
Hudson: Breadfolks (all-time best pastries) / Gracie’s Lunchonette (our favorites – pink horchatta iced latte, tuna melt with freshly baked tuna) / Kitty’s (Adam’s favorite meal of the week; our favorites – potato chips with dip and salmon roe, crispy broccoli) / Lil’ Deb’s Oasis (caribbean/eclectic, one of my favorite restaurants on earth)
Second – Some non-sandwich highlights from the past week…
This week’s coffee combo.
It’s stone fruit season! I will be snacking on nectarines, peaches, plums, and plucots for the foreseeable future.
Malted blueberry smoothie. Frozen blueberries with chocolate milk, plain Greek yogurt, and malted milk powder.
I scored cake-flavored beer that wasn’t a stout and loved it.
Turkey cheeseburger-inspired salad. Local lettuce with honey mustard dressing, baby tomatoes, dill pickle almonds, dill pickle slices, turkey meatballs (seasoned with dill pickle juice and yellow mustard), sharp cheddar, and homemade croutons with furikake.
Important things first – Adam and I are both off from work next week! We have a little (lobster roll-centric) road trip planned but mostly we are excited to be together multiple days in a row!
Some highlights from this week…
Coffee combo. Loved the coffee, do not recommend the milk.
Adam was away a few days doing something for his parents and I mostly adulted and cooked dinners. Mostly.
California roll bowls. Imitation crab stick, avocado, cucumber, and green onion tossed with Kewpie, Sriracha, rice vinegar, and furikake. Plus a side of seaweed.
Hot and cold tofu – silken tofu topped with a mix of green onion, chili crisp, urfa chili paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar. Plus roasted cauliflower.
We made dalgona iced lattes with chocolate milk. This is my favorite coffee texture.
Iced cinnamon roll from Mel The Bakery, aka the best cinnamon roll we’ve ever eaten. We regretted not buying more things and want to go back immediately.
Tres Leches x3 doughnut ice cream sandwich (tres leches ice cream sandwiched in a tres leches cake doughnut and dipped in tres leches chocolate coating!) from Doughnut Plant.
Hazelnut crunch gelato at Bambina Blue. We thought we weren’t big gelato fans but this spot has changed our tune.
Topo Chico has officially 100% sold me on alcoholic seltzers. These cans are delicious.
I had a Tyger Strype Slushee – Espolòn tequila, Shoumei white tea, peach, lemon, and smoke layered with Espolòn tequila, mango, lemon, honey, and cardamon.
Also a non-alcoholic Green Woods Laugh – mint, pandan, cucumber, and lemon – with Tito’s.
We shared hamachi crudo with Vietnamese salsa verde, coconut, microgreens, and cherry tomato.
Chicken satay with the most interesting/layered peanut sauce I’ve ever tasted.
Stir-fried water spinach with chili, garlic, and shrimp paste.
And Pad See Ew with Chinese broccoli and tofu. The tofu was a salt and pepper crusted silken tofu and it was fantastic.
Plus a Thai coffee tart with a bruleed top for dessert.
Dinner salads. Local butter lettuce with balsamic vinaigrette, mint, peas, lamb sausage, and raw milk aged cheddar. I see why the lamb + mint + pea pairing is a classic.
It was a wonderful weekend to kick off the arrival of warmer weather! Saturday Adam and I drove out to Montauk for some beach walking and lobster rolls. And Sunday we checked out Untermeyer Park and Gardens up in Yonkers.
Weekend highlights include…
A sparkling citrus matcha.
A boozy, frozen, coke coffee (coke ice cubes, amaretto, and espresso).
Espresso (plus chocolate milk) from King’s Coast. <– roasty, delicious, and easily the best coffee we’ve had all year
I worked five days through the last weekend, which is just a normal workweek, but something about the Thursday-Monday schedule is exhausting! Hence the late post. Also all the take-out this week in lieu of cooking!
Adam and I both had the weekend nights off and we went on some great dinner dates! And did some wonderful exploring around Bushwick, aka the best street art neighborhood in New York.
Other highlights from the week included…
Wycoff Star quad iced latte, best coffee of the month.
About Time Coffee‘s Summer Breeze – cold brew with tangerine and cola.
Still very into these Barebell protein bars, the vegan ones in particular are delicious and filling.
New favorite, old favorite – Pazzaz apples are crunchy and juicy / the potato chip peanut butter cups are the best candy of all time and I eat at least one a week.
These new cola Sour Patch Kids are delicious too.
A Spring moment – lavender vodka in homemade rose lemonade.
Caffe Panna affogato special – Candy Chaos; candy-studded ice cream, chocolate ice cream, graham crunch, mini Reese’s cups, Rolos, panna, caramel, and espresso.
Dinner at Faro. I had vodka in a great housemade citrus soda with lime, lemon, and orgeat.
Roasted beets with almonds, ricotta, strawberry and vinaigrette / sourdough sesame focaccia.
Adam had pasta with rabbit (yuck) and we shared bucatini with confit chicken, basil, pecorino, and chili flakes and mafalde with braised short rib and chili pangrattato.
We had the “chocolate” for dessert – hazelnuts, chocolate cremeux, olive oil cake, dulce de leche, and cocoa crumble.
We had a wonderful dinner at Piggyback but it was too dark for photographs. The hands-down best dish was the deconstructed pho – fried rolled noodles, choy sum, soy marinated beef, and a concentrated pho broth sauce. We also had this tuna tartare with yuzu soy vinaigrette, Asian pear, and shisho.
A homemade meal! Hedgehog baked tofu with sauce and sautéed bok choy and celery.
This is an early post because it’s a short week – I am heading to Ohio today to visit my grandma! And my mom will be there too!
Pre-vacation highlights included…
This week’s coffee combo.
We brought home brigadero balls from Cafe Patoro and they were great. The caramel was my favorite.
I made a batch of milk crumbs and obviously put them on everything. Like an ice cream sundae with the last brownie.
And an insane yogurt bowl sundae with vanilla bean Greek yogurt, nut butter, and chocolate peanut butter granola.
Simple but great dinners this week. From the Trader Joe’s freezer section – veggie and sunflower seed bites and turkey corn dogs. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.
Eating Chalk 