Tag Archives: seafood

Haggis And Highlands

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No post from me last week because we were in SCOTLAND! We went with Adam’s brother and sister-in-law on a road trip and had a fabulous time. We tried haggis (I loved it!), got to pet a Highland Cow, saw a thousand castles, and stayed at a bread and breakfast with baby seals.

Less exciting but still fun things from this week back in the US included…

This week’s coffee combo – beans from our last vacation (Alaska) and dulce de leche.

Pumpkin spice Chobani with Whole Food’s cinnamon granola and blueberries.

Pumpkin smoothie – canned pumpkin with frozen banana, vanilla protein powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple sugar, and water.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (this perfect rice from Hummingbird High).

P.S. I put cookies into the best dessert bowl – plain skyr, peanut butter, dulce de leche, crumbled cookies, and blueberries.

We brought home this tablet (basically a sweetened condensed milk fudge) from Scotland. We’re glad we didn’t try it until we left the country or we probably we would have bought another 20 bars!

This treat from America (Canada?) was also good – Trader Joe’s maple pancake flavored puffs.

Thai chicken satay inspired bowls. Brown rice / baked chicken – marinated in yogurt, coconut milk, lime juice, red curry, curry powder, and ginger / roasted broccoli / peanut sauce – peanut butter, red curry, lime juice, sugar, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, and water / cucumber salad – cucumber, scallion, salt, sugar, rice vinegar, and chili oil.

Callaloo inspired bowls. Chopped spinach cooked down with crab, coconut milk, sauteed onion, ginger, ufra pepper, and habanero pepper. Plus roasted honeynut squash and delicata squash.

An easy soup. Leftover rice / shredded garlic-y baked chicken / sauteed dinosaur kale, green onion, garlic, and canned green chilis / chicken broth, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, and a little sesame oil.

Goodbye, Apple

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Highlights from the past week…

Saturday breakfast in Huntington. I got a maple spiced iced latte at Southdown. Reminder to me for next year — I don’t like this; one of the spices is cardamom which I don’t care for in coffee.

And a cinnamon sugar morning bun from Duck Island Bread Company.

For the last week of Apple Month I got my hands on the – delicious – Trader Joe’s juicy apple gummies.

See also – we made fall dirt cups! Chocolate pudding, toasted Reese’s Oreo crumbs, and mellowcreme leaves.

Other snacks of note were all from 99 Ranch. The best egg yolk rice crackers.

And 10/10 mochi, x2.

I also grabbed some hot food at the food court while I was at 99 Ranch. Beef rice rolls and a purple yam salted egg yolk mochi from Shanghai You Garden.

Black bean tacos. The filling was sauteed mushrooms, scallion, poblano pepper, and taco seasoning food processed with with walnuts and black beans. Baked in tortillas with tons of sharp cheddar. Plus roasted cauliflower and broccoli and homemade guacamole. We loved these.

Chicken kimchi quesadillas. I chopped together baked chicken breast, cabbage kimchi, Sriracha, and honey. Cooked on the stove with butter and evoo (and tons of sharp cheddar!).

Salmon and tofu veggie bowls. Bok choy sauteed with ginger and scallion / roasted white sweet potatoes / baked super-firm tofu / ACME salmon candy crisped up on the stove. This is our new favorite iteration of the sheet-pan hash I used to make often.

Swooning

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We had a perfect weekend! Tons of great food, several good walks (a part of Brooklyn we don’t usually explore, Astoria, Manhattan, and our neighborhood back home), and a run on the boardwalk! Here were five food highlights…

1) Between the Bagel. Bulgolgi egg and cheese bagel heaven. And the owner is the nicest man.

2) Somedays Bakery. I fully get the hype. Pistachio lattice, chocolate chunk cookie, and a crab and cheese pastry.

3) Treats on the Lower East Side. We didn’t think that the Papa D’Amour Hokkaido milk soft serve with a French butter shell was that exciting.

But I thought the croissant bao with butter, red bean, and granulated sugar was fantastic. Plus yuzu lemonade + pear green iced tea.

And Adam adored the scallion and Thai basil pesto scallion blossom.

Noonas is my favorite ice cream in the city. We shared ube Vietnamese coffee latte and pandan ice creams with mochi and black sesame jam.

4) Brunch at Naks. Para Sa Paborito Kong Apo cocktail – dry gin, mezcal, campari, ginger, citrus sherbet, and chile; served in a toasted frozen grapefruit.

The Filipino platter was my favorite. Short rib with garlic rice, fried egg, bone broth, fried tofu, salad, and pickled veggies. Adam loved the (pork) bone broth and I thought the rice and fried tofu were perfect.

The salted egg pancake with citrus butter and salted egg cream was Adam’s favorite thing he’s ever eaten.

Plus flan for dessert.

And Taho – sea buckthorn spirit, silken tofu-soya milk, burnt sugar syrup, and tapioca pearls.

5) Dinner at Swoony’s. The vibe is great and they have cute matchbooks. My Swoon Cycle cocktail was delightful and interesting – rum and amaretto with ginger, lime, and cucumber.

Tuna crudo with avocado, capers, scallions, and citrus vinaigrette with buttery brioche. We loved the diced avocado here.

Brussels sprouts with horseradish sauce, shallots, and toasted breadcrumbs. These were the best non-fried brussels spouts I’ve eaten in a restaurant.

Crab toast with jalapenos and tomato.

Swoony’s burger – double patty with thousand island and American cheese plus fries. Meant in the most complimentary way — this tasted exactly like an upscale McDonald’s burger and fries! It made my top five New York burgers list (Nomwon, Sonder, Rolo, Swoony’s, Rippers).

Chocolate mousse for dessert with vanilla cream and strawberry topping.

Pastabilities

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Things from this week…

Yogurt bowl – plain Greek with Whole Food’s delicious cinnamon granola and blackberries.

Lucky Ox matcha lemonade sparkler (8/10 – we liked it but nowhere near as much as their pandan coconut sparkler).

Quinn peanut butter and honey filled pretzels (9.5/10).

Mellowcreme leaves in flavors such as maple, butterscotch, and caramel apple aka FALL CANDY (10/10).

Roast Sandwich House had two new seasonal specials so obviously we redid our dinner plans. Braised brisket grilled cheese with white cheddar, grilled red onion, hash brown, hot sauce aioli, and griddled sourdough and a chicken salad sandwich with cranberry jam and white cheddar on a croissant. Plus fries and veggies from home (cauliflower rice sauteed with spinach, minced garlic, garlic powder, onion, powder, gochugaru, and salt and pepper).

The rest of our dinners were all pasta salads! I made a box of sourdough fusilli and embraced a new theme. Chicken taco. Pasta / sauce – mashed avocado, mayo, Greek yogurt, lime juice, and taco seasoning / baked chicken / sauteed corn, scallion, and green bell pepper / sharp cheddar.

Bang bang shrimp. Pasta / sauce – mayo, Greek yogurt, sweet chili sauce, honey, and rice vinegar / quick-pickled cucumber / red bell pepper / scallion / shrimp.

Egg salad. Pasta / sauce – hard-boiled egg yolk, pickle juice, mayo, Greek yogurt, Dijon, and smoked paprika / hard-boiled egg white / scallion / poblano pepper / pickle. Plus green tomatoes as our veggie (dressed with TJ’s mango vinaigrette and chopped capers).

Cinnamon, Five Spice, Old Bay

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Things from the week…

Wild Cherry Barebells bar, better than the key lime one but I definitely prefer the milk chocolate flavors.

This week’s apple snacks – kombucha and pink lady apple chips.

Delicious cookies – I made these brown butter oatmeal cookies and stuffed them with chopped up matzoh toffee candy.

Vermicilli bowls. Topped with celery and baby bok choy sauteed with ginger and scallions / nuoc cham / and baked turkey meatballs (with panade, egg, fish sauce, hoisin, white pepper, and tons of five spice).

Fish dip. Trader Joe’s canned smoked trout and canned tuna food-processed with plain skyr, Duke’s mayo, Dijon mustard, rice vinegar, celery seed, mustard powder, smoked paprika, and white pepper. Dipped with matzoh and cocktail sauce chips and served with green beans sauteed with mushrooms, butter, Dijon, lemon, and Old Bay.

We all know I planned the meal around this cute bag of chips.

Chicken salad. Chopped baked chicken, honeycrisp apple, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy jalapenos, walnuts, and sharp cheddar dressed with skyr, Duke’s, honey, and lemon juice. Plus baked pretzel bites and roasted yellow and purple cauliflower with salt and pepper.

Matzoh brie with leftover cauliflower. I always top mine with salt and sugar.

Crab Apple

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This week had a snack theme (apples!) and a dinner theme (seafood)! Here were some highlights…

Apple energy drinks. The Alani was too sour for me this year (does it seem different than last year to anyone else?) but I ended up really liking the Bloom.

I made an iced matcha spritzer with apple cider and lemon seltzer. P.S. I also made spiced apple brown sugar syrup this week – equal parts cider and brown sugar cooked down with some ground cinnamon and nutmeg – it was good in coffee and great in Diet Coke.

High Tide’s yuzu sparkling water is a new favorite.

Apple snack plate – Cripps Pink apple, Fix and Fogg super crunchy peanut butter, Whole Food’s apple cinnamon mini rice cakes.

This furikake snack mix from Trader Joe’s is hands-down the best snack mix we’ve ever tasted; it’s almost impossible to keep your hands out of.

On-theme peelable gummies make my heart happy.

I hated this dinner – udon noodles with a sardine-scented red sauce – so much I wouldn’t eat it and got pizza instead, but I am including this picture as a reminder to myself that oven-roasted baby broccoli is delicious and we should make it more often.

Crab pasta (that I actually liked). Buckwheat soba noodles and roasted zucchini with sauteed shallots and garleek with crab, butter, evoo, cream cheese, white pepper, gochujang, brown sugar, and lemon juice.

Salmon avocado toast. Toasted sourdough / mashed avocado with salt, pepper, gochugaru, and lemon / Trader Joe’s hot-smoked sockeye salmon. Plus roasted adult broccoli. No, this was not enough food for dinner. Yes, I loved the new cantina chicken chalupas I ended up getting at Taco Bell.

P.S. We are staying on theme this evening and heading out to a fun sushi dinner at Kissaki to hopefully eat all the rest of the fishes.

Beaches

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This weekend included a run on the Long Beach Boardwalk (one of my favorite weekend activities!), a long Manhattan walk, and some exploring in Brooklyn. It was a very tasty few days, here were the highlights…

Homemade iced coffees with banana cheesecake cold foam (in the blender – frozen banana, cream cheese, butter extract, vanilla bean powder, brown sugar, skim milk).

A wonderful smoothie – frozen banana and peaches, soursop juice, vanilla protein powder, and malted milk powder.

Delicious pandan coconut sparkler from Lucky Ox.

Other Half. We split a flight of mostly double IPAs but also their Mister Softee collab strawberry yuzu sour.

Saint Street Cakes. The hype about the chocolate chip cookie is real. We also really loved the miso peanut butter cookie and blackberry cornbread cake slice.

This mochi doughnut from Win Son‘s Manhattan location was probably the best thing we’ve eaten so far in 2025.

Post-run breakfast on the boardwalk! We split a turkey, egg, and cheese taco and a fresh juice with green apple, spinach, ginger, and lime. We probably wouldn’t get food from this spot again but I would definitely get another green juice.

An easy but exciting, mostly home-cooked dinner. Leftover brown rice reheated in the microwave with rice vinegar, furikake, and white sugar / mayak eggs (I also put some mini mozzarella balls down in the marinade! / broccoli roasted with evoo, five spice, and gochugaru / fried chicken tender from Dave’s Hot Chicken. P.S. I ate all of an order of fries on the drive home; they are fantastic.

Dinner at Kabawa. We had a great meal here – some of the best goat I’ve ever eaten. It wasn’t lit for photographs but I happened to get a shot of my two favorite dishes. The bread course with house-made roti and cassava dumplings and an assortment of sauces.

Birthday cake flan. This was the best flan I’ve ever eaten.

Dinner at The Long Island Bar. We loved it here!

Cheese curds.

Roasted beets with hazelnut dukkah, brandied cherries, ricotta salata, and creamy herbed vinaigrette and shocking good deviled crab toast with, roasted corn and herbs and black garlic mayonnaise on toasted sourdough.

A single patty L.I. burger – dry-aged beef patty, pickles, cheese, and fancy sauce. Plus a yummy side salad.

P.S. It’s Apple Month today!!

Drinks!

Sea Cliff

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It wasn’t an exciting weekend; Adam worked and I spent a bunch of time working on a project for work. We did go out for a Sea Cliff date Friday night after work though! Some highlights…

My coffee needed more coffee, but the flavor of the milk in Dunkin’s new cereal milk iced latte is a 10/10!

This root beer float latte was ok, but less successful. Dr. Brown’s root beer (good, but possibly not sweet enough for this), espresso, and sweetened condensed milk.

Yogurt bowl du jour, skyr with blueberries and Rainer cherries, with Trader Joe’s chocolate coffee granola.

Sea Cliff Shave Ice! We shared cola and coffee with ice cream, mochi, and condensed milk.

Dinner at Sarin (our favorite Thai spot in Long Island). Tod Mun Pla fish cakes that came with an amazing plum sauce.

Pad Kee Mao with beef.

Leftover fish cake / sauteed green beans that were oddly terrible (I didn’t eat them!) / Trader Joe’s frozen scallion pancakes (one of my faves, super duper filling) with Kewpie and Sriracha.