Tag Archives: seafood

Rockaway Beach Day

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Things from a great weekend…

Space Cowboy is a new coffee spot in Long Beach this year and I’m a fan. They have some inventive drinks — like this root beer cold foam cold brew. Every weekend we can we go for a run on the Long Beach Boardwalk followed by an iced coffee and it’s a great date.

Salted peanut butter David Bar = 10/10. The texture (chewy with crunchies) and flavor of these is just right for me.

We had a perfect (delicious!) afternoon at Rockaway Beach. Rockaway Beach Bakery – yuzu and mixed berry bun with cream cheese frosting.

More yuzu in a margarita at Rippers.

They also served us the best cheeseburger we’ve had in NYC this year! Makes my top three list, easily. Plus crispy yet creamy, well-seasoned fries.

And you can’t go to Rockaway without getting a perfect frozen pina colada at Connolly’s.

Olmsted is sadly closing and their final dinner service is tonight. We had a nice meal there Saturday sharing a bunch of dishes. Fava bean falafel with Calabrian honey, pea shoots, and pickled shallots.

King salmon crudo with rhubarb agrodolce and cilantro. <– our favorite bite of the night

Kale and crab rangoon.

Cauliflower okonomiyaki with hazelnuts, kosho mayo, and tonkatsu sauce.

Heirloom tomato schnitzel with whipped ricotta, yuzu piperade, and basil sunflower butter.

Pasilla rubbed scallops with roasted corn and a blueberry gastrique.

Finally – chocolate mousse.

Take-out dinner. Guac Shop is a fast-casual Mexican spot near us and while they don’t have roasted zucchini they do have fantastic tofu (and some great veggie topping options). This bowl was brown rice, hot sauce, tofu, cabbage, sweet potato, corn, and cheese.

P.S. We were so taken with Varli‘s Indian food that we are heading back there for dinner tonight!

Wet Fruit, Dry Fruit

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Highlights from a yummy week…

This yogurt bowl was good in theory but unfortunately it was so wet. Plain skyr with blueberries, golden kiwi, and passionfruit. Scooping kiwis out of their skin (rather than trying to peel and cut them) has been a game changer for me; I eat them all the time now.

Hummus and crackers. Both good but not my favorites.

These Patagonia sourdough crackers are amazing though.

Trader Joe’s freeze-dried watermelon candies. Our bag seemed a little stale but the flavor is great.

Lindt Dubai style chocolate bar. 9/10 but nothing is as good as the original Nuts for Nuts Dubai bar.

The best candy is these sour slices from Whole Foods. The calamansi lime ones are ridiculous.

Dinner out at Varli Indian Street Kitchen. Mango lassi.

I got chili paneer which came with tons of onions and peppers and Adam had excellent butter chicken.

Greek baked turkey meatballs. Ground turkey with tabbouleh, feta, salt and pepper, urfa chili, onion powder, garlic powder, and egg. Served with fresh tomatoes and fantastic snap peas (sauteed with feta, piquante peppers, walnuts, honey, rice vinegar, and gochugaru.

In the style of orange chicken, Tangerine Apricot Yuzu Tofu. Firm tofu (I froze/thawed mine which gives it the best texture) tossed with gochugaru, white pepper, and cornstarch / baked with broccoli, red bell pepper, and green onions / tossed with sauce – cornstarch slurry, fresh tangerine juice, apricot jelly, yuzu ponzu, dark soy sauce, chili oil, rice vinegar, honey, and garlic whisked over medium heat / topped with sesame seeds. We added cashews afterwards too! Served on brown rice.

Crispy rice spicy California roll bowls. We love this meal. This iteration was imitation crab, cucumber, avocado, and green onion / tossed with yuzu ponzu and Kewpie / on top of crispy rice – leftover rice tossed with dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, and chili oil and baked until crispy / topped with furikake.

Taco Tour

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This lovely weekend’s food themes were pastries and tacos. Some highlights…

Culture Espresso. Coffee granita with oat milk and agave topped with espresso whipped cream. Best frozen coffee we’ve had this summer.

Foreigner. Baklava iced latte.

Papa D’Amour. Chocolate brioche with marshmallow and a mochi doughnut with taro and guava strawberry jam.

Fan Fan Doughnuts. Passionfruit and guava cheese.

Dinner at Gertrude’s. I had a crisp diet coke but Adam had the best martini I’ve ever tasted. Latkes with celery creme fraiche and trout roe.

Whitefish toast – smoked whitefish salad (the best I’ve ever tasted; it was so vinegary!), pickled shallot, watercress, and herbs on rye.

I ordered the eponymous burger. It doesn’t make my top five but was objectively solid (comes with Swiss cheese, caramelized onion, lettuce, and special sauce, on a toasted milk bun). And it came with a mountain of perfectly crispy fries and dipping mustard.

Our favorite dish was dessert – seven layer cake.

We did a Manhattan walking taco tour – four stops and we shared a bunch of different things. All were great! Our first stop was actually a burrito joint – Son del North. Breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, rajas, and pico de gallo. This was my favorite tortilla of the day.

Santo Taco. Chicken thigh with pineapple marinade, avocado salsa, and pickled red onions / shiitake and cremini mushrooms with squash blossom.

Tacos 1986. The combo came with red rice and pinto beans. Carne asada / mushroom. The mushrooms were my favorite filling of the day.

Taqueria by El Prieto. Chicken taco / nopal mulitas.

We also got carne asada fries with my favorite meat of the day.

May Versus Mah

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Highlights from the weekend…

Homemade matcha lemonade. Iced matcha in ginger yuzu seltzer with some homemade Meyer lemon curd.

Mentos makes (new?) liquid-center sugar-free fruity gum and it is delicious.

I 100% dipped this cheesy crab dip pretzel into smoked salmon dip.

Trader Joe’s frozen okonomiyaki was surprisingly good. It was so creamy. It comes with bonito flakes and sauce and I added Kewpie and Sriracha.

Leftover noodles with Sriracha and chili oil. This was delicious but I did have to swig some milk.

Mac and three cheese muffins made with gouda instead of cheddar / buffalo chicken meatballs – ground chicken with panade, Frank’s buffalo sauce, ranch seasoning, white pepper, eggs, and shredded gouda / and roasted broccoli.

Roast sent me a coupon for my birthday month and I made good use of it. Fries with house sauce, a roast beef sandwich (with mozzarella, horseradish sauce, garlic butter, crispy onions, and an everything ciabatta), and a crispy chicken a la vodka sandwich (with sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, basil and a garlic semolina hero), and carrots from home.

The sandwich we made ourselves the next night was even better! Fancy BLT – whole-wheat toast / sauce (Duke’s mayo with smoked paprika, gochugaru, garlic powder, and honey) / sweet and spicy turkey bacon (baked with maple syrup, brown sugar, smoked paprika, and Sriracha) / heirloom tomatoes / we hate lettuce on sandwiches. Plus delicious snap peas sauteed with smoked almonds, gouda, gochugaru, and salt and pepper.

Summer Salad

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Things from the week…

It is my birthday month so I, of course, opened my stash of birthday cake coffee concentrates.

Trader Joe’s sparkling matcha lemonade. Not too sweet but the flavor was weak.

Fruity candies. The freeze-dried orange slices were okay (good texture but the flavor was off) but we loved the strawberry gummy assortment from Trader Joe’s.

We are head over heels for protein peanut butter cups this week. 2 tablespoons of peanut butter mixed with 1 Tbsp malted milk powder, 1 Tbsp vanilla protein powder (for texture), 1 Tbsp total maple and/or honey, and a pinch of salt; topped with chocolate shell.

Summer salad! Heirloom tomatoes with plum, peach, nectarine, pan-fried paneer, and crispy roasted chickpeas, topped with salt, chili oil, honey, and balsamic vinegar.

We paired our mostly fruit salad with a side of roasted romanesco, which was delicious.

This meal was a watery fail and I am blogging it to remind myself not to put cold silken tofu on top of dumplings again. Silken tofu / pan-fried Trader Joe’s Thai shrimp gyoza / celery and green onion sauteed with garlic, Sichuan pepper, and white pepper / homemade dumpling sauce – rice vinegar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, chili oil, sugar, sesame seeds, green onion, and chopped smoked almonds.

BBQ plates. Mashed potato salad (we overcooked our potatoes so we leaned into the mashed vibe and made them extra creamy) with celery and cornichon pickles, dressed with plain Skyr, Duke’s mayo, Dijon mustard, pickle brine, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. Turkey meatballs with panade, egg, ranch seasoning, bbq sauce, and shredded sharp cheddar. And roasted green beans.

I don’t know what to call this bowl but the combination worked! Roasted zucchini and orange sweet potato topped with pan-fried paneer and tempeh sauced with Dijon, rice vinegar, and apricot jam.

Spicy California Roll Bowls With Crispy Rice

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I’m at work today but starting bright and early tomorrow — I am on vacation! I am eating a take-out burrito bowl while I type but here is some of what I ate before we ran out of groceries…

Smoothie – frozen banana, blueberries, and cherries, Greek yogurt, honey, water, matcha, and vanilla protein powder.

We tried a new to us clear protein drink and were fans; this was nice and thirst-quenching.

Trader Joe’s Crunchy Curls and Everything and the Elote dip are a snack dream team.

Obviously I bought this Dubai chocolate sundae gelato. The mix-ins were a little sparse but I topped it with extra pistachio butter and chocolate shell!!

Beans with beans. Crispy beans – baked cannellini beans with evoo, panko, corn starch, salt, urfa pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder / with spicy green beans – steamed and then sauteed with evoo and butter, chopped kimchi and piquante peppers, walnuts, salt, white pepper, and sugar.

Taco turkey bowls with brown rice / baked cabbage with evoo, salt, pepper, and ranch seasoning / taco and nacho Quest protein chips / ground turkey sauteed with Jamaican curry powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder / sharp cheddar / sauteed bell pepper and green onion with lemon / and I topped my bowl with Blind Betty hot sauce.

Spicy California roll bowls with crispy rice. Crispy rice – leftover rice baked until crispy with dark soy sauce, chili crisp, sugar, and sesame oil / salad – cucumber, avocado, green onion, and imitation crab with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and ponzu sauce / furikake.

Cheese And Bread

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We did Caribbean-ish dinners this week so of course I pulled out some fun on-theme drinks. Sparking pina colada energy drink (I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this favor), passion fruit soda (made into a fun coffee with espresso and sweetened condensed milk), coconut soda (not as tasty as it was aesthetic), and soursop juice (blended into a great smoothie with frozen banana, peaches, and cherries, and vanilla protein powder)

And you can assume every meal this week got topped with my favorite hot sauce from back home – Blind Betty’s.

Chopped chicken salad with homemade dumb bread. I shaped my bread too thin to slice so we ate these deconstructed which was actually perfect. Baked chicken chopped with extra-sharp cheddar, mayo, and garlic sauteed collard greens.

A loose take on callaloo. Spinach, yellow onion, habanero pepper, crab meat, beef bacon, coconut milk, and spices. Served with dumb bread with butter and cheese.

Baked salmon cakes (Trader Joe’s canned pink salmon, sockeye salmon, and lightly smoked salmon with panko, yellow bell pepper, mayo, Dijon, eggs, salt, white pepper, and curry powder) with rice and beans (brown rice with coconut milk, yellow onion, habanero pepper, and dark kidney beans), and roasted zucchini.

Brinner Winner

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We did breakfasts for dinners this week. Here was everything I ate on theme…

Coffee, obviously. Sweetie Pies on Main makes some of our favorite lattes in Long Island. These specials were crazy – tres leches and tiramisu!

Cereal [milk latte]. Espresso plus skim milk I infused overnight with Cocoa Pebbles.

Orange juice. I wanted to be on-theme but I hate juice so we made cocktails. OJ with vodka and amaretto plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some Target rainbow sherbet seltzer.

Smoothie. Blueberry pancake smoothie. Frozen blueberries blended with cottage cheese, butter extract, maple syrup, vanilla protein powder, malted milk powder, and water.

Blueberry muffins. I think these protein mini muffins are disgusting in a delightful way.

Yogurt bowl, obviously. This was plain Greek with blueberries, blackberries, and cookie dough granola.

Egg and cheese biscuit. Hometown Bakeshop‘s build-your-own breakfast sandwich. We got a cheddar biscuit with two over-medium eggs, cheddar-jack cheese, caramelized onions, and smoked aioli.

Avocado toast. Whole-wheat bread toasted with butter topped with smashed avocado (with lemon, salt, and gochugaru) and cold-smoked sockeye salmon. Plus sauteed purple asparagus.

Cottage cheese bowls. Topped with cucumber salad (sesame seeds, gochugaru, rice vinegar, and sugar) and baked chicken meatballs (panade, hoisin, gochujang, oyster sauce, and white pepper). I ate several meatballs before they could make it to my bowl!

Oatmeal. Trader Joe’s rolled oats with ancient grains and seeds – 10/10, it is perfect out of the microwave – topped with a fried egg, chopped baby broccoli sauteed with lemon and garlic, spicy caramelized peanuts (sugar, salt, white pepper, evoo, gochugaru, and togarashi), and chili crisp.

Bacon, egg, and cheese bagel salad. This was my best idea of the week. Arugula dressed with garlic Dijon dressing and horseradish Sriracha aioli / sharp cheddar / beef bacon / homemade bagel croutons (Bagel Joint sesame gochujang bagel tossed with evoo, salt, white pepper, and gochugaru and baked) / six-minute eggs.