Raisins, Ramen, Ready For The Weekend

This week’s food themes were…

—Coffee

Always.  TJ’s cold brew (<– super strong and bold) with skim milk and vanilla almond milk.

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Starbuck’s new smoked butterscotch latte is fantastic.  I’m a total sucker for any limited-edition release and a butterscotch fanatic in general.

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Iced latte from Milk Bar that was unexpectedly the best latte I’ve had all year.  Usually I have to request an extra shot of espresso to feel like I’m having coffee with milk instead of milk with coffee, but this was perfect even untampered with.

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The compost cookie didn’t suck either!

—Old-school turkey sandwiches

Old-school = white bread with cheese and mayo and mustard, i.e. super unhealthy with no redeeming nutrition qualities.  From the cafeteria with tons of pickles and banana peppers.

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And at home on a raisin roll with carrots on the side.

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Speaking of dehydrated grapes, I also had this raisin brown sugar Chobani.

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The yogurt was meh, I don’t care for the texture of the oat line, but the mix-ins were great – yellow raisins, walnuts, chia seeds, and fresh blueberries.

—Ramen

I went out on two ramen dates this week, thankfully it’s been good weather for soup!  Chuko (<– my favorite ramen in the city) with work friends for veggie miso with a soft egg.

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And Ramen Yebisu in Williamsburg with girlfriend.  I was adventurous and got the seafood special, with seafood broth, prawn, snow crab, mussel, scallop, scallion, and seaweed.

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I was super brave (the scallops were a different variety than the diver scallops you usually see and we didn’t even know what they were until we tasted them) and it paid off in the form of a giant crab leg in the middle of my bowl.

One more day and then I’m free for weekend fun!

Top Ten Loves Before Valentine’s

Here are the past week’s top ten eats –

{1} This breakfast.

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Cashew date granola bar, grapes, and string cheese.

{2}  And also this breakfast.  Cold brew.

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Plus a Ruby Frost apple (<– crisp and juicy!).

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And rice cakes.

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My co-worker brought in rice cakes and candy for the Chinese new year.

{3} Raspberry cinnamon lassi and a pretzel roll.

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An unconventional snack combo but a good one.

{4} Strawberry vanilla smoothie.  Adam and I shared, I didn’t actually finish a Big Gulp of smoothie.

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Inspired by my lassi, I added a big shake of cinnamon.

{5} Killer yogurt bowl.

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Fage pineapple yogurt topped with chia seeds, toasted walnuts, blueberries, and Luxardo cherries.

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Why am I not putting cherries on top of everything I eat??

{6} Cafeteria salad bar.  Toppings included cheese, olives, and white beans.  With a side of tortellini salad.

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I totally ate pizza the other 3 days.

{7} Super leftovers soup.

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Whenever we make extras of a dish that would go well in soup, we toss them into the freezer for an easy dinner at a later date.

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The bag included bok choy, shallots, red pepper, and shredded chicken, the broth was TJ’s miso ginger, and we had a Tupperware of orecchiette pasta in the fridge from the night before.

{8} Sandwich #1, Bareburger date.  Plus fries.

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My turkey burger was loaded with pimento cheese, spinach, tomato, pickles, mayo, and mustard.

{9} Sandwich #2, Thai chicken crunch.

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Toasted bread with tons of melty peanut butter, Sriracha-mayo chicken salad, and pickled cucumber and carrot.

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Served with roasted green beans.

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The sandwiches were quick to assemble and very tasty and fun.

{10} Valentine’s-themed love, because I’m a sucker for anything limited edition.

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I bought a Starbucks molten chocolate latte the first day they came out, because of course I did (only available until February 14th).  It was freaking delicious.

{bonus} A mid-week date with Adam!  We both had Thursday off and we spent the day in Manhattan.  We ate giant sundaes at Serendipity 3 and took a frigid but fabulous 4 mile walk in the 17 degree weather.

Aaaaand now I work all weekend.  Think warm thoughts for me, please!

Salads, Berries, And Chocolate – Post Blizzard Eats

Fun fact about how old I feel – I spent an hour digging out my car on Sunday and it took until midweek before I could get up from my chair without audibly groaning.  This was my first year (ever!  I grew up on an island) having to do it and now I totally understand why so many people have heart attacks each winter.

daytime eats

The LIRR was still closed on Monday but thankfully Adam was around to drive me to work.  Silver lining – I spent extra time with the husband and we got to eat doughnuts for breakfast.

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I got an iced latte and a black sesame cream doughseed.

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Tuesday was much less exciting, coffee with vanilla almond milk and a piñata apple (Let’s be real though, I’m always excited about coffee!).

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And coffee with fat-free sweetened condensed milk in it is downright thrilling.  Plus a protein bar and a pear.

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More SCM love and more strawberry seltzer.

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Speaking of strawberry, this week’s tea – white strawberry.  This was a particularly pretty blend.

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The most exciting breakfast of all involved halo halo.  Plus cereal and chia seeds.  I’m still not sure if my Filipino coworker was impressed or horrified that I was putting it on plain Greek yogurt!

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I packed a couple homemade “instant” oatmeal bowls this week.  Rolled oats, nonfat milk powder, brown sugar, chia seeds, and pecans, mixed with hot water at work.  One day was freeze-dried raspberries with a peach on the side.

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The other was strawberries with a tangelo.

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I also brought in brownies!  I made a double batch of milk crumbs (from Milk Bar) and dumped them in my favorite brownie batter along with some caramel chocolate chips.  They got rave reviews from my coworkers.

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And apparently I missed them when they were gone because one day I bought chocolate cookies and an iced coffee for a train-ride snack.

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Lunches also included a slice of ridiculously overcooked veggie pizza.

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And a delicious salad topped with falafel and giant scoops of tzatziki and tabbouleh.

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nighttime eats

Adam had to take me home from work on Monday too – my train didn’t start running until the absolute last second on Tuesday morning – which meant we got to do a dinner date as well.  The streets were still crazy so we decided to eat wherever we could park.  We found a spot next to… Ramen Yebisu.

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I got the veggie miso ramen with shitake mushroom, scallion, onion, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and kelp.  With an egg on top.  It was good, but just couldn’t compare with the epic ramen they serve up the road at Chuko.

I went out on Thursday too.  I met up with friends for drinks and dinner after work.  Drinks were bourbon, lemonade, and iced tea slushies at Pork Slope.  Dinner was obscenely cheesy sandwiches at Melt Kraft.

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I got the Melter Skelter (<– ha!), raclette cheese, pickled green tomatoes, jalapeño, bbq chips, and watercress.

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So good.  The pickled tomatoes were a really nice contrast to the rich cheese and chips are always a good sandwich topping.

Another night, Adam ate leftovers and I ate a guava cheese empanada on the train.  We sat together for our salad course though.

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Arugula with sweet and spicy pecans, chia seeds, and golden raisins, dressed with lavender honey, evoo, balsamic, and lavender salt.

Plus we shared new gummies.

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My salad was spicy sweet and these were sour sweet.

I did manage to cook one real meal.  I put chicken breasts in the crockpot in the morning along with a jar of salsa and tons of chopped bell peppers and onion – plus a little bit of salt and evoo – and came home to this –

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Served with TJ’s Cuban black beans and tons of cheese on top.

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We have really been loving the crockpot this winter, all of our best chicken has come out of it.

One more day of work and then I’m spending my weekend being low-key and boring, running errands and catching up on tv.

Last Week’s Top Five

{1} Coffee, always.

Highlights include Starbucks while I grocery shopped last Monday.  The coffee was only ok, but getting to leisurely sip and shop on a weekday? Fabulous.

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Even better – a triple nonfat iced latte from the Stumptown in the Ace Hotel.

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It’s a neat spot and the espresso is fabulous, I highly recommend making a stop if you’re near Penn Station.

{2} Ramen with some of my favorite people

My Maryland aunt and cousin came into town for a quick visit and I met them at the train and needed to provide food, warmth, and NYC awesomeness – enter Chelsea Market for Ramen at Mok Bar.

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I got the ginger chicken ramen (Roasted ginger chicken broth, pulled chicken, cucumber and garlic chive kimchi) with an egg on top and we shared a few varieties of kimchi on the side.

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They are used to the cold, and are a walking family too, so they were totally down with a chilly 2+ mile stroll through Chelsea/LES to meet Adam.

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Including a stop at Sokerbit!

{3} Dinner at The Vandal

The Vandal is a new (ginormous) restaurant in the Bowery.  The menu is a mix of “street food” from a myriad of cultures and the décor is graffiti-style art on every wall.  There’s a coffee cart in the dining room and a bar in the basement.  It’s a fun spot.  My aunt has a family friend who is involved in the opening.

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Highlight of the night – my cousin was trying to describe who Chris Santos was to Adam just as Chris Santos walked up to our table to say hello.  It was hilarious and he was very sweet and friendly.

We shared everything so we could all taste lots of drinks and dishes.  The drinks menu is divided into Bright, Spiced, and Barrel-Aged and we ordered one from each section plus a yummy bottle of Spanish wine.

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My drink was the best, The Intervention = Gentleman Jack whiskey, plum, Aperol, lemon, and Spanish bitters.

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We ordered a few meat dishes that I didn’t eat.  Plus shrimp arepas with purple slaw and chipotle cream and cauliflower with picada sauce, olives, and hazelnuts.

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Wild mushroom pizza with caramelized onion.

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And brussels sprouts elote.

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All of the dishes were fantastic but the pizza (recommended by Chris Santos himself!) and cauliflower were everyone’s favorite.  It was a wonderful night.

{4} Americanized Halo Halo

My sweet Filipino coworker knows I’m in love with palm seeds and she brought me in giant jars of palm seeds and halo halo topping (boiled, sweetened mix of beans, coconut, jackfruit, etc).

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I’ve been putting it on pretty much everything, including this ridiculous sundae.

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Toasted almond gelato, halo halo, sweetened condensed milk, frosted flakes, and rainbow sprinkles.  I didn’t have shaved ice but otherwise it was pretty close to the real deal!

{5} Blizzard bowls

I didn’t do the best job of stocking up on food before the storm and we spent most of the weekend eating chicken nuggets.  I did manage to get it together for one healthy (yummy) meal.

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Steam/sautéed shredded green cabbage and shredded chicken cooked in peanut sauce, topped with fried shallots and fresh cilantro.  Shredded cabbage is so quick and easy, I need to remember to use it more often.

I hope all my East Coast readers are staying warm and safe!

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Week 1’s Top Five

{1} Citrus

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Winter citrus and berry Polar / Pineapple upsidedown cake Larabar (which was amazing but seems to be a no longer available limited release / Cara Cara orange.

{2} TJ’s crispy broccoli

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It is way too easy to eat a whole bag at once.

{3} Cola + cherry gummies

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From my Skoshbox.

{4} S’mores dip at Blank Slate

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Plus a really fantastically creamy iced latte.

{5} Dinner at Penelope.

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I surprised the husband after work on Tuesday and we grabbed a quick dinner in the city.  They had vegetarian French onion soup.

{Bonus} I’m home in St. Thomas for the weekend!!!

Last Week’s Top Five

There has been a lot of excitement since last Saturday.  We had three days of weather so warm I could hold my iced coffee in bare hands while I walked in my sandals.

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Last Sunday I comfortably walked the dog in shorts and a t-shirt!

And Adam celebrated a birthday.

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His parents came for a birthday visit and we had a great time showing them the tree at Rockefeller Center and the fantastic holiday lights all around Manhattan.

Here are some of the food highlights…

{1} Pineapple Turkey Chili

By Tuesday the weather was back to normal* again and it was cold enough for Chili.  *global warming winter normal, it’s still 50 in December

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I made my pineapple turkey recipe.

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We gobbled it up topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, and pickled jalapeño.

{2} Holiday Fails

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I had not one, but two, holiday themed food flops.

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This years soy nog has way too much soy milk aftertaste for me and the candy cane flavor (in spite of the adorable chips of candy cane) was the first Adagio tea I thought tasted like dirty water.  You win a lot, you lose some.

{3} Restaurant Burgers

Any time we have Long Island visitors we take them to Bare Burger.  Adam’s parents loved it.

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I got a Wiki Wiki on a turkey patty – gouda, duck bacon, fried onions, and pineapple relish.

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The burger was great, and they had a very exciting local brew – chocolate egg cream stout!

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We also took them to Thistle Hill.  I got a falafel burger.

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With tzatziki and hot sauce and salt and pepper fries.

{4} Dinner at The Gander

We are both obsessed with duck, so The Gander quickly made it to the top of our dinner date list.

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The space was gorgeously done up for Christmas – with lights and a giant gingerbread house – but too dark for me to take a passable picture.  Ignore my bad photography though, the food was on point.

We started with local burrata with butternut squash and toast.

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And I ordered the Glasgow Punch, which came from a tap; scotch with citrus and clarified milk.  This was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had, it smelled smoky in an amazing way.

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We split two pastas for dinner.  Gnocchi with shishito peppers and cheddar.

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And tubetti with duck confit and a duck egg yolk.  <– best dish of the night

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Plus cauliflower with capers and anchovies.

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Dessert was salted cajeta cake with maple lace tuiles and pistachio gelato.

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Everything was delicious and you could taste the care that went into each dish.

{5} Birthday Ice Cream Cake

This was my first attempt at an ice cream cake and I was a little nervous but it came out great.  Whenever Adam and I go to a Cold Stone-style ice cream place we always get coffee with Oreos and peanut butter, so that’s what I put together for his birthday.

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An Oreo crust / with a peanut butter layer (I basically make flattened buckeye candy) / a coffee ice cream layer / and a bunch of Oreos, mini Reese’s cups, and sprinkles for topping.

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Yum!  It was gone by the end of the weekend!

It’s Beginning To Taste A Lot Like Christmas!

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December 1st hits and right on schedule my head fills with thoughts of sugar plums!  Or rather thoughts of eggnog and hot chocolate, I’ve never actually tasted a sugar plum.

It’s not as big as my pumpkin bounty, but I was still pretty excited to pull out my holiday goods stash.

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I’ve marked all of the eats in this post that qualify as holiday foods with a ** for classification purposes, also because it feels me with glee.  I’m missing a lot of photos (I ate a ton this week) but here are the highlights…

breakfast

This week’s coffee – Breakfast Blend with TJ’s low-fat eggnog**.

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Plus I had an “original” eggnog iced latte**.

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This week’s tea – Gingerbread**.

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With a caramel apple biscotti (former freebie).

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Or a gingerbread biscotti** (meta!) and a juicy pear.

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Or a slice of carrot cake my coworker brought in.

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It was a good week for workplace treats, another coworker brought me Filipino-style ambrosia from her Thanksgiving.

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It was out of control good; I made myself ill scarfing down that container.  Less sugar than the American version and loaded with palm seeds and fresh coconut.

snacks

Maple leaf iced latte from Sweet Leaf.

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Yummy, but nothing can top the Voodoo Child (their take on Vietnamese iced coffee).  We also had a really yummy Spanish iced latte at a café in Park Slope later in the week.

Holiday doughnuts** from Doughnut Plant.

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Chestnut and a marzipan star.

Holiday milkshakes** from Shake Shack.

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We tried gingerbread and chocolate peppermint.  They weren’t all that good but the penguins on the cup make my day.

Mini cupcakes from Sweet Haus Cupcake Café.

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We shared red velvet, salted caramel, and cookie dough.  Cookie dough = a literal scoop of cookie dough!

Hot cocoa Hubba Bubba** as an after lunches palate cleanser.

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I don’t know how they managed to make the gum so chocolatey!

Mug cookies for the win.

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Number 2 Pencil’s winner recipe with salted brown butter dark chocolate.

lunch

Brunch with Adam on Sunday.  We went to Greenpoint for Five Leaves.  I got a so-so Bloody Mary.

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And we shared an amazing braised duck pot pie.

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And an egg sandwich.

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The pot pie was succulent duck, root vegetables, and parsnip veloute, in an herbed crust with wilted brussels sprouts leaves.

Cafeteria food is listed from least to most enjoyable –

One day there was nothing that looked appetizing so I ate a spicy tuna salad package from the snack stash in my desk.  Plus cafeteria baked fries.

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Another day I ate Asian tofu and steamed squash and wished I’d stuck with my desk snacks.

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This tossed salad – with lettuce, ranch, pickles, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, and pinto beans – was pretty good.

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And this taco salad was a winner.

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From the salad bar and the taco bar I assembled lettuce, veggies, cheddar, sour cream, salsa, and black bean and corn salsa.

dinner

Pizza-pizza.

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Turkey pepperoni and mozzarella balls on top of marinara sauce and a TJ’s frozen crust.

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With salads on the side.

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Arugula / roasted broccoli / balsamic, honey, evoo, and lavender salt / sweet and spicy pecans.

Pasta with veggies and sauce.  We topped whole-wheat penne with Bertolli mushroom and truffle sauce mixed with browned mushrooms, chopped spinach, and TJ’s vegan chorizo.

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With huge hunks of ciabatta slathered with Smart Balance.

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This meal was good several nights in a row.

Veggie miso ramen from Chuko.  With scallions, bamboo shoots, butternut squash, shredded chicken, soft boiled egg, and their fantastic sesame greens.

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I had a sore throat all week and this – plus a big scoop of honey ice cream at Ample Hills – was just what the doctor ordered.

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend!

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Last Week’s Top Five

{1} Date night in Chelsea.

Last Friday we went on a fabulous Manhattan date after work.  The High Line at sunset.

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Gansevoort Market for an Oreo whoopie pie(at The Bruffin).

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Chelsea Market for Ramen (at Mok Bar).  Vegan miso ramen – Kombu shiitake doenjang broth / tofu / triple seasonal vegetable / crispy potato.  Made un-vegan with a poached egg on top.

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And finally a trip through the Whitney Museum.

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The 6th floor was my favorite.

{2} City desserts.

The Fat Witch is making sparkly green Emerald City Witches, aka mint chip brownies.

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And Brooklyn Cupcake‘s cakes are on point.

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We tried french toast, tres leches, and guava cheese!!

{3} Pota-topia potato bowls.

I got waffle fries with all of the veggies, smoked gouda, and truffle aioli.

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We were very impressed.  Our mall’s food court has gotten downright fancy.

{4} Pumpkin yogurt bowl lunch.

Whole Foods pumpkin spice yogurt, chia seeds, maple pumpkin seeds, and TJ’s pumpkin o’s.

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Fun, but I pretty much hate the texture of regular (not Greek) yogurt.

{5} Pumpkin beer on Halloween.

We spent Halloween afternoon in Williamsburg checking out the fantastic hipster costumes.  We enjoyed mead and a Chelsea Brewing Company pumpkin pie beer while playing games at Barcade.

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Plus we had a very taste lunch at Sugarburg.  <– we will be back!

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