A warm fall salad. Shredded red cabbage marinated overnight in Trader Joe’s apple vinaigrette / roasted honeynut squash / super-firm tofu roasted with salt, gochugaru, garlic powder, and onion powder / Sweet Twist apple / cheddar / crunchy yellow peas. Plus leftover bread from Sonder.
We were big fans of these Mila chicken soup dumplings. Served with sauteed cabbage (a mix of red cabbage and sugarcone cabbage with green onions, garlic, ginger, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and oyster sauce) and topped with chili crisp and crunchy onions and garlic.
Crunchy chicken salad. Chopped baked chicken, celery, deseeded cucumber, green onion, peanuts, sesame seeds, minced garlic, white sugar, Sichuan peppercorn, and chili crisp. Plus red yams that I roasted and then sauteed with maple syrup, white miso, Sriracha, rice vinegar, and sesame oil.
P.S. I posted a day early because we are running errands and doing an easy dinner in our neighborhood tonight, hopefully including a pumpkin beer and an apple pie margarita!
Seasonal brews – Southern Tier’s Screamsicle vanilla and orange DIPA and Great South Bay’s Baked pumpkin pie ale.
We enjoyed this themed candy (plus more Bon Bon Bon!) while we admired Halloween decorations in our neighboorhood.
These Utz cheddar protein pretzels are delightful; super malty and roasty.
Little Beet is our favorite fast-casual restaurant. This bowl had harissa cauliflower, charred broccoli, roasted sweet potato, and baked tofu with crispy chickpeas, chili crisp, and chimichurri.
Pumpkin pasta! Goodles pasta with a creamy vegan pumpkin sauce (blended canned pumpkin, silken tofu, gochujang, white miso, and tons of roasted elephant garlic). We topped our bowls with roasted zucchini, turkey (sauteed with green onions, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and chili crisp), and crispy onions and garlic.
I mixed my leftover pumpkin pasta with Frank’s buffalo sauce, steamed broccoli, baked chicken nuggets, and cheddar.
Jack-o’-lantern patties! Turkey burgers (ground turkey with grated sweet onion, panko, egg, dark soy sauce, pepper, and smoked paprika; sauteed) with carved sharp cheddar. Plus leftover broccoli sauteed with with a spicy sesame sauce (tahini, gochujang, sesame oil, honey, and water), sesame seeds, toasted walnuts, and Milu everything spice.
Our fabulous weekend included time in Long Island City, an in-season trip to Sleepy Hollow, some great walks, and tons of (delicious!) fancy treats. Highlights…
Small Batch‘s caramelized pumpkin was also quite good. We tried their brown butter sage latte too but I did not like it.
Za’atar flagel with egg, cheddar, and turkey from Horseman Bagels.
Inspired by a fantastic treat from Kora, we made cheesy sweet buns. Potato roll baked with butter and Trader Joe’s vanilla sugar and topped with shredded Edam.
Spicy crab inari. I don’t get tofu skin often enough and I was excited for this (grocery!) roll.
Treats from Arellano Pandelsal. Ube ensaymada and a cinnamon roll with calamansi glaze!
Spot Dessert Bar‘s Cookie Camp – marshmallow cookie, pretzels, cookie crumbs, chocolate sauce, and condensed milk ice cream. Swoon. We also quite enjoyed a green tea with lychee jelly.
Stew Leonard‘s plain Greek frozen yogurt (great!) with tons of seasonal sprinkles.
I loved the topping options at Ilios – I got the plain Greek (even better!) with sprinkles, Kinder sauce, and cinnamon roll!
A black bean rice bowl from Tony’s with seasonal roasted squash (plus I added roasted baby zucchini from home!).
A lunch plate a Blue Hill at Stone Farms. The property was stunningly gorgeous! We appreciated how fresh and technically perfect the food was but weren’t necessarily over the moon about it. (We would still try the fancy dinner(s) though!)
We were over the moon for the honey roobios canned tea we had with lunch. It tasted like the holidays.
Pig Beach BBQ. This burger was solid, definitely would be number 6 on my New York favorite’s list! It was so smoky! We also liked the potato salad, vinegary slaw, and roasted turkey.
We had a great dinner at Soothr. My fun take on a Long Island came with a delicious mint jelly.
My favorite dish was the Khao Soi tofu aka the best egg tofu I’ve ever eaten.
And we shared Pad Si Iw with beef.
And we also had rice rolls that I wasn’t a fan of (but Adam enjoyed!).
My favorite Long Island coffee spot hopped on the fridge cigarette trend. Their version is diet coke with espresso, vanilla almond syrup, and a sweet cream cold foam. <– delicious
We also loved the tiramisu ice latte from MOTW. The espresso here had fantastic body.
We did not like this ube iced coffee with pandan cold foam (that’s on us, I really just don’t care for iced coffee with milk; I am mentioning it so maybe I stop trying it).
Meanwhile we adored our assortment of sweets from Fern and Aurora. Ube coffee cake swirl muffin / blueberry pop tart / pandan coconut butter mochi (the best butter mochi I’ve ever eaten, including in HI!) / ube krispie treat. We needed excellent snacks because we went to see Super Troopers at the movie theatre (I liked it! Not as good as the original but I preferred it to the 2nd one).
I also made a super duper homemade snack mix. Wheat Chex cereal and honey mustard protein pretzels baked with butter, ranch seasoning, and gochugaru plus peanuts, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds candied in a skillet with brown sugar.
Haribo bananas are a 9.9/10 for me.
Tori T’s is my favorite Long Island pizza. The texture on the square slices is unbeatable.
Red curry salmon cakes with a complementary dipping sauce. The cakes were a baked mix of canned salmon, red curry paste, lime zest, panko and egg. The sauce was Duke’s, red curry paste, Sriracha, honey, lime juice, and sesame oil. Plus roasted cauliflower.
Frozen dumplings (Bibigo chicken and vegetable mandu) plus frozen spinach, kale, and cauliflower rice sauteed with garlic, sesame seeds, gochugaru, rice seasoning, fish sauce, and soy sauce. Served in one bowl so I could easily top everything with chili crisp.
More fun drinks. All good/would buy agains. Pineapple yuzu kombucha / pandan coconut soda / banana water (this was our favorite!).
A summer watermelon date. It was kind of disappointing, but fun to eat in the kitchen as a whole family.
This black sesame bar was nice; not roasty enough for me but also not too sweet.
Guac Shop take-out. They crammed so much food into this food! My go-to order – a rice bowl with tofu, sweet potato, roasted cabbage, corn, pico, jalapeño mango salsa, cheese, and cilantro aioli. Plus chips with guac.
Hetty McKinnon‘s hoisin garlic noodles for the New York Times (recipe). As I write this post I am realizing that I completely left out the garlic — but they were still great! Paired with roasted sprouted tofu and snap peas sauteed with garlic, sunflower seeds, and parmesan.
Spicy maple miso chicken with a maple miso tahini salad. The best meal of the week! Baked chicken thighs sauteed with maple syrup, white miso, rice wine, soy sauce, and gochujang. Plus roasted broccoli, raw fennel, and green onions tossed with maple, miso, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, and tahini.
It was another great weekend! We stayed local this time, but enjoyed longish walks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. And shared so many sweet treats and sweet treat drinks! I considered including slushes in the title! Like I said, a great weekend! Highlights…
Moon Coffee Lab salted caramel iced latte with banana milk. Banana is the best coffee milk.
Levain cookie milk iced latte. The cold foam was delicious but my favorite part was the espresso; I had never tried coffee from here before but I definitely will get it again!
The very best coffee of the weekend came from Smiley Coffee – espresso with coconut slushie.
We happened across a street fair that had red sorrel. The spot was serving it with mint which was lovely.
Speaking of things that tasted like home, this soursop infused coconut water was nice and not too sweet.
Tender Crush frozen Diet Coke with vanilla soft serve!
But my Halo Halo was excellent. Not exactly what I am usually used to but so creamy and I loved the caramelized plantain.
We were blown away by our meal at La Fleur Rouge. Really thoughtful, beautiful dishes in a great environment. Guava Plum – tequilla Empirical Ayuuk, pink guava, plum, and salt.
Peking duck bao.
Morel duck soup.
Crispy Chinese eggplant with pineapple, bell pepper, and sweet and sour. These were a can’t miss.
The cheeseburger, which came with pickled cucumbers and seasoned fries. This sounds mean but it is in fact the highest compliment — this tasted exactly like the breakfast sausages you used to get on planes! Doesn’t break my top five but I did love it.
Tai Chi Fried Rice with confit duck, shrimp, and squid ink. This tasted even better than it looked and kept wonderfully leftover.
Finally molten chocolate cake with rum raisin ice cream and Golden Graham crumble.
And egg yolk beignets with apricot marmalade.
The best thing we ate all weekend was the fried rice I made with our James‘ leftovers. White rice and eggs from home plus short rib ragu and charred broccolini with Waygu beef bacon.
No post last week because we were on vacation! Adam and I went to New Mexico (my first time there) – Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and a night in the desert in Taos. We had a wonderful time! It was beautiful, the food was outstanding, and we visited our final Meow Wolf.
Things from the week back in real life…
A sugar plum yogurt bowl! The plums were the leftover solids from a plum syrup I made (red and black plums simmered with sugar and water — ok in iced coffee, better in seltzer) plus plain skyr and granola.
Veggie snacks. Fun to try but not for me (the sweet potato was too chewy and the okra was too crunchy); I brought them to work and at least one person liked each thing.
The best vegan jerky.
Tofu veggie bowls. This was the best meal of the week. Hedgehog-cut baked super firm tofu and roasted brussels sprouts topped with chopped white mushrooms sauteed with evoo, butter, lemon juice, maple syrup, dark soy sauce, miso paste, Dijon, garlic, gochugaru, and sesame seeds.
Chickens salad. Shredded baked chicken, six-minute eggs, Wilde chicken chips, and sauteed hen of the woods mushrooms tossed with plain skyr, Duke’s mayo, pickle brine, chopped pickles, salt, Sichuan pepper, white pepper, smoked paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Plus succotash we did not suffer for – frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, corn, green beans, and baby lima beans) sauteed with butter and lemon.
Inspired by our chicken salad we also made a chickens migas! Eggs scrambled with shredded chicken, Wilde chicken chips, kettle chips, honey goat cheese, and sauteed tomato, poblano pepper, corn, and green onions. I topped my bowl with tons of Green Cholula (the sweet goat cheese was possibly not the best cheese for this dish!).
The relentless rain couldn’t drown out our weekend fun! Thankfully I had already planned indoor activities — lots of snacks, fun shopping for a home improvement project, vintage window-shopping in Greenpoint, and a trip to the Museum of Art and Design for the (excellent!) Haas Brothers Uncanny Valley exhibit.
Edible highlights…
Fun coffee mediums. The egg cream didn’t work in iced coffee (not enough body) but iced Calpico with espresso was a 9/10.
Blue Bottle iced Nola with vanilla and chicory cold foam. 9/10.
Falu House miso brown sugar iced latte with maple cold foam and birch-smoked sea salt. Best coffee of the weekend, 100/10. We loved our bun with cheese too and they also had incredible Swedish candy.
Bibble and Sip guava mochi croissant. We loved the mochi and the croissant but wanted the dish overall to have more flavor/balance. We thought their salt bread was a 9.5/10.
Bite Bao. I had tomato with scrambled eggs and Sichuan spicy diced chicken. Best Chinese food we’ve had in Long Island in awhile.
Kelang. This space was gorgeous. I had a Durian Milk Punch, obviously; durian, clarified coconut cream, spice mix, green tea, pineapple, aged rum, arrack, and velvet falernum.
I also had a kalamansi limeade with Tito’s.
We shared some really great dishes. Charred cabbage with butter, pineapple, chili, peanut, and cashew cream.
Paratha with red lentil dhal, Stracciatella, herbs, and sambal oil.
Crispy taro gnocchi with smoked shiitake, chili, and Shaoxing wine.
Hainanese Chicken. This was the only dish I didn’t love, though the bone broth and chicken rice were both lovely.
P.S. We had a no-photo lunch at Nobu and the miso black cod did live up to the hype (we also had great white fish tiradito)!
