real talk

Sad news guys: I haven't been that into food lately and I feel kind of guilty admitting that. Obsessing over food is like my version of celebrity gossip and I'm kind of burned out on it. I don't really know about what food is trendy, which restaurants are hot, or which chefs everyone wants to make out with. And I used to REALLY know all that stuff because apparently, I had nothing better to do than to troll the internet for this information. I used to fall asleep looking at Tastespotting, and now, I don't look at food blogs very much any more. I don't even like thinking about food. Don't describe to me how roasted grapes on a ricotta grilled cheese tastes really good (omg great idea, by the way) and don't give me suggestions on how to use this rainbow chard. I only got it because it looked pretty, not because I had any good ideas. Just make it and give it to me (hi, I'm a princess). Do you know what I mean? I just want to know where the good food is and then I want to eat it without thinking about it. But with that said, here's some pictures of what I ate because that part is still really fun.

Cheddar grits, roasted tomatoes, bacon and a soft boiled egg

A seriously underwhelming corn dog

A salad I've been making a lot

The last thing I made before I started feeling really apathetic about food. No, that's so dramatic. I made ratatouille (like the kind from the movie, I used a Smitten Kitchen recipe) like 2 weeks ago when it was getting cold.

I guess at the moment, I'm just more excited by eating food and not so excited by thinking/reading/watching/hearing about food. But I'm sure it's just a phase because I kinda feel that way about everything right now. I just want to have fun and let out all this energy and not jam up my head with too many thoughts or concerns. I think I'm getting into an 18 year old's head space six years too late. I'm going to L.A in a week though and I'm gonna go to Disneyland and have In-n-Out for breakfast and go to that chicken and waffles place and eat so many fish tacos and burritos and go shopping and then get some shabbu shabbu and spend like 5 hours of those all you can eat Korean BBQ places then do some more shopping, try to get a tan, eat some more and go back to In-n-Out. And maybe I'll barf from having eaten so much. I think that'll get every thing out of my system and I'll come back to New York ready to care about things again and ready to grow up again and ready get serious again. But just for a little while because soon enough summer will come back and I'm gonna get all loose in the head again. Something about life cycles? Circle of life? 

food dump

It's been like, three weeks since my last thrilling update. A lot has happened, but also nothing has happened. You know how that goes. This what I ate:

Chicken club sandwich and patatas brava at Olea

I think they thought this brioche bread was supposed to be a good idea, and maybe it could have been, but I think I just like regular toasted bread for my chicken club sandwiches. It was too fluffy.

Some sort of ceviche at Walter's in Fort Greene

I went to Walter's when I was feeling really sick. I figured that good food would make me better. It didn't, but it didn't make me more sick either. So there you go. 

Steak and fries

 

And because I was feeling sick, I also ordered dessert, which I hardly ever do. This was a strawberry shortcake. 

David made sushi

And I made lil' sushi tacos for myself with shiso leaves. 

I also made a very lemon-y risotto

 Fried chicken + duck fat biscuit + spicy honey

The Brooklyn Sandwich Society is now "Martha." I'm actually not really sure what changed about the restaurant besides the name. The menu seems really similar and the vibes are totally the same. Not complaining though. Any place that makes duck fat biscuits is fine by me.

 

Really good fried chicken

I was really tired and angry after work one day this week. I took the subway, bought this ice cream cone, ate it on my walk back home. I felt much better after that. I usually eat the ice cream just to get to the chocolate filled cone.

I forget what's in this cocktail. I just drink whatever they put in front of me and it's always good. 

Pate

Burger at Brooklyn Public House

Brooklyn Public is technically just "alright." The food is usually good, but not stellar, it's not really that interesting of a place, and I always feel like I'm the only person there under the age of 30...but I really like it there. It makes me feel comfortable.

 

And their mussels are really good. So good that I had to make them myself the next night, but they weren't the same. Probably not enough butter or wine. 

I think I've grown to like soft boiled eggs because I'm never patient enough to wait for them to boil all the way. They're perfect for toast.  The yolk is so much richer and creamier.

 Another day, another breakfast with toast and and a soft boiled egg. And some kale too, I guess. You know what, I still don't love kale. I don't know why I keep buying it.

 I went to the Lobster Joint for their Happy Hour again. If I lived in Greenpoint, this place would be the end of me. This time i had the most perfect potato chips ever. So light and crispy, with just the right amount of salt. And they look so picturesque too. I mean, look at that photo--that's some Bon Appetit photo quality or something.

Oh sorry, here I am. September happened and fall started to show up, which means that I've begun my slow descent into hibernation mode--being lazy and eating a lot of food with a high sodium and oil content. Because I mean, why not? Except today is going to feel like 100-something degrees (for real) so maybe I'll revert back to my summer eating and get a lobster roll...

I have no idea what vegetable this is. I forget. Chinese broccoli? Lots of ginger though. Stems and leaves, stems and leaves. Oh this is from Grand Szechuan, formerly known as Chelsea Chinese, I think.

Spicy green beans

Spicy double cooked pork. They asked if we wanted "fatty" or ...something that was not fatty, and naturally, fatty pork was the way to go. It was crazy spicy, that slow slow Szechuan burn that actually kinda hurts so good. I never say that about spicy food. 

Mapo tofu is one of those dishes that I eat so much of because I can pretend that I'm eating just tofu, and not piles of saucy minced pork and chili oil and salt. The result is that I'm overly full but totally guilt-free about it.

Cheeseburger from Mikey's. I think this place is kind of trying to be Shake Shack style. I didn't pay much attention though, it was like 2 am. Who even pays attention to food quality beyond like, 11 pm? At least for me, if I'm eating any later than 11, it's because I'm drunk or starving from having stupidly skipped dinner that day. And at that point, all I care about is taking care of the hole in my stomach.

green things with bacon

Moving day was the easiest thing ever because I have nice friends. I carried like 2 boxes and handed out water, like one of those people on the sidelines at marathons and stuff. It made me feel involved without having to actually put in any physical effort. Now I have a real room with 4 walls instead of 3 walls and a cubicle divider, and I live near stores that sell more than chips, old cans of beans, and tall boys. Instead of eating chips for breakfast or waiting until I get to work to eat, I can make my own food again. I even started drinking coffee every morning because it makes me feel like a grown ass woman to drink my coffee and eat my eggs while I watch all the Pratt kids clogging up Myrtle with their portfolio bags. Aw, college kids. 

Oh, and there's a pizza place right on the corner...just in case. Oh my god, finally.

Self explanatory breakfast

Dinosaur kale salad with golden raisins, lil bits of bacon, walnuts, and pecorino romano.

I'm moving on Monday, which I'm really pumped about but I'm also totally dreading it. I've been trying to pack since last weekend since I'm sure I own more stuff than I think I do. But here I am a week later, with moving day looming over me, and I've only packed two boxes. I keep putting it off every hour, then every evening, then every afternoon...it's stupid. This is how I procrastinate:

I forget what's in here, I let the bartender decide. I do remember two things though: cucumber gin and beet juice. Remember when I used to hate beets? Dark times!

Kale pesto at Dudley's

At least when I put off important life tasks, I do it the right way.

noodles, three ways

Noodles are one of those foods that I have very low standards for--it takes a really crappy kind of noodle to make me not want to eat it. Not sure if that's a good thing, but noodles are like pizza and french fries. Even when it's bad, it's still good enough to eat. I swear, white starch foods are nature's crack. But luckily, there's no shortage of good noodles here in New York, so it's not often that I have to put up with too-soft noodles. That's usually when I cook them myself. Oops.

Knife sliced noodles with minced pork at Lam Zhou. I'm not sure what was in the sauce, but it tasted a lot like jajang myun.

 I didn't see knife-sliced noodles on the menu, but I just asked and the really grumpy lady said they make them. Being grouchy must be a prerequisite to working in any Chinatown establishment. The fact that I'm part Chinese and don't know how to say anything Chinese (besides thank you, happy New Year, and my last name) probably doesn't help.

Hand pulled noodles with oxtail

 

Oh, and Cocoron again. 

Soba is my ideal noodle because it's buckwheat and doesn't make my guts want to explode from fullness if I eat too much. Well, maybe it would, but I've never eaten piles and piles of soba. It feels too a little too classy to be the kind of food to shovel endlessly into my mouth.

 A new bodega opened on my corner a few months back. It's the most exciting thing to happen to my neighborhood since I moved in two years ago. They have kombucha and dairy-free ice cream and those Xochitil tortilla chips--it's been a dream. I guess that also says a little bit about what's happening to my neighborhood...thanks to the kombucha-drinking, kale-chip eating art school graduates like myself. Anyway, the best part about this new bodega is that I can finally start having bodega sandwiches again. My old usual bodega has been on a steady decline from "gross but tolerable" to "tolerable while intoxicated" to "so gross that you will die if you set foot in here." It really put a cramp in my breakfast sandwich cravings, which recently has involved adding lettuce and tomato to my bacon, egg, and cheese.

But it's all good now that the new bodega is here. I'm almost sad that I'm going to have to leave it when I move in two weeks.

But the move will bring me a little closer to Paisano's. I ordered a sandwich there for the first time, just for kicks. Everything but the bread was perfect.

 

Speck, pickled red peppers, harvati, and a little bit of oil and vinegar

This week is all about reality checks and keeping things in perspective before freaking out about them. And making peace with stupid things that should be left alone. I don't know what that has to do with any of this food, but I want to sound like I'm being thoughtful and wise, self-help book style. Is it working?

The best self-help method is to eat good food, which is something I do very well. I went to the Lobster Joint in Greenpoint, but there's one in the Lower East Side now, really close to my job. Actually a little bit too close. I know lobster rolls are expensive, but the Lobster Joint has a really good happy hour from 4 to 7. $4 sliders (lobster, fried oyster, crab cake), $4 beers, $4 cocktails, and some other stuff that I didn't bother looking at. Three lobster sliders comes out to just $12, but I'd say its the same amount of food as the lobster roll, which is $17.

 But that $17 also gets you all the sides. Chips are worth it, the pickle is worth it, the coleslaw is not. Not bad, just not exciting on it's own. It works better in a sandwich.

A slightly different photo of my sliders. From the right: fried oysters, coleslaw, a little tartar sauce; basically a lobster roll on a mini bun; mini crab cake and coleslaw. The Lobster Joint gets the frying right--crispy exterior, soft and/or flaky interior, and not greasy. The oyster slider was pretty good, but with choices like the crab cake and lobster, I won't get it again. Probably. Maybe.

Oh and I went to Cocoron last week.

 Their soba is so perfect.

I've been going through this phase (a really long phase) where I wake up in the middle of the night starving like crazy. And I can't go back to sleep unless I eat something. This is a huge reason why I haven't kept much food in the house lately, but I'm determined when I'm hungry, and I always find a way to eat something. It's usually not so bad, like I'll eat a few crackers and fall back asleep with crumbs on my face. But then sometimes it gets weird. One night I ate 2 bananas and a sheet of nori. I don't know why this is happening.

Maybe it's because I like to eat things like guacamole-topped, cheese-filled hot dogs during my waking hours and that just won't keep me full through the night. **Sidenote: I didn't know there was cheese in the hot dog til after I bit into it, but...I wasn't against it.

Or maybe because I eat things like this stupid radish and sweet pea salad to counteract the cheese filled hot dog. I tried to pretend it was awesome, but it was just okay and I was still feelin' crummy from the cheese dog. Besides, salad doesn't really keep you full either. So then 3 am rolls around and I'm hungry all over again. It's a vicious cycle that I've found myself stuck in.

oops

I don't know why, but this week I somehow spent over 24 hours without eating, and if you know me, I have to eat like every 3 hours to stay sane. So it would be pretty accurate to say that this was one of the worst things that has ever happened to me. True trauma.

But that made my first meal of the day even better--cheeseburger at Dudley's and truffle fries. I'm not sure how I managed to order this, since I was pretty delirious by the time I got there. I regret not eating all the fries.

things on bread

When it's summer hot, time moves in a weird way--sometimes slow and sticky, sometimes so fast and melty you don't even notice it happening. Food is the only way I can keep track of the way time is passing. I wonder what that says about me.

Crab Toast at Dudley's 

Half a smoked ham sandwich and half a pulled pork sandwich at Maysville. Both were really good, but the ham sandwich was better. I guess I'm just a sucker for anything with cheese.

Watermelon mint lemonade and a shrimp roll at Red Hook Lobster Pound. 

What happened in between those meals? Anyone's guess is as good as mine.

meats on rolls

Summer is the season for hand-holdable foods.

Hot dog with kimchi and kewpie mayo from Dickson's Farmstand Meats at Chelsea Market

I love all kinds of hot dogs, even the Oscar Meyer kind boiled in water, so I don't necessarily feel the urge to eat $5 hot dogs very often. But this is a hot dog I'll be craving all summer. The sausage was juicy and salty (but not the kind of "pumped with sodium" salty a lot of dogs are) and had a really nice snap to it, which those $2-a-pack hot dogs never have. The kimichi and kewpie mayo were fine, but I keep forgetting that these are things I've eaten my whole life. I mean, my mom has been serving me cut up hot dogs and kimichi since I was in elementary school, so this idea is not exactly a revelation for me. So basically, next time, plain dog. The sausage really should shine on its own.

Lobster roll from Luke's Lobster in DUMBO

A lobster roll is one of those foods that I can eat in under a minute, no problem. But I always try to make it last as long as possible so I can savor all that sweet and tender lobster meat. Can you believe they used to feed this stuff to prisoners?