Are you going to eat the crust?
Pizza, outdoor everything, and long awaited dumplings
Today I’m feeling energized but not exactly rested. It’s for good reason. I spent the weekend at Cherry Bombe’s Jubilee, enjoying wine and dumplings in the Lower East Side, and doing fun and checking off something that had been on my to do list for months. We got a new coffee table via Craiglist and the Sunday morning trip into Manhattan was more than worth it. The weekend ended with a last minute hang with my family and pizza. How are you feeling?
On Thursday, I’m sharing a whipped ricotta recipe from Greenpoint restaurant Sereneco, where I spent the first warm evening of spring. It was delightful there and I know it will be delightful in your kitchens.
Now, let’s dive in.
Something to cook:
Passover is over! I need to do a big grocery restock so cooking was limited this week but I did make a very satisfying tofu and rice bowl with miso tahini dressing and roasted broccoli. I cut my tofu into nuggets and seasoned my coating based on this recipe before baking them. Most of the time, I don’t have the patience to fry tofu even though it does get slightly crispier that way. Baking works and as long as I have a good sauce, I’m happy.
Post Passover, I made some very easy scrambled egg wraps with avocado and salsa. Having tortillas in the freezer is very important.
It’s simple but important—I was so excited to eat oatmeal again. I make mine with Burlap and Barrel’s Royal Cinnamon, whatever fruit or jam I have (today was sliced apple), chia and flax seeds, and either almonds or peanut butter (sometimes both). A pinch of salt is a must. And I make them in the microwave.
Something to order:
When the cooking section is short, this section is long! C’est la vie!
Cassandra and I got coffee at Ringolevio and it was warm enough to sit outside! I also had an outdoor coffee with Erika at Petit Paulette (check out her newsletter
).Delaney and I had lunch at For All Things Good in Bed Stuy which is extremely Passover friendly. I had a breakfast tetela with a fried egg on top and lots of salsa roja and it just feels good to drink Topo Chico outside.
Mandy, Rose, Julia, Julianne and I got a Tex Mex dinner at Yellow Rose. They do offer corn tortillas and their little gem salad is really good. I love their simple vegetarian tacos—I usually get one bean and cheese and one potato. And start with the queso!
Sereneco invited me to try their weeknight specials, which include $2 oysters, $10 wine and cocktails, and whipped ricotta until 9 pm. It’s a really cute spot in Greenpoint and Isa and I sat outside and people watched on an 80 degree day. With an old friend, there’s nothing better. After our snacks, we grabbed a slice at Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop to end the night.
Julianne’s parents were in town and they took us to dinner at La Nonna by the water. I obviously missed pasta and it was great to see them. I got a paccheri dish with mussels and clams.
Dale and I ended the week at Common Mollies which now has a free photo booth (you get the pictures on your phone). They don’t serve food so we ordered Los Tacos Mcondo to eat there, which was a lovely way to end the week.
I spent Saturday at Cherry Bombe’s Jubilee (thank you to Stephanie for inviting me!) It was really fun to meet lots of Internet friends in person and try some delicious samples (lots of Kerrygold Cheese). It was also overwhelming to be at a 700 person event but the team did a great job running things. My favorite speaker of the day was Maya-Camille Broussard, who spoke about the lessons she learned from the women in her family.
After the Jubilee, I sat on a bench for a bit in silence and then went downtown to meet Amy for oysters at Bar Belly, which still has dollar oysters! They also have very crispy fries. After that, we got dumplings and sesame pancakes at King Dumpling, which is cash only and very good. We got one more glass of wine at Skin Contact, which was very full circle. In March 2020, I had an event planned at Skin Contact where we would get dumplings after to support Chinatown. It obviously wound up being canceled and we had our first Zoom happy hour instead. I’m glad both of these businesses made it to 2023 and I was thrilled to support them.
Finally, we ended the weekend with Nick’s Pizza and caesar salad with my family. I love their brick oven pizza and the salad is really good too—they are generous with the dressing so you can use it for crust dipping and every pizza place should follow their lead.
Something to read:
I share more reads in Thursday’s newsletter, which also includes the TNHS advice column.
On the Edna Lewis menu trail in Virginia
The two ingredient secret to a cleaner kitchen
How to travel with your adult siblings
A longread from the ancient days: The Bread that Survived Pompeii
What J.Smith Cameron’s life was like at 28.
I really hate the Wegovy ads too.
said it all.Related: here’s why you’re seeing gross viral food videos on the subway.
How Abi Balingit fought to get her Filipino desserts cookbook published.
So many thoughts about Lee Tilghman aka Lee from America wanting a desk job. Influencers have so many transferrable skills for a lot of different roles.
How pleather rebranded to vegan leather
“It doesn’t matter if we behave” On the Professionalism double standard Black women face.
Saveur editor purchased Saveur from its parent company, making it an independent publication. Very cool.
Gia is a PR queen and I loved hearing more of her story in this podcast episode
We owe women of color for the foods we love to eat
Netflix was struggling last night but Tiffany and Brett of ‘Love is Blind’ give Black love a rare win
Now, let’s talk about reservations while on a trip:
Claire shared her thoughts mid-trip: I’m replying to this while on a trip and just ate somewhere I had reservations! I will usually make a few reservations, especially if I have plans at a certain time; I learned the hard way that “oh I bet I’ll find something near the theatre!” can lead to way too much stress when things are closed or booked up (shoutout to the time I frantically ate a sandwich in a Pret à Manger 10 minutes before going to the ballet in Paris; glamour!). I tend to wing it for lunch and for a lot of dinners, but as a frequent solo traveler, it’s great for adding structure to a trip where one can be overwhelmed by the freedom of deciding everything.
Hillary is a travel pro: I generally prioritize making reservations at must-visit restaurants and/or anywhere that I've been told requires a reservation far in advance. Part of my research when I travel is trying to understand how easily we'll be able to eat where we want without reservations. Tokyo, for example, has truly endless restaurant options, and I felt reservations only mattered for really fancy/popular places. In Florence, I was surprised to find that we needed reservations to avoid some long waits, but we figured that out quickly and made a few bookings once we were already there.
Julianne loves spontaneity: I wish reservations weren't needed for trips (or life anymore), but frustratingly, a lot of places we wanted to eat at in Lisbon were booked up in advance--and here in NYC, I've been turned away from restaurants at 6pm who said they're fully booked for the night. Why are restaurants not leaving room for walk-ins anymore? I love the spontaneity of visiting a new city and ending up eating somewhere that looked cute, had a good menu, and, upon checking while standing outside, good reviews online. So my MO is usually to book some reservations while en route or on the first day, then make reservations IRL for a return trip, if needed. But I just read an article by Vox about how social media is taking the fun out of travel, and I really mulled over the concept that maybe we are all just recommending ~ok~ places others recommended to us, and it's just a cycle of not really exploring new, better places. I'm excited about others' responses to this question and would really enjoy a future trip (or life here in NYC) with ONLY spontaneity and waiting a bit for a table without a reservation!
This week, I’d love to hear your thoughts on pizza crusts. It’s a small thing, but a big thing. Do you eat the crust plain, look for a dip (what kind of dip?), or leave it on the plate? Is anyone a stuffed crust fan? Reply to this email or leave a comment with your thoughts.
I’ll see you on Thursday for whipped ricotta, which would be a great dip for pizza crust. Take care!
xo, Abigail
I always eat my pizza crust and I honestly hate when people leave the crust on their plates. I mean do you, but if the crust is good then you should eat it! Sometimes I'm just in the mood for crust tbh and I wish they sold it alone like some places sell muffin tops, but I guess that's just called breadsticks 😂
We have an excellent local pizza place here (run by a New Yorker, I'll add), and I always eat the crust because it's delicious. I also get a side of marinara with every order for dipping.