It's All Coming Back to Me Now

Karaoke, emotions, ice cream

We celebrated Julia’s 30th Birthday this weekend (I am crossing things off my summer bucket list left and right including staying up late and meeting Erica’s very cute baby). We’ve been friends since we were and I think our teen selves would be both surprised and delighted to know we are still so close (and live five minutes apart). She celebrated with a rousing night of karaoke at Lion’s Roar, which is in the apartment of the sweetest couple who serves as MCs and hosts for a memorable evening. Dylan and Amber performed the Celine Dion classic, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, which got Julia and I through some rough times back in 2020 (context here, this article is a reminder of how lost we all were that spring). It was so great to hear the song in a happy context, outside of our apartments (but in someone’s apartment) and to celebrate a lot of good stuff!

These intros have been emotional lately but what can I say, it’s cancer season! My friends are hitting milestone birthdays and the weather this summer has prevented me from going to the beach so far. I have a lot of feelings.

On Thursday, the newsletter will be about this heat and ways to deal with it, culinary and otherwise.

Now, let’s dive in.

Something to cook:

We celebrated my mom’s early birthday (and Sally’s belated birthday) with dinner at my parents’ house. We had a baked pasta (this is my favorite one for a crowd), garlic bread, salad, and homemade ice cream sandwiches with fruit salad. A 10/10 meal after a busy Wednesday.

I made a pasta salad-ish for lunches this week—a twist on this orzo salad with arugula and both roasted and fresh cherry tomatoes.

I also baked some tofu and broccoli for a quick dinner one night with my usual sauces (Sriracha and yuzu mayo, my obsession).

For breakfast on Sunday, I made a stovetop frittata thing with cherry tomatoes, spinach, eggs, feta, and sourdough toast. I had leftover salsa from Mesa Coyoacan which made the whole thing way better. Extra salsa always gets saved.

Something to order:

My last meal in Philly was a very healing caesar salad from Liberty Kitchen. I ate it and talked to Teal while watching my train get delayed many times. It was all worth it and such a special weekend.

Dale and I picked up dinner from Mesa Coyoacan after a long day. We didn’t have the full energy to go to a restaurant so we walked over, had a drink (Love their spicy grapefruit margarita) and chips at the bar and by the time we finished our drink, our food was ready to take home.

I’ve spoken a lot about the shortage of ice cream shops in North Brooklyn (lots of restaurants have good ice cream or soft serve but there are too few scoop shops). The Screen Door in Greenpoint is an excellent ice cream shop, with both soft serve and hard ice cream and a few vegan flavors. They also make shakes and sundaes. It’s tiny and there will be a line but it’s so worth it. I took Dale for the first time and he had a dream about it days later, so I’ll let that endorsement speak for itself.

North Brooklyn has a ton of pizza spots, one for every mood. Mo’s General fulfills the need for a sit down place that’s pretty casual and doesn’t require a reservation. They make a very good square pie (you can customize the toppings), and the decor is inspired by Pizza Huts in the 90s. They also make a great little gem caesar salad and have good wines by the glass.

I met Erica’s sweet baby and caught up with her and Q at over coffee at Petit Paulette on Fort Greene Park. It was such a joy to see them all and her baby is extremely cute! I brought Simply Nova bagels and lox for them to have later. There were so many kids at Petit Paulette—it is definitely a fam hotspot.

If you are looking for a great spot to do karaoke, Lion’s Roar is it! This spot is a gem (inside a couple’s apartment) and BYOB, which is perfect for a party. They have ice and a full kitchen for you to set up snacks. We all brought drinks and Dylan got cookie cakes from Buttermilk Bakeshop in chocolate chunk and salted nutella and they were so good! I love a cookie with a good amount of salt and these delivered, plus the decorations were very cute.

Something to read:

Very creeped out by day in the life of a baby videos

Even our kale has chemicals!

Watching Food Network while unable to eat

How A $3 Toy Inspired A Multi-Billion-Dollar Dream World

Keke Palmer is the best! We have the same birthday and it’s an honor to share it.

Love that Wired does not recommend the Ring doorbells

How a Legendary Fashion Brand Inspired a Musical Revolution

Making your home more accessible

Mark Zuckerberg claims he wants Meta’s Threads app to be “friendly.” So far, unmoderated hate speech and misinformation are proliferating.

Last week, for paid subscribers, I shared my summer reading recs.

So lovely to hear

Alicia Kennedy

and

Hetty Lui McKinnon

chat about being vegetarian in food media and lots more! I got Hetty’s latest book, Tenderheart, for Natalie for her birthday.

---

Have a great week!

xo, Abigail