More Breakfast Tacos in 2018
Hi friends,
Happy New Year and welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce (And Other Food Thoughts), a newsletter sharing something to cook, somewhere to eat out, and something to read. I'm a native New Yorker who spends far too much time thinking and reading about food. I love helping people find better things to eat and solving problems, so let me know how I can help. Let's dive in.
It's 2018, we made it! I had a great night celebrating with some friends in the neighborhood and really hope this is a good year, full of consequences for terrible men (one of our toasts last night), more Cardi B, and more memorable meals with good people.
Something to cook:
The last dinner of the year was pretty special. We cooked a fancy dinner before heading out to a party and I hope it's our new tradition. The end of a year is the perfect excuse to make special appetizers and do something a little extra. Cheese emerged as an unofficial theme and armed with my lactaid pills, I had zero complaints.
The menu included:
Smitten Kitchen's baked camembert (made with brie because the wheel was bigger) - I loved a savory version of baked brie and the thyme really made this, A+, Hillary
Homemade ravioli with homemade ricotta(!!!) (Julianne and Ian make pasta from scratch and I am so lucky to be their neighbor). 
The Salad, as it will henceforth be known. Roast some grapes in 2018, you will love it!
A delightful rum punch topped with cava by Bradlee, it was a version of this with amaro instead of campari
For the meat eaters: skirt steak and pigs in a blanket
Squash toasts: I try to have them at least once a year and they're so satisfying. Don't skip the mint and make sure you buy really good bread and cut thick slices. Okay, I feel like Ina Garten with that suggestion but it's true.
As we did our grocery shopping for the dinner items, I had the idea of waking up on New Year's Day and making breakfast tacos. We shopped ahead and got everything (minus a ripe avocado which we emergency procured this morning across the street) so this morning the effort was minimal and the reward great. Treat yourself to brunch in this year. I promise you deserve it.
Breakfast tacos on New Year's Day
Corn tortillas
1-2 eggs per person
1 avocado, diced or sliced with a lime squeeze
1/2 a can of refried black or pinto beans
1/2 red onion, diced
A few handfuls of kale or green of your choice
Hot sauce (I like cholula here)
There's not much to these, it's all about having the ingredients ready at the same time and working with what you have in your fridge. Scrambled eggs are best if they have a little time to hang with the seasonings, so crack and season them while you're prepping the other ingredients and then cook the eggs last so they're still hot.
Step 1: Saute 1/2 a diced red onion in olive oil over medium-low heat. Once it's softened, add chopped kale or greens of your choice and cook about 5 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper. Your vegetables for the day, done.
Step 2: Heat up the refried beans. I put them in a bowl and stuck it in the microwave. If you're feeling fancy, I like to add a little bit of sauteed onion and cumin to storebought refried beans, a trick from friends in Guatemala.
Step 3: Heat up the tortillas. My favorite way to do this is over the burner, turning them over quickly. Make sure you watch them and don't burn your fingers.
Step 4: Scramble your eggs. Beat them and season them with salt and pepper. You can add milk if you have some. I prefer to scramble eggs over very low heat. It takes longer but they don't get as dried out. More details here.
Step 5: Make your tacos: Spread the beans on half of a warmed tortilla and top with 1/4 of the eggs and greens. Drizzle lots of hot sauce and put the avocado on the side. Repeat as needed. Dig in, and thank your past self for stocking the kitchen for your hungover self. Now go back to bed.
It's citrus season and Julia and I had grapefruit with our tacos this morning. We don't have grapefruit spoons so we cut them into thick slices and took off the top portion of pith, inspired by a discussion on the most recent episode of A Few Things, the delightful podcast from Of a Kind. Highly recommend this method, visible in this stock photo below. 
Something to order:
The Koffler family has a New Year's Eve Brunch tradition, which follows our traditional NYE SoulCycle class. After a great meal at Upland to end 2016, this year we tried Shuka in the former Hundred Acres space. Everything was so good and the service was really excellent - lots of water and coffee refills and a really well-decorated space. Start with the labne dip, the beet hummus is more instagrammed but that's not always a good thing. I got the brunch bowl, which was a breakfast salad with spinach, dried apricots, slivered almonds and poached eggs and kept stealing bites of my mom's lentils and eggs with toasted breadcrumbs and Leah's shakshuka. We got the ricotta pancakes to share for dessert and they're truly some of the best pancakes I can recall. Bonus: their bloody marys are great, try the harissa one for a kick.
On a particularly freezing night, I tried La Loncheria in Bushwick, a fun new spot specializing in tortas. It's a bit hard to find but worth a visit if you're off the L train for the guacamole, jicama salad, the la costra with chese and mushrooms, and cocktails (they have a mezcal version of a mojito which was very refreshing). The very hyped fried burrata torta is a lot, and the half sandwich is more than enough to share. They have TWO kinds of homemade hot sauce (a green one and a chili oil) that they bring to your table. More of this in 2018, please. If you want more mexican sandwiches (duh), I also love the cemitas at Los Tacos Mcondo which is thankfully on seamless.
If you're not ready for your night to end, grab a drink at Yours Sincerely next door. The New York Times says it's for "fun-loving 20 somethings not too jaded for small talk...(lol)" Their cocktails are all on tap and come in beakers. I liked the Transmit the Box with mezcal, chipotle and aperol. Cozy booths too.
A visit from Molly reminded me that the best thing you can get for $3 in New York is a slice of Joe's pizza.
Win Son is back from its holiday vacation and as delightful as ever. They still have that orange wine from Georgia and incredible sesame noodles.
Something to read:
The other Gasol brother is a vegan, joining a growing group of professional athletes:
Who wants to take the citywide bread tour with me?
On letting your child learn to cook
What restaurants know about you before you sit down: A lot
Pannetone french toast and a 2017 wrap up from one of my favorite bloggers David Lebovitz
Genius idea: Get like Frida and pack yourself an airport quesadilla
Love a good list of complaints about New York Dining this year. I especially agree with this one from Robert Siestema, "The installation of point-of-purchase devices that won't accept cash, demand an email to get a receipt, communicate with other point-of-purchase devices, and then spam the fuck out of you."
Lebron James is living his best life, which naturally includes wine.
Loose ends on the best of 2017:
If you want to try the fish soup Frida described as "so delicious that you kept eating even though you couldn't feel anything. It just brings me joy every time I think about it," it's from Chengdu Taste in the SGV. Ty Clare for clarifying, come visit NY!
My friend Noor is a fantastic cook. She's Bangladeshi and her husband is from Sri Lanka so she's a pro at both cuisines. Highly recommend following her for major cooking and travel inspiration. Some of her favorite meals this year were this dutch baby, these Sri Lankan chickpeas with coconut and this Smitten Kitchen farro that I keep hearing about.
In honor of the 10th issue of This Needs Hot Sauce, I want to know: what was your favorite childhood food?
I got to spend time with my 14-month-old cousin Beckett this week (a total delight) and watching him try new foods was so cool. He had a muffin for the first time and loved it, but isn't a fan of eggs. Blueberries, on the other hand, are a favorite treat. As a kid, I was way less adventurous, a grilled cheese and plain pasta with parmesan cheese from the can kind of gal. My sister Leah and I were huge fans of hard shell tacos with Ortega seasoning, pizza from Dani's or Lilian's, and ice cream from Eddie's Sweet Shop.
Tell me your childhood favorites by replying to this email and I'll share some next week.
Stay warm as we deal with this Siberian front. We all get bonus points for leaving the house.
Happy eating and thanks for reading.
xo,
Abigail