No Bad Meals

A weekend in Philly, plus ideas for your lunches this week and our March event.

Hi friends,

Welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce, a weekly newsletter about cooking, dining out, and making the most of it.

I’m back from Philly and super excited to announce our March event: Dinner at Emma’s Torch on March 28th! Emma’s Torch is a social enterprise that empowers refugees through culinary education and job readiness training. We’re dining there at 7:30 p.m. and you can reply to this email to claim your spot! First come, first served! I love their model and have heard great things about the food. Plus, you’ll meet new people while supporting a great cause.

Now, let’s dive in.

Something to cook:

I made this kale salad for lunches last week and it’s super bright and refreshing. I added some toasted chopped peanuts on top for a little crunch and the recipe made enough for three lunches.

This is a little weird to admit, but until last week I had never made an omelette. I used to order them all the time in diners but always thought they’d be tricky at home. Plus, I’m very loyal to my crispy eggs. I saw a kimchi cheddar omelette mentioned in the comments of this post and realized I had all the ingredients in the house. It actually worked! And turned out so good. I made a little cucumber/kale/rice vinegar situation on the side but this recipe would also be great for a lazy Sunday.

Julia made The Salad and it truly upgraded her lunches. A text I received, “My god how is this salad SO GOOD.” Try it for yourself and season to taste. The leftovers keep really well if you put half the dressing on when you make it and the rest right before you eat.

I got home from a weekend of (delicious) restaurant food and my first stop was the grocery store. I made roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli with miso tahini dressing and ate it with some kimchi and cucumber. Simple and perfect, and now I have lunches for the week.

We’re still sharing your weekly cooking victories on Instagram, so follow along every Sunday and Monday. I also made a highlight called Cooking Recap (any name suggestions are welcome).

Something to order:

Angely, Katy and I caught up over tacos in Bushwick, as we do. We tried La Mesita at Angely’s suggestion and it was so good. The house red salsa should really be bottled and sold everywhere and the service was lovely. We all got substantial dinners and spent under $15 each. It’s cash only and right by the Knickerbocker stop.

I really ate a lot of Mexican food last week, next at La Lupe. The happy hour deal is great ($5 margaritas till 7) and their guac was very good. There are better tacos in the area, but I did really like the elote and it’s a good spot to hang out for a while.

On Friday, I had some time to kill after running errands in Union Square and popped by Daily Provisions for a snack. Their hummus was pretty terrible (super dry and pasty) but the happy hour wine was very good, and only $7. Stick to bread based items here. A bunch of the Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants have launched happy hours, which is a fun way to visit. As an extra bonus, I ran into Sophia there and we explored the greenmarket together!

Now, on to Philly! For more Philly recommendations, check out this newsletter from last May! And thank you to Nicole for being a wonderful host/dining companion and Dale for being the best travel companion.

A major highlight of the trip was finally eating brunch at Suraya, a gorgeous Lebanese restaurant in Fishtown. From the tiles to the dishes, everything was thoughtfully done. It was hard to narrow down our order but I think we chose well. Definitely get a pastry (the crueller with pistachio), a yogurt with tahini, and the mushroom hummus with brown butter, which was pretty much the most decadent hummus I’ve ever had. Make a reservation if you can or you can wait for seats at the bar.

After brunch, we wandered to Northern Liberties, which has changed a lot since I lived there. We found a relatively new brewery that was the perfect spot to spend the afternoon *yes, I drink beer now*. They let you build you own flight and everything was super affordable (the smallest size is $2). There’s also a big food menu including wood fired pizzas.

Our dinners were really good too: Mexican with a group at Rosy’s, which is kind of a restaurant and kind of a bar, so it’s perfect for a Saturday night. The nachos were really good and the margarita pitcher is an excellent value. Most crucially…they have a hot sauce wall!

Dale and I went for pasta on Sunday at Cry Baby, a new spot in Queen Village. It was a lovely neighborhood spot with a good Italian wine selection, excellent gelato and really generous pasta portions.

I ended the trip with one of my favorite foods, the tahini shake from Goldie, and a falafel salad, this time at the Franklin’s Table location on Penn’s campus. If you, like Dale, think a tahini shake sounds weird, just try a sip and I can guarantee you’ll get right back in line to order your own. If you can’t make it to Philly, the at home recipe is a good dupe.

Something to read:

The photos in this are so cool. Spain’s burnt cheesecake breaks all the rules.

You heard it here first—the next wellness trend is a potato.

Fake meat fast food is still fast food

I love Ovenly’s chocolate chip cookie (I ate all the broken ones when I worked there) and this video makes recreating them look very doable.)

This newsletter supports a healthy dose of dietary fiber.

More Trader Joe’s reviews from the hilarious Alex Beggs.

Worth a bookmark/pocket: how to work your way out of a food rut.

A delightful ode to 20 years of after work happy hours.

Julia Turshen on the politics of food and writing

The millennial pink restaurant trend isn’t going anywhere.

Two industry articles: a restaurant finance expert from DC on what helps restaurants stay afloat and a package on the best restaurants group to work for. Love to see more transparency here.

Have you ever roasted plantains? Planning to give this a try.

A correction/rare good news: Moishe’s bakery is still open!

In the future, everything will be made of chickpeas. They’re such as staple of my diet and I am not mad about the boom.

I just got tickets to the Food Writers’ Workshop. Let me know if you’re coming!

Now, let’s talk about your favorite iced beverages. We’re in the final days of winter, can you believe it?

Bethany: Re: iced drinks, my all-time fave is a super strong black Americano. You never know if it's gonna be perfect or just a $4 cup of coffee-flavored ice water, but when it's good it's good. An amazing twist on that is an Americola: a full bottle of Mexican Coke poured over ice with a shot of espresso. It's so. good. but best to split with someone unless you wanna be awake for the next 24 hours straight.

Hanna: My partner used to work in the coffee program at Publican Quality Meats (part butcher shop, part cafe), and introduced me to something called Kyle's Go Go Juice. Ice, cold brew, a shot of espresso, honey, and angostura bitters - served in a quart container for extra style points. Guaranteed to make your heart race, but a good time.

And some decaf coffee intel in response to this from last week…it’s hard for restaurants to keep it fresh. When Julianne was at Ian's cousin's restaurant last week, she talked to the staff about decaf coffee culture (so loved the article), “He and one of the other staff members was talking about how when people ask for decaf, they always ask if it's fresh and request a fresh pot of coffee. However, it's so rare for people to order decaf that they end up wasting so much coffee so every person gets a "fresh pot" and how a better answer should be ‘no, it's been sitting out because no one drinks decaf except you.’”

This week, let’s talk about your favorite food cities! It could be the city you call home, a place you used to live or somewhere you visited once. I always leave Philly feeling like it’s nearly impossible to have a bad meal there. Reply to this email and tell me your favorite cities to dine in.

Happy eating and thanks for reading. I hope to see you next week at Emma’s Torch!

xo, Abigail