Salad or fries? Why not both?
Green sauce, green salsa, and movie theater popcorn
Hi friends,
How was your weekend? I shared our 2024 Gift Guide on Saturday and hope you enjoy! So far, my group chats are excited about immersion blenders and fire blankets and my favorite hoodie is getting a lot of love. So much work goes into each year’s guide and I typically start my list around February. I hope it can make shopping, this time of year and in general, a little easier. And I hope you’re doing alright during this time (I tried many adjectives in that sentence and none felt adequate).
This Needs Hot Sauce 2024 Gift Guide
Now, let’s dive in!
Something to cook:
I had a supremely busy week and did not cook a lot (I was going to make a scallion pancake egg wrap and realized we were out of eggs, sad). I did make yogurt bowls with cereal, which I bought on a whim after being underwhelmed by grocery store granola options. Turns out, cereal is great. I mix yogurt with vanilla bean paste and add some walnuts, blueberries and chia seeds. Then, this is the fussy part, I bring a separate container of cereal to the office to preserve crunch. It’s worth the extra step or you could just eat it at home.
On Friday night, I tried out Fly by Jing’s chili crisp noodles and was very impressed. I added some frozen spinach as the noodles cooked and it would have been great with an egg (we were out, see above). There are so many sauces: chili crisp, shallot sauce, dried chives, and another one that I think was mostly soy sauce. This creates a very flavorful sauce for satisfying bowl of noodles with crunch.
I saw Hillary on Saturday and she told me of her plans to make vodka sauce for dinner—it’s most definitely the season. I need to make some soon and watch a cozy movie.
Something to order:
We had a farewell family dinner with Grandma before she headed home (miss you) at Jack’s Wife Freda, which is actually very calm and lovely at dinner time. Leah and I split the eggplant sandwich with fries and a house salad and I always enjoy their zucchini chps and mint lemonade. I also love their green sauce, which is a relative of spicy green sauce.
Angela and I grabbed a late dinner at Cozy Royale and split the blue cheese and olive situation, which is undersold on the menu but very good (it’s like a chunky dip served with buttered toasts). I also got the kale caesar, my favorite and stole some of Angela’s fries (we can’t be asked to choose anymore)
My talented friend Oset launched Prix Fixe this week and I was honored to visit. She transformed a suite at the Chelsea Hotel into a beautiful showcase for food, drink, and home brands! The next one will be in LA and I already have fomo.
Kitty and I got fancy coffee at Dayglow in Bushwick. They were really delicious and it’s a sun drenched space (we need all the sun we can get0 that becomes a bar at night.
I had an appointment near Hillary which led to spontaneous brunch at Isle of Us, which has a very uptown Happier Grocer vibe. I got a very tasty breakfast burrito with hash browns, pickled jalapeños, and green salsa.
Dale and I saw Anora at Nitehawk (really liked it, Mikey Madison is a star) and popcorn and a glass of chilled red is a great combo.
After a busy Sunday, we picked up food at Inday—their saag paneer is so comforting.
Something to read:
Dale and I drove upstate and on the way back, the smell and smoke from New Jersey wildfires was overwhelming. How New Yorker Farmers are dealing with droughts and unexpected fire.
She was a child influencer, her followers were grown men
LaTonya Yvette’s Brooklyn Home Feels Like a Soft Place to Land
shares memories from growing up in a restaurant! My dream (I had a play kitchen and loved to play restaurant and make my parents place orders)In
, Katherine Lewin speaks truth: roast chicken is not a good dinner party foodA Night Out With the Strippers of Sean Baker’s Anora
Not All Sweaters are Garbage and Buying An Internet-Famous Thing from
What Brazil's History Can Teach Us About Trump's Return from
Take care this week!
xo, Abigail