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).

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.

Salad not pictured but let’s appreciated the color on these fries

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.

This would have gone on the grid in 2012 for sure

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:

Growing up in Climate Chaos

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

Grace Atwood

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

MOVIEPUDDING

, Katherine Lewin speaks truth: roast chicken is not a good dinner party food

The best sauces in the city

A Night Out With the Strippers of Sean Baker’s Anora

Not All Sweaters are Garbage and Buying An Internet-Famous Thing from

Out Of The Bag

What Brazil's History Can Teach Us About Trump's Return from

Celisia Stanton

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Take care this week!

xo, Abigail