We love a good food city
A new travel list, ballpark eats, and the start of ice cream season
Hi friends,
Welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce, a weekly newsletter about cooking, dining out and making the most of it.
If you’re free on Thursday, you should come to our March dinner at Emma’s Torch in Brooklyn. It’s a restaurant and training program for refugees looking to find work. I love hosting these dinners and some great people are already confirmed! RSVP by replying to this email to claim your spot.
It finally got warm-ish and I was so thrilled to order an iced latte at City of Saints. I get my coffee beans there and love to visit the roastery which smells so good.
Now, let’s dive in.
Something to cook:
I barely cooked last week and managed to stretch my batch of roasted veggies and miso tahini dressing into many meals. I added, at various points, massaged kale, avocado, mozzarella cheese, cucumber slices, and kimchi. I am a broken record about this recipe but it’s so easy and you definitely don’t need to blend the dressing. I make it a bowl with a spoon.
I went to Trader Joe’s yesterday (see your fave products here) and stocked up for this week including Mediterranean hummus and 79 cent cans of chickpeas. I’m planning to roast the chickpeas with some za’atar I picked up at Suraya and serve with kale and baked sweet potato. Simple and easy!
I’m in search of a good spring time muffin. Pumpkin is sadly a seasonal item at Trader Joe’s and blueberries are still kind of expensive. If you have a favorite muffin recipe, get at me. Chocolate chips are welcome.
And for more cooking highlights and ideas, tune into Instagram where we recap your cooking victories every Monday.
Something to order:
Living in New York can mean small apartments and many subway transfers between you and your friends. Zoe gets around this by bringing people together at Rubirosa. It’s genius. She checks Resy for tables for 4-6 when she’s free and makes the reservations on spec. Then she texts people she wants to hang out with and invites them to join her. I’ve been to Rubirosa many times with her, and she even helped me get a table for the first This Needs Hot Sauce Supper Club last March. Five of us went last week and loved it. The tie dye pizza is my favorite and I need to recreate the Rubirosa salad. Other great orders: the clams with breadcrumbs and any affordable red wine. Make a reservation or else the wait is 2 hours.
My mom and I got lunch at 12 Chairs after picking up my new phone. The photos in this newsletter will be a lot better going forward now that I’ve said goodbye to my iPhone 6. I love the hummus, the egg siniya, which are sunnyside up eggs with tahini sauce, and their shakshuka is always a winner.
I attended the Citi Field media preview last week and documented it all (check the Mets preview highlight) on Instagram. The food at Citi Field is really good and they work with a ton of local businesses, including Emmy Squared (yum!), Sweet Chick, La New Yorkina, and Ramona wine spritzers. If you’re a vegan, the Destination Dumplings are a great option and vegetarians have a decent number of choices for a ball park. It was really cool to be at the stadium before the season started and I loved getting to share it with you guys. If you go to a game, please tag me and let me know what you’re eating!
How’s this for a Brooklyn problem? Dale and I have been dating for almost a year and until yesterday we had never gone on a date in Manhattan. We fixed this with a late lunch at Barn Joo in Union Square. So many restaurants have closed near there and I’m hoping this one hangs on. They have a good happy hour and their bibimbap is great (I love the crispy rice at the bottom). We also split the veggie dumplings with a spicy glaze, which I highly recommend.
It was peak ice cream weather yesterday and if you’re looking for some near Union Square, my suggestions are Sundaes & Cones, a Mr. Softee truck, and Chloe’s Fruit Co (it’s not ice cream but the chocolate and banana flavors are a throwback to the froyo days of getting a million toppings).
Coffeeshop of the week: Espresso 77
I did some work in Jackson Heights after my Citi Field outing at the lovely Espresso 77. It’s right by the subway and has a huge menu of sandwiches and salads and a calendar of community events. Laptops are only allowed at the communal table and it’s a great crowd. I saw two teenagers reading together on what I assume was a date. So cute.
Something to read:
8 minutes of eye candy, I’m not sorry: How Antoni from Queer Eye learned to love his haters.
What pastry chef Stella Parks eats in a typical day. She’s @bravetart and such a good follow.
The fight to develop interesting zero proof drinks.
If you’re into cookbooks, Food 52’s Piglet is a lot of fun. It’s a March Madness style bracket with an eclectic group of judges including Roxane Gay and Kyle MacLachlan. If you’re really into cookbooks, Eater has a preview of spring’s most exciting ones.
The For Hire Podcast is all about freelancing and forging your own career path. Alison Roman did an episode and it’s a great, honest interview all about leaving Bon Appetit, how she got a book deal and how she manages money and building a team.
Ugh, some guy built an automated food Instagram bot to get free meals.
The spectacular culinary world of Muslim-Chinese immigrants
I have such specific memories of being led through Paris by my dad and a Rick Steve’s guidebooks and this profile of him was a delight/mildly triggered my high school angst.
The absolute best shakshuka in New York. I really need to try Miss Ada.
The best sea salt, according to chefs. (Team Maldon!)
No matter what she’s working on, Carla Hall just seems like a lovely person. I also loved this interview with her on Second Life.
A night with three Philadelphia bouncers
Le sigh, restaurant patrons keep stealing eco friendly metal straws.
Breaking: we’re doing shots.
Long before celery juice ruled instagram, it used to be a delicacy.
Speaking of green vegetables, America really blew it on arugula. I love arugula and am here for a comeback!
Kwame Onwuachi, author of Notes from a Young Black Chef on paying dues. This line in particular: “If you’re ready to do anything, I would just try it. I’ve never written a book before and I did this. When are you gonna be ready for something unless you just do it?”
Now let’s talk about your favorite food cities! This list may have you planning a trip.
Portland, Oregon: I feel duty bound to sing the praises of my hometown (I'm confident I'm not the only one). Portland is an incredible, friendly, and laid back city, and there are always new restaurants opening, with a stunning number of old mainstays keeping that are consistently incredible. Portland has brunch nailed (Tasty N Sons, Jam on Hawthorne, Mother's, Gravy), and no one bats an eye about waiting for 45 minutes in the drizzling rain to get a table because there's Stumptown Coffee to be had in a mug to carry with you when you sit down. There are little strips of great dining clustered together all over town and everyone has their favorite pocket. I'm partial to Alberta Street, with special points for Bollywood Theater's amazing counter ordered Indian street food (the gobi manchurian and a paneer kati roll with an IPA are my idea of a PERFECT meal). Plus all the coffee. All the beer. All the Willamette Valley wine. And no sales tax on anything. - Alison
Anywhere with good markets: My favorite food cities are where there are great food markets. This puts Jerusalem, Israel and Vienna, Austria high on my list! If you're willing to picnic or cook, it's where you'll find unforgettable fresh produce, plus incredible quality bulk items from nuts to dried fruits to spices, baked goods, and more-- and often there are food stalls or tiny sit-down places with *incredible* food tucked in these markets. I live for exploring a good food market while camped out in a city. Restaurant wise, I never had a bad meal or snack in Stockholm, Sweden and the ambiance and architecture of each place was restrained but unmatched. -Hilary
Los Angeles: Los Angeles is my new home and it has everything. I admit that I'm not as familiar with the fine dining side of the food industry here, but I truly can get anything to satisfy my random cravings: tacos, breakfast burritos, ice cream, acai bowls, ramen, more ramen, sushi, pizza, burgers, hoagies (although they don't call them that here), the list goes on. I also admit I have not been to many Italian restaurants here because I know I can make it myself at home ;) -Molly
London and Copenhagen are definitely top of the list!!! -Teal
Tokyo: It’s both thrilling and intimidating that Tokyo’s food options are literally endless. It seems like restaurants are just stacked one on top of the other. It’s a great place to dine out alone because you’re rarely the only one doing it, whether that’s at a fancy omakase spot or when you’re jet lagged slurping ramen and getting it all over your shirt (oops). My favorite odd thing about Tokyo is that many train stations feature destination restaurants. I traveled specifically to Tokyo Station for a highly-recommended “street” of ramen places. It felt very unique to the city and the polar opposite of eating greasy pizza at Penn Station. -Hillary
New Orleans: Food here is special because it feels like a celebration — and you can’t get it nearly as good anywhere else. I’m thinking specifically about the chargrilled oysters from Drago’s, which I dream of and haven’t been able to find a comparable option in New York. -Hillary
Chicago: It feels sacrilegious to say this but deep dish is very good! Especially from Pequods! I went to Chicago last year for a girls’ trip and ate everything from vegan food (Ground Control) to a Macanese brunch (Fat Rice) that was one of my top meals in all of 2018. Also Wrigley Field has great food. -Hillary
Mexico City: I’d been meaning to reply to this all week and got distracted because I’m in my favorite food city - Mexico City. I don’t need to tell you why it’s the best, pero basta decir that it’s home to the incomparable taco al pastor. From street food to Michelin starred restaurants to truly everything in between, there is no better place to eat than mi queridísima ciudad. -Isa
Brb, looking at flights! Thank you so much for sharing your favorites! This week, let’s talk about how you learned to cook. Was it at home with your family, in a class or later in life when you realized how much delivery cost? What’s the first thing you remember making on your own? I’m so curious about this so please reply to this email with your stories.
Happy eating and thanks for reading. And I hope to see you on Thursday for dinner!
xo, Abigail
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