When is a restaurant worth the wait?
Plus a giveaway, delicious and beige pasta, and reads for the week
*Boom clap* New Yorkers were woken by thunder this morning, which is one way to start the week (I love this NY Weather twitter and this is the last time I’ll mention the weather today).
We’ve made it to May and I’m excited to announce a giveaway! Thanks to a generous donation from Silver Milk Productions, I’m giving away four paid subscriptions to This Needs Hot Sauce. Paid subscribers get the Thursday newsletter with exclusive recipes, essays, and recommendations, plus personalized recs from Abigail. If you’d like a subscription but it’s not in your budget, follow Silver Milk Productions on Instagram and reply to this email to claim one of the spots. Thank you again to Silver Milk Productions! (Update from 5/3/22: all the subscriptions have been claimed. Please get in touch if you’d like to sponsor a giveaway).
Erica and I have a few classes coming up that you might enjoy! First, we’re honing our knife skills and making ratatouille on May 19th (this is a great class for beginners or anyone looking to brush up your skills) and we have a summer meal prep series kicking off in June—the menus are so summery and I can’t wait to cook through them.
Now, let’s dive in.
Something to Cook:
I made a pan of fried rice on with some crispy tofu to top it (press the tofu, cut it into cubes, season with soy sauce and olive oil, coat with cornstarch and bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes on a lined baking sheet). Fried rice is my preferred clean out the fridge dish.
If you have a can of black beans and tortillas, you have a meal. Add cheese/avocado/vegetables/scrambled eggs depending on the time of day, inventory, and desire. Make sure you heat and season the beans. This sazón is my utimate shortcut.
On Saturday, I put together a simple pasta that surpassed my expectations. I cooked half a box of rigatoni and meanwhile cooked four big cloves of garlic in olive oil with red pepper flakes, dried oregano, dried thyme, salt and pepper. I added a can of chickpeas and then tossed in the cooked pasta along with some pasta water, parmesan cheese and butter. Dale was very into it and I’ll make it again for sure.
I attended a challah workshop on Friday at Balaboosta with Challah Prince and it was really interesting. The braiding techniques were intense—he uses an egg free dough (my recipe is not egg free and I do like the richness the egg brings) that you can roll without flour and is adamant about covering the dough when not working with it. He uses an egg yolk wash and applies it precisely with a narrow brush from a hardware store. For a vegan version, he brushes the baked loaf with olive oil. I learned about the tradition of Shlissel Challah, a key shaped Challah made for the first Shabbat after Passover. It brings good fortune and is a chance to show off some braiding skills.
Something to Order:
I found myself near Bloomingdales and had to get Forty Carrots (a rule). I always get peanut butter and coffee and am here for the return of froyo.
I’ve got to try Elmhurst Dairy at the Baldor Bite food show. It used to be a traditional dairy in Queens and they converted to non dairy milks (and moved upstate) in 2017. I loved their oat milk (it was so good in a cappuccino).
Liv Breads, a bakery in Millburn, New Jersey, now offers shipping and sent a bunch of bread to celebrate! I handed it out to friends and family (my sister was moving and clearly needed babka). I really enjoyed their rugelach and am eating the granola for breakfast. The sourdough also got great reviews.
Julianne and I got dinner at a restaurant I’ve long been wanted to try: Bernie’s and I was very underwhelmed. I very rarely go negative here, but I wanted to explain why this spot wasn’t for me—if you love it, keep loving it—and share some places I recommend instead. First, they don’t take reservations, which is a fine policy to have. They also don’t take phone numbers so you have to cluster around the door or squeeze into the packed bar area. I sat in the park and waited and we wound up getting a table after about 40 minutes, which only happened cause we went back and checked (again no problem with that wait, which was shorter than they quoted me, but it’s an inconvenient system). Second, it’s a small space! There are not that many tables. There is a lot of hype because there are not that many seats and it’s a ~vibe~. I really think that’s the crux of it and that’s not enough for me. The decor is cool (it’s that Brooklyn Applebee’s vibe that’s trendy these days) and they give you crayons at the table, but the food and drinks were just fine and they tried to rush us out because, of course, there were people waiting. Overall, it’s not an experience I would repeat. If you want a burger and a cocktail in a cool space, I recommend Teddy’s Bar & Grill, est. 1887 with great wings (says Dale) and a good veggie burger, Old Town Bar near Union Square for mozzarella sticks and bar food in a space with one of the city’s last working dumbwaiters, Cozy Royale, for their beloved burger (they just added moules frites to the menu), or Lighthouse, which has an off menu burger, more vegetables, and a wonderful team.
I went to Cozy Royale for the first time on Friday with Julianne and Ian (we wanted to compare it to Bernie’s). It’s from the owners of the Meat Hook so the menu is meat heavy. I ate before and planned to just get a drink and an app. I loved the atmosphere and drink and now that they have an entree I eat (moules frites), I’ll be back for a full dinner soon.
Last night, Dale and I walked to Greenpoint for pasta from Le Fanfare (I crave their cacio e pepe). We sat at the bar and split the cacio e pepe and the gnnochi with pesto.
Something to read:
There’s a shortage of one bedroom apartments in New York. Are pandemic break ups to blame? Also, the rent guidelines board is considering raising the rent stabilized rates, per Eric Adams’ request. If this affects you, submit a testimony here.
What Was the New York City Crab Boil Boom? (from a new local news site Hell Gate)
Tammie Teclemariam dines on her own. I love her column for New York magazine.
I’ve been using the BeReal app for a few weeks and it’s really fun.
This is graphic but it happened: US egg factory roasts alive 5.3m chickens in avian flu cull – then fires almost every worker
‘I Would Love to Fly a Trans Flag, But It Might Put My Animals in Danger’
Andrea has the vegan baked goods we need to try: Nostalgic Meets Modern in the Vegan Pan Dulce at this L.A. Bakery
Tacos should cost more, here’s why
7 Strategies for Wasting Less Food
Dirt Candy is the best. This Restaurant’s Menu Shows It’s Not Just One Chef in Charge
Eid Mubarak! This goat and lentil stew is a beloved Ramadan tradition in Hyderabad, India
Fighting Covid-19 misinformation in prison
A great roundup of wines and spirits with African roots
Welcome to a Glorious Era of Street Food. You’ll Find It In Restaurants.
I loved Alicia’s essay on care and how feeding people is different than cooking.
Gen Z insights (and media career insights) from the lovely Casey Lewis
Now let’s talk about desserts to bring to someone’s house.
M.Q. has quick and less quick ideas: Chocolates always work, when you are in a pinch. Go with milk and dark selections and nothing too elaborate. Salted caramels, truffles, one or two sugar free choices and you have a pretty plate without much fuss. BUT if you HAVE time, try bringing a blueberry cake. It's great for after dinner - not too heavy AND leftovers work for breakfast if your hostess/host wants to sleep in the next day.
Julianne is right—Ian makes great rugelach: Endlessly appreciative for my partner-in-cooking, Ian, who has always been the one to either fully or mostly prepare dishes for events for us so I can study beforehand!! I think my favorite dessert that “we” have brought is probably his rugelach (which made me love rugelach) which have now become a multi-year tradition for the #SoKoffler Rosh Hashanah dinner! There are notes of chocolate and raspberry and a delectable flaky cinnamon sugar topping!
Rachel is committed to dessert, her friends are lucky: I'm always the person who is asked to bring dessert, because my friends know that I'm a fairly serious baker. If I'm having a busy week then it's almost certainly going to be some kind of bar cookie. I have preferred blondie and brownie recipes that are both one-bowl, use ingredients that I always have in my pantry, and can be fancied up with whatever else I happen to have on hand. During summer there's also the cake-with-fruit option: something like the Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Summer Cake, but with whatever fruit came in my CSA. On the other hand, this week I'm taking homemade lemon curd out of the freezer to use as sandwich cookie filling with some thyme shortbread. Sometimes you just have to go all in being That Friend Who Bakes!
This week, let’s talk about beige foods—you know, the supremely delicious bowls of mush that don’t photograph well but are so satisfying. I’m eating leftover chickpea pasta as I write this and there’s beauty in the beige. Share yours by replying to this email and I’ll include it next week’s newsletter!
Thursday’s newsletter will continue the registry series with some product recommendations, plus our advice column and midweek reads. Your subscription helps keep this small business running and gets you extra content each week!
Have a great week!
xo, Abigail