Your Party Needs Mixed Nuts
Welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce
Hey there,
Welcome to This Needs Hot Sauce (And Other Food Thoughts), a newsletter sharing something to cook, somewhere to eat out, and something to read. I'm a native New Yorker who spends far too much time time thinking and reading about food. I love helping people find great things to eat and solving problems, so seriously reply to this. I want to help. Let's dive in.
Something to make:
I decided to be a real adult (trademark pending) at my 24th birthday party and made Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts, via Smitten Kitchen. They're so easy and stupidly good. Nuts can be expensive so don't be afraid to do half fancy mixed nuts (buy raw ones so they don't get double roasted and burn) and half peanuts, which are way cheaper. I didn't measure the nuts, just filled a sheet tray. You'll wind up with a bunch of leftover rosemary, which tastes really good in a gin and tonic.
This recipe is neither trendy nor photogenic but I promise it is worth it. I cooked collard greens for the first time and feel like an extremely proud grandmother. It's really easy and cheap and the recipe feels like making something from nothing. The greens are the third recipe I've made from Feed the Resistance, an extremely timely project from Julia Turshen about food, protest, and ways to sustain activism. All proceeds go to the ACLU and it's a great gift (only $15). This recipe is from a contributor's grandmother and you should buy the book and read the story behind them for yourself.
Collard Greens by Jocelyn Jackson of JUSTUS Kitchens.
Prepare in a large pot with a lid
1 bunch of collard greens
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 medium yellow onion (I used red), chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 cups vegetable broth (or water if you don't have this)
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Wash the collard greens well and chop into ribbons by rolling the leaves. Heat the pan and add olive oil and the onion. Sauté till translucent and add the garlic, cooking for another few minutes. Add the carrots and greens to the pot and cover with the vegetable broth. Season with salt and pepper. Don't stir. Place the lid over the pot, decrease the heat to low, and let the greens steam for 20 minutes. Lift the lid and stir, add additional broth if needed. Replace the lid and cook another 20 minutes. Lift the lid, add the apple cider vinegar and season with salt to taste. Stir once more and put the lid back on for another 15 minutes. The potlikker, the cooking liquid in these, is delicious so make sure to serve them with some of that.
Something to order:
I went to Mexico City in September!
You should go (and email me for a complete list of recs)
If you're there, eat a nice dinner at Rosetta (don't be scared if there are no reservations, just arrive before 8 on a weekday). The service was excellent and attentive and not one bit annoying and the pasta was really incredible as was the chocolate-avocado milhoja dessert.
Spend an afternoon in Coyoacan eating at the mercado (Kekas is really good stall) and at whatever churro place catches your eye. Make sure they're making them fresh. If you're vegetarian or if you're not, try a quesadilla with flor de calabaza (squash blossom) or huiltacoche (a black corn fungus that's absolutely delicious)
Go to my favorite bar: El Nacional and order a fresco: it's mezcal, cucumber, lime, and basil and it will change your life. My friends will testify.
If you're in Brooklyn, go to Barano for saffron pasta and an aperol spritz and hope you get the cute waiter named Jordan (plz forward this to him). Happy hour goes till 7:30 and is a really good idea.
Win Son is three blocks from my apartment and I'm there allll the time. I got a free drink on for the first time a few weeks ago and am now even more anxious to be a regular. They only take reservations for large parties but there's usually no wait before 7:30. Sitting at the bar is great and get the pea shoots, the sesame noodles and the clams which now include kabocha squash because hell yea it's fall.
I spent over three hours SABSing (See and Be Seen) at Square Diner and concluded that Tribeca is home to the city's best dressed children and dogs. Diner omelettes (with tabasco) are always the move.
Here's an idea: let's make gin and sonics happen – a gin and tonic with half tonic water, half soda. Less sweet and and fun to say. Join the movement.
Something to read:
Jen Agg called people out on the food industry's culture of sexual harassment for the New York.
Bad restaurant reviews are always fun and I love Ryan Sutton.
The Kale salad as we know it turned 10. Hbd, bb. (This is one of my favorite versions, always a hit).
[Via Joy the Baker] All hail the Dive Bakery. Definitely not a dive but if you're in Williamsburg on a bakery hunt, stop here. 
Happy fall! I had soup for lunch for the first time this week and have been breaking out my best vests. Stay tuned for reader questions and more next week.
Thanks for reading and enjoy your eating,
Abigail