Happy 1st long weekend of the year! I hope you took this time to make something hearty that could simmer on the stove or could really do its thing in the oven. I’m thinking of making a lasagna or a braise that will tide me over for the week.
Thank you to the 40 new subscribers who joined this week! So excited to have you here! Also thank you to everyone who has been sending DMs and emails on how they’re thinking about eating in 2024. It warms my heart that this piece really resonated with people.
This week was a balance of eating out and dining in. Sometimes I just like to share what I’m eating and drinking in hopes that it will inspire your next meal out or grocery trip. I would love to hear if there were any memorable meals or delicious recipes that you made or had in the last few weeks. Always looking for ideas!
Five Minute Lunch
I exercise a decent amount (5-6 times a week) but am not the best when it comes to fuelling pre and post-workout. I get in my head about what to eat and whether it's nutritious or hearty enough. I’ve slowly been working on prepping or buying products that take the stress of prep and optimize for a 5-minute lunch.
After a tough 2-hour tennis clinic, I had 7 minutes to make something before I hopped on a work call. I have a solid stash of bagels from my favourite Jewish deli, Mendl, so I grabbed one of the bagels from the freezer and toasted it till warm. Then I topped it with the whitefish salad from Mendl which can barely stay in the fridge for 48 hours. Wanting a bit of a spice kick, I topped it with some salsa macha that my friend Karishma gifted me. It filled me up and I ate it with some celery sticks and washed this all down with a glass of kombucha.
Balanced Dinner Plate
These two dishes are a combination of “fridge being your oyster” and also “redefining your relationship to meat”(I’m referring to my principles of eating in 2024- check out the piece here.) I’ve just been buying 3-5 vegetables during each grocery run (I go about twice a week) and then figuring out what to do with them.
This week, brussels sprouts have been a main character. For this dish, I used this Sam Sifton “no-recipe” glaze as inspiration for seasoning the salmon. It’s this hearty spicy-sweet combination of mustard and brown sugar but I added a little bit of olive oil for some flavour. Then I followed this Martha Rose Shulman technique for pan-searing, brussel sprouts, which is just as effective as the oven method, and the sauce was a riff on this Aaron Hutcherson honey miso brussel sprouts recipe. Rice is my favourite grain and I love making a pot on the stove with butter and topping it with some furikake. Current fave is this kelp one from Barnacle Foods. It’s the perfect weeknight meal, you can whip it up in 30 minutes and I feel so full. I also love doubling the recipe so lunch is taken care of the next day.
Heads up: If you don’t have the NYT Cooking app and want to try these, fret not! These are gift links :)
Power Lunch at Torrisi
I spent 48 hours in New York last week in meetings, seeing my friends, and recording new episodes of my podcast, The Future of Food is You! Like everyone in the city, I’ve been trying to get a table at Torrisi for the last year and some change. Located in a quiet corner of bustling Soho, this new fine dining concept from Major Food Group (you may be familiar with Carbone) is grand with sleek marble, 20 ft ceilings and oversized windows which beautifully contrast the comforting dishes on the menu. The food leans more Italian American and the theme as Hannah Goldfield best put it, is New York City, perceived from Little Italy. It only made sense to spend the afternoon there for a power lunch. My dear friend Holyn snagged us bar seats and we passed the time catching up, talking about our 2024 goals, and assessing the restaurant’s vibe.
The service was exceptional. Waiters are clad in these gorgeous soft tan tuxedo blazers moving swiftly as they craft cocktails and set up placemats with such precision and ease. Taking in the open kitchen where cooks and chefs are whipping up pasta, and plating salads in a space that appears spacious yet cosy. Our waiter brought over the complimentary bread service and I got a cucumber lemonade situation that was refreshing and just the right amount of tart and sweetness.
We kicked things off with the Cucumbers New Yorkese, a salad that is a homage to the traditional New York-style pickle. Sliced cucumbers are heavily dressed in a miso mustardy vinaigrette and topped with cilantro, dill, pickled onions, and this bright green oil. It might have been one of the best salads I’ve ever eaten and I hate ordering salads at restaurants.
The pastas were divine. I picked the linguine in a pink Manhattan clam sauce which had the sweet brine from the clams, that trifecta of olive oil, garlic, and chopped tomatoes, and the perfect amount of fresh parsley to round out the bite. Holyn got the cavatappi with Jamaican Beef Ragu. The waiter “warned” us that it was going to be quite spicy but as the daughters of African mothers, we handled it with ease. You can taste the sweet heat of the scotch bonnet marrying the heartiness of the tomato sauce.
You can’t leave an institution like this and not sus out the dessert. We chose the almond cheesecake to bring it home and wow best decision we ever made. Stephanie Prida, former pastry chef, crafted this beautiful treat topped with this patterned mousse situation and almond paste situation. I was so distracted by the beauty I didn't ask about the details of the delectable crust but based on my baker's knowledge, it was very similar to a shortbread cookie. It came with a decent dollop of amaro cherries that paired well with the strong almond flavour. Someone’s nonna would be proud. I should note that they also brought over complimentary lemon Italian Icees that tasted like biting into a lemon candy.
If lunch was this great, I can only imagine how exceptional dinner would be! If you’re feeling moved by this, I would highly recommend trying for lunchtime bar seats for your dream power lunch.
Food Writing Section at McNally Jackson, Rockefeller Center
The secret to surviving in New York is finding your comforting space and retreating there when the city feels like too much. My comforting space is the food writing space at McNally Jackson and Kitchen Arts and Letters. After recording the podcast in Hell’s Kitchen, I went over to Lodi with some friends and we shared their delicious tiramisu and interesting take on their carrot cake which was more inventive than I expected. I think I was expecting more of the classic Italian bakery vibe.
After we parted ways, I had some time to spare and decided to hop into the McNally Jackson at Rockefeller. I hadn’t been and I love the layout. The food writing/cookbook section is in a corner of the store where you could spend hours and not feel like you’re in anyone’s way. I spent about 35 minutes digging into some new releases and well-loved classics. Their food writing specifically was well stocked which can be surprising for a general bookstore. I got two new cookbooks, Tender by Hetty McKinnon and the cookbook from the esteemed London institution The River Cafe. I’m heading to London in April so I feel like cooking through this will be a great warm-up. I’m now at 2 out of 10 cookbook purchases for the year so let’s see how the next trip to a bookstore goes!
I love Chinese food and was immediately drawn to food writer Fuschia Dunlop’s new book Invitation to a Banquet. It’s a read exploring the history and techniques of Chinese culinary culture. I’m about 3 chapters in and learning so much about Chinese cuisine and how it is shaped other cuisines as well.
LINKS YOU’LL LOVE
Melissa Clark on Salt
To understand cooking, you must understand flavour. To understand flavour, you must understand salt. New York Times writer and culinary legend Melissa Clark takes us on a global journey to understand the process behind this fundamental spice. Some salts are retrieved from nature, others are crafted in environments built through trial and error. If you thought having 3 different types of salt was overkill, perhaps this article will change your mind. It also inspired me to immediately order Salt by another food-writing legend Mark Kurlansky on my to-be-read list.
100 Weeknight Dinner Recipes
I spend so much time on the NYT Cooking App that it makes an appearance in my top 5 apps during my weekly screen report. NYT Cooking Emily Weinstein publishes a weekly newsletter dubbed Five Weeknight Dishes for busy people who still want to make a hearty meal. She has collated 100 recipes that you can whip up in less than an hour with ingredients that are essential pantry staples and seasonal vegetables here or there. I love how the list is organized by protein and grain too so it’s easy to find something based on what you’re feeling.
If you’re trying to level up your cooking skills or just want more easy meals for the nights you’re not down to make a whole feast, make this list your friend. If you need any of these recipes, let me know and I can send over a gift link.
Chipotle Founder’s New Foray
One of my college hacks was being able to make 2 meals out of 1 Chipotle Chicken bowl. I would grab an extra tortilla and make these mini-tacos for lunch and dinner. Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle, is back in the lunch game, with his new venture Kernel. This fast-casual concept is plant-based, robot-powered, and set to shake up the future of producing food at scale. Not sure how many more VC-backed lunch spots the city can handle but I do admire Steve’s passion for food and quality ingredients, how he sees Kernel as a vessel for changing eating habits, and thinking about bringing technology and innovation to improve our food systems. I’ll have to try it and report back!
Kat Craddock (EIC of Saveur) Grub Street Diet
I love a Grub Street Diet especially when food writers are profiled. I’ve been a huge fan of Saveur for years, reading the copies that my mom would snag from the grocery store. I loved how genuine and authentic this GSD felt with the perfect combo of throwing things together in a pot and calling it a meal (“clean out the fridge” soup), frequenting favourite restaurants and bringing the out-of-town homies, and making meals to share in good company. This got me really hyped for this new era for Saveur and can’t wait to see all the things Kat is up to!
Helen Rosner on Diners
If there are no fans of Helen Rosner, it means I’m dead. She has this warm approach to food commentary and critique that draws out the nuances of the places or things that she reviews. I just finished this piece during my weekly Sunday New Yorker read and it felt as comforting as a bowl of matzo ball soup on a cold day. Her take on Old St.John’s is romantic yet realistic on the importance of diners as a cultural eatery even though the food may not be something to drive home about.
I especially love that she doesn’t encourage the reader to go out of the way to experience this diner as a means to preserve the neighbourhood eatery which can be a diamond in the rough, especially in New York City. Yes, stop by after the doctor’s appointment or maybe for a quick bite to tide you over before the curtain call at the Met.
Thanks for reading along! I hope this week’s piece inspires you to make a new meal, try a new recipe, or read a new food book.
AN ASK: I’m thinking of dedicating one newsletter per month as an advice/ask-help column where I help you with some aspect of your relationship to food. Whether its restaurant recs, recipes to make, or a gift for your friend in food, I want to help y’all. Is this something people would be interested in? Please send me a note or leave a comment if you are interested! Thank you in advance :)
Eat well and be well!
Your Friend in Food,
Abena
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