Thursday, December 31, 2015

Our Year in Food: 2015

2015 is almost over and we had a great eating year. We made our first visit to London, and we explored a lot of the country we had never visited together before. Here's our quick year-end summary:

The first restaurant meal we ate in 2015: After encountering crowds at most places, we ended up at Steak 'n Shake Signature for some burgers and fries. What a healthy way to start the year!


The first homecooked meal we ate in 2015: In the South, they eat collard greens and hoppin' John on New Years for good luck, so we decided to do the same. It was a delicious start to the year and we hoped that it would bring us good fortune.


The last restaurant meal we ate in 2015: Mushroom and chicken gorgons from our local Otto's Tacos. We love the gorgon (more here), and eating those puffy tacos while people-watching was a great way to end the year.


The last homecooked meal we ate in 2015: NYE dinner - shrimp and grits, Charleston-style, with a side of Southern greens. It's always fun when we get to cook together, and this meal, especially the shrimp and grits, was something A's been wanting to make for a while.


# of different restaurants we tried in 2015 (together and separate): 235. More than last year which is surprising since we cooked so often at home.

Cities explored (outside the NYC metro area): Baltimore, MD; Savannah, GA; Beaufort, SC; Raleigh, NC; New London, CT; Maumee, OH; Chicago, IL; Hobart, IN; Cleveland, OH; London, UK (and other places along the interstates between some of those cities and towns).

Most visited restaurant of 2015 (together): Qdoba in Staten Island (7x), followed by Genki Sushi in Staten Island and New Spring Garden in Brooklyn (both 6x). Those are all meals that we went to with family, and we tend to go to a lot of the same spots regularly. For non-family meal spots, it would be Dough at City Market (5x). If you don't consider doughnuts a full meal (which I don't), then it would be Red Hen (4x). Just like last year, the most visits we made together to a non-family meal place was 4. Crazy.

Our first visit to Red Hen

Favorite food memories of 2015: A's list is here and mine is here, but we had a few in common, like the awesome berry picking adventure at an Indiana farm, the delicious cheese toastie in London, our English Sunday roast, and amazing chicken livers with grits in Savannah.

The most amazing blackberries we've ever had

Least favorite food memory of 2015: Without a doubt, the bowl of jellied eels we got at Goddards of Greenwich. More details when we get up to that in our London recaps (relatively soon, we hope), but that is something we have no desire to eat again.

Jellied eels, never again

Progress on WorldEats challenge: In total, we've posted about 42/196 countries (with many more not yet talked about). Some of the countries we've ticked off the list this year (and will eventually cover if we haven't yet) include Egypt, Eritrea, Finland, Lithuania, Nigeria, Syria, and Tunisia.

Our first Eritrean meal, which we will hopefully write about next year

2015 blog series that will someday be completed: Savannah road trip; Connecticut getaway (which will also someday be started...); Great Lakes road trip; London vacation.

Favorite overall meal of 2015: Sunday roast at The Pig and Butcher in London. That's our next post in our London recaps, so stay tuned!

Sunday roast and the "board"

We can't wait to see what 2016 will bring. We're really grateful for all of the amazing eating adventures we've been able to have this year and all the wonderful memories we made. Happy new year everyone!

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