Our Year in Food: 2020

2020 was a year like no other in our lifetimes, but I don't think I need to explain why to anybody reading this post because we all lived through (and are living through) the same global event. Writing up our year in review one year ago, thinking ahead to 2020, I don't think I ever could have imagined we would be where we are right now. Zero travel, barely any in-person restaurant visits, it was anything but a typical year (to the extent such a thing exists). But we made it through the year, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. After this unpredictable year, I have no expectations for 2021, and am just hoping for the best. Here was our 2020 in food:

The first restaurant meal we ate in 2020: The first restaurant food we all ate together was from Eons Greek Food for Life, getting some Greek bowls for takeout for a family gathering in early January. Our first non-takeout, non-delivery experience wasn't until the end of February at Boston Market. Three weeks later, lockdown.

The first home-cooked meal we ate in 2020: The first thing we made at home was a semi-home-cooked dinner of shawarma chicken thighs, dolma, Grecian eggplant, and giant white beans, all from Trader Joe's, but not requiring anything more than heating and plating. The first thing made from scratch were the chickpea omelettes I made for Week 1 of the 52 week cooking challenge.

The last restaurant meal we ate in 2020: Our last takeout/delivery meal was NYE lunch poke bowls from PokeBowl Station, and the last thing we ate out as a family were doughnuts from Doughnut Plant, B's first time having doughnuts. I guess technically that could be considered takeout, so then it would be pizza at Brooklyn Firefly (more on that later).

The last home-cooked meal we ate in 2020: A made shepherd's pie with a tomato, chickpea, onion, and feta side salad for our New Year's Eve dinner, and the pie was amazing.

# of different restaurants we tried in 2020 (together and separate): 17 in person (although half of that is places I went to solo), 43 takeout and delivery spots. A dramatic drop from previous years, but not surprising. We can count on less than two hands the number of dine-in experiences we had all year as a family, and since the start of the pandemic, we ate out 5 times (if you count the doughnuts).

Places explored (outside the NYC metro area): None. Since the start of the pandemic, we haven't even left the city.

Most frequented restaurant of 2020: In person, Qdoba. Takeout and delivery, a tie between Ginger House, a vegan Asian spot, and Next Level Burger, a vegan burger joint. We try to order delivery for our family dinners from vegan spots when we can because of B's allergies, so this result is unsurprising.

Progress on WorldEats challenge: Still 58/196, because we haven't written about any of the other countries yet.

Progress on Around the World Cooking Challenge: A few "random" meals out of order, but otherwise finished off Afghanistan and Alabama, and started on Alaska. I really need to post about these in the new year.

Favorite overall meal of 2020: Our outdoor lunch at Brooklyn Firefly in mid-November. We've been doing mostly takeout and delivery during the pandemic, only choosing outdoor (and in two anxious cases, indoor) dining when we already had to be out of the house for doctor visits and things like that. This meal is probably our favorite because, for one, it felt safe. We were sitting outside in the yard and not in the middle of the street, there was plenty of space, and it was also safe on the allergy front because they had vegan pizzas. This was the first time we'd gone out for pizza as a family, and B loved it. Just a really happy memory from this year.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2021!