Krispy Kreme

One year ago today, after our delicious dinner at ShopHouse, we went to Krispy Kreme because I wanted a little dessert. They had a couple cute looking Easter donuts so we decided that we should get one. We opted for a regular glazed and a chick donut.

The neon sign out front of the store said they had hot donuts, but neither of these donuts seemed very freshly made or hot. That was a bit disappointing when it came to the glazed donut since we've had their fresh, hot glazed donuts before, and they are simply delicious. These, on the other hand, were a little on the cold side. The glazed donut was still airy and fluffy, but it was a little denser and less fluffy since it wasn't fresh. The chick was filled with cream and not custard and topped with glazing and crunch sugar along with some piped frosting for the design.

I preferred the glazed donut because it just tasted better. M preferred the chick because she loved the crunchy sugar topping, and she also (intentionally) didn't have much, if any, of the cream. I found the cream to be a little too sweet. I prefer custard filled donuts because custard tends to be a little less sweet when it comes to donuts. All in all we were happy with our dessert, but we know that we've had better experiences at Krispy Kreme in the past.

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2016

This was an interesting year for me with regards to eating and drinking. M and I did a decent amount of travel this year, and that's reflected in my list. This list, as always, isn't necessarily the best things I ate or drank all year, but it's a list of the most memorable events. It just happens that most of these are the best things I ate :)

1) Chesapeake and Maine - Warm Maryland Crab Dip
This is a dish of pure comfort and decadence. It's cheesy, sweet from the succulent crab meat, and simply amazing as a dish. We went to Chesapeake and Maine twice on our visit down to Rehoboth Beach, and we got this each time. In fact, it was so good that it was the only thing we duplicated.

2) Convivial - Scallop Boudin Blanc
I included this because it was so different from anything I had ever eaten before. It was scallop that was ground up and formed into a sausage of sorts. They topped it with sliced snow peas, sea beans, and roe. We couldn't place all of the flavors on this, but it tasted like a smooth, silky chowder.

3) Craft Beer
One thing that seemed pretty constant with most of our trips this year was amazing craft beer. With trips to Delaware, Portland, and San Diego we hit some of the biggest names in craft brewing, and these also happen to be some of my favorites. The highlights for the year are definitely Dogfish Head, Cascade, Stone, and Ballast Point. I had initially debated between adding in small batch coffee instead, but I opted for craft beer because it's something that M and I can enjoy together.

4) Dominique Ansel Bakery - Cronut
The original Dominique Ansel hype food! We finally took advantage of the pre-order option for cronuts this year and were able to taste one of their monthly flavor offerings. We got the June flavor: Blueberry Elderflower with Lime Sugar. Having had the real thing, I understand the hype. I've tried a couple imitation versions, and they never seemed like anything special, but after eating an actual cronut, I see that the imitators have yet to figure anything out. The combination of light and airy croissant turned into a denser donut is a magical mystery, and the fruit flavors and custard made for an amazing flavor. We're looking forward to getting more of these in the future.

5) Fork and Flask at Nage - Smoked Half Chicken
This is a dish that I know I wouldn't be able to eat every day even though I included it on this list. The reason for that is because it's just too rich and heavy for that to happen. The chicken was good and had a nice smokey flavor to it, but it was the accouterments that really made this dish shine. First and foremost was the black garlic infused mashed potatoes. They had such a rich and umami-filled flavor from the black garlic and butter, and I can still taste it today in my head. The roasted root vegetables offered a subtle sweetness to the combination, and it was also nice to have a bit of vegetable matter on the plate. While I couldn't eat this every day, I would certainly love to try my hand at making that black garlic mash at some point.

6) Mofongo with Pork - Vendy Plaza Harlem (La Marqueta)
I love mofongo, and I've always been intrigued by it since I first read about it over a decade ago. It wasn't until back in 2014 that I finally got to try some, and I instantly fell in love with it. Funny how it took me another year and a half before I got it again, but that wait was totally worth it. I don't remember the name of the stand this came from, but they had a wait because they made all of the mofongo fresh. The additional wait time made this even better because the anticipation built it up in my mind, and it lived up to its billing. The fried pieces of pork had just the right amount of fat on them to keep everything moist and flavorful, and the freshly made mofongo was so rich and hearty. The bowl came with a small cup of garlic water/sauce, and the heavy garlic flavor really tied everything together.

7) Seabra's Marisqueira - Acorda de Marisco (Dry Soup)
This year M and I finally made the trip out to Newark, NJ to get some authentic Portuguese food. For me the highlight of this meal was the Acorda de Marisco which is a soup that is then filled with cubes of bread that soak up the broth and make it a thicker, stewier concoction. I'd never heard of a "dry soup" before, but I could totally go for some right now in this cold winter weather. It has the right amount of saltiness to go with the sweetness of the seafood in the soup, and it's a hearty, comforting dish.

8) Thip Khao - Naem Khao (Crispy Rice Salad)
M and I have had really good luck with Southeast Asian rice salads in our lifetime, and this was no exception. The perfect combination of spice, heat, herbs, and crunch meld to form a near perfect dish. It's clean and light while still bursting with so much flavor. This is definitely something I could eat every day and not get tired of it.

9) Uncle Boons - Banana Blossom Salad
This wasn't my favorite dish of the night for this meal, but it was up there. The reason I chose this dish, though, is because it reminded me so much of a dish M and I had back in Chicago at a different Thai restaurant. It's creamy and fresh tasting, and the fried shallots offer that salty, crunchy goodness that we know and love. This dish brought M and me back to delicious and simpler times in our lives before all of these "adult responsibilities" came into being.

10) Zenebech Injera - Vegetable Combo with Doro Wat
This isn't the first Ethiopian food we've had in our lives, but it was a completely transcendent experience. Zenebech was known as being the bakery that provided injera to almost every other Ehtiopian restaurant in the area. They also had their own restaurant where they served, easily, the best Ethiopian food we'd ever tasted. The injera was light and fluffy, and it didn't leave a sticky residue like all of the versions here in NYC. The stews were so full of flavor and were like nothing we had ever tried before. The doro wat was so rich, and the chicken pulled off the bone so easily.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2016

It's hard to believe that it's already time for another year-end favorite food memories list, but here we are at the end of 2016. In alphabetical order by place name, here are my top 10 favorite food memories from the past year.

1. Garlic roasted brussels sprouts from Ballast Point Tasting Room and Kitchen (San Diego, CA)

After a trip to Mission Beach, we decided to head down to the Ballast Point Tasting Room and Kitchen where we got beer tasting flights and lots of small dishes to share. One of those, crispy brussels sprouts with a poached egg, housemade kimchi, and pancetta, was so good that it inspired me to mix kimchi with some brussels sprouts when we got home. It was nowhere near as good as the one at Ballast Point, but I love it when things on vacations inspire me to try new things at home. I also picked this one for the atmosphere of the tasting room. It was awesome to be able to get flights and try so many different beers in a really relaxed environment with really solid food. There aren't really any places quite like this at home that we know of.

2. Warm Maryland crab dip from Chesapeake and Maine (Rehoboth Beach, DE)

During our summer beach vacation in Delaware, we ate a lot of good food, including a couple of dinners at Chesapeake and Maine, the seafood-focused restaurant from the Dogfish Head folks. Both times we got the warm Maryland crab dip which came with toasted bagel chips. We intended to order different things the second time so we could try more stuff, but I just couldn't not order the dip. There were so much real crab in there and the flavor was so good. I could go for more of that right now as the dip was so comforting.

3. Poultry and potato salad from Hometown Bar-B-Que (Brooklyn, NY)

A had been to Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook before and always talked about how good it was, so we planned to take my dad there for his birthday or Father's Day since he loves BBQ. We didn't make it there until late this year, but it was so worth it. Everything we got there was good - brisket, pulled pork, lamb belly, beans with burnt ends, cole slaw, collard greens - but to me the real standouts were the smoked turkey, the Oaxacan-marinated wood fired chicken, and the backyard potato salad. I could eat that stuff all the time, if not for the long lines there and the fact that it wouldn't be the healthiest diet. The BBQ there is definitely some of the best in NYC, which was proven even more when I ate some pulled pork from another BBQ place later in the week which didn't even come close.

4. Tostada mixta from Mariscos El Pescador (Chula Vista, CA)

We ate a lot of good food in San Diego, but the meal that stands out the most to me is our splurge lunch from a food truck, Mariscos El Pescador, down in Chula Vista. It wasn't a splurge lunch because the items were expensive, but because we ordered a feast that took up almost the entire length of the truck's counter. There were tacos and tostadas and burritos, way more than we should have ordered for a single meal, but everything was delicious, especially the tostada mixta. It was filled with all types of seafood, so fresh, such good quality, perfectly seasoned. Everything was just perfect, and I could eat this every single day if that were an option.

5. Khao man gai from Nong's Khao Man Gai (Portland, OR)

Khao man gai is one of those dishes I order when I want something simple, healthy, and clean but with really good flavor. After going to Nong's Khao Man Gai in Portland, I knew I had to wait a while before ordering this again at home because it was that good there. The chicken was tender and flavorful, the sauce was completely addictive (no wonder they sell it in bottles), and the soup that accompanied it just tied it all together well. This could be a daily lunch if they were in our neighborhood.

6. Pupusas from Salvatoria (Astoria, NY)

This fall, we went out with some friends to Salvatoria, a Salvadoran spot in Astoria, for a giant pupusas dinner. The table split a bunch of them for appetizers, and then A and I ordered another set of pupusas for our main courses. There were pupusas filled with loroco, pork, beans, cheese, jalapeños, and combinations of all of those, and they were so good. I know in theory how to make pupusas but there is no way that they would come out as good as these. They were perfectly griddled and the fillings were delicious. We definitely want to go back there for more pupusas.

7. Octopus salad from Seabra's Marisqueira (Newark, NJ)

We've already written about the salada de polvo, the cold octopus salad, at Seabra's Marisqueira in Newark from our visit earlier this summer. The octopus there was so tender, and the dressing, filled with onions, garlic, parsley, and oil and vinegar was so simple but tasty. Every time I look at pictures of this salad, I want more. It was so delicious that I knew it would make the top 10 list this year as soon as I ate it.

8. Naem khao from Thip Khao (Washington, DC)

One of our most memorable meals this year was at Thip Khao, a Laotian restaurant in Washington, DC, where the hour's wait was most certainly worth it. This rice salad - crispy coconut rice, lime, scallions, sour pork, peanuts, and cilantro - with lettuce to wrap it up was so packed with flavor, especially from all the herbs and seasonings. We had something similar when we went to Khe-Yo, but since this was in salad form and not rice balls, it was even better. So much of what we ate at Thip Khao was awesome, and we wished we lived closer so we could investigate more of the menu. But it would be hard not to order this every time.

9. Banana blossom and chicken salad from Uncle Boons (New York, NY)

From one Southeast Asian salad to another. We finally made it to Uncle Boons this year and one of the things we knew we definitely had to order was this spicy rotisserie chicken and banana blossom salad (yum gai hua pli) with cashews, crispy shallots, and roasted chili dressing. When we lived in Chicago, we used to go to a restaurant with a banana blossom salad on the menu and it was our favorite thing there. It's been tough to find anywhere with it since then, and we weren't sure if we had maybe built that salad up too much in our memories for anyone to meet our expectations. This absolutely did. The chicken was delicious (and it was later too when we ordered it on its own), all the ingredients worked well together, and there was a nice heat to it. So glad we were able to get this.

10. Vegetarian combination and doro wat from Zenebech (Washington, DC)

One of our priorities during our time in DC was to eat Ethiopian food, and in doing so, we were rewarded with what was possibly the best Ethiopian food we've ever eaten at Zenebech. The injera there was fluffy and pillowy, and unlike some others, left no residue on your fingers which was great. We got the vegetarian combination with generous portions of lentils, peas, and other vegetables, along with doro wat (chicken stew). There was just so much flavor to every single part of the dish and  we completely cleaned the plate. Sadly Zenebech closed recently so we'll never be able to have this exact experience again, but hopefully they will open somewhere else as this food was too good to think about not eating again.

I could eat all ten of these over and over again and not get sick of them, which is probably why they all made my favorite food memories list. There were so many more things that missed the cut but with so much good food over the course of the year, that was inevitable. Hoping 2017 brings some great eats as well!

ShopHouse

Yesterday we read some really disappointing news: Chipotle is planning to abandon ShopHouse, their fast casual Southeast Asian line. There aren't any ShopHouse locations in NYC, but we visited the Dupont Circle shop multiple times during our short visit to DC earlier in the year (which is also conveniently where we were up to in our DC trip recaps). We had heard about ShopHouse before Chipotle ever launched the line (mostly due to Pure Thai having to change the Shophouse in its name to Cookhouse), but never got to try it until this year. Sadly, it sounds like this means they'll never make it to NYC.

ShopHouse is modeled after Chipotle but with Southeast Asian ingredients and flavors. The bowl starts off with your choice of base - rice (jasmine or brown), cold rice noodles, or salad. Next up is the protein - chicken, meatballs, steak, or tofu. After that, you pick one vegetable (corn, green beans, or some seasonal choices) and a sauce (curry sauces or others). There are also a bunch of garnishes and toppings that are not limited to one, stuff like papaya salad, pickled vegetables, herb salad, toasted rice, crispy garlic, crushed peanuts, and chiles. After visiting Chipotle for so many years, we were pretty familiar with the format (except for the part where they limited you to one item in certain categories).

On our first visit to ShopHouse, we both got brown rice bowls. M got brown rice topped with chicken satay, the seasonal vegetable special of butternut squash with Thai basil, green curry sauce, all of the salad toppings, toasted rice, and fried garlic. A got all the same garnishes and toppings on his bowl but also added the chiles to his, which was brown rice topped with the pork and chicken meatballs, green beans with chili jam, and red curry sauce. We were so happy with our bowls, and after finishing, immediately wanted to go back up to get another bowl. Not so much because we were still hungry, but because they were that good. It was the perfect dinner after a day of traveling since each bowl was packed with vegetables and other healthy ingredients, and they were so full of vibrant flavors.

Even though we weren't in DC for very long on this trip, we found time to make a second visit to ShopHouse a couple of days later. We really wished there were one in NYC, but since we knew there wouldn't be one, we wanted to make sure we got some more of those delicious bowls. This time, we both got the meatballs because they were our favorite the first time. M got the green beans (her favorite vegetable from the first visit), and A got the charred corn (which we hadn't tried yet), but otherwise we stuck with the same curry sauces, garnishes, and toppings as the first time. The bowls were a little smaller than the first time, but we weren't as hungry, so it was fine. We were just really happy with how tasty everything was, and the flavors themselves were just like what you might find in a regular sit-down Southeast Asian restaurant. Not what you would expect from an American chain, but we mean that in the best way.

Considering that Chipotle has now publicized that they didn't see the results they wanted from ShopHouse, it seems unlikely that someone will step in to save the day and pick them up, but we're hoping that maybe we're wrong about that. There have been so many nights that we've sat at home, wondering what to eat for dinner, trying to find something tasty and nutritious and well-balanced and flavorful, and we've just wished we could wander over to ShopHouse, except that there isn't one here in NYC. It's a shame that Chipotle has chosen to drop them and instead focus on pizza and burgers (is that not a saturated enough market?). Have they not noticed the popularity of all the poke joints or the Indian fast casual places? It seems like, at least here in NYC, people have an interest in Asian fast casual flavors, or at the very least, something different from the usual Chipotle meals. Sad that we'll likely never see a ShopHouse here now.

Phillips Seafood

We stopped off at the Maryland House rest stop in Aberdeen, Maryland for a late lunch. It was always the plan to stop at one of the Maryland rest areas since they looked nice and renovated and like they had a lot of options for lunch. We were pretty impressed by the exterior of the rest area, bright and shiny and new, but didn't take much time to look at it from outside since the wind chill was still unfortunately in the 20s. Way too cold.

There were some familiar chains at the rest stop, stuff like Nathan's, Wendy's, and Dunkin Donuts, but also some more unique spots, like Currito (looked similar to Chipotle) and Phillips Seafood. Although Phillips looked a little (a lot) on the pricey side, we decided to stop there. It would be a little bit of a splurge, but our thought was, "When in Maryland, get some crab!" A remembered stopping by for some chowder once before on a business trip, but this was our first time trying it together.

We ended up spending about $35 at Phillips for our lunch, which was more than we expected for some fast food, but we hoped it would at least be tasty. We only got 3 things, so that should give you an idea of how expensive Phillips is. We didn't even get some of the more expensive things, like the crab cake and crispy shrimp platter (which was $20.49) or the lobster roll (also $20.49) or the seafood sampler basket (that one was $21.49).

One of the no-brainer choices for us was the crab cake sandwich ($14.99), which was a soft bun topped with "Phillips' famous lump crab cake," lettuce, and tomato. The crab cake was a single crab cake ball, and it was so much smaller than either of us expected that it would be, no bigger in diameter than a ketchup packet. (We measured.) Our first thought was, "That's it? That's what we paid $15 for?" We were planning to share everything, so neither of us got very much crab cake at all.

The crab cake was okay, but nothing special. The first bites were a little fishy for both of us, but for me, that eventually subsided the more I ate, and for A, it got better with the addition of some tartar sauce. I added tartar sauce too, but that was less about fishiness and more because I just found the whole thing rather flavorless. We know they distribute their crab cakes widely in frozen departments, so someone must like them, but trying this one here, their famous one, for the first time really didn't make us want to go out and buy them. It was a little disappointing overall since the sandwich was so small and then the crab cake was just mediocre to us. The sandwich also came with some seasoned waffle fries, which were fine but literally a handful of maybe 6 fries total. They gave us more ketchup packets than they did fries.

The second thing we tried was the baked crab pretzel ($11.49). Just like the crab cake sandwich, this wasn't very large considering how much it cost. It was supposed to be one of those large, soft, doughy pretzels topped with some crab meat and cheese, and then baked until the cheese was melted and browned. In theory, it sounds like this should have been good. Sadly, it was also just okay.

When we cut it open to split, we thought that it looked more like a tuna melt on a piece of bread. The base was supposed to be a pretzel, but for the most part, it just tasted like a bready pizza. The pretzel as a whole wasn't anything special, the flavor came more from the cheese than the crab, and the best bites were when you got crab, cheese, and pretzel/bread together, which didn't happen as often as you would think since there were only bits of crab and they didn't cover the whole pretzel. For the amount we paid, we really thought there should have been more crab, more cheese, and more pretzel.

We also got the New England clam chowder ($6.49) which came with oyster crackers. This was the only bright spot of the meal. It wasn't absurdly overpriced like some of the other menu items (at least not compared to Manhattan prices), and it was actually really good. We found it both sad and amusing that a place which is supposed to specialize in crab had a better clam chowder than any of the crab items. Considering how cold it was outside, this chowder was exactly what we were looking for. In retrospect, we probably would have been happier if we both just got a cup of chowder and not all the other stuff.

The chowder was rich and comforting. There were clams, potatoes, celery, onions, bacon, and lots of cream. The only not so great thing about the chowder was that they topped it with a lot of Old Bay (of course, it's Maryland). It was fine mixed in, but A licked the chowder off the cover which had a disproportionate amount of Old Bay, which turned out to be a little too salty. Other than that, the chowder was good and definitely better than anything else we had eaten at lunch.

Considering the size of everything we ordered, we weren't really full when we left the rest stop, and A was actually still hungry, so it was a good thing that when we stopped off at Costco an hour or so later that they were offering tons of samples. We got some seven layer dip, Canadian bacon, cheddar cheese, shamrock ravioli with pesto, blue crab dip, tuna salad, clam chowder (yes, more), wild salmon, and cashew clusters, and felt so much better. Our curiosity about Phillips Seafood was certainly satisfied by this meal, even if our appetites weren't, so we probably will not need to stop by overpriced Phillips again. If we did get anything again, it would be chowder, just chowder.

DC Kickoff

A few months ago, we went on a short road trip to DC. We just needed to get out of the city for a little bit (although we did really just end up in a different city), and thought some time in a new environment, hanging out around pandas, and eating Ethiopian food would do us some good.

The morning we left for DC, it snowed a little bit, but fortunately that didn't screw up our drive too much. We left a little later than we planned, but made good time driving through Jersey. As a quick snack to start the trip, we decided to split some crispy M&M's that we had picked up from Target not long before. The bag was 99 cents for very few M&M's but it had been so long since I had had crispy M&M's that I couldn't resist picking up a bag.

The crispy M&M's had been back on the shelves for about a year already, but we hadn't gotten around to getting them. I think part of the reason we like them is the crispiness, that inner wafer-like center, and an overall texture reminiscent of a malt ball. But I think another part of it is also nostalgia. They hadn't had crispy M&M's for a decade or so, and we remembered them (and that age) fondly. The M&M's were fine, just not really a whole lot of them for the price, but it was nice to have them again.

We were planning to grab lunch in Maryland, but we were getting really hungry around Trenton so we decided to stop at a rest stop for a snack. Burger King seemed like the easiest option for something quick and not too heavy, and they had recently come out with jalapeño chicken fries, so we got a box of those as well as the onion rings I can never resist from BK.

We had tried regular chicken fries at Burger King before, and while we thought they were fine, we never thought they were amazing or anything really special. But these jalapeño chicken fries were different. They were so much better. You could taste the difference in the flavor and there was a definite jalapeño taste and sourness to them (in a good way). We weren't sure what the dipping sauce was supposed to be since no one gave us one with the box of chicken fries (no one really seemed to want to do much of anything at that BK), so we're not sure how well the sauce would complement the fries. But we liked these chicken fries and would get them again if they're still around.

As we sat at the rest stop for our break, we couldn't take our eyes off the news. That was the day that they had discovered a knife near OJ's old property, and it was partway through the season of The People v. OJ Simpson, and we were completely obsessed. Eventually we finished our fried snacks and tore ourselves away from the screen to get back on the road. It was a good thing we had stopped for a snack since we unfortunately hit a fair amount of congestion heading into Delaware, and we would have been so hungry if we had waited until Maryland to eat (and probably would have had even more buyer's remorse; more on that next). We were pretty happy with our snack, and more than anything, happy to start vacation!