CREST Team Lunch

Between morning meetings and an evening at the opera I only has one meal today... With my CREST - Clinical Research Enrollment & Study Tracking team at work. We had lunch at the trusty Friday lunch spot, Stagshead. 

I had my trusty southwest turkey burger, with avocado, onion straws, pepper jack, no chipotle mayo, ranch on the side with Cajun fries. 

Veatery with Laura

Laura sent a text to last minute invite me to join her for dinner. It was a nice excuse to escape the office. 

We shared two dishes, basil prawn and scallop and sate ga, a chicken dish with a peanut sauce. Both delicious. Love a meal that's fast, cheap and good... Especially with great company!

Meeting Madness Ice Cream

I was struggling after a crazy meeting and decided to grab some ice cream. I had a scoop of Jamoca Almond Fudge from Baskin Robbins. 

Ken Lee Hates Lunch

I met up with one if my former project managers today. We always teased him for scheduling meetings during the lunch hour, we said, "Ken Lee hates lunch!" 

But today, he invited me out!

We has Japanese. I ended up with a 3 roll combo, tuna, yellowtail scallion and a California roll and miso soup.

Thanks for lunch, Ken Lee!

Doughnut Plant Love

When Dan has a team meeting he stops to get a box of doughnuts from the doughnut plant. He knows I love them so he stops by to offer me any leftovers. 

I wasn't in my office when their meeting finished, so I returned to find a box with half of a delicious doughnut to hold me over until lunch. Yum! Thanks, Dan!!

Mom's Last Meal in NY

My mom requested an angel food cake with mangoes. I was happy to make her one, but told her it would have to wait until our dinner party. Tonight was the night!

Christine helped prepare an amazing meal while I made the cake. We has salmon baked with tomatoes, onions, and chicken from Auntie Evelyn's recipe, stir fried veggies, roasted rosemary potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, and rice.

For dessert we had the cake, homemade angel food cake, from Alton Brown's recipe, with mango whipped cream and a fresh mango garnish. 

MYOGyro Day

Scott and I got lunch in the sick people cafeteria today. It was make your own gyro day, which was always a favorite when I spent a lot more time at the college campus. 

Brazil Grill

Before the theater we dropped into Brazil Grill. I couldn't remember if I has eaten there before or not, but I figured it would be a fine place to try to escape the rain.

It was decent. I had a salad with sausage and shrimp, hearts of palm and olives. I was still pretty full from dinner, so I didn't even finish.

Pork Bun Decision

Scott offered 12 places for lunch and nothing sounded good. I told Scott to just pick something. As we were walking out, Jackie mentioned something about pork buns. So pork buns decided it...Japanese Upstairs.

Scott and I shared pork buns, the I has Kalbi Don served with salad and miso soup.

That Anal

My mom watched me arrange my breakfast pastries this morning and said, "I never realized you were that anal".

Always good to have ones idiosyncrasies pointed out by ones own mother, especially before 9AM. :)

  

Leftovers and Desserts

So much eating over the last few days, we decide on dinner in...

I warmed up more of the pasta from Saturday night & added some feta crumbles. 

For dessert I had an assortment from our trip to Ferrara in Little Italy, the a bowl of fruits that we bought in Chinatown. 

Super Dim Sum

We went to Jing Fong for some dim sum. It wasn't my best experience there, but on Monday of a holiday weekend my expectations were low.

We ended up with an assortment of dishes, one of which rang up (once we got the bill and I saw the English translation) as "super dim sum". I laughed because I assumed the awful seafood custard in a scallop shell was classified as such. Yuck!

Fortunately, we ended up at the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for 3 scoops that I shared with my mom.

Pandan, almond cookie and lychee. Phenomenal. 

Portions of the Whole

I created a plate of 3 different items doe breakfast. I had half of an almond pastry, a piece of the leftover frittata (added cholula today) and some of a mango my mom sliced to share.

Beyoglu

An old standard so close to home. 

Christine met up with us for dinner after a long day of touring.

We started with the meze platter... Hummus, baba ganoush, cacik, etc. ie. amazing dips.

The ladies split a whole branzino and a swordfish kebob. JR had the lamb dish that I love... He hasn't had much meat since arriving here.

We splurged on dessert... Almond pudding was my choice, Christine chose baklava and my mom wanted gelato.

Street Fair Fare

Arepa, corn cakes stuffed with mozzarella. Mango peach smoothie with boba. And crispy Thai shrimp with sweet chili sauce. 

I skipped the gyro, the fried Oreos, the corn, the zeppoles... The whole summer of street fairs is still ahead of me!

Crustless Quiche

JR said he hadn't eaten quiche in forever. I said I didn't like quiche. I always pull away the soggy crust anyway. So I made another leek, mushroom & gruyere frittata with maple chicken sausage.

Mom & I were up earlier than JR & sliced up a mango as a pre-breakfast snack. She laughed at me for arranging it on a plate instead of just eating it off of the cutting board.

Mushroom Ragout

I made mushroom ragout with onions, garlic, red bell pepper, red wine and a pound of mushrooms cooked down and then added a but if tomato sauce. I mixed it into mezze rigatoni and served it with a sauté of zucchini and orange and yellow bell peppers. Yummy veggie meal!

Artichoke Lunch

I was planning on having some leftovers and an artichoke. But when I finished the artichoke I was full & didn't want the leftovers. What a silly lunch.

Breaky Sammy

Bacon, egg and cheese for breakfast this morning. After sleeping through dinner last night I was excited to order in something quick & filling.

Kimchi Overload

Kimchi spring rolls. Pork and kimchi BiBimBop with brown rice. Kimchi and other side dishes. Good thing they don't put kimchi in their orange slices!

Grad Dinner for Lisa

I went to Cafe Olin in the East Village for dinner to celebrate Lisa's graduation from her Masters Program.

I had the MahiMahi special with spinach, basmati rice and a pineapple sauce. We started with some shared bruschetta and I had the last piece of key lime pie for dessert.

Mussels Frites and Caesar Salad

Scott and I went to BXL again... Different mussels frites, wheat beer broth this time... and different salad, Caesar. Such a great lunch share.

Banana and a Scone

Easy energy in class this morning. I stopped by the fruit cart guy for a banana & was given a mini cranberry scone.

Sushi Ann

Shawn came by the office today and we went out to dinner for sushi. We decided to try somewhere new... Shawn found Sushi Ann near the office.

I really wanted a spicy tuna handroll.  Shawn jokingly suggested that I try the grilled yellowtail cheeks. They were delicious. We also shared a grilled king crab appetizer ... that was so tiny, but good nonetheless. We decided against dessert, but got small dark chocolate squares with the check to wrap up the meal.