Healthing It

It’s nice to see so many people spending a lot of time outdoors this weekend. It’s been truly a gorgeous couple of days.

On Sunday, I was all giddy over Parked: Food Truck Fest at Governor’s Island. Some of the best food trucks in NYC got together in one place to feed hundreds of people who descended on the beautiful island. Of course, I was one of them.

The short (and free!) ferry ride over to the island is bomb:

The lines to get the food? Not as much bomb…

But nothing that can’t be cured with a dark beer.

And sips of a light beer, too

We inched closer…

And closer…

And then, it was our turn! We were finally right in front of the Rickshaw Dumplings truck.

I got the pork & Chinese chive dumplings with the soy sesame dipping sauce. So worth the wait!

Strategically, we had another group waiting in line at the Cinnamon Snail.

I asked them to get me the Maple mustard tempeh sandwich on grilled spelt bread with roasted garlic aioli, kale, tomato, and onions.

This was so delicious but also, extremely filling. I had no room for lobster rolls or tacos or any other food truck things…however, I didn’t have the patience to wait in line either, so it all worked out

Then we went to wonder the rest of the island:

Plant bed…literally!

Art installations in some of the old houses that are now galleries:

Then, we hopped back on the ferry and returned to the City.

What a perfect day! Today, I went to the gym with my dad and am now working on a long article about linear accelerators (radiation therapy delivery systems). Just as fun as it sounds

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Satisfying my foodie sensibilities on a gorgeous island was definitely awesome.

Before I get to fun things…this is how I know I’m getting old. I was super excited about finding pantyhose on sale:

WHAT A DEAL! Anyway, I needed them, okay? Don’t make fun.

I left you off with me taking a business trip to D.C.

We drove there in luxury:

Well, in circa 1979 luxury, which translates into me needing a back brace after four hours in this yellow beast:

But the hotel was beautiful and we had a room with an atrium view from our balcony:

And in between interviews and meetings, we managed to find some time to have expensive glasses of wine in the lobby bar

And sneak out to dinner to see some cool stuff in the surrounding area:

But look, I have chronicles of things I eat when I don’t travel or spend my hard earned money eating out! I know, impressive

Breakfast

This bowl of goodness contains farmer’s cheese, granola, banana & almond butter. I found this convenient pack at the Russian supermarket:

I like that these are portioned out in little boxes because let’s get real, I’m the cookie monster of all things cereal.

The farmer’s cheese is also from the Russian food store. Us Europeans call it “tvorog.”

It’s a really good and super filling mix! I eat it at 7:00 a.m. and don’t usually get to lunch until 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

I pack my lunch and tend to throw together a quick sandwich most of the time. TJ’s multi-grain sprouted bread with hummus, spinach and this cheese:

This goat cheese is absolutely addictive. It’s creamy, slightly tangy and a little sweet. It’s pricey but worth it.

Dinner

At dinner time, my concern about my vegetable intake throughout the day usually catches up with me. And my mom knows this. And she makes me delicious green squash pancakes.

And I make myself an enormous salad with greens, yellow tomatoes, red onions and cucumbers. For the dressing, I mixed balsamic vinegar with some honey Dijon mustard.

Pretty good, eh?

In non-food relates news, I am very ready for fall. Fall is my favorite fashion season for sure.

I’m currently on the hunt for black wedge booties. I already got a pair of black over the knee boots and I swear, my dad actually said, “you can’t wear those to work, can you?” Take that how you want

You know what else is in? Chunky sweaters. You know where I’m buyin’ one? Here:

I’m employing my mom to make me one, since she’s the Martha Stewart of the knitting realm.

I’ll show you how it turns out. Maybe with the black boots? If my dad lets me…

What are you excited about this fall?

I walked into Starbucks today and their fall menu is up. Oh my gawd, pumpkin spice lattes. I’m in.

I hope your weekend is going swimmingly. Mine has been kind of unconventional because I’m old now and I have a job that requires me to well, work

Friday night, two of my friends and I devoured a vegetarian platter-for-three of Ethiopian food at Ghenet in Brooklyn.

Have you ever had Ethiopian food? I love it.

My two favorite things about it are injera, the bread and berbere, the combination of spices that flavors Ethiopian food.

Injera is made out of teff, a grain that grows in the highlands of Ethiopia. It’s practically void of gluten, which gives it a spongy, sourdough like consistency. It is also used as a utensil – you scoop the food up with the bread.

Berbere is a blend of deliciousness like red chili powder, onion, ginger, garlic and different herbs and spices.

On the plate above, you see a selection of different vegetarian dishes: spiced beans, lentils, cabbage, potatoes & carrots, green beans, pureed peas and collard greens. Delicious but impossible to finish.

On Saturday, I went to the office…I had some work to catch up on, since I just found out I’ll be traveling this week.

Here’s my desk! It’s messy but I swear there’s a logic to this chaos.

Why is my wallpaper a shark, you might ask…Well, besides the fact that sharks are awesome, my dad calls my brother “the finance shark” and I’m the “journalism shark.” It’s to keep me motivated.

And some desk flare:

Lunch was from Flavors in the conference room:

A salad of epic proportions:

At least I have a beautiful view!

For dinner, a friend and I got some sushi.

Today, I’m planning to relax a little bit and have an early bedtime…Driving to D.C. at 4:45 am for a conference tomorrow!

But we’ll be staying at a really fancy hotel & convention center:

I’m looking forward to it.

Hope you’re enjoying these last days of summer!

Okay, the announcement is on hold. I wanna make sure it’s set before I speak too soon.

But, I got something else. This past weekend, I switched over from the hustle and bustle of NYC to…a quieter part of the state:

Russian breakfast: rye bread with red caviar and a beer.

Ahhhhhhh.

When was the last time you slept outdoors?

A few weeks ago, a friend and I had dinner at RICE in Dumbo. Once I got out of work, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to the restaurant. Not without taking pictures, of course.

It was a beautiful day and we sat outside in the yard. I liked their arrangement of sweet & spicy chili sauces, next to the standard salt and soy sauce.

For an appetizer, we got the special for the day – calamari, topped with sesame seeds. This was soooooo good. I love calamari and I was particularly impressed by this dish. I hope they have it again when I come back!

For my entree, I got the thai coconut curry with one of their specialty rices. I got the green rice, which is infused with cilantro, parsley and spinach.

This was some of the best coconut curry I’ve ever had. It was full of tofu and vegetables, thick and very flavorful. I kind of regretted getting the green rice after seeing my friend’s black rice.

sticky, black skinned grain with white flesh, rich distinctive flavor, steamed in coconut milk

Of course, I totally tried some. It had a slightly different texture than regular rice but I liked it. I think it would’ve been particularly good with the coconut curry, since it’s steamed in coconut milk.

If I go to a restaurant and immensely enjoy both the appetizer and the entree, I am interested in dessert I couldn’t decide what I wanted, so I went for the mini dessert trio.

On the left is a rosewater cookie, which was delicious!

In the middle is passion fruit tapioca pudding, which I hated. I barely ate any. I don’t like passion fruit flavored things, so that was expected.

But it’s okay because the warm coconut creme brulee next to it made up for how disappointing it was. It was definitely a coconut overload

The only downfall of this place is the service. Extremely slow and impossible to get a waitress to come up to you! I wanted to believe that this was an isolated incident but my friend, who’d been there before, told me the same thing happened to her earlier, even when it was less busy.

Regardless, I’d come back there again, even if just for the taste of that coconut curry.

Have you ever had any “special” rice?