Food Diary - What I Ate in a Week.

I'm a huge fan of New York Magazine's Grub Street Diet, a weekly posting where they ask people to record what they ate in a week - in fact it is one of my favorite things to read and I look forward to it each Friday (grubstreet.com).

I was at home for the whole of the week detailed below and there's more eating out than usual so here is my very own version of 'Grub Street Diet' or 'What I Ate in a Week'.

Sunday.

I never ever eat breakfast but I always have a hot drink (or three) first thing in the morning. I wake up in Florida, have a quick coffee and leave for the airport as I'm going home after a week working away.
At Palm Beach Airport after checking in I get a small skinny latte from Starbucks, it's very far from my favorite coffee but reliable. Inevitably, my flight is delayed. I'm going to be starving by the time I land in NYC mid afternoon and there's not much choice here food wise so I opt for what I think is one of the better options available, a Quizno's Tuna Sub. I load it up with pickle slices and banana peppers and it's OK, not hugely tasty but at least I won't get hangry...
I'm flying JetBlue so I have a packet of their blue potato chips on board and water - I always drink a ton of water throughout the day regardless of whether I'm flying or not.

As soon as I get home I have coffee (french press with milk and sugar) and then another cup around six o'clock.

We head out to our local pizza joint, Panello, (panellopizza.com) for dinner around eight-ish. They make excellent thin crust 'proper' pizzas and it's BYOB. Mr C&C and I split a pizza with ricotta and speck and another with kale and hot sausage and drink Mirrasou Pinot Noir that we brought from home.

Monday.

Today is an at home day for me and I fill it with errands and catching up on things I didn't do last week. My morning routine at home is a small tumbler of orange juice, a mug of PG Tips tea and then a mug of french press coffee. Sometimes mid-morning I have another french press - today is one of those days.
Around one o'clock I realise I'm starving and make a quesadilla with cheddar and plenty of hot sauce. I also have plain Greek yogurt with a dash of maple syrup.

Dinner is at home and I make some soba with spinach and sesame from the Wagamama book and bake some teriyaki salmon. I drink a Chubb Scottish Ale - it's a heavy beer and I'm not too keen on it but the salmon is excellent!

Tuesday. 

It's another at home day with errands so I start with the usual orange juice, PG Tips and french press coffee.
I have a voucher for a free entree at Chipotle (I love free things!) so I redeem that at lunchtime and have a bowl with rice, pinto beans, barbacoa, cheese, sour cream and pico di gallo. I load it up with hot sauce and it's not bad but it's also not really satisfying. (It's also pretty salty and this is from someone who loves salt!).

Dinner is at home. There's Parma ham and I make a pea and artichoke frittata, a Canelli bean salad and roast asparagus and aubergine. I top the aubergine with some gremolata and we finish up some odds and ends of cheese from the fridge with a baguette. I forgot to buy a different beer so I have another Chubb .

Wednesday.

After orange juice, PG Tips and coffee I go into the city.
I've been in the mood for a Pad Thai recently so I satisfy my craving by stopping by Rhong Taim (rhong-tiam.com) and having one with shrimp for lunch. It's been a while since I've had Thai out in NYC and I'm a little shocked that it's $16.00 for what is essentially a take out joint but when it comes it is a huge portion and it's really good - spicier than usual with a lot of prawns. I end up eating half and re wrapping half of it for lunch at home tomorrow.

Dinner is at home and I roast some Jerk Cornish Hens that I marinaded on Monday.  We have them with black beans and rice, lashings of Pickapeppa sauce and some KBC IPA that I remembered to grab at Trader Joe's on my way home.

Thursday.

OJ, tea, coffee and a second coffee at home mid morning.
Lunch is the rest of yesterday's Pad Thai and a pint of home made hot sour soup. I made a big pot of it sort of using the recipe from the Lucky Peach cook book and froze it in portions. It's good, nice and peppery and pretty sharp. I made it meat free but added lots of mushrooms. 

I'm a bit peckish early evening and have a hand full of Planter's chipotle peanuts and a few spears of roasted asparagus.

For dinner I make Moules Farci (grilled mussels stuffed with garlic and herb butter) and Shrimp Saganaki (shrimps and feta cheese with ouzo and tomato sauce). We eat them with a baguette and drink Pinot Grigio. It's an awesome dinner.

Friday

OJ, tea and coffee once more for 'breakfast'.
I have an early lunch of leftovers - frittata, bean salad and roasted asparagus and go into NYC. I go to the IFC (ifccenter.com)and watch City of Gold. I love the film and had a packet of m and m's in the cinema, the peanut ones, always the peanut ones.

I'm meeting my husband for dinner but he's running late so I hang out in Pret in Union Square and have a macchiato. We had planned on going to Manitobas (manitobas.com) for drinks and then G.G.'s (ggsnyc.com) for a Grandma Pie (see photo) but as we were delayed we ended up grabbing a drink in a non-descript Flatiron bar, you know the sort - traders, frat boys, chicken tenders etc. I had a pale ale of some sort and then we wandered over to the West Village for a late dinner as it is on the way home.
We had Via Carota (viacarota.com )in mind but they were super busy. Buvette (newyork.ilovebuvette.com) wasn't so we ended up there. We drank Cotes du Rhone and ate chicken liver mousse, pate de campagne and saucisson, then octopus and celery salad and steak tartare. We ended up with cheese, some Tome and an American creamy Camembert type whose name I don't recall.  The food was lovely but I felt like we were eating a doll's house, tiny plates and tables, undersized cutlery and my poor husband was perched on a stool. It was far from relaxing, so although we enjoyed everything we ate and drank we won't revisit...

Saturday.

OJ, tea and coffee. Then we went out for a walk and coffee at BWE Kafe (bwekafe.com) which isn't too far from us. I had a macchiato.

We have a dinner reservation at Bacaro (bacaronyc.com) tonight so lunch is at home. I make a quesadilla and a salad with left over bean salad, jerk chicken and the last of the roasted asparagus.

Early evening we are in Soho in need of a quick coffee so we go into Dean and Deluca (deananddeluca.com). I order another macchiato to have standing at the counter. I have one sip and throw it away - it is terrible! I'm pissed off at wasting money and not getting my coffee fix.

We head over to Bacaro and get to the neighborhood early so we sit in Beverly's and I have a Laguinita's IPA. The bar creeps me out a little but the beer is fine.

Over at Bacaro we weirdly get seated at the same table as the last time we visited which was probably five years ago. Dinner is wonderful. We share snails, a plate of salumi and cheese, then have some rice balls (the low point of the meal) and then a tagliata (sliced rib eye steak and salad). We drink a very nice Barbera. I'd forgotten how much I like this place. We will come back soon. Mr C&C has an espresso and sambuca just because it's Saturday night and we go home happy after a very good week of eating extremely well.