During a recent visit to the Bay area (hey SF peeps!!), I had the pleasure of visiting Bi-Rite Creamery. Bi-Rite makes their own ice cream, soft serve and bakery goods and features both traditional and unique (and delish!) flavors. Bi-Rite aims for its ice cream flavors to have five ingredients or less – the result of which is pure, simple but intense flavor. The line was out the door when I visited, and I soon found out why! Continue Reading
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to visit EMP Summer House in East Hampton. EMP is the more casual summer pop-up of Eleven Madison Park, with a relaxed atmosphere and seasonally inspired menu. This is the second year of EMP Summer House – I visited last year as well and was curious to see how year two compared!
The complimentary transportation to and from was a nice touch: Continue Reading
I’ve been obsessed with Seamore’s lately – a casual seafood restaurant with locations throughout NYC (and they just opened a new location right near my workplace – woohoo!). With a simple menu featuring favorites like guac, lobster mac and cheese (yum – this is SO GOOD), and fish tacos, there’s something for everyone. During my last visit, I had such a difficult time choosing what to order, but finally decided on the summer gazpacho and the blackened shrimp tacos. I was not disappointed. Continue Reading
Almost ten years ago, I spotted an ice cream truck in Union Square that almost wasn’t quite like all the others. This truck had its menu printed on the side of the truck as expected, with a friendly face behind the window – but plastered on the side of the truck was a colorful rainbow cone graphic with “BIG GAY ICE CREAM” in large print. I was intrigued. I perused the menu and had a tough time deciding between the Dorothy (named after Ms. Zbornak from The Golden Girls, of course) and the Salty Pimp. Decisions decisions! I went with the Salty Pimp – a vanilla soft serve cone injected with dulce de leche and finished with a salty dark chocolate shell. I was a convert. Continue Reading
Years ago, during my very first visit to Hawaii, I read about poke (pronounced poh-kay) in my guidebooks (yes, guidebooks – before they were replaced by The Internet!). Featuring diced raw fish seasoned with ingredients such as soy sauce, scallions, sesame oil, sesame seeds and other accouterments, it was fresh, delicious and not widely available outside of Hawaii. Whenever I returned to Hawaii, I planned my meals around two things – poke and shave ice. And all was well with the world.
These days, much to my surprise and delight, poke bowl places are evvvvverywhere. Some may say that the hype is past its prime, but I for one hope these places stick around. My neighborhood poke bowl place is in the weekly rotation of “too tired to cook after work, quick and healthy dinner” options.
During my most recent visit to Hawaii (to the island of Kauai to be exact), I picked up this delicious bowl from SushiGirl with cubed raw tuna, cucumber, onion, sea veggies, furikake, sesame oil, and Hawaiian sea salt. It was SO GOOD. SushiGirl also sold rolls and sushi burritos (I won’t say I wasn’t tempted!), but I’ll always pick a poke bowl if it’s an option.
I’ve seen some buzz around that SushiGirl may have closed – or it may just be relocating? TBD. But I hope next time I make my visit to the Garden Island, it’s around so I can get my SushiGirl poke bowl fix.
Have you jumped on the poke bowl bandwagon?
