Category Archives: Contemplations on New York Life

Today’s Trader Joe’s haul – May 2025

Posted on by
Reply

There are two seasons of the year when I get really excited to shop at Trader Joe’s. Granted, I always enjoy shopping at Trader Joe’s regardless of the time of year, but I think that their very best seasonal or limited time items come out during summer or winter. Winter is fairly self explanatory: this is when they get all their Christmas/holiday items that everyone loves, whether it’s the peppermint Joe-Joe’s, the fancy Belgian chocolate and biscuit variety boxes, the Belgian chocolate “gold coins” of various countries around the world, or the Almond-Roca with a private label (this one is my all-time guilty pleasure/favorite!). Summer, of course, will have a much different assortment. At this time of year, they have their best selection of skincare items (expecting that you will be spending more time in the Northern Hemisphere summer sun), as well as fun warm weather treats. These are some things I’m excited about that I picked up:

Organic guava fruit spread: This seems to be all over my social media feeds now. It’s guava fruit spread with just enough sugar for sweetness. I was excited about any type of guava fruit spread since guava is not a common fruit or flavor you find in the U.S. I actually don’t eat much jam (Chris is the jam person in our household), but when I do, I want it to be the extreme version of the fruit it claims to be of, and I want it to be just sweet enough. So if this is good, I may go back and stock up on three more before they run out for the season.

Ube mochi pancake and waffle mix: I never buy pre-made mixes for cakes, pancakes, waffles, or anything. I prefer to make almost everything we consume from scratch because I’m obsessive about how I like what I like. But this ube mochi mix is the only exception. I buy this every year to either make pancakes or to make ube mochi muffins, which I personally think have a springier, more fun texture than the pancakes do. Instead of water or milk, I like to add coconut milk because ube plus coconut are a match made in the purest love. Apparently, Chris’s mom is a huge fan, too: she likes to buy a box or two when they come in May/June and bring it back to Australia!

Dubai style pistachio dark chocolate: I picked up three of these. The Dubai chocolate craze doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Since I had it at a verified place that sold it in Lower East Side with my friend when she visited back in October last year, I have seen endless variations of “Dubai chocolate” since. It’s come up in coffee drinks, milkshakes, random desserts in various shops, etc. We’ve already tried it, and this is good. At $3.99 for 100 grams of pistachio dark chocolate, this is excellent value if you like both dark chocolate and pistachio. The pistachio inside is very nutty and unmistakable. It’s also a little bit gooey with a hint of crunch. This stuff is worth it! It’s made in Turkey and not private labeled (The box says it is Patislove brand). The Upper West Side Trader Joe’s said that they are getting a “very limited supply” weekly, so if we want it, we should get as much of it as we want when we go.

Organic tart cherry fruit spread: I am not sure why no one is talking about this. Actually, yes I am: this come-back from last year has been completely and utterly overshadowed by the guava fruit spread. This was the one thing I got last year that got discontinued, likely for seasonal reasons, that I was devastated went away. Last year, I got only one jar. After I tasted it months after I bought it, I regretted not opening it earlier to buy more. But it’s BACK! This time, I got two jars. On the shelf when I saw it, there were only four jars total. When I got rang up by my cashier, he asked me what I thought of it. When I raved about it to him, he had this determined look on his face and said that as soon as he was done with me, he was immediately going on break and making a beeline for the jam aisle downstairs. If you like jam and you like sour cherry, BUY THIS.

Cheddar and parmesan cheese snackers – puff pastry cheese crackers: Okay, I’m going to be honest. I did not actually buy these. I was given them for free by my cashier! He asked me if I liked cheese and crackers, and he threw a brand-new box into my canvas bag. The cashier said they received an “over shipment” of these this week, so they were handing them out to anyone who wanted them for nada. I do love cheese crackers (Goldfish was the OG obviously, but now, Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies is my fave, though I have significantly reduced my snacking habits in the last year), and these are like a fancier version of cheese crackers to test out.

A five-stem bunch of peonies: This is my one flower purchase every year for myself. I never buy fresh flowers because I find them quite self indulgent (they die after such a short period!), though I do love them and think they make any room they are in feel brighter and livelier. But peonies truly take the cake for me. They are big, bold, beautiful, and capture everyone’s attention. And as an added bonus for someone (uh, me) with no floral arrangement skills, they are pretty darn easy to arrange given their blossoms are absolutely huge at their peak. It’s no wonder the Chinese were obsessed with them back in the day and obsessively painted them. I usually get a variation of pink, but this year, I decided to get the white ones. I really enjoy watching them progressively open up each day from really tight, small, ball-like buds. A five-stem bunch is only 10 bucks, so it’s hardly breaking the bank – it’s crazy good value! Technically, these start becoming available in the spring, but we’ve had a really cold winter this past year. So, I picked these up today.

I also wanted to pick up the seasonal passion fruit sorbet (mostly for Chris because he’s the sorbet person), but unfortunately none were in the freezer. That just means I’ll be on the lookout for them in two weeks when I go to TJs again!

Dining and comedy show night out with friends

Posted on by
Reply

Tonight, we went out for a quick dinner and comedy show with my friend, her husband, his business partner, and the business partner’s wife. We’d never met the business partner and wife before, and although the meal and time chatting was quick, it was fun to be around new people and see what their life and perspectives are like. Unlike the last time we went out for dinner with Kaia and had a babysitter watch her, tonight’s dinner was really delicious. Jazba, which means “passion” in Urdu, specializes in regional cuisines across India, specifically highlighting street food in India’s dhabas, or roadside shacks. We shared a lot of starters and mains, with highlights being the haleem, a slow cooked goat stew with lentils and taftan bread; a Jaituni fish tikka; and a Goan prawn curry. An unexpected treat was that there were appams you could order as sides, so in addition to garlic naan and lacha paratha, we also got two appams, which were spongy, and fluffy. Everything was packed with flavor, and a number of the dishes had lingering heat that made my tongue tingle. Chris said that he liked this meal as much as he disliked the other restaurant we visited for dinner before our Guatemala trip. The only downside was that as is pretty much the norm nowadays, the meal was expensive; after all the food and alcoholic drinks, tax, and tip, it ended up being about $60 per person. And we were barely at the restaurant for an hour. This is just the cost of eating a mid-range meal nowadays that is not fast casual for dinner.

We broke into two groups because one of the women in the group was craving cannoli before the comedy show, and so my friend and I accompanied her to an Italian bakery nearby while the other three went directly to the theater. When we got there, she asked if she could get a cannoli freshly filled, and the guy behind the counter said that they don’t do that; what you see under the glass, which were pre-filled cannoli, was all that they could offer. So, she dismissed cannoli completely and opted for a lobster tail and some eclairs instead. As we walked out, she said that she refuses to eat cannoli that are pre-filled because you have no idea when they were last filled, and that it could have been so long ago that the cannoli shell was now stale or soggy. And as she said this, my face lit up. I think she is literally the only person other than myself I have met who shares this opinion with me. No one else I know has vocalized this qualm. I think we could get along food-wise.

My friend said later that this person. “is a bit too fancy with food — she wants quality stuff only!” And I responded back, well, can you blame her? Life is too short to eat a bunch of crap, and we need standards! We want food that tastes good. Why should we have to settle? I’m totally with the business partner’s wife on this!

Little delicious gems all around us in Manhattan

Posted on by
Reply

On our Saturday adventures out as a family, Chris always seems a bit biased against Manhattan at or below Central Park and tends to prefer to visit the Bronx, Brooklyn, or Queens. I’m happy to go to all three of those boroughs, especially Queens since it was my first New York City borough, but we live in Manhattan, and it’s damn amazing for endless reasons. Even in Manhattan, on streets that you may go up and down every single day, amazing gems can show up right under your nose that you may overlook in your speed walking and desire to catch a train in time.

When I went down to the Koreatown area for a routine doctor’s appointment yesterday, I was walking along a street and suddenly got a strong whiff of ground matcha. Curious, I backed up a few feet, noticing a tiny little cafe that required a few steps up. I popped my head in, and as soon as I opened the door, an extremely strong scent of matcha almost blasted my face. It smelled as though they ground the matcha leaves fresh in this little cafe! The place was barely marked; I later found out that it was called Mika’s Direction. I quickly bookmarked it in my Google Maps saved list, went to my appointment, and came back to sit there and read before heading downtown to pick up Pookster from school. I ordered the favorite drink, the iced strawberry matcha. The same person who rang me up made my drink from scratch in front of me at the open counter, meticulously whisked my matcha, and poured the frothy goodness into my cup. The house-made strawberry syrup was mashed and just sweet enough. The matcha was earthy with a tiny hint of bitter. This was a really well made and delicious treat after my doctor’s visit. I savored my drink as I read my book for a bit.

I love stumbling upon these cute little cafes, bakeries, and restaurants by chance in my own borough. I never had this spot on a list or knew about it before I left home. Even if I didn’t originally set out to find a matcha spot on this outing, I found a delicious and obscure one in an unlikely place. I can still smell the intensity of freshly ground matcha wafting all around me. There are many things out there for us to find and taste as long as we are open minded enough to see and try them.

The power of the U.S. dollar

Posted on by
Reply

Every time I travel abroad, I am reminded of a lot of my privileges as an American. Even when you think about disparities between rich and poor, when you think about how people struggle here in the U.S., how people live paycheck-to-paycheck, even the poorest people here still lead richer lives than the poorest people in more developing countries. I will never forget the first time I was in Vietnam in January 2008. There was the moment when my mom’s cousin’s wife in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, came into our 3-star hotel room there. They exchanged a few words. Because I don’t speak Vietnamese, I wasn’t sure what was spoken. When I saw the cousin’s wife undress, I got confused, and I asked my mom what she was doing. My mom looked at me quietly and said, “She asked if she could use our shower, and I said yes. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have a hot shower.” For myself until that point, I had no idea what it was like to not have access to a hot shower.

I recently saw a post in an alumnae career group I am in, where the person posting said she had been living abroad but wanted to move back to the U.S. She wanted to start her job search and was looking for advice. In her post, she wrote that it was “very important for me to earn in U.S. dollars.” And I thought about the shower incident in Vietnam. I thought about the poverty I had seen in Guatemala. I remembered chatting with our Guatemalan driver, who had lived abroad in England for eight years and had an English wife. In his Guatemalan/British accent-tinged English, he lamented how things like a cappuccino or latte at a cafe in Guatemala City seemed affordable or maybe slightly cheaper for Americans, but for local Guatemalans, it was quite the splurge, which I had noted to him. “Sure, it’s affordable when you earn $25 USD an hour,” he said. “But if you earn in Guatemalan Quetzales and only earn the equivalent of $15 USD a day, that $3 USD cappuccino is a lot of money to spend.”

Yes, it’s expensive living in New York City. Yeah, it kind of sucks that coffee drinks here now can cost $6-10+ each. But I am lucky and privileged to enjoy them occasionally. We lead extremely privileged lives to work in white-collar jobs in the U.S., earning our income in U.S. dollars. As our driver noted, “you have money” if you can afford to go on a trip to Guatemala and hire a private driver for a day or so (pretty sure he was referring to us, and not just the previous guests he had driven). Every day, even when I think this country is crumbling down and that democracy is going to shit, I still remember how thankful I am for my life’s privileges, for my health, and everything I have and have access to that makes life so enjoyable and relatively stress free.

Post-trip meal planning: curry in the freezer!

Posted on by
Reply

In the days leading up to our departure for Guatemala, we actually had more food to eat in the fridge than I had originally anticipated. I had planned to make Burmese chicken curry for the Burmese chicken curry noodle dish called nan gyi thoke for dinner during the few days before we left, and I had already marinated and prepared the chicken. So I decided that I would still make the chicken curry and just freeze it so that when we got back, I would quickly defrost it overnight and have delayed nan gyi thoke for dinner once we returned. And it ended up being a great idea. Once I defrosted the curry, all I had to do was add some seasoning (red pepper flakes, fish sauce) and a thickener (Burmese curries are traditionally thickened with a toasted chickpea flour. I already had the chickpea flour, so I just had to toast it lightly over the stove until it turned toasty and brown. Then, I cooked the dried noodles in some boiling water, cut up some lime wedges, took out the fried shallots, and boiled eggs to top it. It was a very flavorful, satisfying dish to welcome us home.

So many different variations of curry exist around the world, but what makes Burmese curries unique is that a) they start with a base of lots and lots of deeply caramelized onions, b) they include coconut milk that is cooked down, c) they are thickened with a toasted chickpea flour. Once you have all this and add a protein like chicken, some seasonings like fish sauce and black pepper, as well as some home blended Madras curry powder (I almost went out and bought a blend, but I realized when I looked at all the spices that make up Madras curry powder that I had all of them already at home, so why not just toast and blend my own?!), it creates a really thick, luscious stew that has layers upon layers of flavor. It’s so good and rich that it almost makes you want to lick your bowl clean. This is definitely a curry that will be on repeat for us.

And although I did not originally plan to make chicken curry in advance as our return-home meals, I’m really happy it worked out this way and that we had a quick yet seemingly complex meal to come home to. I already have things in the freezer like frozen cubes of tomato-onion masala for quick Indian meals, but this would basically be like an easy freezer meal. You would just have to defrost, add seasoning and heat up, then add a carb like rice or noodles, and you’d be set. I will likely do this ahead of future trips we have. No one complains about ready-to-go chicken curry upon arriving home from anywhere!

An underwhelming dinner out on the town tonight, with a babysitting bill on top of it

Posted on by
Reply

One of our friends has been hounding Chris and me for a double date night. He and his wife have his wife’s parents caring for the kids after they finish school, and the grandparents even take them two nights a week to stay at their home just blocks away. So Sunday and Monday are their nights to themselves, when date night out for them is on Monday. Monday is when they splurge and try something fun and pricey. They will make the reservations for dinner up to a month in advance. So while they have free babysitting very, very regularly, Chris and I don’t have that luxury. When I told Chris that I scheduled this meal out, he got a little sour with me and asked why we were accommodating their free babysitting schedule when we don’t get free babysitting. He also said that (even though he doesn’t work) he doesn’t typically want to go out on a Monday night and would prefer a night later in the week. Either way, it’s our first time doing “date night” with these friends after having a kid of our own, so I thought once wouldn’t be any harm.

My friend suggested this new “2D” Japanese omakase restaurant in the East Village, which I will admit did look gimmicky; it’s the kind of place that I probably would have been really excited to try in my 20s, but now that I’m in my late 30s, I just think it’s another restaurant. But the idea of “omakase” did excite me, as I do love sushi and raw fish, but we don’t really eat much of it when Kaia is around. And $90 for 15 courses did sound like a good deal…

…Until the “courses” came to our table. The first three “courses” came to our table on a single tray for each of us, and two out of three of them were borderline terrible. The first “ball” of raw fish looked and tasted like an after-thought, like leftover fish that they didn’t know what to do with, so they rolled it into a ball. The second in a little bowl was trying to be fancy, but it didn’t taste like anything. The third piece was just fine. It was the start to a miserable dining experience.

The rest of the 11 “courses” came on a single plate, all lined up, little nigiri along with one hand roll, which though they said they recommended we eat right away to prevent the seaweed from getting soggy, was already soggy and had zero crisp at all. The fifteenth and final course was a miso soup, which just felt like an after thought.

Our server was also pretty terrible. I couldn’t tell if he was either sleepy, high, or both. Multiple times, he forgot to bring Chris’s drink, give us more napkins, or more ginger as we requested. He also had to be nudged a few times to simply refill our water. Although I tipped 20 percent, in retrospect, I am not totally sure he deserved that.

We spent over $100 per person for what is likely the most subpar omakase experience we’ve ever had. Plus, once you tack on the inevitable babysitting bill of about $80-100, that is a really, really expensive night out. Granted, omakase dining experiences in New York have only gotten more and more expensive. Many of them are over $300+ per person now. While the company was good tonight, and we had a reasonably fun time out with our friends, I promised Chris that if we go out with them again that I’d do a more careful vetting of the chosen restaurant to ensure that it’s something that’s really worth paying for, as well as paying for babysitting on top of that. He was venting about how “not worth it” this meal was. I agreed with him. But alas, we can’t dwell on the past anymore. It’s literally a sunk cost now!

The Chamber Music Society: Beethoven’s Many Hats for Littles, ages 3-6

Posted on by
Reply

Today, along with two friends and their daughter, I took Kaia to the Chamber Music Society at the Lincoln Center for a relaxed performance of Beethoven’s Many Hats, targeted towards kids ages 3-6 along with their families. A trio consisting of a violinist, a cellist, and a pianist played select Beethoven songs while explaining Beethoven’s story and life. A host also came and interacted directly with the kids. All the artists performing were really sweet and engaged directly with the kids, asking them questions, to repeat when they said certain words, and responded to their answers with warmth and kindness. As we entered the theater, they also presented the kids with different options for toys to use during the performance. At the end, they opened up the stage so that the kids could “play” with the different instruments if they wished. It was a really well put together performance.

I was also especially happy because Kaia did so well during the performance. Every time the host or one of the artists asked a question, Kaia answered. Whenever they asked the kids to make a gesture (“thumb’s up!”) or repeat a word, Kaia did it. And for the most part, she sat and watched the performance intently, playing with her toys, watching them perform, or wiggling her butt in my lap. This time last year, I took her to a Hawaiian performance at the Clark Theater, which did not turn out to be the greatest idea, as she barely paid any attention. It’s good to see that her attention span has progressed in the last year!

We’re lucky to live so close to the Lincoln Center, and to have it offer affordable, kid-friendly performances to get kids acquainted with music and the arts at a younger age. I also enjoyed the chamber music performance and hope to see more of them myself!

Indo Java Indonesian Grocery Store in Elmhurst, Queens

Posted on by
Reply

Today, we spent the day exploring Elmhurst, Queens, my original neighborhood that I lived in when I first moved to New York City back in June 2008. Elmhurst has changed quite a lot since then: modern, new rental and condominium buildings have gone up. Fancier restaurants and even bars have opened up. More and more working professionals who work in Manhattan are moving in. And of course, all that means more gentrification and higher rental and buying costs here. The neighborhood has historically been a mix of working class Asian, Hispanic, and various White immigrants. Every time I go back now, it seems to be skewing more and more Asian. And with that, more Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, and Taiwanese restaurants and businesses seem to be popping up.

Today, we went back to Indo Java Indonesian Grocery Store right on Queens Boulevard, just minutes walk from my old apartment. This time, it was full of all the goodies that made it so loved amongst immigrant Indonesians: an entire table FULL of Indonesian savory and sweet snacks and desserts, all made by the grocery store staff at a nearby offsite location. And as soon as I saw the table, I felt decision paralysis: so many interesting, delicious things to choose from, but what would I buy? They had lots of fried and steamed snacks, entire half pandan chiffon cakes, and a seemingly endless assortment of different kuih, or steamed Indonesian finger-sized cakes and sweets. In the end, I chose the wajik, a jackfruit/palm sugar/glutinous rice mini cake, plus talam ubi, or a two-layered coconut-sweet potato cake infused with pandan. I had a quick chat with the owner, who rung my items up, and she told me that she always gets excited when non-Indonesians (like me) find her store and get into their products. She also told me about their special Indonesian home cooking meals served on select days of the week, announced slightly in advance on their Instagram handle. It looks like they only started this in 2016, so four years after I left the area. It made me sad I didn’t live closer to this deliciousness.

Indonesia is one of the most populous countries on earth, and their cuisine is ultra diverse and so delicious with its endless herbs, spices, and flavors. Sometimes, I forget how delicious it is, especially since Elmhurst seems to be the only area in all of New York City where Indonesian food exists. Now, I feel like I need to go back when they have their chefs do special meals at the grocery store on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Sundays, just to remember how multifaceted, spicy, and delicious the cuisine is.

Lincoln Center Annual Summer in the City pay-what-you-wish performances – super competitive this year!

Posted on by
Reply

Since I’ve attended a number of Lincoln Center performances over the years, including ones in recent times that are kid-focused, I am on their email list and get notifications about upcoming events and festivals. Last year, I attended two different orchestra performances for their recent annual Summer in the City series of performances, and I knew I wanted to check out the performance line-up for this year and attend a few more. This year, I got the notification they’d be doing it again this summer, and it would be even more varied. This summer, they would have a really interesting mix of orchestra, opera, theater, and dance. I asked a few friends if they’d like to join, and so I was able to get tickets for two different performances so far.

Alas, the pay-what-you-wish performance ticket purchasing wasn’t as simple as it was in 2024. I still remember that I was able to buy tickets a week or so after, and I had my pick of seats to choose from. This time, when I logged into their site just minutes after General Admission opened up, there was already an online queue! When I got in, I was person 367 on the list, and they gave me an estimated wait time of over 40 minutes before I’d be able to go in and choose seats for a specific performance. One of the performance dates I wanted had already sold out by the time I got in, and it asked me to choose a different date. Luckily, the friend who wanted to go with me to see this modern opera was flexible, so we ended up choosing a date two days later.

Free or low-cost events certainly do exist in New York City; they are actually quite plentiful if you know where and how to look. You just have to be ready to deal with the crowds, even if some of those “crowds” can be virtual. I actually prefer the online queue versus waiting hours on end in a real, physical line for admittance or for a performance to start. It’s a lot less hectic this way!

Long weekend with the in-laws to Rhode Island, with an important stop in New Haven on the way

Posted on by
Reply

One of the things I loved about the East Coast when I first moved here was how easy it was to state hop. Depending on where you are, it could take an hour or even less to get to another state. It could take 20 minutes to take the PATH train from Manhattan into Hoboken or Jersey City. It could take a couple hours by car, train, or bus to get from Massachusetts to New Hampshire or Rhode Island. Maine can be done as a day trip from many places in Massachusetts. California is a large and long state; it wasn’t as easy to do that living there. So all these small states in the northeastern part of the U.S. always fascinated me. I tried to take advantage and see as much as I could of the northeast, while also lamenting that so many people who live here have zero curiosity about neighboring states and people.

At this point, Chris’s parents have most likely seen more of New York City than most New Yorkers. They have definitely seen more of the U.S. than most Americans. They take side trips on their own through the U.S. when they come visit us, but they also get taken on side trips, sometime via road, other times via plane, by us. In recent years with Kaia, we’ve always done a road trip and rented a car. This year, Chris decided on Rhode Island. So it will be our first time back in the smallest state of the country since August 2013.

On our way there, we stopped in New Haven, Connecticut, for some apizza. Little do many people outside of Connecticut know, but New Haven is oftentimes thought of as the pizza or “apizza” capital of the United States (New Yorkers and Jersey people most definitely debate this). New Haven style pizza consists of thin-crust, coal-fired Neopolitan pizza. And one of my most favorite pizzas in all the world is most definitely the white clam pizza: it’s pizza with oregano, grated cheese, chopped garlic, fresh littleneck clams. It does not have tomato sauce, which is why it’s called a “white pie,” and it’s just freaking perfect. Littleneck clams with garlic and cheese is like a menage a trois that dreams are made of. Our first time to New Haven was in November 2020 during the pandemic. We did a day trip to New Haven and went to the three most well known New Haven style pizza joints: Frank Pepe, Sally’s Apizza, and Modern Apizza. We went to Modern last in that visit, which meant that we had already had so much pizza that we didn’t quite appreciate it as much, so we went to Modern as our only pizza stop on this visit. We got the white clam pizza with a small margherita, and amongst the five of us, we left satisfied, yet not stuffed. The pizza was even more delicious than I remember it, with a crust so crunchy yet chewy that I could easily have just eaten the pizza topping-less, and I still would have been happy.

We spent the evening in Fox Point in Providence, where we ate at Dune Brothers Seafood, their first location that has indoor seating (though tiny). I had whole scup fish (porgy!) for the first time and enjoyed it – the fattiness and texture almost reminded me of bluefish (though no one on the internet seems to agree with my assessment). Kaia devoured the littleneck clams appetizer all by herself; she’s most definitely a clam loving baby and enjoys the thrill of opening the clams and pulling them out of the shells. But what was the even bigger highlight of dinner was the indulgent lobster roll Chris and I shared. I always prefer Connecticut style lobster roll (always warm, dunked in butter, on a toasted bun) over Maine style (chilled lobster meat, dressed in mayo with crunchy greens). This lobster roll was stuffed to the brim with huge chunks of both claw AND tail meat, warmed in butter along with various tasty spices; it was likely one of my all-time favorite lobster rolls next to Neptune Oyster in Boston. Though Neptune makes what is likely the best lobster roll in all of the US, I will never go back there because to this day, I remember it as of the very worst dining experiences of my life. I still remember being so angry about how rude the service was that I actually tipped them 11 percent (WHICH I NEVER DO).

And if that was not enough eating, down the street from Dune Brothers was this cute Aleppo Sweets Cafe I had on my list. They won a best new restaurants award in Providence in 2019 and look to be family owned. Though they have a full menu for lunch and dinner, we just went for after dinner caffeinated drinks and desserts. This place is clearly popular with locals because almost everyone around us walking down the street behind us also went into this place! We had a good start to our visit when Kaia ran into the florist shop next door (which I think are owned by the same people). The florist there was so kind that he gave her a fresh, long-stemmed iris, which captivated Kaia; she was so obsessed with her new fresh flower! We sat down at a table and enjoyed Arabic coffee, very strong ginger-cardamom-mint tea in a beautiful and large copper tea pot (brought back from Syria, and funnily enough, NOT for sale, as Chris’s dad liked it so much he asked if he could buy one!), and four different types of baklava and Syrian semolina cake. We loved the ambiance, furniture, decor, and the tea and coffee ware a lot, but the sweets were very surprising. They were stuffed to the brim with pistachios, but the shocking thing about them was that they were not too sweet. And I don’t think in my entire life I have ever described any baklava as “not too sweet,” or really, they were “just sweet enough.” They weren’t swimming or soaked to the brim in sugar. They didn’t make my teeth hurt like some of the Greek or Turkish spots we’ve had them from in Astoria or Bay Ridge. I subsequently read that this characteristic of being “not too sweet” is a defining trait of Syrian baklava and desserts. I am tempted to figure out how to recreate this Syrian harisa semolina cake at home and ensure it’s “just sweet enough.” It was so delicious and lightly spiced with cinnamon and vanilla. We shared four different types, so each of us had a bite each of the desserts, and amazingly, I think I could have had more bites and not felt overly sweetened or stuffed. I still cannot believe how long we talked about the copper tea pot…

There’s so much good food and culture all over the U.S. that it would be quite a shame (and loss) to just stay in one part or place forever and not experience all this richness and fun.