We went exploring another neighborhood during our Saturday food crawl today. This time, we were exploring Murray Hill and Flushing. Murray Hill/Flushing has a pretty sizable Korean area or Koreatown that tends to get forgotten because of the Main Street Flushing Chinatown area being so compact and massive. The biggest issue with the Korean area, if you are traveling on foot, is that it’s quite spread out, kind of like the way it is in Koreatown in Los Angeles. It’s almost like there’s an expectation you are coming with a car. Chris found a really delicious Korean barbecue spot that we started our semblance of a crawl (it wasn’t a true crawl; starting at a Korean BBQ place already means you will have TOO MUCH FOOD!), and at this spot, I couldn’t believe how generous they were. The banchan variety was quite eclectic, plus they gave us not just the delicious Korean steamed egg custard I love, but also a mini tofu soup that was super flavorful and toothsome. Maybe it was because of COVID, but they didn’t let us cook our own food, and instead one of the workers grilled all our meat for us. Of course, we didn’t finish, so we had a little doggy back to bring back with us.

On our way to the BBQ spot, we noticed Croffle House, which makes a hybrid of a croissant and waffle, which is becoming very popular. Despite a waffle + croissant mash up sounds quite rich, this place somehow managed to make it quite light and airy. It wasn’t too sweet, either, with the cream just subtly sweet with some fruit on top. I probably could have eaten two of them on my own.

We probably need to spend more time exploring and eating in this area. It just felt so much more homely and quaint in this Korean area, not to mention the portions were huge and the banchan variety crazy. These are the benefits of eating Korean food outside of Manhattan, in areas like Queens and New Jersey.

It was super warm today, a real 80 F day in New York City, so we knew we wanted to dine outside today. We decided to go to Sushi Nonaka, a Japanese restaurant that opened right before the pandemic began on the Upper West Side. They offer two types of omakase menus and also outdoor garden dining, which I thought would be good given COVID-19 still penetrating our lives.

While it was a bit windy, it felt soooo nice to finally eat sushi and hand rolls again, to have a tasting menu after over a year. The time almost went too quickly because instead of serving one piece at a time, the restaurant decided to group three pieces at a time. If I had no self control, and if they offered a la carte pieces, I could have easily eaten 10-15 more pieces of handrolls and raw fish. But, no, we exercised some self control and declined to order more (that also helped the wallet). But we did get the hoji-cha panna cotta, which was an incredible end to what felt like a real dining experience — the first real dining experience out since before the pandemic. It’s so crazy that over a year has passed since this all began.

Tonight for dinner, I made lime leaf sambal broiled salmon, roasted broccoli, heirloom carrots, and quinoa for the three of us. My friend supplied the broccoli; she’s offered to be our FreshDirect while she stays with us, which I’m happy to take advantage of. We sat in our lounge room and ate together, and while eating and relishing the food, she said that it suddenly dawned on her that she couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made her food before yesterday when she came over (aside from ordering at a restaurant, obviously).

“Was the last time someone made me food…. you? It was probably you!!” she exclaimed. She paused between bites. “It feels nice to be taken care of.”

I patted her back and glanced back at her contemplatively. She’s right. It is nice to feel like someone is taking care of you, whether that person is doing your laundry, getting your groceries, making you dinner, or doing all the repairs around the house that you hate doing. And it’s really sad when it feels like no one, even your own partner, has done anything even remotely to take care of you at all, and you’re the one who has done every imaginable form of “taking care of” him.

I discovered the joys of what a lamington were quite late. Chris had waxed on and on and on about how delicious these fluffy blocks of vanilla sponge cake, coated in chocolate and rolled in dried coconut flakes were. The best ones, he explained, are filled with a nice jam, usually raspberry, and some are even filled with jam AND cream. You could get basic ones from Cole’s or another grocery store, but the best ones always came from local bakeries in Australia.

Unfortunately, the very first one I had was at a Pie Face in Melbourne. It was not filled with anything. It just seemed like a big slice of vanilla cake coated in chocolate and coconut, which really was not that exciting to me. It was just vanilla sponge inside – what’s the big deal? I didn’t get the hype and immediately wrote the experience off.

But then, Chris discovered Bushwick Hot Bread, owned by an Aussie chef who works at Eleven Madison Park. Given the pandemic, she’s out of work, so she’s started a side hustle preparing Aussie treats and delivering them on Sundays. He ordered her lamingtons, and it was love at first bite: it was super moist, almost to the point where it felt like it was SOAKED in liquid, and the jam on the inside was fruity and delicious. I loved everything about it. We have since ordered many more, in addition to her other baked goods, as well, and none have disappointed.

Then, I noticed while at Super Moon Bakehouse this past Friday that they had their own rendition of a lamington that was filled with jam AND cream, double the size of Bushwick Hot Bread’s. So I bought one and brought it home to compare side by side. The vanilla sponge was good, but nowhere as moist as Bushwick’s. And the cream layer was almost triple the amount of the jam to the point where it overpowered the jam! In many bites, I could not even taste the jam. One glance at the innards after I cut into it, and the Australian in Chris went nuts. “No, I can tell it’s not as good because the ratio of cream to jam is completely off!” he exclaimed.

We all have strong opinions on something, and when it comes to Aussie treats, Chris lets it all out. Bushwick Hot Bread won easily.

Today, Chris and I were exploring Williamsburg and decided to meet up with my friend and her boyfriend. When I think about the meetup, it was pretty normal and fun the way it usually is, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking about how funny it is that we’re all meeting up, pretending not to acknowledge the elephant in the room: that my friend is in the process of telling her boyfriend that she wants to end their nearly 10-year-long relationship.

Ending a relationship with someone you’ve been with that long is really hard, and it’s even harder when you live with the person. I don’t really know what’s going to happen, or if she’s really going to end this, as the thoughts have been in progress for her for over a year now. But I suppose what I am most concerned about is that she will just jump right into another relationship with someone who doesn’t completely value her for what she is and doesn’t communicate openly yet again. It seems to be a pattern in her relationships whether she’s aware of it or not.

If they do break up, I will miss him. I like his no-nonsense, no-bullshit attitude and commentary. I also like that he just says it as it is and doesn’t care to be PC about anything.

During our Dumbo food exploration yesterday, one spot we visited that I’d been wanting to come to for a long time was Almondine Bakery. Obviously, if you go to a bakery that has “almond” in the name, you should definitely order their almond goods, so we got one almond croissant to share (likely the most expensive croissant I’ve ever purchased in my LIFE) and one hot Varlhona chocolate.

This was likely the most decadent and almond-filled almond croissant I’d ever tasted. It was super crunchy on the top, a little flaky, and it just EXPLODED with pureed almond filling. I could not believe how much almond filling was inside. Oftentimes, I am wary of almond croissants because places will literally just sprinkle some sliced almonds on the top and call it a day, but NOT here. Here, I could perhaps argue that there was more almond filling than there was buttery and flaky croissant outside! Because of how much filling it had, the croissant did not shatter on contact with my teeth the way a non-filled croissant would, but I’m happy to take the almond filling and give away some of the flakiness. That was a truly epic croissant experience, and I’m not sure it can be topped.

This afternoon, we explored the Dumbo area of Brooklyn before walking across the Manhattan Bridge to Chinatown for our monthly massage, food pickup, and grocery shopping. While walking across the bridge, it suddenly dawned on me that although I cannot count the times I’ve walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, this was actually my first time walking across the Manhattan Bridge. And well, it’s easy to understand that: the Manhattan Bridge is extremely loud not just because of the car traffic, but also due to the subway trains that are running across it alongside the walking and biking lanes. So, it’s not the most leisurely walk, but hey, when you need to get from point A to B and want to walk it out, this is the way to go. It definitely gave a different perspective of Brooklyn and Manhattan. And while walking across, we noticed a baseball field where someone had scrawled the word “HOPE” in capital letters across it. Hope. Well, we need some more of that now. Hope for the end of this pandemic; hope for the end of police brutality against Black lives. Hope for the end of anti-Asian racism. Hope for the end of racism period.

I took a couple of calls outside on my phone today because it was so warm out. I couldn’t believe it: it was 68 degrees F and sunny today! I wore a light coat and a scarf, and by the end of my walk, it was too warm. It felt so good to be outside and have the sun on my face… instead of being stuck in my apartment in front of a computer monitor.

This winter felt especially long and annoying. It didn’t help that COVID has been lingering and making us feel more isolated, like all we do is spend our time at home in front of screens, whether that screen is our TV, computer, or phone. It will be nice to be outside more and not have to worry about bundling up, slipping on ice, or whether we need to wear hats or gloves.

Since we both took Friday off and were out and about in Queens and at Costco, Chris felt very unmotivated to go out anywhere on Saturday. So I ended up spending some time on Saturday afternoon doing some of my own errands, from dropping off clothing donations, getting my sunglasses repaired, to stopping by Sur La Table to see if they had the Global knives I wanted to test out. The experience I had asking about knives, the craftsmanship, and the feel/grip was like night and day from the experience I had at Williams Sonoma.

Williams Sonoma is basically like the bullshit big-box “luxury” store that rarely has sales, and its sales people really know little to nothing about their products, so they are basically useless to you when you have real cooking questions. And when you walk in and they ask if you need help, they don’t really have any real knowledge in the items they sell to truly help you; they just pretend to “help” you by asking the most basic questions in the world that a five-year-old might ask you. I asked to test out a couple of their Global knives, and they had me try out one knife. They asked no questions in regards to what I was looking for and what I might need. It was a no-frills experience and the person who “helped” me really did absolutely nothing other than open a locked cabinet for me.

At Sur La Table, the assistant helping me asked me what I was looking for, other brands/requirements/thoughts I had on what might interest me most, and gave multiple suggestions not just for other brands and Global lines to consider, but also suggestions on knife sharpening methods. She had me test out a few other “similar” knives that were German and Japanese. She encouraged me to do more research online for both the Global Classic and the Global Sai line (which I had no idea about before I went in) before committing; it was the kind of customer service experience you hope to have when contemplating whether to drop $100-300 on a brand new, fancy knife. Honestly, although I am clearly big on cooking, I really don’t spend too much time in kitchen supply stores. But I will say that I do always enjoy visiting Sur La Table, and people who work there are always friendly and helpful. Plus, their cooking classes are approachable and fun. I’d choose them any day over Williams Sonoma.