The Sunday Ledger
Central Park walk-fueled eats, pre-L.A. health food, and the usual suspects.
1. Butterfield Market
This morning, we ventured uptown to meet up with friends for an early lunch in Central Park. We stopped by Butterfield Market to pick up the needed accoutrements. After several minutes of internal back and forth between my two favorites, I landed on their roasted turkey and brie sandwich with honey mustard and arugula.
My runner up was the mandarin chicken salad. As a kid, we would eat mandarin oranges straight out of the can and drink the leftover juice. The Butterfield salad pairs mandarin oranges with grilled chicken, crispy asian noodles, scallions, and a sesame dressing. Brings me right back to childhood. This likely would have been my easy first choice if not for the ergonomics of sandwich-in-park.
After lunch, we doubled back to Butterfield for frozen yogurt. While I’m generally not the biggest fan, theirs is great with the inclusion of fresh fruit. I instead opted for a chocolate chip cookie with Maldon salt (this one was particularly good!).
2. Tacos in Harlem
From there, we decided to walk north. We spent the next few hours leisurely walking until we could walk no longer, stopping in the Conservatory Garden, around the Harlem Meer, and then up to 113th St. where we stopped for a drink and decided to get tacos. One bang-bang shrimp and one chicken tinga for me; one fish taco and one carne asada for Spencer.
3. Usual Suspects
Unfortunately for the purposes of this newsletter, most of my meals the rest of this week looked like this:
Protein (chicken, steak, fish)
Salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and sumac, lightly dressed with shallot vinaigrette
Potatoes or pita
The most fun my meals got was the introduction of a store-bought spicy lentil hummus. While not as exciting, I find value in routine!
4. Happier Grocery
Later this evening, I was nearby and stopped into everyone’s favorite luxury grocery store, Happier Grocery. If you have exited without spending $50, please send proof of purchase my way.
I’m heading to L.A. this week, so I wanted to grab some easy meals for lunch (avoiding a full grocery shop) and decided to embrace the California mindset in advance. Happier Grocery feels like the closest thing we have to Erewhon.
I ended up with:
My favorite honey sriracha cashews for the plane
Salmon summer roll for Monday lunch
Curry chicken salad for Tuesday lunch, which I will eat wrapped with lettuce
While expensive, I can’t resist their combo plate. Anywhere I get to choose a protein and several sides, I’m on board.
5. Usual Suspect Pt. 2
Couldn't sign off with mention of at least one Japanese meal. I decided to finally try Tomo21, the hole in the wall Japanese restaurant that I often walk past and remark that it looks like it should be in southern California instead of Manhattan.
I ordered the tekka-don and was absolutely floored by the presentation and how outstanding it was. This will be my new go-to for sushi and sashimi. This is one I almost didn’t share in order to keep it my own little secret — it’s that good!
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"Store bought spicy lentil humus" . . ."I find value in routine"--yes, lets your mind float for a while.
P.