I usually don’t work on Mondays and love to go out for breakfast or lunch by myself, a good book in hand.  Last Monday, I decided to go to my neighborhood Spanish tapas restaurant and take advantage of their happy hour special–$1 oysters from 5-7pm!  I cannot think of a better way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Instead of regular old French fries, a small taco stand in my neighborhood serves these–deep fried strips of yucca with chipotle ketchup and jalapeno mayo dipping sauces.  Muy delicioso!  Washed down with a cold cerveza, this was a really great snack.  Although, eating two tacos and half a torta with them, did put me over the edge…

 

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Picture 1 from 4: English lavender, lemon thyme and tarragon make up this box of scents!

Remember that post about the rooftop garden I was going to plant?  Well, it is in full swing now and here are some photos of the season’s best!

 

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Picture 1 from 4: Vietnamese jewelry designers will help you choose a piece of jewelry or custom-design something for you while you wait!

At Bahn Mi Saigon Bakery, you can get great Vietnamese sandwiches and handmade jewelry! While waiting for your sandwich to be made (and if it’s during the lunch hour, that wait might be 30 minutes), you can have one of the women who work in the front of the shop create a one-of-a-kind beaded bracelet or necklace for you.

This shop which is part jewelry store and part sandwich shop is just a tiny, narrow storefront in NYC’s Chinatown neighborhood.  Tucked between street vendor stalls selling fresh produce, if you didn’t know there was a bakery in the back, you’d never think to stop in for one of the city’s best bahn mi because the window display offers nothing but jewelry!

Who cares about mashed potatoes when you can get an even better version of the famous spud.  Purchased somewhere in Idaho, and brought back to me by a friend, this coconut-sprinkled, chocolate-covered and cocoa-marshmallow filled candy bar was AWESOME!!!  I could eat a hundred of these things!

 

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Picture 1 from 3: In addition to the dozen or so regular flavors on offer, Earl Grey Tea was the daily special.

On a side street in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood parks an artisanal ice cream truck called Van Leeuwen.  The flavors are pretty straight-forward: mint-chip, pistachio and chocolate, for example.  But, the ingredients are not.  Each flavor is made with incredibly high quality products–Sicilian pistachios and Michel Cluizel chocolates to name a few.  The creme de la creme of ice cream, if you will.  And for nearly $5 a cone, they should be!

I grew up drinking this drink, as it was a favorite in my childhood friend Ali’s household.  Her mother, who was a great cook, turned me on to lots of Cuban treats (like chicken soup made with chicken feet and boiled yucca!). Guanabana nectar is made from the juice of the soursop fruit, and it is thick like pear juice, but has a mild pineapple flavor.  It is very commonly found in the Caribbean, Central America and Southeast Asia, and washes down spicy tacos or chili-laden noodles quite well because its cooling qualities counteract the effects of hot peppers.  The can in the photo accompanied a jalapeno-laced pork sandwich, which was a life-saver for my burning tongue!

I’ve eaten lots of chocolate-covered snacks.  But, until picking up a tube of these candy-colored seeds, I had never tried this sweet variety of sunflower seeds!  They remind me of a healthier, slightly less sweet version of the ever-popular M & M.  If you happen upon them at your local corner store, give them a try!

There is nothing better that seeing one of my childhood favorite breakfast items making a comeback on brunch menus.  I remember many a Sunday morning with my family at our neighborhood pancake house, my brother and I sharing an apple dutch pancake bigger than our heads combined and covered in a blizzard of powdered sugar.  We were in heaven on those weekend mornings and challenged each other to see who could eat their entire half.

This is my latest retro dutch pancake find.  It was served in an individual caste iron dish and baked with the season’s first crop of local berries.  Light, fluffy and delicious.  I love brunch.

Lemon Verbena, is a fantastic herb, that has a very sharp lemony flavor that is balanced with a delicate, floral and green, herbaceous quality.  It’s often used to scent perfumes and toiletries, but even better when used in cooking.

I like to steep the fresh leaves in an ice cream base to make lemon verbena ice cream, or to tear the leaves over a bowl of fresh berries to make a fancy fruit salad.  It is one of my favorite ingredients to use during the spring and summer and I really look forward to finding new uses for it!