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What I ate last week
EPISODE 47
NEWS
Is the safest time to visit a restaurant right after a bad health code violation? Reminder that fosters market has dead bugs everywhere. Don't go there unless you’re trying to get sick.
Leftover drinking chocolate would be good as a mocha
Vogue declared 2026 the year of the cabbage
Gourmet magazine is back; I’m tired of aspirational, heavily curated and stylized food media. Will this be any different? Bring back Gawker and the best restaurant in NY is series. https://www.instagram.com/gourmet.lives?igsh=MTh1NHcxNTYxZGdwOA==
Nigella Lawson is replacing Prue Leith; for some reason my celebrity food log of Nigella Lawson is my most popular episode
Pecan usage: turtles
Isaac’s has great sufganiyot during Hannukah
Listener feedback: a listener’s child is also often tricked by whipped cream and marshmallows and ends up scalding themselves on hot chocolate; I am living the life of a child.
SCENTS
Diptyque fleur de peau smells like a cabbage patch kid doll fell into a bathtub; if you sprayed a cabbage patch kid with Prada D’iris; clean soapy smell but with underlying warm, powdery cabbage patch kid scent; which makes sense because it is an iris / magnolia / musk fragrance
Speaking of cabbage patch kids, doll hospital in georgia
Diptyque L’ombre dans l’eau: Rose, Blackcurrant buds, Petitgrain, Blackcurrant leaves; this smells old; like a potpourri satchel my mother had and I took and hid in my room; musty rose
Diptyque Do Son: Tuberose, Orange blossom, Jasmine, Amberwood; this smells like a Nordstroms in 2004; or honeysuckle
Diptyque Eau Capitale: Rose, Bergamot, Patchouli, Pink peppercorn; the rose makes this feel old; Le Labo does rose in a fresh, bright way; I really love a peppery, tropical plant smell but it doesn’t really come through for me
Diptyque Eau Rose: another perfume that smells like a dusty old rose; she looks like every other bitch; Damascena and Centifolia roses, Chamomile, Litchi, Artichoke. I got Diptyque samples because Carey from Sexy Unique Podcast said that Le Labo has been taken over by bros and Diptyque is for the girls and the gays. I have to say that I am disappointed and will continue my search for the perfect scent elsewhere.
Diptyque Philosykos: Fig leaves, Fig tree sap, Fig tree wood, Black pepper; smells like any old fig spray but with warm underrtones. Bring back Gap’s fresh cut grass scent.
This is a really helpful exercise to cross reference scent components and recognize / pick out which scents I actually like. I went to a french perfumery in a small town in the south of france in high school and got a tour of how they make perfumes but it was all in french so I didn’t learn anything. Later I took four semesters of French. I can read french but if someone is speaking french, in terms of cognition ability, I might as well be asleep.
INTERNET
Corre Larkin said a restaurant near her house serves chicken pot pie over strips of puff pastry like a bloomin onion; she baked it in a bowl so that there’s a base to pour the filling over; I think just do strips on a sheet tray for maxiumum crisp.
90Day Lisa has chickens who watch VHS tapes
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8funKpE/ eating 90% oil as a recipe is crazy
Janet Marie Temptee cream cheese, owned by Kraft https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8fCuKkq/
Martha Stewart baked potato pic https://www.instagram.com/p/DTY3axgjfNk/?igsh=MWdnMzdsbXhhNWoxZQ==
Cheese in coffee https://www.reddit.com/r/StupidFood/comments/1pggfyk/cheese_coffee/
Sally’s baking addiction is always winning comparative recipe tests
Emotionally recovering from watching a few episodes of the Pitt and learning about a whole slew of diseases and conditions that I don’t know could happen
January 19, 2026 (Monday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
1:30pm: A bean burrito, an avocado ranch stacker, and a beefy potato stacker from Taco Bell in Oxford, North Carolina.
3pm: Two sugar-free lemon lime Jello cups.
Sugar free, low calorie snacks make me binge (milkshake study)
6pm: Napa cabbage stuffed with ginger pork and basmati rice in an oyster sauce broth and S&B chili crisp, made at home.
Stuffed Napa Cabbage (inspired by Corre Larkin’s Stuffed Cabbage Pie and Chinese lasagna)
Cabbage Rolls
9 large napa cabbage leaves
1 pound ground pork
4 garlic cloves, grated
3 inches of ginger, grated
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ of an onions, finely diced
1 and ½ cups of cooked basmati rice
Broth
300ML chicken stock
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
7:30pm: Blue Bell Cherry Vanilla ice cream.
January 20, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10:30am: A bowl of bran flakes with milk.
2pm: A handful of rippled potato chips and a handful of tortilla chips.
6pm: Macaroni and cheese with poached chicken thighs and mixed greens, made at home.
Macaroni and cheese with chicken and greens
¾ pound of shells
2 cups of leftover or rotisserie chicken
4 cups of baby greens
5 ounces of Kerrygold Reserve
5 ounces of Hennings garlic and dill cheddar
1 tablespoon of bacon fat
½ of an onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup of flour
½ cup of Her Sauvignon Blanc
2.5 cups of milk
½ cup of sour cream
1 teaspoon of Grey Poupon dijon mustard
1 container of Cook Out Buffalo sauce
4 tablespoons of butter
½ cup grated parmesan
1 cup of leftover garlic and meyer lemon breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
7:30pm: Blue Bell Cherry Vanilla ice cream.
Brian said that a scoop of Cherry Vanilla ice cream in a ginger ale would make an incredible shirley temple float. My grandmother used to make us nonalcoholic horse’s necks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse%27s_neck
January 21, 2026 (Wednesday)
7am: Leftover coffee with half & half and a bowl of bran flakes with milk.
11am: Leftover macaroni and cheese and a cup of coffee with zero sugar hazelnut creamer at the office.
Cake room: Tupperware container of Samoas and a large Ziplock bag of pistachio crinkle cookies.
4pm: Half of a bottle of GT’s Trilogy kombucha.
6pm: Fried basmati rice with leftover ground pork, scrambled egg, napa cabbage, green peas, and onion, made at home.
7pm: Part of a caramel sandwich cookie, part of a pistachio grandma cookie, part of a raspberry checkerboard cookie, and half of a lemon sandwich cookie from Whole Foods.
The caramel sandwich cookie tasted like a lorna doone with a flat, cheap caramel and needed salt. The raspberry checkerboard cookie tasted like mall coffee - maybe mocha or espresso; the lemon sandwich cookie was great and the cookie itself was sort of a Lace cookie with coconut or a Pepperidge Farm Brussels cookie. The pistachio cookie was domed and foul. Whole Foods needs to have a list of their cookie bar cookies somewhere. When I google these cookies the only things I’m finding is a person on facebook trying to recreate one of the cookie recipes for a wedding chat group or someone posting a picture of the cookie on pinterest.
ALAFAJOR RECIPE
Gold Ganache
Cream: 675g
Sugar: 1200g
Gold Chocolate: 825g
Butter: 180g
Salt: 12g
Make a dry caramel with the sugar. Add cream in four parts until smooth. Let bubble. Pour caramel through a fine mesh over the chocolate, butter, and salt and mix. Pour onto a half sheet with silpat. Wrap with plastic and chill.
Dough
Cornstarch: 2004g
Flour: 1536g
Baking Powder: 60g
Salt: 48g
Butter: 1692g
Sugar: 1632g
Yolks: 660g
Vanilla: 100g
Cream butter and sugar on low speed. Emulsify yolk and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Roll out dough to about ¼” thickness and chill on a sheet tray. Cut out 2.75” circles and bake at 325 for 11 minutes, rotating halfway through. Using a piping bag to pipe gold ganache in the center of the bottom side of half of the cookies and sandwich them together.
January 22, 2026 (Thursday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: A bowl of bran flakes with milk.
11am: A slice of seeded Forbidden Rice sourdough with Isigny Ste Mère Beurre d’Isigny.
I thought I broke all my teeth when I bit down on a salt crystal. Bread was fine. It’s purple.
1pm: A handful of rippled potato chips and half of a bottle of GT’s Trilogy kombucha.
6pm: Beef stew with carrots, onions, and peas, made at home.
BEEF STEW
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 pound of chuck roast, cubed
1.5 white onions, chunked
3 large carrots, cut obliquely
1 heaping cup of frozen green peas
6 cloves of garlic
¼ cup tomato paste
1 cup of Her Sauvignon Blanc
½ teaspoon of Gustiamo Oregano di Pantelleria
1 handful of thyme stems
2 bay leaves
1 quart of chicken stock
1 tablespoon worcester sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
7pm: Half of a can of lemon lime Culture Pop and a raspberry pie cookie from Whole Foods.
Bought this for a shirley temple float because this was the only lemon lime soda option at Whole Foods and it was better than Poppy wasn’t going to do the job. Last ingredient is cardamom extract which neither of us could taste. My TV only plays shirley temple Poppi ads. Raspberry pie cookie was a plain short bread base topped with raspberry jam, which is topped with a uniform cinnamon streusel, and half dipped in a white chocolate glaze. The semi dip in white chocolate made them all look broken. This tasted like a crunchy Entemann’s raspberry danish. I also tried a pecan cookie which looks like a Keebler Danish wedding cookie or a mexican wedding cookie but it didn’t taste as good or have as airy of a texture; more of a dry ass anise Italian cookie vibe.
January 23, 2026 (Friday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home, and a bowl of bran flakes with milk.
10:30am: Leftover fried rice and a can of Blue Bottle cold brew with creamer at the office.
Cake room: NYT Page-a-day recipes for White Bean, Rice, and Dill Soup and Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad. Lunch spread coworker was eating a whole carrot, microwavable bowl of rice, black beans, and corn, and a bag of kettle potato chips. Another coworker ate a tupperware container of grapes (pre-wine) which they also packed in a lunch box. Last week they packed a zip log back of sliced peppers. Piggly wiggly used to be around me but they are all Food Lions now. There was a piggly wiggly in Creedmore that had a giant hole in the ground and instead of fixing it they would just push all the trash and dirt into it and you had to navigate around it.
4pm: Potato chip crumbs.
6pm: Leftover macaroni and cheese.
7pm: Blue Bell Cherry Vanilla ice cream with ginger ale.
January 24, 2026 (Saturday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
12:30pm: Jasmine tea, dan dan noodles, cumin lamb with cilantro stems, onions, and green peppers, white rice, Japanese style crispy tofu with ground pork, and soup dumplings at Taipei 101 in Cary, North Carolina.
There is a Di Fara pizza in Cary that has terrible reviews.
4pm: A Hershey’s strawberry cream filled heart, a strawberry filled Hershey’s kiss, and a Hershey’s pink cookies ‘n’ creme heart.
6pm: A chocolate covered pumpkin chocolate mousse cookie from Whole Foods.
January 25, 2026 (Sunday)
9am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home, leftover beef stew, and Stacy’s parmesan and garlic pita chips.
1pm: Chili, Jif cornbread with salted butter, a small pour of Merlot, and chocolate chip cookies with walnuts at Brian’s parents’ house.
Brian has been losing his mind because his mother wants us to come over and eat chili for the winter storm. He said “great idea, let’s load up on chili right before we lose access to our toilets”.
3pm: Microwave popcorn at Brian’s parents’ house.
5:30pm: A pour of Duchesse de Bourgogne Flemish red ale and half of a raspberry checkerboard cookie from Whole Foods.
Raspberry cookie makes me want a rainbow cookie.
Per Wikipedia: The name of the beer is meant to honour Duchess Mary of Burgundy, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, who was born in Brussels in 1457 and died in a horse riding accident in 1482.