Current Obsessions

I have a fairly obsessive nature, which you may or may not realize. I get attached to something and basically eat or make it every day, every other day, it’s usually unreasonable regardless… and not all of it is food! Though a large portion of it is. Anyway, I’m a big believer of telling people about the things I like, and encouraging people to try them… not just to help spread the word, but also, how else can you figure out if you like the same things as me?

So here are a few things that are currently the focus of my attention – food and otherwise! Let me know if you try or have tried any and what you think!

Macaron ice cream sandwiches from Francois Payard Bakery (multiple locations; check website). The salted caramel is awesome, but so are the passion fruit cheesecake and pistachio raspberry flavors. $5 each – these are 1/3 of the sandwiches, the pictures are from a tasting I did and I didn’t want to eat 3 full ones. I should have though… SO GOOD.

I’m also loving – I don’t have a photo – Dannon Oikos Frozen Greek yogurt – chocolate. Honestly, I’m not really a plain chocolate ice cream person; I don’t recall the last time I ordered it or bought it. However, their PR company sent me a container and I found myself really digging it! It tastes like rich, decadent full fat chocolate ice cream, but is somehow better for you (high in protein? less fat? something like that, I’m sorry, I just ate the whole thing so fast I didn’t really think about it. It doesn’t taste chalky at all – my issue with cheap chocolate ice creams – and it just has this rich feel to it. LOVE.

I posted recently about Pomme Palais and their new summer menu, but I’ll be really honest with you: I go in there weekly to pick up a container of their delicious chocolate chip cookies; $8.25 for 8-9 in a tube. I’m also completely obsessed with their amazing gummy bears; they must use real fruit juice in them, and they are awesomely chewy, just great to keep on my desk at work and nibble on when my blood sugar dips a little into hangry territory. Or just stuff into my mouth-hole by the handful.

I’m also scarfing down Golden Rainier cherries by the poundful while the season lasts (it’s short). My local grocer has them sometimes for really cheap – I picked up TWO POUNDS FOR $3.99 today!! – but they’re worth the hefty price tag because they are so awesome.

I’m really into BBQ ribs right now and while I really liked Mighty Quinn’s, tell me where your favorites are so I can try them too!

Some non-food things I’m crazy into lately:

The band Hallelujah the Hills: their song “Try This Instead” on their latest album has been on repeat constantly both on my various music-listening devices and in my head. No joke. I like their album so much to the tune of moving my schedule around a bit and using what could have been my first opportunity for some real sleep and alone-time-at-home in a while and renting a car to drive up to Boston alone to be in their music video, driving around in a haze, then driving home to NYC, all in one day. I woke up at 5 after about 5 hours of sleep, and thought I was dreaming when I was in the car. Does that explain to you how much I like their music… and if you have $1 that you’d give me, please go buy that song. If you have $12, buy the whole album. It’s really good, and while I believe you’ll enjoy it, if you don’t – well, you just supported some independent artists, go you. (The link I shared above actually includes a link to listen to the whole song, so you can “try before you buy” – plus they are on Spotify as well.) OBSESSED. But not in a groupie way, because like, that’s gross.

And of course, how I even heard of them: I’ve been obsessively listening to Comedy Bang Bang, this great podcast that is hilarious… which led me to Improv4Humans, another great comedy podcast. One of the semi-recent episodes of I4H included HtH playing songs off their latest album, with the guests doing improv scenes inspired by the songs… and the rest is history.

Except! the reason I was even listening to CBB is because my friend Noah insisted I listen – to the tune of emailing me a bunch of links to various, specific episodes. And why did he do that? Because I was raving on Twitter about my latest favoritest TV show, Playing House on USA – FREAKING RENEW ALREADY!!! – which stars Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, who are side-splittingly funny and make me cry tears of joy and laughter every episode – and it turns out that both of these amazing ladies frequently appear as guests on CBB (and sometimes on I4H, but not enough, in my humblest of opinions).

It’s all connected.

Oh, also, the cold tan tan mian at Tabata is incredible. I had it twice in a week. That’s a lot of times for me, for one dish.

Last but not least: the oyster happy hour at Crave Fishbar is awesome, but go away because I’ll be there this week and don’t want you in my way… and the happy hour at Bombay Palace. $6 glasses of wine and free mini snack/apps? Yes please.

I have a wide variety of interests… what can I say? 😉

This summer, I’ve been pushing my limits: I’m incredibly stage-shy, thus my lack of acting experience (no, seriously). But this past weekend was the second time I’ve been filmed for something… hehe… I will definitely share when both videos are released. You can always follow me on Instagram to see more up-to-date photos of what I’m doing, or follow me on Twitter to hear my random thoughts and complaints, and last but not least, have I told you about the other projects of which I’m a part?

Midtown Lunch
Real Cheap Eats
Chowzter

… and you can find my food writing on all of those sites (except Chowzter may be a bit harder to figure out what’s mine and what isn’t under the NYC section; long story, I’m working on it!).

Thanks for being patient with me…

What are YOUR current obsessions, food and otherwise? Anything I need to check out?

xoxo