My Year in Food

The road of life is filled with food, family, and friends and I've had plenty of all three so far this year.

I have to warn you all beforehand - this particular post is both pretty disjointed and image heavy. But I've had so much good stuff that I can't really bear to leave anything out 😋

Let's get started!

Carnitas Quesadilla from The Taco Shop @ Underdogs

I began the year with a visit with two important friends. I've made a lot of friends online over the years who have become extremely important to me and it's always a joy and an amazement to actually get to meet with them in the flesh.

Custard Brioche from a Chinese bakery

Of course, spending time with friends means a lot of food. (Not that I'm complaining.)

I got to actually try hot pot for the first time! Somehow I've just never had the chance before? Everything was absolutely delicious and I ate a lot of tteok because I've wanted to try it for so long 💕 This was our chosen spread at Fiery Hot Pot.

Tonkatsu Curry Rice from Kui Shin Bo - because no trip is complete without it. 🍛

We rounded off the visit with Burma Superstar. I've never had Burmese food and I got to take home the extras and enjoy it a second time.

We had:
Fiery Vegetables with Tofu and Coconut Rice (pictured left)

Vegetarian Samusa Soup (bottom left)

Tea Leaf Salad (bottom right)

After returning home, my mom and I set out to make Manti from a recipe a cousin had given us. I love any chance we have to bring more Armenian food into our home and I greatly enjoyed making it.

We made two types of homemade bread sticks to go along with it: za'atar and butter garlic. Delicious 😋

For my birthday, we stopped by Red Robin. I had the Smoke & Pepper burger and was surprised with a birthday ice cream sundae 🍔🍨

But I didn't stop there...

No birthday goes without a homemade dessert - full of love and chocolate 💕

French Pudding Milk Tea from T4

I started off February with boba with friends and ended it with more homemade desserts with my family.

These are chocolate dipped cannoli cupcakes and they are probably my favorite thing in the whole world now 🤤

Starting in March it was time for adventure! I went to visit my sisters in Pennsylvania and new places always means food.

Cheese strudel from The Original Strudel Factory

Farmer Brown burger from Burgatory

Biscuits & Gravy from Barb's Corner Kitchen

One place I frequented quite a lot was Burgatory. I'm typically not as fond of sweet potatoes but their sweet potato chips may have convinced me otherwise. (Please come to California oh my god.)

Steak with chimichurri sauce, garlic butter mashed potatoes, and salad with lime vinigrette

I was also lucky to have the opportunity to have dinner at my sister's house. I don't get to see her often so being able to visit her and her family and have a wonderful home cooked meal at their table felt a little like a blessing. I hope I'll get to see them again soon ❤️

And of course my younger sister insisted that we had to make a visit to Piper's Pub for Fish and Chips and her new favorite: Scotch Eggs.

Then it was back home to California for more exploits in homemade food.

Here's our curiously flat bread and our homemade butter!

And here we have my first experiment with replicating cinnamon honey butter. I didn't quote nail it but on a piece of pain au lait it definitely hit the spot.

Coxinha from Tempero do Samba

One of my favorite things about any city is getting the chance to visit the farmer's market. There just so happened to be a Brazilian stall one weekend and I had my first taste of Brazilian food - delicious! (And huge!)

Carne Asada Breakfast Burrito from The Taco Shop @ Underdogs

...back to SF means back to The Taco Shop! (It's a nice breakfast stop because it keeps me full all day. These burritos are real big.)

Now, to explain this, I'll have to tell a little story: I've seen Texas toast before and every time I did, I would always want to try it. Well, we just so happened to find thick cut white bread at the grocery story. But did we make Texas toast with it? No - we decided to try out French toast instead.

This was a fantastic idea.

Our French toast came out soft and melty and creamy and I'm telling you now that there's no other way I'm going to each French toast again.

The beach is synonymous with a lot of things for me but when I think about my family and the beach, I think of Morro Bay. And Morro Bay means fish and chips above the water, looking out at Morro rock. Each year we're sure to take a trip out for dinner at Giovanni's and it's absolutely one of the things I look forward to when we go.

During a quick train trip to LA, this cranberry apple tea kept me company.

Thai tea from Thai Cuisine II

You wouldn't know it just from this photo, but this was the night my best friend graduated. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner to celebrate 🎉

Kit-Kat gelato from Aldo's

Summer = hot = cool treats. It all adds up. So when I saw a kit-kat gelato, I had to get it in honor of my new kitten, KitKat.

I had no choice, right?

Well, either way, it was delicious and made the walk worth it.

Strawberry peach smoothie from Barista's

I typically tend to stay away from coffee shops because unfortunately - shock of all shocks - I don't actually like coffee. But when there's smoothies on the menu? Well, that's another story!

Chocolate Blast from Baskin Robbins

I mentioned it before right? Hanging out with friends means eating a lot. After a rousing round of bowling, we congratulated our abysmal skills with a stop for ice cream.

(Clockwise starting from top right: ) Double chocolate, Vanilla, Lemon Cheesecake Wafer, and Twix

And finally, to round off August, we picked up some cupcakes from a local bakery for my mom's birthday ♡

A lot of things have happened so far this year and I'm braced for what the rest of this year, as well as next year, brings for me. But through everything, I'm trying to keep my chin up and I know that I've got my family and friends to help keep me afloat. And, no matter what, a meal with someone who loves you can do wonders for the soul.

Have a lovely day, everyone ♡