The RoundUp: May 2022
May was such a fun month! It really felt like the kickstart of summer and I got to spend it with all of my favorite people.
Favorite Foodie Things:
Han Palace opened a second location in Woodley Park at the start of May! It is so exciting to have a dim sum place/Chinese food within an 8 minute walk of our apartment. (Good and maybe a bit dangerous). It was very good, but if you are looking for a lot of dumplings, push carts, and a great price, this is probably not the place for you. I am excited to return back for dinner vs. dim sum brunch.
You’ll read more about this below, but I went to Mexico for a friend’s bachelorette party in the very beginning of May and I was reintroduced to papaya! In Mexico we ate it for breakfast with Tajin but when I got home, I found some pretty decent papaya at Whole Foods and made some very delicious papaya smoothies. (Papaya, frozen mango, frozen strawberries, vanilla protein powder and almond milk).
If you haven’t gotten yourself Ali Slagle’s new cookbook, I Dream of Dinner; So You Don’t Have To, what the heck are you doing?! We made her recipe for the Sesame Chicken Meatballs (page 262) and holy moly they were easy and so packed with flavor.
Another great recipe we tried from a new-ish book was the Coconut Shrimp with Crushed Chickpeas & Basil (page 106) from Molly Baz’s Cook This Book. I truthfully had been overlooking that recipe because I thought the shrimp and chickpea combo was a bit weird, but it really just tasted like a curry. I would recommend serving it over rice!
We also made Half Baked Harvest’s Brazilian Inspired Honey Garlic Shrimp and it was so delicious!! We made it without the plantain because we couldn’t find it at the grocery store, but we added some crispy shallots. It was an easy meal to prepare and packed with so much flavor!
For my partners 30th birthday (part 1) we finally went to Izakaya Seki for dinner and it.was.incredible. I cannot believe it took us this long to get there. It is located in a very cute brownstone, has amazing service and outstanding food. We can’t wait to get back! (ASAP)!
For my partners 30th birthday celebration (part 2), we obviously celebrated at Le Diplomate and tried their lobster frites for the first time, let’s just say it did not disappoint!
Again, I know I am very late to this party, but I finally tried the Truff hot sauces! They are super yummy and have the perfect balance of spice to truffle ratio!
I found this recipe for Crispy Chicken with Za’atar Olive Rice in the April edition of Bon Appetit magazine and it was super delicious one-pot meal. We got fresh ground chicken from the farmers market and some rainbow chard as well!
I finally bought a rice cooker and it is really life changing. I decided to make the purchase after a couple annoying instances of really messing up my rice- this takes the guess work right out of it! I got a Tenavo rice cooker from amazing and it was well priced with good reviews!
Other Things That Made Me Happy:
I started off May VERY strong with a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (with LA on either side) and it was so so fun. You can read all about that trip here.
While on my trip to Cabo/LA I read two books that I really enjoyed and that are also not normally books I gravitate towards but I wanted something light for the trip. The first one was a romance thrilled called the Golden Couple and while I won’t give anything away, I loved that it was set in DC and I really didn’t see the ending coming. The second one was People We Meet on Vacation and it was a love story with some twists and turns.
My May was also wrapped up beautifully with a Memorial Day Trip to Gibson Island, MD, which is about an hour and fifteen from DC and about 40 minutes from Annapolis. We spent the weekend riding golf carts, eating seafood, going on long morning walks, and with puppies galore and it was perfect!
I discovered the Everlane swim suits this month and when I say you should run to go buy one, you should sprint! They are a great material and the cut is super flattering. Not to mention they are at a great price point.
What’s Up with Len:
