Eating My Feelings

Sunday, March 02, 2014

How does one get through over a dozen snowstorms in one winter? Indulging in plenty of heartwarming, delicious food is one way to go. One thing that sets winter above the summer is that it is just so damn good to eat through it. Call it nature encouraging you to pack on a little extra padding for warmth or call it eating your feelings—it just works.

Tops on my favorite winter comford food are a piping hot bowl of ramen and a generous serving of steak. Both taste even better as rewards for a day of hard work. This bowl of Ippudo Akamaru Modern ramen was my pre-game for a long afternoon of studying, while that plate of l'entrecote at Le Relais de Venise was a wonderful treat in the middle of a busy workday.

How lovely is it to sit with a freshly baked pastry and a beautiful cup of coffee on a chilly winter day? Both just seem so much more enjoyable with a side of Polar Vortex. This monkey bread from Du Jour Bakery in Park Slope made me all warm and fuzzy inside, while that pretty little macchiato from Pennylane gave me wings.

New York brunches are good any time of the year, but during winter, I feel like I have carte blanche to go for the hearty stuff. Exhibit A: Du Jour's corned beef hash with fingerling potatoes and a poached egg. Exhibit B: The Dutch's shrimp and kimchi fried rice with two eggs and grilled pork belly. Oh my.

Also great in freezing temps: food with a kick! Khe-Yo, a Laosian spot in Tribeca, has got me under its spicy, coconut rice dappled spell. The unctuous bone marrow topped with steak tartare, fresh mint and hefty fried sunchoke chips made me feel all happy and tingly inside (which may or may not just be my veins constricting but pshh). And the chili prawns with that addictive feiry sauce will have you mopping up every last bit off the plate with the ginger scallion toast.

What I like to think of as my reward for putting up with this crazy winter (and perhaps saving a baby unicorn in another life) is discovering I have a jaw-droppingly good Italian joint literally right around the corner. Sociale is a rather new neighbor in Brooklyn Heights but it's become one of my favorite spots. I've had fantastic pasta dishes and a beautiful branzino here, but for a chilly night, I would recommend also cozying up with some of their polenta and that peculiar sounding but super yummy pumpkin dessert, the Catalana di Zucca. This kind of food just warms the heart, I tell ya.

All these good eats bring me to the ultimate silver lining to this long and pesky winter: the bulky and cozy winter layers this weather requires are certainly far more forgiving to indulgence than bikini weather! If we have to put up with yet another 6-12 inches of snow, we have that little bit of consolation, at least ...