At most of the parties I attended in Hawaii, mai tais were served in abundance. The drink, made from rum, Curaçao liqueur, and lime juice—certainly looks very nice with a pink orchid on top.

The best thing in the way of food, hands down, is the poke. There are tiny little shops that sell nothing but dozens of varieties of this cold, raw seafood specialty. The best one is made from fresh tuna (ahi) but there are lot of other yummy varieties, like octopus, for those of you’re trying to avoid eating too much mercury (which we all should).

Hawaiians like their food greasy and in big portions—something a health-conscious vegetarian like myself might have a hard time with. By my third or fourth day there I was frantically googling health food stores where I could find a nice organic salad bar and some green juice. I had to walk 40 minutes to get there, but then almost cried from happiness when I exited Down to Earth Foods with a green salad, a wheatgrass shot and two green juices (had to get one for later too!)

It’s amazing how spoiled we get about food in NYC, everything is available whenever we want it.

Making plans to meet a friend for drinks tonight and thinking of good casual spots to have a beer. One place I like is Spitzer’s Corner on the Lower East Side (101 Rivington St).

Lots of beers on tap, good wines and some perfectly tasty pubgrub, including truffled mac and cheese, one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

These pics are from a holiday party I went to there about a month ago.

I’m also ready to chop a few inches off my hair, by the way.

On my birthday I was treated to lunch at a Mexican place, I think it was called Mama Mexico.

One thing about Midtown is that there are not many good lunch options, besides takeout (which totally goes against my idea of going out for lunch).

There are a few other good Mexicans, and Indians and Thais. This one was a bit overpriced, but the food was good and the atmosphere was cute and colorful.

I had ceviche. Love love love ceviche!

Best of all, they had a guy that came to your table to prepare fresh guacamole!

Santa, can I please have a guy that comes to my house and makes fresh guacamole whenever I want?

On a cold night, I love to escape to a crazy beach shack ragtag place called Surf Bar.

You can’t miss it, it’s on N 6th, off Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, inside the corrugated metal entrance that is plastered with stickers and has a thatched roof.

The floor is covered with sand, and surf boards (some for sale) hang from the ceiling.

There’s really good clam chowder (or chowda’) that you can order served in a bread bowl. You can also order blueberry beer or tiki drinks served in large glasses shaped like hula girls.

The menu is fairly extensive, with lots of fish and seafood. They claim to have the best lobster roll in NYC, which is not true (although it is very good).

Last time I also discovered that Surf Bar also serves Glögg, a fine Swedish traditional beverage (Americans would know it better as mulled wine). That would almost be like having a cup of hot Glögg on a beach, which seems kind of great.

Surf Bar is on 139 North 6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Check it out!

Getting a year older feels less bad when you’re company of loved ones… and wine.

My man had chosen Public as the site of my birthday celebrations.

It’s a great little place on Elizabeth Street in Soho. The decor is inspired by municipal buildings from the 1930s and they have a Michelin Star.

My aunt and uncle are here from Sweden and were nice enough to treat me to this gorgeous dinner. Lucky birthday girl…

There was kangaroo on the menu, but we did not have that. Instead, I had amazing scallops and a beet gnudi (pronounced “nudie” — which seemed very funny at the time) pasta.

Delicious fried oysters, which I did not order either but snuck a taste of. It also just happened to be the most photogenic dish.

We had bubbly, white and red — all my favorite kinds of wines.

At the end of the meal I got this cute little box of chocolates — nice birthday perk.

What do you do when your birthday is on a Monday? Go to the Monday Room! Which happens to be in the same space as Public.

It’s cozy and they have scotch and menus made from cow skins — which was kind of sad — I couldn’t stop petting ours.

There is also a nice wine tasting menu, but we opted instead for a glass each before we hopped in a cab back home, across the Williamsburg Bridge.

Public is on 210 Elizabeth Street.

For southern home cooking and a good dose of genuine atmosphere, Fort Defiance in Red Hook is a good lunch or brunch tip.

Red Hook is one of those very New York-y neighborhoods that you can’t really reach by public transit (unless you count the IKEA bus, because this is where the furniture giant is as well). Maybe because of that, it’s got a very unique character, and many good restaurants (and wine shops).

I had a very good sandwich, and a classic New York drink — an egg cream (which, curiously, contains neither egg nor cream but is a mix of seltzer, milk and chocolate syrup).

Fort Defiance is on 365 Van Brunt Street (at the corner of Dikeman), in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Check it out!

I find it very hard to find good food in airports, but when I do I get so excited it almost makes up for the rest of the travel hassle.

Leave it to the English to have the best airport food ever.

I find this kind of ironic since the Brits aren’t really known for their sophisticated culinary tastes, but this veggie dumpling soup and crawfish sandwich were both delicious.

The place was called Eat and had a nice backstory. Great discovery.

When unearthing the body of Ötzi, the Bronze Age man found perfectly preserved in the Italian Alps in the 90s, scientists found that for his last meal he had eaten an ancient species of wheat called einkorn.

I’ve been dreaming about Jovial’s einkorn pasta since Friday. These making-of photos may have something to do with that. Yummm.

Get the whole story here.

Friday night, I went to a dinner party at the Art Director’s club. It was really the afterparty for The Feast Conference. I could not attend but followed it via livestreaming all day. The theme for the dinner was fall.

There was lots of yummy food by local purveyors. Really good fish, bread, cheeses and, served inside those tiny orange pumpkins, the best pumpkin soup I’ve ever had.

There was banjos, laughs and dancing.

And a pretty Mezcal table.

The people who had donated the food were very excited to talk about it, none more so that the wine guys, who jumped up onto a table.

Each table had colored pencils, for brainstorming worldchanging ideas. We did mostly girly doodles, but who says love can’t change the world?

At ten, it was time to go home. All week, I had waited for the moment when I would be home, in my bed, knowing I could just sleep in and not have to get up early the next morning. It was divine.

Went to the amazing Taste of Greenmarket event with my friend Destin Layne last week. Besides heaps of awesome local, organic gourmet food (and beer & wine, of course), they had a cool photo booth. Complete with veggie props!

Now, we both looked really cute, except not in the same shot. So I did what any good (and somewhat self-serving) friend would do — cut my less-than-flattering face out of her good shot and vice versa.

One thing’s for sure. Chicks totally dig veggies (and apples)! Oh, and I accidentally stole a fork and a spoon, oops.