Best of 2017

2017 was an eventful year filled with a sista wedding, moving to a new city with a new job, saying goodbye to my grandma and my childhood home, witnessing the solar eclipse and many tasty adventures. Here are some highlights from twenty-seventeen:

Best of 2017:

Best Meal: The six course meal I enjoyed at the now closed Oxheart in Houston was a delight. Each dish was so flavorful, creative and so beautifully plated. 

Best Food Adventure: The parents took me to the Korean bar, Hanshin Pocha, to enjoy Korean bar food out in the burbs of Chicago. They offer bar delights like spicy chicken feet and intestine with garlic but my parents and I were more conservative with our order. I keep dreaming about the scorched rice in seafood soup we ate. So flavorful and so comforting. I can't wait to go back for more, especially since it's so cold out now! 

Craziest Bite: Barbecue Burnt Ends Ice Cream from Betty Rae's in Kansas City. Sweet and tangy and delicious--somehow it actually worked well as an ice cream flavor. 

Best New Kitchen Gadget: My food pro that I bought early in 2017. It made life so much easier since I didn't have to use my tiny mini chopper to do what a big food processor should have done. And I could not have made my favorite baked item this year without it (see below) 

Best New Baked Recipe: The rugelach I made earlier this month were so addicting, in both sweet and savory forms. 

Best New Cooking Adventure: Homemade hummus also made possible with my new food processor. Labor intensive but well worth the time and so delicious with toppings. 

Newest Obsessions: Can you believe I tried avocado toast for the first time this year? It was love at first bite and quickly became my breakfast every day this fall. My favorite combo is sourdough bread, sunny side up egg, everything bagel seasoning, feta and Frank's Hot sauce. 

I also became obsessed with making onigiri after buying a mold at my local Asian market. It was a quick way to make lunch or a snack. And I was even gifted a panda onigiri shaper for my birthday---so adorable yet so hard to cut out the seaweed with the mold.

Best Cupcake: My favorite cupcake of 2017 was actually the first one I consumed of the year back in February. Tout Suite in Houston had the most delectable, perfectly baked little cakes I've eaten in a long time. 

2017 By the Numbers:

50 blog posts

14 cupcakes eaten

9 different taco places visited in Houston (with multiple trips to several)

5 baseball games attended (only one non-Cubs game)

2 trips taken to visit friends (San Antonio and Charlottesville)

2 cities lived in