Warm Salad with Avocado and Crispy Bacon

Sometimes when I feel like I don't have time to cook dinner, Mihai steps in and often comes up with something new and delicious. Case in point is this salad with avocado, bacon, radishes, tomatoes, mâche, and shallot vinaigrette dressing:



This yummy and filling salad was inspired by a similar salad on thepassionatecook, but Mihai made his own variation by using mâche instead of spinach, tomatoes instead of mushrooms and gorgonzola, and red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar in the dressing. I must say I was impressed by both his willingness to improvise with what we had at home and the scrumptious result.

Weekend Getaway to NYC

Thanks to Boston's Patriots' Day on Monday, MIT's student holiday on Tuesday, and the fact that I have no class on Fridays this semester, Mihai and I got away to NYC for the long weekend. Needless to say, the four days we had there were dedicated to seeing friends and going out to delicious meals.

We started off Friday night by going to Trestle on Tenth (with a few of Mihai's froworkers) and later Against The Grain (where Mihai had been to multiple times but I mysteriously never made it to). Saturday we split up for brunch: I went to Apiary with college roommates and Mihai went to Yuca with another Princeton friend. Saturday dinner was at The Harrison, where I had a cucumber-y tequila drink I actually enjoyed so much so that we had to ask the waitress for the kind of tequila they used (Sauza Silver). My olive-oil poached cod was delicious as well, as were everyone's entrees (lamb chop, pork chop, and calf's liver).

Sunday brunch was had at Clinton Street Baking Co, after a 2+ hour wait - we blamed the nice weather for having to wait the originally quoted time. And Sunday dinner featured Aquabites at Aquagrill, along with more fantastic seafood (truffle-encrusted cod, lobster/grapefruit/avocado salad, oysters). On Monday we stopped by WorkSmart Labs and were treated to lunch there as well, and visited Kefi's new and much expanded location for dinner. Finally, we treated ourselves to omakase sashimi lunch at Sushi Yasuda before catching the train to back to Boston.

All in all, a most fun weekend hanging out with many friends and eating many delicious meals, not to mention multiple sightings of cute golden retrievers, such as Creampuff here: