First, you order coffee:

Seconds after you order your meal, this arrives:

Along with this:

And this, too:

Just trying it all out, not even eating all of it, and it’s like, “I’m full.” But then the dish you ordered arrives (chicken pot pie for breakfast? Uh, Hell Yeah!), and you’re damn well going to make room for it:

And this, too. You KNEW you when you ordered, before all the pickles and bread and beets arrived, that you weren’t going to have room for this no matter what, but there was no way you could pass up a side of Potato Salad.

Not only that, but you’re going to help yourself to your tablemate’s steak fries that towered over her grilled-cheese sandwich.

Where is the picture of the cheesecake? Whimped out. Failure, I know. But if at first you don’t succeed… You know the drill. Of course we’ll be back. It’s a tradition!

When someone makes microwaveable popcorn in the office, I usually think two things: 1) that both the microwave AND the microwaveable popcorn cause cancer and 2) I really want some of that, even though I always eat too much and then feel a little sick to my stomach afterwards.

There is a better way: Make it fresh at home. Pop a plentiful helping of popping corn in a coverable pot, preferably a pot that has a glass lid. Use good olive oil. How much? After you’ve poured in the oil, maybe thinking you’ve put in too much, go back and add a little more. Once the popping corn is all popped, add sea salt. How much sea salt? When you think you’ve put in too much, add a little more. Making popcorn this way, I think one thing: 1) Delish!

I discovered Doubles (fried flat bread stuffed with curried chickpeas) on my last morning in Barbados. That is my one regret about the trip, because if I had known about Doubles earlier, I would have had one (or five) every morning, afternoon and evening each and every day. So damn delicious. Even more so while sitting on the beautiful beach looking out on the crystal clear blue ocean.

So as I was saying earlier on the 52projects.tumblr, I was craving a fish stick sandwich. I went out and bought fish sticks. Kinda pricey, actually, for just some breaded, frozen who-knows-where-this-fish-is-really-from pieces of “fish.” Anyway, also picked up a couple of fresh brioche buns. Whipped up some tartar sauce, ignoring the use of a recipe, just mixed up some mayo, diced pickle, salt, pepper, fresh lemon, capers and hot sauce. I didn’t bother to measure anything, but it worked out just fine. Sliced up some fresh tomato and onion, and BOOM, sandwich ready. It was fucking delicious.

From donut place in the Dominican Republic. I had one every day that I was there. Okay, I had two every day that I was there.

From the Cinnamon Snail vegan organic truck, the Makers Mark Street Food Challenge winner at the 2011 Vendy Awards. This donut was definitely one of the best things I ate at the Vendys this year.

From Dough at the Brooklyn Flea.

(Special note to The Slow Man: donut(s) ONLY on Saturday? That doesn’t seem like the proper way of the slow man…)

You can see ALL the past winners of the Vendys here.

Check out the 2010 Vendy Awards Finalists.

Dash and Bella is a great cooking blog with a focus on cooking with and for children. Wonderful recipes, writing and photos, and an overall excellent idea for a food/cooking site. Definitely worth checking out and bookmarking. (Found via the Knopf Doubleday Cooking site.)

This is a photo of the crowd at the very first Vendy Awards in 2005, which was held in a warehouse where vendors store their carts. The event sure has come a long way. It is now a veritable NYC institution. And The 2010 Vendy Awards takes place this Saturday at Governors Island. General admission tickets are sold out, but donor packages are still available. Check out the site for more details.