October is my favourite month of the year, and this year it was especially fun because I went to Miami on vacation and for my birthday! More on that and everything else from the month below:

  • My friend Jess’ friend Cazz was in town from NYC for a wedding, and she dipped out of the reception to meet us for drinks at Public Gardens, a new spot that our friend Kelly recommended. I had a Ginger Hugo Spritz and an Aperol Strawberry Sour and loved them both. All the food we saw going by our table also looked excellent, so I’ll definitely have to go back for dinner.
  • The next day we went to event with Yotam Ottolenghi at Roy Thompson Hall, as he’s on tour for his new cookbook, Comfort. I’ve been obsessed with him for ages, and always say the best dining experience of my life was at his restaurant Nopi in London. He was interviewed by Donna Dooher, and I loved listening to them talk about Yotam’s life, approach to cooking and what comfort food means to him. They also did a cooking demo and called Jess up on stage! Her dad had emailed Yotam’s team to arrange it in advance. Legendary.
  • After the event, we went to dinner at Danny’s Pizza Tavern, a place I’ve been dying to try for ages. Jess set up a family-style meal for us all beforehand, so we basically got to try almost the entire menu and so many of the pizzas. I loved everything, but the Cacio Pepe, Mushroom and Pepperoni pizzas were my fave.
  • Kristine and I took a quick trip to Miami (basically three days excluding travel days), and while we ate a lot at our hotel to maximize our beach time, there are three places I have to document here because they were outstanding:
  • The Taco Stand: There were a lot of taco places in Downtown Miami (where we hung out one day to go to a very cool outdoor art gallery), but when we popped into the Mejuri store, this is what the girls working there recommended. Kristine said this is the best al pastor she’s ever had! I had a Baja Taco, Pollo Asado and a Mushroom Taco, and the Mushroom Taco was definitely the best vegetarian taco I’ve ever had. I’m still dreaming about them.

  • True Loaf Bakery: Because I’m me, I have to go to at least one bakery in any city I’m in, and my googling led me here, True Loaf Bakery (cute!). I was in absolute heaven, and highly recommend it! We had sandwiches for brunch, and then I had a raspberry danish (you can see it in the pic) and bought a few other pastries to bring back to the hotel for room snacks.

  • Carbone: I knew I wanted my birthday dinner to be at Carbone, as I’ve heard about it for YEARS and always wanted to go (there are locations in NYC and Vegas as well). The reservations only open up a month in advance, so I had a reminder in my calendar for September 16 and snapped one right up! Carbone is a VIBE, we loved everything! We had the Caesar alla ZZ, which is their Caesar salad that’s tossed very dramatically tableside, and features gigantic croutons absolutely soaked in butter, and then I had the Spicy Rigatoni Vodka and Kristine had the Tortellini al Ragu and all our pasta dreams came true.

  • A couple of my friends and I have a pact to work our way through all the new restaurants in The Well, and first up at the end of this month was La Plume, a gorgeous French restaurant. We shared their rotisserie chicken, a roasted cauliflower salad and burrata with beets, radicchio and rhubarb.
  • I’m so spoiled because Georgia brought doughnuts from Crave into the office for a belated birthday treat! We tried six flavours and my fave was French Toast.
  • Now here’s my regular recipe round-up for the month:
  • Stuff I made from the archives: Kale & Couscous Salad (the obsession is REAL)
  • Some of my favourite go-to dishes: Sweet Potato Burger Bowls & Huevos Rancheros (no real recipes for either of these!)
  • New things that I tried and liked: Cherry Tomato, Spinach & Couscous Stuffed Peppers, Peanut-Tahini Noodles and Avocado Grape Kale Salad with Peanut-Tahini Dressing (recipes are in the the new Ambitious Kitchen cookbook which I checked out of the library to test out before I bought it), Turkey Enchilada Skillet (new obsession! this is SO good!)

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with last month:

  • Kristine and I splurged and stayed at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and it was epic; it’s right on the beach, which was gorgeous, plus has multiple pools to hang out at. It’s a little far from Ocean Drive and Downtown, but that’s the trade off for being on the beach (which I wanted more than anything!).
  • Highlights of the non-foodie things we did: checked out Wynwood Walls (this is an outdoor art gallery that we loved) and went to see Jimmy Buckets and the Heat play Wemby and the Spurs. The whole point of the trip was to go see Usher in concert, but sadly it got cancelled because of a hurricane the week before. Next time Usher!
  • I had a pretty epic month of reading and it included two books that I think will end up on my 2024 Top 5. The first one I read in Miami, which was The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. I just love a juicy family drama, and this one was the best one I’ve read since Hello Beautiful (and is coincidentally also about a family with four sisters). The next one was recommended to me by a friend of a friend who assured me that while it was a mystery, it wouldn’t give me nightmares: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. Loved this one when went back and forth in time and unraveled the mystery from multiple character POVs. I also loved The Husbands, which has a quirky premise, but was super entertaining.

Flashback!