From New Jersey to the Big Apple: Eating at ‘Home’ and Out on the Town

Man, I’ve been on some cool trips this year! Colorado … Paso … and most recently, New Jersey and New York City. Now, don’t roll your eyes when I say “New Jersey.” ‘Cause you know who lives there? FBE co-founder and my very good bud Erin!


I’ve been recounting my workouts and overall trip for Brooks Running over on Fit Bottomed Girls recently, but I had to share a few of my eats. Because, people, I ate — and drank well.
Let’s start with this awesome dinner that Erin and I had out at Stage House Tavern. She started with a ginormous arugula salad; I ordered a beet salad that came in this pretty formed shape. It totally fed my beet obsession.

This was, of course, had with a glass of wine. (I apologize for the blurry photo!)

Main course was the special of the night: Arctic Char with sauteed greens and an enormous helping of whipped potatoes that were DELICIOUS. (And, hey, if this is how people in Jersey eat, then I am all about Jersey!)

Another foodie highlight of the trip? Cooking at home. And, really, staying at Erin’s house is pretty much the best thing ever. We practically share a brain, so it’s no wonder that I feel right at home there. Plus, she and her hubby Alan are darn good hosts.

One night for dinner, we (and by “we,” I mean Alan) grilled flank steak.

And Erin made the best roasted veggies and potatoes. Girlfriend is smart. In order to get them to all go in the grill basket at the same time, she microwaved the potatoes ahead of time so that they didn’t take as long. Brilliant! I’ll be stealing that trick.

I made a quick dish of curried mashed sweet potatoes with peas, and I helped make the chimmichurri sauce that was delicious with the steak. Talk about a homemade feast!

To go with dinner, Alan picked us up a bottle of Project Paso wine. Apparently me talking about Paso all the time (sorry ya’ll!) inspired him. This cab was super good.

And it had the coolest cork-stopper thingie!

That next morning, it was coffee with a homemade omelette. Lox and goat cheese for me, please!

After breakfast, it was time for me to hit the big city for my trip with Brooks Running. So I said good-bye to Erin, Alan and their super-cute kiddos (miss you!) and was off.

The rest of the trip was kind of a whirlwind — lunch with our literary agent, tea with our book editor and publicity team (we wrote a book!), and lots of other random nibbles here and there, plus a couple of fantastic dinners out with my fellow Brooks Running bloggers. But one of my favorite meals was brunch at Sarabeth’s on Central Park South.

It was lovely. Made me want to sip tea with my pinkie up. (Obviously that’s what you do when you’re feeling fancy.)

I started with the fruit bowl, which was the size of my face.

And I continued on with, apparently, all of the things because, dude. Look at this amount of food. Egg scramble, apple sausage (with the most amazing jam), and yep, those things at the far left? Those were my breakfast potatoes. Thank goodness we ran earlier that morning! (And a big thanks to all the other bloggers and Brooks Running people who were so delightful to be with for this feast!)

Once my brunch food coma wore off later in the day, I met up with the lovely Margo (aka Brooklyn Fit Chick).

Seeing as I had, like, five cups of coffee at Sarabeth’s, we picked Fit Fuel as our place to catch up.

I ordered Popeye’s Arms. It was exactly what I needed — and waaay green. Just broccoli, celery, parsley, spinach and cucumber. Refreshing!

Oh, and two other fun drinks to point out that I enjoyed while going from here to there … First, I love me some Mamma Chia (great before and after a run!).

And second, I picked this up at LaGuardia before my flight, and it was perfection. I usually don’t like my coffee sweet, but this was a great treat. Plus, coconut water is healthy, right?

I was only gone for a handful of nights, but this trip felt like I crammed just about as much possible into a short visit. And, really, it was such a nice mix of being at “home” while also trying new things and hanging out with a bunch of different people. All in all, a success!

Tell me: When you travel, do you try to cram in as many new eats as your stomach will allow? Or do you prefer to kick back and cook when and where you can? —Jenn