Best of 2015

In 2015 I ate a lot of really good food and took a lot of mediocre pictures of it :) I still wanted to share some of my favorites with you! As an extra bonus, I'm also going to share some of the organizations that have disrupted the social sector and moved and inspired me in 2015. Here ya go!

I have a long list of orgs that inspire me, but here are 3 that I discovered in 2015 that made me think about issues in new ways, made me think about solutions in new ways, and generally kept me inspired.

Hot Bread Kitchen

www.hotbreadkitchen.org

Why?

Hot Bread Kitchen is the perfect combination of everything I love-- the culinary industry, fighting poverty, empowering women, preserving culture, and social enterprise. HBK operates a nonprofit bakery in Spanish Harlem serving up traditional breads from all around the world. While preserving their traditions through baking the bread of their families and home countries, the immigrant women and men who work at HBK are given the opportunity to professionalize their culinary passions, and are trained in English and basic managerial skills. Many go on to work in the best kitchens in NYC! I love HBK because it creates long-term financial security for immigrant men and women, and through their bakery sales, they are able to support 67% of their own operations!

Shop HBK Breads: https://hotbreadkitchen.org/shop/

Donate: https://hotbreadkitchen.org/support/

Visit them in NY here!

Advance Care Planning Decisions

www.acpdecisions.org

Why?

Since I started working at the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute in 2014, I've been working on an initiative called Conversation of a Lifetime, which aims to bring advance care planning conversations to NJ communities and ultimately change the way NJ does end-of-life care. NJ has the second worst end-of-life care in the country. It's extremely expensive; it's traumatic and taxing on families; and, people don't get the kind of care they want. Most 22 year olds don't think about death or end-of-life care, but because of Conversation of a Lifetime, I've realized very quickly that we don't die the way we used to. We live a lot longer, which means we are very likely to end up in a hospital at some point near the end of our lives. If we don't talk to our families, friends, and physicians early in life (even at 22!) about what quality of living means to us, what our preferences for end-of-life care are, what's important to us at the end-of-life, we will get a lot of things done to us that we don't want. Don't take my word-- just look at the facts. The majority of people want to die at home, but over 70% die in the hospital.

Dr. Angelo Volandes is someone whose work is truly changing this statistic. His non-profit organization, Advance Care Planning Decisions, empowers patients and families with video support tools. Patients who watch his short videos have much more accurate knowledge about end-of-life care, and therefore make much more informed decisions and can indicate their preferences to their families and physicians.

I know it's a topic most of us don't think about often, but I've found that everything I've read on it doesn't depress me; it makes me reflect on my life, my quality of life, and what's important to me regardless of age. Check out Dr. Volandes' book!

Watch some of their videos here!

Aunt Bertha

www.auntbertha.com

Why?

There should be one place where you can find all of the health and social services available to you in your area, right? Enter Aunt Bertha. Aunt Bertha is building the country's most comprehensive online directory of social service organizations so that every person can go to one place online during a time of need. Type in your zip code and you will find all the organizations near you that deal with food, housing, health, money, care, education, work, and legal issues. It's pretty amazing and tremendously useful.

Another really cool thing about it is that in addition to empowering users, they empower social service organizations through data and technology. As someone who works with municipalities everyday, the need for Aunt Bertha is so clear to me, and it's crazy to that a service like Aunt Bertha didn't exist until recently. It's a really simple concept, but truly revolutionary.

Try it out yourself here!

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I should probably just call this "pictures of ice cream I ate in 2015," but here are some of the best things I tried in 2015!

The Queso Fundido at Agave in Lewes, Delaware

The Penne Vodka Pizza at TJ's Pizza (Lawrenceville, NJ) during my 5-year high school reunion. You could probably find better, but to me this will always hit the spot.

Sorry this picture sort of sucks, but believe me, the truffle risotto from Anthony David's in Hoboken, NJ is amazing! Rich, but not so much so that you can't finish the plate.

Pretty much everything from Seed in New Orleans, LA. Here you can see the vegan po'boy sandwich and jumbalaya. YUM!

I love visiting Azucar Ice Cream Company in Little Havana whenever I'm in Miami. You can't find these flavors anywhere else. Here I had their signature flavor, Abuela Maria (vanilla ice cream mixed with guava, cream cheese, and Maria cookies... amazingly good!) on the bottom, and the Elvis (peanut butter and banana) on the top!

2015 was the year I became obsessed with blood orange. This was a blood orange popsicle dipped in dark chocolate from Hip Pops food truck in Wynwood, FL. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the blood orange cocktail from Barbuzzo in Philly, but that was undoubtedly the best drink I've had all year.

The only thing I wanted for my birthday this year was the soft-serve at Dominique Ansel Kitchen in New York City. So worth it. On the left is the burrata soft serve with balsamic reduction and microbasil (at the bottom of the cone there is also a confit strawberry....), and the on the right is the gianduja (hazelnut & chocolate of the best quality) with hazelnut clusters, an orange spritz, and some chocolate yumminess at the bottom. YUM!

I celebrated the 4th of July in Cleveland with Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. Believe the hype! It's delicious! I had the classic vanilla and raspberry with hot fuge sauce. I'm a sucker for hot fudge...

This year I finally tried Xi'an Famous Foods in New York City. My boyfriend and I geeked out eating all the same stuff Anthony Bourdain tried when he visited. Pictured is the Mount Qi Vegetables with Hand Pulled Noodles. So, so good. Would eat this all the time if I lived in New York.

The vegetarian ramen from Ivan Ramen in New York City.

The fennel and salt bagel with roasted tomato cream cheese at Knead Bagels in Phillly, PA.

The Affogato with house-made fiordilatte sofserve and a shot of espresso at Pizzeria Vetri in Philly. Salivating just thinking about this...

Everyone who knows me knows that my favorite food is fried potato in any form, particularly tots. These are the Drunken Tots from the Tot Cart in Hopewell, NJ.

The cardamom, chocolate, and orange ice cream at The Bent Spoon in Princeton, NJ.

The spiked apple cider from Nectar in Lewes, DE. You watch the bartender juice fresh apples, muddle the juice with spices, and then add the good stuff :)

Fresh burrata made tableside... amazing to watch and even better to eat! This was at Cafe 2825 in Atlantic City, NJ.

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Everything at Byblos in Miami, FL. We started our meal with the spirited Turkish tea, which was served with Turkish delight. The drink itself is enough to visit this restaurant. It was black tea with mint, lemongrass, whiskey, and some other yummy things. We then had homemade labneh cheese with roasted beets, served with a homemade bread for dipping (not pictured), black truffle pide (not pictured), followed by Turkish Mantri dumplings (like little ravioli filled with roasted eggplant), seared cauliflower with tahini, Mejadra rice with lentils, fried scallions, and labneh (my favorite dish of the night), and finished with loukoumades, which are Turkish donuts served with honey, burnt honey ice cream, walnut praline, halva, and rose petals. If you are ever in Miami, check this place out!

If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading! I hope you have a happy, safe, and healthy New Year. Here's to an ever better tasting 2016! :)