Growing up, food was an important topic in our house. We were always talking about the next meal before the plates were even cleared from the current one. My family had certain dietary peculiarities, but at the time lacking comparison, I thought we were normal. Cream cheese and sliced green olive sandwiches were common at our table. (Wasn’t that a 70s lunch staple?) See Tim Vidra’s throwback photo below.
My Mother claimed that cheese with any sort of fish was like cat food. So my first tuna melt at the diner didn’t happen until I was in my late twenties. For me, rice pudding was an absolute non-starter. I also steered clear of chicken livers (yuck!) raisins, peppers, coffee (still a no for me), and licorice.
Dessert was a definite in our house. There were specific kinds of dessert served after breakfast—usually danish or muffins, donuts or rugelach. Post lunch and dinner almost anything sweet was acceptable—ice cream, cake, candy, chocolate, except of course “breakfast cake.” According to my Mother, that was only to be eaten in the morning. (Does this sound normal?)
For some reason we were always watching our weight in my house. No one was overweight, but I swear my Mother calculated everyone’s calories on a meal-to-meal basis even though she insisted that dessert be served after every single meal. When we were “watching,” Mom used plain (no, not vanilla) Dannon yogurt with honey, crushed walnuts, cinnamon, sliced Granny Smith apples and golden raisins and called it a healthy dessert. (For some reason mixed into this concoction, the raisins didn’t bother me. Normally I just felt terrible for those poor little grapes.)
Healthy Dessert: Dannon plain yogurt, honey, walnuts, cinnamon, slices of Granny Smith apple.
Having dinner at a restaurant was also a major to do and we definitely had some restaurant rituals. We did local Chinese on Sunday nights at Szechuan Garden for moo shoo chicken and scallion pancakes, but no rice because it was considered “filler food,” or Rick’s Club American for barbecue chicken and chocolate pecan pie. Fast food Fridays became a habit so that Mom wouldn’t have to cook. Bagels and lox were brought in most Saturday mornings and Dad liked to make pancakes after Hebrew School on Sundays. After special elementary school celebrations, we hit Marybelle’s in town for waffles with ice cream or silver dollars with chocolate chips. We spent a lot of time in New York City on weekends checking out hot places my Mom and I found in the back section of New York Magazine—at the time, the foodie bible.
• Bagels, lox and cream cheese
• Szechuan Garden moo shoo chicken
• Marybelle’s ice cream and waffles
We picked La Fondue for dessert, Café Luxembourg and Maxwell’s Plum for burgers and Lola for their famous jazz brunch. We loved Isabella’s roasted chicken and Sfuzzi for their incredible bellinis. We were semi-regulars at Coco Pazzo and Le Madri and frequented Rao’s for their chicken scarpariello and roasted peppers. (Obviously I didn’t eat the peppers.) The restaurant scene in New York City was electric and dynamic and I was completely hooked by a young age. Not only did I remember the places and their standouts, but I also started taking notes.
Times have changed but my love for food and my appreciation for restaurants have just grown exponentially. Frequenting places like The Smith to see my friends from Barton LLP, Koi to bump into Paul Deutch from Omni, Strip House to share “chawklit” cake with my buddy Paul Shur from Becker, Haru to meet my pals from IDB, Maloney & Porcelli to hang with my old colleagues from BankUnited, Upland to see my fellow Wells alums, and L’Amico to lunch with my besties from Rosenthal, were peppered into my sales career, embedded into my schedule and woven into the very fabric of my City life. I hope for the resiliency of the dining scene in New York City and across the globe and I long to hear the words, “Hi, Jen. Welcome back! Your table is ready.”
jenslittleblackbook.com 
Wow that was odd. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say excellent blog!
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Thank you! Glad you like it!
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