On My Plate: Food and Travel Writer Danielle Walsh
1/22Monday Breakfast
"I love making simple, one-egg omelets. I put five stalks of sautéed asparagus in there and a handful of crumbled feta cheese. Easy and delicious."
2/22Monday Lunch
"I had just come back from Barcelona the day before and I swore to myself that I would have a total detox week. First up: I needed a spicy ass bowl of noodle soup. I went across the street from the AFAR offices to Happy Donut—all they sell are donuts, cigarettes, coffee, and these noodles. So delicious, even if it left me with the MSG jitters."
3/22Monday Dinner
"I like to go shop at Bi-Rite at least once a week. I haven't done a lot of seafood cooking lately, so I picked up some shrimp along with some nice looking lettuce. I sauteed the shrimp with butter and sriracha—super easy, took maybe 10 minutes to make. The greens got a Vietnamese fish sauce vinaigrette."
4/22Monday Dessert
"Dessert was Manchego smuggled back from Barcelona. Why not eat a pretty big chunk of cheese with fig jam on it for dessert?"
5/22Tuesday Breakfast
"I was missing Barcelona, so I made pan con tomate. The tomato looked great, but it was ultimately a slightly disappointing April tomato. Served with a side of whole fat Straus yogurt. The stuff is made in Point Reyes—there's no pectin or filler, very runny, but so tangy and delicious."
6/22Tuesday Post-Run Snack
"I went for a run and needed a quick snack before work. Sliced pears and topped them with labneh. I know everyone loves the stuff, but it's really one of my favorite things ever."
7/22Tuesday Dinner
"I picked up some farro pasta a few weeks ago and had to try it. I cooked the pasta and dressed it with an anchovy, kale, parsley, lemon, and pecorino situation. After this experiment I feel pretty confident in saying that farro is my favorite alternative pasta."
8/22Wednesday Breakfast
"I made an asparagus and feta scramble with a piece of Acme Bread Company sourdough toast. I love a loose scrambled egg, but when I put other stuff in my scramble, I really don't like my eggs to be too loose."
9/22Wednesday Breakfast
"I recently ate at Semilla, a tasting menu-only vegetarian restaurant in NYC. One of the dishes had this incredible fermented oatmeal and I've been dying to recreate it at home. I combined 1 tablespoon of yogurt with oats, covered it in water, and left the mixture on my counter for two days. It was definitely super sour in a great way, but it's incredibly intense."
10/22Coffee for the Week
"By the way, my coffee of the week is made by Paramo, roasted right here in San Francisco. Bi-Rite has an amazing selection. I've been playing with pour over coffee, getting the water-to-coffee ratio right."
11/22Wednesday Dinner
"I had an impromptu night in Chinatown with two friends. We started at Li Po, which is allegedly the inventor of the Chinese Mai Thai. The bartender recommended a few places to try and we ended up going to a random place for XLB (xiao long bao aka soup dumplings) around the corner.
12/22Thursday Breakfast
"Still not tired of avocado toast. This one got aleppo pepper, lemon, olive oil, and toasted sesame seeds."
13/22Thursday Lunch
"I went to Uno, Dos Tacos (best name ever) for a whole array of tacos, salsas, and beans—solid Thursday fun lunch."
14/22Thursday Pre-Dinner
"I got home after the gym and needed to do a toast for Friday posting. So I bought some ramps—ramp toast had to happen. I separated the bulbs and sautéed in them in a ton of butter before adding in the leaves to wilt. Then sprinkled chili flakes on top."
15/22Thursday Dinner
"Time to use up the rest of the leftover farro spaghetti from Tuesday night. The result was mostly kale and a mess of cheese, but wholly delicious. And a glass of rosé—because Thursday."
16/22Friday Breakfast
"Finally time to try my fermented oats. I was a like a kid on Christmas morning. I simmered them in almond milk, browned butter, maple syrup, and topped it with roasted almonds. The most comforting bowl of oatmeal I've ever had."
17/22Friday Dinner
"Had to catch up on a ton of TV shows, so I came home and made a fridge cleaner bowl. Sautéed some chopped celery and kale with gochujang and sesame oil. Tossed some radish kimchee and farro in a bowl, put an egg on it, and sprinkled a mess of cilanto all over. Then, Scandal and Game of Thrones."
18/22Saturday Pre-Run
"Pre-run fuel: Toast with labneh with salt and pepper. Again, love labneh—it tastes like cream cheese that's better for you. Ran five and a half miles after this without feeling it too much, so pretty good fuel.
19/22Saturday Breakfast
"I got back from my run and realized that I had about a half cup of the fermented oatmeal left, so I blended that with banana, dates, egg, AP flour, almonds, and cinnamon to make some ad hoc pancake batter. Fried them up in butter and put lots more butter and maple syrup on them. Next time I'd add some sort of leavening agent, but they were delicious."
20/22Saturday Late-Night
"I ended up on a boat drinking—heck, okay, it was a booze cruise—for a friend's birthday on Saturday. We got off the boat and found ourselves at Fisherman's Wharf. The only good thing about being at the most touristy location in all of San Francisco is being across the street from In-N-Out."
21/22Sunday Lunch
"Woke up, make a green juice. This week's leftover kale, banana, avocado, bee pollen, coconut oil, almond milk, and a ton of cayenne pepper."
22/22Sunday Dinner
"Finally, I finished the week off with a lamb sandwich from Souvla, this Greek souvlaki place in Hayes Valley. A delicious end to a toast-filled week."
