I made a resolution to try at least one new recipe or restaurant every week of 2020. This was easier some weeks (e.g. travel weeks) than others (e.g. deep in burnout, months into quarantine weeks) so there were a handful of weeks where I either only ordered from restaurants I’ve eaten from before or only cooked familiar old recipes.

This was a good exercise for me, as keeping this goal in mind did push me to try to order from new restaurants, at the very least, and to find new recipes to cook. But it did feel like a lot of pressure to try new things when I really wanted the comfort of familiarity during this difficult year. (For example, I would have liked to support restaurants more regularly, even though I don’t regret supporting different restaurants week to week.)

Here’s how I did, by week number of the year:

1: Rasika (West End)
2: (Modified) Udon with chicken and garlicky peanut dressing | Konbini
3: Udon Lab
4: [ NOLA ] Gumbo Shop, Johnny’s Po-Boys, Commander’s Palace
5: Reserve Cut | Old Tbilisi Garden | Chubby Princess | Vida Verde
6: Cocina Del Sur | Kumo Sushi
7: Decoy
8: Indochine
9: Maria & Enzo’s
10: The Dough Club | Paleo Chinese eggplant in garlic sauce
11: Dalgona coffee
12: Tomato egg drop noodle soup | Apple pie oatmeal
13: Sichuan-style shredded potato (土豆丝) | Flaxseed crackers
14: (only cooked old recipes)
15: Breakfast tacos
16: Shanghai Mong
17: Whipped dalgona-style matcha | Masala King | Jjapaguri (짜파구리)
18: Pasta al limone
19: Breakfast sandwiches | French toast casserole | Dun Huang
20: Gâteau au yoaurt
21: Butternut squash soup
22: Celtuce with wood ear | Fish fragrant eggplant | Yellow chives with eggs (technically I’ve never cooked with yellow chives)
23: (only cooked old recipes, with a variation on red-braised pork belly)
24: Chinese buffet-style doughnuts | Spam musubi | Garlic shrimp | Loco moco | Butter mochi
25: Purple sweet potato pancakes| Teriyaki tofu
26: Chive flowers with pork
27: Strawberry jasmine tea | Mixed berry galette
28: Broccoli soba bowl | Matcha dalgona (aquafaba)
29: Baguette | Bouillabaisse-inspired stew
30: China River
31: Hummus
32: Milk bread
33: Stir-fried bitter melon and eggs
34: Cha Pa’s Noodles & Grill
35: China Xiang | Rockaway Beach Bakery | Tacoway Beach
36: Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodle | 46 Mott | Golden Fung Wong Bakery | Noodle Village
37: (nothing new)
38: Challah
39: Congee Village | Kuih Cafe | QQ Cafe | Shu Han Ju
40: Pumpkin mochi / mooncakes / 南瓜饼
41: Red braised pork rib tips | Hanjan
42: Bondi Sushi
43: (nothing new)
44: (nothing new)
45: The Little One | Fong On
46: Fried peanuts | Miez by Aniesa | Cote
47: Kimchi pumpkin mac & cheese | 油焖大虾 Fried shrimp
48: Japanese beef curry | Kitsby
49: (we basically ate hot pot all week)
50: Spice Symphony | Pho Shop | Waffles
51: Matcha mochi waffles | Taste Crème | Take31 | Eileen’s Special Cheesecake
52: Lucky Chen | Coquito
53: Taro tapioca soup