The mocktail edition 🍹

Plus sweet treats and fried chicken.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we sip on mocktails and eat sandwiches both savory and sweet. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.

Basic Mock-jito at home

Recipe from the book Mocktail Party

Every year I get a little bit older, and every year, I enjoy drinking a little less. This either means therapy is working and I have developed healthy coping mechanisms, or I have become an even greater control freak, you can be the judge of that. Either way, I’m a huge fan of the recipes from Mocktail Party, a shiny-covered book I picked up at Kinokuniya, the World’s Greatest Bookstore, on my birthday. (Now that I think about it, it was an extremely almost-turned-30 book choice.) I think the best thing about buying a book of beverage recipes is that it’s the only time I will actually follow the recipes in the book, and buy all the ingredients, too, unlike cookbooks, which always make me too tired before I even begin. I was skeptical of the mocktail recipes, which are composed of simple ingredients, mostly fruit juices, seltzer, and herbs. But the Mock-jito was surprisingly delicious, the perfect balance of minty, sweet, and sour. Poured into a pretty glass, it felt just as indulgent as a cocktail, with none of the side effects.

#13 (Mocktail) at Double Chicken Please

115AllenSt, NewYork, NY10002

Double Chicken Please is a cocktail bar with 13 different kinds of drinks on tap and three amazing fried chicken sandwiches (more on that below). But the thing that I loved the most? The #13 (mocktail), a sweet, non-alcoholic drink with winter melon, oolong tea, and citrus. Winter melon, a versatile gourd that’s used in both meat stews and candied as a dessert, is said to have cooling properties, so it’s traditionally boiled in syrup for a summer drink. To me, the slightly woody, floral taste always reminds me of summer. It was 60 degrees and rainy when I ordered the #13, so I don’t know about the cooling effects, but the drink, which had a lovely foamy top, was the perfect refreshment for salty fried food.

Hot Honey fried chicken sandwich at Double Chicken Please

115AllenSt, NewYork, NY10002

I couldn’t leave a place called “Double Chicken Please” without trying at least two different fried chicken sandwiches. The Hot Honey, which comes in at $13, is less like Nashville hot chicken, which was what I expected, and more like a totally unique creation of its own. The three-word, sans-serif description on the minimalist menu states “hot honey - thai basil - buttermilk,” but I tasted mostly the thai basil, which comes in the form of a creamy, mayo-based light green sauce. This is a rich and hefty sandwich, served between two pretzel buns (an interesting choice, not sure what the theme was going for there) and lots of pickles. The chicken itself was fried to crisp perfection. It’s about three bites too much for me in one sitting, but I applaud the creative direction.

Salted Duck Egg fried chicken sandwich at Double Chicken Please

115AllenSt, NewYork, NY10002

It feels slightly sacrilegious to smother fried chicken with the yolk of another bird, but whatever guilt you may have will quickly be erased by how great the flavor combination is. Like the Hot Honey above, this is no ordinary fried chicken sandwich. The Salted Duck Egg is a less intimidating sandwich than the hot honey, and it’s a lot lighter and easier to finish (if a fried chicken sandwich smeared with egg yolk can be called “light”). This sandwich is served on a brioche bun and the shrimp flavor really shines through, although, to be honest, I couldn’t tell what form the shrimp took, because I got lost in that sandwich. Instead of pickles, it has thinly sliced strips of cucumber. Again, the chicken is really the star here, as it should be; I am not sure what technique they use but it is so crisp and juicy, it almost shatters in the mouth.

Brownie crisp coffee ice cream sandwiches at Trader Joe’s

Available at your local Trader Joe’s.

My favorite life hack in the summer is to wear a cooler backpack when I go to work instead of a regular backpack. Bonus points if it looks like a watermelon, which my backpack does, but if you are concerned about appearing cool while keeping your groceries cool, you can find less conspicuous versions online. Cooler backpacks are my favorite thing ever because it means I can now buy ice cream on a whim when I pass a grocery store without worrying about things melting. I honestly don’t know why people don’t just wear cooler backpacks all the time. This means that I can finally purchase all the fun frozen treats at Trader Joe’s and eat ice cream sandwiches every day. My current favorite are the brownie crisp coffee ice cream sandwiches. “Brownie crisp” is definitely a misnomer as the cookie part of this sandwich is soft and squidgy (as ice cream sandwich cookies should be!!). The filling is full of creamy coffee flavor and it’s the perfect size for a satisfying dessert (or snack or breakfast). 

Stay cool,

Soph

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