Seeing my family around the holidays has been an annual tradition since I can remember. But that tradition has gotten flipped upside down since my mother & sister moved to Florida.
That means there’s no reason to drive out to Long Island like I had every year. In fact, I saw my mom a couple of weeks before Christmas as I explained in a previous blog post. So we decided to all meet in the middle between LI where my sister is staying, where my brother lives & where I am in NJ.
So, we decided to go to 5 Napkin Burger, which has multiple locations in NYC. For this meal, we went to the location in Hell’s Kitchen.
There were so many unique burger choices, including a brunch-exclusive bacon & egg burger that my significant other got. The burger I chose though was the Lamb Kofta that includes:
- Middle Eastern-spiced lamb & beef with onions, garlic & parsley
- Tahini sauce
- Kosher pickles
- Pickled onions
- Oregano-roasted tomatoes
The burger turned out delicious and worked will with the fries that I stole off of my kid’s plate. For my side, I decided to order roasted Brussels sprouts with candied peanuts & Thai vinaigrette that were nice and light for the meal.
I’m not sure why they call it 5 Napkin Burger since I only got 1 napkin, but it was a cloth one. So I guess that’s equal to 5 paper napkins… I really don’t know, but I only had to use 1.
Though a different tradition has begun along with my uncle, aunt & cousin, we kept the tradition of secret Santa alive. I wound up buying my other cousin’s husband a vegan cookbook since he enjoyed it when I bought him one years ago and my uncle gave me a book I’ll be reading on my vacation next week in the Dominican Republic.
We also continued the tradition of spending time together during the holidays, which is the most important of all. I did have to play cleanup man as my kids & niece all played with toys they just opened at the table, which is a world of difference from my life a couple of years ago.
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