the side dish

2016 trend, pantry meals & recent eats

Hi friends! What’s new? Only thing new in my world is the biohazard snow that’s taking over New York. It was gorgeous and pristine for about .2 seconds and now it’s every color under the sun— yellow from dog pee, brown from poo (dog or human, idk), and a very concerning, mystery red (I don’t want to know!!!).

What does that have to do with food? Absolutely nothing. But it’s all consuming. It’s all I can think about. When’s the snow getting out of here and why is it changing color by the day?

Anywho, onto the eats.

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2016 Eats

2026 is officially the new 2016. People are listening to Kygo again and sharing 10 year old (!!) photos in their cut off short shorts and peplum tank tops. The world is trying to heal.

In honor of this #tbt I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and revisit the foods of 2016’s past:

• Zoodles: Spiraled zucchini (or really any squash for that matter) made for the mushiest noodle you could ever imagine. I’m sorry to my college roommate for making us mushy vegetable noodles with ground turkey and hardly seasoned marinara sauce. We all had to start somewhere.

• Cauliflower Anything: That cauliflower pizza crust from Trader Joes had me in a chokehold. And don’t get me started on that watery ass cauliflower gnocchi.

• Açai Bowls: We were all willingly downing 2x our daily recommended sugar intake. My college kid metabolism was truly undefeated.

• Rainbow Food: Rainbow bagels. Rainbow pancakes. Rainbow cream cheese on toast. Rainbow grilled cheese. We really wanted to taste the rainbow.

• Poke Bowls: Honestly I have nothing bad to say about these. They are still delicious and perfect to this day.

• Rolled Ice Cream: Dessert and a show. I admittedly never partook in this dessert trend and honestly it looks pretty good.

• Buddha Bowls: Brown rice, scantly seasoned baked tofu, raw ass vegetables and a scoop of hummus on top. They honestly kinda slapped.

It’s all fun and games now, but I’ll be kicking myself in 2031 (i can’t believe that’s a real year) when we’re making fun of Emily Mariko’s salmon bowls and my post on upgrading salmon and rice bowls is duly outdated.

that bagel is cursed

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Pantry Meals Cheat Sheet

I finally received my first request (!!!) for a side dish topic: pantry recipes. A dear friend reached out asking if I could share ways to strategize (1) a shopping list to help build out your pantry backlog & (2) pantry meals for quick easy cookin. Ask and you shall receive!

First up, let’s walk through the staples I always keep in the pantry or fridge (that also have a long shelf life):

• Pantry

  • White Rice (basmati only please and thank you)

  • Egg Noodles (either plain or instant, I like the Squiggly Knife Cut Noodles from TJ’s)

  • Peanut or Almond Butter

  • Rice Wine Vinegar

  • Sesame Oil

  • Garlic

  • Sesame Seeds

  • Furikake

• Fridge

  • Chili Crisp

  • Soy Sauce

  • Sriracha

  • Mayo

  • Eggs (Not a shelf stable warrior, but they last foreva— 3 to 5 weeks according to USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service!!!)

Now, the pantry equation. It’s simple:

• Carb base ➕ Fast Egg ➕ Sauce / Topping ➕ Some Fresh Element (Optional, only if you have it!)

Here’s that in practice:

• Chili Crisp Rice Bowl: Steamed white rice + sunny side up eggs + chili crisp + fresh green onions and sliced cucumber

• Chili Peanut Noodles: Egg noodles + soft boiled eggs + peanut butter / chili crisp sauce + sliced cucumber

  • Here’s a quick peanut butter chili crisp sauce: 2 tbsp peanut butter (or almond butter) + 1–2 tbsp chili crisp + 1 tbsp soy sauce + 1 tsp sesame oil + 1 small clove garlic, finely grated + hot water (to loosen, if needed)

• Sriracha Mayo Egg Bowl: Steamed white rice + egg of your choosing + spicy mayo and furikake sprinkle + fresh green onions and sliced cucumber

If you wanna get a little fancy with it, consider upgrading your cucumbers a few ways:

• 🥒 Quick Pickle: Thinly slice the cucumbers and add into a bowl with a couple dashes of rice wine vinegar, a squirt of honey, and a sprinkle of salt. Mix together and let sit for at least 10 mins.

• 🔥 Spicy-ify: Cut the cucumbers into 1.5 - 2 inch chunks, smash with the side of your knife blade or hard part of your palm. Toss into a bowl with chili crisp, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and a smidge of sesame oil.

Idk what voodoo magic is in any of the combinations above, but I promise you it will always hit when you’re hungry as hell and want a decent meal in sub 30 minutes.

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Things I Ate (& Made) Recently

• Hoisin Garlic Noodles: With jammy eggs and a spicy cucumber salad. (Hello pantry equation!!!)

• Cinnamon Rolls: I might have to make this picture my phone background I’m so obsessed with it.

• Pan Fried Pork Buns & A Perfect Cucumber Salad: From Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao.

• Flat Iron Pot Roast: More to come there. 🤨

• A Perfect Aperitivo: Castelvetrano olives, giant fancy corn nuts, goat cheese in jalapeño chili oil, any cured meat, and a nice plain cracker.

• A teeny tiny, itsy bitsy cinnamon roll: Because why the hell not?

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and for your viewing, life in nyc navigating the snow. i’m all for committing to the bit but i need this girl to burn her clothes and chop off that tassel of hair that’s touching the biohazard snow

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©️ 2026 Jenna D’Ambrosio