Tanya is a NYTimes Food Editor and specifically an expert on vegetables. Like she is accredited and writes The Veggie Newsletter. With Thanksgiving around the bend, she has been booked and BUSY. Her latest work? Putting together this holiday’s hottest takes, which you can check out here. Our POV? These takes would make great ice breakers at your very own Thanskgiving table. In the meantime, read on to sneak a peek at how Tanya spends a day in the life.
Breaking Down With Tanya Sichynsky
“OK, I’m off to a bad start. My phone dies overnight somehow and my alarm does not go off. I make an iced latte (espresso, regular milk, always), jam in my favorite glass straw (see the little cherry?!) and come to consciousness on my couch. A friend put me on to some gummy vitamins because my immune system gets regularly rocked. Do they work? I don’t know man, but they kept me from getting sick for whole four months, which is a feat, so now they are the first solid “food” to hit my body on any given morning. ”
— 8AM
“I bounce my way to Thea in Fort Greene for breakfast with a friend. You know her, you love her: Priya Krishna, everybody! I get a hot latte – rare, but there’s a cold front today, and strangely but briefly, snow – along with their bacon-, egg- and cheese-stuffed pita and an absolutely wild seasonal pastry to share. The danish is flaky, filled with Concord grape jelly, my favorite, and topped with a hockey puck of supple flan. We gab. We meet a big dog. I contemplate buying some $7 herb oil by the register. ”
— 9AM
“Back at home, I knock out some work – it’s holiday crunch time – which includes providing feedback on the latest installment of my Veggie video series, a tofu Thanksgiving extravaganza. Along with the video, I developed a new vegan salted maple-ginger pie recipe, which just published to NYT Cooking. I wish I had a slice. ”
— 12PM
“I have some recipe testing to do this week, and I shopped for it over the weekend, but you’d be hard pressed to see me go to the grocery store and not forget something. So I dash out to Duals, a fantastic spice store in Crown Heights, for supplies. ”
— 2PM
“I know, I need to eat lunch. For now, a snack while I make some edits to our Thanksgiving hot takes package. I’ve really nailed my house popcorn seasoning. In a mortar I grind nutritional yeast, flaky salt, brown sugar, some granulated garlic and a pinch of MSG to a fine powder. I drizzle a little olive oil over the popcorn and toss it all together. I wash it down with a fancy mango soda. I love soda and I don’t care who knows it. ”
— 3PM
“This is a normal time for lunch. I heat up some leftovers, a hearty, tangy tomato soup. It really is true what they say. Soup is always better the next day. ”
— 4PM
“I’m leaving for a trip tomorrow, and I left my favorite pair of pants at my friend Jon’s house when I changed into my costume for our Halloween party. I pop over to Bed-Stuy to pick them up. Much to my dismay, I learn that Jon stored the leftover rainbow cookies I’d made from scratch for the occasion – it was my friend and colleague Luke Fortney’s birthday – uncovered in his fridge while he was out of town for a week. I try and fail to bite into one. I remember to schedule my biannual teeth cleaning. ”
— 6PM
“Work puts food on the table, quite literally. Dinner is a bit of recipe testing, a vegetarian and vegetable-dense spin on pad kaprow with a side of jasmine rice. My friend Scaachi planned to join me, but alas, she has a cold. I eat as much as humanly possible knowing the leftovers must survive the few days I’m away. I clean and stash the remaining tomato soup from lunch to in the freezer for safe keeping, at least. ”
— 8PM
“I try to pack my suitcase and forget how to wear clothes. I impulsively crop a t-shirt from Bonnie’s in Williamsburg with kitchen scissors. I ultimately choose not to bring it. I should go to sleep. I make sure my phone is plugged in. ”
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