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2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline

* image These past few months have been busy for our family, especially since our oldest joined a local swim team. Between juggling our work schedules and balancing school with practices... we're all pretty wiped out. Although it's a lot of work, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Preparing the holiday meal for our family fills my heart with joy, and I can't wait to get started. To make things easier for me, I don't deviate much from  our first Thanksgiving  as a family. The dishes I make are familiar ones, and the recipes for them live at my fingertips. Keeping the same menu year after year means I don't have to spend time researching recipes or planning a new one. Here are my tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes, as well as my prep timeline for the big day!

Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Nobu Fifty Seven -- the perfect spot for a late-night dinner in Midtown Manhattan.

Lobster Tacos - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY | Taste As You Go
Lobster Tacos - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Before I go into detail about the dinner that I ate at Nobu Fifty Seven in New York, it's only fair to mention that this dinner took place just before Christmas.

Six months ago.

That's pretty bad... even for me.

Since so much time has passed since our dinner there, I almost scrapped this restaurant review entirely. But we didn't dine there to try a limited-time-only menu and all of the dishes I ate are still available, so I'm making the executive decision to write about the meal, if not to share my thoughts about the food then to help myself to get back on a regular writing schedule.

Stephen and I took advantage of our respective flexible schedules and headed to New York to meet our friend Josh for a late dinner. Because we agreed to meet in Midtown, along with thousands of other people with plans to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and the meticulously decorated store windows along Fifth Avenue, Stephen insisted we have dinner at a restaurant that's been on his must-try list for a long time -- Nobu Fifty Seven.

Our dinner reservation was for 10 PM, but the restaurant was packed with people enjoying great food and great conversation. I loved the sleek and sophisticated decor and the mixture of textures throughout the restaurant. Five minutes into our dinner and I realized how much I missed the dining scene in New York.

To kick things off, we all started with Lobster Tacos ($8 per taco, pictured above). Each tortilla shell had been freshly made and was filled with a generous amount of sweet lobster meat delicately dressed with citrus and herbs. The lobster was seasoned perfectly, allowing the chunks of shellfish to really shine through.

Rock Shrimp Tempura with Ponzu Sauce - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY | Taste As You Go
Rock Shrimp Tempura with Ponzu Sauce - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Josh and I each followed up the Lobster Tacos with individual orders of the Rock Shrimp Tempura ($23), except I ordered mine with ponzu sauce while he ordered the creamy spicy sauce. The poppable bites of fried shrimp were crispy and sweet and not too heavy.

Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in my food and our conversation that I ate more than half of the shrimp before I remembered the bowl of ponzu sauce that had been sitting next to my plate the entire time. I loved how the tangy citrus from the sauce brought out the natural sweetness of the shrimp and wish I had been paying more attention to what I was doing!

Needless to say, I was sad when I ate the final piece of shrimp and I toyed with the idea of ordering another plate.

Sushi Plate - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY | Taste As You Go
Sushi Plate - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Of course, Stephen went straight to the Sushi & Sashimi section of the menu and thoroughly enjoyed every buttery bite.

Dark Chocolate Coulant, Caramelized Cocoa Nibs, Matcha Gelato - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY | Taste As You Go
Dark Chocolate Coulant, Caramelized Cocoa Nibs, Matcha Gelato - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Chocolate Hazelnut Soba-Cha - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY | Taste As You Go
Chocolate Hazelnut Soba-Cha - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Assorted Mochi Ice Cream - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY | Taste As You Go
Assorted Mochi Ice Cream - Nobu Fifty Seven - New York, NY

Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try some of the items on the dessert menu. Truth be told, even though we had an assortment of gourmet desserts on the table in front of us... the mochi ice cream still came out as my favorite.

Go figure.

Nobu Fifty Seven
40 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 757-3000 | Online Reservations | Map

Nobu 57 on Urbanspoon

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