The New York Diet

TV Hostess Kelly Choi Likes Her Sandwiches With Mayo and Mustard

“My favorite food is eggs — especially the ones from Windfall Farms.” Photo: Melissa Hom


If you haven’t seen Kelly Choi sporting a trench coat on her show Secrets of New York, you’ve probably seen her donning skimpier attire as the host of New York Eats. She also just appeared as a judge on Iron Chef and will soon team with a liquor sponsor to publish The 25 Most Delicious Dishes in New York. What’s one of them? The moussaka at Pylos. “I’m crazy about Greek and Middle Eastern food,” Choi tells us. She doesn’t have the extravagant expense account you’d expect, and she isn’t often hungry for complimentary desserts — but still, the former Ford model managed to put away quite a bit this week.

Saturday, January 26
In the morning I’ll eat whatever I see — I’m a lunatic. I had a glass of warm water with lemon juice, then I had two tall glasses of Crystal Lite Ruby Red. I really hate water — it tastes like zero! I want things to taste good. I had a Fage yogurt and mixed in a bunch of cinnamon and vanilla extract. I had three chunks of leftover chicken yakitori with scallion and green pepper, and I had two eggs overeasy with Annie’s Natural ginger-leaf vinaigrette. I had a couple of baby carrots and one and a half cups of coffee and some vitamins.

After yoga I went to Souen. I had a cup of baby jappa soup with miso-glazed burdock root. I got two salmon hand rolls with brown rice and a side of carrot-ginger dressing and a kuki-cha. I got a grande decaffeinated soy latte with no foam from Starbucks.

My friend and I went up to Connecticut, and I had two vodka martinis with lemon twist and a glass of Francis Ford Coppola’s red wine before dinner. My friend made two eggs overeasy, and I put it between two slices of oat-nut Arnold’s bread with four slices of turkey breast, Hellmann’s mayo, and French’s mustard. And I had a handful of cashews and a Red Bull and vodka. Later I had Gatorade and then a glass of rice milk and a banana that I dipped into a peanut-butter jar. And decaf green tea.

Sunday, January 27
I had a Stoneyfield farm vanilla yogurt, a cup of rice milk, two slices of Arnold’s bread with organic chunky peanut butter and three to four big tablespoons of artisanal cherry jam with four slices of turkey breast and a big slathering of Grey Poupon mustard. Then I had one and a half cups of coffee and a couple of children’s-vitamin gummy bears.

At my favorite Vietnamese place, Nha Trang, I ordered the barbecued beef, the chicken with chile and lemongrass, an order of summer rolls, and a side of rice. My friend Dominique [Ansel], the executive pastry chef at Daniel, ordered a pho.

For dinner I went shopping at Life Thyme in the West Village. Whenever I’m jonesing for comfort food, I go for creamy things. I open everything up and take big spoonfuls of everything: I had sweet yam pudding, chipotle-onion dip, pumpkin-pie pudding, a coconut pudding, some peanut butter, and two cacao-coconut truffles.

Monday, January 28
In the morning I had vanilla yogurt with almond butter on the side, two Larabars (a cocoa mole and cinnamon roll), and I had a couple of carrot sticks and my cup of coffee.

I met up with my friend Cesare Casella, the chef at Maremma. We met at Tía Pol at 5:30 p.m. for drinks. As soon as I saw him, I wanted to do a tapas crawl. We got the Pino Noir cava and the anchovy, pickled pepper, and olive tapa; the chickpeas; and the deviled egg with pimiento which I’m to-die-for crazy about. Then we went to El Quinto Pino. We got the Dibon Brut cava, the fried salt-cod fritters, and the serrano-ham sandwich. The uni panini was good, but frankly there was a lot of butter — you didn’t taste the uni as much. Then we went to Klee Brasserie, and I got the Jerusalem-sunchoke soup, the mini lobster rolls, and the Viennese fried chicken and some crudité to cleanse our palates. When I got home, I had some strawberry and vanilla yogurt with a tablespoon of cinnamon, and decaf coffee.

Tuesday, January 29
I had vitamins, my glass of warm water with lemon, my cup of coffee, I had my Fage yogurt with strawberry jam (I get the yogurt plain, and it gives it some sweetness) and a tablespoon of cinnamon, and a cocoa-mole Larabar.

I had an egg salad, a couple of grape leaves, a few chicken-breast slices, and a few slices of avocado and a coffee.

I went to Matsuri because the executive chef Tadashi Ono invited me. Having dinner with a chef means he doesn’t eat anything and watches you eat the whole time. I got an unpasteurized sake, and I ordered the uni chawan mushi. We got the fried monkfish with ponzu sauce, the hamachi teriyaki, and I got five pieces of salmon sashimi, a side of lotus root (it’s so good there), and crabmeat shumai, the house salad (it’s watercress and has little baby scallops and the hijiki seaweed), we got an order of Kumamoto oysters and the kampachi sashimi with yuzu green-pepper sauce. We ordered as our final course the duck-breast entrée and the eight-grain rice ball. Then I went to Bar Boulud for the Gourmet party and had a glass of the Beaujolais, and a glass of the Chablis. I had one bite each of the boudin noir and boudin blanc.

Later on I went to PDT. My friend and I ordered five cocktails, then Daniel the bartender gave us more. I liked the Black Flip — it had a whole egg in it with stout. It’s chocolaty and bitter. Right across the street is Whole Earth Bakery — I went in to say hi to Peter, the owner, and he gave me all these pastries: pumpkin pie, a brownie, blueberry tofu cheesecake, chocolate cake, and an apple-walnut crumble. This is when we were drunk so it was all super-tasty.

Wednesday, January 30
I had an energy bar, the rest of the chocolate cake I didn’t finish, coffee, and pomegranate juice.

I had egg salad with brown rice on the side and some radish kimchee. And I had a hot chocolate.

For dinner I got takeout from Banjara, and I got the jhinga tikka maslam — it’s big chicken chunks marinated in super-fatty almond sauce. I got an order of the raita, and a side of the coconut chutney for dipping and the chicken vindaloo. At home before bed I had two Swiss Miss hot chocolates.

Thursday, January 31
I had two Larabars, two Yo Baby yogurts (a strawberry and vanilla), some almond milk, and a cup of coffee.

For lunch I went up to Montgomery, New York, and had two deviled eggs and some tuna salad and some tea at a very homey feeling 24-hour deli/truck stop. My favorite food is eggs — especially the ones from Windfall Farms at the Greenmarket. When I was little, my dad would take a raw egg and put a hole on both eggs, and I’d eat it raw. I do that with these eggs from Windfall since they’re very fresh and yummy.

TV Hostess Kelly Choi Likes Her Sandwiches With Mayo and Mustard