Not only do sisters Hannah and Marian Cheng, co-founders of beloved dumpling spot Mimi Cheng’s, work together, but they also (sort of incredibly) live together. And when they’re not doling out organic Taiwanese-Chinese dumplings at Mimi Cheng’s East Village and Nolita outposts, they’re having friends over to their West Village apartment for fried Brussels-sprout salad and cocktails. Here’s what they can’t throw a dinner party without.
“You’ve gotta have wood-and-cork coasters so the tables don’t stain. A friend of ours had these at her apartment and we had to order some as soon as we got home.”
“We love this Breville smart oven. It’s the perfect size when you want to heat up a slice of pizza without having to wait for your oven to get to 350, which takes forever in our apartment. It also air-fries food! We make everything from sweet-potato fries to crispy Brussels sprouts for a salad to fried bananas for an ice-cream sundae in this thing.”
“Our friend who owns O Café and L’estudio makes these plates, which are perfect for passed apps.”
“Every host needs a cookbook they can always refer back to for tried-and-true recipes. We like that most of the recipes do not require 20 esoteric ingredients. The vegetable, salad, and pasta dishes tend to be quick to make but full of rich and complex flavors.”
“These glasses remind of us of drinking and eating tapas in Madrid. They’re elegant and simple. And they can do double duty as an aperitivo glass or a small snack bowl.”
“Aldo Sohm, a master sommelier, told us that good wine glasses are like good speakers for music. He demonstrated why and we’ve been converts ever since. Zalto glasses are handmade, which means the glass is more finely tuned to showcase the wine as opposed to a machine-made glass. Also, machine-made glasses have a lip at the edge, which causes the wine to hit your tongue further back. You can only taste certain things in certain parts of your tongue so you miss out on some of the wine’s notes with the lip. We didn’t believe him at first and he had us try the same wine out of the two different glasses.”
“We love serving salads in this bowl. It’s made out of beautiful olive wood, which is more durable than a ceramic bowl of this size.”
“All of Haus Interiors’ candles are great, but especially the tobacco one. It’s earthy and sexy. If we like you, you will have probably received one of these candles at some point.”
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