Grub Street Diet: James Whiteside

"After the recording, I went home and ordered spicy sesame ramen from Ramen Danbo in Brooklyn. Sesame is one of my favorite flavors, sez me. I usually order kaedama, extra noodles. At this point, instead of veins, I probably have noodles."

"I went to see Marvel’s Black Widow with my boyfriend, Augie, at the Battery Park Regal and stopped at Shake Shack before. I love their fried-chicken sandwich and demand “so many pickles that it’s mostly pickles.” For a vegetable side, I order the cheese fries. They’re my favorite salad."

"I stopped at Mud on 9th Street in the East Village for brekkie with Augie. We were sat in the back patio. It was just us and two NYU kids. We were nursing our coffees and waiting for our food when one of the youths got sick, a mix of last night’s alcohol and a McDonald’s nightcap. It splashed my leg and I clutched my pearls."

"My afternoon slump was upon me, so I minced over to Joe Coffee, which is peculiarly located inside a Union Square Chase bank. It feels like a place where people go to charge their phones more than to order coffee. Nevertheless, the coffee was rather good, and I could get cash out after. Win-win."

"After a tedious day of erranding, I went home and cooked one of my favorite bachelor chows: spaghetti with Italian sausage, Parmesan, and Rao’s vodka sauce, topped with fresh arugula. I adore Rao’s vodka sauce. Something I discovered recently, which is probably sacrilege and would make them furious, is using it to make a cheap, homemade version of Bar Pitti’s Rigatoni Pitti."

"I try to take ballet class every day, and when I finish, I’m famished! The level of fitness required to do ballet still astounds me. Post-class, I walked over to Sixth Avenue to the Hummus & Pita Co., which has a delicious chicken shawarma. Once again, I demanded pickles galore along with Mediterranean rice and beans, cabbage, and Feta. It feels like fast food, but it doesn’t send you running to the toilet."

"If you’re feeling fancy AF, try Russo’s Blend from Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta. I go to the one in Park Slope by my apartment."

"I met my boyfriend, Augie, at Chela modern Mexican in Brooklyn for skinny margaritas (the regular ones are too sweet for my taste) and enchiladas suizas. Chela always feels like a bit of a party, and the food is so damn good."

"After dinner, Augie and I made our way over to Good Judy. When I moved to Park Slope, I Yelped “cocktail bars” in the neighborhood, and Good Judy came up as the highest-rated result. The first time we went there, I was astounded to find loads of queer people and queer flags adorning its walls. Augie said to me, incredulously, “You didn’t realize it was a queer bar with a name like Good Judy?!”"

"A Good Judy hangover can be cured by one thing, and that’s a bakery-restaurant in Park Slope called Winner. I ordered an iced coffee and a ham-egg-and-cheese on an English muffin."

"After ballet class, before rehearsal, I sprinted over to Juice Generation and ordered a Protein Knockout. I’m always amazed at the range of people in a juice joint. And then I’m amazed that I paid $14 for a beverage without alcohol."

"After rehearsals, my stomach was grumbling and I decided the void could only be filled with an Italian sandwich from Potbelly. Again, extra pickles. Even when I was a little kid, I used to ask my mom to put pickles on every sandwich. Potbelly is a tough sell for me because, though the sandwiches are indeed delicious, one leaves the place smelling like a six-foot-tall meat-laden hero. Well … put that way, a six-foot-tall meat-laden hero can rescue this princess any day."

"I met my friends at Lavagna on 5th Street in the East Village for a sumptuous feast. For dinner, I ordered the burrata and the rigatoni in a gorgeous pink sauce, and for dessert, tiramisu and espresso."