NYC

After getting his contacts fitting, Meanie & I drove into NYC for food. We originally planned on parking in Chinatown and walking/subway up to 10th St. or so, but good thing we decided to drive around that area looking for parking first!

First thing we got was an egg cream from Gem Spa! The guy told me it's made with milk, syrup, and seltzer water...(I wonder where's the "egg" in the name from then?) Anywho, the drink was good. Foamy top, sweetened but still refreshing. We originally wanted to have OH! Taisho for lunch, but found out that they don't open until 5pm!!! With several hours left to kill, we walked around the area hunting for some quick food/snacks. Stumbled upon Otafuku, got the Yakisoba + Okonomiyaki with squid...that was the place I listed for Takoyaki, but I ironically decided not to order that from there...because I found out the place was called Otafuku after ordering! The yakisoba tasted good noodles were not too salty, and gotta love the cabbage in both of the food items!

We then walked a few blocks up north looking for a place called Artichoke Basille's Pizza that Meanie found in the Zagat survey book. Great find!!! The place was small (then again, what place in NYC isn't???) Ordered a slice of artichoke + spinach pizza, only took a few minutes. They take orders in batches because the place could only fit so many people in there at a time. There were a lot of people there ordering slices, mostly artichoke and some Margherita.





The pizza was nice and thick (and big!) with the crust was crispy at the same time! Topping was creamy spinach with artichoke pieces on the top...yum!!!

While looking for Saint's Alp Tea House on 3rd Ave., we came across the Japanese Specialty shop Sunrise Mart. The only thing we bought was a mango flavored crepe stick.



Even though the packaging said frozen, the stick was thawed enough for consumption. The cream filling with mango pieces tasted great!

There was a strip of 11th St. closed off for street fair/flea market, and we finally found where all the people got their grilled corn! Of course we got one too.



Grilled corn was nice and sweet! We got honey butter on it, but didn't really taste the honey as the sweetness tasted more like it was from the corn. The position of the grilled corn looks weird in that picture, it should've been horizontal...

After finishing the corn and the drinks from Saint's Alp, we drove toward E. Houston St. looking for myplasticheart, unfortunately the store was not as entertaining as their website, although I did get to see what size the Moofia blind boxes figurines were.

It was finally time for OH! Taisho to be open! We sat at the bar, ordered 10 skewer sticks of food + grilled skate wing.





Skate wing came out first, it looked like a sheet of dough being grilled then cut into pieces, it actually tasted like the Chinese 魷魚絲 cuttlefish strip snacks but the mayo dip made it taste sweeter.



We wanted the bacon-wrapped scallop skewer, but got grilled chicken meat instead. Also got 2 quail eggs, 1 beef tongue, 1 chicken heart, 1 chicken gizzard, 1 chicken liver, 1 squid legs, 2 chicken skins. Beef tongue and chicken gizzard had a bit too much pepper on them, so I preferred the other skewers more. Chicken skin tasted awesome!!!



Sitting at the bar was cool, we got to see them make the food, and they all looked delicious. Too bad we were already too full, or else I would've gotten a Taisho Don there too. Definitely a place to go back! I think this was our first time eating all these grilled meats!

We drove up to 30th St. looking for ImageAnime, only to find out that place closed at 6pm, and is closed on Sundays! From the window, I saw the Gundam 00 calendar figurines I wanted to get...just makes me want to get them even more now! >.<

We did tons of walking and driving around today, but definitely had tons of fun! We'd definitely be doing similar things when (not IF...it's WHEN) we go to Hong Kong!!!

Angel Food Cake

Meanie & I made angel food cake a few nights ago. Turned out A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Nice and fluffy, and it actually filled up the entire pan!!!






Decided to leave the cake flipped upside down. Reminds me of the Pineapple Upside Down Angel Food Cake I made a few years back. Hmm, maybe we can try that next time, cut the cake in half and add some whipped topping + pineapples.

Sukhothai

Last minute decision to try Sukhothai for lunch today...original destination was Subway next door. We got there around noon, no one was inside. First thing I noticed was the floor seating along the left wall of the dining area, almost like the Tatami seats at some Japanese/Korean restaurants. That wall also had 3 giant portrait paintings hanging, they look like government officials of Thailand. The ceiling is decorated with small color umbrellas hanging upside down.

We each got a small bowl of salad with ginger salad dressing. Different from some Japanese ginger dressings that are orange in color, this one was clear, almost resembling applesauce.

The pictures were taken with my BlackBerry, so I decided not to upload them to the usual resolution to preserve the picture quality somewhat.


Masamun Curry with Chicken; made in coconut milk with potato, onion, peanuts, and Thai herbs. I was imagining roasted peanuts, but they looked like boiled peanuts, some with skin still on!


Rad Nar with Chicken. My usual fried flat rice noodles with Chinese broccoli and topped with bean sauce gravy.

When we just finished eating, we couldn't decide whether we like Sukhothai or Thai Kitchen more. For the past almost 4 years, we've been to Thai Kitchen for lunch countless times, primarily because it's so close to the office. But there's always a line. After letting the food marinate in our stomaches for a few hours, we've concluded that Sukhothai was better. Primary reason for me was that I wasn't thirsty after consuming the food. The decor was nice, food was fresh and tasted good. It was $1ish more than Thai Kitchen, so that's not too bad.

Cake!

Simple cake recipe I got from my Aunt Julia in Australia (thanks Aunt Julia!)  The end result is so moist and fluffy!!!

Pictures:

Mixing the ingredients...the yolk portion we messed up on because we couldn't convert grams to cups hahaha...needed to start that part over.  At least the egg whites portion looked correct!


Right out of the oven, the toothpick test proved it's done!

Removed the pan...


The final product.  Awesome tasting!  It was so good we ate most of it within 10minutes.

Preview

Some of the places that I want to check out when Meanie comes back for break include...these aren't all food places, but some ARE! We might not even get to go to all of them, but I'll try to squeeze them in somehow!

- Blue Hill at Stone Barns (OpenTable 1k; saw this on a Top Chef episode, fresh ingredients grown on premises!)

- Mignon (Meanie hasn't been there yet...it's a place worth trying!)

- A Salt and Battery (British style fish 'n chips that won against Bobby Flay's showdown)

- Onigashima (freshly made noodles)

- Momofuku Ssam Bar (Sweetbread)

- Yakitori Totto (raw chicken-on-a-stick; quail egg dip?)

- Morimoto (need more be said?)

- Dave & Buster's on a Wednesday night...1/2 price games!

- Rio 22 (all-you-can-eat Brazilian Steakhouse..OpenTable 1k)

- Frog & the Peach (OpenTable 1k)

- Bodies the Exhibition @ South Street Seaport

- MyPlasticHeart @ 210 Forsyth St.

- ToyTokyo @ 117 2nd Ave by 7th St.

- ImageAnime @ 242 W. 30th St.

- Anime Castle @ Long Island

- Tokidoki Capsule store @ 176 Spring St.

- Hilltop Steakhouse in MA...is that too far? Maybe we can make it a day trip...

利苑食舫 - Sunway Restaurant

Jacky and I drove to Flushing on Saturday for his medical treatment...after running around supermarkets trying to look for snacks and bubble tea supplies, it was finally time for dinner! After deliberating on whether to have Korean BBQ Buffet, shabu shabu, or HK-style food, we decided on Sunway Restaurant 利苑食舫 on Prince St. in Flushing.  

Pictures below aren't of the best quality since I took them with my Blackberry...oh wells


The drinks we ordered. Coconut shake and red bean ice.  Coconut shake's flavor tasted kind of fake...every time I hear coconut, I always imagine it to taste like the freshly squeezed coconut juices from HongKong.  mmm...fresh, milky coconut juice!  It's been a while since I went back to HK, but I can still remember what that tastes like!  It's juice made from the meat (white part) of the coconut, so the end-product is white as well, not like the clear young coconut juice.  Anyways...the red bean ice @ Sunway was awesome!  I wish it was a bigger portion though, I had to ration it throughout the meal.  The red bean was mushy enough to be lightly chewed, and the evaporated milk wasn't overpowering.  Yum!

Our appetizer...mango salad wrapped in shrimp. 香芒沙律虾卷  There wasn't much shrimp taste, but the mango salad in the center was definitely something different!  It was nice and warm, outside was crispy, and the mayo dip added to the overall flavor.

My curry chicken fried rice 咖喱鸡粒炒饭.  For some reason I like ordering Curry flavor dishes in restaurants...this one was good!  Not much to really talk about...it had 2 green peas in it (which I forgot to tell them I didn't want, or "走青" as they call it)...it was good nonetheless.  I had to pack half of it to go to save room for dessert!

Mango tapioca 芒果西米露 so good!  Fresh pieces of mango (象牙芒 with yellow skin, not apple mango with the red skin) that's sweet with small clear tapioca pearls.  This would be the perfect drink for summer!  I can definitely gulp this down without a spoon.  I love how the tapioca are all evenly dispersed in the liquid, not like the ones I used to make where they all sink to the bottom...although the one I made was served hot at first, and then when refrigerated it becomes all thick.  Need to find more recipes and experiment on making tapioca.

Overall, I would go back to Sunway...they even have dimsum!  It's steamed-to-order/即叫即蒸 too!  I love the drink menu they have...it's not alcoholic, but there's so many different choices!

New England Clam Chowder

First attempt @ New England Clam Chowder = success!!!

Finally got around to making the clam chowder I've been wanting to make for the past two weeks. Turned out better than I expected!


After the bacon and onions were cooked, potatoes were added along with the clam juice. For some reason, there was more water after boiling the mixture for 15 minutes....



Surprisingly, the ingredients were simple to prepare...the recipe called for bacon, potatoes, onions, baby clams, cream of celery soup, milk, heavy cream, but I decided to add corn and celery to the mix too. It's almost like a clam + corn chowder fusion. What's not to like? As long as the ingredients sound appealing to me, the end result can't turn out too bad, right?


The best part is, I didn't have to add any additional salt or pepper to the chowder. The texture of the chowder was just right. It probably would've taste better and "clamy-er" if we added some fresh Littleneck clams to it, but there's always next time!

My dad even said I'm good at cooking "western food" (西餐) that I should open my own restaurant! There's an awesome compliment to hear. I almost wish I went to culinary school to learn all the techniques of fine cooking...that'd be awesome!

Homemade

I made lasagna again last Sunday! This time I brought a batch over for my uncle & aunt, they like it! The one pictured below is the batch we kept for ourselves, since my mom likes cheese, we ended up going out to buy another pack of mozzarella cheese and used half of it for the top.


I bought whole grain + omega-3 lasanga noodles...and attempt to make this somewhat healthier. The brands of tomato items I've used probably weren't the best, since I thought the first one I made before tasted better (but my mom claims the sauce was better this time). This batch tasted a bit saltier to me...

Wednesday night I came home from work and made my first ever Mac 'N Cheese! I was researching recipes online, but there were just too many variations...so I decided to borrow the core concepts from some of those recipes, and added things I want. Maybe this should be called "Mac 'N Cheese a la Yam Yam"?


The finished product out of the oven! I had the vision of having crusty mac on the top of the dish, but the cheddar cheese I sprinkled crusted up, instead of the pasta. The white flakes are panko, borrowed from the Japanese Mac&Cheese dish I had at Swanky Bubbles in Phili last year.


A close-up of what was served. I've added bits of cut-up hotdogs and bacon which I've pan-fried beforehand while I was boiling the pasta. Next time I will use more milk and cheese and less flour because the flour made the end-product a bit too dry, and I also envisioned a creamier Mac 'N Cheese. Nonetheless, I liked it!

Nam Phuong @ Phili

Last Saturday I met up with Iman and Alexis for dinner at Nam Phuong. It's been a while since the last time we went there...they were rude to us, so to get back at them, we took like 10 spoons. Anywho, last week's visit to that place was good! Maybe because it wasn't crowded...the food tasted great, and Iman said the waiter thought she was hitting on him when she asked him how to pronounce the dish in Vietnamese. It was awesome to hang out with Iman again!!! Too bad she's so far away now...

Onto the dishes...I got there ~15minutes late, so Iman & Alexis had already ordered the summer rolls and lotus root salad appetizer not pictured below. The lotus root salad was mixed with a sour and sweet dressing, and came with awesome tasting shrimp crackers! I've forgotten what these dishes are called and I don't know how to type the names in English, so the descriptions would just have to do!


This was on the Specials board that night, flat rice flour wrapped with meat inside. I *think* the name is Bahn Cuon...it's a lot like 腸粉 at dimsum places. The slices on top are similar to luncheon meat, and fried onion bits. The ball on the plate has 2 shrimps wrapped around some stuffing-like dough that's been deep-fried. We ordered this dish from a Viet place in Flushing before, and they served the meat around the noodles, but it was actually better to eat it together like how they've arranged it at Nam Phuong. The meat+noodle wrap looks almost like spring rolls or crepes, but smaller in size. It definitely tasted better the the Flushing ones!


A vermicelli noodles dish at room temperature served with chicken, pork, and spring roll. It came with a small bowl of fish-sauce based sauce on the side which we poured on top. This was good as well!


Pork chop with broken rice. Even from the picture the pork chop looks juicy! I preferred the pork from this dish than the one in the vermicelli...this also came with the small bowl of sauce to pour over.

Based on last Saturday's experience, I would go back to Nam Phuong again...hopefully next time they'll have the Bahn Cuon too!

百變千層 - "Mille Feuille"

This was an interesting bakery item I saw at Taipan Bakery. At first glance it reminded me of the awesome Mille Feuille we had at Morimoto, but it actually looks more like crepes.

Layer upon layer of thin crepe slices with cream in between, and cubes of honeydew melon sandwiched between every 5 or so layers. The crepe slices were fluffy and light, but the piece as a whole lacked flavor. The crepes, melons, and cream were not sweet at all...wish they had used strawberries or something rather than honeydew, or syrup or chocolate in between the crepe layers.

Smashed Potato Cake

So I finally got around to making the Smashed Potato Cake! Saw Paula Deen make it on FoodNetwork last week, and wanted to try it out. What's not to like? Yukon Gold Potatoes, panko, bacon, garlic, scallions, cheddar cheese, butter!

It was somewhat time-consuming to make, since I had to boil the potatoes, mash them, then mix in the rest of the ingredients and then panfry it. But it was worth it!


Potatoes mashed with ingredients mixed in. We only panfried half the batch, which already made like 10 cakes! Saving the other half for another time.


In the process of being panfried.


Done!


Served with lasagna from last time...the lasagna was a little too burnt. Cooking is fun! I've got my brother & mom helping me...I like it when I don't really have to do the dishes. Just cook!

My first Lasagna

Thanks Iman for sending me this recipe! The lasagna was definitely a lot of work, but it was worth it! I made the sauce on Friday but didn't get around to putting the pasta together until tonight. In any case, the recipe suggested letting the sauce sit overnight makes it better. The recipe called for ground beef, sweet italian sausage, tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, parsley...and ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese (which we couldn't find at the supermarket and got the Italian blend of cheese instead).

The sauce was good enough to be saved for regular pasta! But since we soaked the entire box (20) of lasagna pasta rather than just the 12 the recipe wanted, I ended using all the sauce and cheese to make 2 batches of lasagna. My version had 3 layers of the noodle with 4 noodle per layer, rather than the 2 layers of 6 noodles. Nonetheless, turned out great!


Before putting the lasagna into the oven...actually the picture above is the smaller version which I had frozen away for future consumption. The bigger batch looked the same though.


The big batch of lasagna out of the oven! It smelled authentic, and definitely better than most of the lasagnas I've had at supposedly authentic Italian places!


Smaller piece of lasagna served with Texas Toast. Surprisingly, my mom liked it as well! I can't wait to make this again when Meanie comes back! I could get bitter if people criticize my cooking...i.e. if they say it's too salty, I'll tell them to make it next time then. Kind of bad habit, but I am defensive about my creations!

粥之家 - Congee Village

Went to Chinatown with my family today, and went to Congee Village for lunch. The food was, as always, great! Surprisingly, we ordered just enough that we didn't have to pack anything to go!


We ordered the 粥之家桑拿蝦 (Congee Village Sauna Shrimp). They brought out the aluminum pot with heated stones and drunken live shrimp. After putting the shrimp in the pot for several minutes, they were ready to eat!


It was cool watching the shrimp cook at the table!


The slight wine flavor gave the shrimp an extra sweetness, and the soy sauce they provided was great as well.


腐乳炒水蕹/白管通菜 (Water Spinach stir-fried with preserved tofu) Rather than regular water spinach, these had the white stems. The slight preserved tofu gave the veggies just enough flavor.


勝瓜肉碎浸魚肚 (Fish maw soaked in Loofah and ground meat). English description/name doesn't sound appetizing at all, but the flavor was very refreshing. There were also small pieces of 酸菜/picked veggies in the soup, to balance out the slight fishy taste of the fish maw.


Soup ladled out into a small bowl.


豉油王生煎豆腐 (Tofu pan-fried in soy sauce). This is a staple-dish we always order every time we go to Congee Village. The tofu is extremely soft, the crust is slightly crispy from being pan-fried, and the slightly sweet soy sauce made this dish very eat to eat!


海珊骨 (Pork ribs with shrimp sauce) For some reason, these ribs are smaller than I last remembered! Nonetheless, the taste was still just as good.


鐵板沙爹牛肉 (Sizzling satay beef). This dish came out after we finished all the other dishes...most likely because they forgot about it until we asked them where it is. This looked very very similar to the Pepper Steak with Onions we serve at the shop...the satay flavor was very light, couldn't taste it unless we scoop the sauce from the plate. There were also small chunchs of pineapple in the dish, which didn't really add to the flavor either.

Mignon

Since CulinAriane was fully booked, we went to Mignon Saturday night instead. It's a cozy little steakhouse located in Rutherford about five minutes off Rt. 3. Parking was a killer, and our 8:30 reservation was delayed until a little after 9PM. The decor was nice, decent lighting at the tables, but overall lighting wasn't too bright. The tin-colored ceiling was extremely high, and there were wooden Chinese doors/screens that looked like they were from the Qing dynasty or something.

While we were waiting for our table to be ready, we saw several similar entrées come out of the kitchen, where there was this 3-inch thick steak and the waiter cuts it at the table. I asked the waiter what that dish was, and it's the Porterhouse. The six of us decided to order one of those, plus a bunch of sides and desserts.

They provided us the multi-grain bread with butter and filet tartare. Since the four of us who got there first were too hungry, we ate both plates of bread before the other two got there. They were late because their car broke down, and had to get a ride back home to drive another car.



The filet tartare was definitely different. It was slightly seasoned, and went very well with the soft butter!


We also ordered the Pecan-crusted Lamb Chops appetizer rather than the entrée since I don't eat lamb. Can't really comment on that dish since I didn't try it.


The top dish is the Scalloped Potatoes with Cheddar Cheese. The sliced potatoes were awesome! I didn't care much for the cheese, but that was the only scalloped-potato they had. It was a hit! The bottom dish is the garlic mashed potatoes. You could probably tell that those were slightly too dry.


More side dishes. French string beans with toasted pine nuts, sautéed spinach with garlic and white wine, and complimentary onion strings. The pine nuts were great! I wish they were bigger, there was a slight nutty sweetness to it. The spinach had a bit too much wine, but it was still good. Onion strings reminded me of the French's Onions I make green bean casserole with, which of course means they were good!


After we saw how big the first set of sides were, we decided to order some more. Even though the menu said sides were family style, I don't think they were even enough for one person! Here is a picture of the asparagus. By the time that came out I had already finished the entrée, so I didn't try that one either.


Charlene's Baked Potatoes. The potatoes came out with the fixins on the side, and the waitress asked what she'd like on them. It started as butter....then salt & pepper....bacon...cheese....green onions. Ended up getting all the fixins!


Charlene also ordered a House Salad. Picture came out kinda fuzzy due to the lack of flash.


The Salmon entrée served on top of some potato sticks and salad. Salmon was nice and crispy!


Our own star of the show! Porterhouse Steak! The menu description was: "A monster cut of USDA Prime beef capable of serving two or more people" Capable indeed!


Even though the steak was so thick, the doneness of the steak was right on the money!


A closeup of the piece of Porterhouse I had on my plate. Juicy!





We each ordered coffee, tea, and cappuccino after the entrée. Here's a picture of two cappuccinos. The frothy milk on the top was so light, and gave the drink a nice finish.


Charlene wanted to hand-model with the cappuccinos...except she was also making a facial expression too, so I took a picture of her with the drinks as well.



Time for dessert! Pictured above is the crème brûlée. Definitely better than Passioné's because it didn't get charred to the point of bitterness.


Chocolate crème brûlée! A nice change of flavor, but I think I still prefer the original more.


Banana Foster. Flambée bananas with ice cream and (I think) chocolate pudding. We ordered 2 of these, the waiter brought over a shot of liquor, and Mike took it. He asked if it was Bacardi 151, and it was! As for the bananas, it was just the right amount of sweetness, but wish it was a little softer.


After Mike took the shot of Bicardi 151, he did the honors of blowing out the flames on the bananas.


Warm Apple Crisp. The apples here were a tad bit too sweet, but the crisps were surely crispy! The roll on top was great as well!