Paradise Biriyani Pointe

Butter Chicken + Naan (butterless) - Butter chicken tasted very similar to Chicken Tikka Masala. Naan in the extra sauce was very good!

Chicken Biriyani - almost like chicken fried rice, but there's tiny pieces of bones from the chicken meat. The two sauces (yogurt? and something else)...were very refreshing.

Karaoke Duet + Mad for Chicken

Kamikaze shots! (I think?)


Sea Breeze - Vodka, grapefruit juice...and something else. So colorful!


Chicken Wings from "Mad for Chicken" on...5th Ave and 32nd St. maybe. Similar to other "KFC" joints (KFC = Korean Fried Chicken, which is > Kentucky!) Regular soy garlic and spicy flavored. The spicy one made my lips burn. The look of the wings deceived me! Anywho, crunchiness of the wings were awesome. Maybe we were just so hungry...we ordered the wings while waiting for a table. But definitely need to go back to try their ramen. I don't know if I'll try it, but the "Cheese Ramen" sounded very interesting.


Lychee Soju - Awesome lychee flavor!

上海灘 Shanghai Tan

I believe the food below would be categorized as...Shanghainese food. Right, Janet? 上海灘/Shanghai Tan in Flushing has all-you-can-eat hotpot buffet, but we went there for a la carte food instead. Next time, we shall have that!


獅子頭 - "Lion's head" is the literal translation of the dish. As you can see, meatballs with cellophane noodles and vegetables. 4 "balls" wasn't enough for the 6 of us, so we had to cut them up, unfornately.


紅燒海參 - Sea cucumbers. The waitress really kept selling the dish to us, and we were sold. Great sea cucumbers though!


松子黃魚 - "Yellow fish" with sweet and sour sauce and pine nuts. Supposedly we should've only got 1 fish, but we were told that we got 2. They didn't say why...maybe it's because of the girls at the table? ;)



麻婆豆腐 - Mapo Tofu. Tofu was nice and silky, even though the dish looks super red, it wasn't all that spicy at all.


小籠飽 - Soupy buns! Little buns with very thin wrapping filled with meat and juicy-ness!


芝麻大餅 - Big Sesame Pancake. This took the longest to come out, it was super steamy! The dough is nice and fluffy, with some salted pork pieces layered within the pancake. (side note: look at plate of what-used-to-be-fish! It was devoured...)


鍋貼 - Pan fried dumplings. These were surprisingly juicy on the inside too! This was a last minute addition since some of us were still hungry.

Pat's and Geno's

Finally had the famous Philly Cheesesteaks from Pat's and Geno's!!! I love the fact that both are open 24-hours. And Geno's is just so eye-catching, I could spot it from several blocks away.


Neon signs and flourescent lights


Corner of Geno's Steaks

And turn the other way is Pat's Steaks. It kind of reminds me of Times Square in NYC where it's a crossroad.


Geno's Cheesesteak - the sliced steak were not "loosened" up, but I couldn't get much "steak" taste from it...almost tasted watered down.


Pat's Cheesesteak (with Mushrooms) - This one had provolone cheese as well, but I couldn't taste it. The steak was loosened in this one, and actually tasted like beef.

For whatever reason, Pat's decor is more traditional, and they have more "options" or toppings to choose from than Geno's. So I'd say Pat's won this battle, but I'd definitely keep trying both steaks when I go back again!

Random

Went to Brandon's Tae Kwon Do Award Banquet last week at the Parsippany Sheraton hotel.


Main course - Roast beef! The baby carrot was awesomely sweet. The tiny halves of squashes were steamed, not as sweet.


Dessert - Apple crumble drizzled with caramel sauce. The apples were thinly sliced and layered, the crust tasted buttery.

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At Park in NYC:

"Sexy Bitch" is the name of the drink. Too bad I spilled half of it.


Peanut butter + Jelly....churro? :P

Bravo Italiano Cucina (Take 2)

Tuscan Sunset


Chiraz + Tuscan Sunset


Peach Bellini


Chicken, Spinach, and Bacon Flatbread - Grilled chicken, creamy spinach, applewood smoked bacon with green onions, Mozzarella and Provolone. The spinach makes the flatbread pretty refreshing! Tasted kind of like a thin-crust pizza.


Grilled Tilapia with Crab - Flaky tilapia topped with jumbo lump crab and lemon butter sauce served with the vegetable of the day and crispy potatoes. I substituted the vegetables of the day with string beans instead. The potatoes were definitely crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside!


Mama's Lasagna Bolognese - with creamy Alfredo sauce and classic meat sauce from the heart of Italy. This makes me want to make my own lasagna again...I can do it!


Chicken Parmesan Milanese - Crisp, freshly-breaded Romano-crusted chicken breast with fresh Mozzarella and Pomodoro sauce served with herb pasta


Tre Dolce - Tiramisu, Torta di Cioccolata, and Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding. We wanted to substitute the Torta di Cioccolata (aka chocolate cake) with something else off the dessert menu, but we were only allowed to get another one of the other two. There was too much cocoa powder on the tiramisu, and the chocolate chip bread pudding was just awesome!

Texas Roadhouse (Take 2)

New York Strip with apple sauce and baked sweet potato. The steak was perfect!!!

Brunch!

The bowls are not soup, it's soy milk!


Pancake sandwiched with marinated beef, hoisin sauce, and cilantro


Scallion pancake with egg


Soupy meat dumplings, similar to ones from Joe's Shanghai


Shu mai...totally different than the ones from Cantonese dimsum!

Texas Roadhouse

First time visit to Texas Roadhouse!


The refrigerator display area near the entrance had some very convincing steaks!


Strawberry Cowboy Cooler...it looks clearer in the picture than it really was.


Dinner rolls...sweet yeast...


10 oz. Ft. Worth Ribeye with String Beans and Sweet Potato with marshmallows - Steak was great! String beans were a tad too salty...and marshmallows on sweet potato? Duh!


Dessert: Big Ol' Brownie...yes, 5 spoons. Who could finish this by themselves after eating steak and/or ribs?!

Roy's

Apparently it was the last day of Philadelphia Restaurant Week...didn't know about it until we saw the menu there. Even though the posted restaurant hours were from 5:30pm-10:00pm, the reservation was at 10pm, but we didn't get there until almost 11! There were still other tables in the restaurant when we sat down, but we were probably the last to order.


Edamame - lightly seasoned with sea salt and other seasonings


Appetizer: Maine Lobster Dimsum with white truffle foam - this was just as good as I remembered it to be!


Appetizer: Kimchi and kobe beef gyoza - the sauce was spicier than the kimchi filling!


Entree: Roy's Classic Trio - Hibachi Grilled Salmon, Roy's Original Blackened Island Ahi, and Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish. The salmon was still orange in the middle, not sure if that's what's supposed to happen, but nonetheless it tasted fresh. I was skeptical about the blackened ahi since blackened most usually means it's crusted with black pepper, but it was tasty! And the butterfish was silky, just like the waitress said, very similar to Chilean Sea Bass.


Entree: forgot what fish this was...hahaha.


Entree: Tiger shrimp with Lo Mein


Dessert: Raspberry pannacotta and Roy's Signature Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle. Not usually a chocolate lover, but this souffle was awesome. Crispy and crusty outside, with chocolate oozing out the center!

Montclair Restaurant Week - CulinAriane

Second place for Montclair's Restaurant Week was CulinAriane. Been wanting to go to this restaurant ever since last winter...but it was too late and it was fully booked! Why did I want to go? Coz Ariane was a contestant on TopChef a few seasons ago!


Menu cover


Restaurant Week menu...not too too great, so we ordered a la carte, and one 1 prix-fixe.


Picture of the table setting


Pretty daisies!!!


Mini croissants with butter. Super flaky and fluffy croissants!


First Course: Endive, grapefruit, orange, red onion with tangerine honey vinegrette with pecan pieces. First time I had endive! They look like a version of Chinese Nappa Cabbage...the nut clusters were tasty though.


Appetizer: Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with Citrus Remoulade - okay, so this pic is a close-up, but the crabcake was still pretty big! There wasn't much flour, mostly crab cake! Yumm~


Second Course: Sauteed Shrimp, Penne, Pancetta - had to ask them to leave out the peas...that's why there's not much "green" in this dish.


Entree: Brook Trout, Roasted Sweet Potato, Smoked Pork Belly, Brussel Sprouts in sage brown butter - Every component of this dish was awesome, how could it go wrong?


Fork for dessert...thought it was defective or something since one side is thicker than the other.


Third Course: Almond Cake, Spiced Poached Pear, Mascapone Cheese - Mascapone Cheese is the same that's used in tiramisu...not cheesy at all!

I would probably go back to CulinAriane again, but it seems like the a la carte menu is a lot better than the prix-fixe menu.