Tea&Taro

Cafe Lattes & More

2012-02-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

The amazing hot chocolate at Cafe Ebel made from real melted milk chocolate and purchased with a student discount :p

A somewhat blaise serving of carrot cake but compensated by an exciting new discovery! Honey Cake!

Lunch @ Ferdinand

2012-02-13T14:41:00.000-08:00

Ferdinand beer on tap, in a bottle & a very czech lunch menu

My lovely roommate found this little gem just down the street from Cerge which is the building where we have most of our classes. You know its a legit place when the entire menu is in Czech and everyone around is speaking Czech. Best of all, we got to try another locally brewed beer and I added one more coaster to my collection :)

Chicken & tomato/cucumber salad

Lunch was the usual mixture of meat and starch offerings including beef, sausage, chicken, ham, potatoes and bread. However, all of the dishes were supremely well made and the utilitatarian tables gave the sunlight dining room a rather cozy feeling.

Goulash w/ bread + kilbasa w/ sourkraut

Potato pancake w/ ham and cheese + steak w/ rice

I'm glad I managed to snap some pictures of "legit" Czech food unlike the terrible pictures I took previously with my phone :p

Next post coming up will be on some of the cafes we visited these past few days!

Ahoj from Prague!

2012-02-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Beer (in very large pitchers - the standard size), goulash (meat + gravy + thick bread), more goulash, duck (and other forms of poultry), pretzels (and other forms of carbs). Despite the bad lighting, blurry images and poor picture quality, this collage pretty much sums up the Czech eating experience.

An entire week in Prague already and not a single post. Well, here it is! Although, in my defense, it really is not entirely my fault as it was only yesterday that we managed to obtain (working) wi-fi and settled down into our gorgeous flat. After toughing it out in a hostel for a few days, the 7 of us found a lovely apartment located just 4 minutes from the heart of Prague and Old Town. Despite the sub-zero degree weather, I finally sucked it up and took my camera with me today to snap some photos of the nearby river and our dinner.

Pizza - Bacio di Petra with tomato, arugla, and pine nuts
Hot Goat Cheese Salad + apples, raisins & walnuts

While I do give Prague credit for its old-city charm and absolutely stunning architecture, Prague is also one of the most eclectic cities I have ever encountered - comprised of an odd blend of old-world stylisms with touristy compromises and lots of random western influences thrown in between.

After getting lost and stumbling in the wrong direction for a good few blocks, we finally came upon Radost FX . Vegetarian/Vegan/All Natural Foodie joint by day, smokey lounge and club by night. The menu which appeared suspiciously toursity at first turned out to be a delicious selection of well made dishes and literally the first meal we've had since arriving in Prague that contained real vegetables (yippee!) After many meals of goulash, kobasa and fried cheese, this was quite a welcome.

Red Curry + sweet potato, eggplant, carrots
Nachos

Spinach Burger + Chipotle Mayo, Cole Slaw Czech Style
Green Curry + coriander, lime, jasmine rice
Cafe Latte

Offering an extensive drinks and dessert menu as well, we plan to venture to this corner of Prague quite often - and in particular, perhaps one Saturday night for its "Soul Train" performances and music.

Lacroix (Part III)

2012-02-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

Still haven't finished all of the posts from Southeast Asia (as there is an entire folder of Thai Cooking class pictures to go through and edit) so here is a quick little post on Lacroix for Restaurant Week. Came here last spring (forgot a camera) and last semester (poor dinner lighting) but this time I managed to snap some quick shots before digging in.

Apps: Mixed Greens & Caesar Salad

Main: Lamb BLY & Fish and Chips

Dessert: Dessert Trio

Apps were delish, mains were somewhat underwhelming but the desserts (as always in the case of restaurant week) were amazing. Also hit up Amada for dinner which I discovered is infinitely better than its lunch offerings but the lighting for that rendered the pictures almost completely black. Oh well...maybe some editing will salvage them.

(Fruity) Colors of Thailand

2012-01-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

So we did street food. kind of. Does juice in a bottle count? Well we also did have tofu out of a bag. Papaya out of a bag. Banana out of a bag. Lots of food out of plastic bags. OH right and (Thai) iced tea. Although, is it still called Thai ice tea in Thailand? Do Thais even drink Thai iced tea? But they do drink coconut water. Lots of it. Considering all of the coconut meat that gets used to make all of the coconut cream for all of the green curries, paid thai and tom yum soup that us tourists consume :)

Dragon fruit juice. Who knew dragon fruit was a fruit much less juice producing fruit? All freshly hand squeezed!

Dim Sum Done Right

2012-01-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

On the top of my to-do list in Hong Kong? Get dim sum. ASAP. Crowned one of the top 10 best restaurants of the world by the New York Times and awarded one Michelin star by the Hong Kong & Macau edition of the Michelin guide, this internationally acclaimed restaurant has put all of my other dim sum experiences to shame. Who knew that Ding Tai Fung had its start with a broke husband and wife originally selling tinned cooking oil? After some quick googling, I've also just discovered that there is a branch in Arcadia, CA...where the heck is Arcadia? Can they please open a branch in NYC already?

In no particular order...

2012-01-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

Let the travel posts begin :) Three weeks of travel later, back in Philadelphia (in quite miserable rain) and lounging around until it is time to jet off to Prague. So far, the most captivating event of my morning is watching E! news, and uploading 200+ pictures to Facebook. Oh right and editting a bazillion pictures of food. Enough ranting about the freezing weather on the East coast and onto the actual food.

Tom Yum soup with Udon noodles

Who knew sweet and sour in a soup could actually taste good? I've never ever enjoyed the sweet and sour combination found in Chinese take-out and various other Asian cuisines. It just never seemed quite right - too much sour or too much sweet and nothing in between that was a resemblance of savory. Ah, but tom yum soup has proved me wrong. The secret? Lemongrass and Kaffir leaves which I managed to learn in my Thai cooking class (more on this one later!). Either way, this soup is not just sweet and sour but a wonderful homogeneous blend of the two with wonderful ambrosial hints in every slurp.

An eclectic twist of fried flat noodles, spicy chicken and basil leaves.

Snapshots of Travels

2011-12-15T17:21:00.000-08:00

Left: Crab tostada over salad
Upper Right: Seafood mix, empanada over beans
Bottom Right: Sausage Sandwich from "The International Accordion Festival"

An impromptu stop at Crumbs after a NYC trip (for the first time!)
I've never been the biggest of cupcakes (give me an insomnia chocolate chip cookie any day) but these cupcakes just about live up to all of the hype

Shown: Coffee Toffee
We also got an insanely caloric cookie mania something or other to go but that got devoured later...

Some absurdly delicious bubble tea
Milk tea with Boba
Green tea smoothie with grass jelly (my favorite)

One more exam and the semester will be officially over.

Recharge and Reboot

2011-12-07T11:36:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving inspired brunch specials at TapHouse.
French toast with a smattering of seasonal fruits and some fort of sweet gooey butter
Eggs Benedict over scrumptous stuffing

Ok I confess. I have indeed been one epic SLACKER this entire semester about blogging my eating adventures. Not that I haven't been eating or cooking but I've literally just been SLACKING about taking pictures and posting, but NO MORE (all these caps are clearly indicating how serious I am). Even though this is probably the worst time for me to finally update my blog with the dreaded corp val final in just a week and recruiting smushed in between - this blog has been looking too sad to be ignored much longer. You also know that I've been out of it for way too long because I did not realize blogger updated its interface and it makes posting so much better now (wow, good work Google).
Read more »

The Rainbow after the Rain

2011-09-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

Heirloom tomatoes + Basil + Mozzarella

Sporadically rainy weather this week. I managed to dig these pictures out of my camera last week. I think I took these that night the big hurricane ravaged the East Coast not that we noticed since we were too busy munching away. Smitten Kitchen always has these beautiful shots of uber colorful vegetables so here's my rendition of that.

I've always been obsessed with those little pickled vegetables you get at Vietnamese restaurants. Awhile back, one of my foodie friends told me that you can make them yourself and it doesn't take 1039849384 days to marinate. A year later, I finally got around to making them myself :)

Au Revoir Canada, Hello Penn

2011-09-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

One more day until I head back to Penn. I still refuse to believe that it is September already as I have been insulated in the bubble that is suburbia Pennsylvania for the past 2 weeks. Outside of reading, sleeping and eating - I haven't been doing too much else. Its also hard to do much else when you are waking up at 3:00pm everyday. ha. My justfication to my dad was that I was building up my sleep bank.

Water Chiller, Bread&Butter, Escargot.

Our final dinner in Montreal. It was about time that we had an authentic French meal. So authentic in fact that everything on the menu was in French with no English translation. We managed to fumble our way through the menu an settled on some delicious albeit safe options.

Chicken stuffed with bacon and brie cheese with fresh vegetables.There is of course a more official and French sounding name for this but I have no idea what it is.

Coq au vin (actually translates into rooster in wine...huh, how did that not dawn on me?

I was so so in the mood to order some froi gras but my dining companion was in mood to eat liver. Alas I missed out on my chance to redeem froi gras - the first time I had froi gras dish, I was 12 and thought I had ordered something akin to fried duck - imagine my dismay when the dish turned up to me mushy goo with a side of caramelized apples. Fortunately, my palette has developed somewhat since then.


[A rather large serving of] creme brulee which of course we finished.

My kind of flowers

2011-08-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

This place takes flowers to a whole new level. Every ingredient, baked delight, afternoon snack and cafe drink had flowers as one of the ingredients. And to boot, there were the most gorgeous bouquets scattered around the tiny 3-table shop. We happened to serendipitously stumble upon the corner cafe after breezing through St. Laurent but came back on our last day to savor a light brunch and some more floral beverages.

Check out the ambiance! I sure did. The cafe used to be a local corner store which is where the old looking wooden shelves and flooring comes from. Fortunately, everything was still immaculately preserved and even the round tables' tablecloth had matching flowers with an old-time feel.

[Gorgeous magenta colored flowers; Scrambled Eggs, Tomoato & Polenta; Side Citrus Salad.] Everything was served on either vintage-y china or in these adorable mason jars. Everything sure looks a lot cuter in mason jars.

Orange Blossom French Cake (I don't know what it was called, caramelized on the outside, almost custardy on the inside), & Cinnamon Pasty with Fresh Fruit.

Iced Dark Tea, Orange/Rose Infused Soda Water, & Rose Infused Lemonade. The soda water and lemonade smelled like a bouquet of fresh roses. Who needs roses when you can have rose lemonade? :)

Rose blossom Sugar Cookies, a gorgeous arrangement of flowers & a jug of crisp water against the setting sun.

More flowers, a vintage couch in the background.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this place. I think we marveled in everything for a good twenty minutes, and then again the next day. Capo will never feel the same after this but such is life.

Bonjour Canada

2011-08-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yea yea its still Canada but its as close as I'm getting to Europe this year. Although a taste of Montreal makes me want to hop on the next red eye to Paris. Its actually true what they say - turning any word French automatically makes it sound infinitely more romantic. We just about died every time we passed by a chocolatier or saw the words creme glacee.

Mont-Royal

A (late) breakfast in Mont Royal followed by walking, exploring and shopping, Mont Royal vaguely reminds me of East Village in NYC. Its filled half with up-and-coming restaurants, boutiques, ethnic cuisine and half with gorgeous residential apartments and hostels. We ventured to the famous 24 hour-a-day/7-days-a-week La Banquise for the famous Canadian poutine later in the afternoon.

Finally tried the much-heralded poutine! And from supposedly the most famous place in Montreal no less. Final verdict? Ambiguous. We ordered the classic which is french fries with gravy and cheese curds and got some bacon thrown in. The fries were not your typical golden diner fries which in this case still worked. The whole mess reminded me of the kind of cheese fries you order from Allegro's at 3 in the morning....I guess that's why this place is open 24 hours.

Escargot, Salad and Belgian Fries in Mont Royal; My travel companion is absolutely in love with escargot from her travels in France (major jealousy over here) although I've never been very fond of the butter-soaked aspect of the dish. That was until I realized they aren't always soaked in butter. Huh. Well, I still think they aren't that exciting given the other options that exist on a menu.

Vieux Montreal

Ham quiche with beet salad at an adorable chocolatier/cafe by Notre-Dame Basilica (pictures forthcoming!). This light and airy quiche inspired me to make quiche on my first full day home...which my father promptly gobbled up. haha.

A life-changing panini. Sure it looks unassuming but man what a flavor combination: smoke salmon, cream cheese, roasted eggplant, capers, peso and arugula. I am tying this one at home kids. \

Lunch at Jardin Nelson in Old Montreal. We were fortunate enough to experience gorgeous weather all week and this day was no different. Every restaurant we passed was filled with bustling diners sitting on patios, by windows and in the open sun. Jardin Nelson took this to the extreme and had two dining terraces as well as an open roof available for locals and tourists alike. The crepe was rather disappointing but the live jazz music was quite enjoyable.

A flaky and delicious chocolate croissant and brie cheese fondue with baguette and grapes. I never really got the whole fruit and cheese combo but I always like anything I eat enough times :)

Downtown Montreal

(Left) Portobello burger with sprouts, tomato and some sort of amazing creamy cheese...might have been cream cheese haha. (Right) Burger with brie and bacon. A late (a little too late) spontaneous dinner at 10pm after a 3 hour nap left our stomachs grumbling. This happened to be one of the few places where the kitchen was still open at 10pm (don't ask me why everything closes so early). The burgers seemed like a safe bet off of the pretty Americanized menu but they were DELICIOUS. I think adding brie to anything just makes it taste good. Funnily enough, they didn't ask us how we wanted our burger cooked but even the medium-well quality left the burger nice and juicy.

Forthcoming posts: the official most adorable cafe in Montreal (which we went to 2 days in a row even though it was on the other side of town), a good old fashioned French dinner in the Latin Quarter, and a great big bunch of gratuitous scenic shots.

The Last Hurrah in the Big Apple

2011-08-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

Gelato from Eataly. Ok Capo, I think you've met your match. Pistachio + Hazelnet in a waffle cone? ZOMG I'm in heaven.

Is it already almost the end of August? The experience of a milestone birthday, the end of a whirlwind internship, a spontaneous trip to Montreal and now I am back in my bed at home furiously sending out emails in preparation for the upcoming semester. I don't think I even remembered to do anything particular for the one-year anniversary of this blog or take any pictures of my Bday dinner. Sigh. Is this what happens when you officially grow up? Life starts moving like a fast forwarded movie?

At least I'm still making time to smell the pork ramen along the way :) Leave it to me to wait until my last day in NYC to finallyy check off some foodie adventures that have been on "the list" since day 1. Guess that's why they always say better late than never.

Momofuku Noodle Bar. Momofuku Ramen with pork belly, pork shoulder and poached egg. Pork buns with hoisin and cucumber. I think I like the noodles at Momo better but the broth at Ippudo was definitely more flavorful. Pork buns are comparable although Momo's was clearly a lot fattier. Good food is still good food :p

Momofuku Milk Bar. Cereal Milk Ice Cream & Grasshopper Pie (not shown). For someone who doesn't really like the taste of milk (and yet ice cream is still my favorite food group...huh), cereal milk flavored ice cream was not really my thing but you gotta praise David Chang for his creativity.

After raving about Tamarind to my co-workers the first time around, guess who was lucky enough to go back for another spectacular (somewhat gluttinous) three-course lunch? This time it was with a new friend from work. Life is at its best when moments are the most serendipitous - especially when its the start of a new friendship :)

Spicy Lamb. Curry Chicken. Sadly, I do not remember the name of these dishes (not that I even knew how to pronounce it the fist time around).

Kashmiri Murgh (Chicken) and Bhagarey Paneer (Cottage Cheese)

Amritsari Machli (Marinated Fish) and Pudina Gosht (Boneless Lamb)

Side of Nan and Root Vegetables

Rice Pudding that wound up seeming more like Vanilla Mousse but still delicious :)

Norma's at Le Parker Meridien

My LAST brunch in the city. The brunch was decent but the servings were ENORMOUS including the coffee where they served you an entire kettle (per person). Guess who was uber caffeinated for the rest of the day?? Check out their very expansive menu.

Normalita's Huevos Rancheros.

Crunchy French Toast with Warm Caramel Sauce. So this might just put RX's crunchy french toast to shame. IF only there had been some fruit with this dish! One can only take so much of super sweetness and dense delicious carbyness.

Dinner with T. at Pipas y Mas. The lighting at the restaurant was way wayy too dark for me to get any good ambiance shots but the restaurant's website does a pretty darn good job highlighting their extravagant lighting decor of 20 something chandeliers. We didn't really explore the full tapas menu but what we did get was yummmmy. And we took NYMag's recommendation on the piggy back dates which were indeed very tasty.


Catalan Flat Bread - Slized Chorizo, artichoke, tomato and piquillo pepper

Catalan Flat Bread - wild mushrooms, serrano ham, manchego cheese, caramelized onion, almonds and truffle oil.

Piggy Back Dates - almond stuffed, bacon wrapped dates with endive leaves.

Cooking class and dinner at the Institute of Culinary Education. We had the choice of helping with one of three courses - guess who opted to help with the peanut butter/chocolate goodness dessert??

Making caramel (apparently you are supposed to add salt at the end of the heating process to make the flavor pop which in hindsight is kind of intuitive considering PinkBerry now sells salted caramel fro-yo but still...now it makes me want to go make caramel!), whipping up peanut butter mousse and stirring up chocolate cake batter.

Risotto with medley of vegetables.

Steak with fingerling potatoes and asparagus.

Chocolate cake with peanut mousse and caramel sauce.

Not to shabby for a wrap-up of the city that never sleeps. Lets see if I can crank out the posts I have from Montreal before I head out to Penn. Farewell NYC! Until next time ;)

Stories from Manhantan (and Brooklyn)

2011-07-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

OK so story #1: I was determined to visit the famed Brooklyn Flea Market after reading about it on NY Mag (which has just about replaced Yelp at this point for restaurant recommendations), and in particular - the foodie bonanza known as Smorgasburg.

Last weekend, we hopped on the ACE train and headed out to Brooklyn. First we got lost, then we walked 15 blocks only to find out we ended up at the wrong flea market and that the one were looking for was only open on Sundays. Sigh. Oh but of course it turned out to be an amazing (foodie) experience and I wound up staying for 5 hours. Today, I went to go see the "official" flea market in Williamsburg and who knew? It was basically the exact same thing. ha-ha.

HomeMade Fizzy Juice: Grapefruit & Jalapenos. Sounds weird but you're talking to someone who eats jalapenos as a condiment. It was delicious :)

Other eats that I still need to try.

Pork Sandwiches on Ciabatta bread. and a piggie toy. adorbs.

Corn Tortillas, Fresh Salsa and Spicy Toppings. All fresh and beautifully prepared. Sigh.

[Pork Tacos] Reminded me of the AMAZING tacos from Cancun. I've never been a fan of tortilla until I realized on day it was just flour tortilla. Corn tortilla gets a gold star from me.

YUM YUM YUM!!! Can you tell I was excited?

Story #2: I was majorly craving fried chicken one night so I went over to Kyochon on 31st and 5th Ave. I asked for the spicy wings and holy cow it was SPICY....like inedible spicy, I didn't even know such a thing existed. Kind of disappointing. Scratch that - really disappointing. At least the pickled veggies were yummy except they were spicy too! Which would of course normally be ok but not when you've already lost feeling in your tongue. And the kicker of the story is that BonChon was only 1 block away and would probably have been infinitely better. Sigh.

That chicken even looks spicy in the picture.

Story #3: On a much happier note, I have had the most amazing, life-changing and memorable macarons of my life. WOW. Bouchon Bakery has instantly become a new love. Located in the Time Warner's Building which is conveniently "only" 10 blocks from my apartment, we stopped by after a filling brunch at Silhouette. Everything about the macarons was perfect. The texture was very cake-like and the fillings were creamy and not overwhelmingly sweet. I could easily eat a whole box of them. Fortunately or unfortunately, $4/macaron kept me from ordering a whole box.

Blueberry Cheesecake, Salted Caramel.

Story #4 Lunch at Ciano's on the hottest day of the year. Thank goodness for AC and prix fixe lunches :) We were literally drenched from the 1.5 blocks it took to walk to the restaurant. For once, I was grateful for the freezing AC that's always being blasted at work.

I personally can never turn down eggplant when I see it on the menu. I don't know what it is for other people but its eggplant for me; plus Italian cuisine just happens to be one of the ones that consistently serves up delicious eggplant.


Crespelle; Savory Crepes filled with Ricotta Spinach, Zucchini and Swiss Chard Tre Formaggi Raviolo; Stracchino, Burrata and Parmigiano with Rosemary-Brown Butter


Shaved Vegetable Salad with Mixed Greens, Carrot, Fennel, Peppers and Ricotta Salata Roasted Eggplant “Amatriciania”; Tomato, Guanciale and Pepperoncini

Strawberry Sorbet & Biscotti. Of course, there is no other dessert choice but sorbet when the weather outside is spiking to 105 degrees.

Story #5: Brunch at Esperanto in the Village. With my weekends in NYC sadly winding down, it meant it was time to get adventurous. Instead of the usual brunch in Hells Kitchen - we ventured to the East side (so East that numbers turned into letters...which I of course didn't even realize existed) . And a prix fixe brunch that includes coffee and a cocktail for $10.95? Who can say no to that?

Confession time: we were actually trying to get brunch at the Sunburnt Cow (unlimited mimosas for $20...) but the wait was over 2 hours and it was 2:00pm already. So we settled on Esperanto but I am very tempted to actually experience the experience the midday version of an open bar.

Huevos Rancheros. Esperanda with its colorful table designs and plastic decor reminds me of a fancier food shack off a beaten road somewhere in a tropical island. The side potatoes had flavorful kick to them - reminded me of paprika.

Tropical French Toast. Nothing fancy, no brioche, no creme fraiche, no fruite compote. This french toast tasted like the french toast I had when my dad made it for me for the first time.

Huevos Languas: poached egg, greens and potato shrimp cake. The food here was also really similar to RX at Penn in the sense that the food is on the simpler side but well-prepared and in a light-hearted ambiance.

Korean Eats

2011-07-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

4 weeks later and I have finally discovered Korea town. How it took me so long to find the place I have no idea but thank goodness I did. Although K-town is awkwardly located between home and work with neither being walking distance, I have still managed to find enough excuses to frequent the street. Especially after eating at work and in Hells Kitchen for so long, I was starting to seriously crave my usual staples of noodles, gochijang, and soy.

After a friend from Penn got settled into the city, we journeyed to K-town where I finally got my first Korean BBQ adventure. Talk about a serious food experience! I don't think I have ever eaten that much since the Chinese New Year's. Long story short, easily one of the best meals of life if for no other reason that the food was good and there was so much of it :)

Look at this massive array of banchan (korean side dishes)! Our favorites were the dried tofu skin, cured radish and two selections of kimchi.

BBQ sampling of gal bi, pork belly and tenderloin (?) Not sure what the last one was but lets go with tenderloin. Funnily enough, the gas for the BBQ was broken that day so they created this makeshift grill on a portable gas stove. Not the truly authentic BBQ experience but I wasn't complaining.

I think my favorites were the two beef selections since they were both marinated nicely and seasoned. The pork belly was cooked well with some kimchi and garlic.

Egg in hot pot, tofu, rice and snapshot of an (almost) empty plate. tehee. It always baffles me how closely so many Korean dishes resembles Chinese dishes (ok yea one would intuitively come to that conclusion) but still. Take the egg dish, gyeran jiim. I literally grew up on the exact same thing from the time I was maybe two to well...now. My grandmother still makes it for breakfast everyday. Custard like and piping hot, this was one good gyeran jiim.

To add to the this foodie joy, I was shown Marks Plaza 1 day later where I saw the mecca of ramen and I was seriously seriously in love. An impromptu dinner at Ippudo where I had a dead phone and no camera meant yet another ramen meal with no pictures to share. Oh well, at least Momofuku is still on the to-do list.

Dinner on a rainy Thursday at Soba-ya. Tempura in hot broth had never seemed like a culinary feasible idea and after finally trying it, I think I am still of the same opinion. We had a sampling of dishes including some salmon (meh) and pork belly which was served with a poached egg in a slight broth (yum). As the name of the restaurant indicates, Soba-ya is known for its buckwheat noodles but I found them to be rather unimpressive - maybe it was just the dish we ordered since soba is normally eaten cold. Or maybe I just don't like buckwheat. haha.

Fried Rice Balls with Sesame Filling at Tkettle, Ja Ziang Mian at Shanghai Mong, Chocolate Soup Dumplings at Rickshaw's Dumpling Bar and Red Bean Smoothie Bubble Tea at Tkettle.

Shanghai Mong, located in K-Town, calls itself a Chinese fusion restaurant... aka the Korean version of Chinese food. I'm not sure what the exact sauce they used for the ja ziang mian was but it must be a common Korean ingredient since my friends have cooked with it before. Of course, it tasted nothing like Chinese ja ziang mian but who is complaining as long as the food tastes good?

TKettle is also an adorable snack/bubble tea bar located at Saint Marks Plaza. They serve an interesting version of french toast, omelets as well with an assortment of dessert snacks.

Dessert after work at Kyoto Tofu.Black Sesame Tofu with hoji-cha syrup and white sesame tuile.
Mango and Coconut Soymilk Soft Serve Sundae with fruit compote, matcha mochi, brownie topping and pocky.

Tofu? In a dessert? My friend promised me this was worth losing an hour of sleep over after I returned from work on a Tuesday night. Even though I had already changed into my pajamas, the foodie in me still ventured out (fortunately, the place was only around the corner) to try this famed tofu. I absolutely loved the soft serve but the smorgasborg of toppings was a bit of an overkill. The black sesame tofu was light and refreshing, akin to a very subtle version of a panna cotta. I will admit it was worth the trip over :)

FINALLY I got to try the famous Bonchon Fired Chicken! And YES it was worth all of the hub bub because they were everything they promised to be: perfectly fried, crispy, juicy and flavored to the level of spicy that makes me want to do a little dance (which yes, I did). The cold noodle dish of the day was also exactly what we needed after walking around the city for 4 hours. Apparently, some of the dishes at Boka are hit-or-miss but the fried chicken is a winner :D

Dinner at Grand Sichuan in Chinatown: Fei Pian, Spicy Lamb and Eggplants with Green Peppers.
The lamb was sadly nowhere near as spicy as a Sichuan restaurant should be serving but the fei pian was some of the best I have had. It was served with crushed peanuts, grounded garlic and just enough spicy pepper oil.

World Tour: Europe

2011-07-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Brunch at Marseilles [a less exciting {and shorter version} of Midnight in Paris]

Love, love, loved Midnight in Paris. If there was a ever a feel good movie that made you all warm and fuzzy inside - this would have to be the movie of choice. Although I've never been a big fan of Owen Wilson, Mr. Allen wrote the perfect role where Wilson could exhibit his usual wide-eyed confused look with ease.

Ironically, we also had brunch only the day before in nearby Hells Kitchen locale called Marseilles. I have no idea how closely the restaurant resembles an authentic Parisian eatery but who knows how accurately Midnight in Paris actually reflected reality as well?

[Toast, Muffins with fixings, Coffee] An adorable complimentary platter of pumpkin flavored mini-muffins, raisin bread and rye bread served with a very small side of jam and very big heap of butter.

[Poached Eggs and Ratatouille, Scrambled Eggs] Now I finally know what ratatouille is. You would think that after watching the movie countless times on HBO, I would have figured it out by now. They really weren't kidding when they say its literally just a bunch of vegetables in a bowl. Why is it that the moment you make a dish French, it automatically sounds fancier?

[Banana French Toast, Applewood Bacon] Cooking with bananas is like trying to find good sushi in a land -locked city, very hit or miss. I know of people who absolutely hate the pungent and recognizable smell of over-ripe bananas but then they love the taste of banana bread. I like a mildly ripe banana once in a while but never in a dish as heavy as banana pudding. But that's just me.

Manzo at Eataly [Eataly is Italy! Thanks Mr. Batali]

Yup, that man is an Iron Chef for a reason. Amazing olive oil, amazing pasta and of course as Italian as you could possibly get. Dubbed the start of a new wave of high-end European food markets, Eataly is the classy New York version of Reading Terminal Market and somewhat akin to Chelsea Market although much much much more Italian.

[Bread, EVOO, Crispy Zucchini Flower] Talk about Italian. My friend who spent a summer in Italy last summer instantly recognized the Zucchini Flower on the menu. I personally don't understand the appeal besides the fact that something battered and fried is obviously going to taste good. The anchovies on the bottom were a nice accompaniment, not too fishy and appropriately salty. The olive oil was also divine - it has got to be one of the fruttiest and purest tasting olive oils I have ever sampled.

[Lamb Loin, Pork Sausage with Broccoli Rabe and Pork Belly]. Delicious pork belly that was cooked and seasoned very nicely. The sausage was good too but not life-changing. Can sausage be life-changing? I always viewed sausage as a comfort food that will taste good regardless of if you are buying it from a street vendor or ordering it in a five-star restaurant. Always comforting but never life-changing.

[Orchiette with garlic scrape pesto, Tortteloni with braised beef and mushroom butter] Pasta on the other hand can very life-changing. This was one of those dishes were you every bite was just a burst of pure happiness.

The Green Table at the Chelsea Market

Another trend, farm-to-table cuisine, is making a big splash all over the city and naturally we had to get in on the fun. Everything at The Green Table from the wooden park tables to the fresh flowers decorating the wooden park tables reflected the theme of the cuisine.

The best aspects of the menu and the restaurant itself were appropriately the simplest: filtered water in green bottles, candied figs and big cups of organic coffee. Of course, me acting like the usual impatient person I am rushed off and bought a cappuccino while we were waiting for a table and missed out on the life-changing coffee. Yup, a lot of life-changing food in the past two weeks.

[Flowers, Water ]

[Candied Figs, Butter, Syrup, Milk]

[Bah Minh Sandwich with Duck Pate] Naturally as soon as I saw the word duck, I was sold. Tasty sandwich but nothing spectacular. There's a place in Chinatown I read about from NY Mag recommended by Ann Bushnell which has $3.75 Bah Minh sandwiches. NOM.

[Chicken Pot Pie] If you are going to eat chicken, then it should be fried. If you are going to eat peas, then it shouldn't be with carrots (seriously, its not a good combination!). If you're going to have some pastry dough, then let it be an actual pastry. I am sure if I actually gave chicken pot pies a real chance, I would fall in love with it like everything else but for now, I'm just going to keep being stubborn.

[French Toast] The way french toast should be: a modest slice, perfectly golden with some really good maple syrup.

I can't believe it is the half-way point already. Speaking of which, I think the one year anniversary of my blog is coming up! ...unless its passed already. haha, I'll have to go back to my first blog post and see. Anyways, I got one more big post to put up on Korean eats and then I'll see if I can think of or find something special to do for the 1 year anniversary post. :)

Doing the New York Thing

2011-07-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

1. Bagels

[French toast bagels with butter] Who knew semi-burnt sugar + powdered sugar + butter + carbs could taste so good? Well duh, why am I even asking that question? I don't think adding brown sugar to a bagel qualifies it as "french toast" but I'm not complaining when the sugar is all but caramelized perfectly.

2. Knish

I have never heard of a knish before. I didn't even know how to pronounce knish. I thought the "k" was silent. I also thought that I was ordering a sandwich haha. At least, I really liked it.

3. Shake Shack

What is the deal with this place? Every time I get off of work, I see the line stretching all across Madison Square Park. I mean yea its a good burger but its not that good. I personally think In n Out is way better and a lot less greasy. Shake Shack describes themselves as the "modern roadside burger", whatever that means. For the wait you have to go through, it'd be easier and tastier to just get a real burger from an actual restaurant.

4) (Mini) Cupcakes - Baked by Melissa

When I first saw these mini concoctions (and when they say mini...its actually quite mini), I thought it was the most adorable creation ever - especially with the plethora of diverse flavor combinations...then I learned that Baked by Melissa's is actually a chain of cupcake stores. And we know how I feel about chains/franchisees. Oh well, the flavor combos were still fun. Shown above: peanut butter & jelly, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate chip pancake.

5. Truffle Fries & Black and White Photos

My roommates went to Delicatessen in Soho for dinner the other night that I was at Giorgios. After they came back and raved..literally raved...about the truffle fries - I all but demanded that they go again with me. The fries were indeed quite fabulous and came in a well-received extra large portion. Unfortunately, the rest of the menu was severely lacking - not enough to go back for another full-fledge meal, but I wouldn't mind returning and getting another order (or two) of those fries. Speaking of which, Elle's latest issue features the actress Emma Stone and there is an entire section of the interview paying homage to truffle fries. You can find some shots from the issue here . A girl who can't live without truffle fries is my kind of girl :)

Prequel to the Fourth of July!

2011-07-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

Got a backlog of pictures and stories to share after not blogging for a whole two weeks! Usually what happens is I'll start editing and collaging the pictures at night after I get home from my work but by the time I get through a handful of pictures, I realize it is already bedtime. I've also gotten a little lazy about taking pictures since some of the eats have become a little repetitive and I want to keep these posts exciting :)

Anyways, first up on deck is brunch! Yes this is my 50 millionth post about brunch and yes, every time I post about brunch, I rave about how it is the best brunch I have ever had. Well, this is the official one (for now anyways). It is better than Sabrina's, better than RX and better than TapHouse. The brunch menu at La Silhouette is somewhat limited and the staff is a little too lean for good service but they have the most amazing eggs benedict I have ever ever ever eaten. It's not just the poached egg and smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce that makes the dish the best of the best, its also the side of perfectly crispy caesar salad and seasoned herbed potatoes and the fact that they give you two poached eggs that makes the dish one of the most perfectly scrumptous packages I have ever encountered. To make matters even better, the lighting in the dining room, akin to a Hamptons sun-room decked out with white linens, was ideal for some picture-taking.

The week before, my roommates and I had tried to grab dinner at the famed Italian restaurant Scarpetta but of course, being newbies to the NY scene - we couldn't snag a reservation and the only dinner opening they had left for walk-ins was 11pm. After wafting in all of the savory aromas of good Italian cooking, I was craving some pasta.

So last week, I had a mini reunion with 3 of my friends from Governor's School which gave me the perfect excuse to seek out a yummy Italian place. A quick yelp search and I dug up Georgios of Gramercy. The scene was surprisingly idle despite it being 8pm on a Saturday night: with a modestly priced and well crafted menu - I was even more surprised that there weren't more people in the quaint dining area. The menu offers had the option of ordering "appetizer" size or entree size for the pasta dishes although my "appetizer" size was enough to seriously fill me up for the rest of the night.

Last Wednesday, I got to meet my work mentor for the summer and was lucky enough to get to try out Tamarind: an absolutely delightful restaurant with an array of Indian cuisine from various different regions. The pictures from my phone are a little off since we were impatient to eat but fortunately, the food speaks for itself.

Too much time blogging and not enough time to get ready for dinner. GR! Ok, will have some real stories (as opposed to food stories) and 2 more posts by weekend end!

Snapshots

2011-06-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

1. The Best of Street Food

Takoyaki Sampler, Curry Fries and Dessert Balls at Maru Global. Hi Jeff!

I took these pictures a few weeks back and after the meal, I realized the pictures were way way too small. You'd think I would learn by now but no. Last week, I went to the Met only to realize I didn't charge my battery so I went home, charged the battery, went out to dinner and realized I forgot the memory card. Sigh. Anyways back to these pictures, I found out that I could put them all into a collage! Maru Global is a specialty takoyaki joint in Philadelphia with made from scratch takoyakis on a takoyaki stove. SO LEGIT. The owner is from Japan and the food is as authentic as it can get when it comes to Japanese street food. They even have a takoyaki hat.

Takoyaki literally translates into fried/grilled octopus. The octopus (or other seafood) is inside a ball of batter and is served with bonito flakes and Japanese mayo or some other cheesy/glutinous goodness. So so so so good. Googling takoyaki actually turned up a restaurant called Otafuku in the East Village. Guess I'll be going there next weekend!

2. Another Attempt at Dan Dan Mian

Sauce ingredients: Peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic salt, chili sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, szechuan sauce, garlic sauce...might have missed something but that sounds about right. Used same ingredients (minus peanut butter) to cook the meat and added hot chili oil and peppercorns.

MMMMM. I want noodles now.

After looking up the directions to Dan Dan Mian, I realized I had missed about 10 ingredients in my first try. Then I realized, we didn't even have half of the ingredients. At least this attempt was closer but it still resembled noodles with peanut sauce. Hm oh well. At least it was still yummy.

3.Wisconsin!

My dinner...

Connie's dinner...

Forgot to include these pictures from my travels but we went to an adorable little town near Mequon, WI and ran into a cafe when got caught in the rain (which has happened 3 times already in the past week). Seriously, the weather in New York has been so spazztic. Its sunny in the morning and storming at night and then sunny again.

4. Metropolitan Museum of Art - Alexander McQueen Exhibit & Contemporary Art Section

Mcqueen and sitting on the Met steps. What else can you ask for on a Saturday?

As promised, here are some shots of all of the "cultural" activities we have been up to :) The first time we went to the Metropolitan, the line for the Alexander McQueen exhibit was completely overwhelming and we decided to skip the exhibit (poor choice). Regretting it the moment we got back home, I decided I needed to get back ASAP. Sooo my roommates and I went back on Saturday (when the line was even longer) but we were on a mission. The museum didn't let us take any pictures, but I don't think pictures would have done justice to the exhibit. It was one of the most stunning things I had ever experienced. Now I understand what all of the hype around that guy is. There's also some pictures of the exhibit on the museum website which are lot better than anything I would have taken haha.

5. Cirque de Soleil - Zarkana

I'm surprise I managed to get some decent pictures given the low lighting but some of these are not too shabby.

There are very few things in life where the actual experience lives up to the hype and expectations. Cirque de Soleil definitely falls on that list. The show was absolutely amazing. Everything from the orchestral music, the singing, the acrobats, the set design was perfect. You could feel the suspense and tension in the audience whenever one of the performers flew across the stage or was vaulted into the air.

Whew that was on jam-packed post! Birthday dinner at Hurricane Club forthcoming!

Vegetables!

2011-06-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Who knew that my second most exciting discovery upon arriving to NYC would be a random, half-hidden farmer's market on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen? Kind of weird, yes but growing up in a family that was a little fresh produce obsessed, I was really really excited to finally be able to buy real fruit and vegetables! Up until now, the only place that I could buy groceries from was this shady "Food Emporium" where the back of the store smelled like fish that had been sitting on ice for an unsanitary amount of time. Needless to say, this was a great discovery because they were selling eggplants for $1. So naturally I bought a big fat eggplant and started cooking dinner at 3:30pm.

Ingredients: 1 large eggplant , 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tomato

Seasonings: Salt & Pepper, Oil, garlic powder
For the curry: 1/4 cup TJ curry sauce, 2 tbs half & half

Cook eggplants for 5 minutes with 1/4 cup of water until softened. Add garlic, tomatoes and seasonings and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add curry sauce and cream. Cook for 5 more minutes. [give or take on the cooking time]. I honestly have no idea since I don't pay attention when I am cooking. Anyways, this big hefty dish lasted me almost three days haha.

Hellooo New York!

2011-06-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, after a week and a half in New York - I don't feel 100% lost anymore, its probably closer to 98% but at least that is still an improvement! I wanted to write a bunch of witty stories and insights about my adventures from the last week but its 11:30pm and I have to wake up in 6 hours so I guess I'll have to leave the stories for the weekend. Speaking of which, my roommates and I got tickets for the Cirque de Soleil show on Sunday!!! Maybe I'll turn the next post into a culture-y showcase. Anyways, enjoy the foodie pictures ;)

Dinner at Eatery with J. and L. after J. moved in. The space was really cute and the menu had an interesting Asian vibe to it [complimentary Toasted Black Sesame Chips] (??) I got a quesadilla since I was on a mini cheese crave and the other two got a salad which came with HUGE chunks of Brie cheese on crostini. Unfortunately the quesadilla was rather underwhelming although the salad sure looked good. Overall, I have a feeling the restaurant is experiencing a slight identity crisis since the menu's number one item is mac and cheese (at a pseduo-asain restaurant). But then again, I guess that's New York for you.

Fortunately, we did make it to the annual Big Apple BBQ Festival in Madison Square Park despite the rain and wind and coldness. The place was packed but I guess not so packed because we managed to snag some sandwiches in 15 minutes :)

Roasted Pork Shoulder 'wiches with cole slaw. Look at those people shredding the meat! Have you seen people who looked so happy at their job? The stand was called Dinosaur BBQ which apparently is a really famous joint up by Columbia and my roommate (who is from there) was rather pleased by our selection.


Naturally it wouldn't have been a proper Southern BBQ with some proper Southern desserts. The blondie was lacking in flavor (hate to admit it but I think I can make a better one teehee) but the blueberry crumble was AMAZING. I've never been the biggest fan of fruit desserts but this one was pretty darn good.

A brief visit to Soho found us stepping into Mercer Kitchen for a late lunch (at 5pm). Apparently dinner doesn't start till 5:30pm. Huh. Anyways, the place is adorable and all of the waitresses are stunning!

Of course L. got a burger (as per her usual) but nothing wrong with a good burger. Checked out Mercer's website after the dinner and there appears to be a Mercer hotel connected to the kitchen. We did see a library in the back and cafe bar right by the front.

Pizza with salami, fennel seeds, basil and mozerella and french fries in a clay pot.

Went to Philly last weekend to see my parents and we went to Nan Zhou for dinner. I finally got to try the Zha Zian Mian (Noodles with Pork and Soy Sauce) but I am still in love with the Dan Dan Mian from Han Dynasty. Maybe if the zha zian came in a spicy version, it would be a more difficult decision :p

Ok, off to bed! I promise to have plenty of stories for the next post as well as pictures from Upper East Side, Metropolitan Museum and a dish with eggplants.

Travels

2011-06-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

A rather belated post on some traveling from the past two weeks. Mostly belated because I thought I hadn't taken any decent pictures but then I looked through my phone and what do you know? Quite a few pictures to share! Besides the pictures though, I also thought it'd be kind of fun to share some stories, adventures and rants from the cities of Charleston, Chicago and Milwaukee.

Charleston, South Carolina
The land of Southern charm, Lily Pulitzer, and a lot of sweet tea.
I still don't understand the appeal of Lily Pulitzer. The clothing kind of reminds me of those tropical patterns you always see on lawn chairs and the wall paper of a condo in Hawaii. Why would you want to match the chair you're sitting on? (The neon colored sun dresses are kind of fun though) There were a bunch of other clothing-related things I supposedly learned but they have all escaped me. Oh well, at least I do remember the food :)

Poe's Tavern, located in a quiet neighborhood on Sullivan's Island, Poe's is an ode to the famed poet as well as the island which inspired his short story, "The Gold Bug". All of the items on the menu are named after his various stories and poems and the bathroom walls are laminated with pages of his works. We went for a lunch on a Tuesday (maybe it was Wednesday or Thursday...) and the place was completely packed!

Snapshots: Kaminsky's Desert, the famed Poe's Tavern, Sweet Tea, looking like a "Southern Belle", burgers, banana splits & the water front.

Kaminsky's
From the swanky Harbor Club to the touristy market place full of vendors selling trinkets and souvenirs,I got the full experience of downtown Charleston. The most exciting part of the day though was probably when we stopped by Kaminsky's, a famous dessert cafe, and my friend ordered a coffee drink where the caffeine and sugar content was probably illegal. Redbull should find the recipe of this drink and start selling it by the liter. College students (me included) would have quite a field day.

Scenes from Kaminsky's. Iced coffee, Chocolate mousse and a rasberry drink with about 5 shots of espressso.

Jestine's Kitchen
Featured on the Food Network, 10 Best Restaurants of South Carolina, Post & Courier and every other local and national food website/newspaper in existence (oh and Oprah), this is apparently the place to go for Southern cooking. Probably should have tried something a little more adventurous then a grilled cheese.

Southern classics: Mac and cheese, green beans, fried chicken, grilled chicken and grilled cheese.

Anyways, after a week of nonstop Southern cooking, I realized my body was getting kind of angry with me so I decided to eat some vegetables...and then got yelled at for wanting broccoli. Oops, sorry! I'll know better next time to detox after I go home :o.

Chicago
I absolutely LOVE Chicago. Yes it was freezing, rainy and windy for most of the time we were there but it was still quite an adventure. The first time I was in the city of Chicago, I was 15 and there for debate nationals. There was no one else I knew except for my debate coach so I spent most of my time wandering and exploring. I even attempted to walk to the Navy Pier from our hotel which turned out to be really really far. Much farther than the map led me to believe. I did this in my newly purchased $2.50 Old Navy flip flops. Yea those shoes lasted me a grand total of 24 hours.

Little Italy

Not so much a section of the city as a random collection of streets on the periphery of Chi-town. You know you have arrived when the street signs turn into red, white and green (and there are Italian flags waving everywhere).

It was quite a bit of a hike to get to Little Italy but the food was definitely worth it. A brief lunch turned into a 3 hour affair including a bottle of wine, various courses and a lot of chatting. By the time we were finished it was 4:00pm. By the time we got back to the hostel, it was 5:00pm. By the time we met up with our other friends, it was 5:30pm and time for dinner.No dad, I did not eat like this this everyday :p

[Fried Ravioli] Perfect little pieces of heaven.


[Roast Beef Sandwich, left] [Sword fish & Risotto, upper right] [Scallops & something under the scallops :p, lower right]

Chinatown
The last time I was in Chicago Chinatown, I was twelve (maybe 13 or 14....one of those nebulous tween years) and the Chinatown was tiny comprised of just a smatterings of restaurants with very ghetto looking tables. The place has had a complete makeover (sort of like those house rendtions on ABC) with a massive collection of authentic Asian cuisine and the typical hair salons.

[Mongolian Lamb, upper left] [Sour Cabbage and Fish Soup, upper right] [Baby Sprouts, lower left] [Chives Dumplings, lower right]

The cuisine literally reminded me of all of numerous times we ate out with the family while in China. I was telling my mom about our eating adventures and I could tell the next destination in her mind is now Chicago. Haha, I should totally work as a restaurant promoter...if those things exist. I guess, they're called food critics. Oh well. That can be my backup plan.

From one city to another

2011-06-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

My promise to go back to Garces Trading Co was finally fulfilled on Friday night when I went for a farewell dinner with my parents. The place was obviously packed by 7pm but we were lucky enough to snag a portion of the community table right away. Here's the last Garces post on their desserts.

[Chef's Selection of Cheeses] No I don't remember the names of the cheeses but they were really yummy. There was a chilli cranberry condiment with one of them and I do vaguely recall a goat's milk blue cheese.

[Margherita Flatbread Pizza]

[Lamb Merguez Flatbread Pizza] Chickpea garlic puree, piquillo peppers, & marinated feta. DELICIOUS DELICIOUS LAMB. OMG.

[Lyonnaise Duck Salad] Duck Confit, poached egg & bacon lardons. Probably one of the best salads I have ever had since it wasn't really a salad :p

Speaking of which, it is beer week in Philadelphia and Garces is hosting a $75 dinner with Flying Fish Brewing Co. Man did I pick the wrong weekend to leave town. Oh well, there is always next year.

So I'm all moved into my apartment in NYC! Here are some snapshots of brunch from Sunday morning at Cafe Cielo. I don't start work for another week so I've spent the last two days literally walking the stretch of Manhattan from the Upper East Side all the way down to Chinatown and back. Unfortunately, the internet in our apartment is severely lacking but hopefully, I will have all the details tomorrow when I find better internet connection!

[Complimentary Mimosa]

[French Toast, Bacon and Eggs]

[Eggs Florentine]

[Scrambled Eggs, Potato, Sausage & Toast]

And a shot of my lovely new roommates :)

I can't wait to see what this summer has in store (especially food-wise)!

Baking Reunion

2011-06-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Every time that I am home, I almost always meet up with one of my really good high school friend and we do nothing but bake and bake and bake some more. Check out the past two baking bonazas here and here. This time, we figured it was time to branch out into something away from the usual cookies and truffles. Of course, I settled on cupcakes which really aren't much of a deviation. Anyways, with all the hoo-ray around cupcakes for the past year and red velvet being a constant favorite, I figured I should give the Southern classic a spin. Here's a great article on the cupcakes from the New York Times. [Recipe courtesy of Brown Eyed Baker]

Ingredients: 

4 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2½ tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp red food coloring
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1½ tsp distilled white vinegar [of course I was too lazy to look for white vinegar so I just used Asian vinegar]

I love gathering all of the ingredients from the pantry before every baking expedition.

Creaming egg, sugar and butter

Adding Ghiardelli Cocoa.

Adding a lot of red food dye.

Mixing in the dry ingredients.

So much redness.

Baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing. I hate hate hate super sweet icing so we cut the powdered sugar content in half which made the icing kind of runny. They looked cute but not cute enough...

Chocolate was the perfect solution.

Before the drizzled chocolate, too impatient and hungry

My overall opinion is that I am still not the biggest fan of cupcakes since it seems to be the icing that just makes it taste really good. Then again, maybe its just because I'm not very good at making them :p

Banana Bread
One baked good I can make without fail though is banana which even my mom likes even though she hated desserts when we first came to America. Now she eats all of my baked goods. lol. Thanks for the support mom :o

2 mashed bananas, 1/2 cup of oil & 1 egg

1.5 cups of white sugar, 1.75 cup of white flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1 tsp of all spice.

Makes two smallish loaves.

Mmmm golden brown crust.

Used the left over cream cheese frosting and dusted with some powdered sugar.

SO, I am presently in New York and although I've only been here for 1 day, I am totally and completely in love. I did not anticipate however, that NYC would seem this overwhelming! Fortunately, I have a whole week to get acclimated before starting work. The internet in our apartment has been absolutely terrible so I haven't had to post all of the things I have been meaning to. I will probably just start making the posts really long since I can only blog when I run to a nearby cafe. Next post will feature a bon voyage dinner and the first brunch in the city!

A table for two please

2011-05-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Some places were meant for first dates: low lighting, hushed atmosphere, and of course, impeccable food and service that won't drain your wallet. I love first date restaurants regardless of who you are dining with because the food never disappoints.

Creperie Beaumonde

Located by 6th and Bainridge, the creperie is one 1 block south of South Street which meant it was the perfect ending after a long day of meandering and wandering. The food was definitely on the pricier side but it also offered some of the best crepes I've had outside of Montreal.

[Savory Crepe] Shrimp with Chives and Seafood Sauce

[Sweet Crepe] Pears, Chocolate & Creme Anglaise

Creeping a little on the guests but look at that adorable couple by the window :p

Garces Trading Company

11th and Locust. This place wins my vote for a first date, second date, whatever date restaurant. The moment I entered the place, I was in love. The restuarant is an amalgamation of an upscale farmer's market, cafe, bakery, wine shop and eatery. Basically everything related to food that I love all mixed into one. In my opinion, Garces has officially won in the Garces vs Starr challenge. We stopped by after a very filling in Han Dynasty for their adorable macarons but I cannot wait to go back for an actual meal.

Full deli counter of cured meats, cheese, honey, and an entire array of balsamic vinegars including truffle oil and black raspberry. Garces somehow also managed to finagle his own wine store right in the restaurant where you can buy the wine and drink it with your dinner [or lunch]. Prices are absurdly reasonable with a typical Riesling selling for ~$12/bottle. Apparently, the other restaurants in the area threw a big fit about Garces' personal wine store but I guess the protests weren't very effective. lol.

Pastry counter with wide selection of desserts although I mostly focused on the macarons.

We sampled one of each of the macarons: passion fruit, peanut butter & jelly, coconut, dark chocolate, salted caramel, and pistachio. I think my favorite was surprisingly the peanut butter & jelly since they it was so cleverly made. Half of the filling was grape jelly and half was peanut butter ganache with 1 purple side and 1 tan side. Oh yea and in case that wasn't enough, we threw in a apple strudel which featured little cream puffs on top and a walnut filling center.

Adventure Time

2011-05-17T16:36:00.000-07:00

A very gluttonous lunch at Han Dynasty followed by macarons and apple strudel at Garces Trading Company meant I needed to do some major walking to work off my oncoming food coma. I had been meaning to explore more of South Philly so I decided to meander from 40th street and eventually ended up by 6th and Bainridge where I stumbled upon a quaint cafe called The Bean Exchange. The music selection was a bit awkward and sporadically switched from low key indie to angry rap to something that sounded like Spanish. Then I saw the Webster dictionary and Scrabble sitting on the bookshelf and decided I kind of liked the place.

One of these days, I want to come and just play scrabble for a whole day and indulge the nerd inside of me.

When I was taking pictures of the cafe, the barista told me that the place was haunted and to watch out for apparitions appearing in my pictures....um...ook...? Well fortunately, no spooky ghosts popped around the corner or out of the bar.

Best part about this adventure is that I found a creperie right around the corner to go to for dinner. Man on man I love summer.

May Flowers

2011-05-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

A stroll around Pine Street and Locust Walk. Who knew there were so many flowers in so few little blocks?

Another Oldie but Goodie

2011-05-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

Ever since I finally learned how to bake a perfectly chewy chocolate chip cookie without burning it (the secret is the baking time! who knew?) I've been making this this peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. I absolutely love chocolate and peanut butter together. Peanut butter brownies? delicious. Peanut butter filled pretzels? amazing. Peanut butter & chocolate ice cream? ok. you get the point. Anyways, I've been making these cookies since high school. Every birthday, snack day, whatever you name it, these are my go to cookies. I've modified the recipe by using different types of sugars and different amounts of peanut butter. I personally like my cookies with extra peanut butter but that's just me. Enjoy :)

Trader Joe's has a pretty perfect peanut butter, not very sweet and super peanut buttery. YUM.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (or in my case, the whole bag)
opt: 1 cup rolled oats

Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla.

Slowly add flour, salt and baking soda.

Chocolate chips!

Bake at 375 degrees F for exactly 8 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven.

Lined up (not so neatly) in rows :)

Now I just need to figure out how to package these and ship them without everything getting all smushed. Hmm.

Little Things

2011-05-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Life is full of wonderful little things that never fail to make me (or anyone for that matter) happy, and one of those little things is ice cream. Ice cream in any form is delicious but an ice cream sundae equal childhood happiness.

Located next to the 2nd Market Street station, 1 block over from Han Dynasty and next to everything Olde City has to offer, Franklin Fountain has been an icon of the Philadelphia food scene since its inception in 2004. It is no surprise that the line we waited in stretched around the block because the ice cream is absolutely delicious.

The place is perfect from its old time radio to the servers in bow-tie to the homemade strawberry lemonade. The founders, the Berley brothers naturally took some of their inspiration from their mother who owned an antique furniture shop in Media. Check out their adorable website and blog.

[Lightening Rod Sundae] Coffee ice cream with a shot of espresso, chocolate covered espresso beans, white chocolate shavings, whipped cream and a pretzel rod.

Another one of those little things that always makes me feel better is a really good cup of coffee. My roommate and I have literally lived in Capogiro for the past semester, and I have sampled almost everything from the perfectly foamy cappuccino in the cold month of January to the double shot iced latte in the heat of May during reading days (and of course everything in between). Here are some fun shots from the phone.

Sarah, the owner and founder, also has a very cute foodie blog you can check out here. I have this tendency of really disliking anything that turns into a chain or a franchise because the quality of the food and service always inevitably goes downhill. Fortunately for Capogiro, they've managed to keep everything pretty top notch even with three different locations.

An adorable teapot that they sometimes will serve your tea in.

[double shot iced latte] the perfect way to start a day full of studying

The last little is more of a big meal but you should know by now how obsessed with brunch I am :) What makes brunch so perfect though is all of the wonderful friends you get to share it with. [and of course all of the yummy pictures of food I get to take]

[Hangover Pizza]

[Eggs Benedict] Hollandaise Sauce, Chorizo and Cheddar Biscuit.

[Almond French Toast]

[Steak and Eggs]

Find more brunch posts here and here. Home has been very relaxing and rather unproductive. My goals of cooking up a storm haven't really materialized but maybe that will change tomorrow...

Half way done!

2011-05-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

It is official. 50% finished with college. WOW. But since I have already mentioned the sadness that is the end of half of college career, the big news is this blog post. I have been waiting to blog about this meal(s) for two weeks now. The first time, the lighting was really terrible and we were too hungry so I only got a handful of pictures. The second time, the pictures were slightly better and the third time, I was prepared and finally got some proper shots. Yup that's right. I have been to Han Dynasty three times since my last blog post. Some would call it obsessive, I just call it a really good excuse to eat really good food.

This has got to be one my favorite dishes of all time.

What can I say? It just happened that three different groups of people all suggested the same restaurant. I'm not going to argue when I get go to a restaurant where the spiciness is measured on a scale from spicy to more spicy. WIN. In my last blog post, I also promised myself to start taking more pictures and also getting around to starting a portfolio. So the first step of that promise is to start using my Prime lens more often. I haven't been using it too much lately mostly because I seriously don't know how to focus the thing. BUT I think I am finally getting the hang of it. Maybe.

Meal 1: With the roommate and debate partner. On a random Saturday night, we ventured to Olde City and devoured four dishes in 30 minutes.

An array of SPICY.

[Mapo Tofu] Sadly not as spicy as it looks.

[Shui zhu yu aka water boiled fish] More like hot chili oil boiled...hehe. I remember eating this for the first time when I was in China with my grandparents. It was just the three of us, we ordered a feast and then promptly devoured just about everything.

[Garlic Sauce Beef] I'm still not the biggest fan of bamboo but this dish made them tasty enough to eat :p

Meal 2: Lineage dinner with biggie, twin and little Lisa [yup, there's another Lisa in the sorority now].

[Cucumber Salad] Seriously need to find out what is in that sauce. Mission 1 when I get home is to recreate this dish.

[Wonton in Chili Oil] The key to checking to see if wontons are made well is by seeing how thin the skin is. The thinner the skin, the more pro the cook.

[Dan Dan Mian]. Ok, hands down best noodle dish in existence. Mission 2: Making this for lunch everyday.

[Scallion Pancakes] Crispy and flaky

[Dry Pepper Chicken] As my Biggie said, this is one Bad ASS dish. SO salty and delicious.

[Walnut Shrimp] I don't think I have ever eaten shrimp so big.

Meal 3: The celebration of the end of Finance 203 with the case group. 8 cases and 80 hours later, we are still alive.

[Bok Choy, Shitake Mushrooms] Another amazing sauce, another dish to recreate.

[Dry Pot Style Chicken] With a medley of veggies including mushrooms, bamboo and celery all covered in dry chili peppers.

[Hot Pepper Style Lamb] Another moment of nostalgia. I actually hated the first time I tried lamb but my mom grew up in Northern Mongolia and basically lived off of lamb meat for 15+ years. So of course, it grew up me too :)

And in case that wasn't enough, here are some more gratuitous shots to feast your eyes on. Enjoy.

Can you tell I really liked taking pictures of the Bok Choy? One last shot because I promised I would.

Aw aren't they cute? To the hardest working guy I know and the loudest guy I know =p. Thanks for a great semester and for being even better eating buddies.

Speaking of which, the continuation of this blog post is to come! Franklin Fountain will be next. Hurray to the beginning of summer!

Bring on the Colors

2011-05-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

Sansom Roll from Vic's sushi. What's in it? More appropriate question to ask is what is not in it :p

Now that Philadelphia has finally begun embrace Spring weather (even if it is still freezing at night), all I can think about are colors and with that :tulips, violets and all those beautiful flowers that follow a flurry of April showers. Our old house used to have a huge flower garden, 2 cherry blossom trees and countless other random flowery plants all over the yard, and in the Spring time, the front of the house looked absolutely gorgeous. Surprisingly, Penn actually has a lot of blossoming trees all over campus, maybe I'll get some snapshots before I head home next week.

Sushi at Vic's [study break with the roommate]

3 roll combo for $10.95. Bam.

Check out that salmon. Best fish in existence.

Speaking of which, I can't believe this semester is wrapping up already! 1/2 way through college...wow, I can still remember getting my hair done for Senior prom...Although to be honest, I am very ready to go home after an inordinately exhausting week of finals. One more final to get through and then it'll be Redbox movies, doing 6 weeks worth of laundry and starting my summer reading list :) Even though it is May already and half of the year is almost over, my mid-year resolution is to embrace more simplicity. First step is to stop eating so many of those sweet potato fries that I have been raving about, second step is to add more colors to my dinner plate and the third step is to take more pictures! Get excited.

Somethings were meant to be photographed.

2011-04-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

After my last post, I realized that pictures from my phone still don't cut it, especially when I want to blow them up as large as I do for this blog. That's also when I realized that I had another unfinished post where the pictures were absolutely stunning....not because I took particularly good pictures but because Thai food takes REALLY good pictures. If there was one cuisine that would win the award for being most photogenic, it has to be Thai food. I guess it is because the cooking encompasses so many vibrant looking ingredients and spices.

Wharton hosted a free lunch with a professor at Pattaya (man so many free meals lately...not that I'm complaining :p) and naturally, I brought my camera. The food itself wasn't particularly spectacular but the dishes sure looked really good. Maybe Thai food also gets the award for being the most sly cuisine as well :)

Spicy Basil with Tofu.

Pad Thai with Chicken.

Yellow Curry with Chicken.

Vegetable Coconut Soup.

Vegetable Lemon Grass Soup.

It might also just be that my dish (yellow curry chicken) was just naturally unassuming and that the place is actually decent. Regardless, I am looking forward to the chance to get to try some really good Thai food in the future.

2 more days of classes left at Penn! Man I get believe this semester is almost over already! I still remember blogging about the end of last semester. CRAZY.

Snapshots.

2011-04-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

#1 The pork buns that changed my life. They are so good, I have talked about them over 5 times already (this is probably #8)....Up until now, I have accepted the iconic representation of "the pork bun": fluffy white flour and (occasionally overly) sweet red pork. The first time I ate pork buns, I was very thrown off by the taste, I grew up in Beijing and "bei ren" or Northerners never use sugar in their cooking so sweet and savory has always been a startling concept for me. Anyways, over time I became acquainted with the taste and now I usually order a platter whenever I am getting dim sum. But these buns taste nothing like those that I was just describing. This was literally foodie heaven bundled in one little package of succulent pork, cilantro and pickled cucumbers. I think they were meant too mimic the duck pancakes that you can get in the really legit places of Chinatown (de-boned duck, plum sauce & green onions on white pancakes). Regardless, this little concoction was absolutely amazing and now I want to eat them everyday.

#2. The food truck on 33rd and Spruce that made the little package of deliciosness. Tyson Bees is a Korean BBQ foodtruck right behind the Chem Building....yes it is a hike but I'm going to find more excuses to be on that side of campus now :)

#3. The one unhealthy food that is always on my mind, sweet potato fries. Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Club (one my of main involvements at Penn) sponsored a dinner with Deloitte tonight at Tap House which meant weet potato fries! Although, ordering that big burger was not a very good choice....forgot how difficult burgers are to eat!

#4. A wonderful twist on bruschetta: roasted eggplant on goat cheese. I actually hated goat cheese the first time I had it....actually.... I hated cheese in general the first time I ever tried it. Of course, all foods regardless of what it is always winds up growing on me :)

#5. Stumbled across this adorable vintage shop on South street last weekend with my roommate...they had these hardcore leather jackets and cowboy boots. Reminded me of my dad....not sure why haha.

Been trying to edit these pictures from my dinner at Marakesh from two weeks ago but the lighting there was so bad I don't know what to do! Sigh. I might just put up the pictures of all the pretty lights they had there...

Back to Pietros

2011-04-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

A somewhat symbolic post since the school year is winding down: a journey back to the restaurant that inspired my very first blog post with the same two friends and same assortment of pasta, pizza and cheesy goodness :)...Except this time, there was a better camera lens teehee.

Appetizer + pizza + pasta never fails. YUM.

Eggplant Rolentine: Eggplant stuffed with ricotta cheese, baked with sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese
Gemelli Arugula & Pollo: Twisted pasta with chicken breast, garlic, arugula, grape tomatoes, Pecorino cheese, in a white wine sauce
Napoli: Baby spinach, pine nuts, sun dried tomato, mozzarella

Yes the pasta looks unassuming but twisted pasta = wow. delicious. Generally, I don't like Italian food all that much but once in a while, and it sure is satisfying.

Snapshots

2011-04-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

1. Stuffed Eggplant. Enough Said

2. The best fried chicken wings I have ever had. oh man. Three hours later and I'm still full. Probably not a good sign. harumph.

3. More cupcakes. Here's my theory on cupcakes. There are good cupcakes ie made from scratch with good ingredients and tender love and card. There are bad cupcakes ie the ones you buy from the grocery store. When there are bad cupcakes (first off, I usually just avoid the card board tasting, unnecessary calories) but if I was absolutely coerced into eating one, I would definitely go for the chocolate since the chocolate tastes marginally less card board-y than the vanilla ones. However, when it is a good cupcake I am a big fan of just the plain old vanilla ones. The vanilla cupcakes are always a lot more dense (reminiscent of pound cake. pound cake...yum) with a really well made buttercream icing. Anything past that: red velvet, german chocolate etc is obviously delicious but its just more of a good thing. Anyways, enough rambling. Here are the pictures.

4. Thai Iced Tea. Condense milk = love.

5. Heart + Coffee.

Playing around on Picasa

2011-04-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

and thought I'd share my discoveries :) With the 70 degree weather today, I've become a lot more motivated to go take more pictures.

I) Pictures of some dried roses after a big snowfall during Christmas Break.

II) Playing around with the focus adjustment.

III) Super low saturation.

IV) High Saturation

I think I still like saturated/high contrast pictures more than the other way around.

Anyways, since I did promise to always post about food, here are some FANTASTIC looking cupcakes from Philly Cupcake. We catered the cupcakes for a speaker event the Women in Leadership Series was hosting. The people there are delightful and the cupcakes are amazinggg. Hopefully, I'll get some better shots tomorrow when they cater our last speaker.

Chocolate Oreo in the Back. Red Velvet in the front.

Chocolate on Chocolate with GLITTER icing.

Who can say no to blue and pink sprinkles??

Here's to a happy Tuesday :)

This is a sign...

2011-04-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Duck bowl! I am a hugeee fan of the rice bowls at Sangkess. The portions are large but just large enough that I can still finish everything if I really wanted to :)

that I need to mix things up. I've realihzed that the only three places I go to eat now are Capogiros, Sangkees and Taphouse. Yes it is (mostly) the only places worth going to on Campus in a pinch but for someone who is always espousing the boringness of the same old same old, I really need to get a little more adventurous...until then: here are some snapshots of lunch of Friday and Sunday at Sangkees.

Chicken with lemon grass. I also really like this dish. The chicken is actually flavored and cooked pretty perfectly.

I went with the lunch special of beef&eggplant, dumplings and rice. The dish was satisfying but a little too sweet for me and the e ginger dressing on the salad was definitely too sweet.

Some sort of flat noodle dish with shrimp. After all the times I've had these rice like noodles, I still don't like them because they're always cooked in too much oil. Can someone find me a place that actually does them right??

On another note, the chilli oil at SK is absolutely AMAZING. I usually go through at least one of the these in one sitting...hehe.

Some quick shots of a spontaneous dim sum run on Sunday. Naturally the food was not as good as Chinatown but it did the trick. Yes we ordered too much. Yes we basically finished all of it. )Plus some Vietnamese Iced Coffee. FTW.)

Currently contemplating a BYO to go to this Friday on South Street. Guess we shall see how this planning works out.

New Header!

2011-04-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

I finally journeyed to South Street yesterday after being at Penn for almost two years. I don't kndow why it took me so long to visit considering the abundance of eating and blogging opportunities. Needless to say, I'll be going back a lot more before the semester ends (and probably even after since I won't be going to New York until June). Anyways, after strolling (and shopping) for a good 12 blocks, my pledge sisters and I decided it was time for a foodie break and we ventured into Phileo Yogurt. Now the place looks exactly like Kiwi with the bright colors decor, toppings bar and even the labels of the different froyo flavors. After having Forty Carrots in NY, Yogorino by Rittenhouse and even Pink Berry in Stanford, Kiwi does not compare so I was not super excited about Phileo. BUT THEN, I saw that they had Tea and Taro frozen yogurt! That made me prettyyy happy even if it was to just take a shot of the wonderful pale green and lavender hues. I went with the green and purple theme and sprinkled some blackberries and kiwis on top. I have to say I am a fan of the bright green-ness of the kiwi.

Anyways, a new header is finally up. I'm not sure how I feel about it since it is a little busy but I guess it will do for now until I can find a way to simplify the shots.

After the strolling on South Street, I met up with my roomie for a quick cappuccino at Capogiro. I swear I go to that place like its my job now but the cappuccino sure is delicious and who can say no to $2 for 6 day old bagels?

Hope everyone had a relaxing and happy weekend. Will post some of the shots from South Street when I am not falling asleep by the computer :p

Baking for a Cause

2011-04-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, Sigma hosted its annual Visions of Chocolate philanthropy event to raise awareness for the fight against domestic violence. The event featured a dessert buffet with food donations from Taglios, Naked Cupcakes and other local bakeries. In addition, there was a galore of baking done in my tiny dorm apartment from 12am until the wee hours of the morning. Kudos to my the Philanthropy chairs for hosting such an amazing event and showing some impressive baking skills :) I have to say, I have never baked so much in one sitting in my life but it made me really really wank to open a bakery, teehee.

Chocolate with marshmellows for the Smores bars (recipe here!) and coconut for the Chocolate Coconut Macarons (recipe here!). Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the two desserts since it we were too busy baking and I was getting really really tired by 3am.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies made entirely by the Philanthropy Chairs! (recipe here)

Mini Cherry Cheesecakes. The last time I made cheesecake was probably 3 years ago but turns out cheesecake is surprisingly easy to make. (recipe here). The original recipe called for nilla wafers but I found them to be really awkward because they didn't fit into the mini cupcake holders. But they were definitely easier than the graham cracker crust I made for the first batch. A random tangent; I really dislike cherry flavored desserts because I always find the taste to be super artificial but the canned cherries for this dish wound up working extremely well.

Quick snapshot of half of half of the desserts that were made. Chocolate chip cake peeking out from the bottom.

Congrats again Phil chairs on a successful Visions!

Snapshots

2011-03-30T01:22:00.000-07:00

SO I finally caved in and bought an android phone. For the past 8 years I've used nothing but a normal phone and the only upgrade I've ever experienced was from a T9 to a keypad (it was a pretty exciting moment). Anyways, I still have no idea how to use half (ok more like 90%) of my phone nor do I know what apps I should even download. BUT I do know that 5.1 megapixels means my little galaxy can take some pretty darn good pictures. That means that even in the times I don't have my DSLR with me, I can still get some snapshots of delectable eats. Now isn't that exciting?

Brunch at Taphouse with the roomie. Finally tried the famed french toast and yes it was epic-ly delicious.You what else is epic-ly delicios? A breakfast burger with sweet potato fries. YUM.

Ok so the pictures aren't as good as the DSLR but not too shabby when you're in a pinch and when it's coming from a phone. Get pumped for more of these quick snapshots :)

Scenes from Mexico

2011-03-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I was not nearly as diligent with my picture-taking responsibilities (food and non-food related) but I did manage to snap some shots of this adorable restaurant located right next to our resort. Three courses, unlimited margaritas and a live mariachi band: this place definitely put Don Memos to shame.

These guys were definitely very legit.

Homemade tortillas, house fajita specialty and an array of appetizers. I normally despise tortillas because I find it to be too dough-y and flour-y. These fajitas were delicious and handmade by an adorable lady by the entrance.

Margaritas, decor and ambiance.

Another restaurant close to our resort after a day of shopping. I loved the colors displayed at the bar and especially the massive amount of pre-cut limes.

Ah well, thank goodness Philadelphia has its share of yummy Mexican food.

Asian Inspiration

2011-03-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

Finally a foodie update. I have to admit, I have gotten very lazy about updating my blog lately but with all my midterms finally finished, there should be no more excuses!

One of the first posts I made back in the summer was about how I really really disliked Pod because I thought the food was overpriced and pretty sub-par. After last weekend, I've changed my mind (a little) and will admit to saying that some of the food at Pod is alright. Ok, fine some of the food is actually really really good, just not the ramen or the sushi. Since the best way to eat to eat out is being able to share, my roommate and I ordered an agglomeration of fried goodness and asian-ness. Check it out.

We started the meal right away with Shrimp Tempura. The shrimp was cooked perfectly but the tempura was not the best I've had. It needed a little more crispness and airiness but tempura is tempura.


So turns out, we ordered the wrong dish. By shrimp tempura we actually meant shrimp and vegetable tempura but the wonderful waiter brought us some vegetable tempura anyways :)

Ok, this dish alone makes the restaurant worthwhile. So worthwhile it got two pictures! These are the most delicious spring rolls I have ever eaten my life. Ever. Crab spring rolls with massive amounts of crab stuffed in and a creamy semi-cheesiness which reminded me of ravioli. yum.

Chicken Ramen with wontons. The ramen at Doma was definitely at lot better but I really liked the wontons they had in this dish. Wontons are suppose to have a really think shell so when they're made probably, I get very happy :)

A side of Bok Choy. Is there anyone who doesn't love baby bok choy? delish.

All in all I think Pod is worth going to for the seafood appetizers which, when you order enough can be a meal on its own :).

Noodles Again.
Ever since my friend started going on and on about ramen and soba and udon, I've been paying even more attention to noodles than usual. After my one day trip to home, we stopped by the asian food market on our way to Penn and I picked up a handful of goodies to make a nice big bowl of noodle soup.

Egg noddles, Chinese Spinach, Shitake Mushrooms, Inoke Mushrooms and Fish balls.

This was the first time I ever cooked with inoke mushrooms so I think I over did it a little. I might just leave them raw next time.

Home made chilli oil! This was one of the first things my mom taught me how to make...might explain why I'm obsessed with spicy food haha. So to prevent me from majorly setting up the fire alarm, I had to go to the window which is on the other side of the room and pour the peppers into the hot oil. Kind of scary but it worked out!

Topped it off with pickled vegetables. Not as pretty as how the restaurants do it but I'll get there :)

Brunch at Tap House tomorrow! I have been dying to try the famed french toast.

taste of home

2011-03-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

There are two types of salads: appetizer salads that make you excited for the meal to come and meal salads filled with robust and filling ingredients. This is the former but just because a salad is an appetizer salad doesn't mean it can't be delicious. In this one we have romaine lettuce, carrots, mini pink turnips, cucumbers, Manchego cheese and homemade basalmic vinaigrette. Light, crisp and refreshing and just enough to make me more hungry for the steak to come :)

As I sat in an airplane waiting for take-off in Mexico, I decided to spend my last night of break at home in our spacious kitchen on a Saturday night instead of my dorm back at Penn. Dinner tonight was an oldie but a goodie of steak and potatoes. In the process of cooking with my dad and cutting some Manchego cheese, I started pondering over my foodblog and decided to spend this post doing a little bit of reflection and story-telling (sprinkled with the usual food pictures...I really don't like the phrase food porn for some reason so I always just say food pictures).

I absolutely love potatoes. In case you haven't noticed. I only blog about foods I like. What's the point of trying to figure out how to make beets if I don't want to eat it when I'm done? My secret ingredient to making potatoes is paprika. It's not very spicy but the smokiness adds a really enjoyable element to the dish.

From time to time people will ask me what the purpose of my food blog is, which always puzzles me because I never know how to answer it. Truth is, I'm not really sure. I've always been obsessed with food. From the time I was eight and I learned how to make tomato and eggs from my mom, I found myself in the kitchen alost everyday of the week helping my mom make dinner. When I was younger, I dreamed about having my own cooking show and owning a restaurant. Then the restaurant turned into a chocolate shop, then a cafe and then a bakery. After a while it was all about becoming a pastry chef so I could make really pretty desserts. Of course, evading college and making chocolates for the rest of my life isn't the most practical of life choices (Now my dream is to be the next Stephen Starr). Last summer, I was inspired by a very cool sorority sister in my lineage to start a food blog.

Left the meat cooking to my dad but I did catch him marinading the meat: montreal steak seasoning, chilli peppers, garlic vodka (more on this later), salt pepper and garlic salt. Cooked the New York Strip for 20 minutes until the internal temperature reached 140 degrees and the color was a nice medium red.

Usually we cook the steak on the grill but since the weather still hasn't gotten warmer, we used the handy grill pan instead.

For me, the food blog is an outlet which allows me to ramble about my obsession and passion for food and eating. If other people get something out of it as I go about snapping pictures and experimenting with cooking, then all the better.

Watch out for a post on Mexico and brunch tomorrow :)

"We don't have ethnic food where I'm from"

2011-03-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

My friend's friend from Virginia visited this past weekend and apparently, according to him, in the middle of Virginia, all you eat is non-ethnic food (whatever that means). So naturally, we had to show this guy all the wonderful things he was missing. It also meant we weren't having Italian for dinner.

It seems Banana Leaf has always been a staple in the Penn community (and probably the Philadelphia community in general) and while I've always been pretty indifferent in my opinion of the restaurant, I was surprisingly pleased with our dinner choices last night. And I was also finally able to snag a better picture of my favorite dish, nasi lemak.

Chicken satay with a (surprisingly) sweet peanut sauce and Roti Canai aka Indian bread (lol).

Chow Kueh Teow: stir fried noodles with seafood.

Nasi lemak!

Pad Thai. I'm a big fan of this pad thai. Its sweeter and less oily than the usual pad thai that other places on campus serve.

An unexpected detour

2011-03-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

In the midst of scouring for a bathing suit this afternoon, we stumbled upon Le Pain Quotidien, a coffee/eatery/brunchery on 14th and Walnut. Originally in the process of going to Bonte, we passed by the the blueberry muffins in the window and immediately changed our plan of action. So a detour meant for coffee turned into a sit-down break into a mid-afternoon lunch for me a second brunch for my companions. Who can say no to that? Although a little on the pricey side, Le Pain offers freshly baked goods, desserts and savory dishes all made with organic ingredients.

A shot of probably the best cappuccino I've had in Philadelphia. (and a shot of another camera tehee).

Fresh baked bread, organic (and vegan) ingredients, pastries and some good looking blueberry muffins.

Prosciutto and Mozzarella di Bufala with sundried tomatoes and basil pesto.


Atlantic smoked salmon with chopped dill, scallions and avocado.


Toasted paris ham and gruyere crossaint with organic mesclun and mustard trio. I was particularly excited about the mustard selection.


Ricotta with mission figs, black pepper and organic accacia honey. I loved the sweetness of this tartin and am now inspired to make a dessert with ricotta. One last collage of Coffee at Nook after lunch at Doma yesterday. Chocolate eclairs, masala chai tea and a lot of lounging.

Let the festivities begin

2011-03-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hi kiddies. Get prepared for a glutinous weekend of eats before I jet off to Mexico. No exams, no classes and no homework (at least nothing due for another 10 days) means major foodiness and blogging. After failing to deliver on those ramen pictures, I decided I needed to go back to Doma and get some shots of the artistic looking food. It just so happened that I wound up going two days in a row...no complaints there.

First night: sushi dinner with another hardcore sushi lover. Doma reminds me of the Japanese restaurant I used to work in high school especially the menu from which features a plethora of specialty rolls, eclectic and creative appetizers and even the salmon tempura appetizer they give to all their guests. Doma's interior is also pleasantly austere with quaint bubbles holding candles hung on the ceiling.

Medusa Roll: shrimp tempura, avocado spicy sprouts, spicy mayo (o) lump crab salad, wasabi mayo, red tobiko scallion.
Island Roll: salmon, spicy aioli, tempura crunch, (o) salmon, mango, wasabi tobiko.

Sashimi sundae with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avocado and spicy mayo. My friend asked me what is in spicy mayo and I told her it was mayo and sirrachi. For some reason people are always surprised to hear that there is mayo in spicy mayo. huh.

Second night: Birthday lunch with my big and twin :)

Hamachi Crudo sliced yellowtail, jalapeno, cilantro and yuzu sauce. Jumbo Ebi Shumai steamed jumbo shrimp dumpling served with ginger soy vinaigrette. Stuffed Jalapeno Tempura tuna, cream cheese, scallion, lightly battered topped with sweet glaze and chili sauce.

Omakase 6 individually prepared maki pieces with chef's selection of fish and assorted toppings of the day.

Tempura Udon.

Needless to say, dinner and lunch were both absolutely amazing. We followed up our crazy lunch with tea and eclairs at Nook, a coffee shop on 20th street. Dinner tonight however was a completely different story. Groupon had a deal for Max Brenners a few weeks back and I snagged a coupon thinking it'd be a fun place to go for dinner.

So tonight my roommate and I went over to the Bald Man's eatery on a girl date but the food was definitely not worth the trip. We went with the savory choices (probably should have just gotten the chocolate waffle. sigh.) but the food was sub-par coupled and service was terrible. Plus even my tea can't soothe my unhappy stomach right now. Of course, it was still an adventure but this has cemented my view that franchise restaurants are never worth it. No more American food either. Waffle fries may be good but they're not that good, especially when I get a bowl of noodle soup instead. Oh well, lesson learned.

I need a study break...

2011-02-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

A sporadic post of eats from the past few weeks. I really need to start being more diligent about taking more pictures. Last week, my friend insisted that we travel to some unknown restaurant to sample Ramen which his mother had read about in a Philadelphia newspaper. I was in no mood for an adventure but I thought fine and took my handy dandy camera with me. Then I realized: I forgot the memory card. Sigh. Moral of the story is no ramen pictures. BUT, there are these pictures of Birthday eats, Restaurant week eats and good old brunch eats.

Restaurant Week at Alma De Cuba

Definitely enjoyed the more simple decor of this place compared to other Starr restaurants.

Arugala salad with goat cheese. Ate every bite even though I don't like goat cheese. Hm, might have to reconsider my cheese preferences.

LOVE the presentation of this bowl. I think it was a curry vegetarian dish but I can't find it on the menu.

Vaca Frita "Fried Cow"
Twice cooked crispy skirt steak with onions and Cuban oregano with black beans, white rice and tomato escabeche.

Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop: maple pumpkin seed mojo and pickled red onions. Definitely the best course of the meal and the pork chops were cooked to perfection

Rice pudding with roasted coconut shreds. The dessert was good but I don't think I'm a very big fan of rice pudding in general.

Traditional Caramel Flan: Creamy caramel custard served with honey-pecan ice cream, apple ceviche and tamarind puree. The flan was definitely too sweet for us. It made everything else after it taste either too bitter or sour.

All in all I think Alma is a great restaurant but the restaurant week menu is definitely lacking. The options were not very diverse and the courses didn't seem to complement each other very well.

Ethiopian Birthday Dinner (No I don't remember the name of the place but it was located on 45th and Locust...I think). Ethiopian food is definitely one those cuisines that is an acquired taste. I love the numerous use of spices but sometimes, I even find the dishes to be overpowering. All of the dishes are served stew style and eaten and everything is eaten with injera, a sourdough flat bread (which is kind of like mushy nan..at least that's what I think).

A galore of vegetarian dishes.

Beef tartar.

More side dishes? I think?

Still a very lovely dinner with friends and (a very belated) Happy Birthday wishes to Jeff!

Brunch at RX
Since this is literally my millionth post on RX. I'm just going to post some delicious looking pictures and move on :). Also, finally tried their fresh squeezed orange juice (yum!).

Hm I know these two pictures look the same but I promise their different (can't recall why...) but the both involved poached eggs, spinach, hollandaise sauce and toasted english muffins.

Still have yet to successfully recreate this. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I cut the bread way to thick when I tried making it at home.

Mexican Birthday Dinner
Traveled to Northern Liberties to celebrate another wonderful friend's birthday. Of course, I forgot the name of this place as well but I'm pretty sure it started with a C....The pictures definitely turned out darker than I would have liked so I'll limit them to the few ok ones.

The entire Mexican feast was kind of a blur after we all devoured the nachos within 5 minutes but I do remember something about pork tacos, ceviche, soup and melted cheese. Speaking of Mexican food, there will hopefully be lots more to come in the following week when I journey south for break.

Happy eating!

An Ode to the Asian Bakeries

2011-02-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

In light of the New Lunar New Year (which is finally the Year of the Rabbit, Yay Mom!), I thought I would share these pictures I took of a random Asian bakery from NY back in the fall.

I think my favorite part about Chinatown since I was six years old was always the Chinese Bakery. And it is still true. Yum.

And I'm back!

2011-02-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

Wow I can't even remember the last time I posted, this semester has been absolutely ridiculously crazy. Fortunately, things are finally settling down which means I can get back to blogging! I think I must have 10 posts worth of pictures sitting in my camera right now. Here's a treat I actually made over break and did not even realize I had not posted yet!

Soo the story behind phyllo dough and apple strudels (not really a story but I'll tell it anyways) is that the first time I tried making apple strudels, it was with my grandmother. She used to make them for my dad from scratch and it was a crazy Austrian recipe she had perfected over the years. When we tried making the ridiculously thin layers of strudel goodness, the flour kept ripping apart on us (apparently we didn't have the right brand of flour). Anyways, it still ended up being delicious but ever since then I've been terrified of making strudels.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always thought I should just use phyllo dough but for some reason I could never find it in the grocery store (of course I've probably only tried looking for it twice in my life). Since I finally bought a box over break and was on a crazy baking spree, I decided to make apple strudels on my last day at home. I had also just seen Inglorious Bastard probably for the third time in three days and wanted to make a strudel so I could dollop a big spoonful of cream on top. (Turns out we didn't actually have any cream, but the greek yogurt worked nicely :).

I'm actually very particular about my apples. The only kind I like to eat and cook with are Figi apples. The reason for this is that they never get uncrispy. Mushy apples are gross. Seriously. (5 medium apples used here).

I also don't think you can ever go wrong when baking with apples. Every homey spice you can think of goes well with apples. I used: 1 tsp of vanilla, 1/2 tsp of lemon extract, 1 tsp of crushed cloves and all spice, 2 tbs of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. (I think this was for two big strudels).

We're also very big on using mortar and pestles for some reason.

Mix apples, previous spices, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar.

I want to say I used 5 sheets of phyllo here but you really can't go wrong. Brush a thin layer of butter in between each layer and pour apples on the top layer. Fold the sides in and roll to form a log. Brush more layer over the whole thing.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting. (or not).

Garnish with powdered sugar and cream (or yogurt in my case).

Random aside: Wegman's has really really delicious thick Greek Yogurt.

its a pie...or tart...or something

2011-01-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

I've never made anything with puff pastry before. Not because I have anything against it but because I've never been able to find it in the freezer section (ok I've never looked that hard) but still, every time the thought crossed my mind I could never track the buttery layer-y dough thing down. Anyways, I finally found some in the grocery store and decided to make a little onion/mushroom tart with it.

Two problems. 1) We went to go pick up some produce from the produce junction and they were out of mushrooms (how do you run out of mushrooms??) 2) I went to open the puff pastry and realized that it wasn't a sheet like I was expecting but little circle-y things.

By then I had already caramelized way more onions then I needed and shredded a massive bowl of Jarlsberg cheese (a Swiss cheese my dad buys in big 5lb chunks). So that meant time for some improvisation. Well, I've never been the biggest fan of recipes anyways ha.

3 white onions, salt, pepper and 1 big heap of thyme on medium high for 20 minutes.

I've never been the biggest fan of onions, but these were really tasty since cooking them for so long got rid of their usual sharp odor and taste.

Bake the puff pastry for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool for 5. Fill with the onions and shredded cheese and bake for an additional 5. Garnish with more thyme.

Ta-da! They remind of horderves a really classy house wife would serve at a dinner party in the '50s. Such are the thoughts that go through my head...

a taste of home (and a belated happy new years!)

2011-01-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

I’m pretty sure I still dated the form I signed yesterday as 2010, oops.

**disclaimer** abnormally long intro this time so feel to skip my irrelevant ramblings...unless you're actually interested in cooking the food I show in which case read away

So much for my promise to post again before the new years, but in the words of my friend “I’m pretty sure your readers will live”. Yea well I knew that but still….

Anyways, a random interlude: for some reason, I’ve never liked odd numbered years. Maybe it’s because I was born in an even year or because I’ve always liked the divisibility of even numbers, but either way I’ve always been superstitious and apprehensive of the 1-3-5’s. I was really worried as this new year started.... fortunately, 2011has proven to be quite fortuitous (although I think that’s just some because I still have some of the luck from 2010 left over) and (unsurprisingly) the eating has been just as scrumptious.

Since my promise to cook more at the beginning of last semester pretty much dissipated 3 weeks in (along with my sanity), I figured the best thing to do is to make it up over break (or what’s left of it). And considering all I’ve been doing is espousing the glorious goodness of brunch, I realized it was time to actually blog about something that has a much longer food history in my life: home-cooking mom style.

The only things to really know about Chinese cooking (at least the way I learned it) is to use a lot of garlic (but don’t burn it), cook everything on high (but don’t over-cook it) and just throw in the same spices and ingredients for almost all vegetable dishes.

"The List"

chili peppers

green peppers (ok these two are technically optional but in my family, they're kind of not)

garlic

soy sauce

garlic powder (we like our garlic)

cooking wine

sesame oil

salt & pepper (obviously.

My current list of vegetables (man I feel kind of odd doing this...it reminds me of the fashion blogs I follow where the writers post their five favorite items of the week and here I am listing my favorite vegetables...) eggplant, bok choy, mushrooms and tofu (not really a vegetable I know but whatever, leave me alone). I swear half of the people I met have never eaten an eggplant which I find completely baffling since I think it is the most delicious vegetable on the planet. But then again, that is just me.

Right. I forgot to mention scallions and ginger (well that’s mostly my mom’s doing, I never thought they were absolutely necessary unless you’re making meat). Anyways, this is basically how the beginning of every dish looks: garlic (onion/scallion), pepper flakes and oil.

Drop in your vegetables (in order of how long they take to cook). We have some lovely Oyster mushrooms here. ( I’ve never been a big fan of button mushrooms…too slimy. )

Cook on medium-high for a few minutes (don’t you love how exact I am?). Add in soysauce, salt, garlic powder and the rest of the staples

This mushroom dish also has some tomatoes and chives added in as well. Since chives cook so much faster (and tomatoes are practically cooked already), definitely want to put them in after the mushrooms are almost done.

A note on eggplants. They take an annoyingly long time to cook compared to other vegetables. If you don’t cook them until they’re soft enough, a lot of times it comes out rubbery (probably a reason why many people are not fond of eggplants).

Another thing to do especially for really watery vegetables is to add starch at the end to turn the watery/soy sauce mixture more sauce-like. We use tapioca starch which you can buy in a pretty hefty bag for 79 cents in Chinatown. Cornstarch works just as well though.

When I cook silken tofu, I don’t even cut it, I dump the whole square in the pan and break it up with a spoon. Eventually, through the cooking process – it naturally breaks into nice small (but not tiny) pieces.

I am particularly fond of silk tofu because I find the texture a lot more palletable. My dad likes the firm kind because he complains silken is too difficult to handle and to eat…Well so are lobsters but everyone still eats them!

Firm tofu on the other hand stays neat and tidy in sliced pieces but I ind the texture to be a little too dry.

A vegetable we have been eating quite frequently lately. Green squash. It’s actually pretty funny because usually what happens in my family is we’ll get hooked on 2 or 3 dishes and eat those repetitively until we get tired of it and then move on to something else. Don’t know if that’s normal but at least it means you get to get really good at cooking something.

Whoo this is a long post. Guess I’ve been snapping more pictures than I realized. We had another roasted leg of lamb on New Year’s and my mom found a really ingenious (and delicious) way of cooking the leftover. Ingredients: garlic, green chilli peppers, carrots, seasoned salt and all of the stuff mentioned above. Since lamb is really game-y this was really yummy since it kept the tenderness of the meat and got rid of some of the gameyness through the use of the veggies and spices.

Only one more day until I go back to Penn (and I have to spend tomorrow working at my new internship so technically I guess I only have have half a day left). Man this week sure flew by! I also recently discovered the magic that is Picasa3 which means no more awkward collages from Photoshop! Get excited for the upcoming post. (part of it will probably be a cliche reminiscence of the past (1/2) year of eats). Waking up at 6am again tomorrow...joy.

Happy eating :)

Sabrina's (again)

2010-12-30T20:29:00.000-08:00

Man I must be on some sort of brunch obsession right now (the 3rd post out of 5 to be about brunch?) Seriously, I promise to mix it up after this. But then again, is there anyone who doesn't like brunch?

After a night of much discussion and card playing with some old Parli alums, (all of whom I was lucky enough to finally meet!) I woke up craving the bacony/egg combo (yet again). My friend having never visited the Philadelphia must of Sabrina's decided that that would be the place we would go. Conveniently enough, I also had my car so we hauled ourselves out of bed over to the original Sabrina's location on 9th and Christian (which I must say is so much more well decorated than the other location on 18th and Callowhill, the place that I visited the fist time). All of the brunch specials were adorably named for the winter holiday season and they were absolutely delicious (so delicious that it might be even better than Rx).

Unfortunately, these pictures came out rather out of focus (i blame my hunger and impatience to eat), but it is probably because I still need more practice with my new single focus lens. Luckily, the food looked so good that I don't think its too much of an issue :)

So the brunch specials we had aren't up on the website and I can't remember the festive names of all of them but I do remember that this one had cranberries, gingerbread cookie topping, ricotta cheese, a bunch of nutmeg...needless to say it was GOOD.

Originally, my friend wanted to order a burger (I know, crazy), and then the table behind us ordered this. He took one look at it, looked at the waiter and said "I want that". Dunno what it was called but it was some sort of chicken cutlet sandwich and it came with paremsan fries (yum).

Ok this one is super out of focus (sorry!). Egg white frittata with turkey bacon.

And this one was mine! Egg sandwich with turkey bacon, arugula, red onions, mozzarella cheese and tomato mayo. And I am not ashamed to say I devoured it all.

30 minutes until the last day of the year! I will try and get in one more post tomorrow before the New Years (!!)

RX Part Deux

2010-12-29T17:22:00.000-08:00

The last time I went to RX, I ordered the basic eggs brunch and it was the best brunch I ever ate (oh yes even better than that french toast stuff). Ever since that brunch I have been meaning to recreate it (and secretly dreaming of it when I can't have it).... crunchy, toasty bread (not that icky white stuff), golden potatoes, big salty and bacon and eggs cooked to perfection with a runny yolk. Enjoy :)

Making the potatoes: cut into little cubes, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper & cayenne pepper, bake in an oven for ~20 minutes and then broil on low for another 5.

bacon!

My friend went with the sandwich route..meh...


I think this looks much more brunch-y.

Italia!

2010-12-28T18:27:00.000-08:00

I started reading eat, love, pray the other day which means I've been thinking about Italy nonstop since, especially Italian food...well mostly gelato and pizza because that's what she talks about... but also just Italy in general or anywhere that's warm and has an abundance of of foreign boys and delicious eats. Anyways, since I am still stuck here in Pennsylvania where there's all this white stuff on the ground, I decided to make biscotti. Not really the same but we do what we can. A quick lesson on biscotti: they came from the Italian city of Prato, is always traditionally made with almonds, and the word is actually plural version for the word biscotto (so don't be adding any s's to your biscotti).

But first a quick update! As promised, ice cream sandwiches!

Ook. on to the Biscotti.
adapted from Smitten Kitchen's almond biscotti. yields ~ 2 dozen (her recipe here)

Ingredients:
3 cups of flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 tbsp orange liqueur
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup of chopped almonds

mix melted butter, sugar, eggs, orange zest and orange liquor

sift dry ingredients: flour, salt & baking powder and add by batches to wet ingredients.

mix mix mix until dough forms.

Form into 13" x 5" x .5" logs (length, width and thickness). Bake in oven at 350 for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and cool for 25 minute

Cut into 1 inch wide slices, flip over on its side, and bake for another 12 minutes.

The first time I saw someone make biscotti was Giada on the Food Network, and she dipped hers into white chocolate...so naturally, I had to dip my biscotti into chocolate too.

And because chocolate wasn't enough (and I had chopped nuts left over), I also added in nuts.

Unfortunately I started running out of chocolate, I drizzled the rest over the remaining half.

Happy Eating!

Memories on Christmas

2010-12-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

A few brief snapshots of Christmas and other randoms. A memory box gift for my father. A doll from my grandmother from many Christmases ago. A corsage from prom.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and that hoping that everyone has the opportunity to spend some time with loved ones and friends.