Milano

Vittorio Emmanuel Galleria

Milan is a large, sprawling city. Some call it ugly and its definitely not a tourist destination, but I think its beautiful in its own urban way. It reminded me of NYC (and we all know how much I love NY) :)

Hot Chocolate Break at Shockolat

Milky Hot Chocolate with very large dollop of whipped cream

Shockolate is a very popular and famous chocolate bar, about a five minute walk from the church holding Da Vinci's Last Supper. The hot chocolate was rich and delicious, but what blew us away was the decadent yet light chocolate cheesecake.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Lunch at Yoshi

I have to say, Milan has amazing sushi. You're thinking "duh, its a super international city", and you're right, but I thought this was still worth mentioning since it was that good.  
 

Bento box: fish filet, salad with hamachi, vegetable tempura, hamachi sashimi, salmon sushi. 

Bring on the Colors

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.

Let the festivities begin

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.

Yummy Express

So I'm usually not a fan of those express eating places, especially when it is for sushi and Japanese food - gotta say I'm kind of skeptical. For a multitude of reasons. Upon passing by the plastic bento boxes in a generic display window, my dining companion insisted that this place (who's name I do not remember) was not shady but "cute". Sure, I can do cute. As long as the food is good.Surprisingly, the food was actually rather yummy and cheap. This quick stop is located on Chestnut next to The Buffalo Exchange.

Shrimp Tempura and Veggies :D

Eel and Cucumber roll

Gyoza Bento Box

Why we still wanted to eat after this enormous meal, I don't know. 

Yogurt City is on 13th and Chestnut. I'm pretty sure they get the fro-yo from the same place Kiwi (aka Sprinkles) gets theirs. Even the the setup of the dispensers is the same. Only difference is You get these bright pink spoons from Yogurt City :)

One went with the healthy options. One did not. Guess which one is mine?

Red boba pearls, they explode in your mouth when you bite down on them. Kinda cool. Also, peach fro-yo with mangoes,

Cookies & Cream, Peanut Butter & Cheesecake. Liked the C&C the best.

A great start to Fall Break and the end of one stressful month!

More (Asian) Philly Eats

Sorry for the sporadic posting but as soon as I find time to post something, I realize there's actually more than one thing to post!  Here are some more yummy eats from chi-town and downtown.

Went to Aki (1210 Walnut Street) for sushi after passing by the place multiple times. Had to say, the place did not disappoint! Well-made specialty rolls with fresh ingredients. Couldn't find the specialty rolls on the online menu so you'll have to go for yourself to find out what's in these :)

Samurai Roll. Also finally tried uni (sea urchin) sushi (pictured behind the roll). I was skeptical since its a big hit or miss, the texture is very slimy and there's a very fishy taste to it but I loved it. I really enjoyed the bold flavor and the nice creamy undertone.

Volcano Roll (wrapped in soy paper as opposed to Nori (seaweed))

Quick (and cheap!) eats from Nan Zhou Noodle House (927 Race Street). You know this place is legit when it's the number one rated place on Yelp in Chinatown.

Hand-drawn noodles. You can see the man making them in the kitchen from the dining area. Legit.

They also make shaved noodles which I actually like better because its chewier and more closely resembles Udon.

They also have non-soup options. This one is pork and soy sauce. Yum yum.

a not-so-old memory

Of course as soon as I promise to cook more, what do I have but another restaurant update. Except this one is slightly different. I mentioned this place in my last post about Raw citing that there was a restaurant near my home that has THE best sushi I have ever had, even better than anything I've had in Philly.

Welcome to Bonjung.

This was the place where I fell in love with sushi, where I learned everything I know about Japanese/Korean cuisine, and where I spent the second half of high school working. I was making a quick detour home tonight and realized this would be the last time I could eat at one of my favorite restaurants for a very long time. And who can resist sushi?

Naturally, we ordered all of my favorite rolls :D

last samurai: soft shell crab tempura, cucumber, spicy crunchy mix inside & outside, topped w/ tobiko, scallion & chili sauce

mudslide: tuna & avocado, topped w/ spicy crunchy miso sauce, scallion, & chili sauce

incredible: shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, cucumber, topped w/ seared tuna, white tuna, avocado w/ special sauce, tobiko, & scallion

volcano: shrimp tempura, topped w/ avocado, spicy seafood topping, scallion, eel sauce, & chili sauce

Last Samurai = BEST ROLL EVER

And then there was dessert...

I can NEVER resist tiramisu

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

After we devoured these 2 babies, the kitchen sent out this complimentary dessert:

I'm not the biggest fan of fried ice cream except this was green tea ice cream.

Needless to say we were all stuffed after dinner. In fact, it is 4 hours later and I am still full...probably not the best idea when we are all going to the beach tomorrow :p

Hopefully I'll get some shots of boardwalk eats on our 3 day trip to the beach!

Birthday Weekend: Friday

I've never been a fan of birthdays, especially my own. I feel that the day itself is overhyped and honestly, its just a day like any other. That being said, I think deep down inside, I still feel that it is a special day. Not to say that my birthdays have been dissappointing, but they have never been particularly exciting or memorable - at least not memorable enough for the level of expectation that everyone (myself included) places on it.

That all changed this weekend.

It was the best birthday celebration ever. Partially because I started on a Thursday (when my birthday is actually on Sunday), partially because there was a LOT of delicious food involved, but mainly because I was fortunate enough to celebrate it with some AMAZING friends who made me realize just how lucky I was to have those people in my life.

Now lets talk about the food. Friday night, my BFF took me out the "sceney" Japanese house known as RAW. Ironically enough, I actually worked here for a grand total of one day (10 hours) and then never went back after realizing I wasn't getting paid or fed for the hours I spent there. Luckily no one at the restaurant recognized me :p

yum yum yum!

my BFF!!!

After hearing about (and serving) their specialty rolls for quite some time, we decided it was best to focus on what the restaurant did best. The rolls are pricey (about 20$ for 8 pieces) but they are also very extravagent. To be honest, they weren't as grandiose or as big as I imagined them to be, but they were still delicious and VERY filling. The rolls reminded me of another sushi place called Bonjung located in Montgomery County (NW of Philadelphia). Funnily enough, I also worked at this place, but for a little longer (about 2 years).  Both places feature really amazing, over-the-top sushi rolls which will convince any sushi-doubter to turn into a sushi-lover.

TORIMY ROLLspicy tuna and eel roll topped with torched squid. garnished with eel and spicy sauce

The torched squid was not too chewy and really complimented the roll by giving it a subtle smoky flavor.

TRIFENA ROLL
shrimp tempura roll topped with eel, avocado, and spicy tuna. garnished with eel sauce and spicy dressing

I love shrimp tempura. What else is there to add?

WHITE TIGER white tuna and masago roll, topped with white tuna sashimi and spicy white tuna. seared for texture and garnished with scallions, red tobiko, eel sauce and cream sauce

Definitely the winner of the night. We ordered this after we were already stuffed and quickly devoured half of it before I realized I needed to take a picture. Personally, I find white tuna much more appetizing than regular tuna. It has a much less fishy after taste and the texture is also a lot smoother.


Was food really worth that much? Probably not. The decor, ambiance and service also all try to be more than it actually is. And for a Friday night, the restaurant was nowhere near as packed as Starr's El Vez across the street. However, for someone looking for some delicious and high-end sushi in a nice atmosphere, you might as well check out this place one time or another.

Overall rating: 3.75 out of 5