where's the new header picture from?

Creme Fraiche Cheesecake

While I have been kind of neglecting on my promise to be cooking up all sorts of yummy dishes this year, I have not been neglecting my relationship with food. In fact, I have attempted to make use of my Wharton education in a productive manner! (are you reading this parents?)

I know I made a blog post about the dessert food truck Sugar Philly awhile back but now I can say that I am officially endorsing them as I am now their VP of Marketing! (which basically entails eating a lot of desserts and pretending I know what I'm doing...) Actually, I have been spending a lot of time working on expanding their catering business and creating promotional items. And of course, finding excuses to take more pictures.

Pear Almond Tart

So here's my plug to all of my Penn readers out there! For those who are interested in perhaps having Sugar Philly at their next GBM, club event, speaker event, hall event etc. send an email my way at lisa@sugarphillytruck.com (you know its legit when I have an official email!). There may or may not be free samples involved. Just saying. Also, stop by the truck located at 38th and Walnut next to Koja to get your sweet fix :D

Current menu items include: french macarons, creme brulee, mexican chocolate cake, pear almond tart, creme fraiche cheesecake and pumpkin custard although a lot of these are seasonal and are a limited time treat!

Vanilla Creme Brulee

Pumpkin custard with torched marshmallows and candied pecans. 

a spooky weekend of eats

One thing I don't really like to do is always order the same dish at the same restaurant every time I go out to eat. However, there are some places where I am perfectly content frequenting - one of them is a vietnamese place on Washington that I always go to with my parents after we finish grocery shopping. I usually get the same bowl of pho every time bc 1) I don't understand anything else that is on the menu and 2) all of the pho starts to taste the same after awhile.

Recently, I was introduced to a new pho restaurant, a place who's name I actually remembered!! And it is called Pho Ha although I thought it was Pho Hau for some reason....The pho was decent but what truly surprised me was that the other food was really good too (and not scary like the other 2 times I ventured out of pho territory).

I think this was akin to a bbq pork and shrimp dish. very tasty and massive.

Feeling even more adventurous, I also ordered a drink which came in a contraption I had never seen before. I had heard of Vietnamese coffee before and of people raving about how delicious it is. Verdict? Its actually rather tasty. There's a bold coffee flavor that isn't at all overwhelming (and the huge amount of sugary condensed milk didn't hurt either). After dinner, we went to the nearby Chinese supermarket to stock up on frozen dumplings and guess what I found? Vietnamese coffee and the strainer in a display box by the entrance door. Naturally, I bought it and made myself a cup the next morning :D

The coffee is served in a strainer that sits over a class. They put ground coffee into the strainer and pour hot water over it. There's condensed milk sitting at the bottom of the glass, and once all of the coffee seeps through, you pour everything over a tall glass of ice and mix.

Speaking of feeling adventurous (and going to the same places multiple times), I was at tap house twice yesterday. Once for my sorority's alumnnae lunch and once with my dad to catch up on life. We actually drove all the way downtown to trying something new but couldn't find any parking so made our way back to Penn.

Didn't get too many pictures of lunch, but mostly because I was starving and too busy eating. [above] Pumpkin Panna Cotta

This was one delicious (and very filling) sandwich. Pressed Chicken with Roasted Peppers. I've also never been the biggest fan of sweet potato fries but Tap House has some rather tasty ones.

Elise Mussels.

Ok on to the adventurous part. My dad and I ordered the tarfuto pizza. It sounded really fancy and we both love mushrooms, how bad could it be? Well, I actually thought the pizza was pretty good but my dad hated it. Who knew truffles were so stinky?

Tarfuto pizza with mushroom, black truffles and egg.

Tea Love

Ran into the spices and tea vendor at another market in NYC. Had enough cash on me this time to pick up some Sea breeze for my mom's Birthday. Happy Birthday Mama! I wonder how many birthdays she's had that's been on Friday the 13th...

National Harbor

My mom had a conference over fall break in a place right outside of DC called National Harbor. It is essentially a "tourist" destination for business people and their families. Here's where we stayed. It is the only hotel in the town but its existence brought about the high end downtown shopping area and classy dining options. Best part was the resort was right by the water which meant lots of photographs :)

And now we transition into blue. The only change I made to these was the curves level and contrast. Everything else came from the picture itself =]

Still to come: More shots of downtown DC, NYC, and bakeries!

Ramen Redone and a Revisit

Hii Jenny :P

An open window.

Cold noodles with Miso Sauce

Spicy ramen with egg.

Vegetarian stir fried noodles

The first set of NYC posts! So I've heard about the famed Ramen of Greenwich Village, and now I've finally experienced it for myself.  One thing I can say is that the food sure is photogenic. Something about the presentation of Korean cuisine makes it really easy to take deliciously captivating shots. The food was good although not great, but our starving stomachs were more than satisfied after 6 hours of walking/shopping without a break. Sure did a lot of shopping. Fortunately, there was a lot of picture taking in between. Such as these:

Oh yes I went back. Hello again lovely :)

No dark chocolate this time but dutch chocolate also does the trick.

Are you craving froyo yet??

I Sense a Pattern....

Another post dedicated to meat! I swear I'm not a constant raging carnivore because this time it was my dad, not me, who went with the theme. We went into BJs hoping to pick up some rib eye for dinner and left with 16lb worth. It was one big hunk of meat. Literally. After marinating two slices for dinner we had exactly 11 massive steaks left. Enough to last us for quite a while. Then again, my dad does like steak. I wonder if there will be any left when I go home for Thanksgiving break...Anyways, here are the snapshots from dinner :)

Cucumber Salad - so Asian. Yup.

And a salad. Got to get the green in there.

Jasmine Rice

And the Grand Finale!

What's more American?...

...Then eating at a tapas restaurant on the outskirts of Chinatown in the middle of Washington D.C? La Tasca is a well decorated and bustling Tapas restaurant which claims to serve Spanish cuisine but really, it is just American food served "Spanish style" with Spanish names. We ordered the 9 dish tasting menu, and I still haven't decided if it was a good idea since we all left majorly comatose. L Tasca did not have the finesse or class of Tinto, but it still served up a satisfying albeit heavy meal. Favorites of the night included the lamb chops, steak and espresso dessert.

Gambos a Ajilo - Shrimp sauteed in garlic sauce

Ensalade de Tomatoes - Never of a fan of goat cheese until I had this dish :)

Pollo frito a Ajo - Fried chicken with roasted garlic

Patatas Bravas - Quick fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce

Chuletitas de Cordero - Grilled lamb chops in peppercorn sauce

Salmon a la Plancha - Salmon, spinach and fried mussels

Calamares a la Andaluza - Calamari

Solomillo de Buey - Beef tenderloin with blue cheese

Tartita de Cafe - Chocolate cappuccino mousse cake with espresso sauce.

Definitely going to need some major salad detox after this weekend!