Girls Gone Eating.

Barcelona: La Boqueria

2010-10-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

A stroll down La Rambla, you will find the entrance to The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria or La Boqueria, a large food market in Barcelona, Spain. The market has a very diverse selection of goods...

tons of fruits and juice to buy! different kinds of fruits were mixed w/ coconut juice for a very creamy taste:

fresh fruits of all kind cut up and put in containers...

chocolates...

different kinds of eggs...

creamy gelato...

meat...

more fruit!

caramel and candies...

dry fruits and nuts...

Korean restaurant (the only Asian store there)

candied fruits..,

fried fish balls (we tried them and I didn't it, Andy said it was okay...)

fried seafood combination (it was okay...)

Restaurants towards the back of the markets were crowded but we finally found seats at Bar Boqueria.

it was kinda pricey...

We had the seafood combination for two. The huge dish of seafood includes calamari, shrimp, mussels, fish, and razor clams. The seafood was fresh and cooked right, nothing was under or over cooked. It was made with lots of herbs and some lemon juice. sooo much seafood, soooo delicious, sooo worth it!

picture with our food before we devour it!!

Our last day in Barcelona, we decided to dropped by the market for our last fruit smoothie runs. We wanted to try more flavors so we got 5 or 6 drinks at a time (bad idea...). We spent too much time in the market and shopping that we missed our plane to Rome! I blame it partially on the the trains but anyway...

FYI: if you want to use the bathroom in the market you have to save your receipts to show the bathroom lady. If you don't you have to pay .50euros

Ibiza: Beach, Party and Seafood!

2010-10-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

Ibiza, a beautiful island in Spain. It's known for having spectacular beaches and is a popular destination for party goers. For us it was a relaxing and fun stay! We stayed in Eivissa and came across a restaurant with a beautiful view and delicious seafood.

a very romantic place to dine especially at night having a candlelit dinner ...

The food at Marco was very good especially the mussels. So far it's the best mussels we've tried in Europe. The food portion is good, price is decent and the staff was really nice. We ate here twice and really enjoyed each time. I didn't bring my camera the first time (damn it!) but we had paellas which was very yummi!

Grilled squid and veggies, the squid was fresh and softveal (according to Andy, the meat was okay...)

I don't have pictures but the desserts was good, we had a fruit ice cream sundae. They also give a complimentary peach liquor shot for dessert. What a great way to end a meal!

Ibiza Sunset <3>
Another place we loved visiting was seeing the sunset in Sant Antonio on the strip where all the restaurants and bars are. We went to the famous Cafe Del Mar. We actually didn't get a chance to eat at these restaurants but I think this would be a great place to dine and hang out.

Some people byob on the beach to watch the sunset. Great place to chill w/ good electronic music from the restaurants and fun atmosphere.

Ibiza 2010 <3>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bar Heladeria Marco
Avda Ricardo Curtoys Gotarredona, 1
07840 Santa Eularia Des Riu (Eivissa), Spain
971 331 103

Cafe Del Mar
Carre Lepant, 4 Sant Antoni Portmany (Elivissa)
971 342 516

Taste of Belgium #7: My Favorites!

2010-10-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

#1: Belgian Waffles and Frituurs

#2: Sausage Roll from Panos!
Panos is a chain store that sells sweet and savory bake goods. You can find this store everywhere in Belgium (it's like a Starbucks, you can find one on every corner). It's a quick snack which is cheap and taste so good!

They make different types of rolls like turkey, chicken and sausage.

#3: Belgian donuts:
I must mention these delicious Belgian pastry and donuts. They were SOOOOOOO good! We had these for breakfast. The chocolate one is like our boston cream donut but the only difference is that it's flaky outside. SO DELICIOUS!!!! The other pastries were cinnamon, custard filled and raisin.

#4: Blood Sausage by Sita's MomStesi planned something special for us to try but won't tell us what Sita's mom was going to make for us. They said Belgian people love it but some people hate it. Sita said she didn't like it as a child but was going to try it again when we do. It turns out to be blood sausage! I've tried it before but hated it. The ones i tried was very hard and the taste was really bad but this time it was soo good! You can eat it with apple sauce and some people eat it with brown sugar. I actually really like it w/ apple sauce.

Thank you so much for cooking this for us Sita's mom *hugz* Dank je wel!!!

Taste of Belgium #6: Chocolates

2010-10-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Chocolate, chocolate everywhere!!! There are so many stores in Belgium where you can buy gourmet chocolate by the pounds or piece. A famous brands in Belgium is Leonidas. According to Stesi, they have the best chocolate! In the states, we think Godiva is one of the best but in Belgium it's only an okay brand.

We went to a chocolate store by Ferran Adria, who owns the title of making the best chocolate in the world.

I <3 chocolate!!!

Taste of Beligum #5: Jenever and Beer

2010-10-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

Jenever (aka Holland/Dutch gin) is a traditional liquor of the Netherlands and Belgium. It is popular for its different favors ranging from many types of fruits or cream favors. My sister tried it and kept raving about it so of course we had to try....

We head over to "De Vagant", a Jenever bar:

There were so many favors to choose from but I ordered the lychee and Andy got the pear favor. Before you take a shot of Jenever, first you're suppose to take a sip of it while the shot is on the table then you chuck the whole thing.

I thought mine was a little to strong. Andy's pear was REALLY good! Cheers to our first Jenever! At this time, I couldn't handle another shot so we all only had one. Andy and I were both dead tired because we just got off the plane and I haven't slept yet. If I drank anymore I would probably be sleeping/passed out on the table.
One of my highlights, we stumbled upon the Cathedral Bar in Antwerp. It was a very cozy bar with lots of interesting decor of many Catholic saints and church related stuff. It's like we walked into a mini basilica but they serve alcohol!

Steven had a strong beer:

the rest of us had fruity (cheery and raspberry) beer! It's light and taste really good!

drinking beer in the afternoon the Belgium way...

We also found another hold in the wall beer/wine tasting place while trying to find Jeanneken Pis, peeing girl in Brussels. We got tired of looking for her so stopped by at Délices et Caprices for a drink:
It was a really small store with a few tables. There were cabinets and shelves of beer everywhere.

The owner was really nice and chatted with us. He gave us really good recommendations. Steven had the strong beer and we again had the fruity stuff. Sita picked the apple and we had the raspberry beer.

I really like this one...

he let us try a light beer:

Cheers to a great time in Belgium!!

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De Vagant
Reyndersstraat 25
2000 Antwerp, Belgium
03 233 15 38

Cathedral Bar (?)
can't find information online

Délices et Caprices
Rue des Bouchers 68
Brussels, Belgium B1000
02 5121451

Taste of Beligium #4: Horse Meat

2010-10-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

One food I was looking forward to try was horse meat since we don't serve it here in the states. In Belgium, you can get horse meat as cold cut or as a steak. Stesi tried to slowly introduce us to it so brought smoked horse meat from the super market. It was thinly sliced and looks like salami but darker red color. They made some horse and raw minced meat sandwiches for us in the morning. The horse meat sandwich had a very unique and strong taste w/ a hint of smoky favor. The raw minced meat was really good with lots of meat favor and creamy texture. Both was interesting....

After trying the horse meat cold cuts we were ready to try the steak! Stesi says it taste as good as a regular steak but better. We'll see about that...They took us to "De Peerdestal", a cozy restaurant located in the middle of old Antwerp.

It was a bit pricey but food portions were good and the taste was great! The decor was a bit weird! we knew we were eating eating horse, they didn't have to put horse bodies all over the restaurant! We sat right under the horse head...
someone else was sitting under the horse butt...

I thought this was horse meat but ends up being salami, a complementary starter.

Sita got a shrimp croquette appetizer

We ordered fried foie gras with oysters. OMG so good!!!! I'm starting to develop a liking for foie gras after my dinner at WD50 (blog post coming soon...)

Sita and I order the duck with raspberry sauce. The sides include grilled vegetables and croquettes. The duck was so delicious! It was so juicy and tender. The sauce was a sweet with a bit of sour which goes really well with the meat. *drooling as I'm writing about it*

The boys ordered the horse steak! From a glance, it looks exactly like a regular steak...

Andy loved it! I thought it was good and very tender. *videos of our reaction coming soon* It didn't have the strong taste as the cold cut but you can def taste the difference between cow and horse meat.

After our wonderful meal, time for coffee. This place brings you a tray with chocolate malt balls and different types of sugar for your coffee:

Since we tried horse meat, why not try horse milk ice cream! DON'T DO IT... very funky! I took two bites and couldn't bring myself to eat more of it. The citrus sauce and fruits on the side could not cover the strong funky taste of horse milk. I'll stick with my cow milk desserts from now on...

Our first horse meat experience was awesome!! Thank you guys for taking us there =D

Us asking the water for tap water:
Waiter: we don't have any tap water here
Sita (to us): What do they wash dishes with? LOL
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De Peerdestal
http://www.depeerdestal.be/

Taste of Belgium #3: Mussels

2010-10-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

In Belgium, mussels are often served with fresh herbs and flavorful vegetables in a stock of white wine or cream. They are usually consumed with frites or bread. This is another must have food in Belgium....

Stesi took us to anther fav restaurants of theirs called Publique.

Sita, Andy and I each got a pot of mussels but each with a different stock. Sita got the original, I got the cream and Andy got the special with wine and garlic. It was topped w/ tons of veggies. The mussels were very fresh, so delicious! It came w/ a sour cream like sauce and a side of frites. The pot does not look big but it has a lot of mussels. It was like an endless pit! I couldn't finish my pot so Andy had to help me...

Steven doesn't like mussels so he got a chicken pot pie like dish w/ a side of frites.

Our table full of mussel shells!! *burp*

Desserts time =) all of them were very good!!!
a) 3 different sorbets

b) chocolate souffles

c) tiramisu

d) crembule on fire!

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Publique
2, Graaf Van Egmontstraat
2000 Antwerpen (Antwerp) Belgium

Taste of Belgium #2: Frituurs

2010-10-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

Fri-what? ehh?? Frituurs is a traditional fast food shop that often serves fried and grilled dishes such as frites, meatballs, croquettes, fried chicken, brochette and many other foods. Basically, they deep fried everything! There are a large selection of sauces including ketchup, mayo, mustard, curry and many different others.

It's our first time eating at a frituurs. We went to Den Halt a near by shop from the Stesi. They often come here so we know it must be good stuff...

We walked in and there was a counter w/ tons of stuff you can deep fry. Most of the stuff is on a stick...

lots of sauce:

The guy working behind the counter was curious where we were from because I kept taking pictures. We found out we were the first Americans to visit them! We're so honored =D

Here's the menu on the wall:

Traditionally the frites were served in sheets of paper sometimes rolled up in an upside down cone.

mayo and ketchup (curry favor)

frites w/ curry

i can't really identify these but they were so good!!!

wow so much food!!! delicious!

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Den Halt
Bredestraat 1
2620 Hemiksem, Belgium
03 887 51 80

Taste of Belgium #1: Waffles and Sweets!

2010-10-03T14:57:00.001-07:00

This September, Andy and I went on a backpacking adventure (actually, we wheeled ourselves) in Europe for three weeks! We visited 5 countries and our first stop was Belgium! We stayed w/ our awesomest friends Stesi (Steven and Sita). Our great host took us everywhere and introduced us to lots of Belgian food. It was great hanging out with the locals! They saved us from those tourist traps (which i will blog about for other countries...grrr!!)

(this was taken in Antwerp central train station. it's def much nicer then Brussels's train station)

When we got there the first question they asked, "What do you want to eat/try?" I quickly told them WAFFLES!! I visited Belgium 2 yrs ago and really missed their delicious crispy and melts in your mouth Belgian waffles. They knew exactly where to take us. According to them, this place has the best Belgian waffles and they were RIGHT!

Désiré de Lille

Everything on the menu looks so delicious:

Beignets: these are Belgium donuts, it's like the zeppoles from our street fairs. very yummy when it's warm.

I forgot the name of this dessert but it's another type of waffles. It's flat and thin and made with special syrup. The syrup was very sweet and had a strong molasses taste which I didn't like too much. I wish they had maple syrup but then found out you can't find any in Belgium.

Pancake with apples and ice cream: omg this was so good! the warm apples and the pancake was a little crispy...

Last but not least, a REAL Belgian Waffle!!!!! This was HEAVEN!! so light and crispy...most of the time the waffles we have in the states are thick and doughy w/ lots of cream and crap on it. This waffle was melt in your mouth and fluffy w/ a little bit crispy on the outside. DELICIOUS!!!! According to Stesi, the Belgian way to eat a waffle is not to put crap (syrup, lots of whip cream, chocolate, fruits) on it. You are suppose to eat it plain. A good Belgian waffles are suppose to be coated with sugar so when you bite into the warm waffle, it is a little bit crunchy from the sugar. We actually saw many places that serves it with tons of crap. Andy couldn't help but want to try the crappy waffle so he did while Stesi shook their heads with disapproval. All the crap made the waffle very soggy and messy to eat!

I like mine, the Belgium way =)

You can find all these little trucks around Belgium. You can have a choice to put crap on it or not. Waffles are usually 2 euros for the plain ones.

More Sweets:

These pretty sweets are marzipan, a confection consist primarily of sugar and almond. It is usually shaped into different forms such as a fruit or animal.

These triangular shaped candy is called cuberdon.
It is hard on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside.

I found cuberdons liquor in a
store. I didn't get to try this but I'm sure it's good because the candy was very yummi! I have to try this next I go to Belgium.

Gelato in Belgium from the Australian Home Made Ice Cream. The gelato was so creamy! I wish I could've tried more favors. I want more when I go back =D
so yummi!!

I don't know how we got into bonbons....I told them I really like them when I was little but can't find them anymore. Stesi being an awesome host took us to a near by theater to buy these bonbons. We didn't have tickets to see a movie but Sita used her charms so they let us in to the store. yay, I get to eat bonbons! =D Instead of the popcorn/food counters, they have a 7-11/supermarket in the theaters. They have so much more selections!

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Désiré de Lille
Antwerp, Belgium
http://www.desiredelille.be/

Healthy Recipe Contest: Applications due May 15, 2010

2010-05-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

Like to cook? The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center Health Education Department invites you to participate in its Healthy Recipe Contest. All adults aged 18 and older are invited to submit a healthy recipe for the chance to win a prize. Selected recipes will be published in a cookbook. After the first round of recipe selection, ten finalists will be asked to prepare their dishes in a live cooking contest. Finalists will receive the following cash prizes of up to $200. All participants will receive a free copy of the cookbook comprised of selected recipes. All submissions must include the completed application and recipe form. Applications are available online at http://www.cbwchc.org/ and at the following addresses:

-268 Canal Street, 1st floor, New York, NY 10013

-125 Walker Street, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013

-136-26 37th Avenue, 2nd and 4th floors, Flushing, NY 11354

-Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, 62 Mott Street, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013

After the first round of recipe selection, ten finalists will be asked to prepare their dishes in a live cooking contest. Ten finalists will be informed by June 15th, 2010 by mail and phone. The live cooking contest will take place on July 11th, 2010 at the Whole Foods Market Bowery Culinary Center (95 E Houston St, New York, NY). Dishes will be judged by the following criteria: presentation, aroma and taste.

Call the Health Education Department at (212) 966-0461 if you would like the application mailed or faxed to you or have any questions about the contest. Applications are due on May 15, 2010.

If you have any questions you can post it in the comment box and I'll get back to you!

The Tong's Chinese New Year Feast!

2010-02-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

新年快樂

Happy New Year!!

年夜飯 Chinese New Year Eve Dinner:
Chinese New Year Dinner

Healthy tips for buying and preparing food for Chinese New Year

2010-02-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai! It's time to ring in another Chinese New Year! Now that 2009 has passed, it is time to look towards the future to find good fortune that will awaits us in 2010, the year of the Tiger. A new year also encourages us to reflect on the past and to set goals for the future such as eating healthy as well as exercise to maintain a healthy life style.

An important part of the Chinese New Year is spending time with the family, visiting relatives and friends. During this time, we like to entertain friends and family by throwing parties and making festive foods. These festive foods can be high in sugar, salt or fat but low in nutrition values. To jumpstart a healthy lifestyle for the new year, here are some healthy tips for purchasing and preparing food for your Chinese New Year celebration:
· Avoid buying processed and preserved foods instead use fresh and wholesome ingredients.

· When buying pre-packaged food, check for expiration dates and make sure the package are intact. If the product is non-packaged and sold by the pound, pay attention to the hygiene of the store, if the containers are covered and whether the staff use clean utensils to handle foods. If you have doubts about the source of the product, do not buy them.

· Avoid buying traditional snacks that is sugary or fried. Try healthier alternatives snacks such as dried fruits, bake goods, and unsalted nuts.

· Use healthier cooking methods like steaming, grilling and baking. If you must fry, use healthier oils like canola and corn oil.

· Prepare food using less sugar, salt and sauces. Flavor your dish with garlic, onion, shallots and ginger. Add the sauce on the side so you can have control over how much or little you want on your dish.

Banana Cream Pie

2010-02-03T20:24:00.001-08:00

Ingredients:

3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
4 bananas, sliced

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk in gradually while stirring gently. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is bubbly. Keep stirring and cook for about 2 more minutes, and then remove from the burner.
Stir a small quantity of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the rest of the hot mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes; remember to keep stirring. Remove the mixture from the stove, and add butter and vanilla. Stir until the whole thing has a smooth consistency.
Slice bananas into the cooled baked pastry shell. Top with pudding mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Chill for an hour.

Cooking Demonstration: Chicken and Fruit Salad

2010-01-16T09:48:00.001-08:00

Today for our health center's event, I did a workshop on healthy eating and salad making demonstration. This recipes is taken from the Center for Disease Control Website. This website is great! They have a lot of really easy and healthy recipes. What I love about this site is that you can search recipes by certain ingredients. You can choose a few ingredients and see what kind of recipes they have for certain types of meal.

Chicken and Fruit Salad
Number of servings: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cups of Fruits/Vegetables Per Person 2

Ingredients:
1 lb roasted chicken breast
1 medium-size bunch spinach
2 medium-size pink/white grapefruit
2 medium-size red delicious apples
3/4 lb seedless green grapes
1/2 cup fat– free Dijon salad dressing

Directions:
1) Remove and discard skin from chicken; tear chicken into bite size pieces.

2) Chop 1 cup loosely packed spinach leaves; set remaining leaves aside.

3) Cut peel from grapefruit; remove sections with knife. Cut unpeeled apples into 3/4 inch chunks.

4) In large bowl, combine chicken, chopped spinach, fruit and salad dressing; toss to coat. To serve, arrange remaining spinach leaves on platter; spoon chicken salad over spinach leaves.

Happy New 2010! Last meal of 2009....

2010-01-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no time to update but I will finish blogging and put the recipe out soon!! The ham was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! One of the best ham I've ever made! Stay tuned.....

Glazed Pineapple Cupcake

2010-01-02T12:16:00.000-08:00

I used the Duncan Hines Pineapple Cake Mix. I chopped up some pineapples from the can and stuffed it into the batter after I put the batter into each individual cupcake paper cups. I wanted to make sure that each bite of the cupcake there is also a bite of pineapple. One tip is to use the pineapple that is in heavy syrup. I tried to be healthy and used the the other one but the pineapple turned out to be a bit too sour.

I thought the cupcake was too plain and sour so I decide to put a glazed on it. I used some condense milk with the pineapple syrup from the can and cooked it for a little bit. Thanks Andy for the idea! The glazed turned out creamy with a bit of pineapple taste which was really good!

Coconut Cream Pie

2009-11-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

After Thanksgiving I got into a baking mood. Since my crab quiche, a savory pie, came out so well I wanted to make another pie but this time a sweet one. I attempted one of my favorites, coconut custard pie!

Coconut Cream Pie
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar (I used only 3/4)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk (I used 3 cups of coconut milk)
4 eggs
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flaked coconut
1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked

Directions
1. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour and salt over a medium heat; gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture is thick and bubbly. Reduce heat to low and cook 2 minutes more. Remove the pan from heat.
2. Separate the egg yolks from whites. Beat the egg yolks slightly. Gradually stir 1 cup of the hot mixture into yolks. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan and bring the entire mixture to a gentle boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes before removing the pan from heat.
3. Stir butter, vanilla, and coconut into the hot mixture. Pour the hot filling into the baked pie crust. Cool. Cover and chill to store the pie if not serving immediately. (I actually baked it for 15 minutes.)

Ta-daaaa, my first coconut cream pie:

The consistency was a bit too soft, next time I would bake it longer. The pie filling was so good and creamy! The coconut milk gave it a lot of coconut taste. It wasn't too sweet but I think I could have use less sugar because the milk is already very sweet. I will definitely make this again!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Dinner 2009

2009-11-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

My Thanksgiving Dinner 2009:

4 hours of food/supply shopping

5+ hours of cooking

7 dishes

Spending thanksgiving with people I love = Priceless

Our thanksgiving feast:

This Thanksgiving we did everything last minute! I planned what I wanted to make and shopped the night before thanksgiving. I was going crazy running around finding ingredients for each of the dishes. After all the shopping, I was just too tired to start prepping so I told myself I would wake up really early (at 7am) to start everything...I over slept and totally missed my alarm so I woke up around 9. I was panicing because dinner is suppose to start at 2ish. I didn't think I could finish all 6 of the dishes in 5 hours but with the help of my father and sister (Vivian) we managed cook everything we wanted to make. Yay!

So this year I decided to make 7 dishes, 2 of them are my all time favorite potato shrimp salad and corn casserole (I make these every year! My fans, I mean my family members always request them). Five other dishes are new recipes which came out great!

Lumpia Shanghai (Flipinino egg rolls): I love Filipino food so I wanted to attempt my favorite Filipino dish. Special thanks to Maribeth and Joanne for their recipe:

String bean casserole:

Shrimp and prosciutto with alfredo sauce

Crab quiche

Crown Jewel Cake

Let me know if you want any of the recipes, everything was so simple to make!

The Un-healthy Salad

2009-10-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Andy's new creation, the Un-healthy salad:

Can you guess what's in here?

Answer: avocados, bell peppers, corn, lettuce, chicken, chick peas, fried eggs, shrimp, cheese, salad dressing = ~$30 worth of groceries = very full and happy stomachs!!

Annual 3ave Festival In Brooklyn

2009-10-07T13:53:00.001-07:00

Zeppoles, grilled corn, fried oreos, Italian sausages....all usual items at a street festivals. We found a GREAT deal at the 3ave festival from Chef with soul!

Lobster dinner w/ potatoes and corn- all for $12!!

(I wish they had this everyday! I hope you're reading this Brian)

It was so good, we had 2 plates of it!

Other things we tried:

6 raw oysters for $10
New England clam chowder (Large) for $5-it was so good! lots of clam taste with bits of potatoes, and not too salty...so delicious! my picky parents also really liked too.

Two happy lobster lovers!

Chef with Sole

8618 3rd Ave(between 86th St & 87th St)

Brooklyn, NY 11209

(718) 680-7653

Summer Cocktail Party for Brother's Big 4-0

2009-08-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

My wonderful sister in-law planned a lay back summer cocktail party for my brother's 40th birthday in their back yard. It wasn't anything big, just a simple gathering with close friends and relatives. The food and drinks were so good! And I was impressed by the little details and thought she put into the decorations and making this such a wonderful party!

Table of yummi finger foods (egg rolls, crab cakes, piggy in the blanket)and their sauces.
Other food they had but I didn't take pictures of: chicken skewers, korean style beef, korean fish cakes and some other stuff I forgot...)

delicious home made curry fish balls...
Name tags for all the food and sauces along with cute turtle chopstick holders

pretty flowers everywhere...

POG: juice with passion fruit, orange juice and guava
It was very refreshing and perfect for a summer time drink.
White sangriamore drinks...Beautiful bowl of fruit salad..

The guest "supply" table: fun activities for the kids, suntan lotion, bug spray/candle, and hydrocortisone.

mini tables and chairs set up in their yard

I got introduced to Martha's Country Bakery, OMG they make AWESOME cakes! I'm kinda glad they are so far away from me because I would seriously go there all the time, then I would gain like 100000 lbs! We had napoleon and tiramisu cake.

Happy Birthday Broo!!

Thank you, Rachael (ah so) for planning this wonderful summer cocktail party!
I love you guys!!!

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Bro's Home...

Martha's Country Bakery

41-06 Bell Ave

Bayside, NY

718-225-5200

My Foodie Twin's Birthday Brunch

2009-08-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

Birthday Brunch at Double Crown then dessert run at Ferrara....
The food at Double Crown was really good!!! *will write about it later but here's the pics**

Happy Birthday Cecille! <3

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Double Crown
316 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
(212) 254-0350
www.doublecrown-nyu.com

Ferrara
195 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 226-6150

www.ferraracafe.com

Food Spy for Metro Asian Food Magazine

2009-08-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to be a food critic for a Asian food magazine called Metro Asian Food. It was such a fun and amazing experience I wish I could do this for a living!

Every issue they have a section where readers participate in "food missions"and a few are selected to be food spies aka food critics. It's a very simple process, you sign up online to be a member then they will send an email to everyone announcing the date, time and cruise. On a first come first basis if you are one of the few who reply the fastest then you will be chosen. I've been trying for a few months and I guess I got lucky! I got so lucky I got Andy to come with me too!! Our mission, Shanghai food!!!

Our special spy pins:

The first stop we went to was Shanghai Cafe.
We were excited!!!

Our other spy members, Vivian and Ling

We got interviewed by the writer after each bite of the food. The photographer was snapping pictures left and right and telling us to pose.

Our food writer Jeny

Here are some of my favorites from each of the restaurants. You can see the rest of the dishes in the article.
The must haves at a Shanghai restaurant, soup dumplings.

this has some sort of veggies and pork

Over all I thought Shanghai Cafe was so so....I've been here many times so I guess I was sick of the food. And the dish they gave us wasn't anything special.

Next stop:

interesting decoration with a mini looking bridge...

the buns were small but the skin was thinner which I like...

This restaurant went all out and served us their expensive dishes which was mostly seafood. I love seafood!!

crabs with salty eggs, one of my favorite of the day...

crispy shrimp with tea leafs, another favorite of the day...the shrimp was so crispy you can eat the whole thing like a chip...

thumbs up to the chef!!

Mission accomplished!!!

our photographer

Perks being a food spy: I got a souvenir bag filled with goodies, a pin, awesome free meal and being in a very popular food magazine!! yay!!
See article here...

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Shanghai Cafe
100 Mott Street
212-966-3988

New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe
65 Bayard Street
212-566-4884

Chef with Sole: Fresh seafood joint in Bay Ridge!

2009-08-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

I LOVEEE seafood!! You don't know how happy I am to have a seafood joint in my neighborhood and it's literally around the corner from me! It's a market and a restaurant, how convenient! I came here to buy fish before and they have a huge selection of fresh fish to choose from. I've always wanted to check out their menu so finally Andy and I went one night....

Chef with sole is a small seafood joint with a few tables in the front of the store and towards the back is the market section. The decor of the place definitely spells out seafood all the way, nets hanging from the ceiling, ship models, and fish ornaments all around. I think it's cute...

So we decide to order a few of our favorites.....

Mussels in white wine, garlic, lemon and butter ($6.99)
We loved the sauce!! I wanted to drink it after we were done with all the mussels. I wish they served bread so I could've ate it with the sauce. The mussels were really fresh, the meat was actually creamy. If it wasn't fresh the meat would've been rubbery and chewy.

Mini Crab cakes with roasted garlic aioli ($7.99)
I like this appetizer but some of the crab were slightly too burnt. I like my crab cakes to be lumpy with chunks of crab meat. I felt the meat was too chopped up, too mushed like mash potato or a croquette. The favor was very good, I can taste alot of the crab taste with a hint of the squeezed lime. The bed of spinach was great with it.

Lobster Roll (New England Style) served with cole slaw and pickles ($11.99)
I love lobster itself and anything that's made from lobster especially lobster rolls. I really like this this one! There were other ingredient in the lobster roll sandwich which made this roll very unique and delicious! Andy and I couldn't tell what we loved about it so we started to analyzing the ingredient in this lobster roll. We weren't sure what was the yellow looking chunk of ingredient was so we asked one of the staff. It was mango! Delicious!

But I thought the mayo taste covered too much of the lobster and other ingredients. Maybe they should put less or use something to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients...overall I liked it alot!

hmm...I'm drooling right now...look at those chunk of lobster!

The staff at Chef with Soles were so nice! And also we met the chef, his name is Brian. He talked to us for a bit and he spoke about his experience as the executive chef at other restaurants and at a airport (I forgot which one...). His father also owns a butcher shop which is also in Bay Ridge. He was nice talking to him and I would definitely go back to chat and try more of their food! I think their food is fresh, taste great and the price is reasonable!
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Chef with Sole
8618 3rd Ave
(between 86th St & 87th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11209
(718) 680-7653

TY at McDonalds: I Want Them ALL!!

2009-08-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today I didn't eat lunch until 3:30pm! I was busy the whole day and attended a long meeting so I didn't have time to pick up lunch. It was so late in the afternoon that I didn't feel hungry anymore but decided to go to McDonalds for a little snack. I walked to the counter and was about to order a snack wrap but something caught my eye! A whole wall of teenie beanie babies! I think I scared my coworker Stella who came with me because I let out a scream. I told her I changed my mind and was going to order a happy meal. She laughed at me....

My love for TY beanie babies goes back to high school days. I really like them but they were so expensive and my parents didn't want to buy them for me (well they did but only if it was on clearance section but I love and appreciate all of it!) Then McDonalds started the teenie beanie babies promotion that came with the happy meal. For my parents (most Asian parents), if you buy a toy it's waste of money, but if you buy food that comes with a toy that's a deal! Then they were willing to buy them for me. Yay! We ate lots of McDonald for awhile. I would also force my friends to eat the happy meals I buy because I usually buy more then one at a time.
Today I got the ladybug! My goal is to collect MOST of them. Stay tune to see how many I will get. I'm gonna post my daily TY purchases here:
1) Maiden-The Ladybug

UPDATE as of 8/12/09
2) Fez-The purple monkey
3) Radish- The Dog
4) Topper-The Giraffe
5) Frostiness-The Polar Bear
6) Aussie-The Koala
7) Fluffball-The Guinea Pig
8) Yammy-The Cat
9) Oasis-The Tiger
10) Splits-The Flamingo
11) Rascal-The Dog
12) Streamers-The Bear
13) Celebration-The Bear
14) Thirty-The Bear

Restaurant Week 2009: Butter

2009-08-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Helen for organizing a get together with my Stony buds to a restaurant week dinner. I've been wanting to try Butter because of Alexandra Guarnaschelli, the executive chef of the restaurant. I was hoping I would get to meet her but it didn't happen. I always see her on Food Network shows like Iron Chef, Chopped and Food Network Challenges mostly as the judge but sometimes as the competitor. As a judge, I think she is great at describing the food, some of her comments can be thoughtful and constructive but sometimes I think she can be harsh with her comments. I guess being a well renown chef with all the experiences you have the right to be opinionated about your food.

All hype aside, the first impression I had walking into the restaurant was a good one. There are two floors, we were escorted to the bottom floor. I felt like I was walking into a forest at night. It was dark with candles glowing and branches on the walls. It was nice, pretty and somewhat romantic. We were seating at the round booth, it was kinda hard getting 8 people around this table because it was really cramped.

The menu was okay, nothing really that spectacular...

Butter serving butter...

Complementary corn and regular bread: I thought they were both hard and stale.

Appetizer #1: Sauteed Squid with Garlic Breadcrumbs, grilled zucchini, pesto and lemon. The whole dish was very flavorful, lots of pesto taste. There wasn't much squid but some of it was a little crispy. Some of the breadcrumbs soaked up the sauce so it was soggy but it seems meaty so I probably thought they were squid.

Appetizer #2: Butter Homemade Charcuterie Plate: Homemade salami, duck mortadela, chicken liver on toast with aged balsamic and salad of local greens. I couldn't tell the difference between homemade salami and store brought salami. I wasn't too fond of these ingredients and I thought everything on the plate was just too salty for my taste.

Appetizer #3: Soup of the day: Mushroom soup (probably had a fancier name for it but I don't know it!) I didn't try this but the eater said it was okay...

Entree #1: Blackened Salmon with summer pea and baby ragout with fresh mint. I love the presentation. I had a bite of this and thought it was tasty and good.

Entree #2: Crispy duck confit with lentils, crispy onions, chestnut honey gastrique. This was my dish, I thought the whole dish was very heavy and salty. It was only okay...

Entree #3: Braised Beef Short Ribs with green peppercorn, baby carrots and texas tarragon. I was totally disappointed at this dish. There was alot of sauce on it but it was bland inside. I felt that it should've been braised longer to get more flavor inside the meat.

Desserts #1: Raspberry Beignets with dipping vanilla sauce. I actually like this dessert, The beignet was warm and soft, it was so good with the warm vanilla sauce. But according to Andy, it tasted like crispy cream with warm vanilla dipping sauce.

Desserts #2: Assorted cheese and fruit plate. I didn't get to try any, but it looks pretty!

Desserts #3: Lemon sorbet. According to the eater, nothing special...does it remind you of something =X

Desserts #4: Dark chocolate sour cream cake with homemade milk jam and vanilla ice cream. This was mine, I was totally disappointed. It was rich and somewhat moist but it just taste like very good brownies to me, nothing special...

Would I come here again umm....I'm not sure, probably not. The food was just okay and with their prices I can get more and better food else where. I gotta say Butter need to work on that restaurant week menu if you want impress people and make them want to come back again. My friend said she went there a few times and each time she was disappointed at the menu....

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Butter
415 Lafayette St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 253-282
Menu and other reviews from menupages.com

Restaurant Week 2009: Lure

2009-08-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

My thoughts on restaurant weeks:

Each year when restaurant week arrives, I never really cared to go. It may seem weird for a foodie not to care but from past experience some of the places I went to are a hit or miss. I think it may not be the restaurant itself but because of their menus that they offered during restaurant week. Things on the restaurant week menu doesn't seem that great compared to the regular menu. Sometimes I would rather pay the price for something I want then be restricted to order from a certain list.

Back to my Lure experience...
I met up with my cousin Angela for my first restaurant week of 2009. I let her pick the restaurant and I'm so glad she chose Lure. This is the first time I was impressed with the restaurant week menu. I loved the decor of the place because it was like I'm eating on a boat...
We made the reservations for 7pm. I got out of work a little after 6:30 and walked there, it took me around 10 mins. I got there and she was already at the bar! We took advantage of the happy hour which was about to end at 7pm. The happy hour menu looked great, raw bar for $1 per piece and $6 cocktail drinks. I must come here another time....

I've been so stressed out lately I drank one Lychee Bellini right away and took another drink with me to the table. The price would've been more expensive if we ordered them at our table so I'm happy we saved money on the drinks!

Complimentary bread:

Appetizer #1: Raw Bar Tasting:
East and West Coast oysters, shrimp cocktail, littleneck clams
I never liked raw oysters or clams. The last time I tried to eat them was a disaster. I almost threw up and had to spit it out but this time I absolutely loved them! The main reason why this time the whole experience was different is because they were fresh and had no fishy taste. The texture of the oyster and clams were creamy when you bite into it and taste was sweet with a hit of cocktail sauce and lemon. It was awesome! Recently I've been craving them alot, I guess I have to plan a happy hour outing....
Appetizer #2: Crispy shrimp tempura
This dish I was not impressed at all, it tasted like those shrimp balls from dim sum house served with mayo. The only thing I liked about this dish is the sauce which a spicy mayo.
Appetizer #3: Soft shell crab (from the regular menu)
I loved the whole dish! The presentation and taste was great! The soft shell crab was meaty and crispy outside. It is served with a mixed blend of fruit on the bottom with a light mango or some sort of fruity sauce. Soo good....

Entree #1: Grilled Salmon
with spatzel, peas, smoked onions and herb vinaigrette
The salmon was a little pink inside the way I like it. I liked the spatzel, peas and onions mixture. The sauce was very light and delicious!

Entree #2: Seared Yellowfin Tuna:
Nori Crusted, shittake, edamame, and dashi glazed
Another great dish!

Dessert #1: Warm Chocolate Cake:
Salted Caramel Ice cream and popcorn brittle
Omg, I was in heaven...it was so moist and choclate oozed out from the middle. The combination of the chocolate cake and ice cream was soo goooddddddd....

Dessert #2: Coconut Tapioca with tropical sorbet
This was yummi but tasted like the Chinese tapioca tong sui but with passion fruit sorbet.

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Lure
142 Mercer St
New York, NY 10012-3806
(212) 431-7676
Menu and other reviews can be found at menupages.com

Fontana Sushi: Where's my boat?

2009-08-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Fontana Sushi has been around in Bay Ridge for a long time but this was my first time trying it out. My brother suggested that we take our dad for father's day. My father doesn't like sushi or raw food but he went with the flow but I think we converted him to a sushi lover! This place is a nice, clean restaurant with booths and privates rooms available for parties. The prices are average, some specialty rolls are a little more expensive then some of the places I usually go. Most people are attracted by their all-you-can-eat special which is a decent price ($21.95/pp) but there are regulations and no sashimi (thinly sliced raw pieces of fish without the rice)! booo....

The menu has English and Chinese. It's obviously owned by Chinese owner...

All-You-Can-Eat special:

We didn't order the all-you-can because I don't think we can eat that much sushi anyway and I rather eat sashimi. So we order special with 20 piece sushi, 36 piece sashimi and any 3 rolls from the regular/specialty selection. As advertised on their menu this special was suppose to be presented on a big wooden boat. The amount of food on this boat is good for 4-5 people. Please note you must pick 3 different rolls. We wanted two spider rolls but they didn't allow it, which I thought was stupid. I really love all their rules and regulations....

The special came with miso soup and salad for everyone: Our lovely "boat" of sushi and sashimi...even though everything looked amazingly great but since it wasn't on a boat kind of sucked. We wanted to impress our parents with the presentation but that didn't happen... If you advertised the special on your menu with pictures of a beautiful boat of sushi then you should give your customer what they see on the menu. ($75)Okay...I'll stop complaining so much about the stupid boat. All the fish was GREAT! Everything was nicely chilled and very fresh.

We also ordered the beef teriyaki ($13): the beef was cooked medium rare, very tender. The sauce was nice and sweet. The broccoli could have used some more cooking because it was kind of hard. The amount of beef they gave us was very little, look like they cut a steak in 1/2 and tried to spread it out on the plate.

The 4 of us ate everything....

I'm not sure if I would come here again because the food wasn't all that great except for the seafood being very fresh. I kind of have a love hate relationship with them already...
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Fontana Sushi
9608 3rd Ave
Brooklyn, New York 11209
(718) 759-1100‎
You can find their menu at menupages.com

A Very Late Big Apple BBQ Block Party 2009 Review

2009-07-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, I should've posted these right after the event but with school and all, I just don't have the time. I know I've been MIA during these past few months, but that doesn't mean I haven't had the time to go venture off eating. I promise I will give you guys a recap of of all the good or bad food I ate during these past 2 months while I was MIA. I ate at alot of great place and I definitely want to share it with you guys.

Let's go wayyy back, back to the Big Apple BBQ event on June 13-14, 2009.

This was our first time at this event, omg it was awesome! I will make this one of my annual festival that I MUST go to each year. Just $8 a plate and we get to try AMAZING bbq food from all over the states, it's really worth it. Andy and I went to this event on that Saturday afternoon. It was raining all day but rain never stopped us from going to an outdoor event/festivals (especially one that has great food!!). Last time we were out in the pouring rain to eat at the Red Hook vendors and waiting an hour on line for tacos, that's another story...

We were prepared with our umbrellas. We thought there would be less people because of the rain but we were WRONG. It was so crowded and lines were sooo long! The average waiting time was around ~20min on the lines. I guess it would've been worst if it was sunny.

Us sad in the raining waiting to buy food....
there was an entertainment stage...

demonstration tents, this one was about wine tasting....

selling many different kinds of bbq sauce....

Everyone was eating in the rain, some even without umbrella. This group of people (picture below) were very innovated and took a garbage bag/plastic bag to over them while they were eating at the bench. We arrived at this event towards the late afternoon (~3 or 4pm). We knew we won't have time to go to each vendor but I doubt we would've been able to because we might just explode. We looked at the map and it took us awhile to decide which few vendors we wanted visit. My goal was to find the pit-master for each of the vendors we tried and to take a pictures of them or with them, let see if I accomplished that....

The first stop: Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q, Birmingham, ALHomemade Smoked Sausage with Pimento Cheese & Saltines: I love the sauce they used on the sausage, it was very flavorful! It was sweet but it also had a nice kick to it. It was definitely a nice surprise being the first dish we tasted. The pimento cheese was creamy but a little too filling, I wished they served something light, like some veggies with the sausage.

Look who I found, the pitmaster for Jim and Nick's, Drew Robinson. He was quite surprised when I asked if I could take a picture of him but he was very nice about it.

2nd Stop: 17th Street Bar & Grill, Murphysboro, IL/Las Vegas, NV Baby Back Ribs & Beans: great taste but quite dry, it wasn't fall off the bone quality. I was a little disappointed. The beans wasn't that special either...
Andy eating in the rain and is very happy with his ribs...

3rd Stop: The Pit, Raleigh, NC

Ed Mitchell-pitmaster of The Pit
We had to sneak all the way into the restricted area to take picture with him!

Andy: "Mr. Mitchell I saw you on Throwdown with Bobby Flay! I couldn't wait to try your ribs today"

Ed Mitchell: "oh wow, thank you"
Me: "Can we take a picture with you?"
Ed Mitchell: "of course!"

Whole hog and Coleslaw: This is like pulled pork but not as saucy. I topped it with the coleslaw which went really well with it. The taste of the hog was very interesting, lots of vinegar taste, which sort of over powered the meat taste a bit. At first, I really liked it but then 1/2 way into eating it I thought it was just way too vinegary and the bread became too soggy. But overall I thought it was great!
yummi....roasting the piggy!

Last Stop: We were really full but when Andy pass by Blue Smoke (from New York, NY), he couldn't resist so we got on the line and I'm so glad we did!

Andy posing with the ribs...

Kansas City Ribs & Pickles: it was finally falling off the bone quality, the way ribs should be! The sauce was sweet and delicious! so far this was my favorite of the day!

Last picture with executive chef from one of my favorite bbq joint, Dinosaur BarB-Que, New York, NY. We were just too full so we didn't get anything from them and plus they were all out of food. They were serving: Pulled Pork Shoulder and Beans. I didn't have to try to know that it was probably awesome!

Convo with me and cheif:
Me: asking a staff in the area "where is the pitmaster?" the guy points to a guy sitting on the side of the truck smoking. I went over and asked him if I could take a picture with him. He looked exhausted and shake his head no but the staff yelled out, "just take a picture with her!" so he slowly gets up and stood right next to me.
*takes picture*
Me: Oh, I love the food at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Everything is great there! (which is very true...)

Cheif: Here's my business card, maybe you could use it one of these days....

Me: *very happy* thank you! It was a pleasure meeting you! (I'm not sure what he meant but I'm hoping it means I can get a discount when I eat there!hehe...)

Us leaving the bbq festival happy and full!

I <3>Sushi in Bay Ridge: Fontana Sushi

Fresh Seafood Joint: Chef With Sole

My 2009 Restaurant Week Reviews: Butter and Lure Fish Bar

Food Critic For A Day! Metro Asian Food Magazine-Shanghai Food

Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival- July 30th-August 2nd, 2009

2009-07-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Event: Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival
Date: July 30th-August 2nd, 2009
Time: Varies
Ticket Price: $30-$1,000
Event Schedule
For more information: http://www.harrahs.com/acfoodandwine/

Manhattan Restaurant Week July 12-31, 2009

2009-07-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Manhattan Restaurant Week is here!
July 12-31, 2009
Lunch menu: $24.07
Dinner menu: $35
Beverage, tax and gratuity not included. Saturdays are excluded but some restaurants are offering deals for Sundays. Make your reservations today!

For more information on participating restaurants and menus:
http://www.nycgo.com/views/programs/rw/srw.html

Happy Eating....

Free McCafe To Start Off Your Week....

2009-07-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Free Coffee on Mondays (Now-August 3, 2009)

McDonalds will be offering FREE coffee on Mondays starting July 13 until August 3 at participating McDonalds from 7am to 7pm. Customers will receive a free 7 oz iced Mocha or an 8 oz hot McCafe Mocha.

Yesterday after lunch, Teresa and I decide to check out the free McCafe coffee from McDonalds. There were big signs advertising the free coffee which followed by long lines. The wait wasn't bad, we probably waited around 10-15 mins.

was the wait worth it???

not really...

First of all, I'm not a coffee fan. I only drink coffee on a need to drink basis AKA when I need to stay awake to study. During the past month, Starbucks bottled Frappuccino (I hate starbucks coffee from the store, too bitter!!!) was what I survived on for my all nighters. I usually like to drink tea with milk and sugar or the HK style milk tea (yes, there's a difference...)
The McCafe didn't have much mocha taste at all. It was very rich but bitter. Will I order this in the future? yes, only if it's for free.... =X

The Delicious Festivities of 2009: BBQ/Seafood/Wings

2009-06-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

7th Annual Big Apple BBQ Block Party
Dates: June 13-14 (Saturday and Sunday)

Time: 11-7pm

Location: Madison Square Park
Admission: Free
Cost of Food: $8/plate, $4-6 for desert and drinks

Directions: Subway: 6 to 23rd Street N/R to 23rd Street
For more information: www.bigapplebbq.org

44th Annual Clam Festival
Date: July 17,18, 19 2009

Time: Event Schedule

Location: Yarmouth, Maine (Directions)

Admission: Free
Cost of Food: Varies

For more information: www.clamfestival.com

62nd Annual Maine Lobster Festival

Dates: July 29-August 2, 2009

Time: Check Schedule

Location: Rockland's Harbor Park, Maine (Direction)

Admission: Wednesday 12-10pm Free

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday –$8 ALL DAY

Ages 6-11–admission is $2, 5 and under are free.
Cost of Food: Varies

For more information: www.mainelobsterfestival.com

Maryland Seafood Festival
Dates: September 11, 12, 13, 2009
Time: TBA
Location: Sandy Point State Park (Directions)
Admission: TBA
Cost of Food: Varies
For More Information: www.mdseafoodfestival.com

National Buffalo Wing Festival 2009
Dates: Labor Day Weekend-September 5 and 6, 2009
Time: Saturday 1-8pm, Sunday 1-5pm
Location: Cola-Cola Park, Buffalo NY
Admission: $5 per day, children 8 and under are free
Food tickets are $1 each and used to purchase all food items.
The cost of wings at every stand will be 3 wings for $2, other food price varies.
For more information: www.buffalowing.com

Thanks Ang for the websites! <3>

Memorial Day Celebration-Cooper 35

2009-05-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

I meet up with Maribeth aka my gf/bff for Memorial Day. I followed her to run an errand in the afternoon. After that we decided to find a place to pig out. I was craving some cupcakes so we decided to go to near Sugar Sweet Sunshine to find a place to have a drink, eat some snacks then have cupcakes for deserts. We went there but discovered that most places near Essex Street were closed including SSS! For some reason, we always have bad luck going to restaurants on days they are closed. We were disappointed...

We spent ~15 mins on the street brainstorming places where we want to go eat. We decided to go to near St. Marks for some drinks and snack. We ended up at Cooper 35, an Asian fusion restaurant/pub. It was such a great day so we decide to sit at the outdoor garden area. The place was nice and cozy!
Prices for mix drinks and shots are so cheap here! I would usually get these drinks at clubs for $12+ and here it's only $4!! The drinks taste good (I like my drinks fruity) and they aren't cheap on the alcohol either...

1st Round: I had the Bay Breeze and she had the lychee martini. For appetizers, we ordered the fried calamari and salsa&chips (complimentary). The calamari was really good! It was very crispy and the sauce was tangy with a kick of spicy flavor.

2nd Round: I had the Bay Breeze and she had the Sea Breeze. We're still working on our appetizers.....

After two drinks, it was time for some shots!

3rd Round: We ordered the Skittle Boom for both of us. And we also ordered more drinks, I ordered the WooWoo and she ordered the Tequila Sunrise drink. Man, they were really strong... We had to order more food to absorb the alcohol. We ordered a California rolls and a shrimp dish that came with rice. Both of these dish were so so... I don't think I would come here for a sit down dinner.

We hanged out at Cooper 35 for about 4-5 hours. The waiters and waitress didn't bother us at all for staying so long. They just left us alone and came when we needed them. Towards the end of the night the place started to get packed. The garden area was full and the inside area was already 1/2 packed. We couldn't drink anymore so we left and roamed around St. Marks where Maribeth ordered more food to take home. She ordered korean style chicken from BBQ Chicken, fries from Pomme Frits and sushi from somewhere. Yea, this girl can eat! All I ate was a corn dog from BBQ and it was a corn dog that's made from olive oil...

I had such a blast catching up with my gf. What a perfect way to spend a great afternoon with great company, good drinks and yummi snacks. But I gotta say those drink really kicked my ass... Happy Memorial Day!

--------------------------------------
35 Cooper Sq
New York, NY 10079
(212) 375-919

Review of International Food Festival '09

2009-05-18T21:05:00.001-07:00

This Saturday, we had to run errands the whole day so we got to the festival around 5pm. We thought the crowds would die down during this time but it was still packed and filled with people. Food was everywhere and I couldn't wait to check out each stand! I was hunting for some cheap eats, street fair food and something spectacular but I didn't find anything that was spectacular.... The best thing about being at the festival so late is that the food vendors sell their stuff for cheaper because they want to get rid of the food. I got some two for one deals! yay! The first thing I spotted was Kyotofu! I've been wanting to check out their cupcake and I did...I got the chocolate souffle cupcake. It has a very rich chocolate taste and was very moist. I liked it but I prefer my cupcakes to be lighter....Andy wasn't impressed said it was just a really moist brownie. I won't say this place has the best cupcakes but I do want to go back to try more of their stuff! Who wants to go with me?

There was alot of Thai food stands at the festival. Most of the Thai place sold the same things like skewer stuff, pad Thai, noodles, egg rolls and etc. I notice Thai food was the cheapest food at the fair. How come all Asian cuisine are mostly cheap eats? Most of their stuff was $1-5 so I tried out a few of the Thai places, this was one of them...This place served different flavor popsicles...
This is a deep fried soft shell crab, the skin was soggy and cold so it tasted really bad... Maybe it would've been good if it was hot. so i tired soft shell crab somewhere else....it was cold but it was actually good. The soft shell crab was kinda of meaty and tasted fresh. some healthy choices... fresh fruit or smoothies.
This piggie was being grilled for the restaurant called Chimichurri Grill. We didn't try it but it sure looks good!
This piggie didn't want to get the piggie flu! We wanted to eat more stuff but everyone was packing. Now I wish we went earlier! I didn't get to eat the fair foods like funnel cakes and stuff like that but at this point I was kinda of stuffed from all the fried food. Oh well...

Since the weather is getting nicer, I'm looking forward to all street fairs and out door activities. That means more food everywhere!! YAY!

Bad economy = free drink!

International Food Festival and New York's Third Annual Dance Parade This Weekend!

2009-05-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Event name: International Food Festival
Time: 9:30am - 6:30pm
Date: May 16 (Saturday) and May 17 (Sunday)
Location: Ninth Avenue, between 37th and 57th Streets
http://nycgo.com/?event=view.eventdetails&id=148220Taste

I hope the weather will be great this weekend because Hell’s Kitchen is cooking at this annual food festival. Restaurants and outdoor vendors serve up food from all different countries. The 20-block gastronomic extravaganza features cuisine from Greece, Brazil, Italy, Morocco, Senegal, Ukraine, Thailand and many other countries.

For those of you who like dancing, the New York's Third Annual Dance Parade and it will be held on May 16th starting at 1pm. Here is more information:

Parade site: http://danceparade.org/EE/
Parade route: http://www.danceparade.org/EE/index.php/about/parade_route/

Have a great weekend of eating and dancing! <3

(Thank you Helen for the infor! Hope to see you at the events!)

Mad for some Bon Chon!

2009-05-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

The other night Andy was craving for some wings. He doesn't want just any wings, he wanted some Bon Chon. We found their menu in our menu collection and called to ordered two large orders of wings (no we didn't finish it in one sitting..) Then we drove all the way to Flushing to pick it up. We haven't been to Bon Chon for a long time so Andy forgot which street it was on but I remember it was one block away from the other chicken wing place call KyoChon. When we finally saw KyoChon I told him we are near. We drove by the next block of KyoChon but we didn't see Bon Chon so he kept on driving. I told him I was 100% sure it is suppose to be on that block so he went back but instead of finding Bon Chon we saw "Mad For Chicken"!! WTF??

Our conversation while we were parked across the street from "Mad For Chicken":
Me: Who did you call before to order the wings?
Andy: Bon Chon
Me: Where the hell is Bon Chon? Did you call the Manhattan one?
Andy: No!
Me: *checking the phone number that Andy called before and looking at the "Mad For Chicken" phone number on their front store sign* it's the same number as the old Bon Chon!
Andy: what happen to Bon Chon!
Me: Should we pick up the order? It's not Bon Chon! What the hell is this mad chicken!! Why didn't they tell you it's not Bon Chon? (this is me all hungry and cranky btw it's around 9 something in the evening)
Andy: it's probably the same but they just changed the name...
Me: This mad chicken better be good...

We walked in the restaurant and it looks exactly the same as the old Bon Chon. I looked around at what people are eating at their table. The chicken wings looks similar but then I spotted dishes of popcorn on peoples table. This is not Bon Chon.... But when we got to the counter towards the back area we saw take out orders in Bon Chon bags! We were so happy to see the Bon Chon bag but Andy had to ask the waiter:

Andy: is this really Bon Chon or you guys just using the Bon Chon bags.
Waiter: *laughs* we just change management.
Andy: so the chicken wings taste the same right?
Waiter: yes, it's the same...

YES, it is the same...we ordered the soy garlic, our favorite!

but...it instead of giving us the pickled radish they gave us corn as the side dish!

It wasn't just plan corn, they mixed in colesalw so it was a little sour. It was okay, I was actually craving those pickled radish...

Fluffy Chinese Sponge Cake

2009-03-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

My coworker Eileen got some of us at the office addicted to sponge cake from a particular bakery in Chinatown. After having my first sponge cake a few days ago, I couldn't stop thinking about it. The sponge cake is so light and fluffy. It taste so good especially when it's hot! It almost melts in your mouth.

Today during lunch time I decide to go get some. Eileen told me it's between Baxter and Hester Steet. She says to look for a store with long plastic blinds on the door. She also warned me to look carefully because I might miss the store. I asked her why and she said because it doesn't look like a bakery. I wasn't sure what she meant because most Chinese bakeries in Chinatown are usually very nice with glass windows and pretty cakes displaying at the counters or windows. But she was right, it doesn't look like a bakery at all. If I didn't read the sign I would've thought it was a vegetable store or a ghetto deli. The plastic blinds on the door was the only sign that I was at the right place.

I walked in this coffee shop and saw there were only 1 little table occupied by two old Asian men. The surprising thing was the person behind the counter and everyone in the kitchen were all Spanish. It was impressive because the guy at the counter spoke some Chinese. I looked around the counter and saw some pastries but didn't see any sponge cake so I asked if they had anymore. He asked me how many I want and I told him 3. He called out to the people in the kitchen and they brought it out for us. The sponge cake was nice and warm. I couldn't wait to eat it! The only thing I have to complain is about the size, compare this to other sponge cake in Chinatown this is so tiny! But this is the best sponge cake I've ever had. Each one is 65 cents.

In the afternoon I told Stella I got some sponge cake and she wanted some too. Suddenly I wanted to get more. After raving about these sponge cake we got Lin wanting to try some too. So we asked Joe to go get some for us. He couldn't say no to 3 hungry ladies so he went with Lin. They came back with a box. We were all so happy!

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Kam Hing Coffee Shop

119 Baxter St New York, NY 10013

Arby's Free Sandwich Review

2009-03-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Last week my brother sent me an email of a Arby's coupon that offers a free sandwich with purchase of fries and drink (other specials such as a free sweet tea and malt shake also available). I've never eaten at Arby's or seen it around before so I didn't know it was available in New York or anywhere near me. A few days ago Andy and I was driving in Queens and suddenly I saw a huge Arby's sign. I got excited and told Andy we have to come here because we can get a free sandwich.

Yesterday, after Andy, Charles and Nadia finished their daily training for the marathon (btw: I'm so very proud of you guys!) we decided to go check out Arby's. I printed out 4 coupons for all of us:

Most of us ordered the small fries and small drink to get the free sandwich. Both item came out to be $3 and change. I added a order of the loaded potato bites. I didn't know I could subsitite the fries with the potato bites which is what I would've done.

I got the American roast beef sandwich. It has bacon, cheese, letteus, tomato and roast beef. I added a $1 and got double the meat. They gave us alot of roast beef! It was sooo good! The roast beef tasted surprisingly fresh and has lots of taste! I expected it to be rough and dry like the ones in the deli which need alot of ketchup or sauce. I didn't think they can serve such fresh roast beef in a fast food chain. So yummi!!!

The gravy was good with the sandwich but you need to pay 40 cents for it. It was worth it!
Charles and Andy ate the sandwich their way by taking a bite of roast beef sandwich and then gulp down some gravy. Andy says this way you will have control of how much gravy you want. Sounds gross but I got to admit it does taste good this way. After we all finished our sandwich Charles and Andy were both still hungry. We got a coupon for a free sandwich for buying 3 sandwiches. We brought these meals individually but they still gave us a coupon, they were so nice! So they got a free sandwich and split it. Andy got the bigger piece but then he gave back some to Charles, how sweet! ahhah...

This deal was so great! We will try to squeeze another trip to Arby's before the deal expires (3/31/09). I'm so happy that we found a new place with good roast beef sandwich! I haven't had a good roast beef sandwich in a long time! The calories content for these meals wasn't bad, it's somewhat healthier then McDonalds or Taco Bell so I'm happy about that.

Go get your free Arby's sandwich too!

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Arby's

6916 Metropolitan Ave

Flushing, NY‎ - (718) 894-0485‎

Dine In Brooklyn Restaurant Week 2009

2009-03-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

Dine In Brooklyn
March 23th-April 2nd

3 Course menu lunch or dinner for $23
Some restaurants offer 2 for $23 specials
**Price does not include drinks, tax or gratuity**

Participating Restaurant and Menus here:
http://www.visitbrooklyn.org/pdf/DIB09web.pdf

Call any participating restaurant to make reservation and mention
"Dine In Brooklyn"

Happy Eating~

Jollibee The Bee: Filipino Fast Food

2009-03-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, Andy and I finally made time to go check out Jollibee! Jollibee is a famous fast food chain based in the Philippines. There's many chains in the West coast but the first East coast store is the newly opened one in Woodside, Queens. It's been opened in Woodside for about a month already. We've heard so much about this crazy long lines Filipino fast food joint. I've heard rumors that lines were 3 blocks long and one of the workers there confirmed it was true for us. She said it was crazy in the beginning and things were running out fast through out the day. My friend Maribeth said she waited around 1 hour and 40 mins on the line during the 2 week after the opening. Even now after more then a month there's still a lines but it wasn't that bad.

We waited around

~30 mins outside: sooo freaken cold! *shivers*

~20 mins inside: servers went around taking orders on a piece of paper
~10 mins: we waited for them to put our order in and then packed our food to go
Total: ~1 hour!!

At this point we were extremely hungry and cranky since it was already 4pm and we haven't eaten anything the whole day. We decided to order one of each of their specialty item on their menu since we waited so freaken long! We wanted to try everything to make our wait worth it because we're not sure if we would want to come back again.
So what did we order?? 6 piece fried chicken, spaghetti, palabok, aloha burger with fries, mash potato side, 2 peach mango pie and soda. Yes we order that much food....

6 piece fried chicken eaten with gravy ($13.39) the 18 piece is $30 bucks!
Pretty expensive for chicken that taste somewhat like KFC but with fresher chicken.

Palabok ($5.79): thin rice noodles fried with soy sauce and some citrus and possibly with patis (fish sauce), and some variation of sliced meat, shrimp, chopped vegetable and eggs.
This was very good. I love it when I mixed everything together with the noodles. Spaghetti ($4.49): The spaghetti has bits of sausage and the marinara sauce is sweet. I love Filipino spaghetti and the banana ketchup because its extra sweet.

Mash potato side ($1.99): nothing special...
The Aloha burger ($7.69 with fries): has pineapple, cheese, bacon, mayo, and lettuces. It was good because I like pineapple in salty dishes like Hawaiian pizza or pineapple chicken. The pineapple gave the burger a very nice tangy and sweet taste.
Fries were crispy but not salted. Peach Mango Pie ($2.29): it was crispy and warm. The inside taste kind of like warm duck sauce with a bit of mango taste. It sounds funky but it wasn't bad. While eating it I couldn't stop thinking about how much it taste like duck sauce and Andy agreed with me too! interesting.....

The whole meal we spent around $45 and yes ate it all!! okay fine...we had a few chicken left over that we took home....
Would I come here again? YES!

Would I wait on the long line? Maybe...depends how much I crave the spaghetti and palabok
I hope they expand the menu and serve more of what they have on their website.
I can't wait to try the other items on the menu!

Everyone was posing and taking pics with Jollibee including me!

and of course Andy too...

Interesting convo with Justine, the girl who took our order:

Andy: I like your Jollibee hat.
Justine: Oh thanks....
Andy: Can we buy one?
Justine: Umm...no (laughing)
Andy: Can I work here to get one?
Justine: yea, sure if you get the job...
Andy: I might just do that...
Me: (laughing) (In my mind: he's so weird <3)
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Jollibee
62-29 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside, NY 11377

Chinese and Irish Fusion: Corned Beef and Cabbage

2009-03-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm enjoying my left over St. Patrick's day dinner for lunch! My dad made a traditional Irish dish but in a non-traditional way. He made his own version by adding taro and turnip. It became a Chinese and Irish fusion corn beef and cabbage stew. He cooked it in a pressure cooker but cooked it for too long so the meat was too soft and it fell apart.

He used purple cabbage, potato, carrots, taro and turnip. It was interesting...I never had purple cabbage before and thought it tasted bitter then the regular cabbages. The taro actually made the stew thicker, I not sure if I liked that...

and to make it more Chinese, we ate it with rice....

Yesterday I asked my dad a few stupid questions:

Me: What's corned beef?
Dad: it's beef
Me: ohhh.... but why is it red like that?
Dad: they put stuff on it to make it red...
Me: how do you know when it's fully cooked? if it's red, people might think it's raw...
Dad: it doesn't take long for it to be fully cooked, you'll just know....
Me: easy for you to say because you are a chef...
Dad: well of course, that's because I'm good
Me: *rolled eyes*

I found out that corned beef is red because they use saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to prepare it. They add saltpeter to the pickling brine to cured the beef. The nitrate forms a stable red colored complex with hemoglobin, without the saltpeter the meat would be brown.

-Recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage

-History about the dish

I'm a Foodgeek!

2009-03-15T21:52:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I was sitting next to Andy on his desk. I was using his laptop while he was using his desktop. We were both surfing online. He was checking out his usual computer websites and reading news from google and digg.com. He leaned over to see what I was looking at and saw a bunch of food related websites. Then he made a comment:

Andy: you know what you are?
Me: What?
Andy: You're a foodgeek!
Me: What do you mean?
Andy: you know how you always make fun of me because I like to read geeky computer things, but instead of you reading geeky things like computer or whatever, all you read is about food and eating so you're a foodgeek.
Me: a foodgeek?!! interesting term....i like it!

I'm announcing myself as a foodgeek aka a foodie and a hungry girl! yea, I know I'm corny =P

I googled the term foodgeek and found a site called The Food Geek, an interesting site about science, history and of course food. Check it out! I will add this site to one of my daily to read webpages...

Taiwan: Kaohsiung's Night Market

2009-02-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

I'm finally posting some Taiwan food pics from my sister! My mouth literally dropped open when I saw these pics. I can't tell you how it taste but here's how it looks! So one of the must go to places in Taiwan is their famous food night markets. My sister now resides in Kaoshsiung and is just a few stop away from the Liouho Night Market, one of the famous night market in Taiwan. It's famous for it's various types of food and attract tourists from all over. Every night is packed with locals and foreigners.

A variety of dimsum. Some we're familiar with but I see a few new and innovative ones.

A few non traditional ingredients such as corn, spam/ham, chunks or crab meat, green looking wonton wrappers.

These are corndogs! Omg, they took it to another level. It looks amazing...

Bubble tea drink in a baby bottle, interesting....I hope no one choked =X

Doraemon red bean cake! Doraemon is a famous anime character. I think he's suppose to be a cat from space or something like that.

Fried squid hmmm....

These are huge!!

Seafood: you can choose any type and they will cook it any style you want right in front of you.

Fish balls on a stick with different types of broth.

You tiao and soybean milk- a popular dish among the Taiwanese

Fresh made egg rolls pastries.

that's it for now...

Valentines Day Surprise!

2009-02-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

For this vday, I'm going to be all alone. :sigh: I think this is the first time I'll be alone for vday in my 8 year relationship with my boyfriend. He went to HK and will be there for a month. It's going to be a very long month. I miss him soo much! We actually talk almost everyday. Thank goodness, phone cards are so cheap these days. One phone card is $8 and has 500 mins.

Just an hour ago, I was working at my desk and my phone rang. I saw it was a unfamiliar phone number and I picked it up. This is how the conversation went:

dude: I'm downstairs, can you come pick it up?
me: excuse me...who's this?
dude: I'm from sugar sweet sunshine, I'm downstairs your building
me: :shock face: okay, I'll be there.

I went downstairs and didn't see anyone. I called the dude back and asked him where he was. He was at another CBW building. I told him the correct address and he came. I felt bad so I gave him more tip. He gave me a white bag, it looked like it had alot of box in it and on top of the box there was a card w/ andy's childish handwriting on it. In the bag, there were 3 boxes = 3 dozen cupcakes!!!!! There were all different types of favor. There was more of the pistachio, one of my favorite favors.

I opened all the box and shared it w/ my coworkers. They loved it! It was so funny that my coworker Brenda, was going out for a meeting and walked out w/ a chocolate cupcake; she called a few mins later just to tell Isabel how good it was. So funny!

I guess I'll be eating and getting fat this vday! I think I'm just going to bake and spend time with my parents. My gf Maribeth might chill with me this weekend so I'm excited.

If you guys planning on spending a low key vday, you may want to go for the Papa John's heart shape pizza. A nice romantic movie, pizza and cuddling sounds really nice....

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Tell someone you love how special they are to you...

Obama inauguration lunch at O'Neil's

2009-01-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

The whole morning I was actually very excited about today's inauguration and told myself I must make time to see it during lunch. So the afternoon came, I was wondering if we can watch TV in our conference room. Then I heard Shao Ping going into the conference room and trying to see if the TV is set up and it wasn't! I was kind of disappointed. Shao Ping and I really want to see it and was trying to figure out where we would find a TV. I actually suggested that we go to a dim sum place and have lunch so we can watch it on the big screen TVs. Most Asian places, especially the dim sum place all have big screen TV. They usually have a few of them hanging all over the restaurants w/ different channels turned on at the same time. We usually can't hear the TV because it's always packed with people and everyone talks loudly. The captions are usually on and people just read it.

So we decide to check if "Red Egg", a new dim sum place across the street from us. It was 11:50, we went across the street and went into Red Egg. We asked the first person we saw who was at the bar area. "Do you have a TV?" He looked at us weirdly and say "Sorry, we don't. Why do you need a TV?" Then we told him we wanted to see the inauguration on TV. He told us to go to a bar one block over because he knows for sure there's a TV. So we hurried our way to the bar. We walked in, it was quiet and the only sound was Obama's voice. Everyone was staring at the TV.

The whole event, well part of what I saw was breathe taking, so many people traveling from everywhere coming together to be a part of this event. At the bar, people were clapping and cheering for Obama. I was really happy because I do believe he'll bring change, hopefully good change. Yes, we can!!

We couldn't just sit there and not order so this is my Obama's inauguration lunch. It was realllly good. The crab tasted fresh and the chipotle sause on top was great. The fries were really good. They probably fried it 2x so it was extra chrispy. I will def. come back here for lunch again.

Oneil’s Crab Cake Sandwich 12

Jumbo lump crab meat, cheddar cheese, chipotle sauce, jalapeno coleslaw

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O'Neil's
174 Grand St
New York, NY 10013
212-941-9119
http://www.onieals.com/

Announcement: Winter Restaurant Week '09

2009-01-15T21:37:00.000-08:00

Jan 18-23/ 25-30
Three course prix fix lunch or dinner
Lunch $24.07/Dinner $35.00 (plus tax and gratitude)

For more details on participating restaurants check out nycgo.com .
Check out menus here.

Now where should I go eat? Any recommendations?

Warning: Kelloggs and Austin brand peanut butter crackers recall...

2009-01-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

The Kellogg Co. announced on Wednesday they are removing Austin and Keebler brand of peanut butter crackers from the stores and holding on to all inventory due to the recent events of salmonella (a type ofbacteria carried by some animals, which can be transmitted from kitchen surfaces and can be in water, soil, animal feces, raw meats, and eggs) food poisoning. The products include their:

-Toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers

-Peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers

-Cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers

-Peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers.

These products are made at its bakery in Cary, North Carolina.Since September, it has been reported at least 400+ people in 43 states have been affected. Kelloggs are advising consumers not to eat their peanut butter crackers. If you would like to get a refund, you can find out more details by calling 888-314-2060.

Signs and symptoms of salmonella:
-nausea
-vomiting
-abdominal pain
-diarrhea

These symptoms usually appear within 3 days of contamination and typically go away without medical treatment.

Prevention:
-Don't serve raw or undercooked eggs/poultry or meat.
-When preparing meals, avoid cross contamination: keep uncooked meats away from cooked food.
-Wash hands after using the toilet and preparing food. It's also important to wash the kitchen counter, cutting boards, utensils after handling uncooked foods.
-Avoid food that contains unrecognized raw food products Ex: homemade ice cream, eggnog, cookie dough, and frosting contains raw eggs.
-And in this case, don't eat Kelloggs and Austin Brand peanut butter crackers.

What's new with the King?

2009-01-12T22:28:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been seeing and hearing alot about Burger King. They have been promoting their whopper virgin commercials on TV, a quest to find "whopper virgins" aka someone who never tasted the whopper before. They ask the whopper virgin to do a taste test against their top competitor's burger and have them choose which burger taste the best. Many people are giving Burger King's whopper virgin commercial bad marks and controversy sprung up on the news about these commercials.

Last week BK appeared on digg.com two times:
1) A new application "Whopper Sacrifice" has been developed where you will get a free whopper if you delete 10 people from your friends lists. If you notice you're not on my friend's list, you know why now! *evil laugh*

2)I saw a funny video "Whopper Freakout GHETTO VRS. (UNCUT-R)":
**ADVISORY: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND IS INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES***

Then this past weekend, SNL did a skit about the whopper virgin commercials, it's soo funny!

The last time I had a Whopper was probably when I was still in Stony (more then 4 yrs ago!). It was one of the cheapest food at the food courts so a poor student like me often at there. By the end of my sophomore or junior year I was totally sick of it. I swear I would never eat at BK again but after seeing so much of the commercials, ads and videos about it we decide to get lunch at BK this past weekend. Damn these advertisement worked!

Actually our first date was in Roth's dining hall at Burger King. Memories. (8/00) <3

I gotta say it doesn't taste as good as it use to I guess because they use different oil
then=extremely fatty oil
now=no trans fat oil (Trans fat raises your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and lowers our "good" (HDL) cholesterol). The whopper suppose to be "healthier" now but it still has alot of calories, scary.... I almost didn't want to order it because of it but hey...once in awhile is okay. I don't think I'll be eating there again for a very long time.
Are you feeling for a whopper now?? ahhah....

Home Made Vietnamese Beef Pho Noodle Soup

2009-01-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

On Friday, Isabel came back from her lunch break carrying a bunch of groceries. I was curious what she brought so I went up to her and asked. She said she was going to make Vietnamese Beef Pho Noodle Soup (aka the #1 on every Vietnamese restaurants menu). She told me that the soup take around 4-5 hours to make and has alot of ingredients in it. She was telling me how to make it but it sounds quite complicated and I didn't know half the ingredient in it. I told her I'll probably stick with ordering it from the restaurants but I wonder how the homemade one taste like and how similar it would be from the restaurant's. I jokingly said oh how I wish I can taste hers and being an awesome coworker and friend, she surprised me with her delicious beef pho noodles soup a few days later....

She packed the noodles and soup separately:
The noodles nicely packed, it has viet noodles, thin sliced beef, bean sprouts, beef balls and cilantro.
I heated up the soup first then I added the noodle packet into the soup and heat it up some more. Another coworker caught me taking pics in the kitchen area...it was quite awkward. See what foodies have to go through to bring you guys pics of food but I don't mind at all!! ahha...

When I opened the cover to the container, the aroma of the soup filled the air and made my mouth water from just smelling it. I think it taste better then the viet restaurants because it wasn't as salty and I didn't taste alot of MSG so it was light but yet very flavorful. The noodles wasn't soggy or over cooked because she separated it in the beginning. The beef was fully cooked not raw like how they would serve you in the viet restaurants (they usually give you thinly sliced raw meat on top of the noodles and the boiling hot soup suppose to cook it for you). This was exactly what I needed on a freezing cold day like this. I hate Mondays but she made this one a very warm and delicious one. I <3 Isabel!

I found a recipe, if anyone would like to make it! Enjoy and let me know how it goes....

Sister date at Mitsuwa Market and around....<3

2009-01-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

The day we planned our sister date, the weather was horrible so our original plan was ruined. booo...We were going to go for a few categories of best of:

Donut @ Doughnut plant
Falafel @ Taim
Cheese steak @ Wogie's Bar & Grill

Tacos @ Pinche Tagueria
Pastrami Sandwich @ Katz Deli
Pizza @ Grimaldi's
Chicken wings @ BonChon

Not sure how many places we would've gone to but I bet our stomach would've been so full! Maybe next time she comes back we'll try this list again....

Instead of being out in the rain and snow, we went to Mitsuwa Market . It was perfect for that day because it was indoors and the food court has alot of different type of food (Japanese) to choose from...not very N.Y but still great food! We didn't just eat and eat the whole time...we walked around the huge supermarket that sells alot of Japanese products and checked out the few stores they got there, a book store and a stationary store with every from kitchenware to cutesy anime stuff.

Cutesy stuff I found: This device teaches you how to hold a chopstick. It's so cute! I so need one...

A cute lunch box w/ one of my favorite anime, My Neighbor Totoro.

In the food court, walls were surrounded by plastic display of food to help you choose what you want to eat. It showcase all types of Japanese food from rice dishes, ramen noodle, soba noodles, tempura, even desserts and drinks. Alot of the meals comes in sets which include salad, soup and desert. SoOOoO yummi....

I'm hungry growl....seriously I was!

Sushi and packaged meals are in the supermarket area (you don't find any sushi at the food court, only in the supermarket) all the fish are very fresh and they make so many different kinds of sushi.

Check out interesting products from the supermarket:
Weird flavors of KitKat: mcflurry, berry and grape:
Snoopy peanut butter in a squeeze tube

Hello Kitty brownie mix w/ the mold:

Cute kitty and cow mochi. At first, I thought they are flan or jello but you're suppose to peel the bottom of the container and inside has alot of little small mochi in individual package.

These pretty containers are filled with colorful substance which we think are some kind of honey and you're suppose to use the stick to eat it. We were busy taking pics of it people were asking us what they are and we said we had no idea! hahahSo what did we order in the food court and supermarket...
Eel over rice meal w/ salad, miso soup and mandarin orange in light syrup :
Gyoza (Japanese dumplings): the skin was light, not doughy and it had pork and chives in the middle, it was good...

Crab and potato croquette: very creamy inside and the crispy outside, so yummi! (you will find these in the supermarket's hot food section, they also have vegetable ones)

Seaweed chicken wings: these were so good! (you can also find these in the supermarket's hot food section.)For dessert we had:

Taiyaki cake: fish shaped waffle batter cake filled with red bean and the other one is a cute bunny character on the round cake which is filled with egg custard. it's really good when you eat them fresh and goes really good w/ ice cream.

let viv show you how it's done: one bite of cake and then another bite of ice cream, hmmm...

One of the must have at this food court, sesame soft serve ice cream! The taste is very unique! It has a light sesame favor which isn't too overwhelming and plus the creaminess and the sweetness of the ice cream goes really well w/ the favor. I didn't think I would like it but this kick ass!

Surprisingly after eating and shopping at Mitzuwa, the sky was clear and we continued our sister date around New York City.

This was taken right next to the mall, it was so beautiful....

Us holding bags of food and snacks roaming around the city at night:

I'm gonna miss you sis! Good luck in Taiwan <3>

Good news I've officially made my sister Vivian, my Taiwan food correspondent. I will be posting awesome food pics that she takes from Taiwan! woohoo! So far she's been doing a great job of taking pics and making videos of the food market and her reviews of the street food. Once I figure out how to post them you'll see...

One of my goals for this year is to make videos to introduce the places I go to and the food I eat (not just pics and pics of food...boring!). Thanks to my awesome sister in law who started this trend ahhaha...she really has a talent for doing this kind of stuff, I hope TVB or foodnetwork will find her!

Stay tuned....
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Mitsuwa Market Place (New Jersey)

595 River Road,

Edgewater, NJ 07020

TEL: (201) 941-9113

Shuttle from Port Authorities to Mitsuwa Market

Cost: Adult $3/ Children and Senior $2 each way

For weekends, remember to find gate 51 near the white statues...funny pic ahha

What the heck is a Turducken?

2008-12-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

It's snowing! Christmas is almost here...oh shoot, it's next week! Gotta shop, gotta think of what to make for Christmas eve dinner, gotta plan my sister date before she leaves, gotta clean the house, *pulling hair** I think I'm getting sick.....*faints*

So much to do but so little time....

I saw this in Pathmark, a cute Christmas tree butter sculpture:

Preparing for the big day.....I ordered a turducken a few days ago for our Christmas eve dinner. I can't wait to try it! I even had dreams about it! haha...yea, I'm a foodie dork!

Everyone's been asking me what the heck is a turducken? I've been telling people it's a mutated turkey that's big enough to eat a duck and a chicken, hence the name tur(key)-duck-(chick)hen. I love the name!

A turducken is a "novelty" dish that is basically a deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck which itself is stuffed with a deboned chicken. In between the meat there's stuffing, people usually use cornbread or sausage or whatever you fancy. The turducken I order is a 15lb stuffed with cornbread and pork rice dressing. It has a little bit of Cajun flavor! yum!

I found an awesome video of how to make a turducken:

Most likely I will never attempt to make this! Props to my cousin Angela who made a miniature turducken by using just breast meat of the 3 meats. I wish I could've tasted it but by looking at the pictures it looked gorgeous and delicious! *drooling* so I told myself I had to order a turducken for Christmas!

Step by Step instructions on how to make a turducken.

Pics and food review by a blogger.

I'm kind of nervous about how this whole dish gonna come out. Since my oven isn't working my big sister offered to cook it (she lives in NJ) and bring it over to the house (Brooklyn).

My concerns:

1) I'm afraid the turducken won't arrive on time. I read some reviews of ruined holiday dinners because it didn't come on time. I pray that won't happen to us.
2) I'm afraid my sister won't remember to take pics of the whole process of preparing the turducken, you guys know what a food porn freak I am-okay that didn't sound right at all! ahha but you know what I mean....I don't want to spend all this money and not take pics of it! yea, I'm crazy...
3) I'm afraid the turducken may be under or over cooked....

under= salmonella

over= dry meat

4) I'm afraid when transporting the turducken from NJ--> BK (a 1 1/2 or 2+ hours drive) the turducken will get cold and the meat may turn rubbery, yucky.....

So check back and see if my Christmas eve dinner was a successful one or not *crossing fingers**....stay warm!

Mel's Thanksgiving '08: Part 3: The Tong's Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-12-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

I usually like to plan my Thanksgiving diner menu a few weeks before hand, looking at recipes, trying to think of ways to change up my classic Thanksgiving dishes, grocery shopping for days (this year I went to supermarket 4 times just for this one dinner-I’m getting old I keep forgetting things), slaving over the oven and chopping all day and night. I love it! The best part is spending time w/ my family, eating food that we love and giving thanks...

Check out some of the food:

Let see the prepping of the dinner....

The 13lb turkey untouched and after marinating it. It's put into an oven bag to bake so it'll be very moist.

check out what ingredients we put on our turkey, this year we used mustard!

Cutting the potato into cubes for the potato salad:

Miki was up all night w/ me eating all the veggies! Miki likes healthy food!

Cutting three types of mushrooms: Shiitake, portobella, button mushroom for my mushroom pastry puff that I learned from Lilly's cooking session.

draining the can fruits and coconut gel over night for my jello dessert, i had to cut the jello in cubes (not shown here), it stained my hands!

cutting up the bread to make homemade stuffing from scratch! we stuffed it into the turket, it came out great!

Here's the finish products:

The turkey w/ stuffing! The skin got stuck onto the bag so it peeled off a bit when we were trying to open the bag. Stupid me I put honey on the skin in the beginning when I should've done that when the turkey was also done...

the stuffing inside, yummi...so much turkey flavor

More stuffing my big sister made, we had a stuffing throwdown ahhaha...

Shepard's pie by big sister:

Oxtail soup by my big bro

My mushroom pastry puff...I didn't leave it in the oven long enough to get the crust golden brown, next time...

My saute string beans and squash:

My potato and shrimp salad, the shrimp came out perfect, secret is shock them in cold water right after boiling:

Mash yams w/ marsmellows by big sis:

Stuff mushrooms by big bro, these were so good! So far, it's one of the best stuff mushrooms I've ever had! I have to get this recipe.

Pasta w/ sausage by big bro:

My butternut squash w/ thyme and sage-It taste great but I hate cutting them, I think this will be the last time I cook butternut squash!

My corn casserole:

Andy's Ribs:

Dessert wine I brought from the chocolate show:

My neice's cheese cake. It was creamy and tasted like the ones from cheesecake factory. I must get this recipe!

My version of the Flipino fruit salad:

We ate alot that night, after my dinner I had to go to Andy's family dinner but I couldn't eat anything. Now time to plan for my Christmas dinner....What should I make? Any recommendation?

Mel's Thanksgiving '08 Part II: Cecille's Potluck with Friends

2008-11-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

Cecille has been talking about having a hangout/potluck for a long time and the perfect time to do it would def. be during Thanksgiving! A time when good friends getting together to eat and spending time together. Everyone was suppose to bring a homemade dish and I decided to make one of my favorite, corn casserole! I've been making this recipe for the past 3 Thanksgiving and everyone loves it!

Corn Casserole:

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs, beaten
1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (I use 3 cheese or taco cheese with seasoning-more favor)
1/2 cup chopped onion (I think it taste better without it)
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies, drained (I don't like chilies so I don't put it into the mixture)
1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn muffin mix (I use only 1/2 box, the first time I used 1 box it turned out to be like a corn bread instead of corn casserole)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, cream style corn, sour cream and melted butter. Stir in whole kernel corn, cheese, onion and chilies. Stir in the corn muffin mix until just moistened.
Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 75 minutes; or until an inserted knife comes out clean and the top is golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Check out what we had that day! So much food:
Chicken wings by Maribeth
Bon Chon Chicken from Jenny (yes she made it! =P)
Some dish I wasn't sure who made it but everything was awesome!

My corn casserole and ratatouille.
Andy's Jamaican oxtail stew:

Khin's sausage meatloaf with mashed potato bite:

Khin's cheddar potato skins

Nadia's couscous salad
Deserts: Bread pudding, apple pie, tiramisu and chocolate moose cake:

Thanks Cecille for hosting this wonderful potluck and thanks to everyone who cooked or bought things to the party! We had so much fun! I can't wait for next year <3>

Mel's Thanksgiving '08 Part 1: Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner and Cooking Session with Chef Lillian Bolton

2008-11-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

For me, Thanksgiving is a time to gather those you love around you, family, and closest friends to celebrate life, love and to give thanks to what we have. And of course making a big Thanksgiving feast for those you love. It's all about the 3 F's in my life: family, friends and FOOD! It's one of my favorite and busiest holiday of the year! This year I went to 2 pre-Thanksgiving dinners (potluck/cookluck) and 2 Thanksgiving dinners which was on the same day! I was an non-stop eating machine!

This Thanksgiving post is going to be separated into 3 parts to this:
1) Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner and Cooking Sessions w/ Chef Lillian Bolton
2) Cecille's Potluck with friends
3) The Tong's Thanksgiving Dinner and the Fung's After-dinner party
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Part 1: Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner and Cooking Session with Chef Lillian Bolton

This Thanksgiving dinner was celebrated with my high school buds (Jess and Lilly and our boys). This was the first time we ever did a Thanksgiving dinner even though we know each other for 10+ years. Okay, let's talk about my two best buds from HS and how I met them:

Jess: I met her in JHS. She was in my Spanish class during my senior year. The funny part was the first time I spoke to her was the last day of class. We signed each other yearbook and found out we were going to the same HS. We said our good byes/good luck and then saw each other again at HS orientation and the rest is history....

Lillian: She was also in my JHS but we weren't friends until we were in HS. I remember her from my JHS gym class, she was the type of chick who was really good in sports and everyone wanted her on their team. In HS, I met Lillian through Jess and all three of us became good friends, we were all in the same track and took classes together. We had so many good memories....

So how did this Pre-Thanksgiving/Cooking Session came about?

About a week ago, while I was trying to plan for my Thanksgiving dinner I asked Lilly for some easy recipe suggestions since she was the expert. We were back and forth with the emails for a few days with her giving me suggestions and me asking her lots of (dumb) cooking questions. The great friend she is, she asked me if I wanted her to actually do a test run and show me how to cook some of the dishes she recommend to me. Cooking lessons from a chef, oh hell yea! I jumped to the opportunity and emailed Jess to set up an pre-Thanksgiving dinner and cooking sessions at Lilly's house! We wanted to make alot but we had to cut down the menu and this was our final list:

Menu:

Cauliflower bake
Ratatouille
Butternut Squash Risotto
Mushroom and Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce
Saute Butternut Squash
Puff pastry wrapped mushrooms
Smashed potatoes with roasted garlic, onions and truffle oil
Turkey breast

The day of the dinner, the girls didn't have work so they went to the supermarket to buy the groceries. Andy and I went to Lilly's house after work and got there around 7:30. When I got there she put me to work right away..."yes, chef!!" We had to do alot of cutting, mixing, stirring, and sauteing.

Butternut Squash
It was my first time cooking w/ butternut squash and those babies were so hard to cut but Lilly made it look so easy like cutting a melon!

Ratatouille
-alot of cutting and sauteed veggies: eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, red onions, tomatoes and finished with herbs, butter and with orange zest and reduced oj
-alot of work!

Butternut Squash Risotto
Things I learned:
-rozo is different from risotto (duh!)
-wait for the risotto to sound like it's popping then it's ready for the liquids
-must keep stirring!

Prepping the puff pastry wrapped mushrooms
-garlic, sage and thyme goes good w/veggies dishes

Cauliflower bake and the asparagus in the oven

Smashed potatoes with roasted garlic and onions
-truffle oils gives it a great savory taste

After a few hours of cooking we finally ate around 11pm. We were all tired, sweating and starving at this point. I can't believe we cooked all this food in a few hours. If I had to do this alone it would probably take me a whole day! The final products we were so very proud of:

Appetizer:
Puff pastry wrapped mushrooms

Sides:

Butternut Squash Risotto

Ratatouille

Smashed potatoes with roasted garlic, onions and truffle oil

Saute Butternut Squash

Mushroom and Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce

Cauliflower bake

Turkey breast

Everything was SOOO good! Thanks to Lilly's supervision, everything turned out right or else we probably would've burn everything! Some of the dish was easy to make and some were pretty complicated and I probably won't attempt again. I actually made two of these dish for my Thanksgiving dinner which you probably see on Part 3. At the end, we were all so stuffed, we all ate a lot but there were still plenty of food left! Lilly made us take a lot of it home which lasted me a few days!

This is def. one of my most favorite Thanksgiving dinner. Special thank you to:
-Lilly for being a great friend, for hosting this dinner and teaching us how to cook, and putting up w/ my silliest =O
-Jess for being a great friend, for being a great sous chef to work with (haha), for cutting all the veggies and everything else!
-Brian for helping out with all the dishes and eating.
-Mo and Andy for being there to help us eat (ahha)

I'm so lucky and grateful to have such great friends that I can share this special holiday with..... BFF <3

Peking Duck House

2008-11-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

Last month we celebrated my friend Khin's (aka one of my sexiest gf) birthday at Peking Duck House. She was in the mood for Peking duck so she asked me which restaurant I recommend for some good Peking duck. Honestly, I don't think I ever had good Peking duck in New York before because all of them (expensive or cheap) taste the same. It's either with the bun or the pancake (usually the expensive ones are w/ the pancake and cheaper one w/ the buns-I personally like the pancake). Most of the time we order Peking duck from the banquet style Chinese restaurant or at the Chinese buffet. They all taste like regular roasted duck with out the bones and with extra stuff. Once in a while, Andy and I would even have cheap peking duck ($15 for 1/2 duck) for lunch at Chinatown and it taste just like those. So when Khin ask me where to go, I asked her if she's willing to pay more or less for duck. She suggested Peking Duck House since it was suppose to be their "specialty" but I was skeptical about it but I said sure why not!

So what should REAL Peking duck be like? Well it should have thin, crispy skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. I remember seeing an Iron Chef episode of battle duck, Ming Tsai (against Bobby Flay) prepared a Peking duck the traditional way by separating the skin from the fat by blowing air in the area between them and then baked it. He used a air compressor to do this, before electrical air compressors chefs use to use bicycle pumps and before that they used a wooden straw to blow air into the duck. It was so fascinating seeing him prepare this dish and the most impressive part was he made it within an hour. At the end, he won the iron chef for battle duck.

Okay let see what kind of Peking duck we got from Peking Duck House...

We ordered the banquet menu and added a duck so we had 3 ducks! The banquet menu for 10 people ($280.00) included:

Soup:Hot & Sour Soup
It was way tooo salty. It was the worst hot and sour soup I've ever tasted.
Appetizers:
Shrimp Ball, Spare Ribs with Honey
Nothing special with any of them, the ribs tasted really funky.

Entrees:
Peking Duck (2) + (1)
-crispy skin = yes
-serving mostly the skin and little meat = yes
-sliced in front of the diners by the cook = NO!
I think we totally got riped off of the whole Peking Duck experience because they were slicing it somewhere in the back corner. They ended up bring the tray of the individual wrapped up duck. All of us was expecting to see the cook slice the duck and prepare it in front of us but we were all disappointed. I guess they were so busy they didn't care for the presentation of preparing the dish for us and just wanted to serve it ASAP. Overall the duck tasted good, the skin was quite crispy and meat was juicy so I can't complain too much.

The sauce we used for the different dishes we had:
hosin sauce, duck sauce, muster, hot chilli sauce

Sauteed Prawns w. Ginger & Scallions:
**oops-sorry no pic, imagine prawns saute ginger and scallion**
-it wasn't memorable

Beef Broccoli-
Nothing good or special about this dish, tasted very saucy like any other Chinese take out place.

Crispy Seabass-
I guess since we had more then 10 people they gave us an extra fish dish which was very good! It was topped with sweet and sour sauce and the seabass skin was very crispy. Very tasty, I liked it! Finally something that I liked....

Chicken with Orange Flavor:
I also like this dish, the orange flavor tasted really good and it wasn't too sweet.

Crispy String Beans with Minced Pork
**oops-sorry no pic, imagine string beans w/ some minced pork!**
-it wasn't memorable

Fried Rice-
it was good, tasted like what it should be....nothing special

Dessert: Fried Banana with Walnuts
a little piece of banana fried w/ a little walnut on top. It wasn't satisfying...

Thank goodness we brought our own desert, ube cake:

Ube (or ubi) is the Filipino word for purple yam. It contains pigments that gives its violet color. Isn't it so pretty! It taste like cake with alot of yam favors covered with vanilla icing and bits of yams in the middle. It was my first time trying this cake and it was very yummi. My experience at the Peking Duck house was as expected disappointing. It was exactly what I thought it would be, high priced Chinese food that shouldn't be that expensive. Each of us ended up paying around $50 bucks. I think I might come back just for the duck but not for the other food and especially not for the banquet style menu. Next time I'm taking Khin to eat the cheaper kind and see what she thinks....

Happy Birthday Khin <3
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Peking Duck House
28 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 227-1810

11th Annual Chocolate Show-Review and Chocolate Porn!

2008-11-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!! I was so chocolated out but it was a very fun experience at the chocolate show. We got to sample many types of chocolate in different favors, shapes and form, did some shopping, attended a few demonstrations by celebrity chefs which I thought was the best part of the chocolate show and we spotted a celebrity within the crowd. Here are the pics...sorry took so long to post them:

Pier 94: the place was huge and roomy, throughout the day I didn't feel that it was packed or crowded at all. We went around 11am because we were afraid there would be lines and ton of people but we walked right in w/ no problem. People started to come later on the day and there were long lines esp. the bathroom!

Virginie Duroc-Danner; Artiste Chcolatiere: These were one of my favorite pick from the show! Can you guess why I like them? They are freaken adorable! I love all the little details and shapes of the chocolate.

It also came w/ cute and pretty boxes:

Chocolate syrup: dark milk, caramel, white chocolate...

Mary's flower chocolate from Japan. These were filled with ganache blending cream and chocolate together. The chefs demonstrated their skills on painting a flower on each individual chocolate.

a very cool looking budda chocolate:

check out the christmas theme chocolate cards/pictures! great Christmas gift for chocolate lovers:

One of the outfits from the fashion show, the theme was superheroes. Yes, this outfit is made w/ chocolate! I heard from a chef, some parts of the chocolate outfit actually melted off the models while they were walking down the runway!

Celebrity sighting: Lisa Loeb! Thanks to Cecille for recognizing her and to Andy for helping us stalk her and had the courage to go up to her and ask if she's Lisa Loeb! lol =X

Keegan Gerhard, the emcee from Food Network Challenge. He was also the emcee for the chocolate demonstrations:

Jansen Chan from the restaurant Oceana. He was cooking his desert w/ Grand Marnier:

he made this and we all got to sample it:

Zac Young from the restaurant Butter. He was a fun presenter who cracked alot of jokes. He made a frozen white chocolate soufflé w/ Valrhona chocolate.

Frozen white chocolate soufflé:
this is the sample that his interns made for him show as the final product in which Andy shameless asked at the end if he can have! As you can tell by the picture above, the chef obviously said yes! It tasted much better then the sample we had, it was soooo good! We got to keep the cup too! yay..

The sample he gave out to the audience was a bit too salty. He likes to add salts to his sweets.

more chocolate porn.....

emergency chocolate bar cards w/ fun and interesting message on the box:

Bochox:
For relief from the symptoms of wrinkles and crow's feet.

Warning-May cause weight gain if used incorrectly

Directions: Simply break off the desired dosage and consume. You should quickly be overcome by stress-relieving endorphins and no longer conerned in the slightest about your wrinkles.

all different kinds of peanut butter:

chocolate fondue:

Chocolate covered cheerios and corn pops:

We stayed for around 4-5 hours at the chocolate show. We were all tired and sick of chocolate by the end. I wanted to stay for more of the demonstrations but we were hungry and craving for meat, salt, and real food so we left. My first chocolate show was a great experience and I would def. go again.

I <3>

Events: 11th Annual Chocolate Show and Harvest Party at Chelsea Market

2008-11-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

11th Annual Chocolate Show at Pier 94:

For all you chocolate lovers out there, the best place to be this weekend is the 11th Annual Chocolate Show where you can satisfy all your chocolate cravings from cakes, brownies, chocolate drinks, truffles to chocolate in savory and sweet dish-all in the name of chocolate!! This delicious event will feature vendors from all over the world, cooking demonstrations, chocolate competition, book signing from renowned chefs, master chocolate makers, writers and fun programs for children.

When: November 7-8, 2008
Thursday, November 6th 6:30-10:30pm-Opening night preview featuring Fashion Show ($250) Friday, November 7: 10am to 8pm
Saturday, November 8: 10am to 8pm
Sunday, November 9: 10am to 7pm

Where: @ Pier 94
711 12th Avenue and 55th Street
Public Transportation: Closest stop is 59th Street/Columbus Circle: A,C,E,B,D,1,9.Approximately 15 minute walk to Pier 94, or transfer to MTA Bus.

How to get tickets:
These tickets are available online (via Ticketmaster.com or calling 212-307-7171), and will also be on sale at the door (cash and checks only at the door) Tickets are valid for 1 day:
Adults: $28
Children under 5: Free
Children, 5 to 12: Free**Limit: 2 children per adult. Each additional child (5-12): $8

For more information:
http://www.chocolateshow.com/home.php?titre=2&id_code=2&Vopen=1

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Edible Manhattan Issue Two Harvest Party at Chelsea Market!

When: November 13, 2008, 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. (free admission)

Where: Chelsea Market, 95 Ninth Avenue, NY, NY

Who: Edible Manhattan and its sponsors will provide guests with complimentary wine selections from Wolffer Estate, beer from Kelso of Brooklyn and chocolates from Verē. Also, The Green Table will offer farm-to-table complimentary harvest-themed tastings of country cheeses, crusty breads, sausages and more, as well as samplings from numerous Chelsea Market retailers.

Why: Celebration of harvest-fresh ingredients, holiday treats and Chelsea Market's selection of artisanal goods.

How: All event players have come together under the stewardship of Edible Manhattan. Edible Manhattan is bi-monthly and available for $7 at Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble and Borders, free at select restaurants and shops and $35 for a one-year subscription.

Feasting In City Island: Sammy's Shrimp Box

2008-10-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

One night Andy and I were watching Alton Brown's show Feasting on Waves, where he travels on a boat to search for the most authentic and traditional foods of the Caribbean. He meets the local cooks from street vendors, farmers, markets and restaurants. He learns the history of the food and the way they cook their regional food. The episode we saw was the Island Bakery Visit, where he visited local bakeries and at the end they had a feast on the beach eating lobsters. After we saw the show we were craving for seafood. Andy decide to search online for a seafood restaurant and remember that City Island has many of them.

We checked out the reviews/ratings online and Sammy's Fish Box has the highest so we decided to check it out. Driving thur City Island we passed by many seafood restaurants that we definitely have to try out some other time. We finally saw a huge Sammy's sign but notice there were 3 Sammy's restaurants: Sammy's Shrimp Box, Sammy's Fish Box and a Sammy's take out on the same block, talk about seafood monopoly!! Each restaurant had a huge parking, so we just drove in one of them and asked the valet guys what's the different between the Sammy's. They said all the Sammy's had identical menu but Shrimp Box has a section of Spanish dishes so we decided to go there! And they also have a sushi bar there too.

The place wasn't pack, we walked right in and got a cozy table in the corner. The waiter was very nice but he sort of forgot about us so most of the night we had to flag someone else to help us. I was so hungry I wanted to eat everything on the menu! We wanted to try a little of every kind of seafood so order a Paella dish for 2 people. We read about the huge portions so we didn't order any appetizers but a soup. Things were pretty pricey, it's not a cheap date place: Starter: Bread With a Wedge of Cheese & Relish Tray Compliments of Sammy's:
Sour veggies on top of ice, I guess to make it look fancy? The veggies tasted kind of funky, not very good. The bread was freshly baked and soft. I was really hungry so I ate like most of the loaf! lol..the corn bread was okay.....
Each entree comes with a salad ( At this point, I was somewhat full from all the bread =O)

Lobster Bisque:
It was only okay....I like my lobster bisque creamy but this one was on the lighter side. Andy thought it was very flavorful and he tasted alot of lobster in it. I didn't think it was all that good, I guess because I only like the one from J&R.

Paella for 2: King crabs legs, snow crab legs, dungeness crabs, lobster, shrimps, mussels and clam on top of a bed of Spanish rice. When I saw the waiter bringing our dish my mouth literally dropped open because it was sooo HUGE!!! It could feed around 4-5 people!! Damn all the bread I ate, what was I thinking?!

I always eat snow crabs at Chinese restaurants or buffets but these are def. very fresh! The meat wasn't mushy and it was very sweet! This is the first time I had dungeness crabs and boy what have I've been missing out! The rice was good and had a garlicy taste but the only thing I didn't like was that there were alot of bits of shell all over the place and I had to carefully eat it which was very annoying. I gave up on eating the rice and went straight to eat only seafood. Omg....I can't believe I was getting full from just seafood. I don't think I've ever eaten so much seafood in one sitting. All the seafood was so good and we had so much of it! We ate all the lobster and crabs but we had to take alot of the rice and some of the mussel and clams to go. I def. want to come back here again but next time bring more people! Sammy's def. statisfy all my seafood cravings!
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Sammy's Shrimp Box
41 City Island AveBronx,
NY 10464
(718) 885-0920
sammysfishbox.com

Free Event: New York Pumpkin Festival in Central Park on Oct.25

2008-10-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Free event: New York Pumpkin Festival in Central Park will take place from 3 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 25 to benefit Camp Sunshine, a retreat for children with life threatening illnesses and their families.
· feature a huge pumpkin tower display with thousands of lit jack-o-lanterns
· a scarecrow competition at Bethesda Fountain
· a bone-chilling haunted house under the Bethesda Terrace Arcade
· pick-your-own-pumpkin patch at Cherry Hill

Check it out: http://www.newsli.com/2008/10/07/new-york-pumpkin-festival-to-feature-huge-pumpkin-tower-display/

http://www.campsunshine.org/pumpkinfestival/n_photos.html

There will be food vendors selling pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, hot dogs and hamburgers, popcorn, and more. Other vendors will also be at the festival selling goods and/or handing out free samples.

(Thanks dork for the event)

Sorry I've been really busy lately and haven't had time to update but I have been eating (alot)! So stay tuned for upcoming posts on:

Sammy's Shrimp Box (seafood, seafood, seafood....)
Deserts (cakes, cupcakes and sweets)
Peking Duck House (banquet style chinese food, lots of duck...)
Tabla (Iron chef menu-battle snails)
Recipes (NYCares volunteering and cooking w/ the kiddies)

Taste of Korea: Korean Restaurant Week!

2008-10-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Deb for the infor!

The first Korean Restaurant Week in New York:

Event Date: September 29-October 4th

Where: Participating restaurant around the city featuring prix fixe bibimbap lunches and dinners

Menu: Lunch and dinner including appetizer and dessert for $15 and Bibimbap alone for $7, is available at lunch only.

Bibimbap Event: On Saturday at 2 p.m., bibimbap, a dish of rice and vegetables, will be served free from a giant pot holding 500 portions at 32nd Street and Broadway.

For more information go to: http://www.koreanculture.org/tasteofkorea2008/index.html