New York City Part 4

Last full day in NYC!

I made it my mission to try all that I came to try. First stop, Chobani SoHo. My obsession with Chobani lives on. We shared the Hummus + Za'atar with pita chips and Mango + Avocado with tortilla chips. I really liked the hummus + za'atar and want to make it at home because it seems simple enough. I also had a fangirl moment when the CEO walked in and my sister thought I was crazy for knowing his name slash even recognizing him.

Hummus + Za'atar with pita chips

Mango + Avocado with tortilla chips

I came to NYC with a crucial goal: to try the Momofuku Pork Buns. I heart the ones from Ippudo so I had to compare. I went to Momofuku Noodle Bar, sat at the bar, and enjoyed an order of pork buns. Maybe I had too high expectations but the pork buns from Ippudo are better!

Momofuku Pork Buns: pork belly, hoisin, cucumber, scallions

My sister had to go to work so I spent the day walking around the city. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and also spent a few hours at Kitchen Arts & Lectures, a foodie cookbook sanctuary. Comparable to Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco but less fancy. They had a huge selection of cookbooks and books on food and while I wanted to get new cookbooks, I had to control myself.

For dinner my sister met me at Momofuku Ko! It only seats 12 people a night so making reservations at this restaurants is ridiculous, where seats are booked literally within milliseconds. So we were super excited to get two spots and it was by far the best dining experience I've had. No photographs are allowed inside the restaurant so I'm guessing there were around 13 courses. And there's no advance menu so customers don't know what they'll get that night. I could have looked up some dishes but I really wanted to relish in the surprise. The menu was definitely seafood heavy so good thing I like fish! My favorites of the night were the dumplings in a delicious broth, soft-cooked egg over onion soubise with caviar & potato chips, the homemade potato bread with smoked butter (soooo good), and the shaved foie gras with lychee, riesling jelly, & pine nut brittle. The foie gras was a crazy melt-in-your-mouth experience.

New York City Part 3

Day 3 was jam-packed with activities.

First, we met up with a friend at La Colombe Torrefaction for coffee and pastries. Note: the sun! We shared a few pastries between us and I don't know what kind of bun mine was but it was delicious.

For lunch we met up with another friend at The Meatball Shop, which I'm not pretty obsessed with. It has solid food and I loved that the menu comes with a dry-erase marker so you can customize your order by choosing the base, the meatballs, and the sauce. I went with the spicy pork meatballs over polenta and it came out with a slice of focaccia bread. My sister got the spicy pork meatballs over risotto and added a fried egg on top.

I've never been to the MoMA before so my sister and I went to check it out. I really liked the Ten Thousand Waves screening and of course, had to take a picture next to a Mondrian print.

For dinner we headed to Lam Zhou Handmade Noodle in Chinatown for their Beef Soup Noodles and boiled dumplings. It was by far the cheapest meal of the trip and pretty hole-in-the-wall. It was pretty amusing to hear the noodles being made in the back, where all of a sudden I would hear really loud slapping sounds. 

New York City Part 2

We kicked off my second day in NYC with bagels at Russ & Daughters. I was SO excited to go there because one, I've been on a bagel kick lately, and two, it's been on my food bucket list, and three, this. Although, who knew bagel sandwiches could be so $$. But so worth it and despite all the amazing food I had in NYC, I still crave the bagel sandwiches at Russ & Daughters. My sister and I both ordered different sandwiches and shared half and half.

I ordered the Super Heebster: whitefish & baked salmon salad with horseradish dill cream cheese and wasabi flying fish roe on a wheat everything bagel. My sister got the Daughters' Delight: gaspe nova and wild alaskan salmon roe with cream cheese on an everything bagel. The Daughters' Delight was pretty salty while the Super Heebster had a sweetness to it. I liked them both!

Super Heebster: whitefish & baked salmon salad with horseradish dill cream cheese and wasabi flying fish roe

I really wanted to go to Smorgasburg, the indoor Brooklyn Flea Food Market, so we took the train across the Brooklyn Bridge and explored Williamsburg and the Waterfront Promenade before heading to Smorgasburg. The waterfront had a fantastic view of the NYC skyline. And Smorgasburg was fun because I spotted a blogger vendor.

After wandering all day, we went to The NoMad for dinner! I made reservations 28 days in advance because I knew I couldn't go to NYC without eating at Daniel Humm's restaurant. I've become smitten with Daniel Humm and Will Guidara ever since I heard them speak in San Francisco. They just embody New York to me and so I was super excited to eat at The NoMad. The restaurant is located inside the hotel and the ambiance of the dining room was large and open yet cozy and romantic.

The star dish of the night was the roasted chicken, which was stuffed with foie gras. It was my first time having foie gras and I was super excited since it's something I can't get in San Francisco. I thought it was also somewhat amusing that the waiter brings out the whole-roasted chicken to the table and shows it to us before taking it back into the kitchen and plating it.

Tagliatelle with king crab, meyer lemon & black pepper

Whole-Roasted Chicken: stuffed with foie gras, black truffle, brioche

Milk & Honey: shortbread, brittle & ice cream

New York City Part 1

I returned this week from a 4-night trip to New York City to visit my older sister. It's been over a year since the last time I was in New York so I'm so glad I went. It was a food filled trip for sure. And darn, was it cold. I was bundled up in so many layers the whole time and it hurt to be outside. The weather cleared up a little bit over the few days but it definitely made me thankful for California weather.

A few hours after I arrived to my sister's apartment, we walked just a short distance to grab ramen at Minca for dinner. We sat at the bar and watched the chefs at work. I thought it was pretty cool that you can choose the type of noodle and broth you'd like. We both ordered the Spicy Miso Ramen in pork broth and on a cold night, it was perfect.

Minca: Spicy Miso Ramen

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day?

Eiji Part 1

This might be my favorite Japanese restaurant in the city! I've been really digging the simplicity and refinement of all things Japanese lately and I just want to buy all new kitchen and dinnerware that embodies Japanese minimalism. We made a reservation for 5:30 pm thinking it'd be crowded but nope, it was pretty empty and so mellow. I hope this place doesn't get hyped up because it was SO nice not to have to wait an hour in line for food as per usual.

I like to try new foods at restaurants so we ordered off the specials board. We started off with the Oboro tofu which is made-to-order hot and comes out with a tray of six different toppings. We then got Eggplant with Walnut Miso, Uni (my favorite!), Bottleneck Clam Nigiri, and the Chef's Choice Sushi. The eggplant was my favorite of the night. It came out steaming hot and was so so so good. I made a mental note in my head to definitely cook it at home.

Finally we ended the meal by sharing the Strawberry Mochi because it's homemade and I just had to try it. The mochi was wrapped around a fresh strawberry and a thin layer of red bean paste. It wasn't super sweet so totally up my alley. Definitely will be coming back to Eiji!

Oboro Tofu

Strawberry Mochi

Galentine's Day!

I don't watch Parks and Recreation so I kind of missed the reference to Galentine's Day but I'm so happy to have participated none the less! My friend hosted a lovely brunch at her apartment, complete with pink heart decor. I am so thankful to have such girl friends in my life and to get to know new friends. Lots of mimosas and coffee cake were had and I helped my friend cook the potato frittata and lemon ricotta waffles. I'll put the recipes up in separate posts after I try my hand at them myself because both dishes were delicious! The coffee cake was pretty amazing too.