Indian Home-cooking

Cumin, chili, curry, turmeric, cardamom pods, ..... spices go on and on in Indian cooking recipes. Even though i love eating around but I also love to be my own chef.  After a day of spice hunt, i finally got to start my Chicken Tikka Masala, Spiced Coconut Mushrooms, and the traditional Indian bread a Garlic & Cilantro Nan. I just couldn't eat Indian food without Nan. 

After 3 hours of chopping, mixing, kneading, processing, cooking, and broiling, my kitchen was like a war zone. Used up all the bowls, spoons, spatulas, pans.... the 3 amazing dishes are finally done.

Even though it took the whole afternoon to cook a traditional Indian feast, it only took us 20 minutes to devour the meal. These complex recipes  are definitely not a weekday cooking dishes unless you're a full-time home chef. 

Curry-Ya

Curry-Ya was recently opened in this intimate space with only 14 wooden stool seating in the East Village. This specialized Japanese curry house has 9 curries that can be customized with different topping, spice, and size. I've ordered my favorite berkshire cutlet curry and i was a bit disappointed. I expected more to the curry since it's a curry house but it was like any other curry i've had elsewhere for 1/2 of it's price.

East Village - 214 E10th St @ 2nd Ave, New York

Dosas

Dosas is a crispy crepe originated from South India, commonly served as a form of breakfast or dinner. Hampton Chutney in Soho has expanded this simple crepe into an elaborate sandwich with a complementary chutney on the side. This place is quite popular as a lunch stop but there isn't much seat to accommodate chatty dates. If you're bored with your daily turkey cheese sandwich and you're willing a splurge a bit more, the dosas is a good alternative. As you can see the length of this Chicken Goat Cheese dosas can definitely be shared with a friend if you're not crazily hungry.

Soho - 68 Prince St., New York

Green Tea Shortbread Cookie

How fat does that sound?!? If you don't know how shortbread is made, let me sum it up for you. Butter, butter, and butter. Yes, all butter. That's why it's so tasty. Nonetheless, we just want to fullfill our daily sweet craving with one bit of BUTTER. 

I went to a Japanese grocery awhile back and saw this Green Tea Shortbread Cookie nicely packaged in a fancy japanese wrap. I couldn't resist myself .... I had to have a bit of it and see if it taste as good as it looks. Humm..humm... After that bit, i was determined to make a dozen or 2 myself and shared this with my friends regardless of the calorie content.

Late Nite Sushi - Yamato

Sushi is always a good choice for late nite dinner. Surprisingly, Yamato has quite a interesting appetizer menu. Spicy miso toro w/ mango salsa & spicy miso sauce. Salsa is not commonly seen in japanese restaurant, but the fresh toro was perfectly seared with a touch and sweet & spice . Softshell crab & spicy tuna, topped with tempura flakes was quite a double decker. I wasn't sure if my mouth was too small or the sushi was too big. I can't manage to taste the whole piece in one bit.

There is always a great balance in sweetness to Japanese dessert. The banana coconut crisp drizzled with caramel sauce and lemongrass ice cream was the perfect way to end the meal.
Park Slope: 168 7th Ave @ 1st St., Brooklyn

Chicago Food Hunt - Final Day

Milk & Honey is a must-stop brunch place. The line starts unusually early eventhough it's a canteen style self-service restaurant. Pre-order your food prior being seating and self-helped utensils table setup. I was anxious to see what brings the early birds out from their comfy bed on a sunday morning. Thick french toast brioche, Huevos ranchero casserole and a side of bacon were a great combination of savory and sweet for an early start.

Zipping thru the city street, I see that Chicagoians are very proud of their Hot Dogs. "Best Hot Dogs", "Dogs in Town", Dogs Dogs Dogs. I stopped in Downtown Dog, wow alot of dogs. The walls were covered with dogs photos everywhere. Charred dog w/ mustard, tomato, relish. The relish was highly artifically color, kind of turned me off. But after bitting thru the snappy charred dog, I must say, it's better then the nyc dog stands.

Chicago Food Hunt - Day 2

Looking forward to a better food day. From my mid-nite research, it seems that there weren't too many brunch places in Chicago. Or i should say, there weren't too many "good" brunch places in the city.

Bongo Room, one of the early bird line-up hotspots in Chicago. Blueberry lemonade, a great way to start off a refreshing morning. Chocolate french toast. This tower-like chocolate french toast was topped with chocolate fudge and shaved white chocolate. After inhaling this suger-high coco tower kept me going for the rest of the day.

Lemon pancake with ginger snap ricotta was another good pick from the menu. The fluffy infused lemon pancake was unexpectedly good. The lemon had a slight flavor but not over-powering. The ginger snap ricotta was a great alternative for maple syrup.

Even though Chicago is pretty far north from Mexico, Mexican food was scatterred all over the city. El Banco was our pick for the nite. After a long hot day, seafood ceviche will start off the evening then continuing with the seafood feast a whole fried talapia to delight the senses was prepared perfectly and topped with spicy tomato sauce, but a brain-freeze from the massive margarita told us it was time to go so we passed on dessert. . .

Chicago Food Hunt - Day 1

Chicago deep dish pizza is my first stop. Giordano is one of the well know Chicago deep dish pizza in the city. But after talking with the locals, they've suggested Lou Malnatis Pizzeria. The first impression of Lou Malnatis.... hmmm... "Friday's" like resto and frozen pizza for sale at the entry, not that impressive. I was really curious to see how good the pizza is. Lou Malnatis is their signature deep dish pizza so it must be their best if it's name after them.


This 9" pizza is quite heavy-duty even when it's shared. I was amazed with the amount of cheese and dough contained in this small deep dish pizza. After 1 slice and a mega size ice tea, I was done. Coming from NYC, I still think our thin crust pizzas are the best.

After consuming this enormous cheese pie, I had to walk at least 5 miles around the city to burn off the carbs for my next good meal.

Blackbird was another local recommendation. We managed to get a 10pm reservation on a Friday night. The restaurant was nicely decorated but it was a bit too loud for a relaxing dinner. Lucky enough we got a outdoor seat on the sidewalk.

Braised organic pork belly with grilled spot prawn, cornbread and gumbo consomme. Interesting combination .... organic = healthy; pork belly = high cholesterol. The prawn was well grilled, the pork belly can be more tender, and the gumbo consomme was ok.

Seared tasmanian sea trout with cherry molasses, baby turnips, and black rice. Fish is always a good light dish for late dinner. The fish was really fresh, the skin was perfectly seared and the sauce is pretty tasty.

Let's keep this short, Blackbird was good but not good enough to be great.

Eat on Atlantic

Another blazing hot day, the yearly ArtWalk Tour was a good reason for me to finally explore the not so pleasant treeless streetscape of Atlantic Ave. Silkscreen printing studio - pretty amazing art work. Antique shop after antique shop another antique shop..... CUPCAKE!!! Even though I tried to pretend to “look” artsy in this special ArtWalk event -the CUPCAKES were too hard to resist. Red velvet cupcake with chocolate icing: Vanilla cupcake with white chocolate icing: Whatever cupcake top with Coconut lemon icing. I couldn’t resist myself from just looking at it. I got to have one. The only problem was WHICHONE!!!

Word of wisdom from the elderly, “Savory before Sweet”. But of course, when it comes to food, it’s always first come first EAT. This explains the sequence of my meal -Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner is not in my weekend schedule, Continuing with my “artsy” food hunt of the day, Mia - southeast asian cuisine..... worth a try. Appetizer is usually my pick because i always try leave room for my next upcoming meal, if there is any. Grilled squid stuffed with shrimp, shitaki mushroom and thin glass noodle. Sound interesting, nice presentation, but tastes kind of bland.

Boerum Hill: Atlantic Downtown:364 Atlantic Ave @Hoyt St. & Mia: 497 Atlantic Ave @ Nevin

Bar-ME-que

How can i miss the yearly Bar-ME-Cue Block Party at Madison Square Park. Even though it's 90F, this will not stop me from venturing to the hot bbq grill. Standing in the twist and turn endless line, i actually feel like the piece of meat being grilled on the asphalt pavement.

Since i live in New York, of course i have to try BBQ other than the ones located in NYC. Texas is my first stop. Baker's Ribs from Dallas, Texas. Hidden behind the Bread Mountain is the charcoal black looking ribs. Surprisingly, it's so tender that meat falls off the bone and the meat is so moist and juicy. With the home-made bbq sauce tops its off.
While i'm still chowing down my ribs, i'm already looking for my next stand. South Carolina - Pulled Pork, my next target. This mouth watering Pulled-Pork sandwich is dressed with vinegary bbq sauce that makes me want to line up for another one. But i started to feel a little charred so i decided to hide under the shade before i'm cooked.
Flatiron - Madison Sq Park, E24th & Madison Ave, New York

Muffin? Pastry? Pie?

What's better to do in the morning then enjoying a delicious breakfast at the busy corner of New York. 1st Ave and 1st St. Veselka Cafe. Watching drivers running thru red lighting, busy people rushing down to the subway and i'm just sitting in the urban park enjoying my weekend breakfast. Yes, my favorite way to start my weekend.

Bumble Bee Muffin?!? It doesn't really look like a muffin at all. Got to try it out to see exactly why it's called a Bumble Bee Muffin.

This yummy muffin is more like puff pastry then a muffin, covered with honey glazing topping and surprising there is no bee in the muffin but delicious hidden apple treasure. I'm not an apple lover but the pastry muffin is infused by the granny smith apple like an apple pie. Worth a try!

LES - 1st Ave x E1st St., New York