And I'm Back

I'm back from an awesome trip around China and Southeast Asia. I stuffed myself to the brim with noodles and fresh juice shakes. I had my first glass of red wine in 7 weeks last night at Lil Vinny's, a little Italian restaurant in Somerville. It was delicious! Food pics from my trip coming soon.

Taste of New York

I bid New York good-bye yesterday. I'm going to miss a lot of things about NYC, especially all of the fantastic food that's a phone call or a subway ride away.

A list of all the food I'll be craving, in no particular order:







The Ooey Gooey cupcake - Sugar Sweet Sunshine
Lentil soup - Zaytoon's
Beef hand-pulled noodle soup - the shop at the corner of Catherine and East Broadway
Gnocchi, linguine with fresh fava beans, stewed prunes in red wine sauce and pretty much everything else on the menu - Frankie's 457
Chicken and rice - any street cart, but especially the one by MOMA
Tortilla soup, quesadillas, quarter chicken with rice - Los Pollitos II
Margarita pizza - Anthony's
Chicken katsu lunch special - Tebaya
Shrimp tempura udon noodle soup - Foodworks
Soup dumplings - Shanghai Cafe
Breakfast burrito and poached eggs - Miracle Grill
Sushi boxes - Woorijip
Miso ramen - Ramen Setagaya
Green tea frozen yogurt - Pinkberry
Hotdogs and PBRs - Gowanus Yacht Club
brunch - everywhere

Slow Poached Fish

Following my summer cocktail recipe, slow poached fish with braised asparagus and a glass of white wine is the perfect early summer meal. Plus, there's not much heat involved, so you won't be sweating away in the kitchen. The fish recipe is adapted from this sweet and hunger-inducing article from NYTimes.

The recipe calls for halibut, but I substituted catfish, which is cheaper. I didn't taste the mint, so I wouldn't recommend using any. I also replaced rosemary with some thyme.

A Summery Cocktail

Summer is just around the bend and to get summer '09 started, I'll share with you a recipe for a refreshing summer cocktail. This drink from one of my favorite restaurants in Brooklyn, Frankie's 457. It's pretty much liquid summer:

Ingredients:
1-2 shots of Absolut Citron, or another citrus vodka of your choice
handful of mint leaves
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
Juice of one lime
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup of club soda

Recipe:
- Make the simple syrup ahead of time: in a small saucepan, bring the sugar, water and mint leaves to a boil, stir until sugar is dissolved, cook for another 5 minutes. Refridgerate overnight.
- In a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, lemon juice, lime juice and 1/4 cup of simple syrup. Shake with ice
- Pour mixture into a tall glass with ice
- Top up with the club soda

Indian Recipes

I had dinner at my friend Alex's apartment last night and he made a really great curry. While he was cooking, Alex rushed between the stove and his laptop, reading the cooking instructions from a website, showmethecurry. I've always been a little scared of making Indian food...the recipes all look so long and complicated. This website is really useful and well organized, there are lots of instructional youtube videos with awesome muzak playing in the background. I'll report back when I make a recipe from the site.

Harefield Road

Recommended: brunch at Harefield Road in Williamsburg. $12 gets you a
brunch cocktail, bottomless coffee/tea and an entrée. My poached eggs
with smoked salmon was delicious. And something must be said for high
quality English Breakfast tea. The worst is weak and watery tea. If
you want an post brunch snack I hear there is a White Castle nearby.

JFK Terminal 5

I flew out of the new Jetblue terminal at JFK last week and check out
my meal! Doesn't it look edible? And it tasted quite good actually. And I'm not just comparing that to standard airport food. I was quite impressed actually. I ordered the tofu stir-fry with mongolian sauce from Lucy's Asian Kitchen, one of the stalls in the terminal's food
court. The food court also has a pasta place, a sandwich shop, pizza, full salad bar and a bunch if hot soups. There's also 3 full service restaurants: a sushi bar, tapas restaurant and a steakhouse. I was definitely very impressed with the food options. Now if only Jetblue's flights could ever leave on time...