Scallop Splurge

It's Spring Break, and... it's Lost Tuesday, and... well, Mel just really wanted to try a new recipe so she used those as an excuse to splurge on fresh scallops!



The recipe was so easy to follow: breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese mixed with a few spices, coated over the scallops, then baked. Coupled with some plain brown rice and Italian string beans, and we had a random weekday treat to get us ready for another puzzling episode of Lost.

BABBO! - 7th Monthiversary Part Deux

BABBO!!!!!!
Because DJ is the absolute sweetest, on the day of our 7th Monthiversary he somehow found a way to work his magic and get us a reservation at Mario Batali's highly popular restaurant, Babbo. We were so excited for the week leading up to this meal that we took to just blurting out "BABBO!" when we remembered the amazing food that awaited us. Then when we arrived at the restaurant, we were both oddly quiet. Turns out we had both essentially fasted all day (knowing the meal we had to look forward to), and were just about ready to pass out. lol Thankfully, Babbo did not disappoint (and we did make it to our table without fainting.... just barely).

We decided to get the Traditional Tasting Menu:


Duck Bresaola

interesting creamy, cheesy consistency

Pappardelle

extremely fresh pasta with a great light butter sauce and a sharp kick from the fresh cheese grated on top

Duck Tortelli

pasta made with duck gizzard; DJ said he told them ahead of time to plate it in the shape of a heart. :)

Grilled Hanger Steak

melt-in-your-mouth goodness

Coach Farms' Finest

We really thought this was going to be some sort of poultry.... Surprise! goat cheese with honey. Didn't taste just like chicken, but tasty in its own right. hehehe

Fico in Mosto

We spent a good part of the meal speculating was "fico" would be. Turns out it's fig which they then drenched in delicious sauce and served with a dollop of cream cheese. Embarrassing moment for Mel: took a bite and without recalling that we were JUST told "fico" is fig, she nearly blurted out, "It tastes kinda like a Fig Newton!" Oy.

Chocolate Tartufino

FABULOUS! Tasted a lot like a Ferrero Rocher truffle - pure delight. And there was a tiny cherry hidden right in the middle!

Special "Surprise" Desserts

We each got different ones on our plates, but then we mixed and matched. We never really clarified exactly what we were eating, but suffice it to say both were delicious. Those little red dots you see on the plate are pomegranate, which DJ said created a "taste explosion" in his mouth.

Cookies to sweeten the presentation of the bill :)


Overall, this was such a fun experience! As DJ said, each plate was so good that we were left wishing there was more of it to eat. Then again, we were most certainly stuffed by the end so they really plan the portions and flavor combinations well. And a cool (albeit distracting) surprise for the evening: early into our meal, who should be seated at the table next to us but Matthew Broderick!



Mel nearly passed out in a fit of fandom, but we managed to totally play it cool. And it was pretty neat to be able to glance up at "Ferris Bueller" a few times during the meal. lol

Pizza and Prosecco Birthday

Viva Italia! Liz organized a great group of us to dine at Cacio e Vino for her sister Sarah's birthday.


Liz with Sarah, the birthday girl

As you can see in the background of the photo, this place has an awesome brick oven. So, many of us decided to try the personal pizzas which came with a wide variety of toppings. The cheese and sauce tasted extremely fresh, and the crust was perfection: thin yet soft with just a hint of salty flavor. Mel really enjoyed hers topped with spinach, tomato, artichoke, and gorgonzola!



DJ decided to try something a little different and went with the evening's special: lobster pasta. His verdict: "Yumilicious!" lol



Definitely check this place out if you're a fan of Italian food!

Heavenly Seven Thai Tofu

In honor of our Seven Monthiversary (quite the wonderful 7 it has been!), Mel attempted a fun Thai dish: Coconut Curry Tofu. It was exciting to try this one since it is a common choice on take-out menus. So you figure if you can master it, that's one less thing to rely on take-out for! :) And..... drum roll..... it turned out tasty!



The recipe was so easy to follow, and the ingredients were very simple, natural, and flavorful. Highly recommended!

Jing Fong and L'Arte del Gelato

What a great springtime Sunday! Vicky invited us for some fabulous dim sum with Gigi at Jing Fong in Chinatown.

This place is HUGE and extremely efficient. There were at least 60 people waiting outside to get seated, and the hosts worked through the line in like 20 minutes! And once upstairs, all the food was delicious and plentiful.


Afterward, we actually took the day to walk leisurely back to Midtown. First we meandered through Soho and window-shopped. On Houston, we stopped by a guy selling used books on the street, which served as inspiration to plan our own Book Swap (keep an eye on the blog for when it happens!). Then we worked our way up 7th Avenue and popped in the best gelato place: L'Arte Del Gelato. Such a variety of flavors (including 'olive oil'!) and fresh waffle cones. Yum!


By dusk we had made it back to Midtown by foot. Nothing like a long walk with friends to make you appreciate sunny days in the city!

(P.S. We were curious how much we walked total. With the help of www.mapmyrun.com we discovered that we cruised about 4.5 miles! Woot!)

Sushi Yasuda and Aquavit - Midtown

On a quest for more walu (*see February entry from Tsunami in San Francisco), DJ researched until he found a sushi restaurant in NYC that carries "butter-fish": Sushi Yasuda. As soon as he found them, a reservation was made and we eagerly anticipated a fun date night.


Our appetizer: flash fried sea bass - delectable!

The ambiance of this place is fabulous - very fresh and light - and the service is perfection. Turns out today they weren't carrying "butter-fish" but it made no difference. Every single piece of fish they put in front of us tasted AMAZING! So much so that Mel had a revelation: it wasn't necessarily that walu was the best fish she'd ever tasted; it was that she had never fully appreciated the amazing flavor that sashimi provides. So now walu is sharing its pedestal with all other well-prepared sashimi. :)




And of course we enjoyed a little bit of mochi for dessert. :) Red bean and green tea flavors. Word of caution: do not put the whole piece of green tea mochi in your mouth at once. It's so cold, you wind up reflexively breathing in and then choking on the green tea powder dusted on top. You'd think Mel would have learned that lesson after DJ did it, but.... we both fell victim. Oops! lol


Beware the green tea powder!

Afterward, we finally checked out one of DJ's favorite old haunts: Aquavit, where they actually make their own vodka. Such a chill spot with great drinks. An ideal way to end a fab date!

Sheesh, It's Quiche!

Mel just finished a book (title: Little Bee) where the main characters made eggs for dinner. That sparked a thought of 'why not?', but just a regular omelet seemed dull. A good challenge: quiche!

Surprisingly the recipe was very simple! It's really just adding milk and cream and fun tasty things (in this case: spinach, chicken sausage, onion, and cheese) to eggs, mixing and baking in a pie crust. One little hitch - the recipe yielded waaaaaaaay too much of the egg mixture for the tiny pie crust. So DJ had the brilliant idea to just scramble the extra and save it to go with a bagel another day. Brilliant!


In the end, it was tasty. The ingredients went well together. Buuuut, as suspected, quiche seems more fitting for a brunch meal, not dinner. The author of that book Mel read is British... They're very strange eaters... :-/

Lesson Learned: Don't trust the British for dinner ideas. Oh, and buy two pie crusts instead of one OR half the egg recipe. :)

Rainy Day in BK

Oh the weather outside was frightful,

And the drums are so delightful,
So since we've no place to go...
LET US ROCK, LET US ROCK, LET US ROCK!


The rain was awful today, so we made it a hang out night for the locals. :) Aman, David, and Jennine came by to play Rock Band, and boy was it addictive!


And since you can't keep rocking on an empty stomach, we made some vegetarian Indian food with couscous and a side salad of cucumber/avocado/dill. Kinda cheated this time around and used masala sauce from a jar; a future cooking experiment will be to try getting the Indian flavors from scratch.


ROCK ON!

Jeff's Birthday at Chef Yu (midtown)

We headed to Mel's old stomping grounds by the Teach For America office in midtown for Jeff's birthday dinner at Chef Yu. It was great to catch up with the TFA crew while enjoying some yummy Chinese food.

Prawns and Squid for DJ

General Tso's Tofu for Mel

Dharma Pizza!

It's that time of the week again - LOST! This week's easy-but-healthy meal to go with the last season of a great show: homemade pizza!

Picked up the pre-made crust, sauce, tomatoes, fresh spinach, fresh mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes, and some spices and went to town! With a side of cucumber/tomato salad, it was a light and refreshing meal - perfect for a day that felt like the beginning of spring!

13 Months of Sunshine - Stamford and Fairfield

Hirut and Manny were nice enough to host us for a fun Friday evening of dinner and laughs in Stamford! Hirut made an absolutely delicious meal of pasta with meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad. Paired with Manny's inventive pina coladas and molten chocolate cake dessert, we almost asked to move in right then and there! We were so distracted, in fact, that we forgot to take a picture of the actual meal, but this image comes pretty close.

And today we swung by DJ's parents' house to bring them some of Aunt Abby's quanta (special beef jerky) sent back with us from California. Then they were brave enough to try one of our cooking experiments! Let's just say brown sugar and Jack Daniels were involved, and the end result was salmon, mashed potatoes and string beans. :) Once again, we forgot to take a photo; Google images to the rescue!

Lesson Learned: When a recipe calls for adding hard liquor (i.e. Jack Daniels), add it early enough to let some of the bitterness cook out so the sauce isn't overpowering. We wound up adding more brown sugar to try to balance the taste out, and were left with a very taffy-like substance at the bottom of the pan. lol

Sinigual the Sequel

It's Deep's last night in the States for a while, so we figured it best to do it up and have a fun meal. So Liz met up with us at Sinigual for some Mexican and margaritas. Wepa! We enjoyed some:

fajitas (Deep)...

tacos (Liz)...

lobster quesadillas (Mel)...

and carne asada (DJ).

The food was enjoyable, but the conversation about the state of our civilization was even better!

To cap off the night, DJ decided to brave fried ice cream yet again. Ack! (*See our February entry from Nyonya to understand why this was a major risk.) But this fried ice cream was actually legit. The dough could have been a bit hotter, but at least there were no breakfast cereals involved.

And Mel decided to warm up with some chamomile citrus tea. The aroma was delightful and it came in a pretty satiny teabag!