Tag: food

Very Merry Cookies

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Dear cookie chops,
     Come back to me! I’ve been out of practice, and it showed in my annual Christmas cookie production. I usually do chocolate chip cookies and always gingerbread cookies. Of the four cookie recipes I executed this week, only one turned out to my satisfaction. First, there were these petits fours from my huge cookie bible; I really should be more skeptical of the thing; it gave me a recipe for sugar cookies without sugar. These petits fours had no flour, though the photo looked suspiciously like coconut macaroons. Needless to say, I did not get very far. Poor powdered sugar…
     Next came the chocolate hazelnut oatmeal cookies. Sounds like a mouthful, feels like a mouthful. Seeing as the only ingredients were butter, oatmeal, hazelnuts and nutella, the ratios are very important. Less than a cup of nutella, hazelnuts and butter each, with two whole cups of oatmeal? The texture didn’t particularly tickle my fancy, but the nutella melted with the butter made for a nice, dare I say, umami factor. Will definitely be reproduced at some point, with varying proportions.
     Then came the snickerdoodles. I’ve definitely made snickerdoodles before, so I’m trying to figure out just what choice it was that made the cookies sad and flat. It may have been the substitution of two egg yolks for a second egg, or the brief hour in the fridge, but these snickerdoodles weren’t quite ready for the oven. I put them in the first time, and after five or so minutes, the dough started melting off the cookie sheet and onto the bottom of the oven. No one was concerned, until five more minutes when the smell of smoke started to fill the living room. The cookie side effects included a new smoky flavor that was…not completely unwelcome, though probably dispensable.
     It’s a good thing for tradition, because I don’t think I could possibly mess up the gingerbread things. Every year I make gingerbread cookies with my cello, camel, palm tree and moon cutters. And every year I make icing with whatever additions I feel like at the time – orange zest, cinnamon, vanilla. Fills your mouth with all the spices!
     Next year I’ll go back to the cookie press and the chocolate chips. And by next year, I mean next week. Hoping your new year is full of good times and better food!

Step 2: Combine
Step 1: Melt
Step 3: Roll

After smoking
Before smoking
Taking over the kitchen
What pretty colors

Ithaca Dining Installment #2: Sushi O Sake

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To celebrate Danielle’s birthday, I took her to Sushi O Sake, the Japanese restaurant across from the commons that I have yet to see crowded. It could only have to do with their above average prices, because their dishes are quite nice. We started with the crispy shrimp dumplings, which could have stood to be 50 cents less, but they eliminated my hunger until the rest of dinner came. I bit into it wondering if we received the right order because the shrimp was chopped into bits resembling an unfortunate encounter with a steamed pork dumpling. But it was definitely shrimp and definitely acceptable. Then came picking the sushi rolls, which probably took over 10 minutes. We finally decided on the Key West,  Salmon Lovers, and Atlantic. We’re fairly confident that the Key West had crab in it (kinda chewwy…), for I could not recall quite why I ordered it and the mayo covered most everything, the Salmon Lovers was more or less salmon on salmon, literally, and the Atlantic had more salmon. Past experiences with legitimate sushi/raw fish did not bode so well for my palate, but I could stomach this raw salmon – heck I had a bunch of it! Next time I’ll probably shoot for something in Collegetown with student-friendlier prices, but we had a successful night nonetheless.
Fried dumplings with a side of pickle ALL the veg

Work=cut out…and what’s under that spicy mayo/scallions/caviar

No dessert, thanks.

Panera Breadfast

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I guess I always overlooked that Panera Bread did breakfast…I mean there’s not much to choose from, but the choices exist. I went the Saturday before returning to school with my mom, who got a steak and egg sandwich with cheddar cheese on a fancy bagel…I think it was poppyseed and onion. I got a “Mediterranean Egg White On Ciabatta”. As my mom pointed out that morning, it is important to note that we were able to find two sandwiches on the menu that didn’t have any form of oink-ery. The steak & egg was okay; fairly simple. My cheddar/roasted tomato/spinach/pesto combo was mild at first, but then I found the roasted tomatoes awkwardly hiding at the end of the sandwich, and then the spinach clumps adjacent. Next time I’ll try to remember to reassemble before consumption.

What could have been
But it’s okay because their croissants are really good.

Paris Meets Providence

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Due to my abnormally long Thanksgiving break, I thought to use it finding friends who still have classes this week. I went to visit Shyam in Brown, located in my favorite US city: Providence! Thankfully it wasn’t a brutal November day, so I got a tour of campus and a stroll down Thayer street. We were thinking of places to dine for lunch and I suddenly remembered the sketchy crêpe place my RISD pre-college buddies would go on the weekend called La Crêperie (don’t let the website fool you). Looks like they cleaned it up a bit on the outside, but it’s still to be found in a random alley off Thayer, and is still awkwardly tiny. But what they lack in presentation they make up for in all things edible. Sweet crêpes? Check. With Nutella? hahahaduh! Savory crêpes? Check. With brie? Mais bien sûr! Belgian waffles with berries? Yes please. Smoothies? Smooth. If you’ve been dragged along by your unyielding offbeat friends, you could probably find a salad or wrap to sate your appetite.

Definitely opted for the classic apples & brie combo, which I finished, barely. It was great, though! Shyam’s Josephine with chicken, cheddar, mushroom & béchamel sauce (AKA white sauce?) was also good! Next time I’ll probably have to go for the Nutella waffle C:

You know it’s legit when the overhead menu is aesthetically pleasing (must have been those RISDans)
apple + brie + anything else = good eats

Ithaca Dining Installment #1: CTB

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     Epicures of Ithaca can have a field day when it comes to eating out; there are more restaurants per capita here than New York City :O! If you want Italian, Korean, Thai, Mediterranean, Indian, Mexican food, or just a superb burger, you can find all that and more within the city limits. Saturday night, I introduced Danielle to the Ithacan classic Collegetown Bagels (CTB). If we don’t count Ithaca Bakery, there are a total of three CTBs in town. Ithaca College has their bagels in the dining halls (hooray), and CTB bakes their bagels fresh every day. CTB makes more than 20 varieties of bagels, including classics like cinnamon raisin and poppy, and “specialty options” such as apple walnut and sun-dried tomato. The kicker of this place for me is what one can put on their bagel of choice. They have 5-star breakfast bagels to satisfy any breakfast snob’s needs. There’s the California Sunrise, with scrambled eggs, avocado, red onions, and pepper jack cheese – melted, of course. Then there’s the nutella-banana combo on any bagel (preferably cinnamon raisin), or the plain and simple cinnamon-sugar & butter.
     If you’re not in the mood for a bagel, CTB also has soups, salads, sandwiches and wraps. They put anything you can think of on or between one or two pieces of bread-like substances, and it will be excellent.
   This time around I went with the Mexican bagel, with jalapeño cream cheese, fresh salsa and melted cheddar on each slice of a plain bagel, since they ran out of the jalapeño ones :P. Danielle got a Danby sandwich with turkey breast, avocado, tomato and homemade parsley-garlic dressing…fancy! I think she’ll be returning.

I finished with no stomach space to spare
Glad she liked it

Putting my money where my stomach is…in the best possible way

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Can we talk about the awesomeness of Wegmans for a minute? Coming from the coast of Connecticut, I had previously only heard of such a fantastical grocery store. Though I’m not sure we can really call Wegmans a grocery store. It definitely sells groceries, though it can’t quite compare to less exciting Stop&Shop and Shop Rite. But until recently, I couldn’t really put my finger on why I become so entranced by food and life upon arrival. Here’s the list I’ve come up with thus far:

  1. If we’re talking about the actual feeling of happiness one acquires when walking into Wegmans, which is real life, I’m gonna have to credit the color brown. It makes Stop&Shop’s white look like…maybe a hospital. Not sure what else to say…Wegmans’s color scheme is smart and effective. You’ll have to ask their team of designers and psychologists if you’re wondering why.
  2. You know what they say about going grocery shopping on an empty stomach: don’t do it. Unless, of course, you’re shopping at Wegmans. I don’t even think Whole Foods has such variety of lunch food. I had a fair Indian lunch today from the hot lunch bar. They also have dim sum, “Asian Wokery”, pizza, mac & cheese, etc. Cheap and satisfying.
  3. Don’t get me started on the corner o’ candy. Until today, I just thought it was a place to avoid at all times to keep my cavity-less mouth, where you could find every sweet thing – wrapped or otherwise. And I mean anything…including those unfortunate licorice all sorts, caramel cubes, chocolate covered potato chips and the too-damn-big jawbreakers. Though I may or may not have spent a solid 10 minutes going through the ingredient lists of their 20 assortments of gummies seeing which ones ended with “this product is kosher”. To my surprise and delight, they had real gummy bears and real gummy worms that were in fact “kosher”. Due to a dietary restriction of all things pig, I tend to refrain from sweets with gelatin. Though I must say the flavors of these gummy bears are fairly unconventional – all 12 of them. I’m pretty sure I came across a grapefruit, possibly a guava…definitely grape. But they taste normal and everything – I had to throw them from arm’s length just now to prevent finishing my half pound. Hipster confectionery, anyone?
  4. An international aisle is pretty awesome, but know what’s really awesome? Three. And when these aisles have Sprite, we’re talking waaaay awesome. You know, the soda? American soda’s fizzy and all, but try a coke from…really anywhere but the states, and you may perceive an unfamiliar sweetness to it. It definitely makes a difference. That’s because we love us some high fructose corn syrup! Unfortunately, I’m not one to drink the stuff. Luckily, everyone else had their thinking caps on straight when they were making their own formulas…all you’ll see in the ingredient list as a sweetener is…wait for it….sugar. Sweet.
  5. Their conveniently sized shopping carts. Can’t carry your flour and milk without your arm getting tired? Grab a cute-cart! Great for maneuvering around the daylight-hour crowds.

In conclusion: Wegmans rocks.

Some form of fried shrimp, scallop dim sum, lamb samosa, loaded basmati rice
It even looks classier
Ingredients:….sugar….
Ingredients:

Halloweekend (#1): DIY Dinner

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 A fine meal. Ghetto? Noo, resourceful…
Happy Halloween! Despite the diminutive “kitchen” in my dorm, and deficient collection of appropriate cooking tools, I am not always discouraged from making/helping make a meal for myself and friends. Really anything is better than cooked broccoli and soft beef tacos from the dining hall. This past weekend Rebecca, Tommy, Wei En and I got together at Shyla’s apartment to make dinner. Definitely on the top 10 list of potluck dinner-making events…if I had more than 10 occasions to rank. Rebecca started us off with tubed (tubed? already processed, perhaps) polenta. I’m still relatively unfamiliar with the dish as it was the first time that I know of that I had it. Rebecca put some balsamic vinegar on the pieces and finished them off with some goat cheese and craisins. She also made a salad with raspberries, homemade dressing and more of the craisin-cheese topping. Then Tommy made this baked brie dish thing covering a block of brie in a brandy and brown sugar glaze. Toasted some appropriately French bread to ingest with; what a concept. There was pasta…I was “cooking” it, though no one seemed to trust my see-if-the-pasta’s-soft-or-not skills…-_____- Red sauce and pesto were made for the pasta. The one thing they apparently did trust me in (and rightly so mwahaha!) was dessert. Dessert would definitely be my area of expertise…not that I can’t produce an exceptional pan-cooked lamb kebab dinner, either 😛 Aanyway…appreciating the season and preferring health over grease and simplicity over effort (or so I thought…oops), I made a satisfyingly sweet finale. I have to credit Tumblr for this brilliant idea of apple donuts which were legen-wait for it….dary! You slice apples horizontally and core them to cover them in peanut butter, and top them off with chocolate chips, raisins, dates, sliced almonds, or whatever your heart desires. So no, there were no real donuts involved. And of course you can use whatever spread as well, like NUTELLA! My budget did not make space for such luxuries, but next time…definitely next time…
Hard(er) at work
Rebecca & her polenta
This will be happening again…
Brie in the making
My masterpieces – don’t be fooled: harder than they look!

Munchies and Manhattan – First Post!

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French Roast Dinner

Hey there! Thought I’d kick-start my new food blog with Rebecca and my particularly extravagant weekend trip to NYC last week. Arriving in the Upper West Side Wednesday after long hours of commuting, we walked to the 24-hour French-inspired, you could say, restaurant French Roast for dinner. Deciding to save some money for the rest of our stay, we shared mac&cheese appetizer with an arugula, mango & goat cheese salad. Surprisingly filling! The goat cheese came in two lumps that I think were fried? The outside was crunchy and the inside was warm. Super tasty…though requiring a little more effort to integrate with the rest of the salad.

The Hummus Place!

Hummus Place’s Homemade Lemonade with Mint
Grabbing breakfast at Hot & Crusty, we spent Thursday (successfully!) shopping in SoHo and met Rebecca’s brother, Ben, at….wait for it….The Hummus Place! Lunch here consists of a plate of warm hummus with various toppings (boiled egg for me!) and a basket of pita bread. Unless, of course, you want to spite yourself and the restaurant you’re in with an eggplant sandwich.
After lupper, we headed to the show Fuerza Bruta by Union Square. Calling it different would be a gross understatement. Headed back to Café Lalo in the Upper West Side for dessert before going back to the apartment.
Apparently not all diners are greasy or covered in chrome. The City Diner was pretty fresh and swanky…as with most things in this neck of the woods. I don’t think I’ve been to a diner without getting pancakes…but it’s fine because they were darn good – I almost finished them and everything. Overall, solid food for a solid stay in the city.
Oreo Mousse and Chocolate Lava Cake @ Cafe Lalo
The City Diner