Tataki, Satay, and Biricchino - great food

I promised to summarize my experiences in the last three restaurants that I went to.   These three restaurants are amazing with good ambiance and the food tasted good as well.

Tataki Japanese Restaurant, located at 3 Lispenard Street, was where I ate dinner tonight.  It is a primarily a sushi place where there is a sushi bar where the chefs make the orders right in front of you.  If you do not sit at the sushi bar, then the other parts of the restaurant can be very dark.  I believe it is supposed to be a romantic atmosphere, but I was by myself.  However, no one complained that I was by myself.  It was a muggy evening so I was a bit warm in there.  However, the first dish, which was the appetizer called Satay Tofu, was delicious.  It was a bit spicy, but the tofu melts in your mouth.  The bean sprouts at the bottom gave it a different effect with the crunchiness so there was a less soupy effect.  See below for the picture.  It is a bit dark as I said earlier:

Then, it came.  The huge sashimi entree.  There were 12 pieces of a large variety of fish, with three of the same kind.  I recognized salmon, tuna, and octopus.  This dish is entirely created by the sushi chef and he decides what he would like to prepare for you.  It was very good.  However, I think I may have eaten it too fast because I finished the entire bowl in 15 minutes.  See the dish (also in the dark) below:

Last week, I had the pleasure of eating at an Italian restaurant at Biricchino Restaurant at 260 W 29th Street.  It was my first time there.  It was a nice treat.  I have not had gnocchi for a long time so I got the opportunity.  It was chewy and had an interesting flavor.  I wonder if that was due to the cheese.  That dish is called GNOCCHI AL BURRO E SALVIA GNOCCHI WITH BROWN BUTTER & SAGE SAUCE. The vodka penne was light and easier to eat.  That dish is called PENNE ALLA VODKA PENNE PASTA IN LIGHT VODKA TOMATO CREAM SAUCE.  Both dishes are very light.  See both dishes below.

The dish above is actually the appetizer.  It is VERDURE E CAPRINO RED BEETS, STRING BEANS, AND GOAT CHEESE.  The beets were amazing!!
I am definitely going to that one again since it is so close to my office.

Two weeks ago I was hanging out in Queens and went to the next restaurant.  It is called Satay and is located at 46-01 Kissena Blvd in Queens.  It is very small and comfortable.  I sat near the window and stared out at a bunch of cars so the parking lot was right in front of me.  It was an interesting view.  However, the food was a pleasant surprise.  I had the bean curd with fish head and toori in casserole.  That was such an interesting dish.  The fish head melted and I could not see any eyes, but I eventually found one.  The picture is at the bottom below.  To balance the soup-style of the casserole, I also had the fried rice noodle with salted fish.  The salt gave this an interesting combination.  All in all I had three weeks worth of good food that were quite memorable.  I cannot wait for my next visit.

Share Our Strength Event tonight - 5/23/11

I have been quite busy and tasting many different foods at different places. Tonight, I will try to update as many places as possible in my blogs.

This is an annual event that I love to go to every year.  Sandra Lee was there signing books.  My friend is a huge fan and got to take a pix with her.  She is so short while Sandra Lee is so tall and we were a bit overwhelmed.  We can see why Governor Cuomo is impressed by her.

Back to the food.  There was more food in the past so I was a bit disappointed.

Below is a list of some of my favorite samplings tonight:

The top dish is deviled eggs with pork rind and fish.  The combination is amazing.  It is crunchy and salty.

The second dish is the grilled pork with green salsa.  My dish tasted like raw pork.  It was a bit tough.

The next two dishes were pickles and smokra tasted amazing.  Smokra is smoked okra and it is delicious.  I am going to Dean and Deluca to check this out.

Well that final picture above is mixed rum.  It is very colorful and pretty, but it was a bit cold.  It felt like I was drinking ice.

I was hoping for more variety, but it was all for charity.  Next year, I will see what they will have for me.

Food and FoodLover: Dim Sum Bakeries

La Coral vs. Tai Pan Bakeries. My usual haunt is La Coral on Main street and 38Ave. today i tried Tai Pan on Main street between 39Ave and Roosevelt. i was not glad i did this. i tried the shrimp and pork dumplings with their signature ice tea. it took a long time to come to me which had it been good quality i would not have minded, but the shrimp dumplings were ice cold inside and still raw. i had to send them back. when they came back with my order the shrimp dumplings were overdone but the pork dumplings were not really cooked. All that costed me nine dollars and i had to wait and was not satisfied with the end product.

While i was there business seem to be booming. However I think if they want things to keep going good, they will have to do the service part better. As for me, I don't think I will be going back for another try.

Adorable oreo cookies

I have not blogged for a few days - too busy at the office so I have not really gone out to eat.

I would make noodles or rice for dinner - congee for breakfast and salad for lunch.

That has been my staple for the past week....not exciting at all.

Well, I decided to write about something I saw yesterday in the refrigerator and remembered how yummy it was.

Here is a quick shot of it once I took it out - see these yummy treats that I ordered for my birthday and for my friend's baby shower:

These are the BEST!!!  They are called OREO COOKIES and are hand baked by a very good baker.  Her name is Wendy.  They are very sweet and tastes like heaven.

Here are some more shots of them:

The dark one is made with dark chocolate and the white one is made with white chocolate.

I guess I felt like treating myself today and breaking my diet for these sweets.

I have two more that I will save for when I need to have that special need for another treat.

Yummy, with sprinkles - even.  The one with the blue sprinkles was for the baby shower - since the baby was going to be a boy - as you can see, I obviously snuck some of those out for myself to munch on later like now.

If anyone wants to learn more about these yummy hand-made oreo cookies, please feel free to check out her blog: http://made2craft.wordpress.com/ - you can contact her or her sister and order these for yourself.

This darn diet - I have to wait before I can treat myself to more of these.

Tonight's supper will be vegetable soup.....oh boy, I cannot wait!!!

Tea time for a switch - Radiance Tea House and Books

As I sat at the dentist's office, I decied to start reading some of my old New York Times newspaper that I did not get a chance to read earlier.  Well, I brought them along because I know I always have a long wait at the dentist's office.

Originally, to treat myself, I was going to go to one of my favorite Vegetarian places in Chinatown like I usually do and blog about it later.

Then, I read about the various tea salons throughout New York City in The Weekend Arts Section from March 11 - yes, I am slightly behind when it comes to reading the New York Times.

I thought the peace and serenity may do some good so I decided to check out one of the tea salons listed there.  The Radiance Tea House and Books (which I will call Radiance as of now) located at 158 W 55th Street seemed like a good choice since I wanted to be on the West Side.  I was planning on going to the gym for a yoga class after my dentist appointment and one of the locations was in Columbus Circle so I thought this would work.

Around 2 pm, I arrived at Radiance.  It was packed.  A waitress came out from the back and asked me what I wanted and I said table for one.  I guess she did not hear me and set the table in the back (only one available) for two people.  I politely told her that no, it is just me having tea.  She seemed surprised, but then recovered nicely and took away the extra setting.  I started getting offended, but then I looked around me and every table had two people sitting there enjoying and sharing their tea so I guess that was the usual fare for the customers.

I received the regular lunch menu and THREE (can you believe the number of variety) menus for the teas - one was for wellness and herbal, one was for iced tea, and the last one was for traditional tea (Japanese and Chinese variety).  Since I am trying to stick to my diet, I decided to try the wellness tea and selected Sweet Elixir.

Sweet Elixir is supposed to help you with weight loss and your complexion-both areas I wanted to work on so that was what I selected.  Since I was going to blog about this experience and my blog is about food, I had to add something to munch on.  That was the combination lunch box.

When I was ready to order, I waved at the server and the tea came right away.

It looked gorgeous - so pretty!  It tasted even better.  Once I drank that, all of my frustrations melted away.

It was so good!!!  I heard similar statements at the other tables as their tea arrived and they took their sips.

The women at the next table kept repeating how wonderful their tea was.

I could not agree further.  Since they also had every tea on their menu for sale, you can purchase the teas you like as well.  I bought a packet of 24 varieties.  Obviously, I could not prepare the one that I ordered and since everyone seemed to love their teas, I bought the ones in the sachets that I can just put in hot water and pour.

Then, my combination lunch box came.  I got a choice of two types of dumplings so I selected the vegetarian dumplings and the soup ones (although that had pork in it) because I love how it fills my mouth with soup when I bite into it all at once after it cools, of course.

The picture below does not do it justice:

The top left is edamame, the top right is salad, the bottom right is the vegetable dumplings, and the bottom one on the left with the spoon is the soup dumpling.

I have to say that I enjoyed the food and the tea in this place.

They allowed me to stay as long as I wanted.  Since I wanted to finish the newspaper, I spent about 2 hours there and left around 4 pm or so.  I liked the privacy given to me by the servers although the tables were very close so I can hear everyone's conversation around me.  Therefore, there were no privacy if you wanted to have a private conversation.

They also have books for sale if you are interested in tea.

The decor was very nice and serene.

This is definitely worth checking out for anyone who loves tea and even for those who don't LOVE it, but may want to share some tea and good conversation with a friend.

I am definitely going back!!!!

Evening at Metrazur in Grand Central Station in NYC - 3/23/2011

Yeah, I learned how to add a new blog!

Terrific!

I joined two friends for dinner at Metrazur in Grand Central Station.  This is a very nice place to go to as a single older woman.  They are a bit busy so you really have to work very hard to attract their attention for service.  They do leave you alone and do not hassle you too much.  Food is brought to you very quickly once you place your order.  Everything is reasonably priced.  Average price is about $15.  I usually order one of their little pizzas.  Those are really, really good.  You must check out their menu when you arrive.

For last night, I am on a diet so I ordered tuna while one of my friends ordered fried calamari, which is another one of our favorites.  My other friend said she was not really hungry and would share our food.  By the way, the three of us have gone there a number of times - very convenient since it is located in Grand Central and we can all take the trains from there if we have a late night out.

There was also a special for a bottle of wine that night.  One bottle was $14 - who can beat that?  We took the plunge and ordered a bottle of Merlot for the table.

The fried calamari was really good as usual - again, watching my diet, so I tried not to eat too much.

The waitress did not hear my order for the tuna when she first took the order so we asked her to please order it for us later.

The tuna finally came and it looked great.

The tuna was delicious.  I went right for it with my fork and cut off a half and devoured it. 

We finished our bottle and my two friends and I toasted my new adventure in blogging.

All in all, we all had a great time, which is quite usual for us.

The food was also very good.  We usually order appetizers because that can be filling, especially for women who are counting calories and on a diet.

I would highly recommend this place to anyone who is whiling away their time in Grand Central Station.

Please do check it out.

start of my personal blog-3/21/2011

I always wanted to start blogging about food - love it- wonder if I can add pictures - will be my first attempt doing this.  I asked a number of friends and they said just try it and it is free - best part yet!!!  I love food and I like to go to different places so I thought that would be something I can blog about.

Well, here it goes!  I am going to go to a number of weddings later this year so I am going to keep a strict diet for myself so not to gain too much weight.  The food that I will be blogging about will be limited in calories and if I know the calories, I will write them down as well.