Update, of sorts

Wow, I have not written in a while. I will try to do a real update sometime soon, but in the meantime... pretty Fall pictures!

Update time!

Instead of taking the time to patiently update with a few posts, I'm going to jam all my recent happenings into a single one. Picture time!!!

First up, I had another dogsitting gig, this time in Manhattan. I stayed at a fancy building downtown near City Hall about a 10 minute walk from the Manhattan Chinatown.

Fancy and large apartment complex. I think
there are close to 75 stories in this thing.

View from the window, at 47 floors up.

It was easy to get to Chinatown and eat this. Rice casserole with various
Chinese sausage, and a pork patty, all mixed with a thick sweet soy.

I also took a short trip out of town to Boston. It was nice to get out of town for a little while, and play at being a tourist.

A view of the Boston skyline, from the top of a hill in nearby
Somerville. Looks a little puny next to New York!

Visiting the Harvard campus. Here, enters
lots of smart kids.

Kicking it back in Harvard Yard. 

While meandering around the North End neighborhood of Boston, we
stumbled on a store filled with patrons. Of course this meant I had
to buy something! Turns out, Mike's Pastry is a pretty popular
spot for classic Italian desserts. We tried an amaretto cannoli and a mini
bavarian creme puff. Both were light and delicious.

I also tried some ice cream from a local
chain. This was their apple pie ice cream in
a cup, topped with caramel sauce. I asked
for a cone as well for some crunchy goodness.

Looking up into one of the 6 towers that make up Boston's
Holocaust Memorial. Each pane of glass is etched with the numbers
of victims; each tower hold about 1 million names.

I thought this wall in Cambridge was lovely! 

It's definitely been a busy couple of weeks, to kick of the start of Fall!

Fancy Food at Home

So for my birthday, my parents got me a Whole Foods gift card. Which means... splurge time! Like a kid in a candy store, I walked around in circles, trying to pick out what I wanted to eat. So far, I've made two really pretty and delicious meals.

Dinner #1:

Seared scallops on a bed of polenta and fresh corn, accompanied by
a chimichurri sauce

The scallops were pricey, but worth the expense. Measuring over an inch in diameter each, they were sweet and matched well with the corn. The chimichurri sauce helped brighten the dish by adding some acidity (and color!).

Dinner #2 may not be particularly expensive, but it was the first time that I made fresh pasta and so I'm especially proud of it.

Homemade ravioli with a fresh tomato cream sauce

Ravioli was filled with a mixture of ricotta and parmesan cheese, lemon
zest, and cracked black pepper.

Making pasta dough is COMPLETELY different than making bread dough. It's much tougher to knead, as the gluten seizes up. The pasta ended up a tad tough (especially on the edges where it's double in thickness), but it still tasted delicious. For the sauce, I simply simmered some chopped tomatoes until it broke down, stirred in some basil, and added a splash of heavy cream and a dab of butter before serving.

Sakagura

For my birthday last week, I celebrated by having dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. It's in an unusual location, tucked away in the basement of a really stuffy-looking business building. I've been going to this place for probably close to a decade now, and it has amazingly held up in quality. 

Does this door look like the entrance to culinary pleasures? No?

The only signal that there is a restaurant
at the location.

Going down to the basement, via some
horror-movie-worthy stairs.

Apparently, the stairs are a secret passageway straight to Japan!
(not my picture... just wanted to show what the place looks like)

Walking into Sakagura makes me feel as if they shot a portal straight into Japan; as soon as you walk in, you forget that you're in a basement of a boring office building. The dim lighting, wooden counters, and cherry blossoms all work together to create the illusion that you have stepped into another country. Popularly known as a sake bar, Sakagura has over 200 selections to choose from. But naturally, I wasn't there for the alcohol... let's take a look at the food!

Hirame Ponzu. Thinly sliced fluke, topped with grated daikon radish and
dressed in a citrus vinaigrette. The fluke was amazingly fresh and sweet,
while the grated daikon added an appetizing acidity.

Kamo Roast. Slices of chilled roast duck wrapped around scallion and
accented with basil sauce. This little bite is amazing. The roast duck is
tender, slightly smoky and salty. The scallion adds a little bit of textural
contrast as well as a teeny bit of a bite. The lemon, plus a dab of
basil sauce deepens the complexity of the dish, adding a fresh aroma.

Gindara Yuan Yaki. Grilled cod fillets steeped in sweet soy sauce.

The cod was perfectly cooked and flaky. The soy marinade lends a
subtle caramelization to the dish, which suited the fatty cod perfectly. A
whisper of some sort of cooking wine rounded out the flavor.

Kani Donabe Gohan, one of the special dishes of the day. We had to wait
over a half hour for it to arrive. Steamed rice, cooked with snow crab and
crab butter.

This was a surprisingly subtle dish; none of the flavors knocked me
over the head. Instead, the gentle sweetness of the crab worked in
conjunction with the soft sticky rice. I would have been disappointed if
I was expecting this to take center stage, but it worked really well with
the other strongly-flavored dishes.

Chawanmushi. Steamed egg custard served with chicken, shrimp, and
ginko nuts topped with a thickened ponzu sauce.

The egg custard was unbelievably smooth, it pretty much melted in my
mouth. The ponzu sauce was interesting but not necessary in my
opinion... the slight tartness detracted from the true eggy flavor.

We were disappointingly too full to even glance at their (excellent) dessert menu, which featured intriguing items such as a black sesame creme brulee. I left satisfied and full, ready to take on whatever surprises that this new year in my life will bring.

Necessity is the mother of... good food...?

I love cooking because sometimes it's science, and sometimes it's art. And once in a while, it's the magic of two totally unrelated items, bound together into one surprisingly delicious mouthful.

When I opened my fridge up yesterday, there was some leftover polenta that I had left sitting in a ramekin. Polenta by itself is delicious, but I didn't have enough to have as an entire meal. A quick inventory check turned up mushrooms. And zuchinni. All good stuff. But then my imaginary mad-chef light bulb dinged, as I spied some chinese sausage in a side shelf. Oh the madness! Or... is it? Polenta is pretty much used as the staple starch in northern Italy, so that's like rice, right? Right???!

To start, I pan-fried the leftover round of polenta

On top of the polenta, I added a seared round of zucchini, and some
diced mushrooms and chinese sausage. Looks pretty already! Seeing
these layers, I was struck again by my hidden mad-chef. This reminded me
a lot of eggs benedict, with its round layers. So the logical next step is...

Adding an egg on top! I was too lazy to poach the egg, so it's just fried
sunny-side up. Mmmm, yummy layers.

Creamy yolk, canvassing all the little nooks and crannies underneath.

It certainly LOOKS good, but how does it taste? Surprisingly delicious.
The salty/sweet fat from the chinese sausage worked perfectly with
the creaminess of the polenta. The zucchini added a nice greenness, and
the egg just bound everything together.

Holy cow, did I just cook a fusion dish??? Watch; Momofuku is going to be serving up this combo in 6 months!

Salad for dinner

I'm finally home again! It was cute and fun to have a dog around, but I don't think I'm cut out for pet ownership. They're so needy and clingy... I don't think I'd be okay with that after a while.

Anyway, it's nice to be in my own kitchen again with all my usual ingredients and tools. Since it's still technically summer, I wanted to make something light and seasonal for dinner. It ended up being kind of a kitchen sink sort of dish, but still very delicious and fresh!

Not pictured: the rest of the salad. Of course I'm eating more than this
little plate!

I started with jicama as a base, then added carrots and radishes into the mix. Three different types of crunchy, with the sweetness of the jicama and carrots offsetting the slight bitterness of the radish. To that, I added a handful of local summer tomatoes. It's amazing how much sweeter and juicier tomatoes are when they're in season! I had some herbs in the fridge, and julienned in a handful (mint, cilantro) before dressing everything with a lime and sesame oil vinaigrette. I let everything hang out in the fridge for about half an hour, then it's chomping time!

Sweet, tart, crunchy and juicy... the only thing that would have made this better is some protein (mmm... shrimp!). But alas, my fridge is pretty bare at the moment, so I will just have to be vegetarian for the evening.

Jersey Scenes

The weather has been surprisingly nice in New York this month: not too hot, and mostly sunny. I've been enjoying my time with Ollie (the dog); it will almost be sad when it comes time to leave in a few days!

Hanging out with Ollie

Watching the clouds float by as Ollie and I hang out

View from one of the balconies by day. We're juuust northwest of
Manhattan, and this is the view into the Upper West Side. Some of
the taller midtown/downtown buildings are visible.

Same view, by night. One of the taller blots of lights near the middle
(in blue) is the Empire State Building.

This is like Toto! On the yellow brick road!

Love LOVE Mitsuwa

I think the most exciting thing about my dogsitting gig is that it's located near one of my favorite grocery stores. It's not ordinary grocery store, of course. The place is called Mitsuwa, and it sells exclusively all Japanese products. In addition, there's a delicious food court in the front, all showcasing fantastic food.

As soon as you walk in the door, you're greeted by multiple displays of food. They're all fake, of course, but it gives an idea of all the food available!

Fake food in windows. Still looks yummy!

This vendor showcases different ramen dishes.

This vendor offers different fried meats paired with rice.

I walked back and forth for 10 whole minutes, trying to figure out what to get. I couldn't decide between rice and noodles, and finally found a set lunch where I didn't have to choose!

Pork katsu mini don, with a mini udon bowl. Yes, I had carbs... with a side
of carbs! Accompanying were two pieces of tamagoyaki (Japanese egg
omelette) and some orange slices.

The "after" picture! I was hungry! And boy, it's a good thing that the
supermarket is a mile walk from the apartment... I need the exercise after
eating the huge meal!

My stomach sated, I spent some time roaming around the huge space. Every item you can imagine in Japanese cuisine was available.

A whole wall of miso options!

Mmm. Calbee chips in many flavors. Which one to get??

Was tempted to splurge on this fancy wagyu beef.

One of my favorite displays... pickles! I managed to limit myself to one
pickle purchase... for this visit.

There's prepared food available in the supermarket section too. Here's
some really fresh-looking sushi. The salmon don looks delicious!

More prepared food. There's a big selection of onigiri (rice balls) on the
top row, then other pre-cooked food. There's a microwave nearby,
handy for immediate consumption.

I was able to curb my spending for the visit, and just got some food for future meals. But I have a feeling I'll be visiting a lot over the next week! Hey, at a mile walk each way, it counts as exercise... right...?