My roommate and I hosted a sushi night at our new apartment a couple weeks back and it was a major success.  He got sushi-grade ahi tuna, flounder, white tuna, and salmon from his fishmonger at our local market, and I picked up all the groceries we needed at the Korean grocery store, Han Ah Reum (H-Mart).  We invited a bunch of people over and just asked they contribute for the cost of the food.  He got about 16 lbs sushi-grade fish for a total of $107.  Not bad, I think.

Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the white tuna, but clockwise from top right: flounder, ahi, and salmon, my roommate looking at the ahi with loving eyes.

We prepped a huge amount of ingredients to include in rolls.  In addition to the fish, there was also imitation crab meat sticks, baked eel, and shrimp.  For add ins, we had scallions, cucumber, avocado, sushi rice (obvi), panko, sesame seeds, roe, and edamame to munch on throughout it all.

My friend, Meg, was a pro at rolling.

Some of the combinations that people tried out.

Finished products!!  (No one was allowed to eat until all the sushi was made).  I think my only criticism of the sushi was that there was too much rice on some of the rolls.  But that’s just something you learn and we’ll do better next time =).

Also made some tempura with Korean sweet potato, carrots, and zucchini.

I definitely want to do something like this again.  Perhaps, a Korean BBQ night is in the works?  Stay tuned…

the map:

since it was a walking tour, we had to skip out on a few places that i really wanted to try (tribeca treats, billy’s bakery, babycakes) and a few favorites (buttercup, sugar sweet sunshine) because they were too far. but this was a pretty good effort. and now i have more places to visit for next time. :)

fawn and i met up in union sq, which meant we had to skip cupcake cafe because it was backtracking, so we started off at…

stop 1: crumbs

fawn sent me a 6 pack of giant crumbs cupcakes for my birthday, but she had never tried them herself, so it was a must go for her.  the cupcakes are huge, probably the size of a large man’s fist.

hello red velvet cupcake + sprinkles

the innards.

stop 2: batch

our next stop was batch, pichet ong’s take out bakery, but unfortunately it was moving locations that weekend, which meant it was closed. :(  very sad.

stop 2.5: grey’s papaya

it’s okay though, because on our way from batch, we stumbled upon grey’s papaya!  when i interned in nyc, i was so excited about grey’s because not only are the hot dogs awesome (no, seriously, they’re really good) but they’re super cheap!  my plan that summer (since my internship was unpaid) was to eat these everyday to save money. haha. fortunately it didn’t come to that, but grey’s papaya still holds a special place in my heart.  and in fawn’s! :)

close up. hot dog + bun + sauerkraut.  i usually get onions too. and then put relish, ketchup and mustard on it, but this time i refrained.  fawn and i split one hotdog. because we knew there were more cupcakes left to eat.

stop 3: magnolia bakery

i’ve been to magnolia’s a few times before, but have never been really impressed. however, i’ve also never had their red velvet cupcake, and it was in the area, so we thought we’d give it a shot. mistake. it was not even red-velvet like. tasted like dyed red normal flavorless cake.

the cupcakes. hand frosted.

the red velvet.

innards.

stop 3.5: murray’s cheese shop

i’ve heard a lot about murray’s cheese shop (i love cheese) and so when we randomly walked by and saw it, i dragged fawn in with me. it was like, cheese heaven… with free samples!  we were going to buy some cheese + meat to go eat in the park, but i think both of us knew that that would probably be a bad idea consider how much food we had already eaten / were going to eat.

cheeeeeeeeese.

stop 3.75: new york hotdog and coffee

also stumbled upon new york hotdog & coffee, which i had also heard about. apparently it’s a chain from korea (the name is ironic) and they basically put korean meats on hotdog. so it’s … meat on meat.

i only have pictures of the fake food cause we didn’t try it. $6 was too much to pay for a hotdog w/ extra meat, esp on a cupcake tour, but maybe another time.

stop 4: tonnie’s minis

right near NYU, so the kids working there were college students and super nice and friendly.

cupcakes galore.

red velvet close up. these were the best of the bunch.

innards. sooooo good and red velvety. :D

done.

stop 5: sweet revenge

i liked this place a lot. the space was super cute, the cupcakes and food looked pretty, and they have beer + cupcake pairings.

choices, choices, choices.

obviously we went with the red velvet.

different from the rest because they incorporated raspberries into both the frosting and the cake. i really liked it though.

so, in conclusion, the ratings from best to worst.

FAWN:

1. tonnie’s minis (she brought some back to SF to share) – though, was she also persuaded by the cute NYU kid working there? :P
2. crumbs
3. sweet revenge
4. magnolia

ME:

1. sweet revenge (the raspberries won me over)
2. tonnie’s minis
3. crumbs
4. magnolia

anyone want to go on a cupcake tour with me again to the other places i didn’t get to try out? :D

Vanilla Moon Bakery - San Carlos, CA

The cake: a bit tough and dry but easily managed without utensils

The frosting: more buttery than I like but not overly sweet and balances out the cake supporting it

The last bite: the cupcake comes in a modest quantity which makes it good for an after-meal palette cleanser, sadness for the mound of frosting left by its lonesome after the cake was gone

Sprinkles Cupcakes - Palo Alto, CA

The cake: moist (as demonstrated by the grease stains on my napkin) and had a nice “light” and airy body that is more typical of full grown cakes

The frosting: though parching-ly sweet, had a good creamy consistency and a nice “crust” factor that I like on cupcakes

The last bite: the cupcake is all-around solid and can stand as a meal in itself,  points++ for good frosting-to-cake ratio and cool presentation

Kara’s Cupcakes - Palo Alto, CA

The cake:  sadly no red velvet on the menu!  carrot cake substitute was pretty tasty, moist, and not too greasy but crumbled quite easily when handled

The frosting: creamy with a soft “crust” factor and not too sweet,  seems to have beef with the cake cuz it really didn’t want to stay on there

The last bite: nice presentation, I wish I had a fork… and maybe a bib…

Sweet Things - San Francisco, CA

The cake:  dry and not very flavorful

The frosting: creamy and light but the only memorable thing was that it helped mask the dryness of the cake

The last bite: unfortunately this cupcake falls a bit short of “gourmet” status in my book.  It would be a close call between the Sweet Things cupcake and a cupcake you can find at your local grocery store bakery.

That Takes the Cake - San Francisco, CA

The cake:  very moist but not greasy or overly heavy, reminded me of light pound cake

The frosting: thick and pasty (as opposed to creamy, but in a good way) with an awesome “crust” factor

The last bite: at first glance, this unassuming cupcake doesn’t look like anything special… but  from frosting and cake to price and portion, this cupcake rocked all-around!  No complaints aside from the empty wrapper after I finished savoring every morsel.  Points++ for kool cupcake names.

Current Top Pick = That Takes the Cake

• uniqlo, 10:30am (for pants – apparently there are no uniqlos in sf)
• ippudo, 11am
• takoyaki @ otafuku
• momofuku milk bar

the uniqlo trip took long than expected, and it was already past 11am when we left soho. knowing that i would be upset if we had to wait for 2hrs to eat ramen, we took a cab a few blocks up to ippudo — and were seated immediately!  success.

stop 1: ippudo ny

michelin recommended ramen.

the original “shiromaru hakata classic”. personally i thought the broth was a little too salty. the noodles were great though. but it wasn’t my favorite … i think i like ramen setagaya better, cause the egg is not boiled all the way (soft boiled?) and it comes with seaweed, which i like. worth my $15? mmmmm… i duno…

stop 2: otafuku

fawn’s favorite hole-in-the-wall is a must eat. takoyaki + okonomiyaki.

i’m personally not a huge fan of okonomiyaki in general, but i do love the takoyaki from this place. unfortunately i was still so full from the day before and from ramen that i could only eat one of the balls. but it was still soooo good. and fresh. and hot. yum.

stop 3: momofuku milk bar

i’ve been meaning to try this place since it opened, but never had an opportunity … until now!  unfortunately i JUST missed their cereal milk soft serve, and their new flavors weren’t as exciting for me – they were based on candy, like sour gummy, chocolate mint, fireball, and red licorice.  i tried the sour gummy and the chocolate mint — both tasted like the candy they were supposed to, but i didn’t want either as a full cup of froyo. so i opted for a cookie instead.

the most intruiging cookie, the compost cookie: cookie + butterscotch chips + chocolate chips + pretzels + potato chips. i was intruigued by the potato chips, but you couldn’t really taste them. the cookie as a whole was pretty good though.

close up of a pretzel piece.

we then went home and took a nap. too much eating leads to food coma. then fawn met up w/ tony and went to chikalicious while i hung out at home and took another nap. :D

then we went to dinner…

stop 4: shanghai mong

the only thing i ever get here is the jjambong + jjajangmyung combo. even though i’m not a huge fan of either, i feel like it’s what the place is known for, so it must be the best thing on the menu…? i duno, i think the jjajangmyung is comes w/ too much jjajangsauce (can i call it that?) and i’m just not a huge fan of jjambong in general. but it’s fawn’s fav. :)

stop 5: players sports bar / lounge

we’ve been going to players since we discovered it summer after junior year when interning in nyc. it was where we discovered the awesomeness of lychee soju and where we used to take all out-of-town visitors. so fawn visiting means we must go back, at least for nostalgia sake. :)

fawn introduced her new favorite drink: yogurt soju. and the idea of pouring shots of half regular soju, half flavored soju, so we’re not just drinking juice. pictured above: soju, yogurt soju, lychee soju.

close up of lychee in soju. :D back in the day we used to try to fish out the fruit w/ chopsticks after we finished the soju. hahaha. soju infused lychee is pretty awesome.

i recently learned that when korean people go out, they can say “service” and then get free stuff. i’m not 100% sure how we ended up with this free fruit platter, but all i know is that it was “service”.  oh, and that tony yelled at me when it came b/c he thought i ordered it … “WHY DID YOU WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THAT?!! FRUIT?!!!” yikes. but then he apologized, and i forgave him, and he enjoyed the “service”.

stop 6: mad for chicken

i’m still mad that bonchon is gone and that it has become mad for chicken. not cool. but fawn had never had bonchon (or korean fried chicken), and heard enough rave reviews about it, so we had to go. i think it is different from bonchon — it seemed like the breading (or whatever the fried stuff is) is not the same, and there is more of it.  it was still good though, the flavor was more-or-less the same.

close up of the chicken. spicy + soy garlic combo. spicy = the best.  not pictured: more lychee soju. :D

and … that’s the end of day 2.

lunch: yuca bar & cafe

got out early from work (yaaaaay) and met up with daipan for a late lunch. picked yuca bar b/c of it’s food and because it has happy hour ’til 8pm. yeeeeeeesssss.

i was originally thinking one beer during lunch, then got coerced (not so hard to convince me though) to split a pitcher of sangria. which means, half a pitcher each …

my food (from the bfast menu): yuca benedictos. damn good. poached eggs on top of avocado guac stuff on top of yuca hashbrowns that had shrimp in it. w/ cilantro hollandaise sauce on the side.

daipan’s lunch: cubano sandwich w/ yuca fries and this onion salsa. also really good.

after lunch drinks: mcsorley’s

okay by this time it was like 5pm, so don’t judge. i’ve been to mcsorley’s once before, in the middle of the afternoon as well, during a scavenger hunt for work. every time i’m in the area w/ tourists i always tell them about this “oldest bar in new york” and we always check it out but it’s always so crowded. at 5pm though, not so crowded. we even got seats at the tables in the back (i didn’t even know there were tables!)

there are only two kinds of beer: light and dark. you can also only order in pairs. 2 mugs = $4. we ordered 2, but the bar guy thought we ordered 2 orders, which is 4. either way. beer.

dessert: butter lane cupcakes

i never knew there was a cupcake place in the e.village until friday. we stumbled upon it on our way to check out thompkins sq. park (which i had also never been to, only walked by at night so it was shady). and who can resist cupcakes?!

the menu. a little confusing at first but basically you pick your cake, then your frosting. so everything is mix and match.

having already eaten and drank too much, we split a cupcake. chocolate cake + espresso frosting. not the BEST cupcakes i’ve ever had, but not the worst. after talking about it, i self proclaimed that i am like a food critic to which daipan replied, “no you’re not, you’re just critical of food”.   … whatever.

pre-dinner snack: seoul station

again, another unplanned eating stop. on our way to meet richard for more happy hr drinks (this time i only had one small glass of sangria, even though there was a 2-for-1 special), we walked by seoul station, which i had just read about a few days ago (thus, it was freshly ingrained in my head) for having “korean tacos”. basically created to bring kogitruck-esque tacos to nyc and piggy-backing off their success.  i was kinda excited because korean food and tacos are two of my favorites, but…

spicy pork taco. let me just say that if this is what the hype is about, then i don’t get it. maybe i should have tried the bulgogi one? but then it’s just bulgogi … in a tortilla. i can do that. but maybe this is just a lame imitation.

close up of the innards.

“dinner” #1: yakitori taisho

is dinner really necessary when you finished lunch at 5pm and didn’t stop eating afterward? no. is it okay to do it for social purposes though? i guess? we got some stuff to split for the table (6 ppl total) and i only partook in eating the stuff we split.

fried potatoes. basically like the same as spanish potatoes bravas.

rock shrimp. pretty good, even after it was hyped up.

yakitori! meat, meat, meat, and scallions.

“dinner” #2: pocha 32

my long-weekend visitor, fawn, who was staying with me, got in around 10:30. knowing that she would be starving and craving food from ktown, she had made the plan beforehand to go to pocha 32 for soju & grub. i had planned on this, and also planned on not eating dinner (thus making room for this late dinner). that plan failed after the half pitcher of sangria, but, i went to ktown anyways. and ate anyways, though not nearly as much as i would have otherwise, and not nearly as happily.

the place hangs soju caps on the ceiling as decoration. classy. :)

food in darkness. minus the seafood pancake.

food in flash. squid stuffed w/ pork + dukbokgi (spicy rice cake)

whole squid. stuffed w/ pork. served on hot plate. cut up at the table. i have never had this before and it is probably one of the best things i’ve ever had. i only ate a small piece b/c i was so full, but i wish i had the stomach to eat more. it was soooooo good. i’m drooling just thinking about it.

… and so concludes memorial day weekend foodathon day 1 aka impromptu day of eating randomness that shouldn’t have happened but i’m glad it did. :)

uncooked awesomeness. double layer pepperoni and cheese on a round thin crust.

close up of the cheese + pepperoni.  drool.

laura’s masterpiece: sauceless pizza w/ fresh basil, buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes.

red, white and green. just like an italian flag.

i wasn’t planning on having pictures of people in my entries, as it detracts from the pictures of the food,  but matt wanted to make a special appearance. here he is oogling the veggie pizza (sauce, cheese, peppers + onions). notice how half of it is redder than the other half. i wanted to put fresh mozzarella on but sarah didn’t so we made a half / half pizza. sarah then refused to eat from my side. :P

close-up of my half. :)

fully baked pepperoni pizza amazingness.

sauceless pizza is actually pretty good. :)  though i think anything w/ melted cheese on it is delicious.

3 large thin crust pizzas + 1 salad + 1 huge case of beer + 5 hungry people = awesome.  i love having friends that like to cook and eat. :D

]]> http://veryfoodieofyou.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/homemade-pizza-party-5-16/feed/ 1 linda pepperoni uncooked IMG_1454 no sauce uncooked no sauce full view matt and veggie my side of veggie pepperoni cooked no sauce cooked http://veryfoodieofyou.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/a-sunday-of-gluttony-in-baltimore/ http://veryfoodieofyou.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/a-sunday-of-gluttony-in-baltimore/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 04:00:55 +0000 Emily http://veryfoodieofyou.wordpress.com/?p=123 ]]> Emily, here!  Linda has been begging and begging me to post on her blog, so I’m finally getting around to it.  I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to distinguish it from my personal food blog (yes I’m self-promoting), but I’m sure it will all work itself out.  I currently reside in Baltimore, MD, so most of my posts will probably involve places I’ve been to eat around this area.  A little geographic diversity never hurt anyone.  Anyway, let’s do this.

Now that spring is here, that means Sundays are Farmer’s Market Days.  The farmer’s market in downtown B’more runs from early May through late December.  Since it’s still early in the season, there isn’t a whole lot in terms of produce yet, but there are a lot of plants for those who like to grow their own gardens.  I went with a couple of my friends to the market.  This week I did see some people selling strawberries.

I’m actually moving out of my apartment in a couple of weeks, and my new roommate and I are going to grow some herbs and peppers in our new place.  There was a pretty decent selection at the market today, but I think we’re going to wait until we’re in the new place before we go too crazy with all the plants.

I wonder what a Thai Dragon Hot Pepper is….

There’s also a lot of flowers (I know, I know…it’s not food…) right now, which I think are less expensive than the ones you can buy at any local nurseries.

This is probably my favorite stand…the coffee stand!!  Serving freshly brewed Zeke’s coffee, a local coffee.  You can also purchase their coffee beans here, and they have all sorts of amazing blends.

After we left the market, we headed over to the Mill Valley Garden Center, where one of the bartenders at our favorite neighborhood dive bar serves up omelettes (most) every Sunday.  This Sunday, he had the usual build your own with some standard ingredients, but he also had a crawfish pasta in cream sauce stuffed into an omelette.  Sounds amazing, right?  Our mouths all watered a little when he described it to us.  Who would ever think to put pasta in an omelette.  Sounds weird, but it works.

The pasta

The finished omelette.  Mick’s secret to his amazing omelettes is the incredible amount of butter he uses in his cooking.  Definitely not for those trying to be heart healthy!!  But it was oh-so-good.  My friends and I had to sit and digest our food for a good twenty minutes before any of us had the strength to get up and walk around.

Following my amazing omelette, I dropped off my friends and picked up one of my girlfriends and we went and got pedicures.  I’m only saying this to show that I did do something before attempting to eat again.  After the pedis, I went with a couple other friends to Miss Shirley’s Cafe in downtown, by the Inner Harbor.  I had the Raspberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast.  It was sooooo good.  And I was soooo stuffed afterwards, I don’t know how I made it home.

So that ended my day of stuffing my face.  I ate a fruit salad for dinner to try to compensate for the unhealthiness I partook in.  I don’t think it helped that much.

food stop #1: bakeway nyc

a small bakery that caught our eye. we were looking for some breakfasty snack item to fill us up for the museum, but would allow us to eat more food later (thinking ahead!)

most of the baked goods are buffet style, and you just pick what you want. brownies, ruggaleh, cookies, etc.

shot of the breakfast items. i didn’t know i would have this blog, so i didn’t take pictures of what we actually bought. they were really really good though. if i lived near this bakery i would be 10lbs heavier for sure.

food stop #2: costco

i kind-of <3 costco. like, a lot. maybe because my parents never had a membership. maybe because everything is in bulk and super cheap. maybe because it has really great, and large $1 hotdogs (at least they were $1 in massachusetts). or maybe because it ALWAYS has free samples of food. apparently costco is also really exclusive and doesn’t even let you in without a membership. but was i going to let that get in the way?! no. my sneaky way of entering? “uhhh… my dad has a membership at home.”  ahh, the benefits of not looking your age. unfortunately, no pictures were taken, but we did get a chicken w/ some kind of sauce + rice sample. and i ate a cracker too. i also considered buying a giant pack of paper towels but realized that 1. i didn’t have a membership and 2. that it was a crazy idea.

food stop #3: white castle

having both grown up in the land of no white castle, cathie and i were excited to see one (open 24hrs!) on our way to the museum. so obviously after the museum we HAD to go. basically it was like harold and kumar go to white castle but instead we were just both harold. and female.

ahhhh. the land of small burgers and large expectations.

knowing that we were headed to astoria beer garden next (obviously we HAD to go there seeing we were already in astoria) we shared a small fries and 1 burger. after eating 1/2 of both, i’m not sure why harold and kumar drove all the way to NJ to eat these. or how a friend of mine ate like 50 in an eating contest. subpar burger — did not meet my grandiose expectations. oh well.

food stop #4: bohemian hall and beer garden

another spontaneous stop on our astoria adventure. thank goodness for cathie’s iphone that had directions to everywhere. otherwise i’d be wandering around, probably still there and lost.

we ambitiously got 1 pitcher of pale ale (golden phoenix…?) to split between the two of us. cathie also got a cup of OJ to mix w/ the beer to make a “brass monkey” drink, which is actually really good (1 part oj, 3 parts beer).

obviously we hadn’t eaten enough so we also got grilled kielbasa + fries.

in case you’re wondering, we finished the sausage, the fries, and the entire pitcher of beer. and we weren’t drunk. impressed? :P

food stop #5: han ah reum supermarket + home

genius idea from beer garden: pick up kimchi, pork belly, tofu, lettuce, and an entire container of peeled garlic from k-town and make dinner at my apt! cathie invited two of her friends over too (though only one of them showed up), so it became a spontaneous dinner party. cathie was the chef of the night, as i only contributed one dish.

this is cathie cooking pork in one skillet and tofu in the other. so fatty, but so delicious.

the spread: pork belly, rice, kimchi, fried tofu, lettuce (to wrap everything in ssam-style), a ton of garlic, and one of the few things i can make decently, chinese eggplant.

close-up of the kimchi and tofu.

between 3 people, we ate 8 servings of meat. no joke. and there was more raw pork belly (cathie is not great at estimating the amount of food people can consume, haha) that cathie took home to make an entirely new meal. i was full until like 3pm the next day. it was amazing. who needs david chang (who is korean?! who knew.) when you have a friend like cathie?! :D

“lasagna” — basically zucchini slices + squash + marinated mushrooms + tomatoes sauce + this sauce made from nuts which is supposed to resemble ricotta cheese.

close up shot! the stuff on top is fake parmesan “cheese”, i think made from ground up nuts and dehydrated vegetables or something like that.

wow, those descriptions do not sound so appetizing, but raw food is not actually as bad as it may sound?  they also had this stuff called “unbread” which is what their raw sandwiches are made from. it’s like, ground up vegetables, mashed up, flattened, and dehydrated. it tasted like vegetables. i prefer normal bread.

1. i’m glad to finally have a place to put up the gazillion pictures of food i take all the time. thanks jon for initiating it and letting me join in on the food porn posting madness! :)

2. what better place to start than posting food from puerto rico?  i didn’t anticipate having a food blog, so i didn’t take pictures of a lot of the awesome food we ate, but i did take pictures of (and now am posting) the highlights.

puerto rico + vieques. 5 nights. 6 days. 7 girls. and the theme of the trip was more or less “eat now or there will be no food left for you”.

arrival in san juan, pr:

beach + free drink from the hotel. frozen mojito!! :D

day 2: old san juan

randomly stumbled upon ‘la bombonera’, a pastry shop rachel ray went to on $40 a day!

drool. these pastries were awesome. awesome breakfast.

lunch at aguaviva, starting w/ bread and the most awesomest garlic aioli spread.

omg. the ceviche was so freakin’ good. (we ordered 3 types)

day 3: vieques

just because we didn’t get to go to mexico due to swine flu doesn’t mean we can’t eat mexican food.  puerto rican nachos.

chile rellenos. i’ve never had them before and they were pretty good.

day 4: vieques

ny strip steak on the grill for dinner. :)

zucchini before grilling. i <3 zucchini.

i don’t usually like steak, but this steak was AMAZING.

my plate: amazing steak, salad + spanish rice.

day 5: vieques

not a food pic per se, but that cooler is full of goodies. veggies, fruit, meat, bread, drinks, condiments … !

day 6: old san juan

went specifically back to old san juan to eat our last meal at the parrot club. pork medallions, beans + rice, plantain salad. yuuuum.

not pictured: bottles and bottles of medella light beer, lots of nachos + salsa, 3 kinds of cheese + salami + prosciutto, homemade chorizo breakfast burritos, puerto rican paella, mofongo, eggplant fries, grilled fish, passionfruit frozen mojito, my drool.  omg what an amazing vacation.

]]> http://veryfoodieofyou.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/samplings-from-puerto-rico-5-1-5-6/feed/ 3 linda frozen mojito la bombonera bombonera bread aioli spread cevice Chiles rellenos chiles rellenos DSC_0364 zucchini steak cooked my plate cooler parrot club