Single (and cooking) in the City
Food, life, love, and fun recipesOh Marea!
Anyone who has gone out to dinner with me multiple times know that when I enjoy a particular dish at a restaurant, and I mean really enjoy, I will forget the rest of the menu ever existed and always order the exact some thing every time I go.
Case in point – Marea. One of my favorite restaurants. It’s amazing that I can even name two dishes that I love equally as much here, but I struggle with the choice every time – Spaghetti with Crab and Uni or Fusilli with Bone Marrow and Octopus? Unluckily for my date, that usually means he gets to default to the other one I don’t get to order. Because I’d never order 2 mains for myself. Do I plan on fitting into my clothes tomorrow??
Any way, I digress. So. The only room left for experimentation at Marea is everything pre-entree.
Check out our spread during our last trip-
These are not small. It took up the entire table!
We had:
deliciously sweet lobster over creamy burrata and little pops of basil seeds
barely cooked egg and crispy little frog legs – really well dressed. the salad I mean.
grilled soft shell crab – like eating the most delicious spider ever. ok, that analogy is kind of gross. but this was really good.
yuuuummmmmm.
Superbowl Junkies
Congratulations to all the Giants fans tonight! I’m not a huge sports fanatic, but it does give me a great excuse to experiment with junk-food madness style treats like the Chicken & Waffle Cupcake:
Inspired by Robicelli’s and turned into reality by The Novice Chef – thank you ready made waffles, and Burger King nuggets – the only hard part was piping icing onto the cupcake and not onto my hands!
The Pre-Chicken Version : almost too pretty to eat.
Another junkfood treat prepared for tonight’s superbowl party – Compost Cookies. Yum!
Baked Eggs and Biscuits Brunch
Teamwork!
One of those rare mornings when I wake up on the brink of afternoon time – my favorite because I get to skip a meal to plan – and we get to make brunch!!
Kel and I had a pretty good brunch yesterday at The Smile, and we decided to recreate it. I wanted a veggie version with spinach and broccoli and he was set on hot Italian sausage. While he was preparing all that, I made biscuits.
Ta-da!
Spinach and Broccoli
Sausage and Extra Eggs
And perfectly timed – a plate of homemade biscuits and wheat toast.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We made cornbread! It tastes funny.
The texture, on the other hand, is heavenly.
Can’t Choose Between Land and the Sea
Oh no! This is turning into a monthly post blog <insert sad face here>. And I have no good excuses, because there are NEVER any good excuses for NOT making your own meals.
All preaching aside, tonight’s dinner was particularly memorable and post-worthy, mostly because I thought the pictures came out pretty good. Vibrant… semi-ok composition… succulent… you can almost taste the images! (That might just be me, with the bad habit of attempting to eat photographs.)
What do you do when you turn into an incompetent decision maker? Seafood… or meat? Why not have it all?!
Rack of lamb, lobster, and roasted asparagus
Oh heck yea. You sear the lamb on both sides, then roast at 450 for 10 mins and 350 until it reaches desired level of doneness.
For me, that means if I can’t gnaw on it still twitching, I’ll take something closer to rare.
Lobster – bright red and ready to join the party after a 15 minute soak in the tub on the stove.
Sweet Potato Hash Saturday
Put an end to lazy Saturdays! Because those don’t generate mouth-watering dishes like this:
Off to a productive start – Kel had finished his morning run and the polish on my nails had just dried after a trip to the salon (my definition of productivity is obviously slightly different) – we met up at the supermarket. Two red skinned potatoes, one yam to substitute for sweet potato, a red onion, and a bunch of scallions. Working with the red pepper already sitting in the fridge, this breakfast cost less than $2.
Sweet Potato Hash
- 2 red skinned potatoes, 1 sweet potato – little cubes
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1 scallion, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 2 eggs, poached
Boil the potatoes until tender, 10 minutes. Saute the onion and red pepper, then add potatoes. Spread it out in a thin layer so you can get that sizzle and browning on the bottom. Stir occasionally and add the scallions, salt and pepper. Get someone who is good at poaching eggs to work their magic.
Plate, eat, and chat about how wonderful the previous night was…
The beautiful Imperial No. 9 at the newly opened Mondrian Soho
Gorgeous greenhouse meets ABC Kitchen look, with a delicious sounding seafood centric menu from Sam Talbot (according to Kel, a hunky Top Chef alum). We tried the small raw bar sampler, amazing peppery cocktail sauce, and the dessert – banana bread pudding – which I could eat endless plates of.
The crab was salted on the shell, which I’ve never noticed anywhere else before. That little bit of detail made it taste all the more amazing.
Looks like someone got the to the dessert before my camera did, but trust my description: this was a deliciously playful plating of 2 cubes of bread pudding, alternated with semifreddo discs and smears of chocolate. I’m looking forward to trying more of the menu next time.
Back from Taiwan
10 days. 1 city. way too much food. After this “vacation” I could barely stand to stomach 2 bites of food without experiencing a bit of stomachache and nausea.
At the very tippy top of my list – Din Tai Fung – home of my favorite soup dumplings red bean dumplings. (I still love the soup dumplings, but considering some closer and just as amazing options here… I think I could skip the 13 hour plane ride.)
You will be kicking yourself if you don’t order some small dish appetizers. These 3 brown ones… are the best. (I am useless. I don’t remember the names, but there is a dish of spongy tofu, bean sprouts, and a “house special” mix.)
Veggies and dumplings – this picture brings a tear to my eye.
Pleats intricate enough to give Issey Miyake a run for his money.
You can never have enough dumplings… especially if they are filled with red bean.
And the lightest, fluffiest sponge cake (made from rice flour?) I’ve yet to find in New York.
Man, its so depressing to be back.
