I’m always interested to read about people’s New York Diet on nymag.com and thought it would be fun to do a recap from my weekend’s festivities.
On Saturday, I started the morning with a quick breakfast of two eggs, whole wheat toast, and a healthy dose of Frank’s red hot sauce. I was introduced to Frank’s red hot sauce by my friend, Lou, and have gone through two large containers and I can’t eat eggs without it! I ran some errands and then went to J Chanceaux Macarons in Soho to help sell macarons for the day. I didn’t bring a lunch and didn’t know how long I was going to stay, but I managed to eat samples of macarons throughout the afternoon:
I left the macaron store after eating an iced macaron, a couple black sesame macarons, and a casis macaron, which I think was the best out of the bunch. Vivian, the owner, is having some problems with her fridge and it’s affecting her macaron texture, but she’s making the best of it and sales are still strong.
After helping out for the afternoon, I took the subway to Brooklyn, got lost (of course), but eventually made my way to the New York Food Truck Drive In because my friend, TJ, drove his truck in for the event. TJ and his partner own The Krave, which serves Korean tacos, sliders, and kimchi-quesadillas to people in Jersey City every weekday. I went to visit him once and took the Path all the way out to New Jersey, but they had left for the day so TJ told me to go to the event to try his food. Their truck was the most popular (by far) and people were forming a line even though they were on a break:
I stopped by to support them but didn’t want to eat too much because I was heading to The Modern for dinner at 9:30, but ended up ordering a kalbi soft taco and two kalbi sliders:
The sliders were made with marinated kalbi, kimchi, cilantro, and a little lettuce, all packaged in really soft buns. I ate them in two bites each and was so hungry that I felt like I needed to slow down to eat the soft taco, but I couldn’t because I was SO incredibly hungry. The soft taco was also good, especially with the fresh onion, but I definitely could’ve gone back for two more sliders. TJ’s friend, Hannah, was shocked at how quickly I ate everything (she probably thought that it was the most unlady-like thing she’s ever seen!) I got a popsicle from People’s pops after – sour cherry/plum and contemplated whether or not I should order pupusas. I decided against it because I would’ve had to hold both the popsicle and the pupusa platter on our walk back to the subway.
When I got home, I literally passed out because I was so exhausted from walking around and I didn’t drink enough water while I was working at the macaron store. After my short nap, David and I got dressed up and met up with Laura at The Modern:
David and I ordered the Chef’s tasting (he substituted the duck course with steak) and Laura ordered the early summer tasting menu. The food and ambiance were both great and we had a lot of fun trying each other’s dishes. When our desserts came, our server brought along another cake – pistachio, for our birthday:
The desserts were really impressive – they even wheeled around a cart filled with all types of chocolate desserts (similar to what we experienced at Le Cinq in Paris) and we left very satisfied. Laura was nice enough to treat us to the dinner for our birthday’s and we had a really great time. After dinner, we walked to the Apple store on 59th and played with their new iPhones. Facetime is really cool but it was really delayed when we tried talking to each other.
On Sunday, I started my morning with two eggs, wheat toast, and Frank’s hot sauce with a side of the chocolate fudge brownie-dessert from The Modern. It was really decadent and so good right out of the fridge, but I probably shouldn’t have eaten the entire thing first thing in the morning. I think I dreamt about it because it looked so good in its packaging the night before. After my small breakfast, I met up with Lou to go to Rita’s on the UWS; Lou’s leaving New York on Tuesday and we decided to spend the day going to some of our favorite places. I ordered a small gelati with mango and strawberry/vanilla custard:
I grew up eating these in Pittsburgh; every afternoon after school, I hung out by the Rita’s and Bruegger’s before swim team practice. I loved their custard, especially the vanilla chocolate swirl, but tried the strawberry when Rita’s came to New York and it’s my new favorite. The Italian ice is a lot sweeter than I remembered as a kid and the last couple of bites are always a little too sweet for me. After Rita’s, we were in the mood for Shake Shack and walked to the Shake Shack by the Museum of Natural History. The wait was only about 8 minutes, and we ordered a shack burger (to share) for an afternoon snack. I haven’t had Shake Shack in a long time because the wait is always a little too long for me to bear, but biting into the salty hamburger meat made me want to immediately get in line for another.
We headed back down to the Greenwich Village and went to Pinkberry for their happy hour; I thought it was 1/2 off EVERYTHING, but it’s only half off their watermelon flavor. I ordered the plain frozen yogurt with my toppings and then when I went to check out, the cashier said it was full price, so I asked them to add some watermelon frozen yogurt so they’d make it half off. They wouldn’t, but said they’d just remake it, so they threw away my perfectly fine plain frozen yogurt and remade a new one with half watermelon and half plain. Lou also had to redo his, but at least it was half off! The watermelon isn’t as good as their other flavors; it tastes a little fake, but I really love their new unlimited toppings rule. I went with cherries, coconut, kiwi, and watermelon, and Lou ordered watermelon, mangoes, and strawberries:
The watermelon topping is seriously the best topping you can order; the frozen yogurt slightly freezes the watermelon and changes the texture to an icy-sweet chunk of watermelon and it makes it so delicious. The cherries were too large (even though their pits were removed); I think they should cut their cherries in half so you can eat the cherry with a scoop of frozen yogurt, too. I ended up eating half of Lou’s because I hate seeing frozen yogurt melting.
After frozen yogurt, we headed to Fish, one of my favorite restaurants, for their amazing lobster deal. The restaurant was packed because they also have a blue crab all-you-can-eat deal (or maybe it’s a dozen?), but we luckily snagged the last two seats. I’m a huge fan of their atmosphere and their service and you really can’t beat their lobster meal deal; two lobsters, fries, corn on the cob, and 6 clam steamers for $30. We also ordered a dozen oysters and two PBR’s (called the red, white, and blue) for $16. The lobsters were really tender and cooked much better than the last time we went and the meal would’ve been perfect, except we sat next to a group of kids that were possibly the most obnoxious people I’ve never eaten next to; they were singing loudly (even though there was absolutely no music in the restaurant), throwing crabs around, and announcing eating contests throughout their meal. On our walk back to Lou’s place, we asked each other if we were ever that obnoxious (we both said no).
I ran some more errands and went to a fruit stand on my way home; the raspberries were on sale for $1 each, so I picked up two containers and some bananas for tomorrow morning’s oatmeal. David and I ate both containers while we talked about the weekend.
I finally found my pictures from the first night in China so I can finally do a recap of our first meal in Shanghai. After we checked into the hotel, David and I went to check out the pool and gym and then got ready to meet up with my mom’s friend for dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant next to our hotel in Tomorrow Square – the restaurant was a gigantic banquet hall with lots of private dining rooms where you have you own set of waiters.
We ordered a lot of dishes (as usual) but I’m only going to do a quick highlight of my favorites, even though everything was pretty amazing.
The first dish I really enjoyed was the crispy shrimp sauteed with oregano:
Next, the escargot were served with a ton of delicious butter on top of a bed of mashed potatoes:
This might’ve been my favorite dish of the night – a shrimp, egg, and asparagus mixed together, fried, and served with a side of kewpie mayonnaise:
The fish we ordered was really special because apparently it’s from the bottom of the ocean and it’s considered a delicacy because it’s so difficult to obtain:
If the shrimp, egg, and asparagus dish doesn’t win for my favorite dish, this next one definitely does; it’s egg, crab meat, and winter melon, stewed together:
The texture was similar to a delicate egg custard but had an great additional texture from the winter melon. My brother can’t eat egg OR crab meat, so the people at the party were saying that he was their best friend because they could eat his portion (although in reality, I think I ate his portion because I went back for thirds)
We had an abalone soup with fish balls, but these fish balls aren’t anything like what you’d eat in a hot pot; they were the most tender and delicate fish balls I’ve ever eaten:
My mom actually asked how they made the fish balls so tender because it felt like they just disintegrated in your mouth but no one had a definitive answer, just guesses (one person guessed that they just hit the fish with a mallet until it’s the consistency they want)
The last dish, pork belly, was cooked and presented in a special clay pot:
The pork belly is first flavored with soy sauce and spices, then cooked down for hours in the clay pot so the meat is very flavorful and tender.
We were definitely lucky to be treated to so many special meals while we were in China; every afternoon and evening we were going to a different private room for a 20-course feast! After dinner, we walked around the hotel area, heading to the Opera house (across the street from our hotel and the restaurant) and then walked to a mall to eat some shaved ice (we tried to recreate our dessert from Meet Fresh again!)
Happy Summer! The New York Times recently did an article about shaved ice, so I figured I’d post my favorite shaved ice from my trip abroad.
The night markets all have shaved ice, but the best I’ve had was at Shilin night market. My aunt used to take us there when we were kids and I’d always ordered the shaved ice with condensed milk and strawberries (one for me and one for David). As adults, I think the condensed milk and strawberry combination is a little too sweet, but discovered green tea shaved ice with red beans that is my new favorite. My aunt took us to the same place we used to go as kids and it’s just the way I remember!
Here’s a quick video of a waitress using their machine to shave the ice:
The waitresses quickly spin the bowl so the ice is distributed evenly on the plate – they really pile it up:
You can add pudding, sweet beans, fruit toppings, condensed milk, and sprinkles. My favorite combination was the green tea shaved ice with red beans and condensed milk:
We also got the shaved ice with condensed milk and mulberries:
We also sampled the mango:
Me and David before we started digging in:
The shaved ice is so fluffy and light – it has a great cloud-like texture and the green tea ice is probably my favorite because it’s flavorful on its own but tastes even better with the red bean. The ice is also about $2USD (so cheap!), they’re open very late, AND they’re close to very cute shopping in the night markets – if you go to Taiwan, you definitely have to try their shaved ice!
One of the university officials invited us out for a late night snack because he wanted to drink with David. He even prepared for the occasion by getting a driver to take him to the restaurant so he could drink freely! He wanted to see how much David could drink and invited us along – the restaurant was close to our hotel so we decided to stop by for a bit:
We went around 9PM and the restaurant was just getting set up – apparently it gets really lively around 2 or 3AM! We started off with some seafood appetizers because the congee took a full 45 minutes to prepare.
Some clams with noodles:
Fish:
Sautéed clams:
Veggies sautéed with garlic:
Pig ears and tofu:
Finally, our congee came to the table – rice is cooked down in a large earthen pot for a loooong time and then they add all types of seafood – shrimp, crab, lobster, you name it, it was probably in it! The congee was so hot but also really delicious and flavorful; I seriously burnt my finger on some congee, but it was worth it because the congee was really THAT good. The next morning, we headed to the airport to fly to Chongqing – I will post about our adventures soon!
We walked around the park for a little bit after seeing the caves but then had to get back in our car to go to dinner. We went to dinner with some more people from the university and had another private room – this restaurant, Taste Made, was also hosting a big wedding reception on the first floor:
The bride and groom were passing out cigarettes and candy at the receiving line – I thought it was incredibly weird, but apparently you pass out cigarettes to increase the bride’s fertility (although I’m pretty sure that smoking decreases fertility, but I digress).
Inside our private room, we were given all types of glasses for drinking – this time, the men were drinking white liquor to celebrate our arrival:
They did shots throughout the meal and my mom even participated in some of the group shots. Also, people walk up to you and ask you to take a shot with them (you can’t refuse because it’s considered disrespectful) and you end up getting pretty drunk if you’re not eating enough food at the same time. Everyone really loved taking shots with David because it seemed like he *couldn’t* get drunk – some of the university officials loved it so much that they invited us out to drink AFTER dinner, too! Okay, onto more dinner shots:
We started off with wood ear mushrooms with garlic:
Cold preparation of lamb with Chinese mustard:
Mountain yam:
Mustard greens:
Beef shank with bamboo (one of my favorites):
Steak on the bone (they actually cut up the steak into individual pieces and then put it back together on the bone for an interesting presentation):
Pork on the bone:
Water chestnuts:
Fish soup with fermented vegetables:
Tofu with vegetables:
Another preparation of goose:
After the initial serving of the fish soup with fermented vegetables, the waiter brings in noodles to soak up the soup and to prepare another dish – noodle soup:
Braised tofu with carrots:
Chinese spinach:
Another preparation of the dessert buns:
For dessert, they brought the “fruits of a harvest” – corn, water chestnuts, baby taro, peanuts, and yams:
After dinner, we went to the university for a little bit and then were driven back to our hotel (we were heading to Chongqing the next morning). Before heading in for the night, one of the university professors invited us out for drinks and congee – pictures tomorrow!
