Last night, I was invited to the IAC Building in Chelsea to mingle with some very glamorous people. USA Network invited me to the Character Approved event, which honors innovators in their field and who influence our opinion, our style, and our view of the world. The people that were honored were very impressive – they included: Kehinde Wiley, Angela Brooks, Yves Behar, Narciso Rodriguez, Kathryn Bigelow, Dan Barber, Jessica Jackley, Green Day, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, and Nora Ephron:
There were also a lot of USA Network stars at the event, including two actors from my favorite new show, White Collar:
Matt Bomer (he plays Neal Caffrey) and Willie Garson (he plays Neal’s friend, Mozzie) were very nice and made my night by taking a picture with me (by the way, Matt Bomer’s face is so perfect that it looks like I’m standing next to a wax figure!) They’re starting season two in six weeks – maybe that’s enough time for me to actually purchase a television so I can watch White Collar when it’s on television!
I also met Dan Barber, the chef at Blue Hill:
Yves Behar took the picture for us and I told Dan that I tried getting into Blue Hill at Stone Barns for over two years but the timing never worked out. He told me to give him a call or send him an e-mail and he’d get me in! How nice of him (hopefully he will also read my blog when he gets home tonight and will find my review of Blue Hill) Also, side note: he looks very similar to Pete Sampras in person. Especially with the cute Kangol hat.
Finally, I met another food blogger and spent the majority of the evening with him – Adam Roberts from Amateur Gourmet:
Him and his boyfriend, Craig, are absolutely hilarious and made the evening very fun. We stared at models who were taller than giraffes, drank champagne, and ate lots of delicious hors d’oeuvres.
Thank you very much for inviting me to the fun party AND a HUGE thank you to Brian because he walked me from the IAC building all the way to 9th Avenue in the snowstorm so I could hail a black car and get home safely.
A couple weekends ago, David, Laura, and I took Faire and Cantor to the MoMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit. It was sold out for the day but we ended up walking around, taking pictures of the kids, and enjoying an afternoon snack in the MoMA cafeteria. Here are the cutest pictures of the day:
On our way to the MoMA, David decided to carry Cantor using the bjorn:
Faire was quite happy walking by herself (with her 6 ponytails she requested from her mom before we left):
I love her jacket and those cute bear boots!:
We quickly walked around the museum and when Faire and Cantor seemed bored, we decided to take a break in the MoMA cafeteria. Faire takes a turn feeding Cantor some chicken and butternut squash baby food:
Open wide, Cantor!:
Faire continues to feed Cantor, even though he seems a bit confused about the entire process:
To reward Faire for helping out, we give her a couple of raisins:
And then this awesome picture happened:
On our way back to Faire’s house, she was so excited and hyper from the raisins that she kept walking into a support beam on the subway track:
I did eventually get to see the Tim Burton exhibit (see here) and it’s definitely worth checking out.
Steaming fish is a quick and easy healthy dish. My mom’s recipe only uses a couple ingredients that are easily found in any grocery store. The scallion and ginger sauce that she adds to the dish can be used with other proteins as well (it’s quite delicious with steamed chicken). This is definitely a dish to add to your recipe collection – it’s quick, simple, fresh, healthy, and very delicious.
Steamed Fish
Ingredients
1 white fish (1 – 1.5 pounds) – we chose black sea bass that my mom picked up (still swimming in the tank!) from Chinatown
1 bunch scallion (4-5 stalks – the sauce can be saved for future uses if it’s too much)
3 tablespoons of chopped ginger, 3-4 slices of ginger
1/2 cup of vodka (any kind of clear liquor will do)
1 cup of vegetable oil
First, clean your fish and remove any scales that the fishmonger didn’t remove at the store:
Slice into the side of the fish so you can place some sliced ginger into the meat:
Stick the ginger into both sides:
And the stomach:
Before placing the fish into the steamer, pour the vodka over the fish to remove any fishy taste (this part is optional but if for some reason you feel the fish has a strong flavor, this is a good way to remove it from the fish). After pouring the vodka, sprinkle the fish with sea salt.
Since I don’t have a steamer, I created a makeshift steamer that worked really well. Please a bowl in a large pot and fill the pot halfway with water. The bowl should be able to hold the plate the fish is on and the pot should be large enough to seal the plate and fish with the lid:
After the water comes to a boil, gently place the plate with your fish on top of the bowl:
Since my pot is small, I removed the fish head from its body. The fish head still has a lot of meat (and a cool eyeball) so you don’t want to throw it out. Steam the fish on medium high (so the water continues to boil) for 10 – 12 minutes.
While the fish is steaming, chop up your scallions and ginger and combine them in a bowl:
At the same time, you can heat up the vegetable oil and add a little salt to the oil. Once the oil is heated, pour it into the scallion and ginger mixture:
Don’t worry if there’s sizzling – that’s supposed to happen!
The fish should be done after about 10 minutes (you can tell the fish is done because the two cuts on the fish where the ginger is placed has expanded). Pour the ginger and scallion oil onto the fish and serve immediately:
Cost Breakdown:
1 white fish (1 – 1.5 pounds) – we chose black sea bass that my mom picked up (still swimming in the tank!) from Chinatown – $7.50
1 bunch scallion (4-5 stalks – the sauce can be saved for future uses if it’s too much) – $0.50
3 tablespoons of chopped ginger, 3-4 slices of ginger – $0.20
1/2 cup of vodka (any kind of clear liquor will do) – free
1 cup of vegetable oil – $0.50
Total: $8.70 – if you ordered a similar dish at a Chinese restaurant, it might cost you anywhere from $20 – $35 for a live fish!
Two weeks ago, I met up with my freshman year roommate at Lure Fishbar. Jamie moved to New York back in July all the way from Los Angeles, but we haven’t been able to meet up until now because we’ve both been so busy! Luckily, we finally set our schedules for a Monday night dinner to catch up (we haven’t seen each other since graduation!) and to talk about all of the adventures she’s been on since moving here.
Jamie and I were randomly assigned to be roommates in Weston our freshman year of college. We shared a tiny room but had a lot of fun that year. We used to make ramen, have dance parties, and watch television on Saturday mornings when there was a vet showing off different breeds of puppies. Here we are with our other friend, Becca, on the first week of school:
And here we are now:
Jamie moved to Los Angeles after graduating and then moved to New York over the summer because her boyfriend, Ryan, had an amazing opportunity to work in New York! I’m so glad she’s here because I really don’t have enough female friends in the city.
We agreed to meet up at Lure Fishbar because we were both slightly interested in the Restaurant week menu. When we arrived, we decided against the restaurant week menu because it really wasn’t that great and decided to order a la carte instead. For an appetizer, we shared the beet and goat cheese salad:
The salad was very simple, but the beets were very delicious with the arugula and toasted hazelnuts. It’s very easy to recreate at home – canned beets work if you can’t find any fresh beets (I usually get beets at the farmer’s market because I never seem to find them in grocery stores).
For my main course, I went with the lobster roll:
The lobster roll at Lure is the most expensive one I’ve had in NYC (it costs $29 – the most I’ve paid is $26, at Pearl Oyster Bar). However, the bun is perfectly buttered and toasted, the chunks of lobster meat are quite large, and it felt and looked like the lobster roll was larger than other ones I’ve had in the city. The chips were salt and vinegar but very unevenly seasoned; some were so salty that they burned my tongue, others were plain and a little soggy. I brought Lou some of the lobster roll and he actually said it was the best lobster roll he’s had in the city (I think the only place he hasn’t been is Mermaid Inn, however, they don’t have a roll, it’s more of a bun).
Jamie ordered the roasted sea scallops:
The scallops came with polenta, mussel chorizo stew, and a little cilantro. Jamie didn’t like the chorizo stew because it completely altered the taste of the scallops and thought the dish was way too meaty and smoky.
The restaurant was absolutely packed for a Monday night (seriously, we went around 9pm and every table in the restaurant was spoken for) but it didn’t affect our service. In fact, I would say that our waitress was a little too aggressive in helping us; she came by every two minutes when we first arrived to ask if we were ready to order. Some of the menu items at Lure lean towards an Asian influence, which is part of the reason why we decided against the Restaurant Week menu. I’d like to see their salmon prepared in other ways besides being in an “Asian broth” (by the way, what exactly IS an Asian broth?), especially since it’s such an American-style restaurant.
Have I ever mentioned that I don’t eat a lot of Chinese food in Manhattan? Maybe it’s because I haven’t found one I really like, or maybe it’s because it’s just really difficult to find good Chinese food in the city. There are little things here and there (for instance, I like to stop by Big Wong for a bowl of congee with preserved duck eggs and pork and Joe Shanghai used to be a Sunday night tradition), but, for a larger Chinese dinner, I just haven’t found anything that has really knocked my socks off. I think it’s because I was spoiled by my mom’s home cooking and numerous trips to Taiwan and China to taste different types of cuisine (my parents are both very adventurous eaters). The Chinese food you find here is usually coated in gloppy brown sauce (a combination of soy sauce, corn starch, and MSG) and doesn’t have any of the vibrant flavors you usually taste in authentic Chinese cuisine.
Okay, enough of my complaining; even though I haven’t found amazing Chinese in Chinatown, I will admit that I do enjoy going to Grand Sichuan every so often for two dishes: pumpkin sauteed with pork and pea sprouts sauteed with garlic.
We walked to Grand Sichuan after the Iron Chef America Taping we attended at Chelsea Market. It was my mom’s first time at Grand Sichuan, but I had been there once before; on our last day of work in Flatiron, we went to Grand Sichuan for a send-off lunch. My brother and I both like the pumpkin sauteed with pork, so we ordered it for my mom to try:
The pumpkin and pork are sauteed with some peppers that add just the right amount of heat to the dish. The pumpkin adds a good amount of sweetness to balance out the heat and the dish is a must order every time we go to Grand Sichuan. My only complaint about the dish is that the past couple of times I went, I’ve been getting less and less pork (and pumpkin) in the dish.
My other go to dish at Grand Sichuan – pea sprouts sauteed with garlic:
I love this dish because it’s so easy to make yet so incredibly delicious. The oil is infused with freshly chopped garlic and the pea sprouts are quickly sauteed to spread the garlicky flavor on every leaf. My mom insists we order order vegetables at restaurants and usually just asks what they have in the kitchen – we usually go with pea sprouts in garlic or kong xing cai (Chinese spinach) sauteed with garlic. I grew up eating (and loving) both and that’s what my brother and I always order when we go to Chinese restaurants these days.
The other dishes we’ve ordered at Grand Sichuan are usually mediocre; on the visit with my mom, we ordered a fish soup that tasted like salty water with some hot pepper sauce, the wontons in hot sauce don’t have much taste to me (in fact, I think the hot sauce masks any flavor from the meat), and the xiao long bao at Grand Sichuan are not really worth ordering. If you do plan on going to Grand Sichuan, definitely order the pumpkin with pork and the pea sprouts – and let me know if you find anything else equally delicious on the menu!
