Happy Belated New Year!

Happy New Year! It has been quite a while since I last posted (so I hope there are still people reading!) Life always gets hectic around the holidays and this year it was even more crazy because Ken, my mom and I went to Taiwan!

For Thanksgiving, we all flew to Chicago to visit Ken’s family and Laura’s family. My mom also flew in for the week and we spent the entire time eating with Ken’s parents, Ken’s sister, Laura’s family and our friends. We flew to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving because Ken’s friend was getting married the Friday before the holiday – they got married at Salvage One, a cool venue that has all kinds of stained glass, doors, windows, and tchotkes all over the two floor venue. Me and Ken at the wedding:

It was a fun wedding and we even ate Lou Malnati’s while we were there, which was an unexpected (but very welcomed) surprise. Me and Ken in matching pajamas after their fun wedding:

On Thanksgiving day, we started with a brunch with Laura’s family at their country club – my mom and I have matching jackets and were finally at the same place at the same time:

After the lunch, we headed to Ken’s sister’s house for even more food (to say we ate a lot this trip is an understatement!)

We also spent time with Ken’s niece, Sammy, at the mall and ate at our go to, Zodiac at Neiman Marcus:

When we got back to New York, my friend Anna and I started planning our belated Friendsgiving – this year, we threw it at her apartment on the upper west side! It was a fun potluck with a secret santa/white elephant component and we even had an elf stop by! Some photos from that night:

Poinsettias lining the table:

A very tired elf:

Anna making sure everyone drew a number out of the bowl for the white elephant gift exchange:

And that takes us to the Taiwan trip, which was so fun (and tiring!). I’ll be posting about the Taiwan trip slowly but also adding some restaurant posts that I haven’t gotten a chance to write yet. Stay tuned for new content!

Charlie Bird

Earlier this year, I took a break from blogging because I was going to the same restaurants and didn’t want to blog about them. We were trying some new restaurants but I was disappointed by the places we were visiting. And then I went to Charlie Bird NYC and now I can’t stop thinking about the restaurant and how amazing the food and atmosphere were! I went with Erika, who was visiting from San Francisco, on a Monday night and were seated at a long (semi-communal because the seats were so close) table.

I started with the old pal, made with Rye, vermouth and Campari:

Charlie Bird is the second casual restaurant I’ve visited recently that gives tap water and sparkling water for the table (the other restaurant, if you’re curious, was The Smith):

They also give you rosemary focaccia with olive oil:

To start our meal, we shared the farro salad:

The farro salad is ridiculously delicious; for the colder weather, they’ve changed it to roasted pumpkin, mint, pistachios and radishes (in the summer, they usually add arugula and grape tomatoes – the recipe is here). The farro is cooked in apple cider so it has a lot of flavor on its own, but with the different textures and flavors of the pistachios, radishes, Parmesan and basil, it’s an actual party in your mouth. We split the farro salad but both said we could’ve ordered another just for ourselves.

We also ordered the Tuscan chicken liver with balsamic raisins, capers and walnuts:

I love chicken liver and usually have to order it when it’s on a restaurant’s menu and the chicken liver here was minerally, rich and absolutely phenomenal. We were a little worried that we didn’t order enough but the chicken liver was so rich I was worried that we had ordered too much!

After the chicken liver and farro salad, we moved onto the pasta – the linguine nero with blue crab, chiles and lemon:

They make their own pastas at Charlie Bird and it was delicious, but not my favorite dish (I mean, everything was so good this was just a close second). Erika said that after the farro salad, this was her favorite!

We also ordered the caramalized cauliflower with almonds and lemon:

I love cauliflower and the flavors from this dish were bright and citrus-y. I loved the additional textures from the almonds and pancetta.

For dessert, we ordered the olive oil cake with Marscapone and salty oat crumble:

We loved the food, the atmosphere (the bathrooms have little jars of Life Savers – mint and fruit flavored!) and the music, which is a tad loud but all good hip hop, and the service. We will definitely be back!

Peter Pan Donut Pastry Shop vs. Moe’s Dough Donut Shop

After reading about the doughnut war in the NYTimes, my coworker decided we needed to try a blind taste test and find out for ourselves which place was better. I’ve had Peter Pan donuts in the past (thank you to Kevin, my coworker from Gilt, for introducing those to us!) but had never tried Moe’s Dough.

The doughnuts side by side:

(Left side: Moe’s, right side: Peter Pan’s)

All of the doughnuts from Peter Pan:

And the doughnuts from Moe’s:

So, we tried all of the doughnuts (cream filled doughnuts side by side was the official test since it was a huge mix of doughnuts my coworker brought in). The clear winner:

Peter Pan Donuts!

The cream doughnuts from Peter Pan’s were fresher, the dough kept better during the commute from Greenpoint to our office, and the texture was much smoother and less heavy. Moe’s Doughs were ok (and I definitely had more than my fair share of those donuts after all of the Peter Pan doughnuts were gone), but the donuts from Peter Pan are just on another level!

Koi

Last Friday night, Laura’s dad was in town and invited all of us out to dinner before he went back to Chicago. We decided to eat at Koi, which was close to his hotel and Laura and Ken’s office. I think we’ve all been for lunch but never for dinner, so I was excited to try their food.

We started with a bunch of appetizers, like the steak tartare and foie gras:

The wagyu beef potstickers:

Rock shrimp:

And tuna with crispy rice and jalapenos:

All of the appetizers were good, with my favorites being the tuna with crispy rice and the steak tartare and foie gras.

For our main entrees, we also shared everything – Ken and I shared the striped bass in a mushroom broth:

David ordered the steak with sweet potato puree and spatzle:

Laura’s dad ordered the sauteed prawns with squash:

And we all shared lots of rolls:

We ordered some sashimi (salmon and my favorite, the egg custard). Laura also ordered some snow crab sushi with soy wrappers:

And we ordered some miso glazed green beans:

All of the dishes were all very good and the portions were very hearty. They serve pretty good quality uni and we ordered a lot of it to share – David and I both love uni!

Here’s all of us enjoying our meal at Koi:

I enjoyed the meal at Koi (thanks, David!) and always love spending time with my family. The restaurant is a little far for us to return (especially for dinner!)

Good

On a recent Sunday night, we did a family dinner with David and Laura at Good. Earlier in the day, I was getting my hair done and Ken was watching football at home so I had to tell him where to meet us for dinner. Looking up a restaurant named Good is not as easy as it seems; when you put it into yelp (on your phone at least), it comes up with restaurants that are well rated/where there’s good food. I finally found the location and sent it to Ken and we decided to do an early dinner.

Good has a Sunday dinner special that is kind of unbeatable; before 7pm, you can do a pre-fixe for under $40. The regular menu is pretty much on the pre-fixe menu and the portions are the same! David, Ken and I decided to do the special, Laura said she was going to order a salad and nibble off our plates.

They started our meal with homemade cornbread and butter:

Ken started with the farro salad:

While David and I started with the regular house salad:

The salads were plain but well dressed; Ken enjoyed the warm farro salad mixed with the large slices of cheese and the different flavors and textures from the dried fruits that were also in the salad.

For David’s main course, he ordered the steak:

Ken ordered the fish tacos:

I ordered the chicken with couscous:

And Laura ordered the large chicken salad with peanut sauce:

All of the dishes were very good and David really enjoyed his steak dish. Ken also liked his fish tacos but I would have preferred corn tortillas instead of flour.

For dessert, we went with the chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream:

The homemade bread pudding:

And the olive oil cake with the first pomegranate seeds of the season:

I ordered the olive oil cake but ended up liking the chocolate cake the most. We all enjoyed the the desserts and thought the meal was pretty good. Laura said they have a pretty good brunch as well – I think we will go back someday and try it.