Snowdays Shavery

I love love LOVE shaved ice and was so happy to hear that Snowdays Shavery opened up in New York. I grew up eating shaved ice in Taiwan (and one summer in Korea!); whenever I visit my dad in Asia, we always go to multiple night markets where we eat shaved ice with all sorts of sweet toppings. In Asia, they have a lot of interesting toppings (sweet red beans, mochi, kidney beans, all kinds of candy, condensed milk, etc), while in New York, I’ve tried some o-k replicas at Koryodang, and in Flushing, but nothing compares to what I’ve had in Taiwan. The shaved ice is airy, sweet (but not too sweet) and is the perfect summer time treat:

Snowdays Shavery opened up recently and serves lots of different types of shaved ice (they have combos you can order or you can make your own creation). Each time I’ve gone, I’ve gone with their creations since I don’t want to mess with my shaved ice. The first time I went, I really wanted to order the green tea shaved ice, but they said they were out of it, yet the PERSON BEHIND ME GOT IT. They said it was because it just depends on when the ice freezes, but I think if the person behind me was able to get it, they could’ve told us to just wait a few minutes if we wanted green tea. We ended up with the New Yorka, which is cheesecake shaved ice with nilla wafers, strawberries, and whipped cream:

The next time I visited, they did have green tea shaved ice so a friend ordered it – it comes with grass jelly, condensed milk, and mochi:

Another friend ordered the yeti tracks, which is an Oreo flavored snow with bananas, blueberry sauce, and crumbled ice cream cones:

All of the flavors are really good and not too sweet. It’s the best I’ve had in the US (although still not as good as the ones you’d get in Asia!) They’re about $8 per shaved ice (which is also about 500 times more expensive than Asia), but it’s worth it!

Takahachi Tribeca

Two weeks ago, Ken came back from a business trip and wanted to go out for dinner; I suggested we get sushi in Tribeca. We made reservations at a different restaurant but ended up canceling and ended up walking around trying to find another restaurant with availability. We walked into Takahachi and it looked fun and lively so we decided to sit down.

Their menu has a lot of options of both cooked and raw items and most people were ordering raw items so we decided to stick to the raw stuff. We started with a seaweed salad with miso dressing:

We ordered sashimi (the chef’s choice):

Then spicy tuna and an unagi and shrimp tempura roll:

We also ordered the specialty roll of the day, which included miso paste, lemon juice, jalapenos and salmon:

The salmon roll was the only dish we didn’t like at all; Ken said that it tasted like there was something popping in his mouth when he was eating the roll. Luckily, they let us return the dish because we didn’t like it at all.

Takahachi reminds me of Nomado 33, a restaurant in Murray Hill that we used to order from a lot when we lived in the neighborhood. If I lived further downtown, I could see myself ordering takeout from here, but it’s not worth a special trip downtown to dine there.

The Smith

Last weekend, Ken and I spent some more time on the upper west side and ended up going to The Smith for brunch! There are multiple locations of The Smith but the upper west side location is possibly the largest and there might be the most options on this menu. Ken eats at the location in midtown during work lunches and told me that he likes to to order the chips smothered with blue cheese fondue or the mac and cheese; Jordan, my boss, told me he likes to order the biscuits and gravy or the fried green beans with ranch dressing; and my friend Tyler told me she likes getting their margaritas because they are always on point.

With all of those suggestions and after reviewing the upper west side’s menu’s options (macaroni and cheese, corned beef hash, burger deluxe, you get the idea), we ended up going the healthy route and getting the egg white omelet with spinach, goat cheese and hash browns and the steak salad:

The egg white omelet was very fluffy and flavorful (even though everyone surrounding us was eating burgers and fries, I really enjoyed the omelet!):

And the steak salad was very good; it had a freshly made steak (medium rare), goat cheese, arugula, endives, and a tangy vinaigrette:

Brunch was really good and the best part: free seltzer water:

All of the restaurants offer free still and sparkling water (my favorite!) Next time we visit the restaurant, I’m going all out and ordering the mac and cheese, vanilla bean french toast, and hot potato chips!!

Barney Greengrass

On Ken’s birthday, Ken played basketball on the upper west side and I danced at

We were both hungry from our morning workouts and also wanted to explore the upper west side a bit before heading back to our home downtown and decided to eat at Barney Greengrass, the Sturgeon King! The restaurant is filled with people of all ages – lots of families, regulars, and larger parties. Since it was just the two of us, we were seated immediately.

While we were looking at the menu (which is quite intimidating because there are so many options), I was reading all of the positive (and some negative) about the food and the service. The service is pretty standard for a New York deli; not super nice but also not rude at all. The restaurant sells bagels, lox, different types of cured fish, and little things to pair with the cured fish (biscuits, bread, sweets, and other random things):

They also deliver to the Hamptons or they’ll pack up the fish so you can pick it up before you head east (their know their customer base!)

Ken and I shared a bagel with lox, scallion cream cheese, tomato and capers:

We wanted an open face version (which costs extra), cream cheese (also costs extra) and tomato (also extra). Our bagel and a small orange juice ended up costing $27! It’s not cheap but was a nice treat and was much better than any cured salmon we’ve ever had before. They also serve larger platters, which makes this place a good place to bring a large party (although they don’t take reservations so you might end up waiting a while!)

Breads Bakery NYC

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I was strolling around the neighborhood and finally made my way to Breads Bakery, a local bakery known for their chocolate babka and other breads:

Breads Bakery serves all types of flour-based treats; croissants, babka, many different loaves of bread, sandwiches, etc:

I wasn’t in the market for actual bread but wanted a little snack and then I spotted something behind the glass — a beautiful canele:

I fell in love with caneles during our honeymoon (or maybe before our honeymoon?) but they are little pieces of heaven. It’s a small dessert that is made with vanilla beans, egg yolk, rum, beeswax and flour. They’re very difficult to make (and perfect) and they should have a crunchy coated crust but also be custard-like inside. The best ones I’ve had are in Paris at Laduree (thank goodness Laduree Soho also serves them!!). The canele innards from Breads Bakery:

These are best made in copper molds (even though they sell silicone molds, I’ve read on multiple blogs that the best texture is when you make them in the original copper molds). If anyone has other amazing caneles in New York, I’d love to hear them!