Chobani Soho

Ken and I love the yogurt at Chobani’s pop-up shop in Soho; they always come up with creative combinations that are simple to recreate at home but so delicious at the pop-up that we always go back. On this trip, we had my favorite, the plain yogurt with pineapple, coconut chips, and hazelnuts:

And also tried a new yogurt bowl that we’ll definitely be getting again: plain yogurt with micro-cilantro, avocado, mango and tortilla chips! What a weird combination and use of mango, but it definitely tasted good. My only complaint: the ratio of tortilla chips to plain yogurt was simply not enough! Definitely check this place out – it was originally supposed to be a pop-up but it was so popular that they decided to keep the lease!

Macy’s Culinary Council 10 Year Anniversary Party

On Tuesday, Macy’s invited me to the most wonderful party at their restaurant to celebrate 10 years of the Culinary Council. All of their Culinary Council chefs were there to celebrate, including Marcus Samuelsson, Ming Tsai, Todd English, and Marc Forgione. The party was at the new-ish restaurant at Macy’s, Stella 34, and there were tons of cocktails:

The chefs all gave very thoughtful speeches about their experiences with Macy’s and how much they enjoyed working as a team:

And the chefs all prepared special dishes that were made fresh at the restaurant for all of us to try:

Here’s the full list of finger foods and drinks:

The cinnamon margarita was spicy and very delicious:

Marcus Samuelsson’s Doro Wat tacos were a huge hit:

The crab cakes with avocado and tobiko was spicy and refreshing:

Ming Tsai’s fried wontons were very crispy and had a nice chili dipping sauce:

And the soba noodles with fresh tuna was a fun dish to slurp up:

The restaurant was packed with chefs, Macy’s executives, and food bloggers – it was so fun to catch up with blogger friends and to also meet new people! I had a great time and it was so nice of Macy’s to invite me to the event. I’m super excited to try the restaurant some day; it has a great view of Manhattan and seems so different from the rest of Macy’s, which is sometimes too crowded to even walk through!

Sponsored post; I was compensated for this post by Everywhere but the opinions are my own.

Meli Cafe on Grand

The day after Mat and Alicia’s wedding, Ken and I met up with Angie, her fiance, Nat, and John for brunch. Meli Cafe on Grand is a fresh juice bar and brunch spot and right across the street from GT Oyster Bar, where John and Angie brought me for dinner the week of my engagement (back in May 2012!). We had to wait a bit because it’s so popular for breakfast, but we were able to catch up while waiting at the juice bar.

I wanted something a little sweet for breakfast, so I ordered the chocolate crepes with strawberry marscapone cheese and fresh strawberries:

As well as a green juice with pineapple and kale:

Angie ordered two poached eggs, sausage, and has browns:

Nat ordered the Western omelet:

Ken ordered an omelet made with chorizo sausage:

And John ordered the Bananas Foster French toast:

My crepes were too wet and sweet (and nothing like what I wanted so I ended up having more food off Ken’s plate than my own). Even my drink was way too sweet! John’s French toast was also pretty sweet, but not as bad as mine. You can’t go wrong with omelets and poached eggs, but I left a little unsatisfied (and wishing we had gone to Walker Brother’s instead!)

Pops for Champagne

A few weeks ago, Ken and I were in Chicago for a beautiful wedding at The Ivy Room in Chicago. It’s in the city, very close to Angie’s apartment, and we were lucky enough to see all of our friends during our short time in the city. John met up with us at Pops for Champagne, a champagne bar right next to The Ivy Room in the city. We haven’t seen each other since the wedding so it was really nice to catch up (and we got brunch on Saturday with Angie and her fiance, Nat, too!) The three of us before Ken and I headed to the beautiful ceremony:

Alicia and Mat’s wedding was outdoors on a perfect evening:

And then their reception was indoors, which had a really cool layout with different sized tables (round and square):

With beautiful centerpieces:

Alicia looked beautiful and her husband, Mat, was very handsome, too! It was so nice to see all of Ken’s high school friends when we were at the wedding – and amazing how many friends Ken still has from high school!

Katsuhama 55

My cousin, Andrew, drove into the city one Tuesday night to have dinner with me and Ken (kind of a last minute event so we didn’t have any solified plans before he came into town). I was craving Japanese curry, so we walked over to Katsuhama 55 to satisfy my craving.

We started with a shaved cabbage salad:

It’s literally shaved cabbage that’s been cleaned and piled high…you can pour the dressing on it to your taste:

I ordered one of the specials, a pork katsu with a soup with various root vegetables:

Andrew ordered with yakitori noodles:

And Ken ordered the beef curry:

I don’t think anyone was super happy with their meal; it was over-salted but didn’t have much depth of flavor. Ken was actually more disappointed in the meal than I was (which never happens)! There’s a Katsu-hama near me that is currently closed for construction and I was really looking forward to it reopening, but now I’m going to tread carefully because I’m not sure it’s going to be a good lunch spot! Very disappointing and definitely not worth revisiting.