After an afternoon of shopping on 5th Avenue, we decided to grab a very late lunch at The Modern before having dinner later that evening at Le Bernardin. I picked up a present for Ken at Tiffany’s (very secretly) and we met up at Trump Tower to walk to the restaurant together. We started off with their bread basket:
The baguette was a little too tough or stale but the whole wheat bread was a little better. We were all very hungry so we ordered right away – Mrs. Chen ordered the fall salad with pomegranate seeds:
My mom ordered the parpadelle with lobster:
Dr. Chen ordered the pork belly:
Ken ordered the lamb:
And I ordered the pan fried skate:
Ken was originally going to order the lobster as well but he wanted to order meat since he knew we were going to celebrate his birthday later that evening at Le Bernardin. The lobster was very sweet and drenched in butter (the more the merrier, I say!) and the pasta was a nice al dente. The skate was a little bit on the oily side but still delicious – it could have used a little more seasoning (or citrus!) but it was still very good, especially since I was so hungry!
Dr. Chen was finally able to eat pork belly (we didn’t order it the night before when we had a big meal at Peking Duck House) and he liked it a lot. My mom has said that she will prepare a pork belly dish when we visit Chicago for Thanksgiving this year!
Me and my mom at lunch:
And me and Ken:
Ken and I were recently lucky enough to welcome both sets of parents to New York! It was a busy weekend but we had so much fun exploring Manhattan, eating at a lot of wonderful restaurants and introducing our parents to each other and David and Laura. On the second day of their visit, we arranged for a large meal at the Peking Duck House in Chinatown so Ken’s parents could meet David and Laura. My mom called in before hand so we could figure out what to order for dinner and she ordered the peking duck three ways. When we arrived, they started bringing out the feast. We started with the first preparation of the peking duck – the skin and the meat:
This is the most traditional way to prepare the duck – we wrapped them in a thin flour wrap that was filled with sliced cucumbers, green onions and hoisin sauce. The preparation was enough for one wrapper a person but other tables that didn’t have as many people received the same amount of meat. I think you can only order one duck per table (but I’m not positive). The second preparation: duck stir fry:
The stir fry was my favorite preparation of the duck; they take the meat close to the bone and stir fry it with bean sprouts and more green onions. It was a simple but very hearty dish and there was surprisingly a lot of duck meat in the stir fry. After the two preparations came, the other dishes started arriving at our table. My mom did all of the ordering (I never order at Chinese restaurants; it’s literally the only time I leave all of the ordering to someone else). We started with silk melon and tofu balls:
Dr. Chen enjoyed the silk melon (Mrs. Chen’s dad used to plant them in their garden in Illinois) and my mom liked the tofu a lot. The tofu was very tender and delicate and the dish overall was a little bland for my taste (although I liked the silk melon a lot).
The vegetables for the night: green beans with pork and Chinese spinach:
As a kid, my favorite dish at Chinese restaurants was definitely green beans (I could eat the entire order by myself!):
Another great dish of the evening was the sea cucumber with tofu:
It was Ken’s first time eating sea cucumber and he wasn’t a big fan (and ended up throwing it out!) but I love sea cucumber and the gelatinous texture at Peking Duck House was very flavorful and yummy. My mom and David liked the dish a lot (we are all huge fans of sea cucumber!)
We also had huge prawns with salt and pepper and the last preparation of the duck – duck bone soup with tofu, pickled vegetables and glass noodles:
There’s a duck restaurant in Taiwan that does a similar preparation of the duck soup but I think they cook the soup longer because it’s much fuller bodied than the soup we had at the Peking Duck House in Chinatown.
Me and Ken at dinner:
We were presently surprised with how delicious everything was; some restaurants in Chinatown are definitely hit or miss (especially nicer ones!) but we really loved every single dish my mom ordered at dinner. Next time, she’s going to order the pork belly because we found out Dr. Chen likes that dish! Our parents got along splendidly and we all had a really good time at dinner.
Laduree opened up their first US shop a little over a month ago on Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. I am very fond of their macarons and must purchase them every time I go to Paris. My friend, Ariel, was nice enough to buy me dozens of macarons from all over Paris the last time he visited; I froze them and ate them straight out of the freezer because they were so delicious! I waited a little bit before heading uptown for the new Laduree store because I read that the lines were always long and service was slow. Finally, Kristen, Stephane, and I headed up there after work a couple weeks ago (thank goodness!) Surprisingly, the store was completely empty when we arrived on a Tuesday evening:
The store is every little girl’s dream – beautiful decorations, pleasant colors and lots and lots of delicious macarons:
The macarons aren’t made in the US; they are shipped from Paris every couple of days! There are only 13 flavors right now, however, they do have seasonal flavors that I am looking forward to trying:
I ended up purchasing a special box to hold my eight macarons (a little keepsake I will hold my hairpins in):
My favorite flavor is actually not in this batch (I went back with Ken’s family when they came to visit) – orange blossom has a delicate floral flavor that blew me away. Ken’s starting to like them a lot as well (before they were known to him as the little hamburger sandwiches); his favorite flavor is salted caramel but he likes all of them as well.
The second time I visited, the wait was extremely long and I grew very impatient once I entered the store (we started outside the store and when we got inside, we saw the line snake three times before getting to the register where you order the macarons!) Ken’s parents liked the pistachio macaron and Laura and David liked the cassis and raspberry macarons. I’m so glad Laduree is so close to me now; I probably won’t go there too often, but it’s much closer than flying to Paris!
By
grace.g.yang
· October 18, 2011
Under:
Uncategorized Happy 29th birthday to the amazing man in my life:
We celebrated with our families last night at Le Bernardin:
The perfect birthday gift from Tiffany’s, a great meal at Le Bernardin with our families and lots of love and laughter throughout the weekend. I hope we have many more celebrations that are just as perfect! I love you.
By
grace.g.yang
· October 13, 2011
Under:
American,
Chicago 
After eating a bunch of doughnuts from The Doughnut Vault, Ken and I decided to go for a run and order a pizza. Ken’s favorite is Lou Malnati’s and originally we were going to order Pizzeria Due because it was closer but then decided to run to the Lou Malnati’s so we could get in our workout as well. We placed our order and then ran around the city on a beautiful Chicago day before picking up our pizza:
We ordered pizza with mushrooms, onions, peppers, and sausage on a butter crust. In the past, we’ve had Lou Malnati’s (by mail order) but ordering at the restaurant and eating it fresh is much better. I like Lou Malnati’s much more than the other Chicago pizza options, but my favorite is still Pequods!
