Wonderful Cruise - 1

No entries for a while since we were on vacation - 6 days west Caribbean.

This cruise started from the Miami port so we flew there in the morning of the first day. It was 20s in NYC, but 80s with typical humidity in Miami when we got there. It was only 15 minutes taxi ride to the port where our ship - Celebrity was waiting for us. Smaller side as a cruise ship but over 10 stories, so it looked like a hotel was standing in the ocean.

We paid a little extra this time to have terrace and their concierge service. A bottle of Champaign was waiting for our arrival. Small but well appointed room and we were pretty happy about our selection.

A few hours prior to the departure, we hanged out on the deck with great music and food (yes, free food were already there even prior to the departure.)

Heading back to the room and celebrated our trip with Champaign before heading for the dinner. As I heard, the table seating for the dinner was determined - other three couples with one more party (I will talk more about a great group of these people in later entries with maybe pictures).

The Christmas Tree

I was in the city yesterday and had a chance to take some seasonal pictures...

One time my office was right next to the Rockefeller Center, so I saw the tree every day, but I don't remember I saw the tree last year.

Here you go - this is the tree for this year. Many tourists were taking a picture of the tree and the famous skate rink in front of the tree.

I took a few more pictures of the buildings decorated for Christmas - Sacks Fifth Avenue Department store and Waldorf Astoria hotel. Sacks plays the music every 30 minutes or so along with lighting show, which is especially nice after dark.

Now you feel like it is Christmas time?

My Sister's Birthday

It's this time of year already.

December 9th... my sister's birthday. I have sent a card to her (and she has received it), so my work is done, but I just wanted to say "happy birthday" in public place.

I love December before Christmas when you can see the people from Vermont selling the trees on the street - in this case Montague st. in BH. When you get off the subway train and step outside, the first smell you have is this fresh green smell... There is nothing more refreshing smell than this. Personally I have never decorated the tree in my apartment in BH, but my building does (and did this year already on the first floor).

A little more than two weeks till Christmas - have you decided what you would get from the Santa this year yet?

Winter Vegetables Cooking

As I promised yesterday, here are the pictures of the results I cooked by using the vegetables (and meat) - Daikon (Japanese, even though they said Korean radish) with pork belly, Kabocha pumpkin, and Sato-Imo (not sure what it is called in English but it is another type of potato, like Taro in Hawaii) with dried mushroom.

Each has a different taste, even though ingredients I used for them are pretty similar. The method and the time for cooking are pretty different.

All came out very nice and we can eat them throughout the week. Actually 2nd or 3rd day is better than the day you cooked. Don't forget I have their Kimchi this week, so I don't think I need to cook anything anymore till Friday. I like cooking but I like to have a break during the week (like my idol Ina says...)

Trip to Flushing Queeens

Flushing is famous for several things - first thing comes to mind is the tennis center where the U.S. open is held every year during the summer, and CITI field for New York Mets... One more thing we can't forget is dense Asian (except Japanese though) population. Depending on the block, you would be confused with one of Korea, Thailand or China cities...

We went to our favorite Korean grocery store - H Mark where you can buy very cheap produce items, a variety of meats including sliced pork belly, and good Kimchi. There were several winter vegetables catching my eyes, so we bought them along with meat and Kimchi. (You need to come back here tomorrow to see what I would do with these vegetables.)

On the way back home, we stopped by at a Thai restaurant, where I do believe I came with my friend several years ago. It has been fully renovated and the place looked five times bigger than before. We ordered green mango (yes, mango not papaya) salad, some sort of coconut soup and two types of noodle dishes. I was not 100% sure whether we were able to taste the difference between mango and papaya, but it was very delicious to start the lunch. But my first choice and potentially the reason why we would come back here has to be this soup. It was a coconut based (as you can see from the color) soup but it was hot and SOUR... I know it is common to have a combination of hot and sour, but I have never tasted another dimension (coconut) to this. It was sensational and great... Noodles were fine (nothing special, in my opinion)

First Snow in NYC

It has not been official winter yet, but we had the season's first snow this weekend - Saturday afternoon. It started as rain but turned to snow later afternoon. Not cold enough to coat the road but you can see a shallow layer of snow on the grass. Beautiful, isn't it?

Rainy/Snowy day means another Wii competition - tennis, table tennis and bowling, and home dinner cooking. Mini meatloaf - 2.5 pounds of meat for TWO people (of course left over included) along with a few roasted vegetables - potato, onion, fennel and cabbage. I have never roasted cabbage before, but I got an idea from roasting sprouts a few weeks ago, which was really good. In my opinion these two are the same - sprouts has a bit more dense taste over cabbage I guess. They came out great... There is nothing better than eating home cooking dinner in a warm room (I love going out to the restaurant, but I love our home cooking meal better.)

Yaki-Imo (Baked Sweet Potato)

It is a Yaki-Imo season, even though it is not common here in the U.S.

In Japan, there are Yaki-Imo stands all over the city, like you can see baked chestnut stands in NYC. The smell from the stand is very similar to what you can expect from Yaki-Imo stand, which usually plays some music to tell people/residences that he/she is here for business. (The difference is Yaki-Imo stands move around, like ice cream stands in the U.S.)

My produce store in my neighbor carries Asian sweet potato (or Satsuma-Imo in Japanese) during the winter season, so I baked them in the oven - at 350 degree for one hour, the same way you would do for potato or sweet potato (yam).

As you can see, it is much dryer than yam, and greenish color (vs. yellow/orange in yam). I think it is much sweeter than yum and we typically eat for snack. People might smear butter, but I ate as it was since it was pretty sweet.