Special Happy Day

It was one of the most important days of the year.
Before going to that part, we went to the Prospect park for lunch by buying bagels at Bergen bagel. It was a warm day as January - upper 40s. White fish and sun dried tomato tofu sandwiches. Both were really good - not as good as Ess-a but good enough.

We wanted to have Shabu-Shabu for this special dinner but it did not happen, and ended up with steak. It came out good - we asked the butcher to cut the meat into half thickness like European/Japanese style steak.

I ordered a cake from Baked, which is one of my favorite bakeries in the city. I chose their Sweet and Salty... - dark chocolate cake with caramel flavored frosting, which has smokiness and saltiness. It was the smallest size (8 inches) they have but look how tall this cake was. We would enjoy this cake over a few days for sure, OR we should deliver pieces to my neighbors and friends (maybe not).
It was a very good day.

Trip to Philly

I was in Philadelphia for a day on business (not in the downtown though).
Before leaving I checked places for dinner - of course that is the most important things when you are going for trip, either private or business.
I found a great BBQ place close enough to the hotel. I have "things" for BBQ. Of course I love Japanese style, but I love Korean and American - wet, dry, rub... you name it.
It was more to BBQ joint than restaurant, so I decided to bring it to the room. I had pulled pork (1/2 lb.) and two sides - collared green and dirty corn. I love southern cooking like dark greens. On top of standard TWO sides, I added the third - cornbread. Its top was crispy and the body was very moist.

Good home away meal, even though it is not that much fun to eat dinner at a hotel room.

My Baby is Working AGAIN...

I know it is just a laundry machine, but it is not "just" in NYC.
I could not find an article or statistics, but I think it is less than 20% of household in NYC owns laundry machine in the apartment (condo/coop). Bigger apartment buildings tend to have laundry room(s) in the building, but not that many brown stone houses have the facility in the building. Solutions? - usually you need to go to a laundry mat - which could be several blocks away.
Lucky me, I have one in my apartment and I can do anytime (of course reasonable time during the day) I want without paying $$$. It could be $20 or so for one week or more if you choose to use wash&fold service.
It had an issue for a week or so, but now it has been fixed and is working beautifully. I, a kind of neat/clean freak, can't live without this baby...

Leftover Sunday Lunch

I like to use leftover on following day(s) - as it is or by making something new out of it.This time, we made Katsu-Don (again it is supposed to be pork but chicken this time). We did not have onion in the refrigerator so only green onion along with chicken we cooked on Saturday night. (I usually thinly slice unused green onion - typical Japanese Yakumi way and keep it in the freezer, so you can use it anytime you want.)
It came out really good and we enjoyed the chicken again in a different taste.

Home Cooking

I got an inspiration from the Italian restaurant we went on Friday - chicken cutlet with green salad along with lemon based dressing. Technically this is just chicken version of Ton-Katsu - typical Japanese dish, but no shredded cabbage with it.
Panko (Japanese bread crumb) started becoming popular in the U.S. since it is crunchier than typical American/Italian bread crumb. Of course we used Panko and shallow fried (vs. deep fried per Japanese method). It came out very crunchy (as expected) without any oiliness. Great Job!!!
Along with it, we cooked tomato based soup with mustard  green (like Karashi-Na in Japanese, I think). It added another dimension to the soup.
Good to eat in when the outside is in the 10s over night.

Italian in the Bronx

On the way to go to "upstate" New York, we stopped at an Italian restaurant in the Bronx. I know the Bronx does not sound like the place for Italian food, but actually there are a few Italian neighborhoods in this area. Owned by Italian family and people were all local - Italian people mainly.

We started our dinner with fried meatballs. We have never had meatballs as appetizer nor without tomato sauce but they were a bit spicy and great.

Main courses were Seafood soup and one of their veal dishes with pickled hot pepper, which gave spiciness and sourness at the same time.

Both were really good and we needed to bring some leftover home.

It was full when we arrived - 7:15 but became empty by the time we left - 8:30, which you don't see in the city, but in this neighborhood.

Work and Pleasure in the City

I needed to go to the city (midtown) today on business. It was cold but not as brisk as it had been with clear blue sky.

I had lunch at Japanese restaurant - Oyster fries. To me, Oyster is winter specific seafood and I only ate fried ones when I grew up, even though I enjoy eating raw ones during summer now... It was overwhelming amount, but they ended up in my stomach without any problem.

MetLife building, standing next to the Grand Central station and at the Park avenue start was very beautiful under the blue sky, isn't it?

Another pleasure in the city was Junior's cake. They are famous for their cheese cake, which I like. I usually buy their carrot cake - their cream cheese filling is unbelievable, but today I tried something new - it looks like half cheese cake and half chocolate cake. It weights more than ONE pound... I can't believe all goes into my stomach but I know it can be done.