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Great vacation but there is nowhere like NYC. Not much snow but still pretty.

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Garden at the Station

Old station was converted to botanical garden. Nice area to wait for a train.

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Tapas for Dinner

Our last dinner was Tapas. Nice wine with cheese and ham. Really nice way to end this trip.

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Tapas for Lunch

Quick meal during the day. We have been drinking twice a day. So unlikely for us.

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Break with Spanish Sweets

Between the meals we had some sweets. It tasted very European.

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Another Pretty View

Toured the city today. Very warm day today.

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Beef Stew

On of the best dishes so far. Cheak meat per restaurant.

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Night in Madrid

Still some X'mas Illuminations. Very pretty.

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In Toledo

Nice weather and enjoyed the time in Toledo.

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Flamenco

It was fantastic. Made our night for sure.

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Interesting Museum

This is located really close to the hotel. Garden on th building wall.

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At Night

Still a little Christmas lighting. It is pretty though.

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This is the Store

You can see you can get good meet here.

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FAMOUS HAM

Lucky us this famous place is just a block away. Nice meat with bread eating with nice Spanish wine. Life is not too bad.

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First Night in Madrid

We arrived this morning and enjoyed the food. This is the view in front of the museums. Pretty, YES.

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Trip to Madrid

Leaving to Madrid for 7 days. Lucky me I am taking a business class. I will upload some pictures when we come back. Happy holidays everyone...

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Middle Eastern Lunch

It is Xmas but out lunch was light at a neighborhood restaurant. Light but very satisfying. Not so many people in the city and quiet.

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View from My Hotel Room

I am in Dallas Texas this week. Not vacation though.
Staying at a nice hotel but not sure I am enjoying the fact that I am in Texas.

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Shabu Shabu for Sunday Lunch

No special occasion but we wanted to have this today. We bought decent meat at a Japanese grocery near by. As usual the papers to protect the table. My friend M. was supposed to have Shabu Shabu and wondered how it went.

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Japanese and Italian?

First time ever cooked Saba Misoni. It came out just like mom made. Very simple just with miso paste, sake, and sugaer along with ginger.
We cooked Italian, I don't know why I call it, soup. As we had French for lunch, the dinner was very simple.

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Saks Fifth Illuminations

Every year, I like to see Saks Fifth illuminations on the 5th avenue, in front of Rockefeller center. This year, they have changed the illusions and the music. I like this 3D illusion but I liked the song used till last year, to be honest. Still really pretty though.

Sunday Supper

Light meal with white wine to end the weekend. Life is not too bad.

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Weekend Dinner

A while since last time. A lot of vegetables even they weren't in the season. Always good to be home.

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Happy Birthday!!!

It's my sister's birthday today, so let me say "happy birthday to you".
I hope you will have a fabulous day you are well deserved for.

Night Out in the City

Dinner in the city with friends. This is the shot from the side of Rockefeller building. Illumination was so beautiful.

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Tex-Mex Dinner

We usually go out on Friday night, and this week was no exception. This time no chicken but tex-mex in Cobble Hill. Started with tons of chips... very thick and they were really good. I knew I would eat too many chips and can't enjoy the dinner itself and it exactly what happened.

Next stop was chili as you have to have it at a tex-mex. This place's one had chunks of beef so it was really meaty and relatively mild.

Main was fried chicken chicken... I know it is very tricky name, as it is a chicken version of fired chicken beef. Basically flatten chicken coated with butter milk and flour and deep fired. Typical souther food, I believe. We picked FOUR sides - mashed potato, fried Okura (yup Okura is southern food), color greens, and garlic spinach.
Oh boy all good, just hoped that I did not eat that many chips.

On the way home, there was a Christmas tree shop, which pops up everywhere in the city after the Thanksgiving. This one seems from Vermont.

The Tree is Here

I have been making efforts to see the tree every year and I made it this year as well. Many tourists but being there realizes two things, its Christmas time and NYC is a great city to be.

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Could NOT Wait

I went to Essa to buy bagels what else, right?...10 but the lady said I can get one free if I buy 12, so I ended up with 13. BUT could not resist warm smell so one came to my mouth on the street. Can't beat this. Could YOU?

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Business Lunch

Not a typical business lunch but it could be if you were in Texas. I am in Texas this week.

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To Dallas

Switching the flights in DC to Dallas. It is a working week after all.

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End of the Holiday

I realized that Thanksgiving is exactly like New Year in Japan. Almost everyone has FOUR days off, eats something special, family gets together, and goes to shopping. As everything dad an end, today is the last day of the holiday. We went to the beach in Connecticut. No other people but very nice view. A few more weeks before the other holiday... catching a very early flight tomorrow so going to bed early too.

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Macy's Parade

Not so many New Yorkers actually go to the parade, but I bet many watch it on TV. I saw it in person a few times - when I came to NYC first time, and when my friend visited.
This year we are watching it at a warm room.

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Pre Thanksgiving Dinner

A combination of Thanksgivin-ish dish with Asian dishes.
Not too heavy but substantial.

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Thanksgiving is Here

We tried to beat the crowd and went to Whole Foods this morning.
Usually a variety of meats but today all turkeys...
10 lb or more per bird... We won't cook them tomorrow, but it is a seasonal thing for sure.

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Ready for the Holiday Seasons?

It looks like.
This is the display of my favorite flower shop in the area. They do a good job usually.

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You won't believe where we were...

Would you guess where this picture was taken?
It is in the Bronx. Not so many people think the Bronx is like this, but there are a few nice places. It was next to the museum/botanical garden and nice path with trees. We were seeing Hudson river on the one side, and big houses on the other.
Chilly in mid 40s but very nice to walk through the path. We will come back here in Spring or Summer to see more greens next time.

Saturday Dinner

We cooked FOUR dishes today. Visiting a farmer's market gave us the idea about what to cook. All are Asian inspired food while last night we went to the kosher deli.
Loved Autumn/Winter vegetables.

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Windy Day

Working from home today as usual. It has been very windy and birds are fighting against the strong winds. I can see a few types of birds from the window. Every once a while they come to the fire escape. They are really cute.

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Pre Thanksgiving Dinner

10 more days till actual one but today we invited B. and A. for dinner. Nothing related to Thanksgiving menu wise. I made four dishes and all came out really good. Nice conversations and wine... what else to ask.

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Kabocha for Lunch

As a person growing up in the middle of farm land, I know Kabocha grows in summer, buy why it reminds me winter? Maybe because we have a customer to eat it on the first day of winter in December?

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Italian Dinner

No home cooking but we went to a local old fashion Italian restaurant. There was no fuss but just good food. Italian sausage with broccoli rub.

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Subway Above the Ground

There several stations where subway run above the ground. I don't think there is any in Manhattan but others. This is in the Bronx. Do you see the difference from Brooklyn?

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Korean Dinner

There are a few Korean towns in the city and surrounding areas. We went to one of them - Flushing this time. After the grocery at our favorite store, HMart, we had Korean dinner - two soups. I had hot rib soup.

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Spice Cake

Even though I am not a baker, sometime I want to eat something I baked. We found a box of spice cake mix, so we arranged the receipt and made apple spice cake. Served with whipped cream. Yum...

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Weekend Meal

It got cold this weekend, and no more outdoor activities. We went to the farmer's market to buy a lot of, I meant A LOT OF, produce items. Our dinner was pretty much vegetarian except a little of beef in the pepper dish (red one).

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Yakiimo for Breakfast

It is the season of Japanese sweet potato. I baked them yesterday and one of them became my breakfast. Not as good as the one we had in Kyoto but not too bad.

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Nice Saturday

It was cool this morning, but it warmed up pretty nicely by afternoon.

We decided to go to the playground near by. This place was used by Mariah Carey's music video - Fantasy. I did not know she grew up in NY till several months ago, and she produced this video first time, I heard. She was pretty 20 years ago. What happen to her after getting married (or trying to having a baby or two).

You can see the ocean (technically it might not be ocean as you can still see Long Island at the end), but it was very nice with the reflections of the late afternoon sun. There were many people enjoying this surprisingly warm weekend on the beach or at the boardwalk.

I needed something sweet - surprise..., so we stopped by at one of European pastries, we like. It should have been TWO for two people, but I could not choose only two so we ended up choosing three - one more chocolate raspberry napoleon waiting for us. This cassis mousse had nice crusty bottom (like short bread) as a nice surprise.

Dinner was easy cooking - onion/potato stew and garlic black bean sauce chicken with green onions. Both came out really nice and we were able to take enough energy to play Wii tonight. I wonder who wins...