Weekend in NY and Philly (Ippudo and Philly Cheesesteak)

Another epic weekend in the life of urkangaroo.

I watched the dark knight rises (again) and this time i actually remember the entire movie whereas the last time, even though it was in IMAX, going out and drinking did not help my brain to fully comprehend the movie. especially when i haven't seen batman begins or the dark knight. one day i will watch the dark knight since apparently it's soo much better than the risen version.. but joker kinda freaks me out right now.. but one day....

As a birthday dinner in NY, I was surprised by J, H, and P, and was taken to Ippudo! Over 3800 reviews on yelp with a 4/5 star rating.. crazy! but apparently they don't take reservations, so H went 2 hours early to put our name in! <3 when we were being directed to our table... i thought the restaurant was like a maze! there wasn't really one big dining room, but it was more narrow rooms/halls that just kept going.. (i realized when we were leaving that it was actually just a square.. and that i was maybe high on something thinking it was a maze..)

everyone must try these pork buns at least once in their lifetime. wait the 2-3 hours to get seated here and eat it! light puffy clouds with a fall apart, perfectly marinated pork belly. DELISH!!!

Niku-Miso Cups. miso glazed pork in an edible cup. eh. unimpressed compared to the pork buns.

Karaka Men: ooo yummy ramen! wasn't too spicy. just enough to keep things interesting. and the little ball in the middle is a ball of minced ginger. that also kept each bite interesting. I got mine with a poached egg. i was so full after eating all the noodles. i can't believe H drank all of her soup as well!

J got the Shiromaru Hakata Classic ramen. probably a ramen one could eat over and over and over again and not get sick of it. i prefer spicy but this one was good too.

Cake cake cake cake cake cake cake. yummy! i forgot what the bakery she got it was called but a crazy layered creme cake with fruit and dark chocolate. i ended up blowing out my candle as well as the table candle haha oops! they immediately took it away and lit it again (the table candle) one of the best cakes i've had!!

we then went out for the night to debauch and dance haha ended up at a club/lounge in St. Marks called Solas. such cheap and strong drinks! i have yet to find someone who remembers leaving Solas that night.. we ended up going to k-town for some awesome korean fooood. though i'm pretty sure i remember a lot of people asleep with their head on the table. thankfully not in the food. :D successful night!

the next morning (groan) J and i helped J's sister J move her stuff to her new apartment in Philly to prepare for her first year at Wharton! so smart! so anyways. i passed out in the car with my mouth open and woke up with my mouth as dry as the sahara... sooo not sexy. picked up J's cousin and his girlfriend and went to get philly cheesesteaks! since it was my first time. I have heard about the Geno's vs. Pats Cheesesteak rivalry and I finally got the see it for myself! Geno's is very flashy. i wish i could have seen it at night when it was all lit up. Pats was very grungy and low-key right across the street.

 we ended up going to pat's just because the line was shorter.. i think.. just a spur of the moment decision i guess. there is this whole ordering system too. gotta say it right. "wit" and "witout" onions, type of cheese, and type of sandwich. i just got the classic i guess you can call it. cheesesteak "wit" onions and cheese whiz.

they so fast! and they so rude! (i guess it does say on the instruction wall to have your money ready but they were rushing me and i was still trying to decide what i wanted. booo. oh well w/e. i guess that's the tradition here. the cheesesteak was OK. probably wasn't the best idea for my digestive system and especially after the night before of debauchery... it was an experience though (though not one i would want to repeat). and i can say i've had Pat's philly cheesesteaks.. maybe ill try Geno's next time to compare.. (or is that frowned upon?)

The day ended with the drive back to NY with J after dropping sister J off at her awesome looking apartment.. J's flight out of NY got delayed couple hours because of a "thunderstorm" that i did not see at all.. but i'm not complaining cuz i got to hang out with him for longer :D and then my drive back to the good ol' fruit. all in all a great weekend :)

Color Run and Boston Birthday Weekend

So as an attempt to get healthy and also bring my friends down with me in the craze that is working out, I got them all to sign up for the Color Run!  After running sporadically on my own for a couple of months, the race was finally here! I was afraid the run was going to be rained out because the forecast didn't look too good. man was I wrong.  pre-pre-run meal wasn't so healthy.. but oh so delicious. oh the days of greasy chinese food at peach farm :D just a couple of the dishes.

i was a little better the next day. Pre-run breakfast at the hotel :) egg white omelette with tomatoes mushrooms onions ham and home fries. yum.

After a 40 minute drive to the exit on the highway for color run and another hour(?) of sitting in traffic right at the exit while watching other people just walk to color run.... we finally make it! It was actually pretty funny watching the car behind us in traffic offer to let other cars cut them in line for money. they were just being d-bags but then again so were the people who didn't wait in the traffic line like everyone else and try to cut the front of the line. i hate people like that. 

On the shuttle to color run! All squeaky clean!  Team Unicorn Poo go go go!

and after all of this!

a unicorn pooped on us!! 

The only thing that ruined the experience for me was the inefficiency.  We waited 2 hours to get on the shuttle to get back to our cars! ridiculous!! i did get an email the next day from color run explaining that it was not a normal thing and it was because there was an accident on the highway where the buses would have normally gone they had to take back roads. I was wondering why we were driving through the boonies of MA getting back to the cars. We ended up leaving around 3:30PM and went straight to PHO in all of our colorful glory. they were probably staring at us but i didn't notice cuz my face was in a bowl of vermicelli and pho :D nom nom! overall fun experience. wouldn't do it again. the color is a b*tch to get out of your skin! i had pink armpits for days! i feel bad for people who had a lot of green and blues... 

So i went to boston for 2 reasons. color run. and also to see all my awesome friends up there to celebrate my birthday. For my b-day dinner, J had a surprise dinner planned (which we ate only 2 hours after eating pho.. but that's ok..) and we went to B&G Oysters! i <3 oysters! Something very satisfying about the slimy lump covered in tabasco and lemon juice. yummmm <3

a spread of 6 different types of oysters to enjoy with a bottle of St. Urbenshoff white wine. honestly they all tasted the same to be except for the salt nugget oysters. actually a lot saltier than the others. but very good oysters. and the waitress was really good to make sure our wine glasses were never empty. the wine was a bit on the sweeter side but paired very nicely with the meal :)

I got the lobster roll which came with fries and cole slaw. huge chunks of lobster claw (fave!) and fries were seasoned well. i liked the cole slaw that came with it. not mayonnaise-y at all! pickles too salty :(

J got the sea bass  (sorry crappy picture) with polenta and dandelion greens. very crispy skin. twas delish!  This meal was one of the best birthday dinners ive had! <3 will definitely have to go there again if i'm ever in boston.

for the nighttime festivities, kept it simple and went to Myung dong (korean bar/po-cha style) and had some yummy yogurt soju, beer, and korean food, and also had the bar play "Oppa Gangnam Style" by Psy probably over 5 times while we were there. and then once we were all liquored up (or mostly me.. due to the birthday shots that myong dong has for their birthday customers... 5 shots in a row of colorful liquids while the whole bar watches) we crossed the street and went to tavern in the square or what we like to call "tits," where we met an awesome bartender who gave us "surprise" drinks. pretty much his own concoction of random liquors mixed together... some of them probably had names but i was just handed a funny colored liquid and was told to take it.. very very fun night! less fun at 8am taking J to the airport.. and the sunburn i got from standing in line at color run. that's ok cuz it was all worth it!  can't wait for next weekend! birthday celebration part II moving it to NYC! :D

John Davenport's in New Haven

I think this is New Haven's attempt at a high class restaurant on the top floor of a nice hotel.. On the 19th floor of the Omni Hotel in New Haven, there is a restaurant/bar called John Davenports's/Bar 19.  It looks very elegant inside and the floor to ceiling windows give a nice view of the sound and new haven. The food was just good though. Nothing to rave. I've had better food at cheaper places in New Haven.

People ate most of it before I could take a picture. Mussels in a white wine, pesto sauce. Pretty good, nice fat mussels.

a simple salad of butter lettuce, candied walnut, roquefort cheese, radish in a truffle vinaigrette. one of the best salads i have ever had. ever.

blue crab croquette with a variety of sauces. i couldn't taste any crab because they were probably pureed together.  Didn't seem like i was eating crab..

Lobster tempura with lemon aioli. Nice big pieces of lobster. lobster claw is my favorite. but i think battering and deep frying lobster ruins the lobster :( just give it to me fresh!

Chicken spring roll.. just a spring roll..

We ordered every single appetizer they had except for the new england clam chowder..

My dad got the lobster fettuccine with chorizo. it was pretty good but a little too salty to eat a whole plate of.  It paired nicely with my semi-bland sea bass that i got.

very nice crispy skin on the sea bass but a little under seasoned. the black currant vinaigrette was good though. just sweet enough for an entree and potatoes and mushrooms cooked well.  just the fish was a little bland so i ate it with some of my dad's fettuccine.

overall decent and since i didn't pay for this meal it was good but if i were to pay for my own meal, it wouldn't be worth it compared to the delicious cheap eats that new haven always has to offer.


John Davenport’s Restaurant

155 Temple Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06510

Unhealthy Kangaroo

So after getting some blood work done couple weeks ago.. doc told me that I need to lower my cholesterol and glucose levels :( I'm too young for this stuff!! I didn't think I was eating that unhealthily and have been exercising on a regular basis.. but I guess genetics are against me as well as that I'm not being as good as I think I'm being.. so I will be limiting my meals out, which means less posts on awesome restaurants.. maybe more posts on healthy recipes? but those aren't very interesting since I will be eating very simple foods going forward.. i will not be taking medications this young!! (which is what my doc threatened me with if the numbers don't change after 6 months..) kind of depressing that i'll be on an extremely strict diet for a while.. but I can do it! GOGO!

Homemade Pad Thai

This little kangaroo knows how to make pad thai at home with a few simple ingredients! it's not real pad thai since i didn't use tamarind.. but that's too hard to get sooo.. i didn't use it. recipe and steps by memory so bear with me..

mix soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, sriracha and bit of rice vinegar in a bowl.  soak rice noodles in almost boiling water for around 15-20 minutes and make sure they're not sticking together.. in the meantime, prepare some fresh bean sprouts, chopped garlic and sliced scallions.  I also added some tofu in this dish.. no meat this time (mostly because i couldn't find any in the house..) 

in a wok (or pan) heat up a bit of oil.  Add the garlic and stir until fragrant.  2 whisked eggs and add them to the garlic and scramble them around.  then add the (slightly firm yet cooked) noodles to the wok and pour in the sauce and toss.  Add bean sprouts, scallions, and tofu afterwards and lightly toss again.

This is where mine ended but if i had peanuts at home i would have crushed them up and added them on top.  Serve with cilantro and lime wedge. 

Delicious leftovers for lunch at work the next day

This was actually pretty close to what pad thai in a restaurant tasted like! definitely doing it again and the noodles were perfectly cooked.. not all mushy like they are sometimes in restaurants. maybe ill try chicken and shrimp next time! yum! look at this kangaroo go with this fancy cooking! lol jk it's really easy :D

Personal sushi chef

My dad is not very social... doesn't have too many close friends since he doesn't like to leave the house.. but the friends he does have are very very cool people! One, for example, is a sushi chef! and he wanted to thank us for feeding him at our house multiple times a week by making us our favorite sushis at our house!

Our sushi chef at work.

I tried to get my family to wait to eat until he finished making all the sushis so I could take a full picture.. but that failed and they started nibbling.. my fave = yellowtail. my mom's fave = uni. bro and dad's fave = salmon and yellowtail. so that's all we got and we were all soooo happy! there were more plates not shown here.

ALSO!! my mom went to hartford with a friend today for something or another... but point of this is that there is the ONE good vietnamese restaurant of CT and it is 45-50 min away near hartford and my mom knows I love vietnamese food so she brought home PHO! :D best day ever!! sushi and pho for dinner!

we even had the authentic big bowls (or at least similar bowls that you see at the viet restaurants) to eat out of. yum yummm..

best day ever..

Istanbul Cafe & Homemade Tamales

Another Adventure of MU. M was craving greek food.. and we ended up going to Istanbul Cafe in New Haven (though come to find out it's more Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean foods than Greek.. oh well) we walk in pretty early for dinner around 5:45PM and there's no one in the restaurant except for 1 waiter. weird. oh well fast service :)

Started off with the Soquk Meze (translated at "cool spread") which basically was every possible spread they have available as an appetizer. each one of them soo good! basically the list consists of hummus, eggplant based puree, salsa-like spicy salad (my fave1), spinach yogurt dip, grape leaves stuffed with rice mixture, and carrot salad (M's fave and my second). M and I dipped bread with these spreads and by the time we were done with the appetizer, we were pretty full! I could order this appetizer (maybe a large) and be set for dinner. definitely would get this again :D

For our entrees, I got Iskender Kebab and M got the Tavuk Sis Kebab.

I liked the dish. didn't love love it. the yogurt was warm obviously with the cooked meat next to it. i don't like warm yogurt. it would have been better maybe if the yogurt was given in a separate bowl chilled.  Otherwise the chicken was cooked well and seasoned nicely.

M said she liked the dish, though she only ate like 3 pieces of chicken since she was full from appetizers. we'll plan better next time :)

One weird thing about this place, we were there for about an hour.. on a friday night.. and the entire time, no one else came in to the restaurant.. which is odd because it had really good food.. and as we were walking by other restaurants, they were all jam packed. also, apparently the waiter was a little too attentive and was staring at M uncomfortably for a while. i guess if there's no one else to wait on, gotta pay attention to the one group that's there right? creepy nonetheless.

Istanbul Cafe
245 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06520


Just so I don't want to post 2 different blogs at the same time...
my dad has some mexican employees, and apparently every saturday, this one guy brings homemade tamales for lunch and sell them to the other guys for $1 a pop. my mom decided to buy some one day and bring them home for me and my bro.  i've never had tamales before.

I took three on my plate.. i only ate 2 because they were really filling and also really spicy.  So good though! i can't really tell what was inside them.. no meat of any kind (i don't think..) but i could definitely recognize the chili pepper in the middle of each one! gah! fire!

 really really good! i need to try and make some tamales myself one day. but until then i'll just get them authentic homemade by my buddy down at the carwash :)

BBall and BBQ

I was never really into watching sports pre-college.. but I guessing going to a school in an area with strong loyalties to their sports teams, I got caught up in the hype. it was kinda lonely when everyone else was talking about their fantasy teams and such and even now in the work environment, most of the conversations around me are about sports (or technology) Going to school near the beantown, it was hard to cheer for anyone but the Celtics due to sheer mass of Boston fans congregated at the campus center on game night.  You would get dirty looks otherwise lol. Ever since then i've been following Allen, Rondo, KG, and Pierce like a fat kid would an ice cream truck.  (though i did root for the knicks as well with carmelo and lin when lin blew up). it's okay. CT is between NY and Boston so I can have contradicting loyalties :)

WIth the potential elimination game of the Heat vs. Celtics last night, i had to watch it with other people and not alone in the confines of my room. Decided to grab dinner and then watch the game with my friend M (though I came to find out he was an anti-Celtics fan which meant he was by default rooting for the Heat... boo...) but good times nonetheless :) until 4th quarter when i just went home and slept because i was getting depressed...  its okay because the awesome dinner and dessert beforehand balanced out the sadness that was the celtics losing.

Dinner was at a BBQ place called Joey C's in Milford.  heard it was good bbq so decided to try it out :)

AMAZING BBQ! :D M got the pulled pork platter with aztec fire roasted corn, mac & cheese, and corn bread.  Lots of food and everything was delish!! I kept eating off of M's plate :P

I got the beef brisket platter with sweet potato fries, aztec fire roasted corn, and corn bread.  I also got a Portuguese roll for 99cents to make myself a brisket sandwich. the brisket was just melt in your mouth yummy! sweet potato fries actually tasted like sweet potatoes (unlike other places where they either burn it or ruin it some other way). everything was so good and i had enough leftover to bring to lunch today :) yay!  

Joey C's
439 Boston Post Rd
Milford, CT 06460
(203) 301-3299

Dessert was at place called Rita's Italian Ice.  They have delicious custards and italian ices and you can mix the two together to make a heavenly concoction.  I got a Gelati which is a layer of custard topped with layer of italian ice topped with layer of custard again :) Coffee custard with swedish fish italian ice. i know it sounds gross but it was soooo good :D :D :D though i couldn't finish it because all that creaminess and all that sweetness it too much for my body to handle in one day. didn't take a picture of it because i forgot and started eating it right away. oops x_x i'll take a picture next time :)

Rita's Italian Ice

Germans Plaza

175 Boston Post Road

Milford, CT 06460

Ibiza Restaurant

So my friend J is off doing big things in Uganda making me feel slightly unaccomplished.. but that's ok. i'll do something earth-shattering one day.. but until that day.. i will take pleasure in feeding my friends good foods :) As a send off, I took J to this tapas restaurant, Ibiza, in New Haven (owned by the same person who owns Meigas in Norwalk.. see previous post) so I was expecting great things.  Since my friend J will be eating Ugandan foods for the next 3 months, we decided to try the tasting menu to try and get as many different flavors as possible.
my descriptions of the dishes will not be very good because there was no set menu for the tasting menu.. it was what the chef decided to send out.  (though our waiter came by with each dish to explain what it was.. he has a thick accent and i have a bad memory...)

Some gazpacho of sorts, fire roasted shishito peppers, codfish croquette

shrimp, scallop, lobster ceviche with avocado base

foie gras croquette with quail egg and salami(?) wrapped salad

codfish(?) some fish on bed of linguine um... it was really good though x_x

2 ways cooked quail and caramelized veggies and sweet potatoes

passion fruit and brownie with coconut whipped cream and chocolate crisps and caramel

everything was really good though dinner took forever because it took a while between each dish to get the next one, but by the end we were both crazy full and satisfied.  next time i'll pick my own dishes though.  Not as good as meigas but still yummers :)

Ibiza

39 High Street

New Haven, CT 06510

Girl & the Goat

So had another chicago weekend with my boo <3 we had heard about this restaurant in chicago that required reservations at least 4 months in advance... ridiculous! and on yelp they are 4.5 stars with 1500 reviews.. definitely wanted to try this place out.. but didn't want to wait until winter to be able to try it. according to some of the reviews, you can go early and wait for a table without reservations (though you would prob have to wait for over an hour)  so we decided to go early (~4:45-5pm) to try and beat the rush and wait for a table.  we get there and we still have to wait an hour 45! this place is crazy! but im so glad we waited :) we sat at the bar and got yummy drinks until we were seated. now here comes the delish food.

hiramasa crudo 

with crisp pork belly. chili aioli. caperberries

diver scallops 
braised duck . marcona almond butter . green papaya . green almond nuoc cham

pig face

with egg and some stuff (i forget the exact)

sauteed green beans 

fish sauce vinaigrette . cashews

crisp braised pork shank

spring onion kimchee . buttermilk dressing

OMG everything was sooo foodgasmic! small tapas (except for the pork shank) and unbelievable flavors. pig face? you mash it all up before eating it. looks and sounds kinda weird but it was one of the best things i ever ate.  definitely worth the wait. don't even bother making a reservation. i would rather wait hour and half than 4 months to eat here again.

Girl & the Goat

809 W Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60607

Meigas in Norwalk

So I had the pleasure of getting a call from a friend who had a groupon that was expiring soon and wanted to grab dinner. It was at this tapas restaurant Meigas in Norwalk, CT. Bit of a drive for me but totally worth the trip. I got to see my bestie S. and I had some delicious food.

With a glass of Albariño La Caña white wine, I was ready to eat. We ordered 2 tapas plates and 1 entree plate.




Sorry the picture is so blurry. This was one of the best dishes I have ever eaten.. Vieiras a la Meigas was a scallop dish with roasted beets, orange guacamole and mango vinaigrette. The scallops were like butter! So smooth and the dish a perfect balance of creamy and acidity. Definitely would get this again.




Piquillos de Pato was a duck confit and rice mixture stuffed into a roasted piquillo pepper. The stuffed pepper itself was just ok. Couldn't really taste the duck but the sauce was delish. I cleaned the plate up of the sauce with the garlic bread that the waitress would keep bringing out nonstop. This garlic bread is not what is normally pictured when one thinks garlic bread. It is a loaf of soft white bread with whole cloves of garlic baked throughout the bread. You would break the bread and see a garlic clove sticking out at you. Oh so yummy. So second tapas dish was just okay. I would consider it more of a side dish to my bread :)





S. and I were planning on sharing each of the dishes, including the entree. So for our third dish we ordered the Cochinillo de Segovia which is suckling pig, potato gratin and apricot puree.

When the waiter brought out this dish, he actually brought out 2 plates of what is pictured above. We told the waiter that we had only ordered 1 of this dish, not one for each of us.. and he says, "oh no, this is just one entree. I split it into 2 plates so it is easier to share." awwww :D i love this guy! and there was so much food too! I could have eaten just the "split" plate as an entree! one day soon I will go back and see how big an actually entree looks on 1 plate.

back to the food. The suckling pig was divine! the skin was crispy, yet the fat underneath was melt-in-your-mouth juicy. The potatoes and spinach were a nice compliment. apricot puree baby.. the touch of sweetness that paired with the saltiness of the pork and vegetables perfectly. i was in heaven.

I had a perfect dinner with great food, great drinks, and great company. It also just so happened that the day we went to dinner, groupon was offering another groupon for this restaurant. I bought it immediately :) Anyone wanna join me for round 2 this summer?

<3

Meigas Restaurant
10 Wall Street

Norwalk, CT 06850