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

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..

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

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

Sushi! Sushi! Sushi!

I'm a picky person when it comes to fish. If it smells fishy.. keep it away from me.  That's why I usually stay away from cooked fish dishes just because it's so hard to find fish that is cooked well and doesn't have that ocean pee smell.. Raw fish, however, is in my top 5 favorite foods.  Good sashimi does not smell fishy at all, but fresh and clean.  Sashimi is the best way to have fish in my opinion.  Each fish has a distinct flavor and texture, the rich and buttery, yet very distinct, flavors of salmon and toro, the slight metallic flavor of red tuna, the chewy texture of octopus and squid.  I'm no sushi master, but I know what fish I like.

Usually "all you can eat" sushi restaurants don't have great quality fish, (learned from experience) probably due to the quantity of fish they must serve for a set price.  Sushi Palace in Orange is a pleasant change from the other sushi factories there are available out there.  The fish is fresh and their kitchen dishes aren't half bad either. I had a belly-busting satisfactory dinner there the other night with one of my friends. Embarrassed to say we only got to 2 plates of sushi and a couple side dishes.  OH! and another thing. I cannot eat sushi without the ginger.. just doesn't taste right.  Gotta cleanse the palate between each piece :)

Sushi Palace

538 Boston Post Rd

Orange, CT 06477

Chicago Weekend

yaaay I finally got a chance to go to Chicago for a weekend! I got to see my J :) Didn't do anything too crazy. just wanted to spend time with each other (i know aww so cute) but what we did do was watch 21 jump street (*drool* channing tatum and jonah hill) hilarious movie btw.. and eat some really good food. And here are my chi-town food adventures..

We surprising didn't sleep into the afternoon on saturday but woke up decently early (mainly because my alarm that i forgot to turn off went off at around 7:20am) so we went to this breakfast joint called Yolk which ironically, i loved the restaurant, hate actual egg yolks... Apparently their eggs benedicts were known for being de-lish so decided to go with their... Pot Roast Eggs Benedict! jealous? you should be. Now i understand that eggs benedicts is mainly about the yolk.. poached egg and hollandaise sauce.. blah blah.. but i don't like yolk (like i said.. ironic in this restaurant) so i got mine with egg whites and hollandaise sauce on the side. i know i'm totally ruining eggs benedict..

Pot Roast Eggs Benedict

The pot roast was tender and juicy.. egg whites cooked perfectly and not rubbery.. potatoes a little undercooked but i'm ok with that as long as i have ketchup and tabasco sauce. With a side of fresh fruit, this meal everything i was craving and a great start to my day with J :D J got a customized omelette (but basically a western) with ham onions peppers and mushrooms.

Western Omelette

very tasty.. surprised the inside was cooked because it was a very large omelette. looked more like a football. ended up eating only half and took the other half plus potatoes home for a rainy day.

Yolk

355 E Ohio Street

Chicago, IL 60611

So i love my vietnamese food.. maybe that's why i joined VSC instead of KSA during college. i already had access to korean food at home.. but what about my banh mis and phos? anyways we decided we were craving some pho so we went to the viet-town of chicago (more like viet-corner.. but that's ok) and went to Tank Noodle. Lots of tables squished together, sometimes even sharing tables with people you don't know.. but i'm ok with that as long as i get fed. J got Phở Tái, Chin, Gân, noodle soup with beef, brisket, and tendon and i got Bún Heo Nướng, rice vermicelli with sliced grilled pork, vegetables, and peanut. I was craving fish sauce for some strange reason. You can never go wrong with vietnamese food. de-lish.

Bún Heo Nướng

Phở Tái, Chin, Gân

Tank Noodle Restaurant

4953-55 N.Broadway

Chicago, IL 60640 

So dinner we had already made plans early on because we wanted to try this steakhouse, Gibson's. We made reservations when i first bought my plane tickets to chicago. their chicago location were booked up! so we decided to try their oakbrook site. This is probably where i would brag the most about the food but the pictures are not that great because i didn't want to have flash go off in this nice restaurant. This restaurant atmosphere was a bit confusing though. half the people dressing really classy with bottles of wine (ourselves included), other half dressed semi-casual/casual... and then the table next to us seated a couple in sweats, watching a basketball game with sound ON on their cell phone... distracting and rude! Another distracting aspect at this restaurant was birthdays. apparently birthdays are a to-do at Gibson's on weekends. they have so many birthday requests that they don't sing you the song. a group of waiters stand next to your table and shout "Happy! Happy! Happy Birthday to You!!" and then walk away. definitely kept you on your toes.. enough about the atmosphere. on with the food.

what's a fancy restaurant without oysters? and there was this sauce. could not place the exact flavor. like a citrus-y shaved ice that you put on the oyster. oh divine!! cocktail sauce and tabasco will no longer be enough for me.. :(

Oysters on the Half Shell

And now onto the steaks! before you order, the waiter brings you a platter with all the different steak options to show you the marbling, size, cut, etc. (each steak had the option of peppercorn crust, garlic herb, blue cheese something or another.. don't remember the rest) their special that night was the 16 oz. bone-in filet with king crab bearnaise sauce which i added peppercorn crust and J got the 22 oz. "chicago cut" with peppercorn crust. can't have steak without sides. double baked potato, 1/2 order of sauteed mushrooms, and 1/2 order of creamed corn (because we were indecisive and our waiter was awesome). paired very nicely with a waiter-recommended bottle of Mionetto il Moscato sparkling wine and a french martini (guess who had which drink ;) both sound girly right? XP)

Bone-In Filet (16oz) with King Crab Bearnaise Sauce

W.R.'s Chicago-Cut (22oz)

i know these pictures just look like black bricks.. just trust me they were awesome.


our eyes definitely bigger than our stomachs.. we had a very big doggie bag when we left.. we both ate about half of our steaks and a fraction of the sides. (i sliced up my leftover filet the next morning to have with eggs. yum) no room for desserts, though i did see plates with 1/4 slice of a humongous cake floating around so i must come back for that. this was a very extravagant dinner but i'm going to justify it by saying it landed on the day of our 26 month anniversary.................

Gibson's Bar and Steakhouse

2105 South Spring Road

Oak Brook, IL 60523

So lunch the next day, just walking around downtown chicago we walk by a place called the Purple Pig. J had heard of this place before! 4 stars on yelp with over 1000 reviews? sounds good to me. usually there is a 2-3 hour wait to eat here but apparently not for a 1pm lunch on a sunday. as a tapas place, the dishes are small and meant to be shared. we ended up getting:

Salt-Roasted Beets with Whipped Goat Cheese & Pistachio Vinaigrette

cool and refreshing with a tang from the goat cheese and perfect amount of saltiness from the pistachios. the chef is a genius with this dish!

Olive Oil-Poached Tuna with Greek Lima Beans

citrus-y and herb-tastic! tuna not too crumbly and nice big lima beans to balance the fish.

Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs 

served with toasted bread, this smear was different and amazing. scoop out the bone marrow, smear it on the bread, sprinkle a little sea salt and top with light vinaigrette salad to balance the fattiness. yummy :)

Eggplant Parmesan Balls 

you would think something so simple wouldn't taste that must better than any other eggplant parmesan.. oh but it did! little nuggets of happiness :) J ate one before i could take the picture.

Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Mashed Potatoes 

so tender and juicy! the meat just falls apart! on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes. a perfect comfort food.

Wild Striped Sea Bass with Artichoke

so good! crispy crust with flaky insides. paired perfectly with the tomato-based marinated artichokes. (sorry for blurry picture.. was anxious to try this last dish since all the past ones were so good)

Amazing food-gasm experience. I have nothing bad to say about this place. except for they should invest in more than 1 single user bathroom. maybe 1 for each gender at least?

the purple pig was the best way (if there is any good way) to end my weekend in chicago with my J (too much rhyming there.. not intentional)

The Purple Pig

500 North Michigan Avenue

Chicago, IL 60611

Now i am back in the fruit :(

Seafood Pasta

So a few days ago we made seafood paella for dinner (even though I posted about it earlier today) and apparently my parents really liked the seafood... so my dad bought some more and decided to make a seafood pasta dish tonight.. I guess they were getting sick of the constant korean food for dinner?  I <3 korean food but I guess I'm not complaining :)

Too hard to write out a full recipe and I didn't take pictures throughout this time so I'll just brag that I had some amazing seafood pasta for dinner tonight.

You can't see the linguine because it's buried under the red ocean but I promise you it's there. With italian bread for dipping and a simple salad of romaine, cherry tomatoes, honey goat cheese, and sliced baby bell peppers, it doesn't get much better than this :)

What's in the picture fed 5 people and is only half of what we made.. yay lunch/dinner tomorrow!

Seafood Paella

My dad's a closet gourmet chef.. so when my mom left me, my brother, and my dad to fend for ourselves for dinner one night, we decided to try our hand at Paella.  A multi-step process but so totally worth it.  I will be explaining in urey-recipe terms.. basically meaning not real metric measurements.. you'll see what i mean.. it might be hard to make this at home while just following this recipe..

What we used:
1 large onion
1-2 bell peppers (red/green)
couple garlic cloves
1 can diced tomatoes
3-4 cup rice
1.5lb  chicken breast
4-5 links chorizo sausage (we had spicy ones. yum)
SEAFOOOD delight!! (aka shrimp, scallop, mussels, clams, squid, king crab legs) or any subsection of this.
fillet of tilapia (just because we had it)
chicken stock
water
saffron
paprika
parsley

What we did:
1. Cube the chicken and slice the sausage into 1/2" thickness.  Cook chicken in some olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper.  Set aside chicken and cook up sausage in same pan (no need to have extra dishes to wash)

2. While the meats were cooking, chop onions and peppers and smash the garlic.

3. Once chicken and sausage cooked (slightly undercooked is ok too since they'll be cooking more in the paella), set aside and sear scallops and shrimp.

4. Saute onions, peppers, and garlic in some olive oil in a BIIIIG pan (this pan will be used for the paella)  Once onions translucent, add the rice and coat with the oil.

5. Add canned tomatoes, chicken stock, water, couple shakes of paprika (not sure amount of liquid total because we just kinda followed how we make korean rice..) i would say we did 4.5 cups of rice with 8 cups of liquid...??

6.  While you're waiting for it to come to a boil, wash the shellfish, slice the squid into rings, (we) cut the crab legs into small sections for easy eating.

7.  Once liquid comes to a boil, add crab, clam, mussels, chicken, sausage, and pinch of saffron and mix thoroughly.  Lower heat to a simmer and wait.

8.  When most of the liquid is absorbed, add shrimp, scallop, squid, and whatever else you have that I may have forgotten to mention and mix..  we placed the tilapia on top so it wouldn't be all crumbled.

9.  Cover for last few minutes of cooking and also raise heat a little to get the socarrat (crust of rice at the bottom of the pan)    Add some chopped parsley for garnish and voila! 

10. Dig in :)