I’m looking for an alternative to Flickr Pro (while great, has some idiosyncrasies which irk me), so I’m giving SmugMug a shot.

Here’s a little tidbit I took over St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Boston!

But before that, I have a public service announcement:

From now on, before you can comment on any post, you must be a registered user. The number of spam comments has become ridiculous.

Okay, PSA over. Onto the photos!

Over Winter Break, a group of the [...]]]> Let’s knock some more photos off the queue, eh?

But before that, I have a public service announcement:

From now on, before you can comment on any post, you must be a registered user. The number of spam comments has become ridiculous.

Okay, PSA over. Onto the photos!

Over Winter Break, a group of the female persuasion from the family decided to have a little Girl’s Night Out, and I tagged along. After being kicked out of a cupcake class and arriving at our reservation to a closed restaurant (they had a busted water pipe and didn’t bother to call us to reschedule), we happened upon Eataly.

Eataly is a chaotic gourmet Italian market with themed eateries. We opted for the sit-down, seafood-themed Il Pesce.

The star dish of the night was the bacon smoked sturgeon.

Every other dish we had was somewhat bland.

The brodetto, a medley of mussels and clams in a spicy tomato broth, looked promising.

Fancy sandy mouth?

But it was really sandy.

The market did have some treasures though. We picked up some Beppino Occelli butter, which apparently is one of the top rated, award winning butters in the world.

We also picked up some raisin bread too.

It was curious. Upon tasting the bread and butter independently, neither seemed to particularly stand out. The butter, unsalted, tasted like oil. The bread was more unspectacular than white bread.

But together, it was like fireworks in your mouth. The bread had a fresh-quality that is difficult to describe. The butter was crisp and refreshing.

Easily one of the best bread-and-butter’s I’ve ever had.

We also picked up some sort of cured, sliced pork.

Nameless, delicious fat and protein.

I don’t remember what it was called (it’s pretty easy to find in the prepared meats section though, behind the cheeses and across from the coffee bar). We ate it as is. It was delicious.

On our way to Hunter Mountain, we stopped by New World Home Cooking in Saugerties. The chef, Ric Orland, is one of the champions on Food Network’s Chopped.

The blackened string beans are yummy! They have an awesome kick too.

But everyone agreed that the thing we’d all come back for is the foccacia and bean spread. You can’t beat it.

I had the jerk chicken as my entrée. Didn’t manage to snap a nice photo of it, but I have to say it’s very good. Definitely consider ordering it if you happen to stop by.

For dessert, perhaps you’d like a little lemon curd?

Or a chocolate chevre truffle rolled in chile and cinnamon?

Maybe the chocolate mousse is more to your liking.

Moving onto Spring Break, we decided to surprise W. for his birthday.

We all grouped up at Yakiniku West, where they have authentic dining rooms with low tables and shoji doors.

Delicious bibimbap was had.

And of course, kobe beef.

A food coma happened.

During the week, I wandered out into Astoria in search of a refreshing lunch on a warm spring day. I passed by the Sorriso Italian Pork Store, which I’ve been meaning to go to for awhile.

I got the infamous Godfather, and was not disappointed.

Foot-long deliciousness.

A day out with the family means pigging out on good eats. This time, I finally sampled poutine at Corner Burger!

Classic Poutine

Poutine Cochon

If this is what real poutine tastes like, consider me hooked.

Cheese curds have such a weird name though, for how delicious they taste.

Another Corner Burger specialty, fried pickles:

The English are crazy, really.

In lieu of their name, Corner Burger has some really great burgers too. They’re astronomically HUGE! I had mine with pepper jack cheese, crispy bacon, jalapeños, and some avocado.

I expected a few slices of avocado… I got a whole half instead. o_o

I wish I whipped out my DSLR to take a picture of it… instead I gorged myself on all that artery clogging good-ness.

But a family outing isn’t complete without some sort of Asian food! Full House Cafe fulfilled that quota.

RICE CAKE. RICE CAKE. A simple rice cake dish with potage vegetable (what is that anyways? Engrish menus make me laugh). It’s so good. ;_;

You can’t go Shanghai-nese without soup dumplings.

Full House Cafe delivers.

ADDRESSES

Eataly
200 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 229-2560

New World Home Cooking
1411 Route 212
Saugerties, NY 12477
(845) 246-0900

Yakiniku West
218 East 9th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 979-9238

Sorriso Italian Pork Store
4416 30th Avenue
Astoria, NY 11103
(718) 728-4392

Corner Burger
381 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 360-4622

Full House Cafe
97 Bowery Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 925-8083

Over Winter break, I went back home to New York City. Due to the size of our apartment, this was our Christmas tree:

As always, [...]]]> Ahhh, I knew I had a backlog of photos – I just realize how bad. So here is one attempt at trying to clear the queue a bit.

Over Winter break, I went back home to New York City. Due to the size of our apartment, this was our Christmas tree:

As always, baked some crowd-pleasing mocha chip meringues for the family.

It wouldn’t be an Asian celebration without roast pig, now would it?

We also got some pizza dough and mini pepperoni slices to make miniature pizzas. Great fun for the kids!

K. whipped out a doozy – Bacon wrapped spuds!

We put up pretty lights for Christmas. LEDs are in, yo.

Snowpocalypse happened too.

But a visit home isn’t complete without visiting Spot Dessert Bar with J.

Yuzu Eskimo

Sesame Pear Crisp

She also treated me to Serendipity 3 as my Christmas present! We were understandably stuffed.

The infamous 'Frozen Hot Chocolate'

She also ordered this HUGE sundae. I gave up two bites in.

Forbidden Broadway Sundae

She tried her best – really, she did.

In the end, she killed about a fifth of it.

ADDRESSES

Spot Dessert Bar
13 St. Marks Place
New York, NY 10003
(212) 677-5670

Serendipity 3
225 East 60th Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 838-3531

Many thanks to habnabit for hosting Teanuts ever since it started! Much love, hab! <3

Please bear with me until Teanuts is fully moved over and updated… things might look wonky for a bit.

EDIT: Everything should be moved and fixed now!

Mainly, I just moved back to school, and things as a dual engineering major are getting major hectic.

I’m ashamed to say… I still haven’t finished editing the Yosemite 2010 photos yet… *sadface*

However, I do have a couple of photos I took at [...]]]> Uh… whoops. Did a disappearing act there for a few weeks.

Mainly, I just moved back to school, and things as a dual engineering major are getting major hectic.

I’m ashamed to say… I still haven’t finished editing the Yosemite 2010 photos yet… *sadface*

However, I do have a couple of photos I took at home, just before I left for school. Let me just say that, there were major good eats.

Before I left for school, I had to meet up with my best friend in the entire world.

After a couple of changes in our plans, we ended up at Pho 32 in St. Marks. The bowl of pho was pretty big, but they didn’t have rare round of beef with it. *major sad face*

However, their Vietnamese coffee looks really cool. Check it out.

Fresh brewed... then poured over ice!

Afterwards, we headed immediately downstairs to Spot Dessert Bar, after an advert was given to us as we were walking into Pho32. This was our lucky day – Spot had some superb desserts!

We went halfsies on a scoop of green tea ice cream and a chocolate green tea fruit jam cupcake. They were soooo yummy. I only wish there wasn’t so much fruit jam in the cupcake… it kinda got really sweet at the end.

Green tea frosting... so good!

I also got a cup of rose black tea. Definitely going back to Spot, if just for that tea. Lightly sweetened black tea with an infusion of rose…. mmmm!

On another night, the family and I went out to En Japanese Brasserie. We heard great things about this place, and couldn’t wait to try out a modern Japanese izakaya.

It was a bit pricey, but it was definitely worth it. You should definitely go at least once in your life – it’s a great place for a date, business lunch, or special occasion too.

I got the Himawari Kaiseki, which is a set dinner. It included a few of the following dishes.

Sashimi

The black cod was heaven… it’s raved by everyone who goes to En to try it.

Saikyo Miso Marinated Black Cod

The make the tofu fresh several times a day at set times. Can’t get any fresher than this! My set came with the chilled tofu.

Freshly Chilled Scooped Tofu

Chilled noodles with a light tsuyu to end the meal and cleanse the palate.

Tenobe Somen

The family also ordered a few dishes to split.

Warm Freshly Made Scooped Tofu

If you’ve never had fresh eel before (as in the kind they serve in Japan), YOU MUST TRY THIS DISH. This eel was flown overnight from Japan – and oh my, it is delicious. I have never had eel that was so flavorful, so tender, so flaky…

Unagi no Shirayaki

Grill your own Japanese Black Angus rib eye on a hot stone! Tasty tasty.

Stone Grilled Kuroge Washugyu

To finish off the meal, desserts must be had.

Check out this flourless chocolate cake with green tea ice cream – piping hot cake (I actually burned myself on the ceramic) with ice cold ice cream on a frozen platter. *drool*

When we got home…. we had more dessert. This time, from The Little Pie Company!

There was some red velvet cake with some great frosting…

…and a chocolate peanut butter cupcake!

They were belated birthday cakes for my sister and I.

I’ll get to the Yosemite pictures, I PROMISE! D:

ADDRESSES

Pho 32
13 St. Marks Place
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-0606

Spot Dessert Bar
13 St. Mark’s Place
Manhattan, NY 10003
(212) 677-5670

EN Japanese Brasserie
435 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 647-9196

Little Pie Company
424 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 736-4780