Recipes

June 25, 2015 Europe

Alain Ducasse London

This is the fourth post in the London & Munich series. Other posts in this series include The Square, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, and Exploring London by Foot.

Alain Ducasse collects stars. Michelin stars.

The French-born Monaco-naturalized chef received his first three-Michelin star award when he was just 33 for Le Louis XV in Monaco. He made waves back in 1998 when, at the young age of 41, he became the first chef in 60 years to hold six Michelin stars at once (three apiece). He's the only chef to ever have 3 Michelin stars for three different restaurants at once (Paris, Monaco, and New York in 2005 and once again Paris, Monaco, and London in 2010). He currently holds the second most Michelin stars of any chef in the world, second only to French rival Joel Robuchon.

Ducasse has since built an empire, including two cooking schools in Paris (one for the general public, one for chefs), multiple books, and dozens of restaurants around the world (Paris, Monaco, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Italy, just to name some).

Alain Ducasse's London restaurant resides inside The Dorchester, an upscale, luxurious, and super prestigious hotel overlooking Hyde Park in London's Mayfair neighborhood. It is one of four 3-Michelin starred restaurants in the UK, and the only one inside of a hotel.

The restaurant space itself is beautiful. In the middle of the restaurant, there is a HUGE "waterfall" of glittery fiber optic strands forming a "luminescent oval curtain" surrounding one special dining table called "Table Lumiere" This very special table fits 2-6 people and costs £200 to reserve (plus the price of the special tasting menus that come with this table).

We didn't sit at the special table.

To me, we got an even better seat - one next to the window! I love daylight, and there are only 5-6 tables in this semi-separate lit part of the dining room. All the other seats (including Table Lumiere), are in the inner part, where it is much darker.

There is no a la carte menu at Alain Ducasse. Instead, you choose between one of several tasting menus: a three course (appetizer, fish or meat, and dessert) for £95; A four course (appetizer, fish, meat, and dessert) for £115; the tasting menu (7 courses taken from the regular menu) for £135; and a 7-course Seasonal Menu (items not on the regular menu) for £180.

Additional cheese courses can be added for £15, and certain choices on the menu have an extra supplemental charge.

We had just enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal earlier that day (I know, we're a little crazy), so I wasn't as hungry as I might have been had I eaten a smaller lunch. As a result, I did not feel like getting a huge tasting menu. Bryan's main concern was that we would be sacrificing the quality of the meal. After all, oftentimes chefs only put out their best stuff in the tasting menu.

Once we learned that the normal 7-course tasting menu essentially consists of items on the regular menu, Bryan was agreeable to the idea of having each of us order a three or a four-course, and then we could share. We would essentially be getting the variety of a 7 or 8-course meal, but we would have more control over which courses we wanted to try....

June 23, 2015 Europe

Exploring London by Foot

This is the third post in the London & Munich series. Other posts in this series include The Square and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.

I've been asked more than once, "how do you stay so thin when you eat out so much?"

There's probably a complex answer to that. I'm sure everything from genetics, exercise, portion control, and being a super slow eater who also talks a lot, play into why I am able to "stay thin." Despite all that, I will put on weight if I eat a ton and don't exercise. The worst is when I travel for a food-focused trip with an itinerary filled with top-notch restaurants. I eat A LOT during those trips. So much so, I often don't have a chance to even get hungry before it's time for another meal. In some ways, it's actually a bit exhausting.

To counter all that eating, I try my best to be as active as I can on these trips.

That means walking as much as possible.

I did a ton of walking while I was in London. Except for one instance where I took the tube (their subway system) out into a distant neighborhood in London to visit a friend, I went everywhere else by foot. If you stay near Picadilly Circus (which is where we stayed), you can really walk to almost all of London's most famous sites.

I love walking because the pace is slow and relaxed. You can look around and take in the vibe and energy of the city. One of my favorite things to do is to bring my camera with me and just capture moments. It's fun to try to be creative with the camera, something I learned to do so much more after a photography workshop in Argentina (which I applied during my brief 12-hour stopover in London less than a year ago).

So please join me, virtually, on a walking tour of London. I split this walk over two afternoons, but you could easily do it in one day if you start early in the morning. You'll get a sense of how many of London's famous sites are actually pretty closely bunched together - all accessible within a day's walk!

...

June 22, 2015 Europe

Dinner at Lunch at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

This is the second post in the London & Munich series. Other posts in this series include The Square.

Ask anyone to name the most famous restaurant in London, and almost certainly you will hear the phrase The Fat Duck being thrown around. The Fat Duck is Heston Blumenthal’s flagship restaurant.

Three Michelin stars. #1 restaurant in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list (2006). Multiple James Beard Awards. And many, many, more. This is the restaurant that visitors most often try to visit when they come to London.

The problem is . . . it’s not in London.

It’s nowhere close. In fact, it’s in a small town called Bray about an hour and a half (via public transportation) from London. In fact, Bray is where Chef Blumenthal has opened his other restaurants, including pubs The Crown at Bray and The Hinds Head (1 Michelin Star). You couldn't access any restaurants from Chef Blumenthal in London.

Bar of the Mandarin Oriental

Until 2011, when Heston Blumenthal finally decided to open his first restaurant in London. Simply called Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, the restaurant opened at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in January 2011.

The concept behind Dinner is unique and very British. Blumenthal worked with historians to revive many old, historic British recipes. In the menu, he includes the date around which a particular dish was known and cites cookbooks from which he derived inspiration.

It’s pretty incredible, but some of the dishes date back as far as 1390! Most dishes hover between the 1700’s – 1900’s.

Dinner has received its own fair share of awards. In 2014, Dinner ranked number 5 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, far surpassing even The Fat Duck, which came in at number 47. Dinner itself boasts two Michelin stars and three rosettes in the AA Restaurant Guide.

We don't look too tired, do we?

Bryan and I decided to eat our first meal at Dinner. We got off the plan from our overnight ("red-eye!") flight from Boston and pretty much came directly to the restaurant after freshening up at the airport. Talk about being jet-lagged!...

June 19, 2015 Cuisine

Pasta with Tuna, Artichokes, and Olives + Giveaway!

I am pleased to partner with Genova, who makes canned yellowfin tuna, for this post on a canned tuna pasta that I made using their product.

Happy Friday!

I'm frantically working up all my photos (close to 700!) from my week-long trip to London and Munich. Until then, we will take a brief pause and head on over to my kitchen, where I've actually been cooking A LOT lately!

While I was in Germany, the very first shipment of my summer CSA (community supported agriculture) farm share came in. A weekly farm share is great because it ensure that I eat plenty of vegetables. The element of surprise each week ("what will come in my share today?"), is fun and stretches my creativity as I think up new ways to use all the produce.

I typically end up cooking a lot more during the summer months, sometimes in Herculean efforts to "use up the farm share." In fact, this week I cooked every single day (with the exception of one crazy late night ramen adventure that stretched into the early morning).

Right before I left for Europe, another fun shipment came in - a special treat from Genova. Genova, who makes Mediterranean-style (packed in olive oil) premium tuna sent me a gorgeous gift basket complete with cans of premium yellowfin tuna, olive tapenade, artichokes, a bottle of wine, cheese, crackers, a cute olivewood cheeseboard (or maybe cutting board?) from Sur La Table, and even a book on Mediterranean cooking!

I'm not exactly an expert on Mediterranean cooking, but Bryan loves pasta, and I had tons of gorgeous greens from my farm share.

Inspired by the various ingredients they sent (plus the fact that I was short on time that evening), I whipped up a super fast dinner using about half of the ingredients from the gift basket....

June 17, 2015 Europe

The Square London

We kick off the London & Munich series with a meal Bryan had in London solo earlier this year!

Bryan often travels for work. Occasionally, armed with his trusty little Sony camera (affiliate link!), he will take photos and send me his thoughts on some of the more note-worthy restaurants he has visited. Other posts I've written for places he has visited (but I have not!) are Sushi Yoshitake (3-Michelin stars) and Sushi Kanesaka in Tokyo, Luce in San Francisco, and Olo in Helsinki.

I am no stranger to London.

In fact, out of all the foreign cities I have visited, I would count London and Tokyo as the cities I know the best. I am particularly familiar with London because I have been visiting the UK for work almost annually since 2009. Interspersed throughout my London trips through the years, I have had the opportunity to try many fantastic places.

Up to this date, my favorite London dining experience ever has been at The Ledbury, a meal that blew me away so much that I described it as the type of rare meal where "every single course truly delights and impresses the palate."

It wasn't until much later that I learned about Chef Philip Howard.

It was Chef Howard who helped launch my beloved Ledbury (in partnership with Nigel Platts-Martin) as well as Kitchen W8 (in partnership with Rebecca Mascerenhas). Well before those two restaurants came into existence, Chef Howard was the chef-owner of The Square, a well-respected restaurant in London that has held onto its two Michelin stars for fifteen consecutive years.

During Bryan's last business trip to London, he had the opportunity to enjoy dinner at The Square. Though I was not able to come on this trip, I hope Bryan's photos and my accompanying text based on his notes give you a sense of the exquisite food coming out of this incredible kitchen....

June 15, 2015 Europe

New Series! London and Munich!

Posts in this series!

London
The Square
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Exploring London by Foot
Alain Ducasse
Marcus Wareing

Munich
Classic Munich Beer Houses: Hofbrauhaus & Wirtshaus
Viktualienmarkt and De Pschorr
Chinesischer Turm Beer Garden
Visiting the Residenz and lunch at Spatenhaus
Weinstephaner Brewery - Oldest Brewery In the World
Paulaner + Weisses Brauhaus

- - - ORIGINAL POST - - -

Why hello there! Do you still remember me?

I know, I know. It's totally my fault. I am so sorry for being barely there the last two weeks. It really seems like those 21 posts in May knocked me out for weeks, didn't it?

In fact, the truth is, just a few days after publishing my last (and 23rd!) post in the month of May, Bryan and I hopped on a jet over to Europe. Bryan had business in London, Munich, and Frankfurt, and I decided to tag along.
The Old Town, Frankfurt - photos courtesy of Bryan

As tempted as I was to stay with him for the entire two weeks, I knew I had to come back to work in Boston. Furthermore, a friend was flying into Boston to help me with a couple food photography workshops (which, by the way, turned out great!).

The Main River in Frankfurt - photos courtesy of Bryan

So this time, I skipped Frankfurt.

Maybe some other day.

Between London and Munich (my first time visiting Germany!), we experienced food in so many different ways. We tasted everything from three-Michelin starred French haute cuisine in London to rowdy and festive beer gardens in Munich.

We soaked in history by walking through old palaces, ornate churches, and richly-filled museums. We burned off our crazy meals by walking everywhere in these wonderfully walkable cities. We even managed to hit the hotel gym once.

Here's a brief, photo-intensive, overview of our entire trip. I promise more detailed posts on individual restaurants will follow!...

June 8, 2015 Boston

#21PostsInMay DONE! Reflections . . .

One of many pedestrian-only streets in the city center of Munich
Happy Monday and greetings from Europe!

Sorry I've been a bit silent the last couple days. I think I was recovering from the push at the end, trying to finish those 21 posts in May and even a bonus (!) of publishing a 22nd post on Saturday on BISq, the second restaurant by the same team that opened up Bergamot, one of my regular haunts.

As soon as that finished, I was off to London and Munich for a short extended weekend trip, tagging along on another one of Bryan's business trips.

I'm still processing all my photos from Europe, but I promise that I'll be writing plenty of posts here about all my food experiences.

London is not new to me, as I have visited it countless times for work in the past decade. However, Germany is a brand new country for me, and I must confess I knew very little about its food before visiting. Though the trip was short, I learned so much trying all these different types of Bavarian food (wiener-schnitzel, pork knuckle, sausages, and lots of beer!). Look for it in upcoming posts (and get a preview now from my various social media channels, instagram, twitter, etc . . .)
Though I was busy posting every single weekday in May, I also did a lot of other stuff I didn't even write about on the blog. Here's a quick flashback . . ....

June 4, 2015 Misc

How My Parents Inspired Me to Be Who I Am Today

When was the moment you were inspired to be who you are today?

There is not one single moment where I just knew what I "wanted to be when I grew up," or even more significantly, who I wanted to be. Unlike some people (e.g., my husband who had already decided back in high school that he was going to be a patent attorney with a chemical engineering degree), I never had such a detailed plan in life. Instead, my growth as a person has been quite organic, largely shaped by my upbringing and my unique background of being raised in a bicultural environment.

I grew up as a daughter of immigrants from Taiwan. Back in the 1960's in Taiwan, going to school in America was the "in" thing to do. If you were smart enough, successful enough, if you could get into some college or graduate program in the U.S., you would just go. Parents encouraged their children to go to America because they saw more opportunities for the future.
My dad did OK in school but he was never a top student. He was lucky enough to get accepted to a program in Kansas, so he moved to the Midwest to study linguistics.

Eventually, he married my mom, who gave up her career teaching English in Taiwan to start a new life in a new country. Without any U.S. education, my mom - ever the natural entrepreneur - became resourceful in other ways.

She started selling shoes at the local department store. She hooked up with a travel agency and sold airline tickets. She organized and led cooking tours to Taiwan. Her English was excellent, so she was drafted to translate - first documents, but eventually medical visits and live court cases. After sponsoring her extended family from Taiwan over to the States, she started businesses with both of her siblings: a sushi catering business with her sister and a high-end audio manufacturing company with her brother.

You would think with such a hardworking and resourceful mother, I would get tons of pressure to succeed at home.
Yet, my parents were not tiger parents at all.

Instead, they let us explore hobbies (like many Asians, I took piano lessons, violin lessons, and competed in Science Olympiad), but never pressured us to excel. Piano competitions (and even daily practicing) were optional. When my interest waned in violin, my mom was totally fine with letting me quit.

The first time I got a "B" on a test (this was in grade school, mind you), I nearly cried my eyeballs out. My dad actually hugged me, smiled (sort of laughing inside is more like it), and told me it was totally OK. "Mei guan xi, mei guan xi" he said in his soothing voice as he hugged me tightly.

Most importantly, my parents never compared us to other kids and never derided us in a way that affected our self-worth. If anything, my dad poured out his praises on his kids, telling us how talented, smart, and obedient ("guai") we were. He felt so lucky to have kids like my sister and me, and he told us so all the time.
I am who I am today largely because of my parents.

They taught me the values of working hard but at the same time seeing the bigger picture. Don't get upset about the minutia in life. Instead, enjoy life for what it is. Most importantly, don't get hung up on comparing yourself to others. "Ren bi ren, qi si ren" my Dad used to say all the time, which roughly translates to "when people compare themselves to other people, they will anger themselves to death."

As a result of this upbringing, I entered adulthood with a curious and adventurous mind for exploration. Becoming a Christian in college, my values were further shaped to appreciate the bigger picture of what's really important. I worked hard, but never so hard that I didn't have fun.

Yes, I went to MIT and pursued a career as a patent attorney, but I also lead music in my church praise band, volunteer regularly at a shelter, spend countless hours on this blog, and make it a priority to see the world. I fully appreciate what it means to have a balanced and enriched life. I also fully appreciate how hard my parents worked to enable us to be who we are today.
Thanks Mama and Baba!

Share how you were inspired to be who you are today, and join the growing community of @PrudentialBYC #womeninspired

May 30, 2015 Boston

BISq Cambridge is Open! A sneak peek at dishes!

It's been a year in the making. The build up of suspense is huge.

But finally, FINALLY, BISq is really opening tonight for dinner service.

BISq stands for Bergamot In Inman Square and is the second restaurant from Servio Garcia and Chef Keith Pooler, who first opened Bergamot a little over five years ago. BISq differs from Bergamot in that the food is focused more on small plates, there's a much larger charcuterie and cured meats program, and the wines are exclusively Northern French. It's also more casual, so don't worry about dressing up before you come.

Meet Chef Dan Bazzinotti ("Chef Bazz"), the executive chef at BISq and also someone who has been with Bergamot since opening day (five years ago!). Chef Bazz is an extremely talented chef and has a strong passion for making his own cured meats, charcuterie, and sausages. I fondly remember the Butcher's Plate at Bergamot (which mysteriously disappeared from menu when, I'm guessing, they had to save up those cured meats for BISq!).

At BISq, these meat products are fully featured in their own section of the menu, and Dan is much freer to experiment with all of his ideas. Additionally, Chef Bazz's wife is Peruvian, and thus he has incorporated a lot of unique and fun Peruvian influences into the food on the BISq menu.

They have assembled an excellent team.

They are cheerful, excited, and super, super hard working.

The space, which is on Cambridge Street in Inman Square, is warm, cozy, and beautiful.

Servio, Keith, and the team have spent a lot of time picking out the exact lighting and decorative elements of the restaurant. There are tiles from Mexico, a crazy cool glass panel full of cut wine bottles (see left photo), and wine bottle ends embedded in the walls. One of the most unique features is this crazy wine bottle chandelier in the back wine bar.

Wait, there's a wine bar?

There is a cozy wine bar in a connected but separate room at the back of the restaurant. Here is where you can sit at the bar, sip on various wines, and be in a more intimate environment.

The wine bar area has a few tables with soft banquette seating.

But enough about the space, let's talk about the food!

Bryan and I were honored to be invited to the soft opening at BISq, a Friends and Family event where the entire staff honed their skills and practiced on a friendly audience. It was great to celebrate with the team, who overcame so many hurdles to final get this restaurant to open. I also got a sneak preview tastes of many dishes on the menu, which I'm thrilled to share with you today!...

May 29, 2015 Boston

Naco Taco Cambridge

There's no doubt that Michael Scelfo is one of the hottest chefs right now in Cambridge. His first restaurant, Alden & Harlow in Harvard Square, is pretty much always packed. It's virtually impossible to get a reservation there at the last minute, especially if you want a reasonably normal time slot.

Chef Scelfo has won a ton of awards. Alden & Harlow was one of fifty restaurants nominated by Bon Appetit in its America's Best New Restaurant list. Boston Magazine included it in its 50 Best Restaurants in Boston list and awarded it Best of Boston: Best New Restaurant. Food & Wine Magazine even called out Chef Scelfo's burger as one of "10 Must-have Burgers in 2014".

The man is on fire.

And he's at it again.

Chef Scelfo's newest gig is as consulting chef for Naco Taco, a new restaurant by Alex Tannenbaum and Brian Lesser. Tacos have always been one of Michael Scelfo's passions, and Naco is the perfect outlet for him to express his creative juices.

Inspired by the style of food parks in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon, Naco includes a huge outdoor patio, a semi-permanent "truck", and a permanent indoor space with a huge bar and lots of additional seating.

With only a beer and wine license, Naco makes the most of it by offering a rotating line of 30 beers, wines on tap, sangrias, and beer cocktails. For those that don't drink, there's non-alcoholic agua fresca and horchata.

One unseasonably warm spring evening, Bryan and I decided to come stop by and check it out.
...

May 28, 2015 Boston

Pho House Cambridge - a first look {Snapshot}

This is the eighth restaurant post in the ongoing series Welcome to My New Hood, a series highlighting the neighborhood between Harvard Square and Porter Square in Cambridge. Other posts in this series: Rafiki Bistro (now closed), Super Fusion Sushi, Temple Bar, Giulia, Cambridge Common, Ten Tables Cambridge, and Chez Henri (now closed). This post is also the 20th post in the #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to publish a new post every single week day in the month of May. All other posts published in the month of May can be found here.

Bryan always laments the state of Vietnamese food in Boston. After all, he grew up in Southern California and his home church was in Westminster, basically the hub of Vietnamese cuisine. Vietnamese cuisine is his favorite Southeast Asian cuisine, and he much prefers it over Thai, Malaysian, and Indonesian cuisine.

Usually if we're in Cambridge, our default is to visit Le's in Harvard Square. It's about a 10-minute walk from our house; the service is crazy fast (I swear, it's faster than counter-service fast food); it's cheap; and it tastes pretty good.

Not as good as California, Bryan will be quick to say, but decent.

Not too long ago a new Vietnamese restaurant called Pho House opened up even closer to our house. Located on Massachusetts Avenue between Porter Square and Harvard Square, this place is at most a 7-8 minute walk from our home.

One sunny day Friday when Bryan and I were both working from home, we walked down the street to check this place out for lunch....

May 27, 2015 Boston

Night Market Harvard Square

This post is the 19th post in the #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to publish a new post every single week day in the month of May. All other posts published in the month of May can be found here.

When I first heard that there would be a restaurant called "Night Market" opening up right in Harvard Square offering street snacks like yakitori grilled meats, Taiwanese meat sauce over rice, and other creative dishes, I got really excited. Would there really be a night market right around the corner from my home? Visions of night markets strolls in Taiwan started floating through my head.

Proprieter Ash Chan, son of Gerald Chan (Harvard University donor and owner of a large chunk of buildings in Harvard Square), missed the Asian street-style comfort foods that he found so readily available when he lived in Southern California. He teamed up with Anthony Ngo to create a place that would fill that void.

Night Market opened in late 2014, helmed by Boston chef Jason Tom (Stir, Chez Henri, Island Creek Oyster Bar, East by Northeast). It's not exactly a night market, though it's definitely inspired by the concept. This Night Market is a sit-down restaurant featuring Chef Tom's take on a lot of casual, street vendor type food from all over Asia. There's Taiwanese three cup chicken, Singaporean Kaya toast, Thai green papaya salad, Korean rice cakes, Filipino spring rolls, and Japanese yakitori, just to name a few. On top of all that, there are many of Chef Tom's own creations, some more Asian than others.

Night Market is surprisingly hard to find. The signage is a bit cryptic. You basically follow arrows written in chalk on the side of a brick building on Winthrop Street to find your way to the stairs that lead down into the basement restaurant space.

The decor is colorful, artsy, and funky, with lots of cool graffiti art from a local artist based out of the South Shore.

The menu consists of small plates ranging in price from $1 (for nuts) all the way to $12-$14.50 for some of the larger dishes. Most dishes cost between $6-$10. The server told us that even the largest dishes aren't quite big enough to serve as a main course, so people are encouraged to order 2-3 plates each.

We had a party of five, which meant we would be able to try lots and lots of dishes.
...

May 26, 2015 Orlando

My Favorite Dishes from Orlando + the Orlando Zagat Guide!

This post is the 18th post in the #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to publish a new post every single week day in the month of May. All other posts published in the month of May can be found here.

I am pleased to partner with Zagat, who is sponsoring this post

Whenever I travel to a new location, I like to do tons of research on a destination in order to choose which restaurants I want to visit. I use a variety of sources, including online forums, food blogs, "best of" lists, awards, and various independent review sources. I have always enjoyed the Zagat guide because it ranks restaurants with its points system (1-30) on a variety of different aspects: food, decor, service, and cost. Since I care most about the food, I often hone in on that particular score, sometimes placing a lot less weight on the other factors. Furthermore, Zagat is available in a lot more cities than the Michelin Guide (which I also use), and has content that is more focused than, say, something like Yelp, Tripadvisor, or Chowhound. When I'm short on time, it's a reasonably reliable way to get a sense of a place quickly.

Many people may not know this, but the Zagat guide is actually a compilation of user-generated data. The quotes that you see under a Zagat review come from actual users. Years ago I voted in the Boston Zagat survey, giving my personal opinions about numerous restaurants. In exchange, I received a free copy of the Boston Zagat Guide for that year.

Zagat is now working on their next Orlando guide and need users to come and give their opinions.

This is where you come in.

Make your voice part of the city's most influential ratings by contributing reviews of your recent Orlando dining experiences.

Zagat ratings are based on your opinions, and your comments could be quoted as part of Zagat's next signature review.

As a thanks for participating, you'll get 8 weeks of free NYTimes.com access. Plus, if you submit 10+ reviews we'll send you Zagat's 2015 America's Top Restaurants guide!

Just for fun, below I am sharing some of my favorite Orlando dishes from my recent visit to the city.

Seriously one of the best pizzas I've had all year anywhere in the U.S., you must try the phenomenal authentic Neapolitan pizza from Via Napoli at the Italian Pavillion at Epcot Center.

We loved the famous Brown Derby Cobb Salad at The Hollywood Brown Derby in Hollywood Studios. This salad is made using the original recipe designed by Bob Cobb, the owner of the California Brown Derby restaurant.

One of the most unique and fun desserts we saw in the park, the Croque Glace is an ice cream filled toasted brioche and is made to order at Artisan des Glaces at the French Pavillion inside Epcot Center.

Jiko, the African-inspired restaurant in side the Animal Kingdom Lodge, has excellent food in general. Our favorite dish of all was this super tender and gorgeously flavorful Grilled Wild Boar Tenderloin.

Lunch at the Moroccan restaurant The Spice Road Table included beautiful views of the lake and fun Mediterranean-inspired dishes. My favorite was a dish that included falafel fries, which had the beautiful spices of a falafel but were fried into these super crunchy sticks.

And finally, I absolutely loved the blueberry dessert from Bluezoo by Todd English, which included components such as a blueberry sugar ball with blueberry sorbet inside, blueberry ice cream, and a blueberry ribbon. It was surprisingly not too sweet but instead had lovely complex blueberry elements all over.

If you've visited Orlando before, consider reviewing restaurants for Zagat to get 8-weeks of New York Times access (for just one review!) and a copy of the 2015 Orlando Zagat Guide (for 10 reviews).

Click here to start reviewing now!

Offer ends June 30, 2015

Have fun!

This post was sponsored by Zagat. All opinions are my own.

May 25, 2015 Boston

Kirkland Tap and Trotter Brunch

This post is the 17th post in the #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to publish a new post every single week day in the month of May. All other posts published in the month of May can be found here.

Anyone who even loosely follows the food scene in Cambridge (or even Boston) will know Tony Maws. One of the select few chefs in Boston to have won the coveted James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, Northeast (in 2011), Chef Maws owns both the more upscale Craigie on Main and the more casual Kirkland Tap & Trotter.

Both have excellent food, and I checked out Kirkland soon after its opening, largely because I (along with the rest of the world) expected a lot out of Chef Maws. He did not disappoint, and I feel like Kirkland Tap & Trotter has only gotten better since our first visit in the early days of the restaurant.

I must confess, however, that my first post about Kirkland Tap & Trotter had an obvious gaping hole that I can't believe I have not filled until now.

It didn't have The Burger.

Tony Maws' burger, which he first introduced on the bar menu at Craigie, quickly attained a cult-like following and became so popular that Chef Maws had to limit the number of burgers sold a night (eighteen, to be exact). These easily sold out well before 6:30PM on most nights. One promising feature of Kirkland Tap & Trotter was that there would be a burger on that menu too. It wouldn't exactly be the Craigie burger, but it would still be an expression of Chef Maws' talent and passion. Better yet, it wouldn't be nearly as limited.

The Kirkland burger is available at dinner and weekend brunch. It's already gained its own respect, winning Boston Magazine's Best Burger in 2014. We've visited the restaurant twice for brunch now, and we love it. The prices are reasonable; there's usually plenty of available seats; and the food is great. Of course, I would expect nothing less from Chef Maws.

Here's a look at some of the offerings, including (of course), the famous burger.
...

May 22, 2015 Cuisine

Pasta with Ramps, Fiddleheads, and Sausage

This post is the 16th post in the #21PostsInMay Challenge. All other posts published in the month of May can be found here.

Happy Spring!

Bostonians - are you loving this weather or what? After such a long, hard winter, it's been glorious to bask in the sunshine and finally step outside in shorts (!). Spring is also one of my favorite seasons because of the unique produce that pops up during this time of year. I've been seeing lots of asparagus, morel mushrooms, ramps, and fiddleheads at the restaurants around me.

I recently started a new job that's located about a 2-minute walk from Whole Foods.

It's so dangerous!

I've always liked going to the Whole Foods salad bar for lunch. Yes, it's definitely pricey, but it's hard to get such a wide variety of high quality fruits and vegetables everyday for lunch otherwise (we'll see if that changes once my CSA farm share begins!). I usually try to keep my lunch around $7-8, which isn't horrible. I like how I can sample random things I would probably never buy outright, like seitan, various types of marinated tofu, various Ethiopian "sauces", and other unusual grains. It's also a simple way to get lots of different fruits without committing to larger packages.

The more dangerous part about visiting Whole Foods is not the salad bar. It's the produce section.

I really shouldn't "just stop by to see what they have" so regularly. But I can't help it.

And then I spot the ramps or the fiddleheads, and my restraint breaks completely.

Before you know it, I'm holding onto bags of random spring vegetables plus my little carton of salad from the salad bar and I'm ringing up a $30 "lunch".

Oops!

I guess there are benefits.

My ~ $20 worth of spring vegetables plus the gorgeous spicy fennel sausage I got at Savenor's in Cambridge still cost a lot less than a similar quality meal at a restaurant. Better yet, we get to open our own wines, relax at home, and (sometimes), have enough leftovers for the next day.

This pasta recipe incorporates ramps, (optionally) fiddleheads, and spicy sausage. It is crazy simple and absolutely delicious. You can definitely finish everything in less than 30 minutes, maybe even less if you are speedy. Perfect for a quick, weeknight meal....

May 21, 2015 Orlando

Be Our Guest Disneyworld

This is the sixth and final post in the Weekend Getaway to Orlando series. Other posts include Eating Around the World at Epcot World Showcase, L'Artisan des Glaces (Epcot Center), Via Napoli, Jiko, the Cooking Place, and Bluezoo Orlando by Todd English. This post is the 15th post in the #21PostsInMay Challenge.

This was it.

This was the original reason I had wanted to go to Disney World.

Back in 2012, I received wind of the fact that a new castle had been built at the Magical Kingdom in Disney World. Belle's castle, or more accurately, the Beast's Castle, was perched high on a rocky mountain in Fantasyland.

Now, I'm not really a princess type of girl, and a new castle alone is not quite enough reason to entice me to visit a park.

However, the castle had a restaurant inside, called Be Our Guest. The inside of this castle was modeled meticulously after the one in the movie. There was a West Wing, the room with armored knights, and most importantly . . . the grand ballroom.

The first time I saw a photo of the grand ballroom I knew I had to go. It took my breath away.

We didn't end up going to Disney World in 2012 due to other reasons. So this year, when Bryan's business trip took him to Orlando, I happily jumped at the chance to go, and immediately (after some amazing luck and persistence - more on that below) secured a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest....

May 20, 2015 Japan

Sushi Kanesaka Palace Hotel (Tokyo)

Bryan, my husband, often travels for work. Occasionally, armed with his trusty little Sony camera (affiliate link!), he will take photos and send me his thoughts on some of the more note-worthy restaurants he has visited. Other posts I've written for places he has visited (but I have not!) are Sushi Yoshitake (3-Michelin stars) in Tokyo, Luce in San Francisco, and Olo in Helsinki. This is also the 14th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

The Japanese take their national holidays very seriously.

Which is why it's a huge bummer if the one day your business trip takes you to Japan, the city is closed because everyone is celebrating the holiday.

This is exactly what happened to Bryan.

Well, sort of.

First of all, it was a rather unexpected surprise that Bryan was even flying through Tokyo. His trip was supposed to take him through a couple Scandinavian countries before heading to Macau for a conference. Originally, he would fly straight back from Hong Kong. Alas, a last minute business meeting came up, which made him have to reroute his flight plan through Tokyo.

And how can you stop over in Tokyo and not stop by?

As visions of sushi floated through his head, Bryan decided to stay just one night in Tokyo. Essentially he would have time for one dinner and one lunch before heading back to Narita for that lovely (newish) direct flight on Japan Airlines back to Boston.

There was just one problem....

May 19, 2015 Canada

Chez L'Epicier (Montreal)

This is the third post in the Our Neighbors to the North - Celebrating Canada! series. Other posts in this series include La Porte and Van Horne. This is also the 13th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

Any visitor to Montreal has to visit Old Montreal, the section of the city that's super charming with its cobblestone roads, European style buildings, and abundance of excellent restaurants. Every time I come to Montreal on a business trip I try to meet up with our local attorneys who live in the area. Without fail, almost always we end up in this historic area for dinner.

Tucked in one of the corners of Old Montreal is Chez L'Epicier.

I love the feel of Chez L'Epicier. There's a market-liek area that sells gourmet food items on one side and a lovely Quebecois restaurant on the other side. It's bright, spacious, and just very cheerful in a subdued way.

The restaurant cares a lot about local, seasonal, and sustainable food. 75% of their food is local, seasonal, or sustainable (in the case of seafood) - quite a feat for a restaurant this far north.

Chef Laurent Godbout, who has extensive experience at several Relais et Chateaux properties, is the executive chef. The menu includes soups ranging from $11 to $12 CAD, "entrees" (which are appetizers) ranging from $11 to $21 CAD, and main courses from $31 to $40 CAD. You can also do a 7-course tasting menu for $85 CAD ($60 additional for wine pairing).

Since I was here on a business dinner, we all decided just to get a normal two-course dinner. Otherwise, we would be there all night and we had work to do the next morning!
...

May 18, 2015 Boston

Giulia Pasta Table Tasting Menu

This is the 12th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

The Pasta Table at Giulia serves many functions.

By day, this long white oak (reclaimed wood!) table serves as a work bench for chef Michael Pagliarini and his staff, who spend countless hours making all the pastas in-house. Sheets are manually rolled out to make ravioli. A heavy duty pasta extruder made in Italy pumps out perfect strands of bucatini. Mini orecciette (ear-shaped pasta) are hand shaped individually.

Once evening rolls around, the pasta table transforms into a unique space where parties of 8-12 people can enjoy a special tasting menu from Chef Pagliarini. There's only one table, so book early, because this one's quite popular.

We reserved the table for dinner on Marathon Monday. It was a special occasion because Bryan's sister and her friend were flying out to Boston just to run in this famous race for which they had worked so hard to qualify. Bryan's parents were also flying out to Boston (all the way from California!) just to see their daughter run. His sister told us she wanted to celebrate afterwards with a really nice pasta dinner.

We immediately knew that Giulia would be the perfect option.

On the day of the race, we were lucky to find a prime spot on Boylston Street just minutes before Bryan's sister and her friend ran on by. Despite the fact that we yelled like crazy (heh, everyone is yelling), they did not hear us and ran right by! Later they said it was because the finish line was so close and they were determined to stay strong until the end.

They definitely looked very strong!

At least Bryan was able to snap a couple great photos with his nifty 70-200 zoom lens {affiliate link!}.

It was a cold and rainy day - definitely tough for the runners who had to wear rain ponchos for most of the run! Bryan's sister made excellent time without training much - she ran it in 3 hours and 43 minutes! I can only hope to run half that fast!

That night for dinner, our party of nine settled down at the Pasta Table at Giulia's for a well-deserved (at least for the gals who ran 26.2 miles!) multi-course dinner at Giulia....

May 15, 2015 Boston

Meadhall Cambridge

This is the 11th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

It's the massively sized bar and impressive selection of draught beer that immediately catches your eye. You can't miss it when you enter.

Meadhall is called such for a very good reason. The gastropub in Kendall Square's hot tech area (which overtook the location of a nerdy named bookstore called Quantum Books), boasts a hundred beers on tap. The bar is most clearly the focus of the place, taking up virtually all of the restaurant's real estate.

The famous Wall of Beer.

It's also a fun place to sit.

The round shape of the bar made it doable for our party of four to sit together and chat.

And it's fun to look at that wall of beer and pick which one you might want to try next. I tried a 120-minute Dogfish Head IPA (among many other beers) which was very unusual and interesting. Between the four of us, we tried a myriad of beers, and it was fun tasting each others' beers as well....

May 14, 2015 Australia/New Zealand

Fix St. James Sydney Australia

This is the fifth post in my Eating Down Under series. Other posts in this series include Din Tai Fung, Sydney, Three Fun Food Finds Unique to Australia, Chef's Gallery, and Bentley Restaurant & Bar. This is also the 10th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

It's easy to fall in love with Sydney.

Within a day of arrival, I was already telling Bryan, "I could totally live here."

The weather is pleasant; the culture is vibrant; and they speak English.

It's also a beautiful city, with large bodies of water everywhere and stunning views of the city.

We were here with the extended family celebrating Bryan's parents' retirement. Bryan had told them that, as a retirement gift, he would fly them anywhere in the world, first class, using his millions of miles.

His parents looked at a globe.

"This is where we are. What is the furthest point from us?"

It turned out to be Australia and New Zealand.

"We have one condition. We want to go as a whole family" they added.

His parents ended up spending 6 weeks down under (after all, they were retired), while Bryan, his sister, and I managed to aggregate our vacation days and stay for three weeks, taking advantage of holidays by traveling over Thanksgiving weekend.

We only had about 4 days in Sydney, so we had to pick and choose our restaurants wisely. Sydney has an excellent selection of Asian restaurants, and we actually had hand pulled noodles one day and my beloved Din Tai Fung another day of our trip. A third evening we ate Cantonese food in Chinatown.

For our final meal, we departed from eating Asian and decided to visit one of the most popular wine bars in Sydney, Fix St. James.
...

May 13, 2015 Boston

A Lunch at Nebo (featuring Backyard Farms Tomatoes)

This is the 9th post of I’ve written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May. You can see all posts written in May here.

Even though I've lived in Boston for over 20 years, I'm still amazed at the new things I keep learning about the city.

I was at Nebo, an Italian restaurant in the financial district of Boston opened by Italian sisters Carla and Christine Pallotta, for a media event sponsored by Backyard Farms Tomatoes. Carla and Christine had developed a fun tasting menu using Backyard Farms tomatoes for us to try.

As we sat down, they started telling stories.

Carla and Christine grew up in the North End. Their mother was an excellent cook, and cooked real Italian food from their homeland. Living in the North End, it was easy to just walk down the street to the local butcher for meat, the local market for fresh produce, and the cheesemonger for cheese.

"Did you know that different areas of the North End stand for different regions of Italy?"

Apparently, one section consists of people from Abbruzi; another section, people from Puglia. Then there's the neighborhood of Romans, and another neighborhood full of Sicilians.

"We usually just stayed in our own areas. We seldom went all the way on the other side of the North End into those other neighborhood."

Which is funny, considering how tiny the North End really is.

In 2005, Carla and Christine decided to open Nebo, incorporating family recipes from their mother and grandmother, as well as creating new recipes inspired by their trips to Italy....

May 12, 2015 Fish

Spanish Paella with Afghan Saffron

This is the 8th post I've written in May as part of my #21PostsInMay Challenge where I aim to write a new post every single weekday in the month of May

I've always been a bit squeamish about cooking live things.

My mom used to buy live crabs in the Chinese markets and boil them while they were still trying to scramble out of the pot. It broke my heart every time and I just couldn't bear to do the same. I've never cooked a live lobster and I'm still a bit weirded out by raw oysters (are they still alive?). In fact, even cooking mussels freaked me out once I found out that they are actually alive (and it's no good to cook a dead mussel).

However, Bryan absolutely loves paella, and mussels are one of his favorites.

As I looked at the bag of living mussels in the super market, I silently told them I was sorry I had to cook them. I took them home, cleaned them well, and even successfully "de-bearded" them (yes, you have to pull off their "beards.") It was hard work, and I kept wincing and dying inside while I did it, but I managed to carry on....

May 11, 2015 Europe

Olo Helsinki Finland - 1 Michelin Star

Bryan, my husband, often travels for work. Occasionally, armed with his trusty little Sony camera (affiliate link!), he will take photos and send me his thoughts on some of the more note-worthy restaurants he has visited. Other posts I've written for places he has visited (but I have not!) are Sushi Yoshitake (3-Michelin stars) in Tokyo and Luce in San Francisco. This post is also part of the #31PostsInMay challenge where I aim to publish a new post every single week day.

One of the world's most famous restaurants, Noma in Copenhagen, skyrocketed Nordic cuisine to the forefront of food enthusiasts' "must-try" lists when it repeatedly won the top spot in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Chef René Redzepi's intense focus on sustainability and obsession with only using local, foraged ingredients (despite the cold winters in Denmark), showed the world that exquisite and world-class cuisine was not only possible, but better, this way.

He's not the only one.

Olo, a modern Nordic cuisine restaurant located in Helsinki, Finland, aims to take the raw ingredients of the region and provide diners with a menu that brings to the table "what is best at a given time." Their philosophy is simple.

"The natural and clean flavours of land and sea reign in Olo's kitchen."

Olo has boasted a Michelin Star since 2011, and has also won a number of regional awards.
...

May 8, 2015 Orlando

Blue Zoo Orlando by Todd English - Disney Dolphin Resort

This is the fifth post in the Weekend Getaway to Orlando series. Other posts include Eating Around the World at Epcot World Showcase, L'Artisan des Glaces (Epcot Center), Via Napoli, and Jiko, the Cooking Place. This post is also the part of the #21PostsInMay Challenge. This meal was provided by the Swan and Dolphin Resort

You might think the last place I would think of visiting while in Florida is a restaurant by Todd English. After all, Todd English started in Boston. He achieved his fame because of his rustic Mediterranean restaurant Olives, which he opened with his then wife Olivia in Charlestown, a cute little town just minutes outside of Boston.

But things have been rocky for Todd English in Boston.

Olives closed because of a fire in 2010. And then when it reopened in 2012, it only lasted about a year before it closed for good.

His other restaurants, like Kingfish Hall in Fanueil Hall or Isabelle’s Curly Cakes in Beacon Hill, also closed in the last few years, partly due to other financial problems the company was having.

In Boston, all that's left of Todd English are Figs, his pizza restaurant, and Bonfire, a restaurant inside Boston Logan International Airport that just licenses his name.

When the folks at the Swan Resort first invited me to dine at BlueZoo, a Todd English restaurant, I was a bit skeptical. Things hadn't gone that well for Todd English in Boston lately, and I wasn't sure how it would be.

However, after reading some reviews, I was intrigued.

BlueZoo is consistently named as one of the top restaurants at which to dine in the Disney World area. People from all over visit Disney World, so it's not like it's just the locals raving about this place. Even the general manager (granted, perhaps he's a bit biased, but still), told me he genuinely thought BlueZoo was Todd English's best restaurant.

BlueZoo is located in the Disney World Dolphin Resort, which is the only affiliate property (i.e. it's owned by Starwood, not Disney) on Disney property. Since we were staying at the Disney World Swan Resort (sister property right next door), it was super convenient for us to just walk over and check it out.

I decided to set my prejudices aside and see what all the fuss was about....

May 7, 2015 Orlando

Jiko the Cooking Place (Animal Kingdom Lodge)

This is the fourth post in the Weekend Getaway to Orlando series. Other posts include Eating Around the World at Epcot World Showcase, L'Artisan des Glaces (Epcot Center), and Via Napoli. This post is also the part of the #21PostsInMay Challenge.

Despite the fact that there are a handful of excellent restaurants inside the parks at Disney World, many of the better restaurants are actually located right outside the parks, often inside various resorts or hotels.

One of my favorite upscale meals we had was at an African-inspired restaurant called Jiko, which translates to "stove" in Swahili. Jiko is located right inside Animal Kingdom Lodge and is easily accessible via a shuttle from the Animal Kingdom....

May 6, 2015 Allston

Ittoku Boston Izakaya

This post is Day 3 of the #21PostsInMay Challenge where I endeavor to post every single week day in the month of May.

I grew up with a lot of Japanese influences.

After all, my parents are from Taiwan, and their parents (my grandparents), grew up in a Taiwan that was occupied by Japan. In fact, my maternal grandparents felt much more comfortable speaking in Japanese. Even long after the war, they continued to speak to each other and to their kids (my parents, aunts, and uncles) in Japanese.

As a result, I grew up learning random Japanese words here and there. They were inserted into my already bilingual vocabulary seamlessly. Sometimes I didn't even know if a word was Japanese or Taiwanese.

Despite the strong Japanese influence on my family, one thing we never really adopted was sashimi, or raw fish. My mom didn't eat it, and thus we kids never grew up eating it. It wasn't until college when I spent a summer working in Japan that I finally learned to love and appreciate sushi.

So my family loves Japanese food, but even to this day, they still don't really eat that much raw fish. As a result, when my mom visited about a month ago, I suggested that we check out Ittoku, Boston's only real authentic Japanese izakaya. I thought it was the perfect place for my family. After all, it was a Japanese restaurant that served a lot of interesting and authentic Japanese dishes that were not sushi....

May 5, 2015 Orlando

Via Napoli Disney World

This is the third post in the Weekend Getaway to Orlando series. Other posts include Eating Around the World at Epcot World Showcase and L'Artisan des Glaces (Epcot Center). It is also the part of the #21PostsInMay Challenge.

One of the best (if not, the best) meals we had inside any Disney park would have to be our dinner at Via Napoli in the Italian Pavilion. Via Napoli was built in 2010, after organizers canceled an initial plan to build a gondola ride and Roman ruins. Architects from Florence designed the dramatic looking restaurant, incorporating Florentine architecture, hand-painted Italian tiles on the tables, and imported ceramics.

The CEO of the restaurant group who opened Via Napoli, Nick Valenti, based the restaurant on his travels through Southern Italy. Valenti is obsessed about pizza, having spent time in Naples studying the art of dough, sauce, and crust at some of the city's most famous pizzerias. He applies that same level of obsession to the pizza at Via Napoli in Disney World....

May 4, 2015 Misc

New May Challenge - Posting Every Weekday #21PostsInMay

Has it already been a year?

One year ago I took on this crazy challenge of writing a post every single day for the month of May. I was wondering if I still "had it", the ability to focus and execute posts in a disciplined and regular manner. Although it was a ton of work and resulted in at least a few sleep-deprived nights, I managed to pull it off, publishing 31 posts in the month of May.

I can't believe it's May again already. They say time goes by faster and faster as you get older. Man, is that true! It really feels like just yesterday I was churning out those posts. Yet, at the same time, as I look back on the year, I realize so much has happened. Like our phenomenal trip to the Canadian Rockies (which I still have not finished writing about!), Unforgettable tour of Malaysia and Singapore, our relaxing diving trip to Hawaii, and even my two-page Boston Globe spread in the month of March!

Do I dare try the same thing this month?

I decided I would try a modified version.

I still have so much I want to share on this blog. I still want to tell you about some really cool places we visited while in New Zealand and Australia. Similarly, there's this amazing tea house in the Canadian Rockies at the end of a challenging hike that I've been meaning to share about. Add to that the rest of the Disney World posts and some of the cool meals we had in Boston while entertaining Bryan's parents, I have plenty of content to share.

So I am going to try to post every day, Monday to Friday, in the month of May. I will give myself the weekends to recharge and catch up. That way, hopefully, there will be no sleepless nights this month.

Hope you enjoy!

Just for fun . . a sneak peek at a few!

The dollar is so strong now that meals in Europe feel crazy cheap. Here's a look at a really fancy Michelin starred tasting meal that Bryan enjoyed in Helsinki, Finland a couple months ago for only 55 Euros.

This new Chinese restaurant in Lexington (a suburb of Boston) is actually a chain from China and has become one of my regular haunts ever since I discovered it this past year.

When Bryan's parents visited, we had the most decadent Shabu meal I've ever had in Boston.

We sat at the special Pasta Table at Giulia on Marathon Monday and enjoyed a lovely multi-course tasting meal in celebration of Bryan's sister, who had just run the Boston Marathon!

Can't wait to share these posts (and more!) in detail with you over the course of the next few (intense!) weeks!

May 1, 2015 Appetizer

Pickled Watermelon Radish

I own an entire bookshelf full of cookbooks. The truth is, however, I hardly ever buy cookbooks. Friends and family (and my own husband!) who know I like to cook will sometimes give me cookbooks as gifts. From time to time, I will receive review copies of cookbooks that I'll try out. And then once in a while, I'll get cookbooks from book events and get them signed by the local author (because it's cool to support our local chefs!).

Only once in a blue moon, when I really, really think a book is chock full of excellent recipes, will I actually buy a book myself.

A couple months ago, after having borrowed my friend's version of the book countless times, I finally purchased David Chang's Momofuku cookbook {affiliate link!}.

I had cooked out of it several times already, making his signature Bo Ssam and pork belly buns for a large party once, and they all turned out beautifully. The recipes are well written; David Chang himself is hilarious and his voice most certainly comes through in the book; and all in all, I've been quite pleased with the book. Definitely a worthy investment!

One of the simplest recipes in the book is a vinegar pickle recipe. The master recipe is easy, consisting of just water, rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. You can pickle all sorts of things, like fruits (e.g., apples, cantaloupe, watermelon, cherries); root vegetables (e.g., beets, radishes, turnips, carrots), and all sorts of other veggies (napa cabbage, ramps, fennel . . .). The cookbook mentions over a dozen specific vegetables, and gives specific notes on each one.

I decided to try it on some watermelon radish I had in in the refrigerator. I've always loved these radishes for their vibrant color and their more mellow punch (compared to normal spicy radishes!).

It was so easy. Combine hot water, vinegar, sugar, and salt together until all dissolved (hee hee, I used my Pyrex beaker because I knew it could handle the hot water - plus it made me feel like a mad scientist!). David Chang says their restaurants use the plastic take-out soup containers to do their pickling, so I followed suit and used the exact same type of vessel. You can use other lidded containers, like mason jars.

Pour the brine over the radishes.

And let sit in the fridge, for 3-4 days.

So easy!

They turned our perfectly. I brought them to a party several days later and everyone loved them. They're mild, crunchy, and just really refreshing. The thicker you cut the pieces, the spicier they will remain. The pickling process tames the spice of the radish. At our party, some members loved the spiciness (and went for the thicker chunks), while others preferred the milder, sweeter pickles, going for the thinly sliced pieces.

According to David Chang, the pickles will last for about a month, though typically he eats them within a week or so. I think I left some pickles longer than a month and they lost all their sourness and were pretty soft and soggy. It's definitely better to eat within a few weeks, if possible!

This is a great way to add some life to vegetables (like CSA vegetables, for example!) that you don't have time to cook. My CSA will be starting again in June, and I'm betting that I'll be making good use of this technique!

Pickled Watermelon Radish
Recipe from David Chang's Momofuku cookbook

1 cup water (hot, not necessarily boiling)
½ cup rice wine vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
2 ¼ tablespoons kosher salt

Combine above until everything is dissolved. Pour over your sliced radishes and let sit in the refrigerator 3-4 days!

April 30, 2015 Misc

Jumping into a Healthy Spring + a $100 Visa Giveaway!

Hello spring!

It's been a tough, tough winter. Boston got unprecedented amounts of snowfall. We hit 111 inches at the end of March with some spring snow showers that keep hitting us. The month of February was especially brutal, with weekend after weekend of snow that just kept coming.

My neighbor, who manages the snow removal for our street, said "I just don't know where they're going to put all of it."

Seriously. The pile in front of my house was so tall I could hardly see my door.

And then there was the leak.

And the mold they found in our walls.

Which is why my house ended up looking like this.

*Sigh*

Needless to say, it's been a tough, tough, winter.

Worst yet, I completely got off the exercise track. Up until the storm, I had been so proud of my running progress. The winter of 2013 was the first time ever that I had consistently jogged all through the winter (though it's much easier when you get gorgeous views like this when you're running). And then The Great Snow of 2015 (or Snowmageddon, whatever you want to call it) pummeled in and I totally lost it.

I stopped exercising completely. And the weather was so cold outside, and it was so dark all the time, I really just didn't have much motivation to do anything.

So now it's spring. I'm back on a health kick.

The snow is gone and the sun is setting later and later. I can feel my energy coming back.

I recently threw some of my scallions and cut bok choy ends into some water, and lo and behold, they grew!

The new growth totally reminds me of spring.

Isn't it cute?

At the same time, thanks to this partnership with vitafusion™, I've started taking vitamins consistently. Unlike my husband Bryan, who has (for as long as I've known him) been religious about taking his vitamins (he brings a sandwich bag full of perfectly counted out vitamins for all of his business trips), I've never been nearly as disciplined. I hate swallowing pills, and it's just hard for me to make vitamins a habit.

At the same time, I love gummies, and whenever I saw these vitafusion™ gummies at a friend's house, I always asked if I could have them, just because I thought they were so tasty.

I've now been eating these vitafusion™ Women's Multivitamins for a couple weeks, and I've become super consistent. I think it's because I actually look forward to eating them (I know, crazy). I really like the way they taste (sort of a natural berry flavor), and the texture is really good. I also like the fact that they are made with natural fruit flavors and colors derived from fruits, vegetables and plants.

I place the vitamins right next to my trusty mug, so I easily remember to take it every morning (though you don't actually need water to take them).

In general, I'm overall feeling much, much more energetic and just happier in general. I'm eating better, exercising more, and in general taking better care of myself.

My house is slowly getting fixed. Thankfully, all the mold has been removed and everything is dry. I am really hoping that in another week or two the walls will be put back, repainted, and everything will feel like normal.

Have you tried vitafusion™ gummy vitamins? What daily routines help you stay healthy? Leave a comment below to enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card.

Happy Spring!

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Disclaimer: I received free product and payment for this sponsored post. All opinions are 100% mine.

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April 29, 2015 Orlando

L'artisan des Glaces (Epcot Center)

This is the second post in the Weekend Getaway to Orlando series. Other posts include Eating Around the World at Epcot World Showcase.

I love roaming around the World Showcase at Epcot. When you're tired of standing in lines at all the other parks, the World Showcase is a welcomed relief. There are virtually no long lines here. Instead, think of it as an expanded and more permanent World Expo, with mini versions of different countries showing off their cuisine in the form of restaurants and cafes, their wares by way of shops, and their culture via mini-museums and displays.

Bryan and I devoted one whole lunch + afternoon to explore the different countries. One of my favorite locations was France.

First, the International Flower and Garden Festival was going on. As part of this park-wide event, elaborate topiary characters were scattered all around the park. Of course the characters from Beauty and the Beast would end up in France. Cosgworth and Lumiere were always among my favorite characters in the movie, so I had to get a photo with them. If you squint and look really closely, you can sort of see the Beast and Belle in the top photo of the post in the faaaar distance.

The best part, however, was the little ice cream shop called Artisan Ice Cream, or L'artisan des Glaces. Don't be fooled by the street-side ice cream stand out in front of the French Pavilion. I saw plenty of people lining up at that ordinary street side ice cream cart. I wanted to yell out to them, "that's not the right one! the special ice cream shop is inside!"

Walk into the French pavilion, and you'll see this little blue painted place.

Inside you can choose between a variety of different ice cream and sorbet flavors. They even have macaron ice cream sandwiches (yes! ice cream between two maracon cookies!) and alcoholic ice cream sundaes, where you can get a shot of rum, grand marnier, or vodka flavored whipped cream on top of your ice cream.

We decided not to go for any of that.

Instead, we couldn't help but be drawn to the Croque Glace.

You start with a brioche bun, sliced in half.

You choose your ice cream flavor, which the French person behind the counter scoops into the brioche bun for you.

You get your choice of sauce: chocolate or caramel (I think). I'm not usually a huge fan of putting any sort of sauce on my ice cream, so I said, "no sauce."

She looked up at me, unsmiling, her eyes completely serious.

"It's much better with sauce."

"You want the sauce."

I wasn't one to start arguing, so I humbly agreed and requested dark chocolate.

The brioche goes onto a special hot iron that looks like it's designed for this special dessert. It briefly presses down on the brioche until everything's nicely sealed up.

Like this.

It was fantastic. The brioche had just a tad of savory buttery goodness that complemented the sweet and creamy ice cream perfectly. The ice cream inside was still cold but definitely soft, like the brioche. I think I have to agree that it was quite good with the "sauce".

If I lived anywhere close by, I would totally consider returning to try the macaron ice cream sandwich, and even just a simple plain scoop of ice cream.

On a hot day in Epcot (which, I presume, is most days of the year!), this is a perfect treat.

April 28, 2015 Around the World Trip Report

Eating Around the World at Epcot World Showcase

This is the first post in the Weekend Getaway to Orlando series.

I remember loving Epcot Center my first time visiting Disney World, back when I was in middle school. My mom, sister, and I took a quick four-day trip down to Florida to visit all the parks. At the time, the Disney classic filsm which would become some of my favorites (Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King), had not been released yet. As a result, I didn't really dig the Magic Kingdom as much, which I felt was more geared towards little kids with Cinderella's castle, Mickey & Minnie, and the like.

However, the little science nerd in me loved the focus on science and innovation at Epcot Center. Additionally, the side of me that loved world travel (even at that young age!) was fascinated with the World Showcase at Epcot. For those who haven't been to Disney World, the World Showcase is like a permanent World Expo, where different countries each have their own "land" where they showcase their culture, architecture, and food.

What's especially cool about the World Showcase is that all the people who work at each "country" are actually natives from that country. Disney has a program that brings over people from all over the world. The one-year program includes housing at a nearby complex, a job at your "country" at Epcot, and a chance to spend a year living and working in America. For those of us visiting the different "countries", we get a chance to meet actual people from that country. Plus, it makes the "country' feel more authentic when all the people are speaking their native languages to each other.

From a food perspective, we had fun walking around the different countries and tasting different dishes (more on that below!). Bryan especially enjoyed trying beers from all the different countries. There is a surprisingly decent selection, everything from Tsingtao in China and Sapporo in Japan to more unusual beers from Germany and Norway. We even tried a local Florida-brewed beer. And yes, unlike at the Magical Kingdom, you can walk around the park with a beer (although you can't enter lines for any rides).

I was pretty impressed with the architecture in the World Showcase. Some may argue that things in Disney World are "fake" and shun it in exchange for the real thing. Of course, there's nothing like actually visiting real places and exploring their cultures by traveling. However, I think Disney does a really good job of creating tasteful (even impressive in some cases) reproductions of some of the world's most famous buildings.

Just for fun, I've peppered throughout this post a couple comparison photos - Disney versus the real thing. You may be surprised at how well of a job Disney has done. Here's also a look at some of the fun food we enjoyed while traveling "around the world."

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April 24, 2015 Boston

Babbo Pizzeria Boston

It's finally here!

Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's first restaurant in Boston, called Babbo Pizzeria, opened in Fan Pier in the waterfront area of Boston last Wednesday, April 15th (tax day!).

We've always been huge fans of Batali and Bastianich's restaurants and were thrilled when they finally decided to open in Boston. We've gone back to B&B Ristorante and Carnevino in Las Vegas multiple times, and the unique Riserva steaks at Carnevino are still Bryan's favorite steaks in this country. The pasta at Babbo in New York is excellent, and I fell in love with their wood-fired pizzas ever since first trying it at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.

Usually I shy away from visiting a new restaurant near opening week. There are notable exceptions, but typically the experience is far from smooth because there are still kinks to be ironed out. We made an exception this time - visiting only after one week of opening - because Bryan's parents were visiting us. They love Italian food, and we thought it would be fun to visit a new restaurant with them.
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April 21, 2015 Orlando

Weekend Getaway to Orlando

It's time for a new series!

We've just wrapped up the Winter in Las Vegas Series detailing our annual visit to Las Vegas. Right at the beginning of April, when the snow was just starting to melt in Boston and temperatures were still plenty cold, Bryan and I took a quick extended weekend trip to Disney World. It had been ten years (!) since we had last gone (time flies, because it really doesn't feel that long ago), so we were due for a visit.

In fact, I'd been wanting to visit Disney World for some time now.

A couple years ago I became interested in revisiting Disney World when I heard about a new restaurant called Be Our Guest that opened in the Magical Kingdom. Disney had built a brand new castle modeled off of Beauty and the Beast, and inside was a traditional French restaurant. The interior looked just like the Beast's home in the movie, down to the West Wing, Grand Ballroom, and more. Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favorite Disney movies, so I really wanted to visit after seeing photos of the main dining room.

I called ahead to secure a dinner reservation months in advance (they fill up, quickly, especially dinners). Unfortunately, something came up and we had to cancel our Orlando trip (and my coveted reservation) two years ago.

Fast forward to last month.

When Bryan told me about a business trip in Orlando, I jumped at the chance to go with him. The first thing I did was try to get that Be Our Guest reservation. Though at first I could only get an 8AM breakfast reservation on a Monday (yes, I was calling kind of late), a Sunday evening cancellation appeared a few days later, and I grabbed it!

It was a short trip, but it was really fun. We're both Disney fans, so we knew we would enjoy hitting the various parks bright and early every morning. The food however, was an unknown. I had no idea what food would be like in Disney World. Would it be the typical mediocre stuff you get at an amusement park, or would it be better?

I'm happy to report that food in and around Disney World is surprisingly good, with some excellent options scattered around. Here's a peek at some of the great food we enjoyed!
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April 17, 2015 Boston

Cafe ArtScience Spring Menu

Hello spring!

It's been a glorious week of warm weather. I've been thoroughly enjoying going out without my jacket and even (yesterday!) putting on a spring dress and walking to work outside. Beyond the weather, I am absolutely LOVING the spring ingredients I am seeing on menus, like asparagus, ramps, green garlic, and morel mushrooms. After such a harsh, harsh winter (our house finally got "put back together" after it was ripped apart to address water damage from ice dams), it's most certainly a very welcomed change.

I had a wonderful opportunity to taste Cafe ArtScience's new spring menu recently at a press dinner. It was my second time having dinner there. The first time was opening week (day 2!), when Bryan and I stopped in on a whim after our SCUBA diving course ended early. Even then, we were extremely impressed with the quality of the food. Despite the fact that I didn't have my camera with me that evening, I still felt compelled to publish a post about the meal with just my iPhone photos because it was worth sharing about the meal.

This time, I was able to return with my own proper camera, and even catch a bit of daylight for some of the photos.

The food was excellent. Kudos to Chef Patrick Campbell (No. 9 Park, Eastern Standard), who has put together an impressive menu that is consistently executed well. The food was so good, in fact, that I invited Bryan to come back with me the following week. We ate at the bar the second time, enjoying yet another great meal (detailed mostly via a series of Instagram photos). Bryan went so far as to say that the fried chicken at the bar is the best one he's ever had in Boston, almost rivaling his favorite fried chicken in the world.

In general, I am very impressed with both the food and cocktails here. The level of quality is extremely high. Everything is just really good. Better yet, there's validated parking in the garage for only $1/hour. For all these reasons (and the fact that it's in my home city), I have a pretty good feeling that we will be visiting Cafe ArtScience a lot more down the road.

Here's a look at the spring menu!...

April 14, 2015 Las Vegas

Bazaar Meat Las Vegas by José Andrés

This is the fourth and final post in the Winter in Las Vegas Series detailing my trip to Las Vegas in January to attend CES. Other posts in this series: Yusho Las Vegas, Spago, and CUT Steakhouse.

It's hard not to gasp in amazement when you first enter Bazaar Meat, José Andrés's newest restaurant inside his brand new casino/resort, north of the Strip, the SLS Las Vegas.

José Andrés went all out with this restaurant's concept, what he calls a "celebration of the carnivorous in all its forms."

There are the impressive displays of meat in huge glass counters around the open kitchen.

Every piece is tagged.

Like this beautiful Washugyu skirt loin from Oregon.

Or this A5 (the highest possible rating) Wagyu tenderloin from Japan.

They even display certificates of authenticity showing background information about the specific animal.

And then there are the super hot charcoal grills. They are so hot that you can feel a wave of heat coming towards you as you walk by the front part of the open kitchen where you can see all the grilling being done.

Kudos to the staff who get even closer to those flames all day.

Keep walking, and the impressive displays do not cease. Next to the grilling area is a huge charcuterie area, where you can see dozens of jamon hanging from above.

Even the vegetable locker is gorgeous, full of farm fresh produce. Another meat locker stores whole suckling pig, house made sausages, and other larger pieces of dry aged steak.

The dining space is huge (over 13,000 square feet!), and there are several different rooms in which you can dine.

The menu borrows a few classics from José Andrés's other restaurants. We recognized some dishes we've had at his other restaurants (e.g., Jaleo, Samm, e by Jose Andres, or minibar), such as Ferran Adrià Olives and Croquetas de Pollo Chicken from Jaleo.

However, the majority of the menu is brand new, with a focus on meat and seafood. There's a raw bar, caviar flights, cured meats, tartares, carpaccios, and a dizzying array of steak and seafood from all around the world.

Prices are all over the map, from a $3 gazpacho shot to a $350 caviar flight. Most of the seafood and steaks range between $50 and $75, though there are plenty of opportunities to upgrade. Vegetables sides run $10-12, and there are lots of small bites that are available to try as well.

Finally, if you just want to sample a bunch of stuff, you can choose between a few tasting menus at various prices points (around $150 - $200). They are willing to help you customize it too, if you'd like.

We decided to go with the $200 tasting menu, but substituting or eliminating some of the courses that I'd had before at other José Andrés establishments. We replaced the first three courses with an upgraded caviar flight. We also replaced two of the meat courses (beef and sausage) with a portion of the Suckling Pig, something Bryan really wanted to try.

Join me as I show you, course by course, this crazy meal!...

April 13, 2015 Australia/New Zealand

Saggio Di Vino + Christchurch Earthquake + Irish Coffee

This is the fifth post in my Eating Down Under series. Other posts in this series include Din Tai Fung, Sydney, Three Fun Food Finds Unique to Australia, Chef's Gallery, and Bentley Restaurant & Bar.

Resilience.

For me, Christchurch, New Zealand in 2012 was one of the most visually gripping images of resilience I had ever experienced. A massive and deadly earthquake had destroyed the city in February of 2011, killing 185 people and flattening much of downtown.

It also decimated the economy of the Christchurch, New Zealand's second most populated city. Downtown became a ghost town, filled with rubble, construction barricades, and empty, condemned buildings.

Businesses closed. Jobs diminished. And people just left.

We ran into a young family walking with their children outside while we were there. They were quick to share with us what life was like post-quake.

"Many of our friends decided to just leave. There are much fewer jobs, and many people are displaced from their homes."
And yet, some stayed.

By the time we arrived at Christchurch, it had been about a year and a half since the earthquake. Rebuilding had begun, and you could see signs of life.

Yes, there were still many barricades up, and the downtown area still felt empty and mostly abandoned, though certain businesses had started to open.

We discovered an incredible gem of a restaurant during this time. The young family directed us to an Italian restaurant called Saggio Di Vino. The restaurant had recently moved locations due to the earthquake but had just re-opened not too long ago.

It turned out to be one of the most memorable meals we had our entire 3-week trip.

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April 10, 2015 Las Vegas

CUT Steakhouse Las Vegas (Cut Wolfgang Puck)

This is the third post in the Winter in Las Vegas Series detailing my trip to Las Vegas in January to attend CES. Other posts in this series: Yusho Las Vegas and Spago.

Bryan's been wanting to try CUT for years.

Every year we go to Las Vegas for CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. Every year Bryan suggests CUT, Wolfgang Puck's high-end steak house inside the Palazzo. Usually, we already have a reservation at Carnevino (Bryan's favorite steak house). Frankly, when I'm only in Vegas for 3-4 days, the last thing I want to do is eat steak multiple days in a row.

So year after year, I resist.

There was one year where we actually made a reservation, only to cancel it when we had to reschedule a dinner with friends. Bryan was slightly disappointed, though that meal still turned out to be excellent.

So this year I finally relented.

Full surrender, in fact.

It was a crazy Vegas trip, complete with three steak house visits in four days. Our first was Carnevino for lunch. Sadly, they had run out of Bryan's favorite steak, the 9-month aged Riserva (you can read about these special steaks here). Still, it was an excellent lunch.

Our second was dinner at CUT....

April 8, 2015 Las Vegas

Spago Las Vegas (Wolfgang Puck)

This is the second post in the Winter in Las Vegas Series detailing my trip to Las Vegas in January to attend CES. Other posts in this series: Yusho Las Vegas.

I'm starting to feel like a broken record when I mention (again!) that the Strip in Las Vegas is a great place to sample outposts of some of the U.S.'s best restaurants all within a couple miles from each other.

But it sometimes comes at a price (literally and figuratively).

First of all, prices on the Strip tend to be higher. I've dined at both Mario Batali's and Joe Bastianich's Babbo in New York City and B&B Ristorante in Vegas. Though the quality is reasonably comparable at both, B&B is about 25% more expensive. It's annoying and definitely felt like sticker shock the first time I came to Vegas, but it's something I've learned to just

Second, the ambiance is often different. Case in point: Rao's in New York is a tiny, exclusive, impossible-to-get-into Italian joint that's been around for decades and really hasn't changed one bit. Rao's in Vegas tries to recreate the look of the small, intimate New York Italian restaurant by putting up a fake, indoor version of the same facade in New York. However, it's really not the same. There's only so much you can do when you're inside a casino.

And then there's the question of quality. Is the Vegas version going to be just as good as the original? We wondered this about Spago, Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant in Beverly Hills that opened a second version in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

The original Spago has an impressive list of awards, everything from the AAA Four Diamond Award and multiple James Beard Awards to two Michelin stars in the Los Angeles Michelin Guide (2008 and 2009). Michelin stopped producing guides for Los Angeles after 2009. How would the Vegas one (which does not have any Michelin stars) compare?

We were due for a visit to find out. A perfect opportunity came up when it was one of the few places with available dinner reservations during the busy week of CES. We decided to visit with Bryan's cousin, who happened to be in town the same week....