NY TRIP (PART 1) : SUPERMARKET ENVY

Sunset on the Hudson with Adi

This past week or so, I made a much-anticipated return trip to New York to meet up with my boyfriend, many of my old friends from school and work, and even my good friend Bryce who drove down from Boston. Now because it’s me – all of my friends knew to prepare for a little drinking, a little dancing but most importantly a schedule organized entirely around where, when and with whom I would be eating. 🙂 

Over seven days, I walked all over NY, ate, drank and had great conversation with great friends. I don’t know how I’m really going to capture how wonderful (and long overdue) this trip was, but I’ll get there slowly. 

First up – supermarket envy. 

The first two days of my trip I spent with my dear friend Adi whom I’ve known now for almost 15 years (believe it or not). Adi is currently living in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn where I stayed with her the first two days of my trip. I’m embarrassed to say that in the year I lived in Manhattan (from ’06 to ’07), I only ventured into Brooklyn once and it wasn’t a memorable trip.  But this time I couldn’t believe what I saw – Park Slope is absolutely gorgeous! Of course, it didn’t hurt that the day I landed was the first day of great weather NY has had in awhile. I have to say, if I ever move back to NY, I might have to live in Park Slope! 

So – back to the point – Adi and I had a foodie-filled two days and one night from Park Slope to Chelsea to West Village. I’ll get to the eating bits in the next post. I wanted to start off with something Adi said only I would have – supermarket envy.

First stop – Union Market in Park Slope.   

The minute I walked into this place I gasped at the gorgeous display of fresh fruits ranging from the usual bananas and oranges to mini pineapple and plantains. I literally just turned my head to the left and another gasp came out when I saw that they sold heirloom tomatoes – big, giant ones. This was the first time I had ever seen them being sold before which probably doesn’t say very much about the super markets I go to. But nonetheless I was very impressed by their size and the variety of colors. There seemed to be a lot of mini-sized vegetables which I am always thrilled about (such as cauliflower and artichoke). 

   

 

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Exploring Arizona – Part 1

A beautiful Arizona desert sunset

Hi All – Hope everyone had a great weekend. This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting my sister’s good friend Kristen who was in town from Seattle with strict instructions to help her explore the area. After picking her up from the airport Saturday afternoon, the first place that came to mind (within my very limited knowledge of the area) was Sapporo in Scottsdale. I currently live far enough from Scottsdale and Tempe to not be able to go out and taxi-it home (sadly). However, Kristen was staying at a hotel so we went all out. We headed to Sapporo for happy hour. And despite being hungry we somehow got caught up doing sake bombs at the very very crowded bar instead. (It was the end of the Phoenix [golf] Open so the place was rammed). Although we mostly had a couple drinks at this place, I mention it because it’s a great sushi place (and I absolutely looove sushi), with a great happy hour, and a really good scene. So if you’re ever in town, I recommend it! Next time I’ll actually eat and take some pictures. 

I’ll skip through the rest of the night since it didn’t exactly involve a lot of food, but it was loads of fun and filled with dancing and lots of laughs. The next day, however, WAS filled with lots of food – food required to make me feel a whole lot better. We met up with a friend of Kristen’s – Tyler (a local) – who was so nice and gave us a few recommendations in town. 

We ate so much at the first place though, we only made it to one – LA GRANDE ORANGE in Arcadia (suburb of Scottsdale).  We were completely shocked when we walked into this place. First off, it was completely packed on a Sunday early afternoon which is always a great sign. It’s tucked into this really cute neighborhood and just had so much character. 

 I mean who sells little cactus plants at their grocery/restaurant/cafe? Of course this is Arizona… But seriously, this place is amazing. I wish it wasn’t so far away because I definitely would be there every day if I could. So this place looks like it took over two restaurants. The left half is filled with tables and an open area on the right wall where they make pizzas (so probably a former pizza joint). The right half is where you order food and buy mini cactus 🙂  Of course they, in fact, sell a variety of items from cook books, to clothes/aprons/etc with their logo, and loads of specialty grocery items. To be completely honest, I was starving and the amazing smells coming from the open kitchen and the long line prevented me from exploring. Before I get to the food, one last note on this place – the people/crowd were really really surprising to me because it was completely different from anything I’ve seen in my experience in Arizona thus far. There was actually an urban feel to it. Or maybe it was what I would expect at a place on Main Street in Venice? That blend of people from Malibu, Santa Monica and Venice? I saw very little bleach blonde, a lot of no-makeup-laid-back Sunday faces, no cowboy hats and even some dread locks! 

 

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Cooking For One – Part 2

This time around I decided to stop being redundant and put up my recipes first. This way on my posts you can look at the more important thing – the pictures 🙂

Next up in my cooking for one was a spinach salad. Spinach just happen to be on sale the other day, so I bought two huge tubs of it and it lasted me more than a week. Basically I’ve been super loaded up with iron these days. But I never get tired of it somehow. I love it in a salad, or sandwich or sauteed. And I might just stop using frozen spinach if I can help it. The flavor just isn’t the same. Anywho – you can find the recipe here.

This time I tried something a little different and made my super basic balsamic vinaigrette with white wine vinegar instead. As you can see I’m not super creative when it comes to salad dressings. I stick with my basics because normally when I feel like a salad, it’s a last minute thing and I want it to be simple. I also used some of the leftover chicken I bought on sale (and used in the last post). Because I didn’t want to mess up my Dad’s grill, I decided to just quickly pan “grill” it. I pounded it thin since I find it cooks faster and I like to take little bites. Seasoned it with garlic salt, black pepper and chili flakes. After cooking, I sliced into strips, used some in my salad and saved the rest for another day.

Healthy chicken fajitas

Chris arrived the next day and because I had so much darn chicken I decided we were going to have fajitas! In the spirit of being healthy, I decided I would make my own seasoning since it’s pretty easy to look up online and allowed one less ‘store-bought’ thing in our meal. I didn’t really measure and kind of just threw in an assortment of ingredients I found in various recipes online (the basics really). Find the recipe here.

For veggies, I decided to go a slightly different route since I’ve been reading lots about how bell peppers give you heart burn (aka make you gassy, not exactly romantic). Even though it is a summer squash, I’ve recently read about the benefits of eating zucchini (or known in the UK as courgette). It’s low in calories and a good source of vitamin A.

Healthy, homemade chicken fajitas

I also used mushrooms since (1) Chris and I both love them, (2) they also have great health benefits like being low in calories and a good source of potassium, and (3) we were at Costco and decided to get a huge box of them.

As you can see, we had a corn salsa with our fajitas. I decided to omit the black beans and bell pepper this time to make it a little lighter.

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Cooking For One – Part 1

This past Tuesday, my parents headed out for a little trip down under and left me in charge of our three little dogs. Of course, I was very excited since this meant I had the kitchen all to myself for 10 days. It was only after they left that I realized I’d be cooking for one. This is quite a challenge, but I was determined to take advantage. I wanted to balance making things I’ve been craving and be healthy at the same time. Also since I’ve been eating loads of Vietnamese food recently, I absolutely had to feed my craving for Italian. Now my real craving for Italian would be Carbonara with homemade pasta at Mario Batali’s Otto Pizzeria at One Fifth or the gnocchi with marinara and roasted garlic cream sauce at Supper in the East Village (both in New York). Sadly, I couldn’t magically transport myself to NY and those dishes aren’t exactly healthy.  

First, I searched the kitchen to see what my parents left behind for me. It is SUCH a difference using a kitchen in a house versus a flat, especially my family’s house. The pantry never ends AND they have two refrigerators!  

Using just items in the kitchen, I was able to whip up a nice salad.  

• Red Beets (canned)
• 1 Apple
• Shallots
• Avocado
• Blue cheese
• Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Croutons (made with olive oil, not butter)

While it doesn’t sound like the healthiest salad in the world, I was getting lots of dietary fiber and vitamin B with my beets, one of my five-a-day with the apple, and good monounsaturated fat with the avocado. * Note – my salad recipes will start going up in my Recipes section. 

Beet, Apple, Blue Cheese Salad

Next up for breakfast was fruit. As part of Tet, there was loads of fresh fruit around the house. Strangely, I realized I had never cut up a pineapple before. So I had a little fun trying to avoid poking myself. The smell of fresh pineapple is so delightful. We also had a fresh mango which usually makes my throat itch but I absolutely love. Since there was so much pineapple I figured I’d only add a little banana and orange juice then blend away!  

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My First Homemade Pizza

In celebration of Naples earning the right to label its pizza as “Traditional Specialty Guaranteed” (an EU trademark), I thought I’d give it a shot at making my own. Coincidentally, I’ve also started reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In the last section I read she went to Naples and gave a delicious description of eating pizza there, and it made my mouth water. Now I set out with the best intentions – thinking oh I’ll make a healthy pizza! I even bought whole wheat pizza dough from Fresh & Easy!

But let’s face it – pizza is not the same without cheese. And cheese isn’t exactly the healthiest thing to eat (if you love it as much as I do). And if you’re gonna make a pizza, I feel like you’re really cheating yourself if you go for fat-free which doesn’t have much flavor. So I splurged on the cheese and went healthy on the dough 🙂

My brother’s instructions (he’s a chef) for preparing the dough was to first knead the dough on a surface dusted with flour. And because I wanted thin crust, he said to pick it up by my finger tips and hold the dough by the edge and kind of rotate it while thinning the edges. Somehow I completely forgot this advice and just went straight for kneading the middle with my knuckles. But I was having too much fun to worry about not eating thin crust – so I just went with it! My main concern was that it would fit perfectly in the round pizza dish I was using.

Anywho – my main objective here is to share my yummy pictures with all of you and hope it’ll inspire some of you to go out and make some pizza for yourself!

Ingredients

• Pizza dough from Fresh & Easy (not sure what other groceries sell it these days)

** You could always be brave and make your own! I found an Alton Brown recipe

• Pizza sauce

** I was feeling a bit lazy and didn’t have a lot of time to put into my pizza sadly, so I cheated and just bought it at Fresh & Easy since it was right next to the dough. But you could easily make a simple marinara, add oregano, let cool and blend.

• Mozzarella cheese of course!

** I added some ‘Habanero cheese’ that was on sale at the store the other day, so added it in for a little kick!

• Mushrooms
• Black olives
• Sweet onions

** At the last minute I decided to caramelize these a little with balsamic vinegar.

• Sausage meat

** Any sausage will do really or any meat you’d like. I browned it in a pan with a little bit of chili flakes before putting it on the pizza.

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Healthy Superbowl Snacks

While I’m not a crazy football fan, as a foodie the superbowl is always a great excuse to pig out. However, in the past few months I’ve been trying to eat a healthier diet while allowing myself to still splurge a little. So last minute eats on the big game day included:

• Nacho cheese dip with jalapeno peppers (not healthy but Mom craved it)
• Corn and black bean salsa
• White corn tortilla chips (store bought but baked in the oven adds a little crisp)
• Orzo with feta, olives, zucchini and sausage
• Cuban pork with black beans and rice (courtesy of my aunt, Bac Oanh)

Don’t get me wrong – I was dying for some buffalo wings and potato skins! However, our snacks were equally satisfying. Click on the links above for the recipes. Unfortunately I haven’t asked Bac Oanh for her recipe of Cuban pork, but the other recipes are very simple and just something I threw together. You can eat the salsa with fajitas, tacos or burritos or even on top of some grilled chicken. My recipe doesn’t include avocado, but if you have some around throw it in! The orzo can be made with many variations. It can also be made with whole wheat penne too. Maybe add some spinach in as well. A good trick for using spinach (frozen or fresh) with pasta is to put it in the bottom of your colander and drain your cooked pasta over it. This way your spinach is defrosted or wilted and you can mix it all together easily. Add some toasted pine nuts for crunch!

Hope all of you who splurged on barbeque and creamy dips had some for me!

Ingredients for the salsa

Corn and black bean salsa - usually made with cherry tomatoes but didnt have any that day

Orzo with feta, olives, sundried tomatoes, zucchini, yellow bell pepper and spicy smoked sausage with jalapenos!

My aunt's Cuban-style pork!

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