To Apricot

Special Day, Special Dinner.

Few weeks ago, something good happened to us. So we decided to go out to eat. It was my husband's day, so he got to pick a place.

Most of the time when he picks the food, he wants to have Asian food, especially Japanese, especially good sushi. And we always go to the same restaurant called Ushiwakamaru for Sushi.

It is not the most expensive place for sushi.In NYC there are so many places where they charge us 1.5 times more.... However, Ushiwakamaru is kind of an inexpensive place for the quality of the food.

We always prefer to sit on the counter where you can order in person to the chef, and you can chat with them. However, since a master chef at Ushiwakamaru is very good and busy, there is always no seat available in front of him.

This time, because of the last minute reservation, we had to take a table seat. Anyway, the food was amazing. I have to say that they are one of the best sushi ever since I remember....
They are that good!.

If you are going there for your first time, I recommend you to have Toro-taku roll. It is a roll with Pickled Daikon radish and Tuna fish. We can't finish our meal without having it. I heard that the master has special skill for making an amazing roll. not to tight.... not too lose.... kind of.....yummy! I want to have more and more....

We had such a good time there. For our next time, we made a reservation in front of the master chef!(on my husband's special day... again)
I am so excited!!

On my birthday.

Every year on my Birthday, we try to have a good dinner at a good restaurant. Last year we went to Joel Robuchon at four season hotel. It was one of the best meal ever...

This year, we finally decided to go to Per se. Luckily, we had a friend who works there, so it became even more special day for us.

It was a rainy day, but the view from per se was still good enough for me. We had one of the best seat to see the view. As soon as we sat on the seat, they poured champagne and gave us amuse.

Then we got our menu for the night. The first thing I saw on the menu was that they printed the title saying
 " Happy Birthday XXXX(my name)". I was very surprised and impressed by that. I have been to couple of good restaurants so far, but non of the places did that for me. The experience made me feel I was very welcomed and I was admired by their professional hospitality.

Off course the meal was fantastic! The best part of the meal for me was the dessert. (off course...)
They gave us almost as many dessert courses as their main meal, about 6 to 7 courses... It was great!
We ate them all, and took some chocolate for home...

It was a special day, and I know that it doesn't happen often.... but I am just happy that I experienced the best food and hospitality on my special day with a person I love.

I learned things beyond just food the night.

Chikalicious

   I have couple favorite places for dessert. Chikalicious is one of them.
The place is not so new that already a lot of people know about the place, and there are a lot of fans.

I didn't became a big fan until about two years ago. It was the time  when I started my pastry career seriously. When you care about a thing little more than what it was, all the sudden you can recognize a lot of new things that you didn't care or see before. And you will start wondering about a lot of how/ why?

In her place, the dessert is not too complicated. It is  pure and clean. Nothing is overpowering. Sometime you can almost tell what it is and how to do it. But at the same time you know that you are missing something very important in order to make such a dessert. They can be experiences, attentions or techniques.

   The other day, Chika came to where I work to have a lunch with her friends and husband. I was very excited the fact that she is going to have what I plate. The end of the meal, I had a chance to talk to her. She was very polite and humble. She told me how she started her food career and more. Then, she told me she enjoyed the meal very much.

From the conversation, or the energy she had, I could tell she is a very hard worker and always open for new ideas.

   

Nowadays, there are so many way to learn new recipes, technique and more..... Those information are open for everyone.

I think what's important for us is try something new as often as we can,(it can be very small thing, like buying a fruits never tried before..) and keep trying until something hit your brain.

Blaue Gans

It was a rainy day when I went to Blaue Gans.
It is an Austrian Place by Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner. I was very curious about his places for long time.

It was a summer couples year ago, I was so into Guinness beer that I could drink every day. Since then I have been interested in their food and beer. But I never had a chance to explore what really Germany or Austrian food is.

Even though I was more interested in another place from chef Kurt Gutenbrunner, wallse, (because they are little bit less casual. I passed by there few days ago, and it looks so nice!!), I decided to try somewhere more reachable. The decor was very artistic and cool. They had great beer from Germany and Austria and their food was very authentic.
My friend and I ordered couple different stuffs from their appetizer and sausage menu. My friend was very excited about their Pretzel because one of him friend strongly recommended. I only had Pretzel once in my life so far, so I am not right one to say anything more than yummy ! or not yummy...
Whatever we had there was fine, but we were very confused too. We couldn't just be happy eating them. We had to think and discuss about them...
You know,sometime when you are eating something you really like, you don't need any explanation about it. You just love it, so keep eating it.
Our experience there wasn't like that. The end of the dinner, we knew that we need to study more about Australian food to appreciate better.
It was very interesting night for us...
  

My best friend leaves to Italy

One of my best friend left to Italy the beginning of this month.
She is in a program to do intern ship for three month in a farm in Italy, and going to travel around the world for one and half month.  It is all good for her and I am very excited to hear all the story she will be experienced.
To cerebrate her voyage, we had a dinner at a Japanese restaurant where you can have so many varieties of good sake and very good Japanese food. I should say this is one of the best sake place in the city. I was so interested in tasting sake that I studied little bit before I go. As you can imagine, usually, more you pay , better sake you get. So, I decided to have Hakkaisan junmai ginjo. It was like a water in a good way. Very smooth and pure. It goes well with traditional Japanese food that they serve there, such as ka-ku-ni(stewed pork belly ) and Gyu-su-ji ni-ko-mi(slow cooked beef with daikon radish in miso flavored broth). My friend had a good time there too. One of her favorite dish with her sake was a-n-ki-mo(monk fish liver).
We had such a good time, and we left feeling of that we have to come back to the restaurant as soon as  she comes back to city!

A day before she leaves to Italy, she stooped by where I work to have a lunch.
This is the real last time to see her for next five months..... I miss her so much....

A French brasserie-style palce, BAR BRETON

I am working under French chef from Chamonix-Montblanc, France.
Yesterday, he told me that he went to a really nice french brasserie to eat, and he said  it was super amazing. So, I decided to have a lunch with my co-worker.
Furthermore, the chef for this french brasserie is also being chef at Fleur de sel where I am going to eat next week for restaurant week. So I was very curious about this place.

We got there around 1:30 in the afternoon.  The place was narrow and deep. Nice atmosphere. In general,I like cafes or restaurants where they use different design of tables and chairs in a place. (usually works at less expensive places....) And this brasserie was like that. 

We were looking at the menu, and trying to figure out which one our chef liked. We decided to have savory buckwheat crapes(breton galettes) . Since I have never had it before neither in US nor France, it was hard for me to say if it tasted very good or just good.
I guess it was very good...  I should say...
We had a glass of champagn, a breton galettes for each of us and a dessert to share which costed us around 70$.

I definatelly want to go back there to try more stuffs. Their restaurant week menu looked good too.

Bar Breton
254 FIFTH AVE
NYC NY 10001
212.213.4999