NYNY 2009: Sake Bar Hagi

After walking around Times Square and doing touristy spot, we started to get hungry so decided to look for a late night dining option and found out that Hagi is only a few minutes away. We had to wait about 30-40 minutes around 10pm. When we were finally seated... let's just say we ordered A LOT of food haha.


Sake Bar Hagi
152 W 49th St
(between 7th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas)
New York, NY 10019

 

Super hard to find cause it's just a door and you gotta head downstairs from the street.

Of course, going to an izakaya, you gotta order beer and sake!!

First thing that arrived, uni! Not my favorite thing but Mikol and Connie devoured them haha

Fried Soft Shell Crab. It was probably my favorite dish the whole night.

Potato Croquette! Flatter than the ones I usually see but good!

Grilled Ika. I always find squid a little bland haha.

Okonomiyaki. I love their sauce. A little sweeter than usual.

Stiry-Fry Kimchi with Pork.

An assortment of yakitori.

Karage. Extremely crunchy. It was lightly battered too! Delicious.

We killed the first bottle pretty fast so ordered another one.

Gyoza. We actually ordered two of them. That was how much we loved them haha.

Aaaand the last thing we ordered, Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus! Asparagus's not my favorite either but with bacon, it's all good!

After eating 11 items, drinking a pitcher of sake, and finished 2 bottle of sake, it was a damn satisfying meal haha. There's actually more on the menu that I wanted to try but I guess I gotta wait till next time. It's officially one of my favorite spot in NY :]

NYNY 2009: Shake Shack

After the MET on the first day, we decided to grab a lunch late and after much deliberation, we decided to go to Shake Shack. Good thing the one closer to us was the newer location. Would've sucked eating outside in 30 degree rainy weather.


Shake Shack
366 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10024

The newer Shake Shack on the Upper West Side. Hooray for indoor seating on a super cold day!

Oh man.. I seriously wanted to order everything... burgers, custards, shakes..

Here's the good ol' Shake Shack double burger - meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, buttered toasted buns, and special sauce. It can definitely rival In-N-Out.

I ordered the Stuffed Portobello Burger - fried cheese stuffed portobello, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, buns, and special sauce.

Look at all that cheesy goodness! Orgasmic

Regular Cheeseburgers.

Regular Fries & Cheese Fries. I love fries that are shaped like this! Haha it's like.. old school cafeteria fries :P

And of course, can't try the Shake Shack without getting their famous custard shakes: strawberry and black&white shakes.

Honestly, Shake Shack was extremely satisfying but it might be because we were hella hungry. I can definitely see what the hype was all about and why New Yorkers love Shake Shack!

NYNY 2009: Le Pain Quotidien

Right after Penelope, we headed towards Central Park for the MET but we had a to wait for Mikol's friend to get us into the MET for free so we decided to stop at Le Pain Quotidien for a cup of coffee since all of us was hella tired from the flight still. I know there's a bunch here in LA also, but this is actually my first time in one haha.

Le Pain Quotidien
1131 Madison Avenue
(between 84th St & 85th St)
New York, NY 10028

 

A shot of the logo & cafe.

They use day old bread as their menu holder!

Since I wasn't really hungry I just ordered a mochacinno, which I find that it doesn't exist in LA haha. I think I just like the foam on top.

Mikol opted for a chocolate croissant. Their chocolate croissant is actually really good. Flaky, doesn't taste too buttery.

While we were waiting for out coffee, Mikol saw someone with hardboiled egg and so he ordered it haha. I gotta say, the dude can eat. Nothing special really... except for the bread. Can't beat artisan bread made fresh every morning.

The best part about eating their bread is the spread and jams you can use. They have apricot and strawberry preserves, as well as a chocolate spread they call Noir. The spreads were orgasmic. I loved the strawberry preserves. I would've bought some home but after I saw the price tag, I think I'll just stick with my Fresh&Easy preserves hahaha.

NYNY 2009: Penelope

Back in December of 2009, Diana, Connie, Mikol, and I took a trip to New York just for a few days and we did a good amount of eating haha. When we were there it actually snowed and it was the first snowfall of the season so that was pretty special. The weather definitely added to the whole east coast vibe haha. Here's just a little glimpse!

Penelope
159 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10079

So right when we got to NY, it was around 6am since we took the red-eye flight from LA to NY. Right after we checked out luggage at the hotel's bell desk, we yelped a few spots, looking for breakfasts and decided on Penelope's in Murray Hill. It was pretty close to where we were staying (Ktown), and it seemed like a good spot with all the good reviews.

A shot of the restaurant.

I was craving bacon so i got the BBLT, double bacon, lettuce, tomato with black pepper balsamic mayo on sourdough and served with homemade french fries. It's bacon. Damn delicious bacon. Oh and their fries: awesomness. It's fried the way I like it and the parsley on it doesn't hurt haha.

Connie's Sam I Am, two farm fresh eggs scrambled with grilled asparagus and crumbled feta cheese and served with toast and homemade french fries. I loved how the saltiness of feta cheese works so well in this dish. Usually I'm not a big fan of scrambled eggs but I think I'm gonna add feta cheese whenever I can now hahah.

Mikol's Abuelo's Egg Sandwich, eggs with swiss cheese, grilled ham, and balsamic-mayo with black pepper on somun bread. The ham was amazing. I don't know if it came like that or what they did to it but damn it was good haha.

Diana's Salmon Wrapped Poached Eggs, two farm fresh eggs wrapped in smoked salmon on black toast with green "goddess" dressing with greens. I really liked the way the wrapped the salmon around the eggs. I would probably fail intensely at it haha.

Mikol's juice... I think.  Or was that mimosa? :P

Pretty good way to start off the day and our trip in NY!

Los Angeles: LA Taco Adventures at Kogi, Flying Pig, Pinches & King Taco!

HAH! I'm back bitches. Honestly, I wasn't planning on updating this blog till my next Asia trip since this blog so far has been about food in Asia when I was studying abroad or traveling, but a lot of my friends have started blogs and I figured... since I'm the original out of them, I gotta step my game up! Plus, now I'm based in LA so might as well get it going. Regardless, I'm gonna start with a LA staple, tacos!!

2 weekends ago, a few friends (Diana & Mikol) and I decided to go on this search for tacos around LA. Props to them for deciding on which spots to stop. Our trip that specific night took us from Venice to Sunset on Hollywood to East LA. I think the odometer read 80 something miles at the end of the night. Nevertheless, it was some crazy fooding haha.

Kogi (stop 1)

So one of the Kogi trucks was at The Brig in Venice Beach that night so that's where our search for tacos began. Not really the traditional Mexican tacos, but I had to have Kogi so we incorporated that haha. It's actually a good thing too cause it turned out there were 4-5 different food trucks there that night! (more on that later)

When I order, I usually like to order Kogi's special of the night cause it's usually something you can't find at their dine-in lounge (Alibi), and it is something different.

The taco trucks next to The Brig. There's a few others too, but there's Kogi!

Their special of the night! Shredded chicken mulita with their salsa roja. Seriously, the salsa makes this a must get. Actually, anything of theirs with salsa roja is bomb.

Spicy Pork Taco. My favorite taco from Kogi. The flavors are much more intense than short ribs, chicken, and tofu.

Diana & Mikol's order of tofu and spicy pork taco. Supposedly they updated their tofu taco but I still find it a little bland. Good option if you're going light though or vegetarian!

The Flying Pig (stop 2)

This was honestly a pleasant surprise since they were at The Brig as well. We all heard from a friend how much she loved the truck so we decided to try it out ourselves.

The truck.

Tamarind Duck Taco & Braised Pork Belly Bun.

So the duck taco was essentially asian roast duck or peking duck. then they sprinkled almonds and added a pickled beet salad. They also added a mardarin orange on top to simulate the taste of the orange dipping sauces most chinese restaurants give you. Such an interesting way of deconstructing each ingredient of a traditional peking duck and then putting them together for different textures. The tamarind also added a sweetness.

The pork belly was essentially taiwanese "guabao" and they played around with it. The pork belly even tastes the same. they added marinated onions and cucumber instead of the traditional pickled vegetables and crumbled peanuts.

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so we wanted to go to kogi and that night they were at venice beach. but when we got there we found out that the trucks like to gather all in one place. didnt try the other two in the picture though.

Pinches (stop 3)
8200 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Our 3rd stop took us over 40 minutes to get there from Venice Beach, the famous Pinches on Sunset.

Pinches, right in the heart of Sunset Blvd.

Mr. al Pastor & Mr. Carne Asada. Of course one of my basis for judging tacos is how tasty their al pastor and carne asada is. Their al pastor is pretty weak in my opinion but their carne asada was like biting into steak nuggets. Pretty awesome.

Mexican Coke! Made with real cane sugar. Absolutely love it!

Also at Pinches, they have this cactus taco. Cactus was... interesting. Tasted a bit like mild bell peppers with not much bite to it. Kinda like.. jelly but not as soft hahah. I would try cactus again, but maybe used differently in a dish hahah.

The also had this guava flan, that didn't have much guava flavor to it at all. It tasted like.. a really really sweet & creamy flan.

King Taco (Stop 4)
4504 E 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90022

King Taco, a LA staple.

Al Pastor with Salsa Roja. I absoutely love their salsa roja. Intense flavors and spiciness. Also love their al pastor the best. It did feel like they skimped on the meat though haha.

Mikol's favorite cabeza. I'm not a really big fan of cabeza because I think it's too fatty but the salsa verde definitely cuts into the oiliness.

I think by the end of the night I had about 6-8 tacos from eating my own and sampling Diana and Mikol's haha. More tacos to come!

Can't Deny It

There's no denying it, there's no better cuisine than Taiwanese food.

Yea, I'm biased, so what :P

Everytime I come back to Taiwan, I'm always amazed by how fast the food scene in Taipei evolves and Taiwanese people's love for food. Oh, and Taiwanese people love to wait in line, rain or shine. Our curiousity always gets the best of us when we see a a group of people lining up in front of a store or pushcart as we end up waiting in line just like the rest or when the smell hit our nose. I'm an living example of that haha.

Heading back to the States in a few days, thus ending my two month's stay in Asia. This summer has been an amazing experience. Shanghai has it charms that's totally different from any other cities that I've been to.

Here's one of my favorite quotes about Taiwan from one of my favorite chef, Anthony Bourdain: "I got absolutely shitfaced drunk and ended up in a [KTV]. I guess I've violated all of my principles now." I think that paraphrased a lot of people's experience in Taiwan. Awesome :D

Lazy

Ok fine, to be honest, I'm hella lazy right now. I'll update soon enough ahahaha