Nobu – the recipe of black sesame sauce

Black Sesame Sauce with Chicken Breast - Nobo

It’s my great privilege to share a recipe from Nobu. The black sesame sauce that I was so amazed and then emailed to the Nobu restaurant to ask for the recipe. Gratefully, I got a kindly response from Nobu revealing the mysterious ingredients of the black sesame sauce.

What makes the black sesame sauce unique is Nobu’s own version Teriyaki sauce.  Since each restaurant has its special method and the restaurant manager could not divulge it, Nobu manager gave me the ratio to make our own black sesame sauce.

Nobu – NY Summer Restaurant Week

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Nobu New York, the flagship restaurant of Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, received three stars from the New York Times and a Michelin star. With such a fame and reputation,  Nobu was undoubtedly to be one of my Top 3 restaurants during the restaurant week.

En Japanese Brasserie – NY Restaurant Week

En Japanese Brasserie – NY Restaurant Week, posted with vodpod

NY restaurant week, the most celebrated food festival, is coming.
This summer from July 11th to July 24th, lots of NY popular restaurants offer a 3 courses lunch at $24.7 or $35 for dinner promotion.

New York City has been considered the Mecca of gourmet food by gourmand. From street vendors, food trunks to Michelin star restaurants, it embraces the most dynamic and energetic food cultures. Therefore, as a foodie, I undoubtedly have to make good use of the restaurant week to explore the taste of this big apple. 

Brazilian’s Free Style Salty Cake.

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This weekend I was invited to go to Avalon’s sweet apartment and enjoyed the great fireworks on July 4th. Avalon and I have known for each other for about 15 years since we went to the same elementary school in Taiwan. The world is quite small; I’ve never imaged that we would met up again in New York City and live here.

Afonso, Avalon’s boyfriend, is a freestyle great cook. He doesn’t need to read the recipe; or say, he remembered all the measurement and ingredients already in his head. The Brazilian Salty Cake was one of the desserts he made during my stay at their apartment. This recipe is really simple and could be as creative as you desire. Once you know how to build up the frame of the cake, you could free style the ingredients and make your own salty cake.

A Sea Scallop recipe that rock you to the heaven!!

Juicy Scallops with Garlic Cheese Sauce

Few days ago, whole foods had a special deal for the fresh sea scallops and they offered tasting for food shoppers. I was in line with high excitement to taste the fresh and subtle texture of sea scallops. The way they cooked scallops was marinading sea scallops with greek herbs/Mediterranean herbs, which tasted good but not really impressive though. I felt bad to be so honest and I knew that whole foods’ recipes always offer good and simple alternatives to cook a meal. Coupled with the food of highest quality, it’s hard to make something you don’t want to taste.

Let’s Dinner-black truffle risotto and cherry tomato Summer salad

I have a bunch of foodie friends who love to eat and also cook so well. Sometimes, we would think about the menu for a dinner set. We had an appetizer, soup, main course and one side dish. And we carefully picked up a wine, which best matches the dishes. I had the dinner with Lilian, an smart and easy-going Taiwanese girl. She loves pot luck a lot that she has a long pot luck guest lists on which she includes not only foodies but also good cooks. I was so honored to be on her list.

The main course was black truffle risotto. Risotto was Lilian’s favorite dish. She had tried various risotto recipes such as lemon risotto and mushroom risotto. When she heard me saying that I’m gonna cook black truffle risotto for my mom when I go back to Taiwan, she was so excited and was like why didn’t we plan a dinner for that. So we started to design the menu from appetizer to dessert.

Menu

Light Onion Soup

Cherry Tomato Summer Salad

Black Truffle Risotto

Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Berries

Spanish Sparkling Wine

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3 Courses Business Lunch at Campton Place Restaurant

After busy and overwhelming final weeks, students can finally farewell to the spring semester and enjoy the summer break. Lots of international students are jetting off to their countries during the summer break. Kanade, my Japanese friend, is going to her hometown as well after a two-year absence. We thought it’s necessary for us to hang out before she leave, so when she saw an attractive coupon for Campton Place Restaurant on Bloomspot, a coupon website offering great deals from ON hotels, spas and restaurants, she bought the tickets.

Campton Place Restaurant is located in Union Square. I passed by the hotel several times but didn’t realize that there is such a nice restaurant in the hotel. We made a lunch reservation for 11:30. Most of people may go for brunch at that time, we, however, opted for lunch to enjoy the high-end and upscale experience.

Modern interior design

Campton Palace Restaurant is located near the hustle-and-bustle Union Square but has a surprisingly tranquil atmosphere inside. The dining environment is very cozy and comfortable. Their interior design is quite modern and edgy. Their floral shape pendant is really impressive. The space between each table is wide enough, which allow waiters pass through easily.  Customers at each table can have a private dining corner to enjoy their meals. From that tiny detail, we could tell how Campton Place Restaurant cared about customers’ dining atmosphere.

Spring Recipes from Sarah Henkin-Spring Ragout & Oven Charred Fava Beans with Garlic and Mint Aioli

Sarah Henkin

Spring!

Every April the most exciting thing starts to happen at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.  Farmers stands become a shade of beautiful bright green from freshly picked lettuces replacing the dark green winter greens that, while always delicious, have become a bit boring.  All of a sudden I find delicate soft herbs that add flavor to everything I put them in, tender asparagus, sweet shelling peas, bright red radishes, fava beans, baby artichokes, fresh goat cheese made the day before I bought it, and of course- green garlic, the young stalks of garlic that have yet to develop into cloves.  I use this type of garlic as I would regular garlic, except I add more since it is not as strong as the fully developed garlic.

I know once summer comes, my attention will be diverted to squash, tomatoes, and stone fruit but for now I am captivated by the spring flavors that are familiar and exciting at the same time.

Two Spring Recipes

Succulent Rib Eye with Gravy and Artichoke

Succulent Rib Eye Steak

The Rib Eye Steak was just for entertaining because I would not write down any step of cooking this succulent rib eye steak. I was not hiding a secret recipe, trust me. I did so simply because I forgot the detailed measurement of the ingredients and the last thing I wanted to see was people following the recipe found out that the steak didn’t taste as delicious as mine. No way!

Let’s enjoy this delicious picture and have a wonderful meal for dinner.

P.S. How to cook artichokes

When Restaurants Play Hard to Get By Masha Rumer

When Restaurants Play Hard to Get

By Masha Rumer

Masha

When supply is limited yet the demand is high, the sellers can jack up the price all they want and people pay up. Particularly if there’s no other choice.

But things get tricky when there’s a myriad of choices, as, for instance, with restaurants in San Francisco. In the Mission District, the selection of cuisines, price ranges, and methods of preparation is endless. In one section of Valencia Street, the Mission’s arterial thoroughfare, there are three Indian restaurants within one block from each other. Two Japanese eateries with an oddly identical name, We Be Sushi, bide time just six blocks apart. A swarm of coffee shops and taquerias coexist peaceably side by side.

How do restaurants in this crowded market stay competitive? The logical explanation is they try harder and do more. More choices on the menu. More delicious fare. More bang for the buck. More smiling staff (as much as possible for a hipster). Hire a belly dancer. Put a sitar player in the window to help sell palak paneer, as they do in New York’s Little India. Doing more will attract more customers, right?

Wrong. Acting desperate never really helped anybody, and the Mission eateries are no exception. Many local restaurants are embracing an entirely different model to stay in business: offer less. Become less conspicuous. Cut the hours of operation. Be less available. Cram all the equipment, produce, chefs and customers into a tiny room and watch people go bananas with hunger and relentless enthusiasm.