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Weekend in The Cape

8/24/2018

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One of my last vacations this summer was to the Cape, my parents had a wedding and since none of us had been to The Cape we all went. We stayed with our friends the Whitehead’s and they lived really close to P-Town, so on our last night they took us to Victor’s. Victor’s is a restaurant that they had raved to us about and said that we had to go there. This restaurant was really fancy and they didn’t just have a menu where everyone would get their own individual meals they had lots of appetizers. So, we all ordered a lot of appetizers and we shared them.

The first dish we had was brussels sprouts with hazelnuts. The brussels sprouts were really soft and the hazelnuts gave it that nice crunch, so the textures in the dish were very pleasant. The taste of the dish was amazing and had so much flavor and overall I really enjoyed the dish.

The second dish was edamame, although edamame is very simple and is usually enjoyed with a little sea salt these ones had a burst of flavor. They tasted amazing because they were soaked in soy sauce because you didn’t just get the flavor from the pod you also got it from the bean itself. In addition to the soy sauce there was red chili and sea salt on top. The chili gave the beans that bang of spice and it is always nice to have some sea salt on edamame even with the soy sauce on it.

The third dish was calamari. I love everything about calamari the chewiness of the octopus, the crunchiness of the fried outer part, everything!!! This calamari was no different it was crispy and chewy and was so good I kept putting more and more of it on my plate because I couldn’t get enough.

The fourth dish were hand made pan fried pork dumplings covered in peanut sauce. Dumplings are definitely very different in the way they are prepared, what kinds of ingredients are in them, and the different sauces people dip, or pour on the dumplings. Personally, I prefer my dumplings pan fried like they were in this dish because they are super crispy and not doughy. Some people like it doughy, but I just don’t. The dumplings here met my perfect dumpling standards they were super crispy and although I would normally dip my dumplings in soy sauce the peanut sauce added a good unexpected sweetness to the dish and tied the whole dish together. The sauce was especially a good addition because the pork in the dumpling was salty so you had the balance of sweet and salty.

The fifth dish was sizzling Asian skirt steak. The steak was served to us in a little iron skillet that was EXTREMELY HOT but luckily we did not touch it so no one got burned. Steak can be very good if it is cooked right and has a lot of flavor because if steak is bland it is terrible. As you can see Victor’s has been very consistent with their amazing flavor and this time was no different. The steak had so much flavor and although it was on the hot pan it cooled off quickly and it was a nice medium throughout the meat. I don’t tend to eat steak very often, but when I do I want it to be good steak and this steak exceeded my expectations.

The sixth dish was macaroni and cheese. I know what you are thinking macaroni and cheese? That is for younger kids it isn’t something you should post on a food blog. Although mac & cheese is traditionally a children’s food it can be elevated in so many different ways and is one of my favorite comfort foods. This macaroni and cheese had a nice panko crust covering the top and also had truffle oil in it. Usually when you make kid’s boxed macaroni and cheese it comes with the cheese powder and is really watery. This mac & cheese was the opposite it was creamy, made with real cheese, and had a panko crust on top. The panko crust always adds a lot of crunch to the macaroni and cheese and really balanced out the textures in the dish. The truffle oil added a lot of depth to the dish and I love truffle oil, it always enhances any food and just makes dishes a lot more sophisticated.

This last dish was definitely the most impressive of the night. It was mussels. I do not have mussels very often and I usually like oysters more, but these mussels were off the charts. They were sake steamed mussels!!!!! The sake brought out all of the flavour in this dish as soon as you took a bite. POW!! You got that amazing flavor of the sake. There isn’t a lot to say about this dish because it was just absolutely on point. I think that the sake was the star of the dish because it made the mussels 100 times better than just normal mussels.

Overall Victor’s was amazing and I am so glad that our friends introduced us to this amazing restaurant!!

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An Australian Adventure - Part 2: Sydney

8/13/2018

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In my last post, I talked about the first part of our trip to Australia and the food in Melbourne. Our next adventure was in Sydney. On our first day we actually had a tour of Google from our really amazing friend Kim. We had breakfast at the Google cafeteria and that, ladies and gentlemen, is where I had Vegemite for the first time. Vegemite is this really salty paste that is extremely popular in Australia. The trick with Vegemite is to not put a lot on you have to put a thin spread so the taste isn’t overwhelming. It wasn’t the best thing I have had, but it didn’t make me gag or anything. After our super awesome tour of the Google offices we went for a little bit of sightseeing and then went to lunch at Mr.Wongs. 

Mr. Wongs, like Tonka, was tucked into an alleyway, but inside was super fancy and we happened to get lucky again and we got the last table that wasn’t reserved. Mr. Wongs was a restaurant famously known for its dumplings. Mr. Wongs was a super cool place and it was the kind of restaurant people went for a business lunch. Obviously, we got dumplings and since Lindsay had never tried soup dumplings before we ordered soup dumplings, string beans and beef, fried rice, and shrimp croquettes. Soup dumplings are amazing because you get the hot soup on the inside and the soft doughy dumpling after, two foods in one. At Mr. Wongs the soup had a lemongrass flavor in it and the dough was super soft. The next dish was the string beans and beef that was my favorite dish at Mr. Wongs. The string bean dishes were all amazing in Australia. It was ground beef stir fried with string beans, it was packed with flavor and spices I kept putting more onto my plate because it was so delicious. Next, was the fried rice. It was good fried rice, but it wasn’t super special. I mean it was just fried rice. The next dish was very special because it isn’t something that is very common like the other dishes. It was a crispy shrimp croquette. The croquettes were very tall and had these crispy strands sticking out of it with the shrimp on the bottom. They were super juicy and crunchy I got these crispy bits all over my plate. The last dish was again something you don’t usually find on a menu we had balmain bugs. Now you might be thinking that I already had bugs once, but balmain bugs are these tiny lobsters that they serve in Australia. We got the fried balmain bugs. They were very crunchy and really salty and the balmain bugs didn't taste like lobster at all. I didn't love them, but I think it was too salty for me. Overall Mr.Wongs was a nice place to have lunch and I would definitely recommend going there is if you go to Sydney. 

Australia is famous for a lot of things, but one of its most acclaimed desserts is the Lamington. A Lamington is a pound cake that is layered with raspberry jam, covered with chocolate, then finally rolled in coconut flakes. The bakery that we had decided upon was a quaint bakery tucked into a street right near our hotel. We walked in and soon ordered a Lamington along with a sparkling lemonade to wash it down. The Lamington was amazing! We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was moist and the chocolate and jam balanced each other out leaving a delicious cake. The coconut contributed a nice crunch and a nutty flavour that was needed to tone these two powerful components. The lemonade was very refreshing and paired nicely with the cake. After we had left the bakery we found at that the tiny little bakery we just went to contained the best Lamington in Sydney. 

This next restaurant we went to was a restaurant on the rocks which means it was behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We went to the Australian Hotel and it is famously known for its Coat of Arms Pizza. The Australian Coat of Arms is a picture of an emu and a kangaroo so I am assuming you can guess what is on the pizza. Yup, kangaroo and emu. I was really nervous to try it because who isn't a little nervous to try kangaroo and emu? The Australian Hotel was a bar and a restaurant so we sat more in the restaurant part because we obviously couldn't sit at the bar. We ordered the pizzas and when they came I got really scared because I felt a little guilt eating a kangaroo and also an emu. It just looked like meat on the pizza. So I took two slices one with the emu and the other with the kangaroo. I brought the emu slice to my mouth and I took the tiniest bite of it. Although I took a tiny bite I could still taste it and guess what, it tasted like chicken.  Ha ha just kidding it tasted more like beef. I took a bite of the kangaroo pizza and it tasted like beef just as the emu did. I was really scared to try it, but it is definitely worth going just to say you ate kangaroo and emu.

The next day there are two places we went that were amazing. The first was a little stand right outside a mall and it sold meat pies. Kim said that they had amazing meat pies so she brought us there. It was almost like a deconstructed shepherd's pie. The meat pie was ground beef inside a puff pastry, with mashed potatoes, mashed peas, and gravy. Normally I don't like gravy on my mashed potatoes but this was amazing the gravy brought out all of the flavor in the mashed potatoes and peas. The meat was tender, but the only thing was that the puff pastry was a little too tough Overal the meat pie was amazing it was a great snack right before we ate dinner.

We had dinner at this little cafe that was recommended by our friend Jimmy Wong who was a chef and he was meeting us at the restaurant. When we got to the cafe we met up with Jimmy and Jimmy’s partner Jay. We all sat down and ordered drinks most of us got this fruit juice, but it was more of a slushie with some of the fruit on top. I got passion fruit, my dad, Jay, and our other friend Nick got watermelon, and Kim got lychee. As a big fan of passion fruit it was soooo good. It was the best juice I have ever had it was refreshing and tasted fresh. There was no extra sugar it was just passion fruit. As we drank our drinks we ordered the food our order consisted of papaya salad, fried rice, pad thai, sea bass, and a spicy stew. The first dish we had was the papaya salad that was my favorite out of that meal. We got the mild for the papaya salad because Jimmy told us that the mild papaya salad was extremely spicy so the spicy papaya salad was out of this world spicy. Jimmy was right because when I took a bite of the salad my mouth started burning up and I had to drink a lot of my frozen passion fruit juice to calm my mouth down. Although it was really spicy it had lots of flavor and it didn’t have a flat flavor it was refreshing and really stimulated my taste buds. The fried rice and the pad thai were really good, but I have had pad thai and fried rice before so it wasn’t something I was swooning over like I was the papaya salad. Then came the sea bass it was super tender and they served the whole fish so we passed it around. The sea bass had a lemony flavor and was overall really tasty. Lastly was the spicy stew, there were potatoes in it and it was spicy, but it wasn’t as spicy as the papaya salad, but it was still really delicious. The base was coconut milk and it had curry powder in it. So it was very delicious. Overall the meal was absolutely fantastic and I had a great time with all of my friends. 

Australia was amazing and it is an experience that I will never forget and I hope that if you go to Sydney and Melbourne you go to all of these restaurants because all of them were absolutely fantastic.​
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An Australian Adventure - Part 1: Melbourne

7/30/2018

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My dad and I had an amazing opportunity to go to Australia for my dad’s work. Of course while we were there we wouldn't just be doing work, we would also be eating our way through Melbourne and Sydney; the two cities we would be visiting. Let's start off with Melbourne. Melbourne is best known for its coffee and its food so of course in my mind it was the best city to go on this trip.

When we got to Australia we started our food adventure off right away. We made our way from the Melbourne airport to the Queen Victoria’s Market. Keep in mind that we just got off the plane and we had been through two days of flying with really terrible airplane food, so we needed some good food. Lucky for us we got some boreks right when we got to the market.

A borek is a turkish bread that is stuffed with meat, cheese, and/or vegetables. I got the spinach and feta borek while my dad got the lamb borek. The bread which was the outer part of the borek, was almost like a flat bread and if you have ever been to Cosi, it is like that kind of bread. On the inside there was feta and spinach and it was amazing. The feta was all melted with butter dripping out if it and the spinach was cooked to perfection. The only thing that wasn’t good about it was that I didn’t have a second one.

The next place we went to was a breakfast place called Lune and it sold croissants. It wasn’t just your plain croissant or your chocolate croissant they had a whole variety of flavors. There were a lot of different kinds of croissants, but we settled on three plus a hot chocolate that we shared. We got a yuzu flavored croissant, an almond flavored croissant, and lastly a kwan aman. Lune was a cute little cafe but it had a very big line. The first croissant we had was the Kouign Amann. It was a croissant, but it was coated in sugar and twisted to look like two spirals. It was the best croissant I have ever had it was so crispy on the outside, but it wasn’t burnt and it had a nice brown color. It made that satisfying crunch sound when you cut it with a knife. The next one we had was the yuzu croissant. It had a yuzu jam with a vanilla pudding inside as well. A yuzu is a citrus fruit that is sour but also kind of sweet as well. I thought that the crispiness of the croissant and the sweet and sourness of the yuzu jam really complimented each other. The almond croissant was next. It was very crispy on the outside and had a sweet thick almond paste in the middle it wasn’t overly sweet, but it also wasn’t super nutty at the same time. I also though the sliced almonds on the top of the croissant were good they gave an extra crunch they were also arranged in a pretty pattern. Unlike American hot chocolate this one was not sweet at all. It was just hot chocolate with no sweetners and it was just like hot chocolate should be; chocolate not sugar.

The next few days my dad and I were at the first event he was working so we didn’t go to a lot of places at that time. After the event we had two days to explore Melbourne and I know this might sound as if I am over exaggerating but those two days were some of the best eating days I have ever had.

​The first restaurant we went to was called The Kettle Black and we went there for breakfast. The whole place had a very nice vibe to it. From our hot chocolate experience at Lune we decided to get hot chocolate again and we also ordered an indigenous tea that was recommended by our waitress. The hot chocolate was of course delicious and after all of that amazing hot chocolate I found it a little hard to come back to the overly sweet hot chocolate here. The next drink we had was the indigenous tea. The tea was a mix of peppermint and eucalyptus. It came out clear so it looked like it was just plain hot water but when you actually tasted it the tea was so refreshing and calming it was nothing like any tea I had ever tasted my dad and I loved it so much we actually bought a little bottle of the leaves to take home.


For our actual breakfast we got ricotta pancakes and chili oil crab eggs on top of sourdough toast. Let’s start off with the pancakes. We actually had to order the pancakes right away because they take a little longer than everything else, but it is extremely worth it. The dish was one humongous pancake, it was topped with maple butter, purple sugar, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit, flowers, and had blueberries on the inside. I am sorry if I am making your mouths water but mine is watering as well even thinking about it. We rubbed the maple butter all over the pancake so it could soak up that maple buttery goodness. Then, we dug in and we destroyed that pancake until was nothing left at the end except the flowers and some crumbs. The mix of the creamy maple butter, fresh fruit, and crunchy nuts was amazing.  All of the textures and flavors went hand-in-hand perfectly. All of the ingredients were super fresh and the pancake itself was extremely fluffy from the ricotta. Next, were the eggs, to be completely honest I was not on board with the eggs at first because I like more of the sweeter breakfast foods in the morning. These eggs were the best eggs I have ever had and that is saying a lot because as I said I don’t really love eggs. These eggs were really spicy from the chili oil and extremely soft. I didn’t really taste the crab, but the eggs on top of the sourdough bread were awesome. You got the spicy, sour, and salty of the dish and the crunchy, soft textures. Overall it was an amazing breakfast.

After we had breakfast we met up with our friends Lindsay and Anthony and we did some sightseeing and then Anthony dropped us off at our next food stop. It was at a very famous restaurant named Chin Chin. We got really lucky because usually Chin Chin is super packed, but we got to walk right into the restaurant and get a table. Even though we got a table the entire restaurant was still extremely crowded, but it had amazing style. Near the kitchen there was a humongous pink bunny that lit up and it brought a lot of style to the restaurant. From Chin Chin we got three dishes. Beef and noodles, string beans, and lamb. We felt like we had to get lamb because we were in Australia which is known as one of the best places to eat lamb. The first dish was the beef and noodle dish. The beef was bursting with flavors, and the noodles were shorter than normal noodles and they were super soft and a little slippery. They were more like rice cakes. The next dish, the string beans, was my favorite. They were tossed in a chili oil and the oil brought so much flavor and depth to the dish. I think chili oil is my new favorite ingredient, it was good in everything. The last dish was the lamb. I have never been the biggest fan of lamb, I would always try it, but it never was something that I favored. This lamb was super tender and it wasn’t really gamey. The whole dish was very powerful and had a humongous punch of flavour.  It was overall an amazing meal that filled us up for our adventures until dinner.

For dinner we went to a restaurant named Tonka. It was an Indian fusion restaurant and it was located in a little alleyway kind of tucked in, but this place was hopping. Just like at Chin Chin, we got the last available table. We really lucked out that day! We sat at an elevated table with elevated chairs, the kind of chairs you would see by a bar. We had a lot of food at Tonka, but overall there were two dishes that stood out to me the most. The first was a crispy pastry shell and inside were curried vegetables served with a little glass of aromatic water. The waiter told us to pour the water into the shell and pop it into our mouths for the best possible experience. We poured the water into the shell and popped it into our mouths. For me there was a little technical difficulty because the shell was a little too big and I didn’t have enough room to chew, but I figured it out and it was amazing. You got the spiciness from the vegetables, the crunchiness of the pastry, and the taste of the aromatic water went perfectly with the dish. The next dish was definitely my favorite of the dishes we got at Tonka. It was a lamb curry with jasmine rice and naan. The lamb was so tender and the curry gave it bursts of flavor and when I was done the curry had soaked the rice and of course I dipped the naan in the curry. Just like at Chin Chin, the lamb wasn’t super gamey, but it still had nice flavour. Out of all of the restaurants we went to Tonka was definitely my favorite.

After everything we ate that day we decided to grab some dessert before going back to our hotel. We went to a place called Om Nom and we were there for one thing. The Dessert Cigar!! It was a completely edible cigar that was made of chocolate had a chocolate filling, and you dipped it into raspberry jam and chocolate ashes. They served it to you in a wooden box and the smoke that came out of it was rosemary smoke. The raspberry and the chocolate ashes balanced each other out because the rasberry was sweet and kind of sour and the chocolate ashes were bitter. The actual cigar was amazing. It was a chocolate shell filled with a chocolate mousse.

The next day we got ready to leave for Sydney, but we needed to bring food onto the plane and what better to bring than macarons and sushi. We got the macarons from a famous pastry chef in Australia, Zumbo. He is super famous and his bakery was named Zumbo. We got the salted caramel and the cookies & cream macaron. The macaron was crunchy and chewy and the fillings were both super smooth. I usually don’t have macarons that often, but these two were definitely one of the better ones.  In Australia they have sushi stands on the streets it is basically fast-food sushi. There is a display glass of whole sushi rolls not cut up and just the entire roll, and you pick the ones you want.  They put it into a plastic container for you and BAM you have sushi.

Next up was Sydney!

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A Top Chef Layover

7/16/2018

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One of my favorite TV shows is called Top Chef. In one particular season, there is a chef named Brooke Williamson and she was my favorite chef on the show and I was rooting for her to win for the entire season. Brooke ended up winning and ever since she won, I really wanted to go to her restaurant in Los Angeles called Playa Provisions.

My dad and I had a 9 hour layover in LA on the way to Australia and we decided to go to Playa Provisions. Playa Provisions is a seafood restaurant in Playa Del Rey and is right next to the beach. Brooke owns many restaurants including Da KikoKiko, Hudson House, and Playa Provisions.

When we arrived they led us to a special room because we were meeting family there and there was a lot of us. The restaurant was beautiful and felt like a very fancy beach house. When all of our family arrived we ordered our food.

As some appetizers we got assorted pickled vegetables, fried calamari, and biscuit bites. The first thing to come to the table were the biscuit bites. It was a tiny biscuit that came with dulce de leche on the side. I opened up the biscuit and spread the creamy lush caramel on. When I bit into it, I got all sorts of flavors and textures rushing towards me at the same time. I tasted the creaminess and sweetness of the dulce de leche and the moistness of the biscuit. It was the perfect way to start off the meal.

The calamari and the pickled vegetables came next. Let's start with the calamari. The calamari was so crispy and tender, when I dipped it in the cocktail sauce it gave it a nice sweet tangy flavor. The pickled vegetables were a little sweet, but also obviously sour. There were three vegetables that we tried cucumber, carrot, and cauliflower. My favorite was the cauliflower. It was my favorite because cauliflower usually isn’t a pickled vegetable that I’m used to and it was very delicious. It wasn’t as overpowering as the other vegetables. I thought that they came in a very cute jar and was delighted that they didn’t come on a plate.

For our entree, my dad and I shared a lobster roll and fish tacos. The lobster roll was my favorite of the two it had a crispy bun which is sometimes hard to have because the lobster makes it soggy. The lobster was cooked perfectly and was bursting with flavor. The mustard seed on top really helped enhance the flavor. The fish tacos were also very delicious. On top of the tacos there was a very nice refreshing relish that brought so much flavor to the dish and really elevated the fish’s flavor. Overall it was a very good meal and I would definitely go back.
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I am also hoping to get the chance to interview Brooke in a few months and I can’t wait to share it with my readers!
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Eating our way through Seattle and Alaska

9/1/2017

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My family loves going on vacation and, let's face it, who doesn’t?  Usually we like to go on cruises out of New York but this year we were going on a cruise out of Seattle to Alaska! We also were going to spend a few days in Seattle.  As usual, we had some good eats planned for both Alaska and Seattle.

The first place we hit up was right after we had gotten off our six hour flight from New York so we were all very tired.  The place was called Dong Thap Noodles and was in the International District of Seattle. They were famous for having the world’s biggest bowl of pho. Now, as you probably know from one of my earlier posts we visited Vietnam a few years ago and had pho all of the time, but since then I have only had one or two bowls of it in the States.  So, I was excited!  We started off by getting spring rolls and egg rolls and obviously we ordered the pho.  The spring roll was my favorite out of the two rolls it was so fresh and light and it really tasted like I was back in Vietnam.  Next was the pho. It was huge!  As soon as we got it we dug in, of course, after my dad took pictures.  In my family, we put sriracha, hoisin sauce, jalepeños, and bean sprouts which gives it a lot of bold flavors. It was the best pho we had eaten since Vietnam and it reminded me a lot of Vietnam. We actually tried a few new things that were in the soup which were tendon, and tripe.  I thought that the all of the different meats were cooked very well and that all of the flavors really went well together. The owners of Dong Thap were so nice and were so involved with the customers which I usually don’t see a lot of and is something I really appreciated. Overall, I think it should be a place you try to go to if you go to Seattle.

The next place I want to talk about is a very famous sandwich place that is owned by Mario Batali's parents and it is called Salumi. It was opened after his dad retired and he decided to learn a lot about curing meats, which eventually led him to open his store.  His store is only open four days a week from 11am to 3pm so this was our only chance to go.  We got there as the store opened and it isn’t really a sit down place. You get your order to go.  My dad and I agreed on getting the porchetta sandwich (one of the most popular sandwiches there), chicharones, meatballs, and the cured meats platter.  We took it on a mini ferry trip, we were taking around Seattle.  We started with the porchetta sandwich which had pork, peppers, and onions.  I must say it was a very good bite. The pork was tender and the peppers were soft and so were the onions.  The only thing I would say was that the bun fell apart when we ate it.  The next thing we had which I could not stop eating was the meat platter.  It had all of these different types of salami that made my mouth water.  There were six different types of salami: finocchiona, hot sopressata, salumi, mole, mustard, and agrumi salami.  My favorite salami that kept reeling me back was the mole salami, it had a lot of different flavors and it was a hard salami which I love. They had put nutmeg in the salami which was interesting because I would expect it in a mole, but I wouldn’t think it would be good in a salami, but it was.  It had made the salami pop and stand out from the others. We had gotten two orders of the meatballs which is the next thing we are going to talk about.  I am really glad we got two orders because if we didn’t there wouldn’t be enough to go around!!  To me the meatball itself is only 75% of what makes a meatball really good and the other 25% is the sauce.  Meatballs need to be moist and I like my meatballs soft and the sauce really helps to kind of of trap the moisture in the meatball and make it dense.  If the sauce that is helping to keep the meatball stay moist isn’t good then there is that 25% of the meatball gone. I don’t care if it is the best meatball in the world. If that sauce isn’t good then it is over.  I thought that they nailed the sauce and that the meatball was nice and moist and the sauce really helped bring the meatball to the next level.  Lastly, I thought the chicharones were very good, but it was a little hard and that might just be me because of my braces.  Although because it was a little hard it really brought out rich flavors in the chicharones.  I also thought it was very nicely seasoned.  I would definitely go back to Porchetta and so far I am in love with Seattle. Then we were off to Alaska!!!

We did a lot of excursions in Alaska so we didn’t have a lot of time to eat.  The only place that we ate was in a little town called Skagway.  One of our excursions there was a salmon bake and then we ate in the town.  Skagway was a short walk from the docks of the cruise ship and I wish we got to do more exploring there. We ate this dessert that was a fried bread coated in sugar and tasted like fried dough which it was just not over the top sweet, but more subtle.  The salmon bake was not what I was expecting. We took a little bus there from the docks and it wasn't even in Skagway, it was a bit little outside town. We showed up in a little school bus and there was a little buffet set up with salad, pasta and next to it was a large grill with salmon and a pineapple glaze.  It was nice, but it wasn’t what I expected.

In Alaska we also got to go on a crab boat and see how they caught crabs. We also learned the difference between female and male crabs and I got to hold a crab.  It was fun, but my favorite part was going back to land to eat as many crabs as we wanted.  When we got there they told us that there was a competition to see who can stack the highest crab shell pile and the winner would get a prize.  If you know me then you know I am super competitive so I was all in.  Compared to other groups though we didn't have a lot of people since my siblings don't eat crab and we only had four people actually eating crab.  So we were the most creative when it came time for them to measure our stack of shells. We put the plate on top of a glass and so even though we didn't have a lot of shells on the plate it still put a lot of height on it because they measure it from the ground.  We actually won!! Do you want to know what are prize was?  We got to learn a dance.  I know, not much right?  It still felt good to win.  That was our last day in Alaska.  Then it was back to Seattle!

We didn’t go straight home after the cruise, we decided to stay and explore Seattle a bit more.  As soon as we got off the ship we went to a Mariners game because my Dad has always wanted to go to that stadium and the food there was supposedly amazing.  There were a few major things on our list to eat there, one of them was to eat these fried grasshoppers that came in a little container.  I was really nervous to eat it because, like to anyone, it sounded disgusting.  We went on the line as quickly as possible because they only sell a certain amount of containers per day.  There was plenty left when we got there and my Dad and I asked what the grasshoppers tasted like and the guy working there said they tasted like hearts of palm.  Now, hearts of palm aren’t my favorite food and I don’t love them so I was very hesitant to try it.  I did end up eating it and it tasted disgusting, but I made it down.  I am glad that I ate it because now I can say that I ate a grasshopper.

The last place we went before going back to New York was the Pike Place Market.  We got a lot of food there, but there are a few that really stood out to me personally.  One of them which I still can’t get over which was this stand called Chukar Cherries.  They are different types of cherries that are dipped in different types of chocolate.  They were so good that we brought two bags home and one of the bags I ate by myself.  The next thing we had were different types of clam chowder.  One was original and the other was mixed seafood and salmon.  They were amazing they were so creamy, and full of rich flavor from the seafood.  It was really hot that day and a really long line, but totally worth it.  To cool ourselves down after the hot soup we got ginger beer.  They are really good for you and you can get them in different flavors.  We got peach, mango, and guava.  My favorite was the guava. It was absolutely bursting in flavor and had a little bit of a kick from the ginger.  The Pike Place Market was definitely one of my favorite places and I am dying to go back.

​I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go to these places and all of the food was amazing.
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The New United States Ambassador to Laos

10/26/2016

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It is not every day that you get to go down to Washington D.C. to see your cousin become a United States Ambassador. Last week, I was really lucky to get to go down to Washington D.C. for a few days for this exact opportunity.  As you may have seen on one of my previous blog posts, I went to Vietnam for a couple of weeks to visit my Cousin Rena and to taste the wonderful Vietnamese cuisine.  Now, she has been appointed the United States Ambassador to Laos, which is a neighboring country to Vietnam, and from what I have heard, has the best South Asian food.

Washington D.C. is far from New York so it was a very long ride, but when we eventually got there we had a family at a Laotian restaurant so we can taste, and get a feel for the cuisine of Laos and to have a party before the ceremony that was the next day. My cousin Rena knows that I love food. She was so nice and she had someone show me all of the different Laotian foods and tell me what was in it.  I made a plate with some different stuff on it. I was honestly not starving but I took a good amount of food.  I got spicy eggplant salad, sticky rice, pork shoulder, and sun dried beef.

I had a little bit of each dish because I was not that hungry, but all of them were satisfying.  Let’s start off with the pork.  I really enjoyed the pork. It was fatty, and had a nice char on it with a lot of really good flavors.  Next, was the eggplant salad. It might have been my favorite one even if I did not have a lot of it.  Considering I do not love eggplant, this dish caught my attention. It was very spicy but in a good way.  The sticky rice was cool. Sticky rice is a glutinous rice and I kind of liked it better than regular white rice.  Lastly, I tried the sun dried beef. It was almost like beef jerky because it was tough but it was better because it had a tang to it.

​The next day we went to go see her get sworn in at The United States Department of State.  It was super cool because inside there were a lot of historic papers.  We even got to see the real Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln!  Her speech was very nice although it was a little weird looking up at the stage thinking this is my cousin and not someone I do not know.  Overall the whole experience was great and the meal was very good. I cannot wait to go to Laos to see my Cousin Rena again and try more amazing food there! 
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A Magical Trip to Disney World

2/28/2016

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Lunch at Be Our Guest
During February break my family went to Disney.  I know a lot of people might think Disney is only a great amusement park, and it is, but the food is equally as awesome.  So, in the next few paragraphs I will tell you my top four restaurants and the top two snacks that I had.

The first restaurant I loved was one that we went there on our first and third nights there.  This place is called Boma and it is an African themed buffet that has soups, stews, and sliced meat.  Some of my favorite things there were the sliced meats and the bread pudding.  I really enjoyed the sliced steak because it was cooked well. It was a little chewy, but that gave it nice flavor, and it was seasoned perfectly.  Another one of the sliced meats was the pork shoulder. I really liked this meat because it was soft, and I particularly like softer pork.  The bread pudding was the best dessert ever.  If I ever went back it would definitely, no doubt, be on my list to have again.  It was served warm with chocolate, vanilla, and banana flavors and was a nice way to end a meal in my opinion especially being in an airport and plane for most of the day.

The next restaurant I would be delighted to talk about is called Sanaa and it is an Indian fusion restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  The #1 thing we had there was the bread platter.  The bread platter was a couple of different types of naan (an Indian flat bread) with twelve different types of sauces put in order from spicy to sweet.  My family split up all the bread up equally, and then we dug in!  The first one I tried was one that was recommended to me by someone was the pickled garlic. I remember it giving heat but not so much that it wasn’t enjoyable.  I think out of all the sauces, that one really stood out to me.  After that, I tried a few more of the sauces that were really good too.

My favorite park in out of the Magic Kingdom parks is Epcot.  I love Epcot because I love going to all of the different countries and trying new, exotic flavors.  When we went to Epcot for dinner, we went to a Moroccan themed restaurant.  As soon as we stepped in, I loved it. There was music, and a belly dancer and all of these yummy smells.  We were seated right next to the dance floor which I really loved.  We ordered two dishes, and both of them were packed with new and interesting flavors. The first dish we got was chicken bastilla. It was like a samosa. It had meat, and it was dipped in powdered sugar so, it was a sweet and savory samosa.  I thought it was pretty good. I guess I just don’t like how the flavors contrasted a little bit, but that is just my opinion.  The next thing we had was beef kabobs with couscous.  I loved the moroccan spices on the beef which gave it really bold flavors and the couscous went well with the beef.  I liked the restaurant and it was also rated as one of the best restaurants in Epcot.

Everybody knows that Magic Kingdom is a magical place but it also has magical food.  Be Our Guest is in a restaurant in the center of Magic Kingdom that is based off of the Beast’s Castle from the movie Beauty and the Beast.  Be Our Guest is the best restaurant in Magic Kingdom and is really hard to get into without a reservation.  We got really lucky and made a reservation for our last day.  When you walked it was huge and it was really beautiful.  When you got in you waited on a line to go to this computer.  Once you got to it, you ordered on its touch screen which foods you wanted.  It game with a drink, an entree, and a dessert.  I got a tuna salad and potato leek soup.  The dining room was a “seat yourself” with huge tables and a sculpture of Beauty and the Beast dancing in the middle.  Your food came on a cart that servers had.  Now let's talk about the food.  My tuna salad was really good. The tuna was very nicely cooked and I really enjoyed the crust on the outside.  My potato leek soup was outstanding!  At first when I ordered it I was a little hesitant, but the potato gave the soup a nice creamy taste, and the leek was very tasty in the soup. For dessert, I had the Master's Cupcake which had grey frosting. Try the grey stuff, it's delicious! Overall, I’m really glad we went there as our last meal and I really did have a magical time.

Even the snacks are special in Disney.  In Magic Kingdom some of you may have heard of an ice cream called the Dole Whip.  It is a pineapple ice cream made in Magic Kingdom, and throughout Disney.  Personally I don’t like tropical flavors but I was ready to give these a shot because Disney is magical after all.  The Dole Whip was amazing! It was creamy with a fruity taste that went well with the cream.  Now that I am back in New York, I am really craving another Dole Whip.
The next special snack is the turkey leg.  It is a giant turkey leg that we got at Magic Kingdom.  It was nice and smoky and had crispy skin. It was so huge that my whole family went through one and we were all pretty full after that. I really enjoyed my time at Disney, and I hope that if you plan to go to Disney, you will go and eat some of the things I have recommended. If you do go, I wish you have as magical a trip as I had.
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Adventures in Vietnam - Part 2: A Trip to the Mekong Delta

4/27/2015

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This is the second blog post about my family’s trip to Vietnam. After we had spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh City, we took a three-hour drive down to the Mekong Delta.  We drove over cool bridges and saw a lot of motorbikes on the drive there. The hotel we stayed at was called The Victoria. It was beautiful. When we got to the hotel, they sat us down and massaged us. While they were massaging us they gave us a fruit drink that tasted like mango. It tasted so good!  After the massage, we went upstairs and changed into our bathing suits to go to the pool.  While at the pool, we ordered shrimp toast and spicy Vietnamese chicken wings.  When the food arrived, we dug in. The shrimp toast was creamy and crunchy at the same time. In America, chicken wings are usually either sweet or spicy but not both at the same time. These were both!

The next morning we ate breakfast and headed out to the dock outside for a tour.  There was a boat there ready to take us to three stops and to give us a tour of the famous floating markets.  The first stop we went to was a noodle factory.  When we got to the first stop, we had to walk down a path to the actual location.  On our way down, we stopped at a stand that sold thin banana pancakes. The pancake was a thin circle made out of bananas in an old fashioned pancake maker. She was outside over a campfire and was flipping it in a colonial looking pancake maker. It looked thin and crunchy.  We saved it for later in case we got hungry.  After a few minutes of walking, we finally got to the noodle factory.  The first step to making noodles was to make a thin batter.  Then you put it on this pan and put a cover over it and flip it from side to side, and then you let it dry and then you shred it in a hand machine to make it into strips which look like pasta.  It seems like an easy task, but it isn't.  The batter was a beige color and in the room there was traditional Vietnamese music playing.  There was a garden in the backyard and dogs in the room.  After watching the workers make noodles, we got back on the boat and headed to the next stop.  

On our way to the floating market my grandma said, “I’m thirsty.”  So, we saw a boat with drinks on it so we hooked our boat with their boat and asked for a drink.  When we asked for the drink they wanted to sell it to all of us.  So, they got closer to the boat and started to put drinks in our faces.  They were there for a couple of minutes, but we were able to get them away from us.  Just when we thought we had escaped another boat hooked onto us and wanted to give us all sorts of things, and put them in our face to try to get us to buy it.  We finally got away and got to see the amazing view of all of the boats in the floating market selling fruit.  Some families lived on the boats and others had a house on land.  Each boat was pouring with amazing fruit.  That was the ripest I’ve ever seen fruit.  There were some fruits I’ve never heard of.  It was an amazing sight.

Once we passed the floating market, we were getting close to our next stop -- the fruit orchard.  When we got to the fruit orchard, we went inside.  Inside they were selling jewelry and drinks. My mom and I went over to the jewelry table and looked at the options. There were really pretty necklaces, and bracelets, and these cool hair things.  We decided to get the hair thing and a bracelet for my cousin.  The orchard had tons of exotic fruit.  While we were walking, we got to feed the fish.  When we fed them they would stick out there heads and gobble it up.  The orchards didn't just have fruit and fish, it also had flowers.  We learned that you can tell if a dragon fruit is red or white inside.  You can tell it’s red when the tips of the leaves are red.  We were nearing the end of the orchard when we saw this bridge and our tour guide said we can go on it.   So, I went on the bridge.  I had flip flops on and I was playing with them on the bridge. Suddenly, my flip flop fell into the swamp below, which was not good.  We had to get a huge stick to fish it out of the swamp.  Plus, my grandma was on the bridge pushing it to the shore.  Meanwhile, my mom and I were cracking up.  We finally got it out of the water and it felt good to put it on.  When we ended our tour, we got to pick out a few fruits to try.  We had mango, dragon fruit, milk apple, pineapple, and jackfruit.  My favorite fruit was the dragon fruit.  After everyone finished we got back on the boat and headed to our last stop the rice factory.

When we got to the rice factory, we got to see the different types of rice.  The factory was big and had tons of machines, but no one was in there besides us.  The rice was all different colors and sizes and there was enough rice for a lifetime. After we finished with the rice factory we headed back to the hotel where we got our stuff and went back to Ho Chi Minh City.  My next Vietnam post will be about the cooking school we went to in Hoi An.
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Adventures in Vietnam - Part 1: A crazy night in Saigon!

2/3/2015

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After a long plane ride from New York, with a stop at Tokyo in between, we got to Vietnam for a two-week vacation. Our cousin Rena was there at the airport waiting for us.  We got in her car and drove to the hotel.  We talked over what we were doing on the trip.  The first thing we would do the next night would be going on a food tour in Ho Chi Minh City on motorbikes. Ho Chi Minh City used to be called Saigon, but only the people in Vietnam still call it Saigon. In Vietnam, the population of motorbikes is higher than cars.  If you look out on the streets, you’re most likely to see a few cabs and a lot of motorbikes.  The people said if you leave a car lying around somewhere it won’t get stolen because most people don’t know how to drive a car!

So the next night, we went into the lobby of the hotel and there were two girls waiting for us. They said hello and hugged us.  They were two of our drivers/tour guides. Then we went outside and met the other two girls.  My driver was named Isabel. We are still in touch and are BFF (Best Friends Forever).  We headed off to the first stop.  When we got there, another group of tourists were already there.  We took our seats and the leader Anh said, “The first dish of the night is called Bun Bo Hue.”  Bun Bo Hue is a Vietnamese soup that you can only get in Vietnam. The main ingredient is lemongrass.  Lemongrass is very strong, so when you take a bite of the soup you get a very powerful taste.  In Bun Bo Hue, the main ingredients are rice vermicelli and lemongrass.  The other ingredients are beef, fermented shrimp sauce, and fish balls. You could also add bean sprouts to make it crunchy, fish sauce to make it salty, or hot peppers to make it hotter.  After we ate our soup, we got back on our motorbikes and headed to the next restaurant.  At that point it was raining, so they gave us ponchos. We drove through Chinatown on a narrow road through a market.  It felt weird driving so close to the people and live animals there. After driving through Chinatown, we drove a little bit more and got to our second restaurant.  The first dish was goat breast and our drivers cooked it over a grill.  The goat breast was very tender and the sauce on it made it a pale yellow. I was a little bit nervous to try it, but I liked it. The next dish was stir-fried squid, which was just like I’ve had at home.  We tried to get my little brother to eat it, but he said “No way!”  The third dish was fresh, local shrimp that was caught that morning!  It was the best shrimp I have ever had. It was tender and it tasted so fresh. They were really big shrimp too! I took the head off the shrimp and dipped it in chili salt. Mmmm!  It tasted delicious! I didn’t eat the whole head, I just sucked the meat and juices.  The fourth dish was frog legs. Hold it right there.  You know how people say that frog legs taste like chicken? Well they do.  I took one bite and declared, “This tastes like chicken!”

While we were there, we played a game with our drivers that involved chopsticks. We were going to find out who the chopstick champion was! The goal was to get six peanuts into a water bottle before the other person did. The drivers picked up the peanut and placed it onto our chopsticks, which we would put over the water bottle, and then open up so that the peanut fell in. My mom and dad went first. My dad won. Then me and my brother played. He said he won, but I think I won. My mom beat my grandma too. In the end, everyone got a “Chopstick Champion” pin.

Then we headed off to our next stop.  On our way to the next stop, my grandma yelled out to me on her bike.  She said, “At the next stop they are going to serve baby duck embryo!” Before getting to the third stop, we met a Vietnamese Santa Claus and he gave us homemade candies. When we got to the next stop, the baby duck egg wasn't first. The first dish was roasted quail.  To be honest, I didn’t like the quail.  The next dish I liked more  The next dish I had was scallops served in a seashell with peanuts and spring onion oil on top which was good.  The last dish, I had was baby duck embryo. They call it balut and it is a dish in Asia that many people eat.  They came out with two versions of it. One was a seasoned kind with tamarind and herbs and the other was just an egg in a cup. I knew the egg was tougher to eat, so I challenged my dad to do this because he’ll eat whatever I’ll eat so I picked the egg.  If you notice in the video, he has beads of sweat coming down his face.  They cracked the egg open for us. Inside, it looked like a weird baby duck forming. They told us there were three steps. First, we had to drink the water from the egg. Then we ate the yolk and then the baby duck. Just to tell you, my dad was freaked out the whole time and complaining that his egg had more baby duck than mine! My mom took some video so you can see how freaked out he was. 
At the end of the night, our drivers took us back to our hotel. We had a great time. The name of the tour company was XO Tours and if you are ever in Vietnam, you should definitely take the tour and eat balut! Please keep up with my next few posts to hear about the rest of our adventures in Vietnam.
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24 hours in Tokyo

1/19/2015

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Sushi in Tokyo!
This year for the holidays, we decided to go to Vietnam to visit our cousin Rena.  There is no direct way to get to Vietnam, so we stopped in Tokyo for an exciting 24 hours.  When we got there, we checked in to go on a bus to take us to the hotel and then we went to explore the airport.  There will all kinds of stores and the stores were so different than what we have at home. We got back just in time for the bus. Outside, the air in Tokyo smelled like birthday cake just after being blown out. On the bus we all took naps because we had a long plane ride and it was dark.  When we arrived at the hotel it was already 8:00pm and we were all tired and hungry.  We went to our room and dropped our stuff off and went to dinner.  We went down stairs to a buffet and waited in line but when they got to us they said we couldn’t go in.  Which wasn’t cool.  So we went to a barbecue restaurant instead.


We were excited because it meant we got to try Kobe beef.  Kobe beef is a special type of beef that comes from Japan.  The cows get fed with better grains so it tastes so much better. The next morning we took a tour of Tokyo. First we went to the Tokyo Tower. Then we went to the Emperor's palace and then we went to a Buddhist Temple.  Then we went back to the airport. checked in, and went through security but we still had time to eat.  So we went to have sushi. Like seriously if you come to Japan you have to have sushi.  So we went in to the restaurant and went to an open table then the waitress came to our table.  I got an assorted sushi platter.  It had a tuna roll and some things that you’d get in the U.S.A.  One difference is that the sushi in Tokyo tasted much fresher than sushi in the U.S.A. Also sometimes sushi here can be soggier and chewier than sushi in Tokyo.  I also tried some of my dad’s sushi which had fish that you can only get in Japan.  Some of it was interesting and some of the weirder pieces I didn’t like.


Two weeks later we were back in Tokyo on our way home.  If you go to Tokyo, you can get sushi but you also have to get ramen.  Ramen is a japanese noodle soup. It usually has a soy sauce base broth, a miso base broth, or a broth made from pork bones.  Ramen is called ramen because of the noodles that are in it which are called ramen noodles.  In the soup there is ramen noodles scallions, assorted meats, and bamboo.  In Japan, It usually comes with potstickers and rice.  I have had lots of ramen at home but the ramen in Japan was the best I’ve had so far. The broth really stood out. I’ve always wanted to go to Tokyo and now that I can say I’ve had sushi there and lived to tell the tale. My next few posts will be about our trip to Vietnam. Come back to read about it!
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    My name is Jordan. I am a 12th grader and I love food!

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