Earlier this month it was Westchester Wine & Food Weekend and there was an event they created for kids to cook with chefs in the kitchen at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in White Plains. It was their first time doing this event. For my birthday, my dad signed me up for it. When we got there, I have to admit, I was a little nervous. Then we went down to the kitchens (there were two) and they split us up into two groups. When we walked into the kitchen, there were aprons, chef hats, and a bottle of water for each of us. They said one group was going to make the gnocchi and the other group was going to make the tomato sauce. I was in the tomato sauce group. At first, I wasn't that thrilled to be in the tomato sauce group. Along the way, it got better. I actually know how to make gnocchi so I'm going to tell you about that first.

So to make gnocchi, first you get three pounds of russet potatoes. Then you have to boil them and then mash them. They (the chefs) did that beforehand for us. We put it in a big bowl with two cups of all-purpose flour and one pinch of salt. In another bowl, we put an extra large egg and canola oil. Then we rolled it into a big worm shape and cut it into little square pieces. After that, we put it into boiling water. When they floated to the top, we took them out and put them into an ice bath. Last, we put them on a platter with plastic wrap over it and put some canola oil on the gnocchi.

My group though made the tomato sauce. First we peeled Roma tomatoes and took the seeds out. Then we put the tomatoes into a pan with some olive oil. Then we added a cup of shallots (which are like mini-onions) and a quarter cup of garlic. We then let it sit for five minutes. Then we put in tomato paste and stirred it. We then blended it. I didn't tell you the whole recipe though so don't try it at home. When I tried it, it was the most delicious pasta and sauce I've ever tasted.

Other people should send their kids here next year because then they will have their kids be able to help them cook. The best part was eating the gnocchi. It was really soft and light. I asked the chefs questions (like how to know when to take the gnocchi out) and had fun talking to the other students too!

Recently, we went to The Parlor because my mom was running a half marathon and she wanted carbs before the race. The Parlor is a pizza place in Dobbs Ferry. It's a very unique pizza place because the pizza is made in a wood fire oven. We were sitting at a wooden table so if felt like a picnic. Next to the oven, they were projecting a movie onto the wall which was cool because usually it is on a screen. Another cool thing about The Parlor is that you get to cut your own pizzas with scissors that they give you instead of having them cut the pizza for you. Before we had pizzas, we had two appetizers. We had a brussels sprout salad that had fried brussels sprouts, rice krispies, chili honey, and parmigiano in it. It was crunchy because of the brussels sprouts and the rice krispies. I didn't even know it had parmigiano in it. All those those ingredients together taste heavenly. Next we had...wait for it....wait for it...wood fired oysters! The oysters were smeared with brown butter and had lemon and pickled parsley on top. When I had the oyster, the lemon and parsley hit my mouth and the brown butter was awesome + awesome = totally awesome (I'm a math and food expert). For the entrees, we had three pizzas. First we had the special which was an "After Easter" egg-sausage pizza. Let's talk about this pizza - it was yolky from the egg which made it taste like breakfast. The sausage was beyond good. The crust, I can't even begin to explain. It's crunchy because it's wood fired. Awesomely fantastic. It was my favorite one. Next we had a ramps pizza. Ramps are just like spinach but garlicky. I thought it was OK. The ramps were good but I didn't like the cheese that was on it. The last pizza we had was a margarita pizza with meatballs on it which was delicious. The meatballs were nice and soft. Last, we had dessert. My dad and I shared a salted caramel panna cotta with a bacon crumble on top. It was really good. The caramel was creamy and the bacon crumble was delicious. It was a good experience and I want to go again!

We recently went to an Indian restaurant because my grandmother was in town. At first, I didn't want to have Indian food because I wasn't in the mood for it. My parents were trying to convince me to have it. The restaurant was named Chutney Masala and it is located in Irvington. Usually waiters bring out bread but this time they brought out Indian crackers called papadums. A papadum is a cracker that has Indian spices in it including cumin. After I tried the papadum, I was in a better mood. A little while after we ordered our drinks, we got mango lassis. A lassi is a yogurt drink and this one had mangoes in it. People drink this because there is a lot of spicy Indian food so drinking lassis helps cool it down. While we were enjoying the lassis, my dad ordered the appetizers. He ordered bhaji and samosas. A bhaji is a fritter with vegetables and it looks like a latke. It was really spicy. Luckily, I had my lassi. The samosa is kind of like a sambusa, the one that I had when I went to the Ethiopian restaurant, except with peas and potatoes and a spicy sauce. For entrees, we had bhuna shrimp which is fried shrimp with garam masala, an Indian spice blend. We also had aloo gobi matar which is cauliflower, potatoes, and peas. There were turkey meatballs with saffron sauce. For side dishes we had dal makhani which is lentils and chana masala which is chickpeas with tomato and ginger. The last dish we had was my favorite one, chicken tikka masala. It is simple but adventurous. This restaurant was different from other Indian restaurants I have tried. There were pictures of India all over the walls. Overall, it was a good experience.

On the last night of Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, my family decided to try one more restaurant before it ended. We went to one of our favorite restaurants in town called Cafe of Love. The owner's name is Leslie Lampert. She happens to also be the owner of our favorite local soup place called Ladle of Love. Now it's time for me to talk about the food. For the appetizer, I had a potato-crusted crab cake. The crab was perfect and the potato crust was crunchy so it went well with the crab. After I had my crab cake. I tried the soup my mom ordered. It was a Moroccan tomato bisque. Everyone was trying to guess what was in it. I guessed cumin and I was right! Next for the entree, I had the oven-fried chicken. It came with a kale-radicchio-brussels sprout slaw and curry sweet potato fries. The chicken was crunchy but they baked it in an oven. It was crisp even though it wasn't fried which is amazing. The sweet potato fries had curry which made them taste interesting. We also ordered a side of truffled chick peas and a side of brussels sprouts. The chick peas were SO GOOD! They were crunchy and I could taste the truffle oil on them. The brussels sprouts were sauteed which made them taste great. My parents said the meatballs there are amazing but we didn't want to order too much food. Last, for dessert I had the signature almond crossaint bread pudding. It had just the right amount of sugar that it needed. I could taste the nutty almonds. I would recommend going there, Restaurant Week or not, because they have amazing food and dining. Maybe you can fall in love with someone because it's called Cafe of Love!

Last week, my family went out for a normal dinner. Or was it? It was Hudson Valley Restaurant Week! Restaurant Week is when restaurants have lower prices for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. We went to Crabtree Kittle House in Chappaqua. The restaurant was in an old white house that looked like a church. It is probably one of the fanciest places in Westchester. When we walked in, we found our seats at a table near the window. When I looked at the Restaurant Week menu, I knew what I wanted to order. But before the food came, the waiter brought out an amuse bouche. That is a little dish that you get for free. It's only meant to be one bite like on The Taste. It was actually in a spoon just like on the show. It was a potato foam with bacon. I didn't really like it because the bacon didn't really go well with the foamy potatoes. For the appetizer, I ordered Corn and Peeky Toe Crab Chowder with truffled crab salad. It was creamy and I could really taste the crab. For the entree, I had grilled skirt steak with braised spinach and roasted hudson valley peanut potatoes. They were called peanut potatoes because they were almost the size of peanuts. The steak was juicy and tender and had a thin crust on the outside which made it crunchy. I like crunchy. The spinach didn't taste like regular spinach. It tasted creamy. For dessert, I had a wiggly, jiggly chocolate-banana panna cotta. I like panna cotta and this one was really chocolatey. I like chocolate but not too much chocolate. The banana in it made me feel relaxed. There was also a pastry on the plate that was almost like a churro. I had a really good experience here. I would go back for Restaurant Week.

On Sunday, my mom and I went for a jog. After our jog was over, we were hungry so we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Little Crepe Street. When we got there, they took our order right away (but first, we ordered our drinks). My mom had water and I had lemonade. The cups were ready cool. They were mason jars. For our entrees, we had a fresh chicken tortilla soup with avocado and we also had a chicken tikka masala crepe. There were two spices in the crepe, sage and curry. There were probably more spices but those are the ones I found. Last for dessert, we had two different ice creams. The first ice cream was a salted caramel ice cream. Then there was a vanilla bean ice cream with some fig but we couldn't taste the fig though. Little Crepe Street is attached to two other restaurants: Little Spice Bazaar and Little Kabab Station. You can go to these places in Mount Kisco. I hope you can go there!

On a lazy Friday, my family decided to go with our best friends, the Wills, to our favorite restaurant Lalibela (it's an Ethiopian restaurant). They have a menu for kids if they don't like the food. So while my brother and my friends are eating chicken nuggets, I have the real food. Before we get our main dish, we have sambusas. Sambusas are pastries that either have beef or lentils in them. They are very soft and crunchy. Then when our food comes out, it smells like destiny. It smells so good that we are dying to eat it! We got...wait for it..the Taste of Lalibela with lamb, beef, chicken, an egg, and vegetables. It has a kick to it. They use these spices to pump up the dish, berbere and mitmita. They spice things up. The vegetables are scrumptious cabbage, carrots, and green beans. It also comes with lentils. With Ethiopian food, you don't use a fork. You get injera bread. It's a very spongey bread. You tear little pieces of bread off and use it to grab the food. That's how you eat the food! The next time you want to brighten things up, go to Lalibela in Mount Kisco. It's the only Ethiopian restaurant in Westchester and I'm glad to have it near my house.

On Saturday, January 18th, my family thought it would be a good idea to drive up to Peekskill for some ramen at RameNesque. Ramen is a big bowl of soup. It has noodles, meat, scallions, corn, fish cake, and a soy sauce egg. Before we got our ramen, we ordered veggie dumplings and beef sushi. I didn't even think beef sushi was a real thing. It tasted like crunchy, soft beef with avocado and cucumber. My little brother doesn't like sushi but he loved trying the beef sushi. When we got our ramen, I was really hungry. The flavors in the ramen were intense. The broth was nice and salty, the chicken was tender, and it just went well together. The noodles were squiggly and grainy. I was surprised that one big bowl of soup can fill me up. I asked the waiter if the noodles were homemade. She said everything was handmade except the noodles because it is hard to make. She said the noodle machine was too expensive. RameNesque is a good restaurant that you should definitely check out.

On Thursday night, me and my dad went to a pop-up restaurant in Irvington. My dad heard that Chef Eric Korn was having a Mexican pop-up restaurant named Restaurant Maize and he wanted to go with me. It was amazing! I expected a lot of different things. So I was really surprised about what Chef Eric gave us. I expected tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and rice but it was better.

When we walked inside, it looked magical with all the pretty lights and the way the tables looked fancy. When we walked in, Katie the hostess sat us at the Chef's Table next to Lisa Wexler. She is a radio host at WFAS. She was very nice and she made lots of observations about the food with me. The Chef's Table was at the counter where all of the bloggers and radio people sit. It felt very special sitting there asking Chef Eric questions and watching them make the dishes. It was very inspiring sitting at the Chef's Table. There were seven courses. They had a lot of mixed flavors. We had pozole, fish tacos, duck mole, chili marinated steak, ribs, a pan roasted snapper and a dessert platter. Here let me tell you about some of the dishes.

Our first course was the pozole. There was roasted pork and hominy in a stew. The hominy was hard and grainy.The stew had Mexican and chili flavors and the lime gave it a citrus flavor. It was a dark brown. Our second course was a fish taco. There was a masa cracker, snapper, avocado, pickles, and a lime. It was a bit sour because of the pickles and the lime. The cracker was made with masa and water. It was very crunchy. The snapper was very tender and had a fried texture to it. It was very colorful with the sauces around it.

Then for the entrees, my favorite was the duck mole. There was duck and it had a corn pudding and there was rainbow chard too. Then Chef Eric gave us a bowl of crispy mushrooms and pumpkin seeds. The duck was tender and it was rare. The corn was creamy and it was really sweet. I don't like sweet but that was insane. The rainbow chard was very colorful but it still tasted like swiss chard, After we had the duck mole, we had a dessert platter and that was really yummy. I loved the panna cotta!

This was a very good experience and I would like to go to another pop-up restaurant. The experience was special because you are never going to go there again so you have to make the best of it.
 

On Saturday, my family joined two other families to go to NEO World Bistro for dinner, the Mohrs and the Justianos. We go to NEO for my birthday and other occasions. One day my dad said instead of getting sushi, try the Bibimbap. I used to just have some of his Bibimbap. Bibimbap comes in a big stone bowl, which has been heated in an oven to get super hot. It has cabbage, carrots, eggs, rice, and seaweed. You can pick different meats like shrimp, beef, rib eye, and chicken. I get beef. There are two different sauces. One is a sweet and flavorful sauce. The other is a spicy sauce. I like to put both sauces in my bowl. My friends ordered sushi, but when they saw I was eating Bibimbap, they wanted it too! Now they are thinking about getting it next time. My four-year old brother eats his own whole bowl of Bibimbap.