Blog Posts

History and Tradition: A Night on Broadway

1/29/2017

I don’t know about you guys but I can literally not stop singing Hamilton songs. They are too good! It is so hard to get tickets to it because they are really expensive and they sell out really easily. Lucky for me though, my dad got tickets to see it last year for this January!

In the 1920s, people went to Broadway shows and then after they got out they would go to Sardi’s, a restaurant near Times Square. It was a tradition, and now everyone says that every New Yorker should go there before or after a Broadway show at some point. So, that is just what we did. We went to Sardi's for dinner before Hamilton.

When we got there, on the walls were pictures of famous people who have been there. Actors, actresses, and politicians were all up on the wall. The best one in my opinion was Lin Manuel Miranda in the front of the restaurant. For those of you who do not know who Lin Manuel Miranda is, he created Hamilton and played him. Besides the picture it looked like the restaurant was right out of the twenties which I loved.

I just got a burger which was good, but it was a burger. I think the thing that was really special was just to be there and sit where hundreds of stars have been.
Hamilton was amazing. It was everything you would imagine and more. It was funny, sad, and happy all at the same time. Also it teaches you about the history of our founding fathers. Now, go online and buy Hamilton tickets, and if you get them stop by Sardi’s for a quick bite before the show.

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The Great Big Challah Bake

12/4/2016

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What better way to spend your Thursday night than baking challah all night long? Nothing! I got a chance to bake challah with my grandma at an event called The Great Challah Bake at her temple. My aunt Samantha and my grandma’s best friend also came too. When we got to the temple we went into a tent where we got bags that had challah recipes on them, a stress toy, and an apron. Then we walked into the main room where we were going to actually prepare our challah. We got a huge plastic bowl, measuring cups, a huge spoon, flour, sugar, and yeast packets. There were also ingredients on the table that everyone shared. Before we started to bake we watched a video that teaches us about the Shabbat Project which helps people around the world to celebrate Shabbat. If you do not know what Shabbat is, it is a holiday that we celebrate Friday evening to Saturday evening it celebrates the day God rested after he made all of the living things. The organization helps people everywhere celebrate Shabbat. After the video we started to make the challah! We got a placemat where there was the recipe and added in the ingredients. We mixed it with the big spoon and then got to knead it with our hands which was my favorite part. The dough was a little dry so we added some water and it felt nice between my fingers. After we kneaded it, we had to let the dough rise a little from the warm air, so while we let it rise we went and did the horah. The horah is a traditional jewish dance that you usually dance at a bar/bat mitzvah or at a jewish wedding, but today we did it while our challah was rising. It was very fun and I almost forgot we were baking challah. Once we finished dancing we braided the challah it was difficult for me, but I managed to do a three braid, and a four braid I was super proud of myself. After we finished braiding and helping other people braid we cleaned up and managed to get a few extra bowls. I had a super fun time and really want to do it next year.

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Celebrating "Dia de los Muertos" at Dirt Candy

11/7/2016

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The day after Halloween is a tough day. We are all tired from last night's trick or treating, and we need to rest. You may think that, but what we really need to do is party! We have to celebrate a holiday called Dia de los Muertos, otherwise known as Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that celebrates, and honors relatives that have died. A lot of people on this holiday make altars, and offer bread and flowers to welcome the spirits into their homes. People dress up and share food with neighbors and paint their faces like a skull. People often try to feel the presence of their loved ones. This holiday lasts for two days: November 1st and 2nd.

Now you might be wondering, what does this have to do with food. Well, for Day of the Dead, my dad took me out to a special dinner at Dirt Candy where we had a special Day of the Dead themed dinner. This was a special event so you had to get a special ticket for an eight course meal. Dirt Candy is a vegetarian restaurant owned, and run by Chef Amanda Cohen.

The first course we had was a corn brioche with elote butter. The brioche was a warm, spongy bread that had a slight taste of lemon zest in it. The elote butter was a creme fresca, with cilantro oil in it. It did give off a little tang but it was nice. The butter was creamy and light. The warm spongy bread with the light creamy elote butter went great together.

The next course was beet tacos. The dish was a beet infused taco, and in it was creamy chipotle, salt roasted beets, and purple cabbage. I honestly thought that I was not going to like the dish but it was really tasty. The dish was crunchy, soft, and spicy. It was like a party in my mouth.

This third course was my favorite. The dish was tostilocos with chipotle, jalapeño, and orange jicama sauce. I am not kidding when I say this the only thing that was wrong with the dish was that there was not enough sauce! My dad and I cleaned the plate. The flavors in this dish popped. It was spicy, crunchy, smooth, and the pickles on the dish made it stand out. I thought that the chipotle and the jalepeño were really spicy but that the orange jicama sort of cooled it down. That was the end of the appetizers.

The first entree was a pumpkin ceviche. Well, if you do not know what ceviche is, it is usually a fish appetizer that is made of raw fish and has lime juice on it. So, now you can probably guess what this dish was. It was raw pumpkin with avocado and lime juice. There were sunflower seeds on it with some fresh herbs. The pumpkin was cut like a carpaccio and was very smooth and thin. When I had it, I could taste a hint of olive oil, and it was seasoned very nicely. I got salt and pepper with a bit of lime or lemon juice on it. Simple but tasty. I also want to say that I really liked the sunflower seeds. It gave it that balance of crunchy and soft.

The next dish was a sweet pea enchilada. An enchilada to me is like a burrito, but cut into slices, so this one was no different but I liked it a lot. It had a very soft outside and a more crunchy inside. It was also a little bit sweet and a little bit sour. There were also different sauces on the plate that I dipped peas into and it was really good. I especially liked the sour cream and hummus. This was a fun dish that I enjoyed, and would love to come back for more.

This third dish was called Pepper. It was not exactly pepper though. It was beans in a little skillet with pepper “life savers” all around it which I thought was clever. The beans were in a sauce that was a five pepper sauce. This dish, specifically the sauce, reminded me of oyster sauce and was very smooth. I also thought that the salad with the beans and the sauce was stupendous. I know I said the “life savers” were clever, but they were also really fun to eat. Overall, I thought this dish was the most fun dish with the “life savers” and the tiny skillet.

Now, this last dish was my favorite entree, and my third favorite after the tostilocos and the pumpkin semifreddo that you can read about in my next paragraph. It was the brussels sprout tacos! The dish was a “make your own” taco which I love when we have taco night at my house. So, the layout was the brussels sprouts were on a really hot plate that you could not touch like a bibimbap bowl. To the side of the brussels sprouts were lettuce leaves they were the shell. Then, the rest of the plate had toppings on it; creme, radish, sour cream, crunchy corn sticks...etc. I went all out. I took the lettuce leaf put brussel sprouts and all of the toppings on it. The taco was delicious. It was smooth, spicy, and creamy. The brussels sprouts were packed with a nice kick, that made me want to eat them all day long. Just typing this paragraph makes my mouth water. Before my dad and I went to Dirt Candy he kept saying how much he loved the brussels sprout tacos, so I waited all night long for them and it was well worth it.

Last, but certainly not least was dessert. It was a pumpkin semifreddo pie with mango and chili. The semifreddo was like a frozen pumpkin pie with a slab of crust under it which gave it a cool hip style. I tasted like pumpkin ice cream and the mango and chili was a nice compliment with the pumpkin. The crust was so good it was hard and flaky just the way I like it. With the semifreddo we also had a mexican hot chocolate that we shared. It was very heavy with a little bit of paprika in it and not watery at all. It was perfect.

Overall I had a wonderful meal and would love to come back to Dirt Candy with my whole family including the new addition, Josie.

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Halloween Treats

10/30/2016

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Halloween is a super fun holiday especially when you make treats. But when you cannot have treats because of allergies, that is not fun. My brother has a tree nut allergy and cannot have the treats his class brings in because it risks him having an allergic reaction. So I decided to make him treats that he can have and share with his class! I was going to make him mummy Rice Krispie treats and if you have an allergy to peanuts or tree nuts this is a good recipe for you.

I started off by melting three tablespoons of butter on low heat. I stirred them until they melted completely and then added a bag of mini marshmallows along with some rainbow sprinkles to add some color. You want to keep stirring until it is completely melted before adding six cups of Rice Krispies. Then, you want to keep folding the mixture until the marshmallows look like they are stretching the Rice Krispies. After it looks like cobwebs, turn off the stove. Then get a pan and spray it with cooking spray. Slowly start pouring the mixture into the pan. You want them to cool so put them in the fridge for fifteen minutes. When you take them out of the fridge, you want to put parchment paper over a cutting board. Then, you want to flip the pan onto the board and tap it a few times. Lift the pan, and it should have come out nice and clean. You next want to cut the treats into even squares. Heat up a bowl of chocolate until it is silky smooth. After you heat up the chocolate, you want to take a knife and spread the chocolate on one side of the Rice Krispie treats. To add the finishing touch, cut a mini twizzler in half and stick the two pieces on the treat to make creepy eyes! Keep repeating until you have finished all of them. I hope you will use this recipe and enjoy it just as my family did. Happy Halloween!!!!!

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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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Anniversary Hot Dogs & Milkshakes

9/24/2016

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What is better than going out for your parent’s anniversary and getting a hot dog, fries, and a milkshake? Going out to get a Black Tap milkshake, with a Walter’s hot dog, and potato puffs is better than that!.

Walter’s Hot Dogs is located in Mamaroneck and, in my opinion, has the best hot dogs you will ever taste. They are split down the middle and charred with a grilled bun. They also are famous for these tiny fried mashed potato balls that are addictive. Black Tap is located in New York City and have these huge amazing milkshakes that are to die for. They are not super heavy, but they are light, creamy, and airy. For one weekend only, they decided to do a little swap. Walter’s was going to sell Black Tap milkshakes and Black Tap was going to sell Walter’s hot dogs. So, obviously my family was going to go to Walter’s and to make it even better we were going on my parents wedding anniversary.

Walter’s is unlike any hot dog stand you’ve ever seen. It looks just like a pagoda. A pagoda is a South Asian temple, that is used to to keep remains of saints, and kings. Even though Walter’s was selling the milkshakes they were also still selling their famous hot dogs. So, when we went we got four hot dogs, two orders of potato puffs, and two milkshakes. We got two because my family of four was not going to drink those huge milkshakes all by themselves.

The first time you bite into a Walter’s hot dog, something is born in your body that hasn’t been there before: the need to go here every weekend. When you bite in the hot dog, you notice a couple of things that make them unique. First, most hot dogs aren’t split. Splitting them makes them get a char inside and outside which makes them crunchy. Also they are not all beef. They are half pork, half veal. I love that it has that nice char and they get so much flavor from the veal and the pork. Next, the potato puffs were perfect. The outside was a crispy fried shell and the inside potato was so soft. The very last thing is the milkshakes. The thing that I really liked about their milkshakes was that they didn’t fill you up so much, and it was very silky and not really heavy. It was a good shake but I just wanted to taste a little bit more of the oreo in the shake. Everything else about it was really good, especially the frosting. Overall it was a really satisfying meal, and I hope to go there again soon!

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Finding a Barbecue Dessert

6/13/2016

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What better way to kick off summer than a barbecue! Well, personally, I love barbecues, playing, and eating delicious food.....especially the food. So, that is exactly what my family did. We went to our friend's (the Braunings) house for a delicious and fun barbecue. My family wanted to bring something we had never made before so we made a chocolate mousse. We started by separating egg yolks which you get when you crack the eggs you sort of toss the yolk back and forth between the egg shells so you can get all of the egg whites. Then you are just left with the yolks. We did that 11 more times and put them in our Kitchen Aid mixer and whisked them until we saw the peaks rise. After that we put whipping cream in a small pot and put it on simmer. When it started bubbling, we put that into the the egg mixture until it was all mixed. Then we put that mixture back into the the pot and put it on simmer again and then mixed in chocolate chips (Ghirardelli) and kept mixing it until all the lumps are gone. We put the mixture into a bowl and then put plastic wrap over it and put it into the fridge for two hours. While that was freezing, we started to make our whipped cream. Before we started, we the whipped cream, we put a stainless steel Kitchen Aid bowl into the freezer for about 15 minutes. The amount of whipping cream you put into it depends on how much whipped cream you want to make. We put in a lot since we were going to a pretty big barbecue. We used a setting of about six on the mixer. It took a little bit for the whipping cream to start to look creamy so when you do it, do not get frustrated if it doesn’t get creamy. When it starts to get creamy add in about three cups of sugar. Then we started it back up on the mixer at about a setting of four so it isn’t too creamy. Then we put that back in the refrigerator. When the time was up, we folded half of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture and the other half we saved to put onto the chocolate mousse.

My favorite thing that I had to eat at the barbecue was the corn they made. Corn is good on the grill, which I personally think is the best way to make it, but it is even better how the Braunings made it. The first thing you do is put this really good cheese sauce on it and then roll it in this really good Mexican Cheese. Then you are done! It might not sound good, but it is amazing! Then we had the Chocolate Mousse. The first thing I have to say about it is that it is very rich so, I would not have seconds of it because it might make you a little queasy. Although it is really good I would totally make it again, and it was super chocolaty and the whipped cream on it was very delicious. I was so glad to make something different, and know that it is good to make it again.

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Everything Bagel Donuts?!?!

4/10/2016

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Most of you have probably already heard of the new musical called Hamilton. Well my parents went to see it, and when they went they picked up a donuts from an amazing place called The Doughnut Project. My dad bought a box for us to try and in it was a donut that everyone has been talking about called the Everything Bagel Donut. I know that you guys might be thinking that it was not going to taste too good. Well, that went through my mind also when I heard about it.

The first piece of donut I tried was the salted caramel chocolate donut with buttered pretzel on it. You know that was the one that looked like it would be my favorite but, to be honest, it was not my favorite, and here is why. When I took a bite of it the donut tasted exactly like a chocolate donut with crunchy stuff on top. I thought it was more of a plain jane donut that did not really stick out but, it was still pretty good. That is really what I thought about it overall.

The next donut I tried was my favorite. Believe it or not, It was the everything bagel donut with sweet cream cheese glaze. Even though I was hesitant, I thought that the cream cheese was not overwhelmingly sweet but, it was just enough to go along with the everything bagel flavored topping. I thought the bagel donut stood out and you would not find that at every donut shop you went to. To be honest, it was the exact opposite of the first donut.

Next was a very interesting donut, and that is part of the reason why I really enjoyed it so much. It was a long donut that had a maple frosting with a piece of bacon going across. It was the perfect combination because bacon, and maple are like, two peas in a pod. The savory bacon gave a nice touch to the sweet maple. Overall I would say the same thing about this donut as I said for the last.

The last donut was a pretty cool donut. It was a PB&J donut. It had a strawberry glaze with a peanut butter filling. I thought it tasted almost identical to a PB&J sandwich, and I really liked that they did that. I thought that was very creative. Overall I thought it was a really good donut.

The next time you are in NYC and want a sweet snack, swing on by the Doughnut Project and grab a box of these delicious donuts.

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"Treat" Yourself

3/27/2016

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If you have ever eaten Kellogg's Rice Krispies I’m sure you have seen the recipe on the back of the box for Rice Krispie Treats. Well I have when I eat them I always see that recipe. Each time I saw it I got more and more interested in making them. So, finally I decided I’d make them. I got lucky and I found a full box of Rice Krispies, mini marshmallows, and butter. I heated the stove to medium, and in a skillet I melted three tablespoons of butter. When it was fully melted (which takes a little while), I added in the full bag of mini marshmallows, and melted them until they were fully melted, so that it sort of looked like fluff. Then, I added in six cups of Rice Krispies (which is almost the whole bag), and I mixed it all together until it looked like a Rice Krispie treat. If you have ever seen a Rice Krispie treat you will know that the marshmallow sort of clings to the Rice Krispies. That is how it should look. After you do that you turn the stove off and pour it into a tinfoil pan, and press it down to look like a rectangle. Then, you let them cool for about fifteen minutes, and then cut them. Then enjoy!! The next time you have a box of Rice Krispies lying around maybe you can make these easy yummy treats just like I did. Keep checking my blog because, I have been really getting into cooking and baking more so there will be a lot of blog posts coming up on Jordan’s Lunch Box.

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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.