Blog Posts - Jordan's Lunch Box

The New United States Ambassador to Laos

10/26/2016

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!

Anniversary Hot Dogs & Milkshakes

9/24/2016

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!

Finding a Barbecue Dessert

6/13/2016

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.

Everything Bagel Donuts?!?!

4/10/2016

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.

"Treat" Yourself

3/27/2016

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.

A Magical Trip to Disney World

2/28/2016

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.

The Hidden Restaurant

1/31/2016

I’ve been to many dinners at restaurants before but the one that I am writing about is one of the most interesting restaurants I have ever been to. It is called The Bohemian and it is a hidden restaurant and you have to go with a member in order to get into it. It is hidden behind a Japanese butcher’s shop in New York City. You find it by going into a special passageway on the side of the butcher to get to it. My dad is a member so he took me, my mom, and some friends. Since I went, I am a member now too. That is how it works.

The whole restaurant was comfortable and well put together. It had beautiful artwork which added a nice bright touch to the room. One of the artwork pieces I really enjoyed. It had a nice blend of colors that stood out. It looked like it had different textures to it which made it look unique and different. Also, there was a little diorama of this little house made out of stone with real leaves and grass. When we were eating I was thinking what other restaurant has a cute little diorama besides this one. I thought it was very unique. Another thing, that was awesome besides the food and drinks was the tables. While you are eating dinner, you sit on couches and there is a little glass table in front of you. I thought that usually in some restaurants they just have chairs and tables, but this is way more comfortable when you are eating.

The first dish we had was a cheese fondue. The sauce consisted of: cream cheese, garlic, butter, and the special ingredient was anchovies. What they do is they make the sauce, and then in front of you they heat it up in a little bowl. Then, when it is all heated up they come out with a big bowl of vegetables for you to dip in the sauce. The sauce was nice and thick, and had a nice cheesy taste. Not too cheesy, but cheesy enough to get a nice flavor. You really could not taste the anchovies, but I think they put it in there to get the heaviness. The crunchy, cold vegetables just went very well with the hot cheesy sauce, and I thought you had to take a lot of it to really enjoy it as much as I did. If I had to put a sauce on everything, that would definitely be the sauce.

The next dish was a sea urchin croquette. It had a crunchy ball on the outside, and on the inside was mushrooms topped with uni. What you usually do is mash it up together and then eat it which is what we did. It tasted soft, and had a nice balance of mushroom and uni. I am a person who doesn’t like slimy consistencies, so I didn’t really like the uni, but I thought it was a good overall dish. If you go though you should definitely order it.
Next was a mac & cheese. It had six cheeses in it. Two of the cheeses were Gruyere and a spanish blue cheese. Now, usually I do not like blue cheese, but that mac & cheese was so good that I could eat it all day. With the mac & cheese there was toasted bread with a homemade tomato sauce on it. When you put the mac & cheese on the bread, it was so good. You have the oozy good cheese on top of the crunchy bread with a nice, savory tomato sauce. I would totally get that again when I go back.

After that dish was my favorite one. It was a wagyu steak sashimi, with homemade wasabi, pickled radish, and roasted garlic. I really liked how the garlic gave the beef a nice kick while the beef gave out good flavor and nice seasoning. The beef melted a little bit in your mouth. I love when beef melts in your mouth. In my opinion, it really outshined the other dishes.

Next, was the famous and most delightful bacon. This time, it was a different style of bacon. It was double smoked, and under it was creamy mashed potatoes along with toast that had a raisin spread on it. The bacon went surprisingly well with the potatoes. It was a little heavy, but very tender and delicious. I like what they did with the toast. They put raisins on it that melted a little which acted like a jam on the toast. Also, I thought that if you put them all together on the toast it tasted amazing. This dish was my second favorite after the steak sashimi.

This next dish was an interesting miso black cod. It was sweet, but had that sea flavor to it which went nice together. What I thought was interesting was that there was a tiny pickled plum in the dish. It tasted nothing like a plum I thought it tasted more like an olive to be honest, but it was very good. There was also a roasted shisito pepper that was in the dish. It was soft, and a little salty which was a nice combination. I enjoyed that dish overall. I thought it had nice flavor.
We then had branzino. We got two of them, and they were huge, so we split them, and we still had leftover branzino. The branzino was very good it was a little sweet and a little salty. My favorite part was the cheeks because they were the sweetest part of the fish. The vegetables that came with the fish went so well with dish itself. The vegetables were: cauliflower, brussels sprouts, olives, and zucchini. If you had everything on the dish in one bite it would probably be the best bite of your entire life.

The next dish I had I took a bite of because it was very strong, and sweet it was foie gras sushi. The foie gras was on top of the rice, and had a powerful flavor. Usually I don’t enjoy foie gras but this was very good, and the sweetness was sort of shield to the parts I don’t like.

The last entree was a wagyu beef burger. The lettuce gave it a nice little crunch. I like meatier flavors and this one was both sweet and savory. I think I’ve had better burgers though like the ramen burger.

The last dish was a dessert. It was a yuzu panna cotta. I love panna cotta so this was super good. The grapefruit on top
added a nice citrus taste to the yuzu/vanilla base on the bottom. All the citrus flavors combined were awesome it made my mouth tingle. This was a favorite dish of mine. It is making my mouth water writing this paragraph.

All in all, it was a great dinner and I am so excited for the next time we can go. All of the dishes were wonderful, and I hoping to try new dishes, and have old dishes next time.

Mu Ramen

12/14/2015

The day before Thanksgiving, my school had a half day so my dad and I decided to go to the city to get ramen from a place in Queens called Mu Ramen. At Mu Ramen they have a special ramen named Mu Ramen, after the restaurant. This ramen is Jewish deli based, so it has corned beef, pickles, menma, and cabbage. The broth is special because they boil oxtail and bone marrow down for two days to give it that nice flavor.

Before we went to Mu Ramen we went to the winter market in Bryant Park. Usually at a winter market, stores set up little stations with food, gadgets, and jewelry. My dad and I walked around and found Max Brenner’s stand set up, so of course we had to get their delicious Italian hot chocolate. When we got it, I took a nice long sip because I was so thirsty. I have to give it to them they make the best hot chocolate. It is so rich and creamy that it is almost not explainable. As we were drinking our hot chocolates we came upon a mac & cheese stand. I know mac & cheese is a common american food but this mac & cheese was different. It was different because they had this topping that you could put on it that consisted of panko bread crumbs, bacon, and onions. My dad and I got a large to share and we opted to put the topping on it. I’m glad we decided to put the topping on it. The topping made the mac & cheese crunchy, with a little spicy kick and a nice flavor. After it was all gone I wish they would’ve had the size XXL.

Then we headed over to Mu Ramen. When we got there we were early, so we waited a little until it was time to go in ( it opens at 5:30 ). My dad and I decided to sit at the bar to watch them cook. We decided to split an appetizer and get two ramens to share. The final decision was to get the black edamame and that my dad was getting the Mu Ramen and I was getting their special Thanksgiving ramen. So, let's talk about the edamame. The edamame is black because they char the edamame until it is black and charred on the outside. Then they squeeze yuzu juice onto the edamame and then season it with yuzu salt. A yuzu is sort of like a lemon, but with a little more citrus flavor. Trust me it is so much better than regular edamame. It is a little spicy and a little sour from the yuzu juice, and has a nice char taste. It was the best edamame ever.

Now, let's talk about the actual ramen. Just like what I said before, my dad got the Mu ramen, and I got the Thanksgiving ramen. I have to admit I was a little hesitant on getting the Thanksgiving ramen, but when I did get my food I was very glad that I had gotten it. It had a savory taste, and I thought it was a nice thin soup even though other people thought it was creamy. The noodles were nice and thin amd that is personally what I like in noodles. To be honest I didn’t really taste the brussel sprouts in the soup but I liked the turkey confit. Now for my dad’s ramen. I thought the broth was cloudy, but it had a meatier taste, because they boiled down the oxtail, and the bone marrow. The corn beef was, so good it was nice, and fatty it was the bomb. Let’s talk about the pickle I know what you are thinking. “A pickle in a soup!” Well it was actually very good it was warm, and still sour like a regular pickle. I thought it was very good overall, and really enjoyed our soups there, and will be glad to go again.

Thanksgiving Dinner

11/29/2015

For Thanksgiving this year we went to my cousin Rita’s house. They decided to make a fried turkey this year which my cousin Bruce and my cousin’s fiance John were going to make. The first thing they did was get a big pot and put peanut oil in it. They were outside and it is important to be outside to make sure there are no fires. I was excited and nervous when they were making it because it could have blown up, and trust me, I did not want that to happen. Luckily, it did not blow up. After they got the oil boiling, they lowered the turkey into the pot, and then they had to wait for the turkey to be done. In the meantime, my cousin Rita was making her special sweet potato fluff. When you bite into the fluff it is the taste of heaven and coming from me that is especially good since I’m not a huge fan of sweet potatoes. First, you peel the sweet potatoes, and then you boil them until they are soft. Then you've got to mash them up so they are soft, but not liquidy. Then what you will find below is the topping to this heavenly dish. This dish was so good that I learned how to make it the next night for my family. I got permission from my cousin Rita to post this recipe for you all to make next year for Thanksgiving. The recipe is down below if you would like to use it.

There were a couple of other side dishes we had, I had the green beans, mashed potatoes, and fluff. The green beans were, so delicious, because they had this little bit of spice to them which made them irresistible I had at least five helpings of it. It was the spice that was, so good that explains all of the string beans I had. Next, was the potatoes, they were the creamiest mashed potatoes ever which was why I loved them the creamier the better for me. The only other thing that I had was the fried turkey which was off the hook good. It was so crispy and oily (in a good way). Yummy! Overall it was a delicious meal, and I really want to come back to Thanksgiving at their house next year again.

Breakfast Ramen

10/30/2015

Some of you may know the event Comic Con. If you don’t, it’s an event where vendors sell cool superhero stuff. My family usually goes every year. This year we went to lunch a few blocks away to a restaurant called Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop. That weekend, they had a discount because of Comic Con. At Ivan Ramen, they had a special ramen called Breakfast Ramen. In the breakfast ramen, the broth is made of dashi mixed in with cheese fondue. The soup had Taylor ham in it instead of the regular ham, and instead of egg there were strips of scallion omelet in it. As we were ordered the ramen, they told us that they ran out of the taylor ham, but they said they had chinese sausage. So, we agreed. With the breakfast ramen I got an Ivan Palmer which was like an Arnold Palmer but the lemonade and iced tea were different. It used yuzu lemonade and barley tea. When we got our food, I tasted the broth. It was interesting. It was very thick and creamy unlike other broths that are thin. The chinese sausage was good. It was a thin patty that was interesting, but I think I would’ve liked the regular pork better. The noodles were long and thicker than usual and were cheesy like mac & cheese. The soup was good it’s just not for everybody. I liked it, but I like the shoyu ramen better. I thought it wasn’t for me, but you may want to try it if you stop in New York. My little brother Jackson got the shoyu ramen and thought it was okay. So, I asked him if we could switch he agreed and liked the breakfast ramen a lot better than the shoyu, and I liked the shoyu better than the breakfast ramen. So, maybe my brother can write you guys a blog post also. As for the Ivan Palmer, it was very tasty, but had a more sour tang to it which was refreshing.

After lunch, we went back to Comic Con again and we saw a cookie stand called Einhorn’s Epic Cookies. They were cookies that come with comic books, and had all different flavors. They had:

Houston: chocolate chip, and potato chip.
Cadiz: birthday cake, crisped rice, and rainbow sprinkles.
Romsey: peanut butter, bacon, and chocolate chip.
Broxburn: oatmeal, chocolate chip, and maple.

These cookies were very unique instead of your regular cookie. The cookies are named after the unicorns in the comic books. Houston is the head unicorn, and they have to fight back at the evil king. My favorite cookies were Broxburn and Cadiz.