Wine Tour w/ the Laus

Hello! It's Monday, and I'm fresh off my wonderful weekend in Long Island, spending time with the second family...the Lau family. We actually spent the weekend on a wine tour. A little history for ya'll: One year ago, the Laus and I took a trek down (or rather further east) to wine country in Long Island...we ended up playing an exciting and intense game of  bean-bag-into-hole! Additionally, this place has delicious corn and foodz! So of course, Mrs. Lau, wearing the pants in the Lau clan, made the executive decision to go back and enjoy what was a very enjoyable experience last time.
 **** Pictures of Wine Tour to come******

After the wine tour, we decided to hit up a restaurant recommended by Angela for dinner. It was called Front Country Inn. It was very funny because this restaurant is located off the beaten path. By that, I mean that as you're driving, the sign for the restaurant is located next to a tiny tiny small shack that stores Front Country Inn's beverages. Being such a great sleuth, I decided to do some investigating to determine whether our restaurant was indeed located in a small shack or not. Thankfully, the restaurant was hidden behind a small rock path and foliage. With hungry stomachs, we made our way into the restaurant. The restaurant was a nice, quaint establishment that was clearly not made to sit 7 people. Therefore, we were led to a private room....the VIP room!
 

 * deciding what to eat for dinner

 * view from the window

 * the appetizers we ordered: crab cake w/ salad AND new orleans cooked shrimp.

 * some gigantic oriental salad...with disgusting goat cheese.

 * Angela's henna tattoo! (it's actually an imprint of the chair on her thighs :) )

* my main dish: angel hair w/ shrimp and mussels!

All in all, this restaurant was decent. I'm not a huge fan of goat cheese, so the salad was mildly ruined for me. As well, the shrimp in the pasta dish was slightly overcooked...not that I could cook it any better :P! On the flip side, the mussels were delicious, and I loved the angel hair pasta. The crab cake appetizer was very delicious; unfortunately, the salad they were served with had a dressing that was heavy on the mayo....but as I said before: this restaurant is decent...and is a great find for anybody looking to eat dinner on the way back home from a wine trip.

Till next time...I bid ya'll good eating!

25th BIRTHDAY "SURPRISE"

Hello! It's I, Evan Lee, back from my hibernation, with another exciting update! It is currently the middle of July, which means that my birthday has already passed, and all celebrations revolving around that most special of days has ceased....or so I thought!

On June 26th, exactly 3 days after my actual birthday, my girlfriend had one more present up her sleeve. For those of you who don't know, I've become sort of a baseball fan...-___- I don't know how it happened; maybe it's because the Texas Rangers have been doing well for the past few years...maybe it's because I'm in New York, which is deemed "baseball haven." Or maybe it's because the ace pitcher of the Texas Rangers is Yu Darvish, a 6'4" Muslim-Iranian freak of nature, who has an arsenal of at least 8 pitches...so he can either bring the heat or utilize his finesse. Whatever the reason, I find myself checking the baseball scores of not only the Texas Rangers, but of all the other teams in the league. Sigh, I never though this day would happen.

Anyways, Yankees Stadium is such an experience! It's definitely true what people say about Yankees Stadium: You haven't experienced what it's like to be a New Yorker until you've seen a Yankees game. Texas fans are very loyal to their teams, but New Yorkers bring it to a whole new level! They heckle anybody and everybody who's sporting non-Yankee approved apparel...aka Texas Rangers gear!!!! Luckily for me, the shirt that Angela bought for me was a SMALL, so I didn't have to bear the brunt of the Yankees fans' wrath. Good job Angela!

 * The view as we're approaching Yankees stadium! Notice the Chase bank in front of the stadium; it comes in handy when you need to withdraw cash for the overly priced hot dogs.

 * The Yankees official team store. It's a gross place :P

 * This is the inside of Yankees Stadium immediately upon entering the hallowed venue. I'm not quite sure who all those players are on the banners, but I'm pretty sure they're famous.

 * My Rangers getting ready to kick some Yankees ass!

 * Rangers again...they look like winners.

 * This is where our seats were. I took this picture using the Apple Iphone 5's panoramic view.

 * THAT IS YU DARVISH

 * THE LEGEND OF YU DARVISH is vast and far reaching. Even Yankees fans were dying to get his autograph.

* the Texas Rangers' starting pitcher for the game, Justin Grimm. He's a scrub. He should not be in the starting rotation.


So even though the Rangers started Justin Grimm on the mound, the Yankees still lost! HAHAHAHAHA! But in all fairness, it was a very exciting game. In the top of the 3rd inning, the Yankees hit a solo homerun to go up 1-0. However, the Rangers answered the call in the bottom of the 3rd and went up 3-1. The score stayed 3-1 until the bottom of the 5th, when the Rangers went up 4-1. The Yankees, unfortunately, just don't quit. They kept the game close at 4-3 in the top of the sixth, and from then on until the end of the game, it was a seesaw match, with the Rangers winning 7-5!!! YES! ANOTHER VICTORY FOR TEXAS!!!!

All in all, I had a blast at my first ever Yankees game in Yankees stadium. It was made even better that 1) it was to celebrate my birthday, and 2) Angela was there with me.

Next year, I want to see Yu Darvish....hint hint

Quarter Century Mark

Well folks, it's that time of the year. Probably one of my favorite events that I look forward to. And what am I talking about?

Every June 23, it's my birthday! A magical time where unicorns and dragons rejoice and sing to the heavens. This year's celebration was even more special because this year, I turn the big 2-5. The quarter century mark! I never thought I'd live to be this old...but hey, I guess I've been doing something well in my lifetime, and the big guy upstairs is rewarding me.

Because I live in New York, my dad and Nai Nai (daddy's mom) came to visit me! What a great way to celebrate. It's good to see the family since I'm all the way here in New York, and it's harder to find time to go visit.

We spent all weekend eating delicious food...and shopping...so without further ado:

Friday 
I was working late on Friday, so I met my parents in NYC's Koreatown for dinner. Seeing as the entire "town" is just one street filled with restaurants that pretty much serve the same food, we hopped into the first restaurant that was relatively vacant. We ended up entering a Korean restaurant that served "Korean BBQ the authentic way - w/ a wood grill." What that means is anybody's guess. All I know is that the grill was not made out of wood, but it was still old school enough to appreciate the history of Korean grilling.

We ordered 3 types of meat for dinner: galbi (short ribs), steak, and spicy Pork. And of course, the dishes didn't fail to impress:

 * This is the old school grill. What makes this unique is that the grill isn't implanted into the table like traditional Restaurants. Instead, the grill is an external unit and placed within the rungs to adjust the heat the meat will be cooked at. Notice that the grill is NOT made out of wood. Still, what an interesting and ingenious concept!

 * mmmmmm! That would be the Galbi. Need I say anymore?

 * That's the steak. Unfortunately, we were very hungry and ate most of the meat before I remembered to take a picture. Hopefully, this picture will do it justice! Otherwise...I will just have to go back and order the same dish again to take the full picture of the steak haha.

* And of course, I couldn't forget the spicy pork dish. It was definitely worth the price; in fact, it was my dad's favorite dish of the night. He couldn't stop eating this dish that he left very little for both my grandmother and me. Basically, if my dad thinks a dish is delicious, it is truly the utmost example of perfection.

All in all, the Korean restaurant definitely satisfied our empty bellies, but as per usual, the dishes were just the same as you would find in any other Korean restaurant located in the heart of NYC's Koreatown.

Saturday 
I met my dad and grandmother for some NYC brunch. I was given the choice of finding a "new" place that none of us had every tried before. I ended up settling on a Belgian bar/brunch place called "BXL Belgian." Was it good? Well, take a look:

* this is Tomatoes w/ mussels complete with garlic and basil!

This was my dish. And yes, I had 2 lbs of deliciously steamed mussels...nothing was going to keep me away from sinking my teeth into this wonderful dish. The even better part was how much garlic I found in this dish. They should've just called this the garlic surprise, complete with shellfish and a shit ton of basil!!!!


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Later on in the evening, we met up with Angela's parents at the Peking Duck House in Chinatown to celebrate my birthday. For those uncultured people, Peking Duck is a specialty from the great northern shores of Beijing, China. It is, in essence, a Chinese burrito. It's made by taking a steamed bun or "tortilla," smearing some oyster sauce inside the bun, adding cucumbers and scallions, and then finally finishing it w/ some duck. You then wrap everything up and revel in the tastiness you've just experienced!

In addition to enjoying some delicious Peking Duck, we also enjoyed a variety of other dishes. We had some lobster with scallions, steamed flounder, fried rice, and lettuce wraps!

Looking at the picture above, dinner was SUPER SCRUMPTIOUS! I imagine that during the "Last Supper," Jesus and his friends ate exactly what we were eating today!!!

Sunday
Sunday was my actual birthday!!! I kinda wish that it fell on a Saturday this year instead of a Sunday, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

For lunch, my grandmother wanted to celebrate by paying for my birthday lunch. According to her, she wanted to go to an "expensive" lunch venue. The only problem was that lunch in NYC is not exactly "super pricey," and it's hard to find a place to eat lunch that's not brunch related. Luckily, I was able to find an Italian restaurant called "Becco." This place is tucked along NYC's restaurant row on w. 46th street, in the heart of Manhattan's Broadway scene. Alas, we didn't have a show lined up to watch, but that would've been such a great way to spend my birthday!

1) Appetizer. We order steamed mussels with garlic and chives in a white wine sauce. In addition, we also ordered prosciutto with cheese. Gross. I will say this though: the prosciutto was delicious.

The mussels were amazing. Why? because Angela ate about a quarter of the mussels (me having eaten the remaining 3/4s). Angela normally doesn't eat many mussels, so when she encroaches on my turf, you know the dish is worth eating. 

 * From left to right: Prosciutto w/ disgusting cheese, mussels, and mussel shells

2) I had a hangar steak with string onions and leek. It wasn't the best piece of meat I've had; I attribute being jaded to my mother and growing up in Texas. Oh, and that extra orange square piece is some Salmon that my grandmother ordered. It was a huge piece of fish originally, and since my grandmother doesn't eat as much as in her glory days, she gave me a sizable piece to nibble on. The fish was ok...again, I think I've been spoiled...

 * the leeks were delicious! the string onions were...string onions! Not much to say on that front.

3) My dad ordered beef tenderloin. In all honestly, it was basically the same dish as mine, except his meat surrounded a bed of lettuce...and disgusting CHEESE :(.

4) Angela ordered the unlimited 3 pasta special. The pastas were a ravioli, a penne bolognese, and spaghettie w/ basil and tomato sauce. Angela said it was delicious...however, she didn't take advantage of the unlimited special: She only ate one serving of the pastas -___-

* From left to right: ravioli, penne w/ meat sauce, and the spaghetti! For an added bonus, there's angela's manicure hands!

5) This was my grandmother's dish. She ordered Salmon w/ some sort of green puree. I'm not actually sure what the green goop is, but it looks like guacamole. Nonetheless, it was a decent piece of fish. A little tough for my liking, but then again, I'm probably spoiled by my upbringing...

And now we get to the exciting part of the lunch: DESSERT!

6) I ordered a panna cotta. If memory serves me correctly, panna cotta is is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. In laid man's terms, it's a delicious custard that contains just the right amount of sweetness and texture.

* It was also served with fruit...but I don't know what the fruit were. They look like gigantic kidney stones to be though....

6) This is what my Dad and Angela ordered.  It was a chocolate mousse that sits on top of some crazy chocolate syrup design. Angela ordered it without the strawberry sauce. My dad, however, wanted all of the sweet goodness on his plate. He really has a sweet tooth! But yeah, I encroached on Angela's territory (to get back at her for devouring my mussels), and I must say, the dish was divine, chocolatey, and brought me up to heaven. I'm sure I will enjoy heaven!

7) My grandmother's dessert: homemade ice cream. The three flavors were strawberry, coffee, and chocolate. Can you guess which flavor corresponds to which ball of ice cream?

* Answer: From left to right- strawberry, coffee, and chocolate.

The ice cream was very well balanced...which was good because I've had some other restaurants' ice cream desserts, and they were definitely too sweet or didn't contain enough sweetness. My philosophy on ice cream is this: you need to create ice cream whose taste corresponds to my personality: not that sweet, but sweet enough to take home to your parents!
 

Mother's Day

So, here are some of the pictures I took for Mother's Day...about almost a month afterwards! Oops.

Unfortunately, I was not able to celebrate with my actually mother for Mother's Day, seeing as I'm in New York, and she's in the greatest state in America, Texas. Therefore, I spent the day with my "other" mom, Mama Lau. What did we do? We hung out in Long Island, hanging out in discount stores.....but not really. Actually, we just had a nice day hanging out at the Lau household. Angela and her baby bro, Brian, made omelettes and tater tots for brunch. They were delicious. Good job Angela!

For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant, La Piazza. I was shocked....because it was the first time I went out to dinner with the Lau family, and we didn't travel to a Chinese restaurant. Yet, no matter where they take me out to dinner, the food will always be delicious. La Piazza certainly didn't disappoint!

1)  Appetizer: spicy calamari.

Brian and I shared this dish. Apparently, Angela's family is not too fond of calamari, save for him. I'm glad they weren't calamari fans. This dish was amazing! Super spicy and garlicy. :)

2) My dish: seafood pasta. This choice was inspired by my dad. Everytime we go to an Italian restaurant, he orders this pasta. The seafood consists clams, mussels, and shrimp! It was in a spicy marinara sauce. Yummy!

* how can you tell if a dish is going to be good? It must have some green garnish on it. 

3) The perfect bite! 

* it has TWO garlic cloves. not just one...but TWO! the happiness and radiance that was eminating from my body could be felt by the people living in China. I was that happy! 

So there you have it, the Italian Mother's Day celebration. Unexpected, but still delicious!

Fooooooood

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry guys, I've been busy...I wish I had a better excuse for ya'll, but I don't. Sigh, I wish time would stop and allow me to accomplish everything I wanted to do. So many things have occurred since my last post:
1) the boston massacre
2) iron man 3 came out
3) iron chef america tournament of champions is being broadcast
4) mother's day already passed

As you can see, the list goes on and on. I can't believe it's almost June already! Good new though: I've taken many pictures since my hiatus and will be sharing them with ya'll within the next few days....

During my travels since the last time I blogged, I've discovered many new great restaurants. Let me describe how I spent my Saturday about two weeks ago.
Angela and I had a hankering for cajun cuisine. That's right, spicy, down south, good ole heartburn-inducing food. We made our way to the mecca (at least of NY) of Cajun Cuisine: Delta Grill.

1) This is the decor of the Delta Grill. It seriously looks like I'm back in Louisiana!!!

 2) I ordered spicy pork and andouille Gumbo. Andouille, for all you uncultured folks, is a fancy term for sausage...I think. Well, suffice to say, it definitely tasted like sausage!

 * I'm also glad this dish came with rice; no meal is complete without rice.

3) Angela ordered Spicy pork and andouille Jambalaya! Jambalaya is a dish that originated in the Carribbean Islands. Jambalaya is traditionally made in three parts, with meats and vegetables, and is completed by adding stock and rice. Yep, I know, I'm very cultured when it comes to food. That, and I'm very good at looking terms up on the internet. 

* what a delicious cauldron of food!


So later on that same day, I decided to revisit one of my old stomping grounds: Klong Thai Restaurant in St. Mark's. If you recall, that was one of my first Thai posts I'd ever created. Well, I was craving Thai food and needed a change of pace from good ole' Sura. Thanks god for Klong. And as per usual, Angela accompanied me on my adventure :) She's a follower, not a leader.

1) Angela and I ordered drinks!

 * Angela ordered a mint mojito (it's green). I ordered the "cauldron." I actually don't remember what it was actually called; all i remember is that it wasn't as delicious as the mojito :(

2) I ordered the "spiciest dish" on the menu. Was it spicy? Yes. It was very spicy. I drank 3 cups of water...and my butt was burning for the rest of the evening -__-. Nevertheless, the dish was very delicious. And colorful! Look at that leaf sticking out of the dish

 * It was comprised of chicken (of course), basil, garlic, peppers, and onions. Yummy!

4) Angela and I actually ordered dessert from this place. Wow, am I glad we did. Their desserts were super scrumptious; not too light, yet not too filling. I'd like to say that they were homemade, but even if they weren't, Klong definitely knows how to purchase their desserts!

 * my dessert: chocolate mousse cake. I like how the cake is sitting on top of the chocolate swirleys! It's my theory that anything that is place on top of the chocolate swirleys makes for an amazing dessert. Add on to that the fact that there's a mint leaf on top of the cake, and you've got a match made in heaven!

* Angela's dessert: NOT chocoloate mousse cake.....All joking aside, it was a chocolate lava cake with green tea ice cream. She really enjoyed the dessert, she finished it all by herself without any help from yours truly. (In addition, she scarfed down her dessert despite being "full")

So those are all the pictures I have for now...stay tuned for an update to this post; complete with MORE PICTURES!!!

Easter Weekend Visit

Hello world. It is I, Evan, with another great update. My parents came to visit me this past weekend for Easter, and boy did they take me to some delicious places. One of these amaze-ball places was a nice italian restaurant called "Nocello." It's located in Columbus Circle, and I must admit, it's very nice, hidden spot, due to its location "off the beaten path." Yet, I find that it's those "hidden gems" that turn out to be the cream of the crop. And now, without further ado:

1) Appetizer: Melons wrapped in prosciutto!!! Now I'm not normally a melon fan, but I've gotta say, this dish was very succulent. You know how people say everything tastes better with bacon??? Well, everything tastes better with PROSCIUTTO!!! The saltier, the better :)
The other appetizer we had was Oysters in a garlic and lemon sauce. Super super super delicious. Not only have I discovered my fondness for oysters, but the broth that the oysters were cooked in was a cornocopia of delicious garlic and lemony light flavors. The broth was so scrumptious, that I ordered extra bread to soak up the extra leftover broth! Gotta be resourceful!

2) Entree: Osso Buco. I'm not going to lie, while the picture depicts a very succulent dish, me madre's osso buco is better. Not that I'm one to complain (I'm sure there are many people in Africa who would like to be in my "predicament"), but I've been conditioned to my mother's cooking, which is very hard to beat. Nevertheless, the risotto that the osso buco sits on top of was very yummy. It was a spinach risotto, and yes, it was infused with herbs and garlic. Need I say anymore?.....
I feel like at this point, I'm such an open book: There's nothing about me that people shouldn't already know!

 3) Dessert: Tiramisu. OH MY GOD! I was not planning on eating a dessert due to my stomach already being expanded past its norm, but my father really wanted to share a dessert with me, it was my parents' last night in New York, and hey, when in rome, right? Boy was I glad my father convinced me to grab dessert with him. This Tiramisu was heavenly. It was light and fluffy, had the right balance of expresso to chocolate, and best of all, it had NO CHEESE!!!!

* Even my mother got into the act: the woman who never eats sweets had herself a feast with the Tiramisu.

Verdict: I will definitely be taking my friends here in the future. Nocello, you've been warned!!!!

Ms. Korea

It's been a while since I last posted. Sorry guys, it's been a hectic few weeks for me. I've been very busy with work and trying to make that money! However, I have never forgotten about my blog and have finally found the time to update!

Korean food has been missing from my diet; I think the last time I had Korean food was my last visit to Texas! That was back in December!!!! Unacceptable! That's like having a Chinese dinner without rice: it just does not happen! Now, my friend has always been posting pictures of her dining escapades on facebook, and I noticed that everytime she eats Korean food, she always eats at this one place: Ms. Korea. Therefore, being the astute person that I am, I decided to try the place for myself.

This place is flat out amazing:

1) We ordered Korean table bbq at this restaurant. When you order this service, this mecca of a place will give you a complementary dish....full of scallions. I repeat, scallions! HOW DID THEY KNOW???? It's like they were planning for my presence the entire time! 

* scaaaaalllions!!!! :)

2) The two meats we got were Spicy Pork Rib and Bulgogi (Korean beef). Now, the great thing about this restaurant is that they have several different grills for the table, depending on what meats you order. If you're confused, check out the pictures below to get a better grasp of what I'm talking about.

* this is the grill being prepped for the Spicy Pork Rib. Notice the plethora of onions...and the big bone. Delicious.

3) 

* spicy pork rib being cooked. Look at the delicious color that forms on the meat. More importantly, look at the corn ;). Such a random veggie to be placed in this hodgepodge of food.

4) Now, I normally never use the lettuce that's provided at Korean restaurants when eating my meat (get your mind out of the gutter). However, the lettuce was cut to the perfect size that I decided to give it a shot. Here's my result:

* well, it my best attempt at making a Korean taco. It's a perfectly size lettuce that contains the spicy pork rib, onions, scallions, and garlic. It's hiding underneath the pork rib because it's shy.

5) This was the coolest part of my dining experience: for the bulgogi, they brought out a convex shaped grill. Why was it convex shaped? Because, they were attempting to create the same dish as the one I had back in Texas: Grilling the bulgogi, while letting its "meat juices" simmer to the bottom, where it would bathe the noodles and asian mushrooms sitting at the base of the grill. This was soo delicious, that I didn't even mind eating the mushroom. Shocking, I know.

* convex shaped grill, with the noodles and asian mushroom. Note that this is the pre-grilling of the bulgogi.

* this is where all the action happens...ooh la la! This is sexy :)

The funny part was that Angela and I were looking for something on the menu that replicated this exact same dish. We couldn't find it anywhere on the menu, so settled for bulgogi. I'm glad we did!

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I'm really glad I decided to eat at Ms. Korea; it was well worth the 15 minute trip from my house. For anybody in New York who has a hankering for Korean food...and women or men....definitely check this place out. It will just about make your night. :)

Till next time, happy eating everyone!!!