AFTER WORK DINNER

For a quick healthy meal within an hour, I had a salmon trout and zucchini squash with cheese.

Instead of slicing and arranging my zucchini squash, I just chopped the zucchini, and Vidalia onion.

INGREDIENTS:

3 small to medium size zucchini squash

1/2 large Vidalia onion

1/3-1/2 c imported Parmesan cheese (preferably freshly grated)

Salt and pepper to season

1/3 c olive oil

2 TB butter

Melt butter with the olive oil in a fireproof baking dish.

Put the chopped vegetables in the dish, season with salt and pepper and mix well with the butter/olive-oil.  Grate your Parmesan cheese over the dish and bake at 350 degrees F oven for 40-44 minutes. Serve!

FOR THE FISH:

I used 1lb of Ocean Trout Salmon (I wanted to try this).  Or you can use any salmon. Season with salt and pepper and broil for 6 minutes.

Serve with lemon.

Rimming Sugar for your drinks

This sugar is mixed with lime flavor and mint.  Great for mojitos, mint juleps, grasshoppers and even iced tea!

Just moisten rim of glass with a lime wedge.

Pour the blend into a container. Dip the glass in and rotate gently

Fill you glass with your drink! I bought this somewhere that I can't remember.  You can make it at home.  Sugar and dried mint!

Maison Kaiser Brunch

I ordered the eggs Parisienne which is a cracked egg in a little pot with cream, mushrooms, house smoked ham and 2 little toasts on top with melted gruyere cheese.

 A bit rich but delicious.

HOME COOKED BROILED DORADE

Dorade is a small while fish of Mediterranean origin.  It's one of my favorite fish.

One of the ways I enjoy preparing it is simple.

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole DORADE fish

Salt

Pepper

1 Tb minced peeled fresh ginger

2 Tb minced fresh onion

3 TB chopped tomato ( preferably Romano)

Cut slits on each side of the whole cleaned fish. Season with salt and pepper.

Combine the ginger, onion and tomato with salt and pepper to season. Stuff the belly and head of the fish with mixture. Skewer the fish to close.  Pour olive oil and coat both sides of fish.

Broil fish 5 minutes on one side and 3 minutes in the other side.  Remove and let it sit in pan for about 3 minutes.

Serve with a nice healthy salad and sliced lemon.

I like eating it with a fish sauce-lemon mixture with sliced Thai mini hot peppers.

You can also use branzino, pompano, or milk fish.

CULL & PISTOL

An off spring restaurant from Lobster Place in Chelsea Market.  Lobster Place is a fishmonger so you can be sure you get the best seafood to order from here.

The place has a bar area where you can eat as well.

I had to have their oysters as my main course and a salad for a healthy lunch.

You have to try their lobster roll. It's served with a savory thinly cut perfectly crisp French fries. The lobster meat is fresh of course and simply prepared to get that immaculate lobster flavor.

Freshly prepared mussels served with a grilled toast.

After eating at this place you can shop next door to buy seafood to cook at your place or take out sushi at Lobster Place.  By the way, Lobster Place now, has a small area where you can order sushi and sit down to eat it inside their store.

At Lobster Place, you can also buy a whole lobster already cooked and can be warmed up to eat in the market if you can find some place to sit down. Or take it home and eat it at your place comfortably.

At Cull & Pistol, you can also order lobsters and eat it in the restaurant. Whichever way you do it, this is the place for fresh seafood.

This is inside Chelsea Market located on 9th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets and between 9th and 10th Avenues - in Manhattan, of course.

DORADO

After we went to the fusion taco place in Chelsea Pier 57, I had to try this place on the way back home.

Makes a nice snack and cheap. It's piece of crispy fried fish dipped in a light batter in top of some vegetables.  I admits it was quite good.

DORADO

 E 12th St.

NYC, NY

SULLIVAN BREAD

My staple in the kitchen:

Strecci - plain

Filone bread

Multi-grain Pullman

Sour dough Pullman bread

They supply top restaurants in the city.

BENOIT

I can't believe I have not written anything about Alain Ducasse's bistro or brasserie in NYC that I love.

Yes, Benoit is located in Midtown Manhattan just west if Fifth Avenue. 

The restaurant is so authentic old French and well done of course coming from the Michelin-starred chef!

The prix-fixed menu at lunch is the best deal.  They serve you warm gougere and a little bag of sliced bread or baguette.

I picked the typical French green salad with light French dressing:

And for my main course:

A beautiful fillet of fish tastefully done with a delicate sauce that the Feench cuisine has perfected.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in New York City. The food is always consistently excellent (if you are used to good French food).  The service, ambience, price, and taste, fulfills my wish for a good time to eat out!  It's all fresh and perfectly cooked!

#Benoit Bistro

60 W 55th St, New York, NY

benoitny.com/menus

1646-943-7373

Best Pancake House for Me

When we lived in the North-shore of Chicago, we frequented a great pancake house that served different kinds of pancakes.

My first choice is the German Pancake below:

It is cooked in a pan and puffs up. The sides are lightly crisp and they squeeze lemon on it and dust it with powdered sugar.  Best eaten on premise.

My second best favorite is the Apple Dutch Baby. 

Walker Bros Original Pancake House

153 Green Bay Rd, Wilmette, IL

WILLIAMSBURG BROOKLYN

IBrooklyn Flea - Williamsburg

90 Kent Ave, New York, NY

From Manhattan, one can take the L train to Brooklyn. It is the first stop after the L train crosses the East River.

Above is one of the kiosks you would see to buy food from.

This taco place make their own taco shells.  They are also found at Pier 57 on 15th street in Manhattan during the week from lunch till 8-9PM.

Above are their homemade taco shells.

I did try the maple bacon stick from Landhaus. The flavor was good but not as tender as I would have wished it to be.

This place had hefty sandwiches. It was almost 5PM and we were on our way to dinner so I just took photos of it.

They are here and many others on weekends.  So it's another place for me and you to go out to try something new!

Before 8:30 PM, one could also commute to this place via a ferry boat to cross between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The dock is pleasantly located with a beautiful view if the Manhattan skyline by the modern condos on the water. If you want to watch the sunset, it's a wonderful place to watch it.

LOBSTER PREPARATION

For five 1-1/2lb lobsters, I simply boiled about 3/4 inch of water in a large pot to fit the lobsters.

Soon as the water boiled, I dropped the lobsters and covered the pot.  Simmer for 20 minutes then turn off heat and uncover the pot. 

Above is a female lobster.  The blue mark  like an inverted U indicates it is.

Place them in a boiling pot.

After 20 minutes, uncover the pot do the lobsters  do not over cook.

Cut the shells to remove the meat easily from the tail and claws.

I have decided to make lobster rolls so I packed them up in a plastic container after taking the meat out if the shells.

I now realize that four 1-1/2 lb lobsters fits one medium sized container - 16oz container.