#Exoticfruit MONSTERA DELICIOSA

I bought Monstera deliciosa last month and watched it ripen in my kitchen.  It's not an easy fruit to eat although it taste good.  The fruit is a little mushy and reminds me of corn kernels being pulled out of the husk.

As it ripens the green thick skin starts to fall off.  Do not force it open or peel it. There are some black carbon like things that appear at the base of the fruit.

The flavor of this fruit is somewhat like a banana and a pineapple. It is mushy white but sweet. I had to pull each fruit out of each "socket" as you can see below:

 See the black parts inside?

I find it tedious to eat. It took me days to finish as I waited for each section to ripen.

To ripen, you place the fruit standing up in a talk glass and leave it on the kitchen counter. Wait for the thick green skin to fall off signifying it is ripe.

Each of these tiny kernel like pieces are pulled off from the fruit to eat.

Monstera deliciosa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.m.wikipedia.org/.../Monstera_delicios...

Monstera deliciosa, the Fruit Salad Plant, is a species of flowering plant native to tropical rainforests of southern Mexico, ...

JING FONG for Chinese Food and Dumplings

It's been a few years we've been going to this restaurant and they never cease to slow down.  That's how this restaurant has survived.

ThIis big Chinese Restaurant probably has a capacity for up to 1000 if not 800 people.

With these many people and a lot of staff, I can be sure they serve fresh food each time.

For this Sunday afternoon, we decided to go around 2PM.  Normally, lines are super long; but around 2PM, you can get a table much easier.  Our wait was about 10 minutes.

Up the escalator, you arrive in a humongous ballroom-size dining area.

Above is just half or about a third of the entire restaurant.

One of the dumplings I like are these vegetable and shrimp dumplings.

Above is another favorite dumpling of mine, shrimp.

These are called chicken feet. Don't worry, they remove the skin on top of this skin (there are layers of skin in chicken feet).  These are so tender, the meat just come apart from the bones so easily.  I love the sauce.

Above are the pork rib pieces. They are tender that the meat comes off the bones so easily as well.

They have many others but I thought I'd just give you samples of unusual dumplings.

They have fried rice, all sorts of seafood, vegetables, soups, and interesting desserts. There must be about 100 food choices.  One of which is roast duck which look so good when I saw it on a table; that I would like to order it next time.  It's been many years I have been going to this place and I've never had the roast duck from here!

1. 1. JING FONG RESTAURANT

      20 Elizabeth St, New York, NY 10013

   (212) 964-5256

Min. $15.00|Free Delivery

FRENCH PUB BISTRO

What is a Bistro and what is a restaurant?!

Amelie, to me is a pub bistro. They call it a Wine Bar. Yes, there is a bar counter area and tables too where you can dine.

We tried the brunch. Below is spinach with poached egg:

Above is their French Toast

Eggs poached in wine served with salad is actually a new taste for us. Good flavor!

We've also had the dinner here:

For dinner, we had a better dish - grilled Brook trout above. and Gratin Au raviole, a cheesy pasta below which is like a rich macaroni and cheese.

Not to forget, I ordered this. Yes it was cheese too but it had more potatoes in it mashed up to a ball. Tasty but too much carb for me.

The food is okay and the drinks are very reasonable especially during brunch on weekends.

AMELIE

• 22 W 8th St, New York 10011
• (Btwn 5th Ave & MacDougal St)

VILLAGIO #Italian

This is a perfect place to see and to be seen restaurant (it's in Central Park South) with good "home-type" Italian food. 

This just opened this year located just west  of Fifth Avenue where many tourists flock to see Central Park and walk around shopping. It is definitely a place to be seen and to see who may walk by or may be in the restaurant.

Above, we were served with breads as you have decided to stay for lunch.  A basket of assorted breads and herbed thin bread plus crisp cracker-type bread were paired with a little bowl if chopped seasoned tomatoes.  I guess it's to make bruschetta with the breads.

Their vongole is an excellent choice. The  clams were fresh and the pasta was cooked al dente. Authentically prepared the Italian way, one may opt for the tomato kind if you want.

Their Ceasar Salad is generously prepared with the Parmesan cheese and anchovies which we requested!

We shared the salad. This was my half.

So far, it has been a very good experience for me. They are new in NYC and I welcome them!

VILLAGIO 

• 40 Central Park S, New York 10019
• (Btwn 6th Ave & Grand Army Plaza)
• villagiorestaurants.com/locations.php
  Villagio On the Park New York, NY 40 Central Park South New York, NY 10019. Tel: (212) 369-4000.
• 
  

Waffled Grilled Cheese Breakfast

INGREDIENTS:

Good quality brioche bread slices 3/4 inch thick.

Block of very good sharp cheese (I used Beecher's - originally from Seattle but also now in NYC)

Melted butter

Serrano ham or prosciutto slices

Good quality eggs

Belgian Waffle machine

DIRECTIONS:

First you butter one side of the bread. Then you put slices of cheese on top - about 1/4 inch thick on the unbuttered  side.   Top it with the slice of buttered slice of bread, buttered-side up.

Put in a pre-heated Belgian waffle maker and cook for about 2-3 minutes till golden brown with some dark brown waffle edges are formed.

You can eat it as is like above or serve it as the base of your sunny side egg and ham/prosciutto/Serrano ham on top for breakfast.

Above was my breakfast this morning - plus half a chocolate croissant from my favorite Eric Kayser boulangerie/Patisserie.

DARUMA-YA

This is authentic Japanese.  They do use good ingredients.

We came here for the soba which is handmade.  I agree, he does make good soba.  It is also cooked Al dente.  And having just returned from a trip to Japan, they also gave us a pot of broth where the soba was cooked in to add to our broth in the bowl after finishing our soba; just like they do in Japan.

The Omakase is the best deal of the house. For a fixed price, one can get 7 items.  They are small "tapas" tasting size.  My favorite out of the Omakase were the following:

First was the foie gras.  Seared and probably torched with sugar on top was excellent.

The rare beef which was almost like Italian carpaccio on a bed if sliced onions dipped in Japanese Yuzu-sho was excellent.

Home made soba with uni which we requested replaced the plain soba they were going to serve but charged a little extra for this request.  This came with wasabe, some scallions and a broth that you'd pour into the bowl of noodles and mix.

Other items served were:

Lobster with uni. The lobster a little tough.

Black cod replaced the foie gras we had which someone else in our group did not want so had the fish instead.

Above were small plates if assorted vegetables. Some pickled seaweed, eggplant and tomato with wasabe mayonnaise.

There was also tofu with uni but I had forgotten to take a picture of it.

While waiting before dinner because we arrived early, I ordered corn tempura.  It was quite good and reasonable. Eaten dipped in Japanese pepper.

I think it's this condiment above that they use or similar.  I got this one from my trip to Japan.

Daruma has a sushi bar downstairs. Maybe I will try it next time. They said the sushi area is open only in the evening. But Daruma-ya on the main floor is open for lunch and dinner.  I think I will try it again next time.

It's not easy to find this restaurant so here's a map for you:

Daruma-Ya

Sushi Azabu (downstairs)

428 Greenwich Street

New York, NY 10013

CHAPTER ONE #WestGreenwich #Restaurant

This is a neighborhood I frequent and notice many restaurants come and go.  This year, I noticed something new in place of something that used to be there.

Late Sunday, they were still serving  brunch.  They had just been featured in the newspaper so I decided to stop by.

I ordered the newspaper featured dish the duck hash with egg and hollandaise sauce.

 Above was the dish.  It looked good but frankly a little greasy.  It was tasty but I think I was disappointed that the hollandaise sauce seemed to have gotten cooked with the egg. I think it would have been better to have garnished the duck hash brown with hollandaise sauce after the egg was cooked separately or added more fresh hollandaise after cooking the egg with hollandaise sauce on top.  This, garnished with some sliced freshly cooked but still pink duck slices. I am not find of duck rillet; and therefore, I also don't like well done duck meat.

To balance my diet, I usually order a side dish of vegetable.  Above is their version of collard greens.  This was pretty tasty garnished with crumbs of bacon and crumb mixture. I think they also said it had pork belly as well.  This was more of a Southern type dish and it tasted good!

There are many restaurants in the city, this may be one I won't have to return to soon. But it's not bad. It's just not my favorite.  One time is enough for me.

It's like a chapter I have to move on to another.

CHAPTER ONE

33 Greenwich Avenue

New York, NY 10014

212-842-9146

PARIS IN NEW YORK #EricKayser

Since Eric Kayser's French pastry shop opened in the Upper Eastside, I fell in love with the place.

Not only are the pastries consistently of high quality and delectable, their croissants are very light and airy.

My favorites are the chocolate croissants, plain croissants and pleiae.  Pleiae are like long and thinner croissants with much more chocolate inside.

I usually buy a few of these to warm up in the oven at about 300 degrees F for 8 minutes. Perfect like fresh from the oven.

I also eat my late lunches over there.

Besides the cheesy onion soup, I enjoy the tabbouleh salad with shrimp.  It's my substitute for a sandwich.

The shrimp is served with green harrisa spicy sauce under.

Now there are a few of these around the city.

#EricKayser, #Frenchfood

MARY'S FISH CAMP #seafoodrestaurant

Hands down, I still love this place. 

Below is what I ordered.

Best seafood which I balance with sinful to die for desserts.

It's like going to a local neighborhood spot in a little town with crafty upscale seafood dishes prepared very well.

My fried green tomatoes are perfect - just smashed and lightly battered with an incredible jalapeño buttermilk sauce.

Close up of my green tomatoes.

Close up of the Day Boat Scallops

Best seafood which I balance with sinful to die for desserts.

My sinful dessert - fudge sundae with peanut brittle on top

With mostly peanuts. Love it! Hot fudge sundae has a peanut brittle on top where it's practically peanuts and not sugar - with very thick dark fudge. You can order it smaller which I did.

TSUBAMEYA

This was an accidental find which our taxi passed by in the way to our hotel in Ginza.

Our last couple of days to try Wagyu steak.  This was it without emptying our pockets!

I did not have the deal like others at our table.  But here's what the deal comes with:

This casual place makes everything from the sausages to their grilled steak.

The special ¥3900 comes with:

A great salad with very large shrimp.

Their own sausage - this one is chorizo which I ordered ala carte (theirs come with it)

Their other sausage served with mustard which comes with 2 kinds of mustard.

The grilled Wagyu beef. Above was my ala carte version and I chose to have half a pound.  The prix-fixed is about half of my steak in the photo.  The condiments compliment the steak. One if them is my favorite called Yuzu-sho which I bought from Matsuya-Ginza, just about 2 blocks away.  The yuzu (Japanese citrus) is so flavorful; it does not compare to the one I recently bought in the States sold at a Japanese store. I am savoring this condiment here which I brought home from Ginza, Tokyo, Japan.

I think this was their baked beans for the prix-fixed.

The hamburger cooked the way you want it but comes with vegetables too:

And French fries below:

We had a casual wonderful dinner. 

www.tsubameya-ginza.com

Lunch: 11:30-16:00

Dinner: 17:30-23:00

TSUKIJI SUSHISAY #Tsukijimarket

I had to look for this restaurant which I ate at in 2010.  My memory is still good. After walking through stores each aisle, with patience, I finally found it.  I never knew the name then.

Such reasonable price for an Omakase.

So of course I added even a few more.  Freshly  caught that day! 

I had toro (fatty tuna on the front left, squid, ebi in the back (shrimp), crab meat behind, my favorite uni (sea urchin) in gold 2nd from the right and fish roe on the right.

Showing me the shell if the live large clam family below:

It still wiggled after he cut it. That fresh.

Another extra seafood I asked for that I don't see in the US.

I will always go back to this place.

#Tsukiji Sushisay

I highly recommend!

www.tsukijisushisay.co.jp/