Chinatowns: NYC and Boston

Hi, I am back!  I have been doing all sorts of things.  And I will tell you all about it.  But first, I am going to take a few more posts to tell you about the last few places that we loved in NYC and Boston.  And the theme is Chinatown.  Above is the entrance to Boston's Chinatown.  It is much smaller than NYC's, but both were great.  

Here is the Nice/New Green Bo restaurant in NYC's Chinatown.  I showed you the soup dumplings we had.  They are dumplings filled with soup.  Although, they aren't called soup dumplings on the menu.  I can't remember what the English part of the menu said, but I had to ask what dumpling was the soup dumpling.  They are Xiaolongbao in Chinese.  And I think the menu might have said something about pork and buns.  Not sure though.  

They really were delicious.  We also enjoyed the regular pork dumplings.  But filling dumplings with soup is just too good to be true.  I guess they make them by putting frozen cubes of broth in the dough (according to Wikipedia).

The restaurant is not fancy.  Semi-dirty.  They are too busy making amazing soup dumplings to clean, I think.  But I am not complaining because we arrived really late and they kindly served us (we were the only ones in the restaurant).  Although, there was no closing time on the door.

And, you know how at Chinese restaurants, they always serve you tea?  And how most of the time it tastes kind of like water with a little bit of flavor...but it is hard to put your finger on what the flavor actually is?  Maybe it is dust?  Maybe it is a little burnt something or other?  Well, this tea was awesome. No idea what they did.

You can see them cleaning up behind me.

We also checked out Boston's Chinatown.  We went to the New Golden Gate restaurant in Boston.  Like many Chinese restaurants, this one was designed for large families.  They had only a few tables for two people and only a few tables for four people.  The majority of the tables were for 8-10 people.  Secretly wished I was eating with some of those families.  They had so much food and so many different dishes at their tables.  Some of my coworkers, a while back, treated us to a family style Chinese dinner and it was like the best moment of my life.  Gnawing on shell fish shells.  It is what I was born to do.

The two of us shared a shrimp and lobster sauce (below) with white rice and each tried a soup.  I got hot and sour soup (above).  It was amazing.  Scot got a dumpling soup (two up).  It was also delicious.

We had to wait probably half an hour to get a table.  This was on a weeknight.  And it was totally worth it.  They have a lot of seafood and lobster specials, which is what I was tempted to try.  But, I wanted to try soup and knew I couldn't eat a ton.  It was super cheap.  Something like $14 for two soups and the shared meal.

And lastly, we had an avocado smoothie at one of the little Boba tea cafes in Boston's Chinatown.  Scot and I love Boba tea.  My favorite is some sort of a Chai tea.  But, we had to try the avocado smoothie since we love putting avocados in our fruit smoothies.  It was awesome.  Not super sweet actually.  Will definitely try to recreate these at home!

I really loved our time in both of the Chinatowns.  We didn't even have time to try all the things we wanted to try.  Next time!

Sweet Treats in NYC and Boston

We ate a lot when we were in Boston and NYC.  There were way too many things we wanted to try.  I thought I would start by telling you about all the wonderful bakery type places we tried.  

We got a lot of recommendations, but I would have to say that one of Scot's besties gave us the most best recommendations of all.  He has such good taste.  Or at least the same taste as me.  Which is the best kind of taste to have, obv.  ;)

The first place (and one he recommended) is a small bakery/cafe in Boston.  It is called Flour.  He recommended the sticky buns, so that is definitely what I got.  Along with some fresh squeezed orange juice.  And not that I have tried every sticky bun in the world, but this was the best I have ever had.  So soft.  Served warm.  A nice deep, caramel flavor.  Nutty.  Really, really good.  And they have lots of other baked goods and some sandwiches.  

Now, to NYC.  We had to try the famous Doughnut Plant.  It was on my list.  It was also recommended by lots and lots of people.

The "Plant" in the name is very misleading.  This is the smallest little doughnut shop you will ever see.  There is enough room for maybe 10 people inside.  

I don't know if I have told you about the "donut kick" that I recently was on.  Luckily, that kick ended several months ago.  That does not mean I don't eat donuts anymore.  It just means I don't crave them every Thursday morning.  

Also, luckily, I do not live near Doughnut Plant (or any good donut place actually).  Because that kick would be very permanent.  

So, we test tasted four different kinds.  (Test tasted means we just ate them.)  First up, Tres Leches.  By far the best donut on earth.  See Mark (genius behind the donuts) did not start selling cake donuts until 2005!  He worked on his cake donut recipe for 5 years.  And I am kind of a cake donut girl.  And Mark is my cake donut maker boyfriend.  This is the prefect donut.  

We tried one more cake donut.  The Blackout.  This is obviously like a chocolate explosion.  It honestly tasted like a brownie.  Or like chocolate cake.  There is really no excuse to eat this for breakfast.  Unless you just convince yourself that this is a donut.  And that donuts are breakfast appropriate.  But, Scot thoroughly enjoyed this.  The easiest way to tell how much Scot likes something is to see how much of it he left on his face.  

Here is the blueberry yeast donut.  I really liked the yeast donuts too.  The dough itself was not super sweet, which I really like since the glaze is so sweet.  We liked the texture too.  The outside "crust" is very chewy.  

And last, a jelly filled donut.  This was blackberry filling.  I have never liked jelly filled donuts because there is always too much filling.  I like a little filling, with mostly donut.  These donuts are genius because they have a thin tube of filling that runs along the entire length of the square donut.  It is like the perfect bite every time.  Yum!!!

Next, we had to check out the Magnolia Bakery.  It is famous.  Gotta do it.  The one we went to was tiny and so packed with people.  I love that because it makes you know you picked the right place.  They have all sorts of cakes and desserts, but we kept it simple by trying their famous cupcakes.  I was slightly disappointed that we could only pick from some traditional flavors (chocolate cake/chocolate frosting, white cake/white frosting, yellow cake/chocolate frosting, etc.)  You have to place an order to get the more exciting flavors.  

However, it was a delicious cupcake.  And didn't have a ridiculous amount of frosting on it.  I am not a fan of the equal amounts frosting and cake.  I like just a little frosting.  I think I still took some off.  But I am picky.  It was good frosting too.  Definitely a fun experience.  

We also tried out Momofuku Milk Bar.  I was pretty excited about this place.  I had heard a lot about it.  It is a bakery, but not really at all.  The pastry chef tries to stand on the boundary of genius and disgusting.  The menu is made up of crazy soft serve ice cream flavors, delicious cookies and cakes and a few interesting drinks.  We got a sampler of all the ice cream flavors and toppings.  Starting with the purple one on the bottom (in above pic) we had:  purple drink, cereal milk, BBQ sauce, creamed corn, corn flake toppings and potato chip topping.  

Now, at first bite, each ice cream was so intriguing.  Very interesting to get your brain and taste buds to realize what is going on.  But, after a few bites, I had a really hard time with the BBQ one.  Secretly almost made me gag.  

Then, there were two problems.  One, I hate cereal milk.  I never drink the milk after I eat my cereal (something that Scot totally does not approve of).  To me, it is kind of like drinking something out of a bottle and then when it is gone, refilling it with water without washing it out.  So, it kind of tastes like what you just had in the bottle, but not really.  On one hand, I was like, "awesome, you totally replicated the taste of cereal milk and made an ice cream out of it."  On the other hand, I was like, "why did you make ice cream out of it?"  100 points for creativity.

Second problem is that I am not a huge fan of creamed corn.  I mean sure it is a pretty good side dish.  I mean I will eat it.  But it isn't like the most amazing flavor ever.  Not really sure why I would want it in ice cream for.  But, it did taste spot on like creamed corn.  

And I actually really liked the purple drink flavor.  Tasted like Koolaid.  It was a fun spin on a child hood favorite.  We also tried one of the cookies.  The compost cookie.  It was really good.  Has like a million things in it: butterscotch chips, potato chips, pretzels, etc.  Really soft and chewy.  I totally enjoyed our experience at Momofuku.  It was fun to try crazy ice cream flavors.  

And lastly, back to Boston, we got cannolis at Mike's Pastry in North End.  They were delicious (and huge).  I couldn't eat all of mine.  From what I hear, Mike's Pastry is most known for their cannolis, but they have all sorts of baked goods and desserts.  We went with cannolis and were not disappointed.  

It is also cool how they tie your box up with string hanging from the ceiling.  

And this place is so packed.  We went on a Monday night and didn't have to wait too long (maybe 10 minutes with some aggressive ordering).  But we walked by it again on Saturday and the line out the door was ridiculously long.  

Lastly, I don't have a pic for this, but we got some amazing ice cream at Toscanini's in Boston.  I got Vietnamese coffee ice cream and Scot got Hydrox cookie ice cream (apparently Hydrox was the original Oreo, but Oreo stole it or something...)  I also tried the Burnt caramel flavor.  So good!  They had lots of interesting flavors.  Wish I could have tried more.  

Boston and NYC - A Sneak Peak

I just had the most amazing time in Boston and NYC.  I have been to Boston a few times and have loved it every time.  This time I was a little older, less cheap and way cooler.  All three of these things made my Bostonian experience over the top.  And my first time to NYC!  Wow.  I have been really missing out on one of the most amazing cities that I have ever been too.  I have already been talking Scot's head off about either moving there or trying to visit once a year.  I honestly loved every second of our time in NYC.

Luckily, Scot and I have some friends and family who helped us pick out the BEST places to eat.  And, of course, I did some research before hand.  Guess what?  I ate some of the best food of my life.  And a lot of it.  Like we just ate the entire time.  This is why moving to NYC would be a horrible and amazing idea.  Maybe we walked most of it off.

I can't wait to tell you about all these great places.  I thought I would start with a sneak peak of some of my favs.  Then, I hope to give all the details over the next several days.  These recommendations helped us so much, so I hope they can help other people too.

First, probably my favorite thing I had was the pizza from Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn.  And, of course, I love pizza.  Who doesn't.  But pizza is not my favorite food, by any means.  This is a BIG deal.  So simple and so perfect.  Worth the hour wait.  Worth even longer of a wait.  I am counting down the days when I can go back.

Next, we had these soup dumplings in Chinatown in NY.  The restaurant is called Nice/New Green Bo.  These are dumplings filled with soup!  Scot called it a party in your mouth.  They were so tender and the burst of soup, pork and crab when you finally open them in your mouth is delicious.  Best dumplings ever.  Best recommendation ever.

And we also were told to go to this Venezuelan place (called Caracas) for arepas in NYC.  And we did.  YUMMMM.  I was tempted to try one with each filling (there were about 20 to choose from).  Instead we picked two.  BTW, an arepa is this unleavened bread made of corn.  Then, they fill it with various cheeses, meats, and veggies (lots of avocado).  So so good.  They also have empanadas.  Also amazing.

This is a really horrible picture of the best pasta I have ever eaten.  O.  M.  G.  This was from Terramia in Boston's North End.  We were luck enough to be in Boston and NYC during both cities' Restaurant Week.  And totally scored on picking out this little 40 seat Italian restaurant.  Part of the reason I picked it was because the Restaurant Week menu did not have a dessert course.  Just had 3 regular courses.  I think sometimes the Restaurant Week menus' dessert courses are kind of lame.  Oh and, this was a bolognese sauce with homemade pasta.  Honestly one of the best things I have ever eaten.  Honestly wanted to kiss the chef.

Now that I just bashed Restaurant Week desserts, this was my dessert from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Restaurant Week Menu.  In NYC.  Had to put that in a separate sentence due to too many proper nouns.  Anyways, this is a bread pudding with some fruit in the bread pudding and then a delicious raspberry sauce.  My idea of a perfect dessert.  And I have always been kind of scared of bread pudding. It just sounds gross.  I would order this again and again.

This is by far the best cup of coffee I have had in a long time.  Stumptown in NYC.  A really cute coffee shop where all of the employees dress up in roaring 20's garb.  They are adorable.  And amazing baristas.  I have a special place in my heart for baristas who make designs in my cappuccino.  Especially hearts.  And this woman did.  And she smiled and chatted with me.  Also, they sell this $75 package of coffee beans (Panama Esmeralda Especial, the guy explained that has been decided by all real coffee drinkers that it IS the best coffee in the world).  I will have one,  Thanks.

And that...is just scratching the surface.  I will be writing in more detail about these places.  But mostly, I have many more places to tell you about.  I had to pick favorites.  Which apparently I don't have a problem doing.  :)

Lobster Night!

On my calendar for today, I have had scheduled in "Lobster, 7 pm" for kind of a really long time.

Just recently (like three days ago), I completed my last class.  Ever.  After being in school for 21 years, I am very sure that it is time.  In fact, there is nothing I have been more sure about.

I will say that after I graduated from undergrad, it wasn't so monumental for me.  Maybe because I was just going straight away to more school and classes.  Or maybe because I wasn't sick of school yet.  But, after these 4 additional years of classes, I have been so ready to not be doing homework, projects and especially studying for tests.  Every aspect of my last class has been monumental.  When I turned it my last homework, I cried a little bit.  When I sat down to take my last final, I took a picture.

I could probably continue on about how amazing it feels to be done with classes.  But really, the point is, to motivate myself to get through this semester, I decided that we were going to eat lobster when it was over.  And we did.  And it was so fun and wonderful.  Btw, last class for Scot too.  All same things apply.

I wanted to make lobster, but after telling like every single person I know that we were going to have lobster, I was strongly encouraged to just go out for dinner.  And to not try to make it myself.  So, I found this place in Denver called Cherry Crest Seafood.  I found a few recommendations for it but also they sell live lobster, so it seemed like a winner.  This restaurant reminded me of all the family owned restaurants in Omaha.  You know, the kind that serves the butter cold and you have to wait for it to warm up.  And lots of old people.  Really nice old people.  I liked everything about it.  Eating lobster can be scary and intimidating.  But this place was so comfortable.  And, when we got there, there were only 7 lobsters left!!!  By the time we left, there were none.  

Gearing up:


Finishing up:

Best Apple Pie I Ever Ate!

This past New Year's Eve, Scot and I went to a Wild game in MN. Afterwards, we went to eat at Mickey's Diner and I had apple pie. And. It was AMAZING. SO AMAZING. Thinking about it right now is just a bad idea. No, it is a good idea. Seriously, though, it was the best apple pie I have ever had.

It was a crumble crust on top and I actually am usually not a fan of a crumble crust. I think it is because they are usually too sweet. I actually had a hard time sharing this with Scot. I mean, I gave him a little bite. But I regretted that.

Anyways, Mickey's Diner is awesome. If you are ever in downtown St. Paul, you should give it a try. We sat at the counter, because that is always fun.