Homemade seafood soup

This year's Christmas eve, my mother and grandmother made a wonderful dinner for family and friends.

One dish that stood out, and was the first course, was this seafood soup, which was absolutely delicious.

The soup includes everything from squid, scallops, clams and shrimp.

Beautiful, beautiful dish.

White Castle!!!!???? Yea!

Yes, on this cold December, Saturday evening, a friend and I decided to go to White castle.

Even though White Castle doesn't have the best rep, it still tastes damn good.

I ordered a cheeseburger meal with mozzarella sticks and chicken rings.

It hit the spot :)

Mexican anyone?

Tonight we went out for dad's birthday. He mentioned he wanted Mexican and mentioned this place On the Border in Hicksville, NY.

The menu seemed pretty good with quite a few choices and all reasonably priced. I decided to go for this 3 sauce chicken burrito that comes with rice and black beans.

Needless to say, the burrito was pretty big and had some nice spice. The 3 sauces helped a lot in terms of extra flavor.

Overall 7.5/10

My Ramen > Store Bought

I got bored at work since the menu we run got a little tedious. So, I decided to make my own ramen. The noodles, broth, garnish...everything.

The noodles

The Broth

Put it all together along with a Six Minute Egg, Fried Chicken, Scallions and Parsley...

You have the ToKa Ramen Bowl

Wild Ginger

Last night we went to Wild Ginger in East Northport, NY.

Wild Ginger is an asian fusion spot with Indonesian, Thai, Chinese and Japanese flavors and dishes.

I ordered the "Fusion Sushi" entree. This included 10 pieces of the chef's choice, with 5 different toppings as well.

Wild Ginger is a place I highly recommend. The decor is really nice, and I have to mention that the music they played was very nice also.

Below is a photo of the chef's choice with King Crab.

LUSO Churrasqueira

A couple buddies and I went to Luso Churrasqueira in Smithtown, NY for some Brazilian BBQ.  The food is consistently excellent and the service is always top notch.  Especially from the Brazilian waitress. She has great...assets. But, back to the food. We ordered the churrasqueira, which is the All-You-Can-Eat meats. Now, here is some food porn.

The adventure begins...

Pork Spare Ribs with Homemade Hot Sauce

Skirt Steak with Collard Greens

Beef Short Ribs, Garlic Crumbles

A big ass Chicken Leg

Konbini 002

So here I am again, just picked up fanta's new drink called "funmix cola+orange, orange flavor up!" really my bottle has orange flavor up. There's a reason why some drinks aren't tested or released in US, and this is a good example. Mix a discount cola like Sams choice with sunkiss and boom, fanta's new drink. But all is not lost, the drink does go down smoothly and does leave a citrus splash of flavor in the back of your mouth. Overalli had better, and will be passing this one next time. Solid 5/10, though packaging looks great, so 5.5/10!

Interesting note, colas here in Jp are made with real sugar, no high fructose here. Makes u wonder why they allow it in US hmmmm

Thanksgiving

What can I say, my mother and grandmother made one hell of a Thanksgiving meal once again.

Time for dessert :)

Konbini Banzai 001

Hey guys, so konbini is Japanese for convenience store and this is the first in many installments of a random trip to the konbini. Trust me, theres so much wrong things to eat/drink in these stores, we'll need a 3 digit counter.

Today folks we're doing juice boxed! Why? Because its a huge section and staple of every konbini here in Tokyo.

First up we have "fruits olay," which is French for crap. Pretty much they mixed the buttery taste of milk with strong acidy flavors like oranges , and then did a 180 flacon punch into the sweetness of pineapple and apples.
If your a sweet and salty kind of guy ala kettlecorn, and would like drink said corn, then this might be your thing. 2/5, 2 bc the box wished me a meri kurisumisu.

Next we got "Break on the desk straight tea." nuff said, next!

"130% Apple Juice." that's right the Japanese found out a way to make your motts 100% apple juice taste like a mop's water juice. I was skeptical at first, but one sip and I was blown away by the apple richness found in this box! It's sweet but not sugar sweet, no this is all 130% natural. Wow. But one thing that irked me (and also compelled me to buy the thing), wtf is up with the trippy acid background and broad?! Ah Japanese marketing.

Momofuku you!

One of my fave restaurants in NYC. Good food, crappy Korean beers, great atmosphere, bad ass chefs.

Great Date Spot: Gotham Bar & Grill

I was fortunate enough to take a lovely woman  to the legendary Gotham Bar & Grill located in Greenwich Village.  We had some Spanish red wine to start the night off right.

For our Apps...

I ordered the COLD SMOKED TASMANIAN SEA TROUT  with baby fennel, celery hearts and meyer lemon, pumpernickel croutons

My lovely date ordered  The SEAFOOD SALAD with scallops, squid, japanese octopus, lobster and avocado, lemon vinaigrette.

For our entrees I ordered the 28 Day Dry Aged NY Strip with Marrow Mustard Custard, Baby Carrots and Bordelaise Sauce.

My date ordered the Truffle Crusted Halibut with oyster mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and romanesco cauliflower, marcona almonds and verjus emulsion

The food was AMAZING as usual and the service was spot on all night.

We both enjoyed the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant added that romantic touch.

GOTHAM BAR & GRILL is located...
12 East 12th Street
New York, NY, 10003
Between University Place & Fifth Avenue

Nothing beats homemade Cooking

I must say, living in New York my whole life, I've always noticed that there are just way too many Italian restaurants and they just keep opening up all over. To me, thats boring.

Maybe growing up in a mixed ethnicity of a household, I grew up on all types of flavors, so Italian cuisine is actually my least favorite, but I still love it.

The point I'm trying to make is that no matter how many Italian places open up and make similar types of dishes, nothing beats my mother and grand mother's Italian cooking.

Farmer's Markets=The Real Whole Foods

The aromas, the sights, the sounds, the bartering at the farmer's market is truly a sight of love.

Oreo+Batter+Fryer makes Chef Tony a full boy

Oreo cookies bring back fond memories for me. They were the first cookies I ate when my family and I immigrated to America. Every bite of these chocolatey cookies make think back of my childhood. Eating fried oreos is a guilty pleasure of mine. So simple yet so fulfilling.

Great Indian Cuisine

Like Indian food? Like spice? Like flavor?

Cotillion in Jericho, NY is the place to go for great Indian Cuisine.

The flavors of all their dishes are divine.

I highly recommend Cotillian for some good Indian dishes.

Fried Twinkie...yes fried.

If you are ever in Las Vegas, head over to the downtown/old Vegas area on Freemont street.

As seen on Bordain's: No Reservations, these fried twinkies are no joke.

Who cares if you're on a diet, try one of these! They are around $1.50.

10 out of 10.

All we needed was some milk.

Rack of Ribs

Theres nothing like a rack of ribs when you're craving them.

I just happend to be craving a rack of ribs while dining at Miller's Ale House in Deer Park, NY.

Obviously these weren't the most amazing ribs and fries I've ever eaten, but since I had a bad craving for them, they hit that perfect spot.

Oh and they were only $10 bucks that night.

I give this meal a 6/10.

Guiness

Everybody loves (or should) love a pint of Guiness, preferably warm

Enjoy.

Men. Want to impress the ladies?

Then learn to bake.  She'll be impressed you can cook a meal but she'll be blown away if you can whip up an awesome dessert.  You never know, dessert can lead to breakfast *wink wink*

Here's a dessert I whipped up for a lady friend of mine. Fig Tart, Vanilla Anglaise, Maple Ice Cream.