Celery, Pear & Hazenut Salad

On Sunday, I decided to host a small dinner for my two college buddies D & M, both who I haven't seen in ages. M used to be my roommate, but now resides in SF and happened to be in town for business this week. We weren't able to get together last Friday for lunch, which is why I was able to go with S to ENJB, so we made an alternate food date. She also invited D, a mutual friend from school. D just recently got engaged (congratulations!) Her gorgeous ring almost needed its own seat at the table. :P

Sake Bar Hagi

Sake Bar Hagi is one of my favorite not-so-well kept secrets (I love telling people about this place and I hate telling people about this place). For me, it is probably the ONLY restaurant worth going to around Times Square.

EN Japanese Brasserie

EN Japanese Brasserie began their lunch service three months ago and would advertise the menu in my office building's lobby. So every day coming into work, I would walk by it and predictably do a double take on the words: CRISPY FRIED CHICKEN. Well finally today, I got the chance to check it out with my good friend S. We practically had the entire front of the restaurant to ourselves, which made it quite a zen-like experience. I ordered the Unadon (grilled eel over rice, served with mizuna and watercress salad w/ ponzu dressing and housemade miso soup) for $13 and a side of Buta Bara to Renkon no Kinpira (thinly sliced pork belly & sauteed lotus root) for $5. S ordered the Crispy Fried Chicken (served with the same salad, freshly made tofu with wari joyu, chef's selection of obanzai & oshinko, steamed white rice and miso soup) for $13. While I thoroughly enjoyed my unadon and pork belly and lotus root, I was quite covetous of S's lunch set's presentation and variety. Fortunately, she was kind enough to let me sample everything on her plate. It was a great way to end an otherwise dreary (and rainy) Friday.

Comfort Food

I have been quite busy over the last couple of weeks and have really missed cooking with B. So this weekend we made it a point to go all out with a "Southern Comfort" dinner that consisted of chicken fried steak, diced potato gravy, spicy macaroni and cheese, and creamed spinach topped with fried onions. Intense right? The meal, or at least the protein of choice, was B's idea. He caught the end of a Cooking for Real episode with Sunny Anderson on the Food Network and was totally sold on making some chicken fried steak. I naively thought that it was just another form of chicken...

Taste of Success

A few weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the 3rd annual Taste of Success, a tasting fundraiser held by Street Wise Partners that featured over 30 food, beverage, and media partners from around the city. There was something for everybody at this event, as you can probably see from the photos above. I particularly enjoyed the sake table, presented by my favorite sake guru Monica Samuels. The Jokigen Junmai Ginjo was my favorite. Luke's Lobster's shrimp rolls were also a delight. While I munched, I chatted with Stephen Fried of Beyond the Dish about his show and also hung out with my dear friends The Remixologists, who volunteered to "get the party started."

More pics can be found here.