You see, one of the girls who live in the CoOp is OBSESSED with all things Disney. And a few days before this meal, she found out that she got into the Disney College program, which is absolutely amazing news because it’s both competitive and an incredible opportunity. So the CoOp Valentine’s Day dinner was Lady and the Tramp themed, which is kind of Valentine’s Day-ish… Right?

Meat Sauce and Regular Tomato Sauce
Spaghetti
Bone-shaped Garlic Sticks
Eggplant Parmesan
Spinach Salad

So this is how this lovely dinner went down. We started off by (what else?) chopping onions.

Yeah. We rocked it.

Dave, the master of all things saucey and improvised, was in charge of both sauces, starting with caramelized onions, canned tomatoes, and spices.

(According to Dave, a tablespoon of brown sugar will make any sauce taste better… It’s the secret to good sauce!). Dave never follows a recipe and throws whatever he feels like into a pot, but it ALWAYS turns out delicious.

This night was special because we tried out 2 pounds of grass-fed ground beef. A visiting dance professor at Hamilton actually provided it; he raises cows and sheep for meat only a half hour from campus, and he offered some of his meat for us to try before we actually start buying from him.

So we sauteed that with salt, pepper, and a little ground coffee (another secret!) and threw it into half of the spaghetti sauce (the other half was kept vegetarian).

While he was working on that, Pat and I set up an assembly line of eggplant breading.

I striped the eggplant,

then sliced them,

and then made an egg wash

and Italian breadcrumbs by taking regular breadcrumbs and throwing in parsley, garlic powder, pepper, and oregano.

We dipped the eggplants in the egg (haha), coated them in breadcrumbs, and parbaked them off for 5 minutes.

The bready eggplants were then layered with tomato sauce and cheddar cheese. It’s a little unusual, I know. But we were trying to shop as little as possible this past week in order to save money, so instead of buying mozzarella, we threw in some grated cheddar that we had bought in bulk.

It didn’t take too long to get the eggplant parms assembled, so once those were put together, I worked on the breadsticks.

The recipe called for flour, butter, herbs, salt, and olive oil, which were kneaded with yeast activated in warm water.

This is what yeast looks like when it’s alive and well, ready to do it’s leavening work.

After I kneaded the dough, it rose for one hour, and then I rolled it out and tied them into bone shapes (to go along with the Lady and the Tramp, you know?), and brushed them with olive oil mixed with herbs and Parmesan.

Coordinating the oven between the eggplant and the breadsticks was a little tricky… But we made it work, ending up with beautifully browned, cheesy casserole, and garlicky breadsticks.

Aww.. they’re so cute!

Once I cooked the spaghetti (which I tossed in olive oil to prevent stickage) and made the salad, we were good to go.

It’s the quintessential Italian-American meal. Except made cuter with the addition of the bone sticks.

Romantic? Maybe. Delicious? Indisputably so.

Valentine’s Day at the CoOp. We keep it real.

According to the meal plan and the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook, I was supposed to cook Eastern European food; a cuisine I am COMPLETELY unfamiliar with. What is Eastern European food anyways? Where’s Eastern Europe? Like, Eastern Eurasia? Or anywhere in Europe that’s not in the western half? Who? What? When?

So I Googled up a map and asked around to get a feel for where Eastern Europe was geographically. Aha… Those countries. The –ia’s (Latvia, Bosnia, Romania, etc.) and the other funny-sounding ones (at least in my mind). But really, what does anyone know about these countries?

There’s no use in trying to convince anyone that Eastern European food is wildly popular and delicious. Because no one will believe you. It seems that in Europe, the further you get away from the Atlantic Ocean, the less popular the country’s cuisine. In Spain, you have the famous paella, the citrus fruit, and other delicious seafood dishes; the British Isles, although mostly known for pub food, is shedding its reputation of boring, heavy eating and becoming more of a foodie hotspot; then of course France and Italy, which are the 2 gastronomical capitals of the world; and even Germany, with its spaetzle and bratwurst. But Ukraine? Poland? Bulgaria? What do people eat there? And seriously, what do people in Hungary do when they’re hungry (harhar..)?

To be honest, I didn’t know. And I still don’t know. So this dinner cook was especially challenging for me, because although I knew all the ingredients and how to cook them, in the end, I didn’t know what they actually looked like, or what they were supposed to taste like.

So I winged it. And it wasn’t half-bad.

Here’s the menu:

Trannsylvania Eggplant Casserole
Czechoslovakian Apple & Carrot Confetti
Creamy Hungarian Bean Soup
(Sorry there are no links to recipes this time around… all of these came from this Moosewood Cookbook.)

First things first: whenever you’re making dinner with beans in it, always start the beans first. They take the longest, and you need to take all the time you can get to make sure they’re fully cooked.

I started up our monster pressure-cooker, pouring in a 2:1 ration of water and kidney beans.

While the beans were cooking away, I prepped all the other vegetables for the soup.

Like onions (what else is new?).

Carrots.

Garlic (so. much. garlic!).

And leeks. Funny lookin’ things, aren’t they? They’re like giant scallions (i.e. green on the top, white on the bottom, mildly oniony in flavor).

A word of warning: leeks tend to have A LOT of dirt stuck in between the leaves, so you want to wash them extra-carefully. I go about doing this by slicing them down the middle.

Then cutting them into inch-long chunks and agitating them in cold water. After a while, all the dirt stuck in between the leaves will float to the bottom, leaving you with clean leek chunks and a bowl full of dirty water.

That’s how much dirt would be in your food if you didn’t wash it! Ewwww….

I sauteed the onions and the leeks for quite a while.. It took a long time for them to soften up. When they did, I added the garlic, the carrots, and the spices (i.e. salt, pepper, and paprika).

After cooking the spices into the vegetables for a bit, the cookbook said to add some flour to thicken up the soup. So I did.

Once the flour was cooked down, I added the now-cooked and tender kidney beans AND the bean water.

Not looking very pleasant… But I just let the soup simmer for the rest of the dinner cook, continuously tasting and seasoning the soup as I went.

In the meanwhile, the Trannsylvanian Eggplant dish was underway.

It started of with thinly sliced eggplant rounds that were oiled, salted, and peppered, then thrown into the oven for a couple minutes to precook it.

We also prepared a mushroom, onion, and tomato mixture for the casserole.

The eggplant and the mushrooms were then layered in between brown rice, cheddar, and egg, with a breadcrumb and parmesan cheese crust.

I know, it sounds a little weird. And it was a little weird. But in a good way. Except it was still a little weird because we put the casseroles with the raw eggs into the oven, BUT FORGOT TO TURN THE OVEN OFF. We did actually get to bake them, but only for 20ish minutes, and needless to say the eggs were runny and not quite fully cooked. But I swear it was alright.

Once the soup was done and the casseroles were in the oven, the dinner-cooks and I worked on the carrot-apple confetti, which was a sweet slaw mix of grated carrots, apples, dried cherries, and an OJ dressing.

Mmm.. a desserty side!

And the final, completed dinner looked like this:

Not the most attractive plate of food. But I bet it’s some of the most colorful plate of Eastern European food you’ve ever seen. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the flavor of any of these.. They were well-received, and I thought they were alright, but it wasn’t anything particularly exciting for the taste buds. And some might say that it’s because Eastern European food in general isn’t very good, but I’m inclined to say that it’s probably because I have no experience as to what it’s supposed to taste like. And I’m sure there are foods from Eastern Europe that are an absolute delight to eat. But If I’ve never tried food like this, how am I supposed to cook it, let alone make it taste good?

A serious gastronomical dilemma, my friends…

I am actually not exaggerating when I say that this night’s dinner was actually the hardest, most intense dinner cook in my personal CoOp experience.

Why was this week’s cooking so hard, you ask?

2 words: Homemade. Pasta.

It’s always labor/time-intensive. But it’s even more so when you’re making pasta for 28 people.

Here’s the menu for the night.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Onions
Gnocchi with Sage Butter Sauce
Spinach Salad with Pear, Dried Cherries, and Balsamic Vinagrette

Are you ready for this? Do you have your apron on? Hands are washed?

Ok. First things first: boil the water. Because on this day, I found out that it takes over half an hour to boil 4 gallons of water.

Next, wash the potatoes.

And then once the water’s boiling, plunk the potatoes in and cook them for 20~30 minutes, until they’re easily forkable.

While the potatoes are doin’ their thing, it’s best to work on other things.

Like peeling sweet potatoes. When you peel these (and you care about how they look after they’re cooked), make sure to peel to the 2nd layer of darker orange flesh. If you only peel to the pale orange layer, the sweet potatoes will get black spots when you cook them. But if you don’t care, then just go right on ahead and dice them up.

And the onions too.

And since you’re in the chopping mood, you might want to slice and toast some almonds.

Mix the 2 vegetables together in a roasting pan, and toss them olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and orange juice (the recipe says amaretto, but we didn’t have any of that, so I just added a little OJ to bring out the sweetness).

The almonds are going to get added after everything is done roasting. Cover the pans up with foil, bake at 400F for 30 minutes, then take of the foil and bake them for another 20 minutes.

While those are cooking, check on the potatoes to see if they’re fully cooked. If they are, drain them and let them cool – just enough so that you can handle them. You have to peel them, but the skins should come right off.

Once the taters are peeled, you have to rice them. A ricer is a huge funnel-looking thing with a grating at the bottom and a crank; it grates the potatoes really finely, while simultaneously aerating them. Unfortunately, the CoOp doesn’t have one of these, so I just grated them and then fluffed them with a fork.

Then I added the flour, eggs, and salt, and kneaded until the dough came together. The potatoes have a lot of water in them, so you might have to keep sprinkling flour in until the dough gets nice and elastic.

(This picture is of the dough when it’s still a little wet).

Once the dough is together, you’ll want to clear a counterspace, dust it and your hands with flour, and get started on making the gnocchi. Tear off a fist-sized chunk, and roll it lengthwise until it’s about a half-inch in diameter.

Remember doing this in kindergarten with Play-Dough? Yeah, you do. Little did you know that you’re modeling clay skills would be so useful one day.

Get a bench scraper and cut off inch-long pillows of fluffy potato pasta.

Once you have a line of gnocchi cut up, you want to create the gnocchi lines. Although there are gnocchi line-making tools out there, we did this by holding a fork backwards and rolling the gnocchi off the tongs, creating little ridges that’ll hold the sauce.

When there’s a good-sized batch of gnocchi made, dump them into a pot of water and cook them until they start floating to the surface.

Shock them in cold water to stop the gnocchi from cooking any further, and put them in a pan with a little olive oil (to prevent stickage) until you’re ready to add them to the sauce.

But of course, the sauce isn’t ready yet. While the whole gnocchi assembly line was in progress, the sage butter sauce is just getting started.

For the sauce, chop up a full bunch of sage..

And add it to a pan of melted butter with some finely minced garlic.

When the butter is almost done browning, the solids will turn brown, and there will be a mouth-watering, nutty aroma smell wafting from the pan. When that starts happening, throw in the cooked gnocchi and let it brown, adding some of the Parm and s&p.

(P.S. Do you guys like the red arrows and white labels?)

Mm.. Toss the little potato pillows around so they get evenly browned and well-coated with sage butteriness.

Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? But imagine doing this 3 times. While making the gnocchi. And the side dish. And the salad. Even with 3 people, it’s not easy.

But the result was delicious. So all the sweat, blood, and tears were worth it.

Yum.

Kudos to my fellow dinner-cooks Katrina and Jessie.

Because while this was the hardest dinner-cook yet, I also think it’s one of the most delicious.

Who wants to come over for dinner?

This semester, I’m taking a class called Women, Gender, and the Politics of Food.

I know. It’s perfect.

But what’s even better is that for the final project in this awesome class I can either a) write a 10 page paper, b) create a syllabus for the class, or c) keep a semester-long blog with food-related topics.

What. WHAAAT.

Can I elaborate how amazing this is? I can blog about my food-life for class credit. (Let’s move beyond the point that it’s taking me a class assignment to finally update this blog). All I need to do is write up 13-15 blog posts throughout the semester, and about half of them have to be done before spring break.

This is going to be great. You guys will finally be able to see what it’s like in the wonderful Hamilton institution called the Co-Op.

Alright. So this is how it’s going to go down.

In the Woolcott Cooperative (a.k.a. the Co-Op), 20 students live together and make all of their own food (except for lunch, when they can swipe into dining halls between classes). We buy all our own groceries, opting for local and organic as much as possible. Everyone does 5 hours of chores per week, and these range from 2.5 hours of dinner-cooks to 1 hour dinner-cleans and half -hour day swiffs. There are also jobs especially designated for bread-making, granola-making, and snack-making.

Usually everyone gets at least one dinner-cook a week. So this is what I’ve decided to do.

Every week, I will take pictures during my dinner-cook, and upload/blog about my dinner-cook experience here, on You Eatin’ Nice, in a somewhat standardized way. I will also have some random posts on bread-making or granola-making, or general food fun.

Exciting, right? Let’s get started.

Last night (Monday evening) was my first dinner-cook of this week. Here is the menu and the attached recipes.

Monday: Grilled Cheese Night (YEEESSSS!)
with this pesto recipe, this tomato soup recipe, and kale chips.

Now you have to understand; when you’re cooking in the Co-Op, you’re making dinner for (usually) 25 people, including guests. So the amount of food we have to make can get a little overwhelming, even with 3 dinner-cooks.

For example, here is the amount of cheese we bought in our last bulk order.

SO MUCH CHEDDAR. SO MUCH GRUYERE. Like, actually over a 100 pounds. Maybe even enough to make a cheese-Eunice.

And this is how much bread we bought for our grilled cheese night:

Loaves upon loaves upon loaves.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before any sandwiching could happen, we had to make the ingredients. Like the pesto.

Basil, parmesan, pine nuts, salt, pepper, and olive oil, all blended to taste. But basil isn’t too plentiful this time of year, so we supplemented with kale.

A little weird. But it was good. Trust me.

While the pesto was going, I got to work on the onions. Lots of onions.

Caramelizing some for the sandwich.

(30 minutes later…)

And dicing some for the soup.

The soup also involved minced garlic, veggie stock, these cans of tomatoes,

this tube of basil,

salt, pepper, olive oil, butter, thyme, red pepper flakes, and water.

That’s what it looked like when everything was mixed together.

While the soup was simmering on the stovetop, I also got to work on the kale chips.

Mmmm… Kale….

A mountain of kale. Actually.

This much kale makes for not-so-easy washing. But I managed.

And then I rubbed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and nutritional yeast.

These beautiful, curly leaves were then baked in a 350°F oven for 20ish minutes, until they looked like this:

Oooh, so crispy.

In the meantime, my fellow dinner-cooks were laboring away on the grilled cheese sandwiches.

Cheese was sliced.

The sandwiches were assembled.

(Some of them had apples slices – I know, it’s a bold move).

And the griddle was buttered, then used to cook the aforementioned sandwiches.

Mmm…

And after a labor-intensive, strenuous 2-and-a-half hours, we were rewarded with this:

Melted gruyere + cheddar + caramelized onions + pesto + apples = the most deliciousness. Seriously.

This dinner was well received, to say the least. Don’t you wish you were there?

Kudos to McKayla and Amanda for an amazing dinner cook last night.. Go Team Apron!

And guys, I’m cooing again on Sunday.. YEAH, double the weekly posts! Funfun.

I know there shouldn’t be an excuse for this past semester, but the truth is, there is. In school, it’s just too difficult to find time to maintain a blog. And with my enrollment into a studio art photography class, I wanted to take this semester off to really focus specifically on my photography, rather than snapping random photos of food. I know, I should’ve put up a short post about how I was going on hiatus. But I didn’t, and that’s my fault. Again, I’m sorry.

I wish I could show you how wonderful this semester has been for me. I’ve never felt more comfortable, more like I actually belong where I am now, and it’s the most wonderful feeling. The Co-Op, my photography class, Opus.. It’s been great. It truly has.

So here is a very belated post about this semester. Hopefully you’ll be able to see how a few months off of this blog has (kinda) improved my photos.

During this semester….

I learned to make bread.

And loved every single loaf I baked.
My housemates did too.

I went hiking, and fell even more in love with the outdoors.

One of my best Saturdays was spent rowing in the Adirondacks.

I went to the Glen more often, and loved running and taking pictures in it.

I saw my first double rainbow.

I befriended a Heffalump.

And made my first apple pie(s).

I also got into film photography,

and took the plunge to buy a medium-format TLR.

I decided that gingkos were my favorite trees because of their simple elegance and beautiful color.

I went potato-harvesting and cider-pressing for the first time ever.

And Opus, like last semester, was very good to me.

On top of everything, I made amazing friends who became almost like family to me.

So here I am, finished with first semester of sophomore year, unable to believe how fast time has passed. You know, one year ago I never would’ve believed it if someone told that I would someday come to love Hamilton. Who would’ve thunk, right?

But these past few months haven’t been without stress, and I am SO glad to be home and sleep my days away.

Guys, it’s been real.

P.S. While this blog has been somewhat dormant for the past few months, my Tumblr is still very much alive and active.

Riiiiight. Newport.

With all it’s beautiful views, stores, and waves (real and fake).

All of which just begged to be played in.

After our first Newport meal, my family spent the rest of the day exploring all that Newport had to offer.

We went to two of its many beaches.

You’ll see many pictures of my sister in this post… Just because she and my dad are the only ones that aren’t camera shy in my family.

We skipped rocks.

And played with kelp.

Once we felt that our toes were sufficiently sandy, my dad drove our family down the famous Ocean Drive: a 10 mile long drive that stretches along Newport’s coast.

It offers some of the most gorgeous views of the sea, and there are people frolicking along it everywhere. It’s also dotted with various parking lots, so hop out of your car and climb on the slabs of stone that lead all the way down to the water.

The sea was overwhelmingly huge, almost scary. You can’t help but feel miniscule when you’re surrounded by so much water.

One popular stop on both Ocean Drive and the Cliff Walk is the 40 Steps.

Literally 40 stone steps that will lead your right over the water.

Calynn met a dog there..

Although they had to part, all too soon.

We also bid our family goodbye, because Calynn and I decide to do the Cliff Walk and meet the rest of our family on the other side.

If you’re in Newport, GO ON THE CLIFF WALK.

Don’t fight it. Just do it. You’ll get some amazing panoramic views of the ocean, while surrounded by lush greenery.

Yeah, it’s 3.5 miles long. But there’s so much EXPLORING to do.

With little trails that dot the entire walk, offering opportunities to walk down right to the water.

And in the end, you’re greeted by the sight of people playing along one of Newport’s most popular beaches (which I clearly do not remember the name of).

All this frolicking took it out me and Calynn. So we rested for the rest of the evening.

That is, until it was time to EAT.

The convenient thing about Newport is that almost everything is in walking distance.

So walk we did.

Until we got to… a hoity-toity, semi-fancy restaurant.

Which I do not remember the name of…

AHAHAHHAHAHAHA.

Sorry, that’s not funny. That’s an extreme fail on my part. But for the life of me, I do not remember this restaurant’s name.

I hope this picture of my sister and my dad makes up for it.

No? Hmm. Well, I do remember they had this really good dinner deal where you can get any entrée and a bottle of wine for $34.

Of course, we didn’t want any more than 2 bottles of wine; we ended up getting 2 of the $34 deal, and each of person in my family ordered either an entrée or 2 appetizers.

Of course, we started off with bread. The bread was.. bready. Nothing to write home about. It would’ve been nicer if it had been warmed a bit…

An appetizer that we got to share was an Oysters Rockefeller; cheesy, warm, briney and slippery, all at the same time, these spinach-topped shellfish were gone in one bite.

Our other shellfish dish was mussels in a white wine sauce, with a slice of grilled bread on top. Similar to the one we had at the Village Green, but without the unappetizing odor.

My mom (being her usual, carb-loving self) got the seafood pasta with white sauce. There were lots of clams chunks, both in and out of shells, which my mother approved of. And yet, my dream of eating fresh, house-made pasta remains unfulfilled…

My grandpa’s entrée consisted of grilled chicken breast and mashed potatoes. Normally dry and flavorless, according to my grandpa this chicken was well-cooked and surprisingly tender.

My sister and I both opted for 2 appetizers instead of 1 entrée. We Choi sisters like variety, you see.

Calynn’s French Onion soup was decadent and cheesy, served in a small bowl filled with piping-hot beef broth and caramelized onions. Rich? Yes. Delicious? Apparently, because Calynn finished her entire bowl.

Her other appetizer was a shrimp dish; not exactly a huge portion, but Calynn was generous enough to share. The shrimps weren’t cooked to rubber, as they so often are. Instead they were springy and delicious, and the sauce complimented them well.

My first appetizer was a wild mushroom ravioli, with blue cheese sauce and fried spinach on top. This dish was a little disappointing – although the sauce and the filling were good, the ravioli were definitely undercooked. Booo…

My grilled romaine salad on the hand was EXCELLENT. Grilled romaine? Yes, grilled romaine! This is not a mythical salad that exists only in vegetarians’ dreams. The greens were just slightly wilted; they had a lovely charred flavor but still maintained their integrity as lettuce. The creamy salsa dressing and the tortilla strips took this into the realm of Southwestern cuisine, and gave the whole thing much-appreciated flavor.

Now there were other entrees that arrived for my grandma and dad (sole and steak, respectively), but the lighting was really bad at this point and I deemed those pictures unfit for this blog. So you’ll just have to image them in your head.

I apologize that this blog has been a little lacking in details today… This is what you get for writing a post 3 weeks after the actual event took place. But you’ve still got another full day of Newport-ing to read about, so… yay?

Well, folks. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve put up a post. The truth is, I’ve been busy.

I know. Shocking, right? Because all summer, I’ve been talking about how much time I have on my hands.

But I have a job now, and as awesome as it is (getting paid to take pictures of food? YES!) it takes up a considerable amount of my free time. And now that I take/edit pictures at work, I don’t really feel like doing it at home…

Terrible excuse, I know. But that’s how it’s been.

But instead of dwelling on the negative, I’ll share on a family vay-cay that we took with our grandparents a few weeks ago.

Destination?

The beautiful city of Newport, RI.

Ok, first of all, why did no one tell me how gorgeous Newport is? IT’S SO PRETTY. THE WAVES. THE ROCKS. THE SEA. THE MANSIONS. All so, so beautiful.

And the seafood. Don’t even get me started on the seafood.

Like at Benjamin’s. To be honest, this isn’t even THAT great of a restaurant.

It’s an average seafood place, with a really good lunch deal. But at Newport, even average seafood is pretty darn good.

On weekdays, you can get a salad, a bowl of chowder, and a lobster for just $16.

Dang.

It’s such a good deal that most of my family ordered the prix fixe lunch.

To drink, my dad got the local brew: a Newport Storm. Apparently, it’s pretty popular around these parts.

The salad came with a ranch dressing, and although not particularly large, it had a good assortment of veggies. Look at those cute little pear tomatoes!

And here is our first true taste of New England. The clam chowder was on the thin side, but it had a good deal of yummy clam chunks in it.

And of course, you gotta put oyster crackers in the chowder. Crushed or whole, it just has to be done.

My dad also ordered a pair of oysters, even though it wasn’t oyster season. They were pretty good, but I can only imagine how good they would be if they were in season. Mmmm, juicy oyster flesh…

The lunch menu came with a good-sized lobster (1.25 pounder), that was simply boiled, but its freshness made it really good.

I think the restaurant purposely picks female oysters, because all of the lobsters ALL had roe. That can’t be a coincidence…

Lobster roe is weirdly rubbery… Not nearly as good as crab roe. But my dad ate it all anyways.

Calynn ordered the mac n’ cheese, with chunks of lobster and blue cheese embedded within it’s creamy, noodley depths. It was a pretty heavy dish, and Calynn said that it was a little too rich for her taste.

My entrée was a piece of broiled swordfish with asparagus on the side. The asparagus were overseasoned (SO SALTYY), but the fish was delicately flaky and moist. I thought the crust on top was breadcrumbs, but after tasting it, I think it was crushed oyster crackers.. Clever use of a local favorite, I guess.

After our lunch, we walked right down the street to a candy/ice cream store for a midday dessert.

It was a cute store, but there was so. Much. Sugar. I think I got hyper just looking at all the candy.

Seemed like fudge and caramel (or a combination of the two) were the store’s most popular items, as was the ice cream. We got a cup of mocha chip ice cream to share among all 6 of us – after all, we were pretttttty full.

It was pretty average ice cream. Nothin’ too special, but it did help satisfy our sweet teeth.

We took our ice cream to-go, and ate it while exploring the many stores in Newport. They’ve got everything from restaurants, souvenir stores, cafes, brand names….

And of course, seafood.

Aquidneck Lobster Company is one of biggest and most popular seafood markets in Newport. It’s been open since 1957, has a huge variety of seafood, most of which was caught that morning.

We walked into a giant warehouse, and were met with tubs and tubs of lobsters, flounder, bass, and crabs that were swimming and very much alive.

As tempting as it was, my family didn’t buy anything since we had just eaten lunch. Instead, we headed out the other side of the market, spending our time relaxing on the deck while facing the sea and the yachts.

The rest of our day was spent walking along the beach and the famous Cliff Walk. The scenery is absolutely beautiful, but that’ll be on the next post.

I’m back from work and kinda tired… But I’ll get these posts up before I go to school. Probably…

Benjamin’s Raw Bar
254 Thames Street
Newport, RI 02840

Aquidneck Lobster Co.
Bowen’s Wharf
Newport, RI 02840

This is a historical moment in their lives! My grandparents had never seen or stepped on an American campus before. So the fact that they got to tour Hamilton College this visit meant a lot to me.

And I am not bragging at all when I say that Hamilton is a BEEYOOTIFUL campus. Seriously, it is, especially when it’s not covered in snow (but honestly, all that white makes the school quite stunning). The grass was green, the flowers were blooming, and everything was lush and full of the growth.

But before we could embark on our Hamilton adventure, we stopped by one of the local restaurants for lunch. Nola’s is probably the nicest restaurant in the tiny village of Clinton, and I’ve been waiting for a good reason to go there.

So a family vacation to my school? Yeah, that’ll do.

Located in the town square in “downtown” Clinton, Nola’s serves seasonal and local New American food, with a different special everyday (you gotta check out their Facebook page to be in the know!).

They’ve also got a bar where they serve various wines and beers, several of them made right in the Mohawk Valley.

A bottle of which my dad felt most obligated to try.

Saranac Brewery is located right in Utica, only a 20-minute drive from my school. They make a series of core beers that they offer year-round and seasonal beers that change with well, the season. They’re really popular around the area and if you’re 21 and over, you can take the brewery tour and sample their beer, but since I’m a long 3 years from reaching that age, my dad settled with trying the Saranac Pale Ale at Nola’s this time around.

It’s so cool how beer can be every bit as artisanal as wine; Nola’s was also serving the Pomegranate Wheat beer, but my dad settled with this one. He said it was COMPLETELY different from the Japanese beer he usually drinks; a lot heavier and a thicker mouthfeel.

Now Nola’s lunch menu consists mainly of soups, salads and sandwiches, and you can get a combo with a half sandwich and a cup of soup or a small salad. And as basic and average as that sounds, they do soups and sandwiches (we didn’t try any salads) WELL. There’s a reason this place is so popular around here!

My mom got the Tuna Deli Sandwich with the Soup of the Day, which was a Roasted Red Pepper and Crab Bisque. The soup was on the thin side, but with an amazing, fresh tomatoey-ness and crab flavor. My entire family all loved the soup, even though there weren’t any actual chunks of crab meat in it. My mom also liked her tuna sandwich, although she didn’t rave about it.

My grandma also got the soup-sandwich combo, except she chose the Grilled Cheese and Ham Deli Sandwich. She said it was good, and really filling, which I guess is a compliment for a half-sandwich… right?

My grandpa and my dad got the same thing – the Sirloin Steak Sandwich with roasted garlic cream cheese, sautéed onion, and blue cheese. The only difference was that my grandpa got the combo, so his portion was smaller and came with a bowl of soup.

Both my grandpa and my dad LOVED this sandwich. My dad kept mentioning what an awesome idea it was to eat at Nola’s that day. The only thing my dad didn’t like about the sandwich was the cheese – he thought it was a little funky, although my grandpa didn’t seem to have a problem with it. Still, he finished all of his meat, saying it was SO delicious and tender.

Nola’s has a few vegetarian options on there menu, and I chose the most classic one: the Veggie Wrap with sautéed spinach, onion, mushroom, red peppers, and tomatoes with chevre. Yeah, yeah it’s the most generic and stereotypical veg meal, but I’ve been on a goat cheese kick lately, and I was craving this. I thought the portion was pretty small, but it was actually really filling; chock full o’ well-seasoned veggies and delicious goat cheese, I savored every bite. My only quip was that the vegetables let out a lot of liquid, resulting in some juice running down my hands, but that’s to be expected.

Another little thing that made the Nola’s experience so good for us was that each dish came with its each little pile of HOME-FRIED potato chips! Unbelievably crunchy, these were a whole lot heartier and yummier than chips-in-a-bag. They were a little underseasoned, but a quick dab of ketchup remedied that.

I was kind of looking forward to dessert, but my dad asked for the check before the waitress gave us the dessert menu (now I won’t ever know if they even HAVE a dessert menu!). So in the end, we left without a sweet, last bite, but regardless our stomachs were extremely happy when we walked out. I think my dad is looking forward to coming here  and trying out the dinner menu the next time he drives me up to Hamilton.

After our meal, we drove up the hill for a personal tour led by yours truly. Here are a few happy pictures from our campus walk.

There was some dorm-viewing.

Some teaching.

Some learning.

And some rock-swinging.

Later on, Hamilton gear was purchased.

And the Glen was explored.

It was awesome because:

1) We all got some quality family time.

2) It was cooler up north in central NY than in Jersey (this was the 100° F day last week).

3) I found out that school in the summer isn’t that bad after all! :D

These pictures are nowhere near doing justice to the beautiful school that is Hamilton College. My grandparents were in awe of the campus, constantly commenting on how big it was and how many trees there were, how nice the facilities were. This almost makes me want to go back to school…

And once again, I’m re-reviewing a place I’ve blogged about before.

Umeya.

I kid you not, this is the restaurant that offers the best Japanese-style sushi in this area.

No fusion. No fancy gimmicks. Just sushi, done extremely well by hard-working chefs. There’s even a page on the back of the menu that shows you how to properly eat sushi.

Use regular (not low-sodium soy sauce). Not all sushi needs wasabi. Miso soup is drunk straight from the bowl, without a spoon.

And nigiri should be lightly dipped in soy sauce fish side-down, so the flavor of the fish isn’t overpowered by saltiness.

Just being in Umeya makes you feel like you should use proper sushi etiquette.

My dad agrees wholeheartedly. And for him, that means starting off with a bottle of good sake.

Then eating a fish head.

Don’t be grossed out. It looks disturbing, but the head is actually the richest and most delicious part of the fish – it’s actually a delicacy in many countries.

And in my family. The Tai Kabut0-ni was devoured in a few seconds amongst the 6 of us. The sauce was sweeter than I thought it’d be, but helped cut through the fish’s oiliness. We only a got a few bites each, but this was just a starter!

You know, to get our brain-juices flowing and help us decide what to order.

I guess everyone were feeling the same brainwaves that day, because everyone except me (that is, my grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and sister) got the Sushi Omakase, the chef’s choice of various sushi.

And I, being the different and unique individual that I am, got the Healthy Choice prix fixe. Yeah, the same thing as I got last time – it’s a good deal!

Everyone started off with the House Salad. Might not look like much, but this little bowl seriously has the best the salad dressing I’ve ever eaten. HOW DO THEY MAKE ITTTT???

My 2nd appetizer was the Agedashi Tofu. Super-soft tofu, fried and soaking in broth with mushrooms and bonito flakes, this was just as good as the last time I had it and savory in all sorts of good ways.

The sashimi part of my prix fixe included several slices of the more popular fish: salmon, tuna, white tuna, and halibut. The white tuna was my favorite – it’s not very traditional of me, but I love the contrast between the seared outside and soft, raw inside.

While I was eating my sushi, everyone else’s main course arrived at the table.

Ta-dah!

This square plate is filled with more sushi than a normal can possibly eat in one sitting. But because my entire family are sushi lovers, everyone ate everything on their plates (and then some).

The awesome thing about the omakase is the sheer VARIETY of sushi. Salmon, tuna, toro, tamago, uni, squid, eel… It’s a huge selection of nigiri JUST for you.

Soon after my family started working on their omakases, the waitress came with my sushi plate.

Similar to the omakase, but with less variety, this was a standard plate of nigiri and maki. But the rice at Umeya really makes the sushi – it’s springy and separate, yet somehow holds its shape… When you eat it, you can definitely taste the difference between the properly-made rice here, and the gummy mess you oftentimes get at other restaurants.

Slowly but surely, my family ate our way through the overwhelming amount of sushi. You might say that it doesn’t look like much, but trust me, IT IS.

And since I had gotten the set menu, I had to take on the burden of eating this ice cream as well.

Desserts aren’t Umeya’s forte, but as far as matcha ice cream goes, this one was decent. I shared it with everyone and they all seemed to like it (maybe because I fed it to them? :D). It was a little hard at first, but thawed out to a nice smoothness with an ok green tea flavor.

So… That might’ve been pretty boring and repetitive.. Sorry…

But this blog isn’t just a way to show you the nice places I’ve been at. It’s also serves as a way for me to document my photography, so hopefully this wasn’t a COMPLETE waste of time or webspace.

Oh, and I’m going on a family vaycay to NEWPORT, RI this Thursday! WOOOT! Lots of pictures of seafood and beaches will be coming your way!

P.S. I changed my theme!! It’s about time, too. I think it’s opener and freer. ME GUSTA. How do you guys like it?

Umeya
156 Piermont Rd.
Cresskill, NJ
07628

Restaurant Week is a double-edged sword. It really is.

Sure, you can get amazing deals at high-class restaurants, paying half of what you normally would for a 3-course meal at these kinds of places. But at the same time, a RW menu could be a terrible sample of a restaurant’s true potential, compromising flavor and quality of the food for the hoards of people that flock to New York City eateries during these 2 weeks.

So whenever Restaurant Week rolls around, make sure that you choose your dining institution wisely. Check out the RW menu, look up some online reviews, and decide whether eating there is worth it or if you can get a similarly-priced deal on a prix-fixe menu on any non-RW day. You know, all that good food-nerdy stuff.

Euna and I completed all of the above and more, and we both came up with a handful of places we wanted to go to. We obviously couldn’t go to all of them on our not-so-plentiful college student budgets, so we narrowed our choices down a bit and finally decided on Jean-Georges Vongeritchen’s Spice Market.

Spice Market is the more exotic of Jean-Georges’ restaurants (others include the French-inspired Jean-Georges or the farm-to-table ABC Kitchen), taking inspiration from the many street foods Chef Vongeritchen has eaten on his travels to Asia.

The menu sounded interesting and the flavors exciting, and I’ve always wanted to try fusion food done well. So off we went to Spice Market!

Unfortunately, Euna couldn’t make our lunch date because of bothersome summer cold :(, so our mutual friend Ji-Sun ended up being my dining companion that day.

Alright, so as you can see by the pictures above, Spice Market is absolutely STUNNING on the inside. Huge doors and windows give the place a very open-air feel, and the entire restaurant is designed to make you feel like you’re somewhere in Southeast Asia with lots of aged wood, paper lanterns, and low, comfy chairs. Even the waiters and waitress are dressed in loose, orange and vaguely Asian clothing that kind of reminded me of pajamas…

But the other thing that immediately caught my eyes was…

THE WATER BOTTLE JACKET. You know you’re in a nice restaurant when your bottled water has its own HOME.

Ji-sun had read a lot of good stuff about the house-made sodas here, so she got the Fresh Ginger Ale.

This wasn’t your normal Schweppe’s ginger ale – the freshly ground ginger gave this drink a kick that left a lingering heat in your throat, even with all the ice. It also had that slightly salty taste you get from club soda, but not so much once you mixed the syrup in.

Before our meal officially began, our waiter brought us an amuse bouche of airy lentil chips with a spicy sauce. I didn’t catch what the sauce was made of, but it was surprisingly delicious, a perfect complement to the delicate, salty chips.

For our first course, Ji-sun got the Spiced Chicken Samosas with Cilantro Yogurt.

These plump triangles were filled with ground chicken and spices, with a taste reminiscent of Indian curry. The delicate shells gave the samosas a perfect crunch, and although these didn’t any more seasoning, they went excellently with the green sauce.

My appetizer was the Spicy Thai Slaw with Asian Pear, Crispy Shallots, and Mint. What a gorgeous salad, right? Good but not amazing, the slaw tasted mainly of vinegar with a few bites of mint in-between. The veggies ended up getting soggy towards the bottom of the bowl as well… Maybe this was just a problem of too much dressing?

Ji-Sun got the Chili Garlic Egg Noodles with Thai Basil and Mint as her main course. The noodles had an odd texture, as if they were a little too al-dente, but the flavors were good and we enjoyed this bowl together.

However, my Pollack with Malaysian Chili Sauce and Thai Basil store the show. WOW, this was good in all the right ways! The outside was deliciously crispy, while the other side of the white fish was beautifully cooked and flaky-tender. The sauce was spicy and sweet, similar to the coulis that was served alongside the salmon I had at the Village Green. I was sad to see the serving was so small though…

But that was probably a good thing, because it gave us room for DESSERT!

Ji-sun’s dessert was the Ovaltine Kulfi with Caramelized Banana and Spiced Milk Chocolate Sauce. Ovaltine is a malted chocolate powder that you mix with milk, and it was originally developed in Switzerland. Kulfi is an Indian-style ice cream, so put them together and you get a dense, fudgy log of chilled chocolate. This was really sweet, but trust me, that does not mean this wasn’t delicious.

There seems to be 2 kinds of people when it comes to coconut – coconut lovers and coconut haters. I am proud to admit that I’m on the “lover” side. So when I saw the Coconut Cake with Salted Caramel and Guava Ice Cream on the RW menu, I knew that this dessert and my mouth were meant to be. And even you coconut-haters out there have to admit this sounds (and looks) delicious. Covered in toasted coconut, with layers of cake and coconut cream, this was an indulgent dessert, but not as sweet as it sounds. The guava ice cream was vaguely reminiscent of strawberry ice cream and offered this dessert a refreshingly cold note.

Our desserts were a sweet ending to a delicious bargain meal. Sad to say, Summer Restaurant Week is over (yeah, I was kind of slow on putting this post up…) but hopefully this inspires you guys to go out of your way and eat at restaurants that would otherwise be out of your budget. Many restaurants offer year-round lunch prix-fixes that are about the same price as the RW deal; plus, there’s always the Winter Restaurant Week to look forward to!

Spice Market
403 West 13th Street
Meatpacking District
New York, NY 10014