Shrimp with roasted garlic pesto pasta & my favorite beverage bottle

I've made this dish before and liked it so I am making this again. This is a recipe from Sunny Anderson from Food Network. She is one of my favorite food network star. (Click here for the previous post of this pasta dish) 

This is very easy pest with cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil and parmesan cheese. Plese click here for her recipe of this pasta on Food Network site.

I was supposed to use Linguine but I did not have them at home so I used thick spaghetti for this and I used frozen shrimp which I had in my freezer. This is very easy but super tasty. I know I will be repeating this recipe again!

Today, I would like to show you an item which I love recently and use everyday. It is hot & cold beverage bottle (canteen?). I am not sure how you call this but this is how it looks.

This is very popular type of canteen in Japan. It can be used for hot or cold beverage. I have seen a lot of  mug cup type bottles here in the U.S. but I like this one which has lid and you can use the lid as you cup.  This really keep the hot drinks hot for a long time.

I used to have this kind of canteen when I was a little but I hadn't thought about it for a long time until I read Japanese popular book called "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami. It is also translated into English. (He is a very popular Japanese writer and his stories are kind of strange but I like the way he write) Well, one of the character in this book is Mr. Nakata. He is a middle aged guy who can talk with cat. Anyway, he always carry these beverage canteen with tea in it everywhere he goes.

When I read about it, I wanted to do the same thing and now I bring this canteen everywhere I go. Even inside the house. I will carry it in front of computer when I am working on something, I bring it to the desk when I study, I bring it to the coffee table when i sit on sofa and read. Of course I can bring it outside when I go for a walk, when I go to the city (manhattan), when I drive. I mean wherever I go, I can bring this with me  and enjoy my favorite drink wherever I go.

I forgot about how useful and fun to bring this bottles to places. This is also environmentally friendly, I would say. I feel joy when I pour my favorite hot drinks in this tiny lid cup and drink it in a cold place. It makes me very happy. This is a simple happiness in life. I recommend this to everyone :-)

Salmon Dinner & Sad news about J.D. Saliger

As I always do, every time when I go to Costco I buy roasted chicken and make homemade chicken stock and also I buy salmon and make this salmon dish. I just use half of the salmon I bought and froze the other half. This is just boiled in a oven and sprinkle with scallions and sesames and soy sauce based sauce was poured over. My husband does not love fish but he really like this salmon dish. This is so easy to make and it makes me happy to see his happy face :-)

I wrote this many times and you might be sick of hearing this but Costco's salmon is pretty good in quality and very reasonable price. It is pretty big so I use half of them at one time.

Look at this beautiful salmon!

Just broiled in the oven and pour over some soy sauce based sauce.

Since I am Japanese, I have to eat salmon with rice :-)

Today, I would like to show my husband's favorite kitchen tool. It is a lemon squeezer. We have seen this on some cooking shows and he always said "Oh, we should buy this lemon squeezer!". Last December, we went to a Cuban cooking class together, (Click here for that post) he used this lemon squeezer in order to squeeze 40 limes for mojitos. He loved it and he has been talking about it since then. We found it at the store the other day so decided to purchase it. This is it. Ta-da~.

You might have one of these already. I always squeezed lemon with my hands so I did not even think about getting this tool for it. To be honest, I had not used yet. My husband tried it yesterday and he was pretty happy with the result. Even requested me to take a photo and share it with the world. He was really happy about it but after everything was done he said "Well, if there is one weakness for this lemon squeezer, it must be that you don't get the lemon smell on your hand after squeezing the lemon"

So if you don't mind not having a wonderful lemon smell on your hand after squeezing lemon, my husband highly recommend this tool.


Anyway, I read on twitter today that J.D. Salinger passed away at the age of 91. He is famous for his books such as "Catcher in the Rye" or "Nine stories". I am sure that many people read his book in school. He is one of my favorite writer. A few years ago, Japanese famous writer Haruki Murakami did a new translation for this book in Japan. I read the original translation but I was juts thinking about reading Haruki Murakami's translated version.

One things which is interesting about reading books or watching movies are that depends on when you read or watch the story, your reaction is quite different. The book you read in junior high and did not like might give you a different impression when you read it 10 years later. It makes a big difference depends on where you are in your life and what you are feeling at that specific moment.

 I remember when I watched a movie (well, it was originally a novel but) "Stand by me"for the first time, I did not understand why it was so popular. I thought maybe it is because River Phoenix is in it. However, I watched the same movie after a few years and I totally loved it. I was so surprised with my reaction.

Same thing can be said to Saliger's book. When I first read "Nine Stories". I did not understand it and did not know if I like it or not but when I read it again 5~6 years later, I found it very interesting and clever and loved it. When I read about his news today, it made me want to read "The Nine Stories" again.

Homemade Chicken noodle soup and My favorite Yogurt "Fage"

Some of you might know already that I make my own chicken stock whenever I buy or make roasted chicken. If you would like to see how I make it, click here.

I made chicken stock again last weekend so yesterday I made chicken noodle soup from this chicken stock.
This soup is very popular in the U.S. especially when you are sick. In Japan, we often eat rice porridge when we are sick. I like Chicken noodle soup even when I am not sick because it is simple and light.

My Chicken noodle soup is very simple, I just add carrots, celery, chicken and egg noodle. Sometimes, I don't even add chicken in it but with the homemade chicken stock, it taste really good even without chicken in it. Seasoning is just little bit of salt. I don't add salt when I make chicken stock so I can adjust when I cook.

Today, I would like to show you my favorite yogurt. It is called "Fage" (pronounced "Fa-Yeh". that's what it said in the package) It is very thick and creamy greek yogurt. If you live in the U.S., I am sure that you've seen them at your local supermarket. It is getting pretty popular.

I never really was keen on yogurt until I eat this yogurt. This is totally changed my concept of yogurt. It is super thick and creamy and rich. I eat this as a dessert. Usually, we buy honey and strawberry. My husband love honey one and I like strawberry one. But both of them are really good. Honey and strawberry are packages separately so you can either mix them all and eat or scoop little bit of strawberry and yogurt and eat as you can see below.

I like eating this way.

This yogurt is just so good. It is totally different from the yogurt which I grew up with. I wonder if this is really common yogurt in Greece. I never been to Greece so I am not sure but if you have eaten yogurt in Greece, let me know if all the yogurt in Greece is rich like this.

If you see this yogurt, please try it once. If you like yogurt, you would love it and even if you don't like yogurt, I think you would like it! I know you can find them in a local supermarket in the U.S. but I am not sure about other areas in the world. I checked Japan but it seems like it is a bit difficult to buy this kind of yogurt in Japan. I hope you will find them at your local supermarket :-)

I found in Amazon also :-) Though, it seems like they only have plain...

I have been to Greek Restaurant but I have never been to Greece. That will be one of the place I would like to visit someday. I love Greek food. They have good seafood and also Moussaka. I will try making Moussaka at home sometime. (Even tough there is one person in my household who does not like eggplant too much....) 

Shortbread cookie dipped in chocolate

I love shortbread cookie! I love it even more when it is dipped in a chocolate :-) I saw a picture of chocolate dipped shortbread cookie on someone's blog and couldn't help but bake for myself a few.

I used recipe from Food Newtwork's Ina Garten. Click here for her Shortbread Cookie recipe.

I was supposed to use cookie cutter for this but I did not have rectangle shaped cookie cutter. I decided to just cut them with knife.

I always have problem rolling the dough. It is so difficult for me to roll the dough. This time was not exception. I tried it and ended up rolling too thin because I was so focused on rolling without breaking and I forgot about how think it should be.

I put the dough together again to roll it out again. But it was difficult to put the dough together. It was flaky and did not stick together. I managed to put them back together and rolled it out again and was able to roll out into a desirable thickness.

I cut them with knife and put them in the oven. This is how it came out.

I know. The size and shapes of the cookies are not all same. Well, that is why you need cookie cutter.

I cooled them and covered with some melted chocolate.

Despite the shape and the size, the taste was excellent. I love the buttery shortbread cookie by itself but it is even better with dipped in chocolate! If I am going to eat something sweet, I might as well make it super good and eat just a little of it.

The recipe was for 20 cookies so I made half of it thinking that it will be 10 cookies. For some strange reason, I ended up with about 20 cookies. Strange...

Anyway, since I have lots of cookies and I don't want to eat them all by myself, I brought them to my next door neighbor. She was so happy. She even joked "Wow, It seem like I am getting something everyday. I wonder what it will be tomorrow!" I am happy that she like my sweets.

If I can make this in better size and shape and wrap them in a nice box, this will be a great gift also. I think I need rectangle shaped cookie cutter....

Turkish Cuisine & World of Pandora (Avatar 3D)

  
Ever since I read in the news about people who get depressed after watching Avatar 3D, I wanted to go see it again. This time in 3D. I like the movie when I watched it for the first time but since it was not 3D, it did not really feel like you are in Pandora.

My wish came true last weekend and I went to see Avatar 3D with my husband. I was a bit hesitant to ask him if he wanted to go see it again because we watched it already and I thought maybe he does not watch it again. To my surprise, my husband told me that he was thinking about same thing since his friend told him that he should watch it in 3D. I am glad that we think alike and our opinion matched :-)

Maybe lots of couples have this kind of stuff but it seems like we think alike often times and also we have a similar dreams sometimes during sleep. 

Anyway, Avatar 3D was definitely much better. I did not feel like moving to Pandora or anything like that but the forest scenes were beautiful with all those things flying around you. 

Speaking of 3D, I remembered that I used to own this 3D book about stars and space. It came with a 3D glasses and it feels like all the starts are coming out of the book.  I loved this book so much. So I was telling my husband about this and he told me that he also had a 3D book when he was a little. His book was "Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtle" He told me that his father bought it for him from the U.S. when he was on business trip and my husband was so excited to have this book. 

Well, after the movie, we went to a Turkish restaurant. Ever since I watched Anthony Boudain's "No Reservations, Turkey" I was craving for Turkish food. 

First, we god freshly baked bread with butter and cheese. (I think this cheese was goat cheese)

We had falafel for appetizer since my husband and I both love Falafel. This Falafel was not so great. 

For main, I ordered Kofte Kebab which is ground lamb kebab. I normally don't like lamb too much but I like it when it is ground. It was juicy and well seasoned and really good!

My husband had Chicken Kebab. This was also really good. Super tender and juicy. I wonder how they make it so Tender and Juicy. 

I had Turkish tea after the dinner. This tea was also really good. (I forgot to take a picture). I don't know why but it tasted really good. Is it just in my head? or is this tea something different from regular tea? Maybe the way they brew it is different. Maybe they use special tea leaves from Turkey. I don't know. It was super good! 

So I had a great great day. These simple pleasures make me a happiest person in the world. 

Oh, by the way, of course the food was too big for us so we brought them home and had it next day! 

Happy 101 Blog award

 I have received yet another award from my blogger friend Catherine from Living the Gourmet. It is very nice of her to think of my blog for this award. This is my 3rd award this year! Thanks :-)

Here is how it works.

There are four rules for this award:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!

So here is 10 things that make me happy :-) 

1. My husband 

2. My family and friends who are all over the world

3. Eating/Cooking/Thinking something delicious to eat

4. This blog

5. grocery shopping

6. Sunny Warm weather

7. Seeing vegetable grow in my garden 

8. reading a good book 

9. watching a good movie (with popcorn)

10. meeting people who are genuinely nice to other people

Well, there are so many other things which makes me happy but those are the things I just thought about. 

Anyway, I would like to give this award to following three blogs which I like. 

Lynda from Food, Fun & Farm Life in East Africa

Emi from Emi's Cooking Diary

Camenberu from Camenberu.com

I hope everyday enjoy above blogs as much as I do. Thanks! 

Tried to bake Magnolia's Vanilla cupcake!

My challenge for becoming a better baker is continuing. This time, I tried American favorite, Cupcake! When I think about Cupcake, I think about Magnolia bakery. (Even though I always get Banana pudding there and never tried their cupcakes!) Click here for the precious entry about Magnolia Bakery.

Since I borrowed this Magnolia Bakery recipe book from the library the other day, I decided to try their Vanilla cupcake.

The recipe was for 24 cupcakes so I reduced it to 12 cupcakes.

I used Martha Steward cup cake wrappers and some disney princess one. 

Cake came out pretty good. 

After cooling the cake, you need to top them with some icing. 

This icing was the tricky part for me. Since I never really made icing before (maybe once), I did not really know what consistency I should look for. I added some red coloring becuase I wanted to make it pink. The color was good but the icing was bit too shiny and it does not look smooth. It looks like it is separated like curdled or something. I wonder why. Is it because I used 2% milk? Well, Icing is my challenge for the next time. 

OK. Let's eat. Well, it was good but it was super sweet! The cupcake itself is already pretty sweet but with the icing it is almost too sweet for me. The cupcake was very moist and really good. I just need to improve making of icing and also I need to be a better decorator. Also, I will reduce the amount of sugar next time. 

Even though it was super sweet, it tasted pretty good so I brought some to my next door neighbor.  She said she loves sweets so she doesn't mind the extra sweetness. I am so happy that my neighbor is always happy to eat some sweet which I made.  She gave me lots of compliment. She is really nice. 

I guess I still have a long way to go to be a good baker but I will keep on trying!                                                   

Here is the book I used to make this cupcake!

Lotus Roots with ground pork & Raising Teenagers

Another Japanese dish. I had lotus roots and Chinese chives in my fridge so I made this another popular dish in Japan. It is called "Renkon no Hasamiage". It means "Fried sandwiched lotus roots" or something like that.

Here is the recipe
Lotus root   about 4 inches
Ground pork    0.5lb
Chinese chives   about 5~6
Ginger               about a size of your Thumb
Sesame oil        1 table spoon
Soy sauce         1 table spoon
Rice flour          about 5 table spoon
Vegetable oil     1 cup

1. Slice the lotus root and soak them in water.

2. Cut chinese chives into small pieces and mix well with ground pork. Then add grated ginger, sesame oil and soy sauce and mix well.

3. Dry lotus roots and sprinkle little bit of rice flour then put the pork mixture between the two lotus roots slices.

4. Add vegetable oil into a deep frying pan and heat up the oil.

5. Mix some water and rice flour and dip the lotus roots with pork and fry them both side. (Sometimes, it falls apart so you have to very careful when you fry them)

6 Serve with rice.

It was bit of a challenge to keep them from falling apart but it tasted really good. The mixture inside is similar to the mixture in Gyoza. Lotus root is very crispy and I really like its texture.

My mom used to make something like this with eggplant. Instead of lotus roots, she used egg plant to sandwich the meat. This was my favorite growing up.

Anyway, it is totally not relevant to cooking but I just want to write about something which I wonder the other day. On TV, they were showing this parents who are having trouble with their teenage daughter. She was not listening to her parents and the parents were very frustrated.

I think it is always very challenging to raise teenagers but I thought it might be more difficult to raise teenagers in recent days because when I was a teenager, cellphone was not as popular as it is right now and nor the computers. It was more difficult to communicate with your friends.

Of course, many teenagers were difficult even during my time. Some of them were violent at home or at school and some of them were bullied and stuff.

I wonder how teenagers are these days. It is very convenient and useful to contact with your kids when they have their own cellphone but it also make them spend more time with their friends even when your kids are at home.

Currently, I don't know anyone who is Teenager or the moms who has teenager so I don't really know the common rules and I am sure that every family has a different rules but when do kids normally start to carry cellphones? and what time is a common curfew for high school kids? I am just curious.

I feel like I never had rebellious phase when I was growing up. (Maybe I just don't remember :-) hahaha) But I was always a good kid and never wanted to hurt my parents feeling. As a result, my parents did not have to be strict with me. Since I did not have rebellious phase, I don't really know how it is and I wonder how I would handle it when I have my own teenager someday.

I think it is very difficult because if you are too tough and strict, they will place a distance and will separate themselves from you but if you are too soft and does not interfere with their life, they will take advantage and will not respect you. Oh, it is a tough job.

Well, I don't need to think about those things right now particularly but I just thought about it and was curious about it.

For those of you who has teenage kids, it might be difficult right now but hang in there. I believe that kids will understand and appreciate you when they get a little bit older :-) But again, I never experienced it neither as a teenager or as a mom so I am not the one who can talk about this... until I experience it some day :-)

Sake lees marinated Cod and Seashells from the beach

Sake Lees is called "Sake Kasu" in Japan and it has been used for making pickles, marinating fish and also drinking as "Ama sake". I like Sake kasu marinated cod fish a lot. I found this in a Japanese super market the other day so I bought it and kept it in a freezer.

I defrost it and decided to have a very very Japanese meal. (again :-). Yes, I am Japanese so I don't get tried of eating Japanese food everyday)

The menu was white rice, miso soup with daikon radish, sake kasu marinated cod fish and Natto (fermented beans).

I sateed Cod in a frying pan. It fell apart a little bit but it is OK. Oh, this was so good! It melts in your mouth. It has been marinated for a while so the flavor is definitely there. Since I don't even know how to make this marinade but it is good!

Then, Miso soup with daikon radish.

And, Natto (Fermented Beans). Yes, fermented. I know it sounds awful. Quite honestly, it smells awful. But for those who grow up eating this, it taste great! And, this is very good food for your health. In Japan, it is believed that Natto has many health benefit. I eat it because I like it :-) It is very sticky and smelly. My mom does not like Natto so she hated washing dished after we ate Natto :-)

When I eat those food, I feel very Japanese. I am lucky that I can eat those Japanese food even in the U.S. I also love Cod. This fish is quite popular here also so I think I can find them in a fish market but I am pretty sure that it is quite expensive but I think it is worth it!

By the way, I talked about my parents-in-law picking up some beautiful seashells when they was here. Every time when I go for a walk at the beach, I look for some seashells. I found some quite pretty ones. There are so many shells now but most of them are eaten by seagulls or walked on and broken but those are pretty ones I found.

I can used this for table decoration in Summer and I can use the big one for candle holder or something. Someone suggested to use the big one as a dish for some appetizer and such. I think that is also a great idea! It is great that I can just get these decorations for free!

I realized that there are so many seashells in winter but not in summer. I wonder why. Does the city clean up all the seashells in summer for safety reason? I mean, if you step on those shells with barefoot, it definitely will hurt. Right now, I see so many seashells lying around the beach. I should get them before summer starts  and it all disappear.

Chicken Jalfrezi Curry with Patak's help

This one is not really cooking because I used pre-made curry sauce for this. I like this brand called "Patak". I have tried some of their product and I liked most of them so far (except one). If you are interested in the one product which I did not like, click here for the previous post about this particular product. So overall, I like this brand. They have some really good stuff.

It seems like this company was founded by an Indian guy who moved to England so this company is in England. Do you remember I got this Jamie Oliver's new cook book for Christmas?

 He also talks about this brand in his book. It seems like it is a very popular brand in England. And, I see this brand in my local super market also so it is getting popular in the U.S. also.

Of course he tells us in the book how to make your own curry paste and stuff but he also tell you that it is OK to use these product if you don't have time to make the paste but would like to eat delicious Indian food at home.

Anyway, I went to my local supermarket the other day and found Patak's curry sauces are on sale. There are some sauces which I had never tried so I got one which I haven't tried. This was "Jalfrezi Curry". I had no idea how it taste.

I just followed the recipe on the side of bottle. It was just cutting up some chicken and sauté and add the sauce to it and serve with basmati rice. It is not really cooking but putting together, I would say.

This was surprisingly delicious! It was not spicy at all but sweet and tangy. It got some bell peppers in it also. I loved it! This was a very first time I have eaten this dish but I was glad that I found this curry. I don't know where the sweetness and tanginess are coming from but I would love to learn how to make this at home from scratch.

I have wrote a few times about this Indian lady whom I used to live with (and she is like my mother/sister who take care of me) but every time I make some kind of Indian food, I want to tell her because she is a great cook and I know she will be very proud of me making Indian food :-) Though, this was not really cooking. I wish she is close by so I can learn a lot of cooking from her. I regret that I did not learn too much when I was living there. Well, I definitely develop a great taste bud while I was living with her :-)

Anyhow, I am happy to find this new Indian dish (well, new to me). I get really excited when I encounter some dish which I never tasted and taste really good. There are so many dishes in the world which I don't know and surely taste good.

With this curry, I also had a small Caesar salad. Nothing special. Just salad :-)

So, if you find this sauce from Patak, I recommend you to try. If you like it spicy, maybe this is not a perfect sauce for you but if you like sweet and tangy taste, I am sure you would like this also. Patak has many different kind of product. If you have your favorite Patak product, please let me know! I would like to try other product from them.

Daigaku Imo (caramelized sweet potato) & NY restaurants I want to go

I had one Japanese sweet potato which I bought in a Japanese supermarket. Japanese sweet potato is different from the ones I find in a local super market. It taste different and also the texture is different.
I wanted to make this Japanese traditional sweet called "Daigaku imo"(translation will be "College potato") According to Wikipedia, it seems like this kind of potato was sold near Tokyo university and was very popular among the university students. Well, I am not sure if this is true or not but I just wanted to try making this dessert myself.

Traditionally, you have to fry the sweet potatoes before you mix with sugar and soy sauce but I did not want to fry so I searched for easier and healthier way of making this.

In this recipe, instead of frying them, it was sauteed in butter and mixed with honey later. This is the site for the recipe. Click here. (It is in Japanese but you can may be use google translate and translate this site if you would like)

The result was pretty good but it was different form what I expected. The flavor of butter and honey was very strong so it was something different from Daigaku imo but still it tasted really good.

You have to use Japanese sweet potato for this because it has less water in it.

Today, I would like to talk little bit about restaurants in NYC. There are so many restaurants in NYC and it is difficult to pick which one I would go. There are lots of restaurants which I haven't been yet and would love to go.

I realized that there are many famous restaurants which publish their own cook book showing recipe from their restaurant's menu.

I went to library and looked for some of the recipe books from those famous restaurant in NYC.

The first one is "Momofuku". It seems like this restaurant started as a ramen noodle place. The owner/chef is a Korean American who fell in love with ramen noodle soup and lived in Japan in order to learn some ramen cooking technique. Now, he has a few restaurants in NYC which provide different kind of creative food. Since I am a Japanese, I love ramen noodle and I would love to try his ramen noodle. The book was very interesting, lots of different kind of recipes, lots of stories. It seemed little bit difficult to make some of the dishes but they all looked really good!

Next one is Balthazar. This is a French bistro type of restaurant and Bobby Flay mentioned in a TV show called "Best thing I ever ate" that the best french fry he had eaten was from this restaurant. I love french fry to I must go this restaurant and try their french fry :-) This book is really cute and I also liked the cover of the book. There are many casual French recipes in this book. 

Next one is "Magnolia Bakery". In previous post, I have talked about their Banana pudding. Please click here for that particular post.  My husband and I love their Banana Pudding. I think everybody know them from their famous cupcake which was featured in "Sex in the City" but their Banana pudding is definitely worth trying if you are there. I thought it will be great if I can make this Banana Pudding at home so I checked that the book has this Banana Pudding recipe and then borrowed it from the library. 

I love library. You can enjoy all these book for free! Normally, I borrow from the library and see if I like it or not. Then, if I really like it, I would buy it and keep it. I always liked library even when I was a little. (I was a bookworm) 

I remember this mobile library coming near our apartment when I was little and I was really looking forward to going there to borrow some books :-) Good Memory. 

Sundried tomato with vegetable pasta & Golden Globe

I found this one green bell pepper in the fridge. It was little bit wrinkled already so I had to use this. I did not know what I should make with this one bell pepper. I looked around and found onion, sun dried tomato, bacon and sun dried tomato pest. Pasta is the first thing it came to my mind. So I used this pasta with those ingredients I had at home.

The taste was OK. It was not excellent but OK. I guess I didn't like sun dried tomato pest so it might have been better if I have omitted that.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
Green Bell Pepper  1
Onion                     1
Bacon                     3 slices
garlic                      1 clove
Sun dried tomato     4~5
Sun dried tomato pest   1 table spoon
Pasta                      180g
Olive oil                 2~3 table spoon

1. Slice onion, cut bell pepper, bacon, garlic and sun dried tomato into small pieces.

2. In a large frying pan, add 2 table spoon of olive oil and then bacon, Saute until cooked. Then add vegetables except sun dried tomato.

3.  cook Pasta and drain.

4. Add sun dried tomato and sun dried tomato pesto into the frying pan and saute.

5. Add pasta into the pan and mix well.

6. Serve

On Sunday, I watched Golden Globe award and found out that Avatar won a best picture/drama category. The other day, I talked about people who want to move to Pandora after watching (click here for details) but this made me want to watch it again more. In 3D this time!

Anyway, personally I like Quentin Tarantino. I have not watched this movie "Inglorious Bustards" but I liked his movies in the past. Also, I like watching him talk on TV because he speaks so fast and so energetic. I can tell from how he talks that he really love making movies and he is passionate about it.
Sometimes it amazes me how he can be so creative. I think he is a genius.

Well, of course "Pulp fiction" is the most popular movie from him and it is also my favorite movie.
I think each character in this movie has very interesting personality and well developed.

Late lunch at SOHO and shopping at Uniqlo

On the weekend, I went to Manhattan to see one of my friend. I don't go to SOHO area too much but there was this one restaurant I wanted to try in SOHO so we met up in a restaurant in SOHO.

We had a late lunch at a restaurant called "Il Corallo". It was a very small restaurant and there were quite a lot of people even though it was around 3:00pm when we arrived.

We had a glass of wine and some food to share.

Prosciutto and Mozzarella Cheese salad.

Carbonara

Penne with tomato and Mozzarella

The food was pretty good and the price was really reasonable. I was surprised how reasonable they were. I wonder how they can survive in SOHO with this pricing.

Anyway, we ate a lot and talked a lot. She always make me laugh so much. It is nice to have meal with lot of laugh. We hadn't seen each other for about 3 months so we had a lot to catch up.

After the lunch/dinner, we walked around a little bit and she had to go Uniqlo to buy some heat-tech undershirt and pants so I went with her.

Uniqlo is a popular Japanese brand and it is everywhere in Japan. The price is very reasonable and design is pretty simple so it appeals to different age groups. I also like Uniqlo and every time when I go to Japan, I buy some stuff from there.

I also love their heat-tech undershirt which is a very thin undershirt and with a special technique to keep the heat inside but still let the air go through. This is a wonderful undershirt and I ware this everyday for some years in winter. Since I wear this every day, I have many of them in different colors. I don't like wearing too much clothes but I don't like being cold so I wear this undershirt and then sweater. For me, this is perfect.

Anyway, there were so many people at Uniqlo. I was surprised how popular it is. Even in NY. The heat-tech undershirt and underpants were on sales. I did not have any under pants so I bought one to try it out. These ones are also very thin so you can wear them under your Jeans and stuff.

Before I met up with my friend, I stop by at Chelsea market. This is one of my favorite place to go. My favorite restaurant Spice Market is also near by. In Chelsea Market, there is a Thai restaurant and they sell maesri brand Thai curry paste which I talked about the other day in my blog. Click here for that post.  I went there and bought some Thai paste. And also this sweet Chili Sauce from Mae Ploy which my husband love!

















Also, every time when I go there, I have to get this brownie from Fat Witch. I think their brownie is the best brownie I have ever eaten. I bought one for me and one for my friend. They have many different kind of brownies but I like the original one. If you have a chance, try this brownie :-)

There were also many people at Chelsea Market. I think there were much less people here a few years ago. I think this place is getting popular. And there is a new Mac store next to Chelsea Market so maybe that is one of the reason why Chelsea Market is more crowded than before. I think it is a fun place to go for all the foodies :-)