A trip to Mystic, Connecticut

I have been wanting to go to Mystic Connecticut for quite some time ever since I saw it on TV. I was finally able to visit the other day. It was not too far away from where we are but since we didn't want to rush and fully enjoy the area, we decided to stay one night.

The first day was a beautiful day and we left home early to get there before everybody.

First, we got breakfast bagel near our place before we get on the freeway and start our trip. We do this sometimes when we go for a road trip and eat it in the car while we drive.

There are many bagel shops in NY and we have a few in our area also. It is great to be able to get fresh baked bagel anytime you want it. Since I am not a big breakfast person, I shared one breakfast bagel with my husband.

Then, we arrived at Mystic Connecticut.

There is a place called Seaport in Mystic. You have to pay to get in but there are a few old wooden ships and planetarium and so on. I think it is quite possible to spend a while day here in Seaport. Actually that is basically what we did. There are some activities and a house for kids also.

My son liked the ship so he had lots of fun exploring the old ships.

It was a beautiful day and the view from a small boat was beautiful like this.

For lunch, we went outside of Seaport. We ate at a restaurant called "Harbor House" which is in a hotel on a little hill where you can see the ocean.

I had clam chowder and a lobster roll. This is clam chowder I ordered.

Clam chowder was really good. I like those smooth chowders which are not too thick so it was perfect for my taste.

I forgot to take a picture of lobster roll. It was OK. I mean I think it is because I don't love lobster. I know I don't love lobster but sometimes I had to order to reconfirm that. Every time I eat lobster, I kind of regret it because I knew that I don't love it but I order it anyway. Oh well, I hope I will learn someday.

For dinner, we went to a small Mexican restaurant close to where our hotel was (which was not in Mystic). One of the reason we went there was because when I check their menu online, I found Horchata. My husband and I LOVE Horchata and every chance we get to drink Horchata, we take it.

Horchata is a typical Mexican drink (I think it is typical...) made from rice and sugar and cinnamon. When I was living in California, it was quite easy to get this drink since there were many Mexican restaurant around but after we moved to NY, Horchata had become something which is not easy to come by so we get super excited whenever we find it.

We loved Horchata so much, we actually tried to make it at home once. It tasted good but was quite a process.

Anyways, this restaurant was very casual, reasonable and good! It was a small place but very popular and people were just coming in non stop. We ordered lots of different thing but the best was of course tacos.

There was a swimming pool at the hotel we stayed in so my son really really enjoyed swimming. He just started to swim on his own with a little floating thing on his arms when we stayed in Germany with my in-laws. We would like him to keep swimming and be comfortable in water so we will try to take him to a swimming pool even in winter.

Next day, we swimming in the swimming pool again and checked out the hotel then head to a town called Essex to ride a steam engine train. But first, we went to a restaurant to have lunch.

We went to a restaurant which we found online and I had fish and chips there.

Sorry for this kind of smoky, blur photo... I don't know what happened here.

I LOVE fish and chips. Every time I see fish and chips in the menu, I feel like I have to order it (especially when I haven't have fish and chips from that particular restaurant before).

This fish and chips was really good. And French Fries.  is probably my favorite food in the world and I especially love truffle french fries. They had truffle french fries on the appetizer menu so I asked them if they can make my fish and chips with their truffle french fried. They were happy to do that for me and I was extremely happy.

I just love truffle fries. It was super good. The fish was good also but the truffle fries were the highlight of the meal for me.

After the lunch, we went to ride a steam train. My son loved it and it was quite nice ride.

On the way home, we kind of got stuck on traffic but it was a wonderful weekend trip. I highly recommend Mystic CT for weekend trip if you are living in NYC area.

Shrimp Scampi and Homemade Bread

Large Shrimps were sale the other day in an Asian super market so I bought 1lb of those and made one of my favorite shrimp dish "Shrimp Scampi".

I learned this dish from an Indian lady I used to live with in California. She taught me so many great dishes and this is one of them.

This is super easy and quick dish but if you like shrimp like me, it is amazing dish to have.

First, you cook chopped garlic in butter and then add lemon juice, red chili flakes, white wine and cream. Add shrimp and when they are cooked through, sprinkle some parsley or cilantro and that's it!

Normally, I love eating this dish with pasta but I had some homemade bread leftover so I decided to have this dish with bread this time. I prefer pasta but since my husband loves bread, he didn't mind having it with this crusty bread.

For some strange reason, garlic turned blue today when I cooked. I check on the internet and seems like this happens sometimes when the garlic is young and when it mixed with some acidity, it turns blue. Well, I am not sure if it is true but we ate them and it was totally fine. It just looks creepy.

This really takes very short time to cook and perfect to busy night dinner!!

Homemade Salmon Nigiri and Negitoro Roll

The other day, we went to this big Japanese supermarket in NJ and had our favorite ramen noodle then bought some Japanese groceries. This time, we took our friends from Manhattan. One of them has been there but the other one hasn't so I was curious about how she would like it.

Well, seemed like both of them really enjoyed this visit to Japanese supermarket. I was very happy that they liked it!

Anyhow, we always buy negitoro when we go there and make sushi roll so I bought negitoro then I saw these beautiful salmon sashimi next to it. And it was on sale! I had to buy them. I bought two packages of salmon and two packages of negitoro.

Negitoro is always great but this salmon was also wonderful. They are beautiful and so fresh and very fatty! It said this salmon is from New Zealand.

Look at this salmon. Isn't it beautiful?

Negitoro is my favorite sushi of all. This time I made rolls with seaweed outside. I added more scallions and shiso leaves. They were delicious!

We used to have this wonderful sushi restaurant very close to our house so we used to eat sushi often but now we moved so we don't have any good sushi restaurant around. So I was really craving for good sushi!!!

My husband loved it also. We haven't given any raw fish to our son yet so I made vegetable miso soup and steamed sweet potato for him. It was difficult to make him try sweet potato in the beginning but once he tried it, he loved it. Lately, my son is refusing to eat vegetables. he used to love them. I don't know why all of a sudden he hates them. I asked other moms and read some stuff and seems like it is quite normal at this age and I am not supposed to force him to eat.

When I was kids, I couldn't eat a lot (now, I can not stop...) and there are many vegetables I didn't like. My mom never forced me to eat more or eat what I didn't like. Now, I love vegetables except green peas and some beans. So I guess you will grow out of it but it is difficult to see him refuse to eat something that I put a lot of effort to make. Well, I am trying to find a new way to eat vegetables. If you have any good suggestions, let me know!

He liked Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancakes) If you don't know what okonomiyaki is, here is ther link to my old post.  I add lots of vegetables in this pancakes and he eat them. Also, when I make fried rice with chopped vegetables, he eats them. Well, I guess I have to keep trying.

Now, I am thinking about ordering organic vegetables from local farms in a box. I think this is fun way to eat new vegetables. They will just mix different kind of vegetables which are in season and send them to you at your door. I am curious about trying this.

Also, I am excited to plant some vegetables with my son this spring. This way, maybe he will be excited about eating vegetables which he grow himself!

Grilled Salmon Salad with Quinoa and Yogurt sauce

It has been quite nice temperature here in NY lately. I can definitely feel the fall approaching but not too cold to wear short sleeves. This weather reminds me of areas in California where I used to live.

I loved the weather in California. It was dry and warm all year around but one thing I realized after I moved to NY is that you appreciate summer more and also you can actually enjoy four different seasons in a year. I like warm weather and I don't like cold weather but at the same time, I kind of enjoy   a little bit cold fall night when I feel like baking or cooking something hearty.

Anyhow, I always buy salmon from Costco and this is also from Costco salmon. I froze half of it and used the other half for this salad. This is definitely a summer dish. I made this dish on Sunday.

Grilled Salmon Salad with quinoa and yogurt sauce!

The salad itself is very simple with romain lettuce, cucumber and corn with some store bought Caesar dressing.

On top of that, I added some quinoa with cilantro, raisons, pine nuts and garlic. This is something my friends told me about and I made it once before. The recipe is from Food Network. Here is the link for the recipe if you are interested. 

For salmon, I just sprinkle salt and pepper then sautéed with olive oil in a pan 6 mins each side.

Then, I made this yogurt sauce which is with greek yogurt, chopped cilantro, grated garlic and lime juice plus salt and pepper.

My husband absolutely loved this salad and especially the yogurt sauce. He was so impressed how I came up with this sauce but I have seen yogurt sauce with salmon in many places and I don't think it is nothing new but he was quite happy. Normally, yogurt sauce for salmon has dill but I only had cilantro so I used cilantro for both quinoa and yogurt sauce. For someone like us who love cilantro, this was great.

This is a great light dinner for hot night. It is super easy and healthy and delicious.

Enjoy!

Recreating Garlic Shrimp from Hawaii

I love Hawaii. This is one of the favorite dish I had in Hawaii. There are some garlic shrimp truck in Hawaii and I think the most famous one is in North Shore. But since I was staying in Waikiki, I went to the one in Waikiki called Bluewater. This garlic shrimp was so good that I had to take a photo in order to look at it later to recreate this dish.

Well, that was more than a year ago. Now, I am finally trying to recreate this scrumptious garlic shrimp.

Here is the recipe

Garlic Shrimp (for 2 people)
Jumbo Shrimp       10
Yellow Onion        1
Garlic cloves          5
Butter                    3 table spoons
Paprika                  1 table spoon
Cayenne pepper        1 tea spoon
Garlic powder          1 tea spoon
Chili flakes              a pinch
Salt & Pepper         a pinch
White wine             1/2 cup
heavy cream           2 table spoons
Olive Oil                2 table spoons

1. First, defrost the frozen shrimp (if it is not frozen, skip this) and devein the shrimp and clean. I cooked with the shell on but if you don't want to have shell, peel the shell at this point.

2. In a food processor, process onion and garlic until it becomes like a paste. If it does not become like a paste, add some olive oil.

3. In a frying pan, add olive oil and cook onion and garlic paste.

4. When it started to become fragrant, add spices (paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, chili flakes, salt, pepper) and saute more.

5. Then, add some butter to it and saute more.

6. Then, add shrimp.

7.   Turn the shrimp after about 30 second and pour white wine in. When the shrimp is cooked, add heavy cream and stir quickly then turn the heat off.

8. Serve with brown rice or white rice.

This was so garlicky and so good! I think it was close to what I had in Hawaii. Even though I don't quite remember the exact taste any longer. Maybe I should go to Hawaii again to research about this garlic shrimp. Anyway, this is a very garlicky dish so please plan ahead before you make this. I think it is best to be cooked a day before your day off!

I realized that I forgot to add parsley. Don't forget to add your parsley at the end!

Easy! Honey Mustard Smoked Salmon Wrap

During the Christmas Holiday, I went to Manhattan with my parents in laws and had lunch at Demel which is famous for their chocolate and cakes.(Click here for that post)  I ordered Salmon Wrap and this was really really good so I wanted to recreate this salmon wrap at home.

You Don't need to cook anything you just need to assemble it and warp in a flour tortilla. It is so easy and combination of smoked salmon, sweet honey mustard and spicy arugula (rucola) makes it perfect.

My husband does not too fond of fish but even he really liked this wrap. There is no cooking involved but this is how I made it.

Honey Mustard Smoked Salmon Wrap
Ingredients (for 1 wrap)
Smoked Salmon  2 slices
Honey Mustard   1 table spoon
Dill                     1 tea spoon
Arugula (rucola)  a handful
Flour Tortilla  (large one for burrito) 1 sheet

1, Chop dill and mix with honey mustard.

I used this kind of honey mustard. This one was really good.

2, Spread honey mustard with dill on a Tortilla sheet.

3, Add Arugula (rucola) in the middle and also add slices of salmon on top of Arugula. (If you would like, you can add more dills on top of salmon.

4, Just roll it from your side and cut into half.

Super easy isn't it? This taste really good and also look good. I think this is more like a summer dish. It will be also great to cut them into small pieces and serve them as a snack at a party.

Smoke salmon is great to eat with cream cheese on bagel and also in wrap with honey mustard like this. I did not use smoked salmon before but I would like to use this ingredients more often from now on. You don't have to cook and it looks beautiful. I recommend this wrap to you. The important point is to use good Honey Mustard! Enjoy!

Shrimp Scampi and Labor day weekend

Welcome to 7th Kitchen

This weekend is a labor day weekend and it is a long weekend. Everybody is trying to enjoy the last long weekend of the summer. We are also enjoying this beautiful weekend.

We went to beach today and yesterday. It was very windy and we could not stay too long at the beach but it was also nice to hear the ocean and read books and enjoy each other's company on these beautiful days. It is not cold yet but I definitely felt the wind of fall.

I love summer so it is sad for me to feel Autumn, but on a bright side, there are so many great vegetables and fruits in the fall such as mushrooms, butternut squash, apples, etc. I love going upstate NY in fall to pick some apples and enjoy hot apple cider in a country side. This is one of the things I enjoy in the East. I used to live in California and I had never went to apple picking while I was in California. So even though I miss California weather, I also enjoy apple picking in NY :-)

Anyhow, today, I made Shrimp Scampi. Shrimp is one of my favorite ingredients. I love Shrimp and garlic combination. This Shrimp Scampi is one of the many dishes I learned from a Indian lady I used to live with.

It is very simple with garlic, red chili flakes, butter, cream, lemon juice, white wine and peserly. It does not take long to cook Shrimp so this is a very quick dish. This is good with pasta or rice.

It is creamy but not too heavy and lemony flavor makes it very light.

The other Shrimp dish I like is Shrimp Tempura. I haven't made tempura for about 3 years. Maybe I should consider making it again sometime this year :-)

Broiled Salmon and sauteed snow pea

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

Last night, we made salmon and sauteed snow pea. One of our friends made this dish for us one day and since then, we make this salmon dish quite often. It is simple and easy to make and taste good.

I had salmon filet in the freezer so I used it. Normally, we buy big piece of salmon at Costco. They have good quality salmon and it is cheap. It normally about $15~$20 for a big piece of salmon at Costco. We buy them and cut them into half and freeze them.

Salmon is simply baked in the oven or broiled in the broiler for about 10mins. We add chopped green onion and soy sauce based sauce. and that is it. I think when the quality of fish is good, simple way of cooking is the best.

I also sauteed some snow pea. This is also simply flavored with salt and pepper. I add sesames at the end. It was really good. And I love the color next to the salmon.

We had this with simple white rice and miso soup. My husband likes miso soup. When I was little, I did not like miso soup too much but now I like it. If you have miso paste, it is super easy to make and you can use many different kind of vegetable in it.

I love this salmon dish because it is easy and also it is economical. I bought this piece of salmon for about $16. The salmon picture above with the aluminum foil is half of what I bought and this will feed about 4 people. So, $16 salmon can feed about 8 people in total. (Well, we don't eat too much so maybe it might be for about 6 people in a regular household) Isn't it a good deal? I mean if you have salmon at a restaurant, it cost like $20 per person.

But, I also like eating out. You can experience many different kind of ingredients and different kind of preparation. I can learn a lot of things from eating at restaurant. And when I eat something really good at the restaurant, I always want to try to recreate them at home.

Shrimp Fried Rice

Last night, I made Shrimp Fried Rice from the leftover Cocktail Shrimp which I had from Costco. I was thinking either Shrimp Salad Sandwich or Shrimp Fried Rice but I felt like eating rice so therefore Shrimp Fried Rice. 

I love Rice and I can eat rice everyday. When I was little, my mom used to call me "Rice eater" because I would just eat rice and leave all the other stuff she made. She used to tell me to eat other stuff also but I couldn't help eating rice and always end up finishing rice before I finish other stuff. Well, I still love rice but now I try to eat other stuff also.

 I love having a few variety of rice in my house so I can cook Japanese rice for Japanese food and Basmati rice for Indian food and Jasmine rice for Thai food. I love all these different kind of rice. 

For this Shrimp Fried Rice, I used half Japanese white rice and half Japanese brown rice. 

Brown rice is much healthier than white rice but some people don't like the taste or texture of brown rice. But if you use brown rice for fried rice, you don't really realize that it is brown rice (at least in my opinion). And brown rice is less stickier so it makes easier to make fried rice. 

Many people including myself, use leftover rice for fried rice because your fried rice will be fluffier that way. If you don't have leftover rice and would like to make fried rice, try cooling the rice before you make fried rice. I think it is a trick to make a fluffy fried rice. 

Fried rice was one of my mom's signature dish. And it is great especially when you have leftover rice and vegetables in your fridge. You can add any vegetables you would like. 

If you have any good idea for fried rice ingredients, please let me know!

Mussels with White Wine and Coconut milk broth

Last night, I steamed Mussels which I bought from Costco. In the cookbook I have, they used wine and chicken stock. I wanted to add some asian taste so I added some cilantro and coconut milk and curry powder. To my surprise, it came out pretty good! It was easy to cook and fast. (Even though cleaning each Mussel took some time..)  I eat Mussel in a restaurant but I never cooked them myself this way so I am glad that I tried. I think this dish is great for summer night, especially eating outside. 

We had it with bread but I think it is also good with Pasta. I heard that in France, they eat this Mussel with French Fries. French Fries are one of my favorite food so I definitely would like to try that next time. 

Mussels were not too expensive and it was easy to cook and looks great. I recommend cooking Mussels at home with your favorite sauce this summer!