Dinner in Manhattan (TAO)

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

It is restaurant week in NY. I went for dinner with my husband at TAO restaurantt. The place is pretty big but it was packed. It seems like this restaurant is quite popular and always packed with people. The interior is very Asian but modern. There was a huge Buddha inside the restaurant. 

For appetizer, I ordered Shrimp tempura and my husband had pot sticker. My Shrimp was really good. It came with two different kind of sauces. One was kind of like a spicy mayonnaise and the other was spicy sweet soy sauce. 

Pot sticker was also good but the sauce was bit too sweet for me. 

For the main course, I had sea bass and my husband had fillet Mignon. I think my sea bass was marinated with miso and Yuzu. It remind me a dish I used to eat in Japan. It was really good and melt in my mouth. I did not like the fillet Mignon too much. But the onion ring which came with the fillet mignon was pretty good. 

For dessert, I had sugar doughnuts and my husband had banana bread pudding. My doughnuts came with a sauce which also tasted like Yuzu. I was expecting more like simple sweet vanilla sauce so this was something I was not expected and I would have like the vanilla sauce without Yuzu taste. But the banana bread pudding was really good. I think I want to try to make it at home. It seemed pretty easy to make. I think I just need Banana, Nilla wafers and whipped cream. I will try them at home. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the dinner. I love cooking but I also love eating out and it had been a while since my husband and I ate out in Manhattan. 

Before dinner, I stopped by at some Indian grocery store. I bought some stuff and I am really excited. I will report about it a bit later!

Thai Lunch

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

I had Thai lunch yesterday with my friend. I make Thai curry at home so I have not been to Thai restaurant for a while. This restaurant is close to where I live but I had never tried so I was really excited to try them for the first time. 

The place is really small but very nice and clean. The service was good and the food was awesome. 

First, I had a soup which came with the lunch special. I believe this soup was Tom Yum Kung. It was tangy and little bit spicy and delicious! I love Thai soup. I normally take tangy coconut soup but Tom Yum Kung was also really good. I never even tried to make these soups at home but I would love to try it sometimes if I can get ingredients for it. 

Then, we shared "Egg Plant Salad". This was something which reminded me of Japanese dish called "Yakinasu". "Yakinasu" is not salad and it is just baked eggplants without the skin. This salad we had had baked skinless eggplants, ground pork, mint leaves, lettuce, carrots, etc. We loved it! I love eggplant. I never had ground pork in my salad but it was really good conbination with eggplant. 

I chose "Ginger Shrimp" for my main course. The vegetable were perfectly cooked and very crisp and fresh. Only thing I should have asked was to make it a little bit spicy. 

Overall, I really liked this restaurant and defenitely would like to come back sometime for other dishes. I love Thai food. 

Roasted Pork with Chmichurri Sauce and French beans

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

I worked really hard yesterday to make this dish. It took me much longer than I expected but the result was great! 

First, I made Chimichurri sauce which I wanted make since I went to the Cuban restaurant the other day. Sissa wrote me a recipe on the comment for my June 26th post so I made this sauce following this recipe. Thank you Sissa! It was wonderful. 

Roast pork took more time than I have expected. First, I put in the broiler but the temperature did not reach 160F and it started to burn outside so I changed it to oven and baked them until the inside reach at least 160F. (which I read that is a safe temperature for pork cooking) 

Meanwhile, I boiled french beans and sautéed with bacon and onion. I add some vinegar and sugar so it is sweet and sour. 

My husband really liked this dish and he wanted to bring the leftover for lunch next day. He wanted to have Chimichurri sauce also but it was pretty garlicky so I was not sure if his colleagues would like him after lunch. 

I did not put Chimichurri sauce for his lunch. I did not tell him so let's see what he will say tonight when I see him. :-)

I needed some carb in my meal so I also made some french fries on the side. It was frozen store bought french fries but I actually fried them last night. It made a huge difference. (Normally, we bake them in the oven) It was crispy and really good! 

Yesterday, I realized how difficult to make roast pork. I mean it is difficult to know when to take it out. Mine was a bit overcooked, I think. Now, I know how to make Chimichurri sauce so I will try it again and would like to be better at roasting pork! Maybe I will try on the grill next time. 

It was a big dinner and we were so full after the dinner. We had to take a walk to help digest our food! Well, it was a nice walk :-)