Foods in Seattle and New York (eating in New York)

Top 1: Rare Bar & Grill in Hilton New York Fashion District

Since we’re tried and walked a lot after going to Metropolitan Museum of Art, we just wanted to find something near our hotel and eat. It’s cold outside at night, we decided to go Rare Bar inside the hotel. We tried Larceny Ribs and Cowboy Rib Eye (Medium Rare). The ribs were tender enough that it melted in your mouth. The steak was cooked so well with pale pink in the middle and little juice flowing. It’s soft, springy and spongy. The side dish was risotto and mashed potato. They’re perfect!

Top 2: Clinton Street Baking Company in Lower East Side

We ordered blueberry pancake with warm maple butter and eggs benedict with house smoked salmon. They’re  super delicious! It was the best pancake I ever had. Do come early otherwise you’ll need to wait for 30 minutes if you come after 9am. Many tourists went  there for breakfast.

Top 3: Lobster Place in Chelsea Market

You cannot resist from buying seafood for tasting when you saw other people were enjoying yummy food around you in Chelsea Market. There’re fresh shrimp, oysters, tiger prawn, mussels, scallops, etc  in the Lobster Place Seafood Market in Chelsea Market. We bought a steamed lobster. The cooked lobster was fresh and yummy! It’s par-steamed fresh daily. You will definitely want to eat more after tasting.

Top 4: Cioppino and grilled salmon in Pike Place Market

One of the world’s most fabulous, freshness, and famous seafood market is Pike Place Market in Seattle. Alaskan King Crab or Dungeness Crab from Washington

Top 5: Hot dog in East Village

As mentioned before, we tried in during the food on foot tour. Probably the best New York hot dog in Crif Dogs.

Katz’s Delicatessen is an absolute New York experience. It’s established by Jewish. The romantic comedy “When Harry met Sally” in 1989 was filmed in Katz’s. Try the counter experience! When you go in, remember to keep the ticket. Don’t lose the ticket otherwise it will cost you US$15. We tried Knoblewurst and fries.

And many other foods like bagels in Tinys Giant Sandwich Shop in Lower East Side, we tried salmon bagel with cream cheese, tomato, onion and capers. Burgers in Kobeyaki are juicy.

Bagels

Food trucks are located everywhere in New York. We tried Go Go grill’s battery burger with 5oz beef with onion lettuce and chedder near charging bull. It’s a pity that we forgot to try Apple Pie in New York.

Food truck near Charging Bull

Tours in New York (Food on foot tour, Radio City tour & Inside Broadway tour)

We joined 3 tours in New York - Food on foot tour, Radio City music hall stage door tour and Inside Broadway tour! It was great fun! Each tour shows the inner beauty of New York and we learnt New York from different perspective.

Food on foot tour is guided by Corey, it was a wonderful way to see part of the city and walked around the neighbourhood in East Village. He took us to some delicious places to eat.

The first stop started by Chinese dumplings which is same taste as the dumplings in Hong Kong. Other people enjoyed the dumplings so much!

The second stop is pizza from Artichoke. It was started by The slice was huge and the crust was thick and fresh. The creamy white sauce was delicious! It truly represents the taste of New York pizza.

Artichoke

 



Next, we tried Porchetta sandwich. The taste of pork was so special.

The fourth stop was Butter Lane, the cupcakes were amazing! We ate chocolate cupcake, it was light and fluffy. We’d recommend this place if you’re a cupcake fans! The staff was friendly and funny. We asked if we could take a photo of the cupcakes and he danced and said we needed to pay tips. We showed a surprised face and he said was just kidding and made fun! 

Butter Lane

Butter Lane Cupcakes

Crif Dogs is one of the best hot dog places in New York. It’s among the highest rank if you search “hot dog” in Yelp. One of the customers was surprised with a crowd suddenly came in Crif Dogs in non-peak hour. We chatted with her and explained we’re on a food tour. She suggested trying the Tsunami Dog. It was wrapped with pineapples and green onions. The pineapples added a good taste to it. The food was great in the tour and we got so full!

For many, Radio City Music Hall may not be a must-see sightseeing spot in New York. We don’t even know the history of Radio City Music Hall. We just passed by after Easter Parade. Radio City Music Hall Stage Door tour introduced the interior design, art decoration and history. Interior designer Donald Deskey showed the contemporary and modern design in 1929.

Radio City Music Hall is one of the largest indoor theatre in the world. We walked all over the building including bathroom and balcony. The hall was the largest LED panel in the world. We got a chance to meet the Rockette and asked her questions. We thought it’s the first generation of Korean girls’ group SNSD. It was an interesting tour for us.

Inside Broadway tour, our tour guide, Samantha shared her experiences with us. For off-broadway, it refers to theatre with fewer than 500 seats. We can buy cheap tickets on the date of purchase. TKTS Discount Booth located at Times Square offers same day theatre tickets up to 50% off! Or buy from App Today Tix, you can find great deals! Broadway shows normally start at 8pm except Tuesdays which starts at 7pm, do come early to find cheap tickets.

The most popular broadway show is Lion King nowadays! She recommended us to see it! She’s enthusiasm and energy. The Shubert Organization is America's oldest professional theatre company, currently owns and operates seventeen Broadway theatres. On 45^th street, you can see 5 theatres operated by them.

The top-5 longest broadway show in New York is “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Chicago”, “Cats”, “The Lion King” and “Les Misérables”. There’s a “Living Legend” plague outside Imperial Theatre. We watched Les Misérables after the tour. It was a great performance and the actors and actresses acted so well! The audiences were mesmerized and got emotional when they sang “I dreamed a dream”. The music was good!

On the day of tour, “Hand to God” has its opening night! It’s a tradition that Broadway shows always have previews for weeks. Script writers will observe audience’s reactions and rewrite the scripts during the preview period. After opening night, the show is set and no further changes will be made.

Cooking class in Institute of Culinary Education

The 5-day fine cooking I in Institute of Culinary Education was a great experience! We tried different forms of cooking and got hands-on experiences. The class started from 10am to 3pm, the 5 hours cooking class was awesome! Chef Anita was our instructor. There’re eight students in my class. People from Thailand, Russia, London and Chicago come to join the class, offering much diversity. We worked in groups of 3 and randomly rotated team members each day.

The first day was knife skills. We cut vegetables with different ways. Everything was new to me. We learnt how to cook vegetable soup and lamp chops in the first lesson. The lamp chops were cooked by a technique “sautéing”. By using a small amount of oil or butter and a very hot pan so the food browns and cooks quickly. The lamp was served with herb butter.

The second lesson we learnt how to cook chicken stock. The taste is so different compared to the chicken stock we bought from supermarket. The cooking technique was roasting. We first trussed the chicken then basted the chicken with butter and roasted it in oven.

After that we learnt rice cooking, we prepared rice pilafs. We boiled rice in pan instead of using rice cooker. We made baked tomatoes provencal as an appetizer by stuffing the ingredients into the tomatoes and baked until brown. It’s simple and delicious! The dessert was clafouti, a tart with pears/apples/cherries. It’s a typical dessert from the Limousin region in France.

The third lesson was a challenging one. We cooked lamps shanks with juniper berries and rosemary in wet braising. It required almost 2 hours cooking time. Mussel is one of my favourite dishes. We steamed mussels in white wine. Other groups cooked in tomato paste and Thai curry. For dessert, we cooked chocolate mousses in sabayon style. It was rewarding when you enjoyed the yummy food.

Mussels

 Lamp shanks 

The fourth lesson was all about eggs! We ate 5 eggs in the lesson - omeletes, poached eggs, salad Niçoise with tuna and soufflé! Omeletes were easy to made, simple but  people often cooked too old.

 

souffles

Times flies and it’s the final lesson of the course! The final technique we learnt was grilling technique for protein and vegetables. The steak will catch fire if your grill is not clean enough. We had a great experience for learning the grilling technique.

Each class ends with a group meal. We discuss the cooking methods and theory. We enjoyed the wine and food. The class was great and let me know the real taste of American cuisine. Not only do I have fun during the class, but I also gained important fundamental techniques and cooked American-style cuisine with confident. Chef Anita was excellent! Her instructions were easy to follow and everything was clear. I love the cooking class!

Window display in IFC SS15

Spring and Easter is coming! What a colourful season after winter. I can feel the warmth by the window displays in IFC! 

The first one is Godiva! Love the colourful decorations of "Spring Celebration"! It feels like u're in a garden with a cart of chocolate.

The second one is skincare brand Clarins which uses plain gold and white for the window display.