As it turns out, I didn't fall off the face of this Earth after all... So where in the world have I been holed up for the last few months? Just keeping busy earning my cooking stripes at an amazing restaurant in Manhattan! It's been extraordinary to experience first hand the intense heat of a real ...
It takes a real man to eat pink gnocchi. Ever since we moved to this neighborhood, we've been swamped with so many restaurants on our "to try" list. A few weekends ago, we finally made it to our very first Michelin star experience at Public. And oh my gawd. We're suckers for unique flavor combinations so ...
Clafou-what?! Klah-foo-tee. Originally made with cherries, a clafoutis is a baked French dessert with a flan-like batter. Classically, the pits are left in the cherries because it is said to release an aroma reminiscent of almonds. It hails from the Limousin region located in south central France. Clafoutis comes from the French word 'clafir' which means ...
Part 3 of my July cocktail series featuring thirst-quenching libations every Wednesday this month. Glug, glug, glug, glug... When you go to a spa, they offer you cucumber infused water to refresh you. But when you go to chez nous on a hot summer day, we offer you cucumber perfumed sake instead. So who wants to ...
Part 2 of my July cocktail series featuring thirst-quenching libations every Wednesday this month. Glug, glug, glug, glug... Frankly, today is a bit unmotivating to contribute to my summer cocktail series with all this dark, gloomy weather. But who am I to complain when we've enjoyed nothing but gorgeous sunny weather for the past few weeks? ...
No crazy musings here, folks. Just a classic case of "Girl meets peas. Girl cooks peas". One of my compulsive farmer's market acquisitions buried deep inside our crisper drawer only to be found two weeks later! Next time you're looking for a quick side dish that doesn't compose of potatoes and spinach, give this classic Roman contorno ...
He called me last week at 5pm on a Thursday afternoon from work and said, "Can you make a cake for 15 people for tomorrow?" Uh, err, umm...sure?! Oh how I love food challenges. So much that I can't say no even if my better judgement is telling me that I should probably decline. It was ...
Ever heard of them? Me neither. Not until about a few months ago when he dropped the "Oh! I remember having these back in France. You should make them!" bomb. How could I possibly resist his oh-so-very-subtle hint? Now, if you know me at all, you'd know that pastries are not my thing. You all remember the ...
Has it really been 23 days since my last post?!? "Bad blogger! Tsk tsk tsk!" (as I scold myself and wiggle my index finger from side to side). It has been quite a frenetic month with packing and moving and unpacking again. But we're happy to finally sit back and enjoy our new home! So where ...
An inspired dish from the creative chefs at Buddakan. A few months ago a foodie friend from the Pacific Northwest and author of the sassy blog, Salty Seattle, came to NYC for a visit. We decided to grab a few little snackies with our cocktails at Buddakan and like good little foodies, we both made it ...
My very first and successful attempt at one of my favorite classic Filipino treats. An interesting amalgamation of flavors, bibingka fuses together a simple rice flour cake with coconut milk, salted eggs and cream cheese. Life has been nothing short of a whirlwind lately from our travel adventures to the arduous and herculean task of apartment ...
One of my favorite parts about going on vacation is the challenge to use all our perishable ingredients in order to avoid coming home to radioactive mutant produce with fur and legs. Kiwi was one of them. It was a close call. The day before our early morning flight to Costa Rica, I discovered 5 sneaky ...
Alas, my very first Filipino recipe. With a twist, nonetheless. And a bon voyage to us! When I started blogging several months ago, I've had a few requests from friends and family to recreate a classic Filipino dish with my own special "pinky up" factor. It's taken me a while to finally man up, especially since ...
Years ago, I saw a similar dessert on a menu at a restaurant. Sadly, my inhibition of slaughtering the classy pronunciation trumped my desire for this tiny jar of goodness. Lesson learned. So say it with me now: po - de - krem. Not: pots - day - cream. My French nationalist boyfriend is always so ...
While most women get hot and heavy over French designer labels such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton or Christian Lacroix, my heart skips a beat for a different kind of haute couture. Frankly, I'm quite appalled that it wasn't seen on the designer runways last month. While the glitzy NYC Fashion Week has ended, our favorite designer ...
Our trip to Costa Rica is T-minus 32 days. We have to conquer 2 volcanoes, climb a mountain at 3800m (12,467 ft. for my fellow Americans), survive in the rainforest and dive 20m down into the ocean. So yeah, we're remotely trying to eat healthy and shape up. Diets schmiets is what I say. I get ...
The second day of February is a religious holiday the French call la Chandeleur - a feast to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary. There are several traditions surrounding this holiday so sit back, eat a crêpe and soak in a little more culture. La Chandeleur, known as Candlemas in America (don't worry, I've never heard ...
Better late than never. This past Friday was in fact, National Blueberry Pancake Day according to Bon Appétit magazine. Apparently my biological foodie clock is almost in sync because I already had plans to make this for our Sunday brunch. Once upon a time when I still lived in California, one of my most beloved restaurants ...
Oooops! I did it again. It's like an abusive relationship that you can't leave because it's THAT good. You know what I'm talking about. Oh sweet Chinatown. If my Chinatown saga had a Facebook, I would put "In a Relationship and It's Complicated". There's plenty of verbal abuse and I'm on the receiving end. Yet, I ...
I was a young foodie padawan when I started my first job in the restaurant industry. California Pizza Kitchen was my Yoda. For three years, I waited on tables, silently learning and developing my palate. This was my favorite dish, and it was my destiny to conquer it. If I had super cool html coding powers, ...
My best friend has once again teased me about my multi-syllabic meals but this is coming from a guy who has no problems eating tuna straight out of the can. So I dedicate this recipe to my BFF of 18 years. A few months ago, the BFF asked me to post a recipe that is "man-friendly". ...
This is a tale of my love/hate relationship with Chinatown. Hate... Crowded sidewalks where people seem to find sheer enjoyment in blocking traffic by standing still, dead smack in the middle. The language barriers like the time I asked the old Chinese man who was tending the produce section if the leafy vegetable in my hand were pea ...
Filled with tears, blood shed and triumph, this entry has all the makings of a blockbuster thriller. I bet you didn't realize french onion soup could be so exciting. Last week we took a "Knife Skills Masterclass" at the Bowery Culinary Center as part of my Christmas present from none other than the love of my ...
Alas, a real deal manly meal! No truffle oil, no hollandaise, no puff pastry. It doesn't have any fancy French words thrown in like mousse, roulade or frisée. Just a good ol' hearty meal after a long day in the fields, harvesting wheat in your tractor (is that what you even use a tractor for???). I ...
I was a late bloomer. The California roll was my idea of sushi. Meanwhile, all my trendy friends ordered sashimi. I was determined not to let some squishy, raw fish bring me down. I wanted to be cool and look at me now! After years of training, I can proudly say that I am a HUGE ...
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore... When we went hiking in the Pyrénées last summer, his mom packed us a wonderful gourmet lunch as opposed to the usual sandwich or Clif Bar. Life is tough, right? When we were exhausted from our trek, we were rewarded with slices of ...
Talk about culture shock. It was only his second week away from his motherland, a place that boasts over 3,000 varieties of cheese. At the high-pitched sound of a beeeeeeeeeeep, a tiny bowl of gooey flourescent orange food emerged from the microwave. Welcome to AM-ER-ICAAAA! Microwaveable pasta and orange powdered cheese from a blue box ...
Bonne année et bonne santé! It's been a hectic month with all the baking, gift-wrapping, train rides and weekends away from home. Our apartment is in dire need of a disaster relief task force to finally get things back in tip top shape. But first, I need to divulge our recent addiction to quack. It all ...
This post is dedicated to the two furry, four-legged loves of my life. Meanwhile, the two-legged love of my life is probably snooping around the kitchen trying to sneak a bite of these pupcakes. All three of them have a lot in common. They eat everything. They say dogs tend to adapt their owner's personality ...
The inspiration to many of our culinary musings, his mother has given us countless recipes from her own archives. En français, of course. I hope one day I won't mistakenly put ground beef in a mousse au chocolat recipe... "Oh! It said œuf (egg)? Not bœuf (beef)?!" It's always an adventure to translate the recipes from ...
If peppermints were animals, they would probably go into extinction due to all the peppermint consumption around the holidays. So it's a good thing they're not because I've been using an awful lot of them in my recipes lately. I'm not usually a peppermint fan but I feel like I've been socially conditioned to enjoy this ...
Godiva white chocolate liqueur with swirls of peppermint schnapps - for those who prefer to drink their dessert. I'm an equal opportunity dessert consumer. And although I'm not a huge fan of sugary sweet libations, I can certainly entertain one of these martinis in lieu of dessert. Served chilled, this decadent white chocolate drink with its ...
As they say in France, "jamais deux sans trois" - never two without three. So I present to you the third of my recent crumble obsession. I wanted one last chance to jump on the pumpkin bandwagon before the holidays were over. And this is such an easy recipe. Trust me. Since my last pumpkin-gingersnap duo ...
As I bit into my dessert, memories of this past summer came flooding back. A refreshing jaunt along the Basque coastline with his father and sister. Up and down the cliffside with views of San Sebastien in the near distance. And a rewarding lunch of tagine followed by his mom's delicious berry crumble. It's funny ...
I woke up Saturday morning with a sudden epiphany. I still had a package of leftover dried cranberries that was the forgotten love child from my curry chicken salad recipe. It was time to put an end to its misery from the back corner of our pantry. Hitting the snooze button on our alarm clock 5 ...
Eat. Drink. Be merry! The ultimate recipe for a joyful holiday season. You didn't think we could get through this season without any alcohol, did you? I've shared plenty of good eats with you and we're all having a merry ol' time, right? So let's finally check everything off our list and share a few cocktails ...
An entire meal that was invented for people who like to sleep in on a weekend. A meal that says "Sure! Go ahead and have a few cocktails with your eggs and bacon!". The one meal where you won't be considered an alcoholic for boozing it up before noon. So what's not to love about ...
Sounds fancy. Looks fancy. Hence, it's probably too complicated to make it yourself. I always assumed I'd be better off ordering it from a restaurant than causing a tornado of cocoa powder, mascarpone cheese and lady fingers in our kitchen as I sit defeated in a puddle of espresso. Countless recipes used to and currently intimidate ...