Admist this health food boom, with all these restaurants who cater to those who eat light, or those who with to eat light but end up ordering twice as much, comes a restaurant that knows no boundaries!
I'm talking about Salt & Fat. Yes, that's the actual name of the restaurant in Sunnyside Queens. We were introduced to this place by a friend and we all came here with uncertain tastebuds, as we've never been there before. It isn't the decor that makes you do a double take as you walk by, it's the name.
"What's in a name? that which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet"
But the name is important! It tells us what we have to look forward to upon entering those doors.
It's been a while since I actually ate here, but I do remember some items from the menu that we ordered and they are very tasty.
Bacon Flavored Popcorn - you'll be greeted with this when you order your food. It's a surprise as you wonder why they are serving popcorn, until you smell and taste it. It's been tossed in bacon grease and has good flavor, this was a pleasant surprise.
Crack and Cheese - this is their version of mac n cheese, and I have to admit that it was damn good! You know the bacon bits that you'll get on your salad or mac n cheese? This isn't the same bacon, this is the bacon that we actually buy from the supermarkets and chop it up into pieces that you can actually see and eat. This is extremely good.
I can't remember what else we ate there but the food there definitely touches the more active tastes that we know and love ... saltiness.
Don't go here if you're expecting something healthy because you won't get it, I don't even think the salads are healthy. But do go here if you're looking for something good to eat.
The only complaint that I have is that their portions are small, I could have eaten 2 or 3 orders of the Crack and Cheese on my own, but we shared one order amongst 4 people - afterall we were just getting a taste of what this place had to offer.
It's been a while since I've eaten here, hmmmm perhaps it's about time to go back!
Salt and Fat ... how great a name, especially when there is bacon on mostly everything. This is a joy for me since I am a bacon lover and it's only 1 block from my place!
There is so much for me to try on this menu, but I wouldn't recommend this place more than once a month. You might find yourself with some blood pressure issues and might not be able to eat here for a while thereafter. So eat here in moderation, you have been warned!
Taste : 9.9 Price : $$ out of $$$ Restaurant : 7 (larger portions please!)
It's been a few months now that this has been happening, but my coworker and I just decided to ignore it in hopes of it going away. Besides the smell factor that comes in around 4pm everyday we have to go through something else here at our desks.
Being that we lost our cubes and offices, having these desks out in the open makes me feel very vunerable. During the past few months we have started to notice things start to disappear from our area.
Mine is a cluttered mess that I can't help because there is no other place to put my things, but in the clutter I do have my little hiding places. To think, with the mess people won't want to go near my desk but apparently they do! I had a bunch of change that was hidden undernearth the monitor that was covered with other junk ... this would be our vending machine fund and when that afternoon hunger would hit, this would be our little change heaven so we can get some much needed munchies!
There were quarters galore there, and I even left a $1 bill or two lying around sometimes. After all it was covered and why would anyone look around my desk for anything. I was greeted one morning by seeing that my quarters were all gone! They had left the dimes, the nickles and the dollar bills, but the quarters were all nowhere to be found! Hmmm maybe they had to use it for parking? I thought that somehow the thief would put the money back the following night ... but that wasn't the case. I moved my stash and haven't noticed anything missing from that lately.
The big heist took place right next door to my at my neighbors desk. Since the vending machine change incident we decided to go just buy the granola bars, candy from the store and have a good supply for when that urge hits. I have the small boxes that only had about six granola bars in them ... him on the other hand got his from Costco and had a box of ... well the big boxes. After a few days he was down to about twelve bars left, and off we went that night after all the work was done. The next morning came and he was down to three bars, so nine of them suddenly disappeared!
We all know that granola bars don't get up and walk away so someone had been casing our desks and took the opportunity when no one was around to strike. Mine was some quarters, but my coworker had been hit hard ... that was his snack supply there.
So this trend has been going on and we decided to hide our "goodies" from now on. But that didn't stop the person(s) who were snooping around our desks! I would often find my desk dirty and with crumbs on it when I get in in the morning, but I would always wonder if I had left that there from the day prior. Ahhh well today was the day that the proof was right there ... yesterday the only thing that I had eaten for lunch were two apples that were already sliced. I remember cleaning the desk afterwards and leaving it spotless clean before leaving. This morning I come to discover spots on my desk and it looked like someone had been eating something with mustard or curry ... or maybe some sort of sauce that was yellowish. It was right here in front of my keyboard and all over the side of the desk ...
Well enough is enough. Sometimes we have to take the law into our own hands and today ... tonight is the night! This is the left side of my desk and it's "clutter." Do you notice anything, anything that stands out in particular???
Hopefully you didn't but if you check out the lamp post ... you'll see it clearly.
The original positioning of this was a little better, but it was too obvious that there was something that was being covered ... so I left it like this. The ones I suspect are using my desk for their entertainment are old and won't be paying attention to this lamp.
Good old fashioned survellance! The camera is set to capture images when there is motion detected, so once someone comes to my desk ... bam! This should be fun and I can't wait to find what I catch on video ... or should I be scared of what I might catch!?
Hopefully I can haev something entertainint to post here tomorrow by catching someone in the act of using my desk! Mess with the best, die like the rest!
In the quest for the famous and overlyhyped (only my humble opinion of course) In and Out, we stumbled upon a treasure. As we found the In and Out, there was something we didn't think of and there was something we were all unaware of until we got to the door, but it was to my surprise and happiness when we did find out.
The surprise was that In and Out was closed on Easter Sunday! Best news I heard that day! But we were still hungry and wanted to eat before we made out way to Speedzone which was only five minutes away. It was a shopping plaza but there were a lot of "closed" signs on the door, there was a place that was open though, it was called Tutti Frutti. A yogurt place and I'm not a big fan of yogurt but this place had some appeal to it that just made me want to go in and check it out.
Tutti Frutti 17861 Colima Rd, Rowland Heights, CA 91748 626-964-9696www.tfyogurt.com
The moment you enter through the front door you'll be amazed, well at least I was. I stood there making small circles as I was trying to take in all of the surroundings.
You're greeted by glass, and there are small openings in the glass to get to the tables and chairs, but as I was trying to get to the table you can't help but think that you're about to hit the glass walls.
Then you see the "buffet" of toppings that you can put on your yogurt then a simple sign saying that it's $0.35 an ounce. Pretty cheap huh!? Well at first you're thinking that there ar extras or that it's going to come out to about $10 for this place. You'll be surprised when you get to the register and they do ring you up ...
The selection in Tutti Frutti is quite large, the flavors of the yogurt weren't just the simple flavors. They had some "exotic" flavors too such as lychee, green tea, taro to name just a few. I've always been a fan of combining things and here you could do that as well, my combinations at bubble tea places have always been taro and cookies and cream if that was available. I do however get weird looks when I request it as the combo doesn't sound that appealing, but it definitely is good!
So here I am in the warehouse of yogurt with toppings galore when I see the flavors that I love oh so much!
After sampling the yogurt flavors and finally deciding on comboing the cookies and cream with the taro, I made my way to the buffet of toppings that you have at your disposal. My guess was that this is where where it gets pricey since it's easy to pile on the toppings.
From fresh fruit to the "bad stuff" for you, they have a lot of toppings, as well as syrups and even condensed milk!
For my little health moment with yogurt, the toppings that made it's way into my cup were the brownie chunks, the cookie dough, strawberries, chocolate syrup and condensed milk. Some of the "kids" for healthy combinations ... green tea with bananas, strawberries, rasberries, blackberries, peaches and a whole bunch of other crap.
Mine had a good amount of toppings and was really surprised by the price only being $3.22. That was good enough for me and I wasn't even able to finish it all.
I would love to have a place like this on the east, I know they have other places similar but the prices are double if not more from what I've heard. The flavors that are available are really good, and they are just so full of flavor, not bland by any means. Another plus that I'll give Tutti Frutti is that they have free water! The tap water with lemon ... good stuff to wash down the yogurt and gummi bears.
Taste : 9 Price : $ out of $$$ Restaurant : 9 (clean, modern and very nice)
So there's this place in Cali that everyone raves about ... I think it goes beyong Cali but I don't keep tabs on where the franchise opens as it's not one of my favorites. I guess you can say that it's only a favorite by association, meaning that I eat here only because the people I'm with seem to love it so dearly and it's the best thing in the world for them.
I don't understand the hype about this place, In and Out. Yes that burger place that has the secret menu, that burger place that looks like an old fashioned fast food place from the 60's and 70's. I don't get it??? I really don't understand why everyone seems to love this place, is it the food, the atmosphere, or both?
It's a place that I've been eating at for a few years now and I haven't found anything special about it except the secret menu which isn't so secret anymore since the internet became popular.
The burgers are regular, they don't even have bacon as an option! Comeon now ... there isn't any bacon! The one thing I do like about the burgers is that they put a whole slice of onion on them when you order the grilled onions and not the sliced up pieces, but that's about it.
This isn't a review of the place but just a general "WTF" as in I don't understand the hype with it. I don't understand why people think it's so good here. I'll be honest and will compare it to the places that I've been to before, the burger places. The one with the Quartet of Guys definitely has better food than this place. The fries alone, cajun fries that is trumps what In and Out has to offer ten fold.
These are the cheese fries and it was alright, nothing to write home about, that's the reason why I don't feel like writing them a review as they aren't that great to me. They might appeal to other people and are the best thing since sliced bread, but I don't understand and I might go through life never understanding why this place is so loved.
Perhaps it's the style and the way things are presented because I do admit that I like their old fashioned look and feel. I like watching the single person putting a potato in that chopper and pulling on the handle to make the fresh fries.
If someone does know why these burgers are "so good" to people, please let me know ... as the only responses I got were "they are just sooo good" but never a concrete reason as to why they are just so damn good.
A while back my cousin Lissa from Houston came to town and as with Filipino families she came with "pasalubong." That's usually the custom when going to visit family or friends where we bring small gifts or something from where we're from. So if I were coming from NY visiting Houston I should be bringing "I <3 NY" shirts but I'm a horrible cousin so I never do.
With her she brought something that was just so awesome! It wasn't a shirt or a key chain, it was so much better than I could have ever imagined! I'm not sure if I should be sharing this as this was a huge gift and I'm not sure if she brought anything for everyone else ... but I have to give props where props are deserved!
Last year when we went there for her wedding, right before flying back to NY I went to Jack in the Box and bought about 20-30 Sourdough Jacks, froze them and packed them up to bring back to NY. I guess this stuck out and made a lasting impression not only on her but on a lot of my family members as they remember it clearly. I even got advice that I should ask them to make it without the tomatoes so that it lasts longer. Lissa came to NY with two Sourdough Jacks, that was more than enough for me! I was't expecting anything but she brought whatever she could and was that a great gift.
I didn't eat it right away as I wanted to save it for later. Only a few days passed where I ended up opening up one of the sandwiches, leaving the other one lonely in the freezer.
When I brought them back from Houston I kept it in the original packaging and then just stuck them all in a plastic bag and froze them. I had a hard time getting her packaging open ... she had each one wrapped in a plastic bag.
After the wrapping of the outside plastic bag, there was the burger wrapped in foil. It was as close to mummified as possible. The feeling was that of Christmas morning when you open your gifts that are under the tree, with the gift being wrapped with extreme care. After the foil as removed there was just one more layer to get through, it was another layer of plastic wrap. Three or four layers later the wonderful scent of the sandwich was unleashed.
Taking that deep breathe and then putting it in the toaster oven to heat it, I couldn't wait! Well this isn't a food review, but an entry on the kindess of family and the thoughtfulness of the gift. It was wonderful as I remembered and it was just great to have that taste of the sandwich melt in my mouth.
Thank you Lissa! The packaging was extremely efficient and definitely something that looked like it was going to last through the coming apocalypse. I still have one left and when I do eat that I'll be ready to get it out of the packaging with a box cutter and a pair of pliers.
I will gladly accept some more of your pasalubong next time you head up north. I'll trade you some Hop Kee for some Jack in the Box.
Andrew Zimmern better watch out because my sister is coming after his show. On his show he eats the weirdest and sometimes the nastiest things ... I won't get into detail about what he does eat but you can watch it on the Travel Channel - and soon you should be seeing my sister on that network too going head to head with Andrew.
Her experience goes way back when she used to live with us. The first story she told me wasn't really about "eating" but it was closely related. Here she was washing up before going to sleep and about to brush her teeth. This has happened to everyone out there where they are brushing their teeth and the toothpaste will fall off the brush or the tube and end up in the sink. Sometimes we forget (or are just to lazy) to wash it down and sometimes we do wash it down. Being a frugal person that she is, she sees this glob on the sink and sees that it's clean and all around the sink is clean. So it must have been a clean drop from the tube and the sink wasn't dirty at all.
With her bravery and courage guiding her she scoops it up with her toothbrush, making sure that there was enough glob to brush her teeth with. As she starts to brush her teeth she realizes something ... it wasn't toothpaste, but in the same cleaning family. It was acutally the liquid soap that had made it's way to the sink which somehow hardened a little to look like toothpaste!
Andrew wouldn't even attempt to do that! +1 for my sister
This morning was another step closer to her having her own show. I get a text at about 11am this morning telling me how she just cleaned out her freezer. In doing so she finds something in the back and burried under all the other food that's been frozen.
Just a little back story, when I used to go to San Diego a lot, I would always bring home something and that was always bibinka. It's a filipino pastry dessert type of cake. I would bring them back twenty at a time since my parents liked it so much and my sister too.
Well you can guess what she found in her freezer! She found a single bibinka still wrapped in the foil that I had brought back from San Diego about six years ago ... yes six years ago. You guessed it, my sister tried to heat it up as she normally would since it was still wrapped in the banana leaf.
She ate it!
A six year old bibinka ... she ate it! Not the whole thing but she tried it and said there were parts that were still good and that was what she ate. The other parts were hard and had freezer burn, the rest was mushy.
Some people made fun of me for eating year old sourdough Jack sandwiches! Well we have a new winner with my sister eating at least a six year old bibinka. My sister wins and we'll wait for what comes next ... whatever the next challenge is I'm sure she won't back down. Another +1 for my sister.
There's this thing that I call the "Raymundo" curse. What is it? Well it's the fact that once you reach a certain point, the weight gain starts and that sexy body that everyone loved through high school is no longer there. I think the curse hit me when I was a sophomore in high school ... so it came a little early for me, at least that's when it started.
It's happened to other family members, but there have been those fortunate enough to stay away from the curse completely, while others have been able to battle their way back from that curse.
During college years I was able to maintain and keep to my 180-190 pound range. With little to no working out I was able to maintain this for a few years ... but it snowballed from there. With my mother passing away one of my many defense mechanisms came up ... it was to eat. The amount of weight I had gained in the months after her death I'm not really sure of, but all I know was that when there was food, I was there too, so food was never lonely when I was around. Even if I just ate, I'd welcome more food to come my way.
This weight gain continued until I hit about 235 ... yeah you read that number right! I was 235 for the good part of the middle of 2008. Usually when I go through tragic moments in my life that will increase so easily, but in September I was actually able to get away from the curse! Triumph, for once in my life!
Going through a break up I found myself unable to eat. Yes, this is a true story, for those of you who know me, this is extremely hard to believe but I really couldn't eat, no matter how much I wanted to. Whenever I would be around food and wanted to eat, after two bites at most I started to feel nausiated to the point of not eating anymore. This got really bad where I was only able to eat two spoon fulls of rice and ulam a day for about a month. A crash diet in the worst of ways, and unvoluntary too.
There were parties going on where the most I could do was smell the food, what a tragic time where I wasn't able to enjoy in the many feasts that were going on. Even a short trip to California didn't fix it for me, I wasn't able to eat that wonderful Caliornia goodness. Jack in the Box and Royal Mandarin definitely missed me.
In the span of about a month and a half I was able to lose 35 pounds. Almost one pound a day ... and I was still alright physically, no dizziness or fainting. I dropped to 200 pounds for the first time in a long time. Here I was content to keep this weight and maybe I could go a little bit lower!? Do I dare try and was it too much to do?!
After the regular meals started again I was actually able to maintain the 200 pound mark. My clothes fit me better, I had less of a gut when I sat down, I started to turn some heads on the street (ya know the deal!), I started to play sports again and I wasn't winded running up the stairs on the subway! Definitely an improvement from where I was healthwise. I even joined three or four different volleyball leagues and it did me well. The lowest I got was about 195 but it would usually stay at the 200 pound marker.
Introduce Holy Week 2009 ... here is where the Raymundo curse decided to hit me hard. It was more of Lent 2009 than just the Holy Week. The weeks leading up to Holy Week I was going out and eating food that I really had no business eating, you can tell from the reviews on my blog. I wasn't reviewing salad places, they were burger joints, chinese food, and whatever else you can think of that would make you smile from the pure unhealthiness of the food. I thought it had peaked when I went to Cherry Valley ... but I was wrong, so wrong. The trip to Cali was supposed to be a spiritual one, and it was, but the curse took hold of me. The only day from that week long trip that I didn't eat a burger was during Good Friday, but the other days were filled with burgers, chinese food, hot dogs, ice cream, soda, more burgers and chinese food. It was just filled and so was my stomach.
The weight that I gained was invisible to me until I got back to NY. Here I am going through vidoes from the trip and I see myself on Easter Sunday huge as a ball! I did weigh myself when I got back home, but it said that I was only 209 pounds ... so about a nine pound trip to Cali, not bad I thought. I'll just play some more volleyball and eat less. But how can you eat less with a tray of Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings in the fridge!?!?!? How I ask!? It's not as great as when you have it fresh, but it's still good! Crack chicken is crack chicken to an addict.
Today was another losing day for a diet, I thought I would start today by just eating soup and rice. That quickly turned into another fantasy, it turned into a foodfest for me. First breakfast that my dad cooked, then Ikea for more food ... here is where we actually loaded up on food and came a wake up call. Walking through Ikea, there was a scale on the floor (I believe that this scale was put there by God Himself to tell me to stop eating so much), I confidently walk on the scale waiting for the 210 to come around ... and around it came, and went. It kept on going ... up to 220 pounds. I'm not sure if this was wrong or not ... but my dad tried it out and he said it was wrong because it was ten pounds over what he knows his weight to be. But with that explanation ... he was with me the whole trip so him gaining ten pounds is not out of the question whatsoever! That was not the end of the day as I tried to eat soup and rice for dinner ... but the chicken just called my name so loudly that resistance was futile.
Here I sit, shirtless and typing away seeing my belly come up again and my moobs (man boobs) and stomach forming sort of what would look like a chubby bear with big cheaks. The Raymundo curse has his me a number of times already and I think that Dudoy is next on it's list. I hope it moves on already from me and goes to him so that I can "start" my diet again. I don't have a magic number that I want to hit but I do want to go under the 200 that I was just a few short weeks ago. The summer if coming up and I don't want to be sexy ... I just want to be sexier because everyone already knows that I am sexy.
Diet here I come to fight off the Raymundo curse, I'm just not sure if the diet can win. I hope it doesn't take another tragic event in my life for me to lose the weight and win the fight. So ... I need to reduce.
The title could be a little misleading, well only for those that have a not so clean mind. I'm talking about the airline!!!
I guess I'm going to have to add a new category for this since this is new ... but I just had to share my experience about this airline. It was about two years since I've heard of Virgin America and back then they were fighting for their chance to fly, they were having some issues with getting approval but luckily they finally got it.
Ever since I've heard about them all I wanted to do was try them out but I wasn't able to get on their flights until this past week. The reviews and videos I would read just made me want to try them out even more ... here are some of the features that they do have and advertise:
leather seats
tv's with directTV channels
food/drink orders
first checked in bag free
Ok you're reading that and aren't amazed ... those are the regular things on most if not all planes. So here are the things that I feel set Virgin America apart from the rest of the airlines:
mood lighting (no white/yellow lights, they have purple and red lights!)
I wasn't even on the plane yet and just waiting at the gate and could already see the difference. Virgin America just stands out from the other airlines. My niece made it on the plane before I did and she texted me "omg it looks like soul plane" and for those of you who haevn't seen Soul Plane, go watch it, it's hilarious! She was referring to the better part of the Soul Plane, not "low class."
The mood lighting on this airline is really easy on the eyes and it makes it feel like you're walking into a club/lounge. That was the first thought I had when I was walking down the jetway and saw the lights coming out of the cabin doors.
standard electric socket in every seat (first class or regular)
Who hasn't dreamed or wished for this on the plane? You don't need those adapters for your electronics to get charged ... or buy those batteries that will last the entire flight. Here you just plug it in and you're good to go. So now you're not limited to the two or three hour battery life of your laptop.
One thing I'm wondering is if I can plug in a surge protector so that I can have multiple plugs to power a few different things ... hmmm would that be something that I would be willing to try and mess around with at 33,000 feet in the air??? Yes I would and I WILL try next time!
USB port on every seat
Power your Blackberry's, your IPods, and whatever else that has a USB port to charge. I'm not sure if this works since I forgot my USB cable, but I think if you have a device that has a USB cable and plug it into your seat you might be able to load that into the RED system at your seat. If it's not in their system now, they should read this and make it happen!
LAN port on every seat
I didn't get to try this either since I forgot my cable. But you can connect to the internet with this wired connection, from what I now, not all flights have internet yet, but they will soon. I'm also wondering if you were to connect wired, would you be able to access the servers and network on the plane and other laptops connected too ... hmmm this would be interesting! Mile High LAN party!
food/drink orders done via RED (their system on the touch screen display) at every seat
Ok don't lie when you say that one portion of airline food fills you up. It never fills me up and I always want more (if the food is good). So here comes VA, using their touch screen monitors at each seat (or the remote control that's in every seats arm rest) you can do a whole bunch of things through their RED system. Long gone are the days when the carts come through the isle asking what you'd like to eat or if you want pretzels and peanuts, they only do that one time with the drinks. Here you can order snacks, meals, drinks, alcohol ... the water is free so you can order as much of that as you want.
They have sandwiches and some wraps, the wrap was actually really good. The snacks ... I would recommend the chocolate chip cookies, I couldn't stop eating those! The drinks, they had a selection of a few teas which were really good too!
So if you're an eater like me ... order away with your credit card, no cash.
safey video that you will want to watch
It's not your typical video that you see or the flight attendants doing their thing ... but it's a video that keeps your attention
games via RED
You can ask Dudoy about this ... he was playing some word game where he claims he got the highest score! But they do have a lot of games you can play and they even have the original DOOM.
movies and tv shows via RED
The movies are pretty new and look really nice on the screen when you order them. They were $8 each and the TV on demand were shows that are popular were $1. The live TV on the plane allows you to join a chatroom where you can chat with others watching the same thing you're watching if that's what you want to do. One thing is when you are watching a show and want to order food or start a chat, it will bring the TV or movie in PIP mode and bring it down to the bottom left while you can do whatever else you want without missing your show.
free movies on late flights
I'm not sure if this is real, but this was on our flight home. We took the red eye flight and they had Bolt, Marley and Me and Seven Pounds for free. They also had all of the TV on demand for free on the trip home.
chat rooms and chat with other people on the plane
We were chatting it up in our chat rooms once we figured it out ... but one great thing about this is you can chat with strangers. Say you are sitting in 13C and you see a hot girl sitting in 7D. Just put her seat number in and start a chat ... but that does not guarantee that she will answer! She can decline the invite and block you so there is no airline chat stalking here.
free wi-fi
This isn't on all the flights yet, but from the reviews I did see with this, some people were even streaming video from the plane live! It will definitely be interesting to see this in action on a flight I'm on ... I know they restrict some things, but it's only for our benefit (i.e. no VOIP).
mp3s via RED
There are a few thousand MP3's here you can select and listen to, not that crap radio that is offered on most flights.
custom playlists via RED
You can make a playlist of MP3's and also make a playlist of the music videos if you want. I think that in the future you'll be able to save the playlists and use them on your next flight.
I could go on and on about all the good things about this airline. I remember when JetBlue was just starting and how people were saying how great they were, well the same goes for Virgin America, the only thing is that they have added almost ever possible thing you can think of to make your flights more enjoyable!
This was actually one of the first flights going to Cali that I didn't go to sleep because I was to busy playing with everything that was available. I think I was ordering too much food and playing everything too much that I broke my TV. Mine actually stopped working, but they were nice enough to offer me free food! I got my roast beef sandwich and some drinks and pringles!
Their fares are pretty good too, the round trip from NY to LA was $255 ... they also have a nice first class section that has massagers that are built into each chair. I'll review that when I get a chance to fly first :)
Props to Virgin America and I will definitely be flying with them again. They have my "best airline award."
I saw something last week that shows how people are trying to cope with the changing lifestyles that people want to lead. It seems that everyone wants to be "healthy" and people are trying their best to be that way, they even have all the calories listed on the menu's at a lot of fast food places now.
For me, I've never been able to jump onto that "healthy" bandwagon, I can eat some of the healthy food out there, but add some bacon strips to that instead of the bacon bits, then we can make it work.
Even the Chinese food places are getting into the healthy diets, I've seen some that have "special diet" menu's where everything is steamed, but this was a first for me, and I've been in many Chinese food places!
Who can blame them??! They are taking what they know and love to do ... and mixing it to make it "healthy" for those people who want to go that route. Four wings with salad, not too bad and considering it's only $4.75, if you tried to get that in the city you'd get half a wing if you were lucky.
This sounds like you're getting more with the half fried chicken salad ... but in actually if you think about it, "more is less." If you got the four piece chicken salad instead, there's more skin to eat than just eating the skin of the half chicken!
Of course I didn't get this, but I'm glad that they do present the option. I mean, how could you not have rice with the fried chicken!? It's just unconceivable! Props to Jade Garden for TRYING to be healthy, or having the appearance of it.
You know me ... I'm an eater, a big eater and I really don't have any "rules" about eating, but I do have one. Subways are off limits with me eating, there's just something about the place of the subway that's dirty and sometimes the people that are in the train with you.
As I sit there minding my own business (after taking the picture of the guys crotch), I look across from me and see this lady just sitting there. The train was a little crowded and people were around her, but she decides to whip out a sandwich!
Comeon now! That sandwich is sacred and should be treated as such, but I guess when you're hungry, you're hungry and who am I to argue with that?
She ends up eating the whole sandwich ... well most of the sandwich in "stealth" mode. Taking little bites as if she's really not and trying to hide the fact that there's a sandwich in her hand. All the dirty particles from the subway and the people who are in it, and have been there, are now sticking to that sandwich.
The sandwich is consumes almost fully before I get off my stop, lucky for me since I get to take another picture of her making "baon" (doggy bag) with some of the sandwich. I guess she was saving it for a late snack, but she kept some of the turkey on her jacket.
See I'm not that mean where I'll take pictures of you eating on the subway, complain and blog about it, without telling you that there's some meat on your jacket! Comeon now people, I had to tell her! If I didn't, she would have gotten up, that piece of meat would have fallen on the floor and it would have just gone to waste!
Here I am, trying to make eye contact with her to let her know that there's something on her jacket. She is refusing to make eye contact with me, so I wave my hand towards her and point to her jacket and then do a gesture of me brushing it off the jacket (using my own jacket as an example). Miscommunication is one of the things that cause a lot of conflicts and there was a big miscommunication with her last night. Apparently she thought I was asking for some food! But to her credit, she was nice enough to just offer some even though she didn't know me. There was some left in her plastic wrap and she reached out to give me the rest ... but I said no. Everyone on the train was now looking at us having this pantomime conversation only using our hands and gestures.
After a few back and forths, I again signal to her jacket where she finally sees the meat. With some embarassment (but not that much embarassment) she picked it up and ate whatever was left on her jacket. For the next 2 minutes of my train ride, she refused to make eye contact or even say thank you as she was probably embarassed from the whole ordeal.
Geeze, I can only imagine what kind of dirtiness she ate with that sandwich! And she had the nerve to offer me some ... trying to make me break my one and only rule about food! For shame sandwich eaten on the subway lady! For shame!
Advice taken from www.cheapassfood.com I went to this noodle house and was a little iffy because their menu had a lot of things that I wanted to eat but there was meat in it. I had to try something that was meatless on their menu or ask them to modify the ingredients.
Men Kui Tei 60 W 56th St (between 5th & 6th ave) 212-757-1642
In all the "gourmet" deli's, the upscale restaurants, the dinners and everything else you see in NYC a place like this gets missed. Well I'm glad for the CAF website. I consider this place one of those "hole in the wall" places where the food is just good.
It was 2pm when I got there and I expected to miss the lunch crowd, but apparentely there's such a thing as a lunch crowd here, it seems to be crowded all the time. I got in and was a little intimidated with all the craziness going on, but a hostess/waitress greeted me and I ordered. They thought it was for take out but I corrected them and they seated me at the counter right in front of the kitchen where you can see the cooks cooking your food. The only thing I ate was the fried rice, but had them make it shrimp only with no other meat. I got my food in less than two minutes. Added some soy sauce and I was off to the races, the fried rice was really good! I sat there and tried to take my time eating it as I was watching the cooks cook the orders in record time.
The fried rice had this homely taste to it, not like the regular Chinese food restaurants that I usually go to. I'm going back to this place when I can eat meat and try some of their other dishes which sounded really good.
Total damage here was $10 for the fried rice which filled me up ($8) and $2 for the tip.
Taste : 8.5 Price : $ out of $$$ Restaurant : 8 (the crowdedness of the place and the kitchen added to the meal)
A friend of mine suggested a topic for an entry and I definitely agree that it's a good topic of having different food combinations and if they are good or bad.
He reminded me of the back in the day sandwich, this was good anytime and anyday! We could eat this after our day full of activities as a kid, and even as "adults' we can still have these. It's quite cheap too, really cheap! I know that a lot of people reading this blog know what I'm talking about ... it's crunchy (depending on if the bread is toasted), it's sweet and it has a buttery taste. You got it! Butter and sugar sandwich! These were one of the best things EVER! I prefer to have them toasted and with the edges cut off, omg these were so good. I haven't had them in a while, but I think I'm going to be making some soon! They are also Lent friendly MmMmMmmmm ... I wonder if we can use Splenda and if would taste the same?
Another weird combo that people might find is seen in this one particular movie. This overgrown man who wears this suit and is just happy as can be! It was his first time in NYC and he was just having a great time and doing everything and anything, sharing his special recipes with his loved ones ... one of them being Spaghetti and Maple Syrup! Yes it sounds horrible, but it is good! At first I tried this treat with Gerard on regular spaghetti noodles and then maple syrup on top which was good in itself, but during the youth fellowship I tried to have it, as you're supposed to have it with the spaghetti, the spaghetti sauce and then the maple syrups. Oh man, it's some good stuff but it has to be maple syrup and it can't be the cheap syrup.
This next one I found accidently when I'd go with my parents to McDonalds in Queens Center back in the day. We'd be sitting there having the breakfast and once I found out this mixture there was no turning back! Having the hot cakes sitting there with the sausage next to it, I'd pour the hot cake syrup on the hot cakes and then it would trickle onto the sausage without me knowing ... until I take a piece of the sausage and it has that sweet taste to it! Oh my was that good! Now everytime I have sausage, I put maple syrup on it ... and you can do this with bacon too! So that's another one for you sausage and syrup or bacon and syrup.
This made a great afternoon snack that I thought everyone knew about until someone saw me doing it but then they had that "wth" look on their face. It's another quick and easy merienda that you can have, you probably have the food in your house too! Scrammbled eggs with kethup and toast mMMmMmm I want some now!
My mom taught me this and it seems everytime I bring it up people have this weird look on their face. The norm from what I can tell is grape fruit with sugar ... but my mom showed me the grape fruit and salt way and I've liked it ever since!
Oh man my list is running out but I'll add this to it! Mango with soy sauce or bagaoong! See that's how you get me to eat fruit, you gotta do something like this with the mango or like with the grape fruit. Now my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Oh damn ...... I was opening my mouth and now my lips just cracked - dammit! Now it hurts when I open my mouth and I won't be able to eat that salty food until it's not cracked anymore. Dammit!
I have more on my list but am forgetting right now because I'm upset that I cracked my lips and now I won't be able to eat anything on this entry without being in some sort of pain!
+ mon
Update on Friday, March 27, 2009 at 10:51AM by
MONStar
One thing that I did forget to add on here was something that my mom had introduced me to. I didn't want to try it when I first heard it ... but when I actually gave it a shot, it was good shiz!
Have you ever made pancakes only to find out you don't have any syrup!? That's one of the worst things ever ... really it is. But there's a remedy for that problem! It's quick and easy, and you probably have it laying around your house! Simple milk and sugar ... that's right folks! All you need to do is drizzle the desired amount of sugar on your pancakes, it's up to you as to how sweet you like them, then put some milk on top! It's that simple and it's so good!
Sorry about that, I got into my little infommercial moment there. The pancakes get a little soggy, but it's really good stuff - try it!
As for some of the suggestions and the things that you have tried and are still trying ... liver spread with mayo and then dipped in Coke!? I think you beat me with the strangest combinations of food! OMG ... I can't even think of how that tastes! Well maybe it actually tastes good now that I think of it, the only thing I would need to overcome is eating "liver."
Never had the powdered sugar and then drinking soda afterwards ... it's not like that myth where you eat poprocks and then a coke you'll explode is it!?
One thing I did ... again accidently was having smoked salmon which was really good, I didn't think I'd like that but I did! The mistake was when I was offered red wine or white wine, the only wine I know is the red wine from church so that's what I chose. It actually brings out the fish taste like there's no tomorrow, as if you have just licked a fish straight out of the ocean, but if you don't believe me, you have to try it!
Update on Friday, March 27, 2009 at 11:47AM by
MONStar
This morning being a Friday in Lent made me think about what I could have for breakfast and it was like a light coming down the from heaven that made me think about the butter and sugar sandwich!
Off to the deli I went after getting into work to get two slices of white bread toasted with butter on it. I got a few Domino sugar packets and back to the office. It's been a while so I forgot the portions of the sugar that needed to go onto the bread. I tried a little at first then adjusted the sugar until I got the right taste.
It's just like Old School, once it touches your lips ... it's just so good! The only thing is that I only had two slices!!! I wish I had gotten more ... I remember that I could eat 6 slices of this stuff when I was younger (and that's when I was skinny!), just imagine what I am capable of now ... perhaps an entire loaf of butter and sugar bread.
Forget the garlic bread, we be makin' butter and sugar loaves from now on!
One of the things that I normally do when I go to places that serve things that are of the "Salt 'n' Pepper" type are ask them if they can make it with chicken wings instead of the often seen salt n pepper pork chops or squid. The answer I've gotten time and time again is no. I never understood that.
It's not like they are marinating the pork or squid in something before they cook it ... or are they??? Hmmmm. But I don't see what the issue is with them throwing some chicken wings into the wok and stir frying it with the salt n pepper as if it was the pork chop or squid???
Yesterday I had this garlic chicken from Nanking and saw on their menu that they had salt n pepper food too. They also have these Drums of Heaven which are chicken wings marinated with herbs, chilies and garlic then wok fried.
Nanking - Chinese and Thai 1643 Broadway (between 50st and 51th streets) 212-586-3100 www.nankingrestaurants.com
I went in there today with little expectations of getting that mix of the salt n pepper with the chicken wings, but just wanted to go to try this Drums of Heaven. They had given me the lunch menu and I asked for the full menu instead ... OoooooOOO I know big shot huh! I asked the manger (I think he was the manager?) if they would be able to mix the salt n pepper they used for the fish or squid with chicken wings instead. He spent a few seconds staring at the ceiling and thinking if they could ... and he said yes they can! I got so excited that I ordered some chicken satay too ... wish I didn't though it was too much food already and not that good.
They serve the food pretty quickly and everything came out at once. The manager told me that they had never mixed the chicken wings with the salt n pepper so he hopes they are good. Well I tasted them and they are good, not as good as Royal Mandarin and not even in the same taste level, but they are good. It was actually the Drums of Heaven with the salt n pepper mix on top, so it was double the taste which made it interesting and I liked it. The chicken satay was alright but the peanut sauce they had with it didn't taste all that great.
One thing about this place that I did like was that it was a default of them having lemon in the water when they poured it out of the pitchers. Another thing was that there were little cups of the sauce, one of chilli sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar with small peppers - yeah you know the last one made your eyes open a bit since Filipino's do like the suka (vinegar) with peppers!
I think I might have put too much of that vinegar + peppers on the salt n pepper chicken mix I ordered because it was a little spicey that my nose started to drip.
Overall the place has a nice atmosphere, but the music is ... eh. It didn't add to the feel of the thainess ... it made it like a weird club almost. The food was good, and I liked the combination for me, I'll probably be asking for it again. Their service was great too considering that they made what I specifically wanted.
The total damage was $17+ ... the salt n pepper chicken mix I ordered was $6, the rice $4 and the chicken satay was $6. Their lunch specials there are $10 ... so they are a little pricey, I think they might cater to tourists since they are in the theater district.
Good stuff and next time I'm just going to order my salt n pepper chicken mix, oh how I can't wait for the real thing!!!
Taste : 7.5 Price : $$ out of $$$ Restaurant : 8 (good atmosphere, except for the music)
Thanksgiving is in November, but sometimes when it comes to the our family it seems that Thanksgiving like dinners or just meals can come at anytime.
It all started out on Friday when we had FNL (Friday Night Live) and got some pan fried seafood noodles, shrimp shumai and crab meat shumai. The food didn't last long and considering we stuck to no meat since it was a Friday in Lent, we did pretty well.
I would have been alright there but as we were going to drop off Lisa and Erick, we decided to go to Rutgers to get some fat cats! Yes ... we went all the way down to Rutgers just for some fat cats and got there at 2am. The grease trucks were closed and we ended up going to RU Grill that was open till 4am.
As the weekend progressed corned beef and fried rice was on the menu for a very late breakfast, it was actually breakfast at lunch time. Lunch on Saturday came at round 4pm since there was a late start to the day, so this can be considered merienda ... bacon and liptons chicken nooodle soup. Gotta love that combo, my mom used to make that for me when I was sick and didn't want to eat (yes there was a time when I didn't want to eat!). It wasn't over there ... the night continued with Bea's sweet 16. There was a buffet of food and damn was my plate heavy! I went back three times and did a good number on the chicken with mushroom and peas wrapped in a crepe.
That sealed the deal for Saturday but I wasn't ready for, nor was I expecting what was to come for Sunday.
Hop Kee ... the place to be, anyday and anytime, especially at 4am. Our table was lined with salt and pepper pork chops, salt and pepper squid, young chow fried rice, beef lo mein and peking pork chops. It was definitely a healthy meal!
These did not survive on the table for very long but we did have some left overs. If only I were 18 again, I would be able to take down all that food with ease, but now we have to watch the calories and the cholesterol. Well ... not so much as watch and regulate, but moreso of watching it on our plates and eating them ... oh those tasty calories!
There was a quick nap from Hop Kee and then off to Corpus Christi for the early mass, where I ended up eating a bacon, egg and cheese McGriddle (love these!). As the mass went on I tried to convince myself that I would be eating healthy for the rest of the day ... well starting from that point on. As I got home, I smell this wonderful aroma in the air and thought that someone from the neighborhood was bbqing. Stepping into the house I smelled it was coming from our oven ... my dad had finally cooked the bbq that he had been marinating for over a week! Oh yes one week, and it soaked up all the juices and flavor that he put into that marinade.
We had a lot of this so this ended up becoming Sundays lunch, merienda, merienda #2, dinner, pre midnight snack, and finally the midnight snack.
As you can just from the pictures above, all that food that went into me this weekend was like that of a Thanksgiving dinner. With variations in cuisine and location, it was as if we hit a few houses on Thanksgiving day and am I ever thankful for all that food!
I can't forget about the addition to my EOTW (end of the world) kit that my cousin Lisa brought over from Houston ... Jack in the Box sourdough Jacks! These I must save as my ration for when time comes, she even wrapped it as such! Thank you again!
Well ... back to the start of the work week and the start of detoxing from all that wonderful food. It's going to be hard even after reading this entry and seeing all these pictures makes me want to go out there and get something good for lunch! But I must resist, detox starts right now, but for how long that will last, no one is sure, perhaps only a few minutes. Even if it is only for a few short minutes, those minutes will be my victory in keeping away from the wonderful foods of this weekend. It's all about baby steps ... then running for the food again.
Granola bars for lunch ... damn that doesn't sound appetizing at all! Wish me luck as I try to exhibit some sort of self control today!
I was going to put this entry in last night but ended up watching Lost after the game instead.
So after a long night of volleyball games, about 3 hours worth, I got home and was hungry! I had eaten before the game, but was starving by the time I got out and after all the games [that we lost!].
I was going to fight the urge for almost a midnight dinner/snack but drivign home all I could think about was bacon, and well I just had to have it! I had no other choice than to cook up 5 strips of thick cut bacon (mmMmMmmmM), just thinking about it makes my mouth water!
I figured that it was an even balance, the gym was extremely hot and I think I had a really good workout, so balance it out with this healthy meal just caps off the night! This picture was pre soy sauce, I didn't want to take a picture with the soy sauce on it because some of you out there might not be able to resist the goodness of this meal, like me!
+ mon
Update on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 12:17PM by
MONStar
And I like the bacon when it's not too crunchy but when it's a little softer! Sooooooooooo good! I can't forget about maple syrup ... yes maple syrup on bacon is insanely awesome!
One of the things that I gave up for Lent was Jollibee, but I found out last year that Sunday's are not counted during Lent because they are like mini Easters, so I can have Jollibee on Sunday's but it's a good idea not to since you don't want to fall into it and want it even more.
It started out as a stop for some food, and I noticed a Jollibee in the middle of the shopping plaza. Immediately I made a "bee" line (get it ... bee line hhAHA!) towards the front door. They were about to close in a few minutes and there was still a good number of people there.
I got in line and noticed that there were some new things on the menu. The thing that caught my eye was the Orange Mango pie. Finally got to the register and I was served by Alfredo who thought I was white and tried to talk to me with the best "white" accent he could. The lady behind me in line even said something about it being time for the English menu.
Then I started ordering in Tagalog and he was pleasently surprised and I proceeded to order five Orange Mango pies, five Banana Lanka pies and one order of Spaghetti Joy. I tried to order fried rice, but Alfredo said that since it was so close to closing time that they didn't have any.
I waited for a little while and then got my food. Before I walked out the front door I took out one of the Orange Mango pies and opened the carton to take a bite. As I was about to take a bite and I could smell the pie ... my alarm clock goes off and it was all just a dream, dammit.
Usually when there's a warning label, there's a reason for it. I bought this miso soup at the Christmas Tree Store in Delaware, yes they had miso soup there. It was cheap too, only $1.99! I actually ended up buying more of them even though I hadn't tried it out, darn their yummy pictures on the box.
I decided to bring it into work today to "save" some money on lunch, and followed the instructions as directed on the box. It said that the bowl would be hot once it came out of the microwave. Yeah, I've read that places before and it can't be that hot. Well it is that hot! The bowl isn't those styrofoam bowls, it's a plastic bowl which heats up pretty fast.
I ended up spilling some of the very hot soup on my hand while carrying it out of the microwave, of course, I couldn't just let go of it or else all the soup would have spilled. So as I'm there holding the bowl of hot soup with two hands, one of them red from the burn and trembling from the pain, I notice a line start to form behind me for the microwave.
Of couse I had a little audience that I was unaware of because I was just so focused on the soup. Cleaned up the spill, then put about 20 - 30 napkins on the top and bottom so that I could hold it and walk back to my desk as fast as I could!
Had to let my fan blow on the soup for a few minutes to let it cool down, since I already had a burnt hand, I didn't want a burnt mouth either where I wouldn't be able to taste anything. The soup is pretty good, had some udon noodles too which was a good touch. It wasn't the dry noodles that I'm used to with "Cup O Noodles" but it was actually in it's own packaging within the bowl.
Good stuff, but next time I'll go when there's less traffic, so that I won't put on another spill and burn show for the office.
If you take a look at the time of the posts, you'll see that it's not so far apart from when I ate my breakfast and from when I started to eat these!
I brought these in so I could eat them as a snack for later ... repeat ... later. Well that didn't happen and I ended up opening it early and eating a few sticks. Ahhh the temptation of chocolate!
This reminds me of when I bought potato chips at Duane Reade, the big bag to save money from the vending machines. Needless to say that bag was done in about an hour or two ... I hope this isn't the same with this can of Piroulines. My coworker is giving it a lifespan of only two days.
+ mon
Update on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 4:51PM by
MONStar
Ummm ... I find myself saying "just one more" about 5, or 10 times today. I need to duck tape this lid shut so I can't get anymore! Help!
I was runing a little bit late this morning and didn't have time to eat breakfast at home. So I decided to bring it into work instead of buying the $8 sandwich from the "gourmet" deli. I packed longanisa and fried rice, but not just any old fried rice. It's the fried rice my dad likes to make every morning that has garlic and patis (fish sauce) in it ... so you know it tastes good! But the smell ... well people who aren't used to it will have that look on their face like "who just farted."
So I get into work and wanted to eat it right away as that was all I could think about on the train ride in, good thing I didn't eat it on the train. As I opened the tuperware the wonderful smell of garlic, patis and longanisa fill my nasal passages and what a great smell it was to me. But I'm not sure how it smelled to the other people in the office and was hoping that they can't smell it! Sooo to "cover up" the smell, I start to clean my desk with the antibacterial for the hands which smells like watermelon. I put a good amount where there was a small puddle on my desk and let it sit there so it could fill the office for a little bit with it's familiar smell.
After cleaning up, I went on to eat my breakfast ... damn this is good stuff! Of course, for those that know me, I had to put some toyo on it.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 2:53PM 
