Umi Sushi

Sushi restaurants in the city can basically be found on every block, but the tricky part is separating the good ones from the bad ones.  Even more tricky is spotting the gems that tend to be under the radar instead of going to the typical expensive Japanese restaurants in the city.

Even though I don't like fish, I love Japanese food and sushi.  My love for it, however, does not even compare to my sister, who could literally eat Japanese food for every meal every day.  So, when we moved to the city, one of the first things we did was try to find a good Japanese restaurant near our apartment.  After searching multiple times on Google Maps, Zagat, and Yelp, we decided to try out Umi, a very small and understated Japanese restaurant on 31st street between Lexington and Park.  And, after one visit, we knew we had found our place.

Umi is that neighborhood Japanese restaurant that you would expect to find in the suburbs, not off the bustling streets of New York City.  The menu is very simple and straightforward, and they don't try to do anything overly fancy, they just make really fresh and good food.  They have a wide variety of sushi, sashimi, specialty rolls, appetizers, and hot dishes like Teriyaki and Bento Boxes.  The waiters there are also super nice and friendly, and after a few times of going there they remembered us and our orders.

I am a creature of habit, so I pretty much get the same thing every time.  I always start out with a garden salad with ginger dressing on the side.  While I have had my fair share of ginger dressings, I can objectively say that they have one of my all time favorites.  The ginger taste really comes through and it is not over powering.  Next, I always get the Yaki Tori appetizer (as my main course) and a cucumber avocado roll.  The yaki tori comes with two skewers of chicken, onion, and scallions smothered in a delicious and sweet teriyaki sauce, and topped with some sesame seeds.  It is the perfect portion size and it is really delicious.  Even though cucumber avocado rolls tend to be pretty standard, something about theirs just tastes so much better to me.  I think it is because they don't put too much rice on the sushi, and there is a very generous amount of avocado.  Sometimes, I also get a Sweet Potato Roll which is delicious as well, especially when dipped in eel sauce.

Even though I don't eat fish so I can't personally comment on their sushi, I can rely on the rave reviews of my sister and friends.  According to her, they have some of the best sushi that she has ever had.  I could even tell that it was good because the raw tuna had a super bright red color to it so that you could tell it was extremely fresh.  My sister has never had any bad sushi here, and she could not praise it more.  Even though she generally always gets sushi, she has also ordered the Salmon Teriyaki.  What is great about their salmon is that they use sushi grade salmon for the teriyaki.  Since it is sushi grade, you know it has to be extremely fresh since it is the same exact fish that they are serving raw.  This shows that they really care about the product they are serving and they want everything to be as fresh and delicious as possible.

I highly recommend Umi to anyone looking for a great, high quality Japanese restaurant.  It is, in fact, one of my favorite restaurants in the city.  I know it may be tempting to go to the more well known and fancy places like Nobu and Morimoto, but there is really something to be said about the smaller, neighborhood establishments that deliver a high quality product at a reasonable price.  Don't let the understated exterior fool you, if you go to Umi you will be sure to leave feeling full and completely satisfied.

Trader Joe's Frozen Chocolate Croissants

I know it is probably getting annoying reading post after post about Trader Joe's, but when I went a few weeks ago I stocked up on stuff (if you live in NYC, you know how long the lines can get), so now I am finally getting around to trying everything!

One of the items that I had read about online and saw in store was the frozen chocolate croissants.  I heard that they were supposedly the best frozen item and tasted just like a fresh baked chocolate croissant.  Intrigued, I looked at a box when I was in Trader Joe's a few months ago but was instantly scared away after looking at the nutritional information.  It probably comes as no surprise that they are extremely high in fat, since croissants are basically half butter, but it is still a little shocking when looking at that nutritional information.

But, after reading multiple blog posts about them and after a few times of picking up the box and putting it back down, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy them.  They have been sitting in my freezer now for 3 or so weeks, so I decided that today was the day to make them.

It does involve a bit of planning, because you have to take them out of the box and let them proof (rise) for 9 hours, or overnight, before you even start to bake them.  Therefore, you have to know that you want to make them the day before you actually want to eat them.  To me, this is actually a good thing since they are pretty unhealthy and you can't just wake up and make them on a whim.

Anyway, I have been craving these croissants lately, especially with the cronut craze all over the news, so I decided that I would finally make one this morning.  When you take them out of the box, this is what they look like....

It looks a little strange at first, but I knew that they had to rise overnight and was very anxious to see what they would look like when I woke up.  Upon waking up this morning, the first thing I did was go into the kitchen and see what it looked like. 

I was shocked at how much it grew overnight!  Even though it said on the box that it would grow a lot, I was a bit skeptical after seeing what they looked like when I took them out of the box.  Now that it had risen overnight, I still had to preheat the oven and bake them for 20 minutes.  You can choose to brush an egg over the top to give it a more shiny finish, but since I was only making one I chose not to waste a whole egg.  The hardest part of the whole process was waiting for it while it was in the oven, because the smell permeated my entire apartment!  I felt like I was sitting in a bakery in Paris waiting for a fresh baked croissant, and I was just hoping that the taste was able to stand up to the amazing smell.  

I actually want to take back my earlier statement and say that the hardest part was waiting 10 minutes AFTER taking them out of the oven.  It says on the box to wait 10 minutes after you take them out before eating them, and normally I would disregard the directions but I decided that I had already invested a lot of time in it and I may as well just wait 10 more minutes. 

So, I sat there staring at this beautifully golden chocolate croissant, taking in the aroma of a Parisian bakery, until 10 minutes finally passed.  When I picked it up, I noticed that even though it looked huge it was super light and had a nice and hard exterior, which were good signs!  Then, I finally took my first bite...

I was pretty much in heaven after my first bite.  It was very crispy on the outside and the outermost layer started to flake off onto the plate, which is exactly what you want to see.  The inside of the croissant, however, was the star.  The layers were extremely soft, fluffy, and buttery and once I got to the chocolate, I couldn't stop smiling.  There are two long strips of chocolate in these croissants so you definitely get chocolate in almost every bite, and it goes really well with the crunchy outside and soft, buttery inside.  

This croissant is honestly up there with some of the best that I have ever had (and yes, I have been to Paris).  Not only does it look better than some that are sold in bakeries, but it even tastes better!  You would never guess that these came from the freezer aisle!  If you have a Trader Joe's near you and you love croissants, I highly recommend purchasing these.  Even if you are scared away by the nutritional info, I figured that it was good to have in my freezer for when I was craving a croissant.  I mean, if I am craving one, I would rather make it myself, know the nutritional info, and eat it in my home instead of buying one in a bakery and not knowing how many calories I could be eating.  Also, since you do have to plan for these, it prevents you from making them on a whim which means when you decide to make them, you have really thought it through!  So, before you put that box down (multiple times, if you are like me), just buy them now and stick them in your freezer.  They honestly taste like a freshly baked croissant and are on par, if not better, than ones you could buy in a bakery.  

(I should also mention that last night I watched American Baking Competition and one of the challenges was to make croissants, so that made me in the mood for these even more!  I also took it as a sign that I made the right choice in making them for today!)

Trader Joe's Frozen Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli

This week is pretty much the week of frozen meals, because I haven't had time to cook.  Yesterday I had my step brother's graduation in Westchester, and today I was working all day, so I haven't really had the time to even think about preparing dinner.  This is when the stash of frozen meals in my freezer comes in handy.  Confronted with options ranging from Amy's frozen lasagna or teriyaki wrap, to a frozen burrito or ravioli, I ultimately decided to have the ravioli.

I picked up this bag of frozen spinach & ricotta ravioli on my last trip to trader joe's and have been looking forward to trying it.  When I was younger, there was an italian restaurant in my town, Il Bigatto, that my family would always go to for special occasions or when we had people visiting, and my sister and I ALWAYS ordered the spinach ravioli.  Neither of us particularly liked spinach, or even ricotta cheese for that matter, but there was something about the ravioli at Il Bigatto that seemed special.  Unfortunately, a few years ago the ownership changed (multiple times), the quality of the restaurant began to dwindle, and it eventually closed for good.

Maybe its because I am still mourning the loss of Il Bigatto or because I fear that no other ravioli will compare, but I haven't ordered it in a restaurant since their closing.  So, when I saw the frozen variety in Trader Joe's, I figured it was time to give it a shot.

The bag comes with 3 servings at about 190 calories each.  On weight watchers, each serving is 5 points.  I usually try to have dinners that range between 7-9 points, so I opted to have 1 1/2 servings.  After counting out the ravioli (yes, I have a lot of time on my hands, but I decided to count out the number of ravioli in the bag so that I could make sure I was eating 1/2 of the bag), I was able to split the bag into two equal portions of 16 raviolis and sauce.  Trader Joe's frozen italian meals are a little odd in that the sauce is frozen into cubes and the pasta is not covered in the sauce, so I also had to make sure that I only took half of the sauce cubes.  It looked like a lot more at first, but after putting the ravioli in the microwave they shrunk considerably, as did the sauce.  

You can choose to either heat it up on the stovetop with some olive oil, or simply in the microwave, so I of course went the easier route and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes.  

While it did not nearly compare to the delicious spinach ravioli that my sister and I used to order at Il Bigatto, I do have to say that this is a solid dish.  The ravioli are pretty small and there is not much filling, but the filling does taste pretty good.  I liked that you see more of the spinach than you do of the ricotta cheese inside the ravioli, but I definitely tasted the cheese more than the spinach.  The sauce was also really good, I just wish that there was a bit more of it.

Overall, this is a product that I would most likely buy again because even though it is not nearly as good as regular ravioli, it is very good for frozen ravioli.

Macaron Cafe

Growing up, when I heard the word "macaroon" I thought of the delicious chocolate dipped coconut cookies that were served at a passover seder.  It wasn't until my sister started her first internship in the city across the street from Macaron Cafe that I was introduced to the other macaroon, or more appropriately, the French Macaron.  When I first saw pictures of what it was, it honestly didnt look that good to me.  It looked like a chewy/sugary meringue, not something cakey and fudgy which is what I usually like in a dessert.  After a few times of rejecting them and refusing to try one, I finally caved in and tried a dark chocolate Macaron.  My doubts about Macarons were set aside and I instantly became a fan.  My sister would then occassionally bring me one, and I got to try a wide array of flavors ranging from dark chocolate and peanut butter to nutella and chocolate coconut.  While I thought they were delicious, I still never really ate them too often unless my sister brought me one.

So, as I have mentioned in previous posts, my sister and I both started weight watchers in January and her visits to Macaron Cafe became nonexistent.  As one of her milestone weight goals, she decided that we would go to Macaron Cafe and share her favorite sandwich and then each get some macarons.  After months of waiting, today was finally the day we got to celebrate ate Macaron Cafe.

I have never had lunch there, but she was always a fan of their sandwiches.  Her favorite one that we ended up sharing was the Normandy.  The sandwich comes with brie, apple, raisins, lettuce, and french mustard on a baguette, but we changed it a little and got grilled chicken and no brie.

Overall, the sandwich is just as good as it sounds.  There is equal ratios of each ingredient so that none of them are overpowering.  The apples add a nice tang and crunch to the sandwich, and the raisins add a touch of sweetness.  My favorite part was the french mustard, which reminds me a bit of honey mustard  but more sharp.  The bread was also good, but I must warn you that it is very crunchy/chewy so you have to dig your teeth in and put a lot of effort into taking a bite.  I always like when the bread is a little tough, though, because then it takes longer to eat and it feels more filling.  

After the sandwich, I of course had to have a macaron.  I was a little disappointed that today they weren't carrying either of my favorite flavors, dark chocolate or nutella.  I quickly got over it, and settled on mocha which is another great flavor.  Since it was my sister's reward, she ended up getting an assortment of 6 that consisted of passion fruit (2), lemon, caramel, pistachio, and espresso (clearly we have very different tastes in macarons!).  

The mocha flavor was delicious!  The outer shell of the macaron was nice and hard, and right when you bite into it you immediately taste the soft cakey layers and the fudgy filling.  The coffee flavor came through nicely, but the chocolate flavor was definitely dominant, which is how I prefer it.  My favorite part is the filling because it is nice and rich.

I don't eat macarons very often because, while they are delicious, there are many deserts that I prefer, like cupcakes or ice cream.  That being said, the macarons from Macaron Cafe are really delicious, and I highly recommend them.  Even if you are a skeptic at first like I was, just give it a try and I'm sure you will change your mind.  

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Today, I woke up excited for muffin Tuesday because I got to make one of my favorites: Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal.  This muffin is from a recipe I found on Annies Eats (http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/05/17/peanut-butter-banana-oatmeal-muffins/), and I ended up quartering the recipe because the original makes 18 muffins.

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest and immediately repinned it because it has everything I love in it: peanut butter, banana, oats and brown sugar!  My first time making it, I was pleasantly surprised as to how moist and fluffy the muffin was.  Since I make them Tuesday mornings, I usually measure out the dry ingredients the night before and put them in a Ziploc bag so that there is one less step that I have to do in the morning.  My first time making these, however, I made the mistake of pre-measuring out the brown sugar and forgot that it would harden when exposed to the air like that.  So, that first batch had chunks of brown sugar (which actually was a delicious accident).  After making it through my rotation of muffin varieties, I was back to the beginning and made these again, this time holding off on measuring the brown sugar until the morning.  Having now made them correctly, I enjoyed the muffin that much more.  This morning was my third time making them, which is a testament to how much I like them.

The taste of peanut butter really comes through in the muffin, and the oats add a nice texture to them, while the brown sugar adds a hint of sweetness, as does the banana.  I do admit that the taste of banana is not as prominent since peanut butter has a stronger taste, but I love peanut butter so I don't mind.  Since my sister and I tend to have opposing tastes in muffins (we really can only agree on the fact that any muffin that has chocolate in it is our favorite), she has a different view of these.  Whereas I put the blueberry muffins last on my list and she puts them on the top, I put these towards the top of my list and she puts them at the bottom.  She still eats them and says that they are good, she just doesn't like them as much as some other varieties.  This could be due to the fact that she is not a huge peanut butter lover, so you really have to like peanut butter if you are going to like these.  

Regardless, this muffin variety will remain a staple on my rotation!  

Trader Joe's Pulled Chicken and Sweet Potato Tots

Since I had a pretty busy weekend and didn't get back into the city until 9:00 last night, I didn't have time to cook.  And, since my sister and I both had work today, we knew that neither of us would be able to make dinner today either.  Lucky for us, there was a package of Pulled Chicken Breast in our fridge that I bought at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and a bag of Sweet Potato Tots in my freezer.  I had been waiting to try the Pulled Chicken ever since I tried the Pulled Pork a few weeks ago, and was hoping that it would be just as good.  

In the package, the Pulled Chicken is pretty much the same as the pork, since it is in the same sauce and takes the same amount of time to heat up.  But, since it is chicken breast instead of pork, the nutritional content is much more appealing.  Whereas the pork has about 20% DV of fat and 25% DV saturated fat, the chicken only has 1% and 0% respectively.  And, if you follow weight watchers like my sister and I do, one portion is only 3 points instead of the whopping 6 points for the pork.  

Since it was only 3 points and the buns that I use are 2, I decided to complete the meal with some of Trader Joe's Frozen Sweet Potato Tots.  I have had them before, and they are a delicious alternative to the usual frozen fries.  The tots take about 30 minutes in the oven and the chicken takes only 3 minutes to heat up, so it was a very easy dinner prep.  I completed the meal with some steamed broccoli, like I always do, and overall it was a very delicious and balanced meal!

The chicken was great and had a lot of sauce on it, which made it even more tasty.  It fits perfectly on the Martin's sliced potato rolls that I use, and it even falls off the edges because the portion is so big.  The sauce tasted exactly the same to me as the pulled pork, as it had a bit of a kick to it but it wasn't overwhelming.  And, the chicken actually tasted like real pulled chicken breast and not anything fake or processed, so I would definitely buy this product again.  The sweet potato tots are also delicious and are the perfect thing to have in the freezer when you are in need of a side dish.  They are sweet and get a nice crunch to them when you leave them in the oven for long enough.  Mine always tend to get burnt a bit, as you can see in the picture, but in order for them to get crisp enough the heat has to stay pretty high.  I like when things are well done though, so I don't mind.  

Overall, this was a solid dinner and if you have a Trader Joe's near you, I recommend you buy either the Pulled Chicken or the Pulled Pork to keep in your fridge and the tots to keep in the freezer for when you are in a bind like I was today.  Both the pulled chicken and pork stay good for about 2 months in the fridge, so you have plenty of time to eat it!

The Palm

One of my family's favorite restaurants to go to is The Palm.  I first started going there when my family would visit my grandparents in East Hampton, and it instantly became one of my favorites (and this was even before I ate steak).  I always loved the side dishes, and most notably, the huge chunk of chocolate cake for dessert.  I remember the first time I saw it when they brought the dessert platter to the table, and it looked like it was 1/4 of an entire cake.  Since I was the only one in my family that wanted a chocolate dessert, I asked if they had anything smaller.  They did not, and I ended up ordering this monstrous, but so delicious, piece of cake.  Since I was pretty young and it is extremely rich, I was only able to make a small dent in it, and ended up taking the rest home.  And, if my memory serves me correctly, I think the leftover cake was my dessert for the next 5 nights, thats how big it was.

So, even though they are known as a great steakhouse, I know them as the place with the amazing chocolate cake.  Every time my family goes to the Hamptons, we go to the Palm.  My Dad also loves coming here, so we tend to go to the Palm Too in NYC a few times a year as well.

I am also an avid user of Gilt City, so a few months back when I spotted a Gilt deal for the Palm, I instantly jumped on it and bought the deal.  It was $60 for $100 worth of food, and it expires in July.  Since it is mid June and we hadn't used it yet, we figured it was the perfect time to go since it is also Father's Day Weekend.

Even though the cake is  my favorite part of the meal, I do have a lot of other favorites.  I used to order the Chicken Piccata, which is a bit strange to love from a steak house but it is always so delicious there.   But, since I have been eating steak every now and again, I usually now order Filet Mignon whenever I go to The Palm.  The steak is very tender and delicious, and it always comes out cooked perfectly.  To start off, I always get the caesar salad (they now offer a slightly smaller size in addition to the normal size, so I opt for the smaller version), and it is always good.  My dad and sister love the crabmeat cocktail, but I can't attest to how good it is because I don't eat seafood.

The other star of the meal in our eyes is the side dishes.  My family has reached the consensus that we would be perfectly happy coming to The Palm and just ordering side dishes and cake.  But, we recognize that is probably not the best route so we do order regular food.  We always usually get a vegetable, whether its steamed asparagus or brussels sprouts, and we get a potato dish.  Our ultimate favorite is the half and half, but you really cant go wrong with either the hash browns or the half and half.  We haven't ordered the hash browns our past few visits because even though they are so amazing, we just love the half and half.  It comes with their homemade chips and fried onion strings.  My favorite part is the onions, and if my stomach could bear it, I swear I could eat a whole order of them.  Between 5 of us at the table, we got an order of steamed asparagus, roasted Brussels sprouts, and the half and half, and we had some left over of each because the side orders are huge.

To finish, we obviously got the chocolate cake.  They do have some other good options on the menu, like carrot cake, a bag of warm donuts, and cheesecake, but we could never get anything besides the chocolate cake.  They now offer a smaller version (which is still very large) but we opted for the large size since there were 5 of us.  The cake is 7 layers of chocolate cake and chocolate fudge, and the top of the cake has a really thick layer of creamy and fudgy chocolate.  It also comes with their homemade whipped cream and one strawberry (which my sister and I usually eat as a joke so we can say we ate something healthy).  I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever had.  It is a simple, no frills dessert which makes it that much more delicious because they are not trying to do anything fancy with it.  It is just a great chunk of chocolate cake.  Five of us had a slice of the large slice (and my dad had two) and there was still about 3 servings left.

The Palm has locations all around the country, so if there is one near you I highly recommend going.  In addition to their food being great, they have really cool caricatures of people all over the walls which makes there decor very unique.  In my mind, it is the epitome of a classic steakhouse, and everything there is delicious and worth the money.  I probably love  going there also because it is a classic family restaurant for me, whether it be with my grandparents in the Hamptons or my Dad in the city, and we have a lot of good memories there.   The Palm is one of my all time favorite restaurants, and if you ever have the opportunity, you should definitely go.  And, even if you feel really full from the appetizers, main course, and side dishes, you MUST get the chocolate cake!