Home-made buttermilk pancakes

I made some delicious home-made buttermilk chocolate chip pancakes.  I modified a recipe I found online.  Super fluffy and easy to make.  I've always preferred baking to cooking and it felt much more like baking, which was fun.  Best pancakes I've ever made.  Here's the recipe:

Dry ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 T white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Wet:
1 cup buttermilk
2 T and 2 tsp milk (1/6 cup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 eggs
1 T and 2 1/4 tsp butter, melted (1/6 cup)

Directions:
(1) Combine wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls.
(2) Heat lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
(3) Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture.  Stir until it's just blend together.  Pour approx 1/2 cup batter onto the griddle. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

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Dinner from The Tuck Shop in NYC

We picked up some meat pies from The Tuck Shop and ate them at home.  The Tuck Shop is Australian and the pies were really flavorful and inexpensive, about $6 each.  The lamb pie was awesome.  The Guinness beef pie was okay.  The beer made it a little bitter tasting I think.  There are lots of other pies/flavors that I'd like to try fresh.  I also would love to try the sausage roll as I heard it's the best thing there.

Guinness beef pie

Lamb pie with veggies

Lunch at Black Seed Bagels in NYC

I swung by Brookfield Place for a quick lunch and finally tried Black Seed Bagels, which serves Montreal-style bagels. Normally I rag on that but it was actually great with the lox, cream cheese, and capers I got.  The bagel had a great chew and stood up well to the rest of the ingredients.  There were a little too many capers so it seemed salty.  Also kind of pricey, but glad I tried it.  Days later we got some bagels for breakfast and they were delish.

Home-made chicken soup

I was feeling pretty lousy so Dan made me a HUGE crock pot of chicken soup.  He used boneless thighs and bowties with the staples - celery and carrots.  Delicious and lasted for a long time.  Also great with crusty sourdough bread.

Lunch at Num Pang in NYC

Dan and I went to Brookfield Place at lunch and got some Cambodian sammies at Num Pang.  The meat portions seemed huge for some reason.  The line there was much shorter than other places and for about $8 a pop, a great deal.  Sandwiches were excellent as usual.  Sometime I'd like to try their soup or salad but it's hard to resist getting a sandwich because their toppings and the bread are so good.

Five spiced pork belly sandwich.  That piece of pork belly was HUGE.  Like 10 inches.

Ginger bbq brisket.  Also excellent.  Pulled style

Dinner at Noreetuh in NYC

Dan and I finally went to Noreetuh for Restaurant Week and it was amazing.  We've missed Hawaii and this food totally reminded us of the delicious food we had there, and inspired us to want to go back this year.  Most everything on their regular menu was available for their RW menu.  I would love to come back to try a few other things on the menu.

Corned Beef Tongue Musubi with cilantro and peanuts.  Not on the RW menu but we had to get it.  Best musubi we've ever had

Big-eye Tuna Poke - macadamia nuts, pickled jalapeno and seaweed.  So fresh and loved the nuts

Kahlua pork croquettes with cabbage and katsu sauce.  Great flavor and loved the freshness of the cabbage with the sweet sauce

Pineapple braised pork belly - yams, mustard greens, and peanuts.  Looked like it would be fatty because it was so soft but not fatty at all, just braised well and full of meat.  A little bit sweet but again loved the nuts

 

Char-grilled octopus - gochujang braised romano beans, bell peppers.  Part of the octopus was a little bit tough but overall it was well cooked.  Not that memorable of a dish but well cooked

King's Hawaiian Bread Pudding with rum raisins and pineapple ice cream.  Dan enjoyed this heartily

Chocolate Haupia Sundae with almonds, graham cracker, and coconut ice cream.  Perfect balance of flavor.  The cracker also had a salty taste which was great with the sweetness of everything else.  The chocolate haupia tasted kind of like jello pudding.

After everything they gave us this shortbread.  Tasty but was pretty full by then

Dinner at Raval in Jersey City, NJ

We had a double date at Raval for Restaurant Week and it was probably one of the worst dinners I've ever had - both food and ambiance wise.  First of all, they don't take reservations.  Not the worst thing, but kind of strange since it doesn't seem that busy.  Second, you have to seat yourself.  Except when I would try to do that, I'd be told the spaces were too small for our party.  So maybe then you should have someone eating people!  The food was also just not good. I've never had bad Spanish food/tapas, but most of these were legit bad.  The tortilla just had a weird taste and the patatas bravas were prob the best thing we had, which isn't saying much because it's hard to mess up fried potatoes.  Definitely will never come back.

Crisp chickpeas and kale - tasty but not very Spanish 

Jamon croquetas - one tapa was only two pieces.  Couldn't really taste the ham

Tortilla Espanola - had no taste

Patatas Bravas - best part of the meal but nothing memorable

Pork Belly - duroc confit, winter squash, pickled chiles with sherry honey glaze and pumpkin seeds.  Also not too memorable

Morcilla, sobressada, and mahon bikini - grilled cheese with different meats.  Not bad but nothing spectacular