It wasn't the perfect Valentine's Day.

In fact, everything went wrong. We opted to cook together--lobster (because he's never had good lobster), fondue and molten chocolate cake. Seemed simple. It seemed just like any other day.

This morning he handed me a sweater. Most girls may be familiar with gift giving rituals of Valentine's Day, but most boys in my life have junked this day as businesses exploiting capitalism. So, this sweater was a shock. I intended on getting him a present, but my wallet idea fell through last week.

My day began with a rush out the door to Ithaca's only interesting store, Urban Outfitters, which isn't really interesting at all. I spent an hour debating on what to buy and making the store manager run around looking for size 9 shoes. I had no idea what size fits him.

I spent the afternoon trying to book my parents a reservation for dinner and calling the restaurant to do something special for them while whipping up some molten chocolate cake batter for dinner. Then, my dad emailed and asked if I received the two dozen roses mom sent. Nothing. I tracked down the order and realized the building manager delivered the flowers to the wrong apartment and whoever received my flowers wasn't actively looking to return them to me.

But 4:30 rolled around, and I had to go food shopping with J. Wegman's was a shitshow, of course. We picked our live, 2 pound lobsters and some groceries and headed for the liquor store for some bubbly. When we finally got around to cooking, we realized the pot would not fit our little ocean buggies. He ran off to Wegman's again in search for a pot while I tried to fix our mess of a kitchen.

We had a little photoshoot with our lobsters before saying goodbye to them. Instead of stir-frying with black bean sauce like the original plan, the two of us stood by the stove--him cracking the shells and me slurping up lobster juice. After a while, we had no intention of really sitting down for dinner. And, it was the best lobster he'd ever tasted.

We laughed. We drank. We ate and cooked while listening to jazz music via Pandora.

The cheese in our fondue never melted. We ended up pouring the entire bottle of pinot grigio into our fondue. It was like a chunky cheese booze soup. His bright idea was to dip the entire baguette into the pot and take monster bites of the soaked bread. It was delicious.

We didn't have the patience to eat our molten chocolate cakes, so I burned the tips of my fingers trying to pop them out of the silicon molds as soon as they came from the oven. I successfully removed two of them, but we ended up shoveling bites of hot chocolate and spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream from the tub into our mouthes.

It wasn't classy. It wasn't perfect. But, it was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.

To honor my new life...

as a graduate student in Ithaca and to celebrate the number of food fans in our class, we started a little supper club. It gives us any excuse to feast and drink with friends.

For our first supper club event, we featured foie gras as the central theme of the evening, definitely a ridiculously gluttonous dinner. Too many calories? Who's counting?

The last time I worked with foie gras was at Jean Georges back in 2009, so I was happy to get my hands on those buttery lobes again. Keith, Luke, and I planned a menu of five dishes and ordered our fatty partner from D'artagnan. My personal favorite of the evening--flash fried tempura foie gras with grated daikon, lime zest and togarashi pepper. Full menu follows.

Duck bacon, caramelized yams, duck fat caramel, thyme, shallots

Tempura foie gras, grated daikon, lime zest, togarashi pepper

Fresh foie gras ravioli, brandy duck jus, lovage, carrots

Pan-roasted chicken, parsley-kale puree, fried mushrooms, chicken consomme farro

Tempura Foie Gras

4 oz foie gras, 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup panko crumbs

1 T cornstarch

water

oil for frying

S+P

1/2 cup daikon, grated

1/2 lime, juice + zest

1/2 t togarashi pepper

Freeze cubed foie gras overnight. Mix panko crumbs with cornstarch and water slurry. Heat a small saucepan with oil to cover a cube foie gras. Dip foie gras in panko slurry and fry immediately until crispy but not brown. Strain oil from tempura on a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Combine daikon, lime juice and togarashi pepper and form a bite-sized ball. Serve tempura foie gras with daikon.

Green apple tarte tatin, seared foie gras, arugula pesto

Me + Luke

JJ, Kay, Will, Drew, Jinhan, Keiko, Ling, Luke

When my friend said...

his favorite dish is Hainan Chicken Rice (海南雞飯), Singapore’s national dish, I started craving the flavorful, ginger-poached chicken I tasted on Orchard Road back in Singapore. I began my research and found very similar recipes of cooking a whole chicken and using chicken fat for the rice. I love traditional cooking methods, but this time I wanted to experiment on my own. Instead of boiling the whole bird, I decided to use just the breast. Although chicken breast tends to be less tender, I wanted to showcase how delicate it could taste when poached carefully.

I love adding texture to my dishes, so I quickly sauteed sesame-cilantro crumbs to use as a dip along with sweet garlic chili sauce, ginger-scallion oil, and some homemade pickled cucumbers. I’m not quite sure if my recipe reminds people of a classic Hainan Chicken Rice, but it’s still tasty (hopefully).







Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
5 inch ginger, sliced
3 stalks scallions, 1 inch pieces
1 teaspoon sesame oil
¼ cup sesame seeds

CHICKEN RICE
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
2 cups rice
2 cups reserved chicken poaching broth
1 1/3 cup water
1/2 t sesame oil
1 t salt

CHILI SAUCE
1 T rice vinegar
2 T reserved chicken poaching broth
2 t sugar
4 T Sriracha
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t ginger, minced
a generous pinch of salt, to taste

GINGER SCALLION OIL
¼ vegetable oil
1 t ginger, minced
1 t scallions, minced
1 t salt

SESAME-CILANTRO CRUMBS
1 T sesame seeds
1 T cilantro, minced
¼ cup panko crumbs
salt

PICKLED CUCUMBER
3 cucumbers, julienned
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 t white peppercorn
2 T sugar
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup water
1 t salt

Directions:
Season generously with salt. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Add ginger and scallion. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer. Cook for about 15-20 minutes more.

When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately lift and transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool. Reserve the poaching broth for your rice and chili sauce. Remove the chicken from the ice bath.

In a sauce pan, fry ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add rice and stir to coat, cook for 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil, mix well. Add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth, add salt and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes more.

Blend chili sauce ingredients. Blend ginger scallion oil ingredients. Sautee panko crumbs in vegetable oil until golden. Add salt, sesame and cilantro and quickly combine. Reserve for chicken topping. Combine pickle ingredients and let sit while chicken is cooking until serving time.

Serve chicken with chicken rice, sauces, cilantro crumbs and pickled cucumber.

True dedication...

is waking up at 5AM to turn off the stove after 8 hours of stewing and tenderizing 2 pounds of pork belly for a buta kakuni meal. It's my own fault for not starting earlier, but some sleep deprivation is perfectly fine when pork belly ends up as good as this!

I always feared touching any fatty meats as a child, and by touching I mean ingesting. Mostly because my mother loves her family and only wants us to eat for our health. But, when you're exposed to a world of food the way I am, there's just no turning back.

Back to the cooking, the process was actually adopted from Morimoto's recipe. I love the simpleness and purity of this recipe. That's generally how I like to cook--no fussy ingredients, just tasting and using your cooking intuition. Paired with buta kakuni, CC & I prepared some soy sauce eggs and quick pickled cucumbers. I love my egg yolks a little runny, so I do a medium boil and steep my eggs in a soy sauce mixture. Here goes!



Searing pork belly skin.



Plating with some scallions and pickled cucumber.



Buta Kakuni, Soy Sauce Eggs, Pickled Cucumber
Serves 4 KAKUNI

1 tbs vegetable oil
2 lbs boneless pork belly
1 1/2 cups rice
1 nob ginger
5 cloves garlic 1
3/4 cups mirin
1/4 Japanese soy sauce
4 T sugar

Heat the oil in a large casserole dish over high heat. Sear the pork belly, skin side down, until golden brown and crispy. Turn over and sear the other side. Remove and pour away the fat in the casserole. Return the pork belly to the casserole. Sprinkle the rice around the meat. Add ginger, garlic and enough water to cover the pork by an inch and bring to a simmer over high heat. Braise gently until the pork is tender about 6 hours. Discard the rice and cooking liquid. Cover and refrigerate the pork belly for at least 8 hours. Cut the pork crosswise into 1 inch cubes. In a heavy medium saucepan, mix the mirin soy sauce, and sugar with 4 cups of water and bring the the mixture to a boil over high heat. Add the pieces of pork belly and reduce the heat. Partially cover the pan and simmer until the pork is very tender. Carefully transfer the pieces of pork onto a plate. Strain the cooking liquid and reduce it down to 1 cup.

SOY SAUCE EGGS
2 eggs
½ cup soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
1 t chili sesame oil
2 t sugar

Let eggs come to room temperature. Cook eggs in boiling water for exactly 7 minutes. Remove eggs and place in ice bath. Peels eggs and steep in soy sauce mixture for 15-20 minutes. Slice eggs and serve with sesame or scallion garnish.

Flipping through...

a photo journal full of 2010's most gratifying noshes & nibbles helps me relive the taste of those moments and all the wonderful company. It's been a delicious year munching a small dent in New York City's epic food scene. It's true that you can really satisfy every cultural food craving in a city full of culinary talent, but New York City isn't the only place full of savories and sweets. I admit my travels haven't been prolific this year; however, the short time I spent in Texas, Hong Kong, and regions of Taiwan, meant a lot of tummy-fulfilling adventures.

For now, I'll toast to a Happy New Year and even more epicurious journeys in 2011. And without further ado, the food porn.



Casa Mono (NY, NY)
Baby chopitos, ramps, caramelized onions, squid ink

Casa Mono ranks top 3 restaurants in my heart now and hopefully forever. A tapas lover just can't resist all the bright flavors at this little Spanish joint. It's even perfect midday with a close of bubbly rose.



SHO Shaun Hergatt (NY, NY)
Poached white asparagus, asparagus ice cream

Americans just don't eat enough fresh foods, but lucky me, these tender white asparagus were flown fresh that day from Provence, France. Tack on the delicately savory asparagus ice cream--it's a dish that's hard to forget.



Imperial Palace (Hong Kong)
Chinese BBQ: char siu, honey glazed pork skin, roasted goose

This private club in Hong Kong serves probably the best tasting Chinese bbq I've ever had. It's a bold statement, but never has pork skin been so richly golden-red, velvety and perfectly crispy.



Prune (NY, NY)
Ricotta ice cream, salted caramel croutons

One of my favorite East Village joints, Prune always serves simple yet super fun food. All I can say is that I love ricotta. I love ice cream. I love salted caramel, and I love that this ricotta ice cream and it's salty croutons are drenched in a salted caramel soup.



Eleven Madison Park (NY, NY)
Celery gelee on black pepper sablee, foie gras granny smith macaron

These beautiful little treats aren't actually on the menu; but I hope even with Eleven Madison Park's menu redo, they are still serving perfect canapes. You can't refuse a foie-filled apple flavored macaron.




Rudy's BBQ (Dallas, TX)
Moist brisket

Do I always get moist brisket? No, but after having Rudy's moist brisket, you bet. As a native Texan, I just can't get away from these smoky, fatty bits of beef. It's the one time I'll really gorge on heavy meat.



wd~50 (NY, NY)
Aerated foie, pickled beet, mashad plum, brioche

Yes, Wylie Dufresne is a genius behind playing/molding/shaping his food. His mother must've let him go to town as a kid. But, how does it really taste? I still think about the texture of this buttery foie gras holding such intense flavor but feeling incredibly delicate on my tongue.



Union Square Cafe (NY, NY)
Ricotta Gnocchi, tomato-basil passatina and pecorino romano

People I know literally have dreams about this dish. I really can't explain how they make gnocchi so ethereal, so tender, but skip everything else at Union Square Cafe and just load up on the gnocchi.



Street food (Sheng Keng, Taiwan)
Grilled spicy tofu, spicy pickled cabbage

Sheng Keng, a region in Taipei, is famous for it's innovative use of tofu. Tofu puddings, tofu cheesecakes, braised tofu are all just the beginning. I'm a tofu fiend, so I did a whole tasting that afternoon. My favorite--a seemingly simple grilled tofu on a stick. That tofu just sucked up all the flavor and became this sweet, spicy, salty little mess.



Riverpark (NY, NY)
Beet-pickled eggs, smoked white fish, horseradish

These little nuggets are so pretty; how could you not love them? Aside from the color, the pickled taste of the eggs are so fun. And the creamy, smoky fish filling? Fishy, but awesome with the tang.



Eleven Madison Park (NY, NY)
Roasted organic chicken with lemon and rosemary, spring vegetables

I am not a chicken lover. In fact, I stray away from chicken dishes most places. However, I always, ALWAYS order Eleven Madison Park's roast chicken without fail. I'm telling you it doesn't get better than this. Chicken rubbed with truffle stuffing under the skin?!?!



Wing Lai Yuen (NY, NY)
Spicy garlic sliced pork

Admittedly, the dan dan noodles at Wing Lai Yuen are incomparable. The sliced pork, though, is phenomenal. The sheets of pork are almost translucent and dressed in this spicy, salty, sweet, and tart sauce and covered in boatloads of minced garlic.



Per Se (NY, NY)
Pistachio "Bavarois," Bitter Chocolate "Marquise" and "Pain de Gênes" with Mast Brothers’ Chocolate Ice Cream

Chocolate just satisfies all kinds of sweet tooths and pistachio is only the most awesome nut ever. Not only is this dish so well put together, it's bitter sweetness and richness is perfectly balanced. The end to a lovely meal and an even lovelier year.