Weddings!

I have been obsessed with weddings from the minute I started to plan my own in 2008.  Within days of being engaged I purchased ton of magazines, signed up for multiple websites, dvr'd every wedding show and put my skills to work (project manager by day.. wedding planner by night)! 15 months later I had the best day of my life.  Mr.K and I spent countless hours researching every aspect and making sure all of the details were perfect.  We did not have a large wedding (only 63 guests including the 2 of us) but we had a trendy, modern, exciting, and most importantly amazing wedding.  The ceremony, cocktail hour and reception were all held in a Loft on the west side of Midtown Manhattan.  The loft was a blank canvas allowing us to be creative as our wallets would permit. 


All of the below pics were taken by our very talented Wedding Photographer Kella MacPhee. 

Roman Cauliflower

Mr.K and I went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner tonight in Hoboken... Teak on the Hudson.  Every Monday and Thursday Teak offers almost their entire menu at 1/2 price so you can have a wonderful meal at a fairly reasonable price.  We both love the Chilean Sea Bass (and have a few friends that have been known to order this dish two nights in a row because they loved it so much the first night).  Normally we both order this dish but tonight our Waiter mentioned a special entree involving a Filet Mignon with popcorn shrimp, roasted potatoes and vegetables.  Mr.K loves steak so he went with the special.  As soon as it arrived I was intrigued... yes there was a nicely cooked steak and lightly battered fried popcorn shrimp but there was something else much more interesting. 



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We both looked at this steamed vegetable that resembled light green mini Christmas trees and had to try it.  It tasted like broccoli & cauliflower in the same bite and it was delicious.  I had to ask the waiter what it was and he said 'asian cauliflower'.  As soon as we got home we started to research it and realized it was more commonly known as 'roman cauliflower'. 



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So you might be thinking what is Roman Cauliflower.. According to wikipedia "Romanesco broccoli, or Roman cauliflower, is an edible flower of the species Brassica oleracea, and a variant form of cauliflower."  I cant wait to find this vegetable and try it at home in a few recipes.  Once I find it I will let you all know where and how we use it. Happy Roman Cauliflower hunting begins!

Meat Packing District

Happy President's Day! The best part of this holiday is having the day off of work but unfortunately Mr.K had to work today.  So I decided to meet up with a friend for lunch in the Meat Packing District in NYC.  We had lunch at Spice Market which is a great restaurant on 9th Ave which happens to be a cobblestone street (which I love).  Before we met up I had a few extra minutes so I wondered around the area taking pictures with my iPhone.  I recently downloaded a new app called 'Instagram' so all of these photos have been modified using one of the many filters in the program. I higly recommend this app.. it is really easy to use and you can get really cool pics without a lot of effort.

After lunch we ventured over to Chelsea Market which has a plethora of stores, restaurants and interesting architectural details. I have a love for cupcakes and brick walls so this place is on my list of favorite NYC spots.  If you get a chance to visit Chelsea Markets stop by Fat Witch Bakery for a delicious brownie. 

What is a Macaron?

What is a Macaron? According to wikipedia "A macaron is a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring." 

I am a Macaron fanatic!  I first discovered them years ago when I happened to stumble across Ladurée in Paris.  For those that have not heard of Ladurée they are famous for their Macarons. They are delicious, delicate, beautiful and perfect. 

While in Tokyo we stopped by Ladurée and picked up a small assortment.  They did not last long!

I have not personally tried to make a macaron but I have researched them a lot in the past few years.  Tartelette has a great tutorial on how to make them http://www.tarteletteblog.com/.  Some day I will be brave enough to try making them myself.  Until then I will continue to search for delicious macaron's in NYC.

Great Wall via Beijing

Our Asia adventure continued in China... we spent 5 days in Beijing and took a road trip to the Mutianyu part of the Great Wall of China.  China was eye opening to say the least.  While I was not surprised by the lack of English signs, menus, maps etc.. I was amazed that our Chinese tour guide managed to teach herself almost perfect English.  Without Lily we would have been lost from second one and probably would have only seen a fraction of what we ended up seeing.  She took us to see all of the major sights and a few that were off the beaten path.  If you are heading to Beijing you must book Lily.. she is mentioned over and over again on Trip Advisor.

Lily did not accompany us to the Great Wall of China.. but she did recommend that we head out very early to beat the crowds.  The following morning we were heading for the wall but stopped by Starbucks to get breakfast (it was already 9am).. as we were about to say the food was for there we saw Lily.  She jumps up to say hi and instantly realized that we did not follow her instructions and we have to act fast.  We said we were getting the food to take with us and ran out. Well it proved the right thing to do... just an hour or so later our taxi pulled up at the wall and it was almost empty.  Fast forward 15 minutes and a hair rising chair lift ride and we are on the Great Wall of China. For the next two hours we climbed and descended over a large section of the wall.. mainly all alone.  On our way towards the gondola to get back down (the other option was a medal slide.. which I refused to do) tourists seemed to come out of the stones.  Thanks again to Lily we had an amazing time at the Wall.

Konnichiha

It was a life long dream to visit Tokyo and in mid 2010 we decided to book a 2 week vacation to Asia for later in the year.  Fast forward to November and we were in Tokyo.

For 5 amazing days we ventured around Tokyo.. Upscale Department Stores, Temples, the Electronics District, Tsukiji Fish Market, Harajuku, Tokyo Disney Land and many other enticing exotic sites.

We both love sushi so when we found ourselves near the Tsukiji Fish Market bright and early in the morning (jet lag from NYC is not fun) we decided to join the locals and have an authentic sushi breakfast.  Who knew shrimp hand rolls and green tea made a great breakfast (this is coming from a girl that eats yogurt and granola most mornings).

Based on the recommendation of my Tokyo colleague we ventured off one morning to aTemple and we were so happy that we did.  Neither of us are religious but you could not help feel the spirituality surround you.  There were plenty of places to pray but I was most intrigued by the wish / fortune sticks.. after paying a small feed you shook a container of sticks wishing for something until one came out.  You then matched the Japanese symbols on the stick with the drawer marked with the same symbols.  Inside was your fortune.  Even though I am still waiting for my wish to come true I do believe it will happen.

One of the main temple buildings.

We had the pleasure of staying at an amazing 5 star hotel in Tokyo (The Ritz Carlton in Roppongi).  Our room was on the 52nd floor and had a view of Mt. Fuji, most of the time there was too many clouds to see the Mountain but once in a while the clouds parted and this was our view:

One of the most intriguing things about Tokyo is how everything is so compacted.. after a few hours of being in Tokyo you quickly realize that you have to look up all of the time when walking around.  Street level is just the beginning... almost every building hosts floors and floors of businesses.  One night on our way to Tokyo Tower we wanted to try Udon.  We stumbled upon this little restaurant in Roppongi that had the best tasting Udon I have ever tried.  If only we could recreate this at home!

Finally here is a picture of the Tokyo Tower.. the views were similar to those from our hotel room but it was a great way to see Tokyo.

Tokyo we will be back!

Birthdays... Start of a New Year

Today is not my birthday.  However, my last birthday marked an important point in my life.  It marked the beginning of a New Year. The previous year was filled with many high points but we also endured a few extreme lows.  I am optimistic that this year will be different.. this year will be happy and joyful.   Don't get me wrong 2010 was not all bad... Mr.K and I are madly in love and were constantly there for each other.  We went on amazing vacations and enjoyed wonderful adventures. We share a passion for expensive restaurants and gourmet homemade food.  We are both goal oriented so when there is something we want that is not completely in our control we will both do anything to get it.  I truly hope that by my next birthday we will finally get what we have wanted for so long!