Po

Address: 31 Cornelia Street, New York

http://porestaurant.com/main/index.php

Phone: 212-645-2189

Gan and I are not gourmet Italian food kind of people. Whenever we have cravings, we go to Angelo's of Mulberry Street for some good home cooking. Nevertheless, we are aware of other excellent Italian restaurants out there. So I have made a goal for us to try other Italian restaurants in NYC and we started off with Po at Cornelia Street, a restaurant which was originally co-owned by the Famous Mario Batali. I heard it is not as easy to get reservations but I scored a table for 4 people on a Friday anyways. Lucky!

I was quite excited about the menu at Po. Dishes that particularly caught my attention were the Fresh marinated anchovies, clams and mussels, white bean bruschetta, white bean ravioli and grilled guinea hen. So of course, we had ordered all of the above (except the white bean ravioli) in addition to a skirt steak and two specials of the day.

I think I really enjoyed the food at Po. I especially love the anchovies (and the roasted barley underneath) and can’t get enough of the guinea hen. The service was lovely as well. Even though they were busy and crowded, I felt that we were well taken care of from the moment we arrived at the restaurant. I think I can get used to eating more "Po" like restaurant instead of Angelo’s going forward!

Bob's steamed clams and mussels with green chilies, tomatoes, fresh mint & olive crostino

Fresh marinated anchovies with leeks and roasted barley - I love the fresh anchovies, they were so fatty and delicious, I want more!

Spaghetti Carbonara with guanciale, black pepper, onion, egg, Parmigiano Reggiano

Grilled Guinea Hen with pumpkin & scallion fregula with saba - the grilled guinea hen was tender and very well seasoned. Well done!

Grilled skirt steak with baby potatoes & Gorgonzola butter

Special of the day #1 - Grilled Fish

Special of the day #2 - Seafood pasta

Grandma's Pizza

Address: Look for the truck on the north corner of Plaza 3 Harborside Financial Center, Jersey City (Monday-Friday, 12pm-3pm)

Phone: 973-941-2372


I have yet to try the famous Lombardi’s Pizza, since the there is always long lines; but of all the pizzas I have tried, I actually really like the square pizza from the pizza truck near my work place. Something about the toppings - fresh homemade mozzarella, fresh tomato paste, basil and crunchy crust makes it insanely delicious!

Tai Cheong Bakery

Address: 32 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central

Phone: 852-2544-3475

Tai Cheong bakery's egg tarts are quite different from the egg tarts I am used to eating - it has a thicker crust and it's more buttery. I heard it was Chris Patten, the last British Hong Kong Governor's favorite egg tart place. Definitely worth checking it out.

Gan getting us some egg tarts

we bought 4 and only managed to eat 2...what a waste!

Tung Po Restaurant

Address: 2/F, Urban Services Building, Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong

Phone: 852-2880-9399

Gan and I found out about Tung Po Restaurant from watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation Hong Kong episode. We knew this was the "tai pai dong" we definitely have to try when we are there. Since we didn't make reservation ahead of time, we had to wait around 20 minutes to get a table but it wasn't too bad since we were busy catching up with our friend Alex outside of the restaurant. From Anthony Bourdain's show, I remembered that one of the restaurant's famous dishes is the squid ink noodles and we ordered that, on top of other dishes such as the deep fried prawns with salted egg yolk, pig's feet, stir-fry snow pea tips, fried rice and roasted chicken. Overall, I really enjoyed the dinner at Tung Po and would definitely recommend anyone who's going to Hong Kong to check it out. (ps: even the taxi driver who drove us there knew about Tung Po, and he agreed that it's one of the best tai pai dong in Hong Kong!)

Food Galore!

Squid ink noodles - this was delicious, but we all had black lips after eating it. The squid balls were so fresh and springy.

Deep fried prawns with salted egg yolk

One of the best snow pea tips dish that I have eaten.

Spicy & Tasty

Address: 39-07 Prince St., Flushing, NY

Phone: 718-359-1601

Gan and I had wanted to try Spicy & Tasty Szechuan restaurant for some time and we finally drove all the way to Flushing to check out this very famous Szechuan restaurant.

The restaurant was full when we got there and I think we waited around 20 minutes before we were given a table. Since it was our first time there, we wanted to see how good the restaurant prepares its traditional Szechuan dishes so we ordered mostly traditional/famous Szechuan dishes such as wontons in red chili sauce, spicy double cooked pork, bean curd with spicy minced pork and pork stomach with sour cabbage soup. All of the dishes were numbingly spicy (except the soup), but tasty at the same time; just like the restaurant's name suggest. But there was one dish that we didn't quite like -- the bean curd with spicy minced pork dish, thought it was so spicy that it's almost tasteless.

displays of cold appetizers

Spicy sliced conch with red chili sauce

Wontons in red chili sauce

Pork stomach with sour cabbage soup

Spicy double cooked pork

Bean curd with spicy minced meat

Haagen Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream

Guess who makes the best green tea ice cream in my opinion? Haagen Dazs! I am not sure if the regular supermarkets carry this "limited edition" Green Tea ice cream by Haagen Dazs, but I got it at Wholefoods Market in Edgewater. It reminds me of the Green Tea ice cream I had in Kyoto. Hope it doesn't go away!

Bunga Raya Oyster Omelette

Sightly different from the Taiwanese style oyster omelette. Gan: They used tapioca flour and mixed with eggs and oysters as well as garlic to make this simple omelette... but it taste darn good. Now, why can't omelette elsewhere be made this way as well?

Words can't describe how delicious this omelette is. I need to make a trip home just to eat this!

Melaka Raya Teoh Chew Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh is an uniquely Malaysian pork ribs herbal soup dish that is served with yam rice and yao tiu and people usually have it for breakfast! Malaysian Chinese really love their Bak kut tehs!

Bak kut teh literally translate to Pork Rib Tea. It's a common Hokkien dish which is eaten in the morning as breakfast (yea, quite heavy, ain't it? after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day). When I was growing up, this is a typical breakfast dish for me. My dad especially, loves the dish. It's made of several different types of herbal roots which was grounded into powder form and packed into a cloth/sack of sort. It is then made into a soup with pork ribs and some other condiments. It's served with the typical pot of chinese tea, which is good in "washing down" the grease from the pork ribs.

a side order of braised pork feet in dark soy sauce

Yao Tiu served with bak kut teh

Drinking Chinese tea after a heavy breakfast

Cafe Too Buffet

Address: Island Shangri-La Hotel, Pacific Place, Supreme Court Road, Central Hong Kong

Phone: 852-2820-8571

I'm a total sucker for buffets because I love variety, or maybe I'm just yaokui. It's not as easy to find a good quality buffet place in NYC since buffet style meals are not as popular here. So I picked Cafe Too as one of the restaurants Gan and I will try during our Hong Kong trip after I read that it’s one of the best in town.

Cafe Too is located on the second floor of the Island Shangri-La Hotel at Central. I got so excited when I first walked into the restaurant and saw displays of fresh, delicious food and pretty desserts. I couldn't decide what to eat in the beginning, and then I quickly came up with a simple strategy –taking a small portion of everything they served. I think that strategy definitely worked well as I managed to taste almost everything there. :)

From the hot food station, you can find dishes such as the Peking duck, Chinese herbal soup, fresh oysters, king crab legs, sushi, sashimi, Chinese stir-fry, Indian food, noodles soup, dim sums, western food etc. As for desserts, there were soufflés, chocolate dipped strawberries, tiramisu, assorted ice creams, cakes, pastries etc. It was definitely a food heaven for me and I think I was in ecstasy the entire time there.

Gan getting some fresh oysters and shrimp cocktails.

Chinese Hot Food Station - they have Dim Sums, stir-fry dishes, herbal soup, Peking Duck etc

Noodles station

Indian food station

Happy me with Roslind

Check out what I got - Lamb chop, Shiu Mai, Roast Chicken, Peking Duck, Fried Rice, Har Kau...or was this Gan's plate?

Fresh oysters, shrimp cocktails, and sashim

Desserts

Ole Sayang

Address: 199 Taman Melaka Raya, Bandar Melaka

Phone: 606-283-1966

Baba-Nyonya or Peranakan is a term use to describe decedents of Chinese who migrated to Malaysia during early British Straits settlement in Penang, Malacca and Singapore (hence they are also called Straits Born Chinese). Peranakans have partially adopted the local Malay customs back in the early days, thus created a unique culture and cuisine of their own.

Peranakan cuisine utilizes alot of different spices to create distinctive taste and flavors. Some of their famous dishes are Ayam buah keluak, Ayam ponteh, mixed vegetables and shrimp with pineapples. The dishes are usually spicy and flavorful.

Top hats -served with mengkuang and cucumbers

Gan: Hopefully you can see how the dish got its name from the shape of the tortilla chip above

Kangkung Belacan

Ayam Ponteh

Shrimp in Assam curry with Pineapple

Nyonya Chap Chai (Nyonya style mixed vegetables)

Otak-otak literally means brains, but it's actually made using fish paste + spices and it's cooked while wrapped in a banana leave..one of my favorite dish!

Gan: As with the Muar otak otak, this is another way of making this dish, the peranakan style

Chendol dessert - Coconut Milk dessert with Green Jelly and Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar)