Cooking heals the body...sortive.

Did you know that The Nintendo gaming system Wii has cooking games now? Apparently these games, like Cooking Mama allow gamers the oppurtunity to practice cooking or at least the act of cooking without turning on a real stove or going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients. Players can learn how to make World cuisines of all types, from curry and naan to ratatouille or sushi. Using the stylus or the controller, players learn the proper movements and techniques that real world chefs use in there kitchens in preparing food.One can dice,chop,grill,saute,mix,sprinkle and even roll. The Food Network game Cook Or Be Cooked actually gives tips and instruction to the players as they cook. These games can be played by one person or you can have a cook off with friends. The medical world has discovered the benefits of using the Wii cooking games in physical therapy and rehabilitation in burn and stroke patients. Apparently the games challenge these specific group of patients by allowing them to work the joints and muscles of the body parts that have been affected by their illness or injury and preventing a worsening of their condition. The games are beginning to take the place of traditional physical therapy treatments and are extremely entertaining, therefore patients are distracted from the pains of their burns and injuries and getting a good work out as well. Im proud to be working at the hospital that is doing just that. Who knew cooking could heal the body?Sortive. Cooking Mama is a little cheesy in their animation but entertaining and cute and The Food Network's game has a crisper picture and animation with a little more virtual reality involved.

Free peeks..oooh!!!

OMG!!!I just discovered this great website called Zinio.com that lets you check out back issues of most of your favorite magazines for free. Its kind of what you do when you're in the grocery line waiting to pay.You grab a magazine and try to read the whole content  before its your turn to pay up or leave it on the wrong shelf. Zinio has various publications on there website that you can purchase or browse through for free. You can go back to the April 2009 issue of Saveur and find that recipe for puerco in mole negro recipe that you remembered seeing. You can zoom on the actual digital copy, print it and start cooking! The website only allows you a couple zooms per publication so that if you really want the back issue or book you can buy it right on their site. Prices for back issues depend on the publication date and or genre.

My fave food scenes in movies...enjoy!!!

Momofuku... more than just pork buns and noodles!

Remember when you were a little kid and you finished your bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal or your Coco Puffs and had only sweetened cereal flavored milk leftover? Remember how slurping that colorful milk often was the best part of the meal? Now as adults we toss the bowl in the sink once were done and spill out the good stuff right down the drain. Why? Well the genuis people at Momofuku take us back to those days when drinking milk out of a bowl was delicious! Amazingly the Chefs at Momofuku wanted to prove that they are not just gods of the pork bun but they can do magic with deserts. I just might be the only one in New York City that didnt know that Momofuku Milk Bar existed. One night after a yummy dinner with new friends Erika and Justin at Ippudo, the lovely couple mentioned cookies for desert at Momofuku! I was sure that they were mistaken.Cookies at Momofuku? Well they not only make amazing cookies, like there trademark Compost cookie which contain pretezel,potato chips, coffee,oats,butterscotch and chocolate but they also make interesting flavored soft serves. One of which is there cereal milk flavored soft serve and cereal milk flavored milk. Momofuku soaks the cereal in milk for us and then creates yumminess with the leftovers!They dont soak Coco Puffs in milk but they do soak cornflakes and thats where the flavor comes from. Not only do they make great cookies and interesting flavored soft serves but they make cakes,pies and breads!!I saw an interesting flavor bread that they only serve on Wednesday that is called banana green curry bread. I am soooo headed there the next Wednesday im off to purchase a loaf and see how anyone can pair those two ingredients together and come out with goodness!! Offcourse while you are there, since Momofuku IS known for the pork buns, you can buy some them there instead of waiting an hour or two to be seated at Momofuku Noodle Bar. I think im going to trademark Coco Puffs milk soft serve, i would totally eat it!!

New food discovery!!!

Food makes me happy when im feeling shitty. I guess it does for most people, hence the obesity epidemic in America. Found a new yummy treat in L.A. that helped me get over some recent sadness when my dad was ill. Can't find the dam product anywhere in New York City. If anybody stumbles upon it let me know. They are called GladCorn A-maizing corn snacks. They are the yummiest thing ever!!Very closely related to the famous Corn nuts we ate in grammar school but way better and easier on the teeth!!

COOK.EAT.DRINK.LIVE

This past weekend was The COOK.EAT.DRINK. LIVE  2009 food/charity event at The Tunnel/La.Venue in Chelsea. For the entire weekend ACTION AGAINST HUNGER worked together with COOK.EAT.DRINK.LIVE to bring a gourmet food and wine event where Zagat-rated restuarants,New York City's finest chefs and high end gourmet spirits and food sampling come together in one place. Foodies, food industry folk and people who just love to do something for a good cause attended the event which offered over 100 samples of wines(many of which where local),spirits and beers. Great restaurants like En Brassiere, Bice, Mortons Steakhouse and Triomphe each had long lines of attendees trying to get bite size nibbles of yummy things like Bice's pumpkin ravioli and Triomphe's chocolate flan. Large crowds huddled anxiously around the various wine and spirit tables waiting for their opportunity to participate in the tastings, with many people,including myself raving about Me Oko natural flavored vodkas like jalapeno and ginger flavors.The FineWaters Pavillion was an interesting place to be at since it gave guests a once in lifetime experience in tasting unique waters from all over the world. Water is water right? Not for Michael Mascha who is considered the worlds leading "water connoisseur". There where delicious baked goods of all sorts,chocolate,special olive oils, exotic spices and cheeses. My favorite part of the event was volunteering in the kitchen at the Viking  Main Stage where cooking demonstrations where held by New Yorks top chefs. Attendees of the event where treated to small cooking demos by Chef's Joey Campanaro from Little Owl,Eric Hana from Oak Room and Chef Claude Godard from Madison Bistro. Fellow volunteers ranged from students in event planning internships,people in culinary school to people like me who just want to dabble in the food world in whatever way i can !! I enjoyed watching the chefs in action, passing out samples of there fare to the hungry audience and offcourse getting to eat the leftovers!!Yummy!! I also cant forget the fun of meeting other foodies like me,of meeting interesting folk that work in the food world and of making $70 in tips working the coat room for a few hours on opening day!Hilarious!!To see more pics of the event check them out at Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hungrylittlebitch/

Heaven is made of chocolate!!

The 12th Annual Chocolate Show of New York had its opening day October 30th, 2009 and i was excited that i would be volunteering for the show. My goal was to see how a show like this is run and to be surrounded by chocolate and chocolatiers in whatever way possible.Once i arrived i realized to my dismay that they had way too many volunteers and not enough to do. I was given a station at the chocolate cafe to basically keep the cafe in order, but some other volunteer kept doing my job for me.I pointed that out to whomever was in charge and I was basically told by the person in charge of all volunteers to "go enjoy myself"!!He cut me loose. Wow i was given a pass to enjoy the show only after working an hour!! I felt bad for the other volunteers who had to sit at there stations and only smell the aromas of all the chocolate and spices that filled the Metropolitan Pavillion, but who was i kidding, i was outta there!! I was like a little girl in the best candy store in the world, where free chocolates of all sorts were shoved in my face and where there were no adults to tell me when i had too much!!As i walked through the aisles of the various vendors like Al Nassma and their camel milk chocolate(first ever of its kind)and Christopher Michael and their sizzling bacon bar(milk chocolate,bacon bits,popping candy and sea salt), i understood why chocolates' scientific name Theobroma means "food of the gods".I bet Jesus loved himself a good slab of cacao back in the day! Walking passed Chocolate Springs and there Champagne Cognac Truffles and Lavender Honey chocolates i thought about how The Aztecs once used the cacao bean as their main currency.Chocolate was money and it was very valuable. Wow!!Can you imagine walking into Jimmy Choo with a box of Kit Kats and trying to trade them in for a cute pair of stilletos?? I didnt skip a single booth at the show and even made my rounds several times to a couple of my favorite booths pretending to have never been there before. I faked a "first timer" multiple times with Roni-Sue chocolates. They were giving away loads of pieces of their Bacon Butter Crunch(caramel nuggets with walnuts and sprinkled with bacon bits and dipped in chile pinon nuts) and selling their famous Bacorn(honey caramel popcorn sprinked with bacon and chile pinon nuts).I didnt leave without buying a box of their Chile Lovers truffles collection(truffles mixed with red chiles jams,tequilla and even jalapeno pepper flakes) Ay ya yay!!!Picante pero sabroso!! Checking out there website i found that i missed out on a few yummy things that they also sell that i had not seen before like their Tea and Honey lollipops and their Maple Bacon lollipops, which they've described as breakfast on a stick!!Yummy.There were several truffle booths at the show claiming to be the best truffles around(who decides that and how do i get that job?)and according to Jenny Penny Fifth Avenue Chocolatiere had the best truffles in town. I totally disagreed after having NO CHEWING ALLOWED truffles!! They were giving loads of free pieces out with the rule of not biting into them but instead letting them just melt into your mouth slowly. They were amazingly buttery and they didnt leave you with that "ugh, i just ate too much chocolate" feeling afterwards. I also sneaked there a couple times as well without being caught! The show was a success in that they had a good number of vendors and a variety of products.They had live cooking exhibitions involving chocolates and tons of cook books to practice your favorite deserts. They had a variety of chocolate products, including chocolate scented lotions and soap bars, which i wasnt too fond of and alcholic drinks that could be consumed with liquid chocolate in it or along side it like Essencia which is a orange muscat by Quad Winery or Electra another light wine that was light and delicate with peach and melon flavors. I didn't want to leave but believe it or not a girl CAN have too much chocolate. I payed for the gluttony later, TRUST ME!!!!

Curry yeah!!

Yeah!!!Im so excited, i just stumbled upon  a fairly new Japanese gourmet curry restaurant called Curry-Ya!!Anybody that knows me, knows that i love me some curry!!I especially love Japanese curry and first discovered it in Los Angeles, California at an awesome place called Hurry Curry of Tokyo. Hurry Curry is known for its special curry that contains a blend of 21 spices. They make this amazing sweet curry that they call Tokyo Curry in which they mix ground beef, vegetables and eggs to anything from a chicken cutlet to spagetti...yummy!!!Japanese curry is different than say Indian curry in that its sweeter in taste and less spicy. It also has a darker color compared to bright colorful Indian curry and a thicker consistency. Curry-Ya is the the tinest little spot located in the East Village and can be missed easily, but once in there its unforgettable! Everything on the menu sounds,smells and looks amazing, especially the berkshire cutlet curry and the seafood curry,but what i had to taste was the organic chicken curry. You can order your curry mild or regular,hot or very hot. The curry, which i ordered hot was flavorful and unexpectedly rich and sweet, with small chunks of tender skinless chicken. I have to say that it wasnt Hurry Curry but it was close!! I did wish that the chicken portions were bigger in the dish but they did give plenty of white sticky rice and they have great lunch specials too. For $15 bucks you can have your choice of a curry dish,an appetizer and desert. Oh yeah they only take cash...booo!!!

Addicted to Almondinas

So i was grocery shopping a few months ago and was trying to keep my selections whole grain, healthy and low calorie (very hard to do when you have an appettite of a 300 lb lumberjack). I was looking for a healthy crunchy snack alternative to my usual Peppridge Farm cookies and salty corn chips and stumbled upon these yummy Almondina cookies. What sold me was the claim on the wrapping that stated they had no added salt,fat or cholesterol and that they were very low calorie. I liked that i could pronounce and recognize all the ingredients too, which made sense since they also claimed to be all natural as well. So i threw a bag of them in my basket and hessitantly tossed out the jalapeno cheetos. When i got home i broke open the bag of Almondinas with the expectation that they would be bland,"healthy tasting" and well boring.But it was the sacrifice i would have to make i thought, to keep my body looking and feeling great and to keep that Mexican belly im prone to from growing.Well to my amazement they werent bland or tasteless and in fact they were kind of yummy and the best thing was that it satisfied the all time annoying and sometimes detrimental "crunch crave"!! After two cookies i had two more and then two more and sadly enough two more!It was then  that i  realized that these cookies had to be infused with crack cocaine or something. Aha!!That was the secret ingredient, crack cocaine!! How could something that didnt have much sugar,no chocolate and no bacon be soooo addicting???Well i went online and realized i wasnt alone!!Apparently these cookies/biscuits have received rave reviews from other foodies and is a four time NASFT award winner.NASFT is a not-for-profit business trade association established in 1952 to foster trade, commerce and interest in the specialty food industry.They give out Sofi awards each year to only the most outstanding specialty foods. Almondina suprisingly has ten different type of cookie flavors according to there website, like Choconut and Cinnaroma.The one that i have developed an addiction to are the Original Almondinas which are there #1 seller and are made from Grandma Dinas' "secret recipe".

Igloos are for eskimos

A week before my birthday i was treated to a suprise dinner at hotspot Megu in Tribeca. Megu is a high-end, fine dining restaurant that mixes traditional and modern Japanese into everything from it decor to its cooking.It prides itself in serving the freshest and highest quality kobe beef,sushi and sashimi. The dining experience was a delight and amazing to say the least and  not to mention very pricey. My favorites on the menu were the mouth watering and perfectly seasoned Kobe Beef "Tataki" style, prepared medium rare and served on stylishly bent forks. The "Tatsuta" organic chicken, served sliced and in chunks with just of hint of seasoning, was amazingly juicy and a great hot appetizer that i finished off even though i was so full i could hardly breathe. All the sashimi served on the "sashimi tasting" literally melted in my mouth and made me wonder if ive ever had sashimi any fresher! But the dish that really got me salivating non-stop and wishing i didnt have high cholesterol so i can order another order,were the Kobe Beef croquettes! They were heaven in little fried balls! Foie Gras wrapped around Kobe Beef and then lightly fried, oh my gooooosh!!!For all of you Puertoricans, it was like an alcapurria but smaller, less greasy and i hate to say this but tastier!! I hate that i am usually a fan of all things fatty, fried and bad for you but i cant help it. If the dish has bacon,foie gras or chocolate in or on it,it often makes my list of favorites! One of Megus' signature dishes like the croquettes is its Tajima Kobe Beef sashimi. Its basically Kobe Beef sliced thinly and uncooked and unseasoned and served in an igloo shaped ice sculpture and on a bed of ice. All i can say is that i was extremely dissapointed and confused. I get that Kobe beef is best eaten raw or rare and i get that eating it this way enables one to enjoy its velvety texture and yummy intense fatty marbling. But truthfully the experience wasnt mind blowing and in fact i didnt really taste much. The trick according to the waiter was to put a piece in your mouth without chewing it and with aid of the heat of your mouth, allow the flavors to reveal themselves on your tongue slowly . I waited and waited with a $20 piece of Kobe beef sitting in my mouth, hoping that magic would occur and a "taste bud climax" would happen. But sadly nothing happend and i realized why the meat was brought out on an igloo with lights and even a mini palm tree of sorts. The only thing exciting about that dish and close to magical was the igloo it came in.

Sorry PETA, but whales are yummy!!

This May i had the amazing pleasure of visiting the Scandinavian country of Norway. Norway a country known for its amazing mountains and Vikings more than for its cuisine was an experience never to be forgotten. During my stay in Norway i had the oppurtunity to not only experience the big city life of Norway in Oslo but also the small countryside in northern Norway. My travels took me to the The Lofoten Islands, to a small lovely quaint fishing village of Henningsvar. Henningsvar is surrounded by the ocean and is known for the amazing codfish,halibut and salmon. Minke whales have also made there home in the Northern coast of Norway. Though very few nations still allow whaling or whale hunting due to the influence of the ICW(International Whaling Commission), whale hunting is still a big Norwegian tradition that is maintained with minor regulations and restrictions. In fact while in Henningsvar i was challenged by my Norwegian boyfriend to taste whale or "hval". I was a little shocked that he would challenge me to eat an animal that was considered adorable and cuddly. Didn't Norwegians see Free Willy or Whale rider? How could they eat Willy and not feel not the least guilty? Whale in Norway can prepared in many ways. I saw a menu at Fiskekrogen in Henningsvar that offered whale carpaccio served with arugala, goat cheese, pine nuts and olive oil. I had the adventure of having a whale steak. Apparently the best way to have a whalesteak is medium rare. It is cooked simply by frying on both sides with light butter and served with the Norwegian staple potatoes. As seen above i also had mine cooked medium rare, but being the Latina that i am i ordered mine pepper encrusted. Sadly Norwegian food is a little bland for my taste and not much spice or strong flavor is added to most  food. After asking God ,PETA and Greenpeace for forgiveness and taking a deep breath i took a nice size bite out of the hval and was pleasantly suprised! Folks whale didnt taste like any fish ive ever tasted!In fact it didn't taste like fish at all!It had the flavor and texture of a pricey,meduim rare steak that can be found in any of New Yorks' high end steakhouses! It melted in my mouth like butter and with a little kick from the encrusted pepper i forgot i was eating Willy! I realized pretty quickly that whale is the "other red meat" in Norway for a reason. Whale though as common as hamburger and salmon in Norway is controversial and pretty much a delicasse anywhere else.It can only be found and bought in Norway and some places in Japan for a hefty price. I am glad to have had the "adventure" and to have proven to my boyfriend that he indeed has an open-minded gutsy girlfriend.