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.