Happy π Day!

Pi (π) Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate, you can see the inner math nerd coming out right now!

For those of you who are less familiar…

What is Pi (π)?

π is an irrational number starting with 3.1415… going on to infinity. π represents the constant ratio between a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This may not be a number your average person uses in their everyday lives, but there are so many everyday items that used the application of π in some way.

How did I celebrate?

This year I celebrated π Day with lots of pi, pies & circles!

My high school friends, Yi, Ganesh and I have a tradition to get together on or around π Day for some pie! This year we celebrated early (due to work travel) and had pie at Little Pie Company, dessert first of course and then dinner. We each ate a pie our own pie - I had a blueberry crumb pie, Ganesh had a classic apple pie & Yi had a key line pie!

After we each finished our pies, we decided to have dinner at Tim Ho Wan, needless to say we were all rolling home that night.

Today I exclusively ate circle items today (except for 1 banana - oops, I was in a rush - don’t tell anyone), including a Sprinkles cupcake and an entire large cheese pizza w/ chicken cutlets, and only drank out of round cylindrical cups! Sadly I was unable to finish the 18 inch pizza, but I tried!

What other pie and circle items should I eat next? 🤗

Chinese New Year Traditions

Happy Lunar New Year!

This year is the year of the TIGER! 🐯

Happy Year of the Tiger!

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in the Chinese culture, so I thought I would share some of the Chinese New Year traditions!

Chinese Zodiac 🐅

There are 12 Chinese zodiac signs: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

The tiger represents courage and bravery, therefor this year could be a year of resiliency and bravery.

People born in the year of the tiger are brave, competitive, unpredictable, and confident. They are also quick-witted, resourceful and well liked, however can sometimes be stubborn as well.

Traditional Greetings

Chinese New Year Sweets

Some of the most popular Chinese New Year traditional greetings are:

• 新年快乐 - Happy New Year!

• 恭喜发财 - Wishing you happiness and prosperity!

• 身体健康 - Wising you good health!

Red Envelopes 🧧

One tradition during Chinese New Year is to give out red envelopes. Traditionally children wish their parents and grandparents well wishes (see above) and in return they receive red envelopes with “lucky” money for the new year.

The envelopes should contain new, crisp bills and not be in a denomination of an unlucky number, such as 4, which sounds like the word for death in Chinese.

Traditional Lucky Food

Similar to many holidays, there are traditional foods that are eaten to bring you luck, happiness and prosperity into the new year.

Chinese New Year Dinner

Here are a few of the dishes and what they represent:

• Fish 🐟 - Abundance

• Shrimp 🦐 - Laughter

• Noodles 🍜 - Longevity

• A whole soy sauce chicken (head and feet) 🐓 - Togetherness

• Lettuce 🥬 - Wealth

• Prosperity Cakes (fa gao) 🥠 - steamed rice flour cakes

• Oranges & Tangerines 🍊- wealth, success & good luck

It is also a tradition to have an excess of food and to have the leftovers the next day, this is to represent that you are bountiful and not going hungry into the new year. My family and I try to have 8 dishes since 8 is a lucky number in the Chinese culture.

These are just a few of the many traditions for Chinese New Year!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Lunar New Year with your loved ones!

恭喜发财!

Taste of Times Square 2019

The Times Square Alliance hosted their annual Taste of Times Square featuring many restaurants in the area. Check out some of my favorites!

Toloache

• Tacos al Pastor

Blue Fin

• Sushi Donut - Salmon Sushi

Fashion Bar & Restaurant

• Spanish Omelette

Bond 45

• Nonna's Short Rib Meatballs

Planet Hollywood

• Banana Foster Cheesecake

Wafels & Dinges

• Mini Wafelini

Junior’s

• Blueberry Cheesecake

La Rivage

• Bread Pudding with Vanilla and Raspberry Sauce

Milestone Birthday

Today is milestone birthday, so I decided to celebrate it all weekend and all month long!

Celebration 1 - Bermuda

I celebrated last weekend in Bermuda with my friend Diana, since I wanted to celebrate the actual day in NY with all my friends and family. We went for a quick weekend trip and explored the island. Bermuda is GORGEOUS and everyone is so nice and kind!

This photo was taken at Waterfront Lot at the Fairmont Southampton. The Waterfront Lot hosted a lot of celebrities and had AMAZING food!

Celebration 2 - Saturday Night

Dinner at Legacy Records

My friends and I went to small(ish) dinner at Legacy Records, owned by the masterminds of Please Don’t Tell and Charlie Bird. The food here was delicious, one of my favorites was the duck! Thankfully we had a big group so we were able to order a variety of dishes and share them family style.

Drinks at The Roxy

After dinner we headed downtown to The Roxy in Tribeca. Sarita (the GM) and her team were kind enough to hold 2 tables for me and my group to have some privacy, but not before catching some of the live music first! The Roxy is a great little spot and ALL of my friends loved the venue. I had a great time and felt so loved that day with almost 20 people coming out!

Celebration 3 - Sunday Brunch

I had brunch with friends at Industry Kitchen near South Street Seaport. We had a lot of fun winter and fun themed foods and drinks. My favorite was a GIANT spiked hot chocolate and the La La Land Pizza, which was POP ROCKS, COTTON CANDY, SPRINKLES & FROSTING on a rainbow colored pizza!

Celebration 4 - Family Dinner

My family and I went to Uncle Boon’s for some yummy Thai food followed by my favorite kind of bday cake - a snowman Carvel cake!

Thank you to everyone who came out for my birthday - I feel so loved and blessed to have you all in my life!

Happy National Dessert Day

Hope everyone has a sweet day!!!​

​I just tasted these delicious cupcakes from Huascar & Co Bake Shop.  The flavors going clockwise were Nutty Fella (chocolate fudge cupcake with Nutella filling, Glanduja buttercream frosting with chocolate pearls toasted hazelnuts), Pink Lemonade (lemon sour cream and raspberry cupcake with raspberry buttercream frosting and raspberry chocolate curls) and Berry Champgne (pink champagne cupcake with strawberries baked in iced with vanilla-pink champagne frosting)! 

​Huascar & Co had a bunch of fun flavors and other items in the store, such as spiked tres leches cake which is one of my favorite kind of cakes!  The cupcakes were pretty tasty, more dense than fluffy, the Nutty Fella even had a filling, which was delicious. As for the frosting, I thought it was a bit hard and too bitter tasting, however they did have interesting frosting flavors to go with the different cupcakes. 

Little Havana Food Tour in Miami

During my vacation in Miami, I wanted to more than just your typical beach and party routine.  After seeking out some recommendations from my new friends from Sunrise, Florida, my friend and I decided to take a food tour with Miami Culinary Tours.  They had a few tour options, but decided the Little Havana Food tour, would give us a new cultural tour in addition to some yummy Cuban Food!

Stop 1 - El Pub Restaurant

Stop 1 of the food tour was at El Pub restaurant, they are best known for their beef empanadas & coffee, which exactly what we had and a great way to start the tour!  For those of you who do not know, an empanada is basically dough filled with something, such as beef.  Variations of empanadas exist in many different cultures, such as calzones and dumplings.  I also learned about the "colada," which is a Cuban coffee that is mean to be shared (you should not have a full cup, but rather a small little shot, the size of a creamer).

Stop 2 - Cuba Tobacco Cigar Co.

Next we headed to the Cuba Tobacco Cigar Factory, where we learned how cigars were made and got to see it first hand.  Fun Fact - The owner of this factory was actually imprisoned for 20 years prior to starting this factory and was sitting on the couch in the front of the store.

Stop 3 - Domino Park

Domino Park is where all of the seniors go to play, you guessed it... dominos!  The park is a social club and the place to be during teh day for dominos and chess (but gambling is not allowed). Don’t forget to bring your ID, because they will card you!

Stop 4 - Old's Havana

We then headed lunch at Old Havana, where we had a delicious Cuban sandwich & croquette.  A cuban sandwich consists of pernil (one of my favorites!), ham, pickle and cheese, croquettes are basically fried sticks of food, usually consisting of potato.

Stop 5 - Ball & Chain

We migrated to some live Latin music at Ball & Chain for some refreshing mojitos!  Ball & Chain is definitely one of the most lively places in Little Havana, with a fantastic live band in the front of the restaurant and a pineapple theme!   They also have a nice little patio area in the back, this may have been my favorite spot on the tour - I will definitely be back next time I am in Little Havana!

Stop 6 - Yisell Bakery

On to Yisell Bakery for some guava filled pastries (pastelitos).  This little hole in the wall bakery, looked kind of small and run down, but had some great pastries, bread and was very busy with locals. The bakery was crowded in the middle of the day while we were there, which says a lot about a place.

Stop 7 - Los Pinarenos Fruteria

This fruit stand has a variety of fruits that you would not find at your local grocery store, here you can find giant avocados, green plantains, lady fingers (baby bananas), dragon fruit, star fruit and fresh mangos to name a few!  Here we had a very fresh mango smoothie, which you could tell was made right on the spot, I could definitely use another one in this heat! 

Fun Fact: this is one of the only open air fruit stands left standing AND was featured in some movies.

Stop 8 - Azucar

Time for dessert!  For the final stop of the tour we headed to Azucar for some mantecado ICE CREAM topped with guava syrup! This shop was created by a local who saw the need to create a place for tourists to enjoy the local culture, thus Azucar was born!

Along the tour, we saw many roosters, both statues and real ones, very depicting of islands in general.   

Needless to say my friend and I were STUFFED by the end of this tour.  I would definitely recommend taking this tour if you want to learn about the culture, while stuffing your face!

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream topped with Homemade Lemon Meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream

Celebrating National Ice Cream Day at the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard - with a variety of NYC's most unique artisan ice cream makers and flavors.

For those of you who know me well, you know I have a big sweet tooth and LOVE ice cream!  

Today I attended the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard at the Grand Baazar NYC on the Upper West Side. There were so many varieties of ice cream it was hard to choose where to go! There was everything from ice cream mochi from My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream, ice cream sandwiches from Melt Bakery and Thai ice cream rolls from Minus Celsius Ice Cream to ice cream stuffed donuts from Stax Ice Cream, ice cream like cookie dough from 2 Dough Boyz and deep fried ice cream from Sam's Fried Ice Cream to name a few.   

I decided to get something new that I had not seen before (which is rare when it comes to ice cream) - rainbow cookie ice cream topped with toasted lemon meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream! If you’re wondering, yes it tastes as good as it looks!  The rainbow cookie ice cream had bits of rainbow cookie in it (one of my favorite cookies), and the toasted lemon meringue added a nice touch, definitely a good decision made today! 

Thank you to my friend Della for indulging in my love of ice cream and attending this, despite the intense heat today!  

Until next time, stayed tuned for more ice cream and foodie adventures!