Melba's

   On Wednesday me and my family went to Melba's.  We were also with our friend Jaime.  Melba's is on 114th street.

   Inside the lights are dim.  There was a bar.  There was one painting.  The right wall has some banquette seating.  There are bricks behind the bar.  There was a Lot of mirrors.  Also a Big window on wall that the door is on.

   For a appetizer I had Auntie D's Mini burger.  The mini burger was mini of course and there was a tooth pick keeping the burger together.  It was yummy.  I also had Spring rolls. In it is rice, black eyes peas,  collard greens and cheddar cheese.  The spring rolls were ok because the combination of the stuff in the spring roll was good. A spring roll is something like a mini taco you get at Trader Jones(for people who go to Trader Jones) but a spring roll does not have meat in it.  A spring roll has veggies in it. My mom thought the spring rolls were delicious because she loves vegetables.   

   The  chicken and waffles were yummy.  The combination of the sweetness of the waffles and the savoriness of the chicken is a great combination.  The chicken and waffles also came with some strawberry butter and syrup.  The chicken was in one large piece that was attached together.  You pull them off and it's a thigh and a leg.  It was Southern fried chicken.  Under the chicken there was the waffle.  If you look at a plate, it fills up the lower middle part.  They were called Eggnog Waffles so I guess the milk was replaced with eggnog.  But I don't know what eggnog is.  Maybe it's milk made with eggs.  Or when you crack an egg, maybe the clear liquid is eggnog.  I also had some ribs that my dad ordered.  They were flavored with mild barbecue sauce. 

   For dessert I had some homemade ice cream.  And my sister had some too.  It was chocolate and it was very thick.  It tasted almost like melted fudge.  I loved it!

This is a picture that Jaime took.

    

Hong Kong food cart and Crepe Cafe

     

     Today me and my family went to Hong Kong food cart at Bryant Park. At this time of year Bryant park was full of small carts selling everything from jewelry to shirts of the subway in the 1980's. There I got a pig belly bun.  I also shared with my family a ramen noodle bowl.  I loved both foods.  My sister also had a pork belly bun, and my mom had a vegetarian bun.  With the noodles there were pieces of sausage. Also in the noodles there was pork belly scraps, like pieces in it. Another thing in the noodles were strips of cucumber. The pork belly bun was steamed.  It was like a taco soft shell.  It had bok choy and two slices a pork belly meat.  It had a barbeque flavor and was a bit spicy.  

     Another place to get food is a cart called Crepe Cafe.  There I got a Hershey chocolate syrup marshmallow  crepe.  It was delicious.  They also sell there cookies and small treats.  

Kelly Ryan's- Burgers In The Bronx (Part 3)

                     

     On Saturday me, my mom, my dad, Stella, and two friends, and their dad went to Kelly Ryan's.  Inside there were 4, not 1 not 2 but 4 TVs.  By the door there was a Jukebox.  There was also a fun golf arcade game.  There was also a bar in  the room.

     There I got a burger with bacon, an egg, lettuce, pickle, with a side of fries.  It was out of this world!  It was like a cow ate a pig, that ate an egg, that ate a head of lettuce, that ate a cucumber, that drank some pickle juice, and then ran through a field of potatoes and some potatoes got caught on the cow, and then I ate the cow.  The egg tasted jiggly and I liked that.   It tasted like a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich but with a patty OR it tasted like a bacon cheese burger with an egg.

     We also got chicken wings as a appetizer for everyone.  We ordered mild but I had to drink a few sips before having another.  When I was finished eating I went to play that fun golf arcade game with Aidan, one of my friends.  I got golfers 1 and 2, and Aidan got golfers 3 and 4.

     The address to Kelly Ryan's is 5790 Mosholu ave Bronx, NY.  

                                                 The front outside wall of Kelly Ryan's                           

                               

The Best Burger in the Bronx and Beyond (part 2)

     

   Three days ago I went to Yo-Burger.  It is at 3726 Riverdale Ave in the Bronx.

     Outside there is a red awning like at Five 5 Napkin Burger.  There is also subway tiles, which are also inside 5 Five Napkin Burger.  How funny is that- two things both at two restaurants.  At the counter after you order they give you a beeper.  When the beeper beeps like crazy your burger, hot dog, veggie burger,or turkey burger (yeah I said turkey burger) is done cooking.

     I got  a bacon cheese burger again.  There are just good things about the burger: the bun was not too soft and not too crispy, also the cheese was squishy which I love, the meat was very juicily,and the pickles were not to sweet and not too sour.  Some other good things are: the yummy bacon was nice and crispy, and the french fries were plump fat and really salty which I also love.  Yo-Burger even has frozen yogurt which is just like ice cream but a little bit healthier.

     Stay tuned. For my next blog.  I think I am going to Smash Burger.
           

                                       


                                                               

Searching for the Best Burger in the Bronx and Beyond! (Part 1)

      Yesterday I went to Five 5 Napkin Burger, on the corner of 84th st and Broadway in Manhattan (near the Children's Museum of Manhattan).

      Thee was a lot of interesting  stuff like a red awning and factory lights lighting up the place.  On the walls there were subway tiles that you find on the walls of a subway station.  Also there is outdoor seating and booths and even 2 black boards with a lot of funky pictures of food and food related stuff (ex. oven,grill, patty).


This is what the lights looked like.

       I got a bacon cheese burger with lettuce and pickles.  There are good and bad things about the burger.  Here are the things: the cheese was very good,it melted on to the plate.  The patty was dark brown, well done in burger talk.  The pickles were too sweet.  They were bread and butter pickles.  I like hamburger dills.  Any way the too-sweet pickles made the burger too sweet :(.  Also the french fries were too skinny and meat less.  The burger did not fill me up all the way, just half way.


Here is my burger.  I had to share the fries with my sister.

See my next blog post about Yo-Burger. 

Cape Cod Potato Chips

      When I was at Cape Cod  I went to The Cape Cod Potato Chip factory.  There we had a tour of the factory. It was interesting. I saw little because there is a big square window and we could only see one side. But even though we saw so little it was so interesting.  The factory smelled like oil.

      Did you know the factory has gone from making 200 bags a day to 350,000 bags a day?  Did you also know that it takes 4 pounds of POTATOES to make 1 pound of  potatoes CHIPS?  At the gift shop they were giving out free potato chips,there was original and reduced fat.  We bought 5 flavors: original, sea salt & cracked pepper,sour cream & green onion,sweet mesquite barbecue,and last we had waffle cut chips sea salt.  

     At my grandma and papa's house we tasted the flavors.  We all gave the flavors points 1-10.  Sweet mesquite barbecue  came in last with 36 and a half points, it tasted like a barbecue chips.  Sea salt & cracked pepper came in 4th with 38 points, very spicy after taste.  My favorite was sour cream & green onions and that came in 3rd with 39 points.  It was great.  Original came in 2nd with 51 points.  I thought it was so so. And in first... drum roll please... waffle cut chips sea salt with a 53 points!!

Lefteris

Today I went to a restaurant called Lefteris in a new big shopping center in Yonkers.  They serve the food from the place that makes my favorite myths... Greek.  There we got some yummy food, and it's right by the new Legoland Discovery Center!  We sat out side.  The table cloth was blue and white like the Greek flag.  We got grilled octopus.  It tasted like the raw tuna that I get at the Japanese restaurant.  I didn't like it.  I like squid better but my sister really liked it.  We also got saganaki cheese on fire (literally :0 ).  It tasted rubbery, it was so-so.   The third thing food is Spinach pie or in Greek spanikopita, it was good.  On to the meat:  biftek, it tasted like a veggie burger paddy.  It was beef.  Gyro is made of lamb+beef.  It looked like brown strips of meat.  The last of the meat  is souvlaki, which was lamb.  It is tough like steak.  I love it. I have to sink my teeth in the piece of lamb and try to use my teeth to break a smaller piece.  There was this lasagna thing called vegetarian moussaka, like a potato zucchini lasagna.  It was fine it was very potato-y.  The last food  was some pita.  It was chewy hot and good.  We used the pita to scoop up the food, like the way you use the pancake when eating Ethiopian food.

How gyro meat is made.


            

OREGANO

  

     Today I went to OREGANO.  It is a Franco/Iberian Bistro, which serves French and Spanish/ Portugal food.  It is at 3522 Johnson Ave in Riverdale.

     At this restaurant there was 1 flat screen tv and it also has old fashion, funky looking lights.  Another thing was 2 written on mirrors, they had some of the types of food written on them.  There was also what my mom calls subway tiles. There were two paintings, one painting has a beach on it, the second one looks like it is an ad for wine. There is a cool thing for parties (at least my mom said)in the middle of the restaurant- there is a big plant-filled space with tables and chairs, and it even has a glass roof.

     I got Canard aux deux Facons, which is (yummy) Duck Leg Confit and Duck Breast with herbed liquor reduction.  I loved the duck, I loved it so much that it gave me a new motto: "Get duck when ever you can."  I also loved the sauce near the duck. I liked the lasagna shaped sweet potato side dish, which was called sweet potato gratin.  Another side dish is roasted fennel, that I didn't like. I tasted it when it was in the sauce and the fennel had one flavor and the sauce had another flavor and they didn't mix well, like water and oil.  I also got Pate, which is like a liver moose.  I did not like the texture.  I also got some snails with butter, that I liked.
It was nice and chewy.




     For dessert I had a piece of tres leche cake.  It was so good I wanted more.  I was the first one to grab the cherry.

     I really like this restaurant and I think you would go there and try the duck.

Dinosaur BBQ

     On Friday I went to a place called Dinosaur BBQ.  It smells like BBQ sauce and woodsmoke.  It is a big restaurant.  There is even big posters of old movies.  They have a visible kitchen.

     For a appetizer I had some awesome tasting wings.  The wings were a little spicy.  The flavor was called Mango Tango.  Another appetizer is a fried green tomatoes.  They were yummy.  They were green and they were ripe(ya I said it they were RIPE.)  They were also deep fried so it has a perfect name.

     For dinner I had some really good ribs.  They were not too spicy.  What I liked about them was the sauce that was on them.  I also had mac+cheese.  I saw little pieces of pepper and it had a nice spicy kick with a good aftertaste to it.
       Sadly I didn't have any dessert to tell you about.

P.S
     Sorry but I am now a 9 year old. 

Cafe al Mercato

 

 Today me and my family went to Cafe Mercado.  It is on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx.  There I got penne vodka (don't worry the vodka part that makes you drunk got boiled away) pizza.  The pizza was a piece of pizza with ziti on top (but it's not ziti, it's penne.)  I loved the pizza.

My mom and dad they split a sandwich on focaccia bread with fried eggplant and broccoli rabe.  They also had pasta fagioli.  Which is a soup.  I tried both.  The sandwich was okay, the only funky taste was the broccoli rabe.  The soup was delish.   I really liked the beans.  

     

For dessert I had chocolate gelato.  My sister had chocolate and hazelnut.  Hazelnut tasted marshmallow-y.

Cheese Platter

     Yesterday me and my mom went to a cheese store.  There me and my mom bought 8 cheeses to make a cheese platter for Easter.  Today I am trying cheeses and writing a blog post about them (the cheese). 
     Our first cheese is Imported New Zealand cheddar.  It doesn't have a strong taste.  My dad tasted salt.  Surprisingly the cheddar is whitish-yellow color instead of being orange.
     our next cheese is White Stilton With Mango and Ginger.  It smells weird.  I don't like it because, it has mango and ginger.
     The next cheese is Black River Gorgonzola.  It smells like cream cheese.  It has a nice spicy kick to it.  It is the softest of all the 7 cheese.  It is kind of a stinky cheese.
     Our fourth to last is Manchego from Spain.  It smells like Swiss cheese.  It's the whitest of all the cheeses.  It tastes like nothing.  It has a funny after taste.
      Our next cheese is Asiago.  It has a crunchy after taste.  It also tasted salty.
     Our second to last cheese is smoked sharp cheddar.  It tasted warm.  It is not salty.
     Our last cheese is Soinon Bucheron Goat Cheese.  It has a weird after taste.  It also tasted like cream cheese.

Indian Food Feast

     I went to my grandparents' house to have some Indian food and see pictures of the trip that my papa and Uncle Tommy had in India.  My grandma made some Indian food.  

                                      Bombay mixture     
     For a snack grandma served Bombay mixture.  It's crunchy and yummy.  

Dinner

     Next it is dinner.  I had Samosas which is a potato, peas, and a spice called Tumeric.  I think it's hot.  

                                 
     Chicken Burra has lots of butter.  It was delish.  It is brownish red.  Lamb passanda tastes great and there is chunks of lamb.  Chicken tikka massala tastes good.  But is a little too buttery. 

                                         naan bread 
    Naan is like a flat bread.  It is impossible to make at home.  Unless you have a tandor oven that can go up to like a 1,000 degrees F.  

     Rice pulaob has peas, onions, Basmati rice , and sticks of cinnamon and last but not the least we have Dhal which is made with red lentills called Masoor.  

     I had to drink is Mango lassi which is like a mango smoothy.

                                          

                                          My plate

Tin Marin

    

    Today I went to Tin Marin.  It's at 3708 Riverdale Ave. Bronx 
N.Y.  It is a Spanish restaurant that serves tapas, which is like snacks or finger food.  There is a lot and I mean a lot of wine bottles on the wall, and I am not talking about the song 99 bottles of what ever you say on the wall.  The ceiling looks like squares of wood.  There is a bar, over the bar there are logs, and hanging from the logs are candle holder.  The bar is topped with stone squares.  There are three mirrors and a beautiful painting.  My mom liked the orange curtains.  There is one waiter named Ramon.  He is really busy.

     

     We had really good food ( well one I didn't like). Here are the foods:

1. Pulpo Ala Gallega: which is octopus with Spanish paprika and potatoes.  I didn't like it because it's thick and very chewy, and I only like the skinny crunchy tentacles parts.  It also has very buttery potatoes.

2. Croquetas De Jamon Ahumado:  it is shaped like a fish stick, but with mashed potatoes and ham.  It's good.

3. Coca Catalonia: which is flat bread with manchego cheese, and onions.  Its cheesy, chewy, and crunchy.

4. Pastelitos: which are empanadas,  one with cheese, and one with beef.  The cheese one was delish.  It was cheesy and chewy.  The beef one was great. It was meaty in a good way.

5. Chorizo: which is Spanish sausage with shallots.  It's yummy, it's not fatty.  Its has a nice spicy kick to it, and it's very crispy.

6. Gambas Al Ajillo: which is shrimp.  The shrimp still has its tail.  It's very garlicky.  It burns my tongue.

     

     Now we have what I had for dessert. Yum, where do I start?

These are the desserts:

1. Crema Catalana which is custard with a hard caramelized top.  The custard is creamy and looks and feels pudding.

2. Chocolate Torte which is dark chocolate & almond cake.

It's a really, really, really, really (oh, you get my point) good chocolate cake.  

       This is what I saw and ate at Tin Marin.  It's a great place and you should eat there.

Food Fest

     Today me and my family went to Kids Food Fest.  It's by Citi pond at Bryant Park, NYC 6th ave. and 42nd st.  Citi pond is a ice rink.  People were playing hockey. We had a good time.

     There was a fun scavenger hunt.  You need to find 5 stamps.  Each for the 5 food groups (not including oil).  You get a stamp by finding a stall with a stamp.  You ask if you can have a stamp.  One person said I had to do 10 jumping jacks to get a stamp.  Another reason is you ate a food in this food group.  When you find each stamp you go where you started you hunt and you get a goody bag.  

Goody bag 

     

     There were free samples.  They were some Kerrygold cheese, grape juice, grilled cheese, candy skewers, and chocolate milk.  There is also frozen kefir which I did not like, but mommy and daddy loved it.  I also made my own trail mix with goldfish, coconut slices, cereal squares, and  chocolate chips. 

 Yum, trail mix

     We bought a baby shirt for my cousin.  His name is Charley.   It was perfect because Charley is cute and the shirt is cute, it will make Charley twice as cute.  The shirt said "I heart NY" but instead of a heart there is a pretzel and the I is a hot dog. 

Hotdog Pretzel NY

   So if you want to go there, you better hurry it ends on March 3rd!

Massawa Restaurant

    

     Yesterday my family went to the Museum of the City of New York and then out to lunch for my dad's birthday.  The restaurant is called Massawa, the food is from Ethiopia and Eritrea   It is in New York City on Amsterdam Avenue between 120th Street and 121nd st. Just from the door way you can see about 7 paintings and the orange flowers on each table.(I can`t remember if they're real or not).  There were two big baskets that looked like hats and they were filled with candy, and you can see there's one very busy waitress named Selam.  

    We ate some delish food.  Eating at this restaurant is good practice for sharing because all the food comes on one plate.  

     One food is called Tebsi which is cubes of beef with tomatoes and berbere spice. Another food is alitcha- it is potatoes with collard greens and carrots.  Also we ate tebsi hiwas. It has in it chicken with collard greens.  Cablo is flavored white cabbage. The last food is tsebhi beghe. It is lamb in a thick berbere sauce.  To pick up your food you use a spongy pancake made of sourdough. First you take the pancake and you tear off a piece.  Then you tear off an even smaller piece and you use that to grab your food.  Finally, comes my favorite part, you eat it.

     For dessert we had mango mousse cake and coconut ice cream.  The ice cream came in a real coconut shell.  

     So I hope you people will go there.  It's a great place and its not that crowed.  They serve great food here.

Charcuterie

  

Charcuterie is a type of cooking devoted to prepared meats such as bacon, ham, sausage, and of pork products.

Q. Why Was It Invented?

 A.  It was invented to keep foods from spoiling before refrigerators were invented.

  My papa made salt cured charcuterie known as bacon (it was good).  Salt cured has four purposes.

Q. What Are The Four Purposes?

 A.  The four purposes are: 1.osmosis-movement of water in food  2. dehydration-pulls out the water in foods. 3. fermentation 4. and denaturing.                           

          

  I inerviewed my papa about the bacon.  Here are the Qs. and the As.

Question: What part of the pig is your bacon made from?
Made from the underside of the pig from the outer skin to 1 and a half to 2 inches.  It is called "Pork Belly".  I used a 2 pound piece.

Question: What did you put on it?

I put it in a zip lock one gallon size bag and added: 

1 and 1/4 table spoon of Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon of "pink salt" This a preservative to kill any harmful bacteria

1/8 cup of pure maple syrup

I then placed it in the refrigerator for 8 to 9 days.  I kneaded it and turned it daily.

This is the time the salt draws out the water and the maple flavor is pulled into the belly.

Upon removing it from the bag toss the bags contents down the drain.  Thoroughly rinse off any remaining 

salt residue. Place back into fridge for 24 hours uncovered.

Question: How long did you cook it?

180 degrees for about 6 hours or until the internal temperature is 150 degrees.

Question: Why did you want to make your own bacon?

To control the ingredients and to be able to make a sweet bacon and a savory bacon.

Question: What's your favorite way to eat bacon?

fried in the fry pan but not crispy - I like to taste the meat and the fat and I don't want all the fat to be cooked off.

Crepes

     Crepes are just really, really thin pancakes.

How The Crepe And a Normal Pancake Different

     The crepe is like I said, they are just thin pancakes and the regular pancake is a lot more fatter.  Unlike the pancake you can put anything on it and in it.  For example, on a crepe you can put vegetables on it and even though you can put vegetables on a regular pancake, it won't really make sense.  Most people put maple syrup or blueberries only on pancakes.

Where They Are From

     Crepes are from France.

Where They Are Sold

     Crepes are sold at a creperie.   Wow  try saying that 50 times fast sorry off topic.  They can be bought as fast food or at a restaurant.  

What I Had On And In My Crepes

     I had a crepe with an egg in the middle.I also had one with nutella.  My mom had one with spinach and mushrooms.
 

Times I Had Crepes

     We had crepes in Paris.  Also, my sister had crepes for her birthday instead of cake. 

Lasagna

  I love lasagna, it is my favorite food.  I only like meat lasagna which my dad makes.  I don't like veggie lasagna which my mom makes,and seafood lasagna which my Grandma makes.  I like the taste of the sauce and the meat.  To tell you the truth I barely have lasagna because my dad doesn't really make it a lot.  When I asked him why he doesn't make lasagna a lot, he said, "It's a lot of work.  Why are you asking?"  I like the "Garfield" show and we both like lasagna.  It's one of my favorite shows and one of my favorite foods.

meat lasagna

yum 

Food In The Philippines

Last month I went to the Philippines  with my dad. Here are some of the foods I ate:

1. I ate a lot of rice and I mean a lot of rice. I ate it in every meal of the day. One time for breakfast, my grandma made me bacon, eggs, and rice.  Here I would have bacon, eggs, and maybe with slices of potatoes. 

2. fish balls (and it's what you think.)

3. pigs skin- it's really, really crunchy

4. pigs feet- it tastes like chicken

Every day me and my dad went to Starbucks.  My dad got coffee and I got banana bread with orange juice 
Another reason we went to Starbucks is there's WiFi and for the air conditioning because its dying hot there.

Bacon, Eggs, and Rice

Fish Balls- I didn't really like these.  It tasted like ravioli filled with fish.

This is me trying the pig skin.  Very crunchy.

Pigs feet-it taste like chicken and it looks like chicken wings!