New kid on the block: OBAO

Previously a barren land of office buildings and common deli and coffee chains, this little area of midtown Manhattan seems to be growing its own little garden of restaurants.  And until now, midtown was severely lacking in the South East Asian cuisine department.  Chef Michael Huynh attempts to remedy this issue with his latest restaurant opening: OBAO.

Pardon my absence.. and other news

Pardon my absence the past month from here and especially Geoff's Twitchen. It's been a very busy two months, with work piling on, holiday festivities, and figuring out financial options for attending the French Culinary Institute (FCI). The cost is nearly double that of the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), but something just feels right at FCI. I'll be auditing a class, followed by dinner at FCI's L'Ecole tomorrow evening, so we'll see how that goes. I shall report back with that along with a short review on New York's new Obao Restaurant.

And briefly on the news in the culinary publishing world, Gourmet magazine has decided to give New York University its collection of 3,500 cookbooks from its research library.  Despite my ties to NYU primarily being in the form of student debt, the fact still makes me proud.  I'm happy that Gourmet's retired cookbooks will be available alongside tens of thousands of other culinary publications at NYU Fales Library.

Ippudo... Singapore?!

Gasp!  Singapore is now being treated to its very own Ippudo.  I love the NY Ippudo!  It's especially fantastic for this cold season.   Now I can still have it if I ever decided to move to Singapore.  mm.. I could use some ramen and pork buns right about now.  Hopefully the lines in Singapore won't be as atrociously long.

Ippudo Singapore
#04-02/03/04 Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road
Tel: 6235 2797

Ippudo New York
65 4th Ave
(between 9th St & 10th St)
New York, NY 10003
(212) 388-0088
http://www.ippudo.com/ny

Marriage worthy cupcakes

Seeing how much I love cupcakes and the movie, Up, I would find it very hard to say no to these.

 

Aren't they brilliant?!  The cupcakes were made by an 18 year old girl in Kuala Lumpur.  I don't know what they taste like, but they could be made of play-doh for all I care!  They're fantastic looking.  You can see more of her cupcake creations at Dolce.

Gobble gobble.

I remember the first time I saw a live turkey up close and personal for the first time, besides in my kitchen.  Here are the pictures from then!  I saw it in Holland (Keukenhof) of all places.  Boy, did this turkey mean business.  He was a total show off.  I bet he wouldn't have been so hoity toity if he knew what happened to all of his relatives across the ocean.

kind of funny how Keukonhof had a little corner about Manhattan.  I hope you all remember that New York City was once known as New Amsterdam, back in the colonial settlement days!  You know, when Native Americans were still around... and when Thanksgiving wasn't only about who makes the best turkey.  

I'm figuring no one wanted to see these before Thanksgiving.  Probably not even after either, come to think of it.

Hope you all had a good one :)  I'm having ANOTHER post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner this coming Saturday with friends.  The feasting never ends!  Long live America, land of excess!

On an unrelated note, from time to time, friends or even strangers ask me for food or restaurant recommendations here in New York.  I can usually accommodate them with a fairly confident answer.  Until now.

I was just recently asked for vegetarian options.

GOODNESS.  I have to say, that's one particular type that I never really tried to zero in on before..  I have a thing about people completely eliminating entire food groups for other than allergy or religious reasons.

But, in this one case, it seems this girl has a legitimate reason in my book.  So, while it's never going to be a number one priority, I suppose I'll put the Vegetarian dining on the research to-do list now.  (I think we're going to start with miso based ramen, perhaps?)