Lunch at L'Express, New York City

I had a veal milanese sandwich at this cute lil (and busy) place called L'Express in the Gramercy/Flatiron neighborhood. Absolutely to die for!! The cappuccino was one of the better ones I have had. I was very impressed with this place. (P.S. This place is 24 hours. Score.)
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DBGB, New York City

Food was pretty good. Beer was superb.

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Simply Salmon

...and soooo good. I went to Santa Monica Seafood today and decided to splurge and get their unbelievably fresh and beautiful wild caught King Salmon. (Please don't tell me if this is one of the over-fished species. I thought that was Atlantic, but if I'm wrong, please spare me.) This fillet was so perfect, I figured, why ruin a good thing? Just a bit of (himalayan) salt and pepper. A sprinkle of ground garlic. Seared in a splash of oil, the tented in tin foil and put in the oven for a couple minutes. Aspargus and white rice on the side. Perfection.

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The Counter

A lamb burger greek style. Looks amazing. Tastes fairly good. Super filling. I could barely make a dent in it before I was full. Their parmesan fries have hints of rosemary and other herbs and are heavenly.
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Beans for Breakfast! Mmmmm

Arguably one of my favorite breakfasts of all time. Simple and true (especially to my Mexican roots.)

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To Diet or Not to Diet. Isn't THAT the question?

So I'm sitting here uploading photos, trying to get all my travel food pics up-to-date. If yesterday's food blog was boring... well... I don't even know what to call today's! I barely had time to eat. Everything was on the run. I had my lovely lil spicy tuna roll again from Promelis. Also got their banana pudding. (Mainly because it travels well in a nice plastic cup), but it is actually pretty tasty too.
The point is, I ate sushi while driving to class. SO not something I like to do. I had the pudding in the library while trying to speed read. "Dinner" consisted of me standing and nervously munching on hors d'oeuvres at this presentation/fundraising thing at my university, while waiting to be questioned about my research project by all the people who our school's buildings are named after. Just a little intimidating. Conclusion:
Today: School 1/ Food 0
(I am mindlessly sipping organic orange juice from the carton as I type this. Half point for organic?)

Now about this dieting thing. I have this insatiably urge to diet. (Almost as insatiable as my sweet tooth, but not quite.) Everyone around me is beginning to talk about "swimsuit season." Last year, right around this time, I swore of dieting. Growing up in Orange County, dieting has been a significant part of my girlhood. I have known that "ice cream will go straight to your hips" since I was in 2nd grade. Since I have known how to count, I have been taught to count calories. This is sincerely no exaggeration. I vividly remember a girl in kindergarten announcing to us that she was "on a diet" and eating lowfat cottage cheese in her lunch because she wanted to be like her mommy. It seems I, or at least one of my friends is always on a diet. We've learned to call it "watching what I eat" or "eating healthy" now. It seems to be the trend; to not use the word "diet." But let's be real here, shall we? If you have a mental list of all the foods you will not touch due to calorie count, you're on a diet. (gasp)
So for the past year now I have completely boycotted the idea of dieting. Yes. That is the term I use because that is precisely how I feel about it. Boycott. It feels like a liberating act of rebellion. Like giving the middle finger to all the "health" (read: body image obsessed) magazines, all the hours wasted counting calories on the elliptical, all the panic over a few numbers on a scale. It feels amazing.
However...
This is not without consequences. my jeans are just a liiiiitle to tight around the waist for my liking. And I know I definitely don't feel as comfortable in a swimsuit as I did last summer. So what's a girl to do?
To say I love food is an understatement. There are few things in life I savor as much as a truly magnificent meal. (in case you are wondering, those other few would be good sex, a deep intellectual conversation, an amazing view, and the feeling of "namaste.")
I don't even enjoy eating as much as I enjoy TASTING. I can rarely finish my plate, but to limit myself to only specific tastes? That would just be a sin.
Plus, now I am finally getting a hang of this food blogging thing. And then what would I have to blog about?
Vamos a ver...

Nothing so exciting to say about today. But hey, I gotta get in the habit somehow. Overall pretty boring food day. Had a spicy tuna roll from Promelis for lunch. God, I love those things. Then I camped out at Kean Coffee for a bit attempting to get some reading done. Had a cappuccino (the real kind. not this American bullshit) and this really good pastry which they just started selling from BlackMarket Bakery. It seemed like it was some kind of berry and lemon curd clafoutis (perhaps some almond was in there too.) That was breakfast/lunch. Yeah, I know. Gross. I eat sushi for breakfast. I can't help it. I just love sushi THAT much.
For dinner: I made Tahitian chicken and jasmine rice. Which is basically orange pineapple asian-ish sauce and floured chicken (a spin on my grandma's recipe.) I totally cheated because I just defrosted the sauce I had made from last time. I played around for a few minutes with the rest of the chicken tenders, curry sauce and coconut milk. Haven't tried it yet.
and then....
wow. I eat a lot. hmmm. Maybe recording all this is not the best idea. My jeans are a bit tighter than I would like... oh well... moving on.

On break from my dreaded night class (the man has a GIFT for making cool subjects boring via rhetorical questions), I went to this awesome new place near campus called "Bruxie". It is a waffle/sandwhich house. It's kind of a spinoff of the whole Rosco's chicken and waffles thing, only way more gourmet. All sorts of amazing concotions. I had (another) cappuccino and a strawberry crème brûlée waffle sandwich. (told you they were gourmet.) Compared to campus food, it is a dream come true. I am going to have such a love/hate relationship with this place. So much for a bikini body for Australia. sigh. Totally worth it.

menu de l'année: my plans for the coming year

Okay. No one knows about this blog, so it SHOULD help me get over my apparent blogging-phobia. This is try #3. Well, third time's a charm. The goal of this blog is for me to finally record all my food obsessed ramblings and experiments down on (cyber) paper. (Plus somewhere to put all my camera phone food pics.)
This is an awesome time for me to start blogging too. I missed out on my food blogging for this past winter trip (Madrid, Candeleda, New York City, Boston, Puerto Viejo (Costa Rica), Bocas del Toro (Panama), San Jose (Costa Rica), and Quepos (Costa Rica).
However on the menu for 2011:
A roadtrip through Texas to New Orleans
Seattle
Sydney
Canberra (Australia)
a roadtrip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon (not that the Grand Canyon is so known its cuisine.)
Madrid and many other places in Spain
Micronesia
Guatemala
Cuba (maybe)
Morocco (maybe)
Cairo (Egypt)

so...
I have quite a bit of eating to do. :)

Cheers!

La Casa de Abuelita

BlackMarket Bakery

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Buckwheat Pancakes

So, I have perfected my recipe for cardamon buckwheat pancakes. Mmmmm. It is best served with a generous amount of butter (aren't most all things in life?) and a darker honey instead of syrup. I also had an egg easy over, with bits of prosciutto underneath for an extra bit of flavor and salt. A slice of nine grain toast for the egg, and a glass of nice pulpy organic orange juice on the side. The perfect Sunday breakfast.
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Battle of the Eggs

Duck egg v Quail egg
Quail egg won. Not for taste, as they were both quite similar, but for texture. The duck egg seemed a bit more rubbery. (I'm dying to make a joke with play on words about rubbery ducky, but frankly I don't have the creative energy at the moment.)
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