instagramming from europe!

carina and i have both been on the road lately (in separate places) and i've been instagramming the crap out of my travels... i go through love / hate periods with the ever popular iPhone app, but it was pretty perfect for my gallivanting around germany and prague. check it out!

my friends hiking up teufelsberg

me, teufelsberg

us, drinking in prague

I also took some 250 pictures on my canon ... I'll be sure to post a few once I get the chance to upload!

xx mukai 

Greetings From Toronto!

Some fun pics from downtown Toronto. Spent the afternoon on Kensington (Amazing thrift stores, great place to people watch, eat and drink!)

Tuesdee Boozedee: Death + Co.

Death + Co. is a discreet bar in the East Village with a laid back vibe and quite an impressive drink menu. Half the fun of coming here is choosing what kind of cocktail to have! Their menu took me about ten minutes to look over, but I had a great time doing it. It even features quotes from the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, Earnest Hemingway and Mae West.
http://www.deathandcompany.com/lounge/currentmenu.pdf
We finally decided on the Prima China and the Double Barrel Julep. They were grrrrreat choices. All I can say is that these bartenders REALLY know what they're doing.

At times, the wait can be over an hour due to limited space, but they take your cellphone # and call you when something opens up. A weekday (Tuesdee, perhaps?) is usually your best bet if you are the impatient type.

I did notice that they had Truffle Mac n Cheese, so I will most certainly be back there for dinner and drinks next time!

Death + Company
433 East Sixth St
New York, NY
http://www.deathandcompany.com/lounge/

15 min meal for the the BUSY and LAZY

If you are like me and don't have much time to cook, here is a meal that takes so little time, yet really satisfies. White rice, edamame, miso soup, and some gyoza. A COMPLETE meal with nothing left to desire! Even better, all the items can be bought at the Japanese market (I go to Sunrise Mart in East Village) for less than $15. Sure as hell isn't gourmet, or especially nutritious, but it gets the job done!

On a night that I do have a little extra time, I make rice (short grain Japanese rice in a rice cooker) then freeze the left overs so I can just pop it in the microwave for a future meal. I learned this little trick from my Japanese room mate in college. You simply scoop out a fist-sized amount of rice onto some plastic wrap while it's still hot, smoosh it together, wrap it up, and throw it in the freezer! (To heat up, just put frozen rice ball in the microwave for 2 min.) Makes life MUCH easier the next time you are looking to get your rice on.

The gyoza and edamame can be found in the frozen food section. (My favorite section, obviously. Fresh food is over rated... Just kidding!) I love getting frozen gyoza because A) making gyoza from scratch is a real pain in the ass and takes forever and B) it really doesn't taste like your typical frozen food as long as you pan fry it! (Definitely blows a TV dinner outta the water.) For the edamame, I always prefer making it in boiling water instead of microwaving it. Takes a few minutes longer, but tastes a million times better. The finishing touch? Has to be sprinkled with sea salt. (Not regular iodized salt.)

The miso soup can be made almost as easily from "scratch", but at this point I am pretty exhausted from an entire ten minutes of microwaving, pan frying and boiling, so I go for the individually packaged instant miso. True lazy girl style. The bags come with small packets of freeze dried tofu and wakame- or seaweed if you will, as well as idividual packets of miso paste. You throw both packets into a miso soup bowl, add hot water, and BAM.

My version of a garnish is umeboshi. (Pickled plum) It makes the rice a bit more interesting.

P.S. It probably took you longer to read this (and defintely took me longer to write it) than it did for me to make this entire meal AND eat it. :)


Bonus Pic:
Little Baby Tufo likes his dinner too!

Once de Mayo

Let's keep rollin' on this Cinco de Mayo tip for a little bit, shall we? I attended the Vice mag party at the Hudson Hotel and while I'm not completely sure what happened that night, I know there was free tequila and at some point there were luchadores. Pictures to follow. Wish you were there! And if you were, sorry I don't remember!

LOVE this Margarita

Since it's Cinco de Mayo, I thought I'd write about one of my favorite margaritas in NYC: the grapefruit and honey margarita at Back Forty. This casual but high quality restaurant is known for its simple food with a gourmet touch. Aside from the margarita, there are yucca fries, burgers and other delicious treats to graze on while sipping on a damn good drink .(Oh, and PS: the burger comes with rosemary fries. Uh... YUM!!) So back to the grapefruit and honey margarita: this thing is a force to be reckoned with.  The balance of tart and sweet is ever so perfect. It is so drinkable and refreshing, you will definitely want seconds.


Back Forty
190 Avenue B
New York, New York 10009
http://www.backfortynyc.com/

Soba-ya!

the perfect agedashi tofu

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this place before, seeing as it's my favorite japanese restaurant in NYC- and YES i am aware of what a gigantic claim that is. To me, this place is the epitome of comfort food. Some of the foods I crave from childhood aren't available in NYC's japanese food scene... Humble dishes like zaru soba and inari often get overlooked. This is a fantastic place and I always take my family here when they're in town-- it's reasonably priced and not as fussy as some of our other favorites like yakitori totto.

MUST EATS:
Bara chirashi
Agedashi tofu
Inari

BEST SOBAS: (udon is available too!)
Kamo namban (duck and green onion)
Sakuraebi kakiage (tiny shrimp & mitsuba leaf tempura)
Zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodle with nori)

just for funsies, here are some extra pictures:

bara chirashi

my amazing niece at soba-ya, already using chopsticks!!

and pouring beer. i love her. 

Soba-Ya

website

229 E 9th St
(between 2nd Ave & 3rd Ave)
New York, NY 10003

(212) 533-6966

xx
mukai