China Poblano - Chinese & Mexican Cuisine Fused Together by Chef Jose Andres

You know a restaurant is pretty amazing when it instantly becomes one of your favorite places halfway through the meal. That's exactly the experience I had at Chef Jose Andres's new restaurant in Las Vegas, China Poblano.

China Poblano mixes Chinese cuisine and Mexican cuisine. The restaurant is brightly decorated with both cultures. There is a dumpling/steaming side of the restaurant, and a taco side of the restaurant. The menu has both Chinese and Mexican items, and a fusion of selections..including some extremely awesome tacos. Plus, I had one of the coolest and one of the tastiest margaritas I've come across. The price can get pretty high if you order a lot like my family, but you have to keep in mind this is a hotel restaurant and by a celebrity chef.

Jose Andres has skyrocketed to be my number one favorite chef at the moment. His food is vibrant, delicious, and fun. And, he has trained his staff to be friendly and personable, much like his TV and Twitter personality.

Does anyone know if there is an application form to petition to be Jose Andres's BFF (Best Friend Forever)?? If you know, please please let me in the know! I would like to petition my parents, brothers, and myself to all be his BFFs.

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A Sunday Dinner Italian Style

For our last meal in New Haven and in the east coast, my family and I enjoyed some comforting Italian food for our Sunday dinner at Basta. We dined here before when we first visited New Haven. With the feast in front of us, it was truly an Italian Style Sunday Family Dinner. The portions are so generous - perfect for family style eating.

I should have busted out with my Italian accent to make the meal even more authentic.

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Brunch at Heirloom in New Haven

There are some Sundays and holidays when you wake up and just crave for brunch. In our family, brunch is usually at least past 11:30am and most often past 12:30pm. New Year's Day is one of those perfect days for a brunch. So with the family together, we gathered at our hotel restaurant in New Haven.

Heirloom is the restaurant at The Study at Yale Hotel. It serves local ingredients from local Connecticut farms. The food is good and fresh but the service could be better. At times it felt very lacking and flaky. As much as I emphasis quality ingredients, I also feel the need to constantly stress that service is the key factor that brings back customers.

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Pizza at Frank Pepe's

I've been a pizza lover for probably as long as I was weaned off baby food. Thankfully, my taste for quality pizza has greatly improved. I can still remember that as a kid, I loved Pizza Hut because of that pan fried bottom. Years and pounds shed later, I now crave artisan pizza - that fluffy, chewy, crispy thin crust pizza.

So, when it comes to visiting pizza places I have a much higher marker than Pizza Hut. These days, Howie's Artisan Pizza is the place to beat. Going to New Haven, I was excited to try what is supposedly one of the best pizza places in the nation, as it is also one of the oldest pizzerias.

Frank Pepe's specializes in Napoletana-American pizza. It is hyped by many chefs and food writers as one of the best pizza places out there. I don't get it. It was just a decent pizzeria. The margherita pizza was pretty decent, and the best of the three pies we ate. Their specialty White Clam Pie was an oversalted, soggy mess. Perhaps it was the day I went there, but because of that one experience, I don't know if I could go back. I need to have that memorable first time experience in order to go back and further patronize a place.

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Dan Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns

For me, a great chef not only cooks amazing food but also is mindful of the ingredients used and its sourcing. I love chefs who utilize the saying, "Think Global, Cook Local." In other words, you can cook worldly cuisine while using local ingredients. Local ingredients support local farming and local industry.

One chef that really focuses on the local cuisine movement is Dan Barber. He's an active chef and citizen who voices out his belief in food sustainability and everyday food choices. So much so, he has built his career supporting his beliefs. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is a non-profit farm that is a center for food and agriculture. In the property lies his four season farm and green houses, a souvenir shop, a cafe, and his flagship Blue Hill restaurant which serves contemporary cuisine from all the ingredients in his farm.

Taking a long-cut into Manhattan from Connecticut, my family and I stopped by his property on a cold snowy day. We got there just shortly after sunset. The property, all covered in snow, was huge and gorgeous. I can't wait to revisit and eat at this place in the spring time.

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Burgers & Steaks at Peter Luger

When I hear about "the best steaks" and "the best burgers", Peter Luger is usually a name that is mentioned. I tend to be skeptical when I hear something is "the best." What else and how many else have you tried in order to claim something is truly the best over all?

Plus, when it comes to steaks, the grilling and trimmings my family makes at home is pretty awesome. I don't wanna say it's "the best" because I feel I'd have to travel around the entire world and eat at every steak house to make that claim. So, what I normally say is, "It's the best of what I've eaten so far." It really is. The quality of the steaks and our onion sauce. Oh, man, it's awesome.

Going back to the hype over Peter Luger..I've been very skeptical for years. Skeptical and curious. So on our afternoon trip into Brooklyn, my family and I made a point to have lunch at Peter Luger. We made sure it was a lunch so we could also try their raved about burgers (which is a lunch time only item).

The hype over "the best steaks" and "The best burgers"? I don't want to say it's the best, but I will say it's really good. You can really taste the quality of the burger. The meat is freshly ground, and not overly ground. The char is crusted and delicious. Quality meat, well prepared, and well cooked. The steaks come out in a plate of sizzling butter. It's cooked perfectly medium and so nicely grilled. The taste of the meat itself is also really quality.

After our lunch, we watched how the women butchers of Peter Luger handpicked each of the meats. Seeing how they are so choosy about their steaks made me further appreciate the meat I just ate.

A note on service: You definitely feel like you're in Brooklyn when you dine there. The waiters all proudly hail from Brooklyn. They have that Brooklyn accent and that old-time Brooklyn demeanor. In one instance, my dad called the waiter to ask for something, and our waiter came to our table asking, "What do you want?!" Definitely won't get that kind of service in a steakhouse in Midtown.

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Co. (aka, Company) - Pizza Pies!

One of the casual dining places I really wanted to try out was Co, or Company. Baker, Jim Lahey's pizza establishment. He is known for his Sullivan Street Bakery, so he utilizes his bread knowledge into his pies.

The place is filled with communal tables, which gives the place a friendly neighborhood vibe. His menu showcases his breads with a few sides of vegetables. Everything we ordered was delicious and memorable. I'm still dreaming about that Stracciatella Pie... mmm, that was some of the creamiest cheese I've eaten on a pizza! You can totally taste the quality of the bread in each of his pies, too. Chewy, fluffy, and well-baked.

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Il Pesce in Eataly

Prior to our second meal at La Pizza & Pasta, we dined at Il Pesce, the seafood eatery at Eataly. All fresh in raw, roasted, fried, and so on. The few orders we got were all memorable. This was some of the best fritto misto (fried seafood) and whole roasted fish I have ordered in a restaurant. Cooking seafood is all about the timing, and the chefs got it perfectly at this eatery.

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La Pizza & Pasta in Eataly

For two dinners, my family and I visited La Pizza & Pasta in Eataly. It's quite simple - pizzas, pastas, and some salads paired with Italian wines and/or beers. With Batali and Bastianich's expertise, everything was so delicious! The pastas were perfectly cooked and properly coated with the right amount of sauce. And the pizzas were so thin and topped with high quality ingredients. Plus, the pairing with Bastianich wines makes for a most enjoyable dining experience.

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Italy is Eataly!

The most anticipated destination for our family trip to New York City was Eataly. Established by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, Joe Bastianich, and Oscar Farinetti. These Italian-loving geniuses creating one of the coolest food markets! It's a market for fresh ingredients (fruits, vegetables, seafood, meats), for fun Italian goodies (homemade nutella!), for a snack (some salumi and wine in the afternoon - why not!), for a variety of meals (pizzas, pastas, seafood, vegetables), for drinking (beers, wines, espressos), for desserts (gelato and panetonne!), and so much more.

This place was like our Disneyland, our "happiest place on earth". In the course of a week, we visited Eataly four times to shop and to eat. I highly highly recommend this place if you love food, especially Italian food!

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Baked in Brooklyn

Cupcakes and bakeries are very common and enjoyable establishments throughout New York, including Brooklyn. On our day trip to Brooklyn, we made sure to stop by Baked, from the baker Matt Lewis. After an appearance on the Martha Stewart Show and reading his baking book, my mom made a note to visit his bake shop.

It was a fun stop and if you happen to be in this Brooklyn neighbor it's a great place to stop by for a sweet bite. The baked goods kept coming out fresh from the kitchen, and they all tasted equally fresh. But, to make the journey into Brooklyn just for this bakery is not entirely worth the trip. It's a good bakery, but the baked goods aren't, "Wow, this is amazing! I have to come back here!"

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Spot Dessert Bar

No matter how much you ate at dinner, there's something about the thought of dessert that can open up your appetite all over again.

After a filling dinner, my family and I adventured to St. Mark's Place. It's a street in the East Village that is filled with fun, cheap eats (a lot of Asian and Japanese restaurants) and college dives (that you would also find in the Haight in San Francisco).

On this street, we went to Spot Dessert Bar - a dessert bar to dine in or take out. The pastry chef, Pichet Ong, is Jean Georges' former pastry chef. So going in, you already know it's going to be quality. And it totally is - quality and fun!

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Soba Totto

Even though I've been living in Asia for the past year, I still found myself craving for so many Asian eats during my holiday trip in the states. I fulfilled my cravings for ramen, Korean, banh mi, and so on and so on. In New York, I fulfilled my craving for quality Japanese yakitori at Soba Totto.

This is considered a cheap eats place. But, the prices were pretty high for Japanese yakitori. It's also hard to eat at some Asian restaurants here in the states - they seem so over priced after eating all over Asia. I love how the most quality places in Asia are still cheaper than these cheap eats places in the states. And, if you order like my family, there's really no such thing as cheap eats. We eat a lot.

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Baos at Baohaus

Bao is a fluffy, steamed Chinese bun. It's a very popular dim sum and street food snack found around all over Asia. Each country has their own bao with their local fillings, usually a type of meat.

At Baohaus, traditional Taiwanese street food is brought to New York City. Because it's in New York City, it comes with that Manhattan price. But, it stands by it's quality of products and the generous heap of meat between the bun.

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Banh Mi Saigon in New York City

Going to college in the South Bay of the Bay Area (in Northern California) exposed to me even more Asian eats, particularly banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches). The combination of that crispy French bread with pate, meats, and fresh and pickled vegetables is so refreshing! These sandwiches are way better than regular American sandwiches. They are lighter and there are so many textures and flavors going on.

After an afternoon of walking around Midtown and then down to the East Village, my brothers and I walked through Chinatown and Little Italy in search of a satisfying banh mi. Thanks to Yelp, we found Banh Mi Saigon. A great find! Their banh mi is one of the better ones I've eaten, and that includes those I ate in Vietnam. It's a very casual place - just order at the counter and the food comes in brown paper bags. You can eat the sandwiches there or take it home - and they keep nicely so you can eat it an anytime of the day.

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Todd English's Ca Va Brasserie

Christmas Day! So our choice for Christmas lunch had to be special - yes, I felt the pressure of choosing a great restaurant for our family's special meal. The problem is that my family books reservations (at restaurants, for trips, for flights, etc.) last minute. So for Christmas, it limited where we could go. A lot of places were closed and a lot more places were fully committed.

When I research places to eat, I tend to research restaurants of my favorite chefs. In that list of favorite chefs is Todd English. I consider him one of the earlier modern day celebrity chefs. Did you know he cooked some summer grills on MTV's Spring Break? (Do any of you still remember MTV's Spring Break?)

Chef English's latest restaurant is Ca Va Brasserie. It's his take on a modern day brasserie - and it's so well done! The restaurant is the connected with the Intercontinental Hotel in Times Square. He has great menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The whole atmosphere is modern and inviting. Overall, it was a great experience, especially for a special holiday meal.

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Snowed In.. So Dinner at the Hotel Bar

The night after Christmas in New York City was buried under a full blown blizzard! ..Which meant it limited the places for our dinner. We already had a late afternoon meal at DBGB, so we decided to have a light meal at our hotel's bar, the Gilt Bar.

It was already 10pm, so a few items on the menu were already sold out, especially because a lot of the other hotel guests got the same idea as we did to stay in the hotel for dinner. The bar atmosphere was very cool and trendy - very midtown east NYC. The food was pretty good and satisfied our stomachs for a light meal.

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Daniel Boulud's DBGB

Part of my daily routine is to follow food-related news, via Twitter or other news or blog sources. From these articles, I occasionally list down restaurants that I have to visit at some point in time. Typically they are in cities where I know I'll visit in the next one or two years.

When I first read about Daniel Boulud's newest casual dining concept, I excitedly put that on my list. I've enjoyed all his restaurants in New York and his restaurant in Las Vegas. So I knew his latest, DBGB, would be a real treat.

We went there twice. The first time was for a late afternoon meal at the bar area. This first experience was really enjoyable. The setting and the food surpassed our expectations, as Boulud usually does at his restaurants.

For the second visit, we dined in the main dining area. The food was still excellent, but the service lacked and the host, especially, completely appalled us. For a casual setting, he was stiffly dressed in a suit - as though he wanted to work at Daniel but he got rejected. He was pretty rude to our table in pressuring and pushing us to hurry up, eat, and leave because he wanted to sit another party in our table. For example, he vigorously and blatantly showed the busboys his wrap-it-up gesture in front of our table as his signal to them (and us) to clean out table as fast as possible, even though we were still wrapping up our last conversation. There are ways to do this, and he knew none of proper polite ones.

Because of him, it makes me less eager to go back again. The food was excellent and enjoyable, but when I go out to eat I'm also looking for that overall experience with quality service, especially when the prices are higher than a cheap eats place.

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Snowpocalypse 2010

If you have been keeping up with the news and current events over the holidays, I'm sure you've read about the blizzard that hit the east coast right after Christmas. In New York City it was fittingly called "Snowpocalypse." Totally. It was so amazing to watch the progression of the blizzard the slow slow process of cleaning up the slushy mess.

Here are a bunch of pictures I took throughout my whole week in the city:

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Mmm, Doughnuts

One of my favorite childhood school treats are doughnuts. After altar serving weekday morning masses.. Celebrating grade school classmates birthdays.. A drive through the first Krispy Kreme in the area.. All great memories of a warm, soft, tender sweet doughnut. Homer Simpson really did say it best.

I love specialty food shops that focus on perfecting one thing. At Doughnut Plant, they do doughnuts really well. Their yeast doughnuts are so tender and chewy, and satisfying. If I didn't have to rush back uptown for Christmas Eve mass, I could have lined up again to eat a few more doughnuts.

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Thank you 2010.. Here we go 2011!

Thank you to all of you who have read my blog this year. It's been such a great adventure with all my travels and eats. It's been an honor to share it with all of you. I can't wait for the new journeys and blog entries that I'll get to share with you. Stay hungry in the new year!