Lox, Lemonade, & Libraries | NYC 2017

Friday, 13 October 2017Thursday, 12 October 2017 StarrLeave a comment

(Previously, on NYC 2017, we ate and ate and ate, attempting to balance it out by walking the entire High Line, and met up with some great friends for our last full day in the city.)

The next morning, we got up and got ready to check out. After stowing our luggage with the bell desk, it was off for a crucial component for our New York visits: BAGELS. It was past noon by the time we left the hotel, so we decided to brave Ess-a-Bagel, where we spent 2 hours waiting in line last year. Upon arriving, we were incredibly, pleasantly surprised to see a very, very short line! It didn’t even go out the door! I was pretty deliriously happy, as Essa was the closest bagel shop to us, even at a different hotel, so it was good to have a reliably good bagel option and not have to wait 2 hours for it. The bagel was so good that I instantly regretted not getting one for each of us, so I went back in the line to get a second one for us to split, it was luxurious and glorious to be able to wait in line for bagels two separate times in one go! I was so happy about it that I got a plain everything bagel for the second one instead of the whole wheat everything bagel I got for the first one. (You know, making tiny healthy choices and then deciding that I deserve to live a little and eat white flour?)

Belly full of bagel, my mandatory New York pizza-and-bagel carb tour complete, we set out to take a leisurely stroll through Central Park. It was a very nice but very warm day, so we strolled in the shade of the trees, stopping at little spots like Sheep Meadow and the Chess and Checkers House. It was very tempting to just sit and soak in the park, but we wanted to explore just a bit more so off we went.

At this point, I wanted something sweet, and walking around in the sun made us want a refreshing drink as well, so we took a detour to Bibble & Sip (review) for just that. I got a beautiful Earl Grey cream puff (I love cream puffs and eclairs!) and this beautiful butterfly pea flower lavender lemonade. Yum! Just as good as social media said it would be, I’ll definitely come back. (I’m a real sucker for choux pastry and cream…)

We were hoping to be able to stop by Ippudo Westside at this point, because Ippudo was our first and favorite ramen experience to date, but they don’t open for dinner until 5PM and at that point we’d already be on our way to the airport. So, after picking up a few small things we’d be needing for the next leg of our trip, we ambled over to the New York Public Library. I first visited the NYPL right after a long restoration/renovation project, when they converted much of the space to a museum and had many of their rare books and collections on display and completely fell in love with the main building and the institution, so I was very excited to show it to Ben. He was most excited to visit the Rose Main Reading Room because he had first seen it in Ghostbusters. I actually didn’t get a chance to visit when I first came to the library so it was a real treat. (It was our first taste of lavishly decorated ceilings for this vacation.)

Rose Reading Room Library mood

Lego Patience and Fortitude — Lego versions of NYPL’s lions, Patience and Fortitude

OG Winnie the Pooh — The ORIGINAL toys that inspired Winnie the Pooh, just chilling in the children’s library downstairs

And just like that, it was time to go to the airport, after a hurried detour through Grand Central Terminal.

Constellations on the ceiling of Grand Central

This perfect circle — This beautiful perfect circle we walked past every day

We went back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and a cab, and learned how lucky I was to have always traveled out of Newark for international flights because dang, JFK is not as nice as advertised. I didn’t realize how lucky I was for having airports like Newark and Dulles that have restaurants in the terminals, because our dinner options were basically $10 slices of pizza and $12 bagel sandwiches from places that were also selling instant noodles and muffins.

But we couldn’t stay mad because we were on our way to Paris.

That’s the end of the New York recaps! We had a wonderful time in my home city. I’m sorry we didn’t make time to see more friends but we wanted to try to have a vacation with fewer appointments and reservations and pre-arranged times to meet so that we could be more flexible and spontaneous. So far, it worked out quite nicely!

Coming up will be recaps from our week in Paris!

Labor Day Eeeeeats| NYC 2017

Tuesday, 10 October 2017Wednesday, 11 October 2017 Starr1 Comment

(Previously, on NYC 2017, we enjoyed some Manhattan fan favorites, a cultural festival that shut down several city blocks, and a great Broadway musical.)

Labor Day rolled around and, after sleeping in a bit (necessary after our strange ritual of watching lat night movies during our stay…), we headed out for lunch at Momosan Ramen (review). I didn’t realize this until we sat down, but this is one of Chef Morimoto’s restaurants. (I don’t follow celebrity chefs at all, so I am often very oblivious about their restaurants and never recognize them in my friends’ excited photos.) They were offering a sake flight and the waitress looked intimidatingly too-cool-for-school so we decided to go for it because the restaurant is technically Momosan Ramen & Sake, despite the fact that I don’t really drink and I definitely don’t really drink sake. I only lament that they weren’t serving the Peking duck baos during lunch, as I could see a roast duck literally dangling in front of my face as I ate, but when I asked what deliciousness I could order to acquire it, I was told that duck was only on the dinner menu.

Momosan interior — Our seat at the bar gave us a great view of the front of the house and these roast ducks

Chashu don — Ben’s chashu don (pork rice bowl)

Zuke don — My zuke don (raw marinated tuna rice bowl)

The spread — The complete spread for lunch

From there, we decided to walk the High Line from beginning to end, since it is one of our favorite spots in New York (and one of my favorite spots of all time) but we’ve always started walking from somewhere in the middle. We quickly realized that walking the High Line on a weekday evening is very different from walking on a weekend during daylight hours, as the park was crazy crowded. It was also still very warm out, so the many ice cream, paleta, and gelato vendors were doing really well up there. I swiped a yellow watermelon + mint paleta and it was oh-so-refreshing.

Enjoying a yellow watermelon and mint paleta on the High Line — Mmm that paleta really hit the spot

I held back from getting any ice cream or gelato because I actually wanted us to get ice cream in Chelsea when we finished walking the High Line. We first walked past Dominique Ansel Bakery, which I learned was selling their Japan-exclusive Crème de la Corn only during Labor Day weekend. Our timing was pretty perfect, because it was the last day they were serving this treat in New York and they were about to open the ice cream window. (By the time we walked away with our ice cream, the line was very long.)

Creme de la Corn — Caramel sweet corn soft serve on a soy sauce and butter-glazed cob of sweet corn. Messy, and a bit weird, but tasty!

Caramel and corn soft serve was a novel and interesting flavor experience that I liked! It was a different kind of summery taste that wasn’t too sweet, and the actual corn was very delicious. (It is grilled and then glazed with soy sauce and butter! So yum!) That was a fun and unexpected detour, since I honestly did not think I would be able to make it before it ran out. But on to the ice cream I planned for! I wanted to try some of the other ice cream flavors, but we had more ice cream plans ahead of us! From Dominique Ansel, we walked a few blocks to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. There was a line wrapping around the corner shop but we didn’t mind waiting because it was kind of a perfect golden afternoon moment. That part of the city is quiet and residential, we were approaching golden hour with warm, golden rays of sunshine filtering through the brownstones and the trees, and we were about to eat ice cream after having just eaten ice cream. The ice cream itself wasn’t as sweet as the idyllic moment we enjoyed walking to the shop but it was still very yummy.

Van Leeuwen ice cream — Sesame and pistachio at golden hour at Van Leeuwen’s

There was no way in heck we were going to not visit Joe’s Pizza (review) while we were in their neck of the woods. Joe’s is one of my favorite places to get a New York slice and is one of the few establishments I revisit nearly every time I come back to the city, if for no other reason than to see if the wall of celebrity faces has been updated while biting into that perfect crust + sauce.

Pizza at Joe's — A plain and a pep’. These slices bring me to happy tears every time.

Bellies full of pizza and ice cream (honestly, why do we front so much as though children’s birthday party menus are beneath us), we strolled over to Washington Square Park for our annual sit and chill there. It was cooling down, golden hour was in full swing, there was music and laughter and doggos. And this time, I didn’t even run into any rats, it was pretty blissful.

Washington Square on Labor Day — Chillin’ with some doggos in the square

From there, it was time to meet up with my old friend Elvin, so we headed back uptown to meet at Socarrat for tapas and paella. I got to finally meet his girlfriend Emily (after years of us missing each other during my visits) and we had a lot of laughs together over food.

Seafood paella at Soccarat — A giant seafood paella at Soccarat

Half-jokingly, I asked “Where to for dessert?”, fully aware that I had just eaten ice cream at two different establishments. But dessert is no joking matter, and we found ourselves walking to Serendipity 3. Despite having heard about this famous restaurant for so long, this was my first ever visit! We were way too stuffed for the famous frozen hot chocolate, so we tried to get the least unhealthy dessert we could manage and wound up with a very fruity sundae. (They let the 4 of us split one dessert because the restaurant wasn’t too crowded, but ordinarily they have a minimum spend amount per person.) It was very yummy, despite the fact that I was eating mostly whipped cream most of the time because the lemon ice cream I was looking forward to was hidden on the other side of the bowl. I don’t know if I get the hype about the Tiffany lamps, which just made the entire restaurant look really kitschy, but I watched Serendipity for the first time fairly recently and it was pretty magical to be there with good friends and a super duper full belly.

Seasonal icebox sundae — We justified getting this amazing icebox cake + lemon ice cream sundae because… it had the most fruit in it of all the desserts?

Friends at Serendipity — So happy to be making responsible choices like eating a third serving of ice cream that day

We parted ways from Elvin and Emily and slowly ambled our way back to the hotel. It was a beautiful night, and we weren’t quite ready to leave New York, even though we had another adventure waiting on the other side.

Do you have go-to ramen / pizza / ice cream places in the city? We always stop by Joe’s, and our fondest ramen memory is of Ippudo because that was our first-ever ramen experience! I don’t know if I have a go-to for ice cream yet.

Do you like Serendipity 3? I knew it for a long time because of the Babysitters Club (it was Stacy’s favorite!) and then came to know of its rom-com fame (Kate Beckinsale is a beautiful goddess walking among mortals). I have been trying to plan out a NYC rom-com guide blog so let me know if you’d be interested in that!

Brazil Day and Broadway| NYC 2017

Friday, 6 October 2017Thursday, 5 October 2017 StarrLeave a comment

(Previously, on NYC 2017, we were reunited with Ben’s college friends over dinner, board games, and a night out. After some rainy dollar pizza, we went to sleep ready for our first full day in the city for the weekend.)

(Apologies about the lack of photos in this post. I’m discovering that I seem to have lost some data from this day specifically? Best case scenario is that I deleted the photos when I was clearing out the junk from when I accidentally had my camera on burst mode. At worst, the card got corrupted. ☹️)

The next morning, after sleeping in a little bit, we got up for lunch at Xi’an Famous Foods (review), my first time finally trying any location of this famous northwestern Chinese eatery. I majorly regretted ordering a noodle dish for Ben and myself, as we really should’ve split one along with the cumin lamb burger I ordered. Having leftovers while traveling in New York just doesn’t make a lot of sense, and yet we had way a lot of noodles in our hotel mini fridge until the morning of checkout. Oops, that was definitely my bad, I didn’t communicate what we were ordering very well. Err on the side of ordering less, you won’t go hungry!

[ all photos from Xi’an Famous Foods are MIA, hopefully the video isn’t corrupted and I can put together some vlogs for you guys in a few years 😛 ]

From there, we started walking towards Times Square. At this point in our lives, we avoid Times Square because it is not as fun as the flashing lights would have you believe. (It’s hard to believe how recently I made sure to visit Times Square with every visit. I still wind up there almost every year, but not nearly as enthusiastically.) But we wanted to see what tkts had to offer for shows that Sunday, so off we went. The Sunday before Labor Day was actually Brazil Day in Manhattan, so we caught glimpses of a live Brazilian concert and stall after stall of food. It was a freaking bumpin’ time in the middle of the island and I got pretty swept up!

At tkts, we spotted Anastasia tickets on sale for 50% off, which was amazing and incredibly exciting because I have been DESPERATELY wanting to see this show. (Fun fact: I saw Anastasia in theaters and on ice. The movie is very near and dear to my heart, especially as a December baby.) Unfortunately, there were only individual seats left, and the point of me and Ben seeing a show together is to be together. So we opted to see Groundhog Day in the last days of its run, which ended on September 17. Before leaving Times Square, I checked out the art installation “Once Upon a Place” by Aman Mojadidi. Consisting of repurposed phone booths, visitors are invited to step in, close the door to the hustle and bustle of the literal center of Times Square, and pick up the phone to listen to real immigrant stories from real New Yorkers. It was a lovely quiet reprieve to step into another experience.

We ran a few quick errands, picking up bits and bobs for our flight to Paris and walking through some of the stalls that were up for Brazil Day, and dropped off our things at the hotel after a quick bubble tea stop. (The 3 Guys is so tasty! One of my first boba orders in the city and it is always a go-to when I stop by CoCo.)

Not sure of what to do for dinner, we wandered through almost all of the food stalls still open for Brazil Day, which was winding down, as we made our way back to Broadway to watch Groundhog Day (review). I’ll admit, I was not that excited to go see this show when we got the tickets or even when I walked to the theater. But by the time I sat down in my seats, I got that tingly anticipatory feeling I get when I’m facing a stage and taking in the pre-show vibrations of the theater. I haven’t seen the original Bill Murray movie but the show was incredible, with some super dark humor I wasn’t expecting and a great second act opening number that featured the girl who is an object of sexual desire singing about her role in life (and more specifically this show). I laughed, I cried, I loved this show.

Ben and I both knew exactly what we wanted to do after the show: hit up Halal Guys (review), one of the few spots that we visit every single time we come back to the city. They’ve since (FINALLY) opened a brick and mortar location closer to home, but nothing beats the fresh food from the carts, so we enjoyed our short walk over without a torrential downpour. I wasn’t feeling hungry, so we split a single platter, which was a mistake as that delicious plate of food really triggered my appetite! We’re thinking that this may be our last time waiting in line for the original cart, as we learned that cart charges more! So you are paying more for the exact same food (we saw guys prepping meat and rice at a stand down the street and bringing it over) when there is another cart LITERALLY across the street. Yep, that means there are no fewer than 3 official Halal Guys stations going on at the corner of 53rd and 6th, with 2 of them serving platters and one of them with a long line. The line moves fast but we’re starting to feel awfully silly standing in it. Bellies full of good food, we closed out the evening watching Slumdog Millionaire and dancing to “Jai Ho”.

Here’s just a handful of seconds from this day, even fewer than the previous one!

What’s the last great musical you saw? I hope I get to see Anastasia sometime soon and, of course, I still gotta see Hamilton!!!

What are your favorite simple meals in the city? Ben and I really truly love going to the Halal Guys cart every single time we come to the city. I’m glad we finally got to visit Xi’an Famous, too, and I get the hype even though I don’t like cumin! That’s part of what I love about New York’s food scene, is the simple meals that don’t break the bank and are really reliably good.

Another Busy Week

Friday, 26 May 2017Friday, 26 May 2017 Starr1 Comment

Hello and happy Friday! I have been a little bit low mood this past week, maybe from just being so busy and maybe from the transition from hot and humid to gloomy and rainy. (I haven’t seen the sun in almost a week, now…) But I’ve been doing a lot of fun stuff so I thought I’d share a bit of that here today!

2017 DCFemTech Awards

This year, several of my friends and colleagues were recipients at the DCFemTech Awards, celebrating women in technology in the DC area and their work. It’s really inspiring to see so many women getting recognized and encouraged, and I am proud to work alongside them.

Great turnout from my coworkers to support Hareem!

I was also able to see some friends from college that I hadn’t seen in a while, as well as get an ~exclusive~ after-hours look at the Washington Post headquarters and newsroom!

https://sipofstarrshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/97ab5-18512538_1765286280154311_8191364869631508480_n.jpg — Congrats again to Angela and thanks (again) for the tour!

Daybreaker: Music on the Brain

My first time attending a Daybreaker event was on my birthday back in December. I really loved the concept when I first read about it: early morning dance parties fueled by coffee, juice, and a love of dance rather than by sex, drugs, and alcohol, which aren’t my motivations for dancing.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, standing, crowd and indoor

This month, Daybreaker partnered with the Kennedy Center, one of my favorite institutions in DC and of all time, to put on a great dance party on the terrace. It was crazy hot and humid but I had an awesome time dancing with my friend Megan at her first Daybreaker. Both of us saw friends we knew and had an amazing time sweating and dancing before a Friday work day.

Image may contain: 3 people, people smiling, people standing, sunglasses, sky and outdoor — Megan and artist Yoko Shen, who performed a haunting piece to end the pre-work evening

InnoMAYtion Hackathon

On Saturday, I mentored a hackathon for the first time! I worked with Think of Us Think of Us to help think of ways to make their website for parenting teens in the foster system easier and more appealing for people to use. It was strange being one of the more experienced developers on a team, considering I’m still not very confident in my skills yet, but it was fun to work with that team and I learned a lot about the resources that are available to parenting teens and their caregivers.

Cat Yoga

My friend Jen’s birthday was yesterday and I wanted to do something with her before she went out of town for her birthday weekend. We had talked about DC’s cat cafe, Crumbs & Whiskers, before but I hadn’t gone. I figured that even if Jen had gone a bunch of times, as an avid cat lover, it would still be a treat for me to take her to enjoy cats and pastries.

Little did I know that Crumbs & Whiskers has recently been offering Sunday yoga sessions. WITH THE CATS. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, even though I was frequently startled by how often I would find a cat where I was going to put my hand or foot. Those precious kitties were worth all the allergic sniffles I experienced, and I got a great yoga session out of it, too!

Image may contain: one or more people, shoes, cat, table and indoor

I also enjoyed a delicious brunch with Jen afterwards, and just remain so grateful to still be friends with this great girl I met at college orientation.

EdibleDC Eat/Drink Local

I recently won tickets (thanks BrightestYoungThings!) to EdibleDC magazine’s Eat/Drink Local, where I was able to sample so many delicious foods from local vendors all over DC. From local oysters to truffled gnocchi to blue (!!) cashew milk and an entire pizza, my belly was delighted to sample so many delicious foods and drinks from the area. I have been known to give the DC food scene a really hard time, but it’s because I know there’s so much potential and I want it to be better! It’s gotten so much better over the past 2 years and I can’t wait to see how much more it grows.

Image may contain: 8 people, people smiling, text — You know I’m a sucker for a photobooth, especially if one of my favorite companies – UrbanStems – is helping run it!

Foodelicious Night

Did you know that the DC mayor’s office has a special division dedicated to Asian Pacific-Island affairs? It’s true! MOAPIA (Mayor’s Office for Asian Pacific-Island Affairs) has been putting on events all month for AAPI Heritage Month and I was able to attend Foodelicious Night, where 3 of DC’s most famous Asian and Asian-American chefs performed cooking demonstrations for us and let us taste it after! We had:

Chef Erik Bruner-Yang, the phenom chef who runs Maketto, one of the trendiest and most critically-accalimed restaurants in all of DC, period, and cooked for us a delicious Cambodian curry
Chef Nobu Yamazaki, of the best sushi restaurant in DC, Sushi Taro, which recently won a Michelin star in DC’s first Michelin guide, and prepared for us 2 different sushi rolls
Chef Xiaolong Hu, from Panda Gourmet, the best Chinese restaurant in DC that is famous for being the go-to authentic spot for Chinese embassy employees who are craving real Northwestern Chinese food, prepared for us pork belly buns

This was a really fun event because the chefs all had a lot of personality and prepared really amazing foods for all of us. It was such an incredible way to celebrate Asian cuisine in DC and how easily you can recreate it at home!

Megan’s Birthday Dinner

Last night, I met up with Don, Megan, and several of their friends for a birthday dinner to celebrate Megan! (Fun fact: She actually has the same birthday as Jen!) It was a lot of fun seeing some of Megan’s friends that I haven’t seen in years, or since her wedding last year, or just since the last time we all hung out. (Please tell me it’s normal to have trouble hanging out with friends at a higher frequency as an adult, it is very frustrating to me…)

It was a lot of fun to see everyone and to see Megan twice in one 7-day period!

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the United States, and I’ll be spending it resting, cleaning, and maybe checking out some online sales!

How will you be spending the (long) weekend?
How was your week??

3-Ingredient Protein Pancakes

Tuesday, 23 May 2017Monday, 22 May 2017 StarrLeave a comment

After many, many years on the internet, I have become the kind of person who regards “life hacks” and Pinterest/Instagram foods with suspicion. Sometimes, I just outright dismiss a lot of them. Make ice cream by blending frozen banana? That’s not ice cream, it’s just frozen banana? And yet there I was, very happily enjoying the soft-serve-esque texture of a blitzed-up frozen banana, begrudgingly admitting that the curated photos on social media didn’t lie this one time.

A similar recipe that I had many doubts about were the paleo-friendly 2-or-3 ingredient pancakes. In its simplest iteration, you mash up a banana with a beaten egg and fry up pancakes with the mixture — without it tasting like scrambled eggs with banana. I believe I attempted this once several years ago by beating an egg with a fork in a bowl and then mashing a banana into the egg with that fork. It was… meh.

But I kept seeing this recipe get touted over and over again, and other people’s photos of these pancakes looked a lot more like pancakes than my initial attempt. Maybe I did something wrong? This recipe came back into my life as I started to remember why I am not the kind of person who is able to skip breakfast. These days, I am trying to be better about making sure I have a protein-filled breakfast so that I have fuel for when I do actually go work out in the mornings, since I have been feeling myself struggle a lot physically when I try to exercise on an empty stomach. I also feel myself thinking about lunch at about 10:30, which is pretty early to have your mind on lunch, if we’re all being honest here! While these pancakes are not allowed on Whole30, they are paleo, and I’ve found 2 added components have improved the entire process enough to make this a new breakfast staple for me:

A blender (I use this super cheap personal blender)
Protein powder

The blender makes mixing it a much easier and smoother process, so I’m not left with a scrambly-egg + mushy-banana consistency. The protein powder makes it more like a pancake and less like banana-y eggs. I’ve also been adding spinach to the whole thing for a bit more nutrition. Occasionally I also add a bit of cinnamon to see if I can get any of its purported health benefits. I fry them up in some coconut oil (who am I…) and I have some healthy green protein-packed pancakes for breakfast so that I have some fuel in the morning!

Here’s the recipe, adapted from PaleOMG:

1 ripe banana – the browner and riper, the sweeter!
2 eggs
1-2 scoops of vanilla/chocolate protein powder
Coconut oil (or oil/fat of your choosing)
Optional: handful of spinach
Optional: pinch of cinnamon
Optional: pinch of baking soda

In a blender, pulse your eggs and banana until you have a smooth, consistent mixture.
Add in your protein powder, starting with 1 scoop and adding 2 if the consistency is too liquid, depending on the size of your banana and eggs. (You want the batter to be a bit viscous.)
If the mixture is still fairly runny with the added protein powder, add a bit of baking soda to help add fluffiness and rise to your pancakes.
Add spinach and/or cinnamon if you’d like green pancakes or a teeny bit of warmth.
In a non-stick pan, heat a small amount of coconut oil.
When the oil is hot, pour small dollops of the pancake into the pan to form 3- or 4-inch wide pancakes. Since they will be runnier than your traditional pancake batter, keeping them small helps them cook through a bit faster and makes them easier to flip.
After about a minute, flip the pancake to the other side; you’ll know it’s ready to flip when the edges are browning and the batter on top is becoming a bit less funny.
Cook on the other side for 30-45 seconds, remove from the pan, and place on some paper towel to get rid of any excess oil.
Serve plain or with syrup, jam, whatever pancake accoutrements your heart desires.

Enjoy

greenpacakes2 — Clean eating green pancakes, a similar recipe from Emily at LouisianaBrideBlog

Have you ever tried a recipe you saw online and didn’t think would work only to be pleasantly surprised?
Are there any super popular internet recipes you think I should try? I haven’t tried very many of them but after some recent successes, I’m trying to have an open mind! Trying to get back into cooking more for myself, and prepping breakfasts and lunches in advance, so any recipe suggestions would be so appreciated!

A lot of things have been happening in the news that are difficult to ignore. I try to keep the tone on this blog positive and upbeat, not only for you, my handful of readers, but so that I have something positive to reflect on myself. Please know that I am staying informed, staying vigilant, and staying active in supporting a world that is good for more people than it was before.