<24hour trip to Vancouver...the border police thought I was highly suspicious for staying less than a day in Canada (I know...I love Canada...why wouldn't I just stay there for weeks or months?)

My grandparents took me for sushi for an early lunch at Kamei Royale... It was delicious.

Then it was onto Kelly' wedding...  a few select pictures from the 9 course vegetarian amazement at the reception at Shangri La in Vancouver...

Interview circuit

It's been a sad sad state of affairs in the cooking world. But. All that is changing! I had a dream about cooking a few nights ago and am convinced it is a sign that I start reconnecting to the kitchen again. (More realistically, I probably had the cooking dream because I'd been watching Iron Chef and sadly had to stop watching before finding out the winner).



My goal this week is to try making cupcakes. Mini, delicious morsels of sweet delight. I have never been able to make a cake. Sooner or later, I should learn... now, why I didn't take advantage of learning how to do so while I'd been dating a former professional pastry chef is beyond me... I never was very bright!



In other news, as exhausting as the interview circuit was, and how tired I was of eating granolas and hummus wraps, there were also multiple stops involving good food.



Boston--well, we all know that I am obsessed with food in Boston. Delicious. Affordable. 'nuf said. Thai, sushi, Schezuan, Cantonese, Northern Chinese, Bertuccis, Indian... life was good. very good.



Philly--We went to the Good Dog, which unlike its name would suggest, had nothing to do with hot dogs. Thankfully! They had one of the yummiest fried goat cheese and beet salad. Philly also involved delicious Indian food, Greek food, Jones (monkey bread! mac and cheese!) delights, and of course, the delight of seeing N and N!



New Haven--I had a HOME COOKED meal when I stayed with A&V. It was sooo nice after traveling for so much time!



Toronto--I have to admit it. The Indian food in the cafeteria of SickKids was GOOD. I had chana masala and it made me one happy camper...especially since I'd left NYC at 4am and was finally eating a breakfast/lunch/dinner combo at 4pm post-interview! Gotta love mechanical failures of planes.



Providence--Brown had the most yummiest salad bar I saw. I'm not kidding.



Long Beach--N&M took me to an amazing Italian place for dinner! It was sooo good!



And now...I will finally stop procrastinating and do what I have to do...

Millet Yam Cakes, Quinoa Cakes, and Chicago

I was looking for a healthy snack at Whole Foods the other day and ended up getting these yummy little gems. Like any good snoop, I took note of the ingredients list and will be trying to replicate the gems in the home kitchen some time soon. If anyone has real recipes for making these treats, please pass along :)

Ingredients:

millet yam cakes:
millet, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, tamari, oil

quinoia cakes:
quinoa, spinach, carrots, zucchini, "vegetable base--onions tomatoes potatoes carrots celery) salt yeast extract corn starch, onion powder, sugar,lemon juice, garlic, oil pepper

In other news, Chicago was very very cold, but enjoyable. The concept of snow in March now eludes me and you'd never know I was from Boston. We had a lot of good food in Chicago and a lot of it was quite reasonably priced. It's amazing what you get used to paying in Miami!

Heaven on 7 for lunch/brunch--R got the oyster po boy [sandwich with fried oysters and lettuce and other stuff in it] and I got cheese grits and cajun shrimp. It was a fun place with bottles of hot sauce lining the walls. I'm not quite accustomed to the way things are packed in Chicago and therefore, how common it is for things to happen above the ground floor. The restaurant was on the seventh floor. Passing by the building, you'd never really suspect that there'd be a full blown restaurant upstairs. It felt like I constantly had to look upwards in the streets to see what other stores and businesses I was missing--shoe repair places, clothing stores, hair salons all on upper levels. It reminded me a bit of Shanghai in the way you could find restaurants on the 35th floor of some otherwise normal tall building.


Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza--I'm realizing that I might not like real deep dish pizza, having been trained on Uno's and Pizza Hut... I'm so accustomed to equating deep dish with grease fest that it was a bit disappointing that the pizza here wasn't greasy. Everyone else liked it and I assume I just have very unsophisticated tastes in deep dish... I guess it's the quivalent of people liking crab rangoons at Americanized Chinese restaurants.

Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba for tapas--we went here a few years ago for ABCT but I loved it so much, I wanted to come again. We sat at the bar since the place was packed... We got shrimp in garlic sauce, manchego and spinach stuffed mushrooms, a cheese plate, and seared scallops with couscous. After 10, tapas were $3 and we ordered a grilled calamari and potatos bravas... After reading some NYTimes article, I've started ordering potato bravas at every tapas restaurant I go to... True to the article, everyone does seem to make it differently. The Ba Ba Reeba version was delicious. It was such a super yummy restaurant. There's no question that I'd go...again.

Corner Bakery Cafe--The desserts are quite yummy. There really aren't enough bakeries in Miami!

Vong's Thai Kitchen--this place was delicious in that fushiony Thai kind of way. They operated as a fancier restaurant in terms of service and deco etc. but they were normally priced. Well, at least normally priced compared to Miami Thai food :). They didn't have space for us until 9pm but it was well worth the wait. Instead of bread, they started us off with a shredded daikon salad which tastes a lot like the ones my grandmother makes. Then we had the tuna sashimi roll--it was alright. I'd be curious to try a different appetizer in the future. I had the penang curry shrimp noodles--a dish with slightly fried and crispy fat rice noodles. The combination of flavors was amazing. R got the red curry pad thai--the flavor was wonderful as well. In both dishes, the ingredients came together perfectly. Each bite was a trip to happy town. Unfortunately, I was so full, that I missed out on the dessert that I had been looking forward to...next trip, I start with dessert! :p

Bistro 110--brunch. This was near the Waterworks and I'd definitely go back in a heartbeat. They start you off with a plate with a huge roasted garlic and fresh bread. I'm a sucker for roasted garlic on bread so I was smitten before I even ordered. I had the Louisiana Eggs which were very good. R's cousin-in-law had the croissant French Toast which also looked heavenly. I'd debated heavily between the two choices. Next trip, I'll try to toast! :) Unless it's fall, in which case his cousin in law says they serve pumpkin soup served in mini pumpkins. Now who wouldn't go for that?

duds:
Billy Goat Tavern. Granted, we first tried going to one under a street bridge late at night so it was completely empty. And then we walked to Timbuktu, well, technically, just another one which turned out to be closed.

Hancock Tower. We went to the 96th Floor to get a drink. After twenty minutes of waiting in line, getting shoved around by the hostess and host, treated rudely by then, and having others seated before us, and dealing with their general bitchiness and sneering, we decided to leave the damn line. Which was probably their goal but honestly, I can pay $12 for a drink in Miami with better service.