Free from the grips from the GREs, I’ve made plans with my friends Helen and Seungmi to have lunch at Shake Shack. Needless to say, I craved a burger after putting myself into self-exile from my social world. I chose to meet at the Upper West Side location just so we don’t freeze our butts off and our food wouldn’t get cold within a few minutes.
Cheeseburger
I ordered the cheeseburger with everything on top since I needed to save some calories and stomach space for my group dinner at Szechuan Gourmet (I’ll talk about it in the next post) later on that evening. This simple burger was still amazing and I missed it terribly. I never felt happier.
Apologies for the almost non-existence of me blogging. It’s been hectic for the past month with my mom’s health went on limbo; going back and forth from home to the hospital. She’s fine for the time being and at home. As for me, I haven’t been eating out a whole lot because of my mom and been living off of lots of coffee but still tired despite being caffeinated. Buh. I can’t win. Anyhoo, here’s where I’ve been to whilst I have a few hours to myself during the month of March.
Discovery of Soup Dumplings in the Upper East Side
For a very long time, like during mid-winter, I’ve been craving for soup dumplings. Why? Well, because I never had one but seen a vast amount of soup dumpling food porn from Robyn‘s Flickr photostream are feeding the fire. I’ve read somewhere on Chowhound that there were restaurants that serve soup dumplings! So, I had to make arrangements to eat out with a few people so I’ve brought along my co-workers, Mary and Liz to join me for lunch at Shanghai Pavillion. (It’s not a typo, it’s how they spelled “pavilion” it.)
Interior and my friends
Stepping in from the chilly, windy streets of the Upper East Side, we settled in our seats to an upscale Chinese restaurant filled with mostly non-Asian diners. Not unusual but I was hoping there would be some besides myself and Mary. Continue reading “Summary of Meals During The Month of March” »
[I'm supposed to write about my brunch with Helen at Shopsin's that took place two Saturdays ago but I don't feel like it. I'll post it once it's ready to go...]
Last Thursday when I gotten my free sandwich from AQ Kafe, I walked over two blocks to the Time Warner Building to visit Bouchon Bakery for something sweet to cap off my lunch. When I peered in their refrigerated pastry case, I saw something I haven’t eaten since I was a wee lass, Ho-Hos.
Two weeks ago, Helen and I had a chicken craving. Since Helen’s quite knowledgeable in the realm of Korean food (she’s of Korean descent, in case you’re wondering), she recommended either Bon Chon Chicken or Baden Baden. She told me she hasn’t tried the latter and was curious about it, Restaurant Forte Baden Baden (that’s whole name) was our dinner spot for the evening.
It’s a bar
It seems popular with the Korean restaurants that serves good chicken dish, at least from what Helen describes them to me, are bars and it gets louder as the night goes on. The good thing was the fact that we arrived at 5:30, that the place was relatively quiet since there weren’t many diners here and the hip-hop/pop music playing from the speakers weren’t jacked up to the maximum volume (but did happen at the end of our dinner). Continue reading “An Evening of Food with Helen: Restaurant Forte Baden Baden, Koryodang, and Shake Shack” »
A Note to the chocoholics: To those of you who have seen my “tasting” photos earlier the past weekend, I will not be posting that anytime soon since I recently finished three bars of chocolate (and my stomach’s hurting because of that), I want to pace myself eating these chocolates and I can do whatever I want since this is my blog! BWHAHAHAHA… Ahem. No, I’m not trying to be mean. I don’t want to have a chocolate backlash and I want to be thorough in what the heck I’m tasting from these chocolates (and I realized when I started that I’m tasting them the wrong way initially, until I read a few articles about how to taste chocolate, I’ll explain when I post about the tasting).
If you really want to know what I tasted so far, it’s the Amedei “La Tavoletta”, Marie Belle’s Dark 70% Hot Chocolate, Green & Black’s 70% Dark, and Michel Cluizel “Noir” 72% bar. Some fared better than others obviously, but I won’t tell you the results until I’m done with all of the “blends.” That might be around next week or so for me to publish that since I’m going to attend and write about Robyn’s party this weekend! Woohoo! Now onto what happened the past Saturday…
It’s been ages since I’ve seen my long lost best friend, Stacey. We’ve known each other since junior high school in eighth grade, went our own ways since high school but kept in contact each other by old fashioned snail mail to the the modern age of Facebook. Oh how times have changed…
We’ve finally made a lunch date the past Saturday at meet up at Lombardi’s. Yes, we’re craving for some PIZZA!
As you can tell these past recent weeks, I’m writing pretty much an average about a post a week. It’s going to be like this for a while just because I’m snowballed with school and I’m dreading the LSATs! Good lord help me on the latter. I’m scared the wits out of me for this one test for the sake of law school. Anyways, I’m writing the aforementioned on the title but skipping out on Jean Georges just because that restaurant deserves its own post. Even though you see or seen the photos on my Flickr gallery.
On Saturday, I felt brunch-y and motivated to brave the mythical lines that one would face at Prune.
Hostess checking out the line…
People…
Once I got in the place is pretty much packed. Tables were close together, just barely letting a person fit in between each table. Lively chatter from the diners surrounding me. This place is charming. It has this old French country feel with worn walls, antique mirrors, and the open French doors of sorts where I was sitting. It’s unlike any other restaurant I’ve ever been in, in a good way. Continue reading “Brunch at Prune; Shake Shack, Ninth Street Espresso, and Picnick” »
Today is too gorgeous to not eat out in an open space. It’s 72 degrees Fahrenheit, warm, and sunny…so why not? Since I have no clue what restaurants actually has good food and a nice outdoor seating, I went back to Shake Shack. I know I went here last week but I changed my order a bit to expand my horizons on their menu.
When I got here at 11:05 A.M., there’s already a line formed unlike last week. The line is actually about halfway to the end of the block on Madison Avenue and 28th Street. It’s not terrible but I had to wait about 15 minutes ’til I got to order. I ended up choosing a Chicago dog ($3.25), a regular sized Arnold Palmer ($2.00), and a double dip chocolate custard ($3.25). Just to let you know what’s an Arnold Palmer, it’s basically iced tea mixed with lemonade. I don’t really know why I ordered it and it doesn’t go with a hot dog, but I did.
I did receive their ShackWand as you have seen from my last post. But this time my order took a shorter time than I have expected. I got my order in about 10 minutes. Here’s my food.
I think I’m one of the last few food bloggers and New Yorkers who ate here at Shake Shack for the first time (it’s shameful, I know). It always made me wonder what’s all the hoopla’s about whenever this place open every single year and now, I know what it’s all about.
It’s about 11:35 AM when I arrived to Shake Shack and I’m starving. Thankfully there was no line, since it’s a bit chilly and it’s cloudy out. Only a local businesswoman ahead of me, not that legendary line that forces one to wait for hours on end to get a darn burger. Anyways, when it’s my turn to order, I wanted a Shackburger ($4.75), a Black & White Milkshake ($5.75), and an order of fries ($2.50). After I paid they gave me this new innovation of sorts, which is their ShackWand. The ShackWand is your notification system that your food is ready and waiting at the window; it’s shaped like a remote and it rings like a cell phone in vibrate mode. Take a look…
The back of the ShackWand
Out of boredom, I flipped to the backside of the ShackWand and saw the above photo’s label. I thought it was funny, well, not really. The line is starting to build up, too… Continue reading “I’m Finally at Shake Shack” »
Cheeseburger
My order
The Arnold Palmer and Chicago Dog 
The back of the ShackWand
