LACASAPARK » Food

Todo El Dia, Tulum

jaehee — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:25:17 +0000

Quick drawing and Water coloring. Zazilkin beach.

Take out Ceviche on the beach from El Camello ( the best in town)

Twinkle moment with Gael and Sun.

The Kitchen at Mateo’s.

Pollo con Cille y Paprica verde in Horno at La Onda.

New Year’s Eve, Tulum Style.

Topes!

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Viva Tulum!

A la Cuisine!, Morimoto, NYC

jaehee — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 06:41:13 +0000

Gael and Emiliano, just about to step into Morimoto, NYC

It’s Emi’s Birthday and this time we decided to go to Morimoto for some great food to celebrate! It’s our very first time being at Morimoto and we are bit excite and but also nervous because we really would not like an Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s restaurant being disappointing. So many of these foodie places we find over rated. Not that great at the end…

Oh Chef, Please, you better be Awesome!!!

Chef’s cook books greet you the second you walk into the restaurant.

We get seated in one of the smaller section of the restaurant. Not so open, but then also quite intimate. We are quite happy so far. And the drink and main menu.

This is the very first dish of 7course tasting menu both Emi and I had chosen. All the On trays sound excellent in good range of fish and meat. There’s also a list of Sushi and Sashimi, but we pretty much knew we would go for the Chef’s choice 7 course tasting menu: Morimoto Omakase, a multi course tasting menu to allow you to experience the essence of Morimoto’s Cuisine. This first dish is ” Toro Tartar” on a bamboo plate over a sheet of banana leaf underneath with 6 small portion of garnish that were unbelievably flavorful. This plate is a size of any guy’s palm, so the portion is small but then perfect as a starter and it was absolutely satisfying with gorgeous flavors. THANK YOU CHEF!

You will scrape off bit of tartar with this stainless steel flat spoon sort of, then also steal bit of any garnish then dip the whole thing in the light Dashi in a small bowl that came together. It’s amazing.

While Emi and I are tasting Omakase, Gael’s having a hot stone bowl Yellow Tail Buri. A sort of Korean Dolsot Bibimbap but with Morimoto’s twist. No chili paste here. Fresh Shiso leafes and delicate and light sweet soy based sauce adds quite powerful flavor to this super fresh Yellow Tail Sashimi over the rice. There are some Japanese mountain veggies and toasted nori and raw egg to be all mixed together. The serving staff who was helping was friendly and casual.

Our turn again for the second course. The Yellow tail Crudo with Pea shoots, Mushroom and sesame infused warm olive oil and drop of soy and yuzu. It’s a perfection. It’s just so delicious. The first and the second courses were our two favorite. I can probably have this everyday.

The third dish. OK. Just OK. This one we didn’t care for much. We actually didn’t need this at all. It’s sort of ” Veggie” dish with dipping sauce idea. The anchovy reduction was just all right and veggie were not substantial enough. I would’ve rather not had this at all or maybe would’ve liked something very simple and refreshing salad like. Chef, Please don’t let us down for the rest..!

The fourth one. A fresh oyster accompanied by Foie Gras and warm drizzle of delicate Teriyaki sauce. This one was quite lovely. Emi liked this much more than I did perhaps. Still the first and the second course is lingering on the tip of my tongue….!

Too busy eating and chatting, forgot to take a snap of Course 5, a plate of assorted 6 piece Sushi. They were bit small at bite size with impeccable freshness. They were excellent!

Now the On tray, course 6. Surf and Turf. A lobster tail over a slightly fried sweet potato sticks and lightly seared Korean style marinated Yagyu beef accompanied by whipped up lemon mousse. DELICIOUS!!! It was quite satisfying as portion wise and the lobster tail was perfectly cooked tenderly with amazing seasoning and the beef just melts in your mouth… This On tray made our quite pricy Omakase experience all worth it!

The Lobster tail on the front and the Yagyu beef on the back.

The last course, Dessert. A cup of Sweet potato flan/custard sort of. With a soy stick, poached pear slices, black berry and dollop of cream fresh and an edible flower on the side.. The Soy stick I didn’t go for. I don’t know why. I love the potato flan! Ahh, It also had passion fruit syrup over the flan!

Thank you Chef Morimoto for a great experience! It was quite amazing!

and Happy Happy Birthday to you Emi! Thank You and Gael for everything we have together!

and….LOvE, NYC!

Seoul Now!

jaehee — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:22:16 +0000

For more, just be there!

LOvE SEOUL!!!

Dekalb Market, Brooklyn

jaehee — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:38:27 +0000

Entrance at Dekalb Market, Downtown Brooklyn

Salvaged and stacked up colorful shipping containers make walls, shops and a small semi open urban market in downtown Brooklyn. It’s a great and beautiful concept to promote small entrepreneurs in a small cultural community setting using 20 foot shipping containers with electricity, water, stove tops and even AC installation.

It was our first time visiting and it was late afternoon on Saturday. It felt bit empty but I see a great potential. But then, would this really work? It’s located by Flatbush Avenue near the Dekalb avenue where now all these luxury high-rise condos are getting built. There are good amount of commercial and office spaces around the market, so Lunch time, it may get bit crowded but not sure how much foot traffic this market gets in general. Despite it’s charming vibe, the market is not so substantial enough to go for either food or shopping. I see coffee, donuts, sandwiches, tacos. All those usual suspects. Then there are these small shops. The containers are great looking. Thy are itsy bitsy super cute but are they too small? Most of food vendors occupy the full spaced containers then there are many other containers divided in half, and that’s when it gets bit too small for me. Once there 2 people in, there’s no more room for any other. It’s a great concept but I see much room to be improved.

The market needs better P.R and more vendors in general for customers to feel it’s worth the trip. There should be a lot more food vendors to bring greater foot traffic daily then need bigger space occupying non food vendors like vintage, books, magazine stands, Arts, maybe even flower shops, graphic tees and so on to sustain as a daily market. It totally got this cool vibe going but it feels like the whole thing is a bit of temporary set up. Kind of one night stand like. There were concerts, DJ gig and even a night Bazar. They all sound great and heard it was successful but it is missing this Core strength to sustain this market to be not just a cool gig but as a real community’s daily market. Hope for a good boost for Christmas shopping time and wish for better improvement with stronger vendors and entrepreneurs bringing more fresh creative product to the market.

For more detail, Click here.

Korean Cooking!

jaehee — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:10:12 +0000

Setting a table and prepping for a simple and real Korean dinner!

I am a Korean. And I love Korean food. I married a Italian man. And he loves Korean food. We made a boy and he loves Korean food. So it’s oh so natural, we all turn to Korean food time to time. It’s my home and it’s my root and it’s just so delicious and I love to cook so here I am! I like to share a few pics of me making very simple typical Korean dishes. Folks, No B.B.Q tonight here! We actually have simple yet quite complex cuisine that speaks to many senses that travels way beyond wonderful B.B.Q! Korean food will be an excellent way to carry vegetarian diet or even raw food diet. We eat all sort of vegetables that are from the ocean, the deep in the woods and beautiful wide open field. We know how to prepare them in so many different ways and we have extensive knowledge about what we eat and what they do to us. We grow up on this. It’s part of our culture. And it gets passed to generations after generations. We got ton of colors and textures that juxtapose high and low, ing and yang, land and ocean and warm and cold. We like to chew. We like it hot and we like it real cold. But there’s also a delicate area where rounds and comforts our body and soul without such things as heavy butter or cream. It’s clean, honest and delicious!

I am making simple dishes that myself and all Koreans have grown up on! Here’s my Friday night whipping up a few humble Korean dishes!

Pan toasted baby anchovies with fresh rosemaries and arugula bits. So start with dried anchovies. Koreans use and eat all different sizes and kinds of anchovies or family of anchovies. Usually the size of anchovies dictates the end product. Here I have tiny little ones tonight for hot pan toasting with olive oil, crushed garlic, touch of raw sugar ( I only use raw sugar for a long time by now). And here I try adding ” what’s in the fridge for the moment” touch. It’s spontaneous and it always works for me to just explore a bit. I do believe though this takes bit of skill: knowing how different ingredients would work together not following written recipes. I am a terrible baker as I just do not have a littlest patient to follow something exactly but in contrary, I like to throw a few things in together to whip up quick simple and delicious flavor.

Here I have a bag of dried anchovies imported from Korea. I bought this at H mart in Queens or you can easily get any kinds at typical Korean super market or Japanese works just fine for me as well. As you know one single anchovy that is big as length of your palm size is packed with powerful flavor to make big potful of Dashi ( clear anchovy and kelp broth).

How to make this:

1. Heat up an any wider pan you have, drizzle olive oil or vegetable oil.

2. When the pan is hot, add in about 3 cups of dried anchovies, let them sit a minute and stir time to time.

3. When you see anchovies get toasty and brown, add crushed fresh garlic and half teaspoonful of chopped rosemaries and arugula. Keep stiring and toast anchovies. Do this on mid heat.

4. Add a teaspoonful of raw sugar. Stir for another few minutes. Raw sugar balances natural saltiness of anchovies.

Done. Nutty, toasty, salty and sweet that’s grounded by earthiness of Rosemarie. It was my first time trying fresh rosemaries with this dish. They work together Beautifully! Eat over simple steamed rice! Yum!

OK. Making steamed rice 101. We ran out of brown rice, so I am using white but Jasmine rice. I find Jasmine rice faster and easier to cook, easier to digest than typical Sushi rice ( less gluten). I do not use rice cooker. I am actually quite good at making rice with any kind of pot but it definitely requires low heat, preferably heavier and thicker pot and the cover. Today I am using ALL CLAD.

How to make simple steamed White rice in a regular pot. It takes just 20 minutes.

1. 2 -3 cups of rice ( this gets usually doubled after steamed enough to serve 4-5 people couple times)

2. Rinse and place them in the pot and add water.

3. A simple trick. Add simple cold tap water to the rice to where it reaches bout 1″ above your knuckles when you place your hand open and flat over the rice.

4. On medium heat, let the water come to a boil. Do not cover.

5. Lower the heat, let the water and rice boil and sort of simmer for 7-8 minutes. Do not cover.

6. When you still see water goes up and down of the surface of the rice, cover it and lower the heat all the way. COVER NOW.

7. Do not stir the rice. Let it be for another 5-6 minutes. Add dash of couple spoonful of water and turn the heat off. Cover it and it will keep cooking through.

OK! Now moving onto an Egg roll ( like a Sushi roll!). This is so easy to make and I can definitely say maybe this is the #1 lunch box menu for all our Korean’s school years! All moms have their way to do this, add sheet of seaweed in the middle, or add bits of onions and any other veggies, canned tuna, mushrooms, you name it. It’s very similar to your sunday morning omelet but rolled in a smaller scale.

How to make this:

1. Break and beat 4-5 whole eggs in a bowl, add sea salt and bit of milk or water.

2. Heat your frying pan up. Drizzle some olive oil. Don’t burn your pan but the pan should be hot enough not to have egg sticks to it.

3. Pour the beat eggs into the pan. Medium heat.

3. 2 ways to add topping/filling. Either add chopped scallion, onion, zucchini, mushroom whatever into the beat egg or add them on when the egg is half cooked in a pan then gently spread them on the top.

4. Now you will fold and roll the beat eggs by about 1″. Think you are making a Sushi roll or making home made fresh pastas and rolling and folding the dough. The key is roll half cooked beat eggs by 1″ at a time. Give some time to the beat eggs to be cooked through a bit.

5. When it’s done, get it out of the pan and let it rest for a couple minutes on the cutting board. It helps the rolled egg to stay together.

Rock and Rolling! My filling was just simply chopped white onion.

Not the best job I did. I overcooked it a bit then I like it that way. Typical ones you see especially in Japanese restaurant you would not see any of these brown marks. They will be flawlessly creamy yellow. Then I also hate Japanese eggs has sugar in it. Definitely savory version for me. Not sugary!

See if you had put some carrots or even caviar, you would end up with prettier faces!

Bit of table setting, By the way, Emi’s in the middle of making a new dining table. We are playing with how we like to finish up the top. Thought we have Gael do some drawing..? We are still thinking.

Toasted Seaweed. Koreans love them toasted crispy with sesame oil and sea salt sprinkled. This is also really good with chilled beer! Sort of like potato chips.

Kimchi in a bowl my Aunt baked. I use it all the time and I always think about her every time I use it. Thanks Aunt!!

Chili and Korean miso hot pot with sliced sirloin, potato, carrot, zucchini and tofu. The big green pieces are dried kelp. We use them a lot to make base stock and clear broth. They are rich in mineral, iron, calcium and magnesium and also high in sulfur and rich vitamin D. They are really good for you!

How to make it:

1 Start with the Kelp broth. A small pot full of plain water and 5-6 squares of dried kelp. Let them boil for a while and add a tablespoonful of Korean chili paste and 2 spoonful of Korean Miso paste.

2. Add chopped chunks of all the veggies you want. We typically put potato, carrots, zucchini and onion. Here you can also add or switch any with mushrooms and bean sprouts. Or again whatever you would like.

3. Add sliced sirloin pieces. Let them boil a bit like 20 minutes on medium high heat.

4. Add tofu, sea salt, crushed garlic and chopped green scallions at the end for another 5-6 minutes boiling on medium heat.

Little bowls for rice, plates for anything

Time to eat ! yeah yum yum!

LOvE Korean!

Chasing the Autumn! North Fork, New York

jaehee — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:47:56 +0000

Beautiful Sunday morning at Orient State Park, North Fork, New York

After many of quite dreadful humid and wet September days for New York to prep crisp real Autumn, this was maybe the first truly gorgeous weekend weathers we had! It was dry and warm yet accompanied by cool clean air to compliment spotless amazing perfect blue sky! The Autumn has officially kicked off! Still in a half sleep in the bed Saturday morning, we could see gorgeous sun coming through our bedroom window’s grainy blinders… The sliver of warm sun light was just enough to make us jump out of the bed and just take off to be out of the city! And where we are heading to? North Fork in Long Island, NY!

Just one briskly packed small bag for all of us, we are excite to explore North Fork! It’s our very first time and all I knew was there are many mini vineyards lined up. Yes, some wine tasting, good food and pick up couple of fresh corns… Hopefully we can stumble into a cozy B&B tucked in somewhere. It all sounds good to my soul and my belly! It’s going to be a heck of good weekend!

About little over 2 hours, we are getting into the beginning of North Fork. What can we say…. It got Surf and Turf kind of thing going on here in North Fork. I know we are near the ocean and I see ton of handsome pumpkin farms, small yet swanky vineyards already starting from the very beginning. We know we are really going to like here. Above is a back yard at ” Material Object“, a home furnishing and wine related object store in Jamesport. This 1870’s farm house converted into wine tasting and home decor shop sure shows envious eclectic taste of the shop owner. The natural light filled space is to die for!

The Main house of Material Object, The picture can’t justify the actual space. Here only showing a fraction of entire house. Everything you see here is for sale.

The Barn house/ Cottage like second home which is set back. This felt like a newly built with much charm. But Not the original structure.

Arriving at Greenport. Almost the end of North Fork. It’s a real cute town with many good restaurants, antique and vintage shops as well as oyster and lobster shacks by the water! Here we are chasing early fall but boy I have to say we just can’t complain about warm sun on your back and perfect breeze! It feels sort of early summer and early fall at the same time!

Claudio’s restaurant was opened back in 1870’s! There’s the main one on the main street and also 2 clam bars right by the water. Bit touristy but all good here.

Yeap! It sounds perfect! Lobster roll anyone? It’s already Lunch time!

Hmmm choices choices…

OK waiting for our number to be called. We are at # 2 Clam bar of Claudio’s. This place is run by self service and there’s no live band playing ( sort of wedding band, Haha!) Which we consider as a good thing.

Both are $29.95 plates. Not so cheap. Skip the fake butter, Who needs it? Cole slaw, I always love! Lemon works for anything.

Gael’s too busy eating his creamy clam chowder!

After lunch town strolling begins.

The Greenport town has a good mix of old and new including a tiny Greenport jail ( not pictured..)! It’s charming and not touched by big chain stores yet. There’s a Calypso boutique as far as a known brand shop. No Starbucks or Ben & Jerry’s. Instead there’s ” Sand pipe Ice cream shop” where I had the best ice cream in entire US for only 4 bucks! Maple syrup Walnut and Vanilla black cherries. Yum!

This is The best vintage and antique shop in Greenport! Beall & Bell, 430 Main Street. Right items at right prices. We saw some of the best pieces here!

This old School gym acrobat pads were sold! I was happy that quite many pieces in the shop are marked as sold! Which means we are in the right place! How good are these? Emi had a great idea! One of these would easily doll up your bed as a head board. Especially for guys, that’s awesome I think!

One next to the Beall & Bell. This one also sells home furnishing materials such as textiles and things.

After we checked in at our motel ( yes everything was booked and we were lucky to find quite lovely and affordable motel right outside of downtown Greenport), we came to restaurant, Noah’s for dinner. It’s not the high season since it is already October, but you want to make reservations ahead for better and really good restaurants in Greenport. They get booked up fast. Literally any restaurants in the town will have a some sort of raw bar going on and also good seafood dishes. We wanted to check out Frisky Oyster, but it was too late by the time we called for the reservation. Bit old school and bit groovy here with hefty price tags. We quite enjoyed our meal at Noah’s as they offer many great small dishes are not actually that small. You could call it generously portioned tapas of seafood, great salad and meat bites. We ended up having 5 small dishes and 2 bottles of local 2010 Chardonnay, ” Bedell” from one of the North Fork’s wineries, Bedell . It reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc, Oyster bay from New Zealand.

Now Sunday morning, We are at Orient Beach State Park in North Fork, a short car ride from Greenport! Water’s quite amazing here!

You will see lagoons and ocean everywhere in North Fork. It’s really beautiful!

Running me, Emi and Gael.

Nice run, shower and pack and we go. Here we are at one of farm stand on the road.

Gael loves to shop produces. He loves to touch and smell them. We were peeking inside to see they are full and healthy. And these corns are so sweet and juicy! We also like them raw!

These are called MUMs and they are cheap. 3 mums for $12!

And we didn’t skip one thing! Now checking out a few antique store by the road. We scored a real cute picnic basket filled with 4 of wine glasses, silver wear, plates, cheese knife and wooden cutting board and wool matching blanket to the plaid liner of the basket, probably never used before. All these for $30! Now, that’s a good deal!

I always like these!

Honestly, we were bit tip toeing around the wine tasting as we realized there are hundreds of wineries in North Fork area! Then after the last antique shop we stopped in, we saw the sign if ” Bedell” winery. We love the Chardonnay from them last night! So here we are we are stopping in.

It looks sort of Nespresso shop.

It’s about noon. There are lot of people tasting wine. We realized most of wineries here has small Raw bar. Mostly Clams and Oysters.

Live Jazz is not so bad!

It feels like we are in Napa!

You can also bring your own food and just hang out here with some wine from the winery. It”s a perfect day to do it! I mean look at that sky!

You will find these many little lovely trails that connects to vineyards or the beach in North Fork. So charming!

It was the perfect 2 day getaway to truly enjoy beautiful sun, last minute lingering lovely summer but surely it was beginning of Autumn for us. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and if you like to get out of city a little, try North Fork! It is a real little gem that has little of everything you can taste what water and the land can offer!

LOvE North Fork!

Denny’s Birthday at Robataya, NYC

jaehee — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:50:45 +0000

On Denny’s Birthday, At the beautiful Grill Bar at Robataya NYC

Emi’s dear nephew Denny’s visiting us from Italy for about 2 and a half weeks. He has just arrived in time for his 24th birthday! I can’t believe our little Denny I met 18 years ago ( then 6!) is now all grown up handsomely with a great job as well! It’s always nice to have Denny at our home and it’s just really nice to have your family visit from oversea when especially we are the only ones away from home. Before Denny arrived we had a few things in our mind to do together with him and for sure we knew where to take Denny for his big 24th birthday.

Robataya on the 9th street in East village!

I have been eyeing on this place since the last James Blake concert Heidi and I went near the restaurant. We were looking for an easy quick dinner before the show and ended up walking into little Japan area that is happening around the 9th street. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few cute Japanese restaurants and tea houses on one single block. It quickly brought me fun memories from my numerous trips to Tokyo! Bit small and tucked in… A hole on the wall… A little place on the second floor somewhere selling delicious food and drinks…

Robataya is bit fancier than any other ones on the block. The concept of Robataya is not something too up-scaled or so unique as Robatayaki ( Japanese grilling) in Japan is sort of common street food or hearty quick bar food, but this particular one in East village sure scores higher note on the beautiful setting of their Grill bar consisting of wood banquets and chairs that mimics the setting of an open market. The setting is grand but also intimate enough to enjoy the company of rest of the customers sitting at the bar. There’s this sense of “Togetherness” sitting around watching and admiring 2 master chefs’ well skilled clean cooking as a center focus. I really like this.

It’s very common to order directly to the chef as normally the grill bar scale is smaller and also customers sit closer to the chef. Think Sushi Bars. But at Robataya, there are a couple waiters will assist you. I think they wanted to make this easier for both the chefs and the customers and it felt definitely more up-scaled. The guy with a head wrap was one of them.

Our cool 2 chefs for the night. The chef on the left cooked all the dishes we had. The wooden panel in front of him displays his proud name.

I must say watching chefs’ moves at this Robataya is quite entertaining. They don’t put up any sort of show but their whole cooking and getting things are just very interesting! As you can see most of ingredients for any grilling is displayed in front of chefs and it’s sure an eye candy.

Chefs serve the finished dishes and beer bottles to customers at the bar on that long wooden stick with flat tray at the end. Can you see it…? One guy grabbing a beer bottle off the wooden stick!

This is THE SLAT Robataya uses for all their cooking. DELICIOUS!!! Anything you eat you can really taste the deep flavor of this real good salt. I think good salt does the half of the job for any cooking! Maldon from England is also my favorite!

So we were seated in front of Mushroom area and we had tasted 2 kinds. The super big one ( no it’s not porcini) and the little ones on the front on the right side. Sorry didn’t get all the names…

Kobe Beef. Yes it was tender!

Also we had ordered fried oysters in a graded radish sauce. It was bit odd I must admit.

Here comes another pass of beer bottle from the chef!

2 and a half of handsome generations! From left Denny the birthday boy, Gael the lucky one and my man, Emiliano!

Happy birthday to you, Denny again! We love you Denny!!

This is what we had for the night: Snow crab dumplings in clear broth, fried oysters in graded radish sauce, 2 kinds of grilled mushrooms and fresh lemon squeeze, repeat the mushroom because it was so good! Grilled yam with butter, grilled Kobe beef, duck and lamb, simmered pork belly in soy and ginger, simmered short rib in clear broth and chunk of radish, roasted rice balls in 2 ways: one with miso and the other one with soy sauce ( soooo goooddd!), lots of beer for guys and Junmai Ginjo for me the whole time.

Check it out! You will love it!

Gorgeous City, Gorgeous People: Stockholm, Sweden!

jaehee — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:51:13 +0000

The Harbor of Stockholm, the capital and the largest city of Sweden full of over 2M of beautiful people reside!

This is my second time here in Stockholm since the last visit about 3 years ago. My little doubt about how much I would remember the city has quickly gone after my good 7 mile run along the water soon after I have checked into Berns Hotel early morning. A strong and perfectly sweetened cup of cappuccino right outside of the hotel gauging out to the park did a quick fix for my 4:00 am NY time Jet lag!

I am here with Gap office to do Fall research and luckily the weather was quite great for our 2 days in this gorgeous city. Filled with beautiful girls and guys, (Really!) the city is just chilled and beautiful. You can walk to everywhere as it is small enough to do so and I definitely believe it is the best way to experience the city. You can do rent a bike but there are also lots of hilly streets, so it can get very tiring especially when you get to the old area of the city, Gamla Stan and Artsy and hip Sodermalm area. You can easily get taxis but again the most areas where you don’t want to miss can pretty much be covered by your two feet!

Here now, come stroll with me to taste the streets of Stockholm!

We are staying at Berns Hotel in City Center area. We were debating between Berns and Lydmar. If I get to come back to Stockholm, I would love to stay at Lydmar. Berns Hotel is super convenient for the location wise with great complimentary breakfast but I think rooms could be better at it’s price range.

The dinning room at Berns Hotel. Their dinning room is the center of the hotel I believe. Somehow Breakfast and Lunch is more popular than the dinner time.

A cute sun-room at Berns hotel. You have a nice view to the park outside. I love this room!

My cute and delicious breakfast at the hotel sun room. Lots of flax seeds over fresh black berry yogurt and muesli. A cup of cappuccino and delicious lox on a piece of multi grain and pumpkin seed bread. Yum! By the way Lox in Stockholm is to die for. Sooo Amazing!

All striped out and I am ready to hit the road!

A clean city, beautiful city and…

It is filled with beautiful him, beautiful her and beautiful couples!

Simple up-dos and ponytails are definitely dominant with little black everything and little denim jackets.

This lady at COS store so chick in her simple yet elevated neutral colors and great accessories.

Saw lots of long braided hair too.

All lean and lanky as majority of other youngsters in the city, this friendly shop girl at Acne pulls off tiny black leather skirt super cool!

Second day going in we are at Sodermalm area. It’s one big mix of Williamsburg, Lolita, bit of Soho and Fort Greene. There are more than enough of good vintage shops in this area. This is a vintage and thrift shop, Emmaus.

You all love Cheap Monday from Sweden. This is the shop in Sodermalm area. Each platform is in letters.

Cheap Monday is the second chain shop where I saw a sewing machine right in the middle of the floor after ” Monki”. I guess they possibly do alterations for the customers right at the sight.

A cool Tee shirt fixture.

On the underground level at Cheap Monday, there is a Screen Print studio with a big glass wall. It’s very cool to see how they make the screen tees.

Now here we are at the Old part of the city, Gamla Stan. This little island is located in between Norrmalm and Sodermalm. Gamla Stan takes you back to the old time of Stockholm with pretty Mediaeval streets and buildings. Royal palace is also located in Gamla Stan.

There are many cute little shops in Galma Stan including super touristy ones. This shop carried many cute posters and stuff. Not bad.

There were quite a few shops of linens and stuff.. Soft, cotton bit antique like and boho-ish..

Lastly, quite amazing dinner on the first night at restaurant Mathias Dahlgren at Grand Hotel, Stockholm.

Every seating at the table is pre- set with this quite Zen like a sheet of brown paper menu, a cracker bag, silver wears and a wooden butter knife and glasses.

Common and widely loved multi grain crackers.

Menu is set up by region and kind of ingredients and all the portion is in between appetizer and main course.

Reina, Cynthia and I ordered 3 dishes and shared them all. The first, Salmon and Deer Sashimi. The Salmon in general here is like gold to me. I know salmon is body does good kind fish but I am not usually so crazy about it unless it’s a top quality sashimi. This was the top quality sashimi and it was amazingly delicious!

They love dill here and actually it has grown on me. Mixed Mushroom with steamed coal fish. Amazing.

Pumpkin and broccoli with Truffle and Parmesan.

Langoustine.

Baked chocolate and 2 more… It was so good!

As we are moving on to Paris and London for the rest of the week, we only had really a day and a half in Stockholm but surely fell in love with the city! It’s a great place to people watch, eat, feed your eyes with great modern design and get inspired. Full 3 days will give you plenty time to do the museums and all.

LOvE Stockholm!

Where do you eat in Leuca in Puglia? At Osteria Terra Masci!

jaehee — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:31:55 +0000

Entrance at Osteria Terra Masci , Santa Maria di Leuca, Puglia

After a long day of swimming and a rewarding refreshing outdoor shower, it always comes down to one important question, ” What’ for dinner?!!” As we are making our lunch at home or grab something easy to go to move forward our days, fabulous local dinner is always a hot topic when we are traveling. As much as we love all those Prosciutto and Specs and all, let’s not forget that Italy is a one big Peninsula. Yes, the blessed rich country is surrounded by all that gorgeous water , especial saltier one. Is that why any fish and seafood tastes way way better in Italy than many other countries? The rich ocean life is something you can’t just pass in Italy and we are totally up for a big feast of freshest local fish and seafood for the night right here in Santa Marina di Leuca!

Our 2 bedroom rental home base during this trip, friendly homeowners had given us a few tips regarding good restaurants. The top of the list was this place “Osteria Terra Masci” which is located at the borderline of Santa Maria di Leuca on Via Castrignano , Tel 0833 758224 ( You MUST make a reservation). It was so wonderful , we ended eating here twice during our 6 day trips. With Beppe and Dani then one more dinner with Philipp and Kit. 100% sitting this time around at their front garden. It is true an experience dinning Al fresco. With perfectly pleasent evening temperature down her at Leuca, it would be shame if you don’t dine somewhere outside with romantic dimmed light at a delicious glass of wine…

Anyway, Here I like to share our wonderful dining experience with you at Terra Masci, so come follow me!

It’s about 9:30 pm weekdays. Calculate this. After the ocean, shower, change… Apperitivo. People are ready to eat by 9-9:30. Lightly washed in pale blue wood trims and white outdoor parasols are bit shabby and bit Greek like. You can definitely feel this is a place for seafood.

Our super professional and friendly waiter for both dinners showing off the freshest stock ups for the night. Such a classic way to serve the customers. Even the stake houses sometimes will bring out their proud cuts for the night to show what they are serving to customers.

For our main course in a family style, We ended up choosing a handsome big fish over the lobster. It will be roasted with thinly sliced potatoes and herbs on top.

The waiter will take care of portioning for the size of the group and just bring arrays of Appetizer dishes. It feel almost like Tapas. Here Shrimp Crudo (Raw) with herbs and fresh olive oil and salt. Delicious!

Lightly grilled Branzino with herbs, fresh garlic, Olive oil and lemon.

I believe this was Sole. Sort of Ceviche, but much lighter on amount of lemon juice. Super delicate. The Olive oil can just kill you. So amazing!

Grilled eggplant stuffed with fresh tuna and olive oil. “The” local veggie. Any restaurant you go, they will have good 5-6 different ways to serve egg plant as an appetizer.

Breaded and fried fish balls. Yum!

Peperonata Picante. Slowly cooked down mixed peppers with tomato. Peppers are also one popular veggie down here and these are always spicy not like ones in Tuscan area. I love this!

Oven baked Stuffed Razor clam. Honestly, I had much better ones in Barcelona. Straight up grilled in open fire with dash of white wine. Sorry Terra Masci…!

The first dish. We chose Spaghetti with shrimps tomato and fresh bits of spicy red and green peppers and touch of bread crumb on top. Perfectly cooked pasta and delicious sauce. The sweetness of Shrimp comes through well and it was well seasoned. I did like the spicy bits of Green and red peppers. See you don’t need ton of thick sauce on any pasta if you make the sauce right like Italians do. You have to make it packed with flavor not runny blend ton of sauce.

This was the main dish at the first night. That big fish was roasted with thinly sliced potatoes over. Fish was beautifully cooked with right amount of texture and saltiness and the potatoes were crispy and sweet. So delicious!

This was our choice of pasta for the second dinner at Terra Masci. Calamari rings and Calamarata pasta. The Pasta literally looks like a ring of Calamari. Yum!!!

Our second dinner at Masci main course for 5. A whole grilled fish with fresh tomato, potato and black olives.

Now watch how to handle and clean this mega fish before you serve!

Philipp serving us.

Another delicate gorgeous dish. Clean delicate flavor straight out from the ocean! Perfect potato and sweet cherry tomato and earthy and salty black olives make a perfect harmony…. Here we added drizzle of spicy first pressed Pugliese Olive oil. YUm YUm YUm!!

Gael always falls a sleep by the half way the dinner…

After the dinner, they always served us ” Finochietto”. Fennel digestive liquor, sort of Limoncello but made with Fennel instead. So fragrant and Ssooo yummy!

We were like the last 2 tables left…

Proud, genuine, generous and Simpaticissimi owners of absolutely amazing “Osteria Terra Masci”, Rino and Sabrina!!

If you are ever in the area of Santa Maria di Leuca, You must stop by here for ultimate experience of delicious seafood feast from the appetizers, amazing pastas, gorgeous fish and professional, efficient and much friendly staffs. You would be completely satisfied. Don’t forget to make a reservation, they get quickly filled up as you can imagine the place is very popular with authentic local dinning experience!!!

LOvE Puglia!

Again, Puglia!!

jaehee — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:06:29 +0000

Giovinazzo by night. A view from a locale, Ecclesia.

Now it has been already 2 years since Emi and I had visited beautiful Puglia. First encounter with Mamma Lucia and her gorgeous Bocconotti, Love at first sight in Poligano, Endless night wonder at Giovinazzo, pretty white city Ostuni, exotic distinctive Puglia’s architecture : Trulli at Albero Bello… So much beauties in so little time then, it definitely made us want to come back to Puglia to see more. And here we are back to explore down further south through Lecce and on. Stay tuned for “The next Toscana of Italy”, Puglia!

Sweet moment. Truly it is an “Open” bar with a view of the port behind. After a day of long lunch with Beppe’s family, running in the park and the gorgeous dinner filled with plenty of fresh Riccotta di Bufala at the piazza of Giovinazzo, here we are stopping by for some cocktails and friends. The bar is located on the tip of fort at historical town and it’s elevated location gives you plenty of cool sea breeze and amazing view to the town.

Beppe and Emi

Dani and me

The time goes by, it get’s more lively. The music is going and people are dancing. Kids are running around and everything is just cool.

There are enough of sitting and lounging area and you can also have some food here as well. Gael fell asleep on a chair…

Gaetano. He’s a friend of Beppe and the owner of this cool bar, Eclessia.

Walking the night away. The breeze tingles you around.. It’s so perfect!

The lively piazza of Giovinazzo. It’s almost like a Christmas here! There are many little festivals throughout many cities and towns of Italy this time around. Notte Bianca, Sagre… Tonight, there was a parade of people in historical costumes through the town of Giovinazzo.

Streets are blocked from the cars and literally everyone is out and about!

Made through a big crowd and waiting for a dinner!

Spec and Ricotta salata. Wait for the next one!

Fresh Riccota of Bufala. ( Buffalo in English) This melts in your mouth. Sssso light! So milky! So smooth but not dense. Airy, fresh and just delicious!

Gael loves anchovy and olives. So Italian he is. Cheese~!

Nite Nite….!