Last weekend the Husband and I flew cross-country to New York to spend some quality time with one of my oldest girlfriends and her family.  She loves food just much as we do and showed us the New York that locals know.

We started Day 1 with at Ippudo for some delicious (and overpriced) ramen.  However, I should say that I would gladly pay $14 dollars for another bowl the next time I’m in NYC.  :)

My husband’s bowl of Karaka Men, a tonkotsu broth topped with charsu pork belly, light veggie garnishes, and a hot spice blend.  He also added a soft boiled egg to his bowl for an additional $2.

My bowl is an Akamaru Modern, also a tonkotsu broth with Ippudo’s “secret” miso paste and also topped with charsu pork belly and vegetables.  I opted for a poached egg in mine for $2 extra.  Both bowls were absolutely delicious!  I wanted to slurp my whole bowl but we were on a food mission and had to save room for our next stop – Momofuku Ssäm Bar.

Having just had lunch, we sat for a quickie snack.  Even with a full stomach, this did not disappoint!

This is a massive pulled duck bun garnished with delicious tzatziki, harissa, and pickled ramps.  I don’t usually like meats that are pulled but the tasty crunch of the cucumbers and flavors of the ramps were so divine that I actually crave this now that I’m back in San Francisco.

We followed this up with a couple of pork buns.  I don’t think I had ever seen pork belly inside buns that were as unctuous as these.  I could not wait to bite into this meaty and fatty bun – it was pure heaven.

Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Ippudo are a couple of must-visit dining destinations if you’re ever in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

We’ll have more New York food adventures for you so check back soon!  That city is nothing short of all the amazing things you see on TV! 

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I’m on a total NARS kick right now.  I was feeling a little festive on Cinco de Mayo, and getting ready for the Giants baseball game, so I decided to pull this one out of the archives.

NARS Lal Mirchi is an orange red from their 2012 Thakoon limited edition collection.  I love everything about it – the formula, the creaminess of the color, and most of all it totally evokes a yearn for warm summer weather.

This shade is sadly no longer available on the brand’s website but check out the remaining ones – some of my other faves from the collection is Anardana and we LOOOOVE Amchoor.

This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR. We do not do paid or guarantee reviews. For more information, please read our Editorial & Content Disclosure.

Last November when the Husband and I moved into our new apartment, the walls were bare and we were itching to start decorating – ASAP.  The only thing is – we were on a strict budget.  Weddings and honeymoons sure are expensive!!

Here’s what it looked like when we started – we had a few white frames that we purchased from Michael’s and IKEA that we used for our wedding and definitely wanted to recycle them for our home. Don’t you love that we kept our signs from the wedding still IN the frames?!

Now, for our new home decor project, we headed out to Target in search of additional frames to offset the white.  But, as we laid out the frames on the floor and began to put them up, it ended up looking super cluttered.  (Apologies on the fuzzy iPhone picture taken at night!)

That brought us back to Target where we found this shelf ($19.99 US) that was perfect to break up the space to create a little more texture to the wall.

The Husband and I had also created a shadowbox with items from the wedding and decided to add that to our wall.  Not including the shadowbox, our re-purposed wall of new and old pieces allowed us to create nice wall decor for our living/dining room for less than $30 US.  That includes the shelf and two 5×7 frames, all purchased from Target.

Here’s a shot of the finished wall with pictures in the frames – although our keeping our wedding signs would have been quirky, no?  ;)  We have a long way to go with our decor project but at least our teeny city apartment is starting to feel more like a home now!

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I have no idea how to cook Korean food, but I love to eat it.  The other night we were perusing our local Korean market and saw a package of Kimchi Stew and decided we’d try it.

For some reason, I thought it was a soup base that we needed to add to but, to my surprise, when we opened the package there was kimchi and tofu already in it! Nonetheless, we decided to add ingredients to it to give it more of a homemade quality.

Makes 2-3 servings

• one package of Yijo Kimchi Stew
• 1/2 a block of firm tofu, cubed
• 3/4 cup of kimchi, rough chop
• 1/2 shallot, small dice
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 green onion, sliced

In a small pot, I sauteed the shallots and kimchi for a 3-5 minutes.  Empty the contents of the Kimchi Stew into the pot along with your fresh tofu and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.  The soup has all the flavoring you need, so I didn’t add any other seasonings.

If it’s too salty for you, I would add 1/4 cup of water to tone down the flavor.  Once it’s ready to serve, turn up the heat so that your soup is bubbling and crack the egg into the pot.  Stir slightly to make sure that it cooks through.

Transfer to a serving bowl, top with green onions and serve immediately with rice.  I skipped the rice because I’m trying to cut back on my carbs and enjoyed this with an egg omelet and sauteed spinach.

My kimchi jjigae isn’t quite 5-star restaurant quality but in a pinch it’s perfect for a quick weeknight dinner when I’m craving inexpensive Korean fare.

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I spent last weekend eating my way through New York City while visiting one of my best girlfriends. We both love food so she took me to Chelsea Market where we took in the smells of delicious artisan creations, and perused jewelry and clothes from local pop-up vendors.

But my favorite memory of Chelsea Market has to be the current “Funny Food” art exhibition from Bill & Claire Wurtzel posted throughout the walls of the entire space. Please excuse my impromptu iPhone pictures that don’t do this at all!

I was so intrigued but the adorable food art that I had to look it up and get the back story as soon as I got home from our trip.  It turns out that Bill had been creating fun food art for his wife Claire for years.   We now get to enjoy his works of whimsy because she encouraged him to start taking photos of breakfast dishes he would make for her.

What started out as gestures of affection is now a book featuring 365 breakfast dishes (and they’re healthy too!).  Bill’s goal with Funny Food is to discourage obesity by inspiring children and adults to create meals that are nutritious, and fun to boot!  I love the idea of playing with your food, do you?

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It’s been years since I’ve visited New York.  And I had forgotten how much I actually like the city until a recent trip to Manhattan to visit one of my very best friends.

When I heard about this exclusive new palette today, I immediately reminisced about our great trip and eating our way through this glorious food city (more posts on that coming soon!).  NARS Hearts New York City and so do I.

NARS Hearts New York City ($75 US) is a great set to travel with – it has everything you need at your fingertips.  I only wish I had it to pack with me on my last trip!  It features four eye shadows, a blush and a bronzer shade.  To complete your weekend jet-set look, it also includes a lip gloss and nail color.

• Eye Shadow
  • Biarritz Neutral cream colored beige
  • Nepal Sheer rose
  • New York Plum brown
  • Galapagos Bitter chocolate infused with gold

• Cheek
  • Amour Peachy pink blush
  • Laguna Brown with golden shimmer bronzer

• Lip
  • Dolce Vita Sheer dusty rose

• Nail Polish
  • Chinatown Deep red

This set is now available online and at select retailers - Barney’s, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel, and Bloomingdale’s Soho.

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You guys will absolutely die when you finally get to lay your hands on MAC’s latest collabo effort – this time with megastar Rihanna.

RiRi Woo ($15 US) is a super sassy matte red lipstick that’s a remix of the brand’s original Ruby Woo with a RiRi twist.  This shade will be available exclusively online until supplies last, starting May 2nd, 2013. Or, if you’re a concert ticket holder you can snag yours at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center MAC Pop-Up Store on May 4th.

So set those calendar reminders as early as possible this Thursday and place your order for what will surely turn into another MAC cult classic.

What’s your cult favorite red lipstick?  Mine is currently extinct and I’ve been on the hunt ever since for a new favorite, could RiRi Woo be it?

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When it comes to indulging on food, I love cake and fried dishes as much as the next person. So much so that I wasn’t exactly following the recommended food pyramid to a T and decided a few months ago to round out my diet more healthfully.

I’ve always eaten plenty of fruits, but my goal was to incorporate more veggies into my diet and reduce meat consumption. Knowing me, a plain salad and vegetarianism wouldn’t cut it for long.

However, this summery salad with fruit and baked fish meal is just right, and tastes good enough that I actually find myself craving it for dinner!

I like fish as a light source of protein and picked up this bag of Oceanfresh Seafoods Cape Hake Fillets at Costco. I also love salmon for switching things up. I just sprinkle some sea salt and pepper on top before baking the fish according to the directions. Occasionally I’ll also brush olive oil or squeeze lemon juice on top for extra flavor.

The salad is really easy and completely customizable. For the greens, any spring mix will do. I toss in sliced almonds, cheese, mandarin oranges, and strawberries. The best part of this salad is that I don’t need dressing since the oranges and strawberries are juicy and sweet enough to add flavor to the greens. Sometimes I mix in cucumbers or carrots.

What is your favorite kind of fish? Do you like mixing fruit in a green salad?

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In the last year and a half since I’ve moved back to San Francisco, away from my family in Orange County, I’ve come to really miss those home-cooked Vietnamese dishes my aunties made for our (frequent) family get togethers.

And now that I’m married and thinking about what kind of home to build for us and our family someday, I’ve come to realize that I NEED to learn all these delicious Vietnamese dishes that may become extinct in my household if I don’t take the time to learn them myself.

My husband’s favorite noodle soup is “banh canh” – which refers to the type of noodle.  It’s traditionally a thick rice noodle and can be served in a few different versions.  The most popular that I’ve seen is seafood style (banh canh cua tom) with shrimp and crab, or the way I like to eat it, (banh canh heo) with pork, fancy pork, and shrimp.

Traditionally, the latter version would be served with pork leg and/or ham hocks (gio heo).  I don’t prefer gnawing on pork bones so I just did what I like to eat.  I still have yet to perfect this recipe – I firmly believe that flavor comes with experience –  but here is the list of ingredients for my version of “banh canh heo”:

Makes 6-8 servings

For broth:

• 3-4 lbs of pork bones (combination of neck and back/spine)
• 1 large daikon, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 inch nob of ginger, bruised
• 1 whole yellow onion, peeled
• rock sugar
• salt
• fish sauce, to taste

For toppings and garnish:

• 2 lbs pork shank
• 1/2 loaf of fancy pork
• 1/2 lb of large shrimp
• 1-2 dozen quail eggs
• 2 shallots, sliced and fried
• green onion, finely sliced
• cilantro, roughly chopped
• lime
• raw (uncooked) fish sauce
• Thai chilis, sliced thinly
• pepper

Okay, let’s get started!  In a large stock pot (mine is probably a 10-quarter), I place all of the pork bones and pork shank in clean water and bring it to a rapid bowl for 3-5 minutes.  Doing this pulls out a lot of the impurities and gunk from the bones.

RULE #1: This is a crucial step in making broths from meat bones and helps to render a clear broth for your finished product.

You don’t want any of this gross stuff making your soup cloudy, right?

After your bones have been boiling for a few minutes, remove the bones and dump out the dirty water.  Wash your stock pot thoroughly (read: clean totally with soap and water) and give your bones a good rinse in cool water.

Return the bones to the stock pot and cover fully with water.  I fill mine up as far as I can because we love our noodles with extra broth! Place the daikon, ginger, and onion into the pot (I forgot the onion in my broth this time but you definitely need it to make your soup sweet).

You’ll also want to make sure you season the broth initially with a large chunk of rock sugar and salt, equivalent to about 2-3 tablespoons each.  Bring your broth to a slight boil before lowering to a gentle simmer for one a half to two hours, skimming impurities from the top of broth frequently (every 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, prepare your quail eggs.  Bring them to a boil for a few minutes just like regular eggs.  Peel and set aside.

Next, prepare what is arguably the star ingredient of banh canh – fried onions!  Finely slice two shallots and fry them in a shallow pan of vegetable oil on medium heat.

It is uber important that you keep an eye on your shallots while they are frying and stir occasionally for an even fry.  I took my eyes off my pan for literally 5 seconds and they burned in an instant!  Thankfully I had enough ingredients to do a second batch.

Your finished product should be golden and beautiful like this:

Not dark and charred to a crisp like this:

Set your onions aside and check back in with your broth.  At the one and a half to two hour mark, remove your pork shank.  This should be done and you don’t want to overcook it.

I take this opportunity to start seasoning my broth.  If it’s not sweet enough, I may add some more rock sugar.  Take care not to use granulated sugar – I find that it gives off an artificial sweet flavor whereas rock sugar is more subtle.  At this point, I’ll also add some fish sauce to the broth, about a half a ladle-full.  Your soup might not be at full flavor yet, but that’s okay because you can continue to let your pot simmer for another hour or two hours to let the flavors continue to develop.

While that’s happening, it’s time to prep your meats and green garnishes.  Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil and par-cook your shrimp.  If yours are not peeled and deveined from the store, make sure you do so before serving.  Slice your pork shank and fancy pork loaf and set it aside.  Slice your green onions and chop a bunch of cilantro.  Mix them together and reserve for topping.

By now, your broth should be almost ready.  Remove and discard the daikon, ginger, onions and any inedible pieces of bone (ones without meat on them).  Any pieces of meaty bones that are edible, take them out of the broth and set aside.  Now that your stock pot is mostly just broth, strain your soup from the large pot to a smaller one (I use my 6-qt Dutch oven).  Now your broth should be clear and beautiful!

Before serving, do one last taste test.  For me, I found that I added some more salt and fish sauce to taste.  I purposely left it a little bit under-seasoned in the pot so that my family could add fresh lime and chili fish sauce at the table according to their own preferences.

Now that you’re done, it’s time to assemble your beautiful bowls of banh canh.  Place a small amount of noodles at the bottom of your bowl.  Each person in my house got two shrimp, two quail eggs, about 3-4 pieces each of sliced pork shank and fancy pork.  Next, a sprinkling of onion and cilantro.  Then, ladle generous amounts of broth into your bowl.  And finally, the pièce de résistance - top each with a helping of fried onions and serve immediately.

This recipe may sound complicated but really it’s fairly simple.  It just requires a little bit of time and patience on a Saturday or Sunday morning, just in time to invite your family and friends over for a yummy lunch.

I’ve been on a Vietnamese noodle soup kick lately and have a couple more recipes to road test.  We’ll keep sharing those with you now that the site is back up and running, yippeeee!

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After three, grueling months of troubleshooting our site with the help of our friends over at Ekoprise, we’re almost 100% back up and running.  And soooo ready to give you the latest and greatest morsels of beauty, food, and an update on our travels!

A thousand thank yous to our lovely readers for sticking by us while we get back into the swing of things.  It’s going to be a FABULOUS summer!

xoxo, The Daily Cookie Team