Plate of shumai and another type of steamed dumpling, all skewered.

Dumpling!

Oh yes, another dumpling! I guess it is easy finger food (quite literally).

They made sure the open bar was stocked by Absolut with special drinks.

Needless to say, everyone had a good time hearing the great music, eating these apps, and drinking tasty drinks! For more information about the Museum of Chinese Americas, check out the website: http://www.mocanyc.org/

Located by Lincoln Center, Gastroarte is a restaurant to immerse yourself into the world of art and food. With intricate paintings of a bull fighter and flamengo dancers on the walls, it is hard not to notice the Spanish influences that Jesus Nunez (the chef) has made upon this restaurant.

Note: All dishes shown are their tasting-sized portions.

Each table was given a few small starters to whet your appetite.  Pictured above were their croquetas – one filled with cheese and ham and the other made of squid ink. It was actually quite nice, not too fried or oily, and so easy to just pop them into your mouth.

I really enjoyed their version of patatas bravas, Patatas Braviolis, which are fried potato cubes with house bravioli sauce. The sauce was very well done – nice and spicy giving the petite potato cubes a nice kick.

Labeled their Savory Carrot “Cake” with mahón cheese, asparagus seemed like an interesting appetizer to try.  They said it was one of their most popular dishes and served as inspiration for their paintings and decor of a dining room section.  It was definitely unique (who makes savory carrot cakes?) and had a nice creamy texture to it.  The carrot flavor was just enough for you to know what it is, but had a completely different texture than the typical carrot crunch.

Their Beets And Goat Cheese Mosaic Salad was nicely cooked and cubed; the beets were soft and easy to eat.

The Red Tuna served with tomato and sherry sauce was delectable.  The tuna was cooked just right, a pinkish red in the middle and lightly seared on the outside.  I particularly liked the “sauce” or as I would like to say “broth” – it had the sweet tartness from the tomato and sherry.  I only wished my piece was slightly bigger so I could have more.

I ended off the meal with Warm Liquid, chocolate fritters served with various orange sauces and jellies.  I liked the dessert, especially since they used a dark chocolate that really worked with the slight bitterness and tartness of the orange sauces / jelly.

Gastoarte is a solid restaurant that cooks their food to perfection and plates it just as seriously.  Your plate is their canvas, and they look to bring your dining experience into another realm of artistry and deliciousness. You pay for this particular experience where entrees are upper $20s to $30s, but hey – it’s still cheaper than a painting.

Gastroarte
141 W. 69th St., nr. Broadway
http://gastroartenyc.com/ 

As a New Yorker, I believe one of your primary jobs is to know what “good” pizza tastes like. With all the options in the city, ranging from $1.00 slices to $18 personal pizza pies, where can you get that well-made delicious Neapolitan thin crust? Forcella with their new outpost in Manhattan, has provided this island with authentic Italian pizza worth digging your teeth into.

The main chef, Giulio Adriani, has honed his craft in making pizza in Naples, Italy and brought his skills to Williamsburg, and now Manhattan on 338 Bowery near Bond St.  Welcoming smells of freshly baked pizza pervade the restaurant as I entered, with their mosaic-oven that bakes up to 1000 degrees and churned out multiple pizza pies at once. I immediately eyed a pizza pie sitting on the counter.

Boy was this slice of margherita good; the thin crust was a perfect thickness and had a slight chewy texture, and the tomato sauce was sweet and tart, combined with their in-house fresh mozzarella and slightly charred basil made this pizza delectable and extremely enjoyable to eat.

Pictured above is their Montanara pizza, its dough was flash-fried for a slightly more puffy crust, and then baked in the oven again with mozzarella and sauce. Even though I didn’t get a chance to sample this, I am looking forward to revisiting and trying it out.

Forcella also offered a number of different antipastis, like the bruchetta with artichoke and tomato pictured above, and unique desserts – mainly their Pizza Alla Nutella, a pizza stuffed with Nutella and almonds. Delish!

Even though we may have a lot of pizzerias in Manhattan, Forcella is definitely a place to check out; their authentic Neapolitan pizzas and flash-fried pizzas will have you coming back for more.

Forcella
334 Bowery (at Bond St.)
(212) 466-3300
@forcellanyc

Last year I was lucky enough to be invited to attend YPX Gala, held by the Museum of Chinese in America, where I stuffed my face with food and drink (with a picture of the brownies offered above), and listened to some awesome music.

Looks like they’re having this event again and should be a great night of celebration and festivities! Information is listed below, and hopefully see you all there!

The Museum of Chinese in America & The Young Professionals of MOCA invite you to the second annual YPX Gala.

Celebrate community & cultural connections with an evening of entertainment and inspiration. 

YPX 2011: Celebrating ConneXions

11/03/11
Studio XXI
59 West 21st Street
7-11pm

• Kick-off of Digital MOCA, presented by David Liu, Co-Founder of TheKnot.com and the XO Group
• Class of 2011 M88 Honorees
• DJ, musical performances, and more

• open bar & dim sum 7-9pm
• cash bar from 9-11pm

• tickets purchased before 10/24: $50 for MOCA members, $60 for non-members
• tickets purchased after 10/24: $60 for MOCA members, $70 for non-members
• tickets purchased at the door: $88

Purchase tickets online at www.yp.mocanyc.org/ypx2011  

Lure Fishbar is located within Soho, an area populated with shops and stores, and provides solid American seafood fare. When you go down the stairs and get seated, it looks like you are sitting inside a beautiful cruise ship with dark wood walls and golden lights. I went for a company dinner and was excited about eating some seafood.

Pictured above was their crab cakes which were bite sized but had fresh crab flavors. Yum.

We also ordered their Lobster Tempura Roll to share, served with tobiko, spicy mayo, and avocado. It was good, of course not authentic Japanese, but lobster in anything will make it 50x better.

For myself, I ordered the Lobster Ravioli served with tomatoes and greens.  I enjoyed the entire dish; the ravioli was perfectly filled with lobster meat, and the sauce was light enough to feel full yet heavy for that thicker buttery flavor.

I would go back to Lure, especially if I feel like having solid seafood dishes. Maybe I’ll make it there after a long day of shopping.

Lure Fishbar
142 Mercer St
(212) 431-7676

When my friend mentioned that there’s an ultra exclusive Japanese bar / restaurant in NoHo called Bohemian, I was immediately intrigued.  What do they serve? Why would anyone not want their establishment to be full of patrons?  As it turns out, there is an appeal to knowing a place that isn’t known by most people like some other places around the area, inundated with tourists or loud college kids (woo hoo NYU!).  Anyway, my friend scored a reservation (he got the phone number through a friend who has eaten there as well) and I was excited to see what makes this place tick.

We took a look at the menu and decided to get their tasting course plus a few other dishes to try out the highlights (according to FourSquare).

Farmer’s Fresh Vegetable Fondue was beautiful and a great appetizer to whet your appetite.  Personally, I can probably eat these vegetables without any dip, but what they provided was a nice thousand island-like sauce to go with it.

Pictured above is the uni croquette which was creamy and had a great umami flavor.  Enjoyable and easy to eat in a few bites.

We also started with a plate of Herve Katz’s Assorted Cold Cuts which were good, but nothing particularly memorable for me. However, I am generally not falling off my chair for cold cuts anyway so take my comment with a grain of salt.

Who can resist having Washu-Beef Short Rib Sashimi? The melt-in-your-mouth feeling in the beef was there, and all of us wharfed this down pretty quickly.

A cast-iron pan is brought to our table loaded with vegetables and with a Pan Roasted Branzini. The vegetables around it were nicely cooked and soft though a bit salty. The branzini was flaky and worked well with the vegetables when eaten together (since the fish itself had a mild flavor).

Here is the Wagyu Beef Mini Burger, which was definitely mini. In terms of flavor and other important aspects of a burger anyone cares about, I wasn’t particularly impressed…we do have a lot of good burgers in NY so it is hard to say this was particularly unique (even with the wagyu beef).

The Ikura Caviar Rice Bowl was tiny and simple – caviar with rice.

Their soba was a bit too salty for my taste, but was still good. I always enjoy noodles so it was nice to end the meal this way.

My conclusion – It’s nice to go to a place where there aren’t loads of people waiting for a table or has the noise level of a club. The food wasn’t memorable, but I would say it’s a great place for drinks. It’s also a good place to catch up with someone or even have a date. Their decor is interesting and looks like they have these pieces of art around, which makes it have more character. All in all, I had a good time but not sure if I would want to go back for dinner but probably for drinks.

Bohemian
Great Jones Street
New York, NY
Phone number unknown

I know it has been a while since there’s been a post, but I’ve been preparing and participating in the Hester Street Fair!  If you didn’t notice the cute logo on the right hand side of my blog, I am starting a baking company called “Filled With Sweets“.  The idea?  My company is dedicated to creating Asian-inspired desserts with tasty and unique fillings often taking inspiration from my Taiwanese-American childhood and my passion for food!

I have created a series of cupcakes and cookies that embody flavors I grew up with and love to eat, such as black sesame and green tea. I use high-quality ingredients (i.e. cage free eggs, hormone-free milk), and focus on integrating various fillings that blend different tastes and textures to create delicious baked goods.

As for my food blog, I promise – there is another post on its way!  You will still be able to see and hear about beautiful food, I just happen to be a bit delayed.

Feel free to show me some love when I’m at the street fair, which is on Saturdays. Here are my dates: August 6, August 20, September 10. Mark your calendars!

Facebook Page: Like it!

Twitter: @filledwsweets

Note: This post will be full of pictures, so make sure to scroll down!

We started with an amuse bouche, which were small bites of goodness. One of these bites was a small pocket of cheese that oozed in the mouth.

Crudo of Hamachi, light, tender, and fresh. Definitely ate this in one bite.

This was their sea urchin and sunchoke panna cotta. The soft texture of the panna cotta with sea urchin melded so well together where I wish I had another one.

I can’t remember what this is but hey, this was very good.

The combination of textures in this dish made it outstanding.

Bite sized but well-fried.

Soft cooked egg…and it’s as good as it sounds and looks. I definitely ate this in 30 seconds.

Foie gras terrine with spring onion and citrus marmalade. The layers of meat with nicely toasted bread was well matched with the citrus.

Oxtail and potato cannelloni, crisp salad, and herb salad and was light and al dente. Oh yes I want more.

Red wine braised short ribs with baby carrots and bruleed cippolini. Seared so nicely and was very tender.

The first dessert portion…

Caramelized torija with grapefruit. Delicious in all the right ways: pudding-esque and not too sweet.

It was definitely a great experience provided the great food, wine, and company (happy birthday Joanne)! Degustation Wine & Tasting Bar is definitely operating top of their game, making it a perfect restaurant to bring someone you care about.

Degustation Wine & Tasting Bar
239 E 5th St
(between 2nd Ave & Cooper Sq)
(212) 979-1012

I am all for scoping out great food deals. All You Can Drink (aka. AYCD) brunch happens to be one of those great deals that each NYer needs to experience for themselves. Unlimited drinks plus brunch food? What can be better. Venturing into the West Village you can find Caliu, a small but cute restaurant with the $25 brunch deal.

Their watermelon sangria, shown in the first picture, is definitely a highlight. If you grab brunch, definitely try it (since it’s unlimited anyway). It’s light, refreshing, and tastes like you’re eating watermelon that is slightly spiked.

Having the choice of one entree I chose their eggs benedict with serrano ham, jalapeno hollandaise, salad, and truffled hash browns (normally $13).  It was a solid brunch dish, eggs poached nicely and I definitely enjoyed the fragrant hash browns; anything with truffle oil makes it automatically taste better.

All in all, it was a pleasurable experience drinking and eating a casual brunch with my girlfriends. I’m not sure about dinner, but at least brunch is worth making a trip.

Caliu
557 Hudson Street (Between W. 11th. & Perry St.)
New York, NY 10014
(212) 206–6444

We started off with the rock shrimp polpette, which surprisingly wasn’t anything to remember. It was tender and light.

Those who love pate would love this crostini. On top of this grilled bread is whipped chicken liver with balasmic, making it light and easy to pop into your mouth.

Roasted veal meatballs with white polenta, herbs, and truffle pecorino. The meatballs were tender and well seasoned, so I definitely enjoyed it.

We ended up getting our own pastas which I was particularly excited about. Shown above is their pappardelle with duck bolognese, oregano, and pecorino di noce. The pappardelle was freshly made and al dente, and with the bolognese made it a very hearty dish.

To end it all, we shared the honey crisp apple napoleon served with caramel custard, apple cider, and tahitian vanilla gelato. This was delicious and definitely memorable. I found that the different textures of the napoleon (crunchy and thick) along with the ice cream (cold, smooth) worked very well together.

All in all, Ciano is a restaurant I would go back to particularly to try their other pastas and desserts!

Ciano
45 E 22nd St. (near Broadway)
New York, NY
(212) 982-8422