I'm Moving!

Hi everyone!

Thank you for following me on BLOGSPOT- however I have found a new home on my personal website:

Please follow this link: http://www.cynthiachung.com/foobie to see new updates FOOD updates! The link is easier for all to remember, and easier to come by :D

Thank you so much!

Bar Paya

Went to Bar Paya last night. It was a Peruvian place with a very wide selection of wines and tapas. For those who did not know what "tapas" are, (it's okay, because I just learned it too) it is the Spanish word for "Finger Foods". According to Wiki, "Tapas (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtapas]) is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as chopitos, which are battered, fried baby squid)." Most of the dishes here were somewhat tapa-like.



The place was dimly lit, with a few candles hanging from the ceilings and sitting on the tables. The walls were lined with wine bottles. It was a nice atmopshere, quiet and dark.



We started with the Guacamole with Lobster and Shrimp and chips. It was awesome. The guac was cool and chunky, the lobster bits were large and you could actually taste it. Then we also shared the: Roasted Duck Breast (Chinese 5-spice, beer-braised leg, quinoa) - this was AMAZING. The duck was tender, juicy and very tasty. Very well cooked. Then we also got the Pan-Seared Organic Chicken (aji amarillo gnocchi, grated pecorino)- which was okay. The chicken was a little overcooked.



We also got the Grilled Hanger Steak (chimmichurri Peruana, yuca fries). The steak was tasty, cooked medium and had a great taste to it. We also ordered the “Aji” Tuna- which were little rare burgers with aji amarillo. These little burgers were amazing. (images above) We shared all of these, and it was definitely worth it to go in a large group and get a taste of everything.


For desert we tried the Panna Cotta- Pisco Tangerines, Coconut (which was this Flam type thing, image above) It was interesting, wasn't my favorite type of desert but a lot of the other guys enjoyed it.


Taste: 2/5
Atmosphere: 4/5 (the area is nice and breezy, next to the pier)
Cost: The prices were: Small $2, and Large $3.

** Images were taken with iPhone4** (pretty decent, eh?)

Uncle Louie G's Italian Ices - Brooklyn

I know it's a little too late for ice-updates. It's October and it's beginning to get cold.. but everyone still loves icies! Actually, today's weather was up in the 70s... Well anyway, a few weeks ago, a few friends and I traveled to Governor's Island for a picnic, and on the way there, we stopped by this little ice truck. It's called "Uncle Louie G" and its by Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park. I think we were all really hot and tired and wanted a pick me up, so we all got ices there. To be honest it wasn't the best. NOTHING compared to Ralphs (but that's a whole other post that I will get to in the future because that is one of my personal favorites!!)

There only had a small selection of ices, flavors such as: Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Rainbow, Mango (great!), Vanilla Oreo, Cherry, Chocolate, Passion Fruit (pretty good!), Lemon, Coconut, Watermelon (tasted like bubble gum), Blue Razz, Mint Chip, and Tropical Rainbow.



I think overall it was pretty good. The mango was decent, but it lacked the REAL mango slices that Ralph ALWAYS has in their Mango Ice... but it was good for the moment.

What I don't understand is how people can eat Ice Cream Milky flavored stuff as an Ice-Form. I still have this horrible habit of ONLY eating FRUITY flavored things in ice form. I can't shake it. Vanilla Ice just sounds horrible (ha, great pun, go me!)

Taste: 2/5
Atmosphere: 4/5 (the area is nice and breezy, next to the pier)
Cost: The prices were: Small $2, and Large $3.

Some more Food Stops in San Diego & LA

I was only in LA for like 2 days back in August.. but I got the opportunity to try out some interesting stuff. Hopefully I'll be back in Cali soon to visit and be taken to even better places :)

Well, San Diego- We crossed the Mexican border at around 5am in the morning, go to San Diego at about 8am, stopped to get a cup of coffee at Cafe Calambria.



Even though I was just getting a coffee to go, the barista saw my camera and offered to make me a cup with a design on it so I could take a picture. Totally saw me as a tourist. Ha, but it was sweet none the less, and it was pretty.



The Mission [Diner]


Then for actual breakfast, we went to this place called The Mission. This Diner was cute, open spaced, nicely decorated. The waitress was really nice and the food portions were huge. I ordered the Roast Beef Hash and Eggs- Grilled Angus beef, horseradish cream, rosemary potatoes, and scrambled eggs. It was a delicious meal especially after such a sleepless night. Yum..



21 Choices:



We also stopped by 21 Choices in LA, thanks to my friend Sophia who told us we HAD to try it. Personally, I didn't find it that great- tasted like an over-glorified Mr. Softee. The ice cream was so rich, I didn't even bother finishing it. But the place looked real hip and trendy. Yeah...



We also waited about 2 hours on line for a 'Kogi Taco' from the kogi taco truck in LA. It's just Bulgogi stuffed inside a taco. Nothing too amazing. The cops cut us in line before the truck opened. Aren't they nice? Yeah...



Found a Prying Matus while on the line:

What is a Fooobie?

I'm going to tell you all a little story. It's entertaining, trust me, try to read to the end.

I first came up with this idea when I was sitting on a night train from Venice to Naples in Italy in December of 2009. I kid you NOT. I still have the memo that I wrote to myself on my blackberry that night. I couldn't sleep because the train was bobbling around too much so I just sat there, staring in the dark, thinking about all the crazy foods that we were trying that week and how I would be able to share it with people. I had eaten an AMAZING dinner that night, and photographed it, but then I thought... okay, so now what? Show people these pictures on facebook? Nah, how about I make a blog that can explain it and also tell people where they can get these YUMMY foods as well.

Which then led me to think... I know nothing about food. My friends always talk about foods, restaurants, yada yada, stuff that I don't really care about...they're all super foodies... and I just eat and take pictures.

So, I decided to combine the word: Noob and Foodie. If you guys do not know, a NOOB derived from the word Newbie, which from terms have been diluted to just a Noob or NUB. Someone who is a NOVICE at something. A Foodie is someone who is very much familiar with the Food Culture of the world- something like that. Which when you combined the two words, what comes about is: FOOBIE. BUT, foobie was already taken by someone... so I named this blog, FOOOBIE.... (with 3 O's instead of 2)...

So then we come to now, 6 months later, and a whole bunch of posts. My dear friend, Jessica Tseng left a message on my Buzz post. "Jess Tseng - I was googling your food blog because Jon's coming down this weekend and a couple of hs friends wanted to get food... I remembered that your blog was called "Fooobie", but google told me what Foobies really meant. Oct 1"

I then proceeded to google what 'Foobie' REALLY meant. Urban dictionary SURE TOLD ME!

Urban Dictionary Says this:
1. Foobie
Foobie, a compound word made up of fake, and boobies. To describe not only those wondrous silicon orbs that seem to abound everywhere these days, but any variety of artificially enhanced hooters

However, I'd like to use the #4 definition, which is this:
4. foobie
1:) a generic exclamation to address the approach of another.
2:) one who is silly or meaningless; a doofus. commonly used with friends or friendly acquaintances.

DOH

Am I going to change my blog name? No. It'll take too much work to move all my posts over. So I'm going to celebrate this discovery with some imagery that I saw in Japan in 2004. Boobie Bread!



Disclaimer: I hope none of you guys found this offensive. If so, read someone else's blog.

Ba Xuyen

So yesterday I did something out of character. I traveled to Brooklyn. Ugh yes, Brooklyn. One of my friends suggested we go try this "really great" Viet place on 9th ave + 43rd street. So I went. It's ghetto, it's small, it's in the middle of no freaking where, but man, it was good- yeah, pretty much better than the truck. (see post here)



Mostly I went to see my two old high school friends, whom I haven't seen in literally 5 years. Danny Cai and Alejandro Chen-Li! But I was honestly really impressed with the sandwiches there. Ale had a Sardines sandwich! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THEY HAD SARDINE SANDWICHES??? (sounds gross, since I'm not a huge fan of fish but some of you may like to try it...). I had the grilled pork sandwich. It was freaking amazing. They had some kind of strange white sauce mixed in with the spicy hot sauce,.. made the sandwich a little easier to eat. It wasn't dry at all, the pork was really tender and full of flavor. It definitely was a good eat.



Ghetto, dirty, hole in the wall, but damn good. And for $4.00 for a sandwich this big? I definitely don't think you'll ever find that kind of price in Manhattan OR Queens...



*5 points to whoever can find my blackberry. LOL

Taste: 5/5
Atmosphere: 2/5 (I definitely would not come here after 8pm)
Cost: $4.00 (FOUR BUCKS FOR A HUGE ASS SANDWICH? I THINK YES!)

2010 NYC PIZZA TOUR

Yes, I know I'm REALLY LATE with this entry! But I wanted to write about it so I will! So a few friends and I went on this little pizza tour back in the beginning of Summer (I seriously think it was June 8th? That's how late I am...haha!) We hit up a few places and together shared a bunch of different slices of pizza. I will recap you with what we tried and what I thought of each place.

*** WARNING: VERY IMAGE HEAVY *** :) ENJOY~

POSTO PIZZA (2nd ave btw 18+19th street):

Typical cheese pizza. Wasn't that enthralled by it. The slices are really small, kind like 1/4th the size of a normal slice. Really thin crust, simple, easy to eat, good for being the first pit stop of the morning.


ARTICHOKE BASILLE'S PIZZERIA (14th st btw 1st+2nd ave)


This pizza was really interesting. It was super cheesey and thick crusted. The sauce was something like alfredo sauce, completely drenched the pizza.



Flavorful, thick, saucy and cheesey... it was everything you really needed a pizza to be. I remember burning the roof of my mouth when I bit it... so be careful. Each slice is huge, I think you get sick/bored of the cheesiness by the time you get to 3/4th of the slice being finished. So, just drink a lot of water...

VENEIRO'S:


Our next stop was to break the Pizza-cycle with some dessert. We walked over to Veniero's Pastry Shop (11th street btw 1st+2nd ave). Biggest mistake. It was decent, but to me, it felt like some sort of over-done tourist trap. The space was real tacky, gold-mirrors and all this jazzy stuff all around. The pastries didn't seem that fresh, they were overly glazed and super DUPER sweet. Could have lived without it.

LUZZO'S PIZZERIA:


Then we went back to Pizzas. Our next stop, "Luzzo's" (1st ave btw 12th+13th st)
This was my personal favorite place. Most of us were pretty stuffed from the past places, so we all wanted something lighter. We ordered the pizza with arugula + ham topping. It was amazing !!! The arugula was so refreshing. The ham was sliced real thin so it wasn't overbearing, and the just completely packed the pizza with a ton of arugula. Actually, I've never had arugula before, prior to this pizza, and now I'm in love with this plant. The guys that worked there were real nice too, they decided to pose for us and take pictures... hah

MOTORINO'S:

Our LAST pizzeria stop was "Mororino's". A BIG no-no for me. We tried the Brussels sprout toppings- to be honest, it tasted bad. The Brussels sprouts were all burnt and tasted like charcoal, and the pizza wasn't anything I can remember. That's all I need to say. Here's a picture to sum up my words.

I think the coolest thing about that place was that the pizza box looked hot- that's about it..

DESSERT TRUCK WORKS:

The last place we went to was called, yes, my pick, "Dessert Truck Works". When I yelped it, I thought it was going to be an actual truck, but it ended up being a real shop! It was really nice there. The place was beautifully renovated, brand new, menu written in chalk, real cute place. I ordered the Honey-Rosemary Ice Cream. It was so good !!! Sweet, but not too sweet, rich, but not too rich.. ahh it was lovely. I'd go back here again anyday. They had a lot of other cool pastries that I wanted to try- all pretty decently priced. It's a cool place to just take a friend, date, or whatever to hang out and get something sweet. I'd pick this over momofuku any_day_....



The end!