Tag Archives: Lobster

Raymi — Peruvian Cuisine

Okay, I’ll admit it — I was very nervous to go out to dinner on Friday night. Peruvian food isn’t exactly something I am familiar with; and after menu-stalking I was a bit overwhelmed. After reading over several ingredients I either didn’t know the word/translation or I couldn’t seem to envision what the plate would taste like. I even found myself re-reading over “habanero.” The embarrassing part: I know what a habanero is. I know how to grow the plant in my backyard. I know just a small amount of this pepper will clear out my sinuses. But yet, I was so overwhelmed by the menu I had to look at the word “habanero” multiple times.

Within only a couple of minutes of being at the restaurant, I knew my dinner was in great hands. The servers at Raymi have perfected how to describe every dish, they know how to pair your food with Peruvian-style cocktails, and over-all they are brilliant at making your Peruvian dinner a memorable one.

You can easily get away with eating the entire meal in a tapas-style sort of way. My first dish: Causa of the day. Lobster was the catch of the day and the fish was placed over a cold aji amarillo potato puree. The rich, creamy texture of the lobster and potato puree was outstanding — but to add some extra flavor and crunch to the plate the chef added some roasted dehydrated corn. These little bites of crunchy corn was so delicious! I wish they were sold at the grocery store!

catch of the day

After quickly Yelp’ing a bit, I realized that the restaurant’s Peruvian Corn Cake plate was raved about. It seemed like such a hit, so obviously I put this at the top of the list of plates to order.

The corn cake is topped with a mushroom ragout and watercress leaves. It’s incredible how all of the flavors fuse together so beautifully — especially on this dish. Without the peppery taste of the watercress, the mushrooms and corn cake wouldn’t have that necessary zing. And I’m sure you are thinking about the texture of this “corn cake,” and let me assure you it’s nothing like a corn muffin or corn bread that we typically eat in the U.S. This corn cake doesn’t have the distinctive grainy consistency and is smooth and creamy and makes it easier to pick up the rest of the ingredients on your fork. I would be happy to order this plate and eat it as my lunch or dinner — funny enough, one of the hosts said she did just that the night before! This plate seems to be a hit for those dining at the restaurant and those working there!

peruvian corn cake

And since this restaurant really masters the concept of tapas plates, sharing food and talking about your favorite plates makes a dinner so much more fun. Which is why I loved the Ceviche & Tiraditos Tasting plate. This plate allows you to pick a total of 4 items from the ceviche and tiraditos section of the menu. Our choice (clock-wise from the top left): *I forget what the first one is, fluke, tuna and salmon. The manager recommended we eat these with a spoon — and boy was he right! Eating ceviche with a spoon rather than a fork allows you to scoop up the extra citrus juices at the bottom of the bowl — this gives the fish a refreshing flavor. This tasting plate couldn’t have been more of a hit!

peruvian ceviche

And, a close-up of the tuna:

tuna ceviche

Another brilliant appetizer to share between 2 people was the Hanger Steak — specifically it’s skewered hanger steak seared and served with aji panca glaze, creamy ocopa sauce and rocoto salsa. Wowza — this plate sure was full of flavor! It tasted as if the hanger steak was soaking and marinating in the most complex mixture of seasonings and spices before being cooked. Hands-down this was the most flavorful piece of meat I have tasted in a very long time! In addition to the  Peruvian Corn Cake, this Hanger Steak is a must-order!

peruvian hanger steak

For our “main dish” the two of us shared the Chaufa Completo — which is served with jasmine rice, chicken char siu, shrimp and chinese sausage. I dug in around the sausage but the overall plate was just bursting with exotic flavors. I knew right from the start the jasmine rice was going to add subtle but important flavorings to this plate.

Even though we had just a bit of leftovers, sharing all of these plates together completely satisfied us for dinner.

peruvian dinner

Over course we had to end our evening with dessert. We followed the manager’s suggestion and ordered the Peruvian Crispy Donuts. I know what you’re thinking — donuts are such a big food trend these can’t be anything other than ordinary, blah blah blah. But you’re wrong! Yes, donuts are such a food fad these days but Raymi adds a perfect, sweet, twist to the homemade dessert. Honey is the ingredient that makes these donuts have a natural sweetness — I guarantee that you’ll agree with me that these donuts are anything but ordinary!

homemade donuts

I’m sure you are overwhelmed reading this post — because you can see how much I truly enjoyed my first dinner at a Peruvian restaurant. I’m sure you have also noticed that Peruvian food is highly influenced by the Asian culture and cuisine! Who would have thought that a blend of Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, West African and Italian cuisines would be brought to the country of Peru and all of these cultures have been an influence on the food that is made throughout the country to this very day.  Luckily, for me, I found that Peruvian food seems to have a stronger influence from the Japanese — I’m not a huge fan of Chinese cuisine, but Japanese I love! There’s nothing like beautiful cuts of raw fish tossed in citrus and served fresh!

Beauty & Essex

The LES has become such a trendy place to wine and dine, and of course party. It’s also turned into a “hip” place to live, although if you venture to the neighborhood during the day you’ll see that it’s still in pretty rough shape and needs some cleaning up. I know way too many people that used to live in the Lower East Side that experienced bedbugs. So, I would rather just go there for a drink and/or dinner every once in a while. I’m way too happy living in Chelsea.

My boyfriend and I ventured to Beauty & Essex this past Saturday night for a birthday party. Just take a guess what street this restaurant/bar/lounge is located on… that’s right, Essex! When you enter, you have to walk through a pawn shop before being greeted at the actual door to the restaurant. “Are we in the right place?” my boyfriend asked me when we first arrived. And if I hadn’t googled this joint before heading downtown I probably would have been confused myself.

pawn shop outside beauty and essex

The pawn shop that you must go through to get into Beauty & Essex

Once the bouncer opened the door for us, we stepped into a place completely different than the pawn shop. (This is one reason why I love living in New York City, you never know what you’re going to find.) Immediately when you step inside you see a luxurious curved staircase that takes you up to the second floor — this is where we were seated with friends. Beauty & Essex is a fabulous combination of a bar, lounge, and restaurant. If you can’t get a table to eat at, then the next best thing is to order some appetizers at the lounge-section. I actually enjoyed sitting in this seat because it felt more cozy (perfect on a cold winter night) and it allowed more people in the group to move around and chat with everyone.

beauty and essex menu

Instead of ordering dinner, we ordered a ton of appetizers and snacked on those until we were filled. The plates we ordered were primarily fish dishes, something I would never complain about. Some orders included: the tuna poke wonton tacos, lobster pizzetta, lobster tacos, wok fried mushrooms, classic pan con tomate with fresh burrata, creamy parsnip ravioli, and oven braised chicken meatballs.

The tuna tacos were so tasty! The fish was fresh and the tacos added fantastic texture to each bite. Lime wedges were provided to squeeze on top, and usually I consider this a have-to-do but this time there was so much flavor in the dish already it wasn’t a necessity. We ordered the lobster pizzetta without bacon, and I loved the flavors on this plate too! Loaded with tasty chunks of lobster, and lots of cheese on top, you’ll never want your pizza made any other way. I was also surprised with the creamy parsnip ravioli — it was a vegetarian ravioli and I swear I thought there was meat in it! Those vegetarians sure can trick you!

Overall I really enjoyed myself here. The night started with some music playing in the background and as it got later the music was turned up for more of a “club” feel. The energy at this place was also so much fun — I can’t wait to go back!

(photos courtesy of Yelp)

Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress & Other Halloween Ideas

I’ve seen plenty of Lady Gaga’s meat dress on VH1 and E! but I never really looked into what the deal with the dress actually was all about.

I’m currently trying to decide what I should dress up as for Halloween for parties this week on Friday and Saturday. (Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.) So while I was google’ing around last night looking for costumes I started to think that I wanted to wear some sort of food-themed costume. There’s the classic ketchup and mustard costume, along with popcorn, tacos, butter, lobster, and hotdogs… nothing looked good. I’m looking for a comfortable costume that allows me to fit into a taxi, and one that doesn’t require me to wear outrageous makeup or have to spend hours doing my hair.

After brain storming for a while I remembered how Lady Gaga wore a dress made of meat to the VMAs. There’s no way I would ever go down to Whole Foods and have the butcher slice me meat so I could stick it on my body. First of all, how is it possible to wear meat? Do you use needle and thread to put the pieces together? And if you sit down, wouldn’t you get fuzzies on your outfit? And what happens if there’s a dog close by, wouldn’t you be in big trouble?


So I did some further research on what the deal was with this outfit. Here’s what Lady Gaga said to Ellen DeGeneres right after she had worn the dress (read the full article here, the following is just a snip from the article): “‘Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the earth,’ Gaga replied. ‘However, it has many interpretations, but for me this evening … If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And I am not a piece of meat,’ she added, holding up the magazine cover.”

Okay, so Gaga was inspired to wear something that made a statement… I still could never wear meat!

But back to this whole Halloween costume thing, I still need something to wear and I have 2 parties to go to this weekend! Is there something I can whip together that’s in my closet? Or do I seriously need to get my butt to a Halloween store to pick something out? Suggestions are needed!

For those who are obsessed with Gaga’s meat dress, I found this video that you might enjoy… it’s on how to create the dress but in a meatless way!

The Lobster Place

lobsters in The Lobster Place, located in the Chelsea Market


Growing up, I was never a huge fan of seafood. That changed this summer when I started eating fruit of the sea prepped different ways with different spices prepared by brilliant chefs that really do know what they are creating. I also realized that it’s not only the professionally trained cooks in the kitchen that know what they’re doing — it’s also those who never got a culinary education and they learned hands on by other great cooks (like moms, grandmothers, or other people they grew up around). I have a theory and I want to prove it by the end of the summer, and that is that if a restaurant has family recipes — the food probably is disgustingly scrumptious.

spicy tuna rolls!


I was told that sushi rolling is formulaic and it’s a feeling. Ever role grape leaves stuffed with rice, meat, and a variety of spices? It takes the perfect amount of stuffing, not too much, not too little, and the rolling has to be done tight enough so the stuffing won’t fall out when it’s cooked but it can’t be rolled too tight (I feel like the meat gets dried out if it’s rolled too tight). Well, when chefs at places like The Lobster Place are creating mass amounts of sushi on a daily basis — they have to have that “formula” and “feeling” down.
At the Lobster Place in the Chelsea Market, there’s a nice selection of seafood that you can buy and prepare yourself in your own kitchen or you can buy already cooked foods such as an assortment of seafood soups and sushi. Out of the soups, I recommend the lobster bisque — it’s the best in New York City (the next closest tasty bisque is at the Chowder Bar in Bay Shore, NY and then at the Penn State Nittany Lion Inn in State College, Pa … really, those are the best soups!). And for the sushi, take a guess at what I bolted for … Yup, you got it — the Spicy Tuna Rolls! I actually decided to give the California rolls a shot too and they were actually pretty good. The freshness of the sushi was extraordinary and even though the shop smelled like an overwhelming stench of seafood, I didn’t feel like I was chowing down on raw food in any way.
The sushi and bisque is a great idea for lunch, especially if your work is in the neighborhood — and on nice days you can bring your lunch outside and enjoy the High Line. The prices range depending on the size of the soup cups and the sushi count — but everything is really affordable. You can also grab already made sushi that’s been made already the same day so if you’re in a rush you can grab and go.

Secret: The men rolling the sushi will happily make you any sushi you’d like. Even though the spicy tuna rolls were already made and located in the refrigerator — they made me fresh sushi for me right there for me to watch!