Tag Archives: Sushi

Food Adventures This Weekend

Where ever you turn, you’ll find food! Especially in New York City!

This weekend I headed to my neighborhood’s local market with my friend Stefanie. We were both on a quest to pick up a few Holiday gifts — and of course we had to go on the weekend because we have both been so busy with work during the week. On the weekends, the Chelsea Market is packed with locals and tourists — all determined to discover the newly opened stands and shops throughout the market.

While waiting for Stefanie to arrive, I strolled through a few of my favorite places. For one, I spent some time in The Lobster Place taking a few photographs to show all my readers. I watched as fresh sushi was made (yum! I love avocado on my sushi!) and I took in the smell of the store… All fresh fish! The smell reminds me of New England — the place I grew up for the first half of my life.

During this time of year the most gorgeous lights are hung in the very center of the Chelsea Market. They drape down below the clock and light up the market place. These are not up year-round and I love when they are put up at this time of year!

The Chelsea Market stretches a full avenue long, going from 9th Avenue to 10th Avenue. There are two entrances/exits both are on each side of the market. On the 10th Avenue end this weekend, there was a small petting zoo with cows. City children gathered ’round to pet the baby farm animals. I love seeing things like this… especially in the heart of Manhattan. It just shows that you truly can find just about anything in the city — and the city children get a taste of country life. Yes, I believe that children should experience the fresh country air. But I do believe that the city is a fantastic place to raise children.

On Saturday night I went to the new Spanish-Moroccan fusion restaurant only 1 block from the Chelsea Market (and only a few blocks from my apartment). I went with my boyfriend, his cousin, and his cousin’s wife. Ventanas is a new tapas restaurant located on 16th Street and 10th Avenue. The menu is large and may seem overwhelming, but you want to order plenty of plates because the portions are rather small (this is the only down-side to this restaurant). We ordered the following: Pisto (Spanish Ratatouille), Guacamole with Plantain Chips, Ceviches de Camarones (Shrimp Ceviche), Croquetas de Bacalao (Codfish Croquets), Frituras De Queso De Cabra (Goat Cheese Fritas), 2 Empanadas Espinaaca (Spinach and Manchego Empanadas), Albondigas (Lamb Meatballs), and Dulce de Leche Empanadas for dessert.

We enjoyed everything! Perfect bite-sized tapas that everyone was able to share with one another. I love tapas-style meals because everyone is engaged with one another over something as simple as the food on the table. Instead of ordering your own plate and keeping it to yourself — you are able to pass the plates around while saying “yum! Try this, you’ll love it!” The food also came out quickly so we would order 2 or 3 plates at a time! That way we weren’t too overwhelmed with an obnoxious amount of plates on the table. We all enjoyed the food, but we also loved the music playing in the background. Lots of exotic tunes had us practically dancing in our seats — like The Gypsy Kings (a French band that plays flamenco-style music), as well as other current, more popular songs as well. But I was excited to hear some music that I grew up to! My father often played The Gypsy Kings and over the years I managed to memorize some of their songs like Bamboleo. Besides the music, I loved the decor as well. You felt like you were some place exotic the moment you stepped into the restaurant. The shapes, the colors, the plush booths — you felt like you were in Morocco!

At 10 p.m. a belly dancer came out and circled the restaurant for some extra entertainment. A few rowdy people got up and danced with her — which was great entertainment for us! By 10:30 some tables were cleared off and pushed to the side and a bunch of people started to get up and dance … including us! I wasn’t expecting my tapas-style dinner to turn into a dance party! But we were all quick to jump to our feet and make our way to the dance floor!

This is such a fantastic place to go with friends! Order some drinks, get a little rowdy, but overall experience some fantastic food! Watch how much you order though, because the bill can get pretty high rather quickly!

Mercer Kitchen in Soho

I’ve heard a lot about Mercer Kitchen — I’ve heard how fantastic the brunch is and how unbelievable the dinner is. The only problem is, I can’t see myself eating brunch in a basement… especially on a gorgeous saturday afternoon! But I can see myself getting cozy in one of the booths on a cold winter evening.

The ambiance in Mercer Kitchen is relaxing even though the restaurant itself is a busy, crowded, trendy sort of joint. The menu though was a bit problematic to me — I honestly could have ordered one of everything!

We ordered several appetizers including the butternut squash soup with black trumpet mushrooms, salmon with crispy sushi rice with chipotle mayo and ponzu, and the crab cake with avocado, cucumber, lime and crystallized ginger. The butternut squash soup was incredible! There’s something about butternut squash this time of year that really hits the spot. I loved the crab cake — the meat was very moist and very flavorful with splashes of lime in every bite. The avocado also added interesting texture in addition to the moist crab meat and the crunchy exterior. And I was shocked when I tried the salmon with crispy sushi rice with chiptole may and ponzu. I honestly hate salmon, I can’t even stand the smell of it. But I have never had raw salmon before and of course there is a first time for everything. The chipotle mayo added a nice kick to the salmon too! I was pleasantly surprised and now I can say I enjoy raw salmon.

For my main course I ordered the Mercer Burger that comes with pepperjack cheese, avocado, crunchy red onions, russian dressing, and french fries. I was surprised when the burger arrived because it is rather small. But for me, it was perfect. I laughed when I noticed that the ingredients were “upside down” (you’ll see what I mean in the photo). I loved the textures of the moist beef and the crunch red onions. The bun was such a basic hamburger bun too — which I was shocked. It wasn’t on a brioche, it was more like a potato roll — at least the texture was. The french fries though, were more like McDonald’s fries — except less greasy.

The experience at Mercer Kitchen was amazing — and I can’t wait to go back for dinner again. I need to be sure to order the second half of the menu!

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!