Tuome In NYC’s Alphabet City Serves An Eclectic Menu With Asian Influences

Located in the heart of Alphabet City, Tuome offers an eclectic, contemporary American menu with Asian influences that is bound to please your palate.

Crispy Deviled Eggs with Chili Oils

The panko-crusted egg whites are deep fried to give off the ultimate crispiness, and topped with smooth, mousse-like yolk with chili oils and micro greens.

Creamy Noodles Topped with Snow Crab

The Snow Crab dish is an absolute must. The perfectly al dante curly noodles, topped with fresh snow crab, crunches, and chopped chives, are flavored with rich, creamy squash and dashi butter sauce that melts in your mouth.

Fluffy Kabocha Squash Mash with Granola

The fluffy, mashed kabocha squash has cloud-like texture. The squash is mixed in with crunchy and sweet vadouvan granola and chive.

Steak Tartare

Made with high quality wagyu beef, the steak tartare is flavored with lemongrass and topped with three hour yolk and micro greens. The dish is served with crispy taro chips on the side.

From Crispy Flatbread To Tender Pork: A Hearty Meal From Heath Oven At NYC's The Fourth

Located in Hyatt Union Square in NYC, The Fourth defies any stereotype you may have about a "hotel restaurant." The latest venture by husband-and-wife restaurateurs, Marco Moreira and Jo-Ann Makovitzky of One Five Hospitality, The Fourth seamlessly combines the urban appeal of Union Square and the edgy ambiance of East Village with its creative New American cuisine.

Among its seasonal menu items include the Roasted Squash & Root Vegetable Salad ($18). Over a thin layer of creamy burrata, you get chunks of roasted root vegetables and squash drizzled with olive oil. The crispy quinoa chips add a nice crunch, while the watercress provides a slightly bitter tang to the dish. 

My favorite appetizer - which is also perfect for sharing - is the Butternut Squash & Maitaki Mushroom Hearth Bread ($18). As the name suggests, the flatbread is baked in a heart oven to produce a perfectly thin and crispy dough. Top it off with generous amount of burrata, arugula, pumpkin seed, mushroom, and julienne butternut squash, and you get yourself one of the best tasting flatbread ever.

As for main entree, you can't go wrong with the signature Pink Salt Brick Roasted Amish Country Chicken ($24). The tender chicken breast is roasted in brick oven, thereby savoring all the juice and moisture. The chicken is also rubbed with pink salt, one of the purest salts that packs more vitamins and minerals than other types of salt. The dish comes with a side of shaved vegetables tossed in lemon vinaigrette.

The Hearth Roasted Rack of Berkshire Pork ($26) is another highlight. You get a hearty rack of lean pork glazed in savory violet mustard. Under the rack of pork is braised tuscan kale and rich puree of medjool dates. Don't be shy about picking up the bone to get the last bit of the tender meat - I sure wasn't.

For dessert, the Coffee & Cake ($12) is the perfect sampler to try something creamy, doughy, and fried. The espresso semifreddo, served in a little mug, has more of a chocolatey flavor than coffee with semi-frozen pot of cream that is topped with crumbled coffee beans and snickerdoodle cookie. Because the pumpkin cake in the middle is a bit on the dry side, be sure to complement it with the creamy espresso semifreddo. The fried apple cake, which tastes like a less dense version of apple cider doughnut, has real bits of apples and topped with raspberry coulis. 

Lobster Risotto, Pumpkin Burrata, And Much More At Grand Bar, A NYC Restaurant Worth Multiple Visits

With so many restaurants in New York City, rarely do I make a second trip to the same restaurant. . However, I may have found a place that is worth second, third, or even fourth visit - Grand Bar at Soho Grand Hotel. 

Located on the second floor of this elegant boutique hotel in SoHo neighborhood, Grand Bar offers exceptional cocktails and delicious food in a classy yet comfortable atmosphere with marble top oak bar, rich wooden floors, and woven leather seating.

The food menu at Grand Bar highlights local, seasonal ingredients. For appetizer, the Burrata is an absolute must. Creamy, fist-sized burrata - topped with pickled red onion, sorel, and carrots with a sprinkle of chia - sits atop two pieces of kabocha pumpkin. There are cubes of root vegetables, such as butternut squash and roasted parsnips, as well as a swipe of deliciously smooth butternut squash puree, to add additional flavors and complexity to this beautiful appetizer.

Try the Lobster Risotto, an off-the-menu item, before it's gone. This surf and turf risotto features succulent lobster tail and moist sweetbreads, flavored in rich bone marrow broth. The arborio rice is cooked to perfection with right amount of texture and consistency. 

The Harvest Vegetable Fazzoletti also highlights everyone's favorite assortment of winter squash. Made with wide, "handkerchief" shape pasta that is extremely doughy and chewy, the dish consists of everything from cubes of butternut to thinly sliced delicata with crunchy pepita in rich, creamy sage brown butter sauce. 

Order a side of Sweet Potato Fries to share. While a little bit of seasoning would have elevated the flavor of the fries (perhaps a dash of salt would have done the magic!), the sweet potato fries were nonetheless a perfect complement to our entrees. The fries sliced just the right size to be crispy on the outside and still maintain the starchy texture on the inside.

Hip Korean "Street" Food at Take31

Although NYC's Koreatown is technically only a block long on 32nd St., there are some other lesser-known Korean restaurants scattered throughout the neighborhood. One such restaurant is Take 31, which stands for...

Take your time, enjoy the atmosphere that is take31, and have fun!

Appease your appetite for Korean food and brew.

Keep a lookout for art exhibitions and events that are often held in take31

Eat take31's unique monthly dish, developed with a fresh recipe.

31 The only tasty fun you'll find on 31st street!

Not gonna lie that it's a little cheesy...

To start off, my group ordered the Danhobak Galbi Jjim ($19.95), which is marinated beef short-rib with slices of sweet pumpkin and potatoes.

It came in a pot that resembles a bowl that you use to wash your face in traditional Korean villages.

The braised beef was quite jerky and fatty. I had difficult time looking for pieces that were actual meat rather than just chunks of fat. I really liked the squash pieces (what can I say...I love squash!), but they would have been so much tastier if the slices were larger. As of now, they seemed more like garnishes rather than a complement to the beef. I also don't see the need to sweetened them.

I was a big fan of the spicy and slightly sweet red sauce. It tasted especially good when mixed in with rice. Nonetheless, I probably wouldn't order this dish again because it was way overpriced for what you get.

We also got a complimentary bowl of ttopoki, which is spicy red cake dish. Unfortunately, the sauce was extremely bland and the rice cake was not chewy at all. Oh well, it was free anyways.

We ordered an Altang ($17.95) to share. This soup had cod eggs and cod bowels with radish, onion scallion, hot pepper, and hot pepper flake. It sounds disgusting, but the cod eggs and bowels are actually quite delicious! The bowels just taste like chewy pasta, while the eggs have a texture similar to foie gras. Once again, though, the dish was way overpriced for the amount you get.

This is Dosirak ($5.50), Korean old school style lunch bow with rice, sunny side up egg, sausage, and sauteed kimchi. When you get this dish, you have to put on the lid and shake it so that all the ingredients are mixed. I don't eat sausage so I don't know what this dish tasted like. I probably won't be back here again though.

Spicy Shrimp at Real del Mar Club House Restaurant

For our first dinner in Puerto Vallarta, we were still adjusting from all the traveling and didn't want to go too far from the house, so we went to the restaurant at the club house in Real del Mar. The club house is situated in a beautiful location right by the beach with a pool.

The table setting was simple and refreshing. I'm glad we sprayed our bodies with bug spray because all the tables were outside.

The margarita with sea salt rock on the rim. This wasn't my drink, but Preston said it was quite strong.

If you look closely, you can see a little black bug on the straw.

I had the margarita sunset, a mix of vodka, rum, orange juice, and pineapple juice (I'm making up most of it...I'm actually not sure what was in it).

As the name suggests, it looked like the sun hiding behind the mountain as it sets for the day.

The restaurant's margarita must be strong in general because I felt a big kick when I sipped this drink. Very strong indeed!

Tuna Carpaccio appetizer: fresh tuna fillet with a basil sauce, parsley, arugula leaves, imported parmesan cheese, and pine nuts. Preston said it wasn't anything that special.

Baby Spinach Salad: crispy bacon, cherry tomato, crispy garlic flakes, and mustard seeds vinaigrette. The salad was bursting with flavors! I especially liked the vinaigrette.

Fresh Fettuccini with Pomodoro sauce. Audrey actually ordered it with chicken, but they must have forgotten to add it.

The noodle definitely looked fresh and homemade, but apparently it was slightly overcooked. What a shame.

I ordered the Pastor Style Shrimp: Roast chopped pineapple, red onion, and coriander served with jasmine rice.

The white rice was really flavorful by itself! I am not sure if they seasoned it with anything, but I am a huge fan of jasmine rice. It tasted even better with the salsa on the side. The sweetness from the chopped pineapple and the savory red onion and coriander made for a great combination.

You can sort of see the medley of vegetables behind the shrimp. Yes, these are squash but unfortunately not the type of squash I like. They were also smothered in butter/oil. Yikes.

The sauce reminded me of Korean chili paste. The shrimps were super juicy and plump. I ate one of the tails because it was so crispy. Also I could taste the fire from the grill.

Preston's Fillet Medallions Dry Sherry: Dry sherry sauce, served with crispy roast potatoes and vegetables. The crispy roast potatoes looked like hashbrown.

The steak was also served with squash. Too bad they are not that great.

Catch of the Day (Mahi Mahi): ajillo, herbs garnished with buttered vegetables and rice.

They must really like those squash because they are served in every dish! I am not sure what the yellow sauce is at the bottom, but it looked greasy.

Corn brownie: served with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. It was Mr. Han's birthday, so they put a little candle on top! Happy birthday Mr. Han!

The corn brownie was so good! You could taste the corn and a little bit of coconut in the brownie, which tasted more like corn muffin. It wasn't too sweet and the vanilla ice cream on top was refreshing. I also loved the slices of peach and raspberry on the side.

Blackberry Crepes: filled with vanilla ice cream served with blackberry sauce. This crepe was interesting because we got two different temperatures in the dish: warm crepe and cold ice cream inside. I am a huge fan of berries, so the blackberry compote, albeit a little too sweet, was delicious. Yum!

Japanese Curry at the Curry Pot

As I mentioned before, I prefer Japanese curry to Indian curry because the former doesn't include cream. I was walking around the food court debating what I wanted for dinner when I saw a plastic model of a dish called "Sweet pumpkin and seafood/rice cake curry." Ohhh interesting! I walked into the restaurant, Curry Pot, and ordered the dish.

The portions were a lot smaller than I had expected, but it was fine because I wasn't very hungry anyways. The curry was sort of spicy. It had lots of seafood, ranging from mussels to shrimp to squid. The squash was disappoint because it was not sweet, and the rice tasted a bit undercooked. The salad was garnished with weird, artificially pink dressing.

The curry had little chewy rice cake that looked like snowman. The waitress brought extra curry on a bowl that looked like the genie's lamp.

Starting the Day with a Breakfast Buffet at the Seven Square

Hotel breakfast buffets are the most overrated, pretentious place ever because they provide mediocre, unsubstantial breakfast food at ridiculously exorbitant prices. While staying at the Plaza Hotel on the night before the WingSharers Conference, I dined at the Seven Square buffet on the second floor of the hotel.

Because I woke up at 5:30am, thanks to my jet-legged friend who arrived from LA that night, we decided to just go down to get an early breakfast at 7:30am. The hours are 6:30 to 10 am, and it looked like we were one of the first customers.

We were seated by the window, but couldn't see anything outside because the sun had not risen yet. Right as we sat down, the waiter asked us for coffee or tea. After sipping on my lukewarm earl grey tea, I sought out the buffet bar.

Before taking the picture of the buffet, I customarily asked the waitress if photography was allowed. She asked the chef, and he said as long as I am not disturbing the customers, it should be fine. Since it was early enough, there weren't very many diners. Score!

It was interesting that they had a salad bar at a breakfast buffet. There were seafood salad (but it looked like shrimp was the only sea creature...), olives, tomato and fresh mozzarella, and squash!

The squash was mixed with honey glaze sauce that wasn't too overpowering and topped with pumpkin seeds. I would have been happy with just a platter of these squash. The squash was slightly overcooked--just the way I like it because it is softer to chew that way. Some pieces were way too overcooked to the point they tasted jerky, however.

The overview of the buffet. See how there is only one guest? At first I thought the buffet just wasn't popular, but by the time I left around 8:30, it was much more crowded.

Fresh fruits are very expensive in Korea. Oh, how I wish HUDS would serve something like these in the dining hall! The fruit salad was a mix of semi-sweet kiwi, refreshing Asian pears, and not so special apples. The grapes were so big and fat, while the pineapple was sweet and juicy.

The rice corner...you could make a mini bibimbop with all the vegetables and kimchi. Koreans traditionally eat heavy breakfast to start the day right.

Pastries from a European bakery called Eric Kayser. The paper underneath was stained with excess butter from the pastry. Yikes. I had a bite of that orange mini muffin. It had a hint of pumpkin spice with walnuts. A little too dry for me.

Cereal and oats on top, sugared dry fruits, and nuts & seeds. I really miss having cereal for dinner...haha

Of course I didn't eat the cheese, but I took it for the sake of Mommy because she always has some brie cheese. It also reminded me of ancient Greeks gorging on grapes, wine, and cheese.

Baguette that you can slice from the table.

Different types of sausages and other meat. My friend said they had two types of bacons as well: crispy and tender.

There were pea soup and abalones porridge in the black pot with various toppings on the side. Porridges are sort of like the Korean oatmeal.

The waffles with whipped cream, blueberry jam, and maple syrup. By far one of the worst waffles I have ever had. They were extremely dry, bland, and chalky.

The pancakes were even worse...They were crispy on the outside not from being grilled just now, but from the chalkiness.

I was amazed to see how many different ways one could cook an egg! Steamed beaten eggs on the left, boiled eggs on the right.

Scrambled eggs and poached eggs!

The chef on top cooked not only omelet-to-order, but also rice noodle-to-order. For breakfast???

From left to right are some type of grilled fish that was so dry it tasted like it was grilled for 24 hours, hashed potatoes, bacons, and egg plant gratin that looked very unhealthy. Too heavy, too early!

My first plate included squash (inevitably), fresh fruits, fried rice, poached egg, and abalone porridge. The fried rice had grilled mark from the grill and the tossed sesame seeds added a new twist to the flavor. The egg yolk in the poached egg was half cooked and the creamy yolk helped to make the otherwise dry fried rice somewhat softer. The abalone soup was bland.

The plain yogurt with melons, pineapples, and watermelon. I wished the yogurt was more sour and creamier...where is my Greek yogurt?

Although the pancake and the waffle were horrendous, the French Toast was a delight! It had the fluffiest center that dispersed and melted in your mouth. Also the blueberry sauce on top added moistness to the toast.