On Friday, while I was working some “elote” lady stopped by my job and asked if I wanted any elotes or esquites. I work at a liquor store in Jackson Heights so I have the privilege of eating anything with sazon around here. There are a lot of Hispanic restaurants around here. Elote is corn. I felt like I had to try the esquites because I have heard of them but never tried them. I know many who talk beautiful things about it and how it is so good and I cannot wait to go around your job to have one of those. Esquites is grained and boiled corn then sautéed in butter and onions. Esquites are served with mayo, salt, lime, cheese and chili powder. I always though esquites were dry corn served with mayo and cheese, at least that’s how I saw it on pictures. Honestly, I was not thrilled by it. I felt the corn snack was too liquidly and the mayo and cheese just didn’t go with the water. Also I could taste a lot of onion. I am glad I only had the $2.50 cup because I would not have finished the $5 cup of esquite. I feel that maybe it does taste good but this was one was not prepared the way I was expecting it. Hopefully next time I do have another esquite its how I imagined it if not, I will not ever have one again.

Last night I went to Giorgio’s of Gramercy with my boyfriend. Giorgio’s of Gramercy is located in 21^st street between Park Ave and Broadway. For dinner, I had sea scallops. When I say sea scallops, it is not an ordinary sea scallop plate. The four sea scallops were served with caramelized cauliflower fondue and florets, raisins, roasted almonds and balsamic glaze. This dish was served hot. It was the perfect mixture of everything. The crunchy almonds, and the sweetness of the raisins were perfectly mixed together. I never tried raisins with balsamic glaze. All the chemicals of each ingredient somehow incorporated very well. Something else I liked about this delicious dish that I will never forget was that the scallops had a soft but tender taste with each ingredients on my plate.

It’s 2016.  Poisonous mushrooms are easily identifiable, and as far as I know, not sold in supermarkets  My brain knows that mushrooms are edible, my heart knows it too.  But some instinct deep within me says “STAY AWAY!”  I don’t know why I have this subconscious distrust of mushrooms, but it’s there.  Maybe one of my ancestors died from eating a poisonous one and this is evolution trying to keep me alive.  Before today I never had a mushroom.  After today I will never have another mushroom.  I was at a get together and the host prepared stuffed mushrooms.  I was there fresh from this class, and with a cocktail in hand I asked myself, “what’s the worst that could happen?”, if anything I had a drink to kill the taste.  Something stuffed with breadcrumbs shouldn’t taste so bad.  The flavor isn’t what killed me, more so the texture; a rubbery, pseudo-meaty, almost-gelatinous blob from hell.  Darwin was trying to keep me around because my first instinct was to remove this thing from my body.  But I was at a party and not the Galapagos so I washed it down with some Tito’s and complimented the flavor.  If I’m not in class next week, you know why.

Over this past weekend, I visited the Grand Opening of Smorgasburg food market in Williamsburg. It was my first time going and I was very excited about the whole event. I did not know what to expect but what I did know was that I was very excited about going especially to eat food. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. Surprisingly, Williamsburg is not so far from home, Sunnyside, Queens. It took me about 15 minutes to get there by bus. There were many food vendors, people, and a little “bar area” for drinks only. You had to be 21 and over to get into that area. I was craving a burger or something with steak in it but when I saw that word I had seen in my research paper I knew I had to try it. TLAYUDA. Tlayuda is a traditional Mexican/Oaxacan food. It is made out of handmade thin, toasted tortilla, spread over black beans, quesillo (Mexican cheese), lettuce, avocado, salsa verde (spicy sauce), and desired meat, I had carnitas (shredded pork meat). I was impatiently waiting for the vendors to call my name to hand me the beautiful Tlayuda. When I turned around to reach the “Tlayuda,” I had to hold the pie with both hands. It literally look liked a large pizza pie with things all over it. It was gorgeous. When I had my first bite, the crunchiness of the tortilla flakes off. The Pico de Gallo savored in my mouth. Honestly, it was not what I was expecting but I did enjoy the famous Oaxacan Tlayuda. The only thing that would have helped would have been the weather.

This past Monday in my Deluxe Desserts class, one team was garnishing their plates with dragon fruit.  I had never tasted this before, only seen it in pictures.  The beautiful exterior as well as interior promised a lush tropical flavor.  However, I was met with a very mild- almost neutral tasting fruit.  The flavor reminded me of an underripe apple.  The texture was weird for me, it felt like a mealy apple with kiwi seeds in it.  Overall, I’d eat it again if it was part of a dessert or meal.  The price of it is not worth the taste, but perhaps it is worth it for the dramatic visual it brings.

This weekend, I went to Long Island with my family to do some shopping. My uncle suggested this Filipino Grocery Store that also had a dine-in/take-out section. This place was called Asian One Best Grocery, Inc. I’ve always heard about Filipino food but never had the chance to try it. Today, I tried one of their desserts – Halo Halo. Halo Halo is a popular Filipino dessert with mixtures of shaved ice, evaporated milk, and then you add jello, sweet beans, and fruit. It is then topped off with ube (purple yam) or ice cream. Sadly, they ran out of ube and had given us this ice cream that was orange, which I believe was perhaps Thai Iced Tea flavor, and is then topped off with pound crushed rice. This dessert was really sweet and I really liked the ube that they had on the side. Hopefully I can come back to eat some more.

Just recently I made a year of becoming a pescetarian, which means I only eat fish. It was not the best transition because I loved to eat chicken, but I chose another form of life and what I ate. I was able to try Pad Thai for the first time just a couple of days ago. I went to a little Chinese & Japanese restaurant, named Niji. Its located in Mineola, LI. Learning about the different options you have to eat have been very tricky. But being able to actually try them has out weighed that. Pad Thai wasn’t a usual meal I would eat when I ate meat and recently became a pescetarian. But my friend open my taste buds to this meal. The taste at first was different because the ingredients used were normal in my diet. But after having two more bites, I couldn’t put my chop sticks down.