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.

So a few weeks back, I took my friend out to Boerum Hill to eat at a Pan-Asian vegan cafe since she was vegan though I had never tried any vegan alternatives to the foods I usually eat. So coming into the restaurant, I looked at the menu and decided to go for anything that had an ingredient or description that was unfamiliar and the word Seitan immediately caught my attention especially with the BBQ letters in front of the word.

After doing research after ordering, I learned that seitan is supposedly Japanese for wheat gluten/wheat meat so it didn’t really excite me as much as I thought it would since it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. However since it was the protein coming from wheat, I wanted to see how it was compared to the regular proteins I consumed. Truthfully, it wasn’t that far off from expectations. While it had a very nice and soft texture and it had spices from the peppers on the skewers, it was a little lacking in flavor. It felt as if the richness and the juicyness had been ripped from my palate. It literally was as advertised, the very bland flavor of wheat but rewarding health benefits nonetheless which is important to me. The barbecue sauce was good though which puts its taste up a bit with the tangy and sweetness but the actual seitan didn’t do it for me. However, as long as it isn’t pungent like durian, I could definitely eat this but with a sauce preferably.

Sisig in in Filipino  means chopped up meat  that can be sauteed or fried in vinegar  soy sauce onions,  lemon juice, jalapeños and seasoned with salt, pepper, and other spices. The first time i ever hear of it or seen it was on a Filipino food truck called SIsig City where i also ate at their resturant. The Pork sisig came with a fried egg on top.  The dish was full of flavor  crunchy from the fried pok belly called lechon tangy from the vinegar, rich from the egg yolk, bright  and citrus from the lemon juice called calamansi , kick of spice from the jalapeno , a little salty from the soy sauce and sweet from the sauteed onions and peppers.

It was my first time ever trying such a combination Herring in sour cream sauce mixed with onions provided an interesting marinate to the salty herring. At first glance you only feel a sort of repulsion as you see the gray meat swimming inside the white sauce an a smell that can be picked up several feet away. After first learning this peculiar dishes Jewish background history i decided to man up and have a taste. To my surprise the initial taste was a nice chewy creamy texture, asweel as somewhat sweet and plenty of sour, to me it tasted just like a tuna dip. Although the first bites were on the good side, i have to admit that the after taste of this dish packs quite a punch. So i dont recommend going on a meeting or having a long conversation. but a quick wash of the mouth will do the trick.