Life Changing.

There are some foods that I've had that have been life changing, will forever have a special place in my heart and something I day dream about. Some examples include: my dad's steak, my mom's cheesecake, Ippudo ramen and pork belly buns, Al's Italian beef in Chicago and now Pies 'N Thighs fried chicken that I had last weekend. I only took one Instagram picture that you can see below, but that's because I was too busy eating.

My friend and I took a little pilgrimage to Brooklyn because we were both craving fried chicken (ultimate fat girl cravings if I do say so myself). She had done some research beforehand and Pies 'N Thighs had popped up for great fried chicken. After a long night of drinking, we decided some chicken would be perfect to soak up our alcohol the next day and hopefully cure our hangovers. Everything looked great on the menu. We both really couldn't decide (breakfast looked good too), but since we had both been craving fried chicken, we both went for the chicken box. My side was breakfast potatoes (carb overload) and my friend got the cheese grits.

We waited a little while, but I felt like that was a good sign and we weren't eating already fried chicken. And holy moly was the wait worth it, our hangovers were the least of our worries. The chicken was piping hot, but when I finally could get a bite in I couldn't stop. The batter is perfect and has a great crunch and then the chicken inside is perfectly tender and juicy. Seriously, once you take your first bite, you can't stop. I've never had fried chicken with the outside so perfect and the inside so juicy. The dish also came with a beautiful, large, flaky biscuit. Next time I want to get a side of gravy to dip the biscuit in (I saw others doing that and instantly got jealous).

This is a restaurant you come to indulge. Those on "diets," you should proceed with caution or avoid totally. Everyone around us was eating large amounts of food. Even people in exercise clothing were ordering the chicken box and chicken and waffles! A man in work out gear was the one pouring gravy over his biscuit and chicken! It's truly a restaurant to indulge yourself and totally be fine with it.

Obviously we ordered a pie even after polishing our plates clean. We just had to. We couldn't decide because all the pies sounded delicious, so we asked our waitress for some advice. Some pies she described as a little heavy, a little too sweet, but when she described the Smore's pie, it sounded absolutely perfect for being so full... and it was. Perfect fluffy (homemade) marshmallow on top, not-too-sweet chocolate filling and great graham cracker crust. The prices are great and you leave perfectly full and your life may even have been changed like mine :).

Naked Balls.

I get really excited to go to restaurants that I have been eyeing for a long time. Crossing The Meatball Shop from my wishlist of restaurants to eat at was very satisfying. It's a trendy, relatively new restaurant with a fun concept. My friend and I walked down to the Lower East Side location expecting a long wait, but it ended up only being 30 minutes instead of the usual 1-2 hours. I love that they text you when your table is ready, so you can go elsewhere for a drink or walk around until your table is ready. Luckily, LES is surrounded by bars to easily pass the time.

The hardest decision I have had to make this weekend was picking what to eat. There are many choices of meatballs and sauces. Then from the naked balls (your choice of 4 balls, sauce), to heroes (3 balls, sauce, cheese on a baguette), to salads, to sliders. There is so much to choose from! I knew I wanted the spicy pork meatballs with classic tomato sauce, but in what combination, I wasn't sure. My friend and I decided to get our own meatballs but get risotto and mashed potato as sides to share. You can get the meatballs over the sides, but since my friend and I were sharing, we decided to keep it separate.

The meatballs were great. Melts in your mouth, but flavorful at the same time. I wanted to try the spicy meat sauce for sauce, but since I was getting the spicy pork meatballs, I didn't want to mask all the flavors with too much spice. The mashed potatoes are seriously to die for and mixing the sides with the meatball is a fat kid loving experience. It was definitely carbo-load, but very worth it. I have 2 meatballs to bring to lunch tomorrow :).

I heard a lot of good things about the ice cream sandwiches, so we ordered a brownie and chocolate chip cookie with caramel ice cream. The ice cream was delicious, but the cookies were rock hard. Especially with ice cream, I was expecting a soft cookie for freshness and easy to scoop, but the cookies were so hard! We were trying to scoop up and break the cookie and the cookie would fly everywhere! I'm not sure if that is how they usually are, but I definitely prefer a Coolhaus ice cream sandwich.




Love the table set up. The menus are like whiteboards and you check what you want.


Naked balls.


Our sides. Risotto and mashed potatoes.


Ice cream sandwich dessert (sorry, bad image!)

The atmosphere is dark and intimate and I really enjoyed the service. Our waitress was very attentive and helpful. The prices are affordable which is always a great plus for a trendy, cute restaurant. I will definitely be going back to try all the different meatball/sauce combinations, a great experience!

Gone Fishin'

Wow so I know it has been so long since I've written. Work and making the city my new best friend takes up most of my time and then any free time is left for sleep. But I can't neglect my blog forever since I've been eating and attempting to cook some good food! Also the fact that the bone chilling weather has begun in the city makes it very hard to leave my apartment. My first post back will be something that I actually cooked and outside of my comfort zone. Fresh fish is something I was scared to cook because I thought fish can be easily screwed up, over cooked, etc., but now it is something I love to cook. It's quick and fish is a healthy pick.

My cousin loves fishing and brought some striped bass from a fishing trip. I was definitely nervous as first, but from recommendations from my cousin and recipes online, I found an easy and delicious way to cook the fish. I used a rendition of this recipe. Filled with vegetables and even herbs which I hardly cook with, plus an easy way to cook the fish.


Cherry tomatoes, zucchini, squash, onions, lemon, Trader Joe's diced and fire roasted tomatoes (plus green chiles which added some heat!). These are the veggies I sauteed before putting in the canned tomatoes.


Freshly caught stripped bass.


After simmering the canned tomatoes with all the vegetables and herbs, I placed the fish in.


One flip! Love that the fish cooks perfectly in the sauce.


Finished product with brown rice.

I am quite proud of myself after this dish and I had leftovers for lunch the next day (always a plus for me). It was something different than the usual fried rice and pasta that I usually stick to cooking. Hurray!

Pretty Much Sums Up My Life...

Korilla BBQ.

Everyone knows that I love food trucks, as seen in LA and here. I love the creativity of the trucks (the variety of foods, the names, the truck design, the fusion, etc), the staff and the quickness of them. So when I pass a popular truck with a short line, I just can't pass it up. The Korilla BBQ truck was sitting outside of Trader Joe's at 14th street with a short line and of course, I had to stop and get some dinner. I decided on a ribeye burrito-Ribeye of the Tiger, picked the bacon and kimchi fried rice (magical!) and when picking toppings, the guy just asked if I wanted everything left and naturally, I said yes. So I'm not too sure what toppings were on it, but I know one of their many kimchi's and Korilla sauce for sure.

The burrito is big and a good price at $8 for a meal. The ribeye (bulgogi) was tender and juicy and the rice was great...couldn't really taste the bacon to be honest though. But strangely, my favorite part of the burrito was the kimchi. Every bite I took that had the kimchi in it was amazing. I love the crunch and the sauce. I love the fusion of BBQ and Korean, it all ties together so well: the meat, rice and kimchi makes a beautiful burrito combination.

The staff is extremely nice, fun and outgoing. Definitely will hit up this truck whenever I see it again. They are also contenders in the new season of The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. Good luck to Korilla!


Korilla's trademark and colorful truck (pictures taken with iPhone).


A great burrito with great kimchi!


Yum, can't wait to try more variations-the bowls, tacos...

Secrets of a Broke, Tired Young Adult.

Living in an expensive like New York can be hard. Budgeting and not being able to buy everything I want is a hard task since most of my paycheck goes to rent. Unfortunately, I have a soft spot that makes me think it's okay to spend an absurd amount of money on groceries (...and clothes). I love going to the grocery store (Trader Joe's and Whole Foods for me, I'm lucky I'm close to both) and after a stressful day at work, all I look forward to is making dinner which is rare for someone my age with so much going on. Plus, it's so easy to eat out everyday/night. My co-workers eat lunch out everyday and I don't know how they can afford it! But they always ask what kind of "gourmet" lunch I brought today :).

So even though I spend so much money on groceries, I still buy easy and fast food. I know I've already posted about making my favorite comfort food fried rice, but this time it's in my hands where I didn't have already made rice by my mom and a refrigerator full of food. I actually made a better version last night with shrimp, but didn't take pictures.

So this is fried rice, the poor and tired girl's version.


1. Microwavable brown rice, stir fry packaged veggies, heat and serve chicken, egg and baby spinach. As you can see, I use the easiest route possible. No time to make rice and chicken and not enough money to buy a bunch of vegetables individually. P.S. this is the only counter space in our tiny, tiny kitchen. Gotta love it.


2. Chopped up the vegetables into smaller pieces. Zucchini, carrots, red onions, butternut squash.


3. Microwavable rice is magical. Two servings.


4. Add the egg, spinach and chicken. And yay a great, comfortable meal with leftovers for lunch at work.

And there goes one recipe that I will be living off of for probably my whole love. Cheap and easy is what I need in my life right now.

Summer Bucket List.

Living in New York can be quite stressful. Not only is this a fast-paced city with thousands of people, but the amount of restaurants and food to try here makes decisions and pressures of trying all of it stressful (life is so hard! ha). Some people may not care, but this is something that stresses me out! I have a list of restaurants I want to eat at from reading reviews in magazines, blogs and through word of mouth.

A big one for the summer was finding the Coolhaus truck to get an ice cream sandwich. I have a current obsession with ice cream, gelato and froyo, so of course I wanted to try one of the known ice cream trucks in this city. Their philosophy is all-natural, handmade and organic ice cream. I hadn't seen the truck anywhere, but one day I was walking home from work and randomly saw the Coolhaus truck in the most awkward place, but that was fine for me!

It was such a hard decision to pick my cookie and ice cream combo. There are so many great choices, but I decided on red velvet cookie with dirty mint chip ice cream. I asked the worker if it was a weird combo and she said that it's actually kind of popular! The sandwich comes with an edible wrapper, which is awesome because the ice cream drips onto the wrapper and you can still eat it (plus they are going green). The sandwich was awesome. I LOVED the ice cream. You can taste the natural-ness of the ice cream and the mint instead of the usual weirdly florescent green mint. The little chocolate chips were a great addition to the texture. The cookie was good too, but the ice cream was the star because of their homemade philosophy. I definitely want to hit up the truck again this summer and try out all the other combinations!


An easy to read menu, but so many hard choices.


Red velvet cookie with dirty mint chip ice cream.


Decently sized, I was pretty full after. Love the edible wrapper!

So now that I have crossed Coolhaus off my summer ice cream list, I have many more ice cream and gelato places to go! This is going to be one cool and fattening summer!