Throwback Thursday: San Francisco, California 2008

Today we travel back all the way to the year I bought my first DSLR (Canon XSI)! In 2008, I went to San Francisco with my now husband and it my first trip to California as an adult!

All of these pictures were taken from my XSI, with a little editing these photos have come back to life!

Hide-Chan Ramen : Midtown Manhattan, NY

The winter in NYC has been very brutal and every time it goes below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, I always crave warm noodle soups of some kind. This meal served a double purpose and it was actually the first time I ever ate alone and what better place to start than a ramen restaurant? I looked on Urbanspoon for some places to visit and found Hide-Chan so I decided to stop by.

Before I went, I looked up other food blogs and they all recommended the the spicy black ramen so I entered with a game plan. I walked over from work and they seated me right at the bar next to a few others who were eating alone. I don't know why, but I have always felt weird for eating alone but today I was fine with it.

I noticed that it was happy hour so I also ordered their karaage off of their appetizer menu which was 50% before 6:30pm. In all honesty, Jin Ramen's karaage was much better. While it was still moist, it did not have much seasoning as did Jin Ramen's version.

For my main course, I ordered their Hakata spicy black ramen with firm noodles and their rich broth. I actually never found it to be spicy but please do not use me as a comparison. I grew up eating spices and I often find many things not spicy at all. I did find the bowl of ramen to be a bit oily for my liking but that is the style of this particular ramen. I still did enjoy it and would recommend it to those visit Hide-Chan.

Throwback Thursday : Queenstown, New Zealand

Last year, I was able to go visit Australia and New Zealand and I had the time of my life. One of my favorite places in both countries HAD to be Queenstown. It was definitely the adventure capital of the world with so many different things to do around every corner.


As you walked throughout town, most of the stores were locations to book excursions to bungee jump, para sail, para glide, etc. We went to the top of a lookout where there were people para gliding right off of it and people who were riding the luge. We happened to go on a sunny, clear day which allowed us to take full advantage of the views.

Kkakdugi - Radish Kimchi from Maangchi's recipe

When I was younger, I never really liked kimchi of any kind but randomly I had tried it at a Korean restaurant and was hooked from then on. One of my favorites that I always eat first is the radish kimchi and last weekend I decided that I wanted to make my own!

So I went online and found Maangchi (http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kkakdugi) and her recipe. I absolutely love her style of videos so if you are interested, go to her site for the recipe and for others too!

I bought about 5 lbs of radish and just added a bit more of the rest of the ingredients. Currently the jar is sitting in the kitchen waiting to ferment to develop the awesome sour taste. =)

Throwback Thursday : Flo's Clam shack, Rhode Island

This throwback is from 2010 where four of us went on a road trip that turned out to be a quest for food. Our original trip was to visit Boston but we ended up in Rhode Island anyway! Our first night in Boston, we watched the Food Network's 'The Best Thing I ever Ate' and it featured Flo's Clam Shack. They had suggested that people try out the fried clams and oysters and we were drawn into all of the imagery so much that we definitely had to try.


Arriving at the restaurant, there was already a line but we were lucky to arrive when we did. A few minutes after we stood on line, at least another 20-30 people stood right behind us. Even though one of the four people on the trip could not eat shellfish, we still ordered a ton of fried clams and oysters. To this day, I still dream about how crispy the oysters were and how juicy they still were.

If you can tell by the amount of food in the above picture, needless to say we were so full but so happy. We ended up driving around to find water after since it was a lot of fried food in such a short amount of time!

The restaurant itself had a nice "by the sea" feel with the decor as well as the benches inside. If you ever visit Rhode Island or happen to be close by, this place is a must visit!

The Yogurt Culture Company : Midtown Manhattan

I am very happy that this place is so only two blocks away from where I work. I get random cravings for yogurt all the time and this is the perfect place to go when you do. I normally choose the parfait because I can choose any fruit puree I want, but I honestly always go for mango.

Their parfaits come with three toppings and they have plenty to choose from! If you are in the Grand Central station area, go check this place out on Park ave between 41st and 42nd street.

Thai Tom - Seattle 2011 - throwback Thursday

In 2011, a group of us had taken a trip out there to join a cruise to Alaska but this throwback Thursday will not feature that part yet. As suggested by the title, today's tbt is Seattle!

That day, we had a very early flight out to the west coast and by the time we landed all of us were pretty hungry. The first thing we did after picking up the rental car was to find a place to eat. We all like Asian food so we had looked for the best Thai around the area. We ended up at Thai Tom and eating there was a experience in itself. 

We chose to sit at the bar which allowed us to watch the cook prepare our food right in front of our faces. From our point of view we were able to see all of the spices that went into our dishes. There was definite flair in how it was prepared but did it pass the taste test? It sure did! 

Photoshoot with Mandy of Little Vintage Rentals

It's been a few days since I have posted but that is because it has been a busy last few days. I finally had some time to sit down and write a blog post but only after editing some photos from today's photoshoot with Mandy of Little Vintage Rentals (http://www.littlevintagerentals.com/)

There will be a full blown post about this later on but I wanted to show some sneak peaks before I go back to bed =)

Does anyone want to guess what our theme was for today?