This was a great meal. Like I said in many previous posts what makes up a great meal is going to be different for you. Zuzu Ramen is one of those places where they’re going to make you spend $14 on a bowl of ramen. $14!! On ramen!!! And it wasn’t even amazing ramen, it was only okay. But I am glad that it is there. We need more ramen shops in Brooklyn!

So if the ramen was only okay, why did I think it was a great meal? That whole day I was craving for some Japanese curry but I rarely go into the city during weekends and heck I’m not going to go into the city just for curry. Then after a drink fest at Draft Barn with Mr.Matt, I had my mind set on grabbing dinner at Zuzu. It was a chilly night and at that moment I wanted ramen. I walked into a near empty place and grabbed a seat along the wall. I looked through the menu and saw a curry ramen, hello! I was able to satisfy 2 cravings in 1 night with 1 meal. I think that was pretty great.

Also the place was kinda quiet and cozy which was what I needed after few hours at the Draft Barn.

- Zuzu Ramen 173 4th Avenue Brooklyn

So my next Jamie Oliver recipe, I wanted a seafood dish. I narrowed it down to 2 dishes, one was a tomato-y pasta with canned tuna and the second was a spaghetti with mussels dish. Both Steph and Mo voted for the mussels dish, so mussels it is.

Why are mussels so cheap? They’re usually $2-$3 per pound and I bought 2.5lbs of it. Though I should’ve bought the extra half pound because there were few dead ones in the pile.

This whole dish took about 25mins to prep and to cook. While it was fairly easy and straightforward to cook I wasn’t too sure of the end product. It’s hard to know if I cooked it right or not if I haven’t tasted it before. I guess it only matters if the dish was good or not. Well I thought the dish was just alright, it was kind of bland and I was heavy handed with the pepper, whoops. I just didn’t taste any basil or any flavors from the basil oil broth. Overall this was okay.

Click here for the recipe

Couple weeks ago my friend Anh had her “Breakfast in Brooklyn” get together where she made breakfast for everyone. I was pretty excited because she promised to make a Vietnamese omelette! What’s a Vietnamese omelette? It’s an omelette with diced onions, chicken liver pate and pork roll! Genius! Its everything I love in 1 dish. I had tried to make this couple nights before but I wasn’t sure about the proportions. Also the recipe she gave me didn’t include the pork roll, what da? Anyways, this was a really yummy omelette, I wanna eat it all the time.

Texas omelette, home fries, baked eggs and Vietnamese coffee were also on the menu. I brought the St-Viateur bagels and others brought biscuits and pastries from Ladybird Bakery.

I’m not really keeping up with my food news. I had no idea Mile End, a Montreal Jewish Delicatessen on Hoyt St, was even there AND I live so close to it! So last week I bumped into a friend at Union Hall while at the Via Audio show and he told me he had just reserved a dozen Montreal bagels from Mile End for $20. I asked him…”Huh? Where?” He told me where and that I have till noon on Friday to get them.

Now I know next to nothing about bagels from Montreal except there are big debates on the web comparing bagels from NYC and Montreal. I do know that a fresh baked bagel with veggie cream cheese is a pretty damn good thing. But a not so fresh bagel tires my jaw so quickly.

On Saturday after lazily waking up and got dressed, I walked over to Mile End to pick up my dozen bagels, half poppy seed and half sesame seed. At 10:30am the place was packed, though the place was tiny. I would like to go there, grab a seat at the counter and have a proper meal there.

Anyways back to the bagels. People from Montreal rave about how good their bagels are. I do agree with them on some points. The St-Viateur bagels were denser which made it very easy to slice in half. Plus. The bagels were smaller and thinner which meant less room for cream cheese. But here’s the 1 reason why I still prefer NYC bagels over Montreal bagels, taste. After having eaten 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday I have concluded that there was no flavors in the Montreal bagels at all. I can’t even say it was bland, it had no flavors whatsoever. Even after toasting it a bit, there was just nothing. The sesame seeds had no flavors in them as well! WTF? Both Mo and Matt agreed that these bagels weren’t that great, so it wasn’t just me. BUT my friend that told me about these bagels loved them and found the bagels to have great flavors. So…..I don’t know.

I’m not gonna give up on these bagels just yet, not until I had a proper 1 from Montreal in Montreal.

But if you REALLY want a dozen St-Viateur bagels go and order from Mile End.

- Mile End 97 Hoyt Street Brooklyn

How do you like a restaurant even before you ordered the food? For me, by playing Runaway by Bon Jovi then followed by Always and Wanted Dead or Alive. How frakkin’ cool is this place?

My family were having lunch before going to the Buddhist Temple for Chinese New Year. My sister, Bonnie, took us here because I had a craving for soupy noodles.

Click to continue

I have seen tiny spots of blood in eggs before but this was TOO CRAZY!