gorging myself -- Part II

On Saturday, I started off with a smoothie from Jamba Juice. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that it was my first time there. For someone who professes to be such a foodie, I can't believe that I missed out on something so wonderful (maybe because it's actually healthy). Seriously, if I lived across the street from Jamba Juice, I would go there every morning, even in the middle of winter.

Brunch was at Jojo's, a nice cozy little place on the upper east side. I love restaurants that generally cater to an older crowd because they're calm and the decor is understated (and I'm on my best behavior). When eating, ambiance is not terribly important to me, but comfort is an added bonus. At Jojo's, the three of us shared six small plates: Tuna tartare with chive oil and gaufrette (wafer-like) potatoes; salmon with truffled mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts; hanger steak with gingered mushrooms, asparagus, and soy caramel sauce; cod with marinated vegetables; basil ravioli with Parmesan; and shrimp with salad and a tomato champagne marinade. We finished off with some sorbet. The food was excellent, especially the steak, salmon, and ravioli.

After our atypical brunch, we went to the Met. I was there last when I was ten and didn't remember a single thing. This time, I made sure to go through most of sections (skipping Medieval art and Cypriot art), with highlights in nineteenth century European art, Modern Art, and interesting exhibits in the Oceania wing. Of course, we topped off the whole experience with the lighting of the Christmas tree inside the museum. The lighting itself was masterfully done, with a bottom-up approach and a gradual shift from blue to white light for the nativity scene below the tree.

For dinner, we went to the East Village in search of shabu shabu. Shabu-Tatsu had an hour and a half wait, so we wandered down the street and found Sharaku, a nice little place on the corner that served hot pot. We started off with some sushi and sashimi and ended up cooking awesome tasting meat, vermicelli,and vegetables piece by piece in our pot (we take the process very seriously). I loved the peanut dipping sauce and the other, lighter soy sauce mixture.

We had to get dessert after all of that food, so we went to ChickaLicious. The place was very small (like most dessert places in NYC), but was pretty delicious. We got the tasting menu paired with wines. First, there was some sorbet to cleanse the palette. Then there were three desserts: chocolate cake, sweet potato souffle, and baked pear in parchment paper. I also remember some very good maple syrup ice cream on the side. Of course, the dessert wines were lovely (and strong), with glasses of port, sherry, and madeira that we passed around. Finally, we ended with petit fours, which were quite heavenly. The picture is courtesy of my friend Tiff and her iphone.


On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Daydream, where we actually got a free ice cream because one of my friends submitted a name for it a few weeks ago (she did not pick daydream). Although it was clearly a Red Mango/Pinkberry wannabe, I liked Daydream much better because its ice cream had less of the traditional sour milk taste. The fruit toppings were quite good (I especially liked the pomegranate and rasberries), as well as the almonds. That marked the end of eating for the day and I felt comfortably full. Tiff later burned off all of the calories on the treadmill at one in the morning while zipping through two editions of wsj while I vegged out in front of the TV and watched CSI:Miami and WaT reruns.