Sunday, January 18, 2009

New Years Party


I had a New Year Party with my friends. We brought Japanese traditional New Years food and shared them. All of them were so delicious. Even if I am in Japan, I cannot prepare such a many kinds of foods. I really happy to eat them. Children played New Years games and did a tea ceremony. Some of them wore Kimono (Japanese traditional costume) and took pictures. Today was really Japanese day for me.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Birthday Lunch


Tomorrow is my friend's birthday and we decided to have a lunch together today. We went to "Phoenicians Restaurant (1686 Central Ave.)". Here is a Lebanese restaurant and I have a first time to go in the lunch time. But the menu is same as dinner. She ate "Falaafil" and I ate "Chicken Kabab". Still delicious! After eating lunch, off course we drank Lebanese coffee and are satisfied. Good food, good mood and good friends! I am happy that time.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Baked Bun (Manju)


Today I had a plan to have a New Years party with my Japanese friends and to make something sweet. Because of heavy snow, the party is deferred. But I have already bought ingredient at Asian market and made "Baked Bun". Baked bun is called "Manju (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manju_(food)) and is traditional Japanese sweets. Most of Manju contains red bean paste. I put red bean paste and crunch chestnuts in my Manju. I think the size of my Manjus are little bigger but tastes are good. I keep some of my Manju in freezer and will bring our New Years Party in next week.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Chocolate Gecko (Chocolate)

I went to "Chocolate Gecko(http://chocolategecko.com/)". The inside of the shop is clean and gorgeous. There are many kinds of chocolate and it is difficult to decide which one I will buy. Most of the chocolates were made by the owner of this shop and she is really friendly. We can try some chocolates which we are interested in. I bought "Truffle box", "Dark chocolate raisins" and 4 different pieces. In the truffle box, there are 9 different truffles and we can enjoy different flavors. Dark chocolate raisins are raisin coated in dark chocolate. I love them. As for the 4 different pieces, frog shape one is papaya-lemon chili chocolate, mice shape is filled with mint truffle ganache. Pyramid shape is filled with caramel and butterfly shape is maple syrup caramel. I have not eaten all them yet but I ate some of them. These chocolates are very smooth and unique. I become big fun of this shop!
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Chocolate Gecko
21 Colvin Avenue,
Albany, NY 12206
TEL (518)436-0866
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Sunday, January 4, 2009

Rice Cake

Some of my friends and I did "Mochitsuki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi)" today. "Mochitsuki" is a traditional rice cake-pounding ceremony in New Years day in Japan. But it is rare to see this ceremony even if we are in Japan. One of our friends have tools of ceremony and we landed them. Children tried to make rice cake. After that, adults dipped these rice cakes with many kinds of flavors, such as red bean paste, soy flour with sugar, green soy bean paste and sesame with sugar. All of them were very tasty and children had a hearty appetite. Also, I ate too much.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Melting Pot (Fondue Restaurant)

"The Melting Pot(http://www.meltingpot.com/locations.aspx?z=12205&n=311695)" is a Fondue Restaurant in Crossgates Mall. My husband and I went there on Saturday lunch. This restaurant opens dinner time from Monday to Friday, and lunch and dinner time on Saturday and Sunday. We ate "Entrees for Two($59.00)". We could select salad, entree and fondue. In salad, I ate "House" and my husband ate "Caesar". The dressing of house Salad was little sweet and the quality of vegetables were really good. In entree, we ordered "Coq au Vin", which is hot pot contained wine and spices. We boiled beef, chicken, salmon and so on. The taste of the soup were extremely good and it was amazing.
Last, we could choose "Chocolate Fondue" or "Cheese Fondue". We selected Chocolate one. We could dip bitter chocolate with strawberry, banana, marshmallow, cheese cake.... I was in a dream!! They all were delicious and I wanted eat more! Actually, price is high in this restaurant but they serve more than a price. I want to try another fondue!
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The Melting Pot
1 Crossgates Mall Road,
Albany, NY 12203
TEL (518)862-1292
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Friday, January 2, 2009

Marisa's Place (Pizza)


Here is a small shop in a small mall. But Pizza is really good. Usually, the dough of pizza is thick and 1 slice of pizza makes me full. However, the dough of this shop is thin, I can eat several slices and enjoy topping on the pizza. A slice of pizza is about $2.50 and whole pizza (L) is about $13.00 and (XL) $15.00. In the lunch time, there are many customers in this shop but inside the shop, there are some tables and chairs. We can eat there and enjoy pizza immediately. They also serve salads, appetizers (Fried calamari, meatball, mozzarella sticks...) and subs.
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Marisa's Place
5 Schuyler Corners, Route 20 & 155,
Guilderland, NY 12084
TEL (518)464-9900
Mon-Thu 10:00am-9:00pm
Fri&Sta 10:00am-9:30pm
Sun Closed
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