School's Out!

So finally, classes are done! I have finished my second year of graduate school! Actually, I still don't know if I passed the comps so we'll have to wait and see...

School always keeps me super busy so I don't pay attention to my blog unless it's an emergency, i.e. Sattva.

But here's like a little recap of some food I've been eating the past few weeks.


I finally got to Turkish Cuisine in White Plains! It's a super cute place with maybe like 3 tables in the back. I guess it's mostly a takeout place but they do have a seated area. I got the cold appetizer platter to go. It had:

Hummus- Good, nothing crazy
Strained Yogurt with walnuts & olive oil
Roasted Eggplant- THE BEST THING IN THE PLATTER!
Babaghanoush- SUPER smokey, and amazing!
Tabbouleh-It had a kick to it, scallions added a nice touch. I love scallions.

And a special request for a falafel landed me a delicious falafel with a cup of tahini :-)
The falafel was hot, crispy fresh, right out of the fryer. It was spiced really well! I would eat it immediately though because it would lose a lot of crunch and deliciousness if consumed "not immediately".

Oh! And guess what?! Did you know Shiraz has a place in the food court at the Westchester Mall?! Yeah you can get their kebobs, falafels, etc at the mall! Our order took a little while but it was delicious! The meat was juicy, and it came with rice, salad, and the grilled tomato!

Also, P.S.- Sattva is still rocking out! Add Sattva on Facebook to get updates! I recently went to her house again for a Sattva/dad's b-day party and all I can say is, this girl is beautiful, spiritual, and talented :-)

Finally... a shout-out to the Japanese American Association.
1. They give me money for school.
2. They feed me delicious lunch at Hakubai Restaurant in the Kitano Hotel.
3. They feed me delicious dinner at the Harvard Club for the JAA Award Ceremony.
3. They bring in celebs!

Hakubai


Harvard Club... Seriously, the food was pretty good!

Guess who met George Takei?! (from Star Trek!)

Ahhh... the benefits of receiving a scholarship from the JAA!

My life is filled with love, gratitude, and most of all wonderful food :-)



Turkish Cuisine
116 Mamaroneck Ave
White Plains, NY 10601
Phone: (914)-683-6111

Shiraz Restaurant
81 E Main Street
Elmsford, NY 10523
Phone: (914)-345-6111
*Or at the Food Court in the Westchester Mall

Hakubai at the Kitano Hotel
66 Park Ave (@ E. 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212)-885-7111

Harvard Club of New York City
35 West 44th St.
New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212)-840-6600
Fax: (212)-827-1270

Eat Locally, Deliciously, and Healthily with Sattva!

Is "Healthily" a word? I guess it is cuz it's not getting spell-checked.

So this is an emergency post... I have multiple other posts that I want to write up, but this one was just too good to keep on my "to-do" list.

Funny Story: Keshari Das and I went to school together at Rye Country Day School. We were friends. We were kinda out-cast-y. I had pink hair. She had her nose pierced. I liked No Doubt. She liked Incubus. We were also both Asian. I=Japanese. She=Indian.

So 2 years ago, I was walking down 2nd Ave, around like, I wanna say 16th street. I passed by this girl who looked really familiar and I swung around cuz I realized it was Keshari! She spun around as well and recognized me! We chatted briefly and said, "I'll add you on facebook!"

We never really talked again. Until last week. When she invited me to join her group for something called "Sattva"... I was intrigued so I checked the page. IT WAS A NEW LOCAL/ORGANIC FOOD BUSINESS! and my good old high school buddy Keshari was starting it! Gosh, was I proud and totally curious!

I also got an invitation for the Sattva tasting party at her house. So of course I was gonna go. Food. Old school memories. Yeah, I'm so there!

Let me just say that I was so glad I went, and I will never miss a Sattva event ever again! The food is serious. Serious. Serious. I loved it <33 Kesahri was adorable. She set up like a little tasting party with all her original creations.
The Foccacia

#1- Pesto, Roasted Butternut Squash, Goat Cheese, Onions, Sundried Tomatoes, Herbs

#2- Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, Pears, Sundried Tomatoes

And now onto the infamous soups:

Melon Soup

Butternut Squash, Pear, Ginger

Carrot Ginger

Some other yummy food by Keshari...

Quinoa salad, some salsa, also a spaghetti squash casserole

And Zucchini Bread!

how fancy: Cucumber Water


How cute is she?!


A lot of the ingredients are grown right in her own garden...


So here's the deal. This is her business, and she's looking to sell her shizz at local farmer's markets (Westchester, Brooklyn, Manhattan)... You can also pick up her goodies at her home in Ossinning, New York. She's also looking to deliver, I think. And she's gonna do the catering thang. Support this local beauty. She's so sweet, and she's so down to earth. You will love her and her food!

So summary is this : Local, Organic, If Not Vegan then Definitely Vegetarian, Delicious, Healthy, Beautiful :-)

Add Sattva on Facebook

Read the Sattva Blog!

Finally, Shiraz

I say finally because I've wanted to go to Shiraz ever since everyone started hyping it up on Chowhound. We went on Mother's Day and it was P-A-C-K-E-D... at 2:30 PM! MAKES RESERVATIONS!

It's a Persian restaurant. I've never had Persian food, but I got the feeling that it was similar to the other Mediterranean food that I've had.

It was absolutely delicious! And the place was like kinda fancy. I was expecting like a bummy little place.


We tried a bunch of different things.
First: Chicken Dip (white one) and Mashed Eggplant-Garlic-Tomato Dip (red one)

With "Naan"---> thinner and lighter than Indian naan

Greek Salad with a Ground Meat Kabob (forgot what it was called!)

I underestimated the deliciousness of Ground Meat!

My brother's Lamb Kabob

The lamb was definitely the best meat! SOOOOOOO incredibly tender :-)

My Mom's Filet Kabob

My Falafel Salad with Hummus

A little bit of a different Baklava... a trio!

1. made with rice noodles

2. made with phyllo

3. made with rice noodles and pistachios

Persian "Snow Cone" made with frozen rice noodles... cherry syrup!

Deliciously fragrant Persian Tea

Andddd..... Turkish Coffee for mom and I


Shiraz Restaurant
81 E Main Street
Elmsford, NY 10523
Phone: (914)-345-6111

Cherry Blossom Festival in White Plains!

I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in White Plains for the first time in my whole life! There weren't any cherry blossom trees but it was very Japanese and therefore very exciting for me! Mind you, I'm very behind on my posts, so this was like May 1, 2010.

Anyways, there was food, fun, and awesome performances.
I would just like to announce now that I want to learn how to play the Taiko (Japanese Drums)!

Look at how freakin' cute they are!

When we got there we got some food, which unfortunately, was yucky. It wasn't there fault though. It was like 289374928374928374 degrees and keeping sushi in an ice box is not an ideal way to preserve it.

Since it was so crowded, we couldn't sit at a picnic table so we found a random table and stood and ate.

We walked around and played some fun games. And bought Japanese Bread at Parisienne, my favorite Japanese bakery that no longer exists in Hartsdale!

They were selling udon but I couldn't imagine it being good because the noodles were like already cooked and sitting in a bowl. And the yakitori looked super dry.

I did some Japanese calligraphy... what a throwback! I used to take Japanese calligraphy lessons when I was like 7!

This is a popular game in Japan... "catching" balloons- yeah we are pretty simple people!

And this one too.. scooping out Goldfish! (I was super violent and impatient so my scooper broke immediately)

And we did the tea ceremony! The women working the tea ceremony were so cute :-)

The candies were homemade by one of the women!


Twas a nice experience! I know I was hating on the food but they could have done so much better! The entertainment, especially the White Plains Taiko group, was great!

And F.Y.I. great place for little kids because they had a blowup castle!

This year was the first year (I think) that they had it in a bigger park. It was at a park on Lake Street called, Turnure Park.