We’re more than halfway through 2021! Wow, I haven’t updated since last December. I thought I’d take some time to catch up on what’s been going on.
But first, look at this beautiful rose garden I stumbled across earlier this year. This is Bon Air Park in Arlington, VA, which features a rose garden of over 120 different varieties.
Another matcha recipe in the books! For a long time, I have been wanting to make a matcha green tea soufflé that I saw from Honeysuckle (aka Dzung Lewis). I obviously adore matcha, and I absolutely love soufflés (chocolate hazelnut is my preferred flavor). Naturally, a matcha soufflé is a must to try for someone like me!
Soufflés appear complicated, but I actually found this recipe to be fairly easy to follow. Dzung had some great tips that helped make the process effortless. I’ve also listed a couple below for your reference.
By now, I’m sure everyone has seen the dalgona coffee craze. It’s a beverage of equal parts instant coffee, sugar, and water whipped into a creamy consistency that’s topped on milk. I’ve made this drink a couple of times and while I personally am not the biggest fan of it (a little too sugary for me), I can’t deny the caffeinated joy the process brings me. Because I love matcha, I decided my next recipe attempt was for matcha dalgona.
Since everyone is making banana bread, I thought: “Let’s make banana muffins instead!” I had a few extra ripe bananas lying around and rather than making the quintessential baked good of quarantine life these days, I decided to bake some banana chocolate chip muffins. Who doesn’t like bananas and chocolate chips together? Absolutely perfect for breakfast or a snack!
Long overdue but I made a trip up to NYC for my birthday weekend, and I had a blast! As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s impossible to get bored of this gutsy and spunky city. The great Frank Sinatra boldly asserted, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” And if that Frank Sinatra sang it, it must be true.
Here is a list of all the places I visited this time around:
Continue reading “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere”
“Manhattan is the other name.”
New York City is never boring. The city is always changing, so fluid and dynamic. I’ve been to NYC over 20 times, and I have yet to explore everything. I doubt you can even explore the same street year after year without some alteration here and there.
I’m planning another trip to the Big Apple next month, but I wanted to share some of my favorite experiences and places from my last visit in March. I try to visit a new restaurant, cafe, or museum every time, so my list has been building over the years. Yelp is usually my go to for finding new and hip places to check out, as well as Eater NY, the Infatuation New York, Edible New York, and Thrillist. I also like to utilize some Instagram food accounts/guides, such as @bestfoodny, @new_fork_city, @nytfood, @eatingnyc, @nybucketlist, @nyceeeeeats, and @nycfoodgals. Do you follow any New York food Instagram accounts and have other recommendations?
There’s a reason why John Hughes shot so many films in Chicago. This metropolitan city is as cosmopolitan and internationally cultured as New York but comparatively underrated. It’s a city that has inspired more writers, innovators, and creators than anywhere else in the world, but it is often forgotten the impact Chicago has on some of the most renowned and famous people – people such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Mark Twain, and Orson Welles.
If you’re unfamiliar with the title of this post, it’s from this popular 1994 Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee by the same name. I love the opening scene (which I wouldn’t recommend watching if you’re hungry, FYI) and it only increases my love for Chinese cuisine a million times fold.
With that on replay, I thought it’d be fun to craft a post surrounding some of my favorite Chinese restaurants to eat in the Northern Virginia area. I’m Chinese by heritage and growing up, I ate 97% Chinese food and 3% everything else. My parents are phenomenal cooks and they make some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Moving away though, I’ve had to find a few other restaurants to fill that gap.
Since I wrote a post about D.C. coffee shops, I thought I’d do the same for matcha in the District too. I find these lists to be really helpful when I have a craving and need to look at a list and/or map of the places that offer these services.
For those unfamiliar with matcha, it’s a finely grounded powder made of specially grown and processed green tea. The green tea plants made for matcha are grown in the shade for about 3 weeks before harvesting (to slow growth and stimulate an increase in chlorophyll levels), and the stems and veins are removed in the processing stage. The traditional way of preparing matcha is either thick (koicha) and thin (usucha) tea. In our modern times, matcha is also used in chocolates, desserts (cakes, cookies, mousse, ice cream, cupcakes, mochi), lattes, iced drinks, and smoothies.
New York, New York. The city so nice they named it twice.
I frequent NYC at least two to three times in a year. It’s a place that you can go time and time again, and it’s different each time. The city changes daily, and I don’t think anyone can really keep up.
The real reason why I was in the city this time was for the 2016 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. I’d never been but always longed to, so I was happy to make this dream a reality. I was able to catch some of the men’s and women’s round 3 matches, particularly Pliskova vs. Pavlyuchenkova, Nishikori vs. Mahut, and Thiem vs. Carreno Busta. The weather was perfect, and it was thrilling to be apart of such a big tennis major.
Tea is always a good idea. Never underestimate the power of tea; it can drastically change your day and your outlook on your list of to-dos.
For a long time, I’ve always preferred tea to coffee. I still do, although I really cannot deny a good cup of Chemex or a perfected latte nowadays. But there’s something about tea that’s so familiar and comforting I just can’t say no to. I think at the end of the day, my heart will always belong to tea.
For a late birthday adventure, I found myself in Boston for a few days of R&R. Boston is a city steeped in history and culture, and it ranks fairly high on the world’s most livable cities. I only spent about two days in Boston, but I was able to squeeze in a bunch of activities despite having less than 48 hours in the city.
alice from va 