dinner at megu midtown

Last night we celebrated my dear friend Gaea's birthday at Megu Midtown. Most of us had this on our "Restaurants to Try" list so we were pretty excited. But frankly, it was largely a let-down. Service was extremely slow, inattentive and rather unrefined. At the prices they charge, you would think the servers would be trained to put dishes in front of the person that ordered it. Half of our party had at one point worked in restaurants so the fact that they failed to do such a basic thing really irked us. Two people splurged on the Omakase but did not seem to find it worthy of the $180 pricetag (See Pattie's recap of the Omakase at her scrumptious blog, A Slice of Pattie). For me, the only noteworthy things served were:

1. The uni and quail egg sushi. I have not had uni since coming back from my Tokyo trip out of fear that I would just be incredibly disappointed at the quality of uni served here. But the uni at Megu was absolutely fresh and devoid of that fishy taste. It was just silky and delicious, and the creamy taste was enhanced beautifully by the quail egg yolk. Just YUM. It's $11 for just one piece but well worth it if you worship uni as much as we do.
 
2. The Megu Kobe Beef Slices “Ishiyaki” ($34), which you grill on a hot river stone yourself. This  was pretty darn good. The meat was incredibly soft and really needed no flavoring. I subtract a few points though because the waiter actually forgot to put in this order, which happened to be the birthday girl's! Tsk tsk, tut tut. Lucky for them, it's a dish that doesn't need cooking so they were able to rush it out to her pretty quickly. This was light years better than the lamb chops that I ordered, which were cold by the time they got to me. I realize that lamb chops need to be rested to keep the juices in the meat, but my dish was just sitting out too long, IMO.

3. Dessert. This plate of heaven was served up for our birthday girl (but charged to us for $25—no birthday freebies even at this restaurant of supposedly high standards). In the end, we didn't begrudge them the $25 because it was a truly delicious pile of desserts. The mini chocolate souffle, the green tea cake, the banana-flavored mille-feuille, the cream puffs, the little chocolate cubes, even the ice cream and sorbet ... every bite was just scrumptious. But I still begrudge them the rest of the money I paid for the largely subpar meal.

In the end, we consoled ourselves by saying that at least we'd checked this off our list and could move on to other restaurants. But would we come back? Probably not.

today i'm loving: maria sharapova for cole haan

Saw this picture a few days ago when I was walking past the Fifth Avenue Cole Haan store. Maria Sharapova is seriously hot. What I would do for those legs! That tan! And oh ... those shoes!

The Maria Sharapova collection for Cole Haan is getting cuter and cuter! There are gladiator sandals, edgy cutout booties, chic ballet flats and sexy pumps, all spruced up with Nike Air technology to make them that much more comfy.

I'm extremely tempted to get the Air Gwaltney OT Pumps in gunmetal for the September trip to Ibiza. If Sharapova can squat and bake cookies in them, I can certainly dance my butt off in them all night long, yeah?

The only problem with these shoes is that they cost a pretty little penny at $198. Will have to stalk them until they go on sale.

I wish I'd been more committed in my quest last week for black ballet flats with good cushioning. Because of my recent running ambition, I'm trying to wear shoes that have more support. My pain management doctor says that my ankles are weak, so I really shouldn't eff with them even more. I was hoping to find some Cole Haan Nike Air flats when I went to Macy's in Jersey Shore last Sunday because I had some Christmas gift cards to spend. I didn't find any and ended up getting these Dolce Vita flats, which while gorgeous, are not the most comfortable flats ever. They kinda hurt actually. Even with gel inserts put in. Sadness.

Lesson learned. Stick to the game plan next time, Missy.

to veg or not to veg?

I've always been an indecisive one, but I think the vegetarian experiment has made it worse, diet-wise. I'm completely confused. I miss the light and fresh feeling of being a vegetarian, but it's just SO GOOD to succumb to all the meat dishes that I love. I spent Easter weekend with family down by the Jersey Shore. One afternoon, I'm turning down a prosciutto-stuffed sandwich for one with grilled vegetables. The next I'm inhaling Filipino-style pork barbeque ...

  

I come back to the city and say I'm totally over meat, after the ridonkulous amount of turkey consumed on Easter Sunday. So Monday night, I go for a vegan pizza with Jacob at Whole Earth Bakery. But come Tuesday, I'm inhaling the super delicious bo luc lac at Saigon Grill. Wednesday rolls around and I brave the line at Shake Shack with Bianca only to skip the ground beef patty for a shroom burger.

Clearly, I'm utterly confused. But on the upside, I have been eating a lot of good food, vegetarian or not.

reunited and it feels so good

I'm sorry I've been neglecting this blog a little. This week was a big one at 30 Before 30 with two things getting knocked off my list. I also had Spanish finals, started running, and have just been all over the place basically. But today I have something yummy for y'all. Yesterday was my first day back on meat, which was quite a change for me. I had some butter chicken for lunch, which I wasn't too keen on, reinforcing the idea that I should really just eat meat when I know for sure that what I'm having is good and stay veggie otherwise. But this was totally worth going back to meat for. Hello my darlings, how I've missed you!

I got a little too excited and asked for 3 orders of Joe's Shanghai's crab and pork soup dumplings. For a party of 6. Whoops. We ate it all though. As well as all of this:

I had the greens (for old time's sake hehe), loooads of yang chow fried rice (oh juicy shrimp, I missed you!), and some of the fried shrimp (below). But I passed on the salt & pepper pork. I actually did not feel like eating it at all, which just goes to show how going veg changes your eating habits. 

My friends did some insane food tripping while I was on my vegetarian diet, which I was very sad to miss. So I'm making them go back to a lot of these places. I'm really excited to go to Sik Gaek Chun Ha, that Korean restaurant in Flushing where Anthony Bourdain ate still-moving octopus. Check out my friend Pattie's blog post on their experience. I'm all for consuming still moving food, as you may already know from reading this blog.

I may never go back to consuming meat at a pace rivaling a T-Rex. But I have to say, it feels good to be eating some of my favorite things again!

prix fixe: vatan

To the readers who follow this blog for the crazy eating sprees, I'm sorry for the lack of food posts as of late. If you've ever wandered over to my 30 Before 30 blog, then you already know that I'm currently on day 25 of my vegetarian month, which explains the lack of foodie posts. I have to say, the vegetarian experiment has thrown me into a bit of conflict. On one hand, I get so much joy from trying all sorts of food and it's been sad turning away from a majority of dishes because I can't eat meat. On the other hand, I've never been happier with the way my body feels and looks. The past 25 days of shunning meat and doing Bikram yoga everyday has allowed me to get rid of so much pesky flab, and I'm happy with how toned I've gotten. Moreover, I've never felt so clean and light. My digestive system is definitely much more pleased with me this month than say, last month (see bone marrow madness, Fatty Crab insanity and GETE food coma).

Last night, however, I learned that pigging out is not limited to carnivores. I went for a vegetarian Indian dinner with Amanda and Zoe at Vatan. I knew about the $25 prix fixe dinner, but I had no idea that a meal for one would be hefty enough to feed a family of three. I'd glanced at the menu briefly and thought, oh great, such a great variety of choices. Uhm there are actually no choices to be made because they serve you every single thing on the menu. See that loaded up tray on the right? That was just the appetizer thali. (Apologies for the poorly-taken-with-an-iPhone picture but you get the idea) They served us eight different appetizers: chana masala (chickpeas with onions and coriander), muthia (steamed flour with spinach), khaman (puffed cream of wheat flour cakes), mirchi bhajia (fried hot pepper with garam masala), sev puri (potatoes, chickpeas, yogurt and chutney in crispy bread), mini samosas, batatavada (fried potato balls in chickpea flour batter) and ragda patis (potato cutlet in white bean sauce). My favorites were definitely the sev puri and those little samosas. I loved the flaky crunchiness of the sev puri against the creamy yogurt. The baby samosas had a nice spicy kick and just totally satisfied my yen for something fried and crunchy. 

I didn't finish my appetizers because I wanted to leave room for entrees, but it didn't really matter because I was still incredibly stuffed by then. I mean, that platter of apps is already way more food than what I normally consume in one meal. So I was extremely intimidated when they laid down the entrée thali. There were also eight different dishes on this platter! My favorite, hands-down, was kheer, a mildly sweet rice pudding flavored with saffron and dry fruits. In conjunction with the kheer, I ate a whole lot of puri, the puffed whole wheat bread (can you say carbo load?). The slightly spicy papadams were extremely addictive, as well. I just kept  dipping the puri and papadams into the various bowls that contained toor dal (boiled lentils in Indian spices), ful-cobi (sautéed cauliflower and green peas), batakanu sak (potatoes in red gravy), chole (chickpeas in tamarind and garam masala), and bhaji (sautéed spinach and corn). I probably didn't take more than 3 bites of each because I was so full. I did wipe out every bit of the kheer though—it's that yummy. Oh and did I mention that they also served us complementary pulao (basmati rice with peas), khichdi (lentils with rice and vegetables), and kadhi (soup with yogurt and chickpea flour). Just in case that platter wasn't enough.

Dessert was a relief because there was just enough stuff on the platter. The homemade mango ice cream was just delicious and that masala chai tea was just what I needed after all that food. There was some crumbled sweets on the side too, though I'm not entirely sure what it was. I pretty much stuck to the ice cream and tea because that was all I had room for.

It was just what I needed on a day when a few co-workers commented that I looked tired and pale. I realized I hadn't been getting enough protein and iron. Coupled with my daily Bikram practice, my energy was just fully depleted. This feast of protein-rich dishes was just what I needed. When I went to Bikram this morning, I definitely felt the difference. I was stronger and had so much more energy.

I would definitely recommend this place to vegetarians looking for a truly satisfying meal. You definitely get your money's worth at Vatan!   

Vatan is located on 409 Third Avenue (between 28th and 29th Streets). Tel. (212) 689-5666