Yikes, has it really been 3 months since I last blogged?! I'm sorry to the very few that actually follow... I've been quite busy with school and work and other stuff. However, I do have a treat for the eyes!

This past weekend hubs and I went to New Orleans with a group of friends. The mission of the trip: hit up all the good foodie spots. And boy did we do some damage... to the size of our stomachs, that is.

First, we went right across the street to Mother's. The line was ridiculous, and for each day that we were there, the lines were ridiculous. But we thought the food was only "okay"... so don't base your New Orleans foodie experience on Mother's if this is the only place you visit.

We had the jambalaya, gumbo and three different po boys -- fried shrimp, fried soft shell crab and fried oysters. The gumbo was delicious; this was the first time we've ever had it, and it was really good. A little bit watered down, and more soupy than stewy, but still very good. The jambalaya, on the other hand wasn't good. It wasn't what we thought a jamabalaya should taste like -- too sour and ketchupy. The other thing we didn't enjoy was the oyster po boy -- very fishy and seafoody. The shrimp and soft shell crab, however, were very, very good and fresh tasting. So just stay away from the jambalaya and oyster po boy and you should be good!

Next stop -- CAFE DU MONDE. What's a trip to New Orleans without some beignets, right?

I don't think I need to say anything further right? For those that don't know, a beignet is LIKE a doughnut, but TOTALLY different. It's chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, sweetened with powdered sugar, but not super sweet. It really is the perfect sweet treat.

Deanie's Seafood is up next. It wasn't on a list of MUSTS for us originally; we had really wanted to goto Willie Mae's, but it was quite far from the French Quarter, so after a little search on Yelp, we were directed to Deanie's, which is on Iberville and Bourbon, so perfect for us since we wanted to hang out on Bourbon after dinner.

First, chargrilled oysters. My god. I will NEVER have oysters ANY OTHER WAY. Deanie's does their chargrilled oysters with a lot of cheese and butter. I'm normally squeamish about too much cheese, but this was JUST right. And the perfect french bread to sop up all that fatty goodness.

Next, BBQ Shrimp. This is not the typical barbecue. It's spicy and not at all sweet or sour like most bbq food. I can't even explain it... this was so good that our table felt like they needed a bowl of rice to go with it! And again, that bread... soooo good to sop up the sauce. This was the bbq shrimp for one... can't imagine how big the for two would be.

And finally, crawfish etouffee. This is when I fell in love with it. Etouffee is almost like a gumbo, yet not. And I don't know what the difference is except that etouffees taste just a tad bit better. Trust me on this one! This is definitely comfort food at it's best. I think I would look forward to getting sick of this is what I get to eat.

We also had a Half Seafood Platter, which was a medly of fried shrimp, fish, french fries and crawfish dressing balls. It wasn't "special" so I didn't take a picture of it. And when they say Half Seafood Platter, they really mean family size. It was ginormous!

Lastly, we didn't have room for it, but our friends at another table did. They ordered the Gold Brick Sundae, which is ice cream covered in gold brick chocolate over a brownie with whipped cream. I can't imagine how fattening this is. Or I can but just don't want to think about it.

Stay tuned for the next New Orleans post!

So these past two weekends I've been preoccupied and therefore have not been able to partake in the SMS festivities. Apple Turnovers and Granola Breakfast Cookies can be found at the respective linked blogs.

What have I been doing? Well, we headed down to DC for a fun-filled (and food-filled) 3 day weekend. Crabs and oysters and other fresh seafood... to be quite honest I was getting a little bit sick of seafood towards the end of the trip and extremely happy to be pit-stopping at Pat's for some Philly cheesesteaks.

At Hank's Oyster Bar, we waited a good hour or so for our little table for four. It was a good wait though (and anyways, who wants to eat at a restaurant where there is no wait, right?) We had oysters, sablefish, soft-shell crab and a lobster roll. They also had something special, a Bloody Mary & sake oyster shooter. As you can see, there were only 3 'cause I was the only smart one who thought that the 3 combined was not going to be a good idea. Apparently it tasted pretty gross but was, of course, an experience to be had. The oysters were fresh and only $2 each, which is a lot less than we thought it would be. In fact, everything at Hank's was very cheap. We are so used to these outrageously priced restaurants in NYC that once we step out, we forget that the rest of the world eats at normal prices and portions. I highly recommend Hank's, but be forewarned that you should call ahead to put your name on the waitlist.

Hank's Oyster Bar
1624 Q Street NW
Washington, DC

Next stop, Maine Avenue Fish Market. I searched high and low on Yelp in order to find the perfect "stall" and I came upon Captain White's Seafood City. This place should be renamed Captain White's Seafood HEAVEN. There were fresh crabs, cooked crabs, raw oysters, cooked fish dishes, shrimp... if it lives in the water, they will have it.

We were only interested in the oysters and crabs, so that's the area we went straight to. For a dozen oysters, you paid only $11. That's practically unheard of. We also bought a dozen (which turned out to be 14) large female crabs for $26, and proceeded to the cooking station. We asked for the crabs to be cooked with spice (which is the Old Bay Spice, which is basically synonymous to Maryland-style crabs). There was a long wait; some families bought basket-loads of crabs and other assorted seafood items to be cooked. I really cannot say anymore because just thinking about it makes my mouth water. They are just really, really good. Go. There. NOW.

Captain White's Seafood City
1100 Maine Avenue SW
Washington, DC

On the way home from DC, we stopped at Pat's for some delicious Philly cheesesteaks. Okay, I must confess: I've never even tried Geno's and I already am prejudiced. I just don't like a newcomer coming in and trying to say they're the OG and they're the best. Plus, I don't like how a store needs to use flashy Vegas-like lights to attract attention. If your food is good, it will show. So yes, I'm a Pat's supporter!



This past weekend, I made chocolate chip cupcakes with hazelnut buttercream frosting. Now, unfortunately there are no pictures because I had some issues with the piping and therefore, instead of looking like yummy cupcakes, my frosting looked like piles of doodie :(

HOWEVER, the frosting was really good, so I'd like to share the recipe that I adapted to fit my needs.

Hazelnut Buttercream Frosting
(This recipe was enough for 12 cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter at room temperature (3 sticks)
2 tablespoons of milk
9 ounces of hazelnut spread (I used Nutella)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 cups (more if needed for consistency) of confectioners' sugar

In a mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add the milk and in batches, the hazelnut spread. While this is mixing, add in the vanilla extract. Once this has all been mixed, add the confectioners' sugar in 3 batches, adjusting so that the frosting is to the consistency that you like. Pipe as per usual.

Here is my much prolonged update to my first Tahiti post. Hope this is helpful!

This past January, we spent a week in Beijing (and then a week in Japan). It was one of the coldest vacations we've ever taken, and we are not cold weather loving people :( so it was quite an ordeal, but definitely a memorable trip.

I always knew that we would goto Tahiti for our honeymoon; we didn't know what the venue would be for the wedding and in fact, hadn't even set the date yet, but I knew for sure that I wanted to splurge on a trip to Tahiti. I mean, when else do you get an excuse to blow tens of thousands on a mere trip?

Planning for this trip was exhausting and time consuming, but with each tidbit of information that I gathered in my anal-retentive way, I was hyping myself up for an amazing time. I hope that this mini guide can help others as well. Please note that all information is current as of our June 2008 honeymoon.

Islands: The first question you must ask yourself is, which islands do you want to visit? Tahiti is comprised of many many beautiful islands, some developed, some not. We chose to stay with the more developed islands of Moorea and Bora Bora, mainly for it's range of activities (Moorea) and beauty (Bora Bora).

Flights: I did a lot of comparison shopping with flights from different companies. I first visited Liberty Travel to find out what my options were. The two main airlines that fly to Tahiti are Air Tahiti Nui (ATN) and Qantas, and what made sense for us was ATN. They offered direct flights from NYC only once a week, whereas a direct flight departed LAX on a daily basis. With this in mind, I decided that we would stay overnight in LA for one night and then fly to Tahiti from there, but return to NYC on a direct flight. My decision to stay overnight in LA stems from the fact that I am forever fearful of flight delays that may result in missing our connecting flight, and with an itinerary that depended on an airline that only flew once a day, I did not want to take that chance. After shopping online on various websites (Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, Air Tahiti Nui website), I decided to purchase from Expedia because the rates were practically identical and I am used to Expedia's format.

Now comes my nightmare. I booked my flights - NYC to LAX, LAX to Tahiti, Tahiti to NYC, along with interisland flights (Papeete to Moorea, Moorea to Bora Bora, Bora Bora back to Papeete). Everything seemed confirmed and my credit card was fully charged, as was noted on the website. I went back to the My Itinerary page to check the flights and print out a copy, which is when I noticed that it did not display my interisland flights and noted for me to call Expedia. When I finally got a customer service rep on the phone, I was told that due to a delayed update of the site by the interisland airline, the flights I wanted to book were already cancelled and that I did not have any interisland flights booked at all. If I were to try booking yet again, I may still run into this same problem. There was nothing Expedia could do at this point. I only have the flight into Tahiti and no interisland flights.

I scrambled to find an agency that would book interisland flights for me, and please note that many, many agencies will not book them for you because you did not book an international flight with them. They usually do it as a package deal, where they will book your international flights as well as the interisland flights. I was panicking, but finally found an operator in California who felt compassionate to my situation and went ahead and booked my tickets. In fact, the interisland tickets he booked for me were much cheaper than the price I had originally booked them at on Expedia, so it was a win-win (aside from the minor heart attack I almost had).

I high recommend John, from Travel Portfolio
John Bell, Travel Portfolio
4345 Van Nuys Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
818-907-7981

Hotels: How did I go about picking the hotels that I wanted to stay in? This is one of the most important questions when planning for a Tahiti honeymoon, because where you stay, and what accomodations you choose within that property, will dictate just how many zeros you add to the end of your honeymoond budget. There was no doubt in my mind that if we were travelling all the way out there, we'd splurge for an overwater bungalow. There is no point in going to Tahiti if you are not going to live in one of those beautiful little huts that they are so famous for. You might as well just goto Hawai'i.

We are part of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, where we get points for amounts charged on our credit card, so I decided to stay within the Starwood family for our stay in Papeete and Moorea. We were able to use points for a free night in Sheraton in Tahiti (Papeete) and use points for a few nights stay at the Sheraton in Moorea. However, please note that the Sheraton in Moorea is also very well-known for its amazing snorkeling and after seeing it first hand myself, I would have to agree 110%.

For Bora Bora, I searched long and hard, debating between somewhere luxurious and new (St. Regis) or something that was a little more dated, but always within the top 3 for best hotels in the South Pacific (Hotel Bora Bora). After a discussion with the hubby, we decided to stick with Hotel Bora Bora, and it definitely didn't disappoint. Yes, it's dated; their bungalows are older, not as luxurious, less amenities (there is no television, no fridge) but it has such charm and beauty, not to mention the staff is top notch. (Picture on the left depicts their activities center, with the amazing view). Each staff member remembered our name, the activities desk would remind us each day of what we had planned, the food was simply AMAZING and out of this world.

Next entry: Activities, Food and Sightseeing in Tahiti