Tag Archives: soba noodles

A new year and a new generation – 2025

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Happy New Year! 2024 was a busy year as new challenges and adjustments were at the forefront. I’ve been active on Yelp writing restaurant reviews and hitting up hard to get into restaurants. I’m still struggling with Meta, which consists of Facebook and Instagram. This time it’s spammers who wanted to steal my content. I know it’s a very competitive market out there. So, if anyone out there can provide input to help improve this account, that would be great.

Since this is the middle of the week, I began the game plan last night on New Years Eve 2024 with my traditional lucky foods menu. Thanks to Whole Foods and Lidl, I was able to achieve that.  To start, I had my traditional 12 fruits, which I was able to obtain:


Oranges, blueberries, avocado, apple, pear, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, Kiwi, mango, lemon, and lime. That turned out I had 13, well, to be fair. I had 12 pairs of fruits and 1 banana.

For my meals, I search recipes online to find inspiration with the ingredients I had to work with.  So I made the following:

  • Cornbread with bacon and swiss cheese,
  • Biko – glutinous sweet sticky rice with brown sugar, coconut milk and vanilla
  • Sauteed collard greens in bacon fat
  • Honey Chili Crunch Salmon
  • Boiled Soba Noodles
  • Madras lentils

Today, the celebration continues with consuming leftovers and cooking the remaining soba noodles with mushroom and kale.

Check out my posts on Instagram at @tablespoonsandteaspoons. Stay tuned for an exciting 2025.

Social Saturday – 13th Annual American Cancer Society Taste of Hope

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On May 10, 2018, I attended the American Cancer Society 13th Annual Taste of Hope event in New York City. I purchased my VIP ticket at $275 which included a gift bag and early access to the food and festivities.  The event had two honorees:  Sarabeth Levine was this year’s culinary honoree and Chef Antonio Prontelli was this year’s survivor honoree.

My top 5 favorite savory tastings from the event were the:

  • The Smith’s Toasted Ricotta Gnocchi with White Truffle Cream
  • Calle Ocho’s Pastelillos Cubanitos
  • Jing Fong’s BBQ Roast Pork Pastry Puffs
  • Casa Nonna’s Siamese Agnolotti
  • L’Amico Fontina Cappelletti with Wild Mushroom and English Peas

My top 5 sweet tastings from the event were the:

  • Bonsai Kakigori’s Strawberries and Cream Kakigori
  • Loi Estiatorio’s Yiaourti Me Meli
  • Melt Bakery’s Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches
  • Java Melts
  • Frose & Campari Popsicles

Below are images from the event.

There were a lot more stuff at the event. The event set up gets better and better every year. There were a lot of wine tastings, beer tastings and emerging food companies promoting their products.  More importantly a lot of the food tastings were on the healthier side; there were salad variations, ceviches, and barbecued dishes.

I can’t wait to visit these restaurants during the upcoming restaurant week if they participate.  Stay tuned.