NYC - Eataly

Before Christmas, I spent a wonderful weekend in New York City with my family. We ate, drank, and shopped our days away. In my opinion, there are few places in the world that can compete with the NYC food scene. One of our favorite stops was Eataly. It is a combination of a gourmet market and food court organized by one of my favorite chefs, Mario Batali. We went on a Saturday afternoon and the place was packed. Eataly has multiple restaurants within it with different themes - pizza, pasta, fish, vegetarian, etc. We put our names down at a few restaurants and ended up at the pasta restaurant, the most Italian of them all. Here are a few pictures but I don't think they do the place justice. If you are ever in New York or in Chicago, I highly recommend stopping by. I think they are even building a location in LA!

We also enjoyed a dinner at Gotham Bar and Grill, which has been on the NYC food scene for thirty years now. The atmosphere was very lively, and the holiday decorations festive. Their food was tasty, but nothing too inventive. Since foie gras is currently banned in California, it was nice to have that incorporated into our meals in New York. Here are some highlights:

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Seafood Salad

Tuna Tartare

28 Day Dry Aged New York Steak

Foie Gras

Muscovy Duck with Seared Foie Gras

Tarte Tatin

Gotham Chocolate Cake

Montreal - Jean-Talon Market

I realize it's been quite a long time since I've posted! Medical school has a way of taking up all your time and not leave room for travel or blogging! Luckily, I got a quick trip in to Montreal last weekend to visit a friend. Unluckily, I forgot my camera at home! My new iPhone 6 had to do. There was no way I couldn't document the amount of eating consumed in these two days...

These pictures are from Jean-Talon Market. The abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables were one of the best I've seen. There were aisles and aisles of fresh produce, along with vendors selling other foods throughout. In about two hours, here is what we ate: We started with fresh squeezed juices as we went through the aisles, tasting a lot of unique plums and other fruits. Then we had a sausage taster that included duck and bison sausages. Since it's oyster season, we then sat down at a bar and had our pick of oysters. This was followed up with a cheese tasting and finally, freshly made crepes - we ordered a chocolate with banana and a maple butter with apple. Last but not least, we bought some fresh macaroons to snack on at home. I think we covered every food group in just two hours...

I'll try to post more frequently from here on out! Hope everyone is well :-)

Shanghai

Here is a picture round up of the touristy things we enjoyed in Shanghai.

We visited the Yu Gardens in Shanghai, a beautiful and once private garden composed of mainly water, where every symbol has its own meaning. I can see how relaxed the owner must have been as he created a very tranquil atmosphere.

 Entrance to the Garden is a bridge with 9 zig-zags

The Bund - the legendary riverside street

 The real city skyline (above) and a model of the skyline (below)

We went to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, a beautiful building that is currently the tallest building in Shanghai, but won't be for long as they are building a taller building right next to it. The building has a square hole at the top and the skywalk, where we took these pictures, is situated at the top of the hole so you are standing on glass looking down. The architecture in the whole city is just astounding, especially considering majority of the buildings were built in the last twenty years.

That's how high up we went!

Shanghai on Dwellable