Sapporo

Just a block or two from Times Square is one of the best ramen shops in New York City. Sapporo is on West 49th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, about a block away from the M&M store. Keep an eye out for the red and white awning. Sapporo is a tiny little hole-in-the-wall type place. It isn't listed in the AAA New York City tour book. But the place is amazing. While they do serve other dishes, their main fare is traditional Japanese ramen. My daughter had the Miso Ramen, which is a basic ramen dish with both minced pork and two slices of roast pork. I had the very similar Tokyo Ramen, which added a fish cake and seaweed to the Miso Ramen. My aunt chose the Tomato Omelette and a mini Chahan - Japanese fried rice.

All of the food was delicious. I don't think I have ever had a better bowl of ramen. The best part was the size of our meals. Both ramen bowls were huge. The omelette and chahan were a bit smaller but both of those are listed either as appetizers or side dishes. And the price wasn't too bad either. Overall, we are extremely happy with our lunchtime choice. I was only disappointed the size of my stomach. I really wanted to eat more!

The View

During our first night in New York City, the three of us ate dinner at The View Restaurant & Lounge. We also had their Sunday morning brunch. The View is a revolving restaurant on the 48th floor of the Marriott Marquis. The center area of the restaurant, where the kitchen and hostess area lies, is stationary. However, the outside area, where you are seated, slowly turns to allow you to see many of the gorgeous sights that New York City has to offer. Thankfully, the drink napkins feature a mini-map so you can try to discern which building is which. (Hint: It is not that easy to figure out, even with the map!) While the view from the restaurant is nice, the food is the star attraction. I had the Spring Lettuce prelude (that's a fancy word for 'appetizer') and a center cut tenderloin as my main dish. As I have noted here before, I have a bit of a weakness for salads. The spring lettuce salad featured a line of whipped gorgonzola cheese underneath the vegetables that made the entire dish delightful. My daughter had the same prelude but she didn't like the vinegar-based salad dressing as much as I did. (What can I say, she's 12.) My tenderloin was quite juicy and cooked to perfection. It was accompanied by baked steak fries (basically sliced pieces of baked potato), glazed onions, thyme roasted carrots, and soft truffled camembert cheese. The only reason I didn't finish everything on my plate was dessert.

But first, let's discuss brunch. Brunch handled buffet style. Every adult gets 2 breakfast mimosas then you are sent off to pick whatever you would like. And there are a ton of choices. There are three main stations. The first holds the cold selections. There are a variety of Italian meats and cheeses, as well as breads, pastries, and salads. The second station is hot selections. This is where you find omelettes, Belgian waffles, deep dish pancakes, applewood smoked bacon, eggs benedict...it really is difficult to list everything you would find there. The sheer amount of food is amazing. The final station holds the desserts. The main feature is the chocolate fountain but there are other items, such as mini-cupcakes, cookies, biscuits, fruit, cups of chocolate or strawberry mousse, and much more. I'm generally not a breakfast person but this was an awesome way to start off the day. At $59 per person, the price is a little steep for brunch. It is well worth it though.

And now dessert. My aunt had told the restaurant that we were there to celebrate my daughter's birthday. As a result, we received a dark chocolate mousse cake at both meals. Each cake was almost identical. The only difference was the chocolate piece on top. At dinner, it read "Happy Birthday." There must have been a mix-up at brunch because there is read "Happy Anniversary." (That is the picture below.) Not that the wording mattered much. My daughter gobbled both of them up. The cake itself was a bit big for one person to eat so we shared it. As expected, it was absolutely delicious. It was so delicious that, for our dessert with dinner, we took home two of the smaller mousses as well as a cheesecake. (The dessert came with the dinner so there was no reason to leave it behind.) If you like dark chocolate, I highly recommend the mousse.

chocolatemousse

I fully enjoyed both of the meals we ate at The View. Since it is New York City, expect the prices to be a little on the high side. However, if you can fit it into your budget and schedule, it definitely is one of the "must visit" places in the city.

Subscription Box: Graze

I actually received this box about a week ago. However, I wanted to take the time to have everyone in my family try the snacks before I gave an opinion. I know that I can be picky about my food. A second opinion is always helpful in these situations. grazebox

This is my first box from Graze, a healthy snack company. The plain brown box is designed very simply. The top just shows the company's URL and catchphrase "Snacking Reinvented." The bottom has the shipping label and helpfully tells you to turn the box over before opening it. This is a nice change from some other boxes.

grazewelcome

When you open the box, you find a personalized welcome note. My daughter thought this was amazing. "Mom! It has your name on it!" It definitely makes the box feel like it was made just for you. The note tells you a little bit about the company but the best part is that there is a link where you can rate the food you receive. If there is something you don't like, you won't receive it again. But if there is something you love, you'll get more stuff just like it. There is also a code that you can give to your friends. If your friends join Graze, they get their 1st and 5th boxes for free and you get either $1 off your next box or you can donate that $1 to their charity, the graze school of farming. Finally, you'll find the appropriate nutrition information along with the expiration dates for all of the food in your box on the back of the note.

grazeinside

My box had four snacks. Fruity Mango Chutney with black pepper dippers, Billionaire's Shortbread, Key Lime Pie, and Mississippi BBQ Pistachios. They come individually packaged in sturdy plastic containers. The plastic wrapping tells you exactly what is in each package. All of it is see-through so you know exactly what you are about to put in your mouth.

mangochutney

The first snack we tried was the Fruity Mango Chutney. I knew from the beginning that this would not be my favorite. I don't like mango or pepper. But I still tried it. The pepper dippers had way too much black pepper on it for me. The mango chutney was sweet but not enough to offset the pepper-taste. My husband didn't like it much either.

keylimepie

Second up was the Key Lime Pie, which was actually like a trail mix sort of thing. It contains lime raisins, mini meringues, sponge pieces, and green raisins. Individually, each piece was quite tasty. When you put all of the elements into your mouth, it did taste a lot like key lime pie. Strange but yummy.

bbqpistachios

Everyone in my family loves pistachios so the Mississippi BBQ Pistachios were next on our list. Once again, they were strangely tasty. The flavoring wasn't like barbecue sauce. Instead, it was like barbecue cooked over a fire pit. The result is a smokey nutty taste. Everyone enjoyed it.

billionairesshortbread

Last, but not least, Billionaires' Shortbread. This is another trail mix-type thing. The ingredients are Belgian milk chocolate, almonds, cranberries, and fudge. My family thought this was the most delicious of the bunch. While the food listing doesn't specifically state what type of fudge it is, it tastes like butterscotch. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. It was just delicious.

I found the entire box very interesting. We didn't like every single snack but that is OK. It's good to try new things and this allows us to do that. I really like that you can vote on the food you try to make it a little more custom to your tastes. I'd really like to try another box to see what else they have.

Yacon Syrup

yaconsyrup I received this product last week and decided to give it a try. It is yacon syrup. According to the wikipedia entry it is a "sweetening agent extracted from the tuberous roots of the yacon plant indigenous to the Andes mountains." Basically, it's a sugar substitute made from a sort of potato-type thing. It is currently very popular because it has a low calorie content and rather low sugar levels, making it ideal for diabetics. There was a study in 2009 that a daily intake of the syrup decreased body weight, waist circumference, and body mass in obese women.

There aren't a whole lot of instructions on the bottle. It boils down to "take one teaspoon three times per day." So I did a little Google research. From what I read, it may not be a great idea to start on a whole teaspoon of the stuff right away. Yacon syrup can have a bit of a laxative effect so you may want to work your way up. I started with 1/3 teaspoon and worked my way up. I haven't had any gastrointestinal problems myself. Also, it supposedly works the best if you take it 30-60 minutes before eating. If you decide to use it as a sweetener, there have been reports that the fructooligosaccharides (the sweet stuff) breaks down at temperatures over 248°F so while you can use it as a sugar substitute in your coffee or tea, you shouldn't use it for baking or cooking.

I did not cook with the syrup nor did I use it to sweeten anything. (I don't really drink coffee or tea.) I simply took a shot of the stuff 30 minutes before eating. To me, the syrup tastes like coffee. Other people have said it tastes like molasses but I don't think I've ever had molasses. Either way, it wasn't strong enough to deter me. I can't make a comment on the weight loss aspect yet because I've only been taking it for a few days. It did seem to keep me from getting the munchies after eating a meal so perhaps that is where the big weight drop comes from. In the end, it is an interesting product. I might try to use it to sweeten some tea if I have a sore throat, which is pretty much the only time I drink tea, but I don't think it'll actually replace sugar in our household.

Pittsburgh Soda Pop

Back in February, I told you that we bought a SodaStream. We still have the appliance and we still use it very often. While it seems that a lot of people hate the SodaStream flavors, we really love the sugar cane cola one. There are actually two versions of SodaStream cola - one is labelled "Cane Sugar" and one is not. I'm not sure if that is the only difference but you can definitely tell by the taste alone. Since we are always looking for things to try, I bought six sample bottles from Pittsburgh Soda Pop. The flavors I chose were: Steel City Cola, Black Cherry, Down in the Valley Dew, Orange Cream, Sourball Orange, and Suzie Q's Q-cumber. We haven't tried all six yet but I think we've tried enough to make a decision on this group.

Before we get down to the nitty gritty of the review, you should know the price of the product. The sample bottles each make 1 liter of soda. If you have a SodaStream, that equals one bottle. You can buy three sample bottles for $6.00. The regular sized bottles make about 4 liters of soda and they cost $6.00 each. (Except for the root beer flavors. They are $7.00.) In comparison, the SodaStream cane sugar cola makes approximately 6 liters of soda and costs about $10. Of course, the big difference is that the PSP syrups have to be shipped to you (shipping for me cost about $6.00) where you can buy SodaStream flavors in many stores.

Overall, both my husband and I listed the flavors as "OK." My daughter liked the Orange Cream flavor, but she also likes anything that tastes like creamcicles. The Steel City Cola is probably our least favorite flavor. I'm not sure how to put my finger on exactly what is "wrong" with it. I think that maybe it isn't sweet enough for our tastes. The Black Cherry flavor was for me. While the taste is growing on me, I much prefer the Black Cherry flavor from the local Reading Draft Soda. (I will have to look into getting Reading Draft in syrup form.) The only two flavors we haven't tried are the Q-cucumber and Sourball Orange. Unfortunately, my husband screwed up making the Sourball Orange soda and forgot to carbonate the water first so we won't be able to taste that one properly.

In the end, I would drink these again if a glass was handed to me but I am unlikely to purchase these flavors for my family. After adding in shipping, the price is a bit too steep for regular use and the flavors aren't quite as satisfying as the SodaStream syrups.