My oldest sister Sonia got me a gift certificate to Institute of Culinary Education for my birthday. ICE now offers a new series of classes on food media. Since I constantly feel unprepared, instead of taking a cooking class, I choose “Start Your Own Food Blog” by Brooke Parkhurst.

Myself and Brooke. Did I mention that Brooke is an absolutely stunning blond.

Some tips from the workshop:
• Conceptualize your angle and unique slant.
• Start with a free server such as Blogger or WordPress.
• Post short post and post often – ideally 5 times a week, but at least 3 times a week.
• Create a separate email account from your personal contact.

I had already started Restaurant Baby when I took the workshop, and I am in no position to hire a website designer or to find an editor (topics that Brooke touched on). My main take away from the workshop was to get a Restaurant Baby email (restaurantbaby@gmail.com) and twitter account. Do you have twitter? Let me know your user name so I can follow your tweets.

To celebrate my roommate David’s birthday, we went right up the block for some fine French cuisine.

Amuse bouche: tomatoes, shrimp ceviche, with smoked bacon

Appetizer: Scallops with Cauliflower, Eggplant and Mornay Sauce

Salad: Beet terrine with goat and honey walnuts

Entrée: Seared duck breast with spaghetti squash, and orge beure noisette sauce

Entrée: Rack of lamb with Tuscan bean ragout, yellow squash and olive currant sauce

We went to get dessert afterward from a local bakery. I’ve heard desserts at L’Artiste are delicious as well.

L’Artiste
42-20 31st Ave
Astoria, NY 11103
(646) 309-7504

Back in July I shared my struggles in taking mouth-watering food photographs. Since then, I’ve gotten some good tips from family and friends. My youngest sister Kim sent me a great post from Vegan Yum Yum on photography.

I’m looking forward to trying out the tips and taking pictures at my new apartment. I have great natural lighting here. What are your photography tips and tricks?

After living in the same Bronx apartment for four years, I picked up and moved to Astoria, Queens. No easy feat – half the battle came in finding a roommate. I spammed my friends, updated my facebook, and search through craigslist. For the last two months, I dedicated a large chunk of time for arranging my current living situation – part of the reason for my absence.

For all you New Yorkers looking for housing – I feel your pain! In the end, I found my current roommate through a friend. I got lucky, but can’t always bank on luck. I admire my friend and a fellow food blogger, Jeff Orlick for addressing this issue by co-creating Roommates Wanted NYC. Jeff saw a problem and is providing a great service.

Jeff and James founders of Roommates Wanted – picture from NYTimes

In my final week of packing, I have boxed my pots and pans up, and stopped buying groceries in effort to polish off the mystery items in my freezer. My diet consisted of either PB&J or bodega sandwiches. With the cost of moving and eating out adding up, I knew I needed to cook – but with what?
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Throw a Sushi Party!

Come prepared to cook at my dinner party. That’s right – you need to work for your dinner. I love involving my guests in the cooking process. It’s a great way to bring people together – an icebreaker before the meal.

A quick demo: Illustrating the shiny side and the rough side of the nori.

Sushi Dinner Party Tips:

• Prepare the rice before guests arrive, and cover with a wet towel. For a large party have multiple tubs of seasoned sushi rice prepared.
• Prepare filling options ahead of time – ingredients should be washed, cut, or seasoned and mixed.
• Assign one person to the cutting board. Have a friend slice the rolls and place them on a platter.

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Classic miso soup combination contains tofu and wakame, but I often use daikon or cabbage. I’m a single working woman. I don’t cook as often as I plan, and eat less than the daily recommended servings of veggies. Putting fresh veggies into miso soup is a great way to get those vegetables in.

Daikon and cabbage last for months at a time. Even if I didn’t get to cooking one week or several months after purchasing my grocery, the daikon and cabbage is still good. Don’t “eww” me.

Miso soup with veggies, rice, and an egg is my quick bachlorette meal when I didn’t get a chance to cook. What is your quicky, go-to meal?

Serve with onigiri onigiri or sushi.

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On Blog Photography

Food bloggers makes posting appear effortless. They create the illusion that they snapped a picture of the sausage ragu from dinner last night, and shared the recipe with us the next day. Lies! Lies! All lies! They didn’t have it for dinner. They had ragu for breakfast! How dare I make such bold allegations?

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Rice ball is not exclusive to Japanese cuisine. On a recent trip to China, we came across breakfast vendors, who sold rice balls. Instead of using short grain rice, they use sweet (glutinous) rice. The fillings range from salted seaweed to various salted and pickled Chinese veggies.

Sonia enjoying her rice ball for 2.5rmb in Tunxi, Anhui China.