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Locanda Verde | New York City

day two of nyc. i fell in love with tribeca (which i just found out means triangle below canal). we met up with my cousins for brunch at locanda verde. sunday was about 85-88 degrees and felt like 150% humidity! although walking around downtown was awesome, it was just rough especially carrying around the 24-70mm lens. i know a lot of people say that it is the perfect walk around lens due to its versatility, but for me (just a “photography enthusiast”), i struggled all day. i didnt take pictures of a lot of things because it was so uncomfortable (sweat city and my shoulder hurt from having the dslr in my purse)! how do photographers do it?! do they have caddies?

taking this picture made me realize how much i need a polarizing filter. even though this has a lot of reflective glare, its one of my favorites. also, locanda verde is a very cute brunch place. definitely try the sheep’s milk ricotta with truffle honey and burnt orange toast! it is amazing! the second thing i would recommend is the lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberries and meyer lemon curd! it’s what they’re known for…and you will understand why.

here is everything we ordered (if you cant tell yet, our trip to nyc was pretty much a food tour. everyone we visited knew we loved food so tried to take us everywhere. brace yourself):

Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with truffle honey and burnt orange toast
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with blueberries and meyer lemon curd
Uovo Modenese with cotechino hash, spinach and tomato hollandaise
Uovo Raviolo with asparagus, english peas and pancetta (there is a surprise egg in this! not loving eggs, i was very surprised when it spewed out)
Lamb Sausage Grinder with spicy peperonata, broccoli rabe & ricott

(more…)

By vivilinh | June 28th, 2012 | Food, New York, Photography, Restaurants, Travel | 7 Comments

short NYC trip – part I

its good to be back home. i had a few meetings in nyc on tuesday so i decided to make a weekend of it with the hubby! we were debating whether or not to do it since it was so last minute. but! the stars aligned perfectly and it turned out to be a very opportune time for us to go: katy (best friend. known her since i was twelve) was there for a couple of days (she has been out of the country for a month now), two of my cousins recently moved to nyc (move motivated by amazing job opportunities), contiki friends were going to be there (these are awesome people), and kyle’s cousin was in town…i’m telling you. perfect alignment.

we were only gone for 3 days/3 nights but we came back (i) 5-7 lbs heavier, (ii) with a combined total of 17 mosquito bites, (iii) with a whole lotta food pictures, and (iv) happy to have seen friends, family, and the city.

part I

meet our gracious host, lauren. it was her birthday early last week and it just so happens that all three of us love lobster. naturally, we went to luke’s lobster on the upper east side to celebrate. how did we find this place? yelp (have i told you how obsessed we are with this site? huge advocate. yelp, linking foodies together one review at a time) a combined 1300 reviews (multiple locations in manhattan). 4 solid stars. we needed to try this place.

verdict: bomb. everything on yelp is true. get “noah’s ark” – lobster roll, crab roll, shrimp roll. it’s pricey, but worth it. make sure you grab a blueberry soda or the mandarin orange soda!

i had to write a special caption for this photo. kyle is strutting my new camera bag (case logic, review to come) around upper east side. reminds me of the brawny man (slightly).

happy birthday, lauren.

By vivilinh | June 27th, 2012 | Food, Friends, New York, Photography, Restaurants, Travel | 7 Comments

Friendship Sessions

meet david. a few fun facts about my friend david here. i’ve known him since 6th grade (more than half my life). obviously he’s one of my closest friends. his nickname is dlow. we used to carpool in high school. we live less than 5 miles away and we barely get to see each other. he loves movies. the end.

its all true…when people say that as you grow up, life gets in the way of some (most) things. here and there i get advice like “dont forget to slow down and enjoy.” i have been in investment banking for four years now (four years in 2 days) and there hasnt been any of this “slowing down” business. however, in the rare and quick moments that i do stop, i always find myself asking where has time gone? i get lost in work (erratic work hours), keeping my life (house) organized and together, family obligations, etc… life happens. although i denied it before, i now admit that more and more, its becoming harder to stay in close, close contact with friends whom i had the privilege of seeing and talking to every single day (yeah, they are pretty awesome and know who they are). insert: my 2012 resolution. be better about keeping in touch.

with that said, i’m lucky to have amazing friends who i am still close with since middle school/high school/college. its amazing knowing someone for that long. they know you and have seen you through your many phases, through your relationships, embarrassments, rough patches, etc. currently, my way of keeping in touch is via happy update emails, monthly dinner dates, random movie dates, birthdays, and holidays…not as much as i would like. to be honest, i wish i saw them every day…had coffee and a muffin with them every day.

ok, back to david. we have not seen each other since march and have been planning a dinner since then. it finally happened and we had a 2.5 hour catchup session. best two hours spent, duh. seeing him prompted this post. he’s the kind of friend who you dont see for months and when you do, its like no time has passed at all. i love it. anyway, i am heeding the advice of others and taking the time to enjoy my life and everyone in it (as my friend pmoney would say, YOLO). to all my friends reading this post, even though i cant give you a hug every day (you know i would if i could), i love you and think you rock. expect a call from me.

xoxo

By vivilinh | June 20th, 2012 | Friends, Life | 0 Comments

Hungry Cat | Hollywood, CA

we received an email from yelp titled “lobster roll roundup.” guess who was the first on their list?! son of a gun! we went there awhile back and fell in love with their #1 lobster roll and #2 fried chicken sandwich! ever since then, we like to compare any consumed lobster rolls to our experience at son of a gun. enter the yelp email which listed hungry cat as #2. we had to go there:

firstly, the lobster roll is ONLY available for lunch. verdict: it was ok. son of a gun is better. the pug burger was also just ok. as shown in the picture above, it was not a eater friendly burger (stacked way too high for even my big mouthed hubby). would we go here again? probably not. with that said, it was one of those restaurants we had on our list on yelp. happy eatings.

Hungry Cat
1535 Vine St
Hollywood, CA 90028
Neighborhood: Hollywood

By vivilinh | June 18th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 5 Comments

sugarfish and pies.

jen and i were really excited for sugarfish to open up in studio city…we have been talking about it for a month now. saturday (last minute) we made it happen! k and i got the nozawa special, which was perfect for two. fish was fresh. everything tasted amazing. we would definitely recommend the blue crab roll. this was also my chance to test out the new 24-70mm lens. so here are a few test photos from us playing with the camera. lighting was a bit dark in the restaurant, so you can tell when we played with the white balance and the ISO settings. after some beers, we continued the night at republic of pie (they have live music every saturday).