Tonight’s dinner was simple and quick. I cooked up some sardines (I really do love the fish guys in Chinatown) in butter and served them alongside some veggies, roots, and miso-tahini dressing. Macrobiotic? For me it is! It’s really all about balance.

Maggie’s Simple Sardines

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 3 whole sardines
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Prep the sardines – cut off the heads and gut them. I promise, this is really easy! Run a slit down the belly and just pull out the gross stuff. Rinse them in water and try to wipe off the loose scales. (Wow, I sound disgusting.)
2. Heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Saute the sardines on each side for 2-3 minutes. You can put a cover over them and cook for another couple of minutes if you’re not sure they’re cooked through.
3. Eat! You don’t have to worry too much about the little bones – those ones are digestible. Just don’t eat the backbone and the bigger rib-like bones.

My veggies included kabocha, purple sweet potato, spinach, burdock, and daikon. The miso-tahini dressing on top is my new addiction.

Onto my day. So work – work is quite awesome. Some things happened last week that were odd at first, but I am really really enjoying my job. Wish I could say more!

My boss ordered lunch for us today from New York Burger Company and I got the “Tropical Grilled Chicken” salad. It was a garden salad topped with grilled chicken, perfectly ripe avocado, fresh mangoes, dried cranberries, and a few stray chickpeas. I used the yogurt-dill dressing and it was absolutely divine. I don’t think I could have asked for a more perfect salad… not to mention the sweet potato fries that rocked my socks.

Something else that rocks my socks…

Is my new project with my friend (and bridesmaid) Kate! Kate and I grew up together. We were both homeschooled (that’s how we met); I abandoned her for public school in the middle of sixth grade, but we remained close. We drifted apart in college and rekindled our friendship when I moved back to the city and discovered she was here. It gets even better – our fiances are good friends now too.

Eat the Damn Cake.

Go. Read. Give us feedback. We want YOU to help us make this awesome.

Happy almost Tuesday!

Last night I made a porgy for dinner. I also made a half of a salmon neck. Here is the porgy recipe… I would say it’s macrobiotic. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though. Maybe it has too many spices.

First, this is a porgy. I get mine in Chinatown.

Source.

Cumin-Tahini-Miso Grilled Porgy Recipe

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 medium porgy
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1/2 tablespoon miso
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Make the marinade. Mix together the tahini, miso, vinegar, cumin, chili, and pepper. If it’s still very thick you can add a splash of water.
2. Prepare the porgy – cut off the fins, the tail, and cut out the gills. I usually have my fishmonger do this, but if he didn’t, it’s actually simple. Use scissors to cut off the fins and tail, and use a small knife to cut out the gills (they are red looking). Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
3. Cut 3 slits (all the way to the bone) on each side of the porgy and coat it (inside and out) with the marinade. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning it once in the middle so that both sides get to sit in the marinade.
4. Preheat your broiler. Broil on each side for ~8 minutes. When you put it on the pan and when you flip it make sure to brush on some more marinade. I try to use it all up.
5. Serve with a grain (white rice pictured here).

You could easily use my Tahini-Miso dressing recipe in this marinade!

I also served a salmon neck – recipe coming soon (so simple). I had most of the salmon and a little bit of the porgy; I wanted Bobby to have most of the porgy because I already knew it would be a great recipe. It was so tender and so perfect. If it weren’t for the bones, I think it would convert a non-fish person.

I forgot to mention that I first learned about porgies in my cooking class with Auntie Jo last week (still have to post about this…). The recipe we did that night was also grilled/broiled, but very different from this aside from the cumin. I honestly think mine is better

Onto my daily rambles…

This morning I went to a macrobiotic talk at Souen in Soho. I did not eat there afterwards because I was meeting up with friends for brunch (at The Mudspot on 9th Street and 2nd Ave – it was really good! The coffee was fantastic). I am so glad I went to this talk (speaker – John Kozinski). He told a new story of macrobiotics that I hadn’t really heard before. I had always focused so much on the macrobiotic diet specifically, but he expanded to talk about balance in life overall.

Some things I learned…

• The only foods you should really “eliminate” from your diet are the ones advertised on TV (from Michael Pollan’s book).
• Even meat is okay, if you balance it out. It should be naturally raised, organic, etc…
• Fish is great. So are beans. Try to have 1 cup of beans at lunch and dinner, or a serving of fish (fish 3-6 times a week). Some good fish are cod, scrod, sardines, small salmon, flounder, and red snapper. Ocean fish are better than lake fish, which tend to have PCBs.
• Most supplements are totally pointless.
• Eat seasonally. Eat natural foods. Eat whole foods.

Oh so many more… I’ll try to keep giving little tips I got from the session.

After the session I met up with my friend, her boyfriend, and Bobby. After brunch Bobby and I headed down to Chinatown again for some cheap veggies and fish. We came back, and now we have a friend over. My dinner was a very macrobiotic meal – steamed kabocha, broccoli, purple sweet potato, burdock, daikon, and lotus root. I put some miso-tahini dressing on top, and finished off the rest of my cornbread from yesterday.

For some reason I’m really feeling the macrobiotic thing. Especially after today, when John emphasized fitting it to your own needs and way of life.

I like rambling. But now I have to go do a bit of work. I’m trying to cut back on my hours, but there are some things that need to get done! Hope y’all had a good weekend.

I have been blogging for 2 years and 3 months. It’s kind of crazy. I can look back and see exactly what I did on various days. I’m going to make it a point to write more about my days… I may or may not include food. I don’t like getting obsessive!

Today I will include food, or at least mention it. I am on a Souen kick (macrobiotic, vegan and vegetarian – but has fish restaurant) and I cannot get enough. For brunch Bobby and I went to Souen in Union Square. I got the Brunch A ($8.50, the best deal ever) again:

• Kenchin-Tofu Drop Soup  - tofu, shiitake, burdock, carrot and watercress in kombu kuzu broth
• Corn Bread (you can also get Spelt Bread or Sour Dough)
• Steamed Vegetables (carrot, daikon, kabocha squash and greens)

Bobby got the Scrambled Tofu with Salmon ($10.50) – Served with brown rice, bread and yam and mesclun salad. You can also get this with Tempeh Bacon for $2 less, but we are not really fans of tempeh. Here is my crappy phone picture:

I shared my soup, took most of my cornbread home, and ate Bobby’s yams. I also had a lot of their miso tahini dressing, which I posted a recipe for the other day.

When we got home we needed to relax, so we went across the street to a spa called Enliven. We got a Couples Massage – 60 minutes for each of us and we were next to each other (screen between us). It was really nice. The spa is very Traditional Chinese Medicine-y and I know they also offer acupuncture and other cool services. They have good reviews on Yelp.

For dinner I made a salmon head/neck that I got in Chinatown (I just boiled it with veggies and dill and miso, but I will post a more official recipe later… when I feel like uploading pictures). I also made a Porgy that I learned to cook at last week’s cooking class (which reminds me that I still need to post about that). And kabocha. I’m kind of giving in to my kabocha addiction again. I fully expect to regain my orange glow.

Now we are sitting on the couch. We watched this week’s Biggest Loser (I am getting a little bored of this show, which seems to be one big long commercial) and I don’t know what else we’ll do for the rest of the night. I think I see more kabocha in my future (sad, but it makes me happy).

Tomorrow’s plans? I am going to try to get down to Souen in Soho at 10am for a talk with John Kozinski, who is apparently some famous macrobiotic dude. Then Bobby and I have a brunch double date with a friend. I think we’ll go to The Mudspot. (Anyone been there?)

What did/will you do this weekend?

This last week has been full of contemplation. I had some really good talks with friends and tried to figure out where I’m going.

Where do I want to be in a year? Two years? Three? I have no idea. But I’m okay with that.

I had my first acupuncture treatment this morning. So far I am very impressed with Nicholas Steadman, but I’ll probably write a more thorough review after I’ve gotten it again (I signed up for another session on Thursday night). I think I am very lucky to have found this.

I think this blog has been heavy enough recently, so here is so food! Bobby and I have been to this Japanese place called East 3 times now. We have definitely learned what to get. The menus have pictures for every dish:

I like to get tea (complimentary) with my meals.

The first time we went I got this grilled broccoli. Kind of a ripoff ($2.50 I think), but very good.

Bobby got this burdock noodle soup with tempura and fish cake things. He said it was delicious and finished it… I got to taste the broth though. Pretty yummy.

The first night he also got this salmon roll ($10?). I’m not that much of a sushi person, but I tried it and I thought it was alright.

I had to get a salad, and this one rocked. It was only $6 and it was huge.

And I got this grilled salmon (miso glazed, $9) and horseradish with some sort of roe. I actually chopped most of this up and put it in the salad – so awesome. If this were cheaper I would get it again (it was a fairly small portion).

The next time we went with my mom (she had been up to help me paint). I got the salad again ($6). It is gigantic and probably the best deal I’ve seen in New York.

My mom got a bento box which came with a small salad and miso soup.

That night I got the chicken teriyaki ($5 something?). Ahh, this was delicious. It came with a piece of broccoli and a piece of carrot.

This was the rest of my mom’s bento box – seaweed salads, rice, salmon teriyaki, tempura, and a roll. I helped her

Bobby got a soup again that night. I don’t remember which one. Or maybe this was the burdock one and the other one was something else. Anyway, this was delicious as well.

And that same salmon roll (I want to say it’s called salmon lover’s).

Then last night we went with Kate and Simon (who just got engaged, congratulations!). It was Salmon Thursday! Lots of salmon dishes were super-reduced, so Bobby and I went all out for salmon. Here are the happy couples:

I got the salad yet again. Bobby got that salmon roll yet again.

Then… I got something called “salmon neck” for just $4. This plate is twice the size of a normal dinner plate. So huge!! It wasn’t all meat though (bones, eyes – you know – the usual).

It came with some horseradish stuff. Bobby also got a natto roll (fermented soybeans – I do NOT like this).

And another ridiculously cheap salmon roll (normally $14 or something, but on Salmon Thursday I think it’s $8).

Wow, what a lot of delicious Japanese food. I would highly recommend East. They have a few other locations as well. Bobby was the mayor briefly at this one, but he was ousted just last night.

I have to go tend to my sweetie before he gets pissed at me for blogging when he came home specifically to hang out with me. Later, pies!

What are your weekend plans? I am going to IKEA!