We all love going out to eat – whether we’re going for a girls night or going on a couples date. It seems to always be the same story – we arrive to the restaurant with a grumble in our tummy and order an appetizer without putting in much thought. But have you ever stopped and wondered how much fat, salt and calories we’re quickly adding to our meal? See below for the WORST apps on the menu to steer clear of:

Cheese Fries

637 calories
42 g fat (19 g saturated)
2,047 mg sodium

Fried cheese is never a good idea, but as a sandwich sidekick, it spells certain disaster.

Cobb Salad

708 calories
55 g fat
1,328 mg sodium

(Order the cobb salad as a MAIN, not a starter)

Buffalo Chicken Strips

730 calories
32 g fat (0 g saturated)
2,940 mg sodium

Another example of how 2 seemingly similar items can be worlds apart in terms of nutrition. We’ve seen worse strips, to be sure, but when you can have a basket of wings for fewer than half the calories, why would you choose these?

Cheddar Potato Wedges

760 calories
52 g fat (16 g saturated, 13 g trans fat)
960 mg sodium

It’s no surprise this side dish is bursting with fat and calories—it’s a plate of fried potatoes topped with bacon and melted cheese.

Chili Cheese Fries

1,240 calories
71 g fat (28 g saturated, 0.5 g trans fat)
2,550 mg sodium

You can almost feel your blood pressure rise just looking at this catastrophe. Too bad it’s listed as a side, gobbling up an entire day’s worth of sodium and half a day of calories before you move on to your burger. This one’s a no-brainer: chili, cheese, fried potatoes. But even a savvy eater couldn’t possibly anticipate how bad these 3 ingredients could be when combined by one heavy-handed fast-food company.

Stuffed Jalapenos (Jalapeno Poppers)

1,950 calories
134 g fat (36 g saturated)
6,540 mg sodium

Tex-Mex cooks are never shy with the salt, but this dish breaks even their reckless boundaries. Each little cheese-stuffed popper contains more than 1,000 milligrams of sodium.

Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip with Chips

930 calories
77 g fat (34 g saturated)
3,130 mg sodium

Sure, there are artichokes and spinach in this dip, but they are drowned in cheese and mayo.

Cheers to making better eating decisions!

Bon Appetit!

XoXoX

Passion fruit bon-bons - Bubbie’s Homemade Passion Fruit Mochi Ice Cream fuse Hawaiian and Japanese dessert traditions.

Here’s a better description: wrapped in a scrim of chewy, slightly powdered rice coating, the ice cream inside is practically smoking with chill (like those gum commercials) on first bite and bursts with a creamy citrusy flavor that proceeds to melt on your tongue in a milky coating. Like most of the items sold at the fancy food show, they’re more expensive than cornflakes. 16 of these dessert dumplings will run you $55 plus the cost of shipping from Hawaii where they’re made. Look at it this way: It’s cheaper than a plane ticket to Maui. (Photo by: Miri Rotkovitz)

Lime Caviar – ABC News’ Sara Moulton directed us to this jewel of the Fancy Food Show.

Described as a mico-citrus, it’s got the tingle of a lime but the irresistible pop-ability of packing bubble wrap. Cracking one of these “finger limes”, grown from California’s Shanley Farms, reveals a coral reef bursting with juicy caviar-textured citrus that pair perfectly with seafood, cocktails or salad. I couldn’t find a price for these but I’ll use a credit card if I have to. You can’t put something poppable in my face and then not let me pop it. That’s just cruel. (Photo by: Shanley Farms)

Ricotta with dates poached in Marsala wine and then gelato-fied
- Gianluigi Dellaccio, quit his day job as a water polo champ (too hum-drum), to turn his efforts to the fanciest gelato offerings on the market. He’s touting a few of his newer flavors (he’s got 200 to choose from) at the Fancy Food Show, but nothing says I speak five languages and raise my pinky when I drink tea, than this ricotta, wine and dates trio. It runs about $6 a pint: totally worth it after a break-up. (Photo by: BrianTropianPhotography/DolciGelati)

Instant Souffle

- At restaurants you have to decide if you want the souffle for desert pretty much when you’re making the reservation. It takes a while. But science has finally remedied the mildly annoying restaurant dilemma. Showing at the Fancy Food fair is “My Cup of Cake” a microwave-ready version of the delicacy complete with presentation cup. Three seconds after you mix the souffle powder with oil and stick it in the nuker you’ve got yourself dessert (for about $21.95) That costs more than at most restaurants but as they say in the ’80s: “time is money”. (Photo by: asprinkleandadash.com)

Key Lime Pears dipped in chocolate

- For $23, 12 pieces of paper thin slices of pear are rubbed with tartly sweet key lime flavor and dredged through dark chocolate and then packaged and sold and shoved in my mouthhole. (Photo by: recchiuti)

Bubbly water with lavender and other ingredients for fancy soaps – How do you take your water? Tap, sparkling or with lemongrass and orange peel? Ayala’s Herbal Water is introducing single-serve sparkling h2O, infused with the kind of things you’d expect to find in an apothecary. Lemongrass Mint Vanilla, Cinnamon Orange Peel, Ginger Lemon Peel and Lavender Mint, make a more elegant choice for spicing up your water than say, Mio. But be warned: A case of 12 single serving bottles of flavored bubbly water is $24. (Photo by: Ayala’s Herbal Water)

Hancock Gourmet Lobster Pot Pie

- Here’s why it’s in the running: chunks of Maine lobster meat soaked in a sherry cream sauce and exploding with a crustacian-shaped, crumbly puffed pastry. You can go to their website and spend about $70 for four pies, primed in an oven-proof ramekin, for baking. Or you can just stare at this photo until you’re brain starts to look like one of them. (Photo by: Hancock Gourmet Lobster)

Hopefully I can get my hands on some of these goodies!

Bonne Appetie!

XoXoX

We were first debating s few different spots in china town but came to the conclusion that T&T was on the top of the list because we can get some ready made food there, as well as pick up ingredients to make the rest of the dishes we wanted – our way.

Here’s what we bought:

• peaking duck
• short ribs
• cabbage sticky buns
• veggie and pork dumplings
• kim chi
• sesame balls
• a package of dry soba noodles (buckwheat noodles)

So everything in our feast was pretty much ready made – we just decided that we wanted to add our own noodles and egg to the kim chi (see the picture above). It was incredible!

BUT I MUST CONFESS that I left the BEST for LAST – all I’m gotta say is that I’m DEF using this spot next time I need a b-day cake or some  DIVA desserts – T&T has the BEST cakes and cupcakes I’ve ever seen! Seriously – my mouth was watering when I was walking through the bakery section!

They look FRESH to def and they taste it too!

There are  a few little high end cupcake shops in town…But I find that they just use a lot of  icing and they’re pretty…but T&T cupcakes are F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!

Look at these Babies!

You can get individual ones, tray fulls of them or cute custom cakes that won’t cost you an arm and a leg!

That’s it for now!

Bon Appetit!

XoXoX

I have seen the light…have you?

This enormous grocery store is located on 224 Hunt Club Road. I could write an entire NOVEL about this place but I think i”ll stick to my favorite corner of the store…DIM SUM. YESSSS. I LOOOOOVE dim sum. I always find myself in search of dim sum and always let down because its mostly served only on Sundays.

Now, I can proudly say that I’ve found my DIM SUM heaven. There’s delicious pre made dim sum to go… and then there’s glorious, absolutely amazing, fluffy, melt in your mouth, FRESH made dim sum that you take home and eat while its hot.

An endless amount of dim sum at T&T...what more can you ask for?

To end, I’d like to state that I’ll be writing more about T&T and focusing on the other magical parts of this store…there is so much variety there that its gonna take more than a few posts :p

Bonne Appetit!