Lady Liberty

Liberty House, Jersey City, NJ

This post is a bit late, but last month I had an amazing dinner with Wil, and my sister and brother-in-law (Christine and Eddie) for Valentine's Day. As much as I love dressing up, I usually prefer hole in the wall restaurants to high end, trendy places. I love eating from street vendors, mom and pop eateries, and true home cooked food. But of course in honor of Saint Valentine and in honor of a day of free babysitting (courtesy of my parents) we wanted to do it up.

Wil and Eddie planned a romantic dinner at Liberty House in Jersey City, NJ. This venue is famous for its beautiful views of the NYC skyline since its right along the Hudson River. But what makes it a diamond in the ruff is its impeccable view of the Statue of Liberty. Romantic views, great food, wonderful company, an amazing husband,all made for a night to remember.

Wil, Christine, Eddie and I enjoying our 3 course dinner. (at first glance this picture looks like a split screen duplicate)I enjoyed a delectable fish entree (sorry for flash)

How adorable are these heart shaped desserts - a perfect ending to a perfect dinner.

Chinatown

On of my absolute favorite stops in NYC is Chinatown. I don't know. I love how crowded it is there. I love the colorful stands and street vendors. I love getting a good bargain. I love the awesome food. I feel like i'm in another country when i'm there. I almost feel like i'm back in Singapore again - probably because I haven't been to China yet. lol.

It was fun walking around holding Wil's hand. I think its because we don't get to go out often without the baby. My parents watched Gabe that day so we were able to do the couple thing :) We walked around, did some shopping, got some bubble tea, ate at a hole in the wall restaurant and ate Hot Taho while sitting in a mini park in Chinatown - my kind of date :)

(i'm wearing jcrew shirt, target leggings, louis vuitton tote, michael kors gold watch, jcrew rhinestone bracelet, david yurman pearl earrings, Zara belt, ray ban sunglasses)

French Cuisine

All of the food in Montreal was amazing. Pricey, but hey, we were on vacation right?

Our first night we had a little welcome dinner at L'aromate Bistro - a great french bistro walking distance from our hotel in downtown Montreal.

Since we were a large party we had a semi private seating area which was nice. The only bad thing about having a large party was a limited menu - but i'm still not complaining because the food was amazing. For starters I had the "inspiration of the day." It was small flecks of salmon mixed with linguine and arugala. I wish i saved the menu so i could describe this dish more in depth. But trust me, it was very good.

For the main course, I chose the fish - it was an almond crusted type of white fish - again, sorry can't remember the name of the fish - but it was nice a light.

It came with asparagus, mushrooms and wild rice - very, very good. I of course had to have dessert. I think all of us girls did. Naturally many of the girls leaned towards the creme brulee - i didn't order this because of one key word on the menu, "spiced" creme brulee. Thank God i didn't because most of the girls didn't like it. I think its just an acquired taste. There were 3 mini bowls of creme brulee. - one of them i know for sure was ginger flavored........seriously. Then we came to find out that the french really like to experiment with spices and herbs in their meals -including dessert. I say stick to sugar and cinnamon for dessert. :) What i did end up ordering was a small sampling of different chocolate desserts. Again, it came with 3 - the first was a white chocolate type of cream/pudding (i do believe there was a hint of spice -but not enough to turn me off), the second was a mini truffle brownie, and the third was a chocolate macaroon. I have to say this satisfied the pregnant lady!

Then for a midnight snack, we all devoured a cake perfect for the occasion made by one of the girls!!

In Old town Montreal there were tons of little shops selling maple syrup, honey, jams, foie gras. You just wanted to buy them all.

For lunch on the second day, the girls insisted i try Poutine. This is like a high end version of disco fries. It was sooooo freakin good. Its a big plate of fries, with a stock based gravy poured on top, seasoned with black pepper and of course, small bits of fresh cheese curds. So Yummy.

Dinner that night was great - it was perfect for the bride to be. We ate at Cavalli's a high end italian restaurant with hot pink and crystal decor.

For appetizer we had olive bread - yes olives baked inside the bread - i normally loathe olives,but i have to say these were good. I don't know if its pregnancy tastebuds or if really the olives north of the border are just different. This bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinigarette was very very delicious. For my main course i ordered a linguine dish with lobster- the sauce was dark in color - i don't even know how to describe it, but it was good. I shared a dessert with my sister and we had this hazelnut breadpudding with chocolate on top and some type of crispy crust. Again, i was very satisfied. :)

To end the weekend, we all had a goodye brunch at a crepes place near our hotel. These crepes was unbelievably huge - again i had to order a savory one (a western crepomelet - it wasa western crepe omelet with hollandaise sauce on top, fresh fruit on the side, and wheat bread.

I also shared a sweet crepe with Cheryl (my dessert buddy) - we had a crepe with nutella and bananas.

Baby and I were happy to say the least.