Georgetown Cupcakes in SOHO

Yesterday I went to Georgetown Cupcakes in SOHO which has been opened recently.
They had so many kinds of flavors and it was hard to choose one or two.
This time I chose "Big Apple Crumble" and "Red Velvet".
Big Apple Crumble had real apple in the cake and butter cream had cinnamon flavor with crumb topping. Which was interesting but it was way too sweet for me.
Red Velvet was the most popular flavor they told me so I tried. The butter cream was much better than apple one. So I could tell it's popular there. And while I was there, many people got Red Velvet too.
I always impress how Red Velvet is popular here in US.
But after that my friend who is working close to there told me their "Strawberry" is really good.
So I should try it next time.
It's so fun to see other bakery sometimes. It's fun to see the people work there, customers and difference of our shop. For example they had really interesting system in the counter.
Also I found the fact that Asian girls always used folks to eat cupcakes!! haha That was funny!! :)

The Chew at ABC studio

Yesterday I went to ABC studio to see the shooting of cooking show "The Chew".
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew
It was not the live show so everyone was enjoying the show even their staffs I think.
The one of host and chef Carla was dancing around the studio and the guy who is comedian and warming up person for audience made fun of everything and made us laugh a lot.
Also we took several kinds of applause before the show started. Loud one, medium one, and the last one was first we laugh out loud and after applaud loud.
The show was so relaxed, fun and yummy cooking show.
The theme was "Fast food" and it was so American!!
All the smell made me so starving and after the show I got Sliders for my late lunch.
I went to Martha Stewart show last time but the audience, staff, atmosphere, everything was different.
Martha show was live maybe that's why but everyone was so tense. But this time, I could tell everyone was enjoying the show. And audience was different. At Martha show they were wearing so colorful clothes and more people came to studio from out of NYC. But this show was more casual I think. Which I like better:)
And our seats were just in front of one of cooking stations so I could see how staff prepare food while the hosts were cooking on the other station. And they moved to this station and put them together and finish the plates. It was really interesting.
The show will be on air on February 26th next Monday. I can't wait to see the show on TV again!! :)

Baby shower and cupcakes

Last night there was a baby shower of Stef and Niko for their first boy baby!!
Congratulations, Stef and Niko!!! I was so happy to see your belly is getting bigger and bigger every time and in one month, it will happen!!! Can't wait!!

And I made cupcakes for the party and also I ordered cupcake topper to my friend Sachiko.
She is working as a cupcake topper maker. And for my birthday she made my little topper for me too!!
So when I heard about this baby shower, I just ordered Sachiko and she made just I wanted!! Actually greater than that!!! :)
And I put together her topper and my cupcakes.
That was so fun thing to do. And her topper made my cupcakes much much cuter and unique!!!
She can make topper like this from the picture too. So if you want to have your own topper, your baby's topper, friends topper, just contact her!!! She can make anything!!
http://web.me.com/mimicafeunion/mimicafe_Union/Welcome.html

Also I met many interesting people last night. Nice meeting you, everyone and fun talking with you.

Lucali in Carroll Garden

Tonight I went to pizza place in Carroll Garden.
Lucari
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lucali-brooklyn-3
It was just so good!!
Their menu is just simple.... pizza and toppings.
And BYOB!!
We chose shallots, basil, garlic and portobello mushroom for topping. It was simple and so yummy with thin crust.
We went there 6:00 pm but already it was packed on week day. We needed to wait almost 30 min. After that once people left round 7 but when I leave again it was packed and there were many people outside waiting. Family, friends, couples, many neighbors were there.
Thank you for taking me there, Natsu-san!! I'm sure I'm going back there soon:)
(It was difficult to take a picture because it was so dark there... I hope you can get the atmosphere of there. It was really cute restaurant.)

Pure Food and Wine

Last Sunday we went to Pure Food and Wine to celebrate my coworker's birthday and engagement!!
http://www.oneluckyduck.com/purefoodandwine/
I went to Natural Gourmet Institute and I had to go there much earlier I guess but it was first time to go there. Many classmates of mine went there and also worked there so I heard many things about there before. So in many ways I was so excited to go there.
Unfortunately all the pictures of food was too dark to put here:( But all of them were so pretty plating. And so good.
They were all raw food. It was interesting.  I haven't had Raw food after I graduated school so that reminded me some of classes from there. I prefer warm food in winter though... lol
Also there were many "sake" cocktails. Which was interesting too. Influence of Japanese food culture!!

We had fun talking and eating. Congratulations again, Lori!! And thank you for organizing this, Mary!!
I really love to work with you!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Tomorrow is Valentine's day.
In Japan it's the day for girls to express their feelings and one month later there is the day for boys to give them back their feeling. It's "White day".
But here it's different. Kind of opposite. But I really like this season of the year.
Everyone is thinking of someone else. Isn't it nice? Not only about boyfriend or girlfriend but family and friends!! And some sweets!!!
And once a year I enjoy making these cookies!!
This year I added Spanish and I increased some Japanese words more than last year.
Last year I only made one cookies with "好き" but this year I made "好き", "アイシテル" and "愛" 2 of each.
Happy Valentine's everyone!!

Cookie cakes

There are some cookie cakes what I made these days.
I always get many ideas from the orders from customers.
Everyone has really unique sense of cakes. And they blew my mind sometimes!!

SMILE!!!

Today from the morning I didn't feel well. 

I have been thinking too many things these days and I miss home so much at the same time.

So when I woke up this morning, I didn't want to go work. But I needed of course. So I just woke up and prepared what I always do. When I left home, Chase who is my roommates' cat came to me and said "Itterasshai"(It's like "good bye", "Good luck" or "Take care" ... can be anything... lol)  to me. That made me feel better. And when I went outside, it was chilly and there was still big moon in the sky.

I just talked myself "Be strong!!", "Come on, Ayumi!!" and tried to cheer me up.

It was really busy day more than I expected and a few irregular things happened too.

So my feeling went down and down. Usually when it's that busy I don't take a break but today maybe I looked tired so head chef told me to take a break. And I did with oat meal which my co-worker made for me. That was really sweet and warm. And I realized that now it's so busy for everyone not only for me. 

And working with negative feeling doesn't solve anything. The amount of work doesn't change. So 

I should work with smile as usual!! And at that moment I could change my mind. 

I hadn't felt down much after I started this job so I didn't think about it before. But when I think about everyone who is working there. Always everyone has good smile. That's why I didn't need to feel down before. So I thank everyone for smiling everyday:) This was important day for me to realize very basic thing but important thing in my life.

Now I feel much better. Tomorrow, I need to start work early but I will rest tonight and will be ready for that. And I will smile back to everyone with my feeling of thank them all:) 

Rouge Tomate 2012

Yesterday finally I could go to Rouge Tomate for this restaurant week!!
http://rougetomatenyc.com/
I love this place but it's pricy for me so I always wait for restaurant week.
So this was 4th time to come here but still sooooo good!!!
I had really high expectation but they never make me disappointed.
The soup had salty dried meat, nuts, and sweet pear.
Why they can play with these flavor and texture that good??
Curry one also had really good broth and perfect cooked fish and many veggies.
About dessert, last time I had chocolate cake and it was heavy for me so this time, I chose ice cream and this was perfect to finish this meal!! So refreshing!!
I wanted to try all the menu!! But unfortunately the restaurant week will be over soon!!
I have to wait until next one.... Haha:)