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:)

Full Moon

Last night there was a perfect full moon up in the sky in Brooklyn.
And there was a wind so the clouds moved quickly. So I could see many faces of moon:)
But always it's hard to take a good picture of moon.... I tried a few:)
I wish I had better camera last night!!
What I like in Brooklyn is it's so easy to look up the sky.
There is no tall building. I don't look up on purpose but it's always in my sight:)