American Express Dish

If you have an AmEx card, and are not signed up as a "Tastemaker," get your behind to a computer and sign up quickly!!

American Express Dish- New York City

I got a random email a while back inviting me to sign up--I don't know how I was targeted (Ash didn't get the email), but maybe they have some sort of she-only-charges-on-food-related-stuff radar, and figured I would enjoy the program. Which, I do!

Essentially it's a review site, and it currently only includes two cities--NYC and San Francisco. You sign up and can leave and read reviews on your favorite restaurants. My favorite part is that they have a "what to order" question, where you can list any menu items that are particularly good. For the restaurants I've been to, it's been on target for the most part.

However, I don't tell you to join solely because of the reviews. I LOVE discounts, and currently they have an amazing promotion going on. There are about 30 restaurants participating, and if you book a reservation through American Express Dish at one of them between now and Oct. 10th, AmEx will refund 20% of your bill on your next credit card statement. (There are a few that are 25% as well). On top of that, within 8-10 weeks you will receive a $50 AmEx gift card!! So, say your meal is $80 for two people (these are pretty pricey places), with 20% off you would actually pay $64 once you receive your statement, and $14 once you receive your $50 gift card!

You can only get one $50 gift card per cardmember, but I believe you can use as many of the percentage discounts as you'd like if it's within the time period, and the restaurant is participating.

The nice thing is that once you sign up with your AmEx card, you don't have to fill out any paperwork or anything. You just make the reservation through the AmEx Dish site, and then it is automatically taken care of on your credit card statement. (You pay full price in the restaurant, but AmEx will credit your statement.) Note: Be sure to sign up with the AmEx card you charge most often at restaurants, otherwise the site won't track it! You must charge the credit card you sign up with.

I highly recommend the program. I also find myself getting random emails from them on various promotions and cool new restaurants, so you have nothing to lose, it's free! Then again, it only works if you have an AmEx card. (Shameless plug--if you don't, American Express is AWESOME.)

Ash and I will be trying Cesca on Monday night (75th & Amsterdam), and we may take advantage of a few others. However, good reservation times are running out, so sign up and make them quickly!

He's so cute.

I finally went to Buddakan for the first time (thanks Swati!), and was blown away by the decor on the inside. So obscure from the outside, but as soon as you walk in, it's like this never-ending gorgeous restaurant. My favorite dish was the "Wild Mushroom Chow Fun"--absolutely wonderful. We ordered the "Crying Chocolate" and the "Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe" for dessert. The ice cream on the desserts was fantastic--coffee on the first and peanut butter on the latter--so good.

When I got home, Ash was already in bed, half asleep, and asked where we had gone. (It was a wives night--no boys allowed on wives night.) When I told him, he mumbled--"Buddakan? That's an oxymoron. On one hand you have Buddha, who was the epitome of non-violence, and then you have Genghis Khan. What a weird name." Then he turned and fell back asleep. He's so cute.

Email me!

I've heard from a few people that they'd like to be emailed when I post something new, so I looked around for a free service that will do it. On the left you'll now see a spot to enter your email address, powered by "FeedBlitz." If you sign up, you should get an email within 24 hours of a new posting.

Hope that helps!

Fan mail

If you don't know my good friend Atheen, well, you're missing out. Aside from being brilliant and absolutely hysterical, he also has fantastic taste in online reading. Below is the quote he left on my facebook wall:

"I tried the seven-minute kulfi. It took me twice the time because I suck at motor skills, but it was, indeed, pretty amazing!! Your blog rocks."

I'm chalking this up as my first piece of fan mail. :-)

PS- If you care to argue with me about my "brilliant" comment, click here to visit his blog.

7 Minute Kulfi Recipe

Okay, so ever since I posted about the Kool Freeze Kulfi Bars, I haven't been able to find them at Whole Foods. You'd better believe I wrote them a nice email asking (okay, fine, begging) them to begin carrying them again. I used the location finder on the Kool Freeze website, but I searched my zip code in NYC and found that the closest location that sells the bars is in Palm Desert, CA, 2359.37 miles away. (Those lucky CA people!) I then sent an email to the contact person on the Kool Freeze website to find out if any NYC locations that sell the bars, but they never got back to me.

So, I proceeded to google just about every kulfi recipe I could find. Most of them involved boiling milk, reducing it, then adding sugar, nuts and flavor (saffron, cardamom, etc.) and freezing it in molds. I often make kheer (rice pudding), and reducing milk is not something I find enjoyable. However, as I kept looking, I came across a recipe on allrecipes.com that seemed to be way too easy, but the reviews were excellent. As many of you know, I seem to have a problem following recipes exactly. (This is why Priya will always make the best cookies and baked goods.) I can't measure properly, and my hands just throw random ingredients in despite what the paper says is correct. So, I researched a bunch of other easy kulfi recipes, and altered this one slightly. It's certainly not my Mom's kulfi, or the super creamy kulfi served in restaurants, but for a 7 minute prep time, it's not bad at all. (The recipe sounds a bit weird, but it works, I swear!) Below is the recipe:

Super Easy Kulfi (Approx. 8 servings)

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup evaporated milk (I used fat free)
1 8 oz. container of Cool Whip, thawed (I used Cool Whip Lite)
3 slices of white bread with crusts removed (torn into pieces)
2 tsp. rose water
2 tsp. ground cardamom (optional)

In a blender, combine the condensed milk, evaporated milk and cool whip. When combined, add the pieces of bread and blend until smooth. Finally, add the rose water and ground cardamom, if desired. (Ash and Priya can't stand cardamom-- I can't get enough of it.) Then, pour into popsicle molds or freezer-safe containers (I used the small plastic ziploc containers, as I didn't have any molds), and freeze for at least 4 hours. I found that freezing them for around 8 hours made them taste even better.

See? Isn't that easy? Dump everything in a blender, pour into freezer-safe containers, and you're done! The whole thing took me about seven minutes to prepare--the hardest part was waiting for it to freeze. Next time I'm going to try adding saffron and nuts in it as well. (Though various recipes say to add nuts halfway through freezing time, otherwise they'll settle on the bottom.)

I know the recipe sounds weird, but trust me, it's not bad! It's no Kool Freeze Kulfi, but it'll hold me over for now.