Chili-Lime Swordfish

Swordfish is a wonderful protein to cook with - it's meaty holds up well against strong flavors, but it usually requires a fairly simple preparation and it cooks in no time at all. As long as you remember to thaw out a frozen fillet before work (or if you're able to pick up a fresh one before dinner), it makes for a fairly simple and delicious meal with minimal effort! In the summer, swordfish does really well on a hot grill, but when the weather cools it can be equally good in the oven or pan-seared. Most recently, I used my trusty cast-iron grill pan to handle my swordfish. With a quick simple lime and soy-based marination in addition to a rich coconut milk based sauce, this recipe turns out an immensely bright and flavorful fish:

New Year's Eve in NYC: Ramen Setagaya and Spot Dessert Bar

For New Year's Eve this year, Tricia and I decided to take a train down to our favorite place, New York City. While, NYC is famous for the Times Square celebration, featuring throngs of tourists, we passed on that and headed down to St. Mark's Place in the East Village. St. Mark's is an interesting little place, somewhat discordantly decorated with basement bars and trendy eateries in between head shops selling, er... non-food products. We tried out two places: Ramen Setagaya and Spot Dessert Bar. We had scoped out both of the places a few weeks in advance, and were confident that they were among the rare restaurants in NYC that didn't require a reservation on NYE. Below, you can find out why we absolutely loved both places!