Mar 30, 2009

Happy, Oh So Happy, Hour

* Maté Sushi Bar has a great happy hour! $6 drinks and sushi! How can you resist?

* Ozio Cigar Bar has a delish pear martini called The Starfruit. Now having grown up in Sweden where pear flavored everything is popular, this pear martini hit the spot!
* Café Citron: cheap happy hour mojitos, red/white sangria and bar food like nachos, quesadillas and tortilla soup. Salsa dancing too!

I'm on a B...US motherf*cker!

Ok, so we didn't make it onto a boat for a T-Pain-esque ride, but we did get to take a 4 hour New York to DC bus ride! Mucho exciting. I passed out 10 minutes into it. LOL. Although, I did wake up to the small pizza we had gotten from Grimaldi's the night before. Cold pizza. Yumm. Extremely satisfying. Especially on a hot dry boring ole' bus ride.

Fast forward two hours and we are walking up the stone steps to my bff's Georgetown row house. Thank God she has a kitchen...we were running pretty low on money. So we make a little trip to Trader Joe's and pick up some delicious food to cook at home. (yes, we did indeed cook!)



The day after we get there, we wander through Gtown only to find... (dum dum dum): a Pain Quotidien!! Ahhh a cup of French roast helps to brighten our spirits, and off we head to the National Mall for some touristy attractions and beautiful cherry blossoms. Later that night, we head to The Tomes to celebrate another friend's birthday -- and what a crazy night we get ourselves into! This boy is a nut -- a lovable crazy nut. He and his party crew lead us to the Thirds where we dance the night away. Gooood times!

Drinks All Around!

Playing follow-the-leader with out friend's older brother and NY tour guide, we walk up to a random set of wooden doors in the middle of nowhere with two huge bald men in black leather coats out front. What kind of sketchy situation did we just get ourselves into?
-"IDs"
A few blank stares.
-"IDs ladies"
ummmm....ok? We hand one of the bald men our IDs and the wooden door proceeds to open leading down into a dark, but lively bar with leather booths. Ah hah! A bar, apparently. The East Side Co. bar which used to be a speakeasy back in the day of Prohibition. Now the sketchy scene outside makes a little more sense. We are lead into the back of the long narrow lounge area to an open room with knee-high tables and alcoves set in the walls. The dj spins some perfectly picked out jazz tunes while the candles on the tables flicker. A few good (but expensive) drinks later, we emerge from our dark cave to venture on to a club called Fat Baby. A 15 minute wait in the cold gains us entry into a very crowded room with a huge chandelier hanging from its fuschia walls. For some reason, tonight is definitely not the night for this sardine packed love fest. And we are definitely not drunk enough for all the people grinding up against each other. Having been in a relaxed lounge atmosphere, all the pushing, dancing and sweating was too intense. By now, we had made our way down to the lower East side, and a taxi back to the upper West hurts our wallets pretty badly. Oh well...no one said NY was cheap.

Food, Fashion, Happy Hour and Cute Frenchies....(pt2)

Serendipity: the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely (thanks Wikipedia).


OR a delicious and extravagent dessert venue. Kitschy and covered in pink and pearls, Serendipity offers large glass bowls of sugary delights. Known for their Frozen Hot Chocolate (ya, I questioned it too--think a dark chocolate ice blended--or for those Starbucks fans, a Frappucino), yet house an extensive menu of other chocolate treats. A few people around us had these huge sundaes with vanilla ice cream, a big piece of chocolate cake, fudge and whipped cream. How any one person can eat one of those babies all alone, major props would be in order. And perhaps a roll of Tums. Though, to share among friends --yummy in the tummy (as my mom used to say)!


Last on our gluttonous, yet extremely satisfying quest for food is Grimaldi's Pizzeria. I would have to say it was the best pizza I've had in a LONG time. Located right under the Brooklyn Bridge, at 9pm on a Monday night, tables were completely full. And rightfully so! Fresh mozzarella and tomatos on a doughy, think crust made for a delish pizza. Which was well worth it too. I was told it was the best pizza I'd ever sink my teeth into and was coerced into making the half an hour trek across the Brooklyn Bridge in 36 degree weather and wind chill -- well, it felt more like Siberia at that particular moment. The worst part? It wasn't supposed to be near freezing in NY that weekend so I only had a thin Spring coat. Luckily I had a scarf. Luckily. By the time we walked through the glass liquor storesque door to Grimaldi's, our appendages were icy and frozen, red and in pain. But after a large pizza and an extra small pizza to-go (for our bus ride to DC the next day), we hailed a cab to head back to the hotel, completely having forgotten the immense pain we went through in the first place. Sheesh.

(pizza pic taken from realfood.com)

Mar 29, 2009

Food, Fashion, Happy Hour and Cute Frenchies....(pt1)

...what else is Spring Break for??


Let's start with the food...mmmmmmm, just thinking about it makes my stomach growl! For French baguettes and hazelnut spread (possibly better than Nutella...gasp!) that will make your mouth water and make you feel like you could possibly be sitting right under the Eiffel Tower, head to Le Pain Quotidien located throughout NY. And to top it off, make sure to order a café au lait served in a bowl. Trop bon!



Next on my list is Havanna Central located right by Columbia Law. It has a great atmosphere, with a live band and laid back college students looking for some fun. We had their delicious beef stew with yellow rice and black beans. Service was pretty good, and we even received several 2-for-1 mojito tickets. Unfortunately, we never made it back for those mojitos...c'est dommage. But there is always next time!

A few days after Havanna Central, we were out for a stroll when we stumbled upon an Italian restaurant (the name escapes me) with brunch and unlimited mimosas. What a fabulous idea! And a hot authentic Italian waiter? What more could we have asked for at that moment?? About a pitcher of mimosas and a delish omelette later, we are dancing through Central Park looking for our next adventure. A couple of minutes later, some friends meet up with us at the Guggenheim and we do our best to put on a no-we-didn't-just-drink-a-pitcher-of-alc-before-3pm act. I think we pulled it off well. Well...I hope so at least!


Once our drunken stupor wore off, we found our way to our 8.30pm dinner reservation at Les Enfants Terribles. A French-African restaurant with low mood lighting, decorative African art on the walls, and an all French wait staff. Oooh la la! The crowd felt like a bunch of regulars who just so happen to be beautiful and foreign, and who come around to chat and drink wine into the early hours of the morning. Oh, and let's not forget the food...mmmmmmmm chicken tajine with couscous and safron chicken broth. Absolutely amazing! Tasted exactly like the real stuff I had in the markets of Marrakech! Et le dessert? A dark chocolate mousse with champagne soaked raspberries and a flute of Cava. Basically, Heaven on Earth! Now this is my kind of place...just so lively and international with delicious food and drinks (and on a Sunday night too!)

Put your hands up for Detroit!!


Ida Corr at Pacha NY (sorry for the amateur video. I got wayy too caught up in the music to be able to stay still in order to film...)

Ida Corr and DJ Fedde Le Grand at Pacha...sooooo good! The club was packed. Upstairs housed old school R&B and Hip-Hop, while downstairs was an all out Euro Techno/House dance party. Tons of hot European men ;)


daaannncccceeeeee!

The man of the night...the "Brad Pitt of DJs" according to some drunkie next to me at the club. Rrrrrrrrrr
(taken from livesets.tv/music/879)

Hotel Alexander

Anyone traveling to New York on a budget should check out Hotel Alexander on the upper West side. It's a mix of a hotel and hostel, with regular discounts when you book online. We were lucky to find 2 great deals (Sundays are free and there was a 30% discount this particular weekend as well!) $135 for 4 nights. Pas mal. Pas mal du tout. Granted, we had a shared bathroom, but maid service cleaned the rooms and communal bathrooms every morning. Located in a safe neighborhood close to Columbia University and right at the edge of Central Park. Also, two blocks from the metro 1, 2 and 3, so easy access to the entire city. No lock out times, free wifi in the common room and basic cable in the rooms. A few not so great things: the elevator was broken and we were on the 5th floor; doors/walls are thin so I was woken up easily, and well, let's just say we felt like we were in a graphic porno thanks to some rando chick down the hall.

All in all, it was all well worth the $135!!

Day N' Night



One of my favorite places in the world isn't actually on land, but in the sky. It can be any kind of weather down beneath the clouds, but right when the plane breaks through the clouds, it's a beautiful clear sunny day! Absolutely perfect. This is why I prefer flying during the day. And not to mention the fact that sleeping on a plane is painful and uncomfortable, especially when the hot guy next to me decides he should take up all of my leg room and doze off on my shoulder for the entire 5 hour trip. Just because you are hot does NOT give you the right to invade my personal space!! Airplane seats really need to be bigger.

On a more positive note, JetBlue is great! Comfy(-er) seats, free drinks and snacks, good customer service and reasonable prices ($250 for two 1-way flights - one to NY and one from DC). Yey to cheap flights and the start of Spring Break!!

Mar 18, 2009

cracked out on coffee...




this is what school does to you! notice the IV of coffee...how many times have I said I wanted an IV of caffeine hahahah this lil video definitely cheered me up today!

Mar 15, 2009

oooh oui!



Oh how wonderful it would be to be young and in love in Paris...and of course chic! Dream dream dream...

Mar 13, 2009