Restaurant Review: 2.5

Summer time makes me crave good food and good people, and being out in the city definitley finds opportunity for some great eats. Somehow, I've found the extra $$ to fund this little hobby, but all for a good cause :)

Restaurant 1:
A few weeks ago, a girlfriend from college came in for a short and sweet little visit (Hey Jessie!!). I love having friends visit, especially now, because my I have a great group of college girls in NY but we all have our own lives and schedules and it's hard to get together - much harder than living in the same [pink & purple] house :) :)

So in Jessie's honor, we made reservations at Bond ST Sushi. They have a great upstairs restaurant, as well as swanky downstairs lounge. The lounge was perfect for us because with this many girls, our appetites are all over the charts. Sometimes going to restaurants and having everyone order just appetizers or just wine makes for an unhappy waiter. Ironically, this time around we all could not resist the amazing looking menu:


Tuna Avocado Tartare



Spicy Yellowtail



Mish-Mosh of delicious food


Amazing girls


Restaurants 2:
So part of my busy schedule the last month has been....APT HUNTING! I wish I was exaggerating in saying that it was slightly miserable, but - alas - it was painful. However, after mis-matching schedule conflicts, broker lies, $$$$, lots of walking/emails/phone calls to strangers and strangers apartments, we finally found a place! We felt like this a few times along the way, so we continuously decided to treat ourselves to a glass of wine/nice dinner to celebrate. This included one stop to Barbounia. The photos are beautiful on the wall and the decoration of the restaurant and the food was great! However, I think their AC may have been broken (??) so slightly uncomfortable, especially close to the kitchen!
Still we ate a really good meal to celebrate our new apartment and new roommates!


Munching food


Charred Octopus with shaved fennel salad, mint,
grapefruit & extra virgin olive oil


Red Snapper Ceviche with Tabbouleh, cherry tomato, cilantro, olive oil & lemon juice


Restaurant Review .5


Finally, what is a good meal without a great dessert? Especially with this ridiculous heat wave that has been coming through the city, some cold ice cream always does the trick. However, it's nice to throw a little curve ball in there and try something new right!? I stumbled upon this place in Hoboken, NJ called Miami Rice (creative name huh?) It's all these different flavors of rice pudding!! Flavors like Pistachio, Cinnamon Bun, Apple Pie, Canoli, Plain, Chocolate, etc. Then...there was gelato flavors - which you could mix and match with the rice pudding...and THEN there were toppings! Like graham crackers, chocolate candies, syrup, cereals, gummies galore.
Apparently some avid fans had created their own combinations that became so popular they got their name and recipe on the board (ummm yes please?)


Our two creations:
"Pistachio Bashio": Pistachio Rice Pudding, Vanilla bean gelato, graham crackers
"Holy Canoli": Rice Pudding, Canoli gelato, whipped cream, chocolate fudge, sprinkles

Holy Cow - a must visit :)

That's all for now folks - restaurant week is coming up so I'm hoping to get some more good ones in! Stay coooool

San Francisco loving

I feel like my posts are getting few and far between but between work, friends, summer and sunshine I'm finding less and less time to sit in front of my computer! So I could feel guilty but really I'm still having a fabulous time and while my eating and workouts have potentially slacked from the way they used to, I don't think that I've lost all of the good habits that I picked up when I first started the blog, and I"m still feeling good!

As I said before work has been rather hectic and traveling has definitely been a part of it. Going back and forth between NYC, Boston and San Francisco is something that I'm still getting used to but just trying to make it as stable a transition as possible right now. I recently just returned from amazing San Francisco! San Francisco is pretty well known for their thai and asian food and so I did my fair share of testing the fare - and let me say it was de-licious! A few recommended spots in case you ever make your way out there:
1. Ozuma Sushi
2. The Slanted Door

and most importantly...

3. In-N-Out Burger! I'm normally not a big fan of fast food burgers but this was actually really good! I think probably because they toast the buns :)

Other than the spectacular restaurants, I was able to utilize the hotel menu a few times also

(Oatmeal with walnuts and bananas for breakfast)

- not to mention the mini bar staring at me for a few days. Man those prices are multipled by 5 what they should be, it's insane!
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Until next time..!

Time Flies when you're having fun!

And its the end of another fabulous yet very tiring weekend....
This weekend started off with a little get together at one of my co-workers apartments in the West Village. He has the cutest little set-up in the back with a patio and little antiques hanging up on the fence, lots of foliage, and christmas tree lights hanging up!

Seriously, I need either a patio or rooftop in my next apartment - ah what a wonderful life that would be :)
I stayed around to relax a little after a busy week and have a drink (champagne actually) with some work friends, and [obviously] munch on the lovely spread that he had out.


I only stayed about an hour or so and then rushed home to eat a quick dinner and go to bed. I was getting up relatively early for a Saturday for this:

The Healthy Kidney 10K! I did this race last year, my first 10K, and really enjoyed it, despite the intense rain that started right away. This year however was absolutely beautiful weather :)
I haven't run 6 miles, without taking a mini walking/water break in a while so I was definitley nervous. However, the adrenaline and gorgeous Central Park surroundings really get you motivated and I ended up with a PB of 53:13! I was very excited :)

Having a great workout like that in the morning definitely kicked my butt for the rest of the day (after walking about 3 miles in addition home and running errands) so I napped up and rejuvenated just in time to celebrate with Sushi & Sake for lovely Erica's bday!! Happy birthday bebe!!