A Laidback Weekend

After a busy week, I was so looking forward to having some down time. The weekend started late Friday night after a rushed visit to Bloomingdales in Whiteplains to buy a dress for an upcoming wedding. After hours of much needed R&R on Saturday, we headed to Brass Mill Center, a mall in Waterbury to meet Nelson's parents. This has been a good half way meeting point for us when we don't have the time to drive all the way to MA. This is a decent enough mall esp when shopping is a only side activity. I managed to get a few things on my list with quick visits to H&M & Victoria's Secret. Besides the food court, only a couple of restaurant choices were available. We had dinner at Bertucci's, an italian restaurant chain that we hadn't been to in ages.

After our usual morning routine on Sunday, we headed to downtown Ossining. We had lunch at Cidade Cafe, a Portuguese bakery that is new in town. A variety of sandwiches and other traditional lunch options were available. I had some chicken empanadas and cod cakes that were freshly fried. Several delicious pastries and cookies were also available at reasonable prices.

To celebrate spring and enjoy the refreshingly cool weather, Nelson took me for a walk on part of the Ossining Aqueduct trail. Now we are determined to find more of the trail near the Hudson on a future date. Our day ended with a drive thorough several neighboring towns before I fell asleep in the car, comepletely relaxed!

Sunday on the West

After a busy week I was really looking forward to a relaxing Sunday with Nelson. It was also Easter Sunday and the blooming trees were a definite indication of Spring. We headed to brunch at West Bank Cafe after Nelson was able to make a quick reservation on Sunday morning. The restaurant was busy enough but very crowded despite the Easter brunch rush. We had a table by the window and were treated to a complimentary delicious bread basket. We ordered typical brunch fare; Scottish eggs (poached eggs with lox) for me and a Croque Madame for Nelson. The plate was very filling with a great salad and roasted potatoes as sides. We were also served another great complimentary item; a fresh fruit smoothie in a shot glass.

We strolled around the West side enjoying the blossoms at the Hell's Kitchen play ground and the Clinton Community Garden. We were headed to the Cort theater to catch the last show of "A View from the Bridge" starring Scarlett Johansson, in her Broadway debut, with Liev Schreiber.
This was the first theater play I've watched on Broadway and I really enjoyed the experience. The city was more crowded than usual due to the holiday weekend. But we couldn't resist walking plaza Rockefeller Plaza and taking a picture of the Easter bunny.

Fun & Flirty Bachelorette Night

I planned one of my best friend's bachelorette party in NYC this past Saturday. The group girls included some from NYC and others coming in for the weekend from Boston. Hence the dinner and pre-party was held at her fiancé’s apartment on the East side. To celebrate the nationalities of the bride and groom we had Indian appetizers followed by a Swedish dinner. I ordered the appetizers from Patang, an Indian restaurant in Yonkers. Despite calling ahead my order was not ready when I arrived at the restaurant. But the prices were reasonable and the restaurant was easily accessible from the highway. The weekend buffet seemed to boast of more dishes than similar restaurants of this type. However, I was not very happy with the quality of the samosas and chaat I ordered. But the other guests seemed to enjoy them. For the Swedish dinner, I ordered sandwiches from Smorgas Chef at the Scandinavia House in midtown. The service was great and the open sandwiches came in individual boxes with green leaf and potato salad. The portions were large and all meals were under $15. Ordering in from the diverse and high quality options available in a city like NYC is a great way to have a dinner on a budget.

After dinner and games, we headed downtown for the obligatory male strip show in light of the night's celebration. After researching a few available options, we made VIP reservations at Hunk-o-mania at Club Element downtown. The VIP reservation, almost $25 extra per person, enables you to walk in without waiting in line. Most of the tables were reserved by other b'day or bachelorette parties. So the early reservation is a good idea to guarantee a table for your group esp. if you have a party of 10 or more. In addition to the entrance fee, everyone is required to pay a $20 two drink minimum. Upon arrival, we were constantly visited by "hunk" waiters who were extremely attentive and eager for tips. The performance was as expected with the hunk engaged in some type of role play (dressed as sailors, bankers etc) before they stripped down to their briefs. For an additional fee ($45-50), the bachelorettes could be put on the hot seat where the hunks performed acts with (or some cases on top of) her. These acts varied in their level of intensity and discomfort to the girl. Some were way too wild and saucy to my taste. To her delight, my friend had a pretty mild run on the hot seat. The music was good and after the two hour show, the placed transformed in to a club with full dance floor. The view of several girls getting lap dances in the open left some scarred memories in my mind!

For the last part of the night we headed to Pink Elephant in Chelsea. But despite having our names of a promoter's list we were asked to pay a $30 entrance fee or get a table for $600. So we moved on to M2 a few blocks away. Luckily, the promoter we were in contact with was present and we were granted free entrance. I really liked this club/lounge. The music was good and we all enjoyed dancing in our corner. The night ended with us hailing cabs around 1.30pm after an eventful night.

Restaurant Week Brunch

The past weekend was wet and cold. It was the perfect time to stay in and catch up on reading and tv shows. Not having paid attention to the weather forecasts, I had made brunch reservations for restaurant week for late Saturday afternoon. The Hudson Valley restaurant week featured so many restaurants that I'd been wanting to try. I chose the Sweet Grass Grill in Tarrytown for brunch. The three course menu was very reasonable at $20 per person. There were three choices for all three courses and we didn't waste any time deciding what we wanted. My chilled spring pea soup with mint and edamame was very refreshing. I was really enjoying this meal but was in for an unpleasant surprise when I found pancetta in my salmon entree. I hadn't noticed the fine print on the menu and was really sickened by my remiss. But the cider donut along with apple ice cream helped me get over the squeamishness of having consumed pork after ages.


Sunday was a low key day as well. We had brunch at the local Landmark Diner and went shopping at Palasades mall for some much needed spring wear. Hopefully, the weather will be better for our action packed weekend in the city next week.

The First Day of Spring

Sunday, march 21st was the first day of spring. We headed to the west side and had brunch at HK in Hell's Kitchen. The place was busy as expected and the noise level was quite high. We were glad when they opened the glass side doors to dissipate the noise and attract some fresh air. Nelson and my friend were quite happy with their meals; poached eggs with smoked salmon and smoked salmon omelette with tobiko caviar respectively. I was a little disappointed with my poached eggs in a red wine sauce over wild mushroom asparagus hash. The vegetables in the watery sauce was more like a soup and was served without any type of bread. I wished that I had stuck to a more traditional choice. In addition to its good reviews, I picked HK due to its close proximity to the Port authority bus terminal. So after brunch, it was a 5 min walk to drop off our friend who was on her way to enjoy her spring break.

MOMA was the next stop on our agenda. We were able to take advantage of the IBM corporate discount and enter for free. However, we were not able to get any passes to the Tim Burton's show which was already sold out for the day. But there were a few other exhibitions that were open to all. I really enjoyed the collection of Monet's water lilies. That really made this visit worthwhile for me. It was our first trip to MOMA, so we walked around starting at the sixth floor. We both enjoyed the more classic pieces compared to the modern work. A collective performance of Marina Abramović's work was also ongoing. The artist herself engaged in a performance that included viewer participation. This was my first experience with this type of live performance and the images of naked people were too raw and disturbing. I enjoyed the sculpture garden and certain pieces of contemporary art such as Projects 92 by Yin Xiuzhen, a leading Chinese artist. Her large-scale sculpture, Collective Subconscious, which is composed of a bisected minivan connected by a long tube covered in a quilt made of found garments was very interesting and introspective. We spent more time on the studio art sections and rushed past the architecture and the drawings floor. Feeling exhausted with all the walking we had chai and dessert at Dean & Deluca at the Rockerfeller center before heading back home.

A visit from an old best friend

One of my best friend's who is in grad school in Boston came up to visit for the weekend. We picked her up from the Stamford bus station on Friday evening and spent the evening with homemade dinner while catching up. On Saturday, the weather was ideal for being outside, sunny but refreshing. So our first stop was to the Croton Point Park a few miles north of us. We were there early enough in the season so the place wasn't too crowded and the entrance was free. We walked by the river and enjoyed the scenery through the leaves were yet to make an appearance. It seemed like an ideal place to sit and read. Quite few folk enjoyed fishing and the atmosphere was very serene. We could see a hint of the Tappan Zee Bridge at a distance.

Most of our afternoon was spent in White Plains where we indulged in some much needed girl time and shopping at The Westchester and The Galleria. Though we tried on lots of outfits we both ended up with just one piece each. For dinner, we headed to an Indian restaurant we have always noted for its ornate decor visible from a distance but have never tried. The Bengal Tiger offered typical North Indian fare. We ordered a couple of chicken curries and a paneer dish. All curries had a thick masala gravy that tasted well with rice. The service was great and even our leftovers were given with directions to reheat. With full stomachs we headed home to vegetate on the couch to recover from all the walking earlier in the day.

Wedding in MA

The weekend after my CA trip was spent quietly at home catching up on the tivo recordings of two weeks and recovering from a red eye flight. But we certainly had our share of driving this weekend as we headed to Jersey City on Friday night for dinner with a friend and then to western MA on Saturday for a family wedding. It is really nice to be able to see friends and family with a few hours of driving, another reason we love living in Westchester.