Hane Sushi - Stuyvesant Town

So recently, I began working in a research lab and this past week was my first, full week working full-time. And today, a rather sunny Friday, was the most perfect day to have a get-together dinner with some of my fellow student researchers.

Since we each have a different work schedule, we decided to go somewhere close to our labs. We ended up choosing Hane Sushi, a Japanese sushi bar and restaurant between Stuyvesant town an Peter Cooper Village. 

Outdoor seating area.
(Sorry for the badly-taken photo but this was my attempt at sneaking a photo without making the customers who are eating outside feel uncomfortable!)

Le menu!

The menu was quite extensive (especially the sushi menu.)  But fortunately, they had a picture along with a short description for each dish so that was very helpful in getting me through my indecisiveness. But honestly, I was pretty starving after getting out of the lab so everything on the menu looked quite enticing to me!

Dragon roll Eel, cucumber and avocado topped with tobiko

Hane Spicy Salmon
Roll topped with salmon marinated in some "special" sauce

I forgot the name of this dish but it was a roll topped with crab meat and tobiko .

Although people don't usually expect to get dessert at a restaurant that serves mainly sushi and sashimi dishes, we decided to take a look at their dessert menu and were pretty impressed with their unique desserts. I got to try green tea tempura ice cream for the first time and despite its weird name, it was surprisingly delicious! 

Green tea Tempura Ice Cream

The sushi here was pretty good and I really enjoyed the tempura ice cream (come on it's fried ice cream!) So if you are planning a casual sushi night around Stuyvesant Town area, give this place a try!

Yelp Rating - http://www.yelp.com/biz/hane-sushi-new-york

Eda's Birthday!

One of the ways I get to explore little corners of the city is through my amazing friends and I would like to dedicate this post to my friend, Eda, who's birthday just passed this May.
She held a fabulous and intimate celebration on the rooftop of STK, a very chic and sophisticated lounge & steakhouse in the meatpacking district. It's also a hotspot for celebrity-sighting including Cameron Diaz, Kim Kardashian, and Beyonce!
We had a really fun night just lounging, chatting, and sipping on some interesting cocktails they served. Everything was swell, although there was this foreign guy who looked quite drunk and who tried to start a fight at our table. Uh-oh! But all was good in the end and most importantly, we all had a fun and amazing evening in each other's company.

Snapshot with Eda. Her outfit was so cute and glam at the same time!

Champagne toast to the birthday girl! 

The view from the rooftop.

Group Pic! This would have been a great picture if we had normal eyes. 

Thanks Eda for a fun night and happy birthday (again!)

STK website - http://www.stkhouse.com/

Saint's Alp Teahouse - East Village

A casual and quite popular tea house located on 3rd ave and 10th, Saint's Alp Teahouse is one of the top hotspots for students in East village. It's impossible to remember how many times I've visited this teahouse because it's one of those places where you stop by regularly, whether to simply take a sip of their delicious bubble tea or to just get away and de-stress yourself after a brutal exam.

They have pages of menu just for the drinks and a pretty wide selection of food and appetizers as well. The different types of drinks they serve include traditional tea, milk/bubble tea, sorbies, nectars, yogurt drinks, and milkshakes.

Back - sesame milk tea with tapioca, Front - coconut milk tea without tapioca
WARNING - the black sesame in sesame milk tea will get stuck all over your teeth

Left - Almond milk tea with tapioca
Right - sorbie (flavor unknown!) with tapioca

Taro Sorbie!

Matcha with red bean - possibly my favorite drink here

Their food isn't bad either and you'll find a variety of noodle and rice dishes as well as smaller dishes like dumplings and desserts. Their toast is actually really delicious (try the condensed milk toast!)

What you see below is the marianated minced pork in broth with green tea noodles on the left and curry chicken on the right.

Saint's Alp is also a great place to go for a late rendezvous thanks to their late hours. They are open until midnight Mon-Thurs, until 1 A.M. Fri-Sat, and until 11P.M. on Sundays. I remember staying there for over 3 hours chatting with my friends and the servers never gave us the death stare to make us leave that we ended up staying until closing time. I don't recommend doing this since I felt pretty terrible for hogging the space for so long but this just shows that it's a great place to enjoy your food and company without feeling rushed (a pretty rare feeling to have in the city!)

Yelp Rating - http://www.yelp.com/biz/saints-alp-teahouse-new-york 

Kickboxin' like a pro!

For a long time I've been wanting to try a new sport. Luckily, summer break finally gave me the time and opportunity to explore a new activity - kickboxing! 

Actually, my very adventurous and sometimes crazy friend, Jocelyn, half forced me to sign up for a class with her and that's how I got my first kickboxing experience.

The place where we got our lesson was called Tiger Schulmann's Mixed Martial Arts and they seem to offer a pretty wide variety of body conditioning classes. I don't have much pictures to share because I had to put everything away before class (and I'm pretty sure pictures are not allowed anyways.)

Pretty hardcore logo hanging outside their building

This was one of the classrooms.
As you can tell from the stand-up punching bags, this is the kickboxing room.
I sneaked a picture while waiting in the lobby to register.

Kickboxing gloves provided at Schulmman's MMA

The staff was very professional and friendly and the lady who was in charge of registration really tried to help us by asking our purpose and goals for joining their center. I just told her I wanted to try it for fun but Jocelyn was more serious about taking classes regularly. So Jocelyn's friends and foes better watch out because this girl is going to learn to kick some butts!

The lesson was PRETTY intense. It lasted for slightly over an hour and I was pretty much knocked out by the end (not to mention the soreness next morning.) It was a really cool class though, and I would definitely consider taking more classes but as of now, I'm going to stick to my good old jog in the morning.

Since I don't have any kickboxing pictures, here's me goofing off on the street after the lesson.