BIG GAY ICE CREAM SHOP - Alphabet City

Following pride week, I hit up a late night dessert spot located in Alphabet City .

I've heard some good things about Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, like their crazy and creative menu, but boy it's not fun waiting for almost half an hour to get a cone of ice cream. 

And it was a Thursday night around 11 p.m...! 

Waiting in line outside of the shop 

This is the window looking into the shop.
I was very excited by the time I finally arrived  so close to the store.

So all of the items on the menu are pretty special, but the most popular menu I heard is the "Salty Pimp."

Here are the treats before they disappeared into my oral cavity.

Salty Pimp
This is vanilla ice cream & Dulce de Leche & sprinkles of sea salt (which explains its name)
and they dunk the ice cream in chocolate.
 A sweet treat indeed

Cococone
This was just plain vanilla ice cream BUT sprinkled with toasted curried coconut.
I got this one because I was curious to try the curried coconut on the ice cream but  the flavor was below my expectation (I might have set my bar too high for this one though, due to the long line I had to wait in!)

So here is the short summary of my trip to Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. It's definitely worth visiting (many yelpers said a lot of positive things as well) and I would recommend trying the Salty Pimp.

Oh and the workers here are super nice and friendly so do chat with them and ask about their favorite flavor/ recommendation!

Yelp - http://www.yelp.com/biz/big-gay-ice-cream-shop-new-york#query:Big%20Gay%20Ice%20Cream%20Truck

Giorgio's of Gramercy - Flatiron District

A few weeks ago, my sister visited me in the city for a few days. She traveled all the way from State College, PA, and to celebrate this sister reunion, we went to Giorgio's of Gramercy, a New-American restaurant on 21st & between Park Ave South and Broadway.

Originally we planned on visiting Angelica Kitchen, a vegan restaurant serving mostly raw vegetable dishes (we aren't vegans though), but we decided to switch to a completely different type of cuisine where we'll be consuming meat, grease, and everything non-vegan.

Although I think vegan/vegetarian food is great, I'm so glad I decided to try out Giorgio's of Gramercy because we had such a good dining experience here.

Everything was amazing overall including food, atmosphere, portion, and service (almost as important as the food in my opinion.)

Window looking into the restaurant. Looks like the restaurant won high accolades from different restaurant reviewers including zagat and nymag.

Interior of the restaurant near the entrance. The dim lighting and the red interior make the place feel quite cozy and romantic.

The menu here is pretty diverse- I would say it's a mix between American and Italian.

Keep scrolling down if you want to check out what we tried as our appetizer, entree and dessert!

Tuna Tartare
I love their tartare, the saltiness was just about right and the chocolate drizzle added an interesting flavor.
Not for people who don't like raw fish though.

Complimentary appetizer
Not sure what these were but they were tasty finger food

Seared Veal Chop
served with mushroom-gruyere potato gratin and asparagus.
I actually liked the potato gratin better than the veal.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Lobster
This is probably what they eat in heaven. Not cheap ($19) for a pasta plate that's smaller than what you would get at most Italian restaurants but you will thank yourself after eating this heavenly goodness.

S'more Bread Pudding
pudding-like chocolate cake topped with vanila gelato, chocolate-marshmallow, and caramel!

Blueberry Tiramisu
This was the dessert special of the day. It looked so delicious but my stomach was about to explode by the time we got to dessert so we took this baby home and it became our BREAKFAST (worst decision ever to eat this first thing in the morning but I would wake up to this everyday)

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this place, especially if you are looking for a place to have a romantic dinner to impress a date.

Last but not least, what I really like about this place is their service. Our waitress was so friendly and the restaurant manager even came out to see if we were enjoying our food.  Also, there was an old couple next to us and all the workers there, including the manager, seemed to know the couple really well. A restaurant with a staff that remembers and pays attention to their clientele knows how to run a business.

One last thing (for those who actually managed to read till the end), this restaurant very occasionally has online deals on Groupon that will save you $$. I happened to run into one and ended up paying 2/3 the price of the check. But if you use this type of promotion, I would suggest giving a very generous tip to the waitor/waitress (they deserve it!) 

Yelp Rating - http://www.yelp.com/biz/giorgios-of-gramercy-new-york

Edo Sushi - Union Square/Flatiron District

So this was from a few weeks back but my friend and I had been planning to go to the Madison Square Eats, a street festival-like event at Madison Square Park where you can get some delicious food from a collection of local food vendors. 

Well unfortunately, we misread the duration of the event and ended up going there the day after the festival ended. 

Bummer! 

So instead, we went on a hunt for some Japanese food near the flatiron district and we ended up at Edo Sushi, a small Japanese restaurant on 17th and 5th ave.

The interior

The menu here is very typical of a Japanese restaurant (rolls, tempura, katsu, etc.) but at a pretty decent price. 

They also have a lunch bento box which comes with a bowl of salad, fried shumai, rice, and your choice of main dish. I was really craving some crunchy and crispy katsu so I got the bent box with the beef katsu.

The appetizer salad that came with the bento box

The bento box!
It came with 2 layers of beef katsu which was more than enough to get me stuffed.

I would say this was a cute little restaurant with pretty decent Japanese cuisine. Nothing too spectacular but definitely satisfying!

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

Julep Maven

So recently I've been noticing that beauty subscription ads are popping up all over the internet and that there is an increasing number of these subscription companies (Birchbox, Glossybox,  Myglam, to name a few.) For those of you who may not have heard of this program, it's basically a subscription service for beauty products: each month, members receive a box containing different beauty goods (usually sample size products.)

So for those of you who want to see what sort of products are out there, subscribing to one of these services may be a good way to test out different products and discover the ones that you like!

To be honest, I never really cared for these services. But one day, their online ad finally got to me and I decided to give it a try. The company I subscribed to was called Julep Maven and they specialize in nail/hand/foot care products.

This is what the box looks like.

These are what's inside the box: 2 nail colors, a sample size of pedicare cream, and a pair of toe separators

The products I received weren't random because when I was signing up online, they made me take a short test to see what type of 'girl' I was. I got American Beauty and that basically determined the fate of the box I got. (However, I heard that you can switch to a different category if you wanted. I just decided to stick with whatever I got from my test.) 

Here is a close-up of the two polish colors. Pretty!

So overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my first Julep box. But I don't think I'll be continuing with the subscription for a while since I did tell myself that I'll only do it just to try it!