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!

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/