omgNY's Mangotini recipe!

It's Friday! Happy Friday all, time to get the weekend going! Now, us girls at omgNY are weekend warriors, but classy nonetheless. No... we're not redbull and vodka kind of gals.

Here's my recipe for my Mangotini. Proceed with caution, it's refreshing tropical goodness with swallow you whole.

1oz. Malibu Coconut Rum
1oz. Bacardi White Rum
splash Triple Sec
splash lime juice
1/4 cup Naked Mighty Mango Smoothie
splash cranberry juice

Mix everything together, served on ice or strained into a martini glass.

I absolutely love Naked Smoothies so I tried to incorporate them into mixed drinks as well.

the end result... Mango trouble on the rocks.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Venetian Shores Long Island: a review

No work to do, no errands to run, no friends around today... What to do?

Let's go on a bike ride!

So I packed all of my crap (towel, Gatorade, book) and biked down to Venetian Shores in Lindenhurst, Long Island.

This place is my go-to for time-killing in a beautiful setting. It's the endpoint on my usual bike route. It's where I get to see old people dancing to cover bands on a random weeknight.

You have to be a Town of Babylon resident in order to access the beach. But since I am not a Town of Babylon resident I simply ride my bicycle.

 

 

This place gets pretty crowded, especially if there is live music at the pavilion which during the peak summer months there's always a pretty decent band playing. The drinks are strong (pina coladas!!!) and you can get food there as well (typical beach food but pretty refreshing if you've been baking in the hot sun)

 

 

The beach is picturesque. I lay out on a towel, snap a couple of pictures, and then Kindle it up for a an hour or so. I could do without the guys driving their cars past me, blasting obsolete ballad bands.

 

 

 

If you're done cleaning and doing laundry, and feel like the world is passing you by, you can go down to Venetian Shores, and kill some time soaking up the sun and watching people play hookey from their 9-to-5's.

 

Venetian Shores Park - Lindenhurst

Throwback Thursday.... Doing Three Things I Have Done Before

On Thursday, I decided to experiment with the concept of solo dining. With plans already in place to visit my boyfriend at work (and see a show) where is a sound guy at Mercury Lounge, I headed to one of my favorite brunch spots in the city, San Marzano. I love pizza and they offer unlimited mimosas at brunch (+500 points). I have been there several times before for my favorite brunch (in case you didn't get the gist), dinner and/or late night snack, so it remains unsure that what follows can be considered a review as I already know San Marzano is the shit.

I rode into lower Manhattan feeling like Swan from The Warriors because the J train I was on seemed to have crawled out of 1970. After trying to decipher decades old graffiti and being amused by two dudes who got on the wrong train at Marcy Ave, I arrived at my destination. I plopped down at the bar and ordered my favorite, the Caprino: fontina, goat cheese, caramelized onions, shitake and button mushrooms, roasted garlic, thyme and white truffle oil. I always order this one with honey on the side for dipping, as per a suggestion by a good friend with whom I went to San Marzano for the first time. Every time I order this dish and ask for honey, the waiters seem confused and always say something like "that's interesting." Perhaps they should try it, and then I have no doubt in my mind that it would become a staple and then I wouldn't have to special order it. I had barely read one chapter of Game of Thrones before I was able to have this calorie fest.

I ate the whole thing by myself.

Next, I headed west towards my favorite bakery in the entire world, Sugar Sweet Sunshine. They need no introduction with better cupcakes than Magnolia at half the price, and banana pudding that will literally knock your socks off. I couldn't get a good shot of their cases because the sun was setting and they have pretty ambient lighting inside, but I did notice this blast from the past that they were using to hold straws. Love it.

Cupcakes in hand, I headed over to Mercury Lounge. Some crappy band blaring and the new bouncer didn't know who I am. Finally, around 11pm, the reason I ventured into Manhattan, Reggie Watts took the stage. I spent my college years in Lower East Side basement comedy shows produced by my friends. Reggie Watts was often an opening act and I had seen him several times before, but it was super interesting to see him in a sold out venue where many of these people were obviously huge fans. His set was fun, but at 5'4" and stuck in the back next to the sound booth, this was what my view looked like.

The show was fun, but Reggie performed for nearly two hours. I was over it after 90 minutes. After a post-show bag of bbq pop chips and three shots of tequilla, with my boyfriend and his work friends, it was time to call it a night.

San Marzano - 71 Clinton St, NYC

Sugar Sweet Sunshine - 126 Rivington St, NYC

Mercury Lounge - 217 E Houston St, NYC 

Ginza Long Island: a review

I never, ever, Ever say no to a sushi dinner... or lunch... hell I've even had it for breakfast on occasion. One random weeknight I got the craving.... that indescribable urge to gorge on raw fish. There's something simple and perfect about sushi (and my personal favorite, sashimi). On the way back from the mall we passed an enormous and intriguing building, sleek and modern and completely out of place for the neighborhood that we were in. Screw it, let's do this.

 

So here's my brutally honest review of Ginza, in Massapequa, NY.

 

 

Very first impression... (holy crap, this place is Huge.) Dark and industrial with Japanese accents. Off to the side there's a cool looking bar with what looks like large egg-like seats dangling from the ceiling. The host didn't say a word, and ignored us while taking a to-go order on the phone (not even a head nod in acknowledgement). Soooo turned off by this! A restaurant has very little control over the amount of people that walk in the door that night, so when they do, they should be friendly and welcoming. The apologetic waitress then led the way to the sushi bar. This place was seriously busy, even late night on a Wednesday.

 

 

My boyfriend and I, when dining at a sushi restaurant, always opt to sit at the sushi bar. Not because the food is any different than sitting at a table, but rather, for the experience of watching your food being prepared and engaging in casual conversation with the sushi chefs. These chefs? Oh they were soooo not in the mood for chatting. Stone-faced, fingers flying, I almost felt the need to apologize for distracting them. Not a good look, in my opinion.

 

 

 

We sit down and wait for our drink order to be taken... After what seems like Forever (only 15 minutes, but that is forever in the restaurant world) we finally flag down our waiter. What pissed me off the most is that he had the audacity to tell us that we need to order everything in one shot because the kitchen is closing. I get it, I do. I understand that kitchen's do, in fact, close, and their employees do, in fact, need to go home. However, we wouldn't have been in that predicament had the waiter made first contact 15 minutes ago. I'm not a math genius but the numbers add up... right?

 

What I must say is that their food was A+. We got the wonton seaweed soup, Vietnamese salad, shumai (really good) and softshell crab app. Everything was tasty and the food came out really quick. My chocolate razz cosmo was Amazing.

 

After that, we split a plate of sushi. Pretty standard order, we didn't go crazy. Just the basics to judge if a sushi restaurant is passable or not.

I always judge, in particular, the preparation of smoked eel sushi nigiri, and they did it very well. Ginza did a very good job in terms of preparation and presentation. We left in a food coma. Good job, Ginza.

 

 

My finals thoughts for this place?

"Maybe we should have stopped in earlier"

"Ahhhhh the shumai I'm having a religious experience"

"Good food, not the best service"

"Will come back, probably when it's not so crowded... Maybe around 5pm with all of the old people"

 

 

Ginza - Massapequa

 

Not So Lonelyville...

Every spring, New Yorkers come out of hibernation and eagerly await Memorial Day weekend. This is when it becomes acceptable to schlep an hour and a half on the train, then take a cab to the ferry terminal and wrestle your overpacked weekend bag, groceries and possibly a small mammal onto the boat and be transported to another world in only 20 minutes.

Fire Island is one of my favorite summer hobbies; it really allows one to get back to the basics: bikes, booze, board games, and sand in your butt. I am lucky enough to have chosen a man friend whose family owns two houses over there so I get to squeeze in a pretty fair amount of beach time every summer.

When visiting Fire Island, most people head to the party towns (The Pines, Cherry Grove, Ocean Beach etc.), but I frequent Lonelyville. Yes, you read that right. Lonelyville. With the exception of holiday weekends, the beach here is pretty laid back and not crowded. Lonelyville is a place of freedom (in Ocean Beach it's against the rules to walk around with no shirt on. please...)

On Fire Island, everything seems okay. It's perfectly fine to ride your bike past Tina Fey's summer house on your way to Pioneer Market in Fair Harbor where you will spend upwards of $30 on Tate's Cookies, corn, asparagus, and olive oil. No big deal on both counts. We're all barefoot and I can eat as many hot dogs as I want and not feel guilty because I have my high waisted bathing suit bottoms.

That's me running backwards on the beach.

On Fire Island, you will find lots of stressed out New Yorkers not stressed out. Inevitably, we get bored and need to win at something. This weekend, I chose to attempt to catch up on my Game of Thrones reading so that I can be caught up by the time season 4 comes out next year. As I paired this task with spiked blueberry lemonade, I made it about 15 pages before falling asleep.

Fire Island is also a time for grills. I discovered that one can grill things even though the cooking instructions say not to (take note, Trader Joe's). Feast your eyes on our final dinner: apple almond stuffed pork chops, asparagus, tomatoes, crispy polenta cakes, bread (all of the above on the grill), red wine and salad. And yes, those are lobster xmas lights.

The morning after, it was time to take the ferry back (which is always much less exciting), go back to Brooklyn and settle into a post-Lonelyville depression of looking for new jobs. I still have not unpacked.