Tag: New York

The mystical, magical, boobaliciousical Spa Castle

Not to brag (any more than usual on a blog about me, myself, and I) but I had the most wonderful Friday last week. Ryan had to burn through a PTO day that he would lose after this past week and I was sitting on a couple unused holidays so we took off the day and made our way to Spa Castle in Queens.

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photo via tripadvisor.com

Time Out New York always recommends Spa Castle in their things to do section but I was pretty hesitant about a huge bathhouse in Queens with naked (non-coed) sections and little kids running around that may or may not be potty-trained. But at my last hair cut my hair dresser could not stop raving about Spa Castle and as I’ve previously mentioned, one should always listen to Miss Oh-I-hang-out-VIP-style-with-Jay-Z.

Our adventure started with free valet parking (what what!), something they do not loudly advertise, hence us driving around and around looking for street parking before finally giving up. We didn’t even know it was free until they handed us our keys back at the end of the day and moved on to the next customer. Score!

Now, when you check in ($35/person on the weekdays and $45/person on the weekends for full access to the pools, saunas, and resting rooms) you get a watch-looking devise that works as your locker key and your money. While it definitely made for an extremely relaxing and hassle-free day, I was worried about just how much a hassle-free day would cost me. Not that the prices for food and drinks weren’t really easy to see, but buying that last mudslide was a lot easier when it was just a flip of my wrist versus pulling out cash.

yelp

photo via yelp.com

Once you’ve got your wrist band (and additional 21+alcohol band) all situated, it is time to enter into Disneyland for exhibitionists, otherwise known as the locker rooms. This is where I found out that despite the fact that I capped off my senior year in college by streaking through lower campus in just snow boots during a snowstorm, I am a HUGE prude. Everywhere I looked there were girls, either air drying themselves by lying out on the locker room benches in all their glory, or blow drying their hair sans…. anything. I was the only one scampering around in a towel I brought from home (because the towels they lend you are the size of a washcloth.

But Ryan tells me I’m the weirdo / prude / ridiculous one, so don’t listen to me and just go and enjoy yourself in all your nakedness. But just know that your bare buns are not the only ones that have touched the locker room benches.

For those of you inclined to be clothed (and I applaud you!), they issue you uniforms for your time at the spa. Really comfortable uniforms, although not quite the height of fashion, and in predictable pink for girls and blue for boys.

Heading up the stairs from naked narnia you come to what I like to call The World of Saunas (pronounced sow-na’s apparently – the more you know!).

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photo via mslk.com

It was fantastic, there were seven themed saunas in all, from the very hot, never less than 185 degree sauna to the cold, never above 25 degrees sauna, and all the ones in between, which included infrared saunas, gold saunas, and jeweled saunas.

Spa2

And then there were the pools. The outdoor pools were heated and open year-round and the water was absolutely balmy and pleasant. Getting out of the pool into 25 degree weather after being soaking wet however, was not. But not to fear, there was also a sauna right next to the outdoor pools that I scampered into to drip dry in.

Spa1

photo via lookadooinnewyork.blogspot.com

One of the indoor pools also came with a swim up / walk up bar which I used to inhale the aforementioned and delicious (anti-diet) mudslide. They seemed pretty strict on alcohol consumption, as you are limited to 3 per person. So I would suggest you finagling your non-drinking cohort into getting a wristband so you can move on to drinking his allotted 3 drinks once you are finished with your own. You’re welcome.

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photo via lipstickandluxury.com

And last but not least there was the food. There were nachos, corn dogs, dumplings, pizza, salad, you name it. But my favorite was the korean plates up on the top level. Yum.

Spa5

photo via blondieandbrownie.com

Our last stop of the day before heading out to Fu Run for dinner was hanging out in the “resting” room, basically a room full of reclining chairs, where Ryan promptly passed out and I caught up on my tumblr dashboard and inadvertently would punch Ryan in the shoulder when his snoring got too loud.

And after all that, at the end of the day I collapsed into my bed completely exhausted. Man, it’s hard to be a lady of leisure!

Garlic day!

It was garlic day at Stone Barns.  Amongst the different activities and tours they had was an area for “garlic tasting” where you could sample the 6 different varieties of garlic growing on the farm in its roasted pureed form.  Clearly I was a joy to be around after the tasting.  There was one room / building that was dedicated to the curing of garlic (pictured above).  It smelt heavenly… if you like the smell of garlic anyway.

Summer is here!

We kicked off the fourth of July weekend in style by heading up to Stone Barnsfor lunch.  I love this place.  I haven’t been here in a while (probably since last 4th of July) but I really need to go more often just for the lunch!  Everything is made locally and it’s just sooo good.

There’s always a bunch of baked goods, bottled jams and pickles, as well as a salad bar and assortment of open-faced sandwiches (pictured above).

The dismally depressing Red Sox versus Yankee game in summary

Considering I’ve only managed to obtain a total of 5 tickets in my life to see the Red Sox play is it TOO much to ask that they win those games?  I’m not asking for too much am I?  I go to 1-2 games per year.  Just win those games… Puh-lease!!!!!

So here are some moments I caught on camera when I wasn’t busy stuffing my face or crying.

I gotta say, the Yankees do have style.  It’s not everywhere you get to watch the infield sweepers dance to the YMCA.

This is what an amazing comeback looks like.  Too bad no one told the Red Sox to maintain their lead.

Also, one of the good things about watching Red Sox score at Yankee stadium – there are very few people standing to watch the boys come home – so I get better shots on my camera.

For prosperity sake I took a picture of the scoreboard FINALLY showing us in the lead.  Needless to say, I didn’t feel the need to take a picture of the final scoreboard score.

From the day AFTER the last time I was at Yankee Stadium my friend has gone on and on and on about “the best steak sandwich ever” so I am currently standing in the longest line in the entire park in order to see if he is right.

Meanwhile his word of mouth has got around because I bumped into another friend of ours waiting in the same line.

Ivanka Trump and husband, Jared Kushner

Oh holy crap! Guess who I 1) bumped into and then 2) sat right next to during dinner in the Legends Suite Club. She was taller, skinnier, and prettier in real life so I wasn’t 100% sure until I looked up pictures of her hubby and her (like this one) and yup it was them. Ahhh!

Update: I couldn’t watch the game for the first couple of innings cause I was too busy trying to spot her at her seat… I’m such a celebrity stalker!

Dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Basically, this was the fine dining version of the lunch we had the previous day.

The menu was definitely different. It was a listing of the current ingredients they had available on the farm to work with. You could tell them if there was anything you wanted or didn’t want, if you minded if food was served raw, etc. We are easily pleased and said that anything goes. And so a new night of ridiculous gorging began.

I was definitely skeptical of dish number 1. It takes a lot of creamy, cheesy, fatty sauces slathered on top of vegetables to make me eat greens and their just-as-yucky-tasting vegetable siblings so I didn’t think I was going to be very receptive to carrots, turnips, and cauliflower propped on a serving log. But you know what? It was actually REALLY good. There was a slight taste on salt but other than that, it was the freshness of just-harvested veggies that won me over. It was served with homemade golden Yukon and faro chips.

Next were mini beet and goat cheese burgers. The goat cheese they have here is much more mild than what I’m used to and it gave a sweetness to the burgers. I LUV goat cheese but have never had a mild version of it before and I don’t think I would have figured out what it was without the server’s description of the dish beforehand.

Even bread was not a normal fare. It was served with homemade butter, homemade ricotta (so yummy and I’m not the biggest fan of ricotta usually), and two salts: a beet horseradish salt and a arugula salt.

Also pictured behind our bread accompaniments was our next course, warm parsnip soup.

Troutlings (I’m guessing it’s the name for baby trout). Deep fried and sooo fresh tasting.

Spanish mackerel in a lettuce vinaigrette and topped with Swiss chard.

A little too much flash from my camera…  But this was a crazy (and delicious) beet and mache salad with yogurt, pinenut butter, and maple gelee topped with foam.

Maine scallops with fortified pistou (and no, I had never heard of that word before last night).

I got it trouble for using my flash (who knew?!) so it’s back to iPhone pics after this.

Deep fried goose egg. Prior to this dish our server came over with this huge bird’s nest encased in glass and showed us the different types of eggs they were currently collecting on the farm.

Pasta made with goose eggs. We also got into a conversation with our server about one of the newest undertakings going on at the farm: breeding geese in order to obtain foie gras, through natural means.

Lamb and fried polenta.

And now on to the desserts. Starting with a sorbet over some fresh fruit.

Ryan’s dessert included a chocolate AND beet cake.

My dessert was a little more traditional with pineapples.

And lastly…. A little cookie to seal the deal.