Food & Drink

Okay, it’s February 11th–are you still looking for a Valentine’s Day gift?! I’ve got some quick ideas for you that any Valentine would love, no matter what your budget is! First up, l’Âge de Thé’s Love Blend loose leaf tea costs only $6 and would be a super sweet way to send your love to someone. It’s a black tea with strawberry, chocolate, and just a pinch of rose petals. And it tastes delicious!

Linda & Harriett put together a Limited Edition Goody Bag that contains a note pad, a box of note cards, a pencil, and a cute little reusable heart bag (tied with a handwritten gift tag!). Of course, the paper goods are the top-notch quality you would come to expect from L&H, and you can choose from a set of designs. The Goody Bag is $26 and would make a thoughtful Valentine, don’t you think?

Lastly, check out Elemis’ Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt. The name is a mouthful, but it’s so worth it. At $48, it’s the most expensive on this list, but oh so luxurious. Monoi is made in Polynesia by soaking frangipangi flowers in coconut oil, and the result is a silky, moisturizing oil that is a treat for your skin. It would be perfect to use for a sensual massage and is nicely fragrant, so I’m sure your Valentine would loooove it. Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

One week ago from today, I was navigating the snow filled streets in the wintry wonderland that is Berlin in January. Not a usual winter tourist destination (and for good reason), Berlin in January is prone to gray days, mounds of unshoveled snow and a bitter wind that makes even the toughest nose run. With conditions like that, warmth takes precedence over style. Luckily, the city of Berlin has its own style to distract from your lack!

I traveled to Berlin on a NYU sponsored trip to study the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. With this theme in mind I visited the legendary Checkpoint Charlie, A Stasi prison facility, the East Berlin Wall Gallery, Berlin’s Underground bunker system, and Livadia Palace in Potsdam where the Yalta Convention was held.  Obviously, the history buff would not be hurting for hot spots to visit in Berlin, and I highly recommend all of the above mentioned sights. However, for those less interested in the Cold War here are my recommendations. With a city as fascinating culturally, historically, and artistically, you really can’t go wrong! (more…)

Flavored waters aren’t new to the market, but most of the time they seem to be carbonated and for some reason, I just never got on board.  However, I recently was introduced to twist, a non-carbonated brand, and was happy to try a few of their flavors. Well, apparently, after trying… I can now say that I do like some flavored waters.

Overall, the packaging for twist is fun, but still upscale and chic. The water itself has no artificial ingredients or preservatives; also each bottle is only 9 calories. (You’d be surprised by how much sugar and calories can be in flavored waters.) One of my favorites is the Mandarin White Tea, which has a hint of citrus, and just honestly is so yummy. (In fact…wish I had case of this flavor at my apartment now!) The other one that I’m favoring is the West Indies Lime, which makes me feel like I’m at a spa — you know, with their fabulous lemon/lime water they serve post-treatment. If you like flavored waters, this is definitely a must-try…and if you’re not, maybe twist will convert you!

The twist brand is not available in all markets yet, but visit www.drinktwist.com for your nearest locations and for future distribution.

Between Thanksgiving feasts, company parties, Christmas cookies, and celebrations with friends, the average American consumes an extra 600 calories every single day between Thanksgiving and New Years! That being said, it’s important to squeeze in as many healthy meals and foods (and workouts!) as possible during this indulgent-filled time, with my personal recommendation of Siggi Icelandic yogurt! (more…)

As I’ve mentioned before (and before, and before), I have quite an addiction to cupcakes. In my mind, no vacation is complete without a cupcake crawl, and I always seek out and plan my route before my arrival. My San Francisco vacation was no exception, as I visited four cupcake bakeries; believe it or not, we even missed a few, and I actually learned there IS such a thing as cupcake overload!

Cako Bakery

Our first stop was newly opened Cako Bakery, located in bustling Union Square. Cako’s interior is minimal and teeny-tiny, so we decided to buy our cupcakes and run. Cako’s cupcakes are huge and beautiful, but overpriced at $3.50/cupcake. I sampled the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake; the peanut butter buttercream topped with crunchy salted peanuts was a delicious combination, but the cake was uninspired and boring. Cako offers many traditional flavors, as well as fun varieties like S’Mores and Andes Mint Chocolate Chip. (more…)

I’m more of a tea person than coffee, and really find that I sleep better at night when I don’t have caffeine.  I’m always on a quest to find yummy tea varieties with fruit blends beyond what my office Flavia machines offer, and Village Tea Company has produced one of my favorites, Sassy Green Tea with Acai, which is a soothing green tea with a citrusy, spicy kick to it thanks to real peach pieces and chilies in the blend.  For me, the challenge in fruit teas has been to find one with just the right amount of sweetness–I like something with just a bit of a sweet taste, that doesn’t leave a cloying taste in my mouth.

To provide a true tea experience, Village Tea Company doesn’t use tea bags but uses loose full leaf tea. To brew your tea, each canister comes with an unbleached, white drawstring bag that you can steep your tea in.  The bag is washable is can be re-used multiple times.  I typically let it sink for about 5 minutes to get a bull bodied flavor.

Village Tea Co features 10 different varieties of tea, each offering different health properties and anti-oxidants, and sassed up with different additional ingredients like strawberry and lemongrass.  I especially like that I can read the ingredient label for the tea and it isn’t composed of multi-syllable chemical compounds I can’t pronouncem but simple all natural ingredients like actual orange peel and ginger.  Each canister retails for $13.95 and you can find out where to purchase it by visiting the website.

So tonight is the live Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (which will air nationwide on CBS on December 2) but what I’m really excited about, of course, is the afterparty.  My invite must have gotten lost in the mail- and if yours did too at least I have the scoop on the food and drink situation in case I ever want to stage my own little lingerie fashion show (but really, they’re good enough for anytime.  In fact I’m jonesing for one now as I write this). (more…)

Ever since reading the NY Times article that was published a few months back about the resurgence of bento box making, I’ve been fascinated with the work that goes into making these homemade lunches.  Bento boxes are small, handpacked lunches in a portable container, that are traditionally Japanese and originated as the classic meal that mothers would pack for their schoolchildren. Don’t get me wrong–I am in no way close to being a mother, nor do I have children (Mom, you can breathe again now.)  I’ve been interested more in the creative aspect of crafting a perfect bento box, which is grade in artistry above a typical brown sack lunch, marrying both design and practicality, to be elevated to a cultural art form.

Using basic food elements, bento box makers are flexing their creativity to make their food nutritious and pleasing to the eye with the construction of edible food art such as onigiri (rice balls) decorated with nori (small pieces of dried seaweed) to look like sumo wrestlers or small vegetables cut up to look like delicate chrysanthemum flowers and bunnies.  Remember the lunch you ate yesterday (mine was a turkey and swiss sandwich on whole wheat bread), and see if it compares the bento lunch given to a 6 year old in the article which contained “teriyaki salmon with peapods, two kinds of sweet potato and golden beet ‘maple leaves.’ On the side: skewered purple carrot discs and a tomato made to look like a frog man. For dessert: a strawberry, champagne grapes, blackberries and a litchi.” Kind of makes the boring company cafeteria lunch of a 26 year old look shabby, doesn’t it? (more…)

As frequent readers of this blog know, I am no stranger to cleanses whether they’re home juiced, purchased, made from powder or simply made up.  The truth is,  as an um “juice junkie” I’ve tried almost everything on the market and in my year of going a few days without food every other month I’ve come to learn quite a bit about these cleanses.  I’ve become a little suspicious that juicing has put me on an addictive cycle- and not in a good way.

Let me explain.  I used to do a cleanse, get off and almost immediately fall back into my old eating habits.  Eat crap for a few weeks, feel bad, crave juice, and get back on another cleanse only to have the vicious cycle start all over again.  This  turned out to be very ineffective for both my wallet and my body.

Nonetheless, when I learned that iZO Cleanze, a popular cleansing company based out of LA, was starting nationwide delivery, I was the first to jump on the bandwagon. I signed up for a 5 day juice feast expecting another few days of yummy tasting fruit and vegetable juices.  The juices are flown in fresh from LA every morning and delievered to you before 10:30 am, anywhere in the US.  Like many other juicing companies, the anchor of the program are their green juices, followed by a red juice, a Master Cleanse type lemonade juice, and a heartier “nut” juice.  But this is where I found the similarities ended. The iZo Cleanze also comes with four teas, a few nutritional supplements and half a jar of “hyper-mineralized oxygenated alkaline water.”  What it should also come with is a warning label- “For serious cleansers only!” (more…)

Whenever I travel, I always make an effort to investigate what cupcake eateries and bakeriea exist at my destination. I’ve literally organized cupcake crawls in Las Vegas and Portland, and looking forward to visiting many “cupcakeries” during my upcoming trip to San Francisco. I’ve heard so much about the cupcake scene in Washington DC, with the standout being Georgetown Cupcake. I’ve been dying to try them, but I rarely travel to DC, so when I read that Georgetown Cupcake was now offering shipping within the continental US, I knew I wanted them. Then, when I saw their seasonal flavors, I knew I NEEDED them, and now!

Georgetown Cupcake offers three different flavor packages for cupcake delivery, but seeing as I am a lover of anything pumpkin and cupcake, I went with the Seasonal Dozen: six Pumpkin Spice and six Chocolate Hazelnut cupcakes. Shipping cupcakes sounds a little precarious, since cupcakes are so delicate. “How could they ever survive being jostled and thrown around during shipment? And how in the world could the be bakery fresh upon delivery?”, I wondered. Well, I am thrilled (and revealed!) to say that my cupcakes arrived in perfect form; beautifully packaged, frosted, and even came with a insert about how to store my cupcakes!

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