Macaron Cafe

John, my roommate from senior year, surprised me last week with a belated birthday gift! He told me that he was going to surprise me sometime after my birthday but didn’t tell me when my package was going to arrive. I know I’m a difficult person to shop for but John found something perfect for me – macarons! First, a reminder of who John is – Angie, John, me and my mom during my engagement party:

So at work on Wednesday, I received two calls from John and I thought something was wrong because I missed both calls. It turns out that they couldn’t deliver my present because my super wasn’t at home! Eventually they delivered it and I saw the package when I arrived home that night! I love macarons because they’re so delicious and delicate and because they always have the most beautiful packaging:

And the macarons from Macaron Cafe are also incredibly gorgeous:

The flavors: coconut, chocolate, vanilla, mocha, Earl Grey, matcha green tea, rose lychee, cassis, orange blossom, rose, and blackberry. They all have a hint of iridescence and are (almost too) beautiful to eat!

Thank you, John, for the thoughtful and delicious birthday gift!

Inside Good Housekeeping’s Test Office

On Monday, I was invited for a personal tour around the Good Housekeeping test office in the Hearst Tower. My friend, Sharon Franke, is in charge of the Kitchen Appliances and Technology department. We were talking about my upcoming wedding at an event and she invited me to her office to get an insider tour of the labs and to discuss my registry (another post on the registry sometime soon!) The office is in the Hearst Tower near Columbus Circle and the tower has a lot of interesting history because it is actually two different buildings; the base of the building was built in 1928 and declared a landmark building and the glass part of the building was started in 2001 and finished exactly three years later. The architect, Norman Foster, specializes in bringing together old and new buildings together in a cohesive and appealing way. All of the Hearst publications are in the building and it really is a beautiful space. I headed to the 29th floor, the Good Housekeeping labs:

Sharon has been at Good Housekeeping since 1987 and has been testing all types of kitchen appliances, including one of my favorite kitchen appliances of all time, the Sodastream! I learned all types of interesting things about Good Housekeeping – including the importance of their ‘Good Housekeeping seal of approval’; they guarantee all of their products and all of the products in their advertising – if something breaks, they’ll refund you!

We started off looking at the cosmetics area – they test all types of cosmetics and their claims (younger looking skin, less wrinkles, etc). They use regular people and have them try a product for a specified amount of time and do before-and-after shots of their skin in this interesting machine and can measure brown spots, wrinkles, and age spots. This room is temperature controlled and they can stress test all types of materials:

There are so many paper towels in the room because they were testing the durability of paper towels a few months back!

In this room, they test different types of running shoes, sheets and towels:

It’s like a little museum in there – here, they list their findings on the scam of high thread-count sheets:

Sharon told me that they had employees using a loop figuring out the thread count of the supposed 1500-thread count sheets when they were working on the project and it revealed that lots of companies were claiming they had a high thread count because they were using five pieces of string for every stitch and counting it as five thread-count instead of one! The photo also shows how towels can change in color and heft after washing them (and they use industrial strength detergent that’s used in the industry for all testing, not Tide)

This is the nutritionists area, where she tests and looks at all of the tricky food labels:

Lots of the labeling is really difficult to read and the nutritionist here tells you which 100-calorie snacks are better for you than others. It’s a popular area of the magazine because people are always looking for ways to minimize their calorie intake.

This is the test kitchen, where there are four stoves (none of them are Viking) where they test different recipes and host panels on food:

The view of Central Park from the 29th floor is pretty magnificent:

This room is one of the most interesting rooms I visited – they kept the style/design from the old Hearst building and kept everything the same:

The formal dining room:

The sitting area:

These rolling pins are also on display:

They are glass rolling pins that you fill with water to keep your dough cold and were gifts!

This is the most expensive piece of art in the entire Hearst building:

All of the presidents before George Bush and all of the first ladies before Michelle Obama have visited the Hearst dining room. Sharon said they have all types of events in the rooms and host parties there occasionally. They have book signings, charity events, and fun office parties in those rooms – it’s such a nice area and so different from the rest of the floor!

This is Sharon’s “office:

Next door to Sharon is the area where they test all types of washing detergents for the floor and kitchen:

The panels on the left side are the different types of flooring that are in homes; the scientist can pull the different types of panels out each day and test out the effects of cleaners and how well they clean up messes!

The scientist also prepares these sheets – fabric panels that have different types of stains that stay overnight to cure:

And then they’re washed to see which detergent is best for all types of stains!

This is another cool area – it’s one of three self-vacuuming testers in the world:

The orange rug is industry standard and you weigh an amount of debris that you pour on the carpet. Then, the rug gets vacuumed (without any hands!) and you weigh the debris from the vacuum to see how much was picked up:

Another temperature and humidity controlled room:

They also run tests for jackets and outerwear in here to see how long people can last in the cold room wearing insulated gear!

This area, the electronics lab, is probably the most interesting for guys:

They test all types of electronics (right now, they’re testing internet-enabled televisions) and give their recommendations on their picks. They also test toys and bring kids in to see how much they enjoy them.

Sharon is testing some cool non-stick pans right now and we talked about the different types of non-stick pans she likes (and what she uses at home!) It’s so much fun seeing other people’s workspaces – and to see how many different types of tests they run and how thorough they are before they recommend anything! Sharon was so nice to walk me through their office and to help me with my registry – I have some really great ideas for what I want to show Ken and I can’t wait to register for wedding gifts!

Babies!

A few weekends ago, our friends Koyel and Sumon drove to New York City with their newest bundle of joy, Shom. Shom is about 9 months old now and he is absolutely adorable – he is fearless (and loves jumping off the couch) and loves playing with his best friend, Tigger. Some photos from the afternoon we spent with their new family:

NYC’s Best Places to Shop for Wedding Dresses

Shopping for a wedding gown is a really daunting task; I want to stay within my set budget but I also want to get something beautiful, classic, and glamorous for our wedding day. I’ve spent a lot of time looking for my wedding dress (and haven’t found it yet) but here are my notes on the places I’ve visited and comments on each place. I’m still booking appointments for later in the summer so I might do another list later in the year!

1. Kleinfeld Bridal, 110 W. 20th Street

Pros: large selection of dresses, very experienced sales people, private dressing rooms, 15% off during trunk shows, flat fee of $695 for alterations, large Pnina Tornai collection, online booking for appointments
Cons: no photography, even though they have a large selection of dresses they won’t necessarily pull them for you because they don’t want to give you too many to choose from, they can be very pushy

My favorite dress from Kleinfeld:

The dress selection at Kleinfeld was very large (the largest out of all the stores in New York), however, that doesn’t mean you’ll get to see a lot. On my first visit, I gave them a list of dresses I wanted to see – out of all of them, I only saw three. Instead, I was shown different gowns at higher price points. They really try to up-sell you (and oftentimes don’t care/pay attention to your budget). Also, they don’t allow you to take photographs, which I think is a REALLY bad idea; you have an image of what you *think* you look like in the dress, but photographs don’t lie! Also, I said I was getting married next June and the sales person said I was really behind because I should give it at least a year to find my gown and order it – that’s the longest I’ve heard (and to make a gown, it only takes four months before alterations)

2. Bridal Reflections 260 5th Avenue

Pros: allow you to browse for dresses on your own, private dressing rooms, large Ines di Santo collection
Cons: really pushy on sales, won’t tell you the price of the dress without saying “we’ll make the price for you”, all of their gowns are extremely embellished

My favorite gown from Bridal Reflections:

I was shown a lot of Ines Di Santo gowns that were in extremely embellished with a ton of different types of designs. The sales person said everything could be customized to my tastes but it was difficult to envision what the gown would look like since they were so busy already. Originally, the sales person said that every designer would work with my budget, but then after I asked her for more details regarding how much the gown was, she said she’d have to ask management and get back to me. I don’t know what the final price of the gowns will be, but most of them are very similar in design; if you’re looking for a glitz and glam gown, Bridal Reflections is a good option.

3. Vera Wang 991 Madison Avenue

Pros: comfortable seating for your entourage, large selection of sizes, really experienced sales staff, only one person for all alterations
Cons: sample gowns didn’t fit that well, needed a lot of assistance getting into gowns, no photography allowed, pricey!

My favorite gown from Vera Wang (photo is from Saks):

Vera Wang is known for her bridal gowns; each one is made to order (and takes four months to make it!) The alterations also are done by only one person so you get to know her and she gets to know your body and your likes/dislikes. I liked a lot of the gowns on the rack but their sizes that were available were really not flattering. I tried on the same exact dress at another store and it looked surprisingly better (don’t worry if you’re trying on gowns that are larger than your normal pant/shirt sizes). The dressing area is really luxurious (although a bit dark) and the sales staff is really quite knowledgeable. I really liked the woman that helped me and she suggested I go back for their trunk show.

4. Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier, 110 E. 55th Street

Pros: large selection of Oscar de la Renta, knowledgeable sales staff, not pushy, good selection for a sample sale
Cons: gowns are expensive; on the phone, they stated that gowns start at 5,000 and are typically 6,000 – 12,000, which limits the selection if you’re looking within a budget

I attended the Mark Ingram sample sale, which I thought would be chaos but was actually surprisingly organized. There were lots of boobs flying around (no private rooms for a sample sale) but the selection was really good and the gowns were all in very good condition. I plan on making an actual appointment there soon (I didn’t end up purchasing the gown I was looking at) but I haven’t made an appointment yet. They have a great selection of many different brands and also have a very kind and friendly sales staff.

5. Saks Fifth Avenue, 611 5th Avenue

Pros: large selection of Oscar de la Renta, knowledgeable sales staff, not pushy, good selection for a sample sale
Cons: on the weekends, the only gowns on display are the trunk shows

My favorite gown from Saks:

I loved the sales person at Saks and thought she was extremely helpful and knew exactly what I was looking for, but also brought gowns that would fit my body shape and were all within my budget. I also liked the fact that they offer the option of opening up a Saks card and giving you 10% off the gown in addition to 10% off anything else you purchase for your wedding. I didn’t walk out with a gown but I plan on returning for another trunk show.

5. Amsale, 625 Madison Avenue

Pros: allows photography, selection of Amsale, Kenneth Pool and Christos gowns
Cons: the appointment was cut short because there wasn’t a lot of dresses that were fit and flare, pricing is quite expensive for gowns

My favorite gowns from Amsale:

Other places:

Bergdorf Goodman
– I wasn’t a fan of their collection (and the sales person was trying to push me out of the appointment because she didn’t have any gowns). They have lots of trunk shows so it might be worth checking out if you like a certain designer, but not if you’re just dress shopping

David’s Bridal
– If you’re going to shop around, you should start here; the service is terrible but the gowns give you an idea of what looks good on your body. The sales people are serving at least two other people during your appointment and most likely won’t have time to help you. The gowns are much cheaper (most being under $1000), but the fabric quality isn’t as good and some of it is very shiny (in a bad way).

Designer Bridal Loft
– This place advertises that they have an ongoing sample sale; they might have one, but I didn’t see any sample gowns that were actually on sale when I visited. There are many Jenny Packman gowns there but I wasn’t interested in the style so I don’t plan on returning.

What places am I missing? Where did you find your perfect gown?

Christo’s Steakhouse

Last Saturday, Ken and I were lucky enough to have a car for the day! Ken went golfing in the morning and rented the car the entire day so I took the opportunity to add in a trip to a super store for some shopping. We ended up going to BJ’s in the Bronx and stocked up on enough home cleaning goods to last us a lifetime (so many swiffer wipes! And Glad garbage bags! And Clorox wipes!) Afterwards, we drove to dinner at Christo’s Steakhouse:

The steakhouse is located in Astoria, Queens, in a neighborhood that had kids running around on the street playing baseball (and jumping over fences to do so). A very cute neighborhood that had wider streets and had lots of people sitting outside enjoying the beautiful evening.

We started off with the bread and the tapenade:

The restaurant is a steakhouse but has a lot of Greek touches – the tapenade had a nice flavor and was an interesting change considering all of the steakhouses usually only have cold butter.

For a starter, we shared the octopus salad:

Warm octopus with salad and a light vinaigrette – really well cooked (not too chewy) and very lightly dressed with the vinaigrette, capers, and red peppers. The portions were also huge! Ken and I really enjoyed the octopus and I thought it was served at the perfect temperature.

For our salad course, I ordered the Greek salad:

A change of pace from the usual steakhouse salad but a light and refreshing choice from the beefsteak tomatoes and onions or Caesar salad.

Ken ordered the special salad that the waiter told us about – radicchio, arugula, and fried goat cheese:

Ken thought the salad was a little too bitter and we ended up sharing the majority of my salad. He actually ate a good amount of the salad (and we were saying we shouldn’t have ordered so much if we had known the portions were so large) but when the waiter took his plate away, it looked like he hadn’t even touched it!

For Ken’s main course, he ordered the ribeye, cooked medium:

And I ordered the NY Strip with the crab dressing, medium rare:

We also ordered the lobster mashed potatoes:

And the broccoli rabe:

The steaks were both very good good, although I really regretted ordering the steak with the cream sauce and crab dressing because they have a large variety of sauces that all tasted very good on Ken’s steaks. The steak was really delicious and flavorful on their own and there wasn’t a need to add any additional flavor (but sometimes at steakhouses, I love the cocktail sauce/secret sauce they place on every table). The cream sauce made it a little too heavy and I didn’t end up finishing my dinner. Ken’s ribeye was really flavorful and had good marbling.

For dessert, we shared the blueberry cheesecake:

A little too warm but really creamy and delicious.

I loved the feel of Christo’s; it felt like a family restaurant where everyone knew each other (in fact, the owner was going around to the tables because I think a lot of people were regulars and they were catching up). An anniversary party was across from us with the family celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and a date was next to us (they might have been celebrating their first wedding anniversary). We both enjoyed the meal and would love to return – they even have a sushi chef on the weekends so there is definitely something for everyone!