Trip Report: A Night at the Hotel on Rivington NYC

A week ago I hit up the Hotel On Rivington in New York City for some birthday celebration action and did some sampling of the local restaurants.

This is the view from the elevators. The entrance has a very unique shape to it and there is a nightclub called THOR right next door. The drinks were typical super expensive city pricing so I stayed away from there.

On the second floor is the check-in and a chic lounge area. The lounge has a whole wall of slanted floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Rivington street and a pool table that seemed a bit used. Behind the check-in desk was a TV playing a video focusing on a bed where the bed sheets would shuffle themselves around again and again. Very weird.

Two floors later and I arrived in my room. The hotel is very dark. The hallways are so dimly lit it’s as if you’re walking down a creeper alley at night. I would have taken a picture of the well-stocked mini bar area of the room but that was also very dimly lit.

So here is the dark bathroom. Notice the large soaking tub inside a very large shower/sauna area. The coolest part of that tub is that the water descends from a hole in the ceiling and splashes all over. No need to worry about making a mess in there.

After walking down a fairly lengthy hallway that parallels the bathroom, I came to a very visually-open room with floor-to-ceiling windows and a TV mounted to the ceiling. The curtains can be retracted all along the length of the windowed part of the room (which was half the room). Privacy is a bit awkward here because everyone can see you from the housing across the street. You can either have the view or the curtains, but not both.

Checking out the very comfortable bed and the building obstructing the view.

This is a view of the street outside the window. I would later find it to be very loud at random times from 2-4AM.

A view out the furthest end of the window. Not much to see here.

Minutes after walking in, room service came by and dropped off two warm and delicious snickerdoodle cookies. Mmm!

Some samplings of the local Wi-Fi hotspots. Wi-Fi is offered for free at this hotel which is something more hotels should do. Then again, for the price of the room you expect it.

The location in the lower east side of Manhattan is great as there are plenty of interesting restaurants/bars to check out. I should note that a hostess lured us in to a restaurant (Reyuela) by pointing out the oddity of the tree that occupied the middle of the restaurant. “Come look at our tree!” Silly.

I ventured down Rivington later and ate at an Italian place called ‘inoteca for some tapas and wine. The restaurant actually has a book with a glossary of terms for their very Italian (and delicious) menu that I had to refer to constantly. I could not even attempt to decipher or navigate the wine bottle list. There was also a tiny dessert crepes place closer to the hotel that filled the air with an intoxicating sweet aroma. I was too full from the tapas to sample it and had to pass up the opportunity to encourage a food coma. Back to the hotel I went for a soak in the big tub and a snooze in the comfy bed.

Overall, the Hotel on Rivington is pretty decent and is a cool and hip place to stay for one night in the city. The staff seems okay in a way that was not enthusiastic to any degree or were immediately welcoming. Unless you have money for the high floor rooms, the window views are restricted to the immediate buildings that will have you paranoid that someone is always watching you. I should have explored the hotel’s upper area where the really nice views and rooms are, but the very dim lighting of everything was slightly deterring.

If you stay at the hotel and check out anything I missed out on, drop me an e-mail or leave me a comment below and let me know!

Belkin DualFit Thoughts

If any of you are still thinking about snagging a Belkin DualFit for your iPod or compatible smartphone, mine arrived today and I wanted to provide a few quick thoughts.

The armband’s casing is a snug fit so definitely don’t try to jam your phone or iPod in there with a case on. The arm band will accommodate very small arms to big arms up to 15” and there are openings at the bottom for the Apple data connector and one for the iPhone 4’s speaker.

What I like:

• iPhone 4 fits snuggly in the soft neoprene casing
• Neoprene siding still allows for operation of side buttons
• Will fit very small and large arms up to 15”
• The plastic face still works with the touchscreen
• Plastic doesn’t affect visibility
• Key pocket is a nice addition
• It’s lightweight

What I don’t like:

• Top of the phone is left exposed, potentially inviting sweat and dirt onto the phone and inside the case
• Pressing the home button through the plastic is a bit tough

I’ll have to see how durable and how nasty it gets when I go running, though the weather seems to be taking its time to warm up to Spring.

Rev3 Energy™: Cleaner, Smarter, Stronger?

Sometimes a nap just won’t cut it when you need the vigor to power yourself through a wild night of fire. A couple weeks ago I took a trip to Atlantic City where I would squander my money at the thought of becoming rich overnight, only to be horribly disappointed. You know. My usual luck with gambling. But I wanted to start the night off right.

All energy drinks I’ve tried in the past give me a fair amount of side effects: heart palpitations, the shakes, the crash hours later. Needless to say, mixing them with alcohol didn’t help either. And the taste? Usually awful. I’m not sure who really enjoys the taste of Red Bull, but I don’t like smelling it on the breath of other people. It makes one hell of a Jägerbomb though!

Anyways, I brought along a Rev3 Energy with me for the car ride there and let my friend sample some. “Mmm. It tastes like cream soda,” he said. It tastes quite delicious and has no hint of harshness whatsoever, though that could just be because it is watered down with blends of tea.

So what makes Rev3 Energy cleaner, smarter, and stronger? The flavor is on the natural side as there are no artificial flavors, sweeteners, preservatives, or artificial colors. The natural caffeine and antioxidants is given through a blend of teas and as usual, you get some level of vitamins and minerals as well. Rev3 also contains L-Carnitine which, “helps transport the toxic byproduct of energy combustion out of the mitochondria to prevent accumulation.” And who doesn’t like helping their mitochondria out?!

Per serving, Rev3 only has 17 grams of “low-glycemic” sugars as opposed to ~30g (of non-low-glycemic sugars?) like most energy drinks have, but if you drink the whole 1.5 serving can it comes close. What surprised me most is that what is lacking in this drink is guarana and taurine–natural products often found in other energy drinks in large amounts. 
(Note:  A study done in 2008 showed that, “The amounts of guarana, taurine, and ginseng found in popular energy drinks are far below the amounts expected to deliver either therapeutic benefits or adverse events” [Clauson et al., 2008])

Anyways, enough about ingredients. I gambled from 12AM to 6AM, woke up at 10AM, and proceeded to hit the other casinos up until 3PM. In combination with all the alcohol I was consuming on the side, I have to say that I experienced no down-side effects and was pleasantly surprised. The only displeasure I had was waking up to a broken spirit and a light wallet which was caused by my own madness.

Cost per fluid ounce, Rev3 Energy rings in at $0.21, Red Bull is $0.28, and Rockstar Energy Drink is dirt cheap at $0.14 an ounce. There was also one more mentioned on the Rev3 Energy site called Verve! which seemed to have a lot of vitamins, but it was $0.34 per ounce and I had never heard of it before (see: chart).

Overall I like the taste and the lack of side-effects was great. It’s fairly low-calorie if you have any concerns for that (70 per serving). Right now you can buy a box of 12 cans for $35.94 on their website and they also have a powdered version that’s slightly less expensive per serving. I’ve never seen it sold in stores, but you might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere. Would I buy this over another energy drink if I had my options? Maybe! It’s a little expensive for my tastes, but I enjoy seeing “healthier” options when it comes to drinks.

Check them out at their website.

reBloom: Beauty Sleep Drink

Lately I’ve been having some running thoughts at night in combination with general insomnia that have kept me up to the wee hours of 5 and 7AM. Courtesy of Crizzlee, I got to try out reBloom™—a drink designed to help you sleep without the use of anti-histamines unlike Nyquil ™, Benadryl ™, and Ambien ™. And unlike synthetic drugs, reBloom does not cause drowsiness brought upon a lack of a full night’s sleep or so the company claims. However, if you have a serious sleep problem, reBloom is not designed to replace prescription sleeping pills.

Now keep in mind I don’t use drugs to fall asleep or drink caffeinated anything on a regular basis, so our experiences may differ. I just have a bad sleep schedule and plenty of time to mess with it. So last night at 3AM after a rigorous session of gaming and drinking, I threw back the whole 2.5oz bottle and went to bed 25 minutes later.

The taste was overwhelmingly chamomile and it is basically a shot of tea with some extracts, amino acids, and melatonin to ease your mind. There are no artificial flavors or sweeteners added and it is only 5 calories. Some people do not chamomile tea or tea in general, but I found the taste to be decent (natural) and was glad it wasn’t a synthetic concoction of awful. The key ingredients in reBloom are valerian root extract (a herbal sleep remedy), chamomile flower extract, L-Theanine (an amino acid found in green tea known for its calming properties), and melatonin (the same compound in your body that regulates your sleep/wake cycle).  All good stuff to help you go to sleep.

It is recommended that you take the whole bottle roughly 30 to 60 minutes before bed time, though some people have had success by taking only a third to half the bottle. Taking more than one bottle will not benefit you, so don’t think you an induce a sleep coma upon yourself. I couldn’t say when I fell asleep, but it was shortly after I laid down. I should also note that I took a quick 15-20 minute nap around 8PM and wasn’t expecting to go to sleep at a decent time.

Although I fell asleep, I was soon awoken by the sound of a certain dirty bird chirping aloud in my house at around 7AM to which I had to get up and feed in an angry and sleepy manner. Then at 10AM I found myself being kept up by the sound of loud music (including hits like Stevie Wonder’s Superstition), finally forcing me to get out of bed at 11AM when I could lay in bed no longer. Not exactly the consistent night of sleep I was hoping for, but at least I got up before 1PM. If I didn’t have all those distractions in the house I would have certainly had a decent night of sleep.

The thing I like about reBloom is that it was clinically proven in a double-blind study of 85 test subjects. Lasting three weeks, their trials showed results of subjects falling sleep 35% faster and 93% of subjects fell asleep faster on average. Overall, subjects got more sleep and reported on improved sleep quality and feeling more refreshed in the morning. The statistics speak for itself and so far I can say it seems like a good product.

However, there is one (big) downside. At $27.95 + $4.99 shipping for a 7-pack, nearly $5 a bottle, it is very expensive. reBloom is sold exclusively through their website and is only available in the United States, so unfortunately there are no deals available. It does get cheaper in orders of 3 packs or more, so a group-buy would be the smart thing to do. I suppose it really depends what the cost of a good night of sleep is to you.

For FAQs and ordering, check out reBloom.com.

My first Durian experience

I could not get the thoughts of ripping open that fruit and tasting its delicious contents out of my head. Revered in southeast Asia as the “king of fruits”, I was very intrigued by its fame and form. I watched many youtube videos of people handling the massive spiked fruit husks, ripping or cutting them open only to experience the pungent odor of the exposed fruit that durians are known for. The brave eaters ventured on and tasted the flesh of the edible pods and would either be completely disgusted or turned on by its unique taste.

I ventured to the nearest Asian food market after my night class and picked up a 7lb frozen spike monster for $12.86. “Damn,” I thought to myself, thinking that I would never pay this much for fruit, much less even buy fruit seeing that I have an allergic reaction to a few fruit in non-processed form. Just holding it in my hands created deep indents where the spikes were resting against. “In frozen form, this could kill somebody.”

I was quite excited to bring it home. My mom thought I was crazy for dropping nearly $13 on a fruit, but I felt like I needed to expand my life experiences. I waited until the following night before I ripped into its softening exterior.

There are supposed to be five lines that spread out like a star at the base of the fruit. Watching videos of people opening them, I learned that you can actually just rip them open where these lines are or cut into them if you have to. Mine apparently did not have these lines, but the husk was soft enough that managed to rip through the bulging areas with brute force. The bulges are where the large lemon-sized pods of fruit are located.

According to Cheah Kim Wai, who has been selling durian for 7 years in Malaysia, durian should be eaten by their grades to maximize enjoyment of the fruit. “You must start by eating the lower grades first, which are much sweeter. The higher the grade, the more bitter the durians are. If you follow this technique you can truly enjoy the taste of the fruit and appreciate the difference between the grades,” says Cheah. Cheah said that if eaten in reverse, the bitter taste of the higher grade durians will overpower the taste of the lower grade ones.

Durian Trivia

When I was opening the fruit, the smell was not immediately overwhelming. As they began to absorb the surrounding air and room temperature, their pungent odor became more prevalent. It smelled of mushy rotting onions for sure, but that wasn’t very deterring to me. I’ve smelled worse after my dad has used the bathroom.

My girlfriend commented that the lumps of flesh looked like chicken. And might I add that she completely avoided trying a piece and ended up eating a few slices of mangoes instead. I don’t blame her. My mom who was already not a fan of them made plenty of comments that made it seem like I was dissecting and consuming an alien.

I put the first alien lump into my mouth (a part from the bottom section of the fruit first, of course). The taste initially reminded me of siopao, but a moment later I was immediately reminded of the curry buns that I eat from the same store I bought the durian from. It had that weird curry flavor, yet it was sweet. The texture was comparable to an overly ripe pineapple. I did not get a feeling of “custard”, “buttery texture”, or “nature’s ice cream” that others described.

I certainly wasn’t expecting a phallic-looking seed upon finishing the fruit which can also be eaten if cooked. After finishing the first chunk, I knew I was already having a slight allergic reaction to it. I could feel the tingling itchiness in my ears that I get from eating avocados. The small cuts and pokes I received from handling the sharp spikes began to flare up slightly as well. That seemed to have been the extent of the reaction. The other after effect was the onion smell on my hands that was only removable by rubbing my hands on the insides of the husk to use it’s natural stench-removing properties in the water. I ended up eating three pieces before I felt I had enough.

The taste was enjoyable, though I don’t see it being an acquired taste. You will immediately know if you like it or not after the first bite. Seeing as I don’t mind eating those curry buns, the only down sides to this fruit is its incredible stench that was growing by the minute (to which I solved by plopping a microwaveable cover on top of the plate), its price, the work you must do to get to the fruit, and the fact that I was not allergy-free from this fruit.

On the bright side, the fruit has plenty of carbs, protein, simple sugars, loads of vitamins and minerals, and is a good source of raw fats—essentially a complete food aside from the vegetable aspect. Some say it is also an aphrodisiac, but as a guy I feel that such things have little effect on what is already at a constant high.

While the fruit’s taste was not the heaven-filled deliciousness I was expecting, it’s still a good fruit to keep you healthy (and stinky). Then again, I am not a big raw food eater so I probably won’t find such comfort in a fruit.

And then I turned into a prawn from District 9.

Muji ice ball maker results

Didn’t come out clear like I wanted using spring water, but I didn’t try boiling the water. I’ve got another one in there right now filled with tonic water. Let’s see how it works out in a gin and tonic tomorrow!

Definitely going to try boiling the water next.