Did today's Google doodle make your day?

It sure made mine! Google celebrates the first day of summer with Takashi Murakami. As if Louis Vuitton wasn't enough, Murakami gets his icons up on the front page of Google!



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Memorial Day Weekend in the Big Apple

With $250 round trip plane tickets and a free hotel stay on my Starwood points, spending Memorial Day long weekend in NYC was a no brainer this year.  And of course there are only a few things that you do when you go to NY: eating and shopping!

EAT:
Shake Shack Theatre District
ShackBurger + wavy fries + strawberry frozen custard shake
The burger were small in size but you will realize that you'll realize that sharing one shake and even one order of fries between two people is probably enough.  Puts you in a happy but not bloated spot.  I liked the burger bun...it was made with potato...no wonder!

Osteria Lupa Romana
Wanted to try one of Maria Batali's restaurants.  Read some good reviews on this one just north of Houston and it was a good choice indeed.

Some focaccia and a Misticanza salad to start.  Nice and refreshing.

I got the pasta special of short rigatoni and pork jelly.  2hung got the braised oxtail with gnocchi alla Romana which was actually my choice.  The oxtail was so flavourful and tender, and the gnocchi was in a cake shape.

 

For dessert, we got the Zuppa Inglese, which is similar to an English trifle.

Cookie Decorating Class at Sugar Tiers

Yesterday, I attended a cookie decorating class at Sugar Tiers as part of a bachelorette party event for one of my high school friends.  For the price of $45 per person (which is kind of a rip off if you ask me), this is what we made:

The 11 to 12 of us got to decorate 6 pre-baked butter cookies with fondant, sugar flowers, candies and royal icing.  It was kind of a project for kids, but the experience was really fun.  For the price that we paid though, I would've preferred decorating a cake.  I mean is anybody actually going to be eating any of their cookies?

Our instructor was Rosalind Chan who did her studies at Ritz Escoffier in Paris and is an instructor at different international centres around the world.  Wow, I didn't know there was such talent behind Sugar Tiers!

Roberto Cavalli Vodka at Pravda Vodka Bar

Did you know that Roberto Cavalli made vodka?  Yup, that's the smooth tasting $21 shot that we poured down our throats a few nights ago at Pravda Vodka Bar.  It is the most expensive vodka that the bar carries and yes you can taste the difference between this and Grey Goose.  I wonder when the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Versace and D&G are going to start producing vodka...