Last night I discovered an amazing sushi restaurant that all of my New York readers must experience at some point! My roommate has been trying to take me there for months now but it is located in Great Neck so is pretty difficult to get to. Luckily I brought my car to New York recently so we decided to drive there last night. The restaurant is called Sushi Palace and is all-you-can-eat for just $20.00! I usually try to avoid places like this because I immediately think of two things: 1) low-quality sushi 2) eating way too much. I am not good at the whole stopping when full thing, especially when there is delicious sushi on my plate! My roommate assured me that the sushi was fresh and made-to-order so I agreed to try it. Sushi Palace is also BYOB (oh yeah)!

Jackie and I drove there and it was just 20 minutes away from our apartment in Queens.  There was even a free parking lot behind the restaurant (a very rare luxury in New York). We arrived at the restaurant around 7:00 p.m. and did not have to wait for a table. It did get very busy about an hour after that so I would recommend going on the earlier side. We were handed an appetizer list and sushi list and got to check off anything (almost everything for us) from the menu! We took full advantage of the $20.00 all-you-can-eat deal. Evidence pictured below….

Japanese Mushroom Soup

Spring Rolls

Seaweed Salad

Seafood Udon Noodles

Garden Salad

Edamame

Round 2! More Salads and Sweet & Sour Soup

Sushi Part 1: Eel Avocado Roll, Crunchy Shrimp Roll, Sashimi!

Sushi Part 1: Salmon Avocado Roll with Crab, Salmon & Tuna Sashimi

Rock Shrimp (AMAZING)

Aged Tofu

Green Tea and Red Bean Ice Cream

Talk about sushi coma! I’m going to go ahead and say that we got our $20.00 worth! I loved everything that we ordered besides the tofu (just because it was too slimy for me). I can’t even put into words how delicious the rock shrimp was!  All of the sushi was very fresh and the food came out super fast! The service was incredible for such a busy restaurant. If you are able to visit Sushi Palace, do not leave without trying the Red Bean ice cream! If anyone needs a ride to Great Neck, do not hesitate to ask me. I’d be happy to eat at this restaurant again ASAP!

Have a great Friday! Happy 11/11/11!

Do you like all-you-can eat restaurants and buffets? Why?

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Related posts:

1. Sushi Date and College Memories
2. Sushi Coma!
3. Sake Bombs at Sake Sushi!

Happy Friday the 13th! I’ve already had a wonderful morning since I went to 6:30am intenSati!

It was extra fun today since Mari came to class! It was so much easier for me to wake up at 5:00am since I knew she would be there. I was especially suprised at how easy it was for me to wake up today since I had a few cocktails last night after work! I met Marina at a fancy rooftop bar at the Peninsula Hotel on 5th Avenue. We decided it would be fun to hang out where all the rich men go. No luck in that department but at least there was plenty of eye candy. I started off with a Pear Martini and Marina got a Passion Fruit Martini. You do not even want to know how much these drinks cost. Luckily we were both wasted off of one drink.

The bar was beautiful and so nice on the roof!

After one drink, we were starving so we decided to go to Taofor dinner. I went to Tao a couple of years ago when I went to LasVegas with Dori and remember it being the best meal of my life. The hostess told us that there would be no tables available until the end of the night but we got lucky and found a spot at the sushi bar. The atmosphere is so cool inside the restaurant!

The entrees are pretty expensive so we bothwent witha couple of appetizers instead. I started off with a Lychee Martini. Surprisingly, the drinks at Tao were half the price as the drinks at the Peninsula!

I got the Crispy Tuna Sashimi Roll with Edamame.

This was amazing!!! It came with a green dipping sauce that I loved.

Marina got the Vegetable Egg Rolls. They were huge and also delicious.

We split the Vegetable Fried Brown Rice. This was the best fried rice I’ve ever had!

Perfect night out!

Tomorrow I will have to start eating super healthy since I start my Organic Avenue cleanse on Monday! I am going to try to go without coffee, meat, gum, and alcohol this weekend so that my body is not in total shock on Monday. Wish me luck!

Have you ever done a juice cleanse?

Don’t forget to enter my Jamba Energy Drink Coupon Giveaway!

Related posts:

1. City Harvest Winner and Weekend!
2. Dinner at City Crab!!
3. The Early Bird!

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I did not do much besides exercise and eat sushi. Some things never change! On Saturday, I woke up bright and early for a new class at Equinox called BodySoulSati. This class was recently created by Patricia Moreno, the founder of intenSati.

Class Description (source):

The BodySoulSati method is a holistic training program that invigorates the body and awakens the soul by infusing a fluid series of standing legwork with heart felt affirmations. 1lb weighted gloves are worn to tone the upper body and engage the core muscles leaving you feeling accomplished and inspired!

I decided on Saturday that I am in love with this class! It is a total body strength workout in which we do all kinds of lunges, squats, and other leg exercises while doing arm exercises while wearing the gloves. I am still so sore days later! I do so much intenSati that it felt nice to slow it down a little while getting an awesome strength workout. I loved that we ended the class with relaxing yoga stretches and a long meditation while laying on the floor. Stay tuned for a more detailed review on Thursday on the NBC Go Healthy NYC blog!

Since I spent an hour on the subway that morning travelling to the gym, I decided to stay for a second class. I was not ready to get back on that awful subway again! The next class, Zen Combat, was a much faster, high cardio workout. I immediately recognized the instructor, Violet Zaki, from a fitness DVD I recently reviewed called Fit in 5: Total Body Tone. Very cool! The class is a very high energy kickboxing and cardio workout that combines martial arts moves with strength moves. The class was pretty similar to intenSati but without the spoken affirmations. One of my favorite things about the class was the fast, trance music.  To me, music can make or break a class. Violet Zaki was an awesome instructor and really made sure everyone’s form was correct. She took the time to explain how we would use each punch or kick in real life. I would definitely take this class again!

I was starving after the two classes so I headed next door to Whole Foods for a giant salad.

Delicious as always! I headed home and passed out for 2 hours! Those classes kicked my butt! Since it was down- pouring when I woke up, I decided it would be the perfect night to order sushi, drink a beer, and watch a movie. I ordered myself a lovely meal from Chikurin. I started off with a salad and ginger dressing.

I was craving some type of tempura so I got a Spider Roll with brown rice. It contained fried soft shell crab, mayo tobiko and cucumber.

I was also craving some sort of protein so I got Beef Negimaki: beef wrapped around scallion. The sauce was delicious and the beef was so juicy.

Perfect rainy night dinner!

On Sunday, I woke up and headed back into the city for intenSati! Sunday intenSati has been amazing lately. Darbi adds in crazy plank and push up sequences at the end of class after we are already dying. I knew almost everyone in class which always makes it twice as fun.

I know…we are so cool.

Later that night, my roommate asked me to go eat sushi with her. I was not about to turn down sushi even though I had it the night before. It was my last chance to have rice and beer before Passover! I enjoyed every last sip of my last beer of the week!

We started off with some edamame.

Chikurin has an entire new menu full of special sushi rolls! It took us forever to decide which ones to try out. We ended up with three amazing rolls.

We tried an Alaska Special roll: salmon, avocado, cucumber with spicy kani and lettuce on top.

This was delicious! I loved the spicy kani on top of the roll.

Next we tried a New York roll: kani, cucumber, avocado inside with spicy tuna and tempura flake on top.

Heaven.

Finally, we went with our usual Eel Avocado roll.

This was definitely the perfect Pre-Passover meal. I already miss rice and beer. The good thing about Passover is that I always end up eating much healthier than usual. My refrigerator is stocked with protein and veggies! In my next post, I will show some of the meals I’ve been eating to avoid bread products. I just made an omelet to bring to work with me!

What is your favorite kind of sushi roll?

If you celebrate Passover, what is your favorite way to eat matzoh?

Don’t forget to enter my Betty Crocker Potato and Cookware Giveaway!

Related posts:

1. Sushi and Saki Triple Date!
2. Michael Season’s Winner, Wine, Run, and Sushi!
3. Sushi Coma!

Hello! It is 4:30am right now and I am half asleep and blogging.  I was planning on waking up at 5:00am for intenSati but happened to pop out of bed at 4:15am. I would have loved those extra 45 minutes of sleep but I just knew there was no way! A little frustrating but at least I can get some blogging done! I have a delicious espresso drink next to me so I am all good. Anyway, hope everyone had a nice weekend! I can sum up my Saturday and Sunday in three words: run, sushi, and alcohol.

On Saturday, I decided to go for a run in Flushing-Corona Park. The weather was perfect and I’ve been trying to get a lot of running in before my 5K in May! I ended up spending over an hour running and walking around the park because it was so relaxing and pretty!

I jogged about one mile to the park and ran another two miles around the track. It was really hard for me and my legs felt super heavy. I ended up walking the rest of the time because I did not want to overdo it. My Nike+ Ipod told me that I was running at a pace of 9:17 for the first mile. I don’t think it is very accurate because I usually run 10 minute miles. If it is correct, it probably explains why I could not run for very long! I have to remember to go slower if I want to last during my 5K!

Later that day, my roommate and I headed to Chikurin for a sushi feast! There is nothing like a cold beer after a run!

I started off with some salad with ginger dressing.

And some edamame.

We decided to try out the Sashimi Deluxe platter. I believe there was salmon, tuna, white fish, yellowtail, and…I’m not too sure what else. This stuff kind of freaks me out but I did love the tuna and salmon!

Much better…

We got a Spicy Tuna roll and an Eel Avocado roll. Much more enjoyable to me than the chunks of raw fish.

After sushi, I headed into the city and met Mari and her boy at the bar for his birthday. After walking around the Village for about an hour trying to find a good spot, we ended up at Fat Black Pussy Cat. Gotta love the name!

I enjoyed three Fat Black Pussy Cat drinks. These things are awesome!

Somehow I managed to wake up bright and early for intenSati on Sunday! I am so happy I went because Darbi’s class was amazing! There was so much energy in the room and I completely forgot how hungover I was once I started working out. I am heading to her class again in about a half hour!

My friend from class had a very smart idea for our lunch date. It involved sushi and a bottle of wine! I figured there really is no better way to cure a hangover than to drink a bottle of wine at 12:00 in the afternoon the next day! We ended up at Edo Sushi in Union Square.

I started with a Crunchy Spicy Tuna roll.

This was very good but my second roll was way better!! I got the “Deep Impact” roll.

Deep Impact: tuna, salmon and avocado roll topped with spicy crabmeat and caviar. They use real crabmeat there and the fish tasted very fresh. We hung out there for about two hours and were the only two people in the restaurant! After a bottle and an extra glass of wine, we stumbled home. No better way to spend a Sunday!

A few hours later, I managed to go on a 20 minute run with my roommate! We are serious about this race! I was feeling a little nauseous from all of the wine but felt much better after a Tower Diner omelet and waffle fries!

My roommate and I seriously live at Chikurin and the Tower Diner. So so good. Tonight we have another run planned since it is going to be 80 degrees out! Can’t wait! I am off to the gym now! Have a great day!

Time to announce the Michael Season’s Kettle Cooked Chip Winner!

The winner of the Michael Season’s chips, tote bag, t-shirt, and chip clip is…..

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

28
Timestamp: 2011-04-11 09:12:32 UTC

28- Melissa: “Cape Cod Salt & Vinger…now I want some….

Congrats Melissa! Please shoot me an email with your address! Thank you to everyone who entered!

Related posts:

1. Equinox Classes and Pre-Passover Sushi
2. Sushi and Saki Triple Date!
3. Michael’s Seasons Contest Winner!

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you know my intenSati teaching schedule for the week! I would love for you to join me if you are in the area!

Tonight, February 8 from 6:00pm-7:00pm:
Shetler Studios #12
244 W. 54th Street
Penthouse 2
$5 drop-in fee

Tuesday, February 15 from 6:00pm-7:00pm
Shetler Studios #12
244 W. 54th Street
Penthouse 2
$5 drop-in fee

I set a goal at the beginning of the month to teach 4 times in February. So far so good! Last week I taught at Shelter studios with a few of my friends.

My roommate came for the first time which was awesome! We’ve been practicing in our kitchen and she seems to be hooked! She always sings the affirmations for hours after we do the class! She is living proof that this practice works!

Warrior pose!!!

Every month I teach a new series with different moves and affirmations. It was my first time teaching the new series but it went really well! Everyone was nice and sweaty when we were done!

My friend Tiffany took leader training with me so she taught right after me. It was fun being the teacher and the student all in one night!

“Gratitude pose”

My roommate and I decided to go for Saki bombs after class! It was well deserved after 2 hours of working out!

I got miso soup….

We split some edamame…

We also shared a Shrimp Teryaki Bento Box. Best dinner ever!!

I am getting more and more comfortable each time I teach intenSati! It is time  to start studying for my group fitness certification exam so I can audition at Equinox!! That is my ultimate goal for this year. I think I can do it! Let me know if you are in NYC and want to take my class this month!! Have a good one! XoXo

**Interested in becoming a health coach?? Enroll at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition between Monday, February 7 and Monday, February 28 and receive a $1000 scholarship!!

I have two scholarships to give away so contact me if ASAP if you are interested!**

Related posts:

1. New Month, New Goals
2. February Dreams and Goals
3. Focus On: IntenSati