Ben & Jerry's FREE Cone Day

Times Square Scoop Shop

Location: 680 8th Ave., New York, NY 10036
Cuisine: Ice Cream
Phone: (212) 221-1001
Prices: FREE

Food: 9
Service: 7
Value: 10 (because it was a FREE event)
Environment: 7

Frequency: Uncommon

Ben & Jerry's gives away free cones every year on their birthday, March 29. I've missed it every year, but finally went today. The difference... I'm a late user of Facebook. I signed up for all possible stores, restaurants and snack places that might send out promotions and event notifications.

After work, I made a detour and got off on the Times Square stop just to swing by and take a look. The line wasn't as long as I thought it would be and I was in no rush, so I just got on it. The employees did a great job of conducting the event. Two of them kept the line in order. One handed out napkins and another held up a sign that listed the available flavors. There were 5 or 6 scoopers who worked very efficiently. My stomach wanted either mint chocolate chunk or sweet cookies & cream, but those were normal flavors. I ended up going for one that I haven't had yet... cake batter. I figured it would be some variation of cookie dough, but it tasted a lot better... like a cold vanilla and chocolate cake. It produced an interesting sensation because our brains don't normally associate the cake taste with the ice cream texture & temperature. After getting my cone, I had to find a nice open spot on the sidewalk. The cone was stuffed so high that I wasn't going anywhere far without the ice cream ending up on the street or my clothes. That was a fun after work treat in the middle of the week.

Happy 30th Birthday, Ben & Jerry!

DVDeals 4/27 - 5/3

DVD Tuesday
Golden Compass is the feature of the week. I haven't watched it yet, so I'll pass on this one, but it must be good since it's got armored polar bears and James Bond thrown into the mix. Circuit City has it for $14.99... $2 lower than Best Buy. The 2-disc special edition is $22.99 just about everywhere except Buy.com. If this is one of your favorite movies, Best Buy has an exclusive DVD if you get the 2-disc set... only 10 per store though, so be there early!

Best Buy Deals
- Pursuit of Happiness for $7.99
- Casino Royale for $7.99
- Rocky Balboa for $7.99
- Stargate SG-1: Seasons 1-10 for $19.99 each

Circuit City Deals
- Ocean's Eleven for $6.99
- Chicago for $6.99
- A Knight's Tale for $6.99
- Matrix for $6.99
- Breakfast at Tiffany's for $6.99
- Ocean's Twelve for $6.99
- Troy for $6.99
- Mission: Impossible Sp. Ed. for $4.99
- M: I-2 for $4.99
- War of the Worlds for $4.99
- Minority Report for $4.99
- Saint for $4.99

Union Deli

Location: 142-01 38th Ave., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Deli, American, Korean, South American
Phone: (718) 461-4110
Prices: variable
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 5

Frequency: All the time

Downtown Flushing changes its store front fairly often, but Union Deli is one of the constants as it is one of the oldest businesses on Union St. Back when we were kids, my sister and I would get snacks there while we were helping out at my dad's office. It was always a first stop when my friends and I would head out for a day in Manhattan. I would also often pick up breakfast there when I used to commute from Flushing to Manhattan.

I had this place in mind when I created the label, "Restaurants and Food." It's not really a restaurant, but you can get a full meal there. In Manhattan, there's one of these places at every intersection, but you'll find that this is the only one in the downtown Flushing area. They offer the standard deli items... cold cut sandwiches, salads, wraps and hot items. There's also a food bar that mixes American, Korean and South American cuisines. The prices are OK. They're lower than most delis, but high compared to other meal prices in the area. It's understandable though because... where else can you get a balsamic chicken wrap?

Service here is pretty good. The cooked food is prepared quickly, made up of fresh ingredients and is not microwaved. Occasionally, the line can get disorganized when there are too many customers. The staff is friendly. The appearance can use some work, but is slowly improving all the time. The place used to be very stuffy years ago. Since then, they've rearranged all of their products to create more space and opened up the window area for more natural light.

Note: This review only applies to the prepared foods.

DVDeals 4/20 - 4/26

DVD Tuesday
This Tuesday will feature Cloverfield and there's only one edition to worry about! Circuit City has the best price again at $14.99. Best Buy is $1 more, but with an exclusive 30 min bonus disc... if you're one of the first 74 customers.

Circuit City Deals
- Family Guy: Seasons 3-5 for $16.99 each
- Independence Day for $4.99
- Saving Private Ryan for $6.99
- Italian Job for $6.99
- Top Gun Sp. Ed. for $6.99
- Casino Royale for $8.99

Best Buy Deals
- Aeon Flux for $7.99
- Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life for $7.99
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut for $4.99
- Underworld for $4.99
- Underworld: Evolution for $4.99
- The Bourne Identity for $4.99
- The Bourne Supremacy for $4.99
- Minority Report for $4.99
- Stargate: Ark of Truth for $14.99
- Beowulf for $14.99
- Spiderman 3 for $14.99

Closed Loops

The solution to the second puzzle from March 30... there actually isn't one. There's no way out of it. Having 2 people tied up that way is the same as 2 interlocking chain links. Jeremy actually got out of it by slipping one string through the wrist of the other person. While that worked, we all agreed it wasn't a true solution. What if the string was tighter. The idea of this puzzle is, "not all problems have an answer." It's still fun to do if you want to watch people play twister for few minutes.

9 Dots & 4 Lines

Here's the solution to the first puzzle from March 30:



The idea is to draw outside of the boundaries that we automatically make for ourselves, but not restricted to by any given rules. Uncle Albert uses this as a lesson to "think outside of the box."

DVDeals 4/13 - 4/19

DVD Tuesday
AVP - Requiem comes out this Tuesday. Circuit City has the best price for both the regular edition ($15.99) and special edition ($21.99)... a dollar less than everywhere else.

Best Buy Deals
- Family Guy: Seasons 3-5 for $19.99 each
- Friends: Season 1-4 for $16.99 each

Circuit City Deals
- Sixth Sense for $6.99
- Gangs of NY for $6.99
- Underworld for $6.99
- Jurassic Park III for $6.99
- Coming to America for $6.99
- Team America for $6.99

Frommer's Atlantic City

I repurposed a few destinations shots of Atlantic City from last week for a new Frommers.com slideshow. It was a short day trip, so we really only went to Resorts Casino and Taj Mahal. I picked out 8 destination photos (non-portraits) that made a nice variety. I may have overdone Taj Mahal still, but the Indian architectural elements just look nice, even on a replica. Additionally, I have 2 traditional shots on the main page from years ago.

Click here to check out my photos on Frommer's Atlantic City.

NOTE: Camera Date Error

My cousin, Rosemarie noticed that the dates in my Picasa Web albums are wrong. So I just looked at the date/time settings on my camera and it was off by 1 year & 1 day. For example, Andy's Wedding was on 3/29/2008, but the meta data from my camera says 3/30/2007. For all of the photos on this blog, please go by the Picasa Web album date and not the meta data date (which can't be corrected). I always label the albums with the date of occurrence even if I'm uploading the photos days after. I just corrected the camera settings so all future uploads will be correct and match up with the album date as well.

Thanks, Rosemarie!

Pinkberry

Location: 136-09 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Korean, Dessert
Hours: SUN-THU (11:30am-11pm); FRI-SAT (11:30am-12am)
Phone: (718) 886-6074
Website: www.pinkberry.com
Prices: About $7 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 5

Frequency: Unique

I passed by Pinkberry today on the way from the bank and decided to try it out so I could gauge the quality level of Red Mango. I ordered close to the same thing I had at Red Mango last Friday... a small green tea w/ strawberry & kiwi (they didn't have graham crackers). It wasn't too bad, but I would say the yogurt is better at Red Mango and the fruits were also fresher. I will have to try this again another time because Pinkberry offers something that Red Mango doesn't at this time... a coffee flavor.

The service was about the same, but Pinkberry is much more expensive because they charge $.95 per topping. My small with just 2 toppings ended up costing $6.29! The environment is not nearly as comfortable since there really isn't one. The Flushing Pinkberry is really just a counter and 2 tables. It's not meant to be a sit-down restaurant.

Both in Manhattan and Flushing, Pinkberry and Red Mango are located relatively close to each other. Based on taste and price, I would almost always go to Red Mango unless I get a coffee yogurt craving.

The Siys in NYC

I'm posting this list because I back-dated all of the entries related to my recent family reunion. I wanted everything to be marked with their original dates of occurrence. So please use the links below to get to the posts I inserted:

- Intro.
- Tangers Outlets
- An Eventful Friday
- Red Mango
- Andy & Evelyn
- Swan Club Reception
- 59th to 34th Walking Tour
- Uncle Albert's Puzzles
- Flushing to AC
- Sultan's Feast
- Big Money... NOT!
- AC's Prime Real Estate

AC's Prime Real Estate

I thought Atlantic City was a pure gaming city with no actual housing, but these cats depicted below are permanent residents who own some nice beachfront property:


This is the high life!

Big Money... NOT!

On to the gambling! Naturally, we all lost money, but Auntie Susanna had the best luck. While she didn't win anything at the end of the day, she had the longest playing time, while the rest of us just killed time by pacing the floor and getting some fresh Boardwalk air! I blew $40 on the slots. Matt broke even on Blackjack and lost $5 on the slots. Margaret lost $5 on the slots. Auntie Susanna stayed on one slot machine for almost 2 hours. She had spent $10 and got it about up to $60, but then ended up losing it all in typical fashion. It's a good thing we all don't gamble large amounts!


So here's my lifetime record:

• 1999 Subic Bay, Philippines(+$20)
• 2001 Atlantic City (+$190)
• 2006 Las Vegas (-$20)
• 2008 Atlantic City (-$40)

It's a split, but at least the total dollar amount is still positive!

Sultan's Feast

Location: 1000 Boardwalk (@ Virginia Ave.), Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Cuisine: Buffet, American
Phone: (609) 449-1000
Website: www.trumptaj.com
Prices: $22 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

We were all pretty hungry upon arrival, so our stomachs were telling us to go for a buffet. We checked out the one at Resorts first, but it seemed too complicated. They wanted us to pay cash downstairs to get a card and then come back up. I think the purpose of that was basically "click tracking" from a web developer's point of view... at the expense of our time. So we walked over to Taj Mahal next door and paid cash for Sultan's Feast, which looked like it had better food anyway.

It lacked the variety of just about every buffet I've been to in Flushing, Manhattan, Philippines and Las Vegas, but what little choices they had were all very good. There's a station that cooked fresh strip steak to the temperature of your choice. That was definitely my favorite. I also enjoyed the Cajun seasoned swordfish and rotisserie chicken. By contrast, the dessert counter had a lot of variety, made up of different slices of cake, trays of pies, cookies and a custom frozen yogurt station.

The service was excellent and we had more attention than I expected for a self-serve buffet. The decor and cleanliness was a bit worse than most buffets, but not bad.

I'm glad we stopped by this place because during my family's trip, we ended up going for fast food for many of our meals based on time and location.

Flushing to AC

We decided to take a side trip to Atlantic City for a change of scenery and it works out pretty well leaving from Flushing. There are several buses that take day trips there and leave at scheduled times. We took the Resorts Casino bus this morning at 9am. The cost of the bus ride is $12 + a $2 tip on the way back for the driver. So that's $14 total. Upon arrival in AC, you get a $25 coupon that can be used for anything you want. You can gamble it away, blow it on one of the buffets, pocket it, etc. So at the start of the trip, you're already up by $11. The morning buses will arrive on or a bit after noontime, making lunch the next order of business. The options usually are:

• buffet for $22
• other casino restaurant for $17
• McDonald's for $6
• street vendor for $7

So if you went the ultra-thrifty route, it is possible to grab a cheap lunch and still have a few bucks for the slot machines! Since I was hosting out-of-towners on vacation, we went for the buffet (coming up in a separate post).