Lake Pavillion

Location: 60-15 Main St., Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 3
Value: 6
Environment: 9

Frequency: Unique

I got home at around 4:30 and then rested a little bit before heading out again. This time it was a family dinner and our first one out in ages. We heard that the restaurant that took over the Palace Diner space opened this week and wanted to see it for ourselves.




They did a great job of renovating the space. While then outside looks the same, the interior is completely different. The old kitchen area because part of the dining hall, creating a single huge open space. There are also private rooms all around. The decor is an improvement over Palace Diner, which never really did any major renovations.

I thought the food was OK overall. It was just another Chinese place... nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible. The problem is that it's priced higher than downtown Flushing. So it's Main St. prices, but not Main St. quality food.

It was their first week and easy to tell as the staff was confused most of the time. It didn't seem like they had a system for serving food. All of the waiters would bring stuff out of the kitchen and not know which table it was for. During our dinner there, there were 2 dropped dishes (luckily empty). This place isn't really ready to be reviewed. I recommend that you give it a few months before eating here. I just wanted to see it out of curiosity.

Momofuku Milk Bar

Location: 15 W. 56th St., New York, NY 10019
Cuisine: Japanese
Hours: DAILY (8am-11pm)
Website: www.momofuku..com
Prices: $8/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 10

Frequency: Common

Today was really my first vacation day away from the Faelands of Amalur. I spent the day in the city on a food tour that started out with brunch at La Bonne Soupe. I met up with Kelly, who was also the last person I ate out with at the end of my Holiday Food Fest. So I took it easy for a month and then shortly after that, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came out.

After La Bonne Soupe, we were looking for a non-Starbucks coffee place. Several of them are closed on Sundays, but I came across Momofuku, which I didn't realize had a Midtown West location. It was right by La Bonne Soupe. I've been here a few times, but all in the Lower Manhattan one. It's pretty much the same items though. In general, this place has very original desserts, but lacks in drink variety. I had a cinnamon bun pie today, which is a cheesecake crossed with a cinnamon bun.

 
What's great about the Midtown location is that it's inside Chambers Hotel. While the milk bar itself doesn't have seating, they let you into the hotel lobby and mezzanine area. On a Sunday afternoon, the place was empty and peaceful. It might have been the quietest place off of the crazy tourist saturated 5th Avenue!

The Teeth of Naros

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came out in February and already had 2 DLCs. Just a couple of weeks ago, they released a 3rd called The Teeth of Naros (ToN). So they've been doing a good job of keeping their new fans entertained. I worked from a previous save actually... the one before I completed the game. I heard that there were new blacksmithing materials to make more powerful weapons, so I wanted to play through the DLC before winning the game. So there will be a "Crystal Wars Reloaded" post sometime in the future!

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The Teeth of Naros is a location South of the main map and it's a hidden land of giants called Kollossae. The theme is very much Greco-Roman as the Kollossae are into philosophy, theatre and warfare. Their appearance is even based on the classical statues. The garb they wear is colored in bright primaries like the Greek statues of the real world were once painted. ToN claimed to be a 20-hour adventure. The previous DLC, Legend of Dead Kel was advertised as 10-hour, but I felt like ToN was shorter for some reason. I was more into the new weapons and armor of course. The DLC featured 9 new armor sets (3 for warriors, 3 for rogues and 3 for wizards). They also added 2 weapons of each type and a bunch of magic rings. Then there's a new material called "primal," which unleashes a special magic that overrides opponents' resistance to elemental attacks. It's a ton of more powerful stuff to use on the main quest when the time comes!

Enterprise Hudson River Flyby

I've seen space shuttles before in museums and of course on TV, but it's really something else to see a live one actually in the sky. With NASA retiring the shuttle program, the Enterprise made its way to NYC today. It conveniently flew piggyback down the Hudson River, by my office. It landed in JFK afterwards and will later be transported to the Intrepid Museum.
Photos

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Entry

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Tax Day Dinner

The end of the tax season this year will actually be April 17 with the 15th falling on a weekend, but my parents are at a good pace with their work, so we finally had a family dinner.

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End of the Crystal Wars

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

OK... I've delayed winning this game long enough. I planned to do it this weekend and blocked out Saturday for it. The thing is, it came quicker than I thought it would. I was expecting a big fight with King Gadflow and maybe a break with more side quests... then another epic battle with Tirnoch. But it happens very quickly. Immediately after the House of Vengeance is a fast paced walk to Gadflow with lots of Tuatha soldiers on the way. After "Gadflow," there's a short dungeon with fate-powered clones of Alyssa. Then it's the final fight with Tirnoch.

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I don't think I've ever put off winning a game before because I didn't want it to end, but I delayed this one purposely for weeks. It still has some life though. I have a couple more armor sets to complete and they're releasing a 3rd DLC this week... The Teeth of Naros, a Greco-Roman themed adventure dealing with titans and floating cities. I'll be in it for the weapons and armor though!

All About Armor

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has quickly built up a large cult following. There are message boards, wikis and walkthroughs all over the place. If you read up on a lot of message boards, most people are playing the game for the armor sets. It's the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the game. Generally, the quests and battles are pretty easy. But collecting armor is hard! So it feels great to complete a set or find unique weapons. Here are my completed sets so far:

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Tips for completing armor sets:

1. Unlike the outside regions, dungeon treasures are determined as you walk in. So you can have some control over the random looting. Just save the game before you go in. If you don't like what you get after completing the dungeon, just reload the save and try again. You can speed this up in a dungeon that has a chest(s) right in the beginning. Just reload if you don't get a rare one in the beginning.

2. Certain enemies have a high chance of giving you uniques:
- Bansheens
- Leanashes
- Trolls
- Crudoks
- Bolgans
- Threshes
- Root Golems (Dead Kel DLC)
- Niskaru Tyrants

2. If you have the Dead Kel DLC, you'll have a much easier time. Rare loot seems to drop more often. I think the chests even respawn more often. Also, the player housing includes a scout (Zefwyn Lan) that will check wreckage for gear. What you do is send him out and save the game before you talk to him upon return. I've gotten full armor sets just from this guy.

3. You can also do the reloading on one of the enemies in #2 if you know when they will appear. The treasure is randomized after the kill.

4. Make note of areas that respawn the enemies in #2. For example, there's an area between the Hollowlands and Menetyre that has 2 crudoks. I almost always get a rare item just fighting off those 2. Right after that, I head off to Skoria Mines where there's an army of small Niskaru and a tyrant. The Dead Kel DLC has several dungeons with respawning large enemies.