Tea Box Cafe

Location: 693 5th Ave., New York, NY
Cuisine: Japanese
Hours: MON-SAT (11:45am-5:30pm)
Phone: (800) 753-2038
Website: www.takashimaya-ny.com/cafe.php
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major

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

Frequency: Unique

Today was the day I was able to get most of the cousins together for Jen's weekend visit. She had plans to go to MoMA for the afternoon, so I searched for restaurants near there. Tea Box Cafe looked interesting because it was Japanese, but had many items I had never seen before. It was almost like American stlye foods (sandwiches and salads), but with Japanese ingredients. I headed out a little early to look for backups in case it ended up being too crowded or not the right setting for a comfortable sit-in meal. When I got there, I couldn't find the place right away. I didn't write down the address, thinking it would look obvious with just the 5th Ave. & 54th St. intersection. A Japanese cafe should stand out on 5th Ave. After passing the intersection twice, I checked the address on my cellphone and walked into a building lobby. Then I went to the other entrance next to it, which was a furniture store called Takashimaya and they had a sign for Tea Box Cafe on the lower level.

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The food turned out to be as interesting as advertised, but I felt the portions were too small for the price paid. The chicken sandwich I had felt like half a sandwich. The service seemed OK. We had no issues on our table. The food was served quickly and we weren't rushed despite the line at the entrance. I did hear another table complain that their order was too slow though.

The environment was a bit plain, but clean. I think part of the reason for the emptiness is because Takashimaya is closing down and likely taking Tea Box Cafe with it. It's too bad I didn't find out about this place earlier. It's a nice little hidden place to take out of town guests.

No. 1 East Restaurant

Location: 41-27 Main St., Flushing, NY 11355
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 460-8686
Prices: about $13/person
Credit Cards: All major

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

Frequency: Common

Mitch, Elvira and family came for a visit today since we haven't seen them in a while... since 2008! Sometimes it's hard to believe so much time has passed because of Facebook updates. We headed over to No. 1 East Restaurant, which is actually the former People's and People that used to be on Prince St. Their lease ran out, so they moved a while back. I'm sure they're happy with the much more trafficked Main St. location.

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Everything is basically the same as the old place except the name of the restaurant got weirder. The food and service are still great. Prices are about the same and the environment is still simple, but clean.

Queens Health Emporium

Location: 15901 Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing, NY 11365
Cuisine: Chinese, Organic
Phone: (718) 358-6500
Website: www.queenshealthemporium.com
Prices: $11/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 4

Frequency: Unique

Queens Health Emporium is actually a supermarket, but they have a built-in food stand and juice bar with limited seating. I went in just to compare prices with what I'm used to in Manhattan and Hoboken now that I'm experienced with organic shopping. For the grocery store itself, the prices are a lot higher for most products. It's surprising that Manhattan beats Queens with prices in the organic category, but I guess there aren't many groceries like this in Flushing. I picked up some apples and Amy's Burritos.

While I was there, I decided to check out the food stand. I've shopped here before, but never ordered food. So I thought I'd give it a shot. They basically have rice dishes where you choose 2-3 veggies along with it and some sandwich choices. I went for something simple... a vegan turkey sandwich. It really didn't look like anything special, but it was full of taste as they stuffed it with lemongrass and carrots. I'm not a big fan of carrots in sandwiches, but the combination they did somehow worked well together.

The service is pretty fast there. You basically place your order. Then you pay at the cashier with the rest of your groceries and then go back to the kitchen where the food is already done. The only negative is they don't seem to have everything on their menu every day. My first choice was actually an "unturkey" burger.

Prices are OK for organic foods. The rice dishes range from $6-7. Sandwiches are $5-6. Juices are about $4.

I didn't give the environment a high rating because it's a weird place to sit down and eat. It's a counter in the middle of a supermarket, so people will be walking around you and there isn't a lot of space.

Bradley's Baptism

Bradley's Baptism was a whole day event. It was scheduled for 1pm, so we already started preparing by shifting our meals in the morning. We had an early breakfast and then a little bit more around 11am. We then headed out around 12pm to arrive just before 1pm.

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The schedule was about the same as it was for Wesley's 3 years ago. The Baptism was at The Church of Edward the Confessor, in Cindy & Wil's neighborhood. It was a short mass with just the gospel and then the priest performed baptism for 3 babies. Things seemed to go by quickly. We were up first, followed by the other 2 families. Bradley didn't make a sound as water was poured over his head 3 times... a lot of water! Then his head was heavily greased. The 2nd kid was the same. The 3rd broke the streak and cried a little.

After the ceremony, we had a late lunch at The Orient, also de ja vu from Wesley's Baptism. It was small banquet style meal with all of the usual dishes. Then we spent the rest of the day at Cindy & Wil's place.

Chicken Charlie

Location: 592a N.S. Amoranto St., Quezon City, Philippines
Cuisine: Filipino, Korean
Hours: SUN-FRI (11am-8:30pm)
Phone: 742 3333

Food: 10

When Ifore was here in October, he studied the Korean fried chicken technique so he could start up his own restaurant in the Philippines. Charlie Chicken (named after his dad, my uncle), opened about 2 weeks ago. Since I'm not over there, I can't give a full review, but I can safely say that the food is a 10 because I've had the chicken the Ifore made while he was in training in NY. He's using the Korean style of frying, but the other dishes in the restaurant are based on Filipino tastes.

Related: Photos, Facebook Page

Street Fairs & Events

I met Kelly, Harriet and the twins for lunch today at Paquito's on 28th St. and 3rd Ave. We order to go and headed to Madison Square Park so the kids could run around. There was a Sikh parade about to start up in the area as we were eating lunch by the fountain, but the scene was surprisingly calm. The kids were able to entertain themselves at the almost empty fountain (just a few puddles of water) while we had our lunches.

After lunch, we went back towards 3rd Ave., to the street fair. There wasn't anything exciting... the same stands that I come across when they do it on 8th an 9th Avenue, but it gave us a scenic route and fully pedestrian path uptown. We were heading to the Earth Day festival at Grand Central. Since the kids drank a lot, we made a pit stop at the public Library on 30th St. We stayed there for a while because they had a children's activity, making paper ducks.

The Earth Day festival was another street festival with info. and food stands, but it was more original than the generic 3rd Ave. one. I saw many familiar organic companies there as well as some new ones. There was live music on a stage,an organic coffee truck and a Bio Bus with science activities for students. The twins were exhausted and slept through the whole Earth Day event!

Corner 28 (2nd Floor)

Location: 40-28 Main St., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 886-6628
Prices: $15-20/person (dinner + dessert)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 9
Environment: 8

Frequency: Common

We had a short break from the monthly dinners over the Winter, but reconvened tonight since the weather is getting nicer. This actually kicked off a weekend of eating for me as I'm going out for lunch with Kelly tomorrow and then the usual family dinner on Sunday.

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Corner 28 is a little different for dinner, so I updated the stats a little. The prices are up from lunch, as expected. We spent $24 per person including tax and tips, but it's because we ordered a few high end dishes. A normal dinner would be a little lower... around $15-20 per person. I felt that was a little less budget than lunch, but still good. The food quality is still great. I think this is one Chinese restaurant that truly stands out in the crowd of many in Flushing.

Mari Vanna

Location: 41 E. 20th St. (near Park Ave. S.), New York, NY 10003
Cuisine: Russian
Phone: (212) 777-1955
Website: www.marivanna.ru
Prices: about $45/person (lunch)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 3
Environment: 9

Frequency: Unique

Originally, I took the day off for Bradley's baptism, but that got moved to May 2. It still worked out though because Kelly made a surprise visit to NYC. So I was able to spend the afternoon with her. We went in reverse order and started at LA Burdick for coffee and tea because she was moving from West to East. That's probably a separate review, but I don't think I have a good enough feel for their food to do that yet. For lunch, we just moved East on 20th to Mari Vanna. As we walked in that direction, I actually walked past the place and noticed I lost Kelly. I looked back and saw that she was looking at a flower shop. I went back to see if she wanted to go in... turns out it wasn't a flower shop. That was Mari Vanna!

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I've never had Russian food before, so I went for the items that looked like specialties... mushroom soup, chicken pita and Russian crepes. The pita sounds ordinary, but the ingredients and dressing were original. The portions were large, but I still felt that $45 per person for lunch is overboard. That's more of a dinner price. I would've thought it would be reasonable of the pre-fix lunch included the dessert.

The staff was extremely friendly. They explained the dishes to us when we needed it. Our cups were always full. They gave Kelly a ton of Russian candy when she asked about it. If there's a negative, it's the slowness of service. I can understand the dishes coming out slowly, but it took them ages to bring out a dessert menu. And there was only one other customer at the time. It was no problem for us though as we were not in a rush.

Easter Egg Cake

Happy Easter!

Easter was never really that big with my family just because it always fell on the peak portion of the tax season. Also, unlike other countries, we don't get any days off for it. This year, most of my Easter celebrations were on Facebook since each application had some kind of seasonal feature for it: