Ai Passion

Location: 20-02 Utopia Parkway, Whitestone, NY 11357
Cuisine: Asian
Hours: SUN (1:30pm-10pm); MON-THU (11:30am-10:30pm); FRI (11:30am-11:30pm); SAT (12:30pm-11:30pm)
Phone: (718) 352-8100
Email: eat@aipassion.com
Website: www.aipassion.com
Prices: $15/person (Lunch)
Credit Cards: All major

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

Frequency: Uncommon

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Get your own

This is an update to the original review from last December. I'm still happy with the food in Ai Passion as we ordered all completely new dishes this time around and none of them missed. I lowered the service by a point because I felt the staff was a little bit off. Last time I thought it was because it was a new waiter, but they all seem to be like this. The more skilled waiters will take an order and remember who ordered which dish. Our waiter tonight had no idea, so he placed everything in the middle. Also, 2 of our dishes included either soup or salad and we weren't given that option. I also gave the environment a -1 from last time because they seem to have a mosquito problem. Other than that, the place is clean and well-designed.

Ai Passion is still a great restaurant outside of the downtown area... a gem in a residential neighborhood.

Note: The album above is the same one from last time. I just added the new dishes from tonight.

Cleaning the Table

This was from September 4, during our visit to the Siews. While we were all talking, Bradley just decided to pick up a napkin and wipe the table. He ended up spreading watermelon juice + drool instead of actually cleaning. That's a spit shine!

9/11

Visiting the MacDonalds

Andrew and Joanne will be moving back to Australia in October, so I was happy I could get together this them over the weekend. I wasn't able to make it up there in the beginning of the Summer since I had so many out of town guests, but things have slowed down since then.

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Everything worked out well today. I had to work early in the morning at 6am, but finished at a reasonable time (8:30am). I left the house at about 9:15am because there were a lot of variables that could have slowed me down. There's the usual slowness of the Q12 bus, possible 7 train slowdown because of US Open traffic and typical weekend MTA construction. Everything went error free through. The bus came right away, which is rare for a weekend. The 7 was normal. I took that to Times Square to pick up a Junior's Cheesecake at 45th St. Then I headed over to the A line. Last time I went over their place, I remembered the A was really bad and took about an hour including wait time. This time, I had a surprisingly short wait and it went all the way through without delay. I was in Inwood by 10:50am. That much earlier than I expected, so I walked around a bit and came across a nice farmer's market. I looked around a bit and picked up some organic apple cider and apple cider donuts.

I still made it to the apartment early, which meant extra playtime with Liam. And I had lots of time to catchup with Andrew and Joanne, who I haven't seen for about a year. The change in routine threw off Liam's schedule though as he missed his nap time. Even after multiple walks and running around the apartment, he was still full of energy!

Labor Day Weekend

Our office was closed the day after Hurricane Irene because most of the mass transit was not ready for the morning rush and a lot of people were still without power. Fortunately Cindy went into labor that day and not during the storm. And I had the day off so I was around to watch Wesley. Because of that, I wasn't able to make it to the hospital to meet to latest addtion to the family, Bentley Ryan Siew. So we all went over last night for a visit...

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Hurricane Irene

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Get your own

Hurricane Irene came and went. Fortunately, the photos above aren't that exciting. I just documented the "before" and "after," which almost look the same. There were no downed trees or power lines on my street. The rain started pouring last night and the winds sped up at about 1am. Heavy rains continued throughout the night, but seemed to stop abruptly at around 9am. The eye of the hurricane was supposed to stick around until 12pm, but it seems like it flew by much faster. It's still very windy right now, but the worst of it is over. If this was a weekday and I still lived in Congers, I'd probably keep up the paper airplane routine!

Hurricane Gloria

Original Date: September 1985

Hurricane Irene is coming soon! It's been in the news for the past few days and its path is still headed straight for New York City. The last time there was this much preparation for an incoming hurricane was back when I was a kid in 1985. It was Hurricane Gloria. All public schools were closed on a non-snow day for the first time. We were warned not to go outside, but it turned out to be a pretty nice day. They sky was gray and the winds were a lot more powerful than usual, but the Gloria did not hit us directly. I remember going outside to play with paper airplanes in Mike's backyard. We were all happy to have the day off from school for nothing!

Giant Bee

All sorts of things like to find their way under my car cover as I have it wrapped up for the week. There was a huge dead bug today. When I first saw it, I thought it was a cicada based on the size (almost 2"). Then I went closer and discovered it was a giant bee.


Check out the size of the stinger...

The Australian

Location: 20 West 38 St. (btw 5th & 6th Aves), New York, NY
Cuisine: Australian
Hours: SUN-WED (11:30am-12am); THU (11:30am-2am); FRI-SAT (11:30am-4am)
Phone: (212) 869-8601
Website: www.theaustraliannyc.com
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major

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

Frequency: Unique


I've been trying to go to The Australian for a while now, but it didn't seem like anyone was interested. I suggested it about 3 times to various friends, but the plans changed all 3 times. I finally made it there today during Kelly's visit to the city. I already knew I was going to order the meat pies as my entree. The in-restaurant menu was a little different than the one they have online though. Like other cuisines, they had a lunch special. So the meat pies entree was $2 lower than I thought. It's served with either fries or salad. On the website menu, they don't mention kangaroo skewers, but they actually had it in the restaurant. Kelly was adventurous enough to try it out, so we shared it as an appetizer. How can you go to an Australian restaurant and not try kangaroo!?

The restaurant had a comfortable crowd with most people eating at the bar... probably office people on lunch break who were by themselves. There were only a few tables taken up. I imagine they get most of their audience at night or during rugby games. Service was pretty good as the food came out at a reasonable time. The waiter was polite and paid a lot of attention to us. In contrast to the rest of the place, the bathrooms weren't that clean. That was the only tiny negative.

Dragonboat 2011

For the first time since starting this blog (and probably a few years before that too), I missed the NY HK Dragonboat Festival in Flushing Meadows. I was busy @ MoMA on Saturday and Sunday was just bad weather all day long. I'm really not sure how they got through all the races and events because we had non-stop thunderstorms. I don't regret it though. It was getting repetative and the Talk to Me exhibit alone was worth it.


Here's a look at the past Dragonboat events:

- 2008
- 2009
- 2010