Restaurant Review: Wasabi Grill

195 S. Main St
New City, NY 10956
(845) 638 - 2202

Asian / Japanese
Price: $2 - $28
Dine In, Take Out, Bar

Wasabi Grill is part of Wasabi franchise by Chef Doug Nguyen. Opened in February of this year, Wasabi Grill is comparatively smaller than its sister restaurants, Wasabi and Wasabi Chi. Yet the place still has that sophisticated look that can be seen in Wasabi, Nyack.

When you walked in, you will be first greeted by an elevated lounge with leather couch and ottomans that can be use if you are waiting for your party or just to relax after your meal. After the lounge, the restaurant has three sets of high communal table which can easily fit a party of six. Each table has a small flat screen TV that are sync with the three Flat Screens above the bar. Other than that, the interiors are similar to Wasabi in Nyack - walls are green and the bar is back-lit with table for four situated on one side of the wall and a couple of small circular table for two. The other difference, the sushi bar is smaller since it shares space with the hibachi grill.

Once I settled in, the friendly waitress came over right away and asked us what we want to drink. Upon looking through the cocktail menu and ordered a Wasabi Martini ($10) which is made of chilled lichiko and lychee juice top with a lychee fruit. The drink was very smooth and chilled just right. It was cold that night so I ordered a Miso Soup ($2) which taste great and surely warm me up. Then our appetizers came, we had Beef Negimaki and Chicken Tempura.  The Beef Negimaki was sumptous, the teriyaki sauce wasn't over empowering. The Chicken Tempura was complimented by vegetable tempura with a horseradish (I think) sauce. The tempura was crisp and the meat/veggies were tender. For my main course, I ordered the Sensei Roll which taste delicious and fresh.

Overall, the place has a great atmosphere and well-priced. The host and waitstaff are friendly and the food is just delicious. And the prices are cheaper than the main Wasabi in Nyack and more family-friendly.

Wasabi Grill (website does not have any details of Wasabi Grill yet)

Christmas in various languages

Christmas is 5 days away so I decided to search the Internet and compile a list of how to say Merry Christmas in various languages

Afrikanns - Geseënde Kersfees
Afrikander - Een Plesierige Kerfees
African - Rehus-Beal-Ledeats
Albanian - Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic - Milad Majid
Argentine - Felices Pasquas Y felices ano Nuevo
Armenian - Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri - Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Basque - Eguberri on
Bohemian - Vesele Vanoce
Breton - Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian - Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristov\
Catalan - Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou
Chinese (Mandarin) - Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Chinese (Catonese) - Saint Dan Fai Lo
Columbian - Feliz Navidad 
Cornish - Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Corsian - Pace e salute
Croatian - Sretan Bozic
Czech - Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish - Glædelig Jul
Dutch - Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
English - Merry Christmas
Estonian - Haid joule ja head uut aastat
Ethiopian (Amharic) - Melkin Yelidet Beaal
Farsi - Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
French - Joyeux Noël
Gaelic - Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ur
Greek - Kala Christouyenna
German - Froehliche Weihnachten
Haitian (Creole) - Jwaye Nowel
Hawaiian - Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew - Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi - Shub Naya Baras
Hungarian - Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic - Gledileg Jol
Indonesian - Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi - Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish - Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Italian - Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese - Shinnen omedeto, kurisumasu omedeto.
Jiberish - Mithag Crithagsigathmithags
Korean - Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin - Natale hilare et Annum Faustum
Latvian - Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu
Lithuanian - Linksmu Kaledu
Macedonian - Sreken Bozhik
Maori - Meri Kirihimete
Navajo - Merry Keshmish
Norwegian - God Jul
Polish - Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzeni
Portuguese - Feliz Natal
Rapa-Nui - Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi
Romanian - Craciun Fericit
Russian - Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva s Novim Godom
Sami - Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan - La Maunia Le Killisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Serbian - Hristos se rodi
Slovakian - Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Scots Gaelic - Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serbian - Hristos se rodi
Slovak - Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Spanish - Feliz Navidad
Swedish - God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Tagalog - Maligayang Pasko
Tahitian - Ia orana te Noera
Thai - Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish - Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian - Z Rizdvom Khrystovym
Urdu - Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese - Chuc Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh - Nadolig Llawen
Yoruba - E ku odun, e ku iye'dun
Yugoslavian - Cestitamo Bozic

New Gmail Lab tool: Mark Unread from Here

The nice thing about Gmail is that it combines all related messages into conversation. This is a great tool since it will make your inbox look more organize and less cluttered. But sometimes you might want to go back and read a part of a conversation but have to go through each message to look for it since all the message are compressed into tabs except for the last message. This could be a hassle if you have little time to spare or if you cannot remember where you left off.

Now, there is a new feature in Google Labs called 'Mark unread from here.' The basic premise is that the tool - when enabled - will tell Google what part of the conversation you want to open when you click on the conversation. Here is a screenshot of the tool courtesy of Gmail Blog

 This would be a great help especially when you have long conversations as it almost serves as a bookmark.

Try it out

Official Gmail Blog

Retail Shopping vs Online Shopping

This morning, I was talking to a neighbor while we were doing laundry (Yes, I do my own laundry - one of my homely skills) and she was telling me how - this year - she bought all her presents online. Now, she use to not like the idea of online shopping but with a little persuasion from her kids, she started doing it and got comfortable with it.

I'm an avid online shopper but I still manage to go to the brick and mortar stores to shop. There are certain items that I shop online and certain items I go to the store to buy.  If everything can be bought online, then that would be a different story. So this post would talk about the advantages and disadvantages of retail and online shopping.

Retail Shopping
Advantage - One of the best advantages of going to the store to buy a product is that you can see, feel and try the product. You can test the product right there at the store without needing to shell out the money first. And if you don't really like the product, then you can just leave the store and go to the next one.

Disadvantage - It can get tiring. Yes, going to retail is great but you need to make sure you wear comfortable shoes because there is a lot of standing and walking involved. If you are an avid shopper, you won't just go to one store and that's it. You will end up walking around the mall and checking almost every store. This is more evident during big sale promos and of course, the holiday season. There is a mall near my place - its four floors and has numerous shops. And it would probably take you more than half a day just to go through all the stores.

Disadvantage - Store Hours. Store are only open certain hours which makes it a disadvantage. You are limited to how long you can decide before buying or else you will end up going back to the store again and again.

Online Shopping
Advantage - It's not tiring. Yep, online shopping is not tiring. You just have to go online and start shopping. And you can be doing something else while doing online shopping. And there is no time limit, you can shop 24 hours a day, 365 days in a year. Shop till your internet connection drops..

Advantage - More choices. The best advantage of online shopping is that you can compare an item more retailers. And there are now online tools that allows you to compare prices with different e-retailers without the need of going through each store and checking their prices.

Disadvantage - You have to wait for your product to arrive with online shopping. And usually, you will end up waiting for a long day except if you pay extra for expedite shipping. I remember that it almost took a month to get my desktop. I guess patience is a virtue.

Disadvantage - Online shopping is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) shopping. You see only a picture and don't have a chance to try it out before buying it. Yes most online retail store have a 30 day return policy but that just mean that you have to repackage the item, bring it to the post office and send it. Its just a hassle to do this especially if you have a very hectic life.

As you can see, there a numerous advantages and disadvantages with both types of shopping. Everyone has different opinions and these are just mine. Of course you are entitled to your own opinion.

His Name is Manny Pacquiao

Last night, Manny Pacquiao proved to the whole world that he is the best pound for pound fighter by demolishing Miguel Cotto to win the welterweight crown. Manny dominated the bout after the first round with the Pacman knocking Cotto down in the third with the right hook, which was unusual for the South paw. He knock him down again - this time with his infamous left hook - in the fourth and that spelled doom for Cotto as he was trying to survive the beating he was getting from Pacquiao. You could see that Cotto was bloodied and hurting by the ninth round that even his family left their ringside seats. By the tenth round, you could see that Manny didn't even want to continue to pound Cotto yet they fight continued on under Referee Bayless stopped the fight with just 55 seconds in the 12th round making Pacquiao the WBO welterweight champion.

This was Manny's seventh title in various weight class - a feat no other boxers has achieve - cementing his status as the best pound for pound fighter and pretty sure will be a future hall of famer. Despite all the glitz and fame that he is gaining, he has remained humble. Cotto was a true gentleman which was evident during his post bout interview saying he was truly beat by Manny and he just didn't see where his punches where coming from. I'm sure Cotto will bounce back and fight another day.

So who's next for the Pacman??? Everyone is pointing to Floyd "Moneymaker" Mayweather. That would surely be one of the greatest fight ever. This could be right on top with Ali - Frazier, Durant - Leonard, Gatti - Ward, Holyfield - Tyson.

In the words of Miguel Cotto: "Manny Pacquiao is one of the best fighters ever."

Movie Review: Ong Bak 2

Ong Bak 3 is suppose to come out later in the year so I had to see Ong Bak 2 first. I had a chance to see it yesterday.

Ong Bak 2 takes place in ancient Thailand. The movie stars Tony Jaa (who also co-directed the movie) as Tien, a son of a Lord Sihadecho who was murdered by Lord Rajasena. He escaped with the help of one of his dad's bodyguard only to be taken as a slave. He was then rescued by Chernung, the leader of Pha Beek Krut, a group of guerilla fighters, and trained in various styles of martial arts. He grows up and Chernung made him the leader of the raiding team. But he has one mission in mind, to avenge the murder of his parents.

I would say that the second part  is better than the first one even though both films do not relate to each other. The visuals were stunning with greener surroundings and the magnificent temples. The action sequences were superb with amazing martial arts and weaponry. The movie was so interesting but I was a bit disappointed with the ending where Tien was done and Lord Rajasena ordered his soldiers to make sure he suffers slowly. And the movie ends. It seems like they are really hinting what will happen with Ong Bak 3.

How I know the economy is still down...

The economy is still down but sometimes you wont be able to tell till you experience it. And I surely did see it during Halloween.

I went to Nyack Halloween Parade last weekend which has been deemed as the second largest parade in the Northeast, just second to Greenwich Village Parade. I was a little bit disappointed because the parade lasted not even half an hour which was fairly short since I was informed that this parade usually last at least an hour or so. Yes, you could probably blame the rain and that its being done during Halloween instead of the usual week before but you could see that economy has it hands on it as well with fewer floats and fewer revelers in the parade.


Since the parade ended early, me and my friends decided to head to Forest of Fears. This haunted place is located in Sterling Forest which makes it scarier since its surrounded by woods. The last time I went to this place was 4 years ago and vividly remembered the place having two haunted house and the slaughterhouse, which was pretty scary and had a ton of haunted activities as well as actors and actress scaring the bejebus out of the visitors. Anyway, when we got there, I notice that the place scaled down drastically. There was only the Slaughterhouse surrounded by game booths and ride making it feel more like a carnival instead of a haunted place. There were fewer actors scaring the people waiting online. And to top it all, the Slaughterhouse wasn't scary at all.

Anyway, Halloween was still fun though especially that later night when Nyack was filled with revelers all dress up and hitting every bar in town. And with the time change, everyone had a chance to stay an hour later without worrying about the places closing down.

Will the economy affect the Holiday Season like Halloween? Time will only tell

AIDS Memorial Display

Last week, I had the privilege to be a volunteer in the AIDS Memorial Quilt display at Rockland Community College. This display was the largest display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the Northeast in the past eleven years. The display was held for three days (Thurs - Sat) and it sure felt surreal seeing the effort that someone put on in creating the quilt for someone they loved. I was there during setup which was amazing as we had to line up 240 blocks that contained 1,920 panels. This only represented 4% of the entire collection which is currently at 44,000. If the whole memorial quilt is laid down, it would take 10 football fields. Coincidentally, the first time the quilts were displayed in 1987, they had 1,920 panels.

Each panel is consist of eight 3x6 quilts. The display had 4,500 names which is just a 4% of more than 91,000 names in the entire display. So after lining up the panels, we had to unfold them and refold them in a lotus flower folded design. It was interesting to be the first one to see the display before the public and some of the quilts were truly amazing. Some told the story of their struggle while some just contained the names of those who have died due to this disease. There was one quilt that truly touch me (image on the right), it was a quilt made by a friend who made it because the other half of the person who died was so sick and wasn't able to do it by himself. You almost feel for the person who was making the quilt for losing two friends.

I had a chance to walk through the whole quilt and saw some familiar names such as Liberace, Rock Hudson, Ricky Wilson, Arthur Ashe and Freddy Mercury. Most of the quilts for the stars were probably made my their fans. I also notice that the dates were mostly in the 80s and 90s but not much in 00s. The reasoning was the current medication is making people who are infected with HIV / AIDS live much longer.

Names of the people who passed were read throughout the exhibit. I had the chance to be a reader one night and read through a couple of pages of name. Did notice one page containing names of kids who have scumbag to this disease. There was name of a baby who was only 6 month. I had to stop for a second after reading the baby's name just to get my throat cleared before continuing on.

As to with opening, so it must have a closing. I was one of the closer, first, all the closers lined up around the quilts. At a signal, we all walk towards a panel and folded it from top to bottom. Signally the closing of the quilts. Then there was a dedication of new panels before the exhibit was official close.

Hopefully it wont take another 11 years for the exhibit to come back.

More info about the aids quilt here

Tweets are Searchable

Google has reached an agreement with Twitter that will allow its search engine to scour Twitter and show related items in their search results. That means, you can get real-time updates on things such as star sightings, weather conditions or event tweets from tweeters. Will Yahoo Search and Bing follow?

Read more about it here

So what will happen now? You get real-time answers to questions that you have. Sorta like having your friends at your side.

Book Wars

Last Week, Walmart.com started the online Book Wars by slashing the prices of 10 highly anticipated hardback titles to $10. Amazon.com, the largest online bookseller, followed suit slashing prices on the same 10 titles to $10. Walmart slashed the price to $9 and Amazon followed suit.

Then 10 books are:

1. Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin
2. Ford County by John Grisham
3. Under the Dome by Stephen King
4. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
5. Breathless by Dean Koontz
6. Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
7. Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb
8. Ice by Linda Howard
9. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
10. First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher

The last time I checked, Walmart has slashed their prices further - going down to $8.98 and $8.99 with free shipping. While Amazon stuck with $9.00 price. Now, Target has joined the war offering $8.99 to six (6) of the books listed above (1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 9) plus shipping. Walmart has a pre-order price  guarantee on the books meaning if the prices goes lower, then you will received the lowest price. Will Barnes & Noble and Borders follow suit?

What's the benefit of the price wars to consumer? Well, if you haven't realized, you are saving tons of money of possibly the hottest books that will be coming out this November. The hardcover, Under the Dome by Stephen King has a regular price of $35. That means, you save $26.02 or at least 74%. That's the biggest savings among the 10 pre-selling books.

Of course a lot of book publishers are worried that this would hurt long-term sales since lowering of the price can sometimes devalue the books. This also affects the usual booksellers since most consumers will be running to Walmart, Amazon and Target to snatch these books at the lowest price especially when the economy is still not unstable and consumers are watching their pockets more carefully.

But I'm pretty sure this price war won't last since the three online retailers still need to make up for the losses that this price war would produce. So before this ends, you should start going to Walmart.com, Amazon.com or Target.com and snatch these books while the prices are still at the lowest.

Hey, I already pre-purchase five (5) of them...

Movie Review: Zombieland

Zombieland is a fictitious story where a virus was spread in the United States turning every human into zombies. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as a college kid, Columbus,  who didn’t get infected because of his phobia with everything. As he tries to get back to his hometown to see if his parents are still alive, he meets three other survivors, Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) a gun-toting thrill seeker who hates zombies and sisters Wichita and Little Rock (played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin).  Together, they journeyed across United States trying to enjoy what’s remaining of the country while trying to fend off zombies who are after them.

The premise of this movie – humans turn into flesh eating zombies – is too familiar (i.e. 28 Days later, Resident Evil). But the movie has a twist – it’s a comedy rather than the usual thriller – sci-fi – gory genre.  The actors played their roles pretty well.  You will surely laugh even though on the scenes where the characters would slaughter the zombies. And would make you wonder if what they did was possible (i.e. Woody Harrelson character inside a carnival booth warding off at least 50 or so zombies and killing all). But I should say that the movie got my attention alright and had just enough laughs to make you want to stay on your sit and watch the entire movie.

Ever send an email to the wrong person?

So you are typing a long email and then start adding the e-mail address of the person. But since you are used to quick typing, you don't realize you have type in the wrong address and sent it to the wrong person. What now??

If you are using Gmail, then there is a new feature in the Google Labs called "Got the wrong Bob?"

When enable, it will help you from sending out an e-mail message to the wrong person - well almost - Gmail will try to identify if you accidentally added someone else's e-mail address that wasn't meant to be.  Read more about the new feature here

Disasters = Signs??

What's going on with this world? 

A tropical depression in the Philippines dumped so much water that it flooded the capital and the surrounding towns making it the worst flooding in four decades. Not to mention that it inundated a freshwater lake that they predicted that the surrounding towns around the lake will be submerged for at least two months. 

Samoa was hit by a magnitude 8 earthquake - the worst in 90 years - that resulted into 10 - 25 feet tsunamis that has resulted into 200 deaths. 

The next day, Indonesia got rattled by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake toppling buildings causing massive destruction and killing at least 1000 people as rescue workers continued digging through the rubble in the hopes of finding survivors. 

Cambodia and Vietnam also felt the wrath of the tropical storm that struck the Philippines. 

Just this morning, I heard of the mudslides in Sicily.

And to end the week, the Philippines is bracing for a super typhoon - just four days after getting inundated with rain.

Geez, natural disaster after natural disaster  - it's like non-stop anymore. Every time I turned on the news, that's all you hear. Disaster here.. disaster there.. disaster everywhere!!!
I guess Mother Earth is now fighting back after years and years of taking abuse from us - humans. And don't think that the US is safe - unusual weather patterns in the east coast, wildfires in the west coast. We sure have underestimated nature and now we are feeling her wrath. 

I guess the only good thing that's coming out of this is the free marketing blitz for the movie 2012...


Click here for an exclusive scene from 2012.

My First Post

I use to blog a lot (literally).. but the past three months, I have been inundated by work and social life that the purpose of coming home was to head to bed and get the needed snooze before embarking on another quest for the day. And with the advent of twitter, who needs to blog anymore.

I did realize the blogging was a way for me for get my thoughts out - my say on things that cannot be truly explained in 140 characters or else. My other blog (chiemps.bravejournal.com) is still out there since I haven't decide what to do with it yet. I might just closed it since I had good fond memories of that blog - its like moving on...stepping on another level. The last line is not true since a blog is a blog. 

So hopefully I will be able to get back into blogging - and hopefully get the habit of writing again. 

We shall see...