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.