Memorial Day Celebration-Cooper 35

I meet up with Maribeth aka my gf/bff for Memorial Day. I followed her to run an errand in the afternoon. After that we decided to find a place to pig out. I was craving some cupcakes so we decided to go to near Sugar Sweet Sunshine to find a place to have a drink, eat some snacks then have cupcakes for deserts. We went there but discovered that most places near Essex Street were closed including SSS! For some reason, we always have bad luck going to restaurants on days they are closed. We were disappointed...

We spent ~15 mins on the street brainstorming places where we want to go eat. We decided to go to near St. Marks for some drinks and snack. We ended up at Cooper 35, an Asian fusion restaurant/pub. It was such a great day so we decide to sit at the outdoor garden area. The place was nice and cozy!
Prices for mix drinks and shots are so cheap here! I would usually get these drinks at clubs for $12+ and here it's only $4!! The drinks taste good (I like my drinks fruity) and they aren't cheap on the alcohol either...

1st Round: I had the Bay Breeze and she had the lychee martini. For appetizers, we ordered the fried calamari and salsa&chips (complimentary). The calamari was really good! It was very crispy and the sauce was tangy with a kick of spicy flavor.

2nd Round: I had the Bay Breeze and she had the Sea Breeze. We're still working on our appetizers.....

After two drinks, it was time for some shots!

3rd Round: We ordered the Skittle Boom for both of us. And we also ordered more drinks, I ordered the WooWoo and she ordered the Tequila Sunrise drink. Man, they were really strong... We had to order more food to absorb the alcohol. We ordered a California rolls and a shrimp dish that came with rice. Both of these dish were so so... I don't think I would come here for a sit down dinner.

We hanged out at Cooper 35 for about 4-5 hours. The waiters and waitress didn't bother us at all for staying so long. They just left us alone and came when we needed them. Towards the end of the night the place started to get packed. The garden area was full and the inside area was already 1/2 packed. We couldn't drink anymore so we left and roamed around St. Marks where Maribeth ordered more food to take home. She ordered korean style chicken from BBQ Chicken, fries from Pomme Frits and sushi from somewhere. Yea, this girl can eat! All I ate was a corn dog from BBQ and it was a corn dog that's made from olive oil...

I had such a blast catching up with my gf. What a perfect way to spend a great afternoon with great company, good drinks and yummi snacks. But I gotta say those drink really kicked my ass... Happy Memorial Day!

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35 Cooper Sq
New York, NY 10079
(212) 375-919

Review of International Food Festival '09

This Saturday, we had to run errands the whole day so we got to the festival around 5pm. We thought the crowds would die down during this time but it was still packed and filled with people. Food was everywhere and I couldn't wait to check out each stand! I was hunting for some cheap eats, street fair food and something spectacular but I didn't find anything that was spectacular.... The best thing about being at the festival so late is that the food vendors sell their stuff for cheaper because they want to get rid of the food. I got some two for one deals! yay! The first thing I spotted was Kyotofu! I've been wanting to check out their cupcake and I did...I got the chocolate souffle cupcake. It has a very rich chocolate taste and was very moist. I liked it but I prefer my cupcakes to be lighter....Andy wasn't impressed said it was just a really moist brownie. I won't say this place has the best cupcakes but I do want to go back to try more of their stuff! Who wants to go with me?

There was alot of Thai food stands at the festival. Most of the Thai place sold the same things like skewer stuff, pad Thai, noodles, egg rolls and etc. I notice Thai food was the cheapest food at the fair. How come all Asian cuisine are mostly cheap eats? Most of their stuff was $1-5 so I tried out a few of the Thai places, this was one of them...This place served different flavor popsicles...
This is a deep fried soft shell crab, the skin was soggy and cold so it tasted really bad... Maybe it would've been good if it was hot. so i tired soft shell crab somewhere else....it was cold but it was actually good. The soft shell crab was kinda of meaty and tasted fresh. some healthy choices... fresh fruit or smoothies.
This piggie was being grilled for the restaurant called Chimichurri Grill. We didn't try it but it sure looks good!
This piggie didn't want to get the piggie flu! We wanted to eat more stuff but everyone was packing. Now I wish we went earlier! I didn't get to eat the fair foods like funnel cakes and stuff like that but at this point I was kinda of stuffed from all the fried food. Oh well...

Since the weather is getting nicer, I'm looking forward to all street fairs and out door activities. That means more food everywhere!! YAY!

Bad economy = free drink!

International Food Festival and New York's Third Annual Dance Parade This Weekend!

Event name: International Food Festival
Time: 9:30am - 6:30pm
Date: May 16 (Saturday) and May 17 (Sunday)
Location: Ninth Avenue, between 37th and 57th Streets
http://nycgo.com/?event=view.eventdetails&id=148220Taste

I hope the weather will be great this weekend because Hell’s Kitchen is cooking at this annual food festival. Restaurants and outdoor vendors serve up food from all different countries. The 20-block gastronomic extravaganza features cuisine from Greece, Brazil, Italy, Morocco, Senegal, Ukraine, Thailand and many other countries.

For those of you who like dancing, the New York's Third Annual Dance Parade and it will be held on May 16th starting at 1pm. Here is more information:

Parade site: http://danceparade.org/EE/
Parade route: http://www.danceparade.org/EE/index.php/about/parade_route/

Have a great weekend of eating and dancing! <3

(Thank you Helen for the infor! Hope to see you at the events!)

Mad for some Bon Chon!

The other night Andy was craving for some wings. He doesn't want just any wings, he wanted some Bon Chon. We found their menu in our menu collection and called to ordered two large orders of wings (no we didn't finish it in one sitting..) Then we drove all the way to Flushing to pick it up. We haven't been to Bon Chon for a long time so Andy forgot which street it was on but I remember it was one block away from the other chicken wing place call KyoChon. When we finally saw KyoChon I told him we are near. We drove by the next block of KyoChon but we didn't see Bon Chon so he kept on driving. I told him I was 100% sure it is suppose to be on that block so he went back but instead of finding Bon Chon we saw "Mad For Chicken"!! WTF??

Our conversation while we were parked across the street from "Mad For Chicken":
Me: Who did you call before to order the wings?
Andy: Bon Chon
Me: Where the hell is Bon Chon? Did you call the Manhattan one?
Andy: No!
Me: *checking the phone number that Andy called before and looking at the "Mad For Chicken" phone number on their front store sign* it's the same number as the old Bon Chon!
Andy: what happen to Bon Chon!
Me: Should we pick up the order? It's not Bon Chon! What the hell is this mad chicken!! Why didn't they tell you it's not Bon Chon? (this is me all hungry and cranky btw it's around 9 something in the evening)
Andy: it's probably the same but they just changed the name...
Me: This mad chicken better be good...

We walked in the restaurant and it looks exactly the same as the old Bon Chon. I looked around at what people are eating at their table. The chicken wings looks similar but then I spotted dishes of popcorn on peoples table. This is not Bon Chon.... But when we got to the counter towards the back area we saw take out orders in Bon Chon bags! We were so happy to see the Bon Chon bag but Andy had to ask the waiter:

Andy: is this really Bon Chon or you guys just using the Bon Chon bags.
Waiter: *laughs* we just change management.
Andy: so the chicken wings taste the same right?
Waiter: yes, it's the same...

YES, it is the same...we ordered the soy garlic, our favorite!

but...it instead of giving us the pickled radish they gave us corn as the side dish!

It wasn't just plan corn, they mixed in colesalw so it was a little sour. It was okay, I was actually craving those pickled radish...