Doughnut Plant: Your Sugar High

It was a dreary morning on an unusually cold Friday in March. She sat there watching the NBC Today show, like she did every morning. The morning hour of the show went by and the noon hour - New York Live was on. As she cribbed about the weather to her folks back home, a sweet treat lightened up her grumpy face.

Enough with background score already!! Let me get to the scrumptious part of the post - The Doughnut Plant. This delicious delight is presented in the most unique ways here at the Doughnut Plant - with over a 1000 reviews on Yelp.com it has to be on your must-eat list while in NYC. Their doughnuts are so popular they have stretched their offerings to as far as Japan and Korea too!

They have doughnuts made three ways here - yeast, cake and filled. While the yeast doughnuts are light and fluffy , the cake doughnuts have a chewy texture which is like cross between a classic birthday cake and a buttery pound cake and the filled doughnuts like its name are oozing with creamy custards and sugary house-made jams.

So, as we are in line waiting to bite into these sinful discs of sugary goodness, the wall and seating decor at the store catches our attention. As you can see here, everywhere you look there are doughnuts in reel and real!



Carrot cake, peanut butter & blackberry, coconut cream and pistachio were some of the unusual doughnuts on the menu. The wait was over,choices made - vanilla bean, roasted almonds, chocolate, blackout and creme-brulee put in a brown bag. They run out of the popular doughnuts of the day, so you need to get there early or like us, you'll miss out on the days specials.

That said, we took our doughnut-seats. I bit into what was one of the most delicious bites of my life - creme-brulee. This bite sized creamy doughnut bursts in your mouth and you cannot help but go um-yummmmm like I did. So much so that, my hubby dearest got back into the long line of hungry customers to get a few more to-go.

While I'm gonna sleep dreaming about waking up to coffee and creme-brulee on a Sunday morning, you can choose to drool over, get to Doughnut Plant on 23rd street, Chelsea Hotel, between 7th & 8th avenue or simply put it on your bucket-list of must-eat-while-in-NYC !!

Ciao...

Go Green : St.Patrick's Day

The calendar hits March first week and hints or perhaps more-than-just-hints of green pop-up everywhere. From bake shops selling green cookies to the most popular "party city" advertisements on TV, you cannot escape the green madness. Specially if you are from New York city, home to the largest St.Patrick's Day parade outside of Ireland, you rather blend in!

Celebrated every year in the 2nd week of March, the day is dedicated to the Irish Saint - St.Patrick's. This cultural and religious holiday is welcomed by the Irish and all the Irish wannabe's by being a part of and watching from the side walks of downtown New York - the famous St.Patrick's Day parade. The key to feel part of the crowd - YOU HAVE TO GO GREEN.
Locals and tourists all clad in shades of green clothes, funky green accessories like beads, beer, hats, green eye-liner and some even have rats on display, like the one I have on my head here(green of course!).


While crowds gather to enjoy the parade and watch as bag-pipers and performers march the streets, revelers have their own celebration happening alongside. The Irish pubs in the city score the highest on the party meter, while other pubs give out free shots for customers dressed in green.
Considering the Irish love their beers and on a day when gallons of it is being gulped down, get ready for some madness on the streets and down-under in the subways.

Last year, we were down there on the streets, scrambling to get shots of the performers at the parade and a sense of Irish patriotism. Its not only Irish vibrations we feel on ground but in the air too - This a little different, it is the strong smell (almost a stink) of Irish wannabe's strutting the streets of New York, leaving behind clouds of beer. This year round, we skipped the parade and decided to step outside later (when the weather opened up) that evening and oh-boy we were not prepared for what we saw!

As I have always said, when in New York, you are guaranteed to be entertained in more ways and places than you can ever imagine. On the subway ride, we got into one of the cars with a bunch of drunk Irish Wannabe's and from that moment on it was show-time. This one guy, put up a pole-dance show with the rest of his gang cheering him on, thank god he was not dressed like one ;-). The trains on this day are a green overload, with people shouting, screaming and giving the sane onlookers some nasty looks and one-liners.

All this said, it's religious for some and revelry for others. Either way, experience the madness, enjoy your free drinks and make merry as you get ready to welcome spring!

How Restaurants trick you!

As foodies, my husband & I are always on the lookout for restaurants serving up diverse cuisines in an ambiance to match. In our quest, we discovered that buying restaurant deals off popular websites like Groupon and Gilt City (our favorite) turn out to be big money savers.

Off late what we also discovered, was what seemed like harmless tricks by restaurants to begin with, that at the end weighs down heavily on your pockets! On a lovely weekend night, we settled in on our table at a downtown tapas restaurant. Dimly lit, with long wooden community tables,high chairs and low lying lamps, we were ready for our culinary sojourn. There came the very friendly and smiling waiter, we had taken our picks & ready to order. Just as hubby was about to rattle away his choice for the evening, the waiter brought out his secret weapon! So, this is how it goes - "Tonight we have our specials, freshly caught shrimp and aged prosciutto from Spain, would you like to try one of these". Like a kid in a candy store - hubby is excited at the thought of eating something he is deprived of usually, thanks to anti-red meat me! So, he goes ahead and orders the aged prosciutto. The prosciutto arrived and was thoroughly enjoyed and downed, the tapas plates kept coming and soon so did the bill! To hubby's utter shock, while the other tapas plates were priced at $10, the special of the day prosciutto was a killer $24...

That was it, we had learnt our lesson! Just last week, when we went out to this fancy dining place, the waiter came by and put out his specials for the night and we kept calm and went with what we saw on the menu! Good for us, because the special appetizer for the night was just a mere $56!!

So, buckle up and stay strong, do not getting carried away with tricks like these!

For more tricks click here - restaurants use to make more money

Ciao...

International Women's Day

It's that day of the year again, when Women around the world are celebrated or should I say a day chosen just so Women stop and appreciate all that they have contributed to Planet Earth - International Women's Day.

Over the decades Women have been seen more and more in the forefront in every field thinkable. I indeed believe that we as Women are wired to multitask and juggle between caring for a family and pushing ahead in the workforce. I would like to think of us Women as "Super Women". I mean lets face it, whether you work with the creme-de la-creme in the political arena or in a small organization in a small town, it is upon our tiny shoulders to maintain sanity at home and ease the stress at work.

For Women living abroad it dawned upon me the challenge is bigger. If you are from India like I am, you are all too familiar with the culture where almost everyone can afford to hire domestic help, which eases the chores to juggle. When I landed on foreign soil, after having lived in the comfort of my parents home with almost nothing to do except for getting myself to work every morning, reality hit hard. It dawned upon me, that I was now the maid, the cook and everything else in between and I had my own career goals to reach too.

Across cultural and ethnic communities around the world,Women constantly face the big "Balance Challenge". Not only do they have to fight their way up the ladder in a corporate race dominated by testosterone, they are also faced with constant criticism about whether Women can do equal justice to both roles as a nurturer and a bread winner.

This subject got into the headlines recently around the eve of International Women's Day. It was about different statements made by two of the most talked about Women in all of USA, apart from the first lady Michelle Obama - who of course was in the news for her excessive media appearances and those infamous bangs. Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. While one was being criticized for her company wide policy changes to end the convenience of "work from home", the later was criticized for her latest book "Lean In" - where she lashes out against society who call a woman bossy if she is outgoing and driven instead of praising her as a leader.

Talking of the Yahoo policy, which was largely taken advantage of by Women in the workforce looking to score gold on that "Balance Challenge" - the CEO herself a working mother who hit the headlines after she announced she was pregnant when she took on the job and got straight back at her desk in 4 months time, she faced stark criticism. The jitters of this Work-from-home policy were felt across the country, as Women began to fear the day when their company would adapt a similar policy. Her justification to all of it - she felt telecommuting took away from a major chunk of productivity and by bringing her employees to office each day would improve the same.

Sheryl Sandberg on the other hand asks Women to "Lean in" - in her new book. Her book released last week, was the hot topic of discussion from the news desk to water-cooler talk across the country. She says that through this book she aims to arm Women with the right tools and guidance to climb that wobbly corporate ladder. She has even set up a non-profit organization called LeanIn.org to which all her book proceeds will be channeled, with an aim to get those (14 percent of executive officers, 18 percent of elected congressional officials and 22 of 197 heads of state) numbers growing.

All this being said, I wonder how much of our success depends on our support system at home - truth being a fairly large chunk. Men being the traditional bread winners for decades, have never faced the same. Be it the days when they left their family behind to fight the enemy or today when they jet-set for business trips, the woman is left behind to juggle it all.

I sign off by saying that a strong upbringing, family support and most of all a supportive life-partner are the key essentials to Women like you and me achieving success in all that we do.

Remember we are the best managers and CEO's of our lives, our successful careers are an affirmation that we indeed are wired to succeed in all of the multiple roles life throws at us.

Cheers to Women empowerment!

Ciao...