Hookahs and Playing Golf in the Rain

This weekend was pleasant, weather wise. On Friday, it was 70+ degrees outside, and you no longer need a coat. At night, lots of people decide to go out, which ended up causing my friends and I about 1 1/2 hours of waiting around to get dinner at Taisho. Afterwards, upon one of my friend's strong insistence, we decided to go smoke some hookahs. Apparently, the word hookah refers to the instrument that you smoke out of, and essentially, you are smoking tobacco leafs, with tar and nicotine filtered down by water. Also, the tobacco leaves are often mixed with other flavors (like fruity flavors or mint) that when you smoke it, it actually taste kind of sweet. It was fun watching tons of smoke coming out of my mouth, or my friend's nose, but I am not sure I enjoyed it too much. It makes me a little light-headed and a little nauseating. However, I can understand why people like it though and become addicted, especially if the setting is right (dark, with candle lights), and the room is filled with smoke and you are just smoking and drinking your worries away. I wonder, when I found out it was tobacco leaves that we are smoking, as to the health effect of smoking hookahs. I think Wikipedia gives a pretty good background on hookahs which can be accessed here. For me, this would be something fun to do once in a while (like once a year), but probably not something I would do often, especially given the possible effect of CO2 poisoning, or the possible cancer-causing substances that comes with smoking hookahs.

The weather on Saturday was beautiful too. Took my dog to the dog park, and he had a little too much fun since he spent the rest of his day just sleeping on the couch and ignoring us. Went to the driving range at Chelsea Piers, trying to practice my golf swings in order not to embarrass myself on Sunday when I am going up to the Bronx to play 18-holes. I guess because the weather was beautiful, the line at Chelsea Piers were intolerable, about a 2 hour wait. We toughed it out though, and hung in there waiting, and finally got a chance to hit some golf balls for about an hour. Dinner soon followed, at this Vietnamese-fusion restaurant in Chelsea called O-Mai (9th Avenue between 20th and 19th Sts). The place comes highly recommended from Charlene, and it proved to be worth the trip. Some of the food was delicious, such as the prawn roll (wrapped in rice paper), or the seared tuna roll (also wrapped in rice paper), while some other were just average (like the baby back ribs in five spices). The entree was similar, as the stewed beef, although simple, has a certain taste and spice to it that makes it enjoyable and good with rice, and makes you want to come back for more. The beef stew reminds me of Southeast Asian curry dishes. The roast duck was tender (but I really like duck generally), even though it is a simple dish, just roast duck with Chinese duck sauce (I think). The caramelized shrimp and pork was only subpar, with the shrimp tasting different and delicious, while the pork is something that we can do without. The wine list was tiny and kind of expensive, and the wine by the glass selection was only average as well. Our waiter don't seem to know what they are doing (at least the one that waited on us), and they seem to be rushing us to order (but I think it is just our waiter). However, I kind of like the place, which is kind of crowded with table sitting too close to each other, because I thought the food was pretty good, the setting is somewhat intimate and not pretentious, and it is a very easy going, low-key, but intimate neighborhood spot. I wouldn't mind bringing a date here.

After dinner, Charlene’s friend Emily took us to Billy’s Bakery, which is on 9th Avenue between 21st and 22nd Sts. They have sinful but wonderful cupcakes. I am not usually one that likes cupcakes that much, and I have tried Magnolia, which is a cupcake bakery in the west village that often has long lines, and I did not find it too appetizing. However, I thought the cupcake from Billy’s Bakery was quite good. I think the difference is in the frostings on top of the cupcake. Magnolia tends to put too much frostings, and very rich, which I thought make the cupcakes a little disgusting and something that you cannot take more than a couple of bites at. Billy’s Bakery cupcakes have just the rights amount of frostings on top and I thought was much lighter, and somewhat fluffy. Enjoy the cupcake with milk, and you cannot stop at just one.

The weather turned ugly on Sunday, cloudy with drizzles in the morning. Still went up to the Bronx for golf, hopeing the rain would only be drizzling and eventually go away. But as luck would have it, it was just too much rain and we were all soaked. My socks were wet, shirt were wet, but my pants stayed dry (thanks to the pants technology from Dockers that water will be repealed right off, haha). Nonetheless, the time that it wasn't raining too hard, it was at least pretty fun.