Tag Archives: travel

Spa Castle

30 Nov

I have been to spas before… but never to one like Spa Castle.

I am not a spa lover, but I can appreciate the health benefits that visiting a spa can provide – relaxation, detoxification, improved circulation, curative properties, among others.

Located in College Point, Queens, Spa Castle is the largest, cleanliest, most organized spa I have ever been to. I have visited several spas in the Miami area but none compare to the sheer size and amenities of Spa Castle. It has various levels, each dedicated to specific purposes. You are not allowed to use any cameras in the spa, so these pictures are courtesy of Spa Castle’s website.

The main level is divided – one area for men and a separate area for women. Here is where you’ll find hot whirpool baths, all at various temperatures and activity levels so you can ease into the relaxation mode little by little. You’ll find hot baths and cold baths… designed for you to go from one to the other to regulate your body’s temperature. There are pools with shots of water to massage every inch of your body. The big caveat… this level can only be used if you’re completely nude. No bathing suits or any other type of clothing is allowed. A bit shocking for someone who was not mentally prepared for that… but after you see a lot more than what you thought you would see ever in your lifetime, you kinda forget about it and concentrate on the spa experience.

The next level is co-ed and that’s where all the saunas are located… you are given a very colorful t-shirt and short ensemble where we all look the same, ready to take in the relaxing heat of all the saunas available. I’ve never been much of a sauna person… I come from the tropics and I do not like to feel all sweaty and suffocated. In other spas, you’re wearing a bathing suit and to cool off from the sauna heat you dump buckets of water over you. Then, like that all drenched, you go into the next sauna. I tend to feel all suffocated in the chest… Well, not here. Because you’re dry, people get to enjoy the sauna heat by laying on the saunas floor allowing the sauna heat to go up and you tend to feel much more comfortable than in those other saunas I’ve been before. And you still need to cool off after exiting these saunas, but you do it in a igloo room 32°F which feels amazingly comfortable after being in a hot sauna.

There are seven sauna rooms for you to enjoy:

An LED Sauna room that uses color therapy to enhance your mood and spirit.

A Gold Sauna designed to comfort sore limbs, perfect after you get a foot/leg massage. I was totally sore afterwards… and it looks divine on the inside, doesn’t it???

The Salt Sauna is lined with pink-colored rock salts directly brought from the Himalayas. It’s supposed to regulate blood pressure and water in your body. It also promotes regular blood sugar levels…

There’s a Far Infrared Sauna and a Far Infrared Chaise Lounge area where you can lay underneath these infrared lamps to strengthen your immune system.

The Jade Sauna contains calcium and magnesium and super gorgeous to be inside.

 

The Loess Soil Sauna is the hottest of them all.

And lastly is the Iceland igloo room, designed to cool you off in between the hot saunas and maintain proper body temperature. Also, going from hot to cold strengthens your skin pores and improves circulation.

There is a mezzanine level with massage rooms, treatment rooms and even rooms to sleep. The top level is an outside pool court with whirpools, Jacuzzis and more. You need to bring your bathing suit for this level and if you don’t have one, they rent one for you. I did not get a chance to visit this area but I would have loved to been inside those pools when it was 50°F outside. Nice!!!

Spa Castle also has a great juice bar and a lunch buffet. I only had juices there because I do not get hungry while I am in the saunas and pools. But afterwards… that’s a completely different thing!!!! 

And if my experience is not enough for you, Spa Castle has been featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice and on ABC too.

If you’re in the NYC area or will be visiting the NYC area I highly recommend you visit Spa Castle. It was a wonderful experience that I would definitely like to replicate in the near future…

Tags: , , ,

Vegetarian Vegas – MESA GRILL

9 May

My sister and Brother-in-law ROCK!!!!!

At the end of last year they decided to give my mom and me their time-share because they would not use it and they didn’t want it to go to waste. We debated and debated where to use it and after a huge search we settled for Las Vegas. This would be my first time in Las Vegas… Yes, I was until last month – a Vegas Virgin. I had been to Reno, NV when I was about 14 or 15 yrs old… but it has rained quite a lot since then.

I am not into gambling. We have casinos here in Puerto Rico and that’s not something that entices me. I have played a bit, I have won some too, but usually using other people’s money… but that’s an entirely different topic. The thing is… what do you do in Las Vegas if you are not a gambler and are traveling with your mom??? We both like to have a good time, but let’s face it, traveling with your mom is not exactly the equivalent of Party Central… And because we didn’t have to spend $$ on Hotel or Airfare (I told you, my sister ROCKS!!!!!), we decided to invest in 2 things – Shows and Food.

To me, the best restaurant we went to was MESA GRILL, yes, of Bobby Flay’s fame. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting all that much, but the ambiance, the service and the food were awesome. Had we had the chance, we had eaten here again…

Mesa Grill is located at the Caesar’s Palace Resort and just like most any restaurant in Las Vegas, it’s nestled in between the casino’s slot machines and game tables. We missed it the first time around we were looking for it. We went for lunch because we were into having big lunches and smaller snacks for dinner… that way we had the chance to eat at these celebrity restaurants at a fraction of the dinner prices. Besides, coordinating show times and dinner reservations was giving me stress and we opted for this arrangement.

One thing that helps us vegetarians is when eating at these restaurants, is we usually have to pick from options in the salads and appetizers menus. The restaurant guides tell you these are $$$ or $$$$ restaurants, but because you’re not ordering from the meat-heavy entrée menu, our bill was usually less than the average price the guides said.

This is what we had at Mesa Grill, and everything we ordered we split between my mom and I:

Being that we were in a fancy Bobby Flay restaurant, I wanted to order something nice to drink. Nice but non-alcoholic, it was still 2:30PM… so the server brought his recommendation. Don’t ask me what combination it was, but it was citrusy, tangy, sweet and yummy. And pretty-looking too, no??

While we waited for our salads, we received a basket filled with breads and these cornmeal muffins. Half the muffin was yellow cornmeal and half was blue cornmeal or a combination of the two. It had corn kernels in the batter, they were spectacular. I was a bit hungry so I asked for 2 more… my apologies for not writing down what was in the butter, but we did not have just plain butter with his corn muffins… Again, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!!!

 

Gala Apple Salad with Maytag Blue Cheese and Ancho Chile Vinnaigrette

I could have eaten a whole salad… and even though I am a spice wimp, I could tolerate the heat in the dressing. This was scrumptious and delectable. Big adjectives here…

 

Cremini Mushroom Quesadilla

This was so big we almost couldn’t finish it… It’s a 3 tier quesadilla, with roasted cremini mushrooms in between 2 tortillas and melted cheeses in the other middle between tortilla 2 and 3. I can’t remember what was in the Salsa Verde, but it was not cilantro heavy and it was delicious. We ordered it without the egg on top… and even without the egg, it was delicious with the crema Mexicana squirts on top… Mmmmm.

 

 

Goat Cheese Queso Fundido with Blue Corn Tortillas

OMG!!! Que rico!!!! This was “to die” for… I can’t tell you what’s the other cheese, but the regular melted cheese mixed in with the tanginess of the goat cheese and the pepper rajas on top… perfection!!! A standing ovation to Mr. Bobby Flay… My mom and I were fighting over the pepper rajas… Again, we are chiles wimps, but these rajas were the perfect balance to all that creamy cheesiness. I ate ALL of it… ALL OF IT!!!

We didn’t get a chance to have dessert… I wanted to try the CHURROS, but they were out of them already at the lunch service. And the rest of the desserts were egg-heavy so we said PASS. Besides, we were full already… ordering dessert would have been gluttony.

I am seeking MESA GRILL the next time I travel to NYC… I certainly did not expect to eat as well as I did. I am always skeptical of places with lots of hype… And the server, when I mentioned I was vegetarian, went out of his way to point out what I could order and what I should stay away. During my next visit, I want to order the Chiles Rellenos filled with Roasted Eggplant and Manchego Cheese, part of the Entrée part of the Menu, and they sound especially appetizing – kind of like Mexico and Spain meeting in the middle.

I am so pleased big name chefs, like Bobby Flay, have vegetarian alternatives in their menus… for us vegetarians to enjoy the mastery of their cooking skills and flavor combinations. I wish more local chefs would take notes from these hi-profile chefs and be more open to vegetarian patrons.

Stay tuned, next we’ll be sharing our experience at Otto, from Mario Batali…

Tags: , , , , ,

Incredible India all over again – Street Food and Markets

11 Jun

Whenever I travel, I love going to street markets and supermarkets… I guess it’s a way to learn more about a country and culture.  Learning what and how they eat teaches you a lot about the country you’re visiting. 

 You can see how I have visited markets in Guadalajara, in Paris, even in NYC… but in India, surprisingly I have not visited any markets per se.  Why?  I think because in India, the markets come to you.  Street vendors are EVERYWHERE in India.  No matter the city, even in busy bustling Delhi, you see a food street vendor of some sort.   

In Old Delhi, you have the Chadni Chowk, and all over you see these carts selling lemon water.  They look super refreshing, especially in the April heat, but for us tourists from the Western world these are off-limits.  In India, it’s safer for us to stick to bottled water, even making sure it’s sealed from the manufacturer.  Something that I identify with a lot is the lemons available in India are criollo lemons – the same small ones we have here in Puerto Rico. 

        

 Actually, the produce available all around the streets is very, very similar to what you find here in Puerto Rico… I guess we’re close to the same latitude – you can see coconuts sold for coconut water, sugar cane to get sugar cane water or what we call here in PR, guarapo.  You can also see a lot of regular produce, like oranges, eggplants, melons, green beans, spices… 

   

                                   

 But something you see quite a lot, I mean they’re everywhere, are CUCUMBERS.  They sell them sometimes already peeled so you can eat them right there.  I wouldn’t eat them off the street peeled because the environment in India is filled with dust and dirt from the streets, but apparently people buy them because otherwise there wouldn’t be so many people selling them.  They’re a different variety than what we see here in the Americas.  They’re long and squiggly…

 

 Not food related per se, but once we even bought neem sticks off the streets of Varanasi .  Indians use neem sticks as a natural toothbrush.

 

 

Next time to travel abroad, or even to a different city from yours, make it a point to explore the markets and the street food typical of the place.  I am sure you’ll be able to appreciate a bit more the locals in your travels…

Tags: , ,

Incredible India All Over Again – Old and New Favorites

26 May

This is really incredible… I traveled to India once again.  Hey, a palm reader actually told me when we were there about 6 months ago that I would return to India many, many, many times in the future.  One down, God knows how many more to go…

This time I went to India with my yoga center group to attend Kumba Mela 2010 in Haridwar – a spiritual celebration held every 12 years where spiritual masters come down from the Himalayas and all over the world to bathe in the River Ganges at specific very auspicious days.  I feel extremely blessed to have been able to be present for such a special spiritual event.

 In the 3 weeks we were traveling through India we visited a few places we’ve been before – Delhi, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Varanasi… but I also visited a few new places such as Mumbai, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Omkareshwar and Indore.  In doing this, I certainly got the chance to savor some of my favorite Indian delicacies and also discovered some new treasures.

Among the tried and true…

American Airlines does not “disappoint” with their Indian Vegetarian Meals in Coach…  White Rice, paneer in a spicy sauce and stewed chickpeas.  I always eat mainly the rice and paneer, but I have sworn I will never travel to India on Coach.  Business-class is definitely in my future and hopefully better food and better movie choices.

    

Breakfasts are my favorites…  I got to try again chole, without the bhature, and dosas.  My favorite dosa filling is the curry potato filling.  They usually give me the sambar and the chutneys, but I eat the dosa and filling alone like that.

 

 

I also got to drink again my favorite tea, chai masala.  I drank it out of regular cups, and in Varanasi, where I learned to enjoy this delicious tea, I drank it out of the traditional clay disposable cup.  And watching the Varanasi sunrise, this was a real treat.

   

Among the new favorites…

In Maheshwar we got to taste a delicious yet very spicy breakfast – Parathas and Cutlets.  Parathas are a sort of flatbread that can be plain or filled with various vegetables.  The first ones were filled with potatoes and scallions.  Here you can see how parathas are made so flat yet filled with so much deliciousness.  Cutlets are a potato/vegetable fritter…  I explained it to locals as vegetable “alcapurria”.  These cutlets were extremely spicy for my taste, but they were very delicious still.  Don’t they look appetizing and where the heck was the plain yogurt??

     

 Last time I visited India I had a watermelon juice every morning.  Well, this time around the popular flavor was Sweet Lime.  A taste smilar to mixing lemon and orange juice, it was available everywhere and very refreshing.  Maybe this fruit was in season in April…

 

In Haridwar we got to try a few new things…  I learned about uttapam, vegetables cordon blue and pohe.  Uttapam is a rice flour pancake with vegetables.  Definitely a savory pancake, but really, really good. 

      

As you can tell, Indians like their fried foods; very much like us Latins, so probably that’s why I was drawn to these vegetable cordon blues – a vegetable fritter with a creamy, cheesy interior.  

Pohe is a flattened rice dish, often served for breakfast.  Mine looked more like polenta or cooked corn flour than rice, but let’s trust the locals that told me I was eating pohe.  My version had petit pois and I had it with some spicy curried potatoes.  Very spicy indeed.  As you can see, I have to supplement my Indian breakfast with some Western corn flakes and banana…  It was ripe even though it looks green.  Believe me…

 

I am super excited of my recent trip to India… we definitely found much more variety of delicious foods than during my first trip 5 years ago.  Stick around so you can learn more about the delicious and interesting food things I encountered.

Tags: , ,

Newer Entries →