Happy Holidays to L.A. Fashionistas!

What could be better than shopping and ice cream sandwiches?!?

GILT GROUPE has partnered with COOLHAUS ICE CREAM SANDWICHES and TRINA TURK to offer Southern Californians one sweet holiday treat this Saturday, Dec. 1th.

Gilt Groupe invites you to take a break from your holiday shopping to satisfy your sweet tooth, and fashion fix, to indulge in a guilty pleasure... a free COOLHAUS ice cream sandwich!

Follow @COOLHAUS on Twitter and like them on Facebook to find out where they are located once you're ready for your break.

Plus, they'll be making a spcial stop at the Trina Turk boutique on 3rd St. in Santa Monica from 11am - noon for an appearance by Trina herself and 25% off for shoppers!

For additional times and locations, etc. visit www.Gilt.com/COOLHOLIDAY

Medieval Times

This past weekend my friends and I thought it would be fun, and completely random, to go to the Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament in New Jersey. Surprisingly the Lyndhurst, NJ Castle is only 15-20 minutes outside of Manhattan. Upon entering my friends and I were totally impressed by the Medieval shop, museum and dress up photo area... and of course the three bars where we were able to order three bottles of wine throughout the evening! The dinner show began at 8pm but I am so glad we got there around 7pm so that we could hit the bar and enjoy some fantastic people watching!
I have to admit I was expecting the worst food imaginable but was pleasantly surprised by the vegetarian dish my friend requested for me upon purchasing the tickets. Which was incredibly thoughtful of her because I ended up with a tasty platter of hummus, pita chips, rice and beans, and a vegetable kabob of roasted potatoes, zucchini and red bell pepper.
I recommend purchasing your tickets in advance since shows do seem to sell out a week ahead of time. The dinner theater experience ranges from $45 - $60 depending on which location you select. Plan your Medieval Times experience HERE. And there are nine Medieval Times throughout the US and Canada from New Jersey to California (complete list of locations HERE).
After reviewing their website I noticed that they are pretty involved within the social media realm. They have a Facebook Page, MySpace page, a Flickr channel to showcase all the Medieval photos and a Twitter channel! So props to Medieval Times for taking advantage of the modern times!

Buddakan

You may remember Buddakan from the Sex and the City movie, this is where they celebrated Carrie and Big's engagement. Remember this long table where Samantha gives an applaud worthy toast?
Everything about Buddakan is fantastic, it's a chic spot to have cocktails or enjoy a wonderful dinner. It's located near Chelsea Market on 9th Ave. and 16th St. in a black painted brick building. Walking through the space you realize how large the restaurant really is and every area has a slightly different interior design. The cocktail/lounge area is basically all black with accents of turquoise pillows and white ceramic vases on the black tables in the middle of the room. Downstairs is the famous long table meant to be shared or for big parties. There is another room that has turquoise booth style seating among black walls and tables. All the way in the back of the restaurant is another room where diners enter via curvy shaped cut outs (see the photo above) with red booths and vases.

With a restaurant as chic as Buddakan you'd expect the cocktails to be fabulous, which they were (definitely recommend Charm), but to my surprise the food was just as amazing! I looked at the menu before arriving at the restaurant and didn't see anything that stood out but I basically just listened to my friend Julie of Juls and the City and took her recommendations. We ordered a lot of dishes to share including Edamame Dumplings served in a shallot broth; Chilled Udon Noodles served with a small scoop of sorbet with lime segments sprinkled within and a creamy peanut sauce; Charred Asparagus with a light black bean foam and Asian Green Stir Fry accompanied by pine nuts and garlic chips. My favorite dish was definitely he Edamame Dumplings, they were absolutely devine!

Falafels for 8 Cents in NYC!

This Sunday, Aug. 31st, Cinderella Falafel (on 2nd Ave. btw. St. Marks & 7th St.) is selling their falafels for only 8 cents from 5pm - 9pm. Plus they're hosting a falafel eating contest at 6pm! Click here to get the coupon.
Source.

Tweet2Win

Thanks to Mashable for the heads up regarding a new Twitter-focused website and contest.

You will be automatically entered to win the $150 raffle just by tweeting about the Tweet2Win.com. Raffle is for a $150 gift card from Amazon, eBay, Victoria's Secret, iTunes, or Overstock.com. You can even increase your chance of winning by blogging about the site.

Apparently there's no catch. The site gets free promotion and traffic while Twitter users play their chances for a prize. A winner is chosen every week and for a different prize. And as Mashable said, "basically it’s a marketing gimmick that attempts to leverage Twitter, make money out of exposure, and essentially create a sort of user-generated advertising spam."

Follow Mashable on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Mashable

"What's In Store?" Seminar in NYC

I am currently sitting among food and nutrition gurus listening to the speakers at the "What's In Store?" seminar in NYC hosted by Fleishman-Hillard. There are some fabulous speakers who are all discussing the future of food and nutrition- sustainability vs. organic, rising food prices, genomapping, etc. Fleishman is blogging and Tweeting live from the event

You can follow me on Twitter as well!

OMG! Ellie Krieger from the Food Network's "Healthy Appetite" is sitting a table away from me!
Within her question to the panel she included an interesting statistic: currently in the U.S. we waste 27% of available food is wasted, that's 1 pound of food per person per day!

Favorite speakers from today's seminar- Alan Rambam from Fleishman-Hillard's Youth & Mobile Marketing practice and Kathleen Zelman who is the Director of Nutrition at WebMD.