Excellent new place for vitamins and more on the upper west side in NYC

This weekend I happened upon a great little vitamin store nook on the upper west side run by a really sweet man. The store is called The Vitamin Peddler (charming!) and it’s located on Amsterdam between 77th and 78th Streets, bld# 364. I had been hoping to come across a vitamin store, but with Health Nuts closed, I had little hope until The Vitamin Peddler. Here I stocked up on omega fatty acid pills and echinacea and goldenseal drops to stomp out a flu I was at the tail tail end of. They also have these great massaging slippers there that my family used to keep in our front door area. I was so happy to see them, apparently they stopped making them, but now they are back. The man running the store knows so much and he’s so sweet, great find!

Sarah McLachlan’s new album Laws of Illusion is amazing

Before going to see Sarah McLachlan at the Beacon Theater in New York last Wednesday, I was familiar with her popular songs, but not with her work throughout her career. After a night of hearing her amazing voice (which in a decade of autotune is so naturally talented, when she steps up to the microphone, you would swear someone turned on the radio- no studio alterations needed!), how she generously incorporates her backup singers into the show with their own songs instead of having an opening band, (graciously playing back up for them with a smile on her face!), and peppering the show with personal stories as well as a Q/A session, I floated out of the theater with the rest of the audience in high spirits and feeling like the past few hours had been a gift I would always remember.
I have been to a number of concerts and never have I gone to one where the musician/singer gives so much of herself in the performance that you leave feeling like you travelled on a journey, through her past seven years (that’s how long it took her to put together her album having had two children and a divorce, as in living life and having much to sing about) and so connected to the music. An artistic talent as well as enormous supporter of human rights, having donated a tremendous amount of money to women’s shelters and other organizations supporting humanity and animal rights, when her beautifully written lyrics pass through your ears, you want them to seep in and swirl around your mind, because they come from a place that is true, honest and pure.

What! Pick your own mussel sauce?!!!

Yes, it’s true. Ditch Plains, a brilliant restaurant down in Greenwich Village, was given a name I can never remember so now I carry the business card around in my wallet.

29 bedford street follow the button down shirts and bohemian camisoles getting crafty drinks at the bar like the “Drunken Preppy.” Yum.
Then see the menu. It is basically a summer field of paradise. Lobster roll, clam strips, fish and chips…. and the mussels… fours sauces to choose your own adventure from. Served in a large metal pot… and a basket of fries you will eat and eat and it will seem to refill from the bottom in crispy bistro fry wonder. Now go stop wasting time. You will want to go to there.

www.ditch-plains.com/

Cozy country cabin in the middle of the lower east side NYC…

I just went to a quaint storybook restaurant straight from a time when eating with a dead animal head above you spoke for fresh meat. Freemans is found at the end of a tiny alley (as they describe on their website, which I took as filled with lurking sinister figures waiting with cockney accents to pick my pockets, but is actually a sunshine filled wide walkway between two buildings, where those on the waiting list chat while adjusting flouncey hipster sunglasses).

Since I went for brunch I cannot give the full lay down of the menu, except to say that everything we had was good. The “Roast pork sandwich, pickled zucchini, and garlic mayonnaise with green salad” -amazing! Why has no one fed me pickled zucchini before? Shame on you. Thin, maintaining flush positioning next to other sandwich parts and not falling out. Brilliant. Their cocktails came in squeal worthy early century champagne glasses. Squat and cradling the bubbles that spurted up from just above the stem. Even the vegetarian could not speak poorly about the plentiful taxidermy that hangs above on the surrounding wood walls. It really just completes the log inn/restaurant by the side of the road feel frequented by adventurers and those who haven’t died of diphtheria yet on the Oregon Trail. (Though we gave thanks for not sitting at the table that had an ooh to realistic looking wasp hive dangling precariously over head). We left full and lighthearted with a fantasy mini getaway feeling as we adjusted our hipster sunglasses and ran from this constant drizzle.

www.freemansrestaurant.com

another reliable restaurant with a backyard in new york city

Paradou on Little West 12th Street is a relatively quiet nook in the madness of little west 12th. Gone are the days when Pastis is the only bistro in the area, now the streets are saturated with eateries. One place that never disappoints is Paradou. With a charming little backyard that is a calm alternative to many surrounding restaurants. It’s a perfect place to meet with friends for a bubbly beverage on a Sunday afternoon. (The food to follow the bubbly beverage is tasty as well).

secret restaurants with backyards are so hot right now

It’s summer and everyone wants to be outside while they can get it. I have just discovered a great little outdoors-eating oasis that is not yet eaten up by the cheesy trendiods who have recently been stabbing the Meatpacking district to death. The new find in Manhattan is The WheelTapper Restaurant, which is attached to the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel. First of all this hotel is run by those with Irish accents and so you get the vacation feeling the minute you step inside the restaurant (which is next door to the hotel but run by the same staff). It is located at 141 East 41st street. To get to the back you have to walk all the way through the restaurant. Once in the hidden outdoor eating area, there are unobstructed skies, nice tables with large wooden chairs, music drifting through the surrounding speakers and a flat screen television on one end where most casual seating is- perfect for a larger gathering.
Strongly recommended, good food and fast waiters, but note that food service stops at 11pm (drinking continues for hours).

The best low fat yogurt

I have been through most of the lowfat yogurts, some being: Horizon, Stoneyfield Farm, Silk (the soy variety which is low in fat, but more and more people are having trouble digesting soy products). It appears that Fage Total 0% is the best low fat yogurt on the market. Fage is the Greek yogurt that sometimes comes in the neat little packets with a section of honey or berry mix to swirl in yourself. The Total 0% is unbelievably creamy for a low fat yogurt and still very satisfying. In just one cup there is 20 grams of protein, can’t beat it!

People who do not love dogs can still love Amy Hempel

I am allergic to dogs. But, I can understand some people’s affection for tiny paws resting on their laps. I don’t however, have the association with canines that so many do when thinking of Amy Hempel’s work.

Amy Hempel is an amazingly reliable storyteller. The magnetic attraction of her writing is increased by the fact that she does not underestimate the intelligence of her readers. Her narratives are pre-destined rides, and though the ride weaves and goes places the reader might not choose, there is safety as the narrator’s voice is so concrete, so appealing to ride with. Hilarious lines like “My cat Frank (not his real name)…” run with a glaze of sadness over each piece. Just impossible to put down. Impossible… must go read more.

pilates- find your abs again

Some people like to blame untoned abs on age. But seriously, there is no excuse for untoned abs except pregnancy. This is why pilates is a fabulous activity. There are classes in most cities across America as well as dvds galore.
My favorite pilates dvd is, “Pilates Precision- toning and sculpting with Jennifer Kries.” Kries has an undeniably similar speaking intonation as Sarah Jessica Parker. (Which is a parallel in the pilates universe since Parker has said in interviews that during, “Sex in the City,” she was an avid pilates follower). Kries goes through the pilates steps slowly so that you won’t damage/strain your neck and is likable to watch as the workout time passes quickly. Even doing this dvd just twice a week you should notice a difference (unless you are standing in line at Wendy’s five times a week- then your killer tight abs will be in there dying to get out from a layer of frosty’s and patties but they will still look like a muffin top to everyone else).

yoga in the place where you live

Sometimes yoga classes with their overly crowded questionably sanitary conditions can be off putting. This is when it is good to have a yoga dvd on hand that you can do in your home. I really like Crunch’s, “The Perfect Yoga Workout,” the teacher is sweet and easy to listen to. The dvd is neither too fast nor slow and it really stretches out your spine. Random side note: I recently read that a lot of people sit too far back- that humans should sit with their bottom directly below them not curved under. This allows energy to flow more strongly and also protects your spine from unhealthy curvature.