Start Spreading the News: Vegan in New York

So, my real Christmas present from The Man of Science this year was a trip to New York city for the two of us. I've been to New York a bunch of times, but never with him and never with a hotel stay as part of the plan. Don't get me wrong, I love sleeping on my friend Hallie's couch, but having a room at the Ritz Carleton with a beautiful view of the water was nothing to sneeze at, either. Good work, Husband!

We were only in the city for two nights, so I concentrated on enjoying myself as opposed to lugging out my camera to take quality photographs of everything we ate. I did, however, snap a lot of little pictures with my cell phone, and I've turned them into these lovely collages for you. Isn't it just as good as being there?

Up there you'll see the new shoes I got at Moo Shoes. Wheeee! I've always hesitated to order shoes from their website because the shipping/import fees are steep and I am wary of purchasing shoes without trying them on first. So it was great to actually be in the store and to see everything up close. Plus they have three cats! Store cats! After I bought my shoes I went around the corner to Babycakes for a vegan chocolate coconut donut. My last Babycakes experience was somewhat underwhelming, but this donut made up for that. It was stupendous.



Of course, I packed a million snacks to keep my blood sugar on the straight and narrow while we travelled. I found these ProBars were the best as far as filling me up and tasting good went. That plus a dose of Emergen C was my pre-breakfast breakfast each morning.

Next you see the menu for Kate's Joint, a place I might never have discovered were it not for a recommendation from erstwhile citizen of New York, my friend Krishna. We went for lunch after walking for hours around the city and I fuelled up with a vegan club sandwich and fries while the Man of Science had a tofu steak covered in vegan gravy and mushrooms. Yum. I really liked this unassuming, fully vegetarian little place.

Another recommendation of Krishna's was S'Nice largely because it opens at 8 AM and I like to eat breakfast as early as possible. Plus all the food is vegetarian and a lot of it is vegan. The Man of Science and I both had their tofu scramble wrap for breakfast with coffee for him and a smoothie and tea for me. This place was also great, with a big menu of vegetarian sandwiches, a reasonable list of breakfast choices, and lots of good space for sitting and reading the three newspapers we'd amassed on our walk over.



Our hotel was in Battery Park and we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty. I took a bunch of pictures of it at different times of day.

Our first night in town involved meeting my friend Joe for dinner at Dirt Candy. The food was very beautifully presented and the company was excellent, but the actual deliciousness of our dishes varied. The appetizer of jalapeno hush puppies was really good, and my gnocchi entree was tasty, but a lot of the other things we tried were underwhelming as far as flavour goes. I always expect to be bowled over when I go to a fancy vegan place, especially in a big city, but this wasn't quite there.

The next photo is of my aforementioned club sandwich at Kate's, and the following one is the sign from our table for two at S'Nice. I liked that the two-person tables were reserved for non-computer users, having attempted the night before to go have tea after dinner only to be thwarted by a coffee shop with no free tables for sharing. Every single table was taken up by one person and a laptop, leaving an empty seat on the opposite side and no where for our party of three to sit. Boo!

We had our last dinner of the trip at Blossom, which I took absolutely zero photos of because I was trying to have a romantic night and keep my feet pointed at my husband. We had delicious ravioli and pretty good empanadas for appetizers, and then I had the pistachio-crusted tofu for my entree (yum!) and the Man of Science had the port wine seitan, which was weirdly sweet. For dessert he had their housemade ice cream and I had an amazing chocolate ganache cake with peanut butter sauce and vanilla cream.



And now we're back at home with the dogs and cats and my mom (my dad is now away on a trip himself). Back to work for real tomorrow.

J.

New York Food-o-rama: Part Four (the grand finale)

Wow! Five post in five days! You won't see this again until Vegan Mofo. Which is next month, by the way.

My last full day in New York was Saturday, so Hallie and I went down to the Brooklyn Flea Market to poke around. She teased me for my heat-sensitive Canadianess, but holy crap, it was hot. Not that it doesn't get hot here in Ottawa. Just not in September. When I left, Ottawa was already deep into sweater weather, so the get-my-hair-off-my-neck-before-I-die weather of New York was a shock to my system. As a result, my usual appetite flagged a bit, and we didn't end up eating anything until lunch time. Luckily, the flea market has a pile of different food vendors to choose from. I was super thirsty and therefore delighted to find a vendor selling big cups of watermelon juice.



It was amazingly refreshing. I would have gone back for a second cup if there wasn't a large line of similarly thirsty New Yorkers waiting for their own juice.

While I was seeking juice, Hallie texted me: "Do you want a pious?" I was pretty sure that wasn't an actual thing, but just in case it was some Greenpoint delicacy I texted back, "I don't know what that is." Hallie replied that she'd get some extra to share, and then minutes later sent another message saying she'd meant "pupusa", not "pious". Ah, the hazards of auto-complete.



She arrived with two pupusa. One with cheese and assorted vegetables as the filling and one vegan one with zucchini as the filling. Even though we didn't have the non-vegan condiments that were supposed to go with them, they were both very tasty. We enjoyed them while resting in the shade.

We split up after the flea market and I very bravely took a variety of shuttlebuses and subways to get myself back to Bedford avenue, where I bought myself a nice bag, then got some iced tea and went to sit in the park and read.

After a little while, Joe came to meet me and we walked back up Bedford to go to Bliss for an early dinner.



I was starting to feel like maybe the Cold That Everyone Else Had was descending upon me. But I was in enough denial to order some ginger beet juice in an attempt to hold it back. Joe ordered what he called a "Canadian Lemonade" (because it was sweetened with maple syrup) which apparently was too strong for human consumption. He made quite a face after the first sip and did not take any subsequent sips.

For dinner I had what I think was called the "Harvest Plate". A very satisfying collection of lentils, tofu, kale, vegetables, cornbread, and rice with a tahini miso dressing. It was really great, but unfortunately did nothing to kill the cold that overtook me while we ate. Joe had quesedillas, which looked good. And BTW The Ergs were an awesome band.



After dinner I got minorly cranky because of my sore throat and stuffy head, so we just walked back to Hallie's place and watched TV on glorious Hulu (a luxury that we can not access in Canada) until I was too beat to sit up. Blargh! Stupid cold.

And thus ended my trip to NYC. No more trips for a while, I'm laying low this winter, but everyone is welcome to come visit me. I'll even cook for you. I'm working to perfect my own version of that vegan chicken bacon ranch sandwich.




J.

New York Food-o-rama: Part Three

On Friday it was all about bamboo.

Hallie and I agreed to meet Joe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art so we could be a part of the lucky group of people actually allowed to climb around on the Big Bambu exhibit. Everyone can go to see it, but we agreed that being able to climb up 50 feet of lashed-together bamboo would be way better than just walking around on the ground admiring it. Kind of like getting to climb up the stuff I made out of tinker toys when I was a kid.

Because we needed to get to the museum in a timely manner to get our tickets, Hallie and I forewent a sit-down breakfast in favour of some bagels grabbed along the way at a place aptly titled The Bagel Store. They had several varieties of tofu cream cheese (so civilized!) but I chose plain for my whole wheat bagel because I wasn't feeling particularly oniony at that hour and the sweet fruity cream cheese flavours gross me out.



The bagel was delicious and I ate it on the steps of the Met in the sunshine. I also had a giant iced tea because I was sweltering of boilingness.

We got our tickets (score!) and then had three hours to kill before our guided tour. Joe went off to run errands and Hallie and I went off to explore Central Park, which was lovely. We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves, and lots of high school kids rowing boats inexpertly while shrieking at each other. Soon it was time to go back to the museum.



We weren't allowed to bring cameras on the climbing portion of the tour, which was kind of a bummer because it was AMAZING. Totally breathtaking. The exhibit has been built in phases by the artists and a team of rock climbers. It's made to resemble a cresting wave, and it has pathways that snake all the way up to its highest point so you can walk up high and look over it from above. In a few weeks they'll start taking it down and it will be gone forever. I'm so glad I got to be a small part of its existence.

After our tour Hallie had to go off to work so Joe and I took off enthusiastically for Red Bamboo, a vegetarian restaurant he'd been talking up to me for a while. I must say here that Joe, who is not a vegetarian, is excellent at being vegetarian-adjacent. Hallie and I both noticed this. He knows good veggie places to eat and never complains or gets weirded out by the food on offer. And he does nice stuff like offer to order vegan cheese on whatever he's getting in case I want to try it. I always told him to go for the real cheese, though. I love vegan food, but vegan cheese is just not that great.



Here we are being dueling food photographers. I ordered cashew chicken and Joe ordered a Philly cheese "steak" sandwich. My food was amazing. Of course, I was super starving from all that park walking and bamboo climbing, so I would have been pretty happy with whatever was served to me. But this chewy fake chicken and crisp vegetables with rice was totally perfect for my giant appetite.

I was not going to miss out on dessert again, so halfway through dinner I forced myself to slow down and eat only the chicken blobs and the broccoli which were my favourite parts of the meal. This left me enough room for one of the five or six cakes they had available. This was called "Peanut Butter Heaven".



And heavenly it was. Light, spongey yellow cake layered with peanut butter and chocolate mousse and iced with a solid layer of chocolate frosting. I ate far more than I truly needed to. It was hard to stop.

We continued on to Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre where we got to see an improv show for free because Joe knows all the right people. It was a great show. I think that Chris Gethard is really, really funny. When the show was done I was almost asleep on my feet but we still managed to meet up with Hallie and her friend Joanne for drinks before she and I headed back to Brooklyn for some well deserved sleeping.

Last New York food recap is tomorrow. Glad you're still with me.

J.

Wordless Wednesday: New York Edition

One of my favourite things to do when visiting a new city is to sit down with a beer and a good book. Exposed brick and candles are not necessary but certainly appreciated.

J

New York Food-o-rama: Part Two

Hmmmm, where should we dine tonight? Candle Cafe or Bistro Le Steak?



Assuming that Candle Cafe would have more vegan options, we decided to go there. Besides, it was one of the famous-ish vegan places in New York I was curious to try. And it was within walking distance of Central Park where three members of our party were going to see Pavement (wheeeeee!) later in the evening.

The problem was, Hallie and I met up with Megan, Dave (previously known as The Guybrarian but I'm tired of that now), and Joe at Candle Cafe mere hours after having scarfed down our giant breakfast/lunch at Curly's. We were not exactly starving Luckily, it turned out that no one else was very hungry either, so we all ordered appetizers and/or drinks and spent more time chatting than eating. I love it when friends I like get to meet other friends I like.



I ordered seitan skewers and, holy crap, I've never tasted seitan that delicious. I gave a piece of it to Dave who is not a vegetarian and had never tried seitan and he was quite stunned. "It's so... steaky," he said, with disbelief. Ha ha! Look out Le Steak! Dave had quesadillas and Megan had a salad, both of which were apparently quite good.



Hallie and Joe and I had smoothies which were, by all reports, mediocre. Hallie's was supposed to be chocolate-coffee-fudge flavoured and yet somehow ended up bland. My berry smoothie was chalky, and Joe didn't say much about his strawberry shake, hence damning with faint praise. Or no praise at all.

Because we didn't have full meals, I didn't really get a sense of the place, but I would certainly go there again if they have other dishes that are as good as those seitan skewers. Will someone who has the Candle Cafe Cookbook tell me if the recipe for the skewers is in there? And if you've made them, how hard was it?

After our meal, Hallie had to go to work but Joe was able to join Megan and Dave and I for a pre-Pavement happy hour. Because I'm part Eliza Doolittle, it had never occurred to me that we don't have happy hours in Ontario. Cheap beer! What an exciting treat! We all got slightly tipsy and then strolled down to Central Park for the Pavement show. We bought our tickets for the show a year ago, so needless to say, we'd been looking forward to it for a while. And really, what could be better than seeing Pavement in New York City in the autumn while the sun goes down and a big tree periodically drops pretty coloured leaves into your lap? Not much.

Before the band even started I was hungry again, so Megan and I puttered off to check out the food options. Pictured here is my veggie dog with jalepeno mustard, spicy ketchup, and crushed salt and pepper potato chips. Yep, that's what I said.



This came from a super-cute food stall called Asiadog. I'm not usually a hotdog kind of girl (that's what she said) but somehow a fun vegetarian dog (and a can of beer) made for a perfect outdoor event dinner. Megan had a tamale from a neighbouring food vendor which looked so delicious it was admired by all the guys working in the beer tent.



And then there was Pavement. Was it worth waiting a year and travelling 700 kilometres to see them? Absolutely. I'd seen Stephen Malkmus solo before, but never Pavement proper. And because they aren't touring to support a new album, it was basically a greatest hits show, which was just fine with me. They played my favourite songs of theirs (Range Life and Shady Lane) and seemed genuinely happy to be on stage together. I spent most of the show grinning like a idiot with my hands clasped over my heart. I could have danced all night.

J.

New York Food-o-rama: Part One

Hey! Wanna try my genius new diet plan? First, go to New York City. Then, eat giant amounts of amazing vegan food. Then walk. Everywhere. All the time. Miles and miles of daily walking in the decidedly un-autumnal city heat. Do this every day for a week and you'll return home a few pounds lighter and with visibly more defined calf muscles.

I got home yesterday from New York and along with my well defined calf muscles I brought with me a Real American Headcold. So I spent all day today in bed until the Man of Science fed me soup and spring rolls and that perked me up enough to get started on this Epic Week of New York Food Posts. And so we begin with Curly's Vegetarian Lunch.



My friend Hallie, who graciously let me sleep on her couch all week AND took me all over the city to show me fun stuff to do and amazing food to eat, is a big fan of Curly's. She and our friend Frank and I went there for breakfast/lunch on Thursday. I had my usual intense option paralysis when faced with an extensive menu of vegan choices. At first I thought I would limit myself to the breakfast menu (I was very close to choosing kamut pancakes with veggie bacon) but then the sandwiches started calling my name. And I'm glad I listened.



This, my friends, is a completely vegan "chicken bacon ranch" sandwich. And wow, it was good. The soy chicken was breaded and super crispy, the tofu bacon was salty and the ranch dressing was all creamy and unifying. One of my top five sandwiches of all time. The sweet potato fries were also better than your average fries. They were almost freakishly light and crispy. I would eat the whole meal over again right now if I could. The juice in the photo is carrot, beet, ginger and it was also delicious. I ordered it because I was worried about getting the cold that everyone in universe seemed to have and I thought some mega juice and ginger would stave off the germs. We all know how well that worked.



We were so full after our meals we had no room for all that vegan cake that is advertised in the first photo (curses!) but that didn't stop us from gazing with longing at the menu of treats (not vegan, sadly) next door at Led Zeppole.



Will someone now make me a vegan funnel cake? Please?

Adventures in big city eating will continue tomorrow. Stay tuned!

J.

New York Vegan: Babycakes Bakery

So, most of my trip to New York this past weekend involved eating on the run. For instance, on Saturday I had a veggie burger for lunch and another veggie burger for dinner. Although it was out of character for me, I spent most of the trip thinking about things other than food. I chalk this up to the fact that my New York friends are amazing and I don't get to see them often enough.

However! My trip to New York wouldn't have been complete without at least one special vegan field trip. In this case, my friend and lovely hostess, Hallie, took me to Babycakes vegan bakery where we joined the Valentine's Day throngs and came away with some exciting cupcakes.



But I'm getting ahead of myself. First of all, let me say that the bakery itself is adorable! All pink and retro and bright and lovely. It made me have fleeting fantasies of being young again so I could run away to New York City and bake vegan cupcakes all day and go see pop-punk shows every night. Even though in reality the 34 year old me is exhausted just thinking about it.



And you know what the best thing was? In a word: Agave. Yes, my old friend agave, the sweetener that allows me to eat baked goods without totally messing with my wonky blood sugar. Babycakes had a whole bunch of cupcakes that were sweetened only with agave and boy, did that ever make me a happy girl. I selected a pumpkin spice gluten-free cupcake and a chocolate cupcake made with spelt flour. Both were agave-sweetened. No sugar at all. And they packed them up in the cutest box ever.



Hallie and I took the cupcakes and some cute heart-shaped sugar cookies over to her friend Joanna's lovely, East Village, exposed-brick, studio apartment and ate them while reclining on pillows, drinking hot beverages, and talking about boys. It made for an excellent afternoon.



Though I have to say, Hallie and I agreed that the spelt chocolate cupcakes were a bit dry. I loved the icing though, seeing as it had all of the creamy-ness of regular icing without the face-melting sweetness. My pumpkin cupcake was delicious, though a bit too muffiny to really be called a cupcake. I wish I'd had the time and money to sample the rest of their baked goods. The brownies and donuts both looked great. And our heart shaped sugar cookie was really tasty.

So that's the only truly exciting vegan news I have from my trip. Perhaps a more food-oriented New York trip is in my future but this one was really more about great friends and fun musical events than it was about eating. I hope this bakery fun is satisfying enough for all of you out there!

J.