NYC bites

It seems to take holiday weekends for me to update my blog. Here are some food highlights from a pre-holiday trip to NYC. My boyfriend and I ate lots of sandwiches during this visit, as it was a balmy December weekend. We also enjoyed some dim sum, a seasonal favorite, in Chinatown. My favorite thing was the bowl of steamed spinach that we had at the handy midtown Loving Hut before catching the bus back to DC. It was nice to eat something simple and healthy in the midst of our holiday binge.

Grilled Nama Gori panini and home fries at Sacred Chow, the best sandwich of our trip!

Dim Sum at Buddha Bodai, includes turnip cake, mushroom congee, meatballs, veg spare ribs, and spinach roll.

Mushroom panini at Peacefood Cafe 

Udon Thai Curry at Loving Hut

Sauteéd Spinach at Loving Hut

NYC bites: Chinatown feasts

Pumpkin Cheesecake from Wild Ginger

Here's part two of my NYC food photos, with Chinatown spots highlighted. My boyfriend and I didn't make it outside of Manhattan this trip. As usual though, we made a beeline for Chinatown on our first night and ended our trip with a similar, hugely satisfying meal. I think we overdosed on mock seafood but overall it was a delightful warm-up to our traditional Christmas-time Asian food & a movie combination.

Buddha Bodai
In Chinatown, we visited Buddha Bodai at 5 Mott Street. This vegetarian and kosher restaurant has an ambitious menu with color photos. We started our meal with two soups, both featuring bright and fresh-flavored spinach. The spinach and corn soup (on left) was beautiful to behold and fun to eat, as every bite formed a sweet yin-yang symbol in your spoon. The spinach and mushroom soup (on right) boasted three different types of mushrooms.

For a main course, my boyfriend ordered David's Special (below on left), which was sliced veggie fish and veggie shrimp with baby bok choy in black bean sauce. I ordered what proved to be our favorite dish of the trip: shredded gluten with pickled vegetables (blurry photo on right). Of course, Buddha Bodai offered brown rice. The restaurant was rather busy on a quiet night in Chinatown. It is directly opposite the forlorn Chinatown Fair video arcade.

Wild Ginger

We also hit Wild Ginger on our way out of town. At 380 Broome Street, Wild Ginger is closer to Little Italy than Chinatown proper. It was our third visit to this Pan-Asian vegan restaurant. (We also ate at their Brooklyn location years ago.) You enter the small restaurant through curtains, which I always find charming. Once inside, we ordered a whole pot of tea and two large mains. 

My boyfriend went with the Fisherman's plate (above) with veggie seafood, mushrooms, and asparagus. I was hankering for bibimbap (below). The huge and delicious rice bowl included seitan, avocado, seaweed, chickpeas, spinach, kimchee, and sprouts. However the mango salsa in the middle seemed strangely out of place to me. My bowl also came with an excellent pumpkin soup (not photographed). Somehow we managed to order dessert and devoured the dense pumpkin cheesecake slice pictured at the top of this post.

NYC bites: Upper West Side lunches

Here are some photos from a recent mini trip to NYC, aka "vegan Mecca." I really need to get up to that happening city more often. Every visit my boyfriend and I eat until we burst. This post features our Upper West Side eats, spots not far from our budget hotel. Chinatown pics will appear tomorrow.

Blossom Du Jour
We first stopped at this outpost of Blossom, located at 165 Amsterdam Avenue near West 67th. This vegan takeaway spot was tiny (only 3 stools) but the sandwiches were extra large. Above are the Midtown Melt and the Skyscraper Burger. They both were excellent, with vegan cheese, mayo, and other special sauces. The veggie burger was stacked so high, it was hard to eat. (Yes, that is an onion ring in that stack.) We washed these down with Blossom's own brand of cold pressed juice. "Pretty in Pink" (which seems to be the go-to name for most beet juice concoctions) was a perfectly balanced blend of beet, pineapple, and apple; not too earthy.

Peacefood Cafe

This was only my second time to Peacefood Cafe. What an oasis of good humor and calm! The large, sunny cafe is located at 460 Amsterdam Avenue at 82nd Street. We started our lunch with big salads (above), a constant travel hankering. On the left is the Asian Greens Salad with marinated and baked tempeh. On the right is the fluffy quinoa salad with an out-of-this-world creamy lime mustard vinaigrette, under all that avocado.

My boyfriend also got the fried seitan medallion panini (above) that wowed him last visit. I had a bland yet comforting special kale and lentil soup (below). And we split an acai smoothie, which was milkshake thick and packed with berries. This giant lunch fueled a long day of art & culture tourism and made us feel healthy on the road. Maybe for our next visit we can save room for dessert from Peacefood's tantalizing bakery display cases.

VeganMoFo: NYC Eats

Here are some photos from a recent trip to NYC. I didn't capture nearly enough of our food excursions. We were with omni friends who loved Red Bamboo best. Also had great meals at House of Vegetarian in Chinatown and Wild Ginger Brooklyn. These photos are of the sangria brunch special at Counter with a tofu scramble, home fries, soy sausage, greens, toast, and tea. Also street shot of a Vegan Treats brownie and iced coffee from Atlas Cafe. I wish the Vegan Treats people would come out with a cookbook. And I wish DC had half the cool restaurant options of NYC and more street food options.