Visited 05/06/2012

Astoria is not exactly a vegan mecca. So I was happy to find Three E Taste of Thai. It’s a clean place with an attentive wait staff. After stopping at place after place in the area with pretty much no luck, spotting the vegetarian appetizer section on their menu made me hopeful.

I wasn’t sure of the situation with co-mingling foods and I have been splurging on calories, so I decided to go light with a Nature Summer Roll and Papaya Salad. The restaurant must be aware of how bland the salad is considering how much dressing was dumped on top, which worked out because I needed something to give taste to the summer roll; the hint of mint was not enough.

Typically, my sister can fare better in restaurants that serve meat; I’ll be bummed at the lackluster attention to the veggies.

She had accidentally been given my summer roll and tried a piece, which gave her something to laugh at me about as I choked it down. Other than that, and the rice that seemed to be missing its instruction manual, we ate in peace.

She got her leftovers to go and we continued on our way. A block later, the bag of leftovers swung upwards and down, right into a trash can.

“You didn’t like it?”

“Well, I don’t want to judge on the first try…but we never have to go there again,” which pretty much sums it up.

While she liked the Crab Rangoon, she went on to describe her Larb Chicken as “a can of chicken dropped on a salad” and the rice as the worst she’d ever had. (The rice was served in a wicker cup, that I thought was on the table for decoration. When she opened it, her prize was a ball of rice in plastic wrap. The rice ended up being a sticky lump she might sooner have picked up and eaten like a bread roll then jab at it with her fork, and maybe she should have.)

Verdict: When you’re wondering and hungry, sometimes an oasis can be a mirage.

Taste of Thai
34-16 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106

“It was great to be Catholic and go to confession. You could start over every week,” said C in 1993′s A Bronx Tale. No matter your religious denomination, Champs Family Diner and Bakery is giving you the chance to start your week off right. Their monthly Drive-In Dine-In will be this Sunday, April 29th at 8:30pm, this month featuring Robert DeNiro’s directorial debut.

In true Italian fashion, the all vegan $30 prix fixe dinner will include:

• Appetizer: String beans, mixed olives, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and chickpeas with fresh herbs
• Main course: Tagliatelle pasta with sweet Italian sausage and porcini mushroom ragu
• Dessert: Chilled “raw” Tiramisu with coconut, rum, cacao, and espresso

Seating is limited, so be sure to make a reservation at 718-599-2743.

(Please note, Champs is a cash only establishment. They do have an in-house ATM, though.)

Champs Vegan Bakery and Diner
176 Ainslie St
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Visited 03/20/2012

I’ve said it before, but I can’t believe the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival has come and passed. After attending the first in April of last year (2011), I anticipated the second. Now eleven months and counting until 2013′s.

Last week, the organizers got together with volunteers, myself included, at Caravan of Dreams to catch up.

I’ll admit the menu prices are not cheap, my Quesadilla with soy chorizo and cashew cheese, was something like $19 alone. So it’s not somewhere you might frequent. It’s a treat for a special occasion.

As a starter, there’s no bread. Instead, a slice of blood orange and avocado. You make look at it oddly for a second, but it’s actually pretty good, separate and together.

I was tentative to get the sample platter appetizer, but I wanted something people could share. All the foods included are very good but the platter is better in theory than exaction. I opted for the raw bread, and maybe that’s why, but what I got was not enough to go with the platter…unless you heaped a big spoonful on each piece of bread. Instead I asked for extra veggies.

My entree was delicious and I am definitely going back. There was seitan on the appetizer platter, so I’m thinking next time I’ll try the Seitan Taquitos.

Towards the end, watching the waiter create the Hot Brownie Sundae was crazy. It’s a glass with strawberries; then brownie bits; topped with ice cream and whipped cream, which I think someone say were coconut; and drizzles of chocolate plus a few other things I lost track of. Such a yummy combination. Great to share…but you can keep it all for yourself if you please.

Caravan of Dreams

405 Eat 6th Street

New York, NY 10009

212.254.1613

Brooklyn Restaurant Week is running until March 29th. If you’re vegetarian or vegan looking to get out for a bite to eat in the upcoming days and benefit from “discounted lunches and dinners (for $20.12 and $25, respectively), plus two-for-one and brunch options,” the pickings are slim.

Of the 195 Brooklyn restaurants participating in Restaurant Week, 18 of these restaurants are Clean Plates approved. Clean Plates promotes themselves as a way “to make it easier and more enjoyable for you to eat healthy, sustainable food.” Of the 18 Clean Plates approved restaurants participating, 9 carry their Vegetarian seal.

Here’s my review of the options:

• Al Di La Trattoria (The Winter Squash Ravioli sounds good…but they serve calf liver and rabbit…it’s your call.)

• Applewood (All the veggie combinations sound delicious…then they muck it up with meats and cheeses. Pass.)

• Aurora (Heavy on the cheeses. Prix Fixe menu not available to view online. May be worth visiting for restaurant week if they offer some substitutions.)

• Chestnut (Website not updated since before Thanksgiving. Call.)

• Lunetta (Likely not worth visiting for restaurant week; prix fixe menu not available online but general menu doesn’t seem well rounded enough to accommodate three veg courses.)

• Miranda (One of the desserts expressly says vegan. May be worth visiting for restaurant week if they offer some substitutions.)

• Moim (May be worth visiting for restaurant week if they accommodate some substitutions.)

• Palo Santo (May be doable; ask about desserts.)

• Rose Water (Not worth visiting for restaurant week; prix fixe doesn’t offer a veg option in all three courses and there are no substitutions.)

Click to view the full restaurant listings.

If you’re really looking to join in on Brooklyn Restaurant Week, call ahead to confirm these restaurants carry sufficient menu options for your lifestyle needs. Otherwise, just patronize the places that treat you right…and don’t make you play this guessing. Maybe even encourage them to participate in the future.

My father rolled into town tonight to spend the weekend with me at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival. Since it was his birthday weekend, I decided to meet him halfway by choosing a non-vegan restaurant with vegan options. As I racked my brain, I remembered a recent MeetUp reminder I’d received by email. While I don’t get to go to a ton of MeetUps, I keep the emails as suggestions for future nights out.

Let me tell you, walking into John’s on a Friday night on the fly, without a reservation, is not the best idea, but they managed to find a table. It’s quite a tightly packed place and I almost said, ‘Forget it. Let’s just go next door.’ I’m glad be stuck it out, though. While my father liked Angelika Kitchen the last time we went, it good to try something new.

He ordered Chicken Parmigiana (yeah, the real deal, but they do offer a vegan variation); I ordered the Seitan Rosa, which was good and really filling; and we shared an order of vegan garlic bread, which was a little too crunchy and not quite flavorful enough for my taste.

All in all, for a spur of the moment suggestion, it worked out well, which doesn’t always happen when food preferences collide.

Keep in mind, try to make a reservation. Also, they do not accept credit cards. I repeat, they do not accept credit cards…which still blows my mind.

John’s
302 East 12th Street
New York, NY
(212) 476-9531

Visited 02/15/2012

Hearing so much good buzz about Pure Food and Wine, I quickly snatched up a nice Groupon deal several months back and finally was able to make use of it. Aside from your raw by nature fruits and veggies, I haven’t really gotten into raw vegan prepared foods.

It’s a blink-and-miss-it place. The interior, though, is really nice. With so much great feedback, I had really high hopes as my friend and I sat down. The day after Valentine’s Day may not have been the best timing, though.

Since he’d had a large and I’d had a late lunch, we both weren’t starving, but we could eat and enjoy; so we decided to use the voucher before it expired to share a couple of dishes and try the place out.

I’m not going to get too into it, but given the Groupon and the sharing, I think our waiter assigned a very low value to our table and serviced according to that. (Lucky for us, the guy filling our water glasses hadn’t been informed.)

Salad of Chicories with Bourbon Cask Sour Cherries, Salsify Bacon, Lapsang Smoked Walnuts, and Buttermilk Dressing (above). (Sorry. Forgot to take the picture until after forks attacked.) While my friend said he enjoyed the salad, he admitted he would not get it again. The cherries and walnuts were very tasty and I really liked the Salsify Bacon. I preferred this much more than our second course. The only thing I really didn’t like was the shell I bit down on and the shot of pain it gave me, but the look on my face surely grabbed our waiter’s attention.

Sunchoke Gratin with Vanilla Poached Pear with black kale pesto, shaved black truffles, and truffle hazelnut cream (above). This was…ummmm…I liked the Vanilla Poached Pears. I won’t say much more than that regarding this dish.

We all know I have a sweet tooth. (If you don’t, peruse the site; it’s pretty evident.) Most of the online praise we’d seen was for the desserts. I eyed the Dark Chocolate Semi Freddo and the Frozen Black Forest Shortcake. As we waited…and waited…for our waiter to come back, I remembered that I had brought a CLIF bar for my friend. He likes two of the seasonal varieties that aren’t readily available now; I happened to spot a few in a local supplement store.

After a few minutes of it sitting on the table, us just talking, waiter walks up and says, ‘There is no outside food allowed in the restaurant.’ Seriously? With a smile, my friend responded, ‘I’m not going to come into a restaurant like this and eat a CLIF bar.’ Maybe slightly embarrassed, the gentleman laughed slightly but added, ‘Oh, I thought you were going to have it instead of ordering a dessert.’ Seriously!

However, in the end, I did get a dessert…over at Whole Foods. I paid the check and tipped more than accordingly for the service…hope the water boy gets a cut cause it was mainly for him…and we headed over where I grabbed a delicious slice of Cafe Indigo Chocolate Cake from Whole Foods’ prepared food case.

Will I go back to Pure Food and Wine? Not likely. If you have a Groupon, I recommend going during a slower time of the day.

Some tea/liquor drink my friend got. (Look closely behind to see the infamous CLIF bar.)

Pure Food and Wine
54 Irving Place
New York, NY 10003-2314

Visited 01/18/2012

*Laughter* So after buying a LivingSocial deal last April, I final got down to Quintessence in the East Village…with my friend who used his Groupon.

I’m not sure now if I’ll take my father to Quintessence as I’d been saying…may be too much of a shock…but I do plan to go back and use my LS deal before it expires.

Quintessence(East Village)
263 E 10th Street
(btw. Ave A & 1st Ave)
NYC
(646) 654-1823

Visited 01/07/2012

This joint was a bit out of the way for my friend and myself, but I used outreach duties to justify the trek. A justification won’t be necessary next time, except for just wanting a place to chill with friend(s).

It’s actually the Frankenstein place I’ve been waiting for. There is the vegan-owned bar in Brooklyn, Pine Box Rock Shop, which you can drink at but there isn’t too much variety with food options. Then there are places like B.A.D. Burger and Foodswings where you can get veg*n comfort food. Kate’s Joints marries the two.

We just happened to stop by during Happy Hour, which I thought was a weekday thing, but apparently not. A couple of drinks and a bowl of vegan French Onion soup and I was a happy lady. The only downside is that I’m still scratching my head over the menu’s wording regarding the “vegan” cheese.

I actually thought, ‘Hmm, C.J. might like this place.’ While I try to find inclusive restaurants that have meat and consciously made veg*n food (ie B.A.D.), this all-veg dinner/bar has a little extra I think my non-veg sis can appreciate…maybe it’s the PBR…LOL.

Be sure to check in on Foursquare…wink.

My day off started with The Cinnamon Snail and ended with Gobo. Along the way, I saw some fun randomness around NYC. Union Square is one of my favorite areas in the city; a hub to start any good day! There is a Whole Foods, a farmers’ market, a movie theater, good veg*n food just short walks in all directions (think Curly’s, Lula’s, Atlas Cafe), a well stocked comic book shop, Strand Bookstore where most everything is just a little cheaper (be sure to stop in and grab your copy of the 2012 Vegan Guide to New York City for $8.95…and maybe some other gems. HA!), an excellent baking supply store, and I’m gonna get a little girly on you and mention Jay Nails (just be sure to grab your Priti vegan nail polish from Sustainable NYC before you go). Look on!

Grabbed a good breakfast/lunch. [THE CINNAMON SNAIL]

Vas-y, Bacon! Qu’est-ce?! (LOL! So got that wrong, I’m sure.) [STRAND BOOKSTORE]

Apparently I have a thing for robots. Ha! This REALLY tempted me. [STRAND BOOKSTORE]

This made me think of one of my veg*n comrades. [Broadway Panhandler]

Making it a little easier to shop! [DSW]

Channel your inner TSwift in leather-free MaddenGirl boots. [DSW]

So wrong…it’s kind of right. Prefer the drawn version. [FORBIDDEN PLANET]

Nothing like rounding out the day with dinner and good company. [GOBO West Village]

You can still have your fun outside NYC:
Mr. Bacon vs. Monsieur Tofu
Robocup Measuring Cups
Souper Spoon
A Bahn Mi with a similar flair to the Snail’s

Visited 12/2/2011

Last night I got to eat at Wild Ginger in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I mean actually sit in. The three previous times I’ve popped by and enjoyed their food from plastic containers on the ride home.

My last time picking up takeout, I overhead a young gentleman praising his food. So, like the intrusive oddy I am, I nudged my way into the conversation and asked. “Bibimbap. It’s really good.” An odd, new name I tried to take note of.

Luckily I actually remembered the mental note I’d made to try it. (Lucky cause my brain resembles a board covered with post it notes. The only reason there’s ever any room is cause many fall to the floor.)

If there was an organization certifying “junk-food-aholics”, I’d have some badge or certificate or trophy…..sometimes it’s nice not to have something fried or sugary….sometimes.

So while much of what I’ve ordered in the past at Wild Ginger has been fried…to varying degrees of my satisfaction…this dish was a nice change of taste. A mix of rice and vegetables, including avocado and chick pea, with kimchee sauce, my bowl of Bibimbap was both flavorful and filling.

Wild Ginger
212 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
(718) 218-8828
wildgingerny.com