NYC!

Another trip to NYC, another post about all the amazing eats there. Seriously, visiting New York is like drowning in a sea of palate pleasing vegan food, only you don't suffocate and die, you ingest and emerge victorious (read: 5 pounds heavier)... or something. Anyway, here's what we ate on our whirlwind tour:

On our first night we went to our old Lower East Side fave, Pala. Since we go every time we're there, I didn't bust out the camera, but I swear to you it gets better every time. Try the vegan etna pizza (eggplant, basil, cherry tomato sauce, daiya) which you will find on their separate vegan menu. Love that about Pala - such a great place to eat well with others. And it's so dang delicious!

Now for food I did photograph. The above is the bread and garlic oil which started our meal at Candle Cafe. It may not look like much but that oil is packed full of roasted garlic goodness. Definitely something you and your date (or husband in my case) should both eat lest the eater be shunned for the rest of the evening.

Next up I got the house salad with tahini dressing (on the side). It was good, but not spectacular. I just wanted some raw greens. Mission accomplished.

Now for my favorite thing to order at Candle Cafe - the 4 sides plate. Basically you just pick 4 sides and 2 sauces from their extensive list and call it a meal. Here I got 2 sides of steamed kale (love those greens!), a side of grilled tempeh, and a side of quinoa. For my sauce, I got 2 sides of spicy peanut sauce. It is simple pure tastiness. All the sides at CC are great, so your meal can be a different combo every time!

For dessert we headed across town to Lula's Sweet Apothecary because they make the best ice cream on the planet. I had 2 scoops of chocolate-chocolate chip with chocolate sauce, peanuts, coconut whipped cream, and a cherry. Yes, I like chocolate. Yes, it was fantastic. Yes, I miss Lula's already. Sigh.

The next day we went to brunch with the fam at Teany and I had the chicken-less salad salad (as opposed to the chicken-less salad sandwich) and it was the bomb. Teany does right by all things sweet too, but since it was so nice out, we went on a very short walk to Babycakes to sate our dessert cravings. I had the oatmeal cookie sandwich, which is really more "cream" filling than cookie and which made me very happy:

See? I'm delighted. After this, we headed back to NJ to hang with the fam for a few days. More on NJ eats soon. We did eat in New York once more before heading home though because right by our gate at JFK there was a ZPizza! I've always wanted to try their Berkeley Vegan Pie, so I did:

My favorite part was the veggie burger crumbles, but really it was just ok. As far as airport food goes, however, it was the best! If the ZPizza San Francisco ever opens, I'll definitely hit it up. Of course the site has been saying "Opening 2010" for more than a year and I kind of doubt it'll happen....

I'm already dreaming about my next trip to NYC, but it remains just a dream for now. It's no surprise that there is great vegan food there, but I was very impressed by NJ this time around too. Stay tuned to see what I mean!