…Archive for the ‘NYC’ Category…

Sugar in the City

Spencer and Derek were in the city so naturally, we went on a sugar binge. And when I say “we”, I mean Spencer and I since Derek is actually healthy.

I had a cupcake coupon to redeem so we planned on meeting in the East Village. However, we thought it might be good to eat something that wouldn’t put us in an immediate sugar coma so we meandered over to Dumpling Man for some lunch.

I chose the “special” of the day which was a Japanese inspired, vegan dumpling. It had edamame, hijiki and carrots in there and was quite tasty! The best part was, they supply Sriracha, which is always a plus.

Derek stopped by a vegan bakery for his lunch…

And we sat on a park bench and tried our darndest to not get bird poop all over ourselves

And then we headed to Butter Lane to pick up our sugar for the afternoon…

Don’t let the above photo deceive you – we got 6 for the two of us. I picked the sea salt chocolate caramel cupcake, the blueberry, and my favorite – vanilla with vanilla buttercream. Yum…

Although, after eating these cupcakes, I’m convinced we didn’t get the WHOLE recipe during our cupcake class. These were more cake-ier and delicious.

After that, we had to have more sustenance so we went to ChikaLicious since I had a gift card for it. Since I had sampled most of the cakes the last time I was there, I went with The Situation.

It was a gigantic cookie with marshmallow, peanut butter chips, pretzels, corn chips, and possibly some chocolate chips as well.

Let’s get another angle of this beauty…

It was delicious, as expected, although the peanut butter was slightly overwhelming. This satisfies both the salty, sweet, crunchy craving and probably contains a million calories. Worth it.

I should note that all of these were eaten in a 6 hour period but regardless, if you’re not a trained professional, don’t try this at home.

Ayurveda Cafe

I got a Groupon for two “four-course” meals for $15 to Ayurveda Cafe, a vegetarian Indian food restaurant on the Upper West Side. That is seriously one of the best deals I’ve seen…

My friend Erin and I went there right after work and were seated immediately. I think there were only 2 other patrons in the restaurant at the time but it was only 5:45ish – early bird special for NYC Here’s what you get in the four-course meal:

The decor isn’t anything to write home about but it was clean and our waitress was very nice.

I started with a $3 beer! It’s almost worth going just for that!

And here was the meal.

It’s kind of your typical Indian fare, but it’s supposed to be healthy for you… Not sure about that but it sure was delicious and chock full ‘o veggies. And the best part? FREE REFILLS!!!

I kid you, not. Not that I had room for refills since the portions are pretty big. It also came with a side of naan, which is also unlimited

This picture was taken right after we found out about the free refills…

Dessert was some sort of spiced, sweet noodles.

It was okay but the star of the meal is obviously the main course. Definitely make your way to Ayurveda Cafe if you’re in the area and super hungry

Candle Cafe

The other day, Christina and I checked out Candle Cafe, an organic vegan restaurant on the East side. It’s an off-shoot of Candle 79 right down the street. They don’t take reservations for small parties so we waited about 20 minutes for a table – the place was packed!

Once we sat down, I ordered a hefeweizen, of course.

Delicious and light!

Christina got an Indian tasting plate special. It looked good

I was in the mood for some heft  so I went for the cajun seitan sandwich.

Pan-seared seitan, steamed greens, caramelized onions and avocado. Served on toasted focaccia with an ancho chili aioli and coleslaw.

The sandwich itself was only so-so but the aioli MADE the meal. Yum! I think that if the sandwich didn’t have the carmelized onions, it would’ve been a lot better. I think it was just way too sweet for the rest of the meal. Especially since it came with coleslaw.

I have to say, though, I’m a big fan of seitan. I might have to try to make it at home…

I also had an undocumented date crumb cake which was nothing to write home about.

And while we were eating, I spotted a very familiar-looking guy waiting to get seated. I wondered if I had gone to high school or college with him, but then realized it was Howie Day. Not that I’m the biggest fan of his and would regularly recognize him, but my co-worker and I happened to be talking about him earlier that day.

Anyway, I’m definitely going to have to come back to Candle Cafe and try some of their other dishes – and maybe a smoothie, too!

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