From the monthly archives: July 2012
My sister requested parfaits for her birthday and I was happy to oblige. I started with sliced strawberry and baby plum, looking fresh and gorgeous. These would be the cooked fruit layer, along with fresh layers of blueberry.
I also needed a cake layer and a ton of coconut whipped cream. This time around I had planned to flavor and tint the cream with pomegranate juice, like this recipe, but the stark white prevailed. The coconut milk solids creamed perfectly, thick and delicious, on this third attempt. So my tip is to use a full fat coconut milk that is not Goya. Another tip is to make a neutral cake. This one added a bit too much sweetness. A biscuit or a shortcake would be best.
Another beauty, dressed to impressed.
V & T Supermarket in Hempstead, Long Island is a place I can spend hours in. It is a huge Asian grocery store with long aisles of interesting food items–noodles, sauces, sweets, a frozen section, and… canned goodies. I visited V & T with a clear mission in mind: get some neat looking cans with the following predominant colors: green, yellow, pink, orange, red, and blue. These will be the pencil holders for my classroom tables come back to school. But before I can say “Mangosteens, there is a book left out on your table.” or “Johnny, please collect Jackfruit’s essays on the binary language of moisture vaporaters,” I need to seal and laquer them, preparing them for hopefully many years of 4th grade abuse. And before that–I needed to eat their innards. 
Starting with mangosteen. I accidentally bought 2 cans of these beautiful fruits. Knowing that the texture of this tropical fruit would be a bit mush-like as it has been swimming in sugary syrup since its trip from Thailand, I wanted to make sure I paired it with some other textures. Inspired by a very simple recipe for mangosteen salsa that incorporated all fresh ingredients, as well as ingredients to balance the sweetness, I made a salsa that hit all the right notes: sweet, bitter, and a whole lot of heat from 2 diced jalapeno. The mangosteens are sweet and delicious right out of the can. I saved the sugary syrup for a future popsicle creation. Mangosteen have received some buzz in the health food word. Their rinds (pericaps) contain powerful antioxidants called xanthones, that have been used in traditional medicines for years. But recent buzz here in the States stems from some studies that showed xanthones to have anti-cancer effects. Like other naturally occurring antioxidants with buzz (pomegranate, goji, acai, etc), of course next comes a slew of health products.
Next up, jackfruit. I first had this fibrous yellow wonder in Thailand (see post here); it is a sweet tropical fruit with a very interesting texture. Though sweet, I once had an amazing jackfruit chalupa at (post here) a place called Fud, a very memorable vegan eatery in Kansas City. I wanted to try to make a savory dish with my can of jackfruit. With guidance from Clean Green Simple‘s beautiful blog, I began by soaking my jackfruit in water to shrug off that sugary syrup.
It took some time to cook up the jackfruit. What goes in bright yellow… 
eventually becomes a fibrous brown, resembling pulled meat. Truly fascinating. And very delicious.
Behold! My jackfruit carnitas! Topped with the mangosteen salsa and some fresh tomato and avocado… and paired with grilled, local corn. What a delicious meal. I nibbled on so much of the jackfruit while it cooked that I could barely finish. 
Hard to believe such a gorgeous meal started in a can.
Next up in my can project, I am thinking mangosteen and lychee popsicles. Stay tuned…
xo, V.V.
More on cans:
I have to give props to Vegguide‘s community members. This guide is so robust with locations offering options for vegetarians and vegans. Whether it’s a completely vegan restaurant or an omnivorous place with a single veg-friendly dish, the community covers the entire world (yes, all 7 continents!) and it is the first place I go to research options to report on. That being said, given the amount of time I spend on Long Island, I have checked in on their L.I. listings many, many times. But with The Electrician‘s car at my disposal for the day, it was time for me to taste what L.I. had to offer!
I was ready to go but, while reading Yelp reviews, I found another option to hit! And I could squeeze Granny’s in Commack into my itinerary easily. Granny’s is an unassuming ice cream and frozen yogurt shop in a strip mall… but, for some odd reason, it is also a retail outlet for a large selection of Stogo (reported on here) dairy-free ice cream. Seems kind of random and all the more appealing given its unlikeliness. I found the ice cream parlor without a problem, thanks to the v-bomb in the signage.
I got a small cone with sugar cookie dough ice cream, though the parlor offered a great deal of flavors to choose from.
What a delight to have a cone on a hot summer day.
Pictured here is the designated scooper. What a welcome sight!
From Granny’s it was time to move on to get a proper lunch. It was time to visit Feelgoods Cafe… finally. I have looked at this St. James eatery’s menu many times, wondering about their food. It is hard to tell by a menu if a place uses packaged or frozen products. And nothing is more elusive than a menu’s “veggie burger.” It can be frozen or packaged. It can have dairy and egg unbeknowst to the staff. It can contain lima beans and peas. In short, it’s a crapshoot. I was relieved to see that on FeelGoods Cafe’s new menu they drop the V-bomb, labeling which of their award-winning “EdgyBurgers”, which have their own online storefront for delivery throughout the country, are vegan. I was ready to try an EdgyBurger!
I was very impressed by the service at FeelGoods right off the bat. I needed some advice on which of the vegan burgers to try. It was an important decision that was taken seriously by counterperson. I appreciated that as I often fumble under a daunting food decision and take a risk that I wind up regretting. I chose the “fan favorite,” the portobello black bean panini-style and topped with southwestern flare. I was very impressed with my choice. It was very tasty! 
And you can see why I was overwhelmed with the decision. There are so many vegan burgers to choose from! I wish I was a cow with several stomachs to sample another few burgers during my visit. Butternut squash & quinoa; eggplant, sun-dried tomato & basil; ginger-lime, chickpea & edamame; and sunflower, sesame & kidney bean just to name a few. See full variety here. I may have to order the vegan variety pack for delivery to sample some of the other EdgyBurgers. 
Next, it was time for dessert: Azure Chocolat, a delicious chocolate shop in Greenlawn’s downtown strip. Azure offers gorgeous high-end truffles, barks, and other assorted confections that are all natural and gluten-free. I called in advance to see if they had any of their vegan truffles on hand and got an affirmative. I was happy to finally have the opportunity to stop in! 
The vegan truffle selection for the day included the Mexican Rose–dark chocolate, coffee, rose water and cinnamon rolled in dark chocolate and topped with a rose petal–and the Wild Orchid–dark chocolate, vanilla beans, almond milk and vanilla vodka, rolled in dark chocolate and topped with vanilla-infused raw sugar. Several of the ship’s barks are also vegan, including Provencal Almond Bark (roasted almonds in Belgium dark chocolate with Provencal lavendar oil and a little grey sea salt), Beauty Bark (Belgium dark chocolate, walnuts, wild blueberries, cocoa nibs, golden flax, and sea salt), and Orange Peel Bark (Italian candied organe peel in Belgium dark chocolate). 
Ok, so I read the menu’s description of their delicious chocolates, but allow me to use my own words: holy moly! These chocolates are mind-blowing. Rich, flavorful, clean–everything chocolate should be. Want more? The warm and welcoming chocolatier and owner let me sample and snap pictures of her beautiful shop freely.
And beautiful. Inside and outside.
The last stop on my tour: Live Island Cafe, a raw foods counter spot in Huntington Village. Still full from my VedgyBurger, I picked up a sampling of Live Island Cafe’s selections for eating later. Although I was losing a bit of energy from the day of driving in the blazing sun, I was so glad that I decided to stop by. I had attempted a trip to the cafe before when a friend had bought a Groupon offer, but we got lost and the new cafe seemed to be still working out the kinks, closing earlier than their posted hours. But all’s well that ends well, I found Live Island and left with a sampler that was well worth the wait.
The place has limited seating, however there is a nice table set up outside, surrounded by plants. The display case had all of the day’s offering. In the muted light, they didn’t appear as fresh and scrumptious-looking as they were… see below…
I chose a sampler with an entree and two sides and, boy, I type this now feeling quite energized and invigorating. This fantastic feeling started on my taste buds, which are still tingling. I have had raw food many places, but none quite as flavorful and diverse in texture as this. Wow. Texture is a huge thing for me (see my previous post) and I shy away from raw as it is often ground up wet globs. But Live Island’s Pizza of the Day (a flax and almond crust, marinara and nut cheese) and Abundance Burger (walnut, portobello wrapped in greens) had such a pleasing texture… mostly because there were many. Crisp veggies, sprouts, and perfectly seasoned and sauced ground nut created several layers of moisture and flavor. Spectacular, in a word.
Also spot-on, the greens. I could eat a whole plate of them. 
What an awesome day of eating! It is nice to know the Island is filled with so many great eats. I am now motivated to find more. Let this be a warning… if you have a vegan eat hidden away on Long Island, I’m coming for you. Armed with my camera and one enormous appetite.
xo, V.V.
I have traveled many a-mile to eat vegan food. A tradition that began 15 years ago when I went vegan still living with mom and dad here on Long Island. I used to drive to East Setauket to go to Wild By Nature. Two hours round trip in my 1981 Chevy Citation that was prone to overheating. Food that I could enjoy was well-worth it. And the stocked mini-fridge in my bedroom kept my goodies safe and separate. Since my early vegan roots, I’ve branched out significantly, finding vegan eats all other this great country and beyond. So I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued learning of Sweet To Lick, a Long Island based vegan bakery stelling goodies right here where I grew up. Besides being easier to find, vegan eats, especially baked goodies, have come a long way. Since I don’t think I’ve griped about since 2008, I’m going to do it again right now… inspired by the deliciousness of Sweet To Lick, a Long Island born and bred vegan, just like me.
Sweet To Lick’s stand at the Lynbrook Farmers Market, every Thursday.
The most important element to a vegan baked good is texture. There I said it. Whipping up a super-sugary buttercream and piping it on a wet sponge or a dry brick, and it’s largely still edible. But it’s not delicious. Texture stands as the determinant of true deliciousness. It is important in any baked good, but in vegan baking, more so as it is seemingly more difficult to achieve as evident by the many dry/dense bites I’ve sampled. The way your teeth find each other through a bite as they press the treat to your tongue–that is the most important sensation. How enticed your taste buds are comes after this experience. And I’ve found that it is the latter experience, the taste, where a treat becomes “pretty good.” After all, it’s rather easy to overcompensate for bad texture with sweet; processed food actually has most accustom to this, actually! Though I am a bit critical, it is kinda rare when texture and taste unite in the cause of knocking socks off. But Sweet To Lick did so… both with their cookies and their crumbcake.
The famous Ginger Ale Crumb Cake
Let’s look again at this beautiful piece of… cake. You can just see how great its texture is.
Taste: check! Texture: check! And an added bonus: creativity! Michael Sabet, Sweet To Lick’s head honcho, has raised the bar even higher. Besides mastering the traditional bites, creating a mere perfect chocolate chip cookie, he’s also got some very unique and playful flavor combinations. I bought the Elvis cookie made with fried banana and peanut butter. He also had chocolate cookie chip cookies, chocolate cookies with pieces of Oreo-type cookie inside!
I mentioned the chocolate chip cookies–the true measure of deliciousness. Sweet To Lick makes an amazing cho-cho chip cookie. Soft, subtle salt, not too many chips… perfecto. 
Find Sweet To Lick’s stuff around the Island and help push Michael Sabet into a storefront!
It’s going so fast. I am trying to savor each day, but that seems to make them fly by even faster. Here are some images I’d like to hold on to.
I become obsessed with the Electrician‘s butterfly bush as the the summer rolls on. Monarchs start fluttering around dancing in the air like a child is erratically pulling them with a string. There are a few, then there are many. Here is a rare Swallowtail eating some tasty nectar.
Mr. Blue Sky. The view from my hammock.
All my favorite fruits are in-season. A sweet, juicy retreat before the dense, starchy Autumn.
Splitting time between Long Island and my apartment in Brooklyn, I get the best of both. They both reinforce each other’s better qualities.
The maritime motif of the Nautical Mile, a few blocks from The Electrican‘s house.
I have the time to play tourist. The Grand Central ceiling is one of my favorite city-isms.
And I eat. A lot. Some people lose weight in the summer and bulk up in the winter. I do the reverse. Here are some treats I picked up from Champs Family Bakery to fuel Ladies Night.
And at the end of a long day in the sweltering NYC heat, there’s time to cuddle up with my special buddy Frankenstein. 
I ❤ summer!
Clearly I am on a quest to find more vegan options around my great city. A satisfying spot for each of the varied tastebuds of my tongue. Some refined and steeped in foodie sensibility, others nostalgic and in need of comforting. Carb-heavy comfort. B.A.D., an all-night eatery with a slew of vegan options, most certainly appeased is the latter.
I first visited B.A.D. last year at their Williamsburg, Brooklyn location. The menu has since grown substantially. I stopped in bright and early one more to start the day right with one of their breakfast options. But first I was taken by selection of v-bombs strewn about the space on Avenue A in the East Village. I had to capture them while I waited for my breakfast. Thankfully the sweet waitress let me wander and shoot pictures.
The bad girl behind Bad Girl Bakery is a vegan herself so they do their own in-house baked goods which are mostly vegan, some of which are gluten-free. Let’s take a looksy:
Cookies–oatmeal cherry pecan and chocolate chip.
Brownies. Mmmmm.
Cupcakes. There’s the vanilla with rose icing.
My greasy, carb-y wonder of a breakfast: the Monte Cristo. This delicious way to start the day is like a grilled cheese made with French toast stuffed with veggie ham. Sweet, salty, savory, and satisfying. The homefries were both white and sweet potato. And boy do I appreciate that.
Let’s look again. This is hearty greasy spoon fare. Not for the faint of heart.
As my heart can handle quite a bit, I chose a dessert from the menu… the Chocolate Banana Chimichanga. This scrumptious end to breakfast had banana and chocolate wrapped in a tortilla and deep-fried. It would probably feed two but hey, that’s how I roll. So darn good.
Chocolate. Banana. Chimichanga. Yes!
Next time you are crawling home on Avenue A.. or up at the crack of dawn because your cat was demanding treats, eat the majority of of your daily intake of calories for breakfast at B.A.D. You’ll have the whole day to utilize it!
Asiadog is a fantastic little hot dog shop on the Soho-Little Italy border serving up Asian fusion on a bun. And they have veggie options, as most Asian cuisines do! Veggie dogs topped with some delicious goodies honoring the diversity of New York City’s Asian cuisines… Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai. I’m salivating just thinking about it. Yes, Asian on hot dogs–it’s Asian fusion-fusion. FYI, Asiadog started as a pop-up and continues to hit Brooklyn Flea culinary hot spots (Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Saturday foodie fair Smorgasburg and DUMBO’s Flea Food) as well as the Summerstage in Central Park.
The helpful counter-person confirmed the veg dogs were vegan and then clarified which of the toppings were v-bomb friendly. Little did he know I had been reading their store menu in advance… drooling. I chose 2 dogs (for $8): The Vihn, their Vietnamese dog topped like a traditional banh mi–a ton of pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber, jalapeno and lots of fresh cilantro. The bun was smeared with veggie pate. And Mash with sweet and spicy ketchup, jalapeno mustard and CRUSHED POTATO CHIPS. Sorry, I had to yell that. Both dogs were so, so good. Clearly Asiadog uses super fresh ingredients. They transform a relatively unexciting hot dog into something unique and absolutely scrumptious.
I barely had a second to take pictures as I devoured these so quickly. I wanted to capture that crushed potato chip on the Mash, so I managed to put it down for 3 seconds. I miss it dearly.
Other vegan options include the Ito, a dog topped with Japanese curry and kimchi apples. That’ll be my next one. I will be back, Asiadog!
Sometimes I get frustrated that I have eaten everywhere worthwhile in Manhattan. I think, like P.J. Harvey, “Is that all there is?” Then I find something exciting and it wills me to travel above 14th street! This excitement is called Oms/b, a Japanese counter cafe serving up omusubi. Omusubi is otherwise known as “rice ball,” similar to sushi but very different too. For one the size is much larger and triangular, and the wrappings vary though seaweed seems to be the most common. They offer many vegan options and the vegetarian options are noted on the placards. Read the extensive menu carefully as some vegetarian selections contain mayonaise. Oms/b is a unique operation that reels in the Midtown East lunch crowd. You can tell the place has a loyal following and that diners are excited to be there. The pieces range from 1.50 to 2.95 so it welcomes experimentation and multiple trips to the counter. On my visit I ordered the “Set A,” a combination dish with any 3 rice balls (excluding a handful of fancier balls) and a soup. I got the Seaweed, the Plum, and the Hijiki… and a “Football Rice” (their Inari) to round it out with a familiar, well-loved taste. There were a few on the menu that they didn’t have during my visit so I’ll have to return, including a tofu steak one, a root vegetable one, and a wasabi one wrapped in a green soy sheet. The Seaweed was a nice subtle bite, though I missed a bit of texture. The Hijiki, wrapped in a yellow soy sheet, was very delicious. It had edamame along with the hijiki in the brown rice. Plus its beautiful yellow soy sheet coat was pretty. The Plum was my least favorite. It was filled with Kishu plum, a salty pickled plum that kind of shocked my palate. I swore it was a fish and even did a google search after tasting it to be sure. I wasn’t able to finish that one but know that if I am ever craving saltiness, which I do often, I may enjoy it more. The Football Inari was scrumptious, as per usual. Its rice had vinegar and what seemed to be mushrooms throughout. The moist, sweet tofu skin need not much more to be delicious. Overall, Oms/b was a great find and I look forward to returning to try some of their other soy sheet-wrapped wonders. Besides the rice balls, they also have some vegetarian appetizers on the menu, including tofu nugget, seaweed salads, spring rolls, as well as a variety of udon noodle soups and desserts like dango, mochi, and daifuku. I can’t wait to go back!
On the downside: They don’t take credit card, have no public restroom and seating is a bit cramped and communal.
Deep fried ravioli is as good as it sounds. And easy. Next time you are in the mood for simple and delicious, let some frozen raviolis thaw overnight in the refrigerator. You’ll likely be in the the same mood the next day.
Deep fried ravioli, or Toasted Ravioli, supposedly hails from St. Louis. Whether that is its true origin or not, it makes perfect sense. For a killer vegan version, pick up some Rising Moon Organics vegan raviolis. They have several kinds available but look for the symbol. They have a bunch of dairy ravioli too. I choose the spinach florentine with a soy ricotta and spinach filling.
Next, prepare your drenching bowls while you’re heating up some canola oil. In one bowl, your “egg wash”… which is soy milk and some dissolved corn starch. Corn starch is thee secret ingredient for a great coating for fried goodies. In another bowl, your bread crumb. Use Panko because those nice big pieces of crumb will crisp up deliciously, making the texture perfecto.
After a dip in the wash and crumbs, fry them in bubbly oil until they’re brown on both sides, only about a minute each side. Let them sit on some paper towel while you fry up the whole package 6 at a time. These ravioli fry very quickly since they’re so small. If you are using larger ravioli, they make take longer.
And here they are all ready for some sauce. Golden brown fried skin, their spinach filled bellies protruding slightly giving you a hint of what’s on the inside.
These scrumptious little bites were so satisfying. Crisp, hearty.. can I say delicious again? Delicious.
Though you can get fancy with dipping sauces, I heated up a very good jar sauce. I wanted this meal to be simple after all.
Once you go toasted, boiling may not cut it anymore.
One of the most important ingredients in a great chocolate chip cookie is salt. Sure, many know that real vanilla extract blows the artificial stuff out of the water, that a high quality oils, sweeteners, chocolate make for a better end product, yes. But many don’t give much thought to the salt that goes into almost every recipe. Sometimes, a salt is just not worth its salt.
In an ideal world, we would all pay a bit more for the things we put into our body… and a little bit less for what we put on the outside of our bodies. “You get what you pay for” is most definitely true when it comes to food and yet many find the deep sales of the processed food and fast food big wigs appealing. $3.99 for 6 pieces of chicken, side of fries and a soft drink and $100 for a pair of shoes? To me, that is very odd… I spend a lot of money on food.
So let’s talk about this salt. The 9 0z. jar costs $14.95. Gathered from salt marshes in France’s Île de Ré only 3 months out of the year, when the sun is at its peak strength, these little crystalline rocks are very intense. They have an ocean bite, like licking your lips after a day at the beach. Gorgeous in their pure, singular taste. I knew for sure I’d have to make chocolate chip cookies. And they were delectable.
Vegan Reporting By Location
