Currently viewing the tag: "fruit"
Nothing will settle me into a day of auto/train/plane travel than a hearty breakfast. And there was still time to squeeze in another stop in Atlanta. Breakfast would be served at Stone Soup Kitchen, yet another bustling breakfast spot in the hip Grant Park area.
Stone Soup Kitchen offeres patrons a menu with vegan dishes clearly marked. Thank you for this, Stone Kitchen! They also offered me vegan butter for my delicious Blueberry Corn Meal Flapjacks, made with soy yogurt and my friend Bob Mills’ gluten-free flour. Finally, a meal that isn’t predominantly constructed and bound by gluten! I am ashamed to say that I ate 4 out of 5 of these darlings… Ashamed, because trip s like this make me feel like Audrey in National Lampoon’s European Vacation. It’s ok. With my entire day tied up in some kind of transport machine, it was the last of my gluttonous mission.
It was time to say goodbye to the 7-lane north and south ping-pong of my Hotlanta excursion, time to say goodbye to Southern drawls, time to say goodbye to the obscenely ugly, bright purple-blue Hyundai Accent. And with easy-on/easy-off interstate access around the block from Stone Soup Kitchen, I managed to return my vehicle to the airport 3 days later on the exact minute of my pick-up. Stick a fork in me, I am done!
Here are some other non-food sights:
Cornelia, Georgia is home of the Big Red Apple, a bright, sweet fruit in a salad of the Gods. Why the apple? Pardon the Wiki paraphrase: The embrace of apple production in the 1920′s saved the area from the evil boll weevil who munched the heck out of the state’s cotton fields and pushed rural folk to the bigger cities.
The town was empty, save for an awesome old couple taking pictures of the apple.
I past this impressive auto salvage castle on Interstate 365 on the way to Cornelia. I thought I’d stop in and take some pictures on the way back. The friendly white-bearded proprietor let me know this was a very common occurrence. The elaborate auto salvage “theme park,” lined by a stacked-car fence, is visited often. An area college’s photography class does field trips there.
I had free roam to the expansive property, but I wasn’t going to stay long. For a million reasons. The eerie feel of the place began to make me feel claustrophobic. All of these vehicles were destroyed and they still seemed angry about it.
But I had to take a closer look at these buses. These were like the ones that got thrown at Superman.
School buses in fetal position.
If cars had a hell, this would be it.
I saw a billboard for Cinderella’s Closet, a pageant shop, and knew I had to capture some of the color. I was disappointed that the gaudiest dresses were bagged up. The place had two mini-stages with cat walks.
Bad taste for every age!
Back at the hotel I spied these two little kitties on top of the dumpster. I watched them intently for a few minutes, missing my little buddies back in New York.
Certainly a knife can accomplish most, if not all, types of cutting. But those who grew up watching Inspector Gadget or admiring the inventions of Data from The Goonies know that sometimes there is innovation in perfecting a tool for a singular use. Case in point: the wide selection of fruit gadgets by crème de la crème culinary store Williams Sonoma. After an early morning shopping spree, two such tools were ready for their trial. First, the gorgeous pineapple slicer and dicer from VacuVin.
Let’s face it–cutting fresh pineapple can be a bit of a hassle. The VacuVin pineapple slicer makes it easy to get maximum pineapple effortlessly. Let’s see this photo tutorial of The Electrician trying it out for the first time.
First, get yourself a pineapple. The tool has a diameter of about 4″ so the closest you can get to that, the less waste. Then cut off the top of the pineapple. Begin to twist the tool through the pineapple, centering the circular blade on the core. Keep twisting until you have reached the bottom of the pineapple–careful not to go through the bottom with the sharp blade. Lift up tool to expose the cut pineapple: gorgeous! Place in bowl and lift tool, pressing the release button. You get beautiful pineapple rings! You can also leave the pineapple on base and use the slicer tool to make chunks! Then use the large pineapple shell as a cup! Spectacular.
Next up is the OXO Mango Slicer. Mango is my absolute favorite fruit. Cutting a mango is kind of awkward for me. I get too fixated on not wasting any flesh… but at the expense of my knife skills. The large pit evades my blade. Then I wind up sucking the wasted mango flesh off the pit in a barbaric fashion. (Ok, these might be “me problems”) I am ready for a better way that maximizes mango on the cutting board.
First, slice a little mango off the bottom to level out the mango. It needs to stand straight up on your cutting board. Next, position the mango slicer above the top of the mango, estimating the pit’s location. Firmly push the slicer downward. Then slice mango as usual! You get two perfect halves while the pit is caught in the center of the slicer. Push it out… and suck the flesh off of it.
Williams Sonoma will not likely be selling a specialized tool for slicing dragon fruit, an Asian fruit I first discovered in Thailand (see here). Despite its peculiar exterior, dragon fruit is very easy to slice and enjoy. Though I believe it to be more visually stunning than it is tasty, it’s nice to vary fruit intake.
It can’t be any more simple than this. Simply cut the fruit and its soft-textured skin in half, exposing the beautiful speckled fruit. Eat like you would a kiwi, a huge white kiwi in a bright pink jacket, with a spoon. 
Apna Bazar is a large Indian grocer in Hicksville, Long Island. I spotted it the last time The Electrician and me doorbusted Ikea for some stuff for my classroom. I knew I had to return. So with spring break upon me, I stopped by one lovely afternoon not knowing what to expect. It turns out that it’s pretty darn awesome.
I found a slew of goodies but spend only $13. Here’s what I found: Boondi, a fried snack made from chickpea flour and spices. Some fixins: beetroot and ginger chutney, along with mango chutney, and, my favorite, tamarin sauce (imli in Hindi.) This bottle is just like the sauce served in the restaurants. No need to bother with the tamarin paste, concentrate or that big brick. I mean, unless you want to.
Just some mango. You know–ripened, sweet mango. That’s all.
No! They’re BABY sweet mangoes! That’s right. Check out the quarter for scale.
They are in the same proportion as the big mangoes. That means a big pit. These babies are definitely single serving size.
Next fine, purple yam–or Dioscrea alata. According to Wiki, these yams are used in desserts AND “used as a laxative and vermifuge, and as a treatment for fever, gonorrhea, leprosy, tumors, and inflamed hemorrhoids.” Now that’s some starchy delight! I boiled the huge, purple yam and made mashed purple yam. There is a delightfully aromatic flavor in this yam, as if it grew next to a field of lavender. It is purple and it tastes purple, too.
Next up, yellow cucumber. I thought this was a melon, given it’s soft push of the skin. But alas, it’s Dosa Kai. I sliced it up and expected a watery crunch… but it was soft and had a slight bitter taste. It is clearly a great choice for pickling.
I loaded the slices with some fancy-pants dressing to make a simple yellow cucumber salad.
Apna Bazar was a great find. I look forward to going back and experimenting with more produce.
Goodbye, dear summer. You moved so swiftly through your weeks. But first, a few more bites…
Goodbye, peak season for juicy and tender summer fruits. Soon it’ll be time for apples, pumpkins and figs.
Goodbye, peaches and characteristically-summer stone fruit, best warm-skinned and taunt on the beach. Goodbye, grilled peaches, a different entity altogether, may the sparking lumpwood charcoal let you sweat your sugar.
Goodbye, real vanilla beans; coconut milk ice cream. You’ll pair up with some sweet goodies later, and I’ll see you then.
Goodbye, summer-ish marinade: Cindy’s Kitchen‘s amazing mango coconut marinade. Your sweet zing is perfect when infiltrating tempeh’s densely-packed atoms.
Goodbye, elaborate ice cream concoctions with aforementioned summer fruits, hot fudge and Smucker’s marshmallow topping. You’ll hardly seem appropriate after today. Warm, baked cakes and cookies soon will lessen the sting… till then…
Goodbye, Summer!
The Electrician‘s Betsy Ross flapping in the wind.
Fresh cut fruit. Oh watermelon, why art thou so temperamental?
I husked 20 ears of corn for a big party. Here they sit waiting for a boil.
Chopped peppers and onion prepped for the grill.
Dinner is served. Roasted corn, red cabbage slaw and a grilled Kielbasa from Tofurky. Oh, and a huge pickle. Yum.
‘Tis the season. Tofutti Yours Truly cones. Too many ingredients but hey, I’m celebrating America’s birthday!
I like to add some sweet to a party, but it’s too hot to bake! And who really wants a piece of cake at a bar-be-que? I wanted something that could be made in advance, was nice and simple and… *cold*. A homemade slushy was just the thing. After scouring the internets for some tips, I came across the fantastic idea of using hollowed citrus as individual icee bowls. How neat! Compostable containers, portion control and vibrant orange flare!
Time to hollow out 6 large naval oranges. Have the juicer handy to squeeze the innards so they don’t go to waste. The hollowing is best done with room temperature oranges, in the sink with a bowl nearby. And do your digging with a grapefruit spoon or regular ol’ spoon.
No need for perfection. Remember the slush is going to fill up the orange skins. I set the 12 halves in a cupcake pan. Check the space in your freezer first to make sure the pan fits.
I let the cups firm up in the freezer as I prepared the fruit slushy mix. After being man-handled, they lost some rigidity.
Slice up one medium firm banana to add to the slush. It’ll give a nice texture contrast.
Heat the following in a pot: 4 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup orange juice concentrate, 3/4 cup lemonade concentrate. Stir till sugar dissolves and add some fruit to the mix. I added a 11 oz. can of mandarin oranges, drained, and a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple. Now a word about all this. Try to find concentrates that don’t have high fructose corn syrup. I am usually not a fan of canned fruit in recipes but this slushee is for the party guests! Though maraschino cherries would add a great flash od color, I couldn’t find any without creepy carmine, boiled bug coloring.
Now it is time to fill your orange skins. I stirred up the fruit mix in a pot big enough to dip in a liquid measuring cup in. This made things a little less sloppy. Embrace that things’ll get sticky and sloppy. That’s why there’s cleaning products. Fill them right to the rim. The cupcake pan serves to catch any overflow. Get them in the freezer to firm up, ideally overnight.
To garnish, I sliced up some fresh strawberries and let them peek out of the bowls. I waited a bit so strawberry wouldn’t sink in completely. Cover the cups with plastic wrap and let chill overnight.
Get them out of the fridge to thaw an hour or so before serving.
The start of the a Vegan Foodie Weekend in Providence, Rhode Island started with a bang! Our hosts and their neighbors prepared a vegan spread that was jaw-dropping.
Lime tortilla chips from Food Should Taste Good; roasted garlic, grilled tomato and basil bruschetta; cherries; hot and sweet peppers; sangria and Tortas de Aceite.
Fruit salad and summer rolls. Fresh and flavorful summer goodness.
Summer rolls–rice wrappers stuffed with goodness.
Dinner in the yard with a plentiful plate. Many taste buds decided they couldn’t go on mid-way through my meal.
The meal ended with some vegan cupcakes. I am loving the Rhode Island hospitality!
Bread. Hot, soft, fresh-baked bread. With a melon-ball of parsley-sprinkled soy spread, it’s a divine start to brunch. Sunday Brunch at Rockville Centre, Long Island’s 3 Brothers… after spying their brunch menu last week I knew I had to go sooner than later. It wasn’t just a option of a tofu scramble; this was vegan bunch with all the Bells and Whistles.
With CandyPenny in tow we were set to bring on the brunch. Here was our spread. The tofu benedict in the foreground, some house-made seitan sausage in the middle, vegan nutella crepes (!) in front of CP and some fruit on the side. Wow: vegan nutella! This is 3 Brothers‘ own version of the chocolate-hazelnut stuff.
There is my tofu benny. A layer of succulent tofu, some pan-fried slices of Canadian “bacon” on top of a whole wheat English-type muffin and drenched in their Hollandaise sauce. Of course there is also the side of potatoes, so dreamy in their simple form. Though the benny was a bit difficult to eat [the knife couldn't defeat the tough bacon], it was sumptuous savory defined. I wished the Hollandaise was less mustardy though. At $14 for the dish, I wanted a more Hollandaise Hollandaise sauce, a difficult vegan feat I know.
Ah, the sweet crepes, stuffed with banana and drenched in the aforementioned vegan nutella… These were true crepes, thin, light and full of holes, unlike the pancakes that often get renamed “crepes”. What an amazing dish–in taste, texture and presentation. If I were to offer a constructive criticism it would be to garnish with fruits in season. Though the strawberries are darn pretty, their lack of taste and their firmness didn’t add much to the crepes.
3 Brothers’ seitan sausage is divine. Tender, flavorful and made from scratch. I have found in my years of vegan eating that a restaurant’s seitan is a strong indicator of its quality overall– the food craft behind its dishes, the respect and care given to ingredients– and, consequently, its proximity to my heart. After posting about 3 Brothers since 2009, I think that I can say definitively that I love 3 Brothers.
V-Spot brunch in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Sweet Fruit Empanadas of banana and strawberry with some sausage. Yummy but could have used an accompaniment… compote, cream, etc
Mango and sticky rice at Long Tan in Park Slope, again. Bless that towering cylinder of coconut milk sweetened sticky rice. 
If I was being executed I’d want my final meal to be Pad See Ew, my go-to Thai dish. This is from Thai Sky in Park Slope. This was pretty standard delivery… which is fine with me.
Spring rolls from Thai Sky. It’s fried and it’s good. I’d ask for these in my last meal too.
Have you eaten a $9.00 pretzel before? Radegast Biergarten in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has some real good authentic German softies. Order one for yourself so you don’t have to fight over who gets the knots, nobs and super-thick branches.
Beer and pretzels and wood. Astoria’s frat boy-filled beer gardens have nothing on Radegast. Plus their service is killer, even in the face of drunken cheapo squabbling.
Figs are a lovely and fascinating fruit. They are internally-flowering. In fact, they’re not really a fruit at all but flowers. Their innards, so chock full of life and movement, are rows and rows of inner-flowers, like eating a sweet, sweet bouquet. Besides playing a role in many faiths and worships, figs are high in my book of praises for their unique texture, sugary ooze and their many medicinal qualities. They have laxative effects, are loaded with calcium (the highest source in the plant world) and increase sperm mobility and production. What many-splendored little dollops they are! Besides this all, they’re beautiful, a testimony the the magnificent visual patterns and design within the natural world.
It’s too hot for 3 meals a day. Here are my recent dunch highlights.
Urban Rustic makes a mean Club Sandwich, the all-vegan Unclub. I’ve gone on about it before, yes. [Tofurky, Vegenaise, Dijon mustard, strips of tempeh bacon, local tomatoes and sprouts in between three slices of soft, toasted spelt bread.] Nothing fancy, I know, but great taste and texture from a unique and value-driven eatery/general store– a bit slim on the vegan options but stocked with quality food goods like pickled asparagus! And, being a sucker for a glass bottle of old-fashioned cola, in this case Boylan, I rounded out the kick of the Dijon and the smoky Tofurky with some sweet, sweet cane cola.
Slice is one of my favorite place to chow down on vegan pizza… and catch up with my gluten-allergic pal, Maximilian. We’ve hit the Upper East Side’s location several times, sharing in the joy of being able to eat real and delicious pizza. With Slice’s newer location in the West Village, it is a huge relief not to have to travel on the dreaded 4/5/6 to enjoy their good stuff. Slice is where I first tried Daiya. Sooo, why not get tattooed, however temporarily, to show my support for their take on the perfect food?
The Juice Press in the East Village offers grab n’ go sandwiches (in compostable packaging) in their tiny storefront. Juice Press: home of the $10.00 smoothie (“the succulent flesh and refreshing water from a young, whole coconut, mana blue green algae, vanilla, raw cacao, mineral rich sea salt, agave nectar, vanilla stevia and ultra filtered ice”), the $10.00 packaged “tuna” sandwich (or the $10.00 ground, soaked nut and chick pea, cucumber, tomato, onion, nori and “mustard” on sprouted bread) and… the kind of awkward, less-than-attentive service. I am not a needy patron, but the fact that employees coveted all of the small shop’s seating and that I was barely acknowledged upon entering makes this a sore $10.00 wasted on what I likely have already in my pantry. I scarfed down the sandwich and got my fresh-pressed juice a few doors down at the Juicy Lucy stand.
There is something about summer and Mexican food, as my previous posts highlight. So let me eat more! The Greek and I hit Greenpoint’s Papacitos after much deliberation, feasting on their west coast-style street grub. I had the vegan quesadilla, Daiya cheddar packed with seitan, folded in a satisfyingly greasy tortilla and topped with additional yummies like tofu sour cream. After, in accordance to summer and the Greek restaurant tradition of watermelon post-meal, we scored a perfect wedge of the pink stuff, my favorite: watermelon, to split over complaints about about the heat. Waaah.
Far beyond the bustling A-train of Manhattan is the line’s near-end in Queens: the Rockaways. A cluster of beachside neighborhoods on a narrow peninsula off of Long Island’s far-west south shore, the Rockaways is home to the well-known Rockaway Beach, as well as the lesser known Rockaway Taco. The hip and charming taco stand is part of a complex of quality, freshness and taste amid a rather foodie-desolate area of Queens. The brightly-decorated building, covered in vegetable plants and potted herbs, also houses DiCosmo’s (homemade icees) and Veggie Island (for fresh produce and smoothies). It is a veg-friendly oasis that blares Animal Collective to its cramped seating area, confusing Rockaway locals and befuddling vegan foodies like me.
Why am I befuddled? Because their tofu taco delux, which is 100% vegan, is one of the tastiest tacos I’ve had in New York City. I just didn’t expect that! The key word is fresh. Its marinated tofu and crispy veggies top the charts, accomplishing simply what veg-friendly taco joints in the 5 boroughs seem over-tinker and over-stuff.
Their fried sweet plantains seal the deal. I’m going to come back as much as I can. And why not? With a neighboring stretch of sand far less chaotic than my Brooklyn’s Coney Island, Rockaway Beach is a quiet escape from the congested areas of heat-advisoried New York City. Who needs dumpsters to swim in when there is the salty air and army green of the Atlantic lapping onto the shore with sinus-clearing intensity? (Nevermind the shark siting and closure this past Saturday.)
Vegan Reporting By Location
