Currently viewing the tag: "seitan"
I find myself in Manhattan much these days. But every once and awhile I’ll run my errands across the river and I’ll remember that it still has a lot of unspoiled delights, despite widespread gentrification and irritating midwesterners mulling about in ridiculous eyewear. Like Peacefood Cafe. Peacefood made a name for itself as an all-vean Upper West Side’s high-end casual cafe and now there’s one by Union Square. 
We split a mini-Jenga of Chickpea fries–fried yet delicate and clean… creaminess inside a crisp coat and a dose of Indian seasoning. Since I had killed some time in Whole Foods eating a chocolate chip scone while roaming the aisles and reading product ingredients like story blurbs, I couldn’t eat many.
The Fried Seitan Medallion panini is my Peacefood favorite. Reading the rest of the menu is kind of a futile act. Fried seitan, cashew cheese, green pesto, arugula and tomato on warm house-made focaccia? Come on. Top that.
You only really need one half of this sandwich. It’s pretty heavy. Then you get to eat the rest at a later time, when the toasted bread loses its texture and each bite melds all the fantastic layers together intimately.
Plus you have to leave room for dessert. It was hard to decide on a sweet treat in the end. Their bakery case is loaded. In the end, I chose a tremendous piece of tiramisu.
It’s nice to have Peacefood more downtown. Union Square’s vegan offerings are now a bit more enticing.
Hadn’t been to Rockville Centre’s Three Brothers in awhile. It was time for a visit.
Their mozzarella sticks are the star of the show. I am happy they are a bit narrower in girth than the earlier recipe. I think most know how I feel about too much Daiya. A well-seasoned firm breading juxtaposed with oozy cheese: yum.
Cross-section. These would go on my Vegan Top 100.
Seitan cutlet hero. The seitan–housemade. The cheese–Teese.
My friend’s choice was a seitan bacon cheeseburger.
We got free cinnamon sugar knobs.
In other news, the winter clothes went away and the bathing suits came out! I don’t care if we’re barely over 50 degrees. I can’t take it anymore!
Orange chocolate Twinkies. Why orange? I ran out of vanilla.
After sleeping in, I was ready for breakfast at Ria’s Bluebird, a bustling all-day breakfast spot in downtown Atlanta’s Grant Park. I meant to get there sooner but my pitch-black hotel room fooled me into sleeping in past 7 a.m… Gasp! [me = early birdy] The place was packed with hip Atlanta folk basking in the Band of Horses.
I was excited to eat their country-fried tempeh, which interweb sources announced was a vegan option, though it sat on a buttermilk biscuit. It was easy enough to say “hold the biscuit.” Luckily the counter man knew better than interweb sources. The dish was smothered in their non-vegan gravy. This, coupled with the biscuit situation and the plea for “No substitutions!”, was when I began to let go my dreams of eating country-fried tempeh.
So I got their Bionic Breakfast, described as a mountain of skillet potatoes with sauteed mushrooms, spinach, red & poblano peppers, topped with spicy tofu sauce. Delicious, yes, but I was hoping for dirty, fried goodness. After a few bites, my body responded to the freshness and flavor. Spinach! I needed the iron. And I needed the heat. Does Ria’s Bluebird know what’s best for me? Apparently yes.
While I’m kind of on the topic, vegan travel reporting is a huge passion of mine. I try to create posts that I would find helpful if I was looking into a try somewhere and wondered about options. I try to take pretty pictures because that’s what I’d like to see. (Sometimes the pictures are not pretty.) But mostly I try to clear up vegan mysteries. I hope I have helped someone in my gluttonous quest. Just sayin’.
Ok, onward and upward. Well, actually I headed west to Dulce Vegan Bakery, a long-standing bookmark in my elaborate state-divided vegan option file system. Dulce stood alone for a very long time, so a visit was very long in the making. Now, on this beautiful spring day, I needed breakfast dessert before a mini-roadtrip to some area roadside attractions. {Am I the only sweet treater who rationalizes dessert for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?}
I got two cupcakes… because really, I have to. As a vegan reporter I need to taste a chocolate and a vanilla! It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it. I sprung for the coconut topped with chocolate (because I love, love, love that combination and hardly ever see it!) and the chocolate with raspberry frosting. Pretty: check!
Delicious: check! The cakes had a real great texture–spring and moist–and a subtle flavor. The frostings were creamy and not overly sweet. This is a sign of an awesome cupcake. Gratuitous sugar is not masking imperfections. They were fresh and lively. I kind of loved them, actually.
Ok, now: rest assured that many, many hours past before I arrived at the kind-of-whole-reason why I came to Atlanta to begin with: Dough Bakery / Gutenfleischers Vegan Meats. They’re all-vegan. They’re a bakery and they’re a vegan meats sandwich shop. I know, right? And they do brunch on the weekend, which I will sadly miss.
Here’s the deal to avoid being a fumbly overwhelmed fool like I was: The bakery is just that, an all-vegan bakery with some pretty fantastic offerings. More later on that. Gutenfleischers Vegan Meats offers their huge selection of house-made vegan meats deli-sliced into a range of sammy options, from Standard (2 slices of bread, meat and toppings) to the Dagwood–named after (the other) Blondie’s husband, Dagwood Bumstead–which has four bread slices, a ton of vegan meat, tempeh bacon and toppings. I had the Double Decker. I chose Black Forest Ham and Pepper Turkey, two of their meats, and said no to the vegan cheese (Tofutti). Oh yeah, you get to pick your meats from the deli case. (And they have a house-made mayo…)
They had a couple of great bakery items, but I unfortunately missed the moon pies. But check out their little pineapple upside down cakes.
I got the sticky bun for the road… because only having a leftover glazed donut in the hotel fridge is a bit unnerving. Oh, Dough you were certainly worth it!
As I digest a little, I leave you with this picture, a small detail of Dough’s physical space but a telling one.
With time on my side, I set off on a culinary exploration of Atlanta, Georgia. After all, spring break was here! I was excited to escape New York… and to add another state to my veganvictuals headboard of sensual vegan eats.
And Atlanta has so much to offer! I was pleasantly surprised how many options the area had. I didn’t need Asian mock meats, Indian buffets, or pizza with Daiya on it. I needed proper Southern cuisine done vegan. Let’s do this! Starting with my breakfast stop: Radial Cafe
I had their Vegan Hash with a side of their House Grits… with a big cup o’ fresh squeezed orange juice. The Hash had tasty, marinated tofu sauteed with yellow onions, red bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, fresh sage and roasted red skin potatoes. What I loved about finally tasting this after a long morning of flying and driving, was that it was so flavorful. The veggies were diced tiny and kept their crispiness. Ok, a bit healthy for Southern cooking, but let’s go to the grits.
I’ve never had grits before (!) but I knew these were the real deal. Stone ground corn and its characteristic black flecks, creaminess overload. I wanna dip–uh, nevermind.
Had to zoom in here.
I was happy that Revolution Doughnuts was so close to my breakfast spot. Word around the interwebs was that they had vegan doughnut options. But like any traveling vegan learns, a vegan option baked good could be hardly worth the trip. Luckily, Revolution Doughnuts was mostly vegan!
I chose a raspberry glazed and a vanilla bean glazed. I buckled under a self-created pressure to order swiftly. I was, after all, down south. I did not have to jump the gun with my Yankee-mindframe. Had I composed myself at the counter, I would have order a cake doughnut and not two yeast-risen doughnuts!
The doughnuts were divine. Check out those vanilla bean specks. It’s all about the specks today.
So many vegan options, marked with the Ⓥ.
Time for an early dinner. Soul Vegetarian Restaurant II. Real-deal Southern soul food, all-vegan of course.
This is one of those vegan gems–all vegan, scratch-made, hearty eats from a place of positivity and wholesomeness. I had the lunch special: Their Chicken-baked “Kalebone” Steak smothered onion gravy with a side of collards, a side of mac n’ cheese, a piece of subtly sweet cornbread and a cup of ginger beer. The waitress said that this was the most popular choice!
Their “kalebone” (what an awesome name) is really their housemade seitan. The chicken-baked version was breaded with special seasonings and baked. I ate every morsel on this plate…
…because I eat the seed and fruit of the Earth.
Though this shot is a little flashy, the cross-section of the seitan deserves to be shown off.
What better excursion can one take on a day honoring our Founding Fathers than one to the city where our independence was organized and our government drafted? Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was time to head south on this blustery winter day to take in the blue sky and check some vegan eats off my growing list.
A sucker for themed posts, the vegan Philly Cheesesteak tour was born! With Genny G. as captain, we explored the best vegan cheesesteak options in a wham-bam afternoon.
A few notes: it was my intention to report on cheesesteaks only. There are a slew of eateries in Philly that offer a vegetarian version of their famous sandwich that has no cheese. These places were not our focus. I also hoped to keep vegan cheeses house-made. With several eateries filling the bill, our itinerary was set! We began at an eatery who’s tenure on my “to visit” list overruled the house-made cheese option: Blackbird Pizzeria.
Blackbird Pizzeria was an amazing place to start.
With scrumptious thin slices of Upton Natural‘s good stuff; greasy grilled onion, green peppers and mushrooms; and Daiya globs, Blackbird’s Seitan Cheesesteak looks, tastes and feels like an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. It was a dream fulilled.
With a couple of hours of driving under our belt, our appetites were ravenous. We bit too soon and burnt the roofs of our mouths. A textural reminder of the sammy that stayed with the both of us for the entire day. No big deal, however. The piping hot cheesesteak was worth the drive… and the burn.
Blackbird is all-vegan. What more do you want? Another vegan Philadelphia cheesesteak? Okay.
Pub on Passyunk East is a friendly corner pub with a super-friendly staff. We stopped in for their Seitan Cheesesteak with house-made vegan cheese.
The beer-based yeasty cheese sauce was packed with flavor. And their seitan pieces tender. A great effort in veganization! P.O.P.E. gets bar food right and the v-bombs on their omni menu is so very appreciated. They also have seitan wings, too!
The cheese was more like a thick gravy. It’s a salty, heavy dish. Nothing a beer can’t fix!
Vegan Tree has a lot of different things on its menu. From dumplings / bubble tea / sushi to burgers / pasta / fried broccoli! Had I not known I was there only for a vegan cheesesteak, I would have been a lot more confused!
Clearly they are also all-vegan!
Vegan Tree makes their own cheese. Yay! But the cheesesteak is that frozen texturized science meat stuff. The bun was real soft, merging with the sandwich’s innards. It was a good, quick bite–and having split the small sandwich we had room for another.
This sandwich is a Philly staple. I was glad to try Vegan Tree’s version, even though I would prefer another half of that Blackbird one!
What a cute space.
We didn’t hit Govinda’s Vegetarian this time around since I had already reported on them some time ago. They also offer a vegan cheesesteak in their to-go counter spot on South street. The feel of the ordering process seems most like the authentic experiences (as in a bit chaotic, involving a line and clear view of the grill), but the chunks of seitan need a bit of fine-tuning.
I was very much looking forward to trying Home Slice‘s cheesesteak out, especially since they made their own almond-based cheese. But unfortunately I overlooked the big, capital-lettered “CLOSED” on their Yelp review. Wah! There may have been other cheesesteaks with house-made vegan cheeses to report on, but they were not easily found. Burning daylight, we decided we had enough cheesesteak for the day. Even though I had some area Philly no-cheese-steaks on my list for back up: The Abbaye, Fergie’s (which no longer makes its house made tahini vegan cheese for its sammies, despite the menu online), Isabella Pizza, MiLah Vegetarian and Hip City Veg. Am I missing any good ones? Please let me know!
After all, everyone and their mom makes a cheesesteak in Philly!
The “Blizzard of 2013″ came and left us with a covering of cotton white.
In moon boots and pajamas, I checked it out.
Vitamix fun: white bean artichoke cilantro pesto
And fool-proof roasted Brussels.
So delicious!
Beets two ways. Veggie-Go’s fruit leather. (Best. 15 calories. Ever.)
Roasted beets. I drooled on my shirt when I rotated them in the pan.
Scalloped potatoes a la mandoline.
Creamy, herbed potatoes will help me face the work week.
House-made seitan.
Bring on Monday!
After another day of moving stuff at my apartment, a well-earned lunch at Bliss Grand. I wanted to come back for their Seitan Taquito. I ordered the large plate which included sauteed greens. The dish as a whole was super-salty. The greens and the Daiya-filled taquito needed something to balance out the salt… and needed a texture to combat the wet, wet, wet. I was looking jealously at my friend’s crispy french fries.
I forget Daiya makes me sick to my stomach. Glad I’m not the only one. Vegan cheese… house-made or bust!
It had been a while since my first and only visit to Brooklyn’s Dun -Well Doughnuts. Even though I lived very close, I only managed to make it there when I was with vehicle. They’ve got the best vegan doughnuts in New York City. With 200+ flavors, I am way behind in tasting all they have to offer.
What to eat, what to eat…
We chose the vanilla iced and toasted coconut. Yummy.
I’ll admit it. I’m guilty of trolling on various vegan meet-ups simply for vegan option leads. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve partaken in vegan social network events like Vegan Drinks, a pop-up here and there, and roving high-end communal dining events, yes. But who am I kidding. I go for the food. I could be sitting next to empty chair and still have the same experience, if not better. The social aspect is a distraction, at its very best. No offense to the vegan social butterflies, but I just want to eat. Should I form a vegan introvert meet-up?
Anyway, after an email blast circulated to the 1,700+ members of Vegan Meet-up NYC for lunch at Nolita’s Mexican Radio, I made plans with some old close buds to catch up. The prospect of proper Mexican is always alluring, but with seitan substitution? I’m in. Soy créma? Heck-yeah. Tofu? Always. A flexible omni menu with clear knowledge of vegan (vs. vegetarian) substitutes is delightful.
I ordered the Seitan Flautas because deep-fried tortilla is usually a strict vehicle for dairy and meat. Thank you, Mexican Radio, for offering more than an awful wet burrito stuffed with squash. I really don’t like “veggie burritos” like that!
The fautas were just terrific, far better than the dim-lit picture captures. Add a pool of red sauce, a vibrant pico de gallo, a housemade guac with a ton of cilantro, as well as confirmed-vegan rice and black beans. And add a cold beer… perfect night out meal. I’ll be back to sample some more options soon!
Autumn comes and goes fast. In an attempt to slow down the season already pushed into streetlamp snowflakes and Christmas music, let us eat its bounty and keep in mind that the about a Winter Solstice is a month away. Autumn Dins is here. Here is a photo rundown of my intrepid dinner party, dish-by-dish.
Lite Noshes:
What brings out a veggie’s best features than a roast? I roasted a golden beet, a black radish, and a yellow onion and set out as an appetizer, accompaniments to the Grape, Sunflower Seed Arugula Salad. Since some can’t handle potent root vegetables, they sat on the side.
The Asparagus Tart with White Bean Pesto. This delicious starter’s puff pastry was one of the few items not made totally from scratch. Another one was the can of Navy Beans, a special small white bean that used to be a Navy staple. Unfortunately I did not take a shot of it all puffed up and golden brown as that marked the mad dash for dinner preparation. I was doing quite the juggling act.
Homemade Apple Sauce:
I knew I needed a sweet bite on the plate. I whipped up a big bowl of homemade apple sauce from some gorgeous Gala apples. I don’t know that I will ever eat jarred applesauce again. Simple perfection. I kept it chunky however I have been meaning to break in my potato ricer. Maybe next time…
Before and after.
Ah, the time I had during my advance prepping.
Winter Squash with Spiced Butter:
The majority of my dinner’s recipes were veganized versions of Bon Appetit‘s Thanksgiving issue. More advance prep, making the spiced butter from Earth Balance..
Did you ever grind whole nutmeg? What a pretty little pattern inside.
The Winter Squash in Spiced Butter & Pomegranate Seeds.
Cornbread Sausage & Pecan Dressing:
Probably my favorite part of the dinner.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and “Salt Pork”:
Well-loved by an omni-guest. Score!
Tamarind Seitan Kabobs: I got this recipe from Vegan YumYum. The Tamarind sauce was so damn good and the seitan, succulent. The Electrician grilled these up on the grill.
Seitan from scratch is the only way to go. That packaged stuff is kind of gummy. Plus you can infused your blob of vital wheat gluten with lots of flavor.
Braising in veggie broth.
Time to make the kabobs.
All ready to go.
Apple Cider Cake: Dessert of course. A big win by VCTOTW.
It was involved but with a big pay off. Here, whole cinnamon, allspice, and cloves simmer in some apple cider.
This mixture combined with an apple butter mixture… so you can imagine how flavorful this cake was.
Scrumptious!
I finally got to sit down and eat with my intimate group of guests and shared a toast. Happy Autumn! I am thankful for delicious food and true friends… and the ability to distinguish the difference. xo, v.v.
How many times can someone have brunch in a week? With so many delicious brunch options to choose from the great city of Los Angeles, breakfast fare, maximized, made up a good portion of my eats. Today, on my last full day, is no exception. This morning we dined at Real Food Daily, a well-known all-vegan hot spot with three locations in the LA area. We headed to West Hollywood to taste this vegan staple.
Satisfying both of my savory and sweet cravings, I ordered The Weekender: scrambled tofu, onions, tomatoes, cashew jalapeno cheese, tempeh bacon with two slices of french toast and hashbrowns.
While every bite I ate made my taste buds high five each other, it was the French toast that had those buds jumping up and down. Vegan French toast can go wrong in so many ways (too soggy, too thin, too thick that you get plain bread in the center, etc) but this was spot-on. And the eggy-like batter, vanilla soy flaxseed, made the toast’s texture awesome.
For our final dinner in town, we hit up Madeleine Bistro, yet another eatery whose website has sat patiently waiting in my bookmarks for this West coast eating frenzy. The posh, gourmet restaurant was only open on weekends and had limited hours. We made a door-buster reservation and decided quickly on the 4-course sampler.
The first course, a spectacular soup, was a good indication of what was to come. It was a sweet corn bisque, creamy and frothy with seasonal, local corn. Though soup makes for an unexciting picture, believe me that the taste was very unbelievable. My salad course, their beautiful red beet tartare was delectable–a tower of tenderized red beet, a crispy-skinned super-creamy tofu cheese crouton, finely sliced cucumber in a balsamic glace. How gorgeous and delicious.
My beet tartare salad in all its glory. Very large and substancial for a salad course, I might add.
Then came the entree, course 3: Lemon-rosemary seitan, delicate haricot and cream crepes with a side of haricots. The house-made seitan was so tender and flavorful. The crepe was oh-so creamy. I just wished there were a bit more of a variety of veggies inside. It was the perfect portion, helping to leave me enough room for dessert. And dessert, course 4, was the best of all!
This capital-A Amazing ice cream treat gave me everything I needed. It is their Bananas Foster Split, the culmination of housemade components that had me speechless and ready to lap the bananas foster sauce off the plate. The vanilla ice cream was creamy, the hot fudge was the perfect flavor and texture (not simply brown and sweet), and the whipped crème real. No packages. Everything made from scratch. This was an amazing dessert. Thank you, Madeleine, for your high standards. They translate to pure, unadulterated deliciousness.
Goodnight L.A.
Follow Your Heart, a natural foods market and brand of dairy substitutes, has a cafe offering traditional vegetarian fare in Canoga Park. The natural food store has been around since the 70′s. The shelves are thoroughly stocked with a ton of great products but is welcoming and accessible. The cafe opens bright and early for breakfast so we started our first day in Los Angeles with a hearty one before hitting the beach in record heat.
The Tofu Benedict is much like the Tempeh Reuben, I can’t really resist ordering it if it is on the menu. Their version was a poached tofu and tomato on a homemade English muffin smothered with a Hollandaise sauce and served with a side of potatoes. Though the dish was very substancial, the flavor was a bit lacking.
Behold the entire stock of Follow Your Heart products!
After reading Sage Organic Vegan Bistro‘s menu a while back, I knew it would easily be a prominent highlight of a trip to Los Angeles. It was time. We strolled in during the busy lunch rush to experience their drool-inspiring for reals.
First, something from the fryer. Sage’s mozzarella sticks made from heart of palm with ranch and marinara dipping sauce. Hearts. Of. Palm. Deep-fried. These “mozzarella sticks” are not made with packaged, processed vegan cheese, no. They are tubes of fibrous hearts of palm, batter-dipped and fried to perfection. Let’s look closer.
These were fantastic. Mind-blowing even. Place four of these wonders on a bed or arugula, even better!
The vegan ranch dipping sauce was a great addition. I want to eat more of these.
Sage had already blown my mind before we were even seated, the perfect appetizer sealed the deal. But the main course was yet to come: The Bistro Po’Boy… breaded seitan, organic tomatoes, deep fried cabbage, homemade dill pickles and lettuce on grilled olive rosemary bread with caramelized onion barbecue sauce. Eating this ridiculously delicious sandwich was a sloppy ordeal. And though it was knocking my socks off, perhaps with one too many flavorful additions, I needed to leave room… drumroll…
The beautiful banana split from KindKreme was spectacular. KindKreme, a gourmet/vegan/raw/organic ice creamery has multiple locations in the Los Angeles area, one being inside Sage Vegan Bistro. I love me a fancied up banana split, although I am strictly vanilla when it comes to my ice cream choice. I like vanilla. After hearing my wishes for a traditional split with the standard vanilla, the charming Sage employee allowed me to sample several flavors, helping to construct what would be an amazing ice cream treat.
Banana and ice cream are great together. My scoops–almond butter, Mexican chocolate, and strawberry–were so flavorful. They were topped with salted caramel sauce and chopped almonds. Heaven.
The Vakery is New York City’s latest vegan cupcake supplier! Though founder and pastry chef L.A. Brandon’s operation is via online ordering, I caught wind of her goodies being at Little Atlas Cafe in the West Village. I set out early for my cupcake breakfast, needed fuel for a day of errands in Manhattan. Thankfully, there was a selection available for my sampling.
Heck, why not buy 3 cupcakes? I bought this lovely assortment hoping to see Vakery’s range. I got the Cookies N’ Creme, the Lemon Ginger, and what looked like a s’mores but tasted more like a chocolate cheesecake. The chocolate cakes were delicious: good texture and flavor, similar to Isa’s basic chocolate. My favorite, the Cookies N’ Creme, had a spot-on buttercream. Not too-too sweet and a texture that holds teeth marks. The gluten-free lemon ginger cake was very dense, and the icing, kind of bakesale. I look forward to trying more of her flavors. Also for sale on the website: Loco-Lime Margarita, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, the Jelly Doughnut, Red Velvetty, and a Peanut Butter Cup. 
It’s great that vegan goodies are sprouting up all over the place. Good luck, Vakery!
I finally got around to trying the famous Cinnamon Snail all-vegan food truck! Hailing from New Jersey, The Snail used to only come as close as Hoboken. Now that New York City hot spots are on their weekly schedule, I knew it was fine time to taste their offerings. I got to the “FiDi” early to avoid the crowds and scarfed down my footlong ravenously.
Hubba, hubba. Can we take a look at this sandwich, the Al Pastor Seitan...? Toasted bread. Delicate, melt-in-your-mouth homemade seitan. Beer-battered jalapeños. Grilled pineapple (!!) and greens with a spicy, drip-all-over your fingers chipotle mayonnaise. This is good eating. No packaged crapola, just unadulterated flavor and texture. 
Let’s look again, shall we? This enormous sandwich was $9. It very well should have been two servings but, well “when in Rome”… The grilled pineapple was such a delightful addition. The moisture from the seitan and the pineapple might have demolished a less hearty bread, but no. They thought of that. 
I can’t wait to try something else at Cinnamon Snail. It has me believing a tool like Twitter may, in fact, be necessary after all. Follow them here to find out where they are and when.
I was full but still. I needed to try Cinnamon Snail’s sweet treats too. CP recommended the Creme Brule donut. After eating 2.5 cupcakes this morning, this donut had me wired on sugar for the remainder of the day. Think custard center, crunchy bruleed top and greasy, fried donut. Moderation is a must. Luckily my dinner plans were much more healthful.
So dinner:: There’s a new sushi joint in town that is all vegetables and fruits! That’s right. No stray fish eggs littering your roll. Beyond Sushi is all-veg sushi that need not utilize those super-processed fake fish things (I’m talking to you Soy and Sake!) for a delicious, textured bite with complex and bold flavors. Beyond Sushi does it right. Very right! Here’s the spread…
I bought the combo–2 rolls and 2 a la carte pieces. Here is the individual Baked tofu piece. The firm tofu is wrapped with seaweed atop black rice, served with chili mango sauce. I’ll get to those sauces in a second.
For my first roll I chose the Green Machine, six grain rice, English cucumber, green asparagus and marinated basil. Scrumptious.
The individual Mango piece. 
La Fiesta roll: black rice, avocado, pickled jalapeno, chayote, and cilantro, drizzled with jalapeno wasabi
I mentioned the jalapeno wasabi and the chili mango, yes. They are two of the 7 spectacular drizzle combos you can customize for your order… or take their menu’s suggestions. When you order to-go you get these fun tubes so you can interact with your delicious sushi and push the amazing flavors further. Of course you also get soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger. That is a must!
Here I am playing with different combinations. 
The small space on 14th street has also got rice paper wraps, salads, and fresh-made juices. I stopped in today but they celebrate their Grand Opening tomorrow. They had a steady stream of customers, which was good to see. It’s worth a mention that Beyond Sushi’s owner is ex-Hell’s Kitchen chef Guy Vaknin. This show is one of my guilty pleasures.
Ok, what a day of eating I had! Thank goodness the New York City area is only my half-home during the summer. Otherwise I’d be broke and I’d need a new wardrobe.
Vegan Reporting By Location
