Currently viewing the tag: "VV Queens"
I am a Fairway devotee. A Red Hook Fairway devotee. But since the new store in Douglaston, Queens is a little bit larger, I wanted to check out the space. I doorbusted on a weekday morning so I can savor each aisle. Each intricate aisle.
The store was definitely large, but it didn’t seem so. Maybe it was the height of the ceilings that made me feel like Red Hook had more cubic space. The layout was friendly, with organic and natural products facing their processed counter-parts in the alcoved aisles.
Why do people love Fairway? It’s a combination of lower prices and selection in my book. Case in point, these India Tree sprinkles, at Whole Foods for $6, are $3.99. They also have vanilla beans for $3.99, too. And that’s the other part of the love, the selection. Instead of going one place for some things and another place for the rest, they’ve got everything.
They’ve got all the meat analogs for easy pick-up. And, once again, the price is right. When my local natural food convenience store (::cough::Khim’s ::cough::Sunac) exploits the market, charging $6.99 (no joke) for Tofurky, Fairway has lower prices and great sales.
Apparently dairy-free ice cream is a novelty! Hmph.
Though the new Fairway is great, it feels different than the Red Hook location. I remain a Red Hook Fairway devotee. It helps that Red Hook has the infamous olive oil tasting station… which Douglaston did not have up and running at the time of my visit.
Somehow the baseball season is now upon us! With 2012 lying fast and the spring sun shining strong, the second day of the Mets season proved to be the perfect day for a baseball. With nary a cloud in the sky, the Mets would continue undefeated.
And for an exorbitant price, one can enjoy a meal at the ballpark: a spicy veggie dog, a regular size portion of Nathan’s famous french fries and a regular sodie pop. Luckily the fixins are free.
I’m so glad there is enough demand to keep the veggie dog at Citi Field. I worried that I wouldn’t see it on the menu this season.
My free Mets texting gloves basking in the sun.
Me and my sis!
Sripraphai in Woodside, Queens could be the best Thai food in New York City. And I’ve eaten a lot of Thai food through the years. At Sri Pra Phai, named after the owner, you’ll find Thais dining in, as well as countless other ethnicities within the melting pot that hugs Roosevelt avenue. You’ll find a huge menu with colorful pictures with descriptions in Thai and English containing a full selection of authentic Thai dishes. This isn’t fusion; this isn’t cookie-cutter, lunch special 1-2-3 Thai. It’s the real deal.
Besides authenticity, they have a full vegetarian menu. And after an all day trip to the American Museum of Natural History with a hundred kids, I needed a huge dinner. Luckily my friend lives in the area and supplemented the delicious meal with in depth analysis on the Kubrick/Illuminati conspiracy theory. For an appetizer I got the fried shredded tarot and peanut with a sweet chili dipping sauce. The little birds nest-looking fried delights were wonderful.
For an entree, a medley of heat, sweetness and salty: a spicy shredded papaya, utterly divine coconut rice and a pile of sauteed mushrooms-accompanied by that succulently sweet chili sauce. It was a well balanced plate and perfect for the diner who plans to order dessert. The papaya salad was sinus-clearing hot at “medium spice.” 
Time for dessert. My favorite: kow dom mat! Though they had a slew of coconut milk sweet bites just like I ate for weeks in Thailand, I knew it was the banana staple that I had to have. 
Remember that cooked banana turns pink! How pretty.
Next time I’ll go just for dessert and buy everything vegan. This place (with a location on Long Island in Williston Park) is certainly worth the trip off the beaten path.
but, this time, I was a little scared to. The NY Time’s article on how it’s the new “anti-Hamptons”–the boardwalk being the “new Bedford Avenue”–seemed to promise a mob of hipsters… and local backlash of the influx threatened an old fashioned culture clash, ripe with all the associated generalizations. Diehipster.com‘s rant on how the Rockaway locals hate the new swarm of hipsters had a comment strand that clumped vegetarians with the dreaded H-word. As a vegetarian excited about checking out the new concessions at the beach, as a seemingly young and definitely tattooed girl traveling with a man with a beard who is prone to Slacker-like verbal pontifications, I had cinematic visions of an encounter with violence as a group of locals mistake that fact that they just noticed me with the idea that I am part of the new mass of beach-goers.
But I was pleasantly relieved to have a great day at the beach. There were locals and there were hipsters; there were families of all types. Everyone enjoying the gorgeous day, everyone considerate of their space and noise level and everyone, all walks, enjoying the tasty new concessions. Plenty of choices, plenty of tastes. Not much to complain about at all.
Just a taste of the new Rockaway concessions.
Rockaway Taco is fresh, flavorful Mexican-inspired food. Their boardwalk location offers an abridged menu of delicious finger foods but, sadly, no tofu taco. {For more info and pictures of that tofu taco, check out the post I did on them last summer and their mothership location on Beach 95th.} I opted for the bean tostada with guacamole. So darn good.
First, Babycakes was on the L.E.S… then it branched to Los Angeles… then Disney World in Orlando, FL… then Rockaway Beach. And now it’s also available in the Legends Suite at Yankees Stadium. This Babycakes location has a variety of rotating sweet treats. On my visit I saw: chocolate-covered frozen Mounds-like treats, waffles, frozen brownies, mini-donuts and ice cream. I went for the 3 mini-donuts for $3.00.
Ode to the Elephants makes the dream a reality: Thai on the beach on this hemisphere. Vegan offerings are slim but they’ve got mango and sticky rice. Oh, how I love thee. I gobbled up this $6 with lightening speed. It was one of the best I’ve had in the States because of that drizzle of super-sweet coconut cream draped on top.
What a great addition to the beach. If there is an upside to gentrification, it’s a variety of healthier and delicious food options all can enjoy. Extended latent adolescence marked by Neon green Ray Ban acts of rebellion and a craving for attention or not, I’m going to enjoy the good eats in Rockaway. Lord knows the hipsters have filled up Williamsburg with a ton of meat-heavy “New American” restaurants with intense one-word names that have nothing for me. But let’s clear up the confusion, hip-types at Rockaway is not a new thing, contrary to the NY Times reporting. In fact, the NY Times reporting something is a sure-fire indication that said-tidbit is not new. Remember the Ramones song? That came out in 1977. The onslaught of superficial image-obsessed young people goes hand-in-hand with the degrading values reinforced by the Idiocracy of popular culture. There’s putrid run-off rearing everywhere. It’s unfortunate that real New Yorkers who have been kept safe by the mighty Empire, the shiny red apple, face this truth now too. And I sound like my Dad.
My first Mets game of the season and I chowed down on two loaded veggie dogs. I may have gotten a bit over-zealous with the fixin’s stand.
It was time to find more vegan options in Queens. With a good friend moving to Woodside, we took occasion to explore a vegan lead for dinner… Woodside’s De Mole. As we entered the dimly lit restaurant, I was eager to sit down. For squeezed between the ton of authentic Mexican dishes on menu was a seitan burrito stuffed with garlic spinach, red rice, black beans, Pico de Gallo and tofu sour cream. 
Some scrumptious tortilla longs were shared mid-anticipation of the burrito coming. The salsa served to strengthen the anticipation as a delicious and flavorful housemade salsa is indicative of the quality of the forthcoming meal. Savor your chips slowly as additional bags are not complimentary.
There she is. A girthy giant, a wide-wrapped wonder, the de Mole seitan burrito. Besides ease in ordering (there is no need to exclude any of the burrito’s ingredients), this burrito satisfies in all departments. It was so good. Tender seitan, a thoughtful blend of internal vegetables and a tofu sour cream that was not from a tub. I would definitely return for it or, better yet, to inquire on substituting their succulent seitan in one of the menu’s other creative dishes.
I spent the week at an island retreat. Not an exotic island by any means. I have lived on this geographic island for 97% of my life [fraction to decimal conversion: 32/33 = 0.96969697], the latter 9 in Brooklyn proper, its western tip. But with a warm and cozy home to station at, time and possibilities were bountiful. I spent the week traversing all major highways fulfilling whims, mainly related to food and thriftshopping. Days began with coffee, hearty breakfasts and WQXR, which soothes the kitties in The Electrician‘s absence.
Long Island is home to some good thriftshopping. As long as I can remember it has been the only shopping I can really get into. I try to shop retail but find no pleasure in it. Given my pledge of quality items in 2011 [Thing #6], I must treat thrifting as supplemental. After a lifetime of bag sales and whim-based thrift purchases, I am more discerning as a thrifter now. So though I appreciate the crushed pink velvet chair I don’t buy it. Grudgingly. A day of LI thrifting usually includes: Island Thrift, Selden Thrift and Babylon’s Salvation Army. These are my go-to’s.
Being “with car”, I knew I needed to check off some items off my “To Go & Eat” list. Knish Nosh, in Forest Hills, Queens, was one such destination. I have wanted to check out their hand-rolled knishes out for some time now, especially after reading this post by the now-defunct blog Veganfriendly.com. I got the sweet potato knish and found it good considering the following… it presented poorly, the thin knish skin was very moist from being microwaved and the wax paper it was wrapped in while it was microwaved peeled off much of the skin when I took it off. Yes, it was good–sweet and spiced sweet potato saved the day. I can only imagine how much better it would be fresh, but I doubt I’d make it back there any time soon.
My island excursion had me all the way east, back into the NYC area in Queens and around the western perimeter of the island to wrap me into Red Hook, Brooklyn for … Fairway: the must-stop when you have a car at your disposal. This market truly is like no other. And this location is truly like no other of Fairway‘s locations. The hype is justified. I love this place. Thinking ahead, I purchased my groceries for the coming week–local wild greens, organic rainbow carrots, organic daikon, Minneola tangelos, Bosc pears, crimson raisins, handmade tofu, etc…
Stopping at my neglected apartment to freshen up the place and drop off my goodies, I just had to snap a picture of the beautiful bouquet of produce. Just gorgeous. As a young vegan I often spoke whimsically of a bouquet of root vegetables instead of flowers come that special day. [Just like the teenager dreams of Doc Marten-ed bridesmaids. Ah what society does to the little girl and, later, the woman] Though this is by no means an innovative idea– I’ve silently grunted others sharing their view of the same– it has real functional merit: the veggie bouquets being used for the dinner contributes to the zero waste impact.
Ok, brace for some seriously delicious eats. A bit off the beaten path, near Middle Village, Queens, is a gem of vegan eatery… a delicious discovery of fresh and live food that rivals raw fare from that outer-borough Manhattan. Organic Village has been open for about a year but lived only a few weeks on my radar. Again, with the car, I knew I had to check it out. I was so glad I dropped in. I got the royal treatment from Erin, the sister of the creator, who gave me decadent samples and free-range with my camera. I knew I had stumbled upon something special [like that place in Oklahoma] after trying my first sample [above], their wonderful chili.
Their fridge was stocked with yummy desserts. Raw chocolate bars, three kinds of pie and chia seed and chocolate mousse puddings. Erin let me sample the puddings and they were absolutely mind-blowing. Superb texture and amazing taste–no graininess, not chalkiness–just smooth, clean pleasure in a scoop. I also sampled the coconut cream pie, pictured in the rear right. But allow me to build up to that…
There were also some nutty bon-bon-y type balls I did not try… but will. I am planning to return with CandyPenny soon to relive the magic. So, until then you bon-bons. It is really important to spread the word about a place like this: amazing food, stellar service, no pretention and a commitment to ethical and healthful food values.
How lovely! My lunch! The burrito: Macadamia nuts, Serrano chili, sun-dried tomatoes, Pine nuts, chipotle powder, cashew wrapped in Collard Greens with sunflower sprouts, lime, green cabbage and red cabbage, avocado and a vibrant pico de gallo. The burrito floored me. Fresh and alive, it made you feel the same. I also loved the spiced flax crackers. Next time I have to try their burger.
The final sample Erin bestowed upon me was the kicker. Their coconut cream pie. All raw but no nuts! This is exciting to me because I find nut-based raw desserts very heavy. This piece of pie was unbelievable… smooth, creamy, delicate like a dessert should be. It’s sweetened only by dates and has minimal ingredients. Two words: coconut meat. The difference is their coconut meat is imported from Thailand, shipped frozen. This is a must-taste. And I’ll now be dreaming about often. Organic Village is superb. Get there soon!
Call me nutty but I went ahead and bought myself baby food as a snack, Happy Baby Food. It was 75 cents! And it is 100% pureed mango! I want to eat that too. It’s a great buy for roadtrips: wholesome, nonperishable and easy to suck down while driving. Next time I hit the road I will stock up. Plus, it’s all organic, uses non-GMO fruits and veggies, works directly with farmers and gives back to communities with children in need. That works for me. Call me a big baby.
Long Island City’s Standard Motor Products building takes up the majority of Northern Blvd. between 36th and Steinway streets. Its huge, sturdy and unassuming slab of industrial grey, located off one of Queens’s busiest streets, has a unique claim to fame: It is the foundation for New York City’s largest rooftop farm, the Brooklyn Grange. Yes, the 40,000 square-foot farm is on the roof, growing hundreds of thousands of fruits and vegetables, including 40 types of tomatoes, within its 1.2 million pounds of soil. I visited the farm, gaining easy access in thanks to The Greek, who volunteers there–managing their compost and tending to his bees, who also have a home on the roof. On this glorious afternoon I nibbled on some delicious Sungold cherry tomatoes off the vine, fantasized about the root candy thriving under my feet high in the sky and soaked in the heaving exhale of oxygen.
The farm, which has been open since the Spring of 2010 in Queens, is a commercial farm that sells its pesticide-free goodies to local restaurants, as well as the public through a CSA and many farmers markets.
With Manhattan in the background and the countless support sticks of tomato plants in the foreground, Brooklyn Grange, named before space in Brooklyn fell through and after founders established their name publicaly, is a very special place, home to a movement that is directly linking the eater with the farmer. 
I saw so many succulent-looking fruits and veggies; I could barely resist the Scarlett O’Hara urge to chomp on them raw. Plump eggplant, bazillions of tomatoes, tomatillos… oh boy.
Lost in the green.
and in the Cubanelle pepper yellow
Lend me your ear…
A mesclun mix
American Gothic, Urban-style
The Greek tends to his bees while being recorded by an independent filmaker… and photographed by a lowly blogger.
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.)
I made another visit to Citi Field recently, still pickled blue and orange that I can enjoy a hot dog and a beer and watch the game. Though I had originally intended to supplement my Vegan at Citi Field report from June with some information on the stand-alone booths (zeppole, kettle corn, etc.), I got blog-lazy. Here is my dog. I went easy on the fixin’s this time and went for a sensible amount of sauerkraut, grilled onion and ketchup and mustard. Let’s hear it for the $5.00 hot dog!
I did pick up some of Nathan’s onion rings too. I ate all of them before getting to our seats. As I often blabber on about, I am a huge fan of onions… and an average fan of fried finger foods though I rarely partake. When in a bind, I can experience lapses in foodie judgment. I sometimes order chain fast food onion rings. On several occasions I’ll have to ascertain the vegan-ity of a joint’s onion rings on the fly. So as to help others who are afflicted with the occasional irrational urgent salt and grease hankering but in no way condoning this kind of patronage, see the list below. I’ll update when needed. Cross your fingers and hope for clean oil…
Burger King onion rings: confirmed vegan ingredients
They have something call gelatinized wheat starch which contains no gelatin and is plant-based.
Nathans, Sonic, White Castle onion rings: unconfirmed vegan ingredients
No ingredient listings but because of the zero mg cholesterol, one can safely assume they’re vegan.
A&W, Carl Jr’s., Jack In the Box onion rings: NOT vegan
All contain milk.
Oneness-Fountain-Heart is a vegetarian restaurant in Flushing, Queens run by devotees of the late spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy advocated for international harmony and… vegetarianism, hence the vegetarian cafes in his dedication in NYC (Annan Brahma and Cafe Panorama in Jamaica Hills, Queens) and across the country in Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego. Vegetarianism, under Sri Chinmoy’s teachings, is a means to establish purity of the mind and body. He believes that
“when we eat meat, fish and so forth, the aggressive, animal consciousness enters into us. Our nerves become agitated; we unconsciously become restless and aggressive. The mild qualities of vegetables, on the other hand, help us to establish in our inner life as well as in our outer life, the qualities of sweetness, softness, simplicity and purity.”
There are many spiritual paths that include vegetarianism in their practice as an extension of non-violence, a par for the path of spiritual progress, and/or the embrace of simplicity. Why on this very blog I have included reports on 7th Day Adventist eateries, to whom vegetarianism is a necessity and 130 year old tradition “to honor and glorify God and preserve the health of the body, mind and spirit” (source)(here); a cluster of Ital Rastafari eateries, to whom vegetarianism signifies a connection to nature (here); vegetarian, or Jai, Thai food straight from the source (here) and piggy-backed on the dairy-free Kosher (or Parve) world (here), as well as the “playing-animal-rights-videos-in-a-loop-on-a-prominently-displayed-television” type eatery, usually Asian and usually involving Supreme Masters (I’m talking about you Loving Hut). Though I respect these faiths, and all others, as an Agnostic, I’m in it for the food collaboration and accessibility. It is always a given that cities will have a Krishna eatery or a Buddhist vegetarian mock-meat dive in their international district. In a land where chicken is in all the salads, sometimes these options are a… godsend.
Getting back to my visit to Oneness-Fountain-Heart and the Sri Chinmoy Centres, who used to run a laundromat called Newness-Brightness-Happiness-Fullness (And yes Seattle, the restaurant Silence-Heart-Nest in Fremont). I had been to Oneness-Fountain-Heart once before years ago and had left with the eerie feeling that the all-male wait staff seemed far too benevolent to be normal. Putting aside those still-vivid feelings and my general suspicion of organized movements of faith aside, I focused more on the food this time around. Wanting to push to the presses my part 3 Burger Report (see previous post), I ordered their Ponderosa platter: a soy-science meat patty topped with a huge portobello mushroom that I mistook for a bun, grilled red onions, veggie bacon, tomato, lettuce and sprouts on a toasted whole grain bun with a very yummy BBQ sauce. The mash potatoes were not vegan so I had the side salad with mango-lime dressing.
Since I had no potatoes with dinner, I had enough room for dessert. They offered several vegan options, including a chocolate cake, apple tarragon sorbet and my choice below, a passion fruit pie. It was very delicious! The crust was a soft coconut-cookie base that complemented the two other layers nicely, a sweetened tofu layer and a soft, delicate and perplexingly textured tropical fruit chiffon. Perplexing because I wasn’t sure about how they got such a texture without whipped eggs! Very delicious and worth the trip back to Flushing on its own.
I’m going to keep on preaching… I plan to continue to honor the diverse faiths of the world through their cuisines as so many embrace vegetarianism, although I am quite sure the sensual delight I attain through eating is considered quite the vice…
Vegan Reporting By Location
