Candle 79, And Now Some NYC Love

With the start of the school year, I am in Brooklyn everyday again. Urban machinery and subterranean air have united me with 8 million more parts. I remember why I love her. And I remember why I hate her. She’s like me–impractical and strained while magnificent in her own norms. She has art around her, but it’s just her peeling a few layers.
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She has great things, like many metropolises. But in New York, you’re allowed to ignore all else and find a comfort in unacknowledged sharing. There are rules you know, methods that make 8 million just a few. Tribes of two, like me and CandyPenny. You get what you need, her gems and treasures, and run away. Like a Red Velvet cupcake from the Sprinkles CupcakeATM. The best vegan cupcake in New York City.IMG_2168

You find places to shut out the rest of her, like you’re in your living room. But you have to pay for this. Like Candle 79, New York City’s premiere all-vegan restaurant. You sit next to the Buddha, next to the window television of her grinding looping air time. You eat, aligned to her high standards. And in this eating, you get to take her with you.

Ok, enough of this pronoun use! The food/drink of this special dinner: Watermelon-Mint Refresher was a cooling watermelon, mint, lemon, agave, aloe, sparkling water. Amuse-bouche: soft fingerling with a pesto drizzle.PicMonkey Collage1

Appetizer: Grilled Flatbread with piled wild mushrooms, arugula, tomatoes, truffle oil, and cashew cheese on a pesto-basted grilled flatbread. Very earthy thanks to mushrooms and truffle. Would have prefer a thicker flatbread.PicMonkey Collage2

I ordered the special entree with zero regrets. It was delicious: succulent house-made grilled seitan atop roasted vegetables and starches and a scrumptious creamed corn puree (that I would have drunk with a straw). And topped with grilled peaches. IMG_2157

CandyPenny got the tempeh tamale with all the fixings… but not the masa. On the side, a watermelon pepitas salad. In a pool of chocolate mole. IMG_2158

Dessert, because it was a birthday celebration! I got the brownie sundae with house-made vanilla caramel ice cream, banana, bourbon caramel and candied pecans. In the background: cannoli. IMG_2166

Thank you, New York.