NYC Trip 2012: Part 1

I'm disappointed that I went on this great trip with such great food and wasn't able to photograph it very well. A lot of my food pics are dark or out of focus.

I blame this guy.

One of my goals for this trip was to try at least THREE new places. (I ended up far surpassing my goal!) This was significant because I definitely have my favorite places to repeatedly revisit. I checked one off my list an hour or so after we exited Penn Station. My sister strongly suggested I check out Caravan of Dreams. It did not disappoint. This was our Seitan Nachos appetizer.

This was my entree: Seitan Taquitos. 

pineapple, guacamole, chili d'arbol sauce, leafy greens

I was expecting more of a rolled up taquito, but it was tasty. I enjoyed the healthy feel to the meal plus the asparagus and citrus.

I'll definitely go back to Caravan of Dreams. I was tempted to try the raw dishes. And I'm certain there was live music, although I was a little tired and distracted to fully appreciate it. The downsides: it's pretty pricey, and it wasn't really kid-friendly. We sat outside so that part was fine, but inside it's a fairly cramped space. And it was REALLY dark. I highly prefer dim lighting; I mean, it's romantic - plus I just look better in dim lighting. But it was so dark (see dark pics above) I could barely see my food.

I spent a pretty penny at my #2 new spot:  one lucky duck. We were able to walk there since we were staying in Chelsea. It's located inside the very cute Chelsea Market. I would have enjoyed a more leisure stroll through the market, but I'll tell you, my son was not a fan. Some smell within the market did not agree with him, and he was in a huge hurry to leave ASAP. 

Back to our breakfast the first morning: I should have bought something more breakfast-y or filling like nuts or granola, but I couldn't bear buying something I could buy just anywhere. We each picked a juice/lemon-aid that was flavored with agave. I picked up this dish of macadamia "cheese." It was tasty but not really satisfying to eat plain for breakfast. I would have enjoyed it more on a salad. I liked our other three choices, which we shared at a nearby park.

Lemon Bar with almond, coconut crust

Chocolate Ganache Tart 

with yummy cream

I don't remember what this was, but:

raw chocolate with cream filling is 

generally going to equal good.

That night my son begged to go out for pizza. I had in mind a certain pizza place in Brooklyn for sometime that week, but I didn't feel like doing the whole subway thing that night. I tried to change his mind, and it's not like he's the boss. However, part of the point of this trip was to allow him to make a lot of decisions, a privilege not always allowed in a family of 6. So I found a place in the West Village - Slice, which earned the spot of New Place #3.

Fortunately, the pizza was more of the healthy & fresh variety. I liked the crust. I opted for kalamata olives and fresh arugula. They weren't kidding about it being fresh. I'm of the belief that lettuce makes anything better, and I was happy to eat my first green food of the day.

It wasn't crowded when we arrived but started filling up. The guys who worked there seemed very easygoing and friendly. I like the neighborhood, and there were parks nearby, which is a plus for us. They also offer gluten-free crust to those who are concerned. They also use other healthier options of ingredients, but I'm not going to talk about no longer living animals here so you can look for yourself if that's your thing.

That evening we were close enough to check out The High Line. It is a public park developed on an old elevated train track. It runs a good distance up western Manhattan, with several entrances. I thought it was nice with fun views of the city and water. There were quite a few people walking through since it was late evening.

The next day, guess who I got to meet? Some of you may have already read about it here. Maud from Food Feud joined us for lunch at Sacred Chow, which I certainly always believed was Sacred Cow when I apparently looked too quickly at it in print. So, Sacred Chow: New Place #4.

We both ordered Kale Caesar Salad with Tofu Croutons. I wasn't being a copycat. I had already looked at the menu before we arrived and thought it sounded the best. The tofu had the chewiness you achieve from freezing it. The salad tasted like my favorite salad I eat regularly at home, so I obviously liked it. I have never used my favorite caesar dressing on straight kale, though, so this was inspiring to me.

In a less green move, my son 

opted for the cheese "dog." 

I got a pic of Maud and me together, but I won't post it since she's pretty private. I should, though, since she's super cool and cute and pleasant, and we enjoyed our meal together. Plus, it's nice for my son to hang out with someone with...wait for it...real tattoos. Not just the kind you apply with water. He pointed this out later. I'm pretty sure he was impressed. He also likes her because she wrote nice things about him. :) I appreciated the suggestion for a new place, and I was able to broaden my NYC restaurant scope. I'll see ya next time we're around, unless you're living on a commune in the Appalachians by then.

Next up from NYC: 

doughnuts that changed our lives.

French Meadow Bakery Bread Giveaway (Ended)

Update: the winner is Carrie from Texas!

French Meadow Bakery Bread is giving away a lunch kit to one of my readers. The lunch kit includes: a lunch bag, sandwich box, and water bottle - plus a coupon for a free product (up to $9.99)! I really love French Meadow Bakery. I'm not just saying that!

This is my favorite bread:

Flax and Sunflower Seed 

It's vegan, organic, and yeast-free!

I like so many of the other breads, etc., too. We eat the hemp bread, the sprouted breads, and the sprouted bagels a lot. They carry gluten-free and Kosher Parve options.

To enter, visit the contest tab on their facebook page. That way, you are not only eligible to win my prize, you will be entered to win over there, as well. They are asking you to upload a picture of you or your child heading back to school, in whatever capacity that is. If you don't have a current photo, a past one will do. A bonus entry is given if the photo contains a French Meadow Bakery product.

All you have to do is email me a screen shot of your entry to that contest. (Are you like me and had no idea how to take a screen shot? My husband showed me in two seconds, by pressing two buttons on our computer...good to know!)

EMAIL your entry (or questions) to:
changchang 75 @gmail.com (remove the spaces!).

That's all you've got to do!

But act fast, because the contest ends tomorrow night (the 30th) at 5:00 p.m.!!! I'm getting this out late, so your chances are probably very good.

Enter over on facebook,
then email me your screenshot.

NYC Veggie Pride Parade 2012

When I found out the dates of our NYC trip, I looked on an event calendar to see if anything fun was going on. We were just in luck! The Veggie Pride Parade was taking place the Sunday after our Saturday night arrival. I read that costumes were welcome - and might be rewarded! So an hour before we were leaving for the train station in Little Rock, I was hot gluing felt together for my costume.

I had given my 7 year old a few costume ideas, and he picked a baking/chef theme for the three of us.  

He was a Vegan Chef...

and Baby Brother was his little Sous Chef.

I was a Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie.

One side of our sign: 

Eat vegan cookies and help save the world!

The other side: 

VEGAN COOKIE - one small step for mankind!

I'm not impressed with my sign making abilities here, but we were in such a rush. And I just never have pretty sign handwriting! We arrived at the parade site early, thinking surely there would be a store nearby to buy poster board. It was not that easy. (Why is it easier in small town Arkansas to locate poster board than in Manhattan?) We asked cops, we asked everyone, and finally had to hop a cab to hit the nearest Staples.

Scenes from the parade:

This was a really great experience for my son because I know he feels isolated at times as a vegan. None of his friends are vegan, and it causes him to want to experience and participate in what his friends are participating in, ya know? But he looked around in amazement, "Do you think all of these people are vegan?!" With all of the chanting and cheering, I think it felt rather spectacular to him.

Sometime after the parade, which culminated at Union Square, everyone in costume was called up on stage. 

From the beginning, I did not know how my son was going to react to all of this. You'd have to know the little fella. He's so self-conscious. And he's way "too cool" for a lot of things in life. (For example, we were on a field trip to the post office the other day, and his older brother raised his hand a few times to ask questions. He was mortified by this and kept hissing at him to stop asking questions, even though they asked if anyone had any questions.)

But he was taking his role here so seriously! He had the Veggie Pride! :) I was giggling inside, watching him. I loved it.

I think everyone who was in costume won some sort of prize.

There are more pictures of us and everyone else on this flickr page.

We earned the 4th prize: a $50 gift certificate to Peacefood Cafe! I was ecstatic!

After the parade, we bought cold drinks and ducked into Barnes and Noble for a bit to read books and cool off while we were waiting for the costume competition. Once back outside, we mingled around all of the tables and listened to some speakers.

When we were ready to head back to our hotel, I promised him ice cream. We stopped into the Whole Foods at Union Square and were disappointed there weren't any individual ice cream bars for sale. We asked a very nice employee if they had any, and he was so sweet that he came out of the back with two wrapped bars from an opened box that couldn't be sold. My son was thrilled.

Fun day! Thank you to everyone who organized the parade (especially Pamela Rice, author of 101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian) and to Peacefood Cafe (review to come) for our yummy meal. Whether anyone in NYC was drawn into the veggie lifestyle that day, you helped open the eyes of a sweet little guy from Arkansas.

Chicago and Amtrak

In my last post I told you I was going to NYC. I like to promise I'm going to blog soon because I think if I say it, I'll have to make it come true. But who are we kidding? I'll just quit saying it. I wanted to blog every night during my trip, but my head couldn't wait to hit the pillow at the end of each day. (Sorry about this long post; you can read it in bits. And this would have been posted two weeks ago, but my html has been driving me bonkers. I still can't fix all of the spacing...but I'm going to give up.) It was a fun, successful trip, including lots of great vegan food and so forth.

This was my first journey with Amtrak, and only these two guys accompanied me. I had decided to take each of the big kids on their own little adventure with Mom (and baby, my extra appendage for the next year and a half or so). My 7 year old was up first, and although NYC might not sound like the most logical, laid-back place to take two kids, I really wanted my trip to include no driving or carseats. (Baby HATES the carseat.) And my 2nd child hasn't been there as many times as my oldest child. And I'm familiar with NYC enough to get around. And it just makes me happy.

We booked a sleeper car (above: two seats that turn into twin bunk beds) on the way out, but we didn't get one on the return. We saved money that way, and I was curious to find out the difference for the sake of future trips with the whole family. I think that although the sleeper car was definitely the better way to go (very cute and fun!) if it's ever possible, a regular coach seat would suffice just fine.

One part of the sleeper car that my son particularly enjoyed was the dining car. Meals were included, and I was too cheap to pay for meals on the way home, much to his dismay. (We had plenty of food packed to eat.) I think it's entirely possible to eat vegan on Amtrak for a several day journey, even if you didn't pack food. Now, would it be possible to become full if you were also heavy raw or gluten-free? Eh, probably not. I brought my own oatmeal packets (above) and enjoyed the grapefruit. (They did offer oatmeal; I just preferred to use my own with built-in sweetener.) They also had soy milk.

For the lunch and supper meals, they offered veggie burgers and pasta, etc. My son ate those, although I'm pretty sure the burgers were vegetarian, not vegan. (During travel and eating out, etc., although my eating habits remain exactly the same, I am not a picky label reader with my kids. As long as it's vegetarian and not overtly non-vegan, I'm fine with it, if that makes any sense. This is not my ideal, just the way it is.) I mostly just ate as much dry salad as I could stand since it was free.

They DO, however, sell a Vegan Burger in the lounge car on most trains. I didn't end up purchasing one because the list of ingredients was way too long (and included sugar, etc.) for my OCD healthy standards, but I like knowing it's available for my kids and Ryan on future trips. The lounge car also sold chips, salted nuts, oatmeal (with sugar) cups, and maybe even fruit, etc.

You could always bring a small cooler if you weren't worried about the amount of luggage you were carrying. That's another bonus, if you ask me, about Amtrak. You can bring more "stuff" with you, as opposed to flying (even your bike, it seemed). We, however, tried to keep it light because I did not know what to expect, getting on and off so many times. We brought a tiny stroller, two small backpacks, and one very small pull bag.

It was a surprise to me that they seat strangers together in the dining car booths. At first, my social anexiety disorder was not impressed, but I quickly learned that this can be another great aspect in the Amtrak experience. We always sat with really nice, interesting people. I had to smile and nod a lot to one lady who said things like, "Well, I guess being a vegetarian is okay...as long as you get plenty of protein...now WHERE do you get your protein?" and, "I think homeschooling can be okay...if you know what you're doing." She also kept trying to offer my son bacon or yogurt, etc. AFTER I told her we didn't eat it. "It would be okay if he had a piece, wouldn't it? I'd love to give him a piece." Me: "No, REALLY - he's never eaten meat. We DON'T eat it."

 

We had a layover, around 3 hours, in Chicago on the way there and back. Our next stop on the way to New York was D.C. We were really looking forward to this 4 hour layover because my son had learned a lot about the different monuments and such this year and had never seen them (and I hadn't been since I was 17). We were able to hit most of the main ones by walking and then taking a pedi-cab. And I'm sure Chubs here was overly fascinated to be in our nation's capital for the first time, as well.

Because it took so long to get across town (Duh, it was Memorial Day Weekend; why didn't I realize this?), my dreams of hitting up Sticky Fingers before jumping back on the train were dashed. That's okay, though; my son's education comes before my gluttony.

******************************************

Besides, I was still happy from our jaunt to Native Foods (all vegan!) in Chicago. This was my first time to sample one of the THREE newish locations in the area. (I have been to N.F. in California multiple times.) The one on South Clark was in walking distance from the train station! (We always paid to put our bags in a locker during layovers.) I was happy to see the line going out the door during this visit and the one on our way back home (and happier that we arrived before the line grew). There were a lot of business people coming in for lunch. This says to me that hopefully Native Foods will continue expanding, eventually to a city near you! Our Native Foods' eats (and I'm not going to write much other than the descriptions to avoid saying, "It was sooo good!" over and over again):

Pizza Fingers and Steamed Broccoli

He also ordered the Native Chicken Nuggets with vegetables and ranch dressing for dipping, but I didn't get a picture. I thought it was fine, but as my pickiest eater, he wasn't a fan.

  Freddie's Mac and Cheese
  Quinoa super pasta with a cow-friendly cheese sauce and broccoli trees. Soy and GF.


Classic Deli Reuben

Thinly-sliced deli-style Native Reuben Seitan piled high on grilled marble rye. Topped with homemade sauerkraut, Native Horseradish Cheese, and a slather of Russian dressing. 

The pink color is kind of freaky, no?
Was very tasty.

Chili Cheese Fries 
Seasoned potato fries smothered in our homemade 
Native Chili. Topped with Native Cheese and diced 
red onions. 

I like that these chili cheese fries felt much healthier/less greasy including light, homemade cheese.



Chimi Chop Salad

Chopped romained, crunchy grilled veggies and corn kernels, sweet roasted peppers, garlic croutons, warm shaved Native Peppered Seitan, tossed with chimichurri sauce, and drizzled with ranch.

I realized with this salad HOW MUCH I prefer chopped salads. It's just so much nicer to eat a salad when the lettuce is the same size as the rest of the salad ingredients. Don't you think?

Oklahoma Cheese Burger

Thinly sliced Native Original Seitan, melted cheddar, caramelized onions, and crispy Native Bacon on a bun slathered with BBQ sauce and ranch dressing, romaine, carrots, onions, and tomato. Topped with crunchy battered dill pickle chips!!!

 

Let's get another look at this bad boy. 

There's just so much going on here.

Strawberry Shortcake Parfait

Moist vanilla cake layered with almond creme and fresh sliced organic strawberries.

Light and not too sweet.

Cheesecake

(above and here, on another day - one of our fave desserts the whole week)

A rich cream cheesy filling, ginger granola crust, 

sweetened just right and served with blueberries on the side.

Good Luck Cupcake

Made in-house using the finest ingredients including  fair-grade cocoa powder and trans-fat free veg shortening.  Flavors include Chocolate, Vanilla, Cardamom Rose.

We also got a brownie that wasn't photographed. It was good but not my favorite here; when unwrapped, all of the chocolate chips fell off everywhere.

NOTE: I know by now you are thinking, "Didn't you just go TWICE? Wasn't it just you and a 55 pound boy? Aren't those big portions? Don't you have 30 pounds to lose?" Yes, yes, yes, and yes, BUT we always ordered extra food to take back onto the train for the next meal, which is why it might seem like a lot.

Lavender Lemonade

French lavender steeped with fresh lemons. 

Sweetened with organic sugar.

Free refills!!!

We had plenty of time during our second layover to head up into the Skydeck of the Willis (Sears) Tower. It is located in walking distance between Union Station and Native Foods.

A passing shot of the Shenandoah River in honor of our friend, Shen.

I will try to blog about the rest of our cross country trip soon...

oops, there I go again.

Until then...

stay cool, dudes.