This Vegan's Birthday~Pure Food and Wine/East Village Birthday Party

Me and Sarma Melngailis

Thank you Andreas for the introduction!

Okay. So this is not the best picture of me (plus it's blurry, to boot!), but I love it because it's taken with me and one of my role models, Sarma Melngailis. She is the CEO of One Lucky Duck and the owner of Pure Food and Wine, my favorite restaurant in NYC. What brought me there that night was my 31st birthday. It's becoming a tradition of mine to go there every year to celebrate, and this year I was there with some of my closest friends.

What I love about Sarma, besides her fantastic restaurant and products, is her amazing blog. Her writing is so engaging and honest, and it's apparent that she navigates her way through life (as well as business) intuitively. And what's not to admire about that?! She actually wrote an awesome post recently about her process with veganism, and the questions and thoughts and feelings that have come up for her around that. I highly recommend checking it out here:  http://oneluckyduck.com/sarma/

But what about the restaurant, you ask? Well, Pure Food and Wine is a raw fine dining restaurant and what I love about it is that their flavors come together so beautifully and elegantly. Try it for yourself to see what I mean! Here is a list of the things I had to give you a sense of what they are about: 

To drink, I had their sparkling sake as well as their Himalayan Paradise cocktail, made with ginger, lemon and goji berry infused sake.

I also had their King Oyster Mushroom Scallops to start, made with brussels sprouts, shiitake miso broth, garnished with glazed pecans, shaved radish and mico mustard.

As my entree, I usually order their Zucchini and Local Heirloom Tomato Lasagna, which is so amazing and classic (not to mention great for summer)!- but this time I ordered their Hen of the Woods Tacos al Pastor (I'm on a bit of a mushroom kick), made with smoked guacamole, hearts of palm, chayote squash, guajillo crema fresca and pickled onions.

Now, dinner at Pure Food and Wine is hardly complete without their Mint Chip Sundae! It's incredible and a PF&W classic! I remember the first time I had it with Shaliga, she pointed to every part of it saying, "Is this vegan?...And this too, is this vegan?!". We were blown away.

So, I got that, of course! My friends also got a Ginger Cheesecake, and Andreas, another friend who crashed our party but was sooo welcome, ordered their Strawberry Tart. It was soooo good, I had an orgasm in my mouth-and Andreas proudly credited himself for it! It was made with vanilla pastry cream, meyer lemon confit and basil ice cream.

Mint Chip Sundae

Ginger Cheesecake

Strawberry Tart

Here's me with the mint chip sundae.

Just before I...

..made a birthday wish (hope it comes true!).

I'm so grateful for my friends!

Now, my birthday festivities were not over! The following day, I had my birthday party. It was held at my friend Edgar's store in the East Village. He's opened up a spot called Urban Motion, selling electric as well as human-powered scooters for people of all ages.

My friend Cassie Karopkin, a graduate of Natural Gourmet Institute, a passionate vegan and raw food enthusiast, made some a-maaaazing raw hors d'oeuvres for my party (thank you Cassie!). She made a cauliflower and corn polenta, topped with marinated mushrooms (told you I'm on a kick) on endive leaves. Incredible! And she also made some beautiful collard green wraps stuffed with pesto and a lovely slaw. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my hands on pics to post (tragic!).

My super talented friend John Flor-Sisante sang and played some songs with me, and guitarist John McRandle from our band Koshka played a song with me as well. It was so fun!

And of course, there was some dancing and merriment...

With some fellow June birthday kids at the party.

So that pretty much sums up my vegan birthday celebrations! Here's hoping for another year of personal growth, more vegan adventures and awesome music-making. My next post will be about how I spent my 4th of July!

Till then..

xoxo,

Ellie