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

Recent Restaurant Visits Part I: Quintessence~Angelica Kitchen~Paulie Gee's

Hey everyone!

Today's post will be Part One for a Two-Parter on some of the restaurants I've been to in the last few weeks. These posts should give you all an overview of some of the places I like to go to here in NYC!

 So let's begin!- And start with raw restaurant Quintessence, located in the East Village..

Now, this may sound funny, but I love drinking the water at this spot. They serve water that's been triple filtered by reverse osmosis. Sound crazy? Yeah, crazy refreshing! Take a taste and see.

Some of the things I like to order when I go to Quintessence are their Peter's Pot Soup and their Italian Sausage Pizza.

I also like their rolls, so that day I got their Scallion Creme Cheese Roll lunch combo.

Their raw cashew creme cheese... is delish!

Next stop? Angelica Kitchen, also located in the East Village!
...My top fave dishes there are probably their Dashi Noodles (the broth is insane!) and their raw entree Thai Mee Up. My friend Michelle and I also really like their Dragon Bowls. Their food is healthy, and what I love about this place is that, along with their constantly changing entree specials, they also serve different dessert specials that are just soooo good!

The last time I went was with Michelle, and instead of her usual Dragon Bowl, she got a special that night. A yummy veggie patty dish (I know cause she let me take a bite)!

That pesto sauce on top? Yeah. Soooo good!

I ordered their Thai Mee Up, a raw "pasta" composed of strands of daikon, butternut squash and carrot, served with garlic-lemon marinated kale and a Thai tahini dressing. I love this dish.

 Note to self: Get. Better. Camera. Sorry!!

On a side note: Michelle and I were seated next to the lovely Blythe Ann Boyd, owner of the amazing Lula's Sweet Apothecary. She was there on a date with some lucky guy!

Okay, so the next and last stop for today is going to be at Greenpoint, Brooklyn-home to Paulie Gee's, where you can find some awesome pizzas, vegan or not!

Paulie Gee's has their own vegan section on the menu! They also have amazingly scrumptious house-made cashew ricotta cheese and house-made fennel "sausage".

My friend Arthur and I went together and ordered their Vegan Greenpointer (Baby Arugula, Olive Oil, Post-Oven Fresh Lemon Juice and Nutritional Yeast) as a refreshing balance to their hearty In Ricotta da Vegan (Italian Tomatoes, House-Made Vegan Fennel Sausage, House-Made Cashew Ricotta Dollops, Baby Arugula and Extra Virgin Olive Oil).

The Vegan Greenpointer

In Ricotta da Vegan-hands down my personal fave!

Arthur and I also ordered their The Gates of Eden salad (sorry, devoured before thinking to take a pic!). It's not vegan, but we subbed gorgonzola cheese with their cashew ricotta cheese, and we loved it. I must confess the idea was not mine, but the idea of a certain vegan guy I used to date. I'm glad he thought of it, 'cause the cashew ricotta actually works really nicely with this salad. Highly recommend!

So that's all for today! Very soon I will post again about Peacefood Cafe in the Upper West Side and Jivamuktea Cafe in Union Square. Till then!

xo, Ellie

Weekend Recap:Parties and Lula's and Foodswings, oh my!

Weekend recap!
And what a beautiful weekend it was.
I wanted to keep ya'll posted on my recent vegan-ings..
So here it is!

On Friday I went to my friend Rachel's 60's themed 30th birthday party, held at Yippee Museum Cafe. Rachel is an amazing activist for animals and is so wonderfully supportive to all her friends. She is an awesome lady-and she looked so beautiful that night!!

The party was great. Chill vibe, great music and dancing, and good people. Donations were accepted for Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary- a place Rachel frequently volunteers with. There were live performances throughout the night and everyone was awesome!! I also had the pleasure of singing for Rachel's party among the string of her oh-so-talented friends.

And this is me offstage..still singing.

On Saturday, I brought my journal and French textbook for a solo brunch at Cafe Royal in Greenpoint, blocks from home...

It's a cute, cozy spot that is super vegan-friendly. Among their treats are breakfast burritos for under five dollars, a great eggplant panini, the awesome artisanal Dun-Well doughnuts, Brooklyn Kombucha on tap, and a hearty vegan tofu skillet...

                                          ...which was what I had in their lovely back patio.

                                                                      Mmmmm.
The plate is made up of a tofu scramble, local sunflower toast with vegan butter, and a seasonal greens salad. And yes, that's hot sauce on the side.


After brunch, I sat in McGorlick park and daydreamed/studied French, basking in the lovely day.

                                                                     Hello, beautiful!

Later in the day, after rehearsal with the band, I tagged along with our bassist Colyn for an album release party in the East Village. I love Brooklyn but the East Village, where I lived for years, will always be my first home in my heart. Colyn feels the same (she now lives in Inwood).
At some point in the night, we wandered the neighborhood, stopping in some of our fave spots to pick up odds and ends and treats. Including...Lula's Sweet Apothecary.

Lula's is a great vegan ice cream spot that has a wonderful 50's ice cream shoppe vibe. They are super nice and offer you as many tastings as you want. They serve decadent sundaes and they use compostable cups! They are always coming out with new flavors, and rotate their "menu". My fave flavors of theirs is their soft serve cake batter and their mint chocolate chip. Colyn went with a classic chocolate scoop on a cone. It was Colyn's first time at Lula's and she loved it!

I also ran into my friends Dania and Kristy. I LOVE running into friends at vegan spots!

Looking good, ladies!

             

             

We also stopped in Good Beer, a super-cool beer spot with a great selection that offers tastings and snacks, including Field Roast Sausages!! If you haven't tried Field Roasts yet, do. Just. Trust me. Colyn bought some beers for her friends back at the party and a sausage on a yummy roll with mustard for herself.

                                                 She was kind enough to offer me a bite.


On Sunday, after Michelle and I attended my amazing friend Leif's bar pre-opening party (his place is called Donna in Williamsburg, and it's beautiful!!) , our tipsy selves went to the perfect place for  post-drink eats: Foodswings.

                                                                            Yup. Tipsy.


Foodswings is a great place to go to get down and dirty with fast food. It has great milkshakes and drumsticks. Michelle and I ordered their Sweet Southern Fried BBQ drumsticks and Metal Fries (w cheese, buffalo sauce and bleu cheese dressing).

And that concludes my weekend recap! Will post again soon about Earth Day, which is coming up in a few days!

xo,
Ellie