Day 3, the final day in NYC! More walking, more exploring, more great food, and more blisters! Eric joked that I had more moleskin on my feet than an ultra marathoner. A word of advice: Do not break in shoes on a trip to NYC!
We picked up a few Christmas gifts at FAO Schwarz, a huge toy store filled with neat things.
Fish’s Eddy…a really cool kitchenware store!
It’s too bad I couldn’t pack much in my suitcase or this store could have been trouble!
I love all of their bright coloured dishware.
Then we ended up at the Union Square Market.
What a GREAT market! This was so much fun.
I picked up something I’ve been looking all over my hometown for…Smoked Paprika!
We got some HOT mulled apple cider. I burned my tongue over all the excitement.
After the market, it was time to eat again! Walk and eat. Eat and walk. This time, we had lunch at Angelica Kitchen.
Eric ordered the cold apple cider and I ordered a veggie juice.
Mid-drink I realized there was a celebrity sitting outside the restaurant! It’s Liev Schreiber from X-men & other films. He was on his cell phone for a good 30 mins or so.
We actually had no idea what his name was so we sent the pic to a friend who quickly identified him for us. :)
I read that his mom raised him a vegetarian, so maybe he had been dining in the restaurant?
To start, we shared the Agrarian Salgado made up of baked rounds of mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and herbed seitan with a parsley-almond pesto centre; topped with dill-tofu sour cream & garnished with piquant marinated kale.
Oh my word this was fantastic!!! One of our fav dishes of the entire trip! It tasted just like a croquette, but only better. The dill sauce was outstanding too.
We also got some sourdough on the side with onion butter.
For Eric’s main, he ordered one of the specials- “Tales of the Onion” made up with savoury quinoa-vegetable croquettes with b’nut squash, carrots, celery, and chopped parsley; crowned with tarragon cream and served over green split pea sauce. It also came with broccoli and roasted turnips garnished with tatsoi and radicchio.
He raved about this dish…as did I. The croquettes were really flavourful and crispy and the sauces went lovely with the dish.
I ordered off the special menu too- the “A-meze-ing Stories” which is a Mediterranean meze plate featuring an assortment of vegetables including grilled portobello and button mushrooms red & green peppers, onions and carrots served with a creamy white-bean basil pate, baked garlic chips, and a spelt-berry salad tossed with a hazelnut kalamata olive-caper pesto. With Brussels sprouts and arugula too. That was a mouthful!!
It was also incredible. I thought the hazelnut olive caper pesto was a really fun idea for a pesto. Normally, I’m not a big olive fan, but I really enjoyed it.
Wait, I just remembered I had more with my meal! A side of sea vegetables and quinoa. :)
With “no room left for dessert”, we each enjoyed some tea before heading out to explore the rest of the afternoon.
However, SOMEHOW we ended up stuffing our faces with vegan baked goods not long after!! I really have no idea how this happened…
Hello Babycakes!
This was our second stop into Babycakes.
It’s a little hole in the wall down some random side street…it took us a while to find it! The interior is really cute, but they have a sign saying no pictures.
I’ve heard great things about the Babycakes’ apple toastie bread as well as the doughnuts, so I picked up an Apple Cranberry Toastie, pumpkin cupcake, and a chocolate crunch doughnut.
Apple cran toastie:
They were all delicious. I think my fav was the toastie bread and Eric’s was the doughnut. Very fresh and sweet, but not overly so. We shared the doughnut and then saved the rest for later…
I also had something else on my list to try from Atlas Cafe in East Village. This is such a fun cafe with a HUGE menu written all over the walls in chalk.
Then, somehow this happened…
We shared a pumpkin cupcake from Babycakes and a Peanut Butter BOMB Brownie (added to clarify about the brownie: by Vegan Treats) as found in Atlas Cafe.
OMG….that brownie!!!!! Check it out.
Here is a better picture of it:
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It’s made up of a thin and dense brownie base topped with a cloud-like peanut butter mousse, a chocolate shell, and a peanut butter drizzle. Heaven.
This brownie is on my must make list. It was one of the best things we tasted on the trip, hands down.Eric doesn’t even like peanut butter and he could not stop gushing over this brownie. If you are near Atlas Cafe anytime soon you gotta order a PB bomb brownie as soon as possible. You won’t regret it!
We ended the trip with a great meal at Pure Food & Wine, followed by a stop at a bar on the way home. It was a great finish to the trip.
For just 3 days, I think we really packed in a lot! Literally. ;)
Has anyone seen my elastic waist pants?
WOW WOW WOW! All that food looks INCREDIBLE! I love all the veg restaurants NYC has to offer! They are such quality establishments!!!!!!
I’m so jealous. I live in BFE South Dakota. NO farmer’s markets, NO organic foods; you say “vegan” or “vegetarian” and the ranchers just laugh in your face. :(
The food you guys are eating looks absolutely amazing… Hope they’re going to provide lots of inspiration for recipes to come :)
Thanks for sharing all these pictures, it was like a little vacation. Somehow I foresee a lot of green monsters in your future :)
Very much enjoyed the NYC blogs. Last day reminds me of our annual trip. I try to get to Union Square market, which is great. Last time, we sought out Angelica’s for the first time with non-veg friends who loved it, as did we. We bought the cook book. The agrarian salgado looks fab. Don’t think it’s in the cookbook, which is out on loan right now. Can’t wait for you to devise and post the recipe when you’ve had a chance to recover. Le Pain Quotidienne is a fave and we squeeze that in at the end and stock up with good breads to take home. We are foodies but we also manage to pack in a gallery or two. BTW, just discovered that smoked paprika is a great addition to sweet potatoes. I made sweet potato “latkes” yesterday and used that as a seasoning – with a few other things. Thanks for blogging and recipes.
That Market looks so neat! I wish the Charleston market was that nice!
Sounds (and looks) like you had an awesome trip! I’m dying to go to NYC and try Babycakes. :)
Ohmygosh, those desserts look incredible! And I love all the shots from the market – so different from how we do things here in Ontario! Your photo recaps are making me think I really, really need to pay a visit to my bestie who relocated to NYC very soon!
All this food sounds so delicious! I went to Angelica’s this summer and had a great meal, though the cornbread I had was really strange…What was the name of the business who sold the signs “be yourself”, etc, at Union Square? I wonder if they have a website – I would love to buy those!
Woah! Celeb sightings! Hahah how cool! :D
That looks like the farmer’s market of my dreams! It seems like big cities always have such a great assortment of vendors. I wish my market had a stall full of spices like that!
Both of your lunches look incredible – so unique and creative!
OH my heavens! That brownie. Please share this recipe when you conquer!
Not sure if you know that the famous John’s is right next door to Angelica Kitchen — Old school Italian joint that recently introduced an entire vegan menu in addition to the standard fare. Liev might have been there :)
It was fun to see my city through your eyes! Glad you had fun!
I hope you got the mint chocolate chip sundae from Pure FOod and Wine – I still dream about that $14 sundae – and the mojito. Oh lord. I want to go back.
And PS – I loved Babycakes. Their GF cupcakes were to die for!!
Wow Angela, your whole trip looked wonderful, but the last day looked extra yummy! It’s funny that your photos look like mine from a recent trip to France…. walk and then stop to eat… walk and then stop to eat! So glad you had a good time!
Wow, how on earth did you narrow down what to see (and eat!)? What eye candy!! And peanut butter brownie bomb notwithstanding (looks soooo good), it’s also great to have a good cup of mulled apple cider! I can’t stand when places offer the powdered stuff.
It looks like you had a lot of fun in NYC! In case you run out of the paprika, the Whole Foods in my area has tons of kinds of paprika (I managed to find sweet, hot and smoked). Perhaps there is one near you that also has them (they come in red tins).
Love Atlas cafe!
Wow, Angela, what an amazing day! I live in Brooklyn and you guys definitely hit some of my favorite places. I can’t believe you fit all that stuff into one day! Also, I used to work as a baker for Body & Soul Bakery. It made my night to see a picture of it on your blog. Glad you guys enjoyed yourselves so much.
Oh that’s cool! I didnt get to try anything as I was full, but how I wish I had! It looked wonderful :)
Well I don’t know about you, but this was definitely MY favorite day of your trip!! ;)
heh :) Yes I did love it!
I love, love, love New York City. Your pictures look delicious!!