Monday, March 31, 2008

Bonobos in New York City, New York.

I know its weird to start the blog with a new york city vegan restaurant review, but I don't have any photo of my recent dining at a portland vegan joint.
Tapa, sushi (assorted du jour)

White & Black Sesame Ball, Coconut Chai Water

One place you can guaranteed to get cheap raw food in Manhattan is Bonobos. Its a cafeteria styled restaurant with refrigerator filled with home made raw juices from Thai Coconut Water to Warm Coconut Chai. Each drink costs about $2 to $3.50, small plastic recyclable bottles. You can see all the food that is behind the glass, like a salad bar except with people catering you the portion. My friend and I decided to try the raw sushi entree (tapa of the day) with the salad and citrus vinaigrette, $8. The sushi was not too blend and pretty savory. Instead of rice they used sprouted cous cous curried up with some raw vegetables that I couldn't see specifically. There might have been avocado and watercress leaves. Definitely not filling even for one, but we changed our mind when we got the dessert. We got a black and white sesame ball, $2 each. The sesame ball is so thick and soft and flavorful that we instantly filled up our stomach. It was delicious! The Coconut Chai is also ridiculously amazing, but a bit too sweet. So I had to grab a cup of water and mix it up to keep the sweetness down. It was so thick that I felt like I was drinking a jar of maple syrup.

B
100% raw, Monday - Friday 9am-5pm.
18 E. 23rd Street, NYC, NY.
http://www.bonobosrestaurant.com

March Saturday Brunch

I started holding Saturday (sometimes Sunday) morning vegan brunch at my apartment. I would invite friends to come over knit or play scrabble while I cook up a meal with my boyfriend. Here're some of the highlights from the last brunch.

Spelt Blueberry Pancake

Almond Cookie


I made the blueberry pancake with spelt flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla soymilk, ripe banana, vanilla extract, and frozen blueberry. It's to die for! I've also made it wheat-free by using oat flour and rice flour instead. You'll need to use ripe banana to keep the pancake dough consistent and fluffy. The almond cookie was simple enough. I got rice flour mix with barley flour, hint of salt, about two tablespoon of brown rice syrup, almond milk, baking soda, crushed almond and pine nut, and almond extract. They baked super fast! The barley and rice flour keeps the cookie soft on the inside and hard on the outside. I love how the pine nut is a soft texture contrast with the hard cookie surface.

Here's another vegan cheesecake I've made. Blueberry cheesecake! It's delicious!


And the previous vegan mixberry cheescake.

Our first ever vegan cheesecake!















Here it is! Our first vegan cheesecake...mixed berry. Turned out really well. We're going to try some more outrageous flavors as time goes on...more pics to follow.

Not just yelp.

So I wanted to start a food blog, not just on yelp... but more in general with my friend Kim. We aren't sure if calling the blog Veganazi is kosher. Please let us know. It's a test! I got the name from a nickname I used to call my friend Lorelay, who is a vegan queen in LA. Her famous vegan tapas... Unbelievable.