Dirt Candy Disappointment

My friend Natasha visited this weekend so we could go to one of the SIX Pavement shows at summerstage on Thursday. It was a short, but sweet weekend since she was leaving Saturday morning, so I decided to make some reservations at Dirt Candy in the East Village for Friday night. It opened about a year ago, but I hadn't been yet. Natasha is vegan and eating in the city with her almost inevitably takes us to the East Village. Everything good AND vegan is there! When she comes to town I get to test my vegan/vegetarian palate.

The place did not even have a sign out front! How is that for trendy! Also, it was so dark in there that I couldn't get ANY good pictures, but I will post one of the jalapeno hush puppies and maple butter below anyways. I went into the restaurant thinking that the goal was to take one veggie or fruit and create a dish inspired by that. So, if you have a sweet potato you could make a sweet potato glaze, and then a mash, too. But it turns out that I was a little off base. Only a few options were like this.

I have to say the food was OK, but seemed wildly overpriced for what it was. Also, the menu did not have many options. I know the idea is to simplify the menu and have it be market fresh, but one more option would have been nice. We started with the jalapeno hush puppies. Then, I had the tofu broccolini and even though the tofu was perfectly crisped and the orange sauce was delicious, the broccolini and tofu were sadly a little bland.

The place was great for a date and the atmosphere was impressive (complete with a mini-bathroom that is AH-dorable!). However, with all the other great options in EV, it seems unlikely that I will go back. Unless I meet a sexy vegan who hasn't heard about this place yet. The aesthetic definitely makes a good impression.

Lazy Coffee Monday

OK, with this being my second post about coffee you may be starting to realize that I LOVE COFFEE! I drink probably 4 cups a day. We can all debate about how healthy that is, but I think it is safe to say that it is just a necessity in my life. With this Monday being a holiday I had to forego my usual ING Cafe coffee and pick a more laid back destination. I love Monday holidays because I get an extra day to take care of laundry, go grocery shopping, and then spend a good couple of hours at a lovely coffee shop.

One of the reasons I started loving coffee was when I studied abroad in France. It was such a social event, but it was also completely acceptable to sit at a cafe all day with a paper and your tiny espresso cup. An activity that can be enjoyed alone or with company! By god, no wonder I love it so!

Today on my day off I found myself wanting to head down to my fave coffee destination, Irving 71. I would not recommend this place for an all day solo event because sadly the place does not include wifi on their menu which IS a major disappointment. However, if you just want to slowly enjoy your coffee and people watch I have to say it is a perfect solo place to kill a couple of hours. BUT my favorite time to go to the cafe is with friends, sitting outside in the nice weather and slowly sipping coffee and chatting. It really is a great lowkey activity and lends itself well to company.

via Flickr

Now onto the coffee. One of the things that surprised me the most about New York's food scene when I arrived was the lack of good coffee shops with good food. How can this be!! What is a coffee shop without a bagel?? So I was so pleased when I found Irving, who not only have excellent bagels, but a huge menu of breakfast or lunch options. Today I just feasted on a sesame bagel, but the salads are delicious, too.

I think what I like about it most though is it is the laid back coffee shop environment that I miss about all the other cities I have lived in. I always had my spot! And while this one doesn't meet ALL criteria, it will work as my loungey, lazy coffee shop for now.

Brunch Days

Brunch is a sacred thing in NYC and I certainly take part in worshiping it. Every weekend you can walk around the city and see lines outside all of the restaurants. Big groups, small groups. Old and young. Brunch is a beautiful thing. It brings people together. However, as is true for most wonderful things, there is a flip side. It is easy to down FIVE mimosa's at brunch and then realize you are $50 in the hole. How are you to financially keep up!

Don't you worry fellow foodies. I have a solution! My friend Sarah moved to the East Village recently and was dying to try Esperanto, a Brazilian restaurant on the corner of 9th St. and Ave C. I begrudgingly said yes as my bank account is soon to be in the hole. Imagine my surprise when I get there and the sign outside proclaims that brunch in $9.99, including coffee, an alcoholic beverage, and an entree. Woohoo!

via ontheinside.com

On top of being affordable, the whole thing was delicious. I had the huevos rancheros, a staple of mine at brunch, and it was the perfect size and crunch. The entire table of people agreed that the home fries were some of the best they had ever had! Something in that seasoning was just divine. Below is a photo of the eggs benedict and you can see the yummy home fries.

via Flickr

So, moral of the story is, check this place out. The food won't suffer with the affordable price. Stay tuned next week for a birthday report. That's right, I'm turning 26 in 6 days...here we come late 20s!

xoxo

Food, Work & Calories

I'm at work right now. And I'm hungry.

Every day I dutifully eat my Kashi for breakfast and drink my coffee. I either eat my lean cuisine and baby carrots or hop down to one of the healthy lunch options, like hale & hearty,  within a few blocks of work. Usually, I control any hunger with an afternoon cup of decaf and some almonds, but today it seems unbearable. I already decided that I am not going to the gym. I have a paper due this week for school and I need to get home and get at it. This leaves no room for error.

On the days that I don't go to the gym I find myself struggling to eat within my calorie boundaries. On days when I do go to the gym it seems difficult to stay in control AND eat ALL my calories. I could just go splurge on a piece of cake or some mac n' cheese, but I don't want to do that, no matter how tempting. No need to eat it without a reason, right?

I spend a lot of calories on liquor every week, but the past two weeks, with the help of fellow blogger Lynsey,  I have made a conscious decision to cut most of it out (at least during week nights). It's been pretty revelatory to see how many calories are left over when I don't have that extra beer! I mean, WHO struggles with needing more calories in their day...apparently now I do.

Anyways, I realize this might not be in the exact spirit of the blog, but struggling with food is just as important as talking about good food to me. Believe me, I have no problem eating the good stuff when out with friends or celebrating, but there are all those days in between that are worth mentioning. And are a lot harder...

Monday Morning Coffee

Happy Monday everyone! I woke up with a little bit of a cold this morning so let's just say it was rough. I also canceled a date with this guy last night and was feeling kind of crappy about it. Let's not get in the habit of me saying the word date or anything. This was a rare occasion, but it just added to the already difficult morning.  And I'm usually such an earlybird so when I say rough morning chances are I mean it. There is only one cure for these mornings and that is coffee.

Generally I try to drink the crappy coffee that is provided at work, but today I needed something extra. I'm just going to let you in on a little midtown Manhattan secret. There is a place called the ING Cafe on 58th and 2nd ave. Even though it is close to where I live I was always a little hesitant to go in because it's owned by ING the financial firm. But one day my curiosity got the best of me and I walked in. A little starstruck and confused, I was greeted by the super friendly staff who let me know that they carry all Peet's coffee products. Peets! I was in heaven. One coffee for $1.50 later and I was ready for my full week of work...Below you can see a photo of the futuristic decor and one of their faithful employees I snapped with my phone this morning. There isn't too much ambiance with ING being advertised all over the store, but you still can't beat good, cheap coffee without the line of Starbucks. It's my go-to place!

In the summer time the work week is so much harder to get through. Unless it's a scorcher, and we've had quite a few of these this year, I just want to get outside and stay there. Unfortunately, there is zero visible sunlight from my cube. Most days, when it's nice out, I walk the 20 or so blocks to work with my Peet's iced coffee in hand and I swear the day is a teeeeny bit easier.

Vacation on the Other Coast Part Deux

I just returned from vacation. Vacations are always pretty awesome, but I have to say this one topped most of mine (if you don't count my semester abroad). I started out in Seattle and blogged about my awesome restaurant experience there last week. Then I moved on to the rural Pacific Northwest. There was a ton of seafood that I didn't eat, but it seemed to be mostly halibut and salmon. I'm not huge on seafood, but my friend Julia seemed a little disappointed. We learned that the best seafood according to the Canadians that we met came from the east coast in Nova Scotia.

When I was in Vancouver I checked out a bar called Six Acres. It was recommended by a friend of mine. It was a great gastropub with small southern inspired plates and TONS of beer. Apparently the whole southern food thing is new and trendy in Vancouver. Everyone seemed to have it on the menu. Also, the microbrew scene is pretty great. I tried Red Racer, Granville Island Lager, and Piper's Pale Ale. All were light and delicious. I liked Six Acres a lot because of the patio. It was absolutely stunning weather (mid-70s) and surprisingly there were few places with outdoor seating. It made all the difference. Below is a picture of the place.

Next week I will be back in New York with a local blog post. Get ready!

from sixacres.ca

Seattle, Restaurant Zoe, & Vegetarianism

I am on vacation right now so I have perfect inspiration for food. There’s nothing like freeing yourself from your daily routine to get inspired by what you eat. My friend, Julia, and I decided it was time to take a trip together before she started grad school in the Fall and fell off the face of the universe. We decided on a Pacific Northwest trip featuring Seattle, Vancouver Island and Vancouver. I should mention that she lives in Boston and I’m obviously in New York so we rarely see each other anymore. It is pretty amazing that we have managed to stay as close as we have over the past 2.5 years. And yet, maybe it isn’t. She is the perfect bubbly to my overt cynicism and she puts everyone in a good mood. But enough about friendship. Let’s talk food!
 

First our trip took us first to Seattle (where I am now). I was searching the web for weeks trying to find the perfect restaurant there and the problem mostly had to do with narrowing down all of my options. I have been fairly strict with my vegetarianism for EXACTLY one year to date, but lately have been finding myself questioning the decision. I should mention that I was a vegetarian for two years in high school basically because it was cool. This time around there really was a reason. I found myself intrigued by the whole local food movement. I have been a locally grown, organic person for years now, but once I saw Food, Inc (YES, I am one of those!) I realized that I had to try and make a difference, too. So I took meat off the possible choices of food. However, now I think I need to go back to the meat. At least a few times a year.
 

Why, you might ask? Well, not all meat, I will respond. Just meat from locally focused restaurants. Or, local meat that I buy from the farmers market. Meat that meets my high expectations (hah!). We will see how this goes. The truth is I never ate much of it to begin with so I don’t think it will be too hard. And my beliefs about local food are still just as strong as they were a year ago.

So, what does this have to do with vacation, you might ask? Well, everything that I just explained to you was circling through my mind as I looked for restaurants in Seattle. My searches always led me back to one place: Restaurant Zoe.This was a restaurant a friend of mine recommended to me for obvious reasons: our shared name. It turns out that it fits right in with my beliefs, too. Locally grown food. Although a little on the pricey side comparitively, Julia and I set out for an adventure in Belltown.

Restaurant Zoe was downright amazing. Our waitress was awesome and even gave us some live music recommendations for later. The fig sauce that was on my crispy chicken dinner was delicious. It made me realize how long it had been since I had a REALLY good meal. There were amuse bouches between each course and we started with excellent cocktails. I had a twist on a mimosa, but instead of orange juice it had pomegranate juice. Julia branched out a little more with a delicious gin based drink. If anyone is in the Seattle area check this place out.

And so it begins...

It's the beginning of a beautiful thing you are witnessing (I'm speaking to the nonexistent fans out there! That means YOU.). Five Girls One Plate has been brought on by the relentless discussion that the five of us have had over the years about food. We are not foodies, we are not really qualified. But when re-reading the majority of our work email chain conversations it became clear that this has been a main focus in our lives.

What you need to know:

• We are five girls originally from Houston, TX who were bffs in high school
• We all, over a 3 year period, found ourselves living in New York
• We all have totally different professions, different styles, live in different neighborhoods, some are married, some are single, some are happy, some are chronically on edge. You get it, right?
• We meet up once a week after work to eat and we generally have a lot to say about these meetings.

This blog will focus on food and our lives surrounding food. It will not always have to do with all of us being together, but sometimes it will. It will be varied. That's the plan. I think that food has a lot to do with my general outlook on life. Whether I am on a cleanse that will de-bloat me or on a vacation "diet" that could rival a 500 lb man. It speaks a lot about my life in these moments.

I'm going to be the Monday lady. Zoe. That is all you need to know for now I think. The details will come out slowly. It's better that way. I've heard they tell you the best way to form a healthy relationship is to let the crazy out just a little at a time.