At least a few times a year, I have my mind blown by a meal. Rarely, I happen to have been the architect of that meal, which is always a cause for blushing pride. But more often than not, it’s because I’ve been lucky enough to sit at the table of a truly extraordinary restauranteur. I’ve had a few such meals this year. Recently, I was a lucky guest at Elizabeth’s Gone Raw in D.C.. A few months before that, I had the great pleasure of having dinner at Portobello in Portland with the VegNews team. What a night that was! I’m still fantasizing about the gnocchi.

A few nights ago, I had the privilege of yet another extraordinary dining experience. As you’ll see in a moment, it was slightly different from any other great restaurant meals I’ve had lately, in that it was intimate and blended the best of gourmet raw cuisine with a welcoming environment. But it has instantly been filed away under “meals to remember forever.” And it’s all thanks to Jamie Graber, the innovative, inspiring, and confident owner of Gingersnap’s Organic.

Gingersnap’s Organic is the latest and greatest raw foods restaurant to hit New York City’s East Village. Though all of the foods served are raw, vegan, and gluten-free (the only ingredients that are not 100% raw are two of the spices used, which by my estimation still puts the restaurant firmly in the “raw” category), Gingersnap’s isn’t marketed exclusively to the raw or vegan audience. Instead, it’s labeled as “handcrafted conscious cuisine.” This is the right choice of words, because everything at Gingersnap’s—from the tables and chairs to the floor to the food—has been crafted with love and care.

Jamie, the energetic, hip, and glowing Gingersnap after whom the restaurant takes its name (she’s in the hat, above), is deeply eco-conscious. She has created a dining space that is as earth friendly as a space can be, from the floorboards (which are recycled from an old barn) to the reusable bags, which patrons are asked to return with their next visit. Some plastic packaging is used, but Jamie takes care to limit waste in any other way she can: pulp from almond milk is put to use in burgers, for example. All ingredients at the restaurant are organic, and Jamie takes care to also shop local and fresh. I’ve met many an environmentally-aware restaurateur in my time, but I must confess that I’ve rarely been so struck with a restaurant owner’s passion and conviction as I was by Jamie’s. She’s out to change the way people eat, one meal at a time.

For example: Jamie offers her patrons a special GO cleanse (which I’ll refer to simply as “raw meal delivery service,” since I don’t love the language of “cleansing”). For $50 per day, all participants receive:

• A chia pudding for breakfast
• A giant lunch salad
• An entrée and side salad for dinner
• A dessert pudding
• A green juice ($10 extra)

What a wonderful way for people to explore raw cuisine! And I was mighty impressed with the price; compared to certain other love-ly cleanses (ahem) this is a total steal. Most importantly, it motivates people to stick with raw food for more than a meal or two, and educates them in how to eat raw consistently. Jamie’s vision is to create a restaurant that makes eating raw on the go easy, and caters both to raw foods pros and those who are simply hoping to work more raw dishes into their busy lives.

When I received Jamie’s invitation to visit, I was thrilled. It was also two days before I was due to have dinner with Ms. Jasmin before leaving NYC. Did she want to make Gingersnaps our destination, I asked? She said yes, and we found ourselves meeting there two nights later. I was really impressed with the sleek, yet cozy design:

Great place to meet casually with a friend, or dine solo! The restaurant is designed either for sit-down service or for takeaway: various salads, puddings, and entrees are packaged in the cooler sections, but also available on the restaurant menu.

The restaurant carries a few pressed juices, and it also carries local kombucha:

They also carry fresh coconut water.

Jamie and I took a few moments to talk about her mission with Gingersnap’s Organic, and her history. I asked how long she’d been working with raw foods. She told me that she’d been working in the raw world for about six years, though she had been enticed by and experimented with raw food long before that. In 2007, she was completing a teacher training at YogaWorks, and met a woman who worked with Juliano. She introduced Jamie to Juliano, and she started working for him the next day. In LA, she moved on to managing Euphoria Loves Rawvolution, and then returned to her home of NYC, where she originally founded Gingersnap’s.

The clarity of Jamie’s vision for her business really struck me. In fact, as Jasmin and I left later that evening, I exclaimed “it’s so great to see such a business owner with such clarity and purpose!” (Or something like that.) Jamie is passionate about 1) making raw, organic, vegan food accessible to everyone, 2) creating green spaces, and 3) establishing a raw restaurant that caters to everyone—from sit-down gourmets to students on-the-go. If you ask me, she’s succeeding in all of those goals.

When Jamie asked Jasmin and I if we were hungry, we chuckled and assured Jamie that we could probably handle as much food as she wanted to share with us. I told her to go ahead and bring us the dishes she’s most passionate about. We began with the restaurant’s superfood salad: baby spinach, avocado, sprouts, hemp seeds, dulse, goji-chia dressing.

Crisp, lightly dressed, and full of salty and sweet flavors from the dulse and the dressing. I loved it!

Next, Jamie brought us some of her famous zucchini almond hummus, which was served with daikon and cucumber slices, sesame and tomato crackers with zaatar spices, and olives.

I have so much to say. First, the hummus was (true to promise) amazing. I’ve made zucchini hummus, and I’ve made almond hummus, but never have I hummus-ed the two together. Now I think I’ll have to. Delicious. Meanwhile, the crackers blew. my. mind. I love zaatar spice—in fact, this reminds me that M has some that I’ve yet to experiment with—and it, along with the sundried tomatoes, made these crackers sing. I was enchanted.

Next up came the restaurant’s portobello reuben wrap, served with house made kraut, sundried tomato, Russian dressing, and romaine.

I have spent four years trying to perfect the raw wrap, with truly tepid results. It’s always too thick or too thin, too crispy or too soggy. How Jamie has managed to make a wrap (which is flecked with caraway seeds for authentic “reuben” taste) that is not only all raw and vegan, but also moist, thick, and delicious, I can’t say. But I can say that this was in some ways the highlight of the meal. The kraut and dressing were stellar, too.

For our “entrees,” Jasmin and I each got a tasting plate of the restaurant’s prized dishes. This included (going clockwise on my platter from the kelp noodles) kelp and daikon noodles with sesame-ginger broth, sprouts, shiitake mushroom, kim chee, dulse (this is labeled as “ramen” on the menu), house made pickles, raw pizza with walnut hemp seed crust, sundried tomato, garlic kale,brazil nut ricotta, a thai collard wrap with spicy almonds and pea shoots, and the restaurant’s taco, served with a chili corn flax tortilla, pepitas, guacamole, salsa, and shredded romaine.

Feast your hearts out:

Where to start? Well, I’ll start with the kelp noodles, which blew me away not only because they tasted superb, but because their texture was so, so soft. When I asked Jamie how they manage to soften them that much, she said that they massage them. I guess if massaging kale is the key to its raw success, the same might be true of kelp noodles, which I personally love, but many people find too crunchy. I’ll have to try this tip out for myself!

I was immediately won over by the taco, which was perfectly seasoned and also gave me a perfect bite of the quintessential Gena comfort food: guac. But Jasmin and I both spent the most time sighing over the pizza, which was bursting with flavor. The brazil nut ricotta was super lemony, which immediately won me over (I’m a bit of a lemon fanatic), and the crust was delectable.

When Jamie announced that it was dessert time, Jasmin and I could have feigned being too full, but who were we kidding? We were dying to taste Jamie’s dessert creations! Little did we know we’d get not one, but three of them to savor. First, a vanilla chia pudding that instantly won me over with its creamy texture and lack of overt sweetness (as a side note, the restaurant uses no agave, which means that desserts have the more subtle sweetness of dates). There was also a mango pudding made with young coconut, coconut oil, and mango that was to die for. So, so delicious—it was almost reminiscent of coconut butter, which I love.

Finally, Jamie brought us a slice of gingersnap pie (perfectly spiced, hopelessly creamy), adorned with a slice of candied lemon.

It was insane. Like the best pumpkin cheesecake I’d ever had, except better. And the crust, like our chia pudding, was only sensibly sweet, not a sugar overdose.

At the end of the meal, as I gushed to Jamie and praised the hardworking chef who had been at her side that night, I could help but pick up some of the raw zaatar crackers:

…which are sold at the restaurant along with kale chips and other dehydrated treats.

I’ve been to gourmet raw restaurants before, and I’ve been to more casual raw spots. What makes Gingersnap’s truly special—aside from the conscious ethos—is it’s range. Whether you want a quick salad to go, a kombucha and chia pudding for a late night snack, or a full-blown, gourmet raw experience, Jamie can deliver it to you. This is the finest kind of raw foods experience—both stunning and accessible—and it’s now yet another reason why I <3 New York.

After dinner, with only a few nights left in the city, I couldn’t help but stop by another great raw culinary mecca, Pure Food and Wine, for an after dinner “mocktail” with Jasmin. This was in keeping with tradition: the first time Jasmin and I met, we sipped upon mocktails at Portobello:

This time, we sipped upon a virgin passion fruit juice cocktail and a virgin mojito inside the sexy and sleek interior of Pure Food and Wine:

The drinks were great—proof that a truly artful cocktail can hold its own without booze—and the wonderful bartender was kind enough to adjust the price for a non-alcoholic rendition. That’s a rare show of decency at an NYC bar!

In all, this was a magical night of dinking and drinking and conversation. Thank you, Jamie, for having welcomed me to Gingersnap’s Organic, and for having shared your vision with me. I hope New Yorkers everywhere will soon be participating in it.

Gingersnap’s Organics is located on 7th Street between Avenues 1st Avenue and Avenue A. To see the menu, learn about the fabulous “Go Food Delivery Service,” or connect with Jamie, visit the restaurant’s website.

xo

My friend Rose and I have a dinner tradition. We meet at Moustache Pitza in Greenwich Village, and we feast on hummus. A lot of hummus. Unseemly, unladylike, unfathomable amounts of hummus. See this spread, below?

That’s a fairly average first course for us. The hummus servings at Moustache are quite liberal. You will notice that we’ve ordered three of them.

Though technically much more than a hummus joint, Moustache is worth going to solely for its pureed chickpeas, which are perfectly seasoned, silky smooth, brightly flavored with lemon, and dusted with good olive oil. The babaganoush is also a thing of beauty: so incredibly smoky and sweet (I have yet to make a batch of babaganoush the authentic way: I’ll have to try). When you’re like me, and you consider hummus a food group, dining at a place like Moustache is a rare treat. I usually just order 2-3 hummus servings, and eat them with a simple salad and pita or a chickpea and spinach dish. When food is this flavorful, you don’t need it to be fancy.

I found myself at Moustache two nights ago, catching up with Rose for the first time in months. As I’ve mentioned before, Rose is very dear to me—one of my closest friends, and also one of the smartest and most insightful people I know. I have missed her tremendously in DC, so it was wonderful to sit, to feast on hummus continually for hours (we ordered more tomatoes and pita so that we could keep dipping and dining), and to talk about 2011. And the folks at Moustache allowed us—as they always do—to linger long into the evening.

While not explicitly vegan, Moustache also offers a number of cooked vegan dishes and pitza options—just check out the menu, here. If you’re in NYC or visiting, and you want to dine someplace that’s omni friendly but focused heavily on pureed legumes, I can’t recommend this cozy, charming space enough. It’s always a first stop when I get home.

Today, I traded cumin for curry, and came up with the following oh-so-simple slaw. As I’ve mentioned, my Mom hasn’t got any fancy raw kitchen gear here, so I’ve been focusing on salads, soups, and slaws. This salad—curried carrot and raisin slaw—isn’t exactly creative, but I’d never made one like it before, and it was very tasty. I made it to serve 2, but you could double the recipe easily. And like most slaws, flavors will improve and deepen if you let it sit overnight.

Curried Carrot Raisin Slaw (vegan, raw, gluten and soy free)

Serves 2

8 carrots, grated
2 oz raisins (about a heaping 1/3 cup)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp agave
1/4 tsp sea salt
pepper

1) Mix carrots and raisins. You may need to give the carrots a squeeze to remove some excess moisture.

2) Whisk together oil, vinegar, curry, agave, and salt.

3) Pour dressing over carrots and let marinate for at least a few hours.

Simple and delicious.

Though not a meal sized salad by any means, this could go nicely in another salad, or you can serve it as a fresh, raw side dish to any raw or cooked meal. It’s tangy, sweet, and hits an unexpected note with the curry—no boring mayo slaw dressing here!

With that, I get to meet the wonderful Melissa for dinner at Blossom tonight. Can’t hardly wait. Thanks for the great feedback I’ve gotten so far on the new FAQ’s—please keep it coming! Very helpful to me. See you back here tomorrow.

xo

Hey everyone! Thanks for the immensely kind words about my little Oprah mention. If you’d like to see what three recipe ideas I chose to share, you can check it out online here. You won’t be at all surprised by my picks.

I woke up today to this:

Having spent last night basking in the glow of this:

I love being upstate.

Chloe and I had an original plan to make a recipe together today to post on our blogs jointly. But by the time we woke up, worked out, had a bite, we realized that a day of wandering around the neighboring towns and just reading, relaxing, and enjoying each other’s company sounded much nicer than a cooking project. We decided to venture into Hudson and Chatham—the nearby towns up here—for a little window shopping and food.

Hudson is my train stop when I come up here, so it holds a special place in my heart. Beyond that, it’s full of fantastic antique shops, adorable coffeehouses, and cute boutiques and cafes. I love perusing main street for housewares and good coffee. Chloe and I made our first stop at a small shop that specializes in tea, candles, linens, and other items for the home.

I was particularly charmed (of course) by these letterpress cards, which feature classic American recipes:

I am equally charmed by Chloe’s sparkly and seasonal red nails.

Next, we stopped into Verdigris, a local tea shop. Chloe admired the tea. I admired the chocolate. The shop makes its own finely decorated bars:

And it also features a whole display of possibly my favorite vegan chocolate brand, Taza!!! I have a big Taza review pending for you guys, but I’ll preview it by saying that these stone ground Mexican chocolates—packaged in homage to drinking chocolate—are divine.

Yum. It took all of my willpower to resist buying a bunch of disks; fortunately, I have some at home in DC, so I resisted.

Next up, we stopped by the Olde Hudson specialty food shop, which has a great array of good oils and pastas.

Unfortunately, it also has a lot of artisanal cheese. Not able to handle the smell inside, I lingered on the corner while Chloe compared exotic olive oils. We then continued on to the fabulous Spotty Dog bookstore.

This adorable, independent bookstore is a rare commodity in our age of Amazon, and rarer still because it also has a coffee bar with crazy good espresso AND vegan cookies from the Alternative Baking Company. I was excited to see at least one FSG title in the new releases:

The Marriage Plot, if you haven’t read it yet, is great. And if you happen to have a local bookstore like the Spotty Dog, you can ignore the online shopping link I just gave you!

At this point, we were ready to move our wanderings to Old Chatham, NY. I wanted to pick up some almond milk for my granola and banana tomorrow morning, so we stopped into the local grainery, which is full of specialty grains, legumes, dried fruits, and supplements.

Along with my almond milk, I picked up some dried apples—a favorite snack of mine.

At this point, we were hungry, so we stopped into one of our favorite lunch spots (one of the only lunch spots) in Chatham: Ralph’s Pretty Good Café:

Ralph’s Café is a lot better than pretty good. It features some of the best sandwiches, wraps, and homemade hummus I’ve tasted! And the sandwich options are wide and varied:

I decided to start with a small cup of the daily vegan soup: white bean and rosemary. So glad I did! It was very tasty, and I liked the touch of tomato in the soup base:

Chloe’s soup, behind mine, was a white bean and Andouille soup, which she also enjoyed.

For my entrée, I got the “main” sized mixed veggie salad with a topping of portobello mushroom and a side of hummus. The hummus at Ralph’s is very savory (they add a great mix of herbs) and always heavy on the garlic, but it’s so tasty that I don’t mind. They also give generously sized side portions. That, along with the perfectly sweet balsamic dressing, made this salad a real treat.

Chloe got the grilled veggie sandwich on chiabatta. It took tremendous willpower not to steal her grilled eggplant, which looked awesome.

Our final stop of the day was a delightful surprise. As we were walking to Ralph’s, I noticed this shop:

According to Chloe, Cow Jones Industrials has been in Chatham since 2007, offering a humane and fashion conscious alternative to the many neighboring boutiques that sell Merrells, Uggs, leather boots, leather belts, and wool hats. As you guys know, vegan footwear and apparel is a recent and very strong interest of mine, so I was delighted to learn that an all-vegan boutique has been nestled right under my nose in the heart of Chatham for five years.

Donna, the lovely owner, has a wide array of shoes from Olsen Haus and Cri de Coeur, among other brands, and she also carries ethically sourced shirts, dresses, and scarves.

Pretty cool! Were I not an impoverished student this year, I would certainly have been tempted to pick up a new pair of vegan pumps from Olsen Haus! As it was, I resisted, but I had a lovely time shaking hands with Donna and talking to her briefly about raw dining in NYC. I so admire businesspeople who share a compassionate message, and I am especially impressed by boutique owners who have the guts to compete with the leather-saturated shoe market. Judging by the clientele wandering in and out to admire Donna’s merchandise as we were chatting, she has already managed to share the beauty of vegan fashion with a great many folks. Thanks for saying hi, Donna!

With that, Chloe and I made our way back home for reading and blogging/working. It feels so, so nice to write CR posts without guilt, having just spent a semester trying desperately to squeeze my life as a blogger into tiny pockets of free time between studies. I’ll savor the next few weeks.

On that note, time to make some almond milk hot chocolate and get ready for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Later!

xo

I think Valerie’s gonna like this post!

Why? Because mung bean pancakes and mango kale avocado salad are both signature dishes at Café Green, the highly imperfect, yet deeply loveable little vegan restaurant here in Washington’s Dupont Circle, where you’ll often find me having dinner with friends (most recently, a fun evening with Brendan). Of all of the dishes on that menu, the mung bean pancakes (served with a sweet mustard sauce) and mango kale salad are certainly two of my favorites, though I’m leaning lately toward the raw pizza and beet n’ berry salad. Anyway, I digress: I first fell in love with mung bean pancakes at CG, and I’ve wanted to make them at home ever since.

These gave me the perfect excuse:

Sprouted mung beans from Tru Roots. I found these at Whole Foods and seized them as my chance to explore the world of mung bean pancake batter, and I’m so very glad that I did.

These pancakes are many wonderful things. They are thick and filling. They are supremely rich in plant-based protein, due a chickpea flour and bean base. They are easy to prepare, impressive to serve, and—since they’re made entirely without glutenous flours—they are also gluten free (and soy free), for my friends with allergies. And they are, most importantly, very tasty.

Most recipes for mung bean pancakes are made similarly to this one: you soak split mung beans in water and blend them up to create a batter. The cool thing about my sprouted mung beans is that they only require 5 minutes of cooking time, and they’re sprouted well enough to be soaked and eaten directly (if you’re a strict raw foodist). This meant that I only soaked them for an hour; if you are making this recipe from regular split mung beans (which will be cheaper), you should soak them overnight.

Off we go.

Mung Bean Pancakes with Mustard Sauce (Vegan, Gluten and Soy Free)

Makes 12 large pancakes, or 4-6 servings

1 1/2 cups mung beans, soaked 8 hours (less if they’re sprouted)
2 cups water
2/3 cups chickpea flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp tamari
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 small (or 1/2 large) chopped onion
1 small chopped bell pepper

1) Placed soaked beans, water, flours, and baking soda in a good blender and blend till totally smooth. If the batter is too thin, add a little flour; if it’s too thick, add some water. You want a thick but easy to pour consistency, just as you’d want for regular pancakes, but maybe even a touch thicker.

2) Transfer batter to a large bowl. Add tamari, vinegar, sesame oil, agave, onion, and peppers.

3) Heat a large skillet to medium/high, and drop batter by 1/3 cup heaps. Cook till you see bubbles on one side of the pancake; flip, and cook some till second side is golden brown. Serve with mustard sauce, below.

Sweet mustard sauce (vegan, gluten free with right mustard)

Makes about 1/4 cup

3 tbsp stoneground mustard (look for a gluten free variety if this is a particular concern for you)
1 1/2 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1) Whisk all ingredients with a fork, and pour over pancakes.

Mango Kale Avocado Salad (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 2-4

1 bunch curly kale, de-stemmed, chopped, washed, and dried
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 tsps flax oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 cup mango, cut into small cubes
1/2 large avocado cut into cubes

1) With your hands, "massage" the lemon juice, flax and sesame oils, agave, and salt into your kale till it is wilted and nicely coated. Taste the kale–what does it need? I usually add extra lemon, but feel free to add a little more oil, salt, or sweetness, too.

2) Mix in the pepper, mango, and veggies. Toss well to combine. Serve with pancakes!

Just look at all of that vibrant color!

Yum!

This is such a delicious lunch or dinner—the tastes and textures are perfect together, and the meal is filling without without feeling heavy in the slightest. The salad is a little summery, but I actually love summery flavors in winter (don’t hate me, strict locavores!). They’re like a little burst of sun. I can’t wait to make this meal again.

So on that note: exam #1 is over. One down, two to go. Ready, set, study!

xo

PS – Don’t forget that my Alo yoga giveaway ends Weds. And tune in for another incredible holiday giveaway tomorrow!

Folks, a huge thank you for all of the kind comments on my grandmother’s passing. They are deeply appreciated. The service will mostly likely be the weekend after this upcoming one, and until then, I’m celebrating her long and rich life with good memories and thoughts. Thank you for all of the warmth you’ve been sending me.

Earlier this week, I met up with my friend Brendan for dinner. Brendan visits DC and New York pretty regularly, and it’s always a treat when we can share a meal, a walk, or a kombucha. When I found out he’d be here this week, I resolved to steal two hours away from Orgo for dinner at Café Green. Since I wasn’t in the mood to tote my big camera around, I decided that this was also a good opportunity to play with Instagram, which I have just discovered (late to the party, I know) and promptly become obsessed with.

Ah, Café Green. M says that GC is loveable because it’s like the only bar in town, and that’s precisely right: the restaurant can be frustrating and the food can be up and down, but I’ve grown fond and attached, in spite of the fact that raw options are often abundant on the menu and sparse in the kitchen.

Brendan and I have eaten at CG together before, back in September. I was prepared for the restaurant’s lack of preparedness (and uneven food), but Brendan was not: soon after I told him that there was at least a 50% chance that the things we’d want to order would be sold out or not available that night, my prediction proved true, and we both had to chuckle. I also tried the avocado soup that night, which he and I both agreed was super salty (and not very tasty at all). This time around, we had slightly better luck. We started with an order of kale chips:

Which are usually quite good at the restaurant. True to form, they hit the spot, and we enjoyed them a lot.

For my entrée, I got a combination of the beet and berry salad (a really nice mix of roast beets, blueberries and strawberries, and a berry vinaigrette):

And the raw pizza. The raw pizza is definitely my favorite menu item at CG; you may remember my falling in love with it over the summer, when I tried it with Anne. I’m still a fan, but it’s been pretty uneven lately: the last time I ordered it, it was rock hard and tiny: not a great combination.

Well, I’m pleased to say that it was pretty tasty on Tuesday: salty, savory, and topped with perfectly seasoned guac:

Tasty.

Brendan ordered the curry and the Caesar salad. The former was fine, but the latter was really just a pile of romaine topped with Daiya and Veganaise on the side. Not really up to par—I always say that, if there’s one thing vegan and raw restaurants have to get right, it’s the salad! Even so, we were both perfectly pleased with our meals, and any imperfections thereto were quickly forgotten as we caught up on work and life. And attempted to take a photo for our mutual Twitter feeds with Brendan’s blackberry. I think he actually did a good job!

Brendan is about to launch is newest exciting endeavor: Thrive Foods Direct, a program where you’ll be able to three nutrient dense, plant-based, organic, whole meals (in keeping with Brendan’s nutritional philosophy) delivered to your door, office, hotel, or school every day.

Brendan’s goal is to grant people all over the country—especially people who have limited kitchen space or time—access to organic, plant based fare. He’s directly in touch with the farmers and producers of the food that will be prepared, and the recipes are based on those in his newest book, Thrive Foods. His goal is to keep the prices comparable to what one would spend shopping for produce and preparing independently—except in this case, you have an online collective of people who are getting food directly from farmers, minus the cooking and prep. It’s a great option for busy people who are looking to transition into plant based diet, who haven’t quite perfected kitchen skills of their own, and for those who travel a lot.

Best of all, Brendan hopes to include recipes and how-to’s with the food, so that the home chef can ultimately learn to do it on his or her own—the meal delivery isn’t meant to create dependence, but rather to serve as a starting point for wholesale lifestyle change. Check it out!

Other community news: the wonderful women of Our Hen House are celebrating their 100th podcast! It will air this Saturday and feature two of my heroes: Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Peter Singer. Talk about uniting the worlds of food, philosophy, and advocacy! All OHH podcasts are available as free downloads, and I really urge you to tune in for this one.

Back to the Orgo grind. But please come back tomorrow, as I’ll be hosting what I’m sure will be my most popular giveaway yet. Hint? Yoga clothes. Really great ones. See you tomorrow.

xo

To all the med students, grad students, overachievers, students, parents, and fellow bloggers who commented yesterday: thank you. I cannot tell you how much your encouragement meant to me. Thanks especially to my rockstar med student readers who chimed in – I am so grateful for your perspective, and you give me a lot of hope for my own future.

I’m back today with less serious stuff: food. It seems that my favorite franchise restaurant—Le Pain Quotidien—is getting better and better with each of my visits. By better, I mean not only that the food seems superior, but also that the range of vegan options multiplies and gets more interesting. LPQ has always been a place I could rely on for generously sized salads, vegan soups, and vegan tartines. But now there are vegan entrees (such as a seared quinoa cake, or a roast brussels sprouts and tofu dish), salads packed with nutrient density (such as the red quinoa salad), and even vegan pastries and baked goods (the hazelnut flute and the vegan cherry flax scone are two of my faves). Soy milk is always on the menu, to pair with the superb coffee, and I’ve never been to a LPQ where they weren’t happy to offer me extra avocado with my food. That’s about all it takes for my heart to melt.

On Friday evening, Valerie and I convened at LPQ for one of our ritual dinners. Valerie’s blog slogan is “the art of healthy urban living,” and it used to be something that ended with “smiling amid urban chaos.” Both of those statements personify Valerie and her effect on people: in spite of the fact that she is a busy attorney, and I am a busy post-bacc, we manage to squeeze in meals and “micro-breaks” when we can, and whenever we do, it’s as if time has stopped for a little while. We laugh, gossip, reminisce, and talk about food: what could be healthier than that?

Valerie is a gluten free eater, and we’ve tried out a few restaurants together that have excellent GF practices: you may have seen our meal at Open City, and we’ve gone to Café Green together quite a few times. Valerie noted on Friday that LPQ was one of the first restaurants she could go to when she had just become GF where they knew what GF was, and this is still the case.

Valerie and I arrived hungry, and started with the white bean dip and the hummus:

Both were delicious. I enjoyed mixing the tomato, pesto, and white beans into the white bean dip, to give it texture and a fresh bite of herbs:

With our entrees, we each got a side salad:

My first entrée was a newish item on the menu: a quinoa cake, seared and served with tomato, avocado, and pesto. I was excited for this, but I have to confess that, when it arrived, I was surprised with it. It was breaded and fried (maybe not deep fried, but pan fried so completely that it might as well have been deep fried), and very few fresh vegetables arrived with it. (The avocado was generous.) Not one to stick out an entrée I don’t like, I sent it back and offered to pay for it—I explained that it wasn’t what I’d expected, but that it wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. Fortunately, the restaurant graciously let me change my order free of charge. I went with the buckwheat crusted, gluten free vegetable quiche, which Valerie had also ordered.

Delicious! Three layers of vegetable puree, a buckwheat crust that’s thin and light, and a roasted artichoke on top. Plus, more greens!

As awkward as it can be to send a dish back, this was one of those instances where I’m so, so glad I did: I enjoyed every bite, and wouldn’t have if I’d kept the quinoa cake. Now I get to brainstorm on how to re-create this dish on my own!

I love how gracious, accommodating, and delicious LPQ is, but what I love most of all about the restaurant is how innovative it is with vegan food. So many restaurants in DC have a token vegetarian dish or two, seemingly out of obligation, but LPQ actually embraces, explores, and excels at vegan cooking. I’m looking forward to my next visit!

And I’m also looking forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

xo

Top image courtesy of The Prince of Petworth blog.

Warning: this post might make you jealous. I have eaten at NYC’s famous Candle Café two days in a row.

I didn’t plan on it. Exactly. I had plans to have a Mom-daughter dinner on Saturday night, and Candle was my restaurant of choice. I am never—and I do mean never—disappointed with a meal there (granted, I nearly always get the same meal, but still! Consistency takes talent), and besides that, I love the ambiance, the warmth, the friendly and kind waitstaff, and the green juice. Nuff said.

This was my Mom’s first time dining at Candle with me, so I was excited to watch her peruse and choose from the menu. She settled on a glass of Syrah and the chanterelle mushroom risotto with cashew cream:

I helped myself to a bite, and oh my lord, am I glad I did. This risotto was mind-bogglingly good; possibly the best I’ve ever had. My Mom immediately declared that it was one of the best she’s ever had, too (and my mother adores risotto) and that she’d never have known it was vegan if she’d tasted it outside of a vegan restaurant. Win!

I went for something a little more standardly Gena-ish, starting with the house salad and cumin vinaigrette:

You really can’t beat fresh (and grilled) hearts of palm.

Next, I did my standard entrée, which is the “good food plate” (four sides and two dressings). This one might have been my favorite yet: quinoa veggie pilaf, roasted beets, steamed vegetables, and baked yam:

I opted for a tahini and a creamy cranberry dressing. The latter was spectacular, and I will be trying it out soon for myself.

With bellies full and hearts content, Mom and I caught the crosstown bus home. We did so, however, without my camera (!!). This is the first time in many years of blogging that I’ve ever left my camera anywhere, and I was mortified to realize it this morning. Thankfully, the Candle folks had kindly hung onto it for me (Mark, you rock), and even more thankfully, I was supposed to have lunch with my friend Gabi, who lives on the Upper East Side, anyway. It was fate: I was going back.

This time I started with a green goddess juice:

The thing I love about Candle’s green juices is their very greenness! Other green juices end up all apple and cucumber, and no dark leafies: not these juices. They’re sweet enough for me to handle, but always heavy on greens and ginger. Yum.

I started with a butternut squash soup. Simple and delish:

Gabi and I both moved on to the daily salad: quinoa, pinto beans, green beans, pumpkin seeds, jicama, avocado, and mesclun. I requested the fabulous cumin dressing with mine:

I’m not gonna lie: this cumin dressing puts my own cumin dressing to shame. It really does.

As expected, these were two wonderful meals. But they were more than that: they were a chance to see fellow friends in the vegan community. They were a reminder of how lucky New Yorkers are to have such establishments next door. They were time well spent with people dear to me. And they were really really really good excuses to pick up the new Candle 79 cookbook.

And now, I’m on the bus, on my way back to DC. It’s always very hard for me to leave New York, but this time, it is only for the duration of finals! In three weeks, I’ll return to my stomping grounds. I just need to muster up the energy and determination to get through this final push of the semester. More green juice, I think, is in order.

I’ll greet you all tomorrow, from Washington.

xo

Hello from NYC, everyone!

My time here so far has been a busy mix of schoolwork (sadly, lab reports don’t take Thanksgiving holidays), seeing my closest friends, time with my mother, and catching up on desperately needed sleep. Throughout all of this, I have been eating my heart out, because my access to NYC vegan dining is no longer constant, and I like to take serious advantage when I’m here.

My NYC restaurant tour began on Thanksgiving night, with a holiday meal at Josie’s on the Upper West. I wish I could show you the excellent food I ate: (a roast beet salad, a sweet potato and chickpea dip with vegan cornbread, and for my entrée, a lentil, seitan, and sweet potato loaf with sauteed bok choy. This gets points for being the only seitan I’ve ever eaten that didn’t make me bloated. (Excuse the TMI.) I was a big, big fan.

But the highlight so far has definitely been my meal at Peacefood Cafe last night. Peacefood is the Upper West Side’s newest vegan restaurant, and if you ask me, it is also its coziest and cutest.

I love countless dishes at Peacefood, but highlights for me are the kabocha squash, the kabocha sandwich with sprouts, the tahini sprout sandwich, the raw sushi rolls, and the “fluffy quinoa salad” with white beans and arugula. I also enjoy the juices and smoothies, and my mother is borderline obsessed with the macaroons!

I started my meal with two of the veggie side dishes: Japanese pumpkin (of course) and roast brussels sprouts (apparently my vegan stuffing has not fully satisfied my sprout cravings).

Determined to stuff myself, I also decided to explore Peacefood’s new offering of raw entrees! I am so thrilled that they’ve expanded their raw menu, all with the help of the generous and friendly new raw chef, Kai. I opted for lasagna, and I loved it!

Most raw lasagna I’ve had is really a vegetable carpaccio with nut cheese; this one actually feels like lasagna! The layers are thick, the marinara is very authentic, and the pesto was perfectly seasoned:

I was so impressed! It’s fantastic to know that a local eatery (well OK, it’s not exactly local, but I consider myself a part time Upper West Sider!) is now carrying great raw dining options. Also on the menu are a raw spaghtetti with cream sauce, raw nori rolls, raw crackers and sunflower seed dip, and raw pizza with buckwheat, quinoa, and sweet potato crust (I’m trying that next; curious to see how it stacks up to Café Green’s).

As an added bonus, I got to chat with Kai, who is incredibly sweet.

What a fantastic dining experience (so good, that I returned for lunch+juice today). I’m excited to spend more time at Peacefood over winter break. Along with so many other spots!

But here’s what really makes me love being home. Waking up in the morning to fully loaded coffee maker, a spoon and my very favorite Statue of Liberty mug, a note from my Mom that says “coffee is ready!” It’s the little things.

Happy weekend, everyone.

xo

On Friday night, I had the pleasure of a unique DC dining experience: dinner at Elizabeth’s Gone Raw.

It is an unbelievable fact that, in the many months I’ve now lived in DC, I have not yet had a chance to try DC’s only raw, vegan restaurant. I blame this on a few things: school, budget, timing, negligence. Fortunately for me, Elizabeth Petty, the elegant and gracious founder of Elizabeth’s Gone Raw, invited me to the restaurant for a raw dinner on Friday night. With the enthusiasm of a raw foodie who hasn’t eaten so much as a bite of raw restaurant food in months, I said yes.

I’ll be honest: when you’ve lived in NYC for a while—thus had Pure Food and Wine, Bonobos, Quintessence, and a host of other raw restaurants at your fingertips—you become a little immune to the wonder of raw restaurant dining. You forget that the chefs have been dehydrating things for days. You forget that they’re relying on such simple and delicate ingredients that they—more than any other chefs, perhaps—must labor to get flavors just right. You forget that these restaurants are almost always organic, and primarily local, which means that they’re paying premium so that you, the diner, can eat with a sense of assurance about the origins of your food. And you forget how much sheer creativity raw food demands.

Eating at Elizabeth’s on Friday reminded me of all that. I’d go so far as to say that it reminded me of why I love raw food in the first place.

When I arrived at Elizabeth’s, I was immediately greeted by the restaurateur herself, who was busy seating guests. Elizabeth’s interest in raw food goes beyond mere culinary inclination: several years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her raw foods journey has been a part of her healing process.

For Elizabeth (as for many of us), raw foods are about so much more than pretty skin or bright eyes: they’re also a means of learning to appreciate good health, vibrant energy, and a reinvented relationship with food. I love that Elizabeth has invested this dining space with personal passion. Beyond that, Elizabeth has studied at Hippocrates and comes from a restaurant background, so EGR is a natural marriage of her history and talents.

As I waited to be seated, I munched on some of the best kale chips I’ve ever had:

I may or may not have gotten an order of seconds when I was seated at my table.

The ambiance at EGR—which is situated in a lovely, restored townhouse—is very elegant. I haven’t had a meal that declares “fine dining” so clearly in a long time.

Elizabeth’s is only open on Friday nights, and they serve patrons only with a five course tasting menu that is designed around local produce each week. As a diner, an experience at EGR means putting yourself in the hands of the chef. This is not something that’s easy for me: picky eater that I am, I like to have control over what my dinner will be, and this is never more true than when I eat raw, because I happen to know my own raw palate so very well. With that said, I couldn’t have picked out a lovelier—or more Gena-ppropriate—menu for dinner on Friday. It was fresh, elegant, and the portion sizes were spot on.

We started with a cream of celeriac soup, warmed in the Vitamix, and served up with an orange relish and black sesame seeds.

The soup might have been a tiny bit thicker, but then, I appreciated that I was not dipping into a giant bowl of cashew cream, which is how a lot of raw soup feels. Moreover, the flavors were fantastic: I loved how the sweet and bitter bite of orange peel brought life to the creamy, calm celeriac. And the contrast in texture was also great: it’s key in raw, blended soups!

Next was our salad course: sunflower seeds, avocado, and a raw cracker.

Because I’m me, this was probably my favorite course of the night. Avocado? A gingery dressing? Sunflower sprouts?! Be still my heart. Sunflower sprouts are the queens of sproutland—so dense, filling, and rich in protein—and I cannot find them anywhere in DC. Anywhere! Elizabeth grows her own, and uses them at the restaurant, which gave my enjoyment of this dish a personal touch.

We were served a small refresher sorbet:

And then it was time for our entrée. Remember what I made for dinner a few nights ago?

This would be the all raw version:

Beet Carpaccio with garlicky cashew cheese and fresh dill. Along with a green sauce that blew my mind, whatever it was. (I should know what it was. EGR prints every single ingredient on the back of the menu—a transparency that I absolutely love.)

So many raw entrees err on the side of excess: too much fat, too much spice, too much stuff. I realize that these dishes may be trying to compensate for a lack of animal protein, and that this is a good thing for mainstream diners, but I’ll always feel that the best raw food is also the most minimalist. This dish was bursting with flavor, but it was also light, bright, and simple, so that I enjoyed every note of fresh dill and ever sweet bite of beet. Delicious.

Thankfully, I saved room for dessert:

Raw, vegan pumpkin pie. Having glanced at the ingredients, I will tell you that it contains no pumpkin (thank goodness, because raw pumpkin, in my experience, is a little too raw) and I will also tell you that I plan on trying to imitate it. Soon. It was spectacular: spicy, and very sweet.

I thanked Elizabeth for a great meal:

…and for bringing a slice of the raw community to me. Here in DC, I don’t have the support of Dhru, Philip, and the WLIR meet up folks; I don’t have a thriving juice scene, or a restaurant and takeaway around the corner from work that exceeds my wildest dreams (Sarma, I heart you). The vegan scene in DC is small, and the raw scene far smaller. Eating at EGR reminded me that we raw foods lovers have strength in numbers, wherever we may be, and that we’re always thrilled to connect over kale.

Over dinner, I was asked “what is it you love so much about raw food?” I’ve been writing about the semi-raw life for so long that I actually paused to consider that answer.

“They’re light and bright,” I said. “They’re simple. You have to season everything perfectly, because you can’t hide under heat and and processing and fat. They’re healthy. And they’re so, so, creative—to make raw food great, you have to bring so much ingenuity to what you do.”

Thanks to Elizabeth and Ares and the EGR staff for reminding me why I happen to be a raw foods lover. Thanks, too, for your hospitality and kindness. In general, I love to have some choice in the matter of what I eat, so prefix tasting menus really aren’t my ideal. But if they always taste this good, I’ll stand corrected. Anytime.

xo

Hey all! Glad the dilly white bean and beet stacks look so good. Winning recipe!

I’m back with a quick review of some new raw, vegan treats from one of the country’s most acclaimed raw, vegan dining spots: Café Gratitude. You may remember when I finally dined here, during my San Fran trip last fall, with my friend Amanda:

What a meal that was! Heaping bowls of perfectly prepared, raw-foodist worthy salad, crackers galore, and dressings that made my heart sing. At the time, though, my friend Bitt chastised me for not ordering one of the café’s famous raw desserts. In my defense, I said, I rarely ever order desserts in restaurants, because it’s not my favorite course, and I really prefer to save my pennies for a sumptuous entrée. That was sound, but slightly parsimonious logic.

Thankfully, a year later, I have a chance to taste at least a few of the café’s goodies. The folks at Café Gratitude were kind enough to send me some of their raw cookies and granola to review. The good news is that I loved them all; the bad news is that I loved them so much that I ate nearly all of them before I had a chance to blog about them. The granola was superb—not overly heavy on nuts (it’s a dried apple and buckwheat base) and just the right amount of sweetness. I’m determined to try my own version here at home. The chocolate cookies (a simple nut and date mix) were exactly to my liking. And the two highlights—which I did manage to save for blog purposes—were the lemon coconut cookies and the raspberry thumbprints.

As you can see, these cookies are a wonderful sweet and sticky mixture of coconut, lemon, and date. They are very tart, rather than overpoweringly sweet. Given my fondness for lemon in everything, I adored these.

But the highlight was the thumbprint cookies:

It’s not easy to make raw cookies look quite so realistic (I’m sure the Twins could do it). These are basically a dead ringer for the thumbprint cookies you remember from childhood, only quite a bit denser. And much, much healthier: no butter, no eggs, no cholesterol. Just the wholesome sweetness of nuts and dried fruit. I loved them. And I have precisely six left, which I intend to savor, one at a time.

Added bonus? Nutrition data is included on the cookies, and none of them are overwhelmingly high in either fat or sugar. For serious. Even raw desserts tend to be heavy on both counts, so these are very outstanding examples of raw vegan treats prepared with a lighter touch.

Café Gratitude’s snacks aren’t available widely on the East Coast yet (though there is a big list of California stores that carry them). But if you want a taste, tell your local health food stores about the products: they can visit the CG website get set up to carry the goods. If it were up to me, I’d eat these cookies daily, so maybe Yes Markets are listening.

Thanks, Café Gratitude, for continuing to be a leader of taste and talent in the raw vegan world. We are all grateful!

Finally: for local readers who are interested, or anyone who plans to visit DC in the near future, I’ve got a comprehensive DC vegan dining guide up over at my friend Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Life website. You’ll recognize some of the spots, but others will probably be new to you. Check it out!

And, quite appropriately, I’ll be back here soon with a recap of a very special raw foods dining experience. Till then!

xo