Saturday 21 July 2012

NYC - Part 2

This post follows on from my last post about New York City, you can find that right here.

After our ride on the Staten Island Ferry we hopped on the L train to Brooklyn and went in search of lunch. 


We'd been wanting to try Foodswings for years after seeing pictures on blogs and Twitter and we'd spent an extraordinary amount of time drooling over the menu online. Foodswings certainly didn't disappoint, it's exactly the kind of food I love and I went a little crazy! 

I ordered the Drumstick Combo Platter with a side of Creamy Mac n Cheese. 


This was ridiculously awesome, I loved the mac & cheese which was indeed creamy and the seitan drumsticks were the perfect texture & I liked that they even had a "bone"! Unfortunately I kinda regretted ordering the buffalo style drumstick...I had no idea what buffalo sauce was when I ordered it but apparently it's incredibly spicy!! The southern fried drumstick was totally perfect, I loved it and to be honest I was SO stuffed that I don't think I could've managed that third drumstick anyway!

To go alongside this I ordered the Punk Fries, fries with cheese & bacon bits.


Obviously these were amazing, I love chips (sorry, fries!) topped with stuff and next time I want to try the Disco Fries, fries topped with gravy & cheese - yum! Wow, just looking at these pictures is making me really hungry!

Somehow, after quite a lot of walking & shopping, we decided we could squeeze in dessert & we headed for Dun-Well Doughnuts. We got a box of four doughnuts to go and I grabbed a Pride doughnut to eat right there and then.


This turned out to be my favourite out of all the doughnuts I tried. The texture was perfect and I loved the strawberry icing.

I also tried a Brooklyn made Sarsparilla soda. I'd never heard of Sarsparilla or tasted anything like it before but I really liked it. After a little googling it turned out that Sarsparilla is actually Root Beer and this drink started a trip long obsession with the new (to me!) fizzy drink!

The next day, after another morning of exploring and posing by fun American things like this school bus...


Why are school busses in the UK not this fun looking?

...we decided to have a healthy lunch and headed for Angelica Kitchen

I started with a Carrot & Apple juice...


...this was a little heavy on the carrot for me but I was happy to be eating some fruit & veg! Next up, some Miso Soup. This was great, I always love miso soup and this had a decent amount of tofu in it.


I also had the Norimaki...


...it was my first time eating brown rice sushi and I have to say that I didn't love it. I think I'm a bit of a sushi purist these days and I might stick to ordering it in Japanese places!

I'd definitely go back to Angelica Kitchen though, sometimes you just order the wrong stuff! It was a nice chilled place to hang out. Does anyone have any recommendations for what I should try next time?

On our last day in NYC we finally made it to Blossom, we picked Cafe Blossom on Carmine because we fancied somewhere a bit more relaxed than we thought the fancier uptown Blossom location might be. I started the meal with a China Cola, I love trying fun new brands of cola when I'm travelling & I needed the sugar hit because I was starving!


We ordered these Herbed Cashew Cheese dumplings to share to start with and they were fantastic. I was pretty sad that we could only have two each and I was definitely tempted to order a second plate!


We deliberated for a really long time before deciding on our mains because the whole menu looked amazing. We eventually decided to share & chose the Tofu Benedict with housemade cornbread, grilled asparagus and ham...


...and the Southern Fried Seitan with herb and cheese biscuits, gravy and sautéed dandelion greens.


This is seriously one of the best meals I've ever eaten. Just looking at it's making me want to fly to New York so that I can eat it over & over again. I've never had a tofu benedict on anything other than an English muffin before and I have to say that the cornbread is a genius idea, it was perfect. The grilled asparagus was wonderful, I sometimes find asparagus a bit hit and miss and this was definitely a hit. I loved the slightly smoky ham and the cheesy sauce too... basically the whole plate of food was brilliant, BUT I think that the seitan dish might have been even better! I have honestly never eaten such amazing seitan, the texture was so close to the texture of chicken that if we handn't have been at a veggie restaurant I'd have insisted that it was real chicken & sent it back...I'm almost kidding, but really, it was crazy good! The breading on the seitan was wonderfully crispy, the herbed cheese biscuit was fluffy, the gravy was great, everything was perfectly seasoned and I'd never tried dandelion greens before so that was fun too!

I think that Blossom on Carmine is definitely at the top of my list of favourite NYC places to eat, it was upscale food in a relaxed atmosphere which reminded me of one of my Brighton favourites Terre a Terre. I can't wait go back to try all of their other locations!

Next up on our awesome American adventure we pick up the hire car & head for Boston...

16 comments:

  1. Aaah,the seitan drumsticks and mac n cheese look so good! What was the 'bone' made from? I keep meaning to try Amy's mac n cheese as is the only pre-made equivalent have found in the uk. The healthy juice and sushi look tasty too...but when in america ;P

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you liked Angelica's food, you might also enjoy their cookbook - The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, by Peter Berley, who is the founder of Angelica. I normally do not like vegetarian cookbooks because I am vegan, but this cookbook is excellent and the non-vegan ingredients are easily subbed (he has a thing about butter, and we know that's an easy thing to substitute for). The recipes are really well-written -- the order of the ingredient list, the description of exactly what to do to ensure the chef's vision of the meal.

    Also, I love China Cola! I'm glad you enjoyed it, too! I haven't been to Blossom or Cafe Blossom yet, but your review and pics puts them on my NYC bucket list!

    Finally, I totally agree about brown rice in sushi...not my favorite thing, either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to check out their cookbook.

      Delete
  3. Blossom looks amazing! I had the chili at Angelica Kitchen and I loved it, mainly because it came with a ton of cornbread. We had the cheese fries at Foodwings too (among a LOT of other stuff!) and we ate so much that we had to leave the gig we went to afterwards because we were too sleepy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously, Foodswings was ridiculous! After that & the donuts we spent the rest of the evening lying in the hotel watching movies because we could hardly move!

      Delete
  4. Gah...I now want to book a one way ticket to New York!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've had that benedict at Cafe Blossom (or at least I stole a few bites from my dining mate) totally delicious.

    When you're in Boston there are so many great places to eat (most of them outside metro boston) let me know if you want any recommendations, we just visited there in April. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately the trip is now over & I'm writing all of this from Brighton. I loved Boston though & I can't wait to go back to try the places we didn't have time for.

      Delete
  6. Angelica is one of my favorite restaurants! My husband and I went there on our first date. We always order one of the specials and are never disappointed. I also love the chai tea, and any dessert I've ever had. The nut brittle is AMAZING.

    ReplyDelete
  7. this all looks so so good! the US is so great for vegan food...

    ReplyDelete
  8. OMG, that drumstick combo platter looks amazing! Big fan of root beer and donuts too. And the food at Blossom, wow! What a fun trip of eating a lot of yummy looking food! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Everything looks sooooo good! I'm going to NYC next year and I CANNOT WAIT to eat all the delicious food they have. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's funny--I just look past our buses. I never think of them as unique. I have to say Angelica Kitchen is not my fave though it is an NYC standby. I think healthy food does not have to taste so "crunched out" and I think all of their food just tastes bland. Great atmosphere though. And yes, Blossom is the best, isn't it? You'll have to swing by Philly next time you're here. We're only a train ride from NYC with lots of great vegan places.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So many amazing meals! I've never even had a tofu benedict, but now I really want to try and make one.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I really don't get why everyone likes Angelica's so much, I also find the food bland and boring, having tried it several times so I don't think you necessarily ordered badly. Now if I have to go there I'll have the special, I find that is always the most interesting dish.

    Glad you loved Blossom on Carmine, I do too! I adore all the Blossoms and both Candles, their seitan is always amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Funny. We also went to NY. I had this very long list of all the restaurants I wanted to visit. It seems you went to all the ones I didn't make (see my blog). Except Café Blossom on Carmine. For us was this next to Champs in Brooklyn also the best. Really amazingly good tasting food.

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me!