The New Panino & A Brownie Bite

Ever since CandyPenny showed me the cross-section of Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich's vegetarian Banh Mi, I knew I had to check it out. My house special Saigon sub was the perfect stop after a day of errands. Warm, French baguette stuffed with delicious and contrasting textures, temperatures and colors: pickled carrots, cilantro, crunchy cucumber, warm shreds of mushroom and tofu. I sat in front of the tiny shop and chomped down the huge sub ravenously. I'll definitely be returning to Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich for another taste. They have a vegan chicken Banh Mi I'd like to give a whirl.

As I shoved in the remaining nub of baguette into my mouth I thought, why the heck French bread?! Having a grossly inept database of global history, as many Americans do, this popular Vietnamese sandwich made little sense to me. As it turns out the sandwich, once known as the "salad sandwich", comes from the days French colonials occupied Indochina. They mixed their baguettes and mayonnaise with what was sprouting up in Vietnam to create this very popular dish. Flash forward to today in New York City. New York declares the sandwich the new panino... what that means, I can't guess. A Subway version?

Since I was already on Broome street my feet naturally gravitated towards Babycakes. But being a little light in the wallet and heavy in the belly from the foot-long Bahn Mi, I opted for a simple but decadently chocolaty brownie bite. The perfect balancer of the taste buds.

Tempeh Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes

Excitedly, I have been knocking back some of Isa's Vegan Brunch recipes! And I've only just begun... I got plans to fill the remainder of my summer break I/independence weekend with her hearty concoctions. But for now: Chesapeake Bay crab cakes... vegan style with tempeh and some kelp for fishy kick. I ran out of panko so the crab cake glob was a bit moist. They fried up deliciously, topped with remoulade and a squirt of lemon.

Thoreau, soy sauce and shredded tempeh.
This is your brain on diced red peppers.Crab cakes ready to be fried up. Everybody wants some!
Remoulade getting a stir. This sauce has some punch. I prefer a thicker sauce and would mix in some Veganaise next time.
All fried and dressed to kill. These hit the spot. Though I thought they rocked, Wok Man loved them a whole bunch more. Tempeh crab cakes: perfect for the bearded burly guy.

The Hidden Vegan Gem of Ulster County

Must-eat Day Trip series, Number 3
A blog series featuring the country's best upscale vegan restaurants.

There is a New York that is not New York City, not a surrounding suburb and not within the its commuter path. Many call it all "upstate", simplifying it into one homogeneous lump of land. But spending a wonderful weekend about its mountains, farmland and curving state roads, I learned that "I ♥ NY" in a new way. The next few of my blog entries will focus on my upstate jaunt with a gaggle of my nearest/dearest veg-foodie Brooklynite friends.

We came, we saw, we left with grass stains in our hearts. Of course, despite all of our whimsical encounters--with kittens, talking parrots, zombies, parking lot junkies and a variety of intense toll collectors--food ranked high priority and one of the highlights was the Steak-Seafood-Vegan restaurant in Ellenville, NY: Aroma Thyme Bistro.

Not being altogether sure what to make of a restaurant serving vegan food and Porterhouse steaks, we arrived at Aroma Thyme Bistro four hours before they were due to open for Sunday night dinner service. Taking a quick glance at the posted menu in the window we knew we had to wait. Later, when seated, we began to see how special the place was. Aroma Thyme Bistro is the "restaurantification" of the founding chef Marcus Guiliano's health principles, inspired by greens-guru Gary Null. The menu ranges from steaks to vegan entrees, gluten-free to micro-brewed stouts, organic wines to pizza, raw food entrees to Jupiter ionized water. Their list of food guidelines is lengthy, as any progressive restaurant's should be, and includes no white sugar, no white flour, no butter or cream and no fried items. It does, however, contain plenty of wheat-free choices, vegan choices, local organic vegetables, organic grains and beans, natural sweeteners and a good selection of raw foods. Here is the run-down on my eats:

Their fresh bread, hot out of the oven with a dollop of white bean smear. This is bread. This is not.
Puree of Organic Sweet Potato & Yellow Curry Soup. Perfect. In the background, CandyPenny's Golden Beet and Walnut salad.
The not-so photogenic House-made Seiten Cutlets, Smoked Black Pepper & Roasted Tomatoes with organic rice medley and local organic veggies. Cutlets had a great texture, veggies were deliciously fresh..
Dessert! Cooked banana in pure maple syrup and cinnamon. Yum! A scoop of Soy Delicious is a must and pricey at $2.50.


Besides their delicious food, Aroma Thyme Bistro is a certified "green" by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). This means they adhere to the GRA's environmental standards for water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable furnishings/building materials, sustainable food, energy usage, disposables packaging and chemical and pollution reduction. The health-savvy restaurant also has an informative blog to help showcase their food philosophy, health issues related to food (aren't they all?) and their sense of humor.

Woodsnack

Garden Cafe in Woodstock, New York is a wonderful little cafe who's vegan quesadillas are worth the price of a rental car and Triborough Bridge traffic. I recommend the black bean and spinach version to share. I'm usually a great vegan cheese detective but I can't place this vegan cheese. I have been coming the cafe for a few years now and it has remained a tasty, melty smooth perfect uncheese. I always forget to; Mmmm's get in the way.I hate to say that their seitan is a bit chewy, undermarinated and a bit too White Wave the dishs' price tags. After tasting Blossom's port wine seitan, I am a bit more critical of wheat gluten slabs. And I must mention FoodSparrow's passionate plea for us to get over to Candle Cafe for their Porcini Crusted Seitan, her seitan fave.
Dear Blogger, Sometimes when I upload a landscape picture it rotates into portrait format. The deliciousness of this strawberry shortcake cannot be adequately conveyed in this way. But trust me, the messy pile of strawberries, cream and cake was so, so good. (Unless super sweetness is in your daily regiment, I would opt to share this... or suffer embarassing sugar high behaviors.)
In fact, all of our desserts were so good! We stayed out in the garden amidst heavy downpours in order to finish them.
Until next time, Garden Cafe!

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: Carnivals

Carnivals (Napanoch, New York)
June 28, 2009
© Karen Zacconi

Operation: Use the Bananas

Yes, we have tons of bananas! And this morning was devoted to putting them to use before the pesky fruit flies started making love to them. And what better an opportunity to get to know Isa's Vegan Bunch cookbook? So these fermenting ripe ovaries of the Musaceae will be mashed into banana-walnut flapjacks (page 80) and East coast banana-blackberry coffee cake (page 172), which I'll bring along to tomorrow's Vegan Drinks at Angels & Kings.

The pancakes were scrumptious! I left big globs of banana so the moist consistency had them tasting a bit more like French toast than fluffy flapjacks. Fine with me! And my addition of pecans made my breakfast super-hearty.

And the coffee cake. Oh gosh, I bimbo-ed out by accidentally having this bake at 275 rather than 375! I blame Colleen's podcast which I was listening to intently as I prepped. After I tried a wedge I realized it was still a kick-ass cake.
Stats:
Bananas used: 4

Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Mouth

Ok, that is probably the silliest blog title I ever published.
Here is a epicure rundown:

Kate's Joint's vegan French toast. Desperately in need of a pad of Earth Balance... if only the waitress could be found.
Oatmeal raisin cookies from my vegan kitchen.
Sura Thai Kitchen's pad see ew and virgin rolls. This place replaced Ayurveda Cafe as my in-between work and class dinner spot.
Pagoda Thai Restaurant is a recent Graham Avenue addition in my neighborhood. Though I was disappointed with their pad see ew, their mango and sticky rice was fargin' delicious. Lily Thai is where my heart is, however, with the best dumplings in Brooklyn.
Can someone tell Organic Grill to upgrade their Follow Your Heart cheese to Chicago Soydairy Teese? They used to have a really awesome vegan cheddar that was kinda liquidy but perfect in their tofu omelet but then they made the switch to Follow Your Heart. Teese, please?
Pardon my excessive superlatives but Boneshakers makes the best vegan sandwiches in New York City. There, I said it. They also make their own baked goods. Pictured here is the Hill Bomber burger with Teese. Not pictured here is my drool, which coats their menu chalk boards.

Bliss is a Williamsburg staple. But I am hardly ever there. They have great, hearty and balanced food. Here is their vegan breakfast burrito with chili, vegan sour cream and pico de gallo. Perfecto!

To Tie-Dye For

My Food Fight bag and I get around. In fact, the picture to the left was taken by VegNews editor, Aurelia d’Andrea, for their press blog all the way in Ko Chang, Thailand in March 2008. On several occasions, I have been greeted by Portland expats across the country, recognizing the little-vegan-grocer-that-could's signature font. But it has become a bit decrepit. And, ever since it raised an eyebrow amidst the designer bags at my Upper East Side job, I now leave it home, convinced that it is a worthy sacrifice to prevent even more job-related alienation. But really, all it needs is a new look. My cat Frankenstein brings you... the who-the-hell- tie-dyes-anymore makeover!

Nature-Deficit Disorder

Today, while brunching at Bliss and reading the latest issue of Rethinking Schools, I happen across an article discussing Richard Louv's The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder. The book calls for a radical change in how children of today relate to nature. He bases this urgent call on psychological, educational and environmental disconnects that are becoming the norm amongst children... children who consider "play indoors better, 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are" (Peterson).

As a resident of New York City, play indoors is perhaps on a par with play outdoors. Parks, if you live nearby one, are covered in granite, concrete, litter and way too many people. Development is continuous, rising upward and outward. {sigh}

But oh, how I dearly want a garden to tend to, a green space all my own in this slab of city. I daydream of walking out my front door to see grass as far as the eye can see. But in this fantasy even the front door is a stretch. My door opens to a bleak hallway with a Lynchian buzzing fluorescent light and twisted uneven stairs at its end. As far as the eye can see is only about 4 feet: to the bicycle tire-streaked off white wall, to the constant dripping water damaged burnt sienna of the shower from the third floor. Where is the color? Where is life, besides all these damn people? No longer can I stand the stucco, the neutral colors of this temporary home of 5+ years. If I can't get out there now then I'll have to bring it here... Meet the latest additions to my fire escape: sweet basil, Italian parsley, chives, and several strawberry plants. (Rosemary not pictured.)

This is the first day of the rest of my garden's life: June 23, 2009. The plans I have for this space! With my local plant shop discovery, Rose Red & Lavender, I plan to construct an enviable apartment garden on my spacious fire escape. This adorable Williamsburg-based shop, which offers free beginner gardening classes on Saturdays, is filled with amazing gardening goodies and the owner is cordial and helpful, despite my lugging Home Depot garden shop triple-bagged planters into his gorgeous store. And when I say gorgeous... look at this place.
(I am crossing my fingers no one'll need those stairs to escape.) And meet my rain barrel, a huge kitty litter container left curbside rigged with a funnel. Besides being proud of my drill handiwork on this barrell, it'll me help me conserve water while feeding my garden with yummy rain water.

To further inspire, take a look at this greenhouse on wheels. This was spotted down Waterbury street in East Williamsburg.

Nature-deficit disorder, take that! Stay tuned for garden updates.

Coats. Photography Book Published

Coats.

Photographs of color

By Karen Zacconi

Book Preview

Please take a look at my photography book, Coats., published by Blurb. The concept of the book was described in my blog posting from last August:

Returning from evening classes at Brooklyn College via Q train, I sat on the train's last car for an easy connection at Union Square. The Q train runs local in Brooklyn, heading north from Coney Island, over the Manahattan bridge, into Canal Street to run express to Midtown Manhattan. The last car was often quiet and empty. There, I'd catch up on class assignments or neurotically search through my iPod for songs to pass the commute, often gazing through the scratchitti at the passing urban lanscapes and my reflection inside the blackness of tunnels. The train's route hit some dilapidated stations, neglected with grime and several coats of quick-fix paint. The layers of color were peeling, revealing a colorful cross-section of history. These bruises on the walls sometimes seemed sanded or stretched like the knees of blue jeans. I looked forward to seeing them daily as the train rocked forward through Midwood and Flatbush. "This is real abstract expressionism", I thought. Wonderous! Since then, I vowed to return to the dilopitated stations to photograph the walls before a new layer of color covered them up again.

And so Coats. was born. In an all-new 7" by 7" format, the book is available in soft or hardback at a moderate price. The book is pretty posh looking! Blurb is such an amazing tool and I couldn't recommend it more. Such a quality addition to the interweb D.I.Y. movement. If you're interested in self-publishing tools, also give MagCloud a looksie. There you can publish your own slick, glossy magazine.

Happy Dad Day Pink Cake

What better way to say thanks, dad than a lemon layer cake with a strawberry and cream center and lemony-sweet icing? That's right, there is no better way! Adapted from this recipe, my cake was a soft, ultra-moist and delicate sponge of sweetness. Far too much sugar for my tastebuds, I was a bit dizzy after a piece of this party cake. Here are the clicks of the story:

Color!

Let me go a bit more in depth on this natural food coloring set from India Tree (see rainbow cookies below, too). The packaging and containers are reminiscent of the set sold along Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker since childhood and there is a draw there. The coloring, however, is subtle and, as the website notes, meant to color food with the hues of nature. I probably would not shell out $20 to buy this set again and would instead opt for D.I.Y. color.Berries!

Can I get a label on these plumped up strawberries? They are quite unnatural and I fear genetically-modified. I'm going to have to get D.I.Y. again.
Blend, blend, blend. Blending is the secret. Now that I have a hand blender, I don't see how I survived without it. So what I have no deep mixing bowls and make projectile icings that chase my cat out of the kitchen? I cannot go back.
Buttery goodness! Nevermind that my pan ate the center of my cake. I plumped its belly full of strawberries and vanilla buttercream taking the sugar total on this layer cake to disturbing levels.
Viola! A pink cake for dad.

Vegan Rainbow Cookies

It has been on my list of things to do for quite some time: veganize the ever-loved rainbow cookie! After plans for a weekend in Pittsburgh fell flat and the rain continued to persist in New York City or the umpteenth day, a Freaks and Geeks marathon would be complemented with combating this huge baking challenge... vegan rainbow cookies.

I used this recipe as a start and only needed to make minor adjustments. (I'll post the adjusted recipe is below.) Firstly, I whipped up the equivalent eggs with Ener-G egg replacer. Since attempting the angels food cake a few weeks back, I've been dreaming of billowing pillows of fluffy white Ener-G.This tube of almond paste presented a few problems. It was hard to get out all the lumps as it is very thick. Almond cream may have made for a smoother consistency.
The creamed almond paste, Earth Balance and sugar are combined with the flour to complete the batter. After folding in the whipped "egg", the batter was ready to be divided and splashed with food coloring.
I used India Tree's natural food coloring to color my cakes. This set of liquid vegetable-based colorants was a pretty penny at $18.99. Funny how I can shell out $20 on things like Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract and natural food coloring while refusing to pay more than this for a top. The bowls of pink, yellow and light violet looked like paint or the hair dye I used when I was 15.
After baking each of the thin cakes to a perfect brown, I began to get excited and antsy. Maybe I would accomplish making vegan rainbow cookies after all!
Next I spread blackberry preserves onto layer one with a pastry brush. My sister patiently strained the preserves of all its big chunks of berry. What a team!
After layering the jam with the colorful layers, the cake was ready to be (she's dead...) wrapped in plastic to set in the fridge under the heavy heart of one of the Post Secret books. I should have let it set overnight, as directed but I really wanted to try 'em.
So I melted a cup of the chocolate chips and spread it on the top layer.
After about 4 episodes of Freaks and Geeks the chocolate was adequately hardened and I could wait no more. I cut them into pieces. What a delight! Vegan rainbow cookies! They were absolutely delicious. Had I had a bit more time, they would have set better and cut smoother. But it was worth the rush. Yum!
So, here is the recipe I used:

7 oz. almond paste
1 cup Earth Balance
1 cup organic granulated sugar
6 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer & 1/2 cup water (4 "eggs")
2 cups all purpose flour
generous squirts of natural food coloring
1/2 cup preserves, strained
1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line three 9x13 pans with parchment paper.
With hand beater, whip up egg replacer till peaks hold. Set aside.
In large bowl, smash almond paste with a fork.
Add Earth Balance and sugar and cream with hand mixer.
Add flour and mix thoroughly.
Fold whipped egg replacer into batter.
Divide batter into 3 different bowls. Coloring the batter to your liking with the food coloring.
Spread one bowl's contents to a prepared pan. Repeat with the other bowls.
Bake for 11 minutes or so, until golden brown.
Remove and let cakes cool on wire racks.
Roll out some plastic wrap on a cookie sheet but don't tear the end.
Lay out the first layer onto the plastic wrap and coat with a thin layer of the preserves. Repeat with the second layer.
Add the top layer and wrap the layers tightly in plastic wrap.
Place a heavy object upon the cakes and refridgerate for 8 hours (or overnight).
Melt chocolate chips over low heat, achieving a smooth consistency.
Unwrap the wrapped cake and place on parchment paper.
Brush chocolate on the top and allow to dry for an hour or so.
Slice into small rectangles and serve!

Food, Inc.

I went to see Food, Inc.'s opening last night. The documentary from filmmaker Robert Kenner plays as a kind of supermarket expose while touching upon the many important food issues hidden behind the bright aisles and familiar labels: genetic engineering, foodbourne illnesses, factory farming and its environmental impacts and the political superpowers who control food regulation. The film was a well-done introduction to the tainted web of our industrialized food system.

Food, Inc. is a *tiny* bit Earthlings, a bit Future of Food and a lot of the book Fast Food Nation. In fact, the most memorable voice of reason from the film is the book's author Eric Schlosser. If these names are familiar to you then there is not much new here, save for some horrific factory farm footage and truly disturbing overview on Veggie Libel laws. (A whole other blog topic! These laws make it easier for food industry powers-that-be to sue those who dare criticize their practices. How many libelous remarks are in my blog? Thank goodness I do not live in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota or Texas, all of which have food libel laws. Wait, could I sue someone for telling me I'm not getting enough protein in my diet? Hmmm.)

I, a vegan of 12 years with a minor in health and nutritional science, attended the film with an omnivore, a new vegetarian and a struggling vegan/fellow veg food blogger. Interestingly, we all received the film differently. Our commentary and criticisms trailed our walk back through the West Village though we all opted not to ask the filmmaker anything during the Q&A, regretfully. Personally, I was a bit disappointed that the film missed an opportunity to advocate for a vegetarian diet. Filmmaker Robert Kenner, who is not a vegetarian, seems to miss this mark completely. He stated during the Q&A that the film was not made to advocate for a specific diet yet the suggestions streaming at the end of the film, to the tune of Bruce Springsteen's version of Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land (quite effective), advocate for buying local, seasonal and organic food from farmer's markets or C.S.A.s (Community Supported Agriculture) and the film's website suggests to stop drinking soda and going meatless one day a week. After the journey of the film the rational and sensible consumer would consider vegetarianism, so why not give a little push. For all these important issues, why not give it a nod?

Of course, this is my take- the zealous vegan. I realize the film was meant to open eyes to the horrors of our industrialized food system. But mine is a unified plight; my food choices are my rebellion to these horrors... and then some. The film juxtapositioned the assembly-line slaughter of factory farms with the open-aired, grass-fed slaughter of animals and elicited the same reaction from me (and most of audience around me): utter disgust. Although the film mentioned treating factory farm workers and animals with "respect", I wondered how you could respectfully force a chicken into a metal cylinder to cut its throat. Eric Schlosser prefaces his reporting on factory farming by stating his love of hamburgers. To me, the message here is clear: this movie is for those not ready to fully connect the impact of their diets to animals, the environment, their health... 'cuz hamburgers are so tasty. As a vegan completely fed up with a decade+ of backlash and criticism by mainstream eaters, let's speed up this process where we're stuck on how weird, different, difficult it is too be vegan and start showing how much sense it makes.

Vegan Report: Nationals Stadium

I had previously read on some website (Ok, here) that the Washington Nationals stadium offers vegan options: veggie dogs, veggie burgers and veggie chili, too! But Saturday, June 6, 2009 they had nothing of the sort. Concession employees at the Grand Slam Grill told me that they were selling veggie dogs last season but not this time around. And even though veggie burgers were indeed on the menu, the busy concession stand had one grill covered in meat pieces. That, and the woman in front of me tried to order one and they were out anyway. And no vegetarian chili at Ben's Chili Bowl either. What a complete disappointment! Especially after the stadium made honorable mention on PETA's list of veg-friendly ball parks just a few days ago. Where is the fact checker!

Wah. So the stadium eats were a bust as was short the game. The Mets, who had a huge amount of fans for an away team, lost quickly and painfully. Guess I need to go to Philadelphia to eat a veggie dog at a game.

Washington D.C. Again

Highlights for yet another daytrip to D.C.!
For a late brunch post-Bolt, we hit Asylum, a Rock and Roll {fingerquotes} lounge whose chalkboard sign offered "Brunch: Vegan or Not". First, some vegan drumsticks. These were pretty standard: textured soy protein wrapped about a vegan bone. Odd, yes- but satisfying in a Chipotle kind of way. What makes or breaks these ultra-processed texture-fests is usually the sauce.  This time it did not quite do the trick. 
The third times a charm! The preoccupied waitress without her notepad first brought me a vegan wrap with a side of tortillas, then a real wet and glistening egg and cheese sandwich (!) before finally comping my originally-ordered meal of vegan breakfast sandwich with a side of waffle fries. The sandwich of scrambled tofu, vegan cheddar and tempeh bacon was good but not worth all the trouble. 
Of course, being right off the Columbia Heights metro stop, I had to hit Sticky Fingers! This time I knew to stick to their delicious chocolate-caked treats. I got myself a s'mores cupcake and sticky bun for the road.

For the rest of the afternoon this song remained in my head:

As I took snaps of our nation's monument, I hummed the parts without explicits of course. 

Vegan Report: Citi Field

I took my first trip to the new stadium of the Mets this past Saturday for their Take Her Out To The Ballgame day. The new stadium is nice, save for the small Times Square peeking high into the sky 'round its perimeter. It's a brand new stadium so it is fresh and clean. And that is about it really. I miss the big blue monster I visited in my youth, miss the 44-year-old blood, sweat and tears within it.   

Sitting pretty close to the clouds, my Mets lady and I climbed to each level touring the stadium's food offerings.  Not suprisingly, Citi Field has skim vegetarian offerings. In World's Fare Market on Field level you can get a packaged avocado roll for $9.00 or a packaged rice noodle dish for an equally inflated price, along with a large selection of trail mixes and some sorry-looking pieces of fruit. You can also score some Belgium-cut fries with a side of roasted garlic chipotle dipping sauce at Box Frites in the outfield concourse. (Although the dip sounds yummy it doesn't complement the fries as well as the standard red stuff... high fructose corn syrup-infused Heinz ketchup!) That's really it... no vegan blue and orange cookies for sale. Next time I'll have to sneak them in.