Red Bamboo and Pukk

So back to the NYC food-grubbery. It's been busy, so I got sidetracked.

The other two main places we ate at (but which I didn't take pics of) were Red Bamboo and Pukk.


I'd been to Red Bamboo on my first trip to NYC back in the day (that was probably at least 6 years ago or so)--I remembered it being hip and posh and kinda snazzy on the inside. I was wowed by the food, and I was wowed by the decor. Going back again, I was a tad bit underwhelmed. It wasn't quite so cute and posh as I remembered it--it was a bit more well-worn and not quite so sophisticated-looking. I was a little bit disappointed as it was E's first NYC-restaurant experience, and it wasn't quite what I remembered it. But he liked it quite a bit nonetheless.

For an appetizer, we got something that I'm not currently seeing on their on-line menu. It was faux-chicken-related, and it was rather tasty. Vaguery, yes--my apologies.

E's entree didn't blow me away at all--he liked it much more than I did: Creole Soul Chicken Panko breaded seasoned soy chicken served with sweet corn mashed potatoes, steamed baby carrots, zucchini and their classic mushroom gravy.

I got the BBQ ribs (which for some reason is ALSO not on their on-line menu) with a side of veggies and corn mashed-potatoes with mushroom gravy. The ribs were quite delish, but I found myself thinking I could probably come close to duplicating them at home. The best part of the meal was the mashed potatoes and gravy. Damn damn damn that was good and unexpected. I can't even pin down precisely what was tasty about them, but they were awesome.

Despite being not quite as impressed as my first time there, I must say, their vegan Peanut-Butter Cup Cheesecake though--holy mother of god. I've never tasted anything like it. It was rich and sexy, gloriously gloriously peanut-buttery, and decadent like you would not believe. Best vegan cheesecake I've tasted, no contest. And one of the best desserts I've had, vegan or otherwise. If you're there, and it's on special, you MUST order it. In fact, it'd be worth making a trip over there just to get your hands on some.

But alas--except for the cheesecake, I didn't get my socks knocked off like the first time around. Don't get me wrong, the food was very good. But it wasn't anything more extravagant or special than what I can get at Cleveland's Web of Life. Damn fine vegan-cooking, but nothing to make your toes curl with its NYC-awesomeness.

RED BAMBOO
140 W 4th St, New York 10012
Btwn 6th Ave & MacDougal St
Phone: 212-260-7049
Menu: HERE

Pukk on the other hand was the restaurant that I wasn't quite expecting to blow me away--it has kind of a standard veggie Thai-fare on their menu, though I was excited to find out that apparently everything was vegan. But lo and behold, they of course completely knocked my socks off (there was a lot of sock-knocking going on that weekend), perhaps because I wasn't expecting it at all. It's a very tiny (but cute space) with one of the cooler bathrooms I've ever been in (and I usually don't note the coolness of bathrooms). And its food was awesome awesome awesome.

We shared an appetizer (Stuffed Tofu--stuffed with cucumber, onion and carrot w. peanut chutney) which was delicate and yummy and just the right amount, and we each got a bowl of their Tom Yum Spicy Tofu (w. lemongrass, tofu and mushroom) soup which was the perfect level of spiciness that makes my nose starts to run and I *almost* can't handle it but can.

For my entree, I got the Steak Tofu (pan seared tofu w. peanut sauce) (I'd been debating, but then a woman sitting next to me got HER tofu-steak and it looked SO fricking good that I couldn't've picked anything else) and man was it impressive. The tofu was delicate, stacked on a bed of rice and veggies, with a rich and creamy peanut-sauce drizzled all over it. It seriously was one of the best things I'd eaten in quite a long time.

PUKK
75 1st Ave, New York 10003
Btwn 4th & 5th St
Phone: 212-253-2741
Menu: HERE

All in all, if (and when) I go back again, I'm gonna be ALL OVER Pukk. Really really good food that won't leave your wallet limp. Red Bamboo, on the other hand, would probably be my NYC-Web of Life if I lived there--some place that I go when I'm in the mood for some vegan homecooking, but not something I'd hold off on just for special occasions.

Sacred Chow

Our last day in NYC, we got up early and wandered around neighboring Chinatown for a little bit. Once we had had enough of people pushing handbags on us ("HandbaghandbaghandbagGucciguccigucci"), we wandered over to our breakfast destination: Sacred Chow.

We ended up in that neck of the woods a tad bit too early, but thankfully the restaurant was only a block or so from Washington Square Park, so we just headed over there. Much to our delight, we discovered that the fountain was on, so we (or at least I) was able to swish my toes around in the delightfully butt-laden waters while a man nearby played quietly on his guitar and kids leapt from platform to platform, splashed at each other, and dunked their heads underwater.

Eventually, our hunger got the best of us, and we drifted back over to the restaurant to chow down. Seeing as the vegan breakfast-fare in Cleveland consists of nothing more eventful than the standard Tofu Scramble, I knew after seeing not one but half-a-dozen delectable breakfast options that I had no other choice but to order breakfast.

So I did. Along with 1500 other things to eat, simply because it was our last NYC meal, and simply because EVERYTHING LOOKED SO FRICKING GOOD.

I am sad to say that I'd never had a mimosa before, so that was first on the list.



Everything after that just fell into place:

Appetizer:

• Root Vegetable Latkes (Pancakes) w/Indonesian Date Butter--delicious.

Breakfast:

• Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich: their famous soy buttermilk biscuit filled w/tofu scramble, melted soy cheddar & tempeh bacon with the fruit of the day--best vegan cheez I've had... ooey and gooey and surprisingly authentic-tasting, and did I mention the biscuit? Holy crap. Flaky and buttery-tasting, a complete melt-in-your-mouth experience.

Desserts:

• Cupcake: chocolate soycream-frosted vanilla cupcake w/sprinkles--I ordered this, and after E dropped it on the table and then I dropped it on the table (heh heh), I finally managed to get it into my mouth to find that it was moist and delicious with a rich sweet chocolate frosting.

• Pound cake: Orange Chocolate Chip--E got the orange chocolate chip poundcake (as he's a huge fan of poundcake) and, though I'm not a huge fan myself, I had to try it anyways since I love all bakery fused with orange-flavoring, and DAMN was it good. Dense (like all good poundcakes) and brimming with citrus flavor.

All in all, it was the perfect end to the NYC trip--the waiter was nice and attentive, the place was very cute and cozy, and the food was out of this world.

So if you haven't figured it out yet, clearly I recommend.

Sacred Chow
227 Sullivan St. (between W. 3rd and Bleecker)
(212-337-0863)

Menu: HERE

Thank You Lord For Sending Me the F-Train

This past memorial day weekend, I took a secret surprise trip to NYC with E, in celebration of our Randomversary.

I had started planning the trip about a month or two ago, and I managed (somehow) to keep the destination a secret for that long (despite some near slip-ups). Needless to say, I figured he'd quickly figure out our destination, seeing as about 370 miles are spent on I-80, driving beneath very large signs announcing NYC. So to add a bit more fun to the game, I created a Mystery-Trip-mix on my Ipod which I queued up as we started our road-trip and which very slowly (through hints and clues the likes of Mike Doughty and PJ Harvey, among others) revealed where we were headed.

E had never been to NYC before, and although I've been there a handful of times myself, I've never played tour-guide there before--I've just basically been carted around by New Yorkers to all their favorite places--so clearly I had to do a lot of planning, especially since we were only gonna be spending two nights there (and one full day).

I am very pleased to say that we managed to hit-up a vast-wealth of tourist-sites as well as a plethora of not-so-touristy sites as well, despite the very short amount of time we had to deal with.

Places We Visited:

• Washington Square Park


• Greenwich Village


• The Museum of Sex


• Times Square


• Tom's Restaurant (E's a big Seinfeld fan)


• NBC Studios


• Rockefeller Center


• Central Park


• Strawberry Fields


• The Dakota


• Mars Bar (apparently one of the best dive-bars in NYC)


• Burp Castle (where the bar is supposed to be monastically quiet and the bartender shushes the crowd whenever voices get too far above whisper-levels)

And of course of course of course we ate at WAY too many RIDICULOUSLY fricking good vegan restaurants while we were there. I planned these out ahead of time as well, but chose to pick out a bunch of options (from the cheap to the expensive) in order to give us some flexibility as to what we were in the mood for.

I didn't take pics at *ALL* of the restaurants though, so today and tomorrow I'll post pics and reviews of two of the places we ate. And Thursday I'll post reviews of the remaining (pictureless) places. So prepare yourself for a veritable orgy of New-Yorkerness!

VIVA CAFE NATURAL PIZZA


(Pic courtesy of E)



For lunch on Saturday, we checked out Viva Cafe Natural Pizza. I was pumped to have a nice greasy soy-cheese pizza, as there's only one place in Cleveland (Web of Life) where I'm able to get one dripping with ooey gooey cheezy goodness. I was a bit disappointed when we arrived and found out that their menu had a little disclaimer on it noting that all their soy cheese "contains casein." Poop, I said to myself, especially since their on-line menu didn't note this anywhere.

Disappointing, yes. But not a vegan disaster by any means. They still have a RIDICULOUS amount of vegan-options, many of which were sitting in their display-case for us to gawk at. Their slices range about $5 (for all the gloriously-heaping vegan pizzas, including a delectable-looking pesto one), so since we are both *pigs* when it comes to pizza, in the interest of not going bankrupt, we ended up creating our own small pizza.

We didn't get too crazy with it, but we *did* want to try out their fake-meat options, so we ended up getting a cornmeal crust pizza with soy-pepperoni and soy-sausage. It was delish. I still think Cleveland's Mama Santa's is much better in the world of cheeseless pizzas, but E begged to differ--he dug the pizza far above and beyond Mama Santa's. At $14 a pop for a relatively small pizza, it's not exactly cheap. But hell, if you're in the area, I would definitely order a slice of some kind--you'll have plenty to choose from...

That's my plan next time around.

Viva Cafe Natural Pizza
179 2nd Ave (bet. 11th & 12th St)
(212-420-8801)
Menu: HERE

Stay tuned tomorrow for another review and WAY more pictures.

Oh, and you can check out my NYC pics at my photoblog if you're interested--I'll be posting them once-a-day or so for the next few weeks.

(And a hearty thank you to VeganFriendly.com, since much of my restaurant choices were based on your sparklingly-good reviews. So *hats off*.)

Carry on.