Ciao for Now: Yum in My Tum!

A couple of weekends ago, Buddy and I headed over to Ciao for Now, a little cafe in the East Village. I actually got a Groupon for them for 30 dollars worth of food, so I was ready to pig out! When we got there is was pretty busy and surprisingly crowded...

 Aww, they have my favorite flowers ever! I love love love orchids.

 Almond Brioche French Toast

We got the brunch specials which comes with orange juice and fruit. Buddy got the french toast, they were HUGE. However, they were not as toasted as I would have liked them to be.A little too soft, but still satisfying.

Price: $9.50

Extreme Green Omelette

The omelette was made with spinach, leeks, asparagus, and broccoli. The eggs were  over cooked but the flavors in the vegetables really came threw. I guess I can't complain since I ended up eating every last bite. (But then again, I hadn't eaten since the night before at 6 and it was going on 2pm the next day).... anyway, it was good, but I wouldn't get it again.

Price: $9.50

Verdict: Well, before I forget, the winner of this place are definitely the banana muffins! I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them (since I devoured it the moment I took the first bite)... soo.. here's a picture of a muffin?

well, it was delicious.

Ciao For Now

 523 E 12th St

New York NY 10009

(also various locations)

http://www.ciaofornow.net/

Mays Place: Yeah, I Eat Here and I'm Proud of It!

Half price sushi. Some people think its bad. Half price sushi sounds almost as horrid as getting sushi from Duane Reade. Some people think less of me for eating it. Well guess what? I dont poop out dollar bills so to me it's fucking half price sushi, fuck yeah! Taking a seat at the sushi bar area, I decided to watch them as they made the sushi to order...

I Love N.Y Sushi and Spicy Salmon

Well, I never said half price sushi was the prettiest sushi ever. The I Love N.Y sushi is supposed to look like hearts...oh well... they tried? Anyway, it was made with tuna, avocado, and topped with tobiko and mango sauce. Messy looking, but fresh and tasty! Same with the spicy salmon. I mean, it is half price sushi, so don't get me wrong... it's not a beautiful culinary explosion of flavor in my mouth, but for what it is its very satisfying. 

Price: I Love N.Y: $11.95

         Spicy Salmon: $5.00

Half off Discount: $ 8.50

Verdict: In order to get the discount you need to "spend" $15.00 or more, but thats not hard at all. If you have a hankering for some sushi, but don't want to spend a million dollars, or leave hungry, I would suggest coming here, well until I win the lottery of course...

May's Place

121 2nd Avenue

New York, NY 10003

Baoguette: Why Do I Keep Torturing Myself with Spicy Food?

I recently got a deal on Dealist for $7.00 for any two 2/3 sandwiches at Baoguette. Since I already had  their classic bahn mi, this was the perfect opportunity to try the other sandwichs they had to offer!

Spring Roll

I went with Melissa, and Nikoma and she ordered this as an appetizer. It was filled with pork and seriously looked like a turd. Fortunately, it did not taste like it. It was super crispy, though the meat was a little tough and a bit too oily,  it was still satisfying. It  could easily replace a meal for someone who is not too hungry. 

Price:  $4.00

Aww how cute! A turd wrapped in a lettuce blanket.

Veguette

For my first sandwich, I decided to go with the veguette. This was made with  kung pao soy protein, daikon, cucumbers, and cilantro. I told the waitress that I wanted it extra spicy since last time, it wasn't spicy enough. BAD idea. They added, sriracha sauce and jalapeño  (which I could take), but they ALSO added those little green chiles. It was all nicely chopped up so it could hide in every nook and cranny waiting to attack my tongue with their spicy seeds. My eyes were watering by the 3rd bite. I don't know what happened to me, I used to be so good with spicy foods, but now it just  seems as if my tolerance abandoned me. 

 The soy protein however, was actually very well marinated, tender and fun to eat. None of that rubbery silliness happening here.

The Catfish

This was made with fried catfish, pickled red onion, cucumber relish, and honey mustard sauce and it was  my favorite out of the two. The catfish was perfectly cooked,  light and flaky. It had a  nice crunch that came from the crust of the fish. Though towards the end of the sandwich,the textures ended up being mushy (with the help of the onions and honey mustard sauce).  The sauce was just a tad tart, and didn't overwhelm the other flavors, and I learned my lesson from last time and took all the chiles out before eating this one.

Price: Both sandwich normal price are $7.00

Baoguette

Multiple Locations

www.baoguette.com

Blackhound: Who Doesn't Love Free Samples?

Doo, do, doo.. walking down 2nd Avenue and I looked to my right, hmm, this looks like an abandoned/ just new store. Wait... are those cakes in the window??

Com'on, look at the entrance, who would have thought there were delicious treats in here?

Praline Cake

On the counter there were free slices of cake! Who doesn't love free cake? A smelly weird women in the store took 4 pieces and ran out. I probably would have done the same thing, but I have some self control... I think...

Airy, moist, nutty and spongy. Now I know why the smelly woman took so many slices! Alas I did not want to spend over 10 dollars on dessert that night.

Display of gorgeous delicious cakes. Check out the Cafe Mousse, so freaking cute!

The mini cake balls more in my price range, $3.50 a piece. Now... which one do I choose?

Snowball Cake

After talking to the guy behind the counter, he convinced me to get the snowball cake. Though he said the checkerboard ball was the most popular, this one was his favorite, so I went with the underdog on this one. This was chocolate cake made with white chocolate buttercream and sliced almonds. Dense, moist and with a great nutty crunch from the almonds. Would I go back for this? Probably not. This was a solid cake slice, but there was nothing special about this in particular.

Price: $3.50

Verdict: I would definitely come back to try their mini specialty cakes, and they also sell individual cookies by the pound!  The people working there were are very friendly, patient and were great at helping  to make a choice for you.

Blackhound

170 2nd Avenue

New York, NY 10003

www.blackhoundny.com

Sweet Tooth: Vegan Ice Cream?!?

After dinner one night with Melissa and Nikoma, we all got the sweet tooth and wanted a little treat. Since Nikoma is a vegan we decided to stop by Stogo, an all vegan organic  ice cream shop!

Outside and right across the street from Urban Outfitters

Display of goodies! They also have vegan cupcakes and macarons for sale as well.

Also, just to let you know: There are 3 different types of "bases" for the ice cream:

soy based: I tried the pistacchio, dry as hell, almost powdery...egh

coconut based: Tried the blueberies and cream, very creamy; the most resembling traditional ice cream

hemp based: I tried the honey walnut; gritty and inconsistent in texture..again, egh

Ice Cream Sandwich

Nikoma got this and it was made with vegan chocolate chip cookies from Babycakes and vanilla ice cream (coconut based). Thank goodness I asked him to take a picture of it for me because by the time I paid and sat down with him, it was all gone!  He absolutely loved it.

Price:  $ 5.50

Blueberries and Cream

Well....the truth is, the only way for me to truly enjoy ice cream is if I eat it in a cone. Since stogo didn't sell their ice cream in cones, I bought a cone from a store and brought it into Stogo. Yes, I know I am a freak of nature. But a girls gotta do whatever it takes to enjoy ice cream at its fullest potential right??

Finally done making my ice cream cone!

I had tried handing my cone to the girl behind to counter so she could fill it, but she looked at the cone as if it had Herpes or something " Umm... its our POLICY that we don't have our equipment touch anything from the OUTSIDE." She said almost snobbishly. Fine, I will my own cone after you wasted a perfectly good plastic cup for nothing. Organic and vegan they may be, but not eco-conscious! ( I guess you can have it all?)

Anyway, on to the ice cream.... it was insanely creamy, generously drizzled with blueberries throughout and an after taste if coconut, which complimented the blueberries very nicely. If someone hadn't told me this was vegan, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference! Downside? My teeth looked like it had gotten a horrible case of blackheads. They were completely covered in bits of blueberries which took about 5-10 minutes of unattractive tongue licking in front of a mirror to get off. The ice cream was worth it though!

Price: $5.50

Verdict: Delicious? Yes. A nice beating to your wallet? Yep. Think of this as the "Godiva" of ice creams, ( and get a flavor that is coconut based it has the most resemblance to real ice cream!) but if you are just looking for a quick cool fix, a "Hershey's" (a.k.a Mister Softee) would do just the trick!

Stogo

159 2nd Ave

New York, NY 10003

www.stogonyc.com

Sweet Tooth: The Poor Mans Pinkberry

New York, New York...speciality fro-yo stands, cupcake shoppes, and Neapolitan pizzas restaurants seem to be all the rage. I can't say that I have not given into these fads (I'm SUCH a sucker for all 3). But sometimes when I have a hankering for frozen yogurt; I don't feel like paying the price of what lunch costs for a fro-yo at Pinkberry. Since I was down in St.Marks (essentially the South Street of New York) I decided to see if self serve frozen yogurt could match Pinkberrys standards.

um... $.39 per ounce?? The cheap Asian girl inside of me jumped for joy

Way more variety of flavors then  Pinkberry or Red Mango! Everything flavor from red velvet cake (?!?!) to key lime pie and peanut butter cup plus 10 more were featured! Though, you are not allowed to taste test any of them before hand....

                                                                                                                               why??

There are also butt load of different toppings you can add on in the front before you pay. But I wanted to taste the quality of the yogurt and see if they can really get the flavors down so I decided to skip the toppings and pick a staple ( green tea) and a featured flavor (red velvet or course!)

Green Tea

Texture was smooth and creamy. Lots of good match green tea flavor with the tartiness of the yogurt to balance it out. In fact the flavor was even stronger then Pinkberrys.

Red Velvet Cake

Okay by now, you know how much I LOVE red velvet cake... I took a spoonful in my mouth....yum! Surprisingly just like the cake. Tart, tangy and with a hit of cake batter at the end to polish it off. The taste was so intense that I was glad I only got a little bit of it. A whole bowl full of this would be way to much. It was the smoother texture of the 2 yogurts. 

Price: $1.60 for two small poo swirls worth

Verdict: Though they don't offer cones (which is my favorite way of eating ice cream or yogurt) but they do redeem themselves with the by the ounce option. If you are looking for a quick, cheap, and small icy treat definitely go here. Though, I wouldn't suggest making a trip to St.Marks for this sole purpose!

Yogurt Station

18 Saint Marks Place

 New York, NY 10003-8059 

Sweet Tooth: Moishe's Bake Shop... So Many Choices, So Little Time

What better way of starting off this Monday with a sweet treat? 

If you live in New York, chances are you have passed this bakery while walking around the East Village (whether be drunken stumbling on a Saturday night or shamefully coming out of the half-price sushi place on a weekday). Time after time I kept thinking" today will be the day I am going to check this place out". So finally after the 20th time passing it....I decided to walk in.

The smell of butter as I entered was intoxicating and immediately made me start  to drool

Checkered Cake

After looking around for what seemed to be hours, I decided one thing was certain. It is absolutely impossible for me to pick only 1 thing at a bakery or pastry shop. This caused a problem since I recently vowed to go on a spending diet.

With that being said, I asked the nice girls behind the counter what was their freshest and tastiest cake.

They immediately  showed me over to the checkered cake, though their chocolate on chocolate cake was giving me pretty eyes. How could I not take their advice? They did work here after all!

The price was priced per the pound and I got a 3x1x4 (LxWxH for all our morons out there). Walking out, I sank my teeth into the cake slice... pretty standard vanilla and chocolate flavor. Dense, yet still airy. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. The icing wasn't too sweet, but thick and stuck to the roof of my mouth.  I didn't finish the cake.

Price: $1.60

Verdict:  The girls working their were very helpful in trying to find what you are looking for, they were patient, kind and had a good sense of humor. With that being said, though the cake was not a winner in my book, I am sure I will be back to try something else  with faith I will find something more to my taste based on the service I had received.

Moishes Bake Shop

115 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Dinner: The Heat Made Me Eat Healthy

I have featured Atlas before, but that is because I have a sneaking suspicion this place may be one of my favorite affordable vegetarian/vegan friendly spots in the city. 

Lentil Soup and Smoked Turkey Panini Combo Special

I went here with Melissa and she ordered this one, it came with a side salad and looks pretty darn tasty. Also- a really great deal!

Price: $6.95

Unchicken Tofu Salad

Since is was a sweltering 85 degrees, my body could not take anything heavy, so I opted for a salad. This was mesclan  greens with carrots, olives, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, red onions, 2 scoops of tofu chicken salad and a vinaigrette dressing. Notice how one scoop is a little differently colored than the other? Weird huh? Will it was still delicious. If you have ever had vegan chicken salad, it tastes exactly like the kind you pick up at Whole Foods in their prepared refrigerated section. Chewy, moist and with small chunks of tofu. Enough unchicken for the salad and to make a sandwich.

Price: $6.75

Verdict: Want a satisfing, healthy, and cheap dinner for under 10 dollars? This is the place for you. They also make crepes and have a wide variety of vegan and non vegan cakes, cookies, and desserts. Just a warning, this place is small and offers no air conditioning in the summer.

Atlas Cafe

73 2nd Avenue

New York, NY 10003

http://www.atlascafenyc.com/home.html

Dinner: Pukk

 The other night, Melissa, Nikoma, and I met up for dinner in East Village. Hungry, hot, and tired we decided to walk to the closest yummy place within the 4 block radius. We finally arrived at Pukk; a Thai vegetarian restaurant with fun decor and affordable food. 

Interesting 2 people seating right in the glass lobby. Not sure how I feel about being on display as I shovel food into my mouth like an animal, but it does interest some people...

The place has a very clean modern atmosphere. The white tiles reminded me of a bathroom, I didn't know if I should have taken a poop or eat...maybe both...at the same time!

 

Spinach Pancake

There were 6 that came in the dish. These were more like sauteed spinach wrapped with wonton wrappers and deep fried topped with duck sauce. The spinach was soft and melted in my mouth, the wonton itself was a little oily. The duck sauce tasted like the packet sauce, I wished there was something more added to it other than the pepper flakes they threw in. I wouldn't get these again, but it was something to tide me over until the main dishes came (which they did and very quickly!)

Price: $4.00

Gravy Noodles

This was Melissa's order, it looked DELICIOUS. This was made with vegetarian duck, veggies and flat glass noodles in a ginger gravy sauce. She said that it was pretty bland until she put some hot sauce on it, and would definitely order it again.

Price: $8.00

Massaman Tofu Curry

Nikoma ordered this one. Made with tofu, sweet potato, onion, peanuts and served with a side of brown rice. All I remember was a very quite Nikoma with loud bursts of "MMMMM!!"  I am guessing he would recommend this dish to people.

Price: $7.00

Chicken Green Curry

This was made with vegetarian chicken, and veggies. The curry was very watery and not very flavorful until I added hot sauce. The chicken were shaped like round disks and ladled the curry and brown rice in a perfectly proportioned mouthful. They gave me huge portions and I ended up taking some home for leftovers (woo-hoo!)

Price: $7.00

Verdict: I would definitely come back again, the food was good, the portions HUGE, and the prices; very reasonable. They also serve sangria, and fun asian themed martinis (including lychee flavor!) The service was fast, efficient and good. Our appetizers came within the first 5 minutes of ordering!

One thing that drove me CRAZY was that I felt something like a mosquito continually biting my legs and arms throughout my entire dining experience. Sure enough, I saw tiny little white ones flying around me. They didn't seem to bother anyone else too much. This was the 4th time I have been here and the first time this happened, so hopefully the bugs came because of the sudden hot weather and not moving in!
Lesson learned: Being itchy while eating is not fun

Pukk

75 1st Avenue

New York NY 10003

www.pukknyc.com