Guest Post: Snack Attack with Blossom

Folks, this could quite possibly be the funniest post on Hungry Vegan Traveler to date. Maybe I'm a little bias in saying that, since this guest post is written by one of my best besties, Brandon Haskey. He and I have been friends for several years now and our time together, even while afar, is spent with tears in our eyes from laughing so hard that we get cramps. I love this guy, and I hope that you enjoy his guest post.

The story of my relationship with travel and vegan-ing (which is my official term for when I’m being vegan) begins mostly with my relationship with this blog’s actual host- the dashing and hilarious Amanda. I had known a vegetarian or two throughout my life, no one really close, but I had never known a full on vegan before. In fact, I remember that I had only heard the word once. I was watching MTV in the mid 90s, and they were doing an MTV news special about the obesity problem in America, and they interviewed a vegan. I remember being confused. I was probably 10 and didn’t know any better. I had no real knowledge of what being a vegan meant before I had befriended Amanda. I’d certainly never thought about not eating meat before, let alone cheese. So when Amanda wandered into my life, she provided me with a real life education about what being vegan meant. I tried her vegan dishes, and not only were they healthy, but they were delicious too!

Amanda had piqued my interest in vegan food enough that on a trip to New York City a few years ago, left to fend for myself for lunch after a day reading in Central Park and visiting the Museum of Natural History (what a fantastic day!), I wandered down Columbus and stumbled into 1990s television star Mayim Bialik.

Or I ran into much-hyped NYC vegan eatery Café Blossom. I was excited to try it- I’d never been to an exclusively vegan restaurant before that wasn’t Eden Alley (which, you know, is fantastic). I was wearing a t-shirt that said “Poetry is Sexy” on it with a sketch of Walt Whitman next to it, and the gentleman at the bar immediately complimented it. Off to a good start.

I ended up ordering the Southern Seitan Sandwich because of my love of caramelized onions and avocado. I ended up getting the sweet potato fries with it. That ended up being a very, very good thing.


Here it is, in all its glory. Let’s start with the very, very good. These sweet potato fries are the stuff of legend. Perfectly cooked- crispy on the outside, fluffy in the middle, and also the exact right proportion of salt to counteract the sweetness of the fries themselves. The homemade ketchup was tangy and sweet while not being too overpowering of the natural goodness of the fries. These sweet potato fries are still, arguably, the best things I’ve ever eaten.

Now the sandwich. This was my first time trying seitan, but I’m an open minded eater for sure. It was actually really delicious; I imagine the texture was supposed to be somewhat chicken like considering its preparation on this sandwich, and it was pretty darn close. The flavor was spicy, which I liked a lot, and… thank God it was good. The caramelized onions were acceptable- nothing to write home about for sure, but good.

Sadly the worst part of this sandwich was the entire reason I chose to order it- the avocado. For as good as those sweet potato fries were, this avocado was equally disgusting. It was hard as a rock and completely flavorless. Avocados are delicious for that creamy, unctuous thing they do- this avocado was the exact opposite. Upon first bite of the sandwich, I didn’t know what exactly was causing that hard, almost chalk-like consistency in my mouth. I thought it might have been the seitan because I hadn’t tried it before, but soon enough I realized the culprit. I tried to tough them out, but half way through the meal I removed them from the sandwich and pushed forward. I was so disappointed! I know it’s NYC, and $14 for a sandwich isn’t bad, but I felt a little gypped considering how awful that avocado was. So, long story short about Café Blossom- try it out. Surely the avocado was just bad that particular day. Everything else was at least good, and those sweet potato fries are still giving me the vapors two years later.

I called Amanda to relay my sadness about the lack of green, creamy goodness on my sandwich (that sounds awful, doesn’t it?), and she told me about some other vegan places in the city to check out if I had a chance. The very next day I happened to walk right by Candle 79. I only had a little bit before meeting my friend after she got off work, but I wanted to at least try it out a little before I left the city. Amanda also told me lots of celebrities are seen at Candle 79, but, sadly, I didn’t really see any. So, instead, I’m going to pretend I enjoyed my food with world famous vegan Mayim Bialik.

When Mayim and I sat down, we were immediately presented with a little sushi sample. I took a photo of it, but I also don’t remember what it was at all. It was… fine. Mayim really liked it. She rated it 4/5 floppy hats with a sunflower on it.

Like I said, I only had a little bit of time because I was meeting my friend, and Mayim was doing a speech at NYU about astrophysics or whatever the hell her PhD is in, so I just got a salad. I went with the baby arugula salad, seen here:

The lighting in Candle 79 was awful, and I choose to blame that for how blurry this photo is.

It was a little over dressed, but tasty. I’m an absolute sucker for chickpeas, so I was happy they were present. It was good but not great, and I could have fairly easily made it at home for less than the $16 I actually paid for it. Mayim gave it 3.5/5 dances with Joey Russo.

So, thanks for indulging my ridiculous guest blog! If you’re interested in more of my general hilarity, please come visit me at Fat Kid Chronicle. Give me a follow! Please! Nothing would make my agent happier! I’ve adopted a vegetarian diet, and I try to be vegan when possible. The result of this, and the running regimen I’ve started, has been a 61 pound weight loss so far this year! Come join me on my journey to even greater health!

Brandon
(PS- Let it be known that Amanda is the most hilarious person on the planet)
(PPS- Let it be known that Amanda does not have to include that in the actual post) :D

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Day 3 of My Wild Weekend Up North

On Sunday, Elizabeth and I woke up in a brisk hotel room that we shared with 4 other people, one of whom insisted on keeping the thermostat at 60 degrees (!!). We hit up the free breakfast (not much for wheat-free vegans, like yours truly, but bananas are all one really needs first thing in the morning), made ourselves presentable, and got a ride to the Farmington bus stop, the same one we were dropped off at the day before. What happened next is a long story, one that I will share at length on another day, but in a nutshell, Greyhound sold us bus tickets for a bus that “doesn’t run on Sundays,” (but they never said that until Sunday) and we weren’t the only ones with tickets for this apparently-non-existent bus. Thankfully, our ride stayed with us, and after E’s verbal battle with a Greyhound representative in Springfield (the only human being she could track down) didn’t lead to any resolution, we high-tailed it to Hartford to try our luck at Union Station. It got a little hairy, but we ended up on a non-stop bus to NYC, two frustrating hours behind schedule.

Once we got back into the city, we made our way to Central Park. Since this was a short trip to NYC, I only had two goals: visit the MOMA and Strawberry Fields. I was never a huge Beatles fan, but John Lennon and I share a birthday and I remembered reading many times about birthday celebrations at Strawberry Fields and always thinking that sounded pretty cool. I wasn’t at Strawberry Fields on our actual birthday, but a week early is close enough.

We made it to the Imagine circle just in time to take some pictures before the rain started, which caused us to not explore the massive park much further, as the rain just fell steadier and steadier. We had been through enough already that day, so when it seemed like the rain wasn’t going to let up anytime soon, we decided it was time for some food. We headed to Peacefood Café in the upper west side on E’s boss’ recommendation.

I typically never order hot drinks at cafés or coffee shops because I have what I consider to be a highly-sensitive tongue. The few times that I have purchased a hot beverage, it took probably 15-20 minutes before it cooled down enough for me to drink it. No matter what the weather is like outside, there is a 99% chance that I will be ordering an iced drink. However, on this rainy early autumn day in New York, I decided to embrace that 1%. Seeing a Brazilian nut chai on the menu sounded too good to pass up, and as night fell outside the café’s windows, a warm drink sounded so cozy. Besides, I figured I would just order it right off the bat and give it 15-20 minutes to cool off.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that just 5 or 6 minutes of waiting cooled this drink down to perfection. And oh, it was perfection. See, I’m a sucker for a good chai, always. This one was not a disappointment. Foamy steamed soy milk on top, smooth and creamy and slightly-nutty chai underneath.

E went with a hot drink, too: an apple ginger soy, which sounds a bit peculiar, but it was really great! The ginger really hits you first, but all in all, I’ve never had such a refreshing HOT drink.

E ordered the roasted Japanese pumpkin sandwich, which looked really nice. I was especially intrigued by the walnut crusting. The pumpkin was warm and soft on crisp brown bread.

I originally ordered the veggie tamale, but was told they ran out, so I went with the pan-seared Japanese pot stickers. I wanted something light because I knew there would be dessert happening (if you saw their dessert cases, you’d be eating light beforehand, too!). These were pleasant little pockets of crisp diced veggies and hearty tofu and shitake mushrooms.

But let’s get to dessert.

Never in my life have I tried tiramisu. Not when I was a meat-eating child, not when I was vegetarian tween & teen, and not in my years of veganhood. When I spotted tiramisu on Peacefoods’ dessert menu, I figured it was a sign: the time to try it was now. What was brought to the table was this big, beautiful specimen.

Maybe I got myself too hyped up, but at first bite, I was a bit disappointed. For starters, I was completely thrown off by the texture. It was ultra-soft, where I was expecting there to be a layer of fluffy cake and a layer of soft cream. Second, the cake was chilled, where I was expecting it to be room temperature. And thirdly, all of the flavors were so muted, I could barely detect the coffee, nor the chocolate, nor the vanilla flavors. Still, the presentation was lovely and that kind of made up for it. Later, I ate the rest of the slice, which had warmed up to room temperature, and I liked it much more and could finally taste the coffee and chocolate. I guess I’m just a weirdo when it comes to tiramisu.

E ordered a chocolate cookie sandwich, which was delightfully chocolaty.

From there, we made it over to Highline Park in the lower-west side, which is this really cool walking path/park place that used to be an old railroad track. Parts of the track were incorporated into the design, and there were tons of plants. Lots of big windowed apartments run alongside the trail and it was kind of funny to look into the windows, like looking into stacks of hamster cages or an ant farm or something. (I’m telling you, NYC is THE BEST for people-watching.) Since it was later in the evening and dark outside, I didn’t take very many pictures, but trust me when I say that this is a cool place within the city and you should check it out if you have the time.

And now I leave you with this warm & fuzzy sign.

And that's it! My last day in NYC for this trip. There's so much to see and do in New York City. I can't wait to go back soon and spend more time exploring (and eating!).

Up next, I'll be highlighting some yummy vegan eats around the Tampa Bay area until we get to VEGFEST DAY! (And stick around, because there will be a VegFest-y giveaway next week.)

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Day 1 of My Wild Weekend Up North

Whew! What a weekend I just had! My cousin got married in Connecticut last Saturday, and since my +1 lives in NYC, I went ahead and added a little extra adventure to the trip by rompin' about NYC with my friend before and after the wedding. It was a crazy-busy weekend, but SO MUCH FUN!

I flew direct from Tampa to Laguardia. It's been so long since I've flown direct that when the self-service kiosk only spat out one boarding pass, I stood there for a moment, wondering where the other one was.

When I landed in Laguardia, I stood in a long line for the ladies' room (poor planning, Delta, closing the other restroom), then stood in the long taxi line, where many yellow chariots awaited us.

When my friend came home from work, we took a short walk to the health food market in her neighborhood in Queens for some quick grubbage. We both grabbed a few things from the bar.

At Elizabeth's insistence, I also picked up one of their "peanut butter cups," which is a taste of heaven in a plastic shot glass.

This was a thick, RICH peanut butter mousse with a delicious, nutty-crunchy topping. I could have eaten a bucket of this. But that would be ridiculous.

Soon we were on the subway to the Museum of Modern Art, which is free on Friday nights! Woo! Bargain traveling!

The MOMA is HUGE and awesome and there is so much to see. It was also a little difficult to navigate, not just because of the massive crowds, but because there didn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme nor reason to the exhibits. Still, there were some fun photo opps and I was pleasantly surprised to see some giant Monets and Picassos and Van Goghs.

After a couple of hours, we took to the streets to see some NYC landmarks. I really wanted to swing by 30 Rock in the hopes that I'd run into my personal hero, Liz Lemon. I mean, TINA FEY, but on a Friday night, I knew that wasn't likely. Still, I sang the 30 Rock theme song as we spotted some of the landmarks from the show's opening.

All of that art and walking made us hungry, so we attempted to eat at a Blockhead's, but they were packed, and when we finally sat at a table, it was next to a PAINFULLY loud group of people. No sense in grimacing through nachos, so we left and went to Curly's on a recommendation.

What a cute little diner! Very small, very cozy. This is the kind of place I'd like to run someday. Still craving nachos since talking about them on the way to Blockhead's, I ordered Curly's tostada salad, which was enormous!

Crisp romaine lettuce, black beans, avocado, shredded Daiya cheese, mushrooms, and grilled red pepper and yellow squash and zucchini. I loved the ranchy dressing that came with it.

Elizabeth ordered the po'boy sandwich and a side of gravy fries.

You can read her review of her meal HERE.

We started walking toward Union Square, but then the rain came down. Since we had a big day ahead, we hopped on the subway and headed back to her place to try and rest up.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of my wild weekend, featuring WEDDING EATS!