KarmaFree Cooking

I just learned that Joe Ades… a very quirky, but very charismatic vegetable peeler sales man died in NYC at the age of 75.

During my last visit to NYC, I went to Union Square Farmer’s Market and bought 2 of his vegetable peelers.  This was exactly the same day as he was featured in the TODAY SHOW. 

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His sales pitch was superb.  My mom and I were enthraled for the better part of 5 minutes.  I remember trying to ask him questions and he just would not stop his sales speech for me… he just kept going and going like the Energizer bunny.  At the end and only at the end he answered my questions and I surely bought one peeler for myself and one for my mom.

Believe it or not, I used mine for the first time last week…   I tend to save things “for a special ocassion”, something I am erradicating this year as part of my new year’s resolutions.  Now thinking about it, I should have bought the 5 for $20. 

This is very sad news.  Hope his soul rest in peace. 

Hope someone will continue to sell these and continue the tradition… even thou it will never be the same again.

Located on 9^th Ave, between 15^th and 16^th streets is Chelsea Market.  This building has a lot of food history, as it saw the birth of the Oreo when it was a manufacturing plant for the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco.  It is also now home to the Food Network.  Ever since I learned about Chelsea Market I make it a point to visit.

The first time I visited Chelsea Market I was with friends and I just had the chance to walk through the main corridor and look things from afar.  This time, on my own, I wanted to see all the stores and places featured in the Food Network shows.  See where Rachael Ray says she buys things to cook later that night for her husband, among others…

Photo courtesy of Frances Roberts for the NYTimes

I decided to go to Chelsea Market early in the morning… when on “vacation” early means @ 10AM.  I wanted to do something interesting and still be close by to the Martha Stewart’s studios on 8^th Ave. and 26^th street.  I love the looks of Chelsea Market… it looks like a cave filled with treasures.  It’s kind of dark, and has that industrial look that’s vintage, yet is so modern at the same time.  This is a photo during my first visit.

I got hungry and had to have my second breakfast of the day.  I sound so much like a hobbit, don’t you think?  I had a whole- wheat-everything-bagel with tofutti non-dairy creamy spread.  I completely forgot they call it “everything” for a reason…  it has onion, garlic, and every kind of seed imaginable.  It was good, but afterwards I felt I needed to brush my teeth again or chew some minty gum just in case I had to talk to someone.  Next time, we’ll keep the onion and garlic to a minimum before noon.

The stores look small from the main corridor, but they’re BIG!!!  They twist and turn and continue going on.  My favorite one was buon Italia with all sorts of imported Italian foods.  I bought Meyer lemon olive oil, capers in salt (I have only found them in brine), tomato paste in a tube, whole wheat orzo and a white truffle porcini spread.  But I was impressed with the selection of cheeses from Italy and France, and something that surprised me positively is the cheeses are very well labeled if they contain rennet as part of their ingredients.  They write it in CAPS in LARGE LETTERS so people are aware of what they’re buying – to me, a nice surprise.  If I lived in NYC, I would come to this store often… the types of pasta, nuts, oils, tomatoes were incredible. 

I also got a chance sneak in a visit the Food Network offices…  I got to see the main lobby at least.  They were getting ready for the Food & Wine festival later that week.  Maybe someday, I won’t need to pretend I am going to a meeting, but doing it for real… now that’s a nice idea!!

If you get a chance, visit Chelsea Market in NYC.  Besides the deli and the Italian shop, they also have bakeries, restaurants – sit down and nice fast foods, kitchen gadgets shops, gift shops, produce store, and other stores not relevant to vegetarians ;).  It’s a great place to visit if you love food and food shopping.

Every time my mom and I visit NYC, we crave a pizza from Viva Pizza. 

We first learned about Viva Pizza from our friends at the Yoga Center in Queens.  They all used to visit Viva Pizza at Broadway and 97^th street to eat their delicious variety of natural pizzas – all made from whole wheat, spelt or corn crusts and natural dairy or soy cheeses.  They are really awesome.

I am traditional and always order a Pizza Margherita on a whole wheat crust.  My mom loves pesto, so she always orders one that includes pesto, sundried tomatoes and spinach.  I usually order a China Cola too – another natural version of a Coke.  It’s really good, and I’ve only seen it at Viva Pizza.

This time around, we also visited Viva Pizza’s restaurant on 2^nd Ave between 12^th and 11^th streets.  This was our first time at this location.  Both are really small pizza joints, but I found the variety at the 2^nd Ave location to be much better.  My mom had trouble deciding… I mean she always does, but this time was even harder.

The pizzas are soooo good, I forgot to take pictures both times we were there.  I had to go by on a later day to photograph the outside at least so I could tell you all about it.  It was 9:30AM and they were still closed…. Thank God, because if not, I would have eaten pizza again for the 3^rd time in less than a week.

But when in NYC, not eating a pizza is a crime…

It’s funny…  I lived in NYC for almost 3 years.  I travel to NYC at least once a year, but there used to be a time where I went there on business travel almost every 2 months…  and I have never before hung out in 14^th street as much as I did on this last trip.  To be honest, I do not remember ever being on Union Square.  I recognized the Subway stop, but I have always been a girl who roamed from 23th street and above…

Well… on this trip I actually got to know the area a bit, and all that walking back and forth visiting the Union Square Green market made me hungry…   so I went to eat somewhere nearby.

On 14^th street between 1^st and 2^nd Aves you can find Curly’s Vegetarian Lunch.  It’s a very small but quaint place…  It opens for lunch and dinner.  I have read on the internet how they serve breakfast items all day long, so I actually tried to eat breakfast there the first time I went by…  Ooops!!!  It opens at 11AM.  I had to satisfy my hunger with a bagel with cream cheese… darn.

So when I came back, I was ready for lunch…  I ordered Honey Ginger lemonade, a Suna Salad sandwich with onions on a whole-wheat Hero with Curly Fries and a Crabfake, a vegetarian version of a crab cake.  Everyone raved sooooooo much about them on the internet, that I had to try them.

The staff was super helpful and very patient… I am the one who looooves to read the whole menu after I ordered to make sure I didn’t miss anything I might like.

My sandwich was excellent.  I ordered the onions and the hero bread because the original on the menu was on sliced bread.  (I have issues with mayo based sandwiches and sliced bread…they turn soggy and I do not like that.)  The fried were good too…  as good as any dinner, but better… because I know that nothing animal based was fried in the same oil, and that makes them taste soooooo much better.

The Crabfake… another story.  But I should not be one to judge.  I have never really eaten a proper crab cake to compare.  What I do know… it was good, but did not rock my world.

I would definitely recommend Curly’s to my vegetarian and even non-vegetarian friends… I am actually looking forward going back to have that breakfast I couldn’t the first time…

When I was recently in NYC, I invited my friend Jesiel to dinner one night.  We needed to catch-up big time…  she recently took a leave of absence from her work and left on a 10-week travel adventure thru India, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Israel and who knows where else… I am sure I missed a few countries.

She suggested Zen Palate a vegetarian restaurant she walks by almost every day and has meant to go in, but never before had.  I was her perfect excuse to try it for the first time.

Zen Palate is a modest restaurant located on 9^th Ave and 46^th street. On 9^th Ave you can find their take-out counter and the main entrance to the dining room is on 46^th street.  They serve Asian-inspired dishes.   It’s small and cozy, but nothing out of this world.  The photos on their website are far prettier than the actual restaurant I visited.  What I did like was their philosophy on cooking… 

The name Zen Palate is derived from the Japanese word Zen, meaning “sudden enlightenment,” and the French word Palate, meaning “sense of taste.” Our goal is to enlighten our customers through their sense of taste by offering delicious, vibrant, freshly prepared and beautifully presented vegetarian dishes, served by our passionate servers in a tranquil and modern environment. For over 16 years we have insisted on using the freshest and highest quality vegetarian ingredients (which covers more than 60 different plants and flowers from various culinary cultures!) prepared by our expertly trained chefs.

So while Jesiel is putting me up to speed on her travel experiences, we decide to take a culinary adventure in Zen Palate.  We ordered the Pan Seared Vegetable Dumplings, the Hong Kong Curried Noodles and the Sizzling Medallions on an orange sauce with asparagus, mushrooms and carrots.

The food arrived super fast.  The dumplings were good… but to my taste, a bit greasy.  Something I would find at any dim sum restaurant in the city or any Chinese restaurant here in PR, for that matter – non-eventful in my opinion.

We barely had finished our appetizer when the food came…  Curried Noodles and the Sizzling Medallions.  The noodles were good, but too spicy for my taste…  I have to be careful when ordering curried or other spicy foods in restaurants because my system can’t take too spicy. I know… sounds wimpy for a foodie, but that’s the way it goes.   Jesiel enjoyed most of those.  The Sizzling Medallions, made from seitan, were awesome!!!  I ate them with a side order of brown rice and I only wish there was more sauce for me to drizzle over the rice.  Jesiel, a non-vegetarian, was impressed of the flavor and the texture. 

We didn’t have any dessert because after all of that we were FULL.  And Jesiel is super figure conscious, so I wasn’t going to eat a dessert all by myself…

Zen Palate was very appropriate for my dinner with Jesiel and her Asian continent stories and adventures…    let’s see where our real-life adventures take us next, so we can find another fitting restaurant to de-brief.