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The Best Vegan Food Places in New York City: My Favorite Places

January 8th, 2015

My friend has a vegan friend visiting and he asked me to recommend some vegan restaurants in New York City for her. I thought I should put it on my blog in case it could help anyone else.

I am trying to be fruitarian for the month of January and I think that makes me appreciate these decadent dens of deliciousness all the more. For fruitarians, the best places to go in NYC are Whole Foods, Jamba Juice, Juice bars, or salad places like Chop’t or Hale and Hearty with make your own salad stations, and if you’re doing a raw till 4 thing, Japanese places where you can get vegan sushi and bowls of rice or diners, I’ve found, weirdly, for baked potatoes with nothing on them.

(me being fruitarian eating an apple while you dine at the following restaurants, lol).

Now onto the restaurants!

1. The Best Romantic, Sit Down, Candlelit, Amazing Pasta and Appetizers Type Place and my Reigning Top Favorite Vegan Restaurant in NYC

is Candle Cafe West. Like somewhere Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan would dine on the Upper West Side. I was blown away by this place. The Spaghetti and Wheatballs, this Alfredo Pasta dish thing…the appetizers. Everything was amazing. And it was a beautiful ambiance. You gotta hit this place.

2. The Best Vegan Burrito in NYC

is at Blossom du Jour. I used to be addicted to this burrito. It’s great. Blossom du Jour is a vegan take out-y place, though it does have some seating. All their food is pretty interesting and good.

3. The Best Vegan Korean Place in NYC

is Hangawi. I guess it is just vegetarian but almost everything is vegan. You can even get no oil versions of their bibimbap (ask for it not cooked in the stone bowl) if you are following a high carb low fat vegan diet like me. The best thing about this place is the ambiance. You sit on tatami mats and take your shoes off. It has amazing lighting and is really fun to come here with friends and sit on the floor together, with your legs in this seating pit.

4. The Best Vegan Sushi Place in NYC

is Beyond Sushi. Of course there are amazing sushi places but Beyond Sushi specializes in only vegan sushi. They have really cool flavor combos with cool toppings and vegan miso soup and desserts. They also have really amazing wraps that are like large hand rolls. The only problem is this place is a bit take-out-y, and the ambiance is not ideal, but that’s perfect if you are looking for something fast.

5. The Best Amazing Vegan Diner Food for Feeling like You’re Not Even Vegan Cause the Food Tastes So Normal

is Champs Family Bakery is a totally vegan diner in Williamsburg, brooklyn. This place is so cool. Full of great people watching. I felt like I was in The Breakfast Club hanging out at the cool local diner, and you will feel like you are not even vegan because the food tastes so normal. You can get omelets, scrambled eggs and toast, sandwiches…I don’t even remember what diner food is any more, but you can get everything there. They even have a huge diner menu, which is crazy for vegans who are used to having one or two options max at most places.

6. The Best Vegan Hummus in NYC

My Israeli boyfriend says it is a tie between Hummus Place and Hummus Kitchen for the best hummus in New York, and it is vegan! He says it is good hummus, but American people don’t know what real hummus is… LOL foreigners…jk.

7. The Best Falafel Place in NYC

is Maoz Vegetarian. Well, not everything here is vegan but it is all vegetarian..and I think most stuff is vegan, except for some of the sauces and they have eggs but skip those (ask just to be sure). This place has a convenient location in times square and it’s really quick and super addicting.

8. My Favorite Non Vegan Restaurant in NYC that has the Best Vegan Options

Go to Westville! This place has this thing called “the market plate”. You must get it. You can order 4 sides of vegetable dishes they change up daily. Not all are vegan but most are. They come on a huge platter. Every time I have gone these little market dishes have been so mindblowingly good, I only want to dine there. You may return every day. They also have mint lemonade in the summer with tons of mint. There is great people watching of super New York-y young people on dates and the food is great. This person seconds my opinion.

9. Best Vegan Ramen Place

Totto Ramen. This place always often has a huge line, and you’re always like what are these people waiting for when you pass by, but once you taste it you will understand. If you come at the right time you can get right in. Inside it is like a Tokyo ramen shop, all dark and hidden underground. The people behind the counter are always somehow ridiculously cool, I have noticed. The music is cool. This is just a great experience and they have a special vegan ramen bowl for vegans.

Other good options for vegans are any Thai or Japanese place, but you probably know that if you are vegan. If you know of any others, please comment below, I’d love to hear your favorites. Or what you think of these :)))

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My New Years Resolutions and My Secret Resolution: Status ACHIEVED

December 31st, 2014

Hi Guys!

New Years Resolutions anyone?

Oh how I love a good resolution.

Well let me tell you this. For many years, like millions of other hopeless chumps, my resolution was to lose weight. And then after I failed so many times it became my secret resolution. Until finally I gave up.

This was the year that resolution came true. YAY MUCH?

Was it what I always hoped it would be? Kind of. I was wrong about one thing, you can be loved at any size. If someone really loves you they will think you are hot no matter what you look like. I know it’s true cause I’ve experienced it myself.

And yet, there are so many perks to thin privilege, as I used to refer to it in my many arguments about fat acceptance with people.

What boggles my mind the most was that I was being fed half truths and outright lies about weight loss that doomed me to fail. Every year.

Like here are some things I tried in my efforts to lose weight that did not work:

1. Running almost every single day for a decade

2. Running a marathon

3. Working out at the gym on stair master and elliptical intensely

4. keeping a food diary and calorie count

5. eating with tiny utensils lol

6. giving up bread and carbs for a year

7. eating very “healthy”

8. eating one salad a day (with oil in the dressings of course)

9. writing out a page of threats to myself in my diary like “I’ll waste away my youth being fat”

10. eating tiny portions of everything or eating half of everything I wanted to eat

ok one more for good measure

Not eating a lot of fruit or potatoes or rice cause “sugar is bad for you”, “fruit makes you fat” and “carbs make you fat”.

WOW. I was so wrong. so dumb.

But eventually I screwed my head on straight and by doing exactly the opposite of this common sense advice, I finally lost weight!!

It still blows my mind a little, so sorry I’ve probably said it a million times.

Anyway, the point is I’ve succeeded in weight loss and it’s amazing.

It still feels like a gift to myself when I look in the mirror and I’m like DAMN GIRL. Looking so fly.

And the best part of all is I am eating more now than I ever have and I am finally not dieting.

It’s too good to be true…except when you tell people that you strive to eat only fruits and vegetables. Lol. Then comes the no way, I could never do that. But it’s their loss, because it’s awesome.

For example, would I have ever thought to make the resolution Become More Beautiful or Become Younger Looking? No, because I thought that was impossible. But amazingly I feel I have because of what I eat.

I have gained a positive outlook on life too because where I used to feel I was doomed to decline as I age, I now think I will only continue to improve with every year.

This is my best year yet and it took me all this time to figure out the right path and a little more time to learn how to do it and now I got great results and I just need to tinker with it and perfect it.

I feel like my health and my looks are things that I can improve as a hobby. Without any pain or hunger, which is what I thought I was going to have to endure if I ever wanted to make it happen once and for all.

It’s a christmas miracle.

I’m just so happy that chapter of my life where I hated the way I looked and I was plagued with thoughts about how I was gonna starve myself and exercise like a marathoner all just to lose weight is complete.

Now I can just relax and exercise for fun.

Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, Seeds, Potatoes, Rice, Oats, Beans…. high carb low fat vegan whole foods…that’s what you gotta eat to lose weight. And no oil. Try The Starch Solution or Raw till 4 or go fully low fat Raw vegan or 80/10/10.

Anyway here are some of my new year’s resolutions:

To go fully raw for the month of January

To keep tinkering with my weight to see if I can lose the rest of my weight and feel even better than I do now.

To do another banana island just for fun.

To get really flexible and get my splits totally flat and do a backbend where my head touches my foot.

To do a cartwheel and a handstand.

Do you guys have any resolutions?

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