More New York

I love this photograph. It captures the spirit of this intersection. The red awnings are over the windows of Balthazar restaurant at the corner of Spring and Crosby.

If atmosphere is what you are looking for in a restaurant, then Balthazar Restaurant fits the bill. That is actually the only reason we went. I was looking at restaurant reviews for another restaurant, and this restaurant was mentioned. So that lead me to their website, and we decided to go just based on the photo of the interior. We went for breakfast, as usually breakfast menus are vegetarian friendly. This proved to be the case.

Our table was well situated. We were in view of the rustic artisan breads. DH couldn't keep his eyes off the bread station activity. Bread is his latest passion, and New York does not disappoint.

Here I am enjoying my morning coffee. There were tourists, business people, and even celebrities there. We noticed Carmindy (of What Not To Wear) as we were leaving. I guess if we hadn't been so focused on the bread we might have noticed her earlier. Honestly, we aren't usually star spotters. We are especially clueless about all things Hollywood. And we don't watch nearly as much TV as it sounds like! We also saw a comedian strolling with his family near Union Square Market. But neither of us knows his name.

Speaking of Union Square Market, that is another place we can't resist visiting while in New York. I can't stop thinking about this scene I saw there:


I don't know if you can read the words on the closest blue cooler. Soup Meat, 75 cents a pound. Now, I haven't bought meat in about a dozen years, so I don't have any clue what the going rate is for ordinary meat, let alone soup meat. Soup Meat?? Now, the pheasant eggs I am totally understanding. I would actually buy some of those, although maybe not a dozen at $6. I LOVE farm fresh eggs.

And of course, we couldn't miss the breads for sale at Union Square Market. I love it: "We don't have scones on Sat any more. Don't ask why!!!" And there is even a smiley face underneath, so it doesn't sound rude!

Angelica Kitchen

We ate twice at Angelica Kitchen this trip to New York. It specializes in organic, vegan cuisine. We ate the Daily Specials both visits. I wish I had written down the names and descriptions of them, as they were clever. Above is a salad which highlights purslane and is garnished with toasted sea vegetable. There is also roasted cauliflower, marinated tofu, red rice, green beans and a creamy cashew sauce. It was outstanding!

Above is a Moroccan-inspired dish that was cooked in a tagine. It was a stew with chickpeas, tomatoes, and other vegetables and spices. There was an apricot chutney, steamed broccoli, and a cucumber mint salad accompanying the stew. The grain was a mixture of teff and quinoa. It was excellent!

For dessert, we couldn't resist sharing a Strawberry Kanten Parfait. It had a nice oatmeal crumb topping. There were layers of strawberry and cashew cream and it was sweetened very moderately, which I really appreciated. We learned how to make a similar dish at the Conscious Gourmet cooking class I took last year. For the recipe, visit my friend Madelyn's blog, Karma-Free Cooking.

Here is the exterior of Angelica Kitchen. It is located on E 12th Street between First and Second Avenues. I found that the food there really helped balance me. When traveling, I find that I eat so many things I normally don't eat, and then I start to react to the food. I had a very negative reaction after eating too much sugar one day, which I am not used to eating at all anymore. So, Angelica Kitchen was a welcomed haven. Maybe for most people, the food there is what they normally wouldn't eat, but for me, it was comforting and familiar.

Chelsea Market

Hello everyone! Sorry there was such a long gap since my last post. We have been away quite a lot the last month or so. As a matter of fact, just yesterday we returned from a trip to New York. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary there. I will share a few of our favorite food highlights of this visit.

Chelsea Market. Wow, this place is wonderful! The first photo is a scene in the interior. Directly above is the exterior of the building. Inside there are many bakeries, restaurants, coffee, groceries and cooking and food-related stores. Almost everything I purchased during my visit to New York, I bought here. We even made a quick last-minute stop here on our way to the airport to load up on travel food and bread.

Speaking of which, Amy's Bread is one of the bakeries at Chelsea Market. There are other locations of Amy's as well. Amy's is a fantastic bakery. We loved everything we tried there. If this says anything, our freezer is now filled with several varieties of their bread. DH is going to have fun trying to make similar breads at home. We especially loved their Semolina with Golden Raisin and Fennel. We did a little star spotting there as well. Bob Tuschman stopped in while we were eating breakfast there Thursday. No that's not him in the photo! If you know who he is, you'll know that's definitely not him!! The Food Network films some of its shows here, so it makes sense why we spotted him.

A great feature at the Chelsea Market is that there are large windows where you can watch the process of bread baking.

Above are stacks of bannetons, which are baskets used for shaping loaves of bread. That is an absolute fortune's worth of baskets! Bannetons of this quality generally retail for about $40 each. That's how much they were charging for them at the Bowery Kitchen Supply located within the Market.