eating well: new york city & long island

First of all, I want to thank you for your comments on my last post. You guys seriously had me crying at some points- thank you so much for your words of support! Now, I'm more determined than ever to continue blogging and try to meet as many of you in person as possible! And, for those of you who said you want to see more posts, I promise to post every single day for this upcoming week. {hugs everybody}

Last weekend, Daiku and I drove down to New York City for a last-minute work trip. But hey, I'm not complaining--I still got to see my favorite city, hang out with my old friends, and even meet 2 new friends!

Look what my friend Dorota found on the fire escape of the West Village apartment she's house-sitting- a mama dove, watching vigilantly over her nest...

...in which two little chicks had just hatched! They were beyond adorable, and I hope their mama didn't mind me oohing and aahing over them and photographing them too much.

I had to go to Long Island to interview one of my old professors. This gave me a chance to go to Stony Brook, where I'd gone to college many moons ago. In the above photo, you can see Long Island Sound from the town of Old Field. This is where Daiku used to live- walking distance from the beach! If you had super vision, you could see Bridgeport, CT on the other side of the water. After the interview (which lasted 3 hours- whew!) Daiku and I hit the Green Cactus Grill, one of our favorite hangouts when we lived here.

Green Cactus is a huge chain now, but back in the day, "ours" was one of only 2. The food here is typical American-style Mexican food- tacos, burritos, quesadilllas, etc. But their food is exceedingly fresh and flavorful. Daiku got the bean and cheese burrito, and I revisited my youth by ordering exactly what I used to get back in the day: the vegetarian burrito (hold the cheese). I chose the pinto beans to go with the rice, salsa, and guacamole. Delicious!

But my favorite thing about Green Cactus is their huge salsa bar. Here, you can get unlimited amounts of fresh pico de gallo, fiery roasted salsa, pickled vegetables and jalapenos, salsa, and salsa verde. (In the above photo, you can see the pico de gallo in the front, and the roasted salsa and jalapenos in the background.) I can just eat this stuff with a spoon, like a huge salad. In fact, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, back in college, my friends and I used to sneak huge amounts of this stuff back home with us!

Soon, it was back to New York City, where we had arranged to meet VKO and her sister, SKO for dinner at Red Bamboo! I just love meeting blogger friends in real life, and VKO and SKO were the sweetest and coolest dinner companions.

(click on photo to get a larger view)

Here's all of our dinners (clockwise from top left): SKO's roti appetizer with curry dipping sauce, calamari appetizer, my unagi don, SKO's sweet 'n sour chicken, VKO's fish and chips, and Daiku's Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

We all liked our dinners, but agreed that the sweet 'n sour chicken was the winner of the evening, with perfect texture and flavor. All the other faux fish dishes had realistic flaky texture- the calamari tasted freakishly like shrimp! Daiku thought the seitan in the cheesesteak was good, but that the sandwich as a whole could have use more pizazz. I loved my unagi don, especially accompanied by the fresh veggies and pickled ginger that it came with.

But the best part of the evening was the company--we all had so much fun chatting and getting to know each other, I can't wait to do this again, in the city or in Syracuse.

Here are VKO (left) and SKO (right) aren't they adorable?

Here is a photo of us together. VKO surprised me with a gift- I had mentioned to her that I have never tried fermented tofu ("stinky" tofu) and she gave me a jar- I was so touched! I haven't tried it yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. That's the bag I'm happily holding up in the photo.

And finally, the obligatory food blogger's photo of a fellow food blogger photographing her food. As VKO said on her blog, vegan bloggers unite!

Restaurant information:

Red Bamboo Soul Cafe (Manhattan Location)
140 West 4th St., NY, NY 10014
212.260.1212

Green Cactus Grill (Stony Brook Location)
1099 Route 25A, Stony Brook, NY
631.751.0700

eating well: new york city & long island