On Friday night, Daiku and I hit vegan pay dirt- we got to have dinner with 20 fellow PPK-ers in New York! Since this is VeganMoFo, I will bring you mostly food photos in this post, but to get to see some of the gorgeous people we got to meet, you can see more photos here.
For dinner, we went to Caravan of Dreams, located in the East Village. I had never heard of the place, but Terry assured me that it had been around forever. The menu is full of intriguing dishes, including tons of raw food options. I'll give you some of the dishes we managed to photograph, along with grades.
Spinach-potato soup. B.
Indonesian salad. Not so Indonesian. Seriously, macadamia nuts? C-.
Tempeh Reuben. Sandwich: B+ . Pickles: F. Seriously. As a pickle lover, it saddens me to report that pickles this bad even exist.
Organic vegan beers in huge never-ending bottles? A+ !
Desserts were solid. But they were all decorated the same! And had a bit of a "health-food" flavor. B.
Getting a coffee that repeatedly formed an "orb of doom" after we'd spent the whole night talking about Japanese horror movies? Priceless.
Afterward, those of us who hadn't ordered dessert at Caravan of Dreams walked over to Atlas for some vegan soft serve and other assorted goodies.
Everything in the display case (brownies, cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes) was vegan!
Chocolate-hazelnut cake with a gooey fudge-y middle layer. B+
The soft serve was vanilla, but you could play around with your flavor by choosing various mix-ins. I chose coconut. A-
The best part of the evening was meeting such wonderful and cool on-line friends, including Isa and Terry, vegan authors extraordinaire and all around cool persons. Here's the best part of VeganMoFo: vegan food, the good, the bad, and the weird, tastes better when you have awesome company to share it with. Other than blogging, the Post-Punk Kitchen forums are what have allowed me to keep my veganism -and my sanity- intact!
Check out the blogs of some of the people at the dinner:
Isa & Terry (The PPK blog)
Suzie (One Chubby Vegan)
Melisser (The Urban Housewife)
Jason and Laura (Supervegan)
Gwenlet (Eating Well and Eating Well)
(anyone I missed?)
Restaurant Info:
Caravan of Dreams (100% vegan, raw and gluten-free selections)
405 East 6th Street
(212) 254-1613
Atlas Café (vegan soft serve, crepes, and baked goods from Vegan Treats)
73 2nd Avenue
New York NY 10003
(212) 539-0966
More NYC food, still to come...
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27 comments:
looks like you had a great time, even if the food averaged a C.
xo
kittee
Kittee, we did have a great time! And, aside from weirdo pickle, I'd say the food averaged more of a B... =)
Hey bazu :)
I should just mention that VivaGranola welcomes US customers too :p (although a lot of our stuff comes from the US in the first place :p... but I'm sure you don't have the Veggie Meal dvd there)LOL
I got a huge kick out of the health-food flavored desserts LOL
When you go to a PPK dinner, do Isa & Terry sit at the ends of the table like the mom & dad?
I'm so glad I read this post because I didn't know there was a place to get vegan soft-serve in NYC! I looove vegan soft-serve, but sadly seem to have bad luck finding it (they stopped selling it at Spiral Diner in Texas, and when I visited DC, Sticky Fingers' machine was broken!).
Your vegan meet-up sounds awesome; I only wish I could've been there! :o)
Sounds like a fun time was had by all! I wish I could have been there.
All the desserts look scrumptious. I wish there were more vegan bakeries/dessert cafes here in Boston, but alas, there are none! So jealous! ;)
I'm so jealous!!! :)
How fun! :) :) :)
yay, I've been looking forward to your post about the PPK dinner event!! oh my goodness gracious, look at all that delicious food!! my favorite has to be the desserts - stunning!! when I visit NYC sometime in May, I will definitely try to check out Caravan of Dreams and Atlas Café.
How fun that you got to have a PPK party! I went to Caravan of Dreams for the first time when I was in NYC over Labor Day weekend. I believe I had nachos that were ok and I had the crepe dessert that you photographed. I'll try Atlas next time!
What fun...I'll have to go to one of these events one day. The last time I went to Caravan the food was good...but the waitress decided to forget about us and left us sitting there forever..even when we asked for the check she still made us sit forever...
Looks like a great time! I really hope to meet up with some of you guys in the near future...
Ooh, may I have a taste of that Indonesian salad, please?
I've tried to comment on your blog twice before, and for whatever reason, it hasn't worked! Well, hopefully, this time it will.
It was nice to meet you, albeit briefly, last Friday! That picture is awfully cute. I wish we could have accosted (by which I mean violently attacked) some passer-by so that you could have been in it, too.
laughing at Wes's comment. I am soo jealous! Looks like fun times!
Wes, Isa and Terry didn't sit at the head of the table- our (huge) table was U-shaped, so there was no real head anyway... much more democratic!
Gwenlet, I'm glad you stopped by, I never knew you had a blog, so I'll add it to the list in the post. It was great meeting you, too! Oh, and I am in the photo, since we got Daiku to take the picture... although I like your accosting idea a whole lot better!
Thanks for your comments, everyone! If you tried to leave a comment and couldn't, I'm sorry... I have no idea what the problem might have been...
You've gotta watch out for those weirdo pickles. Just when you least expect it...
Looks like you had a great time with the PPK gang!
Oh you are so lucky to meet so many other vegan bloggers! Sounds like the meal was pretty decent. Those desserts have me drooling. Maybe it's the lack of whole dessert cases that are vegan here in Houston, but I think I could eat everything in it...
Thanks for doing this, Bazu! It was great to meet you (and everyone else)!
That looks like so much fun! I wish I could have been there too, boohoo.
looks like a amazing night i wish i was there too!!!
It was so great meeting yooooou (& everyone else)!
What a GREAT get-together, and what amazing, delectabel vegan chow. I've never heard of Caravan of Dreams but I'll have to seek it out. The East Village is still my very favoriate Manhattan 'hood.
Wow! Those sweet delights certainly look wonderful! :d With all that I would probably gain lots of weight if I were staying where you were.
Hi Bazu, I've never visited your blog before. You have some great stuff here!
I live in Los Angeles, but I've been to Caravan of Dreams for brunch before, and it is fabulous.
What a wonderful evening. I am so jealous - of the company, not the food!
So sad that I missed the PPK dinner! And even sadder that I didn't catch you this time on your visit in NYC. Atlas is simply amazing.
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