Autumn Harvest

Soy

One thing that I wanted to add about the addition of soy to my diet was the perk of healthy looking skin. My skin seems to glow when I am eating more soy. I would love to hear if anyone else notices this with soy specifically or if it just because of the high amount of protein-Or maybe it's just magical. Either way, I likie.

Cheryls vs. Abigails

Comparing any restaurant to Cheryl's Global Soul is unfair but after my breakfast at Abigail's, I must. My friends and I decided to ditch our usual weekend brunch spot at Cheryl's and try something new. We went to Abigail's thinking it would be a fun spot to try because it is right in our neighborhood. Big mistake. There's no need to go into detail about the not so great aspects of our 2 hour brunch so I will skip it and just talk about the one good discovery- popovers! I forgot about those delicious lil guys and was overjoyed to see them on the menu. It was warm, fluffy and oh so good. If I ever go back, I am going to order a baker's dozen and leave.

Cheryl's is the go-to brunch spot in Crown Heights. It always has a line out the door, great service and even better food. Between my group of friends, we have easily tried everything on the menu, including the specials. With this much experience at Cheryl's I can safely say that the buttermilk pancakes are the way to go. And if the outstanding food wasn't enough, first coffee and mimosa are free. Can't beat that.

Team Cheryl for sure.

Gobo and Lucky Strike

This weekend I ate at Gobo. It is a vegetarian restaurant that is dedicated to creating dishes with protein substitutes such as seitan, soy, nori, and tofu. The dishes mimic common Asian flavors and textures. I ordered spinach and soy cheese wontons and curry seitan with coconut rice and pickled papaya. The wontons were delicious and definitely the best part of the meal. The curry seitan was flavorful but the coconut rice resembled a yellow curry rice with raisins and left me wondering where the coconut was. Overall, the restaurant has a cozy but sophisticated feel and affordable prices. I would definitely go back to try the other proteins.

Last night my girlfriends and I ate at Lucky Strike. It is a hip restaurant in Soho filled with a mix of people from young professionals getting a beer to families celebrating birthdays. It had a great happy hour with Presidente beer from the Dominican Republic and small $5 apps. We ordered an amazing brick-oven style pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and kalamata olives. So good. The atmosphere is lively and the decor is perfection with antique mirrors framing the hand-written menu. Five stars.

Cafe Boulud

Last night I ate at Cafe Boulud. It is a beautiful restaurant on the upper west side known for it's liver pates. We started with two different kinds of pate that were infused with bacon, cheese and various other meats and delicacies. I would never order pate myself so having a small taste of this well made, high quality appetizer was a treat. For the main course I had trout with browned butter, almonds and the most delicious roasted cauliflower. It was very garlicky but also had a wonderful sweet aftertaste like honey..... Can't explain the sweetness but it was wonderful. For dessert we had a play on pb and jelly with a peanut butter and chocolate torte and a concord grape jelly and sorbet. The sorbet was the only part worth ordering again. It was delicious and I'm sure it was made that day with fresh seasonal concord grapes! Yum!

Dairy

Ok so after ten days of no dairy, I caved.

I really had no noticeable change in any aspect of my life that encouraged me to continue this life of deprivation. haha

I went to a tiny Italian restaurant, Max, in the East village last night. Amongst the chaos, foreign waiters, and good company, I was lulled into a steamy hot cast iron bowl of lasagna. Best decision of my life. Hot ricotta has never tasted so good.

This restaurant is now my new favorite Italian place. With $10 entrees, fresh ingredients, and simple mouth-watering appetizers like the garlic-infused bruschetta, you can't go wrong. Just make sure to get there before 8 otherwise you can expect to wait.

One benefit of the ten day no dairy mission was my new awareness of the amount of dairy I consume as well as great meal options without any dairy. I also discovered a hidden treasure- soy ice cream! I am tempted to make a statement that it is better than real ice cream but that feels wrong.

White Bean Dish

First Post

My current exploration begins with dairy. I have began to question it's use in an adult body and have decided to cut it out of my diet for 30 days. I began on Oct 1 and have almost reached a week. For someone that loves to drink a cold glass of milk, a slice of brie, or a scoop of greek yogurt onto pancakes, I knew that this would be a challenge. I decided to keep eggs in my diet as well as small amounts of butter to avoid completely depriving myself- knowing that cutting out the majority of milk products would still provide a useful study.

So far I have learned where to find soy ice cream and have switched to cooking with almond or soy milk but I have not found many other discoveries regarding my body... I'll give a dairy update in another week