Lula's Sweet Apothecary

"This is what heaven is all about! All around amazing place, you have to try it!
Divine treats and incredible comfortable atmosphere..."

With reviews like that from the wonderful world of Yelp, (4.5 stars outta 5, with 179 reviews) how can one say "no" to trying this all vegan, all homemade, all superb place?!

Down at 516 East 6th Street, in the heart of the East Village, Lula's Apothecary offers a variety of homemade ice cream, entirely vegan, along with several soft serve options. Hold up my dear friend, the fun does not stop there! They also have a slew of freshly baked goodies to adorn your scoops. Whether it is a vegan brownie, coconut whip cream, various candied nuts, or just a cherry to sweeten the deal. There is something for everyone.




Thanks to Abs, we tried every flavor that they had. From Lemon, Vanilla, Rocky Road, Coffee, Cookies N Cream, Mint Chip, Caramel Ginger Cookie, Toffee Crunch, to a Peanut Butter and Jelly flavored one! The couple behind the counter was ridiculously nice to us, along with the fellow patrons. This is a tiny, tiny store, so only about 6 people can stand comfortably inside. However, we all managed to eat our treats in pure blissful comfort.

The whole atmosphere of the place was so neat, again, being in NYC it seems all the walls inside places are exposed brick, but it was lined with shelves of vegan candies and little trinkets. The wall behind the ice cream display has rows of little antique styled black drawers, each labeled for their toppings. So it was neat to see them actually using all of the old equipment and storage that they would have 70 years ago.

I would gladly sell everything I own and move to NYC just so I could work here or at least visit them on a daily, or even hourly basis.



Everyone ordered something different, for me, I had to go all out and get the Sundae. A dish with a warm vegan brownie in the bottom, topped with a serving of cake batter soft serve, and a scoop of peanut butter and jelly, then doused with coconut whip cream, smothered in vegan hot fudge, candied pecans and oreos, and a nice cherry to round it all out. Dear God! this was amazing, even with it being 50 degrees and rainy, it was still perfect. B got a chocolate malt, in the old fashioned glass and metal straw (?!), the girls got baby sundaes with lemon and pb & J and Michael went for a cone of strawberry.






I am sure the pictures can speak for themselves though...

Show Me What You Got Shawty...

Part of the awesomeness of NYC is the fact that you never know what you are going to get when it comes to the other riders on the subway...

Luckily for us, we were sweetly serenaded to by a maybe, slightly inebriated passenger. With the nicely wrapped bottle in a beautiful brown paper bag, she belted out to us the lyrical masterpiece of Jay-Z.."show me what you got lil mama, show me what you got pretty lady, show me what you got shawty..."and so it was repeated for the entirety of our subway voyage. Unfortunately for Absola, she was not able to control her uncomfortable laughter. I don't think the artist was disturbed by her hysteria though.


After our free musical performance we needed some food, and there was a vegan joint just around the corner from Washington Park that we decided to opt for. "We at Red Bamboo are dedicated to your health through our commitment to excellent vegetarian cuisine. Red Bamboo focuses on creating unique and authentic vegan and vegetarian meals using the finest soy, gluten, fruit and vegetable products available. Our foods, ranging from Caribbean spiced seitan to Creole Soul Chicken to Thai Summer Rice Rolls, reflect the wisdom of diverse culinary traditions..."

Down a few steps in a long narrow old building, is the home of Red Bamboo. It is a good place for some soul food type lovin' in the belly. Everything is pretty much fried and delicious. Since the restaurant is so small, we had to wait a little while before being seated, luckily there was a nice Priscilla-esq store near by. We were called about 10 minutes later and got to grab a seat in the dark red ambiance lighting, with all exposed brick and bench style seating. The service was great, the food even better and the prices terrific.

B and I split the Almond Coconut "Chicken": Crispy golden soy chicken encrusted with toasted almonds and shaved coconut. Served with a sweet chili dipping sauce…

Also we went for some more chicken ( I love faux chicken) with the Soul Chicken Sandwich:
It was panko breaded soy chicken nuggets with romaine lettuce, tomato, vegan mayo and vidalia dressing served on a roll with your choice of fries or salad…

Abby tried the Asian Dumpling appetizer which consisted of plump steamed spinach dumplings filled with shredded soy protein, carrots, cabbage served over a mixed greens salad and soy-ginger dressing…and Michael went for a Four Cheese Ravioli. Ricotta, romano, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese ravioli smothered in a roasted garlic marinara sauce served with a side of garlic toast…he only ate about half and took the rest back to the hostel..which he then forgot about until the day we left. Not going to chance looking inside that take-out box...

Red Bamboo was a nice unplanned dinner, very filling and you'll definitely not want to eat anything for the entire day before heading here, but worth every deep fried, all vegan bite.

You Really Gotta Hold on Me...BabyCakes

"In a city dominated by cupcakes overflowing with sugar, flour and butter cream, it’s easy for those with persnickety diets to feel left out. BabyCakes offers all-natural, organic and delicious alternatives free from the common allergens: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein and eggs. Rest assured, all sweeteners have been chosen responsibly and used sparingly. White sugar will never be found in our bakery, nor will we ever use toxic chemical sweeteners. Instead, most products are sweetened with agave nectar—a natural syrup from a cactus which is low on the glycemia index and often a safe alternative to most non-insulin dependant diabetics. Occasionally, unprocessed and unrefined sugar is used in certain goods, although sparingly. Erin McKenna
Founder,
BabyCakes NYC™"

To continue on with our first day of NY, we left Time Square and hopped on the subway to get down to the East Village (oh yeah, and there was also some Nintendo World and random shops thrown in there too). It was a really cold, and rainy day, so being down under was always nice. However, back on land we popped out at Houston street and headed down to 248 Broome Street.

There we were greeted with an old-school "Bakery" sign, cute little store front, and a tiled cupcake in the step leading into the bakeshop. Erin had this place totally themed in a cute little Susie's Easy Bake Oven meets Zooey Deschanel's closet kinda way ( just noticed too that we like the same facial expressions...). I loved it! She & Him were playing loudly over the stereo, the girl behind the counter had on the pink little apron dress with thick Buddy Holly glasses and the chunky bangs. The people working the store were super nice and put up with our giddiness of the cupcakes and excessive photo taking.

For myself I had the chocolate cupcake, made with spelt.

.

It was agave sweetened and:- dairy-free, egg-free, and soy-free! The cupcake was with creamy chocolate frosting (spelt or gluten-free)

B had the cookie sandwich, which I had heard got amazing reviews, and at 5 bucks a pop, it better be good! Again, it was gluten, dairy, egg, and soy free, also this one was refined sugar free, which I thought was pretty fancy. It was 2 chocolate chip cookies with vanilla filling. I wish I had gotten this one!

If you are ever in that part of town or coast or world, make sure to go to this little bakery! I also heard that they had the best donuts too, but they were sold out when we got there...oh well, just another excuse to go back soon!

New York: Day 1

"In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York!"

Come on, you knew that I was going to open with some Jay-Z, so don't seem so surprised. This was my second time back in the Big Apple, and it just gets better with age I do believe. I went this time with B, his brother Michael, and Absola. The perfect combo, for livin' it up. Wakin up at 5 am to hop on a plane to get us there, we were ready to eat some good NY food. I had heard about this place called H & H Bagels, up near our hostel on the Upper West Side, but after our little walk over there, I came to realize that it was just a small little place where you had to buy the Toffuti cream cheese separately and put it on yourself..yeah I wasn't having any of that. I needed something prepared for me. It totally worked out in our favor though, we found this little place called Peace Food just a block away. I hadn't heard about it before, so I was a little hesitant. The decor was light and airy, plants and vegan cookbooks adorned the old white porcelain tiled walls of this cafe. I wanted to just become one of the surrealism portraits hung up and live there for awhile.


The menu was a good size and the prices were great, about 9-11 for an entree, impressively cheap for the big city. To start out with Abby and Michael split the Asian greens salad: seasonal baby Asian vegetables, mixed sprouts, shredded carrots, tomatoes, marinated & baked tempeh, ground peanuts, in a garlic, ginger, cilantro, ponsu & sesame dressing. This was by far the best dressing (and the most different) I have ever tried. I must learn to remake it.

For the warmer dish, mushroom duxelle pizza with roasted sweet peppers, onions and zucchini. The sauce was pureed mushrooms. It was perfect!






For B and myself, we split a couple of sandwiches, the tempeh avocado : baked marinated tempeh, creamy avocado, pickled radishes, shredded carrots and cilantro. It was cold, which kind of caught me off guard, but the pickled radishes really made the dish.


But the creme de la creme was the pan-seared french horn mushrooms panini. It came with sun-dried tomatoes, arugula, artichoke aioli, mint & basil pesto. I would eat that as my last meal if I could.





After our bellies were nice and full (not even room for dessert!) we headed down to Time Square, to make it feel like we were really in NYC. Of course it is always a little overwhelming, I never know if I love all the chaos, or if I hate it, either way it is definitely an experience to have.

We hit up the Hershey store and eyed the walls of varies colored M&M's, but when are we getting to BabyCakes?? I really had one mission that day and it was to go to the East Village to check out the best vegan bakery in the world...

"It's Me! Mario.."

Sugar. Sugar. Sugar. I love knowing that there is five pounds of sugar in one recipe for frosting. Or at least that is the way it seemed when Susan and I spent several hours over two days to create the perfect vegan/Mario Bros themed/coconut-lime & Oreo cookie cupcakes for Brandon's birthday.

Last week was the big day and so me, trying to be the perfect little homemaker, wanted to make some of his favorite flavored cupcakes for a surprise party I was throwing him. When we had our short stint in LA we fell in love with Auntie Em's Coconut Cupcakes, so I was on a mission to create something similar. I was not sure how I was going to pull this off since I have never made coconut cupcakes nor have I ever thrown a surprise party...so who knew how it'd turn out.

Luckily he has some pretty awesome friends who all went along with my plan and showed to the little get together . With four dozen cupcakes in tow we all met at Dave and Busters to eat, drink, and play.














From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I made two dozen cupcakes of the Coconut Lime and then two dozen of the Oreo Chocolate Cake Cupcakes. All with little Mario toppers that I cut out. Both batches turned out really nice. I was most impressed. However, the coconut ones were by far the best. They needed to be refrigerated since there was lime juice in the frosting, so by the end of the night they were looking a little sad...But if you are looking to make some refreshing sumer time desserts, definitely opt for the Coconut Lime cupcakes!

Joie de vivre & La Mie Emilie

In our effort to try to be a little bit more "green" whenever I am not at work, we always try to not drive and just walk around the 'hood and kind of seek out new places that we have not been too.

Last week in out little walk around, we decided that we would head over to the Carmel Arts and Design district to check out this little French restaurant that we keep walking past. So since I love ALL things French (come I have em branded on me!) I was very happy to be able to have a nice brunch with the love of my life on such a perfect day.

La Mie Emilie is at 15 W. Main Street, and it's not a very large store front, so it is quite easy to over look..you just might run into their tables and chairs though that are sitting outside (Ch'en owns those too). Sorry!


For being an all French cafe, I was a little worried that there would not be too many veg friendly options, but there were! I was pleasantly surprised, that most things could be made easily with out meat, or they already had a sister item to the entree. For example, they of course had a Croque Monsieur, which is a French style grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and then they had the Croque Provencal, which was with sauteed onions, tomatoes, and Gruyeres cheese, it normally comes with an easy over egg on top, but I opted out of that. This sandwich was amazing! It was two very freshly made bread slices that were both grilled with butter and melted cheese on top, and then had warm sauteed onions over thin slices of fresh tomato, all with a side of seasonal fruit. They served it in a normal portion, so it was not some big Americanized plate that you eat on for days, but it still took myself, and Brandon to finish the dish.



As for B's choice of breakfast, his was much more of a dessert. Even though it was on the Brunch menu, it was still something that I would only think about eating after a dinner. The Pain Trouvéau Four (Baked French Toast) was served with raspberry coulis sauce and then topped with roasted almonds and whipped cream. It was a petite little plate of one piece of baked toast, but all covered with a warm sweet raspberry puree and syrup, and then a homemade whipped cream. It was heavenly. Very very sweet though, so it could be a wake up shock if that is the first thing that you are eating in the morning.


While we were eating our breakfast we were able to be next to the future cast of The Real Housewives of Carmel. I always thought that reality television were scripted, especially from what I heard about E!, however, after sitting next to these sexagenarian brawds for an hour, I was reassured that there are crazy women at home, and they are even loonier when brought all together out of their Carmel houses.

All-in-all it was a definite 5 stars for such an abnormality hidden in Carmel.

Cupcakes for your Ch'en Ch'en!

On yucky days like this, when it is gloomy, rainy, and you are feeling a little too pudgy to fit into your rain slicker, what is a four legged fella to do?

Well, thankfully for Mr Pugsley, people never have a shortage of ideas when it comes to pampering and just plain spoiling their furry friends. Since Ch'en isn't able to walk over to Holy Cow's and get a Mint Julep cupcake (eeekk!!) with me, or even sample some of mine, I figured I would see some of the more dog friendly cupcakes that people have come up with.

Over at Posh Pet Glamour Boutique, they have a nice little doggy bed so Ch'en can dream of eating cupcakes, chasing Jasmine around the house, and maybe making sure that we own a few more lamp posts...I think spending over 100 bones on a doggy bed is a little excessive, but come on, we all know that it is more for my own amusement, than his. (Image from Poshpetglamourboutique.com)

Or if you are feeling really crafty, you can always surprise em with some vegan friendly cuppies! My step-mom makes some of the most amazing treats (at least according to Ch'en and the girls) and I was always impressed with how crazy these dogs went over a peanut butter biscotti. Yes, they were treated better than most children I know. Over at Yummy for Dogs, they have a nice little recipe for your pets, that could easily be converted into cupcakes! They have a ton of other treats and goodies to make as well.

Peanut Butter Cake with Carob Ganache:

Cake:
1 3/4 cups
whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon
baking powder

1 cup
rice milk

1/4 cup
molasses

1/2 cup
smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup
vegetable oil

1 tablespoon
ground flax seeds

Ganache:

3/4 cup
carob chips

1 tablespoon
vegetable shortening

In a large bowl, mix flour and baking powder.
In a large measuring cup, combine the other cake ingredients and allow to sit for three minutes.
Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir just until completely blended.
Pour batter into a well greased round cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cool completely before turning out onto a cake platter. Regular plates will cause the cake to be indented in the middle due to their concavity.

When the cake is cool, place carob chips and shortening into a small saucepan.
Stir over low heat until both are melted and the mixture is smooth.
Pour onto the center of the cake.
With a rubber scraping spatula, smear the ganache evenly over the top in a thin layer, allowing some of the mixture to drip over the edges decoratively.
When ganache is completely cool, it will form a firm glaze.

If you want a quick fix though, then head over to Three Dog Bakery in Broad Ripple, the girls working the counter are always really nice and super helpful if you need some ideas for what would be good for what kind of dog or pet you have. Ch'en never complains. Plus, they carry cupcake collars and leashes!

Examples of the greatness at Three Dogs: (from: http://www.threedogindy.com/)

Collie Cannoli!

Bulldog Bar

Beggin for S'Mores!
Bow-Wow Bonbons!