NY Vegan Foodie "Safari" Continues (including a trip to Organic Ave)

We head back to sunny Arizona tomorrow. It's been a super fun month in NY. It's hard to believe that we've even been here this long - feels like 7-10 days, tops! Even though the weather has been super crappy the majority of the time, today there is plenty of sunshine, making me quickly forget the rainy days (for the most part - ha!). 

Once I return to AZ, it's back to working on my next book (SUPER excited about the topic!!!) as well as doing some hardcore 100% raw food living. Heaven knows I need it after this trip. Although, I have to admit. I've felt pretty darn great in spite of all of the cooked organic vegan food I've eaten. It must be the massive amounts of green juices I've been drinking. Also... I'll be making some videos for the blog (fun!), and getting out my next email newsletter (sign up on my website here)! Oh! And, I'm having 2 awesome giveaways for July since I missed June!!! Stay tuned and check back for those. 

Tonight we have an exciting night. We've been invited to Sarma's book launch party at Pure Food & Wine. Should be good times! Here is a link to her new book: Living Raw Food: Get the Glow with More Recipes from Pure Food and Wine You know I'm hoping that Mallomar recipe is in it!

Yesterday was a neat day. We ventured into new territory, much farther south than our usual expeditions. We met Gena at SproutCraft for some Raw vegan food (that's Gena above, she's SO fun!). 

I have to start by saying that I loved the kim-chi. I'm still salivating for it. I had three bowls!!!! It was amazing. The best kim-chi I've ever had. It had the perfect level of heat that just barely made me break a little sweat on my brow, yet wasn't too spicy for my mouth. As many of you know, I LOVE unpasteurized fermented foods. They are so good for you! In fact, I made another batch of organic raw unpasteurized sauerkraut the night before we left for NY. Since it's been a month now, I can go home and immediately harvest it. Awesome. (Read about my first sauerkraut adventure here.)

I also ordered the taco salad which was so-so although the corn chips served alongside were good. I wouldn't order it again though. (Instead I'd have 4 bowls of their awesome kim-chi!) Gena ordered two of their Chai drinks and she really liked them.

My husband opted for the burrito wrap. His lunch looked impressive, very pretty wrap. But, I wasn't crazy about the filling. He thought it was alright, and agreed that the actual wrap was the best part.

The decor of this place was quite cool. It's probably my favorite raw restaurant as far as that goes. It was spacious with interesting table and seating arrangements (unfortunately, this pic only shows a little bit). 

After lunch, we walked to Organic Avenue, a neat little store stocked with Norwalk (type) pressed juices, organic and natural beauty products as well as plenty of raw goodies (both things like lasagna and key lime pie as well as packaged nuts and crackers, etc). What I loved about the juices and water is that they come in these groovy glass bottles. I immediately knew I wanted a couple of the glass bottles to take home so I bought a fresh green juice (very good!) and a large bottle of their alkaline water. The jury is still out for me regarding the science of "alkaline" water, but I admit it was damn refreshing and tasty!