Viva Herbal Pizzeria

Vegan pizza? When I heard there was a vegetarian pizzeria on the lower east side that catered to vegans I was thrilled. Usually I just head to a traditional pizzeria...settle for white flour and order my pie sans cheese.  At Viva Herbal Pizzeria vegans have a huge selection.  Aside from an array of flavors and toppings, Viva has a variety of crusts too.  They have spelt and cornmeal for those who are sensitive to gluten and whole wheat for others.  And when it comes to cheese, they use soy cheese (Daiya or tofu "cheese") and cow cheese as well.  This place certainly has something for everyone.


So, if you're looking for tasty vegan pizza in Manhattan, Viva Herbal Pizzeria has a lot to offer.  It's a small shop on 2nd Ave between 11th and 12th streets. 

You can order a whole pie or buy pizza by the slice - these vary daily.  They also have a good selection of calzones, pasta, salads and desserts. 

On this particular day I got a slice of the Zen pizza which has mushrooms, caramelized onions, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and miso tofu with pesto sauce.  One thing to note about the pizza here is that the slices are quite large and very filling.  It is essential to love pesto in order to love this slice because it's certainly a dominant flavor.

I sometimes find the flavor of pesto a bit overwhelming so when I order this slice I usually get a side of tomato sauce to add to it, just to break up the flavors a bit.

So far my favorite slice is the magic mushroom but they have lots of others I have yet to try...

Jersey City Indian

Before you even make it to Newark Ave the smell of fresh spices and curries will undoubtedly fill your nostrils, welcoming you to Jersey City's own Little India.  It's only a few blocks away from the journal square path train so if you live in the New York city area and you love Indian food like I do, it's definitely worth the trip to the Garden State.  The food there here is cheap and amazing.

There are so many places to choose from, both veg and non veg, that have great food.  The thing I love about Indian restaurants is that they always have a decent selection of vegetarian items, but Newark Avenue also has quite a few "pure vegetarian" restaurants.  But please note, pure vegetarian definitely does not mean vegan.  So if you don't want any dairy be sure to ask questions before ordering and of course avoid anything with paneer which is indian cottage cheese.

If you want South Indian food Sri Ganesh Dosa House is the place to go.  It's a family run business with extremely fresh and delicious food.

Women and men in the back of the kitchen chopping fresh vegetables and herbs is a regular sight here.  All of the food is extremely fresh and because of the open layout of the restaurant, you can see everything that's going on inside the kitchen.  My favorite is when I go in and see them cracking open coconuts for chutney.  It's clear they're putting love and care into everything they do. 

On this day I decided to order a masala dosa, which is a very traditional south indian meal. 

A dosa can best be compared with a french crepe because of the way it looks but it's made from rice and lentils instead of normal flour.  Dosa batter is also fermented a bit first and when it's cooked it's more firm and substantial than a crepe.  A "masala dosa" is a dosa which has a mixture of onions, potato and spices inside.

The onion and potatoes are always so wonderfully spiced I'm truly in awe.  The potatoes are very flavorful but they're not spicy as in hot...more like garlicky, tumericky deliciousness.

All dosas are also served with sambhar, a spicy lentil and vegetable soup, plus a coconut chutney and a spicy tomatoey chutney. Their sambhar is so wonderful that I can eat that as a meal by itself. 

Of course if you come here and just try to order sambhar alone (which I've done several times) they'll think you're strange but who cares, it's too good to worry about such things. 

The chutneys are also amazing and add a nice flavor to the dosas. 

Dosas can be quite rich and dense and the coconut chutney adds a nice refreshing flavor to the thickness of the potato.  The spicy chutney is also wonderful just by virtue of the little zing and kick it adds.

If you've never had a dosa, run-don't walk to this place.  Everything I've ever had here is amazing.  The price for this meal is an astounding $4.50.  Plus please note, if you eat at the restaurant the sambhar is unlimited.  The only downside to this restaurant is the fact that they use styrofoam for takeout and dine in customers.  I usually try to remember to bring my pyrex with me when I come but alas I forgot it today...

If you're looking for north indian curries however, you might want to check out Horn Ok Please. 

I usually order the same two things here but that's because those two things are really good.  The aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) and the channa palak (chickpeas and spinach) are fantastic.  Channa palak is not on the menu but you can ask them to make it for you. 

I always get mine spicy but when it comes to spice everything is really subjective.  I find that their spice level is quite Americanized because even the "spicy" isn't really that spicy, at least not compared to other places on newark ave.

If you come here during lunch all of the entrees are served with white basmati rice and nann (made with white four).  I usually hold the white rice (they don't offer brown) and ask for roti (whole wheat flour) instead of the nann and they are always very accommodating. 

The meals also come with a little side of red onions which also add a nice bite to the meal.  But please note, these onions are intense; although I love them, after eating them I can't get the taste out for hours.  The price tag for this meal: just under $15

Also if you live in the area, this place delivers which is nice because not all of the restaurants around here do.  When I order from here I usually get take-out because I think you actually get a larger portion that way, and I want as much as possible.  Indian left-overs...yum!  I could eat indian every day, actually I think I probably was indian in another life.

So if you're in the mood for Indian, why not skip Lex and head here... Newark Avenue in Jersey City. It's just a few blocks from the Journal Square Path train.

Curly's and One Lucky Duck

It's so beautiful outside I thought I'd treat myself to a lovely meal...plus I've been craving a delicious veggie burger since saturday when I watched enviously as my bf enjoyed one at Strictly Roots.  I figured I didn't need to go all the way uptown; not when Curly's Vegetarian Lunch is so conveniently located.

I usually go to Curly's on weekends for brunch-which is amazing.  As a health conscious vegan, I rarely order pancakes when I'm out for fear of the dreaded white flour, eggs, and milk that might be in there.  But Curlys has plenty of vegan offerings (the restaurant is vegetarian not entirely vegan).  On weekends I order the "slumberjack" which is a generous portion of tofu scramble, home fries, 2 pancakes, and some vegan sham (soy ham).  If you're a vegan be sure to let your server know.

At any rate, today I ordered the mushroom swiss burger-hold the swiss, instead I ordered mine with avocado.  It comes with either salad or fries and I opted for the salad - sometimes when it's hot outside I just can't tolerate too much greasy food.  I also ordered my burger on a wheat hero instead of the cibatta bun it usually comes on.  I'm particular-I know.

The hero was especially flavorful and tasty because they toast it with garlic "butter" but at times the taste of the garlic overpowered the other tastes. 

Lately I'm obsessed with avocados and put them on everything so I really enjoyed them here.  I also loved the large portobello cap on the burger.  When I ordered I was expecting sliced mushrooms but this was a nice surprise.  Overall, the burger was satisfying and certainly satiated my craving for a veggie burger but I must say- the burger at Strictly Roots was better.  Actually, if I'd never had the burger at SR I probably would have enjoyed this burger more but alas a comparison is now inevitable.  Curly's burger just wasn't as moist and although it had all the topping I love this face off goes to Strictly Roots... too bad it's all the way in Harlem.

Anyway, I still love Curlys.  It's so fantastic to eat there during the day when it's not too busy.  If you go there on a weekend or evening be warned.  The place is tiny so sometimes you'll have to wait for up to 45 minutes to get a table. Anyway the total for my bill was about $12 including tax and tip.

All day I've also been craving something sweet so I decided to go to my favorite place in the city.  Pure Food and Wine's take out place One Lucky Duck. 

I don't even know where to begin with this place. if you've never been - go.  I love it.  It's completely vegan and it's all raw, meaning nothing cook or heated above 118 degrees.  But don't be fooled this place isn't just about salads (although they do have some fantastic ones).  They have everything from lasagna to veggie burgers but today I went for sweets.

As you can see they have a wide variety of treats to choose from in their display case plus they also have several flavors of ice cream that they sell by the pint.  but now for the bad part, well it's the bad part for me... it's expensive, really expensive.  But I do believe in treating myself and I also believe in quality and the ingredients used to make all these foods are pricey as well.  I don't mind paying a lot for top quality ingredients, but I do mind when it seems all I'm paying for is a name or location (Gobo I'm looking at you). 

Anyway today I decided to try something new but I also wanted to get something that I knew would be good.  So, I ordered the vanilla pudding and the tiramisu. 

Neither disappointed.  I'd had the mango pudding before - which was fabulous - but I also love all things vanilla.  Initially I was hesitant because I knew that since it was vanilla the taste of the young coconut that's also in it would be more prominent.  I like young coconut but sometimes the flavor can overpower thing for me.  The vanilla pudding was definitely coconuty but I still enjoyed it, and the blueberries at the bottom are a nice addition. 

The tiramisu was as terrific as ever. 

All I have to say about it is this.  My father is a self describe tiramisu connoisseur, he's had it in restaurants all over the world and it's one of his favorite desserts.  I brought him here several months ago without telling him anything about the restaurant and he loved it.  He was floored when I told him it was raw.

Anyway, as usual One Lucky Duck did not disappoint.  The price tag was about $26.

Strictly Roots

I live in the New York area, but I rarely make it up to Harlem. There are lots of fantastic resturants in the area which are incentives for me to venture uptown, but that long subway ride just seems too far...especially where there are so many other closer options. (Okay so maybe the subway ride doesn't actually take that long, particularly on the express train-but it sure seems far when I'm on the lower east side). Well anyway, yesterday I finally made it and I decided to try something new. Instead of my usual Ethiopian fare, like at Zoma (oh it was soooo hard to walk by this place and not go in), I figured I'd give a new place a shot.

(I didn't take a photo of the outside because the street was crowded and I didn't want to look like a tourist-next time I'll just do it...probably)

I decided to try Strictly Roots. It's an all vegan Carribean restaurant on 123rd and Adam Clayton Powell. The decor is modest but the guy behind the counter was very friendly and inviting. Here they have a hot bar with prepared foods and a seperate menu you can order from. Since I was famished when I got there I decided to get food from the hot bar.

When there you can choose between a "half order" and a "full order" of each item so I decided to get half orders so I could try several things.  I ordered the greens, cabbage, mashed potatoes and a tofu stirfry. The tofu stirfry was by far my favorite. It was really flavorful and had onions and greens mixed in it in a tomato based sauce. The mashed potatoes were also pretty good, although a little standard, but I found the greens and the cabage to be a little bland but they were better after I spiced them up with some hot sauce (luckily they had some on the table).

My bf ordered a veggie burger and fries which I loved. (actually I kinda wished I had ordered one for myself after trying it).

But here's what you need to know. The veggie burger was really greasy but in a way that really appeals to me. It also had fried onions and lettuce and tomato on a wheat bun. Plus the fries were fantastic. Also greasy, these fries remind me of the ones I used to get at Checkers when I was a kid.

The prices are pretty affordable, the meal came to about $21 and that included a fresh juice. All around this was a pleasant dining experience. I'm still not sure how often I'll actually make it to Harlem, but when I go, this can certainly be a contender...