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.