Last night I went into Albany to meet with the CDNY Eat Drink Blog ladies at New World Bistro Bar. The event had been plan long before the Vegan for a Week Challenge and when I took on the challenge, I’d originally forgotten all about dinner.
Luckily, New World Bistro has a vegan menu. I wanted to get something unique, so I ordered the Blue Corn Crusted Seitan Medallions: hearty “wheat-meat” cutlets with roasted tomatillo salsa, brown rice, black beans, winter squash and greens. I’d never had seitan so I figured it might be good to try it out at a place that really knows what they’re doing.
Please excuse poor restaurant photography; someday I’ll actually learn how to work my camera
The plate of food was huge and delicious. I don’t think I like seitan quite as much as tofu or tempeh, but it was still really nicely done. Plus I ended up taking half the seitan home to share with Brian. In addition to my huge plate of food, I also snagged some of Cynthia’s appetizer, Cage Pan Blackened Stringbeans, which were fantastic.
The service and the menu at New World were amazing. I’m always impressed with places that manage to gracefully put up with large groups that have picky eating preferences and restrictions. Now I’m just looking for excuses to go back, looking at the rest of the menu and everyone else’s food was sort of depressing. There were so many things listed that I couldn’t eat this time around. I really can’t imagine being vegan and eating out at most restaurants. If we’d chosen anywhere else to go, I really might’ve been in trouble. Morgan’s post about eating out excellently articulates how I imagine most restaurants are.
Oh, and we had a really fun time. Because CDNY Eat Drink Blog outings are always fabulous.
In other vegan eating news, breakfast today was peach butter on Ezekiel bread (there’s no butter in peach butter!), lunch was leftover seitan with a side of sweet potato, and dinner was Carrot-Ginger Soup with Tofu from Food Network Magazine.
It’s not the best soup I’ve ever made, but it was tasty. I’d probably make it again (actually, I think I have to: I still have 3 cups of carrot juice left. What else can I do with carrot juice?) I think I’d like the soup better if I kicked up the spices a bit as well. We served it with some white potatoes from our CSA.
Less than 1 day of the Vegan Challenge left for me! I’m looking forward to putting together all my thoughts about the experience for you soon.
Looks like you guys had such a great time — and, I think you have a great excuse to go back and try a different meal :) Eager to hear your reflections on your vegan week!
We should go back and take the guys :-)