Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Cashew Nacho Cheese Dip

This is a creamy and delicious dip that tastes a bit like nacho cheese, but is thick And great for dipping veggie sticks or tortilla chips.  Soak and refrigerate your cashews overnight in an air tight container to achieve a creamier consistency.
Serve right away or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Cashew Nacho Cheese Dip

1 cup soaked raw Cashews
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
2 TBSP. Lemon Juice
2/3 cup Olive Oil
1/4 cup Water
1 tsp. Chili Powder
1 tsp. granulated Garlic
1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1/8 tsp. Tumeric
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 Serrano Pepper


Soak cashews overnight.  Drain and rinse them, and pour them into a food processor.  Add all other ingredients, and process on high until mixture is thick and creamy.  Stop to scrape the sides to make sure it is thoroughly combined.  This may take a few minutes. Serve as a dipping sauce, enchilada sauce, cheese on a sandwich, etc. 


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

NYC: Mr. Kiwi

This past weekend, I ventured to New York City with one of my best friends, Mia.  I was there to play the NY Death Fest with Phobia, and decided to stay a bit longer so we could see the city...and EAT.  NYC is known for being one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world, and although I've been there multiple times, I was estatic to show Mia what the city was all about.  We had a few stand out restaurants we were for sure going to visit, but mostly we just walked around and hit up vegan restaurants along the way.  NYC has so many vegan friendly eateries, there's even a book published every year detailing all of them..."The Vegan Guide to New York".  

The first day we enjoyed the luxury of all the 24 hour health food stores conveniently located at what feels like EVERY CORNER in the city!!  My bass player, Calum, and his best friend, Zeta, both live right off the JMZ Subway near Mr. Kiwi.  It's like a miniature Whole Foods with tons of prepared food including mock meats, brown rice sushi, brownies, fruit cups, and $4 you call it JUICES.  Fresh squeezed in front of you, with whatever fruit or juices you'd like, this is the best deal in all the world.  The fact that you can order them 24 hours a day, is just UNREAL.  We enjoyed vegan turkey strips, brown rice and quinoa sushi, fresh cut watermelon, ice cold coconut water, organic cherries in a cup, pad thai, and seaweed snacks from Mr. Kiwi during the duration of our stay.  It's magical having a store like that so conveniently located and open all day and night. MAGIC.

NYC: Champs Bakery for Brunch, Babycakes, Moo Shoes, Wild Ginger


For breakfast the next day, we took Mia to Champs in Willamsburg, Brooklyn.  I had bragged and bragged about this place to her for months, and when we finally arrived, we had to wait half an hour for a table, but it was totally worth it.  The menu is extensive and includes breakfast all day, which made me feel like I was at a Denny's...except I COULD ORDER ANYTHING I WANTED!  Iced coffees with Bee Free Honey (made from apples!!), and the Vegan Slam, with sausage, tempeh bacon, tofu scramble, home fries, and toast, I was full and happy.  I skipped desserts this first time, but their display case was full of amazing cakes, cupcakes, mini pumpkin pies, and gluten free cookie sandwiches.  YUM.


For lunch, Mia and I walked around the Lower East side, and visited my favorite bakery, Babycakes!!!  At first, we stopped in just for iced coffees, then walked across the block to Moo Shoes, and all vegan shoe store.  Most of their shoes are high quality and high priced, but we were both able to find some Deals.  I got baby pink flats with bright red hearts on the toe, and Mia got some dirty pink slip ons. I left some copies of our Summertime Gladness Zine there, next to their copies VegNews.  We went back to Babycakes and ordered a Pumpkin Eclair and Mocha Brownie Cupcake.  Since we didn't have an appetite for them yet, we carried them with us while we shopped all around the city....until we were at the H&M near Union Square (farmers market!!), and even though our desserts were melted and sticky, we shoved bites in our mouths and were super impressed with the messy pastries.  The mocha brownie frosting was to die for.  


We dropped off more zines at Bluestockings Feminist Bookstore, and had lunch at Wild Ginger, vegan thai, near Little Italy.  Wild Ginger has multiple locations, and serve awesome lunch specials.  We shared Mango Chikin with plum sauce, and Black Pepper Seitan, both served with steamed pumpkin, spring rolls, and miso soup.  I never eat the fried tofu or spring rolls at regular Thai restaurants back home, so I indulged in knowing there was no animal products being fried at Wild Ginger.  Reasonably priced with an authentic, calm, ambience, Wild Ginger is a staple in the vegan Thai food scene!!


We met up with Calum, and he took us to my favorite bar in all of NYC... Duffs!! It's the most metal bar evvvver, and have $1 PBRs 6-9 pm.  The memorabilia amongst the walls is illuminated with red lights and makes you crazy to look at.  I, of course, always say hi to the Wendy O Williams poster framed by the front door.  She is one of my idols, was a macrobiotic chef, and she fronted The Plasmatics.  I love the W.O.W. album she released that Gene Simmons produced!!! Check it out if you've never heard it...she was way ahead of her time.  She killed herself years ago, but she lives on in my heart!!!!!!!!!! Rock n Roll Forever!!!




Lucky for us, Calum made us one of his famous vegan lasagnas for dinner and Zeta prepared an amazing side salad with fresh vinaigrette.  Mia and I took an extensive look at all the crazy fruits and vegetables at the local grocer, Food Bazaar, and decided to contribute a fruit salad to dinner.  We bought star fruit, guavas, organic kiwi, dinosaur plums, and fresh DRAGONFRUIT!  These are all pretty rare for us to find/buy in San Antonio, so we indulged.  The dragon fruit was not as sweet as I thought it would be...It was almost like a thicker banana texture with what looked like little chia seeds polka dotted in it.  The lasagna was amazing, and Calum told me he mixed Daiya and Trader Joes cheeses for it.  I have to say that it was so nice to sit down and have a home cooked meal with our friends!!! Super happy fun times!!! 


Fresh LemonGrass
Cheap Cheap Cheap Flax and Chia Seeds!!!



NYC: NY Death Fest

I played at Saint Vitus in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Saturday.  They serve mini vegan hotdogs there, and I've had them before, but not this time.  The show was crazy packed, and we spent a lot of the time in the basement drinking tall boys of PBR with the rest of my band.  

Earlier in the day though, Calum and Zeta took us on a water taxi from an area by the venue, to the Brooklyn beach. Obviously, the water is NOT clean, but we really enjoy any opportunity be on a boat, and the view of Manhattan from the beach is BEAUTIFUL.  We walked to the Wythe Hotel near the Brooklyn Brewery, and had a drink at their amazing (but expensive) happy hour.  It was on the 6th floor and had a huge outdoorpatio, which reminded Mia and I of our favorite happy hour in San Antonio, at the Tower of Americas.  We paid $18 for two whiskey and ginger ales, but Calum got 3 IPAs for free because the bartender liked his Varukers tshirt.  I was jealous, but we stayed for that one drink, then ventured on.


  Calum found one of those amazing corner stores and bought a huge cinnamon bun.  I didn't try it because my belly was full, but Mia said it had a cream cheeze frosting on it and was kind of dry.  We stress over making cinnamon rolls, so we are always a little turned off by them these days.  They are soooo time consuming to make!!  For dinner that night, Mia and I had vegan slices at Vinnie's on Bedford and then got a bunch of stuff from Mr. Kiwi again, and munched hard.  The show was great, and Macabre played a killer set.

NYC: Champs for Lunch, Soy and Sake

Our last full day in NYC, we ate at Champs again.  Iced coffees, homemade seitan tempeh burgers, a jalapeƱo and ham Cubano, and biscuits and gravy filled our bellies...but the most exciting thing we ate was the Cheesecake Brownie.  Thick moist brownie, with dense and lightly sweetened cheesecake topping made for a perfect lunchtime dessert.  



We hung out in Central Park, drank beers on the Staten Island Ferry, flicked off Wall Street, then met Zeta for dinner at SOY AND SAKE...the all vegan sushi restaurant in the East Village.  We ordered so much food, it was insane.  We ate glass noodles with soy pork and chikin, sushi with soy eel, soy crab, and all other kinds of weird stuff.  I ordered crab rangoon which Mia didn't like, but I ate a ton of, and afterwards we walked to the Comedy Cellar.  We had an amazing time seeing some CRAZY awesome comedians and drinking Yuengling.  Our night finished with our own impromptu dance party in the subway, while counting city rats and jamming The Generationals on my phone.  We cuddled with the cats at Calum's house, and packed for our departure the next day.

NYC: Dun Well Doughnuts, Foodswings, Vaute

The morning we left, Mia and I woke up early enough to cab it over to Dun Well Doughnuts on Montrose in Williamsburg.  It was one of our destination stops, and is an ALL VEGAN specialty doughnut store.  It has a 1920's retro, old school New York vibe, and sold all kinds of fresh doughnuts, lattes, coffee, and pre packaged desserts.  It was an added bonus that my vegan friend Mark that lives in Wisconsin was there eating too!!  Mia and I bought a few candy bars, a strawberry chocolate doughnut, a Boston creme doughnut, and iced mocha lattes.  The doughnuts were soft, warm, and heavenly.  They were devoured, but I got sugar high on them, and couldn't really enjoy my sweet latte.  I never get to order mocha lattes back home, because the chocolate always has dairy in it, but even though this one was delicious, I just couldn't handle the sweetness of it. I abandoned my latte, and we hoped in another cab to Foodswings for lunch.  

Foodswings is an amazing, vegan, punk rock, fast food joint off Grand in Williamsburg.  They are known for their realistic drumsticks, and funny named French fries, (The Punk Fries have bacon bits and cheese, the Disco Fries have gravy and cheese).  Mia and I both ordered single Buffalo Drumsticks, then I had the Gyro (as recommended by Calum), while she had the Italian Hero.  Mia couldn't decide if she liked the drumstick or not, because it really is a chewy, stringy, meaty texture, and is probably the closest thing to meat we've had in a long time.  With little skewers in the middle, you can eat it like a real drumstick, which I am usually really turned off by.  It was interesting to say the least, and even though I could barely eat my Gyro, we wrapped up our mass amounts of leftovers and finished them on the plane back home.  The tzatziki and sliced seitan on my gyro was amazing, and really imitated the Greek gyros I grew up eating at Demos. 
A few blocks from Foodswings, is Vaute, an all vegan clothing line, that has the cutest prints, soft tees, matching pup and owner bow ties, etc.  Mia and I bought a shirt that say "I can't even look at you in that fur," and we wanted lots more things!! (It's very expensive though...)


NYC: Rockaway Beach, Red Bamboo, Tourist stuff

Sunday, we woke up late, and it took us forever, but we trained it up to Rockaway Beach.  I was excited to be at the beach for the first time this summer, but also just to experience the beach made famous to me by The Ramones.  (They lied though...it is pretty far to reach)...atleast there were Passion Fruit Mimosas and Venezuelan Arepas to greet us!! Calum and Zeta hung out drinking pitchers and shaking their butts to reggae DJs, while Mia and I took a nice stroll on the beach.  There were a ton of people there, but lots of the beach was blocked off due to "severe erosion," from Hurricane Sandy.   We frolicked in the sand and water, and listened to some Lana while watching the sun set.  When we met back up with Calum, Zeta, and our friend Katie,we got arepas for $7.  Arepas are a corn flour sandwich filled with different stuff.  The only vegan one had plantains, black beans, and avocado and I fell in love with the thick, hearty, but not heavy on your belly, corn "bun".  Zeta likes them a lot, and said she bought an arepa press (kind of like a waffle press), and made them all the time for a month straight.  Perhaps I'll keep my eye out for one too...

For dinner, we visited Red Bamboo in the East Village.  I ordered beef medallions in mushroom sauce, and Mia got chikin and potato curry, and some spring rolls.  We both enjoyed our meals, but it was the least exciting of our trip I'd say.  
Afterwards, Mia and I decided to take a wander up to Times Square where we discover a 4 story Forever 21 that's open til 2 am.  We played dress up and tried on the most obnoxious dresses we could find, while jamming out to the killer 80's tunes they were playing.  We also pranced thru an empty Grand Central Station, which is huge and beautiful, then jumped for joy at Rockefeller Center.  We are big into comedy, and were very happy to see the home to SNL and 30 Rock.  It was especially cool, because it was after 1 am, and there were no other tourists in sight!!  
Then, we ended our night raging to Black Sabbath at Bizarre Bar (right by Mr. Kiwi).  Super. Happy. Fun. Times.