Monday, December 22, 2008

pudding.trifle.bread.bananas.pumpkin.ginger.

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Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Peanut Butter Caramel and Vanilla Ice Cream.

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ginger.

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Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle.

Pumpkin pudding + vanilla cream + gingerbread.

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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Oh Yeah,Forgot to Mention,I Had a Birthday-and a Cake..with 4 Different Peanut Butter Frostings and Stuff...

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My birthday cake was 4 layers of cake-brownie,peanut butter blondie,brownie,peanut butter blondie.
and since I had all of these flavoured peanut butters,I had 4 layers of peanut butter frosting,too-vanilla cranberry peanut butter frosting,white chocolate peanut butter frosting,cinnamon raisin peanut butter frosting,and plain ol' peanut butter frosting.

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it was decorated with peanut butter covered pretzels,peanut butter cups,thick chocolate ganache,melted chocolate,and more frosting.yump.

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zedomg

birfdayhay

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

NEW YORK CITY:A LOT OF ICE CREAM,PEANUT BUTTER,AND COFFEE-The Epic Post

lula's sweet apothecary banana split:being devoured.

lula's sweet apothecary banana split:ready to devour

Okay,so I was in NYC from November 5 for 2 weeks and ate a lot of ice cream,drank a lot of coffee,walked a lot,did a lot of drawing,talking,talking about drawing,subway riding,and meeting lots of people.INcluding Thurston Moore.
Anyways,here's lots of pictures and reviews about stuffs.

lula's sweet apothecary banana split:being devoured.

First things first is Lula's Sweet Apothecary.
The all vegan old fashioned ice cream parlour in the East Village which opened about 2 months ago now.
I already had plans to meet up with friends there and then a big PPK meet up on the 15th before I got to New York.But then I ended up going there almost every single day they were open.And then I kind of became BFF with Blythe and Derek,the wonderful proprietors.And one night I ended up hanging out there after a school open house for like 6 hours and met this amazing man named Hippie Lou and we talked for hours and he let me get whatever I wanted on him.And he was serious.And I had already eaten ice cream so I wasn't going to get anymore.But then Blythe's sister was like "Hippe Lou is totally serious.You have to take advantage of this-it's a New York moment" and no matter how cheesy that sounds it totally changed my mind and I realized that later is never and I needed to take advantage of being in an all vegan ice cream parlour and being able to get whatever I wanted for free,and so I did.I got a banana split with every topping.Over 19 toppings.All over a banana and a Sweet and Sara Peanut Butter S'mores Pie that Blythe threw in.
lula's sweet apothecary banana split:being devoured.
There was 4 different types of Newman Os,non pareils,vegan almond joy bar thingies,graham crackers,gummy worms,gummy bears,sour gummy bears,all sorts of nuts,candied pecans,white chocolate chips,all sorts of jimmies,and even carob chips,which I like,and I wanted EVERY topping.And some more stuff topped off with hot fudge,caramel,whip cream,and a cherry.
Best thing I ate in New York by a long shot.
Here's the first night I went there,with Sarah Chans for the first of many encounters with her,

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house made ice creams

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ginger cookie sundae

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s'mores sundae

peanut butter oreo flurry
peanut butter cookie flurry

cake batter ice cream-to go
cake batter ice cream(!!!!!!!) to go

and on other occasions:
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vanilla softserve

softserve
softserve twist,and my beautiful hand

pink bubblegum and cake batter ice cream
pink bubblegum(!!!!) and cake batter.on another visit to lula's with sarchies.she went there a lot,too.

best ice cream of my life
the best ice cream i've ever had,ever.peanut butter with this unbelieveable fudge it it-like frozen hot fudge texture almost.god.

a mini scoop of every flavour
mini scoops of every flavour.

meeting melisser
"i don't like whip cream because i actually hate everything"

and then we had a big PPK meet up there on one Saturday night.and I FINALLY got to meet Melisser.awesome.We hung out the next day,too,and talked a lot and went to the Bean which had no seating(ugh) and tried to find non gross bread at Whole Foods and went inside Yonah Shimmel,but Melissa hates everyone and decided the lady working the counter was a freak.
I made Blythe and Derek Peanut Butter Cinnamon Rolls,which were shared.

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eating peanut butter cinnamon roll

sarchan's cookies
Sara brought amazing chewy peanut butter banana cookies with peanut chews and coconut almond joy bar things in them.

strawberry and peanut butter
oh,and she had to get a scoop of strawberry with a scoop of peanut butter because of harry potter...

get ready

omg
Terry can testify to this...

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MALT SHOTS!!!there was vanilla,peanut butter,and pumpkin.gummy bears on the bottom of everything from this moment on?

derek and a punkin ice cream mini cone
there was this pumpkin pie ice cream which i can still remember exactly what is tasted like and it was kind of hard to stop eating before i left the store sunday morning at like 2:25am.

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pumpkin sundae
punkin sundae

MOVING ON...

real vermont maple syrup latte
I also had really incredible coffee in Brooklyn at Gorilla Coffee.I went there in the summer with Isa and Terry about 1.5 years ago,but didn't drink coffee then.I think that this was the best espresso i've ever had.Jet Fuel would probably be second best.I went here 3 times,and on the last bought a travel mug and got a free drink,so i got something I usually wouldn't and got the real Vermont maple syrup latte pictured above.best latte i've had ever,hands down.but c'mon,real maple syrup.

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sarchies

s'nice punkin muff
Pumpkin Muffin from s'nice in Brooklyn.They have good coffee(and other things) too.I went to the Manhattan one the first day I got in.

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Vox Pop in Brooklyn.

peanut butter cheesecake squared

One day,a Thursday,I met Sara at Earth Tonez(won't get into it,but the lady saw and tried the cookies I brought Sara and gave me their info to see if i'd sell baked goods there...haha) and after getting Gorilla Coffees and going to Vox Pop Sara decided she really wanted the Red Mango Peanut Butter Cheesecake I kept yapping about.
I had some at The Bean on 6th Avenue earlier that week,and it was incredible.Really.Like,such thick and sugary peanut butter frosting,but ontop of plain cheesecake,then a peanut butter layer,then a chocolate cookie crust.Oh,and there's really thick ganache.I like how the cheesecake was plain,it was interesting,and nice considering there was 2 other peanut butter parts and that was unexpected.Also,the cheesecake was awesome-light,didn't taste chemically and too tofutti-esque,and didn't tatse like eating sweet cream cheese with a spoon.Good.
Sarah and I got her slice at the Bean on 2nd Avenue.
I ended up getting coffee at the Bean a lot-I filled up TWO free drink cards.yikes.Though the one on 6 Avnue had awesome staff and there was this girl named Mel and she was listening to Sleater-Kinney the whole time and started telling me about how Carrie Brownstein came in there a couple weeks before and I told her all about my Sleater-Kinney experiences,etc and it was really great.Also,I went in just to get a coffee to go once and 'Jungle Land' by Bruce Springsteen came on the stereo and that's one of my favourite Bruce Springsteen songs,so i decided to sit down and stay,for at least the 9.5 minutes of whatever.

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my slice

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vegan twinkies

peanut butter rice krispie bars

These Red Mango Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars were awesome,too.Everyone egrees.I got mine at Cakeshop though,which was a really cool cafe and bar,but unfotunately not a record store anymore.
So peanutty and rich...

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Speaking of peanut butter,I also went to the Peanut Butter & Co. sammich store.I'd been before,so I just got sample sizes(25 cents each,for a good few tablespoons)because i'm not gonna spend $8 on a sammich on mediocre bread and potato chips,and I hate potatoes.

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Babycakes.
Unlike last summer,they had frosting shots!and of course the frosting is the very best part,especially Babycakes frosting.How dooooes she do it?!

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heck yes!

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best brownies
Thanks Paula for always going on on the boards about how amazing Whole Foods' spelt brownie is.Probably the best vegan brownies i've ever had that wasn't home made.Well,friend made,too.

bestest brownies
PEANUT BUTTER VARIATION!!!

so good
secretly composed of 98% Earth Balance?

oh really?
what's a vegan?
actually,this particular Friday on the way to the Union Square Whole Foods I was at Cooper Square and some guy called me Chelsea Clinton.wtf?

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I went to Food Swings with Sarah,who's awesome and lots of other stuff who I was staying with in Bed Stuy,John and a couple of their friends at 1:30am to get milkshakes after I went to see Zeena Parker and Thurston Moore at Glasslands.

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I had cookie dough.I love cookie dough,so much.

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John had 'the seymour' which was pisatchio ice cream,peanut butter,and cookies.as good as it sounds.

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Keeping with the ice cream theme(HEY THAT RHYMES!)I also went to Penny Lick's.
I liked it because it's really cute,despite some of the Temptation ice cream being only okay,the cookie dough is really good,and you can get a $1 cone!How cute is that?

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The place is basically Vegan Treats baked goods and Temptation ice cream and the like twice as much non vegan ice cream and a lot of non vegan desserts,BUT the girl working there was really nice and we were talking about my camera and she asked if it was the same one her friend just bought(yashica t4,which it wasn't) and then her friend actually came in and we started talking and then i was there for a long while and then she gave me free stuff!it was so sweet(hah,literally)of her,and i didn't even want an insane white chocolate brownie!oh well.

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can you believe she did this for me?!

kabocha squah soft serve.

Last of the ice cream,I swear,but not least,this is Kabocha Squash Softserve from Kyotofu.I had this the very first night I got there,and the guy gave me 2 huge free samples and told me not to worry about buying any after the 'samples' when I said I would(!)so that was awesome,but besides that,this stuff was sooo good.SO creamy.And it was kobocha squash-my all time favourite squash.My number 4 all time favourite food.I eat plain kabocha squash almost everynight,tonight included(though I was sick and was told not to,I think it will be okay) and to have it in a sweet,creamy,softserve ice cream?Heavenly.
They switch flavours every Tuesday,so I went in a week later for Chestnut and Black Soybean Chocolate softserves.

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chestnut was great,super sweet,but no kabocha.

black soybean chocolate softserve

peanut butter bombed

and maybe I'll never be able to have a Vegan Treats dessert again(pssh yeah right) I enjoyed(most of) the Peanut Butter Bomb at Atlas
and the S'mores Cheesecake which the girl working the counter insisted I get.

s'mores cheesecake

atlas cafe.

vegan treats at moo shoes

I actually got to meet Danielle of Vegan Treats at Lula's the night of the insane banana split for like 2.5 seconds.
and there was the Sarah Kramer book release party(another Sara Chan experience) at Moo Shoes which surprisingly and unexpectedly had free Vegan Treats treats!The best ones i've ever had,actually.My favourite were the ones with the crunchy peanut butter topping.mmm.oh,and the pumpkin cheesecake was incredible.

caramel filled chocolate cups with brownies and gold stuff from vegan treats
caramel filled!!!

chocolate hazelnut creme cups that were also gold and shiny from vegan treats
gold-flecked buttercream filled.

cheesecakes from vegan treats;punkin,cinnamon and plain with cherry topping

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i didn't have a cupcake,but that's
okay,I mean,it's just a cupcake.

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free huge oatmeal cookies from Birdbath Build a Green Bakery.
Free because they're supposed to be open till 10 and I was there at 9:40 and they were closed but the guy was inside talking to a friend so he went to the back,gave me a bag of vegan cookies,and that was it.Neat.Oh,and they're really good.There's coconut in em.

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and my first Peanut Chews.Sarah(y'know,the awesome one with the even awesome cat who I was staying with) told me it was the first thing I had to eat when I was there,and so it was.They're super healthy,and all natural,dontchya know.

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At Tillie's,In Brooklyn(near Pratt)

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they had very good espresso.though the lady told me the wrong price and we started arguing and she was like "well it's cheaper than starbucks" and i pointed out that $3.50 for a double espresso was in fact not,and then she realized that she was naming the price for a wrong drink.Then we were nice.


and so that's basically the eating part of my NYC trip,which actually only took up a small fraction of it,and I have like 200 more pictures from a film camera,but most of those aren't developed.BUT here is Thurston Moore and I...
OMGITSME&THURSTONMOORE(1)

OMGITSME&THURSTONMOORE(2)

cuties,huh?

p.s not done with the ice creams
november 12 2008