In God we trust

We all know about the American dream (which indeed seems to be a bit of a nightmare for many) and the value of the almighty dollar to dictate everything and anything over here so I found this ad on the subway summed it up very well. This, in the context of the current debate over here about whether they should increase the minimum wage from $7 to $10(!!).

Imagine....

In this post-election haze with thoughts of the future that lies before us in the Abbott Australia of the future I thought it fitting to do a post on our day spent in the West Village visiting and reflecting upon the possibilities that a truly good and peaceful man and his positive message can bring. On one of the few rainy days since we've been here we headed over to the Upper West Side to visit the Dakota building where John Lennon lived and the memorial to him across the road in Central Parks Strawberry Fields. We weren't the only ones of course but it was still quite special and moving to be in this place. In fact, the rainy, slightly less hectic day in the city on a Sunday seemed a fitting day to visit the two places. Imagine a world with more John Lennon's and fewer John Howard's (not to mention pesky Abbott's)... The West side is definitely a wealthy residential enclave (mmm....come to think of it this probably describes all of Manhattan to some degree). Quite streets with large towering beautiful brownstones complete with doormen (yes, they seemed to all be men) and shiny black cars with drivers waiting out the front. It's a bit freaky and surreal being amongst so much extreme wealth.

Candle 79

Well it's official,  Candle 79 has been voted best vegan restaurant in NYC by the vegan girls. We've been there 3 times now,twice for lunch and once for dinner and we have enjoyed the experience immensely each time.  Candle 79 is located in the Upper East side, on 79th street, just off Lexington.   The restaurant is inviting, nice plush booths and cosy tables,  and the staff are friendly and knowledgeable of the menu.

On our last visit we spent the morning checking out the Guggenheim (which is just over on 5th Avenue, ,the MET is close by) and then headed over to the restaurant. To be honest we kind of planned the day around having a final lunch at Candle 79, the Guggenheim was just an add-on.

We sat upstairs on our final visit, a window seat, looking over 79th street.

 On our dinner visit the previous Saturday, we had discovered the amazing "Seitan Chimichurri' on their starter menu, and I begged Ange to let us order this again. It is an amazing taste sensation - honestly the best bbq style fake meat I have we have ever tasted;

The Seitan burger (on their lunch menu) was a hit with Ange - so much so she ordered it twice too. It comes with crispy polenta fries and salad - yum;

I order a savoury crepe which had a beautiful creamy sauce drizzled on top - yum

Finally a picture of one of the desserts we sampled - a chocolate mousse

Ps.  Sorry for the long break in posts - We are not being slack bloggers, but are having serious problems with our laptop - it's taken me 5 goes to try to finish this post :(

Made in USA...no sorry, I mean France

Lady Liberty - A symbol of freedom, a beacon of light shining over the city - hmm, after 3 weeks here we find this "land of the free" message a little hard to digest. So before  posting some happy snaps of our visit yesterday, some commentary in cartoon form;

...and now on to our visit - this was the only thing we had pre-booked before we left so waking up to an overcast and windy day for our Statue of Liberty tour was a little annoying. But our tickets included access to the "crown" observation area and as this is now booked out till November we felt good about the pre-planning.  It  took 3 subway rides to get to Battery Park where the ferry departs, which drove me crazy because I can see the statue from our apartment's rooftop garden. The R line which would have got us there quickly is still out of service due to Hurricane Sandy damage. Ellis Island is also still closed due to damage.

The ferry ride was a bit rocky but only lasts about 10-15 minutes so was manageable just. Of course the anti-nausea  tablets we had brought with us were conveniently left behind at the apartment, and Angella kept reminding me she had survived the Kangaroo Island trip, this was nothing.

Here are some pictures from the ride over;

 When we arrived I couldn't resist taking this photo of Lady Liberty with the ferry's American flag flying in the wind

Here are some snaps of me and Ange taken from the first observation area, only 179 steps but many lined up for the elevator (you read right, there is an elevator).

  

We then headed up to the crown observation area, another 240 steps up, but hey we had done the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, and the Duomo in Florence, so this was nothing. There was no elevator for this part, which probably keeps many away. Sure it was not spacious, but there was light, there was air being pumped in, and the stairs were made of metal not stone - so pretty comfortable in comparison. Below is a picture of the spiral staircase leading up, and then a shot of Ange on the way down which will give you some idea.

Once in the crown, you realise how small Lady Liberty's head is - it was pretty cramped with room for about 5-6 people at a time. The view, while amazing, is a little obscured by the dirty glass, but hey probably hard to get a window cleaner up there.

Once back down on the ground we heading to a good vantage point for the obligatory selfie with statue (I'm sure this will make our 2014 calendar)

Luckily a passerby felt sorry for us and took this shot looking back from the island to Manhattan.

Ps. Some of you may have heard about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempt to ban large sodas in NYC. We saw this ad on the back of a Pepsi truck that afternoon and thought it a fitting way to end this post.

Safety in numbers

Mum was a little worried about us traveling to the US, she kept saying "Stay safe and stick together".  Evidence that these are wise words below:

Bright lights, big city

67 floors up you get a pretty good view of Manhattan. We decided on a night time visit to Top of the Rock, an observation deck at the Rockefeller Centre. After taking the 43 second ride to the top in a glass ceiling elevator (my Mum would have died), which left us a bit dizzy and with ears popping, we were met with spectacular views over the city.

Once on the 67th floor you can go up another 2 floors by escalator. The top observation deck is the best as there is no glass obstructing the view. We have both decided we need to come back here in the day time so we can appreciate looking over Central Park (a huge dark expanse at night).

You could see the glow of lights from Times Square, so naturally once we had descended we headed to this iconic spot.

Here is a video to give you a taste of the hustle and bustle of Times Square. I laughed listening back to this towards the end, I'm sooo tired of hearing Americans ordering people to stay in line (excuse the quality, I've had to compress quite a bit to get it up here)

Love to you all back in Adelaide xx

Blossom

We have visited Blossom restaurant twice so far. This is one of the more high end vegan restaurants in NYC, along with Candle79 and Dirt Candy. With low lighting and plush red interior, friendly staff and good food. Our first visit was a week ago and most recently after seeing Morrissey 25:Live at the Chelsea Cinema. We loved the entree (called the starter here) we both ordered the first time so much that we got the same the next time. The 'cape cod cakes' and the cashew cream ravioli are both amazing. One of the benefits of dining out with a fellow vegan (and your sister) is you always get to share! The main (entree) was a a bit more hit and miss. The first time I ordered a really yummy pistashio crusted tofu filled crepe. Unfortunately Leeanne's 'Hickory bbq tempeh' was a bit overwhelming - must admit some of the flavours they use here are so different/unexpected that there is always a chance some weird tasting dish will arrive. The dessert (only tried one) a berry cheesecake was nice but have to admit it was nowhere near as good as the one our mum makes! On our second visit we struck out again on one of the main meals, a Port red wine seitan which was simply too 'meaty' (and we both love fake meat but this was a little too realistic). The really nice and friendly wait staff (Dylan)who we had a lengthy chat with comparing Australia and the US (he had visited Australia for two months) was kind enough to give us this meal for free so we chalk it up to experience. Must say that the service at both Candle 79 (review to come) and Blossom is fantastic and much more like what we are used to in Australia. So far the service in the US has generally consisted of long waits, being ignored, shrugging of shoulders when you ask a question (that is when you are lucky enough to get the attention of staff) or the most common one, a bemused look followed by 'no'.

Cape Cod Cakes

Cashew cream ravioli

Pistachio crepes

Berry Cheescake

drugs?

My favourite film is 'Drugstore Cowboy' which is set in the 1970s and features the large signs outside US pharmacies that proclaim 'DRUGS' in bright fluro letters. I've always wanted to see these. Given the so-called "War on Drugs" in the US I can't help but find a bittersweet irony in seeing these signs. Even more ironic is the misleading nature of them. Both Leeanne and I are suffering from major back, neck and other bad bed and pillow related aches and pains so we walked into a 'drugstore' hoping to get some voltaren (really, just any anti-inflammatory) and some panadiene (or at least some sort of codiene product). This is the point at which the pharmacist advises us that no such products are available in the US without first seeing a doctor (and we all know how accessible and cheap the US healthcare system is don't we?!!). After directing us to some heat packs and natural remedies we left empty handed and counted out our last remaining pain relievers to be taken only on the verge of death from now on...

Morrissey 25 Live

Was very excited to see Morrissey 25 Live last night. Will probably be forever before it comes to Australia, let alone little Adelaide. It's basically filming of one of his few American performance last year, due to all his cancellation, held at the Hollywood High School Auditorium. It's a beautiful way to relive seeing him live (Susan and Suzy - you will love it). The amazing thing is, the American audience is so tame. When we saw him in Sydney last year it was pretty crazy up front and people were singing along - the American audience were much more reserved.

I think our concerts in Australia were much better, but would be good to come over for one here so I can push to the front and go crazy - I'm sure Morrissey would notice me then.

Squirrel action on the terrace

These guys are sooo cute. Wish we could take one home.

Brooklyn Bridge

What better way to spend a beautiful sunny, clear, Saturday than walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Of course in a city full of tourists we were not the only ones.

 We walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan - some shots of the views along the way below;

Once on the Manhattan side we stopped to enjoy a little street entertainment, and then because it was so close, decided to go to the WTC memorial.

After about an hour of lining up, tickets checks, security checks etc. we finally got to the memorial fountains. There are 2, one for each of the towers. The new World Trade Centre is close by and still under construction. It's amazing that 12 years on there is still such a physical scar on the landscape.

We'd planned a lunch stop at MOB, which is back over the Brooklyn Bridge.  By this time we were pretty tired and hungry so getting lost (our first time since we arrived), and then discovering the place was closed that day for renovations was not fun. Luckily two friendly vegan girls, also looking to lunch at MOB came along and suggested some alternate vegan eateries in the area.

Setting off again, and with another wrong turn we ended up walking past the Barclays Centre twice. This however turned to good fortune, as they were prepping for the VMA awards that were being held there the next night, and my sister spotted Grimes, who she is a fan of, getting out of a car - so managed to get her autograph. 

There was finally lunch after this at the V-Spot in Parkslope - a Latin American vegan/vegetarian place. I had their Buffalo 'chicken' wings  which were pretty tasty, Ange had the Raw nori rolls, basically sushi but with the rice replaced by a creamy nut paste - this was yummy

Pure Food and Wine

 We have visited quite a few vegan eateries through the week since we last posted .  Pure Food and Wine was one of them. After a morning of shopping at Macy's, retreating to Pure Food and Wine for a relaxing long lunch was just what we needed.

This is a raw food, organic restaurant, which is usually a huge turn off (the raw,not the organic), but the menu looked interesting and we knew they had wine so we decided to give it a go.  We got a seat in their outdoor garden area out back - it's a beautiful spot, very relaxing and quite, which is amazing given the hustle and bustle of the streets outside.

I was feeling a bit of fake meat/ deep fried overload so decided to order the Pumpkin seed and herb salad.  Ange decided to take advantage of the Prix Fixe Lunch  ordering the Mediterranean Salad, Brazil Nut Sea Vegetable Croquettes and the Tiramisu Triangle for dessert.

My salad was ridiculously boring and didn't deserve a picture. Lucky Ange had ordered well.

 Brazil Nut Sea Vegetable Croquettes

 Tiramisu Triangle