Munchy brunchy bunch

I’m back from the blogger brunch — what a fun group of girls (and boy)! We met at Counter, an East Village vegetarian restaurant. While the service left quite a bit to be desired — at least five orders got messed up, and poor Dori didn’t get her food until after pretty much everyone else had finished eating! — the company was wonderful and my meal at least tasted delicious. My people-photography skills are lacking, but here’s what I was able to get.

Left to right: Danielle, Ashley, Melissa, Gena (the Raw Foodist and soon-to-be-blogger), Mark, Heather, and Shane

Left to right: part of Amelia‘s eye, Vani, Olga, Amie, reader Ashley, me

Not pictured but also there: Dori, Missy, and Emily

I ordered the Moroccan Tagine: poached eggs in a rich tomato-pepper stew & grilled flatbread. The flatbreads came haphazardly tossed on a separate plate, so I arranged them around my stew dish for better visual effect:

This. was. SO. GOOD. If you ever go to Counter (which I’m not sure I’d recommend after experiencing their lousy service, even taking into account that there were 16 of us), you must order this dish.

The stew was spicy and flavorful and thick, and the flatbreads complemented it perfectly. (I also ate one of the flatbreads with a smear of strawberry butter because I could not pass that up when I saw it!)

I inhaled my food because it was yummmmmy and I was hungry (the accidental 10.5 miles was starting to catch up with me), but everyone else was still eating and I was jealous. I checked out the spread and noticed a meal down at the other end that I couldn’t quite identify:

It almost looked like a big hunk of steak, but I thought that was highly unlikely with us being at a vegetarian restaurant and all. I called down to Danielle to see what she had ordered. FRENCH TOAST!! She offered me a bite, and my spoon and I were down at her plate in under 5 seconds 😀

Of course, once I successfully filled my spoon with gooey French toast delight, I started talking to Heather (who also accidentally ran 10 miles this morning!! we’re so going to wipe the floor (is that even an expression?) with the Brooklyn Half Marathon) about Providence and waving my spoon all around. I ended up dropping my gooey French toast bite onto Missy! (Sorry, Missy!) Should have seen that one coming …

Danielle immediately offered up another bite of her French toast because she’s AMAZING (Danielle, I’m so bummed we didn’t get to chat — I call dibs on the seat beside you at the next blogger event!) and then she offered me the REST of her plate because she was FULL. How could I refuse??

It tasted like it looked: DELICIOUS. Warm, dense, gooey, maple-y, banana-y. From the menu: a delicious vegan twist on classic French toast with banana flambe. Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

(I’m pretty sure I smeared strawberry butter all over this guy, too )

Thanks again, Danielle! That French toast definitely bumped me up into the “satiated” category!

Vani, Emily, Missy, and I headed down toward the F train when we left the restaurant at 3:30 (yes, we were all there gabbing for over 2 hours! Sooo glad I wrote my midterm yesterday. Olga still has one to write tonight, ack. You can do it, Olga!!). Emily needed gelato, so we stopped into Sugar where I drooled over the dessert case and then got scolded by management for taking this picture (and about 12 others):

I also tried a bite of the pannacotta gelato, which Emily ended up ordering. Mmmm, it was good. Next time!

When we left Sugar, I crossed the street too fast, as usual, and the smarter and safer girls were left behind on the other side:

Once back in the Slope, Emily and I peer-pressured Vani into trying the balls at Hanco’s. I think she’s going to be hooked! Emily boldly ordered the egg yolk soda:

I took a couple sips — it was kind of like a cross between egg nog and and egg cream. It was definitely yolky, but also sweet and a little fizzy. It was different, but I liked it.

I ordered an unsweetened milkless coconut tea:

(It was still milky and sort of sweet because I’m pretty sure the coconut tea powder they use has both milk and sugar already built into the blend.)

I got home and took stock of all the goodies that Melissa and Missy were able to procure for us. Weil bars, a Z-bar, treats from One Lucky Duck, and free passes for fitness classes in the city:

This little guy was so cute that I had to sample him right away:

And now I think I’m already getting hungry again for dinner! Hmmm, what to eat, what to eat …

What is your worst restaurant service story?

21 thoughts on “Munchy brunchy bunch”

Dori says:

March 22, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Great post! I especially love your circling of the french toast from a distance. My own tiny taste of that french toast was literally the highlight of my meal. Oh, well! They can’t all be perfect. Hope to see you again in a less stressful service environment!

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21 thoughts on “Munchy brunchy bunch”

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