Remember all the cake I had on Friday?? It was delicious, but it also necessitated that Saturday take shape as a recovery day. Thank goodness my plans cooperated with that need 😀

I woke up at 8:30 and hydrated with a “mocktail” of home-brewed jasmine iced tea, coconut water, and a watermelon ice cube:

At 9:00, I met Emily at the subway to accompany her to hot yoga so she could experience the magic before she left town (noooo, Emily, don’t go to Buffalo!). We sweated out all of our impurities (suuuuuuuuure), and then I headed straight down to Kate’s apartment in Carroll Gardens so I could pick up my half of the CSA (more on that tomorrow), zipped back to my apartment in the Slope to process the produce and clean myself up, and jerkily made my way through the messy weekend subway system to the UES to meet up with Pamela for a delightful vegan linner at none other than Candle Cafe.

I ate at Candle’s fancy and somewhat stuffy big sister, Candle 79, a few weeks ago and was not entirely thrilled with the experience, so I was very excited to try the cafe since the menu and ambience seemed much more my style.

Pamela ordered the quesadilla, a whole wheat tortilla filled with bean puree, grilled vegetables, and soy cheese with daily salsa on the side:

I ate half of one of her wedges, and it was so so tasty! The onions inside were sweet, and the salsa was hot. I love sweet and spicy together!

To round out her quesadilla, Pamela also ordered the green life smoothie, a blend of kale, pineapple, banana, and orange juice:

Obviously, the smoothie was phenomenal as well.

I ordered the taco salad: chili beans, grilled seitan, chopped lettuce, tofu sour cream, soy cheese, and corn chips topped with toasted cumin vinaigrette, pico de gallo, and guacamole.

This salad was enormous and completely delicious! I ate every single bite (except for the four bites that Pamela swiped) and was so full when I finished. The mix of flavors in this dish was incredible, and I loved the generosity of the guacamole serving on top:

The complexity of seasonings and multiple ingredients in this dish set it apart from Candle 79. I enjoyed my food at Candle 79, but it didn’t fill me up, and I felt as though I could have prepared it myself. This salad more than filled me up, and I’m not sure I could replicate it without a specific recipe. I approved 🙂

Obviously, Pamela and I had to order dessert.

And we obviously had to order two desserts and split them 😀 😀

I was sad that Candle did not have the famous carrot cake when we were there, but our selections were still fantastic. We split the seasonal fruit crumb pie a la mode (with vanilla soy ice cream):

There were enormous hunks of peaches all throughout this pie, and it reminded me of a peach-blueberry crisp.

And the chocolate mousse pie with chocolate cookie crust:

This pie was amazingly rich yet light at the same time, mmmmmmm.

We left no crumbs unturned 😛

My original plan had been to head back to Brooklyn immediately after our linner, but I was sooooo full that I decided to walk with Pamela to where Gina was waiting and then tag along on their shopping expedition for a bit so that I could facilitate digestion! Central Park was looking quite photogenic on Saturday, so I couldn’t help taking some pictures as we walked by.

It’s amazing how having a camera at the ready makes me appreciate the beauty of something I’ve been walking by for nine years.

Have you taken second looks at anything — restaurants, foods, scenery, friendships, etc. — lately?