Wednesday night after work, I finally had the chance to attend a meeting of the Beam Green Social Club at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. I made my way down from East Harlem and walked across town through the park. I knew I was nearing my destination when the lanterns made their appearance:

Closer …

Ahhhhh ha!

I looooooooove Tavern on the Green, but it’s normally WAY out of my price range. I’ve only been there once before — for a semiformal my junior year at NYU — and I remember that night as being one of the best food nights of my life:

(Though I also distinctly remember having to sleep with a bowl because I was sooooooo full after plates and plates of pesto chicken bowtie pasta, mousse pies, fruit tarts, chocolate layer cakes, and so on. Siiiiiiiigh, youth …)

Anyway, Wednesday night was on the other end of the food-perfection spectrum … as in the food was still perfect but just more selectively chosen (aka all vegan and raw) to be in line with the Beam Green philosophy. (Side note: In case you haven’t heard of Beam Green yet, it’s an organization created to support the “Green Baby Movement” and to help individuals make changes toward a healthier and “greener” lifestyle.)

Diana, a full-fledged member, invited Vani, Olga, and me to come as her guests (yayyyy Diana!). We ran into many other bloggers there, including Missy and Dori:

Obviously, with all of the focus on green, green juice was bound to make an appearance, courtesy of Liquiteria! I started with a glass of All Greens with kale, spinach, romaine, parsley, celery, and cucumber:

This flavor was cool and refreshing and invigorating, and I downed it in two seconds because I was parched. Next, I moved onto Mr. Green with carrot, apple, beets, ginger, and “Super Green Food & Liver Kidney Lymph Detox,” which was perhaps even better:

Mmmmmmmmm. Let’s add a juicer to my list of necessary kitchen appliances!

We spent time milling around in the lap of luxury …

… though at times like this, I can’t help wondering how I manage to have access to events like this for free while people who can’t even afford a bag of apples do not. Anyway, I’ll skip my own philosophical debate because this is a food blog and move right onto the main event:

(Whole Foods brown rice avocado rolls!)

(lightly steamed veggies)

(cookies from Babycakes, including amaaaaaazing macarooons, YUMMMMM)

Here’s my plate with a mountain of veggies, sushi rolls (and lots of ginger!), and a slice of raw zucchini lasagna from Three Wishes:

And some zucchini noodle salad from Three Wishes (also adding spiralizer to the must-have kitchen appliances list!):

For dessert, I filled one plate with fruit:

And another with cookies:

Vani reminded me (and good thing she did!) that there was more dessert coming later, so I just had a bite of each cookie (plus a whole macaroon, obviously) along side a bottomless teacup of earl grey:

Mmmmmmm, this macaroon!

Then, the actual main event of the evening began: the speakers! We listened to Beam Green’s founder (Mary Boehmer), the founder of Stogo dairy-free ice cream, Gil Jacobs, and a kabbalah expert:

At the break, we had the chance to sample some of Stogo’s coconut milk-based ice cream in chocolate and vanilla:

Yummmmmmmmmmm again!!

With tummies satisfied (and minds in an overloaded state of health “information” worthy of further research), we made our wait out through the hall of mirrors:

At which point, my plans separated from those of the girls and included a lovely stroll back through Central Park:

And an impromptu midnight stop at a dinner in the Village for, errrrr, an ice cream sundae?

In all fairness, the goal was Stogo, but the entrance to Stogo was hidden somewhere, and it was hot, and we were tired, and Moonstruck was just so available.

And no chocolate syrup drips went untasted:

So, I had a lovely night part one at Beam Green (thanks, Diana!) that gave me lots to think about followed by a lovely night part two eating ice cream and riding on the subway … an excellent evening all around I would say!

I’m off to Buffalo this weekend with Erin Gunn and Mike to visit Erin’s sister Siobhan and work on some wedding planning, so I’ll probably be MIA until early next week … but I’ll be back with updates!

Clearly, I have no problem enjoying a full-blown vegan and raw feast … and following it right up with something decidedly NOT vegan and NOT raw. What foods do you eat that are at odds with each other?

On Sunday, I got to take a field trip to the greatest place on earth:

My CSA farm! Isn’t it adorable??

It was so fun to finally have a chance to see exactly where my produce grows …

… and who grows it!

Kate was out of town for the weekend, so I invited Vani along. We took a stroll around the premises when we arrived and got friendly with this little fellow:

When we found out that some of the vans were running late, we realized it could be hours before the promised BBQ since we still had to take the official tour. Vani bought a bag of walnuts from the farm store and shared, phew! Hunger disaster averted 🙂

Finally, we set off to explore the grounds:

Here’s the farmer surveying his harvest …

… and showing us how the carrots grow and how he picks them himself!

Still demonstrating the local-ness and organic-ness of everything:

Vani pointed out this guy’s shoes, and I took a stealth picture. You have to look closely to see exactly what is going on: the shoes have individual toes! We eavesdropped and found out that he uses them for triathlons. Can you imagine doing all of that in those little teeny shoes??

Here we are amidst the cabbage:

And the broccoli:

If you look closely, you can see the neighboring farm in the distance actively spraying its crops with pesticides. I’m glad that is not the farm supplying my CSA share!

Some freshly plucked basil:

And fields and fields of arugula!!! I wanted to lie down here and never get up 😛

But we couldn’t hang in the arugula forever and had to move onto the chickens. Look at how much space they have:

This farm does an excellent job actually carrying out the whole “free range” aspect of things. Seeing these chickens frolicking around made me even more excited about eating my CSA eggs:

And then there were the wildflowers!

They were so pretty that I got a little bit sad I don’t have a flower share … but flowers just aren’t functional enough for me to justify the expense.

Then, farmer Chris gave us a tractor demonstration:

AND showed us the garlic!!!!

Mmmm, I could have gone to sleep right here, too. Actually, I almost did — the sun was so strong that I wasn’t sure how much time I had left on my feet before the dehydration knocked me out and IVs became necessary. Instead, I found a patch of shade and waited until the group moved onto the blackberry bushes:

Mmmmm, farmer Chris gave us free reign to pick and eat whatever we could find ripe. Picture this times like 3000 😀

Finally, it was time for the BBQ! I found this soda in the cooler and it was sooooooooo refreshing and delicious:

I was so excited for the BBQ because, in addition to the farm corn, hot dogs, and veggie burgers provided by the farm, everyone else who went for the field trip was required to bring a side dish or dessert. You know how I love potluck arrangements!

I loaded up plate number one with grilled farm corn, seedy bread, a gardenburger, salad that I brought, cabbage slaw from someone else, fruit salad, and two types of lentil-walnut pate (one with curry and one with herbs … and both delicious!):

Plate number two involved more salad varieties: cherry tomato and feta medley, mediterranean pasta salad, cranberry-peanut waldorfy salad, and gazpacho:

Plus a big hunk of sundried tomato bread:

And the dessert plate … oh the dessert plate! From top center, I had half a pistachio cupcake with vanilla frosting, a vegan chocolate chip cookie, peach-blueberry cobbler, blueberry crisp, banana cake, rosemary shortbread (!!!), and pound cake with strawberry sauce:

YUM.

YUM.

YUM.

After lunch, it was time to head back to the Slope, so Vani and I bade farewell to the farm. I passed out pretty much the minute I got back … I actually ended up sleeping from 6:00 pm on Sunday to 6:30 am on Monday. That may have been because my Saturday night involved absolutely no sleep and looked something like this:



Don’t ask.

Either way, I caught up on my sleep Sunday night and had a belly full of local and organic food to last me for days. Sigh, that is what I call contentment!

What do YOU call contentment?

Like I said, you’re not going to believe this meal! On Friday night, a bunch of my coworkers brought me to Mama Sushi in Washington Heights.

Mama Sushi is a Dominican sushi restaurant. Yes, that’s what I said. Dominican sushi! I love sushi. I love Dominican food. The fusion of the two is something I had never ever imagined. I present the menu:

Can you guess what I ordered?

While we waited for our food, we ordered drinks. I had a sip of Belkis’ white wine sangria:

I usually have a strong dislike for wine, especially white wine (thanks to an unfortunate incident aboard a Sydney harbor cruise when I was 20), but this was delicious because it tasted like fruit juice.

I ordered the special: a mojito with passion fruit and raspberry puree:

Also very tasty. You know I’m a sucker for drinks with fresh fruit!

While we waited, a lady came by to sell this wooden man who could do flips on sticks:

Deborah played with it so long that Nydia felt guilty and bought the guy for Belkis’ son Emanuel:

The man provided hours of enjoyment and made the rounds of the table. Erik and Jose took a turn:

(OK, perhaps Jose just looked on with disdain at all the little people having fun with the wooden man.)

Emanuel was the first to receive food. When Belkis called him earlier in the day to say she’d bring him to sushi again, he strategically decided not to eat any more until we were at the restaurant so he could save his appetite. Here he is with his spring rolls:

We tucked into some edamame:

Oh wait, before the edamame, I inhaled my drink. I ordered another one, this time without the raspberry:

Ohhhhh my, that passion fruit puree, so good! Lillian and Nydia ordered the same one. It made us all very happy:

And progressively happier as the night went on:

Of course, the light started to go just as the food arrived, but food in the dark tastes just as good! Here’s the fried rice for the table:

How about the fried rice had sweet plantains in it?!!!! It got me so psyched for the sushi because I obviously ordered this one:

Avocado and sweet plantains in a sushi roll. It’s like this restaurant read my dreams.

We all shared all the rolls, though I can’t remember the exact identities of everything. I’m pretty sure we also had El Jibarito (BBQ ribs, cucumber, sweet plantains), El Cibao (crab and avocado topped with salmon paste), and Merengue (salmon, avocado, cream cheese topped with sweet plantain):

I had some of everything:

Plus, Belkis and Jose each ordered the chicken terriyaki … which comes with a big pile of mashed sweet plantain in the middle!

We took some photo breaks …

(Side note: Am I allergic to rum now? My neck, face, and back got so red and splotchy while drinking a mojito two nights in a row!!! This has never happened before.)

(That little wooden man just would not let it rest!)

And played inappropriate games with the 12-year-old:

(He didn’t mind because he was content with his video game (playstation?) under the table.)

And laughed a little too much at the intersection where we happened to be sitting … because we are so mature:

… And then moved onto the dessert segment with two fried banana ice creams and two mochi ice creams for the table:

Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me as the desserts arrived because, you know, my birthday was four months ago. Then, they had to fight me to get a bite.

Just kidding! I shared. A little bit.

So anyway, the food here was obviously delicious … but the concept of this restaurant is just SO genius and out of control. There needs to be a country called the Dominican Republic of Japan. Perhaps I should make that happen. I can be the president and declare every day fried cheese-avocado-salami-plantain roll day.

What would you name your country? And what would its specialty be?

So, when we left off on Thursday night, I was going to attempt to recreate Maria’s yucca, a meal that will forever hold a special place in my heart since it represented my first bite of real food in three days. For $1.79 at the Compare Foods next door to my office, I picked up the necessary supplies:

The ladies had given me a verbal yucca-peeling tutorial during lunch, so I followed their instructions to get rid of the “bark.”

While the yucca boiled in a pot with water and a dash of salt, I started on the most critical component of the dish: the fried onions. I sliced a red onion into thin rings and set it aside while I juiced an entire lime:

Next, the juice and the onions went into a pan with olive oil until the onions softened:

While the yucca was in process, I stepped out onto my balcony to inspect the garden. Look what I found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A tomato!!!! In case you don’t understand the magnitude of this development, I’ve been growing this tomato plant from seed since last fall when I saved and planted the seeds from a Farmers’ Market heirloom tomato. I had a bunch of little seedlings growing on my bedroom windowsill all year until my window shade fell down in May and crushed all of them except this one … which is clearly thriving now 😀 I hope I can get to the finished tomato before the squirrels do!

Also, look at what else is holding its own out there:

Red basil! I rooted a couple sprigs from my CSA delivery a few weeks ago and planted it last week. I’m so excited that it is still alive.

Anyway, after I stared in awe and pride at my little patch of green for a good two hours 20 minutes, I went back inside to tend to the stove. Here’s the yucca, boiled to perfect softness:

And topped with the limey fried onions:

I brought about half of it to work with me on Friday so I could share. I wanted to bring the whole thing, but I knew it wasn’t as good as Maria’s and was worried that my coworkers wouldn’t like it. But they loved it and ate it all!! Now I know — I can bring the whole thing in next time 😀

With the yucca, I had a few bites of Belkis’ chicken and beans (more than pictured, of course!):

And my CSA salad (I brought in a ton to share — I got behind on my eating due to all the fluids and knew I’d be getting a big influx of new CSA goods the next day) with avocado from Jessica, tomato from Pansy’s garden (she has a real yard!), and cilantro, onions, and avocado dressing left from Sister Pat’s lunch:

Mmmmmm, it was obviously delicious. I love the teamwork that goes into all of my meals at the office:

We weren’t done yet, though! Nydia had been about to throw away an unopened quart of milk on Thursday that wasn’t even past its sell-by date because she hadn’t had a chance to drink it. I convinced Jessica to take the milk home with her so that she could turn it into her specialty:

Arroz con leche! Ohhhh yummmmm. I ate a lot of it — more than my fluid-shrunken tummy was ready to handle — but I rallied soon enough so that I could have another hunk of Pansy’s Guyanese coconut dessert:

Later in the afternoon, Danilda came down to share this German chocolate bar with Deborah. It was legitimately from Germany, courtesy of one of the agency’s volunteers who had her last day on Friday and happened to be German:

Here’s the hand-off:

Deborah was so excited to open the wrapper. Apparently, they have easy-open tabs on German chocolate bar wrappers:

The chocolate looked like a cow!

Obviously Deborah shared with the rest of us. Belkis and Jessica wheeled right over to get in on the action, while Nydia looked on jealously from her telephone call in the background:

Mmmmmmmm, everyone’s happy:

Not being a huge fan of either milk chocolate or white chocolate, I just took one little square and didn’t expect much:

But OMG, what do the Germans put in their chocolate?????? This was insane. Again, as usual, I’m in the wrong country.

Also, as usual, my agency had an “informal staff gathering” at 4:30 to send off this round of volunteers. Here’s the spread:

You’d be very proud though — knowing I had dinner plans, I only looked and did not touch!

Well, that’s a lie. Beryl asked me to make a plate for her, and I happily obliged:

Mingling volunteers:

Flowers from the agency’s back patio:

And my white wine spritzer with grapes:

(OK, so I ate some grapes. And cherry tomatoes :-P)

I hung around kind of late while I waited for the rest of my dinner crowd to finish up work so we could head out. In the meantime, I inspected the day’s food pantry delivery from the farm. Check out all the collard greens and corn!!!



Apparently, there had been a cooking demonstration earlier in the day for the families to show them what to do with collard greens … and I missed it!!!! There’s going to be another one on September 18, though — I definitely marked my calendar for that, so I will be there camera in tow.

We finally left for dinner around 6:30, but this dinner needs its very own special post. I had to miss it when everyone went out to eat at this restaurant last week because I was in MA, so they agreed to go again this Friday just so that I could experience the culinary brilliance, too 😀 Seriously, you’re going to die when you see what we ate!

In the meantime, imagine that a giant burlap sack full of one food has arrived on your doorstop. What’s in the bag?

Hahahaha, get it?!

After receiving the good news at my doctor’s appointment Wednesday, I spent the train ride back up to work nearly bursting out of my skin with excitement. I got to my office and literally glided down the hall where I announced to my coworkers (while probably simultaneously jumping up and down and flapping my arms): I CAN EAT!!!!!!

The whole office stood and applauded … and then directed me to the conference room where a platter of Maria’s homemade yucca was waiting 😀

This yucca was the most amazing thing I had ever tasted. I tried to eat it slowly and savor every single bite. It was wonnnnnnnnnderful.

I took a break for some CSA cucumbers:

But I couldn’t resist and went back for two more baby plates of yucca to finish the platter 😛

My coworkers were thrilled to see me going back for more and kept patting my head with relief and saying, “She’s back!”

Belkis also put out a box of alfajores that Nitza had brought back from her recent trip to Argentina:

Mmmmm, I got introduced to alfajores in Peru and loved them! An alfajor is a sandwich cookie with dulce de leche (in Peru, they call it manjar blanco) in the middle. This particular box of alfajores contained some covered with chocolate and some covered with meringue. I kept my personal promise of moderation in mind (along with the awareness that refined sugar had not passed my lips in four days!) and just had two itty bitty wedges:

Mmmm, they were yummy but super super sweet — the little bite was enough to satisfy!

When I got home, I had the cup of mom’s homemade grape nut pudding that I’d been saving in the fridge since I got back from MA on Sunday:

I topped it with cinnamon and CSA blueberries, and it was delish!

Thursday morning, I got to have my first real breakfast in days!

Tea, diluted prune juice (about 1/4 juice; the rest water), brown bread from Saturday’s clambake, and a CSA egg with CSA “reject” greens (broccoli leaves, turnip greens, balcony arugula flowers) and CSA green onion:

I actually got full mid-meal and had to save the other piece of brown bread for a snack at work later in the morning.

When I got to work, there was an adorable little arrangement waiting on Belkis’ desk:

Jessica and Nydia had refilled the candy jar, and Belkis wanted to make sure they got credit. In front of the jar is a little solar-powered flower Belkis found — when the light shines on, it starts to sway back and forth. So cute! (I just admired, though — no candy for me yet.)

Lunch was two small bowls of CSA salad (I brought a bunch and shared with Belkis and Jessica) topped with avocado from Jessica, pepper, and a couple tbsp of Diana-inspired baba-humma:

Seriously, it is so exciting to be back to food!!! I couldn’t contain myself Wednesday night and had to cook to celebrate my triumph 😛 My giant hunk of CSA eggplant roasted beautifully:

And it made a perrrrrfect salad dressing blended with some pine-nut hummus (also from Diana!):

And I had a little bite of this steak that Deborah’s mom cooked:

OMG, seriously, I was born in the wrong country.

For dessert, I had some of these maduros left from Nydia and Lillian’s lunch:

Some other little treats over the rest of the afternoon included a handful of grapes, some more bits of alfajor (I kept cutting the dulce de leche part out of the middle of the last cookie and eating just that, shhhhh!), and an amazing homemade Guyanese coconut dessert that Pansy brought in to share:

On my way out, I had a CSA apricot (again, please disregard the apple!) and a coffee Werther’s and called it a day (until I got home for dinner, of course!):

Oh right, and between my office and the subway, I stopped into the grocery store for THIS:

I had to try to re-create Maria’s magic for myself of course 😛

Yay for food! Yay for food! Yay for food!

What is the most exciting bite of food you have ever eaten?