NY eats: Candle Cafe

One of my favorite bloggers, Erica, goes to Candle Cafe so much that she should get some kind of customer discount. Every time I read her blog, I see dozens of colorful photos of food that looks fresh, wholesome, yet also incredibly indulgent. I crave vegan food when I see those pictures.
Originally, Erica and I had planned to meet up at Candle, but during my first few days in New York, she was sick, so I decided to go to Candle just in case we wouldn't be able to meet before I left.
My mom was willing to eat there with me, but my dad took one look at the menu and went to the bistro next door (hilariously called LeSteak), where he ordered a steak burger and ate with my grandparents. Oh, well... To each his own.
Leave it to my mom to order a salad. I kept asking her why she would order a salad at a vegan restaurant when non-vegetarian restaurants always have salad options. Luckily, the salad she ordered wasn't leafy. She ordered the Soba Noodle Salad, with Soba Noodles, ginger grilled tofu, shiitake mushrooms, edamame, julienne carrots, radish and sesame seeds over mesclun with a creamy wasabi dressing.
While she liked the salad as a whole, she hated the tofu, which she said was bland. Well, yeah... tofu is bland! But she said that wasn't what she meant, and I suppose it's because she prefers more Asian preparations, where tofu isn't usually served alone.

Ironically, even though I had been trying to avoid "Asian" food, what I really wanted was to try one of Candle's wraps, and the special that day just so happened to be the Asian Style Wrap with wasabi-ginger grilled tofu, brown rice, steamed greens, adzuki beans, stir-fried greens in a ginger-miso sauce wrapped in a spinach tortilla, served with an edamame salad and a creamy wasabi dressing.
Sound pretty similar, huh? Actually, I thought our dressings tasted different even though they were supposedly the same. Either way, the dressing was the star, I ate the wrap with my hands (Which is rare for me... Usually I cut it up and eat it with a knife and fork. I'm weird that way) and it didn't fall apart! That alone earned them props, since I know how difficult it is to stuff a wrap that full but manage for it to say together.

With every bite, I got chewy tofu (which, yes, was a little bland, but provided texture next to its more flavorful counterparts), sweet, sandy (but in a good way) adzuki beans (called hong dou, or red beans, in China), and of course, all the crunchy vegetables.
The edamame salad was delicious, and would be incredibly easy to recreate at home. It had shredded purple cabbage, carrots, and sesame seeds.
So, yes, the whole thing was pseudo-hippie Asian, but in a good way. I still would have preferred their Middle Eastern wrap or Moroccan wrap.
I did love the atmosphere of the place, though! It was lively, but quiet enough to have a conversation. The servers were friendly (I heard one educating the guy next to me about stevia) and the whole place just felt relaxed and unpretentious.
Oh yes, and I ate the ENTIRE wrap. The whole thing. And while I felt full, I didn't feel stuffed. That wrap was HUGE... Although I've never actually been to Chipotle, I'm sure it could rival one of their burritos.

Luckily, Erica got better, and we decided to meet up for an early New Years' Eve dinner. We debated going to a few different places (such as Gobo and Counter), but in the end, I decided that I wanted to go back to Candle and try some of their more dinner-like options.
Unfortunately, we found out that Candle wasn't seating any more people after 6, so we pushed our meeting one hour earlier. It just so happened that the day of our Candle Dinner was the same day I had eaten that huge lunch at The Islands. How would I ever feel hungry again!
I quickly hopped on the subway to get out of Brooklyn and met her there.
I feel so stupid that we didn't take a picture together or anything! Either way, we had a great time. I know it sounds strange to meet up with people from the internet, but the two of us are among the youngest food bloggers and it was so much fun just to talk about food and not feel like she was bored. Of course, we talked about other stuff too... either way, I had a great time.
Like I said, I wasn't that hungry, so we skipped the appetizer and I ended up ordering the Porcini Crusted Seitan with garlic-shallot-potato mash, sautéed spinach and string beans with grilled oyster mushroom and topped with home-style gravy.

This was definitely a dish that could have been a disaster... mushy, flavorless potatoes, rubbery seitan, and greasy gravy. Of course, it was the opposite... I LOVED it, even though it wasn't at all the kind of thing I would usually order or make at home (This, more or less, is the reason I ordered it). The potatoes were chunky and flavorful, the the chewy texture of the seitan was echoed by the mushroom, which interestingly enough, tasted strongly of mustard. The greens were great, especially when swiped through a puddle of gravy... but the word "Gravy" doesn't do it justice. Just think of a rich, brown aromatic sauce. I ate all of this except for a small piece of seitan (Ha, I know I said I wasn't that hungry, but I can always eat!).
Erica ordered a special that I would have ordered if she hadn't (But I was happy with my choice!): Tempeh Napoleon from the special’s menu which was polenta crusted tempeh with layers of artichoke paté, served with sautéed snap peas, broccolini, chanterelle mushrooms, and spinach over a tomato-truffle sauce, drizzled with parsley oil.

It was so beautifully presented! The contrast of the green vegetables against the blood red tomato sauce was definitely festive, even though Christmas is over. She generously let me taste a piece of tempeh, because she said she had never had tempeh prepared this way. While it reminded her of a crab cake, I thought it was more like a chicken patty-- crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. But of course, it was not your average chicken patty. She also ate everything on her plate.
We debated going to Tasti D-lite, but it was freezing out and Erica claimed to have had TWO medium cups of it the day before, so somehow she convinced me to order two desserts at candle! Honestly, I just wanted to see if they lived up to all the hype... because really, how can vegan desserts compare to ones full of cream, eggs, and butter?
I picked the Carrot Cake and she picked the Apple Cranberry Crumb Pie.

I honestly was completely stunned. Not only were they as good as "regular" desserts, but they were better! Well, I've probably had better pies in my life, but I'm also spoiled by my mom's apple pie with its flaky, butter crust. But the carrot cake was OUT OF THIS WORLD! Usually carrot cake is a sugar-laden concoction with a sticky, cloying cream cheese ice cream, but Candle's version was moist, spicy, and not too sweet-- each bite had some tangy frosting and a cake embedded with carrot shreds and raisins. Honestly... amazing.
But the crumb pie was also great! It's just that, like Erica, I love that carrot cake. There should be a website dedicated to it.
Anyways, all in all, I loved this restaurant! I won't force my parents to go back, but even if I can't get someone to go with me, I'll make sure to go back the next time I'm in New York.

Address: 1307 3rd Ave, New York City, New York

I can't think of a title for this post

Wednesday is piano day.
Caught a ride to school with some extremely nice neighbors.
Breakfast: 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 cup of my butternut squash from last night, 1/2 banana, the rest of our cranberry sauce stirred in (this didn't look as pretty, but at least it wasn't cold) 1/3 cup oat milk, 1/3 cup water, Greek yogurt, candied walnuts.
I didn't have a snack today, but I did grab a carrot from my lunch box.
Lunch: tofu sandwich with hummus and spinach! It was kind of bland... maybe it needed mustard (weird with hummus though) or something. But super satisfying!
I was really craving hummus, so I had more carrots and celery with more hummus.
And a pear.
The lunch spread you see includes snacks for music.
I took the bus downtown after school to music... I got there about 45 minutes early, so I went to Starbucks because I was literally FALLING asleep. I couldn't decide what to get, but I didn't make such a good decision in the end. Whereas I like the sweetness of mochas, the pumpkin spice latte was just NOT for me. I thought it tasted way too sugary by the end... and what's in it, anyway? It was orange... was there actually pumpkin in it?

I had an apple. I was originally going to have a larabar too, but I thought that was overkill.
Quartet went well, but because the coach is a cellist, there wasn't really much I could do...
Private lesson was the opposite-- in an hour, we only got through 2 pages of a nocturne!
So my dad picked me up (back from his trip, but he leaves tomorrow) and we went home, where we had the world's fastest dinner.
He stir-fried some cauliflower, we had leftover brown rice, string beans, and those salmon sausages I bought at Whole Foods.
The verdict: DELICIOUS! Tasted just like meat to me! It's not that you couldn't tell it was salmon, but the texture was very convincing. It's not even meant to imitate meat, I don't think, but it was great. I ate it with ketchup and mustard.
I was starving, given lack of snacks and being out of the house for over 12 hours, so I had seconds.


And thirds on cauliflower that I didn't photograph.
I still wanted something sweet, so I had grapes and a zen soy swirl pudding... I still can't decide if I like them or not. I like the first bite, and then by the end I already feel like I shouldn't buy them again.

I love my Sailor Moon spoon...
tomorrow is my friend Kaitlyn's birthday, and I'm making her a special lunch :) Nothing fancy, but it'll be fun for me, because I'll pack her stuff I would never make for myself (she's the opposite of me... carnivorous, junk-foody, etc.): I'm thinking a marshmallow, nutella and banana sandwich. I'll also leave her a little card and maybe some other cute things.
Good night!

Lights out

I want to be in bed EARLY today... say, 9:15 or so? This was the most relaxing Thanksgiving break ever. Normally I would have found it pretty boring, since I mainly just lounged around the house, leaving it only to do exercise and homework, but with the world's worst weather outside, I really enjoyed it.
Today I woke up too hungry to do exercise right away. I actually woke up at 7 and FINISHED MOBY-DICK! That is an accomplishment... only I don't know what I think of the ending. In fact, I'm annoyed at Melville. He made us read all 450 pages of that tiny print of a plot where no progress is made and everything ends in disaster? Now, I know the whale represents nature and you can't conquer nature, blahblahblah, and I am totally anti-whaling, but for once, could they have killed him just to make the ending feel definite?
Enough ranting-- I hadn't had oats in a long time, and made them this morning. I had a third cup portion, and it seemed TINY! Of course, it ended up filling me up, but I just wasn't used to there not being so much volume.
I had: 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup this WEIRD oat milk stuff that is brown sugar maple flavored... I tried it plain and nearly threw up, but it seems okay cooked in oats, 1/3 cup water, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, 1/8 cup cottage cheese, cranberry sauce, a drizzle of peanut butter, some walnuts, and a little Greek yogurt.
I did stuff in the morning and around 9:30 or something I went down to the workout room. I was afraid somebody would be in there but nobody was! I did 40 minutes on the elliptical reading Interview with the Vampire. It was my first time reading and working out at the same time, and I managed to get a good workout in without feeling bored, which is my big problem with machines. Basically, as I read, I kept increasing the level until I was at level 23 or something! I do want to try interval training, but I think I need to be in the right mood.
Afterwards I used the limited number of strength machines to do 3 sets each of the one that works your pecs and triceps and the one that works your quads and calves (sorry, don't know the names).
I also did 3 sets of bicycles, which were killing me at the end. I think it's because I did a lot... at least for me-- my friend Aoife does 60 on each side! and that's ONE SET! I did 40 and that was plenty for me.
It felt nice to sweat, actually! With swimming and running in the freezing cold, you don't sweat. Actually, I take that back. I was sweating in that damn 85 degree pool the other day!
I didn't eat anything after my workout because it was pretty close to lunch. For lunch my dad had leftover pizza and I made a leftovers plate too with zucchini, the last cauliflower ball, and the rapini, which I added some feta and lemon too. I also had a piece of pumpernickel with avocado, smoked salmon, and lemon. This was very filling and delicious.

Check out that perfect avocado!

Later I was starving and had an apple.

Afterwards I braved the weather to go back to Istria (I wonder if they'll start to recognize me...) and write my second art history paper. This was SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE! Basically, you go to a museum (the Art Institute) and pick a piece that predates 100 CE, then do a fake analysis of it where you make up its symbolism, where it was from, etc. I chose this Chinese pig pen model, but my paper became almost like a mystery story where it turns out that the society worshipped pigs (Piganism, like Paganism, get it?), but also had this weird idea that life couldn't exist without death, so they would kill the pigs and eventually they all died out.
While I was there, I had a decaf mocha with skim, which I had been looking forward to all morning. I was hungry, and all that delicious milk and chocolate filled me up!

By the way, this listening to my body thing is definitely working. It might just be psychological, but I already feel thinner and that my jeans are looser, as well as just feeling BETTER and less bloated all the time. Win-win situation.
My dad and I went to Whole Foods afterwards and bought a bunch of stuff-- we spent less money than last time, thank god.

I bought stevia, finally! So excited to try it!
For dinner I made another dish from the Flexitarian Table, which is slowly becoming my kitchen Bible. This dish is probably a hate it or love it kind of thing, because its flavors are STRONG. It's German or Eastern-European influenced... I made the "non-vegetarian" option (I could have made it with tempeh): smoked white fish over saurkraut with apples and onions.
It was so easy! All I had to do was saute the onions with apple, carrot, celery and caraway seeds, simmer it down with white wine, add the saurkraut, simmer, then add the fish and simmer. It was really fast because really, everything was cooked. this would be great to make if you had nothing fresh and needed to resort to what was in your pantry.
On the side we had boiled potatoes, which were perfect because they were so bland.
My dad also stir-fried some broccoli, which I had seconds of.
And now I feel the urge for something sweet, so that will probably happen soon. I'm going to get everything together for school and get in bed with Interview with the Vampire! Life is sweet!
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving weekend!

Listening to my Body

Today I ate light. I didn't work out, but I still ate less than what I would have if I hadn't eaten out. Basically, I was careful. I ate slowly. I thought about whether I was really hungry or not. And surprise surprise, I ate probably half of what I would have otherwise.
Breakfast-- I wasn't that starving, so I had 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup yogurt, half a banana, some raspberries, 1/4 cup grapenuts, and a tsp of flax. As you can see, this isn't deprivation or anything, but is definitely lighter than what I would have gotten. If I had been truly still hungry, I would have gotten more, but since I wasn't, I stuck with it. It was a great feeling not to feel stuffed after breakfast.
The thing is, I was so focused on thinking about eating slowly that I FORGOT TO PHOTOGRAPH MY FOOD! Ha... I find that really funny.
After breakfast I went to Istria, the yummy cafe/ gelato place by my house, to write my first art history paper. I made big mistake # 1 of the day: I ordered a cappuccino. I remember that my mom loves their cappucinos, but the "small" was honestly the size of a soup bowl. I know most of it was foam, and I had no problem finishing it, but I honestly felt nauseous and had a stomache ache for the rest of the day. This is why I really shouldn't drink coffee. Anyways, it was still a good idea to go there because I just sat down and wrote my paper. You have to pay for wireless there, so there was nothing to distract me.
I came back and we ate lunch a little while later. My lunch was also maybe a 1/3 of the size of my usual one... I had one piece of pumpernickel with hummus, spinach, and 2 triangles of lemon thyme tofu, plus a carrot, some cucumber and celery with the rest of the hummus. I also had a bowl of Trader Joe's roasted pepper and tomato soup. I ate very slowly and even noticed that all the different flavors were more pronounced... the tofu is definitely DELICIOUS in sandwiches. The chewy texture made it so satisfying!
I didn't finish all the vegetables.
A big later, I decided I just HAD TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. I decided to go downtown for no apparent reason and run some errands. The problem is, I am probably the only moron in this country who has never heard of Black Friday (my mom explained it when she called later), so I didn't understand why 1) I had to stand squished on the bus the whole way there 2) I could hardly move walking down the street and 3) there were tons of sales.
I WAS ON MICHIGAN AVENUE, for crying out loud. How stupid could I be?
Talk about unobservant... I mean, I knew people were here for Thanksgiving break... It was weird, because listening to all the different languages, I mainly just heard Chinese and French, the 2 foreign languages that I speak, being spoken... EVERYWHERE. It was like I was in China and not America, that's how many Chinese people there were.
I stopped in Nordstrom and got some shirts (didn't even want to think about buying pants), eye makeup, and body butter. Then I walked to the Borders by Watertower and bought Interview with the Vampire, which I am already really into. Then I walked really far north, realized there were no bus stops, then walked all the way back and over the bridge. I would say I got a good 3 mile walk in today, so at least I wasn't totally sedentary. I'm going to swim tomorrow, I think.
When I got home, I had to acknowledge the fact that I was pretty hungry. I didn't want to completely spoil my appetite, but I needed something more than just a piece of fruit. I had an apple (sliced, to make it last longer), a spoonful of peanut butter, and a few crackers with some milky tea. When I finished, I saw there were some crackers that I'd missed. I was about to eat them when I stopped myself-- I was full for the time being. I think I'm going about this the right way.
Dinner was very fast-- we just had leftovers and my dad stir-fried some zucchini really quickly.
For protein, I had some black beans with a bit of yogurt. My plate also has the zucchini, cranberry sauce, corn bread, and some of the squash-millet bake.
I ate slowly and DIDN'T HAVE SECONDS. I was tempted, but honestly my stomach has been feeling weird since the coffee and I didn't.
However, I do feel some hunger pangs, so I'm going to have a small snack. I don't feel deprived-- I just feel pure. Of course, I'll eat more when I exercise and eating is still my life... I just don't feel overstuffed anymore.

UGH, for the second time since my mom left, I tasted spoiled milk. I guess the problem is that my dad doesn't drink milk and I don't drink it that much... Maybe we should just stop buying it? I used the other milk, which is even older but somehow hasn't spoiled yet... I wonder what they put in it-- I'm slight suspicious (it was the 2%)-- anyways, even though it's caffeinated, I had some hot chocolate. When my stomach feels strange some warm milk usually makes it feel better. I had some grapes and a tiny piece of Green and Black's dark chocolate to feed my sweet tooth. And off to bed I go!

Thanksgiving

This post is exciting for a few reasons:
1. I've been checking out other blogs, and most of them show relatively traditional Thanksgiving food. Of course, I did kind of miss the turkey, stuffing, and apple pie, but I also love how we mixed it up and created a menu that still had a lot of Thanksgiving-ish ingredients, and yet was definitely modernized.
2. Last night was also my first official time as "head chef." I mean, my dad made the chicken and string beans, but I made everything else by myself. I feel now that I've "entertained" once, I can do it lots more in the future! It was really fun!
So yesterday I started cooking first thing in the morning. First, I had a very good breakfast: Thanksgiving oatmeal!
It had 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup soy milk, some leftover pumpkin, 1/2 a banana, maple syrup, pecans, cranberry sauce, and a dollop of yogurt.
Then I started cooking. All the dishes were spread out over the course of the day, so I didn't feel pressured. I popped the Autumn Millet Bake back in the oven because it hadn't finished cooking, while I worked on the other baked dishes, that I figured I might as well do now if the oven was on. I made 101 Cookbook's Firecracker Cornbread and a recipe I got on Epicurious for Apple Quince Crisp with Rum Raisins. I modified that one a bit-- we didn't have rum, so the raisins became bourbon raisins. I also changed the topping and used Deborah Madison's, since I prefer my crisp topping to have oats in it. I also included walnuts and used half butter and half walnut oil in the topping. Flambee-ing the raisins was awesome, although it doesn't really show in the picture.
My dad couldn't resist taking some really unflattering pictures of me.
For lunch I wasn't that hungry, so I definitely ate more than I should have. I made a big salad with a bunch of random things-- spinach, some leftover cauliflower croquettes from the night before, some rice and beans, and hummus. I also had a piece of bread with cucumber and laughing cow, and then, just because I wanted something sweet, I had a zensoy pudding with half a banana and a drizzle of peanut butter. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach, and for some reason I always finish what's on my plate. I'll get to that in a minute, but this is definitely a bad thing.
I also had an apple.
I only went out of the house once-- how sad is that?? I really really really hate being cooped up in the apartment, which is why today I'm just going to get out for the sake of getting out. Anyways, at around 3 I went running with my friends-- the friends I went with yesterday are super fast, with 5 minute miles or something. I was really afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up with them, and there were stretches when I couldn't, but I basically stayed with them the whole time and felt like I pushed myself without hurting anything. Also, we didn't go that far-- I met them at the Point, and then we ran to just over the hill (before the playground) and then ran back not quite to the Point and did a bunch of striders, which we used to do when I was a sprinter, but they were obviously longer (for distance). Then I ran back to my house. I was thinking about having a snack but realized I had to get cooking and forgot all about it, which was VERY good, considering the amount of food we had later.
We actually changed the main course, because I realized that if we were going to have the autumn millet bake, our original stuffed pumpkins would be too similar. My dad took care of the Cornish hens, basting them with some kind of marmalade marinate, while I still tried out a Flexitarian Table recipe for Lemon Thyme tofu. I was a little worried about this, since I've never had "Western-style tofu" before. I also ended up using two kinds of tofu: both extra firm, but one was silken, and it kept falling apart :(
I also realized when the guests showed up that I was the only American-born person there! I guess Thanksgiving wasn't a tradition to any of these people: most of them were either Chinese or Korean, and one was Belgian.
Inspired by Kath, I made menus: check out that sparkly paper!
My dad also made his traditional turkey centerpiece:
First course (too lazy to write it out-- just check the menu).

For some reason I perfected the dressing this time by using balsamic instead of lemon juice. The combination of salty, sour and sweet were perfected. This was really good, if I do say so myself.



Meanwhile, my dad stir-fried the string beans and served up the chickens. It was too hard to get everything out at once, so we ate everything gradually. For some reason, I got full much more quickly than usual! I can normally eat HUGE amounts of food, but yesterday I couldn't. My downfall was either a) being the cook-- real chefs hardly ever eat because they're around food all day. Not saying I'm a real chef, but you know what I mean. b) the HUGE AMOUNT OF STRING BEANS MY DAD GAVE ME in order to compensate for lack of chicken. I really shouldn't have eaten all these, esp. since they're not a "special occasion" food, but they're so good... and they are vegetables.
I had a tiny sliver of cornbread, two helpings of cranberry sauce, and a small piece of the millet bake. Everything was really good- the cornbread especially, since I rarely cook with butter. The butter was infused with cayenne and made the cornbread spicy and moist. It was also good that I used millet because they use it a lot in China and Korea, and I think it was interesting for the students to see it in a Western way instead of just labeling is some kind of hippie dish, since most of us think of millet as bird food.
As for the tofu... It was a little strong for me. It absorbed the flavors so thoroughly that I think it would be better on a sandwich or in a salad. Still, it was definitely interesting, and eating it in bigger chunks made it feel more substantial. I had one half triangle and I didn't end up eating all of it.
One student made some kind of Chinese buns with gluey rice flour on the inside. I had a bite, but honestly I've never really liked Chinese baked goods.

I don't know why I was so full at this point! But I knew it was Thanksgiving and I was really looking forward to dessert.
In addition to my crisp, people brought a blueberry cheesecake and some ice cream. The only thing I really felt was worth splurging on was the crisp, and I really wish my mom had been there to try it. YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED THIS, MOM.

I was afraid it would be too boozy, but the bourbon just added another dimension to the filling. The contrast between the apples and quinces was subtle but definitely there-- the quinces were chewier and more tart. I had the crisp with some full-fat Greek yogurt and it was great. I went back for seconds. I thought it was justified.
By the end of the night I was full but not actually stuffed-- I think the problem was the massive amount of fibrous green beans sitting in my stomach.
Afterwards, we all signed the menus-- not sure why, but I think my dad is going to save it-- he joked about framing it as a way to document my first real dinner party. Actually, it wasn't really, since I've cooked for friends before, but I've definitely never made so many dishes at once.

However, this is the unfun part to say. I'm realizing that I have gained weight. I don't regret not being stringent and borderline Orthorexic (do people actually use this term? I've only recently heard about this), but I do regret not treating my body well and listening to myself when I'm not hungry anymore. It's not just that my jeans are tight, but also that I don't feel good when I keep eating when I'm full. My goal is to not stop myself from eating one thing, but to start with smaller portions and get more if I'm hungry, rather than setting out a huge food spread for myself and devouring it all, because I'm just not the kind of person who can leave food on my plate-- maybe it's an Asian thing. Either way, this isn't going to be an "I'm going to lose X pounds" type of thing, although I would guess it's probably around 5 pounds. If I were really going to go back to how I was at my thinnest, it would be around 10, but I was too thin then, I wasn't healthy and had to go to the doctor, and I also didn't have as much muscle mass... also, I was an inch or two shorter. Anyways, you see my point.
I just want to eat more slowly and really savor everything.
What advice do you have?