If I can make it there…

Well one more thing I can tick off the old “stuff to do before I die” list is run the New York City Marathon. Yes folks, I trained, suffered and trained some more and got myself into the 2009 NYC Marathon with 43 000 other nutcases who think a 42.1 km run is a good time.

In all honesty while I was there the running came second fiddle to eating at gorgeous vegan restaurants, all of which had raw options.

New York is awash with great vegan cafes and restaurants and we went to lots of them.

I tried Candle Cafe and Candle 79 and met the lovely Bernay who has run the NYC marathon 8 times. Both of these restaurants had some raw dishes although Candle 79 had the best selection including a “live” entree , main and dessert as well as the usual salad options.  They sweetly wished me luck for the marathon and followed my time on the athlete tracker.

They also had great cocktails like the Lexington which was delicious and the Red Autumn with its beetroot and sake combination that felt like it was almost good for you.

I also tried Pure Food and Wine which although the food was very nice the place was loud and lacked real personality. It was good food for people who didn’t usually eat raw- “wow, you would never know it’s raw!”

The people at the next table were horrible, drunk and loud and the seating arrangements meant they were impossible to ignore. When part of their dessert came flying our way they half heartedly appolgised but it was pretty hard to enjoy ourselves until they left.

We were looking forward to  trying the Dr cow nut cheese although the portion you get is a tiny sliver and there is no way of knowing which cheese is which once you get your plate of it. We decided we would have to go to Williamsburg and buy the cheese straight from Dr Cow.

They did have a great Thai coconut noodle dish and a lovely dessert selection.  Although we had the opportunity to go back we decided that it was a bit mainstream and we enjoyed the smaller, more personal service of some of the other cafes.

In complete contrast was Rockin Raw in Williamsburg.  Creole raw food in huge homely helpings with recognisable ingredients, fantastic flavours and an obviously local fan base. We had massive sandwiches made with essene bread, super food smoothies, and yummy little biscuits desserts.  They had some great sauces on the side and there was a spiciness that had been missing from my diet thus far.  The food was reasonably priced and left us feeling happy and inspired.  What more could you want from lunch?

Andy’s Pure Food in Rye had some amazing little raw chocolate truffles- I admit it, we had to try them all. Hey I had like 2600 calories to make up from the run. They also had some great basic tasty salads and some really interesting smoothies. They mostly do take out and will also deliver a detox program of food to you for seven days to make things super simple.

Blossom Cafe which is a favorite of many NY vegans has some lovely dishes including raw options and was friendly and pleasant. Nice place to recharge after all that walking around NY so we stuffed ourselve before heading off to see Jude Law playing Hamlet.

We also managed to squeeze into the tiny Quintessence cafe in the East Village where we has some awesome raw food. I had a mexican style pizza and I swear it was one of the yummiest things I ate on my trip. The cafe is really small and cosy and the service is friendly.

I stopped in at Angelica Kitchen for hot apple cider and chai braving their ‘we can’t seat you until your whole party is here’ rule. They seem a bit uptight but the food is nice enough.  Apparently they get insanely busy and are wildly popular with the local vegans and vegetarians.

Last but not least was Caravan Of Dreams which was charming and eclectic with a great selection of vegan and raw vegan food. We had amazing smoothies, salads, raw vegan “meatballs” and desserts. The food was piled high and there was an incredible amount of greens. The salad came with sunflower seed sprouts which I have never had before but now I know what I am going to do with all of last summers left over sunflower seeds.

I left New York inspired and at least a kg heavier than when I arrived-I blame the desserts. It makes me very happy that New Yorkers can so easily access a great range of vegan and raw vegan food that is clearly made with care and attention to detail.

I will definitely be making some new Raw Recipes inspired by the Big Apple- stay tuned