Fantastic Lunch At Cafe Blossom on Carmine St

I adore brunch on Sunday and although Blossom doesn't have a special Sunday brunch menu, their Lunch menu offers super sounding brunchy items you can order every day of the week, even better if you ask me. This Sunday I was lucky enough to get there by the three o'clock lunch cut off and I am thrilled to tell you it was fantastic.  The non-vegan I was eating with was Mmmmming the whole time and making plans to come back again (a very good sign).

Now what we ate.  We decided to order one savory and one sweet and share. For the sweet we went with the french toast.  The two big beautiful slices of french toast have a sweet crunchy crust  and are drizzled with an intense vanilla creme, maple syrup, candied pecans and fresh berries.  I was a little bummed about not getting the caramelized bananas it usually comes with but the berries worked well and since this was probably the best french toast I've had I have a feeling I'll get my chance to taste those caramelized bananas soon, real soon.
The second dish we shared was the southern fried seitan.  The seitan was crispy outside and tender inside and nicely seasoned. It comes with a delicious cheese and herb biscuit just perfect for sopping up the tasty gravy and the lemony kale can convert any hater into a lover of this good for you green. 
Both dishes were a huge hit.  Even the coffee that comes in a huge mug seemed exceptionally good. I am so looking forward to going back to try more things.

 Pictures Speak louder than Words.  Now, that was a good meal!!!

Cafe Blossom
41 Carmine St (B/t Bedford and Bleeker)
West Village NYC
Phone: 646-438-9939
Hours: Lunch seven days a week from noon to 3:30, Dinner daily from 5pm to 10:30pm

Monk's Meats Makes Sensational Seitan

With so many people lately finding themselves with some form of gluten intolerance, I am thrilled not to have that particular problem.  I love gluten, the chewy texture in all it's many forms is one of my favorite foods.  I've even made my own seitan after not being thrilled with the tamari-ginger flavored seitan readily available in the health food stores.  The boiling technique never worked out for me but steaming changed the game and when I can, I'll make a pretty good sliceable loaf or some pretty tasty links.  However, I no longer feel a need to bother after trying the Seitan made by Monk's Meats.  At a recent Vegan Shop-Up, Vegan Bodega was selling their products and I picked up a tub of chimichurri flavored seitan and it was fabulous.  I found out that they offered delivery to Brooklyn and Manhattan and emailed my first order and arranged a delivery time.  They were very easy to work with and I even received a message when the delivery was running a bit late due to traffic, which I greatly appreciated.  My home delivery arrived and the first thing you see is their cute packaging.

The cutlets were rosemary asparagus flavored and came in a plastic bag wrapped inside of butcher paper.  I immediately threw one in a pan with a little olive oil and dug in.  I must admit asparagus flavored seitan sounded unusual but because I really wanted to try the cutlets, I ordered them anyway and I'm glad I did.  The flavor of the cutlet was surprisingly delicious and needed no other seasoning at all. The rest of the cutlets ended up getting "Kentucky fried".  They're pretty thick so I sliced them and made two thinner cutlets out of each one.  They came out fantastic.

The standard seitan came in a tub with four big chunks in broth.  Standard has no special flavoring so you can season it up how you like, although it tastes great straight up.  I chose to slice the chunks into thin strips, coated them with my favorite spices and crisped them up to be tossed into a vegetable medley.  This too turned out great.

After enjoying their Seitan so much, I investigated the packaging looking for ingredients and nutritional information and emailed when I didn't find any.  They responded saying that they're working on having their products analyzed and provided a list of the ingredients, which were all wholesome and straight forward.
Monk's Meats makes great Seitan with a firm texture and fabulous flavor that is far superior to the packaged varieties sold in health food stores.  The tubs are $5- $6, the cutlets are $10 per pound and delivery to your door is $1 for Brooklyn and $2 for Manhattan.  To place an order write to eat@monksmeat.com.