Brooklyn Archives - A Vegan Obsession

Artisan Raw Chocolate Giveaway from Fine & Raw

February 13, 2015 by India Leigh

Chocolate Giveaway

Fine & Raw Valentines Chocolate Giveaway 8 pc box set. I visited the Fine & Raw factory and retail space in Brooklyn. I have been evangelistic about their chocolate ever since. My most recent acquisition was a bar of their Scotch Chunky. Happy Face!

For our Valentines Giveaway we have box of the 8 pc classic to giveaway to one lucky chocolate lover.

‘FINE & RAW was started in a notorious Williamsburg, Brooklyn artist loft by Daniel Sklaar. A nonsensical obsession with chocolate inspired Daniel to begin making small chocolate batches. He shared them with friends then started delivering them on his bicycle to small local purveyors. The stock was good - the purveyors wanted more.’

What is raw chocolate? Unlike other chocolate it is not roasted and never reaches above 45 degrees. Some say that nutritionally, cacao is a superfood with more than 300 nutritients including antioxidants, flavonoids, fibre, iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium. It also contains tryptophan which helps our bodies to manufacture serotonins (known as the happiness neurotransmitter). Also, the chemicals anandamine and phenylethylamine which simulate the feeling of falling in love. Aw.

And just look at this for a list of quality ingredients..

raw cacao, virgin coconut oil, blue agave, cacao butter, himalayan sea salt. This is chocolate it is easy to feel good about!

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M.O.B In Brooklyn. Avant-garde Pizza. A Tale Of Two Cities.

May 6, 2014 by India Leigh

MOB Brooklyn. Avant-garde pizza. A tale of two cites

I flew to New York last year. It was a long held dream of mine to visit the Big Apple. The iconic city definitely did not disappoint. I wrote about all my food adventures in NYC, but I left out this one. I wanted to visit Paris and see the other MOB and bring you both of them. This is the tale of MOB Brooklyn Avant-garde pizza. A tale of two cities.

M.O.B. was born in the mind of Cyril Aouizerate, over a 20 year period, while he was studying the works of Maimonides, a Spanish born Jewish philosopher, on the health benefits of various combinations of vegetables, fruits and spices. At that time he tells himself that someday he will try to make this philosophical text an ambitious project in bringing men together, regardless of their beliefs. And for their desire to, and belief of eating together. After finding the appropriate place for him to build his restaurant, Cyril founded M.O.B (Maimonides of Brooklyn).

It is set away from the hipster areas of Williamsburg and up and coming Bushwick. It gave me a good excuse to further explore Brooklyn. The neighbourhood circles a huge greenspace. Prospect Park may not have the fame of Central Park in Manhattan, but I actually preferred it as a place to get away from the craziness of the city.

I visited in the afternoon. Hungry from sightseeing and map reading. A cute Irish guy offered me a warm welcome, sat me down and brought me a tray of oven baked kale chips whilst I read the menu. Whilst it was a bit quiet inside, the lunch rush not yet taken hold, I thought the atmosphere was easy. I chose an MOB. Well, I couldn’t visit and not imbibe their namesake. The Iron Man. A generous topping of kale, shiitake mushrooms and a gorgeous horseradish aioli. All vegan. All gluten free. The base is made mostly of chickpea flour.

The MOB is baked in ovenware formed to the shape of the Brooklyn Bridge (nice touch). It was delicious. Generously topped and the base, though not like pizza, it had an almost cakey texture but it was good and it soaked up the aioli and the juices from the sauté perfectly. Filling too! I would definitely recommend eating at MOB when you visit Brooklyn. If you come to NYC, Brooklyn is a must. It has a totally different feel. Less frenetic than its island neighbour. I felt I could breathe here.

MOB Brooklyn

525 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, United States

Paris!! I was lucky enough to be in Paris a few weeks ago. I found MOB located in a great little spot right beside the Seine, in a building dedicated to design. However, not all things are created equal and when I asked for a gluten free MOB I was told, ‘this is Paris’, we do not do the same as Brooklyn. Disappointing.

However I was made to feel a little better by their eye catching ‘plastic animals in nightshade’. Yes, I am at times, easily pleased.

I had to go elsewhere to find vegan AND gluten-free food.

MOB Cite De La Mode

34 Quai d’Austerlitz

Paris, France

The Best Artisan Food Market In New York City! Smorgasburg Street Food.

January 9, 2014 by India Leigh

The Best Artisan Food Market In New York City! Smorgasburg Street Food.

Following up on my recent trip to New York, I wanted to tell you about Smorgasburg (see what they did there..). It is an open air local artisan food space, located on the Brooklyn side of New York. In a gentrified hipster area of once was dockyards and now a place where the good, the great, the gorgeous and the gorging gather. It happens at weekends at two locations; Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 5 and Williamsburg. So, decide when and where. Rock up with a gnawing appetite, go on a once-around-the-park recee of what is on offer. Choose your dining experience for today, and then grab a sit or stand at the water’s edge and gawk at the Manhattan skyline. It’s right there. In front of you. All around you actually. I almost forgot there was all this awesome vegan food being prepared right behind me!

I made my way there for a bit of indecent food appreciation. There are over 60 vendors there each week. These were all my vegan and gluten free finds.

Bunna Cafe now with an ‘under roof’ location, too.

Kombucha made in Brooklyn. They sell at outlets and you can also buy one of their kombucha making kits. When I’m not travelling around I usually have a large jar of kombucha on the go. It is a wild, weird and wonderful thing. I whole heartedly recommend!

The Best Artisan Food Market In New York City! Smorgasburg Street Food.

Buddah bowls from Mamak

Drip Coffee

Was it National Check Shirt Day?!

Bombay Sandwich Co. The sign says it..vegan*local*vedic

Fine & Raw with samples of their delicious raw chocs.

Incredibly good raw chocolate from Fine & Raw

The 3 Nuts Goodness stuffed into jars. Nuts with benefits.

Salted Caramel Peanut Butter - Yep!

This was my choice from Chickpea & Olive (current ‘rave’ of the The Gothamist), a vegan pop-up diner. I feasted on a Phatty Beets Slider with aubergine ‘bacon’ on griddled gluten free bread. Pinch me!

I made this a place to stroll too for brunch on a couple of weekends. When the temperatures drop wickedly in winter, Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Flea (clothes, jewellery, vintage, art) all huddle up, cozy in their winter location until March.

I met with a very interesting artisan vegan ‘kitchen biologist’. I’ve got that post coming up for you in 2014.

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Want some more of this?..here are a couple of my recent NYC articles.
Healthy Eating In NYC
Yeah Dawg

Thanks for reading! x

Craving A Doughnut In NYC? The Best Doughnuts In New York That Just Happen To Be Vegan

November 22, 2013 by India Leigh

Ok, it is maybe the WORST picture in the world of the BEST donut in the world (A bold claim, but one I am sticking my next out to make). You know when you’ve tasted perfection..right?! I have long dreamt of a trip to New York, it has been over 10 years in coming and at the beginning of November, I booked a trip on a whim and flew in all crazily excited. It was a last minute impulse, my heart was calling me there. New York is a city of romance Remember Sleepless in Seattle?! It didn’t exactly turn out like it did for Meg Ryan…it wasn’t exactly ‘An Affair To Remember’, I didn’t go up the Empire State Building (I still live in romantic hope!), but I did spend two hours 70 floors up on the top of the Rockerfeller Centre (and lots more adventures I will share with you about soon). And I got to go to a a lot of vegan eateries I have longed to try, including an all VEGAN, GLUTEN FREE, REFINED SUGAR FREE (MOSTLY)cake shop. Babycakes!

Babycakes is a cosy little bakery on the Lower East Side that would make any cake/doughnut/cupcake lover, vegan, coeliac, mother, health nut EXTREMELY happy. Babycakes is the genius spawned by Erin McKenna, who as so many before her, started her business to create something she wished she could visit (Read about it in a fun interview with The Awl). The staff are lovely (Kirsten in particular kindly gave me some fabulous ‘off the beaten track’ site seeing and foodie tips for Brooklyn, I was very grateful for), and the warm air inside smells divine!

I fought disrupted subway timetables, and a stiff wind to make this my last stop before the UK reeled me back in. I’d just been on a fascinating visit to the Tenement Museum (after a tip off from Carrie On Vegan). I HIGHLY recommend going on one of their many interactive, info packed story tours. I opted for the Hard Times tour, just because it got me into the delapedated tenement that had been untouched since 1935, AND it lasted an hour, which is all the time I had if I was factoring in a quick cake fest at Babycakes.

I was hungry, hungry, hungry after my brain had been taking in all the fascinating facts about the German immigrants that surged to this area of Manhattan in the latter part of the 19th Century and had their enclave was aptly nicknamed Klein Deutschland . Without much deliberation, I chose the Samoa doughnut. It was frosted with vanilla icing, sprinkled with coconut chips and, for good measure, zig zagged with dark vegan chocolate. They were so busy, I didn’t want to hold up the queue interrogating them as to the reason this baked good was named after an island in the Central South Pacific. So that will remain a mystery, to me at least. I sat down with a steaming mug of china tea and quietened myself for my first bite. It was fluffy, tender, sweetened to perfection, moist and with subtle hint of chewiness. The frosting and coconut chips and wisp of chocolate actually nearly made me groan out loud with pleasure. Seriously?!! I honest hadn’t expected it to taste THAT good!! Finally, I’d had at least a little romance! I could have easily re-enacted the Meg Ryan cafe moment at this point (I actually visited that actual cafe, too!)

Both times I visited Babycakes I didn’t have my beloved Canon with me. The first was laziness the second was just a few hours before I flew home and after I’d lost my camera memory stick (devastating, but luckily I’d just downloaded everything onto my Mac). Sorry for the picture quality.

‘In a city dominated by cupcakes overflowing with sugar, flour and butter cream, it’s easy for those with persnickety diets to feel left out. BabyCakes offers all-natural, organic and delicious alternatives free from the common allergens: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein and eggs. Rest assured, all sweeteners have been chosen responsibly and used sparingly. White sugar will never be found in our bakery, nor will we ever use toxic chemical sweeteners. Instead, most products are sweetened with agave nectar—a natural syrup from a cactus which is low on the glycemia index and often a safe alternative to most non-insulin dependant diabetics. Occasionally, unprocessed and unrefined sugar is used in certain goods, although sparingly’.

Erin McKenna

248 Broome St
(between Ludlow St & Orchard St)
New York, NY 10002
Area: Lower East Side

Another place I visited but, alas, due to an intolerance for the demon gluten, I didn’t get to taste, was Dun-Well Doughnuts.

If the heavenly sweet fragrance of the store and the packed tables are anything to go by, I’d say this place is worth the hop over the water to Williamsburg to try them too.

To quote from their fun website..

Dun-Well Doughnuts started as a food craving when Christopher Hollowell (the “Well” in Dun-Well) called up his buddy Dan Dunbar (The “Dun” in Dun-Well) after having watched a Simpson’s anniversary episode that featured Homer’s favorite round confections rather prominently. Having been unable to find a vegan doughnut in NYC that satisfied his craving Christopher and Dan agreed to make their quest to create an amazing doughnut and open NYC’s first all-vegan doughnut shop.

222 Montrose Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206, United States

Expect more of my NYC trip soon, but sporadic]ally. I’m living a nomadic existence right now and never know when I’ll speak to you next. Normal service will be resumed soon.. xx

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