I found heaven today and it couldn't have come at a better time. After working 12 hour days this week I vowed for a work-free weekend (after completing a Saturday morning presentation). I headed for Manhattan to catch up with gal pal Nirali and her beau Ambrish.
On Saturday night we celebrated a belated Diwali with saris, garba, and dandia. It brought back great memories from Diwalis past! Did I mention that dandia provides a great workout?
Sunday brought about another enlightening experience. I had been itching for months to visit Pure Food and Wine restaurant to delve further into raw foods exploration. As far as raw foods go I've experimented with juices, ice kream, "cheese" and other snacks. I figured it was time to take the next step and if I could fall in love with high-quality raw dishes it might jumpstart more complex culinary adventures. It turned out that the restaurant was opening later in the evening. Thankfully, One Lucky Duck, the take out option via PFW, was open!
Nirali, Ambrish and I had a hard time picking just one item off the menu. We ended up choosing the following super fabulous raw/organic shakes:
* Banana Nut (we all agreed this was our favorite of the three)
* Avocolada
* Blue Sunset
Check out the link above for ingredients and more tasty treats.
We walked off the smoothies on the way to the uber yummy Hummus Place for fresh chickpeas, pita, and falafels.
We finished the meal off with some orgasmic treats: One Lucky Duck's moon pie, mallomar, and tiramisu. All were incredibly divine. I think Nirali's moon pie selection was the most decadent although you can't go wrong with the others. Unfortunately I carried the desserts around NYC for much of the day and some of them got tossed around a bit. I lost the opportunity to take pictures of them while they were still intact and presentable but found another blog post with pictures of these luscious desserts.
I also purchased the high-in-demand cheesy quacker crackers. Having loaded up on raw foods treats I decided to pace myself and try them another day. More on them later (probably tomorrow :).
All in all it was one of the best weekends ever - fabulous friends, spirited Diwali, amazing Fall weather in a great city and superb raw foods!
On Saturday night we celebrated a belated Diwali with saris, garba, and dandia. It brought back great memories from Diwalis past! Did I mention that dandia provides a great workout?
Sunday brought about another enlightening experience. I had been itching for months to visit Pure Food and Wine restaurant to delve further into raw foods exploration. As far as raw foods go I've experimented with juices, ice kream, "cheese" and other snacks. I figured it was time to take the next step and if I could fall in love with high-quality raw dishes it might jumpstart more complex culinary adventures. It turned out that the restaurant was opening later in the evening. Thankfully, One Lucky Duck, the take out option via PFW, was open!
Nirali, Ambrish and I had a hard time picking just one item off the menu. We ended up choosing the following super fabulous raw/organic shakes:
* Banana Nut (we all agreed this was our favorite of the three)
* Avocolada
* Blue Sunset
Check out the link above for ingredients and more tasty treats.
We walked off the smoothies on the way to the uber yummy Hummus Place for fresh chickpeas, pita, and falafels.We finished the meal off with some orgasmic treats: One Lucky Duck's moon pie, mallomar, and tiramisu. All were incredibly divine. I think Nirali's moon pie selection was the most decadent although you can't go wrong with the others. Unfortunately I carried the desserts around NYC for much of the day and some of them got tossed around a bit. I lost the opportunity to take pictures of them while they were still intact and presentable but found another blog post with pictures of these luscious desserts.
I also purchased the high-in-demand cheesy quacker crackers. Having loaded up on raw foods treats I decided to pace myself and try them another day. More on them later (probably tomorrow :).
All in all it was one of the best weekends ever - fabulous friends, spirited Diwali, amazing Fall weather in a great city and superb raw foods!
