Bienvenidos a Queens!

It's been a while since I posted and lots has happened in food- and non-food related news. I'm starting grad school in August, cut my hair off, and started baking bread every week. Also, Tomas, Simone and I moved to Sunnyside, Queens and I've been eating well the whole way.

Queens has fewer exclusively vegetarian and vegan restaurants than Brooklyn does but there is lots of good eating for vegans and overall everything here is considerably more affordable. In our neighborhood we have a Mexican restaurant with a special vegan seitan burrito on the menu (and they deliver!) as well as some very friendly Thai spots whose staffs have all been very accommodating to our "no egg, no fish sauce, extra tofu!" requests. We live above a 24-hour grocery store with a seemingly special room for kimchi and fresh noodles and there are several specialty Middle-eastern markets within a 3 block radius so many varieties of halvah and spiced teas are readily available. We also enjoy an abundance of Irish bars with very affordable happy hour specials for those rare occasions when food isn't really necessary...

Some recent homemade dinners made by Tomas, who is happy to be back to his home borough (where his New York-ese accent fits in better):



Here are the Courico Tacos with Grilled Pineapple Salsa from Vegan Brunch. God I love this book. And tacos. I love tacos. Seriously, the spicy soy filling is a great contrast to the salsa: sweet pineapple chunks, cilantro, red onion. I would eat these for any meal.









Yellow rice with peppers, cilantro and pinto beans, garlicy kale and sweet fried plantains (platanos maduro).