New York, NY | Day 5

June 17, 2014

Tuesday saw us returning once again to our new favourite place in the world - Champs. Their breakfast menu is ludicrously long and varied and there was nothing else in our neighbourhood that really got us excited, so we decided to try to become regulars.

This time around I went for the all vegan slam, a massive plate with scrambled tofu, facon, home fries, weird (and delicious) little sausage patties, toast and salad (US$12 ~ AU$12.70). I'm still to be won over by home fries for breakfast to be honest, especially when part of such a ludicrously large plate of food. These at least had some nice seasoning to cut through the starch a bit, but I still struggled to make my way through the whole batch. Everything else was great - the 'veggie bacon' a lot more impressive than the tempeh bacon I'd tried earlier in the trip and the scramble living up to Champs' generally high standards.

Cindy moved into the sweet portion of the menu, ordering 3 red velvet pancakes with choc chips and whipped cream (US$9 + US$2 for added strawberries ~ AU$11.70). This is another ginormous dish - hard to believe anyone orders the serve of six and lives to tell the tale. They were impressively fluffy for vegan pancakes and were stuffed with the extra strawberries, which added a bit of freshness to an otherwise pretty sugary dish. Friendly staff, decent bottomless coffee, great music and the entertaining paraphernalia on the walls kept us hanging out happily while we munched our way through all of the food.

Our next stop was the Lower East Side for a bout of op-shopping, shoe-shopping and some more eating. We started off at MooShoes, a vegan shoe shop with a range of faux-leather fancy shoes, sneakers and sandals. Cindy couldn't quite find a pair that she wanted, but I walked out with some stylish MacBeth sneakers. Not pictured: a very cute and friendly store cat.

Just around the corner was the vegan and gluten free bakery BabyCakes, which came highly recommended by In The Mood for Noodles. We ordered an apple churro and Samoa doughnut (US$3.95 ~ AU$4.20 each). Both were excellent - I'd be surprised if anyone could tell they were vegan or gluten free by taste. My iced coffee hit the spot too. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon hitting up the op-shops around the East Village - I began my quest to cowboy-ify my wardrobe and we tramped far too many miles in the hot sun before heading home for a pre-dinner rest. 

Dinner was at Dirt Candy, a place we'd booked months in advance, having heard loads of great things about it. The restaurant is tiny - they'd be lucky to seat 20 people at a time and the kitchen is in full view. Staff are very friendly and efficient but you do get a slight sense that they've got one eye on the clock to make sure you're clear before the next booking turns up. The menu is all about vegetables - no mock meat on offer here. It's vegetarian rather than vegan, but at least half of the dishes are vegan or veganisable and the first question the staff ask is whether or not you're vegan or have any other dietary requirements. We ordered three courses each (appetiser, main and dessert) and shared the lot (see the slideshow below for photos). This included:

• Mushroom (US$13 ~ AU$13.80): a portobello mushroom mousse, a bigger pile of lightly cooked mushrooms, a pear and fennel compote, some toast and a truffle oil based smear. 
• Potato (US$12 ~ AU$12.80): warm potato salad, crispy Japanese yams, grilled sweet potato, olives, bitter greens and apple.
• Beets (US$20 ~ AU$21.20): a variety of salt-roasted beets, Thai green curry, tiny little beet gnocchi and whipped coconut galangal cream.
• Broccoli (US$21 ~ AU$21.30): the famous broccoli dogs (which were basically just nicely cooked stems of broccoli) in slightly sweet housemade buns, broccoli kraut, house made mustard, crispy dried out salt and vinegar broccli rabe chips and a big pile of greens.
• Popcorn pudding (US$11 ~ AU$11.70): a jar of creamy sweet corn pudding topped with a peanutty caramel sauce and served with a side of salted caramel corn.
• Celery cheesecake roll (US$10 ~ AU$10.70): celeriac ice cream served with a scroll of cake and cream-cheesy layers, a couple of candied grapes and a few spots of rich peanut sauce.

There was a lot to like about the Dirt Candy experience: the vegetables are given centre stage, providing much of the flavour of the meal; The dishes are creative without being overloaded with foams and gels; and the bustling vibe of the place is pretty fun. The food didn't quite scale the heights that we were expecting - the broccoli dog for example wasn't that exciting (rabe chips aside) and the desserts sounded a bit more interesting than they turned out being (the veggie flavours didn't really shine through). It's definitely worth a visit, but I don't think Dirt Candy is outstripping the veggie meals at local favourites like Cutler & Co and Attica (although, to be fair, it is quite a bit cheaper).

After starting our trip off with three nights out in a row (music, comedy, theatre), we limited ourselves to a quick post-dinner wander and an early night to rest up for another big day of eating on Wednesday.