Favorite places in Berlin

Berlin is one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world.  According to Happy Cow, there are about 30 all vegan restaurants in Berlin.  There are more vegetarian ones & countless are veg friendly[if not, almost all]. Almost everywhere has vegan options clearly marked[I even noticed in some supermarkets things in the bakery, as well as on the shelf, were clearly marked with the word "vegan"]  Even most ice cream shops offer several soy flavors.  There's also the popular vegan grocery store Veganz, which has 2 locations in Berlin & I visited them several times.(as well as the location in Hamburg)

Now, on to the actual restaurants & food! Here are my top places, in no particular order:

Let it Be, as the sign says is an all vegan creperie, selling both sweet and savory crepes.

This is only part of the menu. They also have both a German & an English menu. As you can see, the names of the items are vegan celebrities, the whole menu is designed this way.

 

this cute guy was behind us! 

Shortly after ordering, they gave us free mini muffins! They were corn muffins, my friend thought they were dry, but I thought they were tasty! I was a fan! & how nice of them to give them to us!

It was hard to decide what to get! So many things sounded really good! & I kept trying to decided if I wanted savory or sweet.  I kept going back and forth, but since I rarely get the sweet option these days when I eat, I figured, I'm on vacation! So Why not?  & so, I went with the Alicia Silverstone : Chocolate Cream & Banana.  It was delicious! & not too sweet!

how cute are those plastic hearts to hold the bread together! (I'm sure there's an actual name for this..but can't think of it haha)

This was the dish I was trying to decide between, the Johnny Marr: caramalized tofu, apples, walnuts, greens and chutney.  I tried a piece and really liked it! I was thinking of getting it to go but after the meal I was so full, I couldn't think about food. [I do regret this, as it was really good and would have loved to have a whole sandwich of it)

Close up!

My other friend got the Mike Tyson burger, which I remember it being BBQ Chicken & not sure what else was in it, but he was a fan!

Then! I couldn't believe it! They brought over this:

 

More free food! I'm not exactly sure why they gave it to us..said something about having extra? not sure..After my sweet crepe, I couldn't eat too much of this! but of course, I did have a few bites. It was tasty but I was sweetened out!

Anyways, I highly recommend this place. We all liked it & I'd definitely go back.

Next up!

Sfizy Veg is an all vegan pizza place! Since we do have some vegan pizza options in NYC, I didn't feel the need to run to it, and wound up going here on my last night.  Well, had I gone earlier in my trip,  I would have definitely come back. The menu is huge! probably 20 pages! All in German, but luckily, since I was with Germans, they helped me out.  They had a page for salads, several pages for pizza pies, one page for slices, one for calzones, there were pastas & more.

Unfortunately, it was dark & so my photos of the food didn't come out well :( so I will just tell you about them (I know, not as exciting as photos!)  I went for the pie with cheese & spinach and broccoli & it was amazing.  In Germany, there's a ton of vegan cheeses, & I have no idea which one they used, but it was delicious & the style was like old school pizza. So good.  My friend got the..well I'm not sure what it was called, but it was a mix of Mexican Food & Italian Food..I remember there was marinara sauce, but there was also guacamole, there was cheese, maybe beans.  When she told me she ordered that, I was a bit scared that it was going to be awful, but, surprisingly, it was AMAZING and I would definitely order it.

Here's some photos of the inside

 

How cute!

 Oh & a heads up, it's cash only.

Next we have

  This place was SO cute! Look at all the pink!

& before I go on, I must show the beautiful dessert case

 Oh La La specializes in French desserts, but they also have food.  On the weekend, they have an ALL YOU CAN EAT VEGAN BRUNCH! (turns out several restaurants in Berlin offer this, but sadly I didn't make it to them :(  [Kopps, Mia Matto, Cafe Morgenrot, Viasko..& there are probably other places I'm not aware of]

Oh La La's all you can eat brunch, I believe was 12 euros, that is considered on the pricier side of things, though it didn't seem like a lot to me!  There was a mix of both sweet & savory:

I want those bowls! So pretty.

Pineapple Coconut Smoothie! So delicious

                                       these were yummy, filled with different beans and corn

I took more photos but they didn't come out too clearly unfortunately and my regular camera battery had died.  Other things that they had were the most amazing strawberry mousse crumble, I went back to get it several times & it was the first thing they ran out, the other most amazing thing was this vanilla cream dish with almonds , I'm not even sure what it was, but it was heavenly.  Other items were various salads, one that I enjoyed had tempeh in it, there was a gazpacho soup, a risotto, some tofu dishes.  Definitely lots to choose from.

After I finished eating & chatting with the people at my table, it was time to figure out what to have for dessert. I was so full, so I had to take it to go.  It was very hard to decide but the woman working helped me telling me what their specialties are and what you can and can't find elsewhere.

I went with:

 Indiana - Peanut Butter

Igloo's- Chocolate with coconut cream

I had both several hours later while at the park & they were both delicious. I think I liked the peanut butter one more but loved both! &surprisingly they were both not overly sweet!

This seems to be their image, if it was on a shirt I would have probably bought it.

The last two places that I'm going to mention are actually in Hamburg. I went there for the day.

My first stop there was Eisbande, which I actually found out about randomly on Instagram!

   [Eis is Ice Cream]

This place was super cute & the woman working was very helpful, and translated things for me, as everything was written in German. I sampled several flavors, but in the end went with Vanilla & Snickers!

I love how this looks! You can't go wrong with a heart wafer! There's also strawberry sauce and those little bits are hazelnuts. SO delicious! I wish i had more time to come by for more later in the day.

For lunch I went to HappenPappen. I randomly picked this place from the list of vegan places on HappyCow and I'm glad I did, because not only was the food probably my favorite from my trip so far (went there on maybe my 4th day) but the people working there were so nice.

Red lentil balls with sweet potato mash. This also came with a side salad which had THE most amazing dressing, which the woman told me they make in house, it was a mix of mango and passion fruit if I'm remembering correctly [note to self: take notes next time! I'm not sure why I thought I'd remember everything!].

The red lentil balls were so tasty, really loved it.  For dessert I had the blueberry pie. I know it may look a little odd, but I can assure you, it was delicious!

I would definitely recommend this place. Yummy food, super nice staff & they have vegan books for sale too.

Before I go though, here's a photo of some of the things I bought at Veganz, as well as some from the local supermarket. Favorites were the Vego, Dame Blanche, Shortcake cookie, Nougat bar, Amore Milo wafer, the Twibio, and the Teegeback cookies...why did I bother saying favorites? all of it was pretty amazing!!! & I still have a fridge filled with some of these! Trying to make them last!

 

Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches & more!

Woahh! I was recently in my favorite ice cream shop ever (516 East 6th Street between Ave A & Ave B) and saw there were now macaron ice cream sandwiches!

I love Sweet Maresa's macarons, they're so good and addictive.  I found out about them from the monthly vegan shop up's at Pine Box.  I've never had a non vegan macaron(not to be confused with the coconut macaroons, they're two completely different things, macarons are a French pastry), so I have nothing to compare it to, but I love them.  Love the taste and texture.  Maresa is so sweet & she always has different macarons to choose from.  My favorites are the almond, pistachio or fruity ones.When I found out she was pairing up with my favorite ice cream for an ice cream sandwich, I was beyond excited! Two of my favorite things together? What could be better?

A staff member at the ice cream shop recommended the lemon macaron which came with strawberry ice cream(always a favorite), and it definitely did not disappoint!! It was so good!

Other new items include ice cream bars!

 

thanks My Vegan Gut for the photo

On the left is pistachio and the right is mint chip.  [Both bars are the same size, it's just the way the photo was taken]   I loved the pistachio and I tried a little of my friends mint chip and liked that as well, I had also previously tried the vanilla and loved that too.  There is also a peanut butter one.  Aside from these, there are now rice krispy ice cream sandwiches using Sweet & Sara rice krispy treats, and regular ice cream cookie sandwiches using Gone Pie's cookies!  & that's aside from all the delicious ice cream!

So go on, head to the best ice cream shop ever[currently has no name in case you were confused] and try a macaron ice cream sandwich, ice cream bar or just plain ice cream for yourself!

I was recently in Berlin, so stay tuned for some restaurant & food reviews from there!

Snacks

I know it's been a while! Hi again! I took a summer class for about 5 or 6 weeks and that kind of took over my life! However, I didn't stop eating! & so I have been saving wrappers & things that I have been wanting to write about!  This entry is going to be dedicated to snacks..not sure what else to call it.  I definitely prefer to eat actual foods, but sometimes if you're in a rush, it's nice to have a snack!

We'll start with the first items:

I spotted these at Commodities (health food store) and thought they sounded interesting! I had never seen them anywhere else, and still have yet to see them anywhere else.   It's hard to see, but in the bottom right hand corners it says "Energy Balls", so that also made me interested!  I loved both of them! I think I liked the almond butter slightly more, but they were both really good & I'd get both again.  There are also almonds in the Spirulina Ginseng ones, so they both kind of taste like marzipan! They are a mixture of soft and chewy.   They are both 170 calories and 80 calories from fat. I don't love that they have agave in them .  I try to avoid agave.  This is a good post about why agave is bad.  Not sure I would run to get them, but I would get these again though. They were very yummy.

omg this is SO GOOD! I discovered this at Juice Generation. I actually don't think I've seen them elsewhere.  The first time I had one..now I unfortunately can't remember which one it was! It was awful so I must have blocked it from my memory! I went back shortly after and asked the woman working "do people like these?" and she recommended the cocoa crunch..I hesitantly bought it..and I am glad I did, because it's SO good!  I love products that have rice crisps in them, I love the crunchyness of them. All their bars are vegan and gluten free. This bar has 12g of protein! 200 calories and 80 calories from fat. It's a great pre or post workout bar & they don't use any refined sugar.  It's sweetened with coconut nectar. Yum Yum Yum. Read more about them & where to buy them on their website.  They donate some of their profit to the non profit Not for Sale which helps to fight against human trafficking.

Lara Bar came out with protein bars! I've just recently discovered these.  Have seen them at Commodities & Westerly.  On their website, they show 6 protein bars, but I haven't seen the other varieties yet. These are both really good, and also really filling!   They use pea protein for their protein source, and these have 10g of protein them. I always liked Lara Bars because they have such few ingredients.  These do have slightly more, but not a lot compared with most bars! (only 8 ingredients!) On the wrapper, it says "1 bar= 1/4 cup of fruit" I think I like the chocolate chip macaroon more, but they're both really good!

Aside from  Lara Bar coming out with protein bars, they have also come out with granola! I actually can't remember where I got this! I'll have to keep my eyes open. I liked the handy single serving bag it came in, and only 5g of sugar! (Granola often seems to have lots of sugar added!) This is made of almonds, sunflower seeds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, cocoa nibs, cashews and cocoa powder are the main ingredients.  I had half in a smoothie bowl and half in some coconut yogurt. It was delicious! If I can find it, I'll definitely buy it again!

I had previously posted about the Chia Bars, but they have just came out with 2 new flavors!! I was excited when I saw them in Whole Foods!  The mango one is good, but I don't think I will get it again.  I think I prefer my mango plain, and not in things.  Oddly, I don't like eating cherries but I love cherries in things, and cherries and chocolate together? So good! I loved the dark chocolate cherry bar & have already gotten it again since getting it the first time.  I love these bars!

Really Goods , gotta love the title "raw fruit and nut thing" at least, I did.  Found this at Green Symphony a store/salad bar/juice bar/hot bar etc. in Times Square.  I occasionally work in Times Square, so I love coming here sometimes to get some healthy food or snack before work. Raw, gluten free, refined sugar free.. made of walnuts, bananas,  pecans, macadamia nuts, coconut, raisins, and sweetened with coconut nectar.  170 calories, 12g of fat. Crunchy and really tasty! I checked the website and it doesn't even list it as being sold in New York, I'll have to check if it's still at Green Symphony! I'd definitely recommend it.

 I was really excited about trying this! I love lemon poppy & liked that there were no "bad" ingredients in it, then when I took it out of the package to see its shaped in a heart..look how cute it is!! I was even more excited. Sadly, it was not "the Great Tasting Energy Bar".  It was SO dry! I took a couple of bites and then gave it to my mom, who wasn't a fan either.  If you see it, skip it.







Lastly [for now], Rave Bites.

These are SO good!! Found them at Westerly. All natural ingredients: dates, cashews, sesame seeds, coconut, raisins, chia seeds, cocoa butter and orange extract.  That's all, 8 ingredients. No added sugars. 5 pieces are 120 calories and 60 from fat, so it's not too bad.  They are so delicious! They have several other flavors, I'd like to try the others, but these were so good, I bought a second bag after I was done.  Super healthy delicious snack!

Go Raw Bars & Fed Up Documentary

In a recent swap, I was given a Go Raw Spirulina Energy Bar. I didn't eat it for a while because I had tried Go Raw's cookies before and wasn't a fan at all, so I wasn't too excited about trying it.  Then I did one day & since then I've been hooked. Yes it's green which might weird some people out but I really love the taste.  It's very crunchy.   I love it as a pre-workout or post-workout snack or a snack on the go.  I love that there's only 5 ingredients in it.  I recently decided to try 2 of their other bars: the Banana Bread Flax Bar and the Granola Bar.  The Banana Bar only has 4 ingredients! and the Granola Bar has 6.  The last two I mentioned are softer than the Spirulina Bar. I also wound up buying their granola cereal, which has the same ingredients as the bar.  As for the bars, the Spirulina one remains my favorite.

I love that these bars have such few ingredients and that they're healthy! They are high in calories and fat but it's healthy fats.

I haven't tried the Apricot Bar or the Pumpkin Bar because they both have agave in them, which brings me to my next topic.. the documentary Fed Up. 

I first heard about this movie several weeks ago, through a woman I know, whose daughter was one of the producers. Since I am into health & nutrition, I wanted to see it.  After seeing it, I can say , it's a movie EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE! It's all about the sugar industry and what it's doing to children and our society. It's very sad; children who are 13 and weigh 400 pounds, the lunches they give kids in schools these days etc..

At the end of the movie they suggest going on a 10 day "Fed Up Challenge" which is giving up all sugar & all sweeteners for 10 days.   I've gone without sweets before, once for 2 weeks, but have never given up sugar completely.   It's crazy sugar really is in EVERYTHING!  Here are some other names sugar goes by that you may not be familiar with:

 

In my opinion, sugar should be left for things like cookies, cakes, ice cream etc.  It shouldn't be in the food we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner & it's kind of maddening how it really is in everything.  "Found in 80% of the 600,000 food products found on American shelves." An Odwalla juice contains almost as much sugar as Coke. Three Oreo cookies contain the same amount of sugar as a Luna Bar.  For a while (though not in several years), I did drink Odwalla and eat tons of Luna Bars thinking I was eating & drinking healthy.

I recently bought the new (or new to me..I've never seen it before) Pacific Foods Unsalted Vegetable Stock which has a lovely 6 healthy ingredients, whereas before, I had been buying the 365 Low Sodium Vegetable Stock, which has more than 6 ingredients, one being cane sugar!! Why would one add sugar to vegetable stock?!  Before seeing this movie, I did look at ingredients, but now that I'm doing this challenge, I'm thinking about it in a different way. I would avoid foods that were high in sugar, but now it makes me angry! 

The Go Raw bars for instance, do have on average 12-14g of sugar, but the sugar is from dates and bananas and our bodies don't process natural sugar the same way as added sugar.

The movie isn't going after the desserts we eat, but about how the industry adds sugar to all these food products.  My parents thought they were eating healthy by eating fruit from a can (which I've always been against them doing & they would tell me it's just the fruit and the juice from the fruit).  However, upon inspecting their cans..95% of them had added sugar! [After they're done with what they have, they said they won't buy them anymore]  

Even so called healthy places like the chain Juice Generation add sugar to everything.  Some of their smoothies have bananas, dates AND agave.  There was a period where I was going almost daily and would always say "no dates or agave" and the smoothies with just bananas and other fruits were still SO sweet.  I thought to myself "can bananas really make a drink this sweet?" and I finally asked them why their smoothies are so sweet.   Turns out they use sweetened almond milk AND sweetened acai! Ridiculous.  I found this so maddening.  I thought I was being healthy (& of course I still was in retrospect to other things I could have been eating/drinking) but it was upsetting to know how much sugar is added.  I've asked other smoothie places & almost all use sweetened almond milk or soy milk.  When I asked why they' ve told me people didn't like it when they used unsweetened.  

Conclusion is of course it's better to make your own smoothies & food which I have been doing a lot of this year.

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6-9 teaspoons of added sugar a day..of course how can you know how many teaspoons you're eating because everything is listed in grams, well I have this handy formula:

Some candy bars have 24g on their own! so this is a really good equation to think about.

I highly recommend just going and seeing this movie & reading labels & trying to avoid sugar/sweeteners in your every day meals. Look at your pasta sauces, breads (I'm a big fan of Ezekiel Bread), your drinks, your protein bars,  yogurts, dressings, cereals, veggie burgers and other boxed food, etc)

Vegan Protein Shakes

I recently found out about the vegan protein shakes, Svelte. They have apparently been around since 2009, but I am only now seeing them. They are soy based so I was a bit apprehensive about trying it (my body doesn't always like soy!), but I decided to give it a try.

They have 5 flavors: French Vanilla, Spiced Chai, Chocolate, Cappuccino and the new Banana Creme.  I'm not into coffee so I don't really have any interest in trying the Cappuccino, but I have become in love with the Spiced Chai and the French Vanilla! & best of all, my body seems totally fine with it! yay!  The chocolate tastes just like chocolate milk.  I'm not drawn to really drink chocolate milk often & it's heavy, so I've only had this one once.  I  wasn't a fan of the banana creme (they're the only protein shake on the market that uses real bananas, according to their website). I think this is a personal preference though, and not something wrong with this flavor.  The vanilla though is SO good, it is so creamy, really just love the taste. Love the spiced chai as well, the spices are perfect.  It is how I always want chai to be. I just bought a 6 pack in Vitamin Shoppe (they were on sale, a 6 pack for $9.99! They always have coupons on their site & if you buy them at Westerly in NY they come with a $1.00 off coupon on the container) All of the flavors are smooth and creamy. I've been having them on my busy days in between meals and they help keep me full until the next meal. I recently had one for breakfast with my oatmeal and it kept me full for a long time! I haven't tried to use them as a full meal replacement or after a workout but I'm sure I will drink them that way at some point.

All their products are 260 calories, 11g of protein and only 6g of sugar.  There is also B12 and Vitamin D in it, as well as calcium.

Interestingly, while looking for Svelte one day in Whole Foods, I discovered new vegan protein shakes by Orgain.  Orgain has been around since 2008 and until very recently, have only had dairy protein shakes.  They have now come out with 2 vegan protein shakes.  These are brand new!

I was pretty excited to try these .  Not only are there 16g of protein, but the protein comes from brown rice, hemp, chia seeds, and flax seeds  (on the back it says there is also pea protein but that wasn't listed in the ingredients..)  They also have fewer calories: 220,  and less fat.  (Slightly more sugar, 9g &slightly less calcium, Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D)  I was also excited about them because they both have 10 certified organic fruits and veggies (kale, beets, spinach, carrots, tomato, blueberries, banana, acai, apple and raspberry.) As well as 21 vitamins and minerals! Sounds pretty awesome, right?

However...the taste...not so great.  I'm not really sure what these tasted like...the vanilla bean had no vanilla flavor and actually there is no vanilla listed in the ingredients list, so that is a bit strange. I am a bit puzzled by that fact. I keep re-reading the ingredients to see if I somehow missed "vanilla" as an ingredient, but nope, no vanilla in the vanilla bean.  I really can't describe what the taste was like, there was no recognizable flavor, it was just strange.  The chocolate you could taste the chocolate so it was better than the vanilla, but still had an odd taste.   The consistency is not as creamy as Svelte, whereas Svelte reminds me of a shake, Orgain is a lot thinner.

What's better though?  Taste or ingredient list?  I have been drinking a lot of Svelte, but am thinking maybe I should try Orgain again because I'm a bigger fan of what's inside them.  I also did read that if you put them in the freezer and drink them ice cold they are apparently a lot better...

Interested in hearing other people's reviews of these products!

So Delicious, Unsweetened Coconut Yogurt!

Shortly after my first post about So Delicious Greek Yogurt,  my friend told me they just came out with 2 unsweetened coconut yogurts! Plain and vanilla! How exciting! She had bought both & we sampled them and they tasted like pudding!  The next day I went to buy one of each.

 The Unsweetened Vanilla has 60 calories & the plain has 10 less. The plain has 4g of fat and vanilla 3.5(not sure how that's less?) and the plain has 6g carbs and the vanilla has 7.  Other than that, they have the same nutrition. Same exact ingredients, except for the vanilla of course, having a vanilla flavor. Just like the greek yogurts, they both have Vitamin D2 and Vitamin B12.

I was getting both and switching between them, but I think I've decided I like the vanilla slightly more.  I have eaten it plain and I like it a lot, but I started dipping strawberries in it recently and I can't believe how amazing it tastes! It's like dessert!  I also don't feel the coconut flavor is too strong for those who are not into coconut. The texture is very creamy, I love it.

Recently I decided to make a yogurt bowl for breakfast:

strawberries, granola, flax seeds, mulberries, goji berries and hemp seeds. You can't see the yogurt, but it's under there! & everything tasted so delicious together.

I really love this product and eat it often. I highly recommend it and am so happy that they came out with a sugar free one! If you want to up your probiotics and/or have a yummy snack or a healthy dessert, or have it for breakfast, like I did, I really recommend trying this.

Vegan in the apple becomes vegan in Chicago, for a few days

I recently went to Chicago to see my current favorite band Bastille,  everyone go check them out, they're awesome. What else was there to do in Chicago though?  Eat Eat Eat (though I did do some other things too!)

My first stop was Native Foods, which sadly, my photos didn't come out too well so I'm not going to post them.  I had the azteca salad (greens, quinoa, avocado, pumpkin seeds, currants, cucumber, jicama, mango, with mango lime vinaigrette), my favorite sweet potato fries ever and a carrot cream cheese cupcake.  Everything was delicious (& also things I had last time I was in Chicago).

The next day I met my friend for lunch at Handlebar. I got so lost getting there that it somehow took me 45 minutes to get there instead of the 9 minutes google maps said it'd take. Don't ask.  My friend had already ordered the fried pickles:

My reaction was "ew".  Never in my life would I pick/think/choose you name it to order fried pickles..but, I decided to try them anyway...THEY WERE SO GOOD! I couldn't believe it! I don't even really like pickles much these days, but these were so good.  I think the sauce (their homemade ranch) is what really made it good..but the breading was so good.  These were delicious.  I wanted more after we finished.

Then we decided to split the kale quinoa salad and the biscuits and gravy(which that was what I was most looking forward to. by the way..Handlebar has brunch EVERY DAY until 3pm!).

Kale, avocado, quinoa, pumpkin seeds..& not sure if there was anything else in it..I can't remember what the dressing was, but what I can remember is, this salad was delicious!

Next up! What I've been waiting for, biscuits and gravy with seitan sausage.

i

It was amazing!! I loved how much gravy there was and the biscuits were so good. All I could think was "I want to come back and have these tomorrow" and "why don't they have anything like this in nyc?"  They were so good and the gravy was so tasty.  They were just delicious. Probably the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had.

After lunch, we walked to Wormhole which is a pretty awesome 80's themed coffee shop. They have a delorean.  They offer soy and 7 grain milk.  I just got this huge delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. If I lived in Chicago, I'd definitely hang out at Wormhole all the time. (I did come back another day and had tea and went again on my last day for another cookie.)All the staff seemed really nice too.

                                                              Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Next up! CHICAGO DINER!

I really wanted to try their wings since they're made of seitan instead of the usual soy chicken or even tempeh.  They offer them in either BBQ or buffalo sauce.  My friend & I got it with BBQ sauce.  I was a little worried since I'm not a huge BBQ person, but luckily these did not disappoint.  They were so good.  I LOVED the texture of them, so chewy, so good.  (Note: I wound up going back on my last day and got the buffalo ones to take home with me..They were tasty too & not as spicy as some wings I've had (usually they make my eyes and nose run but these didn't, these had a very nice kick to them.)

 mmmm. (sorry, didn't take a photo of the buffalo ones, but imagine the same thing but orange-y looking). Anyone know of any place in NYC that makes wings out of seitan? I don't..someone should get on that!

For my main meal, I decided to try the reuben with a side of garlicky greens.  I don't think I've had a reuben in my life, they generally don't sound appealing to me and I've only recently gotten into tempeh which most reuben's are made out of.  However, like the wings, their reuben is made of seitan.  It also happened to be their 31st birthday and so the reuben was $6 I think it was (which the waiter said was what they charged in 1983). so why not try it?

Seeing this, it did not look appetizing at all to me..It really looked like meat! They use beets to resemble the color of meat..ick.  However, one can't judge a book by its cover, and one can't judge food by its looks and so I took a bite..and it was really tasty! I really enjoyed it.  I'm not sure if it would be my go to meal here, but I would probably get it again.  The greens were amazing.

& of course you can't leave Chicago Diner without a shake..and so I got the cookie dough peanut butter shake, which I've had before and it was as before, super yummy!

Also, like Handlebar, Chicago Diner has brunch EVERY DAY!  I came back a few days later and got the soul bowl which I've had before

I really love the soul bowl..garlicky greens yet again, avocado(added for $1), beans (hidden in photo), mashed sweet potato (also hidden in photo), quinoa and seitan.  This dish normally comes with tofu but I asked if I could have seitan instead.  He gave me about 5 different types of seitan they had to choose from! I can't remember which one I picked (think I said the one that's in sandwiches?) but it was delicious (hmm how many times have I used the word delicious in this post?) The waiter was unsure how seitan would go with the rest of the meal, but I loved it!  This time had the mint shake which I've also had before (I'll venture away from ones I've had before next time!) and that was yummy too.  Shared sweet potato fries with everyone and yum but definitely overate at this meal and felt full until even the next day! haha but it was so yummy while eating!

On my last day, I went to what was my first stop, Native Foods, I didn't do that on purpose, just happened that way.  Decided to try something different:

the Sesame Kale Macro Bowl, which had tempeh, steamed kale, brown rice, creamy ginger sesame sauce(very slight), tangy sauerkraut,and toasted sesame seeds.  It was very tasty (and healthy!) the tempeh was a bit bland..actually no, very bland. I'd get this again, but probably ask for a side of the ginger sesame sauce on the side, to have extra.

Got a side of the mac and cheese & that was yummy, though I remember liking it more last time I had it..it was kind of watery? wish it was thicker.

To go I got the Twister Wrap :  Salad greens, fresh avocado and cucumber salsa, creamy chipotle sauce and your choice of crispy, blackened or grilled Native Chicken in an organic whole wheat wrap (I got it crispy)

My flight wound up being over an hour delayed & I was so hungry, so I was very happy that I decided to get the twister wrap to go.  IT WAS SO GOOD!

I also got the brownie which I later had at home and that was delicious.

I am crossing my fingers that Native Foods opens in NYC someday soon.  Last time I spoke to them in August they told me they'd be opening in Washington DC soon, so would be nice if NYC came shortly after.  Their food is so good!

& that about concludes the food I ate on my recent trip to Chicago! 'til next time!