Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life . . . (or tales from the Vegan District)

at last I have found you!

Megan, we finally tried those babycakes, and of course you were right. They're the best!


My own little cupcake with his wheat-free (spelt) chocolate babycake

He is pretty much in heaven, with sweets and a coffee

Me with my gluten free (garbanzo/fava) vanilla babycake

The cakes themselves, wheat or gluten free -- I like em both, were delicious, but the frosting, man, is out-of-this-world! There's a t-shirt from Babycakes : "It's a Frosting Thing." Yeah. I want that shirt, bad. They really are super satisfying without that too too sweet crazy feeling I get with other desserts. Yum.

Other tales from the Vegan District

We had a super vegan-y weekend (Monday, too), and I've been looking for the right opportunity to talk about what has come to be known (by my little circle) as the "Vegan District." It could be argued that NYC has several vegan districts, but this is ours.

History: The Vegan District was named by my sister, Laura, visiting from Michigan a couple of years ago, when she noticed that there was a vegan restaurant, Tien Garden, and a vegan shoe store, MooShoes, on the same block of Allen St. Within that time, more things have opened and we've discovered more things, too.

Geography: The Vegan District is a small area of the Lower East Side that (for now) we've decided is bordered by Stanton on the north, Broome on the south (expanded to accomodate Babycakes!), Allen on the west and Ludlow on the east. Look at the map and you'll see it's a small area, but it's a slice of vegan heaven. Find us an apartment in that little area, and maybe we could be happy here a little longer.

Food: Tien Garden. Located on Allen St. between Stanton and Rivington, this is a great Taoist vegan restaurant with great dim sum and small snacks, sesame sauce atop noodles or "special nuggets," great lemon barley tea in the summer. You leave with a clean, healthy feeling. Nice desserts, too. The people who work there are friendly, too.

Tea or Coffee: Teany. Located on Rivington, between Orchard and Ludlow, this place has a huge selection of teas, including something exciting called a Teanycinno, which I really like. I also like the Rooibos Melon tea. They're limited to Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays now, which is a big bummer, but it should open back up during the spring/summer (?) They also have a small selection of sandwiches (the "turkey" club is nice), as well as great desserts, including cupcakes from Vegan Treats.
(update: 3/30/06: Teany starts new "spring hours," which I think includes Wednesdays and Thursdays. The website isn't updated to reflect this, but I was here myself today, a Thursday. They're back!)

Cookies: Happy!Happy!Happy! Located on Allen St. between Stanton and Rivington, this is a super small and lovely bakery with excellent vanilla bean cookies, mudslide cookies, and more. Here is a picture taken about a month ago of Aaron eating a mudslide, what he called "the best cookie he's ever had"

(update: 3/30/06: Happy!Happy!Happy! closed!)

Cupcakes: Babycakes (of course!) Located on Broome, between Orchard and Ludlow, they have both wheat free and gluten free cupcakes that are the best ever. They have tea and coffee, too, and they even have two chocolate chip cookies with icing in between!

Groceries: Earth Matters. Located on Ludlow, between (um, I'm not sure. It might be slightly outside the vegan district, and I might need to redraw the map). They sell many produce and grocery items, and it's a good stop on your way to the subway home.

Apparel: Mooshoes. Located on Allen, between Rivington and Stanton, Mooshoes sells all kinds of vegan shoes, belts, and bags. They have wallets, too, though you might have to reach under the cat to get one.

Lip balm and other stuff: Toys in Babeland. Located on Rivington, between Orchard and Ludlow, they sell the fanciest lipbalm: Pussy pucker pots! I've got the strawberry and Aaron's got the vanilla. Their slogan is "For the tastiest lips north of the hips," which should give you an indication of the other things they sell at Toys in Babeland, labeled vegan when they are, and the topic of another blog. Just go there and see.

Not necessarily "vegan" but worthy of note, is the women's bookstore, Bluestockings, right by Tien Garden, or the bar with cozy couches, The Living Room, on Ludlow between Rivington and Stanton. There's also a new restaurant, Radha, that's on Ludlow, but I've never been.

On Rivington St.

p.s. Funny that we didn't mention the "Vegan District" while Jen was here, as there was so little time and we were up to so much, but we talked instead about a similar situation going on in Porland, on SE Belmont I think it was. Vegan pizza and softserve -- yum-my!