NYC Day 2: One Luck Duck, Caravan Of Dream, Lula's and Mexican Radio

On our second day of our NYC trip, we went exploring the Chelsea area, including (the outside of the legendary) Chelsea Hotel, Chelsea Market and the stunning High Line Park.  

K was very excited when we saw One Lucky Duck at Chelsea Market.  They sell very healthy (I think they are all raw?) gluten-free vegan sweet treats and interesting juices.  We started with a Mallomar ($6, Chocolate coated peacan cookie with vanilla cream).  We both thought it was awesomely delicious.

 

K asked the friendly girl at the shop what's her favourite and she recommended the Tiramisu ($14, made with almond flour, coconut, cashews and SAKE!!).  It was sensational!  We also got the "Orreo" Cookies ($6 for two), K ate them all and thought they were fine but not as amazing as the previous two.

At lunch, we went to Caravan Of Dream near our apartment. I had a pretty decent gluten-ly Tempeh Rueben sandwich ($13 with free miso soup) and K picked the Cuban Delight ($19, grilled tofu, black bean, rice and grilled banana).  K thought it was really average and over priced.

Ater lunch we went to Lula's for some vegan ice-cream action. We picked the classic sundae ($7 incl tips, forgot how much it was). The staff were very helpful and told us what is gluten-free and suggested we get one scoop of normal ice-cream and one scoop of softserve.  The cashew based chocolate soft serve was very good and the strewberry ice-cream, which was made with real strawberries, was a bit subtle in K's book. In addition to choosing the ice cream, you also get to choose what sauce and what topping. We chose the  excellent hot fudge sauce and caramelised pecans and it was topped with some vegan cream.  She kept saying that she wanted to marry the shop afterward.

For dinner we went to a vegan-friendly Mexican joint Mexican Radio with our fellow travellers Matt  and Jess. Unfortunately, the atmoshphere was ruined by a big tableful of obnoxious alpha male types, who didn't seem to notice that all of their conversations were yelling.

They can make most things on the menu vegan (powered by grilled tofu, gluten-ly seitan and Daiya Cheese) and gluten-free.  We shared some homemade corn chips ($9, yellow, red and blue) and spiced guacamole, which was quite nice.

I had a pretty rad gluten-ly dish and K had the grilled tofu Enchiladas ($16, served with black bean and rice) with both red (roasted tomato jalapeño sauce) and Suiza (tangy tomatillo).  She was blown away by so many delicious flavours in one single dish.  Her Melbourne flavourite Trippy Taco pales in comparison.

I am enjoying our New York experience (3 days in) so far.  I fell in love with Brooklyn (next post) and East Village.  I had good coffee at tiny Abraco Espresso and gigantic Blue Bottle in Brooklyn.  Their cups of joe were as good as Melbourne if not better.  I'll make a separate blog post about coffee in New York later.

One Lucky Duck (Chelsea Market)

425 West 15th St.

New York (Chelsea), NY 10011

Caravan Of Dreams

405 East 6th Street

New York (Manhattan), NY 10009

Lula's Sweet Apothecary

 516 East Sixth St,

New York (Manhattan), NY 10009

Mexican Radio
19 Cleveland Pl, 

New York (SOHO), NY 10012