Keste Pizzeria

Okay, it seems that durations between posts lately are getting further and further apart …. time for a post!

Things have been busy for us, hence the lack of posting. We’re kind of in a transitional period of life. In case you’re just catching up, Erik’s dad passed away a little over a month ago now, and we’ve been taking care of some of his things, as well as trying to sell our own house here in North KC. His dad lived with us the past few years during his illness, so when we moved to KC we bought a house in the ‘burbs so that Erik’s dad had his own living space with walkout basement, etcetera.  It worked well for us for the time we were there, but Erik and I have always wanted to be more in the city (nor do we love having a large mortgage payment) so that’s where we’re hoping to head next. For now … the house is on the market, and we’ll go from there when it sells.

All that to say, yes, busyness abounds. We’re hoping it will sell quickly and we can get straight on a plane or in the car after closing and go on a vacation!

But first … one last catch up post from New York. Some more authentic Neapolitan pizza from Keste Pizzeria!

Keste Pizzeria



Keste is located on 271 Bleeker Street in NYC, and they serve delicious, authentic Neapolitan style pizza. When we walked in Erik was quick to request the seat “closest to that beautiful pizza oven” …. of course.

But I must admit, it was fun to watch the pizza making process right  behind me. The cool thing about Neapolitan style pizza is that it cooks for literally only 90 seconds because the temperature of the oven (a wood fired oven) is so high.



Erik got the marinara pizza consisting of simply tomatoes, oregano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
 


I forgot which pizza Erik’s mom got, but doesn’t it look delicious?



And I got the vegetariana which had tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, artichoke, zucchini, and extra virgin olive oil.




We thought it was delicious!

And now … you guessed it …. I’m hungry for pizza!

Soft Serve Fruit Company

Happy Friday and first day of June!!

I really have no idea where the month of May disappeared to, but I’m happily welcoming June into my life. I’m loving this summer weather (despite some already very warm days!), and the 23rd of June marks Erik’s and my 5th year anniversary. Life has been pretty crazy the past few years and these past few months and we’re hoping to get a vacation in sometime this summer too. Let me tell you, we could really use it. Hello, California!
 
Anyways … enough of that. I still have a few back posts from New York, and it’s time for some food. Or in this case … some soft serve!

The Soft Serve Fruit Company

One of the other places we hit up while in New York was The Soft Serve Fruit Company. Soft serve ice cream made of frozen fruit! I think about everyone has heard of the wonder of simply freezing bananas and throwing them in a blender to produce delicious, creamy “ice cream”, and this is a place very similar to that.



There are two NYC locations, one in Union Square at 25 East 17th and the other in Upper East Side at 1371 Third Ave.

The ice cream is made of three simple ingredients: fruit, water, and some cane sugar making it both dairy free and gluten free. I’m all for such a simple recipe! Their menu consists of sundaes, smoothies, a pretzel cone, and soft serve dishes that you can put a variety of toppings on. When we were there, the different soft serve flavors were banana, mango, dark chocolate and strawberry.



Both of us opted for dark chocolate and I topped mine with pomegranate and peanut butter. 

I really love the concept of this place since it’s so simple and uses so few real ingredients. Overall I thought the dark chocolate flavor was pretty delicious, especially when paired with the sweet crunch of pomegranate arils. It was really airy and and light and I though I did enjoy it, I think I would have preferred a little more chocolate and a little less water so that it would have more substance and less air.

My only complaint? I thought the toppings make it a little pricey for what you get. The non fruit toppings are 50 cents each and fruit toppings are 75 cents each. I really like yogurt/ice cream shops in which you pay by weight, that way you can get a few more toppings without the price increasing so quickly!




A great place to stop for a delicious (and healthy!) treat. If I lived in NYC, I’m sure I would be returning.

What’s your favorite place to get fro yo/ice cream??

Angelica Kitchen

Happy Wednesday!

What’s everyone been up to this week? I got to meet with some friends for lunch yesterday at Blue Nile and then worked the rest of my afternoon at Mudpie. It was a nice break up of my usual work day.

Moving right along … there’s just a few more New York restaurant posts to come and today we have …

Angelica Kitchen

I seemed to see Angelica Kitchen popping up everywhere on favorite vegan restaurants in NYC, and a pizza place Erik wanted to try was close by so Angelica Kitchen it was.

Angelia Kitchen is located at 300 East 12th Street and they’re open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.



It was so fun while going to new restaurants in New York to have a wide range of menu items to chose from. Kansas City is really coming along in the veggie world and has a lot to offer, but of course it’s way too different to be able to compare the two.

I decided on a special of the day, which was the quesadilla.



And Erik got the “Wrapsody” which consists of a “seasonal selection of roasted vegetables, balsamic marinated beets, creamy hummus, dill pickles, sunflower sprouts & arugula, folded & wrapped in a soft whole wheat tortilla”.

We ended up splitting both items so we could try more food. Our favorite of the two was the quesadilla, but to be honest, we didn’t love either option. They were both okay, but neither of them made me eager to want to go back. It seems like everyone online raves about their cornbread so afterwards I was sort of wishing I would have tried it instead!





Coming up, a few different pizza places in the city to further Erik’s pizza passion 

Prima Pizza

Onward with New York eating!

After lunch at Poppy’s, we opted for Prima Pizza for dinner. Erik grew up going to Prima, so it holds sentimental value and we usually always visit when we’re in New York. And now that Erik’s obsessed with pizza it’s even more of a necessity.



Prima is located in Cornwall, New York on Main Street and is a tradition pizza joint with multiple delicious pies on the menu as well as subs, salads, pastas, and more. They even ship pizzas anywhere in the United States overnight.



Our pie included lots of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and basil. Simple and delicious.



It’s the crust that counts …





Prima, I’m sure we’ll be back!

Poppy's Burgers & Fries

Onward with the New York eats posting!

The funeral was in Highland Falls and we were staying with relatives in Monroe. On Sunday, we made the rounds driving by the sights Erik grew up around, old houses, familiar surroundings, etc.  As lunch time drew near, we headed to Beacon.

Last time we were in NY, Erik and I really liked Beacon, so it was fun to see what had changed in the past few years. Though to a smaller scale, we decided it was kind of like Crossroads meets Westside here in KC. Trendy, artsy, and has a fun vibe.

Poppy’s



We decided to try out Poppy’s for lunch. It’s located at 184 Main Street and is a simple burger joint serving up local, grass fed meat.

Their menu consists of five different sandwiches, two choices of sides, and an array of different burger toppings to chose from. Their cooler of drinks includes a large selection of cane sugar sodas, organic iced teas, juices, and seasonal local and New York State beer.

 

Once ordering at the counter, your meal is brought out to you in a simple paper bag, burgers wrapped in foil. I liked the simplicity of it all.

Our greasy fries [that tasted pretty good to me!] …



And their veggie burger which is a bean patty with lettuce, tomato, and aioli.



I really like Poppy’s concept of simplicity and quality with local, natural sourcing.

As we walked out after our lunch, we noticed that “Chef Poppy” is a past winner of Food Network’s Chopped.  I’ve watched a lot of Chopped in my day, so it was fun to discover.

Thanks, Poppy’s!

The Candle Cafe

So many pictures, so little time …

Upon getting back from New York last week, I jumped right back into work and trying to get things done around the house since everything had been so up in the air and crazy the past few weeks. Now I’ve had time to go through all my pictures, and it’s time for some of the more upbeat New York highlights, that is food! We flew into LaGuardia so before heading north to where we would be most of the week, we stopped in the city for lunch.

I sent out a tweet before we took off asking if there were any NYC vegan restaurants I could not do without, and JJ suggested Candle Café. I had heard good things about it before, so that is where we headed.

Candle Cafe



We went to Candle Café East, located at1307 Third Avenue between 74th & 75th St, which is the casual version of the more upscale Candle 79.

We started lunch with a side of guacamole. Can’t ever go wrong with that! It was just the right amount of chunky, and full of flavor.



Our meals consisted of seitan burgers and the Indian platter special.

 

The consensus was all definitely all positive and I especially loved my Indian platter! My favorite part was the curried sweet potatoes, but each part of the Indian dish was full of flavor and went so well together. As I’m staring at the picture, I’m wishing I had that plate of food in front of me right now … yum!



There were so many other menu items I would have loved to try from other entrees and sides, delicious sounding soups to yummy looking drinks and juices.





An overall great dining experience, and if I lived closer, I would definitely be a frequent visitor.

Back to Kansas City

Thanks again, everyone, for the kind words about my father-in-law. 

Although he has lived in Missouri for awhile now, he’s from New York and wished to be buried there. So we came to New York on Saturday, the funeral was on Monday, and we are headed home today.  It’s going to be really different when we go back home and try to get settled into this new chapter of our lives, as his dad has lived with us for the past few years and much of our lives have been centered around his care. But on the other hand, it’s a blessing because he had fought a long, hard battle and he was ready to go. It’s a hard part of life that can be difficult to understand, but God is still good, and sometimes that’s just life, isn’t it? 

While in New York, we tried to have as much “fun” as possible under the circumstances.  New York is so pretty, I don’t seem to get bored with all the mountains, streams, rivers, trees and nature … not to mention the city.

So here are a few Instagram photos I’ve taken while here. I’ll blog some of the fun highlights in the next few days …