TASTE TEST: Boneshakers Rocky Road Cookie

Boneshakers vegan rocky road cookie

RATING:

Wow Boneshakers is a really cute sandwich shop/cafe/bakery.It's decorated with the theme of a biker bar but for bicyclists rather than motorcyclists. The only issue was that I didn't ride my bike there, and this shop is housed in a questionable part of bushwick/greenpoint, Brooklyn. I made it there & back alive though with great praises of the vegan rocky road cookie!

The baked goods at Boneshakers are done in-house and fresh daily. When I went I saw muffins, cookies & cupcakes. I chose the rocky road cookie because it looked delicious and was something I've never seen before.

I was very pleased by this cookie. It was huge, soft, chewy and very chocolately. The abundance of "marshmallows" made the cookie even more chewy and pulled away from the cookie with each bite in perfect gooey fashion. There was just the right amount of nuts to add in a kick to the consistency and taste. I really enjoyed devouring this cookie. When I was done, I wish I had purchased more than just one. If I get up the nerve, or am accompanied by strong badass people, I will surely venture back there for more treats!!

YUMMIEST: Place to Get Vegan Ice Cream in New York City: Final Installment

Klein's Butter Pecan Soy Milk Ice Cream

KLEIN'S RATING:

KYOTOFU RATING:

I have came, seen and conquered Vegan Ice Cream in New York City. I finally made it to the mysterious and much talked about Klein’s. I went to Kyotofu on a day other than on Monday, when they are closed. I have experienced great happiness upon tasting and great sadness when the cone/serving cup is empty. AND now, I present to you the final installment of the YUMMIEST place to get Vegan Ice Cream in New York City.

Klein’s is a kosher ice cream shop located in Borough Park, Brooklyn which has a heavy population of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. Those who are kosher do not mix meat and dairy and do not eat dairy up to 6 hours after meat has been consumed. Therefore, Kosher companies often make products that are dairy-free. These products are not always vegan, but those companies that are smart make it a point to have it certified vegan so that their available consumer market can increase. This is why one will see that many vegan products & restaurants are kosher as well.

Anyway this shop rules. The place is small and doesn’t have seating but this is because the walls are lined with freezers that are packed to the brim with ice cream products, many of which are vegan. You can browse through the non-dairy section of their site to get a taste of what’s available. Two things that really stuck out was vegan bon-bons and a vegan version of chocolate éclairs ice cream bars (much like the ones from the good humor truck!).

The case in the front was full of ice cream, one section of dairy and one of non-dairy. They had some interesting vegan flavors such as cherry vanilla, coffee royale and butter pecan. The friendly server let us try as much as we wanted to. They also had vegan soft-serve – chocolate vanilla twist and soft-serve sorbet. I ended up going for the butter pecan because I have not seen that flavor anywhere. What really made my mouth drop was that a single scoop cone was, get this, $2.75. I riddle you not. The cone was packed with ice cream. This was quite a hefty single scoop. This ice cream was great. It tasted so good. I was really pleasantly surprised with how creamy the consistency was and the flavor was spot on. The pecans inside were fresh and crunchy.

Then I took those chocolate éclair bars home. This provided joy for the rest of the week. According to my memory, they tasted almost exactly what the good humor bars tasted like. The crunchy cookies over a hard chocolate shell outside, the creamy vanilla layered on top of a chocolate center inside. Soooo good.

Kyotofu Soft-Serve

I really liked the ambience of Kyotofu. This place was really cute inside and the server was very accommodating and friendly. This place mostly serves fancy drinks, Japanese dinner plates and non-vegan bakery goods all with a focus on their namesake, tofu. However, they have finally pleased vegans by offering 2 vegan soymilk soft-serve ice cream flavors that rotate weekly. Some examples of flavors are white sesame, matcha green tea, hazelnut and Kyoto miso. When I went the flavors available was Kinako (Soybean flour) and Chocolate. There were no cones (boo!) but we did get one free topping (yay!). I ended up getting the a twist of the Kinako and the Chocolate with a berry compote topping in a large serving bowl (which was very large) for $6.34. My non-vegan friend said that she wouldn’t have known that this soft-serve was vegan. She thinks its as close as you can get to the real thing. I thought it was very smooth and creamy. Really thick unlike most soymilk ice cream that is kind of icey or watery. The kinako tasted like a sour peanut butter and the chocolate was sweeter than I expected. The mix of the two with the berry compote was very good. I really enjoyed.

So where is the yummiest place to get Vegan Ice Cream in New York City?! It’s a tie! Klein’s definitely has the biggest bang for your buck including plenty of frozen treats to take home. However, Lula’s takes the gold for most inventive offerings, flavors and cutest shop ever. It is a must that you go to both of these places this summer, several times.

Please leave your vegan ice cream experiences & comments!

TASTE TEST: Foodswings 'Funfetti cake" and Bella Vegan Shake

"Funfetti Cake" at Food Swings

"FUNFETTI" CAKE RATING:YY (2 out of 5 hearts!)

BELLA VEGAN SHAKE RATING:YYY (3 out of 5 hearts!)

Foodswings is a cute “fast-food” style vegan joint in Williamsburg BK. It used to be owned by fellow Staten-Islanders Freedom & Lee Poerio-Tripodi but a few months back he sold it to the owners of the metal/grind-core bar Lucky 13 (which has vegan White Russians!). I haven’t been in since but I figured I should check it out to see if the dessert options have changed. With the previous owners they had an amazing selection of shakes, a nice vegan candy/ice cream selection and whoopee pies/brownies/cakes supplied by Vegan Treats . I would mainly go for their shakes which were always out of this world. The Bella Vegan was my favorite – vanilla ice cream, cookies and peanut butter.

When I walked in I noticed it from a mile away.... a vegan funfetti cake? WHAT YES! Totally my favorite cake ever and I've never seen it vegan. Man when I was 15 I would bake one funfetti cake a week. Haven't had that in forever!! It looked amazing in the case.

But alas, it wasn't good. Very dry and boring. No flavor what-so-ever. The frosting was pretty rad, sweet and well-whipped. Disappointing altogether though.

Anyway, despite the management change the laundry list of awesome shakes is still available so I had the bella vegan and it was terrific. Lots of peanut butter, super thick and yummy. I would not be opposed to going there only for shakes all the time.

So overall, shake good, cake not so much but I'm hoping that it's because it was stale and old. Which still, shouldn't be sold to customers in that fashion but whatever. I'll try it on a different day of the week and report back.

What do you think of the new FoodSwings? Have you been? What's your favorite shake?

YUMMIEST: Place to get Pancakes in NYC – installment 1

Pecan Banana Pancakes at Quantum Leap

Thanks to all the comments re: The Yummiest of the Month. I will be on the search to find the Yummiest vegan pancakes in NYC! Here is the first installment. If there is any place that you think I should include while searching this month, please post in the comments, thanks!

PLACE: Quantum Leap

MEAL: Banana Pecan Pancakes with tofu scramble & vegan sham

PRICE: $10.50

RATING:YYY (3 out of 5 hearts!)

The plate came out and my mouth began to water. I was served three hefty sized pancakes topped with bananas & pecans. I’ve had banana pancakes before, and it changes the consistency a bit due to the mushiness of the bananas. However, adding pecans to the mix changes the whole thing around. The nice thing about the pancakes were that they were thin so eat bite was awesomely crunch & mushy at the same time.

My only complaint was that they were a tad dry on the outside. I had to soak it in maple syrup to get the sweetness & moistness I was looking for. I know these were buckwheat pancakes specifically so I wonder if using buckwheat vs. whole wheat or mixed grains changes the moistness levels.

What I like about Quantum Leap though, is their level of originality. The pancakes I had this past Saturday was on their specials list. Their brunch specials are different every week and never disappoint. I had pear waffles there once and they were out of this world. They always have a pancake or waffle special, so if you go there and see it, definitely try it! Of course, unless you despise one of the main ingredients.

And though the focus is on the pancakes, it is such a great deal in terms of price because not only is it a specialty pancake, it comes with tofu scramble & sham on the site. Such a huge portion, I had to give up on finishing this meal because it was too much.

PLACE: The V-Spot

MEAL: Whole Wheat Strawberry Pancakes

PRICE: $10.00

RATING: YYYY (4 out of 5 hearts!)

Now these were whole wheat pancakes and they seemed to be much more moist to me and it wasn’t necessary to drown in maple syrup.

The plate came with 3 strawberry pancakes and a side of tempeh bacon. The pancakes were thin, soft and buttery. The strawberries were fresh which made each bite oh so sweet and wonderful. In addition, vegan pancakes tend to be really heavy and filling, but these did not have that effect. They were definitely the fluffiest ones I have had thus far.

Though simple, these pancakes were spot-on. My only problem was that they weren’t topped with strawberries or anything. I really like having fresh fruit on my pancakes. They were only inside the pancakes. I think if we had some of those fresh strawberries on top, I would have given this 5 hearts.