New York Holiday! (instagram pic based post, sorry!)

All the way back in November, my boyfriend and I visited New York for a week and stayed with his sister in the East Village. We only arrived a couple of days after the hurricane so it really was touch and go whether or not we were actually going to be able to fly out or not, but thankfully luck was on our side and we managed to start or trip with no real trouble. (Apart from when we arrived which was not fun, horribly scary and I still want to rip the hotel apart that took our booking and then gave our room to someone else leaving us stranded. ERGH)

I never really got round to posting about New York the way I should, I'm not the best with words and tend to get a little of subject but thought I'd do a food based post of some of the amazing things we tried and bought out there. It's unbelievable what's available to vegans out in the states that we can't get over here and every day I'm pining to go back. I'm going to do a two part post for this, one for the packaged food/things I bought back and one based on restaurants/fresh food just so it doesn't get too long winded.

First things first:



Found this amazing coconut milk based drink in whole foods. I was trying to originally find the pumpkin spice version but I think we just missed out sadly! I only bought one of these back and as soon as I tried it I wished I'd bought more, really creamy, really tasty and not watery in the slightest. The mint wasn't overpowering at all either which I was expecting to but it was a gorgeous drink and one I wish I could find over here!(I have a feeling I could maybe recreate with using a soy chocolate milk and mint syrup though!)



I've been looking for nice cheap mason jars for ages and found this for a cool $1.95 at whole foods, picked up too small and two large wide mouth jars for about $7 I think it worked out being. Chucked in my sweets I picked up whilst out there (Hot tomales and cinnamon jolly ranchers) and they looks quite cute sitting on my kitchen shelf at home. Well worth the worry of them breaking my suitcase definitely!
Like all vegans I know picked up a few bags of daiya cheese to bring back. I have to say this stuff is amazing, why we don't yet do it over here I don't know and this stuff would be huge over here. It's creamy, tasty, melts like the real thing and the macaroni cheese I made with it has never been so good. Finishing the last pack off was almost painful.
Now I know you can get nature valley bars over here but the only ones I ever want have honey in them or just seem a little boring. The peanut butter ones were divine and I'll be getting both flavours again when I come back.



One of the first stores I begged Luke to come with me too was to Trader Joes. And boy was it worth it. The queue was unbelievably long and pretty much stretched right around the store (we went in rush hour AND just when it had reopened after the hurricane so everyone was panic buying I think too) but the food was amazing. If trader joes opened here I would be first in line to get in, a lot of its organic based and from smaller more independent companies and had an amazing range of more health based snacks (not what I picked up obviously!) I originally went in to grab pumpkin spiced coffee but the lady who worked there explained the seasonal produce sells out quickly which was a shame. The maple cookies I picked up though where just amazing, I bought three and luke pretty much sat and ate a whole box to himself when we got back to his sisters which didn't impress me! The cinnamon rolls I weren't expecting to be vegan so that was a pleasant surprise. (they were a bit more cakey than I wanted them to be, I was expecting something a little softer but still, incredible none the less) and I have yet to make the pumpkin loaf as it requires eggs to make so want to make sure when I do give it a go it'll work and not end up flat and not rising as I wont be able to give it two goes.