Vegetables Have Their Moment in the Sun: Dovetail

The amazing egg with truffle at Dovetail

Vegetarians often have to make compromises when dining with carnivores: choosing the lone pasta dish, making a meal of sides, or eating fish even if they really prefer to avoid sea creatures and the term pescetarian.

At Dovetail, on a side street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, everyone can be happy. The restaurant has either prix fixe meals or tasting menus, with plenty of choices for plant eaters and a special vegetarian tasting menu.

At a recent meal, (which I took a subway, a bus and a Via to arrive at - I had a few stops along the way) I started with grilled bluefoot mushrooms with salsify and jicama; my husband had the soft poached egg with potato crisps and shaved winter truffles. Both were excellent and so appealing that the other diners at our table all eschewed the meat to try these. Sadly, no one got the sun choke fondue with broccoli and gruyere - that will have to be another time.

The bluefoot mushroom appetizer

For my entree, I had to have the beet with grain salad, black trumpet mushrooms and thyme milk. This was a fantastic earthy dish, perfect on a winter night. It's so lovely that it's part of the regular meat menu, with ham (it didn't need it).

Perfectly cooked fish

My husband had striped bass with cauliflower and smoked grapes over yellow curry.

Chocolate souffle

We shared a cheese plate and bittersweet chocolate soufflé  for dessert. The soufflé  came with a pitcher of rich chocolate sauce to put in the center, and a scoop of sage ice cream that nicely offset the chocolate.

Rose cocktail with gin

The interesting cocktail list included an old fashioned made with kirsch and ramazzoti (an Italian amaro) and a lovely gin drink, a rose is a rose is a rose, with chareau (an aloe based liqueur), prosecco and a rose petal.

Cheese plate

Though Dovetail is not inexpensive, it also isn't outrageously priced.

Vegan Donuts - Yes You Can!

Some of the choices at Dottie's Donuts

I have a confession to make. I used to hate donuts. Or doughnuts.  I never know what to call them, so I'm going to go back and forth here.

When I was a kid, I attended a secular humanist Yiddish school on Sunday mornings and at break time, we had donuts and coffee.  I was about 8 when I started this. Maybe the donuts were bad, maybe the coffee upset my stomach, but I learned to love coffee and hate the donuts, which sat like lead in the pit of my stomach.

The maple cinnamon donut made it as far as the car

Then Dunkin Donuts came to Long Island when I was in high school. I used to go there with my boyfriend and we'd eat munchkins and complain about the weak coffee and gross donuts.

Even when I was pregnant, I resisted the lure of the donut. I worked at a parenting magazine when I was pregnant with my youngest, and every Friday, we got a delivery of several dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. These turned my stomach - could have been the pregnancy - but I avoided donuts for the next 19 years.

The cookie monster lurking in the back - amazing

Then came Dough. These doughnuts were nothing like the ones of ore; they used seasonal ingredients, organic produce and were healthy and low calorie.

OK, obviously the last part of that was not true. But I came to appreciate artisan donuts, with their unique flavor combinations and absurdly high prices.

I've since sampled the local doughnut scene in Portland, OR: Voodoo and Blue Star; Brooklyn: Doughnut Plant and now Dottie's Donuts, in Philadelphia.

Dottie's is vegan, which means no bacon on the doughnuts (I appreciate this - I've had doughnuts that have inadvertently picked up a stray bit of pork from a neighboring doughnut) and no lard used to fry the donuts. But they taste great - for anyone leery of this, rest assured that they have all that donutty goodness - rich icing, flavorful filling, cake-y, large donuts. And they are only $2.50 or so apiece.  At some cafes in New York, Dough's are $5 each.

The chocolate made it home, minus some of its glaze

We inhaled the Cookie Monster, a chocolate glazed donut filled with a peanut butter cookie and topped with chocolate sprinkles. It was divine. We also shared the maple cinnamon, with perfect glaze, the lemon poppy and simple chocolate glazed.  Then we ran the 90 miles back to New York. [note: we didn't eat all of each doughnut. We shared].

Dottie's is a little out of the way, a tiny unassuming spot in West Philly. I was test driving a 2017 Nissan Rogue, and going to check out the Eastern State Penitentiary, so this was a great place to fuel up before touring the prison museum.

There are only about a dozen or so flavors each day, so if you have your mind set on a certain flavor, you might be disappointed.  Or you just might have to return.

Note: Nissan loaned me the Rogue.

Off the Beaten track: Freek's Mill, Gowanus

BBQ kohlrabi over grits

Not long ago, the only reason to go to Gowanus was to strip a car. In fact, when my car was stolen years ago, someone tracked me down and told me where it was - in the Gowanus neighborhood, which at that time was mostly a wasteland between Park Slope and Cobble Hill (Boerum Hill hadn't been 'invented' yet either).

Cocktails

Times change, and the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club, Ample Hills Creamery and Whole Foods have brought attention to this formerly desolate, industrial part of Brooklyn.

Another bright spot is Freek's Mill, around the corner from Ample Hills, but isolated enough that I felt like the late great Madeline Kahn in What's Up Doc, sent to a dilapidated building. But Freek's Mill, named for a mill that was built in the 1700s, is warm and inviting inside, with soft lights, exposed brick walls and candles.

High table in the front of Freek's Mill

The menu, of small plates, changes almost daily; some items stay, or are tweaked, but seasonal produce rules the day. Our waitress recommended 2-3 plates per person; with 5 plates split between 2 people, we were stuffed.

There was kale salad, of course, with Beecher's cheese, but we had had a lot of kale for lunch, so we skipped it. We were able to find more than enough vegetarian choices, though the Brussels sprouts sadly had bacon.

Roasted cauliflower with ricotta

Our favorite dishes were the roasted carrots with thick yogurt and crushed peanuts, and roasted cauliflower with ricotta. Both dishes were served cool and would have been better fresh from the fire. Then there was the BBQ kohlrabi, over decadently rich grits. I could have eaten a bucket of this.

Oysters roasted in the wood fire were also tasty but not hot, and it was a bit off putting that for a place where dishes are meant to be shared, the plate had 3 oysters. How many people go out to dinner in groups of 3? Every table was ether a pair or a foursome, so suggesting we pay for an extra oyster (which we did) seems like a bit of up-selling. Dishes range from $11-$23, but it gets pretty pricey if you eat 3 a person.

Carrots with yogurt and peanuts

The most expensive dish, scallops, was quite lovely, served with baby Brussels sprouts, (again, there were only 3) but it too was cool. And it came just minutes after we'd gotten 2 other dishes, so the pacing was a bit off. Maybe the staff needs more training; when Freek's Mill first opened, it had a no tipping policy, with the extra price built in. That model has changed, but it seems the high prices have remained. We asked our waitress to keep the scallops warm while we ate the other dishes, but she refused.  She also poured some wine on my husband but didn't seem to notice.

Scallops with baby Brussels

Cocktails are fantastic. We had the film noir, a take on a Manhattan with rye and homemade brandied cherries.  A bourbon drink with cranberry was every so slightly sweet but lovely. They were served up and properly icy cold.

LaLa Land: Paean to the Car

Opening dance sequence: flying above gridlocked cars. Credit: Lionsgate

You can't set a movie in Los Angeles without involving cars. American Graffiti's thin plot even revolves around the teens who cruise on Saturday nights in their souped up cars.

But LaLa Land both embraces and makes fun of LA's car obsession. The musical starts with an epic traffic jam, one of those gridlocked days when you start thinking that you will never, ever emerge from this mess. Then a woman exits her car - and starts singing. And dancing. Others join in , and suddenly a traffic jam is a chance to actually jam.

Ryan Gosling, too cool for school in his convertible Buick. Credit: Lionsgate

One malcontent doesn't get caught up in the sining and dancing: Ryan Gosling's character, Sebastian, who is too busy fiddling with the cassette )!) player in his vintage Buick. The retro car is cool - it's a convertible - but it also establishes his character as a throwback.

And the other lead, Emma Stone's character, Mia, drives a Prius. This is mocked, too - when the couple leave a party, she says her car is a Prius - and the entire valet stand is filled with Prius key fobs.

Sebastian and Mia meet when she parks her car illegally, it gets towed and she walks into the club where he works.

Though I wonder why she didn't just call an Uber.

What to Do on Christmas in NY - If You Don't Celebrate Christmas

Macy's Holiday store windows: open on Christmas (the displays, not the store)

How to spend the day on Christmas is a question that bedevils Jews every year, along with Scrooge, anti-holiday types and non-Christians. In New York, it's actually pretty easy to fill your day.

The Jewish Museum
The Jewish Museum, on the Upper East Side, offers a full day of programming (unless the holiday happens to fall on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath). There's a little bonus this year: on Christmas Eve, when many cultural institutions are also closed, the museum is free. It's always open, for free, on Saturdays, but no special programming is planned, and the restaurant and gift shop are closed.

See the Rockettes on Christmas

Go to the top
One World Observatory, in lower Manhattan, and Top of the Rock, in midtown, are both open Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Eat Chinese food
This is what we did on Long Island when I was younger; everyone in my mostly Jewish town went to the movies and ate Chinese food.

Go to a movie
See above.

Most Chinatown restaurants are open on Christmas

See a Broadway show
Yes, several shows have Christmas performances including both Jersey Boys and The Color Purple, both of which close in January. Catch them while you can!

Kick up your feet
If you are a Christmas hater or agnostic, this may not be for you, but the Rockettes perform their Christmas Spectacular multiple times at Radio City Music Hall.

Most animals don't celebrate the holiday

Get wild
The Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo are all open on Christmas Day. If your kids have opened all their presents, eaten all the goodies and are starting to turn on you, take them to the zoo where they can at least forget about inside voices.

Visit the store windows
No jockeying for space in front of the most popular store window displays. You can see Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdales and Macy's, and even check out the tree at Rockefeller Center.

Take a ride
Drive or hop on the subway and see the holiday lights in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. These free displays are lit as soon as the sun sets.

Find more suggestions on how to spend Christmas (and Christmas Eve) at NYC.com.

Nissan Gives Back: The Force is With Them

Our ride for the day: A 2017 Nissan Rogue

Every year, Nissan arranges a volunteer day in New York City, where they invite auto writers and bloggers to help the community. For the second year in a row, we spent the day at the New York Common Pantry, a food pantry in East Harlem, giving bags of food to the working poor and needy.

The food pantry gives low income families and needy individuals and bag of fresh, healthy food every other week, as a supplement to other food programs. What's unique about this program is that the beneficiaries can choose what grains, proteins and fresh fruits and vegetables they prefer, from a changing list of purchased and donated items. Our job, along with Nissan execs, was to put together the food bags, and throw in a couple of extras: fresh sandwiches, salads and other donated goodies.

The pantry resembled a vegetarian's kitchen: bags of dried beans, eggs, fresh sweet potatoes, beets, carrots and lots of lots of bananas. Whole grain pastas, grits and oatmeal, milk, and canned tomatoes filled the bags and recipients carefully packed their bags into grocery carts or wheelie suitcases.

Holiday cheer at Maxwell's Central Park

As usual, after the day of hard work, Nissan treated us to appetizers and drinks, this year at Maxwell’s Central Park. The bar food included a vegetarian friendly black bean dip with guacamole and a jicama and red pepper relish, spinach dip served with really spicy pita chips and sweet potatoes fries.

An extra treat
We were chauffeured to the bar in a fleet of brand new 2017 Nissan Rogues. The compact SUVs seat 5 and we were all comfortable on our short drive.

The main event
After fueling up (on drinks and appetizers) we took a much longer ride downtown for the main event: a special private screening of the new movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Nissan is capitalizing on the car's to tie in with the movie.

Thanks Nissan: private screening of Rogue One

Besides the name, Nissan Rogue has nothing to do with Rogue One, which is all spaceships and Rebel warriors. Plus intergalactic warfare, martial arts and geeky allusions to other Star Wars movies; blink and you'll miss R2-D2 and C-P3O.

I loved the original Star Wars movies, but never saw the later films; it was fun to jump back into the franchise and even get a peek at Princess...well, I don't want to give anything away.  See it for yourself.

The Intersection of Lincoln, Luxury & Hipsterdom: Mast Brothers Chocolate

The actual Mast Brothers, complete with hipster beards

You might not think that artisan chocolate made in Brooklyn would have much to do with Lincoln Motor Company, but last week, I saw how they fit together over a 24 hour period.

First, I went to the Loft Opera's production of Macbeth, at the new Mast Brothers factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The unheated warehouse was the setting for a faithful rendition of the tragedy, and most of the young audience sat on backless benches for the three hour performance, fueled only by the Brooklyn Brewery beer for sale, along with fine chocolate.

Lincoln's swag: bars of Mast Brothers chocolate

The gray and no hairs - i.e., people in my demographic, were mostly the VIP members, who got folding chairs with actual backs. Because theatergoers who can afford more than a $30 ticket require a few more luxuries.

The setting for Lincoln's holiday party

For much the same reason, luxury cars appeal to this demographic. But Lincoln knows its long term success depends on appealing to a younger audience as well, so it has the essence of cool, Matthew McConaughey, starring in its commercials.

And as it happened, the night after the Macbeth show, Lincoln invited me to its swanky holiday soiree, in a penthouse at Lincoln Center. You wouldn't think that this had much in common with the barebones Loft Opera. Yet, along with the canapes and top shelf open bar, heat (something I will now never take for granted) and comfortable seats, there were parting gifts: bars of Mast Brothers chocolate.

You couldn't ask for a better pairing.