inner peace: food and flowers edition

One of the coolest things about this project has been the random treasures of New York that we've stumbled upon, simply by letting ourselves get lost a little bit in this massive city. Friday's adventure started out as a trip to one of our favorite local eateries, Peacefood Cafe. Guess what kind of food they specialize in?  If you guessed vegan: gold star for you! We had intended to go to Peacefood for brunch, but Zoë stayed up too late celebrating her love of P-Chem and couldn't quite drag herself out of bed in the morning. That and the fact that we always know generally where Peacefood is located--somewhere in the 80s, east of Broadway--but never exactly. After going around in circles (literally), we resorted to the iPhone (shame!) and discovered that we'd gone almost 5 streets and a full avenue block too far. Backtracking, we finally made it to Peacefood just in time for lunch.

Our waiter was a good friend of ours....not! But he'd really like to be. Last time we were at Peacefood, our waiter friend spent a great deal of the time checking to see if we needed anything and almost but not quite invading our personal space. That night also marked the creation of our epic "To-Do in New York" list, and he was "very impressed" with our impeccable handwriting (it is true, we both do have impeccable handwriting.  be jealous) This time, there was all the attentiveness, plus a bonus offering in coffee selections. In addition to the usual offerings of almond milk, soy milk, and rice milk, he also let us know that he could arrange for some Bailey's in our (surely shade grown, fair trade) coffee. As tempting as that was, we went with soy milk. (and for all you haters, IT WAS DELICIOUS)

(self explanatory)

Basking in the glow of roasted vegetables, soy lattes, an apricot almond muffin, and a "magic" cookie (interpret how you will... although it is us, so don't go too crazy)

As per usual, the food was excellent, and Zoë got distracted by some windows of the stores across the street.  One was a good call: who doesn't need an $80 juice cleanse? And the other not so much: vases (pronounced vaaahhzes). We decided to ignore our (Zoë's) domestic yearnings and not go into that particular store, as we most likely cannot be trusted around expensive breakables. Particularly when they are pronounced in such a pretentious manner. Instead, we jammed ourselves into the dressing room of one of those expensive clothing stores that we can't seem to get enough of, and Zoë got stuck multiple times in a dress/creation/thing/monster from the deep that looked TERRIBLE anyways. Rebecca, meanwhile, was getting stuck in a lace corset dress that similarly looked awful. Self esteem was destroyed. We had the brilliant idea to switch dresses; this turned out to not be so brilliant as we still each looked horrendous. (Although Rebecca is proud to note that she was able to don the dress/creation without assistance.) After gazing longingly at the men's shirts (there was a pink gingham one. gay men's shirts? women's shirts? whatever. nice shirts.), we decided not to brave the dressing room again and left.

On our way back uptown, we decided to cross over from Columbus to Amsterdam on 89th Street: best decision ever!  We happened on this amazing little community garden that was bursting with tulips.  For all you Columbia people looking for a happy spring pick-me-up that will leave you refreshed instead of hungover (so a non-Bacchanal pick-me-up), head down that way this weekend for the Tulip Festival!  Here's a sneak peak:

The Secret Garden?

ORANGE

Moral of story: zig-zag your way down the west side of Manhattan and you will find something cool!

Namaste,

Z+R

(ok fine we ran out of nicknames. that we feel like sharing.)