4 posts tagged “affinia”

Another week, another business trip, another series of mostly monontonous meals, punctuated with some happy eating moments.

Monday was my last day at home before leaving on a long-ish trip to NYC for six days. (In fact I'm writing this form my hotel before I go check out.) Our BlogHer Business Conference was held at the Affinia Manhattan for the second year in a row, and they have a banquet manager, Libardo, who goes out of his way to take care of me and my crazy vegan-ness. To the extent that on day two when we had an afternoon break that included a popcorn machine, Libardo went out to the store, bought some vegan microwave popcorn, had it made up, and had it there with the popcorn guys, just waiting for me. They even scooped it in the little popcorn bags that everyone else was eating out of, instead of just handing me the big ole bag of Orville Redenbacher :)

The Affinia had also added a few more vegan items to their menu since last year. So, actually, if I'm being honest (as Simon Cowell would say) I had quite a few choices: A veggie burger, a grilled vegetable platter, and my favorite, the Cappelini with mushrooms and asparagus.

So the week living out of the hotel and on room service and catering went pretty well.

Except I had one outstanding vegan experience, and one terrible one.

Let's start with the terrible one. When I checked in, I discovered they had left me some welcome amenities (probably because I'm the organizer of this big event.) Apparently the General Manager's office isn't quite as up on my crazy vegan-ness as my buddy Libardo. The wine was great, but there was a big old cheese platter, and a platter of petit fours.The petit fours weren't that appealing to me, but I confess that as time ticked by, and I was waiting to see if I'd be going to dinner with a colleague, I got hungry, and then I got weak, and then I ate some cheese. As always the roots of my failure can be traced back to lack of proper preparation. I left for my early morning flight without eating breakfast. I did buy something to eat on the plane, but it was kind of nasty, so I didn't end up eating much of it. I didn't check in and then step down the block to pick up something at the deli. Nope, I just flipped open the laptop, started working, and kept waiting. And vegan tragedy ensued.

The lesson to be gleaned by everyone here: Don't expect to be taken care of when you're out and about. Sure, it happens often, but on those occasions when there's just nothing to sustain you, make sure you have something of your own to take the edge off.

The outstanding vegan experience was visiting Blossom for lunch yesterday. Yum!! This was an NYC vegan place I hadn't tried, so I was excited to add another place to my NYC arsenal. I had a scrumptious Porcini Seitan with Spinach and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I ate every bit and practically licked my plate. The only bum note was the cheesecake, which was a bit too heavy on the soy flavor for my taste. My lunch companion actally really liked it, though, so it's worth a try.

So that was my week...lots of running around, lots of capellini with asparagus and mushrooms, one new vegan restaurant discovery, and one unfortunate vegan failure.

I'm soon to meet another friend for brunch (not sure where we'll go) before getting on an afternoon flight back home. And yes, I WILL buy food for the flight that will actually hit the spot :)

Yesterday was Day Two of BlogHer Business.

Everything went well. The Affinia once again took care of my vegan needs. But post-conference, I tagged along to dinner, and it turned into one of those "I can't believe you can't come up with anything better!" evenings.

Usually Italian restaurants are pretty good for vegans. Most pasta is not actually made with egg. Usually an Italian place might have some sourdough bread on hand.  And barring all of that, they know how to roast a vegetable or two.

Not Tarallucci e Vino in the flatiron district.

They have no pasta, not even their buckwheat noodles, that is made without egg. They have no bread that is made without egg. When pressed for what then theycould come up with the waiter, who truth be told was very nice and apologetic about it, suggested greens.

The problem was I hadn't eaten much all day, had been running around all day because of the conference, and had gotten a little cocky with the alcohol thing and had ordered a nice Stella Artois beer. And the place was so noisy that although I was seated at a table of 10 people I didn't feel I could actually participate in any conversation unless with the person sitting right next to me.

I got a little uncomfortable. And I started to feel like I was maybe having a reaction to the beer. And when my tiny plate of greens with a few dried cranberries and hazlenuts came to my table (no, it wasn't even a healthy portions size, since this restaurant nis an odd hybrid Italian tapas-style place...which is really just their way of serving you tiny portions and charging you more money) well, I started to feel very sorry for myself indeed.

Not to mention that a couple of the people on my side of the table (people I've met before, but don't know at all) were seriously looking at me like I was a freak for having this weird dietary thing, and not just looking, but asking "why would you be on such a diet?" "Diet" meaning I suppose that they assumed I would eat this way because I need to lose weight...thank you very much.

Anyway, after picking at my greens, I actually decided to go back to the hotel and get some real food. So I said good-bye to everyone and headed on back by myself and ordered the trusty Rigatoni from room service.

So that was my celebration upon the close of the conference.

Sigh. I should have just taken myself to Candle 79 with a good book.

Breakfast:
Coffee
1/2 a bagel

Lunch (The Affinia outdoes themselves again):
Soba Noodles w/Lentils, Broccolini and other roasted vegetables (It was this huge portion, and I ate what I thought was plenty, but the plate still looked completely full. Perhaps I was too keyed up to eat properly.)

Snack:
Twizzlers
Diet Coke

Dinner #1 (Tarralucci e vino):
Mesclun with Dried Cranberries and Hazlenuts, with Oil and Vinegar
Beer

Dinner #2 (Affinia room service)
Rigatoni w/Spinach, Mushroom and Cannelini
French Fries (no room service meal is complete without them!!)

So, Thursday was Day One of BlogHer Business, and despite trying to plan for my vegan requirements when picking menu items, there is always something unexpected. In this case it was the fact that the Portabella Mushroom sandwich, which was described in quite some detail in the menus, also had cheese on it...which wasn't mentioned at all.

There was an attendee who had an egg and dairy allergy, so she was equally hosed because all the breads had egg, and all the sandwiches had cheese.

So, our friends at the Affinia went and made two special platters for us: mine was all grilled veggies, and hers was some roast beef and grilled veggies.

On Day Two they not only anticipated our two food issues, but made us something different and wonderful...which you'll hear about a little later.

Breakfast:
Organic Oatmeal (I brought packets of this myself.)
Coffee

Lunch:
Grilled Vegetables

Snack:
Sweet Potato patties (made without egg or dairy, I checked)

Dinner (Niles New York):
Rigatoni with Spinach, Mushroom and Cannellini Beans (This is the restaurant next to the hotel, and although the Rigatoni I had the night before wasn't actually on the restaurant menu, they made it for me anyway.)

These restaurants didn't exist when I was a vegetarian living in NYC almost 20 years ago. I remember when the first Zen Palate opened, right before I moved away.Creative tasty veg food in a somewhat more "upscale" environment. Seemed kind of revolutionary at the time. No places like that are starting to crop up everywhere. Certainly in most meotrpolitan areas.

I had planned to take BlogHer's fantabulous event planner to Candle 79 as a thank you for all her hard work since we hired her in November.

But instead i decided to try somewhere new, and some place a little closer to our hotel. We went to Gobo in Greenwich Village. It was Awe. Some.

But not all was awesome in vegan land. When I checked into my hotel (the Affinia Manhattan) they had given me a super VIP room, since I chose the hotel and negotiated our deal here.) I the super VIP room was a platter of chocolate-covered strawberries. I indeed ate some, knowing full well the chocolate is almost certainly not vegan chocolate. They were so good I felt less guilt. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Breakfast:
Soy Latte
Plain Bagel

Lunch:
Chips
Banana
Avocado Sandwich (on sliced sourdough with tomato.)

Snack:
Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Dinner (Gobo):
Beer
Edamame
Scallion Pancakes
Seitan in Spicy Citrus Sauce (As good as it sounds)
Bread with Sweet Potato Butter (Not really as good as it sounds...kinda bland.)