In September of 2008, Victor and I returned to New York City because I took a barista training course hosted by Intelligentsia Coffee. We also spent a little more time sight seeing, and doing the touristy thing, since we didn’t have time to do that last trip.

There we are in Times Square. Yuck, lots of advertisements.

Some espresso that I took home from my training course. The class was really awesome. I wish I had more time to practice, but we almost ran out of milk. The picture to the right is the Union Square farmers market. When we visited New york the first time, we drove around by car the whole time. This time, we only took the subway. It was really cool to be able to get anywhere in the city by the train. The Union Square Farmers market was right outside of the Union Square station, which made it easy to stop and grab some snacks.

We ate a few different places this time. one of the places was called sacred chow. It wasnt too expensive, but still provided a fancier dining experience. Don’t get me wrong, don’t go dressing up or anything, but it’s definitely not fast food. Everything is prepared nicely and presented well. It was really delicious.

After we were done eating, Victor pointed out that literally RIGHT across the street was the Peanut Butter & co sandwich shop! I love their dark chocolate peanut butter and the spicy peanut butter is Victor’s favorite. We just ate, so we didn’t order any sandwiches, but we did pick up some PB pretzels and some peanut squares. yum! The next day, we visited red bamboo. I’d heard a lot about this place, and the shop itself is gorgeous inside. The food was great, and I had a really good strawberry shake, too!

foodswings: Vegan fast food at it’s finest! this was Victor’s favorite place out of everywhere we’ve been, and I loved it too. From what i’ve read, it’s either you love it or hate it. We ordered cheese fries, various ‘drumsticks’ (hot/spicy, bbq, etc), and a shake. The cheese fries were decent. they’re good if you’re looking for something greasy to hit the spot. The drumsticks were AMAZING! I wish i could eat these everyday. I loved the BBQ ones. I garuntee you that when i revisit NYC, I’ll go to foodswings just for these. The shake was really good too. If I remember correctly, I ordered a crunchberry shake which was strawberry with captain crunch blended up in it. it was so good. you can view the foodswings menu here.

Oh, New York. I miss you already.