Eating Out on a Budget: Dorado Tacos in Union Square

It's all too easy to get out of the habit of things. One busy week at work turns into neglecting your exercise routine in the evenings; one week without groceries leads to a second week of justifying your "fatigue": This is the last night I'll pick up takeout.  One week of not allotting time to post to your blog leads to two weeks of laziness. But I know one thing that seems to be habit-forming and that's a trip to Dorado whenever I'm in the vicinity of Union Square. Since having lunch with friends there for the first time a few weeks ago, I've been back a handful of times for their all-too-tasty tacos.

Having tried all but one of the options I can eat, my favorites have become the Baja Original (sorry true vegetarians who don't eat fish) and the Veggie (yay for everyone!). The fish in the Baja is crispy perfection topped with tangy crema sauce and the veggie consists of perfectly grilled zucchini and red peppers tied together with guac and a kicking spicy sauce.

Tacos are the perfect light meal, filling but doesn't make you want to go back in time to when you could've made the choice between a food that would keep you going and a food that was sure to knock you out. While visiting, I recommend rounding out your meal with the guacamole and chips, for Dorado does what so many find hard to do: make an excellent guac.

Handmade & inexpensive gifting options

Every year I'm less into the holiday season. The magic and wonder of possibility felt in childhood is gone; the emptiness left by people who used to be in your life  and the pressure to be so damn happy often weigh too heavily.

I don't care too much what I do around the holidays and I'm not a fan of holiday music. I usually do give gifts, however, because I like picking out things I think my friends and family would like. It's even more fun when I decide I'm going to handcraft them. In the past, I've made everything from home-made puzzles to personalized calendars to handbags made out of posterboard and magazine cutouts. With so much crafting in my past, I've run out of ideas. I must admit that I've stopped brainstorming.

This doesn't mean that I've given up completely, forever. For one, I really like the craft ideas Ruche (one of my fave clothing sites) came up with this year. I also recommend the Brooklyn Based article on Dollar Store Diamonds. As a refined connoisseur of dollar store finds since scouting the DMV area with my best friend in our high school days, I really appreciate their tips on finding inexpensive and quirky gifts that'll surely make your friends crack a smile. Scoutmob's Nifty Gifty Indie Guide also provides some nice inspiration for gifts under $50. Even if you don't want to/can't shell out that much, the pictures may spark your creative juices.

Being vegetarian on a budget, Part 1

Now that I'm living in New York where the cost of living is higher, I'm wondering how someone with no/low income can stick to the healthy vegan/vegetarian lifestyle (read: not just consuming bags of cookies to stay full). I'd like to save my pennies until I find a job up here, but I also want to try the numerous options of vegan/vegetarian fast and slow food New York has to offer. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to check out all the vegan/vegetarian hot spots in Brooklyn and NYC and see how well I do in replicating the tastiest of them in my own kitchen. (More to come on this later). But until I have my own kitchen, I’m going to relive the positive vegan experiences I’ve had thus far in my first three weeks of living here.

Drool Memory #1
I made a risky decision to come up to New York with no job and no apartment—but I figured it'd be easier to secure the two once up here. So for my first week here, I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn Heights. Before coming up, I had read about Vegetarian Ginger and made excited preparations to visit even before I knew how I was going to transport my stuff from D.C.

Stopping in one evening for dinner with the friend I was staying with, I was not disappointed. I ordered the Pineapple Soy Protein with brown rice. I’m not usually a fan of brown rice but it was cooked in a manner where the deliciousness overpowered the “nutritious” (read: what I normally find dry) taste. The pineapple (and mango) soy protein portion was pretty tasty—a nice combination of fruity and salty. The prices weren’t bad either. About $10-12 for a good portion-size entrée.

The presentation of my dish was lovely. I certainly did not expect it to actually come out in a half-pineapple casing.

While I enjoyed the experience of eating out of a pineapple, I found this dish a little too fancy for the everyday fake-meat craving. What made me go back for seconds was actually my friend’s dish—the General Tso’s Soy Protein. After tasting just one of her “medallions” of soy chick’n, I went back the next night to get my own. The next time I’m in the area, I fully intend to visit again and check out the rest of the menu—that is if I can resist the urge to go back for more General Tso’s…