restaurants Archives - My Inner Shakti

End-of-the-year-itis (noun): an affliction that affects people as the year comes to an end; characterized by laziness, a lack of motivation, and a dismissive attitude.

I’ve had it for a while now. Totally being dramatic, but I feel like I’ve let loose (too loose) with a bunch of different things since the beginning of October. And that’s not like me. If anything, I gain motivation as the new year approaches.

Well, I don’t know what did it, but I got my MOJO back this weekend. Woo! Let me tell you all about it…

FRIDAY

Earlier in the week, I asked Vishnu if he wanted to try The Ciderpress Café. What I left out was the fact that this restaurant is 100% raw and vegan. I figured that wasn’t super important information!

And luckily it wasn’t because we both loved the food and overall experience.

We started with cauliflower buffalo bites (raw cauliflower covered in a cashew buffalo sauce). The bites were tasty, but the star of the appetizer was the “ranch” sauce. It was light, creamy, and herby.

For my main entrée, I went with the Pad Thai. Apparently this is the most ordered dish on the menu. There were zucchini and kelp noodles, pineapple, cabbage, almonds, mixed veggies, and a spicy tamarind sauce. This was nothing like regular Pad Thai but it was delicious in a fresh, clean way. Vishnu decided to go with the Bella Burger. I am definitely going to order this next time. The bread made out of zucchini and flax, the eggplant bacon (YUM!), and the house mayo were ah-mazing. Such a unique sandwich!

And we couldn’t leave with trying one of the fabulous raw desserts! After consulting with our waitress, we decided to go with the coffee fudge torte. In my opinion, this was the star of the meal. Rich, creamy, chocolaty, with a coffee kick. I will be back!

SATURDAY

Saturday morning started with a four mile run. The only reason I was able to go that far was because the weather was perfect – overcast and slightly breezy. LOVE!

A few hours later, Vishnu and I headed to The Saturday Morning Market. The plan was to photograph the market/stalls/food and then eat lunch. Guess what…we only got to the lunch part because it was SO HOT (the perfect weather disappeared). I was literally drenched in sweat from head to toe. Gross. On the flip side, the food we tried was awesome. Between the two of us, we tried an Italian sausage (Vishnu), a vegan veggie burger (me), coconut chocolate chip macaroons, a strawberry pineapple smoothie, an spinach/artichoke/heart of palm empanada, and fresh OJ.

We planned to walk around a bit afterwards, but neither of us could take the heat so we came back home. Vishnu prepped for his new rotation, and I organized my drawers and closet. It’s crazy how productive and good decluttering makes you feels.

And then we headed to the theater to see Spectre. My overall thoughts (and keep in mind I’m not a Bond fanatic) – it was good but not great. Casino Royale and Skyfall were much better. The action scenes were enjoyable, but the overall storyline felt like it dragged on a bit. Still a fun experience!

SUNDAY

Sunday was ultra productive. I work up at 5:30 to see Vishnu off to work. I then worked out (strength training + 30 minute incline walk), ate breakfast, cleaned, started the laundry process, and showered all before the time I would have normally woken up!

I also made and photographed muffins and granola (recipes to come soon!).

By the end of the day, I also filed a bunch of random documents, finished this blog post, did a little more blog work, did a little work work, planned my workouts for the week, and made a new-to-us Indian dinner. Go me!

I’m hoping this productivity streak lasts through the end of the year. Here’s to seven weeks and counting until 2016!

Did you have a productive weekend? Did you go see the new Bond movie? Thoughts?

As I mentioned in my post on Thursday, Vishnu and I spent a portion of the weekend in St. Petersburg. The purpose of our trip was to find an apartment and guess what…WE DID! I was honestly a little nervous that nothing would be available for when we needed to move, but it worked out pretty nicely. We were able to stay within our budget, and our new place is in a super cute neighborhood full of restaurants, shops, parks, etc.

Now that we have a place and a move-in date the real work and planning begins… But I’ll save all that for another post.

Gorgeous Florida sunset!

We didn’t just apartment hunt while in St. Petersburg. We also ate some really good food.

On Friday, we went to a place called Meze 119 for lunch. It’s a vegetarian (with some vegan options) Greek restaurant. The Yelp reviews I read were all pretty positive, so I knew we were in for a treat.

We got the basil pine nut hummus and zaatar bread to start. In my opinion, the hummus could have been a little more flavorful. It was all a little too subtle for my liking. The creamy texture was spot on though. The zaatar bread was perfectly toasted, and the spices sprinkled on top added a lot of rich flavor.

I also ordered the Cyprus BLT and loved the panko-crusted tomatoes, the olive tapenade, and the tempeh bacon. Definitely something I’d order again.

Vishnu ordered the Shawarma and liked it a lot. While he loves his meat, vegetarian chicken is something he seems to be able to get on board with. I had a bite of his sandwich and really liked how saucy it was. Tons of curry flavor too. We ordered the garlic potatoes with his sandwich and am so glad we did. They weren’t super crispy, but the roasted garlic bits on top were spicy and added so much flavor. I heard the table next to ours ask for hot sauce, so I followed suit. You guys. I wish they sold this stuff by the bottle. The sauce had a spicy smoky vinegary tang. So good!

Later that night, we went to The Refinery for dinner. All credit goes to Vishnu for finding this place and making a reservation. He was a little nervous that I wouldn’t like it because there weren’t too many vegetarian options, but we both agreed that his was one of the most creative meals we’ve ever had. The entire menu is made up of eclectic dishes that combine a number of very different/unique ingredients (read on for more detailed descriptions) that at first glance don’t seem like they would go together. But of course, everything was absolutely delicious. And the best part is that the menu changes every few days based on what the local farms can provide, so your experience will likely be completely different every time you visit.

We started with the Eggplant Blini which was essentially an eggplant puree pancake with tiny tomatoes, cucumber, radish, ricotta, and orange. The pancake itself had a bit of Mediterrean flavor which all the other ingredients added to beautifully. I’m going to try to recreate this at home!

For my entree, I ordered the Potato, Leek, and Yellow Squash Casserole. While this combination doesn’t sound unusual at all, the outside ingredients were plum and truffle honey. I was shocked by how well everything came together! The casserole was rich and creamy, the vegetables were tender, and the plum/honey combo added a subtle sweetness.

For his entree, Vishnu ordered the Butter Burger. Talk about crazy combinations – this burger came with all different kinds of butters, including apple-raisin butter, peanut butter, tomato butter, etc. Our waitress highly recommended it, and Vishnu said that he could totally see why it was so popular. As with all the other dishes, non of the flavors competed with each other. The different components added to the overall taste in their own subtle way.

Going into this meal, I told Vishnu that I didn’t want dessert. The two options on the menu didn’t sound all that appealing to me. Well, that all changed when our waitress (who was amazing!) took it upon herself to describe each one in detail. I obviously and rather quickly changed my mind on the whole no dessert thing! The best way to describe what we got is to think of a pie with a gooey brownie filling, a ginger shortbread crust, and lime whipped cream. Sounds insanely weird but it totally worked! The chocolate filling was dark and rich, the ginger crust was subtly spicy, and the lime whipped cream added a pop of citrus. I really really really hope that this dessert is on the menu the next time we eat here.