August 26, 2018 - Bronx Night Market Recap and a GREAT night out with Sam Smith

Elisa's Daily Scoop
Covering Long Island & NYC Boroughs 
CURRENTLY IN:  GARDEN CITY, NY
​NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 119 DAYS

Re-Cap of Bronx Night Market
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Hey there and Happy Sunday!

Last day of the weekend and I'm very psyched to relax and work on some trip planning today!

​I'm going to give you more details tomorrow about the upcoming travel plans, but for now, let me get into a recap of last night's visit to the Bronx Night Market.

While Tanya was out and about listening to Sam Smith, her dear cuz was stuffing her face with all kinds of amazing yummy goodness at Fordham Plaza!

Always fun to get a  little video overview before I get into the details and specifics!! So, here goes!
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LIVE FROM THE BRONX NIGHT MARKET:

We made excellent time driving from Long Island to Fordham Plaza in the Bronx and as I had wanted, we got there a little before 4pm when the event began.

The parking is extremely convenient, directly adjacent to the Plaza, which is also across from Fordham University.

The Bronx Night Market (c) travelincousins.com

The Night Market itself is VERY manageable, with a variety of vendors featuring ethnic food, several vegan options, entrees, quick bites and desserts.

I would have to say, it's the perfect size for hitting every vendor, but it really comes down to how much your belly will allow you to eat!!

The organizers of the event - selling very cool t-shirts (c) travelincousins.com

By 4:30, it is starting to fill up with visitors (c) travelincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

"THIS IS The Bronx Night Market!" (c) travelincousins.om

Our first purchase of the evening - yummy potato on a stick for $5 - with numerous flavoring options. Gianna and I chose Barbeque and it was sooo yummy! (c) travelincousins.com

Proud proprietors (c) traveincousins.com

(c) travelincousins.com

Next stop - a chicken taco on a fresh corn soft tortilla - super fresh and yummy (c) travelincousins.com

It was 2 for $7, so Gianna and I split the order. Your choice of toppings and sauces, we selected pico de gallo and cilantro (c) travelincousins.com

I was so looking forward to visiting and sampling the food at the Bronx-based vegan eatery, Next Stop Vegan, but with our hunger level, the lines never seemed to let up. (c) travelincousins.com

I had made my list of vendors I knew I wanted to visit and contacted beforehand. One of these was Next Stop Vegan.  

Unfortunately, we never made contact and folks,  this vegan eatery pop up stand was undoubtedly the most packed of all the booths.  

The lines were consistently huge from the time we arrived until we left.

The good news is they have a storefront restaurant, which many of the vendors do not have.  The bad news is, we never got to sample their food, for which I've read a great deal about. 

​Between our group's hunger level, the sun beaming down on us on line and wanting to experience the entire market, we opted not to wait on line (which at one point, while we were on it, wasn't even moving), and instead, plan a visit to Next Stop Vegan on another day.

Our girls checking out the market (c) travelincousins.com

Haitian Homecooked Meals featured rice and beans and mac & Cheese (c) travelincousins.com

I had the pleasure to chat with Martine Dardignac at Taste Buds Required, to hear about her homemade Haitian Mac N Cheese recipe, which was not vegan, but seriously folks, it was AMAZING.  

Although it was rich and cheesy, it was, at the same time light. Not sure how she managed to accomplish this, but it was wonderful!! And the portion was a nice, healthy size at $7.00.

Dolce Brooklyn and their sweet, refreshing sorbets (c) travelincousins.com

I was thrilled to see just how many vegan offerings there were!  As you know, I haven't converted to full-on vegan, but I do eat vegan whenever I can and now, Gianna has given up dairy, so I'm cooking and eating out, increasingly vegan.

Aside from the humane reasons, eating vegan is much more healthy, for the most part, if one eats a balanced diet.

But, I digress.  We stopped at Dolce Brooklyn for some vegan sorbet - Featured below, I opted for blood orange which was superb!!! And Gianna chose Cucumber Mint Lemon, which was light, refreshing and uniquely yummy. Each cup was $5.

Vegan Sorbet - Blood Orange on left, Cucumber Mint Lemon on right (c) travelincousins.com

Enjoying their sweet sorbets (c) travelincousins.com

We found some shelter from the hot shining sun and sat for a while behind the food booths to enjoy our sorbet.  

Next stop, Freshly Made.  Gianna asked me if I was interested in doing a ginger shot and I promptly, and immediately responded NO.  lol
But, Bella decided she would try one. At $3 each, these girls decided to give it a "shot" (lol)

​And so they did - check out their reactions in the video below


GIANNA AND BELLA DOING A GINGER SHOT 
(Very entertaining to watch!)

A nice slice of watermelon ($1) to wash down the Ginger, Gianna poses with the owners of Freshly Made.

Gianna with her watermelon after doing a ginger shot (c) travelincousins.com

The music was fab as was one of the singers! (c) travelincousins.com

I met up with Gary Axelbank from ThisIsTheBronx.info, for which, I write a weekly column (c) travelincousins.com

I was thrilled to meet up with Gary Axelbank from ThisIsTheBronx.info, for which I write a column about the Bronx, weekly.  

We caught up and then he went on his way and I went on mine to continue the eating fest!

Did I mention that the Bronx Night Market has more than just food??

Yup - there are also vendors offering art, t-shirts, merchandise and even jewelry!

Playful Event is a hand made jewelry line, designed and owned by Nan Siegmund (c) travelincousins.com

Using wire, she creates whimsical, "wearable art" in the form of earrings, bracelets and necklaces, along with other mediums like crystals and a variety of beads, including decoupage beads (c) travelicousins.om

Our last and final stop was The Uptown Vegan. I had the pleasure of speaking with owner and pastry chef, Drea Smith briefly, and what an entrepreneur!! (Not to mention an amazing chef!!!) 

We decided to have one cupcake on-site and take four to go, as well as two cookies, to enjoy later. (a total of $21)

Gianna decided on the Sweet Potato Cupcake, while I went with the Chocolate.

​WOW!!! These vegan dessert items are too good to describe, but I will attempt it.

My chocolate cupcake from The Uptown Vegan (c) travelincousins.com

Super, super moist and light, I could have ingested four of them without blinking an eye.  I controlled my self however.  We took home an assortment including: Pineapple, Confetti, S'mores and Red Velvet

Our four take home assortment of cupcakes (c) travelcousins.com

Ending the evening with a little pose (c) travelicousins.com

We stayed for close to two hours and decided to head home.  You really need a few visits to try everything and with that said,  I'm pretty sure we'll be heading back there on the next Bronx Market on September 29th.

Parking for our duration totaled $5, so for a grand total of $59 ($54 for food), it was an amazing night out!!

As for today, we will be making our way to the gym to work off all of our Saturday night eating!!

However, that will be after our Sunday pasta meal!!

Wishing you a happy Sunday!!
-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop 
Covering the West Coast & the World
​CURRENTLY IN: SO CAL 
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 5 DAYS

A Great Night Out with Sam Smith

Well guys, it's pitch black outside right now and we are already well on our way towards lovely San Diego. 

We may have only gotten home a mere few hours ago, but that is just how this weekend was planned and I like to keep everything on schedule working like a well oiled machine.

We are heading to down south this morning to cycle in the annual San Diego event Bike the Bay.
While we usually stay over, that was just not in the cards this time around being that we had a concert to go to last night.

Yes I know and fully realize that most people would choose one and not both events but most people are not me.

In fact yesterday was not only about going to see Sam Smith - which the kids have noted as being one of the best if not the BEST concert that they've ever been too...and they've been to A LOT of concerts - but it was also the IPC's annual Board Workshop.

And being Board President I had a full and rather long list of agenda items for us to work through.

Dave is also on the IPC Board and with all of the work that was ahead of us, we knew that it would be a good idea to have a nice and energy packed breakfast.

We chose Jamba Juice to fill this need and ordered Cosette an Acai Bowl, Dave tried out the NEW Almond Butter Bowl and I decided to try something new as well and went with the Pistachio Smoothie that was chock with Kale and other yummy goodness. Bu that wasn't all, their Steel Cut Oats were calling my name and I ended up ordering a small smoothie as well as an oatmeal!

Dave's Almond Butter Bowl (c)traveiincousins.com

I've got an oatmeal, a smoothie and an acai bowl ready to be scarfed up( c)traveiincousins.com

Next up was heading to Tustin and to the 5.5h meeting. It was a long one, but it was also quite productive. Which repeat after me "is exactly how I like it".

And then a mere coincidence occured while I was at the meeting. I received a text message from my friend Jodie. She wanted to know if I wanted to go to the Sam Smith concert with her!

Well being that going to the concert was already part of the plans, I had let her know that we already had tickets. It was then her plan to try and find tickets within the same section and meet us over there.

After the meeting was adjourned it was time to head home and get ready for our night out with Sam Smith.

Dinner was first and since I had been on the mood for a Jackfruit salad, we went to the Loving Hut and guess what I ordered...

Smiling faces and ready for a great night (c)traveiincousins.com

Say cheese! (c)traveiincousins.com

Spring rolls that I took a bite of a bit to soon (c)traveiincousins.com

Dinner was just what I was in the mood for and we were all. Okay maybe all except Dave, eager to get over to the Honda Center and into our seats.

We met up with Jodie on the way in and then all headed inside and to our seats.

The show promptly started at 9pm and we all had a most wonderful time and even shed a few tears.

But once the concert was over, it was time to head home, load up the bikes and try to catch some zzz's.

And now as we enter the San Diego county line and the sun has still yet to make an appearance, I'm going to sign off and wish you a very Happy Sunday!

Time to pedal on,
-Travelin' Tanya