{"id":5971,"date":"2015-01-15T11:18:49","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T11:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/?p=5971"},"modified":"2017-03-23T01:42:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T01:42:12","slug":"2014-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/15\/2014-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 Recap \/ Top 10 Highlights of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/10865141_379886358838261_239234355_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-6058 alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/10865141_379886358838261_239234355_n.jpg\" alt=\"Kale Salad &amp; Spinach Smoothie\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My final lunch of 2014 was the fabulous kale salad from <a title=\"Blossom on Carmine, West Village\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blossomnyc.com\" target=\"_blank\">Blossom<\/a>, plus a spinach smoothie that I blended up at home. The pomegranate seeds add a wonderful bright flavor, and that creamy avocado ginger dressing is to die for. I&#8217;m glad I had a healthy, green lunch before ringing in the new year with vegan burgers and sparkling wine!<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, it&#8217;s time for my highlights of the year&#8230; I know I&#8217;m a little late, but better late than never! Here are some memorable moments of 2014:<\/p>\n<p>1\/ This year was all about &#8220;new age&#8221; ramen. Classic ramen flavors with a twist. <a title=\"Mokbar in Chelsea Market, Chelsea\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/30\/mokbar-in-chelsea-market-chelsea\/\">Mok Bar<\/a>, <a title=\"Ivan Ramen, Lower East Side\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/12\/30\/ivan-ramen-lower-east-side\/\">Ivan Ramen<\/a>, and <a title=\"Union Republic, Jersey City\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/15\/union-republic-jersey-city\/\">Union Republic<\/a> were my favorites of 2014. Also, the vegetarian options at Ivan and UR are vegan without the egg!<\/p>\n<p>2\/ We got a Vitamix! Well, it was a thank you gift from some friends for helping out with their wedding. Our old blender had just said bye bye, and the timing couldn&#8217;t have been better. Smoothies and blended soups galore. The Vitamix is *life changing*!<\/p>\n<p>3\/ I&#8217;ve enjoyed some amazing dinners with friends, but <a title=\"Boulud Sud, Upper West Side\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/12\/05\/boulud-sud-upper-west-side\/\">Boulud Sud<\/a> stands out as the most noteworthy upscale dining experience. Beautiful dishes, refined Mediterranean flavors.<\/p>\n<p>4\/ We visited <a title=\"A Wedding at Ashton Gardens, Dallas\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/17\/a-wedding-at-ashton-gardens-dallas\/\">Dallas<\/a>, <a title=\"A Wedding at the Children\u2019s Museum, Pittsburgh\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/11\/a-wedding-at-the-childrens-museum-pittsburgh\/\">Pittsburgh<\/a>, and DC for weddings. I haven&#8217;t shared any of my photos from the DC trip because a lot of them are on John&#8217;s phone. Someday!<\/p>\n<p>5\/ I met up with the lovely <a title=\"Mitzee Mee\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mitziemeeblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Mitzee Mee<\/a> at Delicatesen for delicious mac &amp; cheese. We talked about food and blogging, of course! This year, I also met up with the folks over at <a title=\"Telepan Local, Tribeca\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/25\/telepan-local-tribeca\/\">Tabelog<\/a> and attended on a Tabelog event at <a title=\"Tabelog Event at Sk\u00e1l, Lower East Side\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/05\/02\/tabelog-event-skal\/\">Skal<\/a>. They have another event coming up next week, but it, unfortunately, doesn&#8217;t work out with my schedule.<\/p>\n<p>6\/ In 2013, I stopped eating land animals. In 2014, I stopped eating sea creatures as well. Being vegetarian is easy peasy. This March, I&#8217;m going fully vegan for an entire month!<\/p>\n<p>7\/ I finally had a chance to brunch in the stunning garden at <a title=\"Pure Food &amp; Wine, Union Square\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/21\/pure-food-wine-union-square-2\/\">Pure Food &amp; Wine<\/a>. I love that restaurant, and there really is no other place like it. It&#8217;s very unfortunate that <a title=\"Pure Food &amp; Wine\" href=\"http:\/\/gothamist.com\/2015\/01\/13\/pure_food_and_wine_walkout.php\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> and <a title=\"Pure Food &amp; Wine\" href=\"http:\/\/ny.eater.com\/2015\/1\/13\/7539521\/pure-food-wine-is-dark-tonight-as-staff-walks-out-over-unpaid-wages\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> just happened days ago. Who knows what is going on there?!<\/p>\n<p>8\/ <a title=\"Hedwig and the Angry Inch\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/12\/24\/hedwig-and-the-angry-inch\/\"><em>Hedwig &amp; The Angry Inch<\/em>.<\/a> Michael C. Hall. Need I say more?<\/p>\n<p>9\/ I got back into <a title=\"Vegan Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/25\/vegan-lemon-blueberry-layer-cake\/\">baking<\/a> in 2014! Layer cakes seem to be my thing lately, and I always make them vegan. Perhaps my next layer cake should be for Valentine&#8217;s Day!<\/p>\n<p>10\/ We had friends over a <a title=\"Vegetarian Holiday Brunch\" href=\"https:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2014\/11\/26\/vegetarian-holiday-brunch\/\">vegetarian holiday brunch<\/a>. Crostini, cranberry sauce, biscuits, deviled eggs, chocolate cake, and more! Lots of full bellies that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My final lunch of 2014 was the fabulous kale salad from Blossom, plus a spinach smoothie that I blended up at home. The pomegranate seeds add a wonderful bright flavor, and that creamy avocado ginger dressing is to die for. I&#8217;m glad I had a healthy, green lunch before ringing in the new year with vegan burgers and sparkling wine! Anyway, it&#8217;s time for my highlights of the year&#8230; I know I&#8217;m a little late, but better late than never! Here are some memorable moments of 2014: 1\/ This year was all about &#8220;new age&#8221; ramen. Classic ramen flavors with a twist. Mok Bar, Ivan Ramen, and Union Republic were my favorites of 2014. Also, the vegetarian options at Ivan and UR are vegan without the egg! 2\/ We got a Vitamix! Well, it was a thank you gift from some friends for helping out with their wedding. Our old blender had just said bye bye, and the timing couldn&#8217;t have been better. Smoothies and blended soups galore. The Vitamix is *life changing*! 3\/ I&#8217;ve enjoyed some amazing dinners with friends, but Boulud Sud stands out as the most noteworthy upscale dining experience. Beautiful dishes, refined Mediterranean flavors. 4\/ We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3355],"tags":[26,154,334,852,867,1000,1092,1106,1363,1384,1488,1601,1715,1815,1867,1968,2188,2286,2310,2583,2827,3013,3045,3069,3075,3132],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}