Fat Free in New York 6 -- QUOTIDIEN yes MUNDANE no

There is a branch of  Le Pain Quotidien situated on the corner of 7th Ave with Central Park. It's got loads of rustic ambience and some lovely food but most of all Artisan breads. We went in for a coffee (well I had tea -- and they had a good choice of teas) :) and went back there after our carriage ride for lunch because the menu looked enticing.

Now the menu didn't exactly fit my perameters for a low fat lunch and the waitress didn't offer any suggestions -- BUT I opted for one of their vegan salads and asked them to bring the dressing on the side and they did that. Glad I didn't have that dressing. It was a lot of oil and seemingly mixed with butter! Anyway the salad was delicious and didn't need the dressing and the bread was seriously gorgeous.

We had one of their almond meringues between us as dessert. It was a huge thing and no cream :) so I was able to eat that fine.

Can't say it's the place to go for Fat free food but I managed and yes -- I would go back. I wouldn't have many choices but with meringues like that who needs 'em...

I was inspired by that to make a meringue cake last weekend when we had guests. I will tell you about that one in the next blog.

But in the meantime I found this wonderful FAT FREE FRUIT CAKE to buy in The Corbridge Larder, Morpeth the other day. I have baked a small cake for Christmas but I wonder whether mine will be as scrumptiously scrumptious as this... Check it out. For now I wish you a

Fat Free in New York 5 -- AU BON PAIN

Au Bon Pain is a chain BUT it's a solid gold chain if you need any kind of nutritional restrictions. They do salads to die for. Add your own dressing -- or not. Really good soups, pastas, sandwiches... All importantly there is information on everything. Nut Free, Gluten free, Low Cholesterol, Suitable for Diabetics -- you name it.

We ate at Au Bon Pain in the INTREPID -- I had a lovely chickpea mediteranean salad and Earl Grey there was so much choice there. Noel had a sandwich and of course a BIG apple.

My advice is if you are looking for a fat free or something-else-free lunch -- look for Au Bon Pain. Of course there's no such thing as a completely FREE lunch but it's good to be able to find what you need -- Stress Free.

On mange bien

Au Bon Pain

Fat-Free in New York 4

 The Bombay Palace 30W 52nd St New York is a find. Lovely decor. Good bar. Polite efficient service. Gorgeous food and relatively well priced for NYC, this was our choice for pre-opera eats. That meant we were a bit strapped for time since this place doesn't open 'til 5:30 but we got a taxi right outside and got to The Lincoln Centre on time.
We both had their delicious mulligatawny. I had chicken tikka and salad with tarka daal and chapatti. Noel had a korma.

We walked there from the hotel. It was farther than we thought... But 52nd st gets pretty gridlocked from about 4pm onwards so we were moving faster than the traffic! We had a drink at the bar while we waited for our table. We found out that the waiter who served us was from Sylhet :) So we got him to sign a takeout menu to bring back to The Tandoor Mahal as a postcard from New York. 

Next time we are going back to this lovely restaurant for a more leisurely meal! You can always trust Sylhet chefs to feed you well. 

The Bombay Palace -- a little bit of home from home