We are all aflutter here at One Lucky Duck about our pending expansion to Brooklyn! We’ve just signed a lease for a 4,000 square foot space in the former Pfizer building on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn where we’ll be joining some of New York’s best up-and-coming artisanal food brands. This facility will be the new home for the production of all One Lucky Duck snacks, ingredients and other items previously crowding the back kitchen at Pure Food and Wine (where all our snacks are currently made).

The new space will also allow us to add all new raw and vegan snacks to our existing line, while freeing up Pure Food and Wine’s kitchen to be able to accommodate larger volumes, additional catering, and our Not-Just-Juice cleanses. Finally, the e-commerce wing of One Lucky Duck will move its order fulfillment from its current Flatiron location to the Pfizer building space, giving us added room for more of the best organic and eco-happy beauty, home, and health products that we ship worldwide. It’s a quadruple win!

Here’s where you come in….

We’re asking you, our best customers, to tell us what YOU want to see us make! Answer one or all of these questions and email it to us at info@oneluckyduck.com and mention Brooklyn, or better yet tweet about it and be sure to tag @oneluckyduck and mention #brooklyn.

For everyone who emails us, tweets at us, or posts on our facebook wall with a suggestion, we’ll respond to you in a direct message on facebook or twitter, or respond to your email and give you a code for 15% off of anything on www.oneluckyduck.com. The code will be good until the end of April! Get quacking, we want to hear you!

Did we used to carry something that we discontinued that you just haven’t been able to stop thinking about?

Have you tried something at Pure Food and Wine/One Lucky Duck Juice & Takeaway that you wish we would ship online?

What new cookie/snack do you want us to make?

Is there a traditional treat or snack that you think would be amazing in a raw version?

ALSO………

All Our Brooklyn-Based Vendors are ON SALE!

We want to show some LOVE to the borough we will soon call home! Stay tuned for more brands from Brooklyn and enjoy our current Brooklyn brands for less!

Serves 8 to 10

Equipment:

Noodler (our newest cool gadget!)
Japanese mandoline

For the Sesame Dressing:
1 cup sesame tahini
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup mellow red miso
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons filtered water
1/4 cup black sesame seeds

In a large bowl, whisk together the tahini, sesame oil, lemon juice, miso, and 1/2 cup of the water.
Add the remaining water a bit at a time and continue whisking until smooth.
Stir in the sesame seeds and set aside.

Noodler Tool

For the Vegetables

3 medium zucchini, made into noodles using looped end of the noodler tool
4 cups daikon radish, julienned on a mandoline
2 red bell peppers, cored and julienned
3 medium carrots, peeled and julienned on a mandoline
6 baby bok choy, leaves thinly sliced on a bias
3 scallions, whites and about 1 inch of green, thinly sliced
1 big handful cilantro leaves

Sea salt
In a large bowl, toss all the prepared vegetables and the sesame dressing until evenly coated.
Season to taste with sea salt.

Spring is the perfect time to shed whatever kind of weight (mental or physical) you’ve taken on during the winter. Cleansing can reset your body and mind for warm weather and sun, help release residual toxins, and reduce bloating and puffiness which helps you look your best when the long sleeves and pants come off. That being said, cleansing can mean a million different things for different people. Check out some suggestions we’ve compiled for different levels of cleansing. If you’re in New York, try our Not-Just-Juice Cleanse. It’s the perfect cleanse for busy New Yorkers who want to do the raw-vegan thing as a cleanse but might not have the time to do it at home. See below for more details:

Cleansing: It’s Not A Diet!

No matter what you aren’t putting into your body during a cleanse, the one thing you should not feel during the process is deprived and starving. We know, isn’t that the point? It isn’t!! So often, people fail at intense cleanses because they’re starving and can’t take it anymore. The key is in the timing. You shouldn’t be cleansing for weightloss. Ever. It may be a pleasant side effect, but it won’t work to permanently change your weight, so don’t even bother! Use a cleanse to re-train your body to crave healthy foods and healthy habits that will eventually aid in weight loss when you go back to your normal routine. Don’t do a cleanse after coming off of a marathon, a strict diet, or any other extreme situation. (Don’t start a cleanse the day after a huge party where you over-indulged either. While you might feel like you need to cleanse ASAP, doing so will only shock your system). You should know when your body needs a cleanse. When you start feeling run down, like you can’t wake up in the morning, that you’re unable to concentrate – this may mean you need to reboot. Cleansing is also a great way to kick bad habits like too much coffee, alcohol, sugar, wheat, or meat.

So, What to Do?

What kind of cleanse you do depends on your current diet and how active you plan to be during your cleanse. If you are a Standard American Diet-eater you might just want to cut out meat, dairy, wheat and sugar and see how that goes for a while. Going from the SAD diet directly to more than a day or two long juice cleanse, or a strict raw-food cleanse might shock your system. You’ll also probably be starving because you haven’t given your body a chance to readjust to not having certain substances. Be easy on yourself and you’ll be less likely to give up. Just make sure you are increasing your veggie intake, and try to incorporate fresh, organic (preferably green!) juices. Drink lots of water!

If you are already a fairly healthy eater, a vegetarian or a vegan, we’d recommend doing a raw foods cleanse for a few days, incorporating lots of fresh organic green juices. In lieu of a juice fast, you could try the raw-vegan route, with the last day or two (or three or four!) drinking only herbal tea, green juice and tons of water.

So, need some food ideas for your Pre-Summer Cleanse?

If you’re in NYC, let us take care of it for you! We have two cleanses to choose from, Shine and Glow, for different levels of calorie needs. Both cleanses provide three meals a day, two organic cold-pressed bottled green juices and even snacks. Just call 212-982-1231 to reserve, or email us at info@oneluckyduck.com. View pricing and menu options here.

If you can’t commit to three meals a day from us, why not stop by either One Lucky Duck location (Chelsea Market or Gramercy Park) and create your own cleanse? We have convenient bottled cold-pressed juices if you are going the liquid route, and a whole menu full of fresh juices and shakes to choose from, not to mention, all the raw food your little healthy bodies and souls desire. View our takeaway menu here. Or, as part of your cleanse, come dine in the garden at Pure Food and Wine.

Not in NYC?

Check out our holiday posting from a while back for Tracy Anderson’s (trainer to the stars) fabulous website, where we developed a four-day cleanse for at-home preparation. You can view the plan and recipes from Tracy’s site here.

posted by Karen

We’re basking in the warm weather this week here in New York City, just in time for Easter!

Leon, Sarma’s Easter Pup says, “Skip the sugary, milky chocolate this year, and fill your baskets with our Chocolate Easter Bunnies!” Our bunnies are solid dark chocolate (raw, organic and vegan, of course!) and wrapped in fancy gold paper. Available online and in our One Lucky Duck Juice & Takeaways. As always handmade, with love.

And for something non-chocolate, try our Pastel Colored Macaroons. Our blonde macaroons have been Easter-fied using awesome coloring agents like blueberries, turmeric, and beets! They look adorable and are perfect for Passover or an Easter treat. They come with eight macaroons in a bag, tied with a bow!

In the next few days, we’ll also have the much-loved Cream Filled Eggs (á la Cadbury) for sale at our Gramercy location only! These eggs are much too fragile to ship, so you’ll have to come visit us to get them. They’re worth it, we promise!

If you’re in New York, Pure Food and Wine will be open for Easter Brunch, with a few seasonal specials for the occasion. If this weather holds up, the garden will be open for seating as well. Spring is finally here!

Solid Chocolate Easter Bunnies

Pastel Colored Macaroons

Joey Repice, Beverage Director of Pure Food and Wine

Pure Food and Wine is most well-known for artfully created raw vegan dishes. But plenty of folks seek us out solely for the thoughtfully curated wine list sometimes fully unaware of the type of cuisine we serve. We decided it was time to focus on the second half of our restaurant’s name and flex our wine muscles a bit!

Karen McDermott, Duck office veteran, was joined by Nicky Quinn, Duck office rookie, to take on the daunting task of sitting at the bar at Pure Food and Wine with Joey Repice, our beverage director, tasting some of his favorite wines and our newest cocktail – it’s hard work, but someone’s got to do it!

We picked four of his favorite wines to talk about – two reds and two whites that are currently on our list. Included is a note from Sarma about her fondness for Joey. Fun fact about Joey – he doesn’t drink! Go figure. Also, check out the cool event that Joey is involved in – Yoga Rave  a substance-free night of dancing on March 29th in NYC. Click that link to get 25% off the ticket price!

From Sarma: Everyone who comes to Pure Food and Wine knows Joey… he’s only been with us for more than 7 years! One of the greatest things a guest ever wrote on a comment card was, “The world would be a better place if there were more people like Joey in it.” I couldn’t agree more. He’s the best. And he puts his heart into the restaurant and in picking the best wines for us, and he’s damn good at it. On top of all that, he’s charming and cute and funny too!  I could go on and on, but there’s big love for Joey at Pure Food and Wine! (Also, if you want to party with him, check out his Yoga Rave, details here).

Red Wines: 

Rosso Tuscano, Argiano ‘Non Confunditur’
2009, Montalcino, Italy
$13/$49

Tasting Notes:
Soft and fruity red, with plum and raspberry. A blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 20% Syrah, and 20% Sangiovese.

Karen: What does ‘Non Confunditur’ in the wine title mean?

Joey: Well, literally it means, in Latin, “Not to be confused.” In this region in Italy, Tuscano, winemakers are doing lot of blends of different grape varietals, which is uncharacteristic of the region and not officially recognized by the DOC (Italy’s wine classification system). These blends – they’re calling them “Super Tuscans” – you’ll ask some Italians and they’ll tell you that a Super Tuscan is somebody from Tuscany who likes to work out, ha. They like to make fun of this newer concept of wine-making and say it’s a marketing ploy. Others will say there’s actually plenty of history behind the idea of a Super Tuscan – for instance they’ve been blending grapes in France for hundreds of years with great results. Either way, I love this wine – all the wines that I choose – they’re all like my little babies. I’ve been accused of making this Pure Food and Italian Wine because I do love Italian wines, and I’m Italian. My last boss, who I worked under for many years, he kind of schooled me and was really deep into Italian wines. He taught me that most of the great traditional Italian wine makers practice organic and natural wine-making and don’t make a big stink about it.

Nicky: Do they care about the certifications?

Some of them are moving in that direction. They realize from a marketing standpoint there’s a renaissance and they want to take advantage of that, but many already have the reputation, and maybe they think it’s “gauche” to get a certification, or just simply don’t need it. That’s why we don’t always have certified organic wines on the list –  for all intents and purposes, they are organic, they just may lack the certification.

Karen:  So, this specific wine, the Rossa Tuscano, is organic and vegan? How do you find that out? It doesn’t say anything on the bottle.

Joey: You can do some online research, but really, you’ve got to ask them outright.

Elios, Costers Del Priorat
2009, Priorat, Spain
$15/$57

Tasting Notes:
Medium bodied with hints of currant, strawberry and plum with a touch of stony soil.

Joey:  OK, cool, now this wine I’m excited about! It comes from Priorat, Spain, which is in Spain but right on the Portugal border. The winemaker is really really young – like 25 yrs old!  We literally just got it in – it’s not even on the wine list yet, so this is a serious sneak preview.

Nicky: How do you find these wines?

Joey: Well, I’m lucky because the restaurant is a magnet, people are soliciting us all the time and it’s my job to find the wines that most represent the restaurant. I look for hand harvested and low yield. Nothing that we have on our wine list is mass-produced.

Karen: Well now that you mentioned it – what is our wine philosophy?

Joey: Basically, what I really look for, is a winemaker that is totally in touch with his or her vineyard.  A winery that produces 100,000 cases per year is the highest output I’ll ever want to see. We have wines on our list where 250 cases are being made a year.  That is such a miniscule dot in the wine world –100,000 is even actually quite low, considering the wine makers that are out there.

Karen: Like Yellowtail? I wonder how many cases they make per year?

(Karen then looks up how many cases Yellowtail actually produces per year – 11 million!)

Nicky: Is it significant that the Elios’ winery is near the Portuguese border in terms of its influence on the flavors in the wine?

Joey: Yes, it’s very significant. Good wine is all about expression of the terroir – the land.  You can grow the same grapes all over the world and get as many different kinds of wine as there are places that the seed will grow. Soil has characteristics that influence the way the grapes taste – what used to grow there, what the weather was like that year, if there’s a volcano nearby – It all affects the grape, so much more so than people think. Wine is not really about grapes, it’s more about the land.

Karen: So what about the Portugal/Spain border is expressed in this wine?

What’s really great is that the Portuguese terroir hasn’t been over cultivated. The soil is still rich and the grapes don’t have to struggle too much. That makes a very fruity, balanced wine.

White Wines:

Gruner Vetliner, Leth, Steinagrund
2010, Wagram, Austria
$12/$45

Tasting Notes:
Mineral, grassy. Light and crisp.

Joey: Next up is the Leth, a Grüner Vetliner, one of my favorite wines.  What’s great about Grüner is that it lies directly between the regions that grow Pinot Grigio and Reisling. There is crispness, lightness and a distinct minerality, kind of like slate that’s particular to that region. It’s very food-friendly and FUN FACT: It pairs really well with asparagus – and asparagus is really hard to pair with!

Verdejo, Martinsancho
2010, Rueda, Spain
$12/$45  

Tasting Notes:
Balanced, aromatic, soft, full-bodied. Citrus notes.

Joey: This wine is from a really, really small winemaker – Martinsancho – an older guy who’s been making Verdejo like, forever.  He walks around saying things like “They all know I make the best Verdejo.” I’m not sure who “they” are, but he’s right about the Verdejo. Spanish wines have become more popular in the last ten years but the whites are still not as mainstream as the reds.  They’re also not as expensive, which is a nice little secret. A funny story about the winemaker: He actually walks around with a feather and pokes it into his barrel and tests the wine that way.

Rambutan Tea  – New Cocktail!

The rambutan is a Vietnamese tropical fruit of the same family as the lychee fruit. It has a lot of the same characteristics but a thicker skin and a somewhat milder taste. The rambutans are muddled in a high ball glass with some ice, and then  a small amount of  house made chamomile infused clove honey is added, then sake with a splash of lemonade on top. Yum!

Thanks so much to Joey and please support the event he is promoting, Art of Living’s Yoga Rave. It’s a night of substance free partying! Event details here, and 25% off the ticket price! http://yogaravenyc.eventbrite.com/?discount=Pure001

Avocado
Avocado Salad with Fennel, Dill and Mustard Greens in a Sweet Caper Vinaigrette

Garlic
Watercress Soup with Black Garlic Oil

Oysters & Asparagus
Cauliflower Risotto, King Oyster Mushrooms and Asparagus with Rosemary Cream Sauce

Almonds & Basil
Braised Hen of the Woods with Whipped Sunchoke, Black Kale and Basil Gremolata

Sadly we didn’t get photos of dessert, but they were just as incredible!
We hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day!

What’s sexier than chocolate? Chocolate Hearts! Buy them individually or in ribbon-tied bags of five. Raw chocolate has waaaaay more beneficial antioxidants than milk or dark chocolate and more substances like dopamine and serotonin that mimic the feelings we get when we’re in love. No wonder chocolate is so popular on Valentine’s Day.

Individual Heart: $3.00

Our pastry chefs have expertly blended these flavors to create a truffle that will definitely get your Valentine in the mood. Artisan cacao leaf box including five handmade truffles with aphrodisiac flavors:
Ginger Caramel Truffle, Passion Fruit Bon Bon, Banana Hazelnut Truffle, Pomegranate Cream Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Ganache with Cranberry

Handmade Chocolate Box $20.00 

Don’t forget our original treats that we sell year round, like the Chocolate Bar Gift Set, including Original, Mint, Buckwheat Crunch, Cherry and Mexican Cinnamon Bars. Each bar is indvidually wrapped and the set is wrapped in colorful pages pulled from fashion magazines, tied with a bow, of course.

Chocolate Bar Gift Set: $32.00

Avocado-Corn Guacamole

Recipe reprinted from Raw Food Real World, by Sarma Melngailis

6 ripe avocados, pitted

2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from 2 ears (or use thawed frozen corn or simply omit)

2 large handfuls of cilantro leaves, finely chopped

4 tablespoons lime juice

1 jalapeno pepper, finely minced

2 teaspoons sea salt

In a medium bowl, mash the avocados well with a fork. Add the corn, cilantro, lime juice, jalapeno, and salt and stir well to combine. If not using immediately, cover the surface of the guacamole with plastic wrap and refrigerate. This will only keep well for about a day or so.

Looking for a chip replacement? Try our Rosemary Quackers or our Cheese-y Quackers. Below is a raw hummus that’s great spread on either cracker and is really easy to make! Cut up some carrots, cucumbers and any other veggies you fancy to dip!

Cashew Hummus

Recipe reprinted from Raw Food Real World, by Sarma Melngailis

 4 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours or more

½ cup lemon juice

2 small garlic cloves

¼ cup tahini

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup filtered waterIn a food processor, add the nuts, lemon juice, garlic, tahini, and salt and process, adding water ¼ cup at a time until you get the smooth, fluffy consistency of hummus. You may need to add more water, or you may want to add olive oil for a richer hummus – just make sure it retains some stiffness and doesn’t become too runny!

Garnish with fresh parsley, lemon or smoked paprika!

More Quick Raw Fixes for Unhealthy Super Bowl Sunday Food:

From Nicky, Project Manager at One Lucky Duck corporate:

“Using a mandolin, thinly slice golden beets, so they’re sort of a cracker thickness. Place a dollop of nut cheese on top (get some here or at our One Lucky Duck Juice & Takeaway locations) and garnish with a sprig of mint or parsley. Very classy, and easy to pick up and eat!”

Spicy Cashews – Made from raw and organic cashews, organic maple syrup, organic spices, Himalayan salt –“These are a favorite of Tom Brady’s! If you’re not a Pats fan, don’t hold it against us!”

Justin’s worked for us for almost a year now, as our shipper and packer extraordinaire, and we really have no clue how we managed to get by before him. He has a way of organizing our cluttery office into neatly packed spaces (he must be good at Tetris) and packing 50 orders without even a sigh. Although we love him here, his true passion is printmaking – hence the awesome shirts we’re featuring that he designed and printed for us by hand in Brooklyn. Learn more about Justin below and get your Metal Duck shirt here.

FROM SARMA:
“Justin being an artist tends to doodle a lot, and sometimes (if you’re lucky) even makes cute drawings on order notes. One day I walked by his desk and something caught my eye. He’d drawn One Lucky Duck to look very much like the logo of a certain favorite band of mine. I freaked out (in a good way) and immediately I wanted it on shirts! So Justin refined the design and made these for us. I’m hoping we don’t get sued over it, but since I know for a fact this band often goes raw while on tour, and one of them is a regular restaurant guest, I think we’ll be okay.”

What’s your favorite part about working at One Lucky Duck?

“The people I work with!”

What was the most orders you’ve packed in a day? 

“I think the most orders I’ve packed in a day was probably around 50-60 orders.”

“I was in my second year studying painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn when I enrolled in a relief printmaking class as an elective. At the time, I had a particularly uptight, traditional oil painting professor whose class involved painting nudes and still lives. My relief printmaking class was a sharp contrast. My professor, Dennis McNett, rolled up to class on a skateboard, played Black Sabbath while we worked and gave us the freedom to create whatever image we wanted to as long as we learned the technique. That year, I participated in an event Dennis coordinated called “Big Damn Prints” in which the participants each carved an 8 ft. by 4 ft. woodblock and printed them with a steam roller! Needless to say I was sold on printmaking after watching 30 kids all working together and a huge steam roller printing 8 foot wood blocks. So from then on I focused all my energy on printmaking.”

Do you have a favorite print that you’ve created?

“The prints that I feel the most connected to are the portraits I’ve made of my friends and family.”

Favorites:

Bubble wrap or packing peanuts? 

“The packing peanuts that are made from corn starch are the easiest to work with and dissolve in water so if I could have those, I choose packing peanuts. If not, bubble wrap. Recycled, of course.”

Silkscreen or Lithograph?
“Tough one. I think I’d have to say lithography. Mainly because lithography involves drawing on a piece of limestone and then etching the stone with nitric acid. It’s a very labor intensive process and it makes the end result that much more rewarding. However, silkscreening is great for its practicality and it’s versatility in that it’s a relatively quick process and it can be used on textiles, paper, skateboards, etc.”

Picasso or Pollock?
“Albrecht Durer! Can I nominate him?”

Metallica or AC/DC? 

“Metallica’s first two albums.”

Sydney or Leon? (Sarma’s cat and dog)

“I could never choose!”

Each shirt was handprinted in Brooklyn, by Justin, using water based ink on organic cotton t-shirts. The material is thin and ridiculously soft and cozy. Unisex, but runs very small for male sizes. These won’t be around for long so get one while you can!

and don’t forget about our classic Eat Raw Live Long t-shirts, also 100% organic cotton!