1. Friday Night Dinner at Natural Gourmet Institute: apparently, this plant-focused cooking school has been hosting these dinners for the past 20 years, but it’s all new to me. My husband and I attended our first NGI FND last weekend and it was amazing! For $45 per person you get a three course vegetarian meal (though our Dec. 11 “Root to Sap” edition was vegan), and each course contains three discrete mini dishes. I almost never do tasting menus because 1) I don’t like meat or fish, and 2) they usually offer WAY too much food for me. But the type and amount of food served at this dinner was just right for me. NGI’s dinners are BYOB, so you can bring wine or beer for yourself or to share with your table mates. The food was beautiful and tasted great: I think my personal favorites were the beet tartare “chevre” dish and the kale chips…OMG, those kale chips. If you’re a veggie lover in NYC, I highly recommend you try Friday Night Dinner!

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