Grub Street Diet: Joss Lake

"So we drove upstate and the plan was to go to the restaurant Lil’ Deb’s Oasis to celebrate my book. Ariele knows the people who run it, and we’ve been there a lot before. The space reminds me of the book. It’s really colorful and everyone there is queer and it’s a really fun place."

"We met some folks and then we went into this very bougie kind of expensive grocery store that we always go to when we’re in Hudson. I think it’s called Olde Hudson. We got a baguette and hummus and pesto and a drink called switchel. It was like a lime-and-ginger apple-cider-vinegar drink that was really good."

"We had been planning to go to Garden Cafe in Woodstock, which is actually the place where I realized I could become a vegan. I had been thinking about it, but I wasn’t sure because of eggs. I was like, I’m cutting out cheese but I like eggs. Then I had a tofu scramble there that was so delicious, and that sealed it."

"Ariele was bartending at this place Nowadays, which has a Sunday day and night party, so we dropped her off. That’s so not my lifestyle right now, like Sunday I’m like doing my laundry, but there was a line all the way down the street of people waiting to get in."

"By the time I got home, I was hungry and didn’t really have groceries, so I ordered from this place Gold Sounds, which I hadn’t heard of but is a music venue that has a vegan food menu. I got an oyster-mushroom “chicken” sandwich that was good, but they literally had the best tater tots I’ve ever had in my life."

"For dinner, I met my friend Naima who is also a writer, at Speedy Romeo. My friend isn’t vegan but she was cool with splitting a pizza with me, so we had this artichoke pizza with “tofu cream peas.” I’m still not really sure what that means, but it was artichoke with a creamy element and herbs. Then we split a salad."