This is the stuff our dreams are made of. As nutrition geeks, we often daydream of a world where Italian restaurants offer spiralized, raw veggie noodles. A world where dive bars pull kombucha from taps and our fave brunch spot makes French toast out of sprouted bread and fertilized eggs. Basically, the hard-core healthy treats we crave that are either a huge pain to make at home or are only available at grocery stores – not the cafes we’d rather meet our pals at.
Most of these healthy foodie dreams are yet to be realized (steamed fonuts and Pressed Juicery Freeze not withstanding.) But, this fall, we discovered a little culinary hotspot in NYC that is absolutely thrilling us – and revolutionizing New Yorker’s morning beverage routines. It’s a walk-up window called Brodo NYC that is serving up old fashioned, slow-food bone broths in paper coffee cups. It’s like these guys been reading our diary (our food journal is intense.)
Restauranteur Marco Canora has a passion for wellness that is authentic and well-informed, Brodo’s offerings of grass-fed beef bone broth and organic chicken stock are proof positive. Visitors to Brodo’s street-side window can order broths (from $4-9) with optional additions like fresh ginger, chili oil or beet kvass. Is this real life? The broths are served in the adorably utilitarian paper coffee cups we all adore, adding up to one of the most charming holistic habits New Yorkers can get into for 2015.
Let’s catch up on the whole topic of BONE broths. Vegans and non-vegans alike may be a little behind on the topic, but we assure this is one superfood you should get cozy with this winter!
The bones of healthfully-raised animals (aka grass-fed cattle and responsibly-raised chickens) have been used to create broths for centuries. Bone broths were once a vital staple in the human diet – back in a day when our ancestors made responsible use of a whole animal, not just a couple of entrees (now that’s sustainability.) Using bones to create nourishing broths is the stuff of healing magic (veggie broths too, read more about it here.) Bones contain collagen, which turns to gelatin and is packed with amino acids and a host of bio-available minerals. In broth, protein-rich collagen breaks down and becomes gelatin, considered a “functional food.” This stuff is incredible for our own bones, as well as our joints and skin. Want that glow and to keep skin resilient? Get into bone broths. Gelatin is incredibly soothing and nourishing for the gut as well, an area of concern for so many of us with our modern diets. The gut is the root of too many health issues to name. Gelatin helps to nourish and repair the gut like nobody’s business. There’s a reason your grandma was a fan of this stuff.
Kids today. Where did we go left? In the whir of excitement over all the new foods and conveniences we’ve created over the last couple of generations we’ve lost some of our most important traditional healing foods. Our ailing digestion and immunity are all telling signs of these missing foods. Many of the deficiencies in our modern diet, and the conditions often associated with them, are met perfectly with many of the foods we’ve simply come to neglect as old-fashioned or that no longer fit into our convenience-driven diets. The trend back toward nutrient dense, traditional foods – from cultured veggies to fermented drinks – is one we’re all about.
Add to that list all the concoctions available at Brodo’s new pop-up window and it seems we’re headed in the right direction. What do you say, readers? Would you or wouldn’t you swap out that americano for a hot cup of grass-fed bone broth?
