LONG ISLAND CITY - We’ve all heard the old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but how about a chocolate bar? Locally produced in Long Island City and made from 100 percent organic vegan ingredients and raw heirloom cacao, Gnosis chocolate claims greater health benefits than their conventional counterparts. The line was launched three years ago by certified holistic health counselor Vanessa Barg, whose aha moment struck while she was attending a lecture on the health benefits of raw cacao. “Chocolate comes from a fruit, a tree, a bean—we forget that it’s inherently healthy!” she exclaims. Indeed, but Barg boosts the bean’s benefits by adding in ingredients like protein-packed almonds and hemp seeds for the Power Choc bar, or echinacea and persimmon for the Immune Boost bar. Some bars, like Mayan Heat, which contains “cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and love” and kept Edible Queens editors warm throughout a December blizzard, are seasonal, but others, like Fleur de Sel, Coconut Almond and Cashew Goji Berry, are available year-round.

Barg initially began making the chocolates for her clients to help them satisfy their sweet cravings while still maintaining a holistic diet. “Everyone was willing to give up cookies, soda and other unhealthy snacks, but they refused to stop eating chocolate,” she explains.Now, she uses her training to seek out healthful ingredients and combine them in flavorful ways. The bars are also minimally processed, or technically “raw,” ensuring high nutrient levels.As a result, they take a little getting used to, especially if your idea of chocolate is wrapped in foil with a Hershey’s label attached. Gnosis chocolate is more flaky than creamy, and some of the flavors are quite arresting. Still, they’re incredibly satisfying. Our favorite flavors were Coconut Almond and best-selling Super Choc. Gnosis chocolate bars are sold in almost 100 stores nationally, as well as on theWebsite (www.gnosischocolate.squarespace. com), where you can also purchase bulk ingredients and chocolate for baking.

FLUSHING - Roses are everywhere at the aptly named Rose House in downtown Flushing. There are blooms in tiny vases on every table, images etched onto porcelain cups, and even the chairs are upholstered to look like roses. But it soon becomes obvious that the true star of this tea mecca is the rose’s flavor.

Modeled after traditional English teahouses, Rose House was founded by Robert Huang, a Taiwanese painter whose rosethemed paintings adorn the walls. It’s always teatime, with more than 200 imported herbal and fruit varieties to choose from. The most popular are rose petal and rose polyphenol teas, according to manager Wei Gu.At the suggestion of my server, I ordered the latter, which delivered the expected florid taste and fragrance. The potency was ideal: not diluted, not overpowering.

Tea at Rose House is often paired with a few treats, and many of them are rose-flavored, such as the rose cookies and the addicting rose cake, featuring a mousse-like rose filling in between light cake layers, topped with fruit and a generous drizzle of rose syrup. But the menu also offers a traditional three-tiered platter of small savory sandwiches; light pastries, such as blueberry scones accompanied by rose jam; and desserts like rose cheesecake. Each tier is sweeter and richer than the last, and each taste is as delicate and fine as the imported porcelain it’s served on.

LONG ISLAND CITY - When it comes to ordering takeout, flavor is typically compromised by convenience, but no more! Tiffin New York, a new Indian-meal delivery service based in Long Island City, puts a refreshing spin on a city standby by taking a cue from Mumbai’s tiffin custom.

Much like the Japanese bento, the Indian tiffin is a single-portion meal, traditionally served in a set of stackable containers. It’s been part of the lunch routine in Mumbai for decades. Dabbawalas (essentially tiffin deliverymen) bring hot meals to busy office workers and return the empty containers back from whence they came. The system’s efficiency and emphasis on home-cooked dishes are the inspiration behind Tiffin New York, where ordering a week’s worth of meals is made easy by setting up an online account and adding dishes from fixed daily or weekly menus to an online cart for delivery the following day. “This is the kind of food an Indian mom makes; it’s not typical restaurant food,” says Reena Bhatia, a member of the small and passionate partnership team that launched the website and opened Tiffin New York’s doors last August. “Typical Indian restaurant food tends to be very heavy, but home-cooked South Asian food is lighter, fresher and more healthful. We worked really hard to make sure that the quality of our ingredients—good spices and fresh produce—stood out.”

Menu items include two vegetarian or nonvegetarian main courses, everything from methi aloo (fenugreek leaves with potatoes) and lamb lajawab (a type of curry) to pakora kadhi (vegetable fritters) and their most popular dish, chicken tikki masala. Each order comes with 8-ounce tiffins of dal, two rotis, rice and pickles. Chef Sujit Kumaris’s creations are also free of ghee and trans fats. There’s also an a la carte menu that features vegan-friendly bhaigan bhartha (mashed eggplant) as well as biryani (a layered rice dish) and kathi rolls (Indian street sandwiches).

The company has a devoted local dropin and takeout local customer base as well as some 800 weekly tiffin deliveries to Manhattan, Brooklyn and even New Jersey. Says Bhatia, “People really enjoy eating things that are a little adventurous and trying foods that are different and delicious!”

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