Vegan Knitting...and then some

Seattle fare

I returned earlier this week from a 3-day conference in Seattle.  It was my first time spending more than an overnight there (at a club and airport hotel for a show), and my first time away from home alone in many years.  Seattle offers a lot of choices for vegans, although I was mostly limited to what I could reach on foot from downtown.  I unfortunately became sick partway through the trip and so I did not photograph several of my delicious meals.

My first night I met up with a fellow poster from the Post Punk Kitchen at Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese restaurant with a very long menu.  After a lot of hemming and hawing, I settled on the Mandarin Beef, which boasted a faux meat beef I'd never had before, in a delicious sauce on top of crispy noodles.  The friend ordered a spicy faux chicken with asparagus and shittake mushrooms.  And we shared wonton noodle soup and sauteed Chinese greens.  The meal was delicous and we had enough leftover to each have lunch the next day.

The second night, a friend came to visit from Vancouver with a rental car, so we took the opportunity of going to Cafe Flora.  Cafe Flora is a fancier vegetarian restaurant, more along the lines of Millennium in San Francisco but not quite as good or expensive.  We both chose Mexican-inspired dishes: my friend had the potato taco plate and I had yam tamales in a mole sauce with cilantro jicama.  It was a lot of food, and although my rice wasn't quite what I'd expected, the rest of the meal was delicious.

The next day I met up with the first friend at the Pan Africa Market in Pike's Place Market for Ethiopian food.  We both got the veggie combo.  I was pretty sick by this point, so that definitely colored my experience but I'd give it a 2 1/2  out of 5 for the food being lukewarm and not very well spiced.  Also, as you can see, the food was served on injera but didn't come with any.  Perhaps dinner is better?

My husband joined me that evening and we returned to Bamboo Garden for another great meal, this time featuring mock duck soy skin served over more Chinese greens and a soup I wish I hadn't ordered.

On my final day, I didn't want to go too far from the convention center, so I stopped by Cyber Dogs, a small cyber cafe featuring a huge variety of veggie dogs plus some other dishes.  Since I wasn't feeling so well, I ordered a baked potato with vegan butter, scallions, and veggie bacon.  The wait was long since it was lunch time and there was only one person taking orders and making the food.  When it came, it was tasty, and I got to use the computer while I waited.

Breakfast was confined to Whole Foods since it was only 2 blocks from my hotel on my walk to the convention center, and I found everything I needed easily there.  I'm disappointed that I didn't make it to Cinnamon Works to try some of their pastries but there's only so much you can keep track of on such a trip.

All in all, a very successful trip food-wise, and next time I'll try some of the many other places to eat in Seattle.

California Dreaming (a photo essay)

 1. Potato Tacos, 2. Horchata, 3. Chocolate Ice Cream, 4. Fish Tacos 2, 5. Fish Tacos,

6. Jackfruit Burrito, 7. Jackfruit Tacos, 8. Pistachio Date icecream, 9. Oreo Cheesecake and Chocolate Banana Ice Cream, 10. Mojito,

11. Chili Pie, 12. Veggie Burger Wrap, 13. Gluten-free Spaghetti and Meatballs, 14. Shepherd's Pie, 15. Miso Soup,

16. Salmon Roll, 17. Bread n Spread, 18. Roasted Brussels Sprouts, 19. Black Eyed Pea Fritters, 20. Spinach Salad with smoked tofu,

21. Mole Tamale, 22. Potato Tikka Cake, 23. Mushroom Risotto, 24. Asian Yuba Roll, 25. Pumpkin Tiramisu,

26. Chocolate Midnight Mousse Cake, 27. Ginger Pear Cake, 28. Sorbet sampler, 29. Grilled Seitan Satay, 30. Corncakes,

31. Yum Gluten (Larb), 32. Kabocha Squash Curry, 33. Mussamun Curry, 34. Aloo Tiki Cholle, 35. Patata Vada

Vegan MoFo 19: Brunch

Another Sweetpea Bakery brunch:  potato hasbrown patty, tofu scramble, kale, seitan, jalapeno cornbread, and mac n cheese.  Plus OJ and coffee.

Vegan MoFo 17: Scrabble n Crepes

What a nice way to end an evening  - dark chocolate, cinnamon, and cayenne crepes, fresh coffee (not shown) and a nice scrabble game.

Vegan MoFo 13: Pasta Apuglia!

The day before and the day after our trip to Tahoe, we stopped at our favorite restaurant, Fellini, for their Apuglia, which is orichette pasta in a white wine cream sauce with peas and veggie bacon.

Italian Pasta

We live really close by to the Vita Cafe in Portland, so it's too bad that we don't like it all that much.  However, there are a few dishes that we have enjoyed, and my husband's favorite is the:

ITALIAN PASTA     9.5
Organic kale, veggie sausage, garlic, chili flakes and crushed tomatoes, sautéed in lemon and olive oil topped with toasted bread crumbs

So, for far less than $9.5, I made it last night, minus the breadcrumbs because I didn't have any stale bread. And I added some kalamata olives on top.  YUM!

More Bay Area food

First up is the daily veggie special from Vik's Chaat Corner, our favorite South Indian cafeteria in Berkeley.

Mac n Cheese, yams and collards,

Black-eyed peas, potato salad, and chicken fried tofu cutlets,

and fried okra with ketchup and home-made tartar sauce.  All from Souley Vegan in Oakland. 

Can your heart stand it? More brunch!

Also from Sweetpea Bakery.  Crepes, both savory (tofu scramble, potatoes and mushrooms with bechamel sauce) and sweet (strawberries, bananas, and pineapple with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Yet another brunch photo

From the smiley face: hash brown, pancake sandwich, McMuffin, kale, fried apple pie. Yikes!

E'Njoni Cafe - Ethiopian at its best!

I'm a huge fan of Ethiopian/Eritrean food and this is one of the best restaurants I've been to out of NYC/SF/PDX.  I went with a group of 6 last night without a reservation.  We were seated immediately and the order was taken shortly after we were all seated and ready.  I thought the food came quickly given how fresh everything is.

The menu boasts a wide combination of Ethiopian and Mediterranean food with lots of options for meat eaters, veggies, and vegans.  As vegans, we were happy to read on the menu that all of the vegetarian choices are vegan, and everything was clearly marked.

We ordered three vegetarian combinations which came with a great variety of dishes.  Then we also ordered three dishes a la carte - the mushroom nibs (in a thick spiced sauce with onions, like the typical beef dish), a sort of roasted potato dish, and a spicy pureed chickpea dish.

The veggie combos each came on a tray, and there was a fourth tray to go with the three platters of a la carte dishes.  That tray had three piles of a cool lentil salad with red onions, tomatoes, etc. which was nice if you need a refreshing break.  The injera was thick and tasty and there was plenty of it.

We could not decide which dish we liked best - everything was so tasty.  You could tell right away when it arrived.  Bad Ethiopian food often looks like baby food, whereas even the soft or pureed dishes here were freshly made.

They have 5 types of Ethiopian beer as well as a spiced tea (which I got and it was really good) and Ethiopian coffee, which you can order by the cup or with the pouring ritual, like Turkish coffee.

The cost came to $12.50 each including an 18% gratuity, and we were all stuffed.  Although the service was a tad slow before we ordered, the owner came over to check on us a few times, left a pitcher of ice water so that we wouldn't run out, and a big basket of injera - there was even some left over!  I am so happy to have tried this place - I will be back soon and often!

Waffles!

Last weekend a friend visited from the Bay Area, and we went to Sweetpea Bakery's Sunday morning brunch, with a waffle bar!  My friend piled hers high with fruit, whereas I took advantage of the four-chambered circular waffle to have a chamber of each fruit topping.  "Chicken" and hashbrowns on the side.  Coffee and OJ not shown.  Also not shown, bloated bellies afterwards.

Nutshell Restaurant - review

Last weekend a friend was visiting from the Bay Area and we took the opportunity to go to Portland's version of Millennium Restaurant - Nutshell, located in NE Portland.  I was hesitant because I had not heard very good reviews of the service and mixed reviews of the food, but decided to try it anyway.

In a nutshell (har har har!), the food was delicious but the service was terrible.  In the interest of not seeming pessimistic and whiny, I will review the food first, and the service second.

The food was really good, and I'd happily go back as long as I have the time and mental state to expect a similar service outcome.  I did take photos, so here you go! (I forgot to take a photo of the fried rice ball starter, which was really good. )



This was grilled asparagus with greens over pureed potato with truffle oil.  The potato/oil combo tasted just like Brie and I was very impressed.


This is a salad with pea shoots, pickled onion, and fingerling potatoes in a lemon cream sauce.  Very tasty, but not something I couldn't do at home.


Anna got the Risotto Cakes with some sort of cream sauce and more pea shoots.  I didn't try any but they smelled heavenly. 


I ordered the Jamaican platter, which was a lot of food!  From the top clockwise, there are grilled eggplant and onion, saffron rice and red beans, half of an orange stuffed with ginger mashed yams, fried yucca on a bed of sauce, fried breaded okra, and fried cornballs.  That was a lot of fried, but sooo good!  The okra was barely battered (I think they used Panko) and just perfect.  Everything was really tasty and just enough of each item.



Becca got the Papaya Tamales, which were plain corn tamales steamed and then topped with fresh papaya, black beans, avocado, and cilantro with some sort of sauce.  I didn't try these.  She liked them but they were definitely the least fancy of the dishes.

As for the service, we made a reservation and I arrived early.  There is no host but I caught one of the waiters so said that our table was ready, but then said it wasn't.  We were seated about 15 minutes after our reservation time, which is not that unusual.  We chatted a bit after getting menus so we ordered about 15 minutes after being seated.  The waitress was pleasant and timely in taking our order and bringing us water.  After that, the service went very much downhill, with us leaving the restaurant two and a half hours after our reservation time!  About 20 minutes after our orders were taken, our appetizer and salads were brought together, which was great!  About 30 minutes later, one entree was brought and no others appeared.  Then I watched as about 20 minutes after that, our other entrees were served to another table.  It was too far away to do anything until it was too late.  I wasn't sure that they were ours, since there are only 5 available entrees, so we waited patiently. It was now more than an hour after we'd ordered and not a single staff had stopped by to check on us.  I finally flagged down the person who took our order and she had no idea we hadn't gotten our food and found out that yes, the other staff had brought our food to a different table.  So it was another 20 minutes before we got our food, by which time the first entree was COLD. 

The waitress was really apologetic, saying that it was a crazy night, and didn't charge us for any of the entrees or the dessert I ordered to go.  That was good, because we would have been really unhappy to have to pay for it.  Perhaps it was a crazy night - it certainly seemed like they were missing a staff member.  on the other hand, I've read a lot of similar reviews so it seems like it happens frequently.  I don't normally give such detailed complaints with a restaurant but when one presents itself as so upscale and the prices reflect that, you expect the service to as well.  It seemed like the biggest problem was that one person was not in charge of our table, so once the waitress took our order, she didn't have to get the food and bring it to us, nor did she seem to be the one who would check on us after taking the order.  I've been to a lot of restaurants that do this, but usually they are more cafeteria-style, and it invariably results in problems when a mistake is made because there is no one to catch it.  I think in the service industry, it's best to organize staff so that one person helps a customer from beginning to end.  You avoid a lot of communication errors doing this, and the customers know who to go to if they need something.

More Portland restaurant food!

Sweet Pea Bakery - cinnamon bun and decaf Americana

Van Hahn  - lunch combination

Van Hahn - Bun bowl

Blossoming Lotus - BBQ Tempeh platter

Blossoming Lotus - Macrobiotic Bowl (before I add the ginger sauce)

My Birthday!

Last Saturday was my 30th birthday.  It was fairly low-key but I still had a very nice day.

We started off by making pancakes with caramelized apples (from our apple tree!) on top.



Then a neighbor came by to give regards (and get a belly rub!)



Lunch was a new favorite:  sauteed bok choy with red peppers and onions, with Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage sausage over rice



And for dinner, we went to Fellini Restaurant for pasta and pizza, followed by a sweet birthday dessert:

Heirloom Tomato season is starting!

And what better way to celebrate than with leftover heirloom tomato pizza from Fellini Restaurant! (yellow and red tomatoes, black olives, grilled asparagus, and Follow Your Heart cheese) accompanied with a HUMONGOUS home-made salad with lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, red onion, raddicio, avocado, and granny smith apple.  All organic.  The husband and I each ate one of these salads, which was about 6 cups of raw veggies/fruits.  So healthy and so tasty!

Tater Pizza!

Fellini Restaurant has a current special that is THE best pizza I've ever eaten!  It's red sauce topped with sliced yukon gold potatoes, sundried tomatoes, spinach, and roasted garlic with optional vegan bacon.  And vegan mozarella.  Oh my!

Bombay Garden dinner buffet

We went back to Bombay Garden in Santa Clara over the weekend.

• Lentil Sambar
• Corn Masala
• Dosa
• Potato Masala
• Aloo Tiki
• Basmati

Louisville trip - Food

As you can see, we ate quite a few sandwiches.  They were VERY good although unfortunately a few photos seem not to have transfered properly.

Vegan pulled "pork" sandwich made with two types of seitan from Shangri La Diner in St. Louis (see below)

Shangri La Diner on Cherokee St.

Vegan Tempeh Reuben with pub fries at the Third Avenue Cafe in Louisville

Seitan Parmesan with roasted potatoes at Ramsi's Cafe on the World in Louisville

Stir-fried Green Beans and Dessert Plantains, also at Ramsi's.

A few tasty food photos

Since we can't cook yet, here are some photos of food we've eaten recently.

South Indian sampler from Bombay Garden restaurant in Santa Clara, CA.  Soooooo good!  Potato masala, corn masala, dosa, chana ki chaat, yellow dahl, and tamarind sauce.



A weekday veggie special at Vik's Chaat Corner in Berkeley, CA with veggie curry, black-eyed pea stew, chapati, papadum, and rice.



"Shrimp" noodles at this great vegan Asian place in LA



Vegan Thai iced tea from the same restaurant.

Trip to LA

We went to visit our friend Simone, and her hubby, Gregg, this weekend in Los Angeles.  Here is the first of a few food posts.

Our trip to Madeleine Bistro for brunch:

"Chicken" and waffles (note the pile of mashed taters behind the cutlet)

Two tofu omelets on top of a hashbrown layer, with mushrooms, "cheese", and asparagus in the middle.

Bananas Foster (fried banans with "ice cream" and chocolate and raspberry sauce)

Lemon Tart with Creamsicle "ice cream" and cashew cream

A melange of exotic sorbets (kiwi, mango, and passionfruit)