San Francisco

By Monica on May 7th, 2008

This week I have an excuse for being AWOL - I was in San Francisco! So prepare yourselves for a slew of dark, blurry restaurant photos and commentary from a visitor who wasn’t quite ready to come back home to the very opposite state of Illinois yet:

The Boudin sourdough bakery on the wharf was a stone’s throw away from our hotel, so the smell of fresh bread lured us in more than once, and we even succumbed to a sourdough turtle.

The “California Veggie” sammich, sans cheese, and the roasted tomato soup bread bowl. I’m still skeptical, but the cashier vehemently insisted the tomato soup was vegan.

In China Town we stopped at Lucky Creation Vegetarian for lunch. It was a tiny place, absolutely packed, but the food was incredible and lunch for two only cost us about $20! Spring Rolls:

Ray’s fungus platter… (technically it was the mixed veggie platter, but contained more varieties of mushrooms than I knew existed.) As an avid mushroom hater, it was hard for me to watch this being eaten, but Ray said it was excellent.

And my Sweet & Sour Imitation Pork, which was gluten based. I hadn’t had a sweet & sour dish since I was a kid and this was like a nostalgic return to the Chinese take-out of my youth, except much, much better. I loved this place!

Saturday morning we literally stumbled across the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. I saw the tents from our passing streetcar and we abandoned our plans and jumped off at the next stop. Given that my hometown farmer’s market is open for 3 months per year and features 6 or so vendors mostly selling sweet corn, you can understand my excitement over a real farmer’s market.

I would kill to have fresh herbs like this available locally, much less for a buck! Consider me thoroughly envious.

What I was not expecting was that we’d spend hours here, literally eating our way through the farmer’s market aisle by aisle! In addition to all the vendors offering samples of their produce (which we bought a ton of to snack on at the hotel), Alive! was there with some tasty raw selections:

I opted for the cucumber spritzer and Ray had a strawberry chocolate parfait:

And just to make sure we left good and stuffed, Asparagus Tempura:

Dinner was at Herbivore on Divisadero. Sadly, Herbivore is getting a pretty poor review from me. The service was horrendous; never before have I had a meal served in the order of entree, then salad, then finally the drink you ordered 45 minutes ago, then dessert with no silverware until the adjoining table of strangers takes mercy on you and gives you their unused forks. The food gets a solid C, unfortunately everything was extremely bland including this Gnocci with Basil Pesto:

And the Red Curry. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t expect “bland” out of any kind of pesto, nor any kind of curry?

Strawberry Rhubarb pie, my personal favorite variety of pie. Good, but nothing noteworthy.

And finally, the German Chocolate Cake which we also found disappointing. The saving grace of our Herbivore meal was the ice cream that accompanied dessert, made locally by Maggie Mudd. We agreed it was the best vegan ice cream we’d ever had - kudos to you, Maggie!

Lunch the following day was at Las Margaritas on Fisherman’s Wharf. After walking up and down the San Francisco hills for a few days, sometimes something quick and close to the hotel is appealing, even if it’s just a veggie burrito:

Or some veggie fajitas. Actually, Las Margaritas had a decent vegetarian menu selection for being in the middle of a tourist trap, and more importantly, they offer a 60 ounce margarita!

The last night we were in town, we trekked out to the Mission District and ate at Weird Fish, which could perhaps be described as a pescatarian restaurant? They serve only vegan food and seafood. Weird Fish, indeed! However, the service was great, the restaurant is quaint and comfortable, the food was phenomenal, and they even get bonus points for having the Joy Division discography playing in the background.

Buffalo Girls Wings. I am confident in saying that these are the best seitan ‘wings’ in the history of the world. Ever. (Also, I again apologize for the shameful photos.)

The Tofu Fish & Chips with Sesame Ginger Sauce. Note to potential patrons, the two piece order is plenty, three was obscene! (But we still ate it because it was amazing, heh.)

And lastly, Cheezecake with Raspberry Rhubarb Sauce. The trip to Weird Fish is worth it if for this alone. I never thought I’d say it, but they even have the Chicago Diner beat on their cheezecake.

I won’t bore everyone with the obligatory sea lion pictures and whatnot, but we had a great time. It is such a treat to visit progressive, green, veg-friendly places like San Francisco, but it does make it a bit hard to come home. While I re-adjust to the culture shock, I promise to catch up on all your blogs this week!

The Good, The Bad, & The Really Bad

By Monica on February 8th, 2008

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy giggling at other bloggers’ kitchen mishaps, botched recipes, and outright baking disasters. We all have them, so please, chuckle at my expense this time and enjoy my recent food misfortunes.

But first, as the title would indicate, there is The Good:  Ashasarala’s Butternut Squash Lasagna with bechamel sauce. And by good, I mean really freaking good.

I made a few minor changes, keeping it a traditional layered lasagna with pureed squash and fresh spinach instead of an open lasagna with squash chunks, but the flavors remained unchanged.

And now, time for The Bad. I found this little nightmare on Allrecipes and should have listened to my better judgment when I first thought this sounded ridiculous. But oh how the reviewers swore it was like heaven, a pairing of unusual ingredients to die for! Well folks, some ingredients sound unusual paired together because they are disgusting when combined. In this instance, BBQ Baked Bean Stuffed Acorn Squash. Horrid. Simply horrid. Fortunately, I was able to salvage both beans and squash and recreate them both into something separate, but edible.

And for the REALLY BAD… “Jelly Donut Cupcakes” from Veganomicon. I don’t know what the problem was, I followed the recipe exactly but still we had a cupcake catastrophe.

Now I wouldn’t mind if they were just a little fugly but still tasted good. On the contrary, they were so bad Ray wouldn’t even eat them (that’s bad!). To be exact, “they look like a facial sore and taste like acoustical foam.” I could swear that I saw someone else blog about these before with fair results, so maybe the Cupcake Goddess simply was not shining upon me last night? In any case, here’s where bad cupcakes go to die at my house:

Yippee, an ice storm!

By Monica on December 11th, 2007

Yippee, another ice storm! Here are a couple of shots I took on my way down the driveway this morning:

Birch tree in the front yard:

One of my poor little apple trees:

Now for something a little sunnier! A couple of weeks ago I spotted the “V word” on the front page of our local paper. There it was, staring at me like a beacon: “VEGAN”, on the front page. I think my heart skipped a beat. Inside, I was amazed to find an article about accepting the month long vegan challenge in November. Even further, Isa was pictured WITH A RECIPE. (Granted, it was next to a Turducken recipe, but this was a victory!)

I sent the author an email almost immediately, hardly able to contain my excitement about veganism in the local newspaper. And a few weeks later, here is the follow up article with mention to my little food blog. The best part is that a few local veg*ns have contacted me, terribly excited that they’re not alone out here in the sticks. Woo!

Ok, I’ll put my superstar status (har) aside and move onto the food. I wanted to give my vet a little gift of some sort for taking such amazing care of Sampson. (I’m so lucky to have the most amazing holistic vet on the planet, I drive 2 hours to get to her office and would drive 2 more!) Fruit baskets and the like seemed cliche, so I opted for Lindy Loo’s snowman testicles and a selection of home canned goods from my cold cellar.

Below, starting on the bottom left, we have: Apple Cranberry Relish, Brandied Pears, Blueberry Jam, Pear Sauce, Organic Apple Sauce. From the top left: Cinnamon Red Hot Apple Wedges, and Blackberry Rhubarb Jam. This is typically what I give everyone in my family for Christmas and it always goes over well, so I hope she and her staff enjoy it. Does anyone else can stuff? I love it!

Lastly, I am going to throw in a recipe that is perfect for days when you shivering and holed up inside because everything is covered in 1/4″ of ice. It relies heavily on vegan convenience foods, but frankly it’s so good that I don’t care. I made this as an omni and dare I say, it’s even better vegan.

Cheezy Tofurkey Stew
1T vegetable oil
1 package Tofurkey sausages (I think the kielbasa style work best here)
1 package vegan cheddar cheeze, cubed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 can green beans, or even better - an equivalent amount of frozen
2 cups non-dairy milk
1t pepper
1t salt
1-2T flour

In a large pot, brown the sliced sausages in the vegetable oil. Add the diced onion and cook just until translucent. Add all of the other ingredients except flour. Bring to a boil until cheeze is melted, then reduce and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 1 hour. When potatoes are soft, add the flour as necessary to thicken.

You can also make this in a crockpot if you’d like, just reduce the amount of liquid used.

I hate Illinois Nazis

By Monica on November 19th, 2007

Saturday night Ray & I went out to dinner at a local dive. At the table in front of us was a man who kept telling his 3 young sons to “stop eating so many carrots and eat your fried chicken!” At the table next to us was a family full of white supremacists complete with a very scrawny pale kid, maybe 18 years old, sporting a swastika tattoo on the top of his right hand. Now, I know the swastika symbol has been around long before Hitler and has significance to other cultures, but this was the Nazi version for sure.

Yes, some days it is a real hoot living in the rural Midwest. All I could think of was Jake Blues in the Blues Brothers: “I hate Illinois Nazis”. Best movie ever.

Glutton for punishment, after dinner we stopped at the grocery store to see if I could find vegan graham crackers for a cheesecake crust. (Snowball’s chance in hell, right?) Now I’ve been to this store in the past and it’s like all the rest out here - meat, processed crap, semi-rotten vegetables. I don’t know what transformation the Hy-Vee underwent since our last visit, but it was a vegan extravaganza! Out here! In the sticks!

Not only did they have graham crackers I could use, but THREE kinds, including chocolate graham crackers! There was tofu, and it wasn’t even expired or covered in a layer of dust! There was soy chorizo, two kinds of Tofutti cheese, Gimme Lean sausage, Sour Supreme, polenta, TVP, dairy free ice cream, tempeh, the ‘good’ hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese… It was my Christmas miracle, even though it’s not quite Christmas and I’m not quite (at all) religious. No longer do I have to trek 60 miles to Whole Foods when I need tempeh or tofu! So today I am sending off an email to Hy-Vee thanking them for carrying these things, though I will probably not mention that Ray and I now call them “Hy-Veegan.”