the vegan fork: February 2006

Monday, February 27, 2006

Raleigh, NC

Dates: February 17-20, 2006

I went to Raleigh for a weekend and thought I'd post about some of the vegan food in that city. It's not as easy as in NYC where there are so many veg restaurants, but there are still many options in Raleigh.


I had lunch one day at Neomonde, which serves Middle Eastern food at a deli-style counter. I was very pleased that they listed the ingredients on many of their dishes, making it really easy to figure out what's vegan. I couldn't decide what to get, so I ended up with a "sampler" plate where I got to choose 4 items. I had the chickpea salad, potato salad (made with lemon juice and olive oil), hummus, and falafel. I don't think I've ever had falafel with sesame seeds on it before, and they added some nice flavor. The hummus had a good consistency, but was a little bland. I would rate it as better than mass-produced store-bought, but not as good as homemade. The chickpea and potato salads were both really good.
Neomonde also sells Middle Eastern groceries, so you can stock up on pomegranate molasses, pickled radishes, sesame candy, etc. while you're there.



After a frustrating and fruitless search for a Caribbean restaurant called Trin-Bago, we ended up settling for Indian food for dinner at Royal India. It was pretty much just like any other decent Indian restaurant. I had the Jeera Aloo, which they claimed was a house specialty. The flavor was good, although too mild. But the texture wasn't so great -- the potatoes had the texture of having been frozen.
We did have the pleasure of sitting underneath a portrait of a man that was said to have had 70 wives, though.



Next was lunch at a cute little coffeeshop called the New World Coffeehouse. I had a hummus & veggie wrap that was very good. It came with sun chips which I learned are vegan...and delicious. They also have a peanut tofu wrap on the menu which sounded good, but they were out of it. They carry ABC Baking Co. vegan cookies, too.




I also went to Lilly's Pizza. They have vegan soy cheese, but it's vegan-rella, which I'm pretty sure I hate. So I had baked tofu on my pizza. I think this is actually the first time I've had tofu on pizza, and it was really good. Their pizza is delicious. It has a sweet crust, and they have tons of toppings to choose from. I remember from last time I was there that they have really good salads, too. This time I opted for a $6 pitcher of PBR instead of salad, though.
Not only does Lilly's have tofu and beer, but they also have a glowing Jesus in the corner.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Recipe reviews: "Decadent Brownies"? Try "Desiccated Brownies"

I'm going over to a friend's house this afternoon, and we have an agenda. There are several organizational items we need to accomplish. By now we've recognized that our usual method of trying to get things done -- starting the cocktails flowing immediately and non-stop chatting -- doesn't work. We never accomplish anything.

So, new plan. We will have list of goals and hold out on the alcohol until we've accomplished a thing or two. No drinks until we've ticked some things off of our list! But we'll need other motivation besides drinks (otherwise we'll end up trashed on a Sunday afternoon and our productivity will decrease rapidly). So I thought I'd make some snacks to help us along.

Brownies sounded like a great idea. I decided to make the "Decadent Brownies" in The Garden of Vegan. Once I mixed up the batter, I noticed that it was kind of mocha-colored, not the deep mud-color that I like my brownie batter to be. So I thought I'd best taste the batter before baking. Ick. It was really bland. So I added a fair bit of cocoa powder to get the batter to the proper color and to make them taste "decadent" as the recipe title promised. I also added a bit of vanilla extract. The batter tasted great, so I went ahead and baked the brownies.

I made the "Chocolate Mint Icing" in the same book to top them with. The icing? Delicious. The brownies? The driest brownies I've ever had in my life. They're terrible. I ate a few crumbs as I was cutting them up, and I realized I couldn't possibly serve these to someone I consider a friend.
So I popped them in the freezer, hoping that sometime I'll become desperate enough to eat them.




Plan B: I've always liked How it All Vegan much better than The Garden of Vegan (although the desserts are the weakest parts of both books), so I decided to go back to the original. I settled on the "Chocolate Chip Bars." I was still in a minty mood, so I added some peppermint oil to the batter....they turned out delicious! Much better than the brownies. Moist and yummy. Mmm, you can see the yumminess in the picture.




I also made this Split Pea Spread with Hummus Flavors from fatfreevegan because I had some yellow split peas sitting around in the cabinet. It's pretty good -- hummus-flavored as the name implies, but not so creamy and filling. Like a light hummus. Not something that I would expect to actually stand up to hummus in a head-to-head battle, but an adequate substitute on its own.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Cassava

Visit Date: January 30, 2006, evening



Bubble tea! Yum!

After sitting in class for 2 hours and watching (and listening to) someone slurp down a juice box the whole time, I found myself wanting something sweet and fruity. So I stopped at Cassava (website and reviews on menupages) and got a pineapple passionfruit bubble tea.
Okay, first of all, if you've never had bubble tea? Go get some. Now. The chewy tapioca is so much fun!

Bubble tea is available all over in Chinatown, but there I usually see it as the variety with "milk" in it. Maybe the milkless variety is available in those places, but I've never noticed it. I like Cassava because they have several flavors of bubble tea that are milkless. One time I even got a bubble green tea with no sweetener, since I love green tea plain. It just wasn't right. The giant tapioca can't quite stand on it's own. It needs something sweet to really bring out the yumminess.

At Cassava they say that their "milk" tea is made with non-dairy creamer. I asked if they knew if it's vegan or if it may contain casein, but they don't know. If they're calling it "non-dairy creamer," I'm going to assume that it's that same gross stuff that people put in coffee that's laden with corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and casein.

As with all take-out items, there's the problem of packaging. At least this plastic cup can be recycled, though, unlike a lot of those juice places that use styrofoam.

Village Natural

Date of Visit: January 29, 2006, afternoon

Village Natural is a great place for brunch. Well, if you don't want delicious overpriced fruit-and-flavored-vodka cocktails served in martini glasses with your brunch. If you want that, go to Spring Street Natural. But if you're just in it for the food, Village Natural will do.
It's not an all-veg restaurant, but they have lots of vegetarian and vegan options. They even have vegan pancakes, but I haven't tried them yet. The other food options include salads, sandwiches with fake meat or without, scrambled tofu dishes, and some Japanese-inspired dishes served with steamed vegetables.
I had the baked millet croquettes. They're curry flavored: pleasant and mild, but nothing spectacular. I like to order them, though, because I love millet, and croquettes are always fun. They're served over noodles with a mushroom gravy (they're a little stingy with the gravy) and steamed veggies. The meal is good, and extremely filling. And it's actually not at all greasy, which is a definite plus in my book!
Village Natural is a cute little restaurant with kind of a wood-themed decor....not pretty wood, just wood. Though not chic, it's a very comfortable environment, and I've never seen it very busy.