Cream of the Crop, Peanut Butter on Top

I think the rainy season is officially here, and that's inspiring more time at home for snuggling, watching movies, and cooking some stuff up!

First up we have the Acorn Squash, Pear, and Sauteed Shiitake Soup.


I used cream of the crop squashes cause they're what I had, and they made for some sweet sweet soup. The salty shiitakes really helped make this a more savory thing cause that squash really wants to be eaten plain or mashed or baked into a pie or casserole sweet sweet. We ate all the shiitakes for just our two bowls, so I'll have to buy some at the farmer's market tomorrow for the leftovers.

Second up for the evening is also from 'nomicon: Apple Peanut Butter Caramel Bars! I haven't tried these yet cause they're for a tofurkey dinner we're attending later in the weekend (so I'll take a picture of it then), but I sure did try some of that peanut butter caramel! Do I need to even say how creamy sweet wonderful dreamy it was?

Our neighborhood place

The waiter knows us. I got my favorite thing, and Aaron got his. We try out all the booths and take our picture there. Tonight we sat at booth #8.

Squash Man

I've got a squash man, do you?

He's at the farmer's market, corner stall, across from the root lady on one side and the popular farm with the great basil on the other side. He's awesome.

My favorite squash from him is the Small Wonder, a single-serving size spaghetti squash that is out-of-control good. I have 5 of those right now, and I will probably pick up some more next market.

That Carnival squash that I picked up and used for my last entry is the squash man's wife's favorite.

My squash man's favorite is Cream Of The Crop, a white acorn type squash that he says tastes so much better than an acorn. I picked up two, and I am roasting some for the acorn/shiitake soup from 'nomicon. Those months when the market is closed are long.

A casual, neighborhood friend that we saw on the bus after our last trip to the market asked if I had a squash fetish. My response was: "I don't think I do, but my sister might." Heh.

Saag Carnival Palak

Does anyone know why spinach and cheese is "palak paneer" but chickpeas and spinach is "chana saag"? This has been something I've always been curious about but have never looked up.

Yesterday, rather than having a light cooking day as I'd planned, I made the Pumpkin Saag from 'nomicon. But instead of using 3 lbs of pumpkin, I used my 2 1/2 lb. carnival squash from two markets ago cause I was excited to use it. To make up for my pumpkin deficit, I used a lot of palak. Or saag. Wait, maybe "saag" is what's created with the palak? Gosh, I know I could just look it up.

Anyway, I just wrote this in a comment on Jess's blog, but I can't seem to cut open any hard squash without baking it first, so I had to bake it to make it soft, then slice it open, then roast some more. Then peel off that colorful shell. Then rinse and chop all that sandy spinach. So it was a lot more time consuming then your average weekday meal, but so what? I wanted it and I wanted it now.

It was yummy, but way too sweet, a veritable carnival of sugar in my mouth (probably why the recipe called for straight up pumpkin!) Though I cut the sweet with some rice and leftover spiced yogurt sauce from before we left. It got spicier while we were away! It certainly got me revved up for more Indian food, for sure for sure.

Chickpea Cutlet Days

You know what's a bummer? Calling "Thanksgiving" turkey day. You know what's not a bummer? Eating Chickpea Cutlets for 5 days straight all thanksgiving week. I already told you about quadrupling the recipe on wednesday, but then on thursday morning at my sister's house in Olympia, I whipped up another batch. This time making 5x the recipe (is that quintupling? Is there a word for that?) I added a little more spice to mine than what the recipe called for (more sage and secret spices in my first batch, no sage but herbs de provence or something something my sister had instead the second batch) and I'm thinking I'll have to make them with less oil for regular home times, but pulling a cutlet out of the fridge and monching on it cold is a super time, and heated with Vegan with a Vengeance Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy on top is heaven.


Everything else was super, too. I was really glad that my sister made the family cranberry raspberry relish cause that is tasty stuff. Mashed taters and gravy, stuffing and gravy! Oh the gravied decadence! Roasted kuri squash and roots soup that even my niece could eat! (before I thinned it) And the brussel sprouts! Brussel Sprouts can do no wrong. There was enough food that we ate through it all weekend, with some trips to Vic's Pizzeria for vegan calzones and a thai place in the mall (!!!)

Bonus pictures of my dad and I doing the thriller dance. Because what would thanksgiving be without the thriller?

Baleboste

If I were on the phone with my mom, and I will be in a minute*, she would be going on and on about how I'm such the "bal-e-boos-ter." I seriously have been cooking up a storm for the last couple of days, and specifically for tomorrow, and now that I just pulled out the 'nomicon Chickpea Cutlets out of the oven, I'm officially done.

The original recipe makes 4 cutlets, but I quadrupled the recipe cause I don't mess. These are, of course, delicious (I had to taste one!), but that wasn't exactly a surprise since these have been made for me at least three times by Jess during cookbook testing. Also in the fridge and on the menu for tomorrow: Hazelnut Stuffing (one with chanterelles and one without for the mushroom hater in our lives), Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy, Kuri Squash and Roasted Root Soup, Spiced Cider, Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and I think that's it! My sister will be making roasted brussels, roots, and and and...

Someone want to come over before 5pm and help me finish some leftover cauliflower hummus, coconut-y squash and taro soup, and some bell peppers???


*I just got off the phone with my dad, not my mom, and when I told him about the Chickpea Cutlets and tried to explain what they were, my dad exclaims "Oh, Chickpea Cutlets! I ate those two nights last week!" Yeah, har har Dad!

Pre-Thanksgiving Cook-it-all-up-so-it-doesn't-go-bad Dinner

We're leaving tomorrow and probably won't be back until Sunday, yet I had some really great market days and all that with some great produce I really had to use. So thinking on my feet, I invited some of my home team over for a simple and quick help-share-this-with us dinner that turned out being neither quick nor simple, but it was tasty. On the chopping block, literally -- I chopped them all and I wasn't sorry:

huge purple cauliflower
kuri squash
brussel sprouts
taro
parsnips
rutabaga
etc. etc.



Pictured is the Lower-Fat Cauliflower Hummus from the Nomicon! It kind of tasted lower fat, but in a good way. Look at its purple fabulosity. We ate it with leftover crudites from Sunday. Nom Nom!



We also ate a soup I made up with kuri squash, taro, parsnip, rutabaga, coconut milk, lemongrass, and lots o secret spices. I am working on getting this in a recipe form one day -- I think it's one of my favorite soups and I want to get it right!



Those things were good, but king of the evening was the Cornmeal-Masala Roasted Brussel Sprouts from the Nomicon. Now I always know to roast them, and I even know to always roast them with cornmeal and secret spices, but not these secret spices and not with chickpea flour and not for just the right amount of time that they are melt-in-you-mouth delicious! I served them with Spicy Yogurt Sauce with totally not optional cilantro (sorry!) and oh my my nom nom!

Leftover grapes, purely decadent cherry nirvana and apple tea, does it get any better?

The House Special

I've got this cup I got at the bins that says "House Special" on it that I think is a real hoot, but AA says "Huh? I don't get it." Whatev. Lately, there are at least two house specials around here:



Seriously, this peppermint chocolate stuff is goo-ood. We bought two for our potluck, and we have a little of one left and I have been taking little bits at a time, and I know I just have one little bit left and it will be gone. Bum.



On Sunday I cooked up a big pot of apple cider with mountain rose apples (they are PINK inside!!!), cinnamon, lemon, and ginger. Not that many people noticed it was there cause there was beverage MADNESS, so now I have quite a nice amount left. I'll bring some to my family thanksgiving in Olympia, but there's a little left for sipping fun. That picture there isn't the cider, but the way I strained the cider before serving, but I know you didn't need me to tell you that, smarty pants!

AND! I just noticed in that first picture is my tea pot, filled with Belgian Chocolate Rooibos -- another House Special! Sip sip sip sipppp....

Pre-Thanksgiving Holiday Potluck

I'm backdating this like I wrote it after people left so that I don't miss a day, but really I just put the food away, swept up a little bit, and went to sleep not too long after.

This morning we woke up and I cleaned the house a little, helped AA in the kitchen, and then we made our first trip to the much talked about "vegan mini-mall," at which I bought my usual variety of fakey meats for special occasions at Food Fight! and Veganomicon at Herbivore.

Then a couple hours later, we had our potluck, and the food was awesome: tatas and crazy delicious shiitake gravy, herbed tofu, green bean casserole, pecan-topped sweet potato pie, brussel sprouts and chesnuts, challah, something mysterious and yummy, another mysterious and yummy thing, garlic-y greens, salad, lots of raw veggies and grapes and kiwis, biscuits, a loaf-type thing in a flaky crust (my lunch -- mmm!), cupcakes, and now I'm losing track but also apple and pumpkin pie! There were lots of beverages and holiday not-milks and ciders. And AA's veggie boot loaf also made an appearance! What was most awesome is that I didn't feel sick afterwards as I often do after a potluck. I had just a little bit of everything! Woo!

Here are some more pictures, all taken by AA:

While I wait for my floors to dry . . .

The Vegan MoFo Quiz:
1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

I like homemade almond milk the very best, but in terms of things you buy in a tetra pak (in this order): that local hemp milk (though I buy it rarely), edensoy extra, edensoy unsweetened, vitasoy unsweetened. Oat milk, which I only drink in my tea at K's, is also quite lovely.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
I'm going to make brussel sprouts, and if I get Veganomicon in time, I'm going to make the roasted cornmeal sprouts with the indian spices, and if I don't, then my usual roasted cornmeal sprouts sans indian spices. I'm also on the hunt for a good vegan stuffing, since I've got fresh bread waiting to get stale, though I don't know what recipe. Ideas? I'm also going to make a soup out of my kuri squash.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Nutritional yeast!

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
I made this "singapore 'chicken'" thing once that had canned tomatoes and pineapple and creamy skippy peanut butter that I got at the bodega cause I wasn't feeling like going further to the store, and it made me feel totally ill. I was a senior in college, and I met with my advisor the next day to go over my grad school applications, and I had to leave in the middle because I felt so awful.

5. Favorite pickled item?
I don't really like pickled things too much. Um, kimchi? The raw saurkraut that I tasted at the food fair?

6. How do you organize your recipes?
I have a big giant file folder for the errant recipes, shoved on top of the bound cookbooks. They are somewhat organized by category, but mostly not.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
I compost everything I can, and then trash the rest.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Peaches during peach season, ethiopian lentils/wat, and some injera to eat it with.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
When my whole family, aunt and uncle and cousins and all, were done eating this huge dinner, my mom says "Oh, I forgot the rice!" and she comes out with the hugest bowl of rice I have ever seen, and we all burst out laughing.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Coconut bliss, then purely decadent cookies and cream, then vegan soft serve

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
The food processor gets a lot of love.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
I would be very unhappy were there no: cumin, coriander, or cardamom. There's more, but I think I was only supposed to name one in the first place!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
"Diet for a Small Planet" was my first cookbook as a teenager, though I read it more like a book then for the recipes in back, and my first cookbook as an adult was "The World in Your Kitchen."

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Raspberry Jam

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
I don't know. I think lentils go over pretty well with everyone. Or hummus. Or something else that could be served anywhere, not just a vegan restaurant.


16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
This has changed a lot over the years. It used to be: tempeh, seitan, tofu. There have been a bunch of changes in between, but at the moment, I think it's fresh tofu, then tempeh, then seitan. If it's not fresh tofu, it goes to the end of the line like before.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
I like fancy breakfasts and brunches and lunches from time to time, but mostly I eat simply for those meals, and it's at dinner where the action happens.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
2 containers of peppermint chocolate vitasoy for our potluck, beer leftover from a party, a box that has random stuff that doesn't fit in the cabinets, like long strips of yuba and a big bag of sticky rice.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
a big bag of vegetable scraps for stock, banana leaves, and frozen bananas

20. What’s on your grocery list?
I just went to the market, so all I know for sure that I need is dish soap.

21. Favorite grocery store?
The coop.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
I can't think of one. There's very little that isn't vegan that I fantasize about or anything.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it every day). Or maybe the top 3?
I'm not as good at checking as I should, so I'm not going to put anyone down here, but I mostly check my friend's blogs, and wish I had the time/energy to check on more.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
I like those raspberry chocolate bars with the love quotes on them.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
I've been buying chanterelles like I'm made of money lately. A lb last week, a lb this week too.

26. What was your favorite food BEFORE becoming veg*n?
pizza. And it's the last thing I ate before I went vegan. I ate a slice of pizza the night before my 21st birthday, and I said: "Ok, that was it."

Thanksgiving Week

So I've got this next whole week off, and that's both good and bad. Good, well do I need to say why? And bad, because I've already had so many days off in November. I will definitely be making the best of it, though, taking the time to take walks and cook and have all kinds of different free fun before Thanksgiving day with my parents and sister in Olympia. There, I will be making stuffing, some yet-to-be-determined vegan main, and a bunch of other good things.

This weekend should be awesome, too. I'm planning on making the farmer's market again tomorrow, and then Sunday, I'm hosting a small get-together pre-thanksgiving potluck at our place. We will be making pies!

Irony Corn Dog

There's supposed to be a picture of a corn dog here, because it's the last photo I took at Paradox before going to see King Corn. We thought it would be funny to go for corn dogs before seeing King Corn. You know, irony right? But I can't show you that because my camera was stolen. I was so weepy about it that I was crying to my mom about how cruel meat eating was and that it really hurt me that my family did it, etc. It was so embarassing, but I guess I was really attached to my camera. And other things, and I think I'm on my period, and whatever, but wowo, I can't believe I don't have my camera anymore.

Island Foods, Farmers Market Foods

Island Foods is a little corner store that's the kind of place that's so close to my house that it's crazy that I don't go more often. We pass by there all the time, and almost any time we do, we sing a song "Island foods . . . da na na na na na na na na -- wah!" to the tune of Elton John's "Island Girl," a song that neither of know the lyrics for. So you'd think we'd be all over it, but it's also got a ton of stuff that I don't eat, and more often than not, well, oh let's stay with the positive. But what it lacks for in ambience, it makes up for it with quite a nice selection of some of the foods I had been hankering for: dals, fresh spices, tamrind, chana/besan flour, etc. Someone's making Indian food! I also picked up some taro root and coconut milk for this soup I really like to make. So I'm buzzing with ideas for the next few meals, though I still have a lot of my farmer's market produce to contend with before I tackle the taro, I think.



Still in my fridge:
1) brussel sprouts (I'm thinking if I get a sneaky peaky of VCON's version, that would be cool. I always roast them with cornmeal, my copy of the brussels I love from Sacred Chow in NYC, but I'm very interested in the addition of Indian spices!!)

2) celery root (where is AA and his casserole idea???)

3) bell peppers (six of them! what to do? something other than stuffing them?)

4) baked kuri squash (it will go in the taro soup, when i'm ready for it)

There's other stuff, but it's still early in the morning yet, and I have to take a shower. But those are the main things I'd like to cook through in the next few days. Ok, it's resolved. I'm not eating corndogs with Susie and pals this evening before seeing King Corn -- I want to make some food!*

Ok, you know what I have in my head: "It's your world, and I'm just a squirrel trying to get a nut to move your butt...to the dance floor" I think this means today will be a very good day.**



*edited to add: I just got home from "helping" my co-worker fix a flat tire. I don't want to cook. I totally want a corndog.

**While it wasn't a bad day, it couldn't be called an especially good one. The song I thought of while trying to help loosen the nuts of the tire: "I'm just a girl, trying to loosen a lug nut, so move your butt...to the curb." Or something close to that.

Chanterelle, Chanterelle, and Chanterelle Bisque

I often hear people tell of owning, but never making anything out of, the Millenium Cookbooks. I find both the first and the second ones very lovely, but it's true, I don't make a lot out of them. But it's also true that unless I'm really thinking hard on it or working on a project (like VeganMoFo or my World Vegetarian project last year, for example), I often just make stuff up as I go along and refer to recipes for inspiration and then close the book.

But when I was looking in the first Millenium Cookbook this weekend, inspired by my recent purchase of 1 lb of chanterelles for $10 (if you have ever bought chanterelles, or even more, tasted chanterelles, you know this is a deal), and I remembered a soup that featured them. Apparently I made this soup in October of '03, writing "Yum!" in my margin notes. I did remember that Yum, but what I forgot is that this yummy soup also features lobster mushrooms and oyster mushrooms, both of which I'm pretty sure I saw at the market and neither of which I bought. A call to Jess: "Is the wednesday market still on?" No. Another call an hour later: "New Seasons has Maitakes -- what are they like?" Woodsy* So I came to the conclusion that I was just going to stick with the chanterelles and roll with it.

I made the lower fat version cause I had tofu and not cashews, but I had a taste of the "tofu cream" on its own, and it's pretty subtle and awesome, I think. So I'm excited about this soup. I also used celery instead of celery root, not because I don't have a huge gnarly celery root in my fridge as we speak, but because I'm saving that for AA's booty project (see a post or so ago).

The soup...it lacks a certain something something, and that something is lobster mushroom. Those have a pretty intense flavor that I'm missing here. So I added a little more sea salt and a couple of secret spices, and voila, I'm in bisque heaven.



*Jess is in fact very articulate and doesn't reply in one word sentences.

A-La-Old School

I'm not old school much, but I often like to think of myself as an old school vegan. Though people who are older and veganer could say even more, I've definitely been watching with interest as veganism, and therefore vegan products and veganism in advertising, etc., has changed over the years. But lately, I've mostly been thinking about how vegan cooking and vegan cookbooks have changed. I remember when people would chop up tofu, put it on a dish, and call it "chicken" (or in one of my books, call it "chofu!") I've got a couple of cookbooks from way back when that have felt a little abandoned as of late, as both my preferences and tastes have changed throughout the years as I learned more about different kinds of foods.

I've also been thinking about the local vegetarian group's thanksgiving potluck I opted out of this year in order to host my own. Now those guys are totally old school, with 1970's millet loafs a plenty. Those are some good times.

So I pulled out three cookbooks from "back in the day":

Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey
Vegan Vittles
A Vegan Taste of Toronto (I lived in Buffalo, NY when I went vegan, and a lot of the great vegan food to be had was 2 hours north)

And I picked a dish to make that there's a variation of in all three books: Chickpeas-a-la-King! It's a creamy dish of mushrooms and chickpeas and red peppers that you put atop pasta or whatever. And I figured, since I'm already living it up in Starch Central this weekend, why not! It's the kind of thing my mom used to make, too, but this one here's got one very new school addition: chanterelles from the farmer's market!

Once Mashed, Twice Baked!

I went to the farmer's market today and picked up a ton of food, but somehow it was the potato, who knew very well how I hardly ever ever buy it, that insisted on making himself recognized. It knew damn well what I was planning to do with it.

Originally, I thought when I got around to making Twice-Baked Potatoes I might use Joanna's tester recipe (wow, Joanna gets a lot of play around here already! Hmmm, how can I mention Jess in a post? I'll work on that...), but anyway, I remembered that her recipe was far more respectful to the potato than what I was going to do to it (smother it with the Field Roast Soy Crumbles I picked up at Sidecar last weekend -- oh those crazy red things!) So I baked the potatoes and then stuffed them with potato, broccoli (also from the market!), and way more nutritional yeast than you really want to know about, soy milk, a little mustard (that's between us. AA doesn't like mustard, but he doesn't notice when I sneak a little in), salt and black pepper (my usual mashed potato m.o.), and then topped with those crazy red things, and now they are in the oven! So how did I get my picture already up at the top? Magic!

I shall top them with chipotle parma samples we snagged from the Vegan Holiday Festival!

Back on the Booty

AA just got back on the booty. He really missed it! He wants to create a casserole with our huge monstrous celeriac and other yet to be determined stuff, topped with booty.

Incoming...

"My" Lentil Soup

Most every cook has a lentil soup to call her own. All of my recipe books have at least one recipe for lentil soup, if not two or more. I don't really have my "own" recipe, and I kinda want one. What I think I have is a method that I use each time, which is to use whatever vegetables I have around and every spice I like without abandon, and I have been using this method every since my first vegan thanksgiving potluck ten years ago (that's november 1997 for those doing the calculations. I hate math, too). Not many people ate that soup, and I took a ton home, reason being that hardly anyone had a bowl to eat it with. You know, I think Joanna just wrote something about potlucks that mentioned this very fact. Well, that was the day that I learned that one.

So, my favorite herbs and spices for lentil soup are black cardamom (big top fave), cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika, and now that I'm not looking at my spice rack I'm forgetting stuff, but you see the idea, though not really, cause I think I use way more than that. Oh, and some curry powder, but it's gotta be the really good, fresh kind from an Indian store, otherwise don't bother.

Somehow I decided to add a little soymilk to it at the end (not my idea -- I think it was Madhur Jaffrey's, though she adds cream to hers but when I read "cream" I sub "soy milk" in my mind right away), and that was not quite where I was going with it, so this lentil soup still isn't quite "my" lentil soup, either, but it had just the right lovely spice confusion that is my signature lentil soup method. It was tasty.

p.s. I do not add tomatoes.

Who chops broccoli without thinking about Dana Carvey every time, who?*

As my body starts to heal, and my kitchen is now on the mend, I start to admit to myself that I am getting sick. Big surpise -- I haven't been eating well. But when AA suggested that we go to Vita and I order something healthy, I remembered my pledge to eat more of my own food, and said I'd make something simple and quick. All I really had in the way of vegetables (that weren't already dedicated to Pho leftovers!) was broccoli and I chopped and chopped and the result was broccoli soup with coriander and mustard seeds and thai chili powder and well, here it is:




*Yeah, I know. Not many of you do.

Qu'est-ce que c'est -- pho pho pho pho pho pho pho pho pho pho?

This morning I made Pho for lunch. Vegan Pho. I’ve been thinking about Pho ever since I
visited Seattle, where there’s a Pho Tran right next
to a Pho Than on many a block. Or at least on
University Way, but you get the idea. Lots of Pho.

(Oy, this picture does not include Pho Than! But look at Pho Tran’s cool building!)

I’ve got some competing food desires right now: I
want a warm soup to soothe my throat vs. I want to eat
a lot of raw vegetables. Pho satisfies both.

So I simmered up a warm and spicy pot of broth,
flavored with dried lemongrass and ginger and garlic
and carrots and celery and the strongest sri-racha I
have ever tried in my life. More on that later.*
Then in a separate pot, I boiled some water for my
rice noodles. And while all that was happening on the
burner, I went to my cutting board and cut up some bok
choy, kale, red pepper, and cilantro and piled it into
the middle compartment of my 3-tier tiffin. I filled
the bottom compartment with the hot broth and the top
compartment with the rice noodles and some pressed
tofu. And now I’m drinking my favorite lime and
ginger tea at work, waiting for my next student and
waiting to eat my lunch. Pictures later.

eta:


Oh, I forgot to put my camera back in my bag. So this is a picture of pho that I made in July of '06, but I'll taken another picture of the leftovers!

*And I just remembered to add: I picked up my sriracha at the farmer's market -- it's by a local company called "Thai and True," and it's so strong, that I have been working on the same bottle since I moved here! Luckily, it stays fresh, too.

Dishes

I love to cook, but I hate the dishes. I imagine most
of us feel that way. But what I hate more is not
being able to cook because of the dirty dishes, so I
usually give in to the inevitable and clean them.

On October 27, I spent many hours learning and then
practicing and then performing the thriller dance (!)
– that of course, is a whole other story but back to
dishes – and anyway, since then, the dishes have been
piling up. Maybe a dish or two gets cleaned for
breakfast or a snack each day, but other than that,
we’ve been eating out consistently since then. That’s
11 days, though a few of those days were spent out of
town or meeting up with friends, but you get the idea.

A couple of days ago, on the way to a Thai restaurant
down the block, I realized I was really tired of
eating out. Today, I’m readying myself to face the
dishes head on as I’m starting to feel some
improvement in my body, and more importantly, I’m just
done. It wasn’t the thai food – it was delicious –
but I’m sure if you’re reading this, you like to eat
your own food from time to time, and you understand
what I mean. And even though I know I will get it
done, and I know it will feel really good once it’s
done, I can’t help but admit . . . oh nevermind.

Olympia and Seattle and back to Portland: The Car-Less Take a Mini-Tour Around the Pacific Northwest Before Heading Home

Oy, I'm tired of updating my blog so I know that title is ridiculously long. But, um, Seattle Day 2? Well first, Olympia. We stayed the night at my sister's, and got breakfast at Darby's yee ha! Then up to Seattle, walking around etc., then lunch at Queen Sheba lordy! Then more walking, a trip to Mighty O Donuts, then watching the early sunset, and to-go at Vegetarian Teapot House or something something for the ride home. Eating a lot can be exhausting.

"Malabar vs. Shalimar": a very backdated Seattle post, Day 1

We drove to Seattle directly from the Vegan Holiday Festival, and it was an easy 3-hour drive, made even easier by the grungetastic music we heard the whole way up. We met up with AA's brother and wife, walked around Chinatown where I bought a teapot, then we headed to the U District to eat at Flowers.

Now I have heavily played up this restaurant to AA for the past year, but little did I know that after 5 pm, their famed all-vegan food coach turns into a pumpkin, serving nary a vegan thing on the menu. Maybe one, but it certainly did not pay up to the hype.

So we ate somewhere very close by, Malabar, a South Indian restaurant who employs the same font in their menu as Shalimar, a restaurant up the block, which confused us at first. Then we realized Shalimar was North Indian, Malabar was South. Oh Ho! Do we like South Indian food in this joint! So we ate there, and it was out of control good. The dosais were pretty amazing, but one of the highlights for me was this okra and green mango dish -- spicy and sweet and tart oh my!

We mostly get our South Indian fix from our own house (there aren't many Indian restaurants period, let alone South Indian restaurants in Portland, so this was most pleasing. At the end of the meal, the head waiter came up to us and said "So Malabar vs. Shalimar?" I think he thought we ate at Shalimar before, but whatever, Malabar was the winner of the day!


Here is a picture of me, looking sated and happy after a trip to Malabar and Sidecar, the vegan grocery in the U-District. Yeah, this is a picture in front of Pizza Pi.