What I did on my summer vacation!

I returned early this week from my trip to Philadelphia, PA/King of Prussia, PA and Long Island/NYC. I was KOP for a business conference, right next to the big ole mall.

First thing after a red eye flight into town and a bit of wandering, I went to Morning Glory diner for breakfast. It was recommended on the PPK boards and was warm, filling meal..Tofu scramble with spinach, roasted red peppers and mushrooms - wheat toast, cinnamon apples and roasted potatoes. Very good, but the tofu was silken cubes. What gives? I couldn't bring myself to eat the spinach. Soybean coffee shake and my friend Erin's coffee from The Bean Cafe on South Street. One of those rare, rare, rare occasions I consume caffeine purposely.From Kingdom of Vegetarians in Chinatown, Philly - wonton soup.Hot & Sour Soup.Erin and I split a Kung Pao chicken lunch special. The gluten was too squishy for me.
Well, I was trapped mallside and all with my company credit card - Portabella burger and fries from...The Cheesecake Factory, King of Prussia. I had one meal here, two at the California Pizza Kitchen, conference 'fancy' dinner at the California Cafe and a salad from the food court. FYI, all pastas from The Cheesecake Factory contain eggs. I feared the bun.My sister, Jennifer, and her boyfriend, Mike drove down from NY to spend time with me during the conference. They even cut class! He's Mike sampling some edamame at The Cheesecake Factory.We went into Philly for the day on Saturday after the conference had ended. We went to the highly recommended New Harmony Vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown and had the most delightful meal of the trip. Pictured below are spring rolls and dipping sauce. Wonton soupMy sister and I both had hot and sour soup. I have to give KOV the honor of best hot and sour, this one didn't have any bite.

Dragon dumplingsyea yea yea ! Sesame tofu with broccoli, slightly spicy. This was my main dish.Mike's Kung Pao chicken. The vegetables were so fresh!Jenny's General Tsao's chicken. This dish rocked my tastebuds like No Name from Grasshopper used to. Same texture!We had dinner at Maoz. I'd only been to them in Amsterdam previously, where yeah, the fries were 800x better, but the falafel from this place in Philly ranks as the second best I've ever had.Falafel sandwich with pickle, cauliflower, hot peppers, tons of tahini, hummus and fried eggplant. aka THE WORKS. From Gino's of Tuscany in my hometown of Islip, NY - Penna Puttanesca, minus the capers because they creep me out. This restaurant does not have anchovies in their sauce.We took my grandparents into NYC for the day on Sunday. This is from Ferrara's in Littly Italy, NY: two mini cannolis and a cream puff type dessert. Nope, none are vegan. I got to sit and watch my grandma find the pastry she had described for awhile that we had no idea what it was..."the cross on top"
My grandparents, both had the pastry my grandma mentioned: Pasticciotti Ricotta.

On the to-do list: a veganization. Even the coffee was snazzy.My grandparents, Gloria & Harry <3 Last dinner on Long Island - Peninsula Restaurant. Spicy fried tofu and mixed veggies in garlic sauce - the classic. Basically, I'd been craving chinese like crazy in Oregon! Lots of good Thai food but not the Chinese I'd missed.

And finally Zelda, packing herself for the next trip.

Expect a restaurant review celebrating our 2 year Portlandversary and a couple PPK testing photos this weekend~

The beauty of a salad, crossed with a KNISH

More Isa inspired pizza - with VWAV pizza sauce (SO GOOD), dough, pesto blobs, fresh chopped tomatoes, garlic, red peppers and mushrooms. Mushrooms and sliced tomatoes are my top two favorite pizza toppings by far + the mandatory sprinkle of oregano, crushed red pepper flakes and chopped garlic.Same base with FYH mozzerella (cover it with foil for part of baking, then broil), roasted or sauteed eggplant-I forget which this time, basil, pine nuts, chopped tomatoes and mushrooms. I actually preferred the non-cheez version.

What's this? Why, a VWAV knish. I made a large roasted garlic and carmelized onion version with Thomas, and a smaller roasted garlic version for myself.

These knishes are in the first three recipes I made from VWAV - I don't recall the exact order but other two were tempeh bacon and the classic pancakes, then I was more than hooked.Knish, organic ketchup, sesame green beans minus the sesame and roasted corn on the cob.I don't think I've posted this yet - it's sweet and savory tofu scramble from a couple weeks back. This was made using those two little bell peppers I showed a few posts back. There's also biscuits and gravy and steamed yellow wax beans.I received tomatillos in my csa share and was nervous about what to do with them. I threw a few in scrambles, but then went all out for a true salsa verde: The salsa verde is on the left, the recipe I used is here. It's one of the spiciest things I've ever made, and I cut the heat in half and added some cherry tomatoes! I do actually like things spicy, on top of that.

Still pretty tasty - I added a bit of lime juice and squirt of agave to cut the heat.

On the right is some organic medium salsa that was storebought, and a plate of nachos with fyh cheddar. I swear I'm done with the fake cheez kick...I just had this craaaving.My food processor thinks it's the star of the show - here it is prior to pulsing a chunky eggplant-tomato dip. The recipe is from New Seasons Market, Thomas and I tasted it there and he wanted the recipe. It has eggplant too, which I've mentioned that he isn't a fan of. If anyone wants I can repost it at a later time.On french baguette slices hanging out in the sun.Italian baked cubed tofu. <3 This is for yesterday & today's lunch salads.

The holy bed of salad greens (no spinach indeed). I was inspired to throw green beans in from a salad on yellow rose recipes. To think I'd never included them before, for shame. These fresh ones (haricot verts) have the perfect crunch.

Okay, that's it from me till later next week when I return from my trip.

Do you like food?

Chickpea cutlet (again from the upcoming PPK book) with bbq sauce, garlicky chard, a nutritional yeasty/garlicky/eb twice baked potato and corn on the cob. Mushroom medallion - another test recipe. This was obviously Thomas' dish with carmelized Walla Walla onions on top. You can't really see them, but this was served with VWAV Cajun oven fries.One of our old favorites that we hadn't made in ages - bbq tofu with local red bell peppers. On the side is short grain brown rice (finally restocked that since the move) and a simple side salad. I think Consorzio recently discontinued the 'spicy' version of this sauce I adored because I can't find it anywhere, so we've been using the original one. I should get around to making my own again..Trip to Fubonn. Vegetarian chicken patties, silken tofu, firm tofu from Washington (used in the bbq tofu), lychee gummy candies, coconut essence, coconut cream and coconut milk.Yo - I've really been loving my food processor. I've used it for dough, pesto, salsa verde and a caponata type spread. Pictured above is the pesto from VWAV, made with pine nuts instead of walnuts.Pesto rolls! With pesto, earth balance, pizza dough and FYH mozzarella. These were really tasty, bizarrely almost sweet, but I used a little too much oil in the pan so some bottoms had to be forgotten. Oh well, I learned my lesson. Isa pizza from VWAV, minus the tofu ricotta, plus red peppers. Make this.PPK coffeecake with Italian prune plums. Made with Michelle for a vegan cook-a-long post - check out this group, it's really neat and something a lot of you guys might be into~

I wanted to link to Susan's Fatfree vegan blog, because it's really inspiring me to eat big lunch salads with tofu. I'm penciling in hummus and grilled veggies as well to go on top. Thank you! Plus, keep an eye out on this bagged spinach fiasco.

I'll be in PA and NY next week, for a busines conference and then a few days of vacation. Ahhh.. This time I will not upload my trip photos to Jenny's computer so I can actually share the meal experiences on the blog. I might post one more before I go.. Any suggestions, dining/travel for Philadelphia or King of Prussia?

Lunch at Bay Leaf

Check out the more recent review I wrote on Stumptown Vegans, here!

We went to Bay Leaf on SE Division for a second time this past Saturday, for a late birthday dinner turned lunch. Upon simply arriving and remembering the lunch special prices (on a Saturday at that!), I knew that it had been far too long since we've dined here. I couldn't decide between the eggplant and sesame tofu, and we both ended up ordered the sesame tofu lunch specials. This came with flawlessly cooked broccoli florets, those cute crunchy white noodles (?), a side of mixed grain rice and a cup of the soup of the day. $5.95 for portions that sent us both home with leftovers - & we both enjoyed the soup and shared an appetizer. Basically, check out Bay Leaf.
The tofu isn't as crispy as I'd like, so I kept thinking "egggggplant" but Thomas said he thought it was the same as the last time we went, so go figure. Regardless, it was succulent stuff.

The soup of the day was Hot & Sour - a personal favorite of mine, so I have the right to be pickier than usual. I actually give this the thumbs up. At first I couldn't decide if it was either hot or sour at all - but then the afterbite kicked in after a couple sips. Thomas and I agree that the consistency was right on, and the tofu was just firm enough. Thomas is NOT a hot and sour fan and enjoyed it, and I say give it a little more heat and I'm in love. Look at the matchstick veggies!

Spring rolls with a citrus soy sauce - this one gets credit for the radish side a lone. Oh, and these are in the lead for the best spring rolls in Portland!

It was a birthday celebration and all, so I tried my first avocado smoothie and was not dissapointed, hell no. I think it overshadowed the meal! See you next year for sure, smoothie.

Attack of the giant sunflowers. We saw this on the way home from Nicholas and I thought I'd share, having only recently seen these enormous creatures..I mean plants..