Wednesday, January 24, 2007

what's going on

This post is alitte Seattle, a little Portland restauranting and some steady PPK recipe testing.

Speaking of the PPK, if you haven't seen it, check out the ladies being interviewed in yesterday's New York Times, which is now always said in Jon McGuirk's voice in my head. I like the part where Isa says yea, a lot ofvegan food isn't tasty, because it's so often true, especially in the world of mass-produced packaged goods - unfortunate, but true. She's not being a snot about it, just real.
When vegan food is good - it's good. I think back to the crap I ate when I first when vegan, and now I just don't even think about things like frozen meals as food options. Well, that's also because I'm weirded out by defrosted items and love/have time to cook.

Moving on to what I've been testing..


Herbed Scalloped Potatoes.

Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli over whole wheat pasta - satisfying my love of heat and tempeh, and greens, and pasta.. I


Sure, I've posted this one before, but I made it for a 3rd or 4th time Sundayevening, as it's soup season and it absolutely hits the spot - Roasted Garlic Tomato Rice Soup, served with a piece of organic rustic baguette.

Onto Seattle..
We went to Wayward Cafe in the University District for our second day's lunch. It is a worker owned coffee shop, and if I recall correctly, all - vegan. Thomas had the battered tempeh 'Truck Stop' plate, with tangy greens and a hunk of bread or biscuit? with gravy. The tempeh almost had a fried fish thing going on, maybe some seaweed something or other in the breading.

There's often a pattern when Thomas and I dine out - he orders something fabulous, and I'm less than thrilled for one reason or another. And then I order whatever he ordered next time.

These tofu migas were tasty, especially with the freshly fried tortillas an black beans, but I was under the assumption there were no onions (okay, told) and the tofu was chock full of them. I picked my way around some of it, but most of it ending up being snacked on by my sister and her boyfriend when we met up with them. Kudos to them eating their first tofu-scrambly meal!

Sidecar for Pigs Peace Vegan Store, across from Pizza Pi and a short walk from Wayward Cafe. I picked up an orange mango soda and agave nectar, since I've been out for a while.

This is from a meal we had a couple weeks ago, at the famous Ya Hala in Portland. I was not disappointed at all, other than the attached grocery closing before we left, but that's no big deal. The food was delightful, and very, very well priced. I took many photos with are up on flickr, but this was my favorite dish - the Baba Ganouj. I never knew I was such a fan of this smoky, exquisite dish until that evening. Thank you, Ya Hala. I just wish you were closer!


My sister works at a Greek restaurant and was craving pita melts, so she made them for dinner one night. Here is the vegan one she made me - with homemade tomato sauce by Mike, sauteed spinach, portabella, chickpeas with garlic and olive oil, nooch and a little tofutti mozzerella. It was such a good combo it even made the tofutti delish.


Oh, and this is just my sister holding her strawberry shortcake (with green strawberry-vanilla cake). Her first decorating job was greatness. (p.s. I got a new decorating bag, whew)


17 comments:

erica said...

I love a good tomato rice as well.

What makes the strawberry shortcake green? It looks like the BEES KNEES!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

She just used food coloring, I know, creative genius. It actually wasn't very dark green at all, and I think she meant to make it blue.

funwithyourfood said...

AW your sister and the cake is the best part :)

Vegan Cooking said...

I too sometimes think of the things that I used to eat when I was first vegan and cringe. I feel like even packaged vegan food has come along way since then though (1997) One particularly disgusting thing was before "Silk" became so popular, that company was just called "Whitewave" and they made a soy yogurt that was maybe the most disgusting thing ever.

Anonymous said...

I haven't had breakfast yet and I'm drooling over here! Everything looks wonderful. Wish they would hurry up with that new cookbook.

What a beautiful cake - food coloring and all.

Linda said...

that pitamelt makes my mouth water! i've never had one of those. yum. thanks for sharing.

Kris said...

Wow, everything looks great, as always. I'm so glad that you had a fun trip to Seattle. I'll have to try the Globe Cafe next time we go up there.

I'm so lucky to have Ya Hala in my back yard. We eat there far too often... but it's so inexpensive how can I say no, really?

Kati said...

I think I found Veganworld...it's called the Pacific Northwest. I'm so jealous! *planning trip as we speak..err type*

Unknown said...

I grew up eating migas and I have to admit it was about one of the only things I'd eat for breakfast (not really a breakfast type person). I thought I'd never have them again since becoming vegan. Seeing your post made me want to try making them with tofu. Thank you so much for sharing. I think I'm having me some migas this weekend. Cool.

urban vegan said...

Wasn't the Isa/Terri article great?

Wowee--look at all that yumminess-that just happens to be vegan. That restaurant's food looks amazing.

sarchan said...

I'm envious of all your lovely vegan dining excursions. That cake is beautiful!

bazu said...

I loved seeing the NYTimes article- I think the next trend for veganism is truly delicious and decadent food, so we have Isa and Terry to thank for inspiring us all!
I love all the food, and especially the photo of your sister- sweet!

bazu said...

p.s. I'm a dork- at first, I thought by "green strawberry" you meant unripe strawberries! I was like, where'd they find those...? lol

Brooke said...

I am gong to Seattle/Portland this summer and can't wait to go to all the awesome vegan restaurants there. Yay!

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

i do believe that you and everyone else associated with this post just made renaldo "obie" benson, al cleveland, and marvin gaye a whole heck'va lot cooler.

(i know, i didn't think that was possible either!)

;)

n/a said...

awesome pics - i haven't had potatoes in a while. scalloped ones sound excellent!

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