Sunday, October 07, 2007

Roasted Herbed Summer Veggie Sandwich & San Francisco

Hey blogland, I've returned from my trip to Half Moon Bay and San Franciso, CA, and not only have a ton of food porn to share, but an end of summer/start of autumn recipe to link to.

Below you have a herbed, roasted vegetable sandwich - featuring red tomato, green tomato, yellow bell pepper, eggplant, portabella mushroom and spinach on olive ciabatta bread. The recipe was put together for my guest post on Almost Vegetarian, and is available online if you'd to see more. Granted I made this sandwich so this is coming from the creator, but it's oh, so good.


Onto the California porn! First, let's start with an Americano from Ritual Coffee (and some house espresso beans I picked up for Thomas).

What's the first thing I actually ate in San Francisco? Why, a vegan ice cream sundae!
The awesome Melissa of the Urban Housewife took me to Maggie Mudd's, and I am still impressed 5 days later.

This small sundae has Dubliner ice cream (featuring chocolate and whiskey), Mint Cookies and Creme, marshmallow syrup, walnuts, whipped creme and sprinkles.

After digesting the ice cream, I met up with my lovely friend Jen from the PPK boards and her husband, Nate. We dined at Cha Ya, a vegetarian Japanese restaurant - and it was also amazing.

We split a bunch of items, including my first sampling of warm sake, this tofu salad...

Mushroom soba soup

Cha Ya Rolls (my favorite part of the meal)

Tempura portabella with kiwi edamame sauce (my first close, second favorite part)

The next morning, despite no true recommendation to go there, I tried out Herbivore on Valencia for breakfast. Some things were better than others, and I thought I'd absolutely dislike the porridge looking pesto scramble, but it was actually quite tasty.

Pesto tofu scramble, house potatoes, toasted, jam and tempeh bacon.

And a teeny tiny mimosa, since my work trip was technically over and all.


A few hours later, I found myself wandering into the Civic Center Farmer's Market, and hungry once more. I visited the Alive! Raw food stand, and picked up raw mousse for $1.

Raw avocado chocolate mousse with candy cap mushroom creme.

Being a farmer's market addict, I picked up a bright purple Japanese eggplant for 40 cents to take home with me.

Yes, I found it cool that Walgreen's had soymilk there!

And on my second day, Melissa took me to Cafe Gratitude for some fantastic raw food - we shared two dishes, and below is the I amFabulous raw lasagna. We also shared the I am Festive raw taco salad which we both seemed to agree was the favorite of the two, and I had a nut milkshake.

The most filling drink I have ever had - but totally, totally delicious - the I am Beautiful creamsicle nut milkshake. Sure, it was $7.50, but it was worth it. I also took home a slice of raw tiramisu, that I proceeded to eat a bit of daily, finally finishing it yesterday.

Overall, the food was somewhat pricier that what I've become accustomed to in Portland, but it's a big city and it was generally wonderful, so whatever.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa, that pesto scramble looks different, but I would still eat it. I thought you were going to say it was some lentil or bean puree-type of dish. Ha ha.

bjorkedoff said...

i hope the jam at herbivore was strawberry!

and yr tofu scrambles look better than that.a lot better.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Thanks for letting me drag you around! Stumptown Vegans needs a Maggie Mudd review.. maybe when you return to SF?

Emilie said...

i can never get over how much i love cafe gratitude despite the "i am...blessed" stuff. it's so delicious. looks like a good trip.

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

dang, that sundae looks amazing.

MeloMeals said...

Wow. what a trip.

That pesto scrable looks kind of gross, but I can see that it might be very good.... sometimes, looks are deceiving..

How cool that you got to chill with other vegan bloggers...

erica said...

Wow, so much raw food! The sandwich you did is gorgeous, by the way.

I totally OD'd on avocado-carob mousse a few months ago, I'm sure my taste for it will come back in time for the holidays :)

Elizabeth said...

I was in San Francisco this weekend, too! But I didn't get as much chance to eat where I wanted to since I was at a retreat. But I did eat at Naan n Curry on Irving and at Marnee Thai on 9th Ave.

We love Herbivore! Though I didn't really review it, I recommended it on this post:
http://sanfranfamily.blogspot.com/2005/09/things-we-like-to-do-in-san-francisco.html

And yeah, I've had the I Am Beautiful too and enjoyed it. My funny story is on that post as well!

Yes, Portland prices are much more affordable. And I do have to say that we loved Herbivore when we lived there.....but I think Veganopolis beats it.

Jody from VegChic said...

Wow JD..the food looks awesome. I'm in love with the Sunday and the Nut Milk Shake.

The raw mousse looked interesting too.

California has so many options...I've got to go sometime.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Looks like some great food in SF. Glad you wrote about Maggie Mudd, I'm headed to SF myself this weekend and now I'm definitely going to make a stop there!! I was thinking about herbivore too...can't decide...

bazu said...

I love this post! I'm planning a trip to CA this winter, and you are whetting my appetite for all these wonderful places I've been wanting to try. I'm glad you had a good trip, Jess!

Teresa said...

Oh i hope you liked SF. You went to some of my favorite restaurants here. And I am so jealous because I still haven't yet made it Maggie Mudds or Cafe Gratitude- 2 places I've been wanting to go to for forever. Oh and I do wish our prices were lower- it would make going out to eat more possible :(.

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