Dear Meal, You're Boring!

Sometimes I'm really in the mood for straight up, wholesome food. Like steamed kale with a sprinkle of sea salt or baked yams, plain and simple. There are even restaurant dishes I can think of that are on the plainer side of things that I crave - like the Incan bowl at Blossoming Lotus and the similar design-your-own quinoa bowl with sesame ginger sauce from Chaos Cafe (how I adore thee). However, one of my formerly favorite places in Portland is officially on my boring list due to a second bland meal. Bland when it seriously shouldn't be.
That's you, Vege Thai.

Sigh. New management took over in the past year: we lost the short, short lived food cart before that , prices went up (what else is freaking new) and the menu was updated, for better to a degree. It's almost hard for me to write this, and I don't think I could if it was the old management. Vege Thai, while not quite authentic, served vegan and vegetarian Thai food - and guarantees no fish sauce or shrimp paste. Vegan! Thai!
I've had 3 traumatic this-Thai-food-isn't actual-vegetarian/vegan experiences in town in the past year alone!

The restaurant still offers both vegan and vegetarian meat substitutes (....), the chicken being my protein of choice there. I adored Vege Thai because the food was fairly naughtily greasy, well priced and tended to send me home with leftovers. The Pad Sei-iew, Pineapple Curry, Chicken Nuggets and sinfully delicious Peanut Sauce were, and are still my favorites on the menu - but since the ownership change, things just haven't been as flavorful, and frustratingly - at all as saucy!

Anywhoo, here's the recent meal I 'treated' myself to on a day of playing hooky from work.
Well, really I took a sick day and hobbled since I recently fractured my foot during a business trip and have a giant boot on. I get sad when my weekdays off don't involve a lunch special on the east side of Portland.

Lunch special soup. This used to at least have tofu in it.

Noodles in the Jungle with tofu (with rice noodles instead of yakisoba - to blame?)
Tofu=tasted old.
Vegetables=overcooked and watery
Spices sprinkled on the sauce=not working for me.
Peanut sauce=the only actual flavor.

Time for a break, old favorite. I'll see you again one day.