Vegan Dining, out and about

The last two weeks I have used up my Groupons, taken advantage of discounts and felt like I totally went off my raw vegan diet (still having green smoothies for breakfast).  In truth, I'm still sticking to a mostly raw diet - lots of delicious salads, green smoothies, and other tasty things.  And, somehow, I haven't managed to gain weight.  Yay, me!

Here are some of my favorite places that I have visited in the last couple of weeks:

DONUT FARM:  first and foremost, you need to go buy your coupon for 2-for-1 salt caramel vegan donut from the Pepple's Ferry Building kiosk.  Saturday - go to the Donut Farm on San Pablo for vegan brunch (9-2:30) - the most scrumptious and tasty vegan brunch out there.  Best. Hashbrowns. Ever.

RAW DADDY FOODS: delicious raw, organic & vegan "fast" food from proprietor James Hall.  I'll be helping him out at the Temescal Farmer's market beginning Sunday (fair weather only!), so please come look me up and give these delicious treats a try.

GRACIAS MADRE:  this place is no joke.  I am in love with the gorditas de papa topped with creamy cashew sauce, avocado, sprouts and green salsa, the sweet potato chipotle empanadas enveloped in chewy flaky dough on a perfect puddle of fantastic mole sauce, awesome tortillas and killer mole enchiladas (love the kale).  Quite possibly the best Mexican food in the Bay Area, no kidding.

LEGION OF HONOR CAFE:  most amazing frites & best view from any restaurant in the Bay Area.  Those frites were totally worth six bucks, though I do wish I had a slightly larger portion, my ass thanks you for not American-sizing it.  Also be sure to get there before June to check out the "Pulp Fashion" exhibit - I'll be back to see it at least a few more times, so send me an e-mail if you want to go with me (I'm a member!).

SATURN CAFE:  some very good vegan options, lots of vegetarian options - but seriously: BEST FREAKING GARLIC FRIES EVER!  I am so not kidding.  They do not mess around with the deep fryer.

MILLENNIUM: I want to marry the dessert chef for coming up with peanut butter chocolate chip bread pudding with roasted banana ice cream.  No joke.  She's cute and likes cats, too!

ENCUENTRO: most fantastic & economical wine tasting event for Make Work Winery - 3 glasses & 3 tapas for $25, but I could not resist getting the chocolate cake. Chef Eric, Chef Lacey & Bosslady Linda do a great job - say hi to the most awesome server Liz when you go in.

WAT MONGKOLRATANARUM (aka "Berkeley Thai Brunch"):  best yellow curry in existence, giant chunks of potato and tofu puffs.  Get there early before the coeds snarf it all down.

MEZZE: I bought their Groupon because their menu specifically said "can be made vegan" on several items.  used one of my two coupons with a friend on Friday - and was very impressed by their mushroom risotto, wines by the glass selection and very tasty frites (not as good as the Legion Cafe, but I'm seeing a bad pattern here - french fries are, indeed, my achilles heel).  Looking forward to my next visit.

I haven't been to Cha-Ya on Shattuck since their remodel, but am very saddened to see that they have removed the chairs from the sushi bar, one of my favorite places to eat there.  I'm also dying to return to the Imperial Tea Court in the food mall on Shattuck -- most awesome hand pulled noodles and green onion pancake (tea is pretty good, too).  The hand pulled noodles are not available at the Ferry Bldg, so save your appetite for the Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto.

Encuentro Oakland - Opening Night Review

There was nothing "soft" about last night's opening of Encuentro (http://www.encuentrooakland.com) - as soon as they opened the doors, the Jack London Square neighborhood restaurant was packed and stayed packed all night long, steaming up the elegant glass front of the restaurant. 

Eric Tucker, founding chef of the highly regarded (even famous!) Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco, along with partners Lacey Sher and Linda Braz picked a quiet corner on the ground floor of a building of lofts at 2nd and Jackson adjacent to the Amtrak Station in an area which transitions from wholesale grocers to residential lofts within just a few blocks off Broadway.

The krispy kale chips were positively addicting - olive oil and sea salt roasted kale chips served in a mound on the plate with our first glasses of wine - a Philo Ridge chardonnay and Wellington Vineyard zine/cab/grenache blend. 

My friend found the chardonnay to complement the Uncle Eddie’s Wild Hen Devilled Eggs very well, while the red wine I ordered was perfect with the Truffled Mushroom Pecan Pate (vegan) which was served with grain mustard, fig onion marmalade, caper berries.  The pate was so rich and delicious - I have honestly never tasted anything like it and will do my best to find out how to make it!

My friend and I both ordered the same sandwich - Peppered Portobello mushrooms with caramelized fennel/onions - he had the
smoked goat cheddar and I had the smoked pecan cheese (vegan) with caper aioli. 

This was probably one of the best sandwiches I have ever had - and now I now what Eric means when I asked him about cooking baby fennel - his response was "You cook the $hit out of it" - the fennel and onions were so tenderly caramelized that the flavors of both came through in each bite without being mushy or dissolved into one big roasted mess. 

The velvety texture of the mushroom was countered by the thick lightly toasted rustic bread - toasted just enough to provide a crunch without falling to crumbs when I bit down.  The smoked pecan cheese was unlike anything that I have had yet - and I can't wait to go back and order the vegan cheese plate trio of Smoked Pecan / Brazilnut / Herbed Cashew and Pumpkin Seed cheeses. 

The Nuevo Mundo Cab/Carmenere  went really well with the sandwich, by the way.  The printed wine menu in the restaurant includes some of the most apt & mouth watering 2-4 word descriptions of the wines - "tobacco/dirty blackberry" and "chocolate/tobacco/new wood/blueberry" and such.

I can't wait to go back - the Encuentro team has put together an outstanding menu and the space is gorgeous.  Though the restaurant is not large and the ceilings are a bit high - at no point did I feel like I would lose my hearing and I was able to converse easily with my friend and with the two folks seated near us.  I hope they get to use the broad sidewalk for outdoor seating in warm weather (please Oakland! we need more seats at this amazing restaurant!).

Easter Brunch & Back on the Bicycle!

SUNRISE EASTER RIDE to Mt Tam on motorcycles is a long and growing Easter morning tradition. Many of my friends and acquaintances got up (or stayed up) to meet at various locations in the East Bay and SF to ride up to the top of Mt Tam. I, however, did not - I slept in! The idea of riding en masse, in the dark and fog and chill, on unfamiliar roads, totally did not appeal.

Instead, I opted for being the bearer of a nice bottle of champagne to brunch at the home of two nearby friends and heard all about the ride while eating yummy food. After a long leisurely brunch, much relaxing and story telling, which lead to giving a friend a massage - we found ourselves back at Barlata.

I have to say - I am really becoming a huge afficionado of Barlata - the atmosphere is pleasant, the staff are charming and timely, the food is delicious and the chef is happy to feed me though I don't eat animal products (unlike that other tapas place). I'm a big fan of their patatas bravas - way better than the other place, and they have some excellent grilled mushrooms, grilled bread with garlic & tomato and fantastic, affordable wines. What more could a food loving vegan ask for in a restaurant to share with her meat eating friends?

Despite the problems with the economy, it seems like restaurants are doing pretty well in Oakland and people are still eating out a lot!

RESTAURANT: Wood Tavern

After a ride in the Berkeley Hills for sunset and a few drinks at The Graduate, I marched across the street with three friends for dinner at Wood Tavern, the restaurant of a darling young chef named Max DiMare. Wood Tavern focuses on rustic, hearty fare in the flexible and varied nexus of local-sustainable-California.

I first met Max right when he moved out to California - I worked with his Uncle Bill as a freelance consultant, and we'd go dine at Max's restaurant whenever Bill would be in town. Max is funny, smart and an all around great guy as well as a fantastic chef. He also loves spicy food and I remember going for dinner at a divey Vietnamese joint on Polk with him and his uncle several years ago - Max had been experimenting with habanero salsas and was pouring on fiery yellow salsa and sweat was rolling off his scalp, but he was loving it!

Fortunately, Max knows his limits are different from the rest of us mortals, but certainly if you want spice, Chef Max is the one who can kick it up and challenge your taste buds.

You might not think that a dinner at Wood Tavern would be the first choice for a vegan. Max assured me that he could make me delicious vegan food and my meat eating friends would all be happy to not be eating Thai food yet once again...

I love the interior of Wood Tavern - it's just warm, inviting brick and wood, with sparkling lights and glass. Together, the four of us slayed two orders of frites, bread and olive oil and a wonderful green salad with a blood orange vinaigrette. My friends had a couple orders of the crispy pork belly and an order of cold cuts (salame or venison or something).

The pasta dish Max whipped up for me was delicious - shells with shiitake mushrooms and asparagus was just fantastic - it had a delicious sweet-savory broth for seasoning and was far and beyond any vegan dish I have been served at other "meat" restaurants (Salt House hates vegetarians who like to eat dinner with their meat eating friends, btw).

For dessert, I had the most amazing strawberry sorbet, and two of my friends dared to have the affogato at 11pm! - a concoction of espresso, chocolate and ice cream that would keep anyone up for several more hours!

A delicious, satisfying and not ridiculously expensive meal for 4 people (including wine) was around $100 including tip. Yums!

New York City, part 2

SATURDAY NIGHT I put on my new shoes and my red dress and we headed to Pranna Restaurant. It had some mixed reviews on Yelp, but my friend told me it was one of his favorite places in his neighborhood.

I was impressed with the clean, modern look. Suitably for old people (that is, over 24), we got there early - around 10:30. We sat at the bar and had some delicious food - my friend had some rice noodles with pork, we both ordered satay and devoured two servings of delicious wok fried cashews with green onions and chilis. My smoked tempeh satay with shitakes was totally delicious. I also enjoyed the "Crispy 5 Spice Mushroom Stuffed Tofu" with tomatillo salsa - very delicious and tasty. Eric picked out a delightful bottle of wine and we enjoyed our food at the bar.

Somewhere around 11:30, the place started to fill up with very young people who could not possibly have been drinking age. One young woman wearing very short denim shorts and a lot of St Patrick's paraphernalia explained that it was St Patrick's day in Hoboken and gave us the run down of a week's of St Patrick's day activities that were not to be missed. We decided to leave when we realized we were being regarded as creepy old people...

On our way out, we went by the Armory on Lexington Ave - there were big, big banners for an art show called "Art for Afghanistan" to support "Operation Homefront" organized by Samson Contompasis and soldier Tamara "Gabby" Gabbard. It was after hours, but we were allowed in anyway - and had a look at some giant installations and talked with the artists. Samson's dad, Pete, was very outgoing and helpful. When I asked if they planned to take this installation to Burningman, he lit up and said that he wanted to go to Burningman on his motorcycle from New York!

Sunday morning, we went to the gym - after 20 minutes on the cardio bike, I decided my time would be better spent getting a (very pricy) massage. I packed for the flight and then we went for a stroll around Madison Square Park to see what sort of lunch we could find to bring to the park and share with the chickens (pigeons) and squirrels. A pizza place named Papou's spoke to me - and I ended up with a gorgeous calzone with no cheese, full of spinach, mushrooms, onions, red peppers, olives and sauce. It took longer for it to bake than to make! Amazingly, the pizza joint gets terrible reviews on Yelp but what I had was so simple and unscrewupable that it was very satisfying.

Eric ended up at a place next door called "Organique" which had a lot of nice looking offerings but the worst and slowest service on the planet. I wanted to get some vegan truffles - but apparently it takes 4 people to make two sandwiches for one person. Seriously. And they got good reviews on Yelp.

After a nice lunch in the park in 65 degree weather - sharing chips with the squirrel and drinking a Sam Adams Boston Lager with my calzone, we headed off to the airport... back to San Francisco for Jenn!

My friend Paul met me at the airport and we headed to another "new to me" place - Waterbar. Though it was after dining hours, we were seated at the bar and had a nice late dinner of a super thin crust pizza with asparagus (yum) and mushrooms, the best frites I have ever had in my life (since Tallulah closed, anyway) , some broccoli rab with olive oil & chili flakes, delicious wine and a glittering view of the Bay Bridge and the bay. The restaurant is pretty and our bartender/server Stefan was attentive and friendly.

A weekend trip to NYC with delicious meals in SF on either end is not a bad way to live. Or to go off diet. Back to diet now.

Squash Blossom Brunch & more fruit...

SQUASH BLOSSOMS: I've been dying to make these. Somehow, James and I never got around to making dinner after we got home from The Trappist on Friday -- we found ourselves busy with non-food preparation related entertainment.

After the picnic in Dolores Park with the green bloggers, I took him to Ristorante Bacco for the first time - we had a fantastic dinner with the same server, Lucca, who was there the last time I had dinner with my friend Samael7.

James ordered a salmon carpaccio over a fennel salad, and I had a nice arugula and radiccio salad. For dinner, he had the fregola (tiny round pea shaped pasta) with seafood, and they made me a fantastic dish of rigatoni with truffle oil, green beans, asparagus, pine nuts, red pepper and carrots. Since we have liked the Layer Cake primitivo, we ordered another primitivo which had a bit more bite but which was delicious. We finished off with a mango sorbet that was creamy and delicious but not nearly as good as the WWOZ mango sorbet.

All this means is that we still had squash blossom sitting in my fridge when we got back to the east bay.

This morning I was determined to make up a squash blossom brunch. I made a nice nut cheese to stuff in the blossoms:

1/4 c raw pistachio nut meat
1/2 c raw cashews
1/4 c. raw pinenuts
1/2 tsp of chopped garlic from a jar
1/4 tsp chopped ginger from a jar
1 Tb white miso
1/4 tsp powdered cumin
dash of cayenne & salt
nutritional yeast to taste (optional)
dozen sprigs of cilantro (optional)
1/2 tsp lime juice (optional)

Whir in a food processor or high watt blender with a good knife-in-bowl system.

The nut cheese came out pretty astonishingly good.






Next:

Stuffed 12 squash blossoms with the nut cheese, and roll in batter:

1 c. flour
3 Tb crushed black sesame seeds
salt and coarsely crushed black pepper to taste
1-1 1/2 c water to make a thick batter

Make sure you get the blossom ends and a bit inside the blossom ends to keep them stuck together when you fry.

Thinking a batter would cling to the blossoms better than if I dunked them in flour-water-flower. It worked stupendously -- we had the most gorgeous and delicious squash blossom fritters with a side of sauteed red pepper, mushroom, chopped squash blossoms and grated zucchini and one sliced, sauteed sage-apple gluten sausage (pictures are coming, I swear!). We made a sauce with some chili oil, soy and lime -- but I think I would try one of the fruit chutneys I have made or a fruit- chili based sauce next time.

FRUIT: I know - I was going to take it easy, but... after delivering jars of apricot jam (and I got a jar made from the same apricots by James' neighbors), I picked more apricots from the tree next door to James' apartment. We went and got some gorgeous green gage plums and some light green/yellow apples. The plums are so astonishingly tasty - it's all I have had for dinner so far. Dobson loves the bruised apricots and the squishy plums, too.

I put all the fruit out on trays so that the apricots and apples can ripen a bit more. Then I spent aobut 2 hours cleaning the kitchen - I pulled out the stove and cleaned behind as best I could without detaching the gas hose pipe. I took the top off and cleaned out all the gooey, caramelized, burnt jam from under the burners, pulled out the bottom shelf and scrubbed it and the inside of the oven door. The sides are clean, as is the side of the cabinet and I even vacuumed and got all the bottle caps from behind the stove. It is CLEAN.

After finishing in the kitchen, I spent about six hours re-staking and re-tying tomato plants. My brother arrived and worked on the solar dehydrator -- it's practically a whole box now! I'm pretty excited and feel very grateful that my brother has stepped up to assemble the solar dehydrator for me. I don't know when I would have had time to do it with all the other stuff I have going on with preserving and housework. Oh - and there's that quilt I'm trying to finish up for Samael7 before his birthday on 9/11.

Ah... projects. I am going to figure out the dinner project and find a book. The kitties are zonked (except Dobs) -- George found a neighbor cat to fight with (no scratches or blood) but he was so tired out that he has been asleep since eating dinner at 6pm. Even though all the doors were open until 8:30, he just curled up on the bed in a ball and won't even wake up when I pet him.

BANG: Oh - and - there was a shooting around the corner from me last night. I missed it because I was at my sweetie's house... the 2 victims crashed their car, taking out about 4 cars and totalling them. The neighbors say there were about 8 shots, semi-automatic weapon fire.