Chow Vegan

While down in Southern California, Legoland in Carlsbad popped up on the itinerary a couple of times. For lunch there, I usually go for the salad bar at the Fun Town Market Restaurant. As you can see above, I really loaded up my plate.

After all that walking around the park, I need every single morsel. Because of the high turnover, the salad bar seems very fresh. The workers are constantly refilling the different items. I’ve even seen marinated tofu cubes, not on day 1 when I took the picture but they had it on day 2. It’s about 10 bucks a plate.

Usually the family eats over at Fun Town to accommodate me, the vegan. For one meal, we tried Upper Sports Deck Cafe for a change. When asked about vegan options, the waitress mentioned the Gardenburger and the entrée salads without the meat.

I got the burger with no mayo or dressing, it came with waffle fries, also for around $10. I think the patty may be vegan but I’m unsure about the bun. Also ordered the hummus with vegetables appetizer to share.

While Legoland has vegan options, it seems like Disneyland has more to offer. Although, probably the healthiest option of all the theme parks, is the Fun Town Market salad bar.

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Vegan Dining at Disneyland Revisited
Vegan Dining at Disneyland

Visited Disneyland again this year and got to try different places to eat as there’s quite a few options nowadays.

At the Mexican place, Rancho de Zocalo over in Frontierland, I ordered the Soft Tacos Monterrey for $9.99 – two tacos with sautéed vegetables on top of rice and beans in a flour tortilla (pictured above). Included is more rice and beans on the side along with a dollop of guacamole, salsa and shredded lettuce. Request no cheese and no sour cream.

The veggies in one taco had zucchini, squash and onions; the other had mostly onions and horror of horrors, bell peppers (I’m not fond of bell peppers). I’m not sure if it’s possible but if I ever eat this again, I’m going to try to request less of those bell peppers. Other than that, it’s not bad. The rice is nicely spiced and flavorful and everything seemed fresh.

It’s served cafeteria style and the service is fast moving once you get to the front of the line. I had to say “no sour cream” quickly as I saw the plater reaching automatically for the sour cream spoon. Everything is open so you can talk to the order-taker and the plater.

Tried the veggie burger with fries at the Village Haus in Fantasyland, $7.99 (pictured above). It was just ok. The patty tasted like a brand that I had before but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I didn’t confirmed that it was vegan. I thought I read somewhere that the veggie burgers are vegan but maybe I’m getting it confused with Walt Disney World (which apparently has better and more vegan food).

Over at Disney’s California Adventure, it was lunch at the Lucky Fortune Cookery in the Pacific Wharf area. They have fast food Asian Rice Bowls with tofu and one of four sauces over seared Asian vegetables and steamed rice for $9.49. I asked if any of the sauces were vegan and was told none of them were at first.

Then the super nice chef came out to talk to me and showed me the labels for the sauces. All of them except the Thai Coconut Curry is vegan. I went with the chef’s recommendation of the Teriyaki sauce (pictured above).

I thought it was good. I especially liked the soft tofu. The only thing is, it comes in a rather tall to-go container, making it hard to eat as the rice is all at the bottom and most of the sauce ends up there too.

Also had dinner at Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square again this year. Yes, they still have the Portobello Mushroom and Couscous Maque Choux, it’s still vegan and it’s still $27.99. I didn’t really think the price would go down but glad it didn’t go up. Although I only got a stack of two portobellos, last time I got three. Comes with a salad, but be sure to ask for it to be made vegan.

Didn’t get around to the veggie gumbo or veggie po’boy on this trip, but there’s always next time.

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Vegan Dining At Disneyland – write-up from last year (August 2009)

For awhile now, I’ve been hearing about Ike’s Place this and Ike’s Place that. Basically, how wonderful it is, from the delicious sandwiches to the super nice employees. I’ve always wanted to eat there but never seem to find the time to make it into San Francisco. Little did I know there was an Ike’s location right around the corner from me.

It’s literally located in a business park office building in Redwood Shores. If you drove by, you would never know such culinary delights existed within. There’s no sign on the outside, just a plain, ordinary office placard outside the hallway door.

But step inside and you’re greeted with a menu divided by meat, vegetarian and vegan. That’s a whole section devoted to just vegan sandwiches!

(At this location, they now only take phone orders, no more walk-ins due to fire and safety codes. That’s actually better, no more waiting around in the hallway.)

After much study, I went with the Meatless Mike – vegan meatballs, marinara, and soy mozzarella on freshly baked sourdough bread (pictured at the top). It’s served hot and with dirty sauce – Ike’s own garlic aioli sauce with herbs and spices that’s baked right into the bread.

It’s so incredibly good. And so flavorful, everything blends together so well. The bread is deliciously crisp without ripping apart the roof of my mouth. They actually finish baking the bread when you order the sandwich.

I’ve also tried the Vegan Backstabber – vegan turkey, marinated artichoke hearts, garlic and herb sauce and soy cheese. Also very good but I liked the meatball sandwich better.

Normally I’m not a big sandwich eater but I could go for an Ike’s sandwich anytime. With such an extensive and creative menu, I could eat a different one every day for three weeks and still not eat the same sandwich twice.

The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook Giveaway
Don’t forget tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway.

Oh sure, back when I actually lived in Palo Alto, there wasn’t one vegan restaurant in sight. Now there’s two. Garden Fresh Vegan Cuisine opened earlier this year and I finally got around to eating there. Like their other, older location in Mountain View, they serve Chinese vegan cuisine.

On the menu, there’s plenty of imitation meat dishes (but if you’re not into that, there’s also tofu and just veggie dishes). Pictured above is Veggie Ribs – pressed shiitake mushrooms sautéed with onions and green peppers in a black bean sauce. It’s hard to believe it’s made out of mushrooms; they have such a nice, meaty texture.

Veggie Chicken Chow Mein – Soy chicken with cabbage, carrots, onions and bean sprouts. I love the fat wheat noodles and the fact that it’s not drowning in sauce.

Hunan Veggie Chicken – Shredded soy chicken with celery, carrots and bamboo shoots sautéed in a special hunan sauce. While this dish tasted good, it seemed a lot like the chow mein only without the noodles.

Next time, I’ll have to do a better job of ordering. All-vegan restaurants are so few and far between that I get a little overwhelm when I’m presented with an entire menu of dining options. But that’s a good thing.

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This past weekend, I went to Maker Faire in San Mateo. It’s an event held at different cities around the country that celebrates DIY in arts, crafts, engineering and science.

One of the best things about the Bay Area faire, was the number of vegan food choices. There was vegan paella, vegan corn dogs and vegan dim sum.

I also saw veggie hamburgers, veggie pad thai, falafels and garlic fries. And veggie gyros with tempeh! I didn’t check to see if all of those items are in fact vegan or just vegetarian. I was just so happy to actually have choices.

I’ve tried the vegan paella before and it’s good. It’s all open so you can see the paella cooking in the extra large pans.

At the Clif Bar booth, they were offering up small samples of their many flavors as well as giving away full-size-still-in-the-wrapper samples. I grabbed a couple of the Clif Kids Twisted Fruit Rope and ZBar – a perfect snack for walking around the faire.

Viva Vegan! Cookbook Giveaway
Don’t forget there’s just a couple more days to enter the giveaway here, it ends on Saturday, May 29, 2010.

Deliriously happy to finally have the chance to eat at The Veggie Grill in El Segundo, I pretty much stuffed my face full. Since our whole group went to the all-vegan restaurant (a family first), I actually got to try quite a few items.

Chinese Chickin’ Salad, pictured above – I thought it was great, I usually don’t like getting salads in restaurants since I can make it so much better at home. But this was so nice and fresh tasting. And it wasn’t too heavy on the sesame-rice vinaigrette.

Mac n’ Cheese – I only had a couple of bites of this, but it was enough for me to say it’s yummy. I love how the Daiya cheese is all melty and creamy.

Uptown Nachos, pictured above – Also had just a few bites of this. Oh my gosh, it’s been forever since I’ve eaten nachos. It’s just like how I remember it. Another awesome winner.

Steamin’ Kale – No one else really ate this but I thought it was quite good. The kale was tender and the ginger-miso dressing went well with it.

Sweetheart Fries – Sweet potato fries, just as good if not better than french fries. But really the chipotle ranch that came with it, now that was to die for.

All-American Stack, pictured above – I only liked this okay. It may just be too much for one bite, what with all the onion rings, lettuce, tomato, pickles, grilled veggie-steak pieces stacked on a really thick whole wheat bun. Or maybe it was because I wanted to eat those nachos instead.

The V-Burger – I had about a fourth of this. It was my nephew’s lunch, since he’s only 7, he wasn’t able to finish the whole burger. He likes it with just the bun, grilled veggie-steak burger and ketchup. I liked this burger better. Go figure.

Chocolate Pudding – Delicious end to a great meal. Smooth and sweet, with a nice chocolate flavor. You would never know it was vegan.

The decor is modern-looking, hip and clean. There’s outdoor seating, which normally would have been nice if it wasn’t for the threatening storm clouds. They have four locations, all in Southern California. If only there was a Veggie Grill in NoCal, I would for sure be a permanent fixture there.

Over the holiday weekend, I traveled to Southern California to visit with my brother’s family. While there, we got lunch to-go at Versailles Cuban Restaurant in Manhattan Beach.

Since Cuban food is better known for its meat dishes, I didn’t think there would be much for me to eat besides the typical rice and beans. Sure enough, there was just two vegetarian plates on the menu, both included rice and beans.

I got the Moros, Platanos Fritos Y Ensalada Verde plate – black beans and rice cooked together, fried sweet plantains, mixed green salad and some mystery root vegetable hidden underneath the salad. It’s sorta like a potato but it’s not. I never had it before.

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of beans but moros is delicious! It’s savory and flavorful with just the right ratio of rice to beans. I had no idea rice and beans can be this good.

Recovered from the depths of an iPhone are photos from a Father’s Day celebration back in June. I had forgotten all about them.

Dinner was at Izakaya Raka, a Japanese Tapas Bar in Grover Beach, California. Located south of San Luis Obispo, not far from the Monarch butterfly grove at Pismo State Beach. The restaurant itself took me awhile to find. I must have blinked and missed it the first time around when I drove right past it.

My poor navigation skills aside, Izakaya Raka really is a hidden treasure in this sleepy little town. Especially since they have a vegetarian specials section. I ordered the Eggplant Miso (first picture above) and the Appetizer Sampler: Broccoli Goma Ae, Kabocha Pumpkin and Lotus Kinpira.

And for my main entree, Vegetable Tempura Roll. All of it tasty and well-prepared. I’m sure I’ll be back to try some of the other veggie selections and to check out the butterflies. It should be right around that time of year (late October to February) when I’m going to be in the area again.