Chow Vegan

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.

Related Posts
Loving Hut Review – the other all-vegan restaurant in Palo Alto
Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake From Sprinkles – If you’re going to be in the area, you might as well stop by for a cupcake.

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.

I stopped by Loving Hut, an organic, vegan, fast-food chain restaurant in Palo Alto. Don’t ask me why, it’s just what it’s called. It’s a little space with bright lights and a cafeteria-like ambience, where you place your order at the counter.

I got the Crumbed Sensation – deep fried yam flour pieces, served with vegan tartar sauce and a small heap of cole slaw. Not too greasy and it has a firm texture that it reminds me of fried shrimp. I thought it was great, then again most fried food taste good.

I also tried the Shepherd’s Pie. That was just ok, seemed a bit on the dry side, like it needed gravy or some sort of sauce. It had soy crumbles, eggplant, carrot and onions on the bottom with mashed potatoes on top. It came with your choice of soup or salad. I got the soup – butternut squash and navy bean. Beautiful color on the soup, but not a real strong squash taste to me. It’s more beany than squashy. At least it wasn’t overly salty like some restaurant soups.

This location has a limited menu compared to the ones in San Francisco and Milpitas. It doesn’t seem like they do much actual cooking. It’s more heat and serve or scoop into a container for to-go. Still it’s nice to have an all vegan place right there in downtown Palo Alto.

What’s a trip to Southern California, without a stop at Disneyland? In the land of the mouse, vegan eating is possible but it’s also a bit “hit and miss” too, depending on where you end up eating.

Miss: After inquiring about vegan options at Tomorrowland’s Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port, the most they can offer is either plain pasta with just the marinara sauce (they won’t add fresh tomatoes or olive oil or anything extra) or a side salad with raspberry vinaigrette (the only vegan dressing).

I went with the salad ($3.99), it wasn’t terribly exciting or super tasty but at least it was fresh. Since it’s counter service, it seemed like they were limited in how much they could customized a dish.

Hit: I had much better luck at dinner over at Café Orléans in New Orleans Square. The pommes frites ($4.99) tossed with garlic and parsley, without the cheese, were awesome. So good! They arrived at the table nice and hot.

The Creole Ratatouille ($13.99) without the corn cakes and cheese is vegan, pictured above. It’s a savory vegetable ragout with tomato, eggplant, red onion, bell pepper, squash, zucchini and fresh garlic. Seasoned to be a bit on the spicy side. The asparagus on top had a smokiness to it – that was my favorite part.

Hit: Almost a miss at Carnation Cafe in Main Street USA, I was going to get the veggie melt without the cheese or mayo, but the pretzel bread that it came on is not vegan.

Happily, the waitress offered a bowl of vegetable soup that is vegan. The soup was pretty tasty with big chunks of vegetables and not too salty at all. Instead of the non-vegan bread roll, I got a bunch of crackers. At $5.50 for a bowl, it was definitely a hit and a way better choice than the sandwich. But since it wasn’t on the menu, I don’t know if it’s a regular offering. It might have been the cafe’s soup du jour.

Hit: A hit over at Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square, located beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. As a kid, I always thought the people eating there were just part of the ride. I never knew it was an actual restaurant where you can eat. You’ll need reservations to eat there, but you can eat there.

The Portobello Mushrooms and Couscous Maque Choux ($27.99) pictured above is the only vegetable entree on the menu and is vegan. Instead of one measly mushroom, it’s a stack of three portobellos marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette and then broiled. Served with roasted corn and bell pepper couscous and sautéed spinach. Delicious and filling but pricey. Then again, you’re probably paying for the ambiance which is very nice but dark.

I would have to say, in all, it was a good dining experience at Disneyland. All of the food service people were very helpful and super nice. I had the best luck and food at the full service places, most likely because the kitchen can cook to order at those places.

My take is if you’re going to eat at the counter service places, you might as well bring your own sandwiches and snacks. If you want the whole experience of dining at Disneyland, enjoy a meal at one of the full service places.

Update
Vegan Dining At Disneyland Revisited – new post for August 2010