ChuMinh Tofu & Veggie Deli

I have finally located the antidote for Maruta's and other vegan un-friendly Asian delis all over Seattle: the ChuMinh deli at 12th and Jackson where the staff is lovely and everything is animal-free!
The vegan deli has a well stocked hot case full of various curries, veggies and tofu dishes. There is also an impressive selection of various deep fried things and both sweet and savory rice flour pastries. The prices were inexpensive and my dining companion and I tried a bunch of different dishes:
In the above picture we have stewed greens and tofu (with two different types of greens- this was my favorite!), some kind of fresh, lightly steamed veggie and tofu, an egg roll, an interesting and delicious shishkabob with grilled pineapple and various savory sweet and sour flavors, and a coconut bamboo shoot curry.

We also ordered a bahn mi and it was large, fresh and spicy!
It was such a treat to be able to order freely from the plentiful options and not worry too hard about the potential for meat/fish ingredients. My only complaint is that all of the tofu had been fried, while I would have preferred it to have been steamed, and as a result the various dishes all felt a little greasy.

Bamboo Garden

The Bamboo Garden is a vegan Szechuan restaurant near the Seattle Center, and I recently visited with a friend who had just returned from the Szechuan region of China jonesing for some dry cooked green beans.

The Bamboo Garden rendition was spicy, tender crisp and tasty, but unfortunately lacking the scrumptious blistered skin of the beans my friend had eaten in China.

We also ordered the Hot and Spicy Fried Bean Curd Braised with Bell Peppers, Broccoli and Cauliflower (special ordered with fresh tofu).

And the Pan-Fried Rice Noodles with Mixed Vegetables in Hot Spicy Szechwan Sauce.

Both dishes were spicy, savory, and fantastically vegan, but weren't quite the flavors my buddy remembered from his trip. That said, I still tend to be thrilled with any delicious Szechaun meal, (authentic or Americanized) that is clearly vegan friendly, and for this reason the Bamboo Garden holds a place dear to my heart!

Sutra

I have written about the (vegetarian/vegan, prix fixe) Sutra experience before here, so shall spare the details but will say that I had the pleasure of recently visiting Sutra again with some lovely dining companions, and this is what we ate:

Nettle Miso Soup with a salad of Baby Tom Thumb Lettuce, Pickled Shunkyo Radish, Sea Beans and Goose Tongue (sea vegetable), with lime-ginger-tahini dressing and a sesame seed crisp.

Housemade buckwheat fettucini, roasted asparagus and truffled watercress, masa breaded fiddlehead fern and shiso with a tamari, yuzu leek broth.

Roasted Cauliflower, mung bean, cashew cheese, house smoked morel cake served atop sauteed chard and radish greens, an eggplant mousse and peppercress oil, finished with black lemon molasses reduction and parsnip chips.

Chocolate-coconut ice cream with mirin-blueberry coulis and cacao nib brittle.

Fresh Mint

I just got back from a lovely trip to Maui- what a treat to be able to get a little mid-winter sunshine! Before I left, I spent a little time searching for interesting places to eat while there. As could be imagined, Maui has a lot of touristy restaurants, seafood/meat based restaurants, and expensive restaurants. One of the most promising places that I found was Fresh Mint, a vegan Vietnamese restaurant in the yoga centric town of Paia on the north shore of the island. In addition to everything being vegan, the prices were in line with what I'm comfortable spending (entrees were just under $10).

We started with green papaya salad:

Next, I ordered "Fresh Lemongrass Tofu," which was different from anything I'd ever seen before. It consisted of lemongrass seasoned fresh tofu wrapped in soft bean curd and a layer of crisp fried seaweed. The textures were awesome, and it was a real treat to discover a new preparation of tofu that I'd never had. Unfortunately, the whole dish was smothered in a super sweet syrupy sauce that really detracted from my enjoyment. The sesame sauce, meant to be dipped into and used as a salad dressing (in the little bowl), was delicious. If it were up to me, the brown sauce would disappear and the sesame sauce would take over.

My dining companion ordered spicy fake beef. He also described the sauce as too sweet, and the fake beef a little bizarre (it always is!), but overall a pleasant enough meal.

If you're a vegan or a vegetarian on Maui, I'd definitely pay this little spot a visit! My main advice though would be to try to avoid the dishes with the heavy sauce.

St. Dames

I recently went to St. Dames, the new vegetarian restaurant in Columbia city, to celebrate my birthday. This means I was poised to order everything from drinks to dessert and I had my expectations set high. Upon entering the restaurant, I was excited to see that the owners had done a pleasing job of creating a cozy, stylish, hip ambiance with plenty of booths, art, and careful lightening, none of which was a given considering the location in the somewhat characterless new mixed-use buildings just north of the Columbia City Light Rail station.

We started with drinks, and I ordered the St. Cinnamon, one of many tasty sounding specialty cocktails offered in addition to a full bar. It was made with muddled pear, bourbon, and cinnamon infused simple syrup, and was just the sort of slightly spicy, slightly fruity cocktail that I love. And for a fancy bar drink, it was reasonably priced too at $8.

If you're a vegetarian or vegan, you are probably aware of the rarity of looking at a menu on which every item is actually available to you. The need to *choose* something off of a menu is an unaccustomed pleasure, and I scratched my head for a good long while as I debated the merits of just about every delicious looking item offered. I ended up choosing a butternut squash gnocchi with a side of braised kale, and my dining companion ordered a portobello cheese steak sandwich on homemade baguette. Both were delicious, wholesome and beautiful. YES.

Gnocchi with grilled vegetables, toasted hazelnuts and feta cheese along side a huge delicious mound of lightly braised, wonderfully seasoned kale.

Just about every item on the menu is either vegan, or can be made vegan. Many items are gluten free. They bake all of their own (deliciously gluten-filled) bread. They allow you to substitute side dishes however you desire, which is pretty exciting because I want to try just about every one of them: braised kale, whipped veggies, french fries, roasted vegetables, etc. AND, they are doing everything with an eye towards sustainability.

Marinated portobellos, grilled peppers and onions, melted provolone and lettuce on a fresh homemade baguette, along side fries and what tasted like homemade ketchup.

The gals running the place were so friendly and hard working it made me love it all even more. I get the feeling they are still refining aspects the menu and service, but they were completely sweetly accommodating to my requests (for example, butter for my bread).

Chocolate mousse pie (vegan, I think), with a nice optional dollop of real whipped cream.

I can't say enough good things about this place. The last time I got my hopes up for a new vegetarian restaurant was for Plum, which was so dissapointing on my visit I've not given it a second chance. The fact that St. Dames is in my own neighborhood is just icing on the cake.

When people ask me "What do vegetarians eat?" I'd like to steer them right on over to St. Dames, where the dishes are composed to stand on their own as complete, delicious, and not based around re-creating meat dishes with manufactured meat substitutes. It's the kind of food I would cook at home if I had endless time and skill to put into it, and I am absolutely thrilled to have these gals willing and able to do it for me!

I really really wish success for this place, go there and eat and let me know what you think.

Georgetown Liquor Company

I'm going to take a moment here and say, again, how much I enjoy the Georgetown Liquor Company (I've written about it before, here). Every time I go I am thrilled with the breadth and deliciousness of the vegetarian (and very vegan friendly) menu.

On a recent trip, I ordered a Lowell Sandwich, which was a complete delight of vegetarian "ham", green chilies, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, baby greens and chipotle veganaise on a toasted whole wheat hoagie roll. I had a choice of sides: soup, salad, or chips and salsa, and chose the salad, which was large and perfectly dressed with homemade vinaigrette and shaves of Parmesan.
My dining companion ordered the Portobello Salad, which was the biggest salad I've ever seen in a restaurant. It was a beautiful, enormous pile of baby greens, gouda, sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and delicious marinated slices of portobello mushroom. I don't generally like mushrooms, and portobellos are no exception, but here they were so perfectly seasoned and marinated that even I enjoyed a taste.
The ambiance of the Georgetown Liquor Company is a little brooding, with black walls and dark themed art, and is the sort of place where I might be initially skeptical about the state of the kitchen. But I have been completely consistently impressed with the food that they make, and would even go so far as to say it's just as good as any other vegetarian restaurant I've been to in Seattle.

I love the Georgetown Liquor Company!

Ruffage Natural Foods

After a brisk early morning hike up Koko Crater (AKA Kohelepelepe, said to be the imprint left by the vagina of Pele's sister Kapo), an Oah'u friend and I chased down a restaurant that I had read about: Ruffage Natural Foods on Kuhio in Waikiki in Honolulu.

The place is part health food store, part juice bar, part restaurant, and I was stoked to see many concerted vegetarian and vegan choices (there were meat options as well) on the menu. He ordered a vegetarian burrito that came full of beans and avocado and smothered in vegan chili.

I ordered the vegetarian chili dog, which came on a soft bun with pickled jalapenos, vegan chili and cheddar cheese.
The food was a little bit pricey for the quantity, but I am always happy to find a healthy, vegan/vegetarian refuge. Thanks K for showing me around!

Plum Bistro

Plum Bistro is a fancy, hip, vegan restaurant on Capital Hill. I had been really looking forward to eating here, though a bit daunted by the expense. Finally last night, with St Valentine paving the way, my dining companion and I went to have a meal.

I was almost shaking in excitement when I looked at the menu. Every dish looked absolutely delicious... Paella Stuffed Peppers, Spicy Thai Tempeh, Cajun Tempeh Ceasar Salad, a bunch of "burgers", Crispy Tofu this and that, etc. We ordered two dishes with the intent of splitting them both: A cornmeal crusted seitan steak with white mushroom gravy, sauteed chard and roasted potatoes, and the surprising pepper "Parmesan" crusted potatoes over linguine with lemon broccoli. I figured that any dish brave enough to put potatoes over pasta had to be interesting.

I guess there are some pretty heirloom tomatoes in there.

I was wrong. I don't know what magic I thought they might create with this dish but it didn't happen. Instead I got a bowl of slippery linguine in a plain and watery tomato sauce with a few pieces of broccoli, some incongruous potato rounds and a little sprinkle of vegan mozzarella. It wasn't gross, but left me scratching my head and feeling a little ache in my pocketbook.

The Seitan Steak was, and I've never said this before about any dish, a disaster. It was so obscenely salty that I could barely swallow the bite I took. It felt poisonously salty. My lips started to chap and my mouth started to burn. What the hell was that??? It was inedible.


The chard was oily but good, and there wasn't anything wrong with the potatoes.

I came into this restaurant with a complete excitement and optimism and during the course of the meal it took a 180. I'd like to think we just ordered poorly, but I am not completely convinced.

To add insult to injury, the portions left us hungry, and after the pillage of our funds we walked around the corner to Rancho Bravo and had tacos.

Jhanjay Thai

After a recent morning of trying on wedding dresses (don't get excited, I was the oppinionator not the bride to be!) a friend and I wandered down 45th St in Wallingford in search of a good lunch. I was rather excited to see the magic words, "Vegetarian Thai Cuisine," and our decision was settled: Jhanjay Vegetarian Thai.

Jhanjay endeared itself to me right off the bat by making tofu (fresh or fried) the default protein, and charging extra for the substitution of fake meat (many vegetarian restaurants do this the opposite way). It is such a pleasure to go into a restaurant and have full menu access, and it was really hard to choose between the Green Papaya salad (no fish sauce!), the Tom Yum and Tom Kah soups (no fish sauce or meat broth!), the curries (no shrimp paste!) or the variety of delicious savory noodles, veggies, rice and other dishes.

Little bowl of glistening soup to greet us

We ended up ordering a red curry and the "Garlic Pepper" stirfry to share. Both were outstanding: savory, spicy, complex, fresh and packed with deliciousness, but without the enjoyment-reducing stress of wondering if they were truly vegetarian (vegan in this case).

Nice size bowl of red curry packed with tender crisp veggies

The tofu was my favorite kind: slick, gelatinous and very fresh.

It is really exciting to find a source of vegan Thai curries, and I am happy to report that this is a great option. It seems a bit unbalanced that Wallingford/Fremont has multiple good vegan curry opportunities while the rest of the city seems to have none, but c'est la vie!

Loving Hut

After a long remodel, my beloved international district mainstay, the Vegan Garden, has been transformed into one of the sensuously named "Loving Hut" chain of vegan (Supreme Master based) restaurants.

Off the bat, I found the menu to be a little bit less appealing than the Vegan Garden's. The Loving Hut menu is composed largely of fake meats shaped like real meat parts, and has lots of deep fried morsels that look delicious but not particularly healthful. I was pleased to see that the lemongrass tofu vermicelli bowl still exists, as does a spicy soup. My dining companion ordered the soup, and was disappointed to find it came with a variety of fake meats instead of tofu. Good to know that a tofu specification needs to be made next time!


I ordered the "Guru's Curry," specially made with with soft tofu instead of vegan meat nuggets (they are willing to do this all over the menu) and found it to be fantastic. The ample plate consisted of cubes of silky custardy tofu, broccoli and cabbage drenched in a most delicious, slightly spicy, very savory yellow curry. I don't know how they make that stuff taste so good but it was addictive. I can imagine going to the Loving Hut with specific cravings for this dish.

There is definitely a "Supreme Master" bend to the place; propaganda videos play on a big TV, there are pamphlets and books to take and buy, and the fortune cookies spread Supreme Master wisdom. None of this bothers me though. I'm not sure if Supreme Master is leader of a cult, a religion, or just a state of mind, but as far as her message is understood to me, it is that being vegan is kind to the planet and fellow life, which is an idea that I generally agree with. If there is a darker or more manipulative side to the videos and messages, I'm not picking up on it (nor am I on the look out for it).

The sweet waitress brought us multiple samples of vegan baked goods through out the meal.

Supreme Master or not, chain restaurant or not, it feels really good to go to a restaurant where the entire ideology is based on veganism, and if the change-over is what needed to occur to keep this location in business, I'm happy that it happened.

Moonlight Cafe

I made a recent attempt to to go one of my favorites, the Vegan Garden, to find that it is still in the dysfunctional throws of a remodel. At this point, I was extremely focused on the spicy tofu soup I had intended to order, and after a brief moment of exaggerated hunger and angst, remembered the Moonlight Cafe about a mile up the hill on Jackson.

Moonlight Cafe is a run down looking restaurant that was once a smoky, karaoke palace with a surprising second menu that is entirely vegan. Now that the non-smoking laws are well established, I found the place to be completely tolerable inside, and was able to enjoy it in a way I wasn't before.

My dining companion and I sunk into a high backed booth and perused the extensive vegan version of the menu. My choice was easy: Spicy tofu soup, made with soft (they call it "white") tofu. He ordered lemongrass "chicken".

Spicy soup straight from the kitchen: mounded plate of lettuce, cabbage, sprouts, basil, mint, jalapenos and lime waiting to be added

My soup was an absolute delight. It came in a big bowl with silky white tofu blocks, fat chewy rice noodles, lots of veggies, tasty, spicy (no-MSG!) broth, and a huge plate of fresh shredded cabbage, lime wedges etc to add. What really made this soup stand apart from others similar to it was the quantity of stuff on the fresh plate. I loved the fact that just about every bite had something in it other than noodles.

Soup with all the goods mixed in

The lemongrass "chicken" was also outstanding. The fake meat didn't look particularly like chicken, but who cares, maybe it's better that it didn't. It did provide the savory deliciousness that I'd imagine one would get from sausage (cue my omnivorous sister's laugh at my imaginary meat authority), and I was amazed at how satisfying it was. I'd be hard pressed choosing what to order next time.

Lemongrass "chicken"

I am definitely a fan and look forward to a return visit. Thanks J for the company, I am so happy you're back!!

Vashon Saturday Market

Vashon Island has a wonderful summertime Saturday market located at the Village Green. In addition to various crafts and art and fresh fruits and veggies, there are often at least two excellent options for buying hot cooked-to-order food.

One booth makes made to order omelets with local farm fresh eggs, a veggie lasagna, a tofu scramble and other interesting fully vegetarian (and some vegan) options, and the other booth is sort of Asian themed and makes (in addition to some non-vegetarian dumplings and hum bow and smoked salmon sushi) a vegetarian curry and a bowl of thin noodles in a vegetarian mushroom broth with green onion and pickled daikon.

I was unfortunately not super hungry, and the bowl of noodles was all my appetite really desired. They were simple and tasty and $3.

Noodles and Lazy Jane Slippers

I'll know next time to go with a bigger appetite because some of the tofu options looked fantastic!

Vashon Island Saturday Market

Golden Era

Today I found my way to the Golden Era vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. I had read on-line reviews that spoke wearily of the neighborhood, and as I walked there today by myself I initially thought that everybody was overreacting until eventually the ratio of me to people laying on the ground, mumbling, stumbling, talking/hollering to/at me became fantastically disfavorable. I probably wouldn't have wanted to do the same walk at night. It is always hard in an unfamiliar place to know how bad a place really is because everything has that "Is this even real?" feel to it. Anyhow, I made it and was strangely relieved to enter the dark below ground restaurant and be greeted by none other than the Supreme Master herself on a large TV. (The Supreme Master also has a presence at the Vegan Garden in Seattle).

The menu reminded quite a bit of the Vegan Garden, which is full of good looking dishes. I ordered the Jalapeno Tofu, which was described as "Best tofu with jalapenos, onions and bell peppers, served with steamed broccoli." Sounded perfect.

The meal arrived and was as described... soft tofu triangles with finely diced onions and bell pepper, and then succulent, lightly steamed slices of fresh jalapeno on top. Yum.


I thought that the Supreme Master connection was interesting... makes me wonder if there are followers all of the country (world?) who are starting up similar Chinese vegan restaurants in her vision? I'm not complaining.

Supreme master is a blond now

Golden Era
(415) 673-3136
Civic Center
572 O'Farrell St
San Francisco, CA 94102

Herbivore

Herbivore is exactly what I was hoping to find during my trip to San Francisco. It is a warm, mildly trendy, reasonably priced vegan restaurant with a large, varied, and delicious menu.

Started the meal off with a Green Papaya salad, which I love but generally have a hard time finding without fish sauce. Here it was huge... perhaps more dinner proportioned than appetizer proportioned. It was a little on the bland side, could have used some more lime and spice, but we managed to enhance it a bit with table condiments (lemon wedges, crushed chili flakes, black pepper and salt) and make it really good.

It really was that giant

Mint tea and fresh juice to go with the salad

Our dinners each came with a wonderfully large side salad, which consisted of mixed greens, tomatoes, and beets in a garlicky vinaigrette.


The menu was so appetizing we both had a tough time choosing. I ended up with the lentil loaf with mushroom gravy, tomato sesame salsa, mashed potatoes, and a humongous pile of sauteed red chard.

He got the grilled portobello mushroom over creamy polenta with sauteed spinach.


We both ordered sort of "meat and potatoes" style food, but the menu was all over the place. There were lots of Asian influences (Indonesian noodles salad, sweet and sour soup, Kung Pao tofu, red curry, etc), Italian influences (lasagna, ravioli, gnocchi, other pastas), Middle Eastern (moussaka and falafel) etc. Just about everything sounded amazingly delicious, and never felt like it was doing any weird compensation for want of meat or dairy.

The quantities were huge, and the value felt fantastic. Makes me wish I had a bit more time in San Francisco to go back and try some more things!

Herbivore
(415) 885-7133
Western Addition
531 Divisadero St
San Francisco, CA 94117