Local Event! Food Truck Rodeo In Durham

You guys.

On Sunday, there's going to be a Food Truck Rodeo in Durham. I'm going to spend the whole afternoon just eating. And it's going to be glorious.

You know that I already love KoKyu and Chirba Chirba...




(Don't know this person in this photo)


... but I can't wait to try other food trucks!!   Here's my plan of attack (in no particular order):

Brand-spankin' new to me: 

1. Triangle Raw Foodists - They should know that I'll probably order at least one of everything that's vegan. I'm not kidding. If I can't eat it right away, I will take it home. 
2. Olde North State BBQ: They have BBQ Tofu (confirmed to be vegan on Twitter)
3. The Parlour: They mark vegan on their menu. This is an exciting one for me. 
4. Don's Classic Ices (they are all vegan!). I'm also conflicted about LocoPops, but they are a 1/2 mile from where I work, so I already have access. 

Oldies but Goodies: 

• Kokyu (Here's what I've had before). They're pretty good with telling you what's vegan when you ask, too. ** NOTE: I have heard they're not actually going to be at the rodeo. They'll be at Fullsteam which is 2-3 blocks away. But that's what I've heard. 
• ChirbaChibra (if there's time. I'm already going to see them at Lulu in Raleigh on the 9th though)

I will work out extra on Monday to make up for this. But get ready Food Truck Rodeo. Here I come. 

** Wondering what vegans can eat at other local food trucks? Check out my blog post from August all about what vegans can eat (it's been updated a few times to stay current.) 

Strawberry Cheesecake: Raw & Vegan

This recipe was one of the first I pinned to Pinterest, and I finally made it this weekend. My husband said it was one of the best things I have ever made.

I had a 9" springform pan instead of a 7", so I added 1/4 cup extra nuts to the crust, but didn't add anything else to the fillings. Oh, and I used frozen strawberries from our garden last year instead of raspberries.


By the way, if you follow me on Pinterest, I've added a couple new vegan food & drink boards:

• Sweet
• Savory
• Drinks
• Raw
• I also have a Gardening board. 

I'm pretty addicted to Pinterest, but mostly I use it as a bookmarking site. 

Eden's Vegetarian Restaurant - Valentine's Day

I've done a couple of posts for Eden's Vegetarian Restaurant in before.

• Christmas Dinner 2011
• My First Visit (Feb 2010)

I still love them. And you still need to go there. Unfortunately when I visited this time, the owner told me that he's falling on hard times. He's been there about seven or eight years, but apparently people just aren't coming out like they used to. So go there! Now!

As for this visit, 

as usual, the food was still delicious. 

Carob Pudding Cake. 

The best carob dessert I've ever had.

 Main Course: Rice Patties, Polenta, Veggies, Sweet Potato Slices (roasted), &Delight Soy (my only complaint. Trying to do whole, unprocessed foods here).


After shot of soup. Oops. 
Appetizer - Homemade MeatballsBad photo, but had to share. 

NOTE: When you go, don't look at their menu online. The chef will tell you what they have that day. Better yet, call ahead. Tell him you are coming. Almost everything he makes now is all vegan.

NOTE #2: Sorry about crappy cell phone pictures. I forgot my real camera. 





This place is 35-40 minutes from Raleigh. Hit 'em up! Or if you are traveling up Interstate 95, it's not even 5 minutes off I-95. 

Date & Cashew Bites

I'm training for a triathlon. 

So I'm cutting non-essential foods out of my diet. If you've been following me on twitter you know that I've cut out coffee. Five weeks have gone by without coffee, and these last two weeks have been much better without coffee than those first three. Something I haven't talked about much on twitter is mostly eliminating wheat, oils, and sugars (I sauteed onions and mushrooms without olive oil... whaaaat?). No desserts either (subbing fruits - especially oranges). I'm trying to eat foods that mean a lot to my body - full of vitamins and other good stuff, not full of empty calories.

But sometimes, I need sweetness. Then a miracle happened. I saw this post for lemon kissed blondie bites. Gluten-free, sugar free, no baking required (maybe raw depending on how the ingredients were made/packaged)... could it be more perfect?

I didn't have lemons, but I did have oranges so I subbed them in. Still turned out amazing.

And I will make these again and again.

Pre-Valentine's Menu at Market Restaurant

I have a question for everyone about a Vegan Drinks event around Raleigh or Durham. But it's at the end.  First, I need to talk about dinner I had on Friday...

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So.... you know I'm a fan of Market Restaurant.

• Exhibit A
• Exhibit B (also one of my more popular photos on Tumblr) 
• Exhibit C

Well, I'm letting you know that hasn't changed. 

I went for their Pre-Valentine's Day Pre-Fixe menu as they offered all three courses that could be made all vegan.

First Course: Vegan Wild Mushroom Bisque

Main Course: Tamales

Dessert: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with 

Lime/Coconut Ice Cream

Of course, everything was amazing and delicious. Better than I could have ever expected when reading the menu. The wild mushroom bisque was divine - and a true bisque (not a soup, not a stew). The texture of the tamales was perfect, not gritty or mushy. 

And then the dessert. I have had vegan ice cream in different parts of the country. In different countries even. And this is the best, and unlike other vegan ice creams, it is not like a sorbet. It even supersedes what I had at Boon Burger in Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) last year. The flavors and smooth creamy texture can even win over non-vegans (and it has!).

What I want Market (and other restaurants) to know is that...  

1. ... I really appreciate delicious vegan food.  I'm not sure if vegans give restaurants enough feedback about how much they appreciate vegan options. You know - stuff we can actually eat. Let's not forget to do this y'all. 
2. ... I really appreciate local, delicious vegan food. If you've visited Market, you see that they can (as in preserve), use local food, grow some of their own herbs/food... We're like twins. 
3. ... I appreciate the consistency. Consistently superb.
4. ... I appreciate that there are options for non-vegans that are just as good as those for vegans. I love a good all-vegan restaurant (e.g. Plant in Asheville), but it's not always possible. I realize that not all my friends and family members are vegan. We all need a great place to eat. This is that place. 
5. ... I appreciate providing information about vegan dishes. One time I ordered a pie that the server told me was vegan, but someone came out from the kitchen and told me it had honey in it. Good looking out! Also, my many questions are answered on Twitter (e.g. "Can that be made vegan?" "You have vegan apps and entrees for this pre-fixe menu. Is there a vegan dessert that can go with it too?" "What's vegan on your brunch menu?"). Sometimes I call and get the information that way (though the hosts/servers sometimes don't know...). 
6. ... I like that they don't use fake foods. One or two dishes I've had contained TVP (some might consider that "fake"), but I love that there are no processed vegan cheeses likes Daiya or fake meats like Field Roast or Tofurkey. 
7. ... I like creativity. You know what the "typical" vegan dishes are at most places, so  you probably have a good idea how much this means to me. I've been vegan for 11 years, and I'm so over the permanent hummus, salad, and veggie burger dishes on most "veg-friendly" menus.

Overall, thank you.

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Have you ever heard about Vegan Drinks events?  I want this in Raleigh and/or the Triangle area. What do you think? (Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the links below).. 

• Here's a link of the places that have Vegan Drinks events. 
• Here's the link to the main Vegan Drinks page (based out of NYC)

Do you think people would be interested in this around here? It doesn't have to be exactly like NYC, but I really want to do this. I'm not an expert in organizing these kinds of events though... If you're interested, maybe we can put our brains together. Let me know in the comments below, on Twitter, or email me: vegantriangle *AT* gmail *DOT* com. 


Big questions right now: Where do we do it? Who will come? Are the Mayans really right about the coming apocalypse? OK, really just the first two questions are the big ones. Let me know if you have answers (or even potential answers) or if we can work together on this. 

Nomelet from Happy Herbivore

A vegan omelet. I'm really pleased with how this turned out. Check out the recipe in the cookbook Happy Herbivore on Amazon.

With Sauteed Baby Portabella Mushrooms and Onions. 

Also added our homemade salsa from last summer. 

Oh, and I added black salt. 

By the way, I sauteed the mushrooms and onions without oil. 

At the end I added a little bit of red wine vinegar. 

Look how caramelized they turned out! 

Lots of Lettuce in the Garden

Lately, I've been obsessed with adding lettuce (currently in abundance in our garden) to everything. I've even been using it in place of tortillas for tacos, wraps, etc.

I added it to ravioli

(there's more underneath)

Made tofu scramble "wraps"...

... even from small pieces of lettuce! 

To a portabella, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. 

I love my winter garden. The only thing I've been buying at the farmer's market lately are the greenhouse grown tomatoes, but I have almost everything else at the market in my own garden already. Well, we just harvested the rest of the turnips. Here are some of them. 

Yeah, there are a couple of giant ones there. 

Potato & Dill Pickle Soup (Slow Cooker)

We had some dill pickles that my father in law canned, but they went soft. So now what? Make soup of course!

I looked up a bunch of recipes, but didn't find anything vegan. And I didn't find anything for the slow cooker. So I looked up a few recipes, did some tweaking and combining and substituting, and a delicious (and very different) soup emerged!

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 cups of broth (I used Happy Herbivore Cookbook's recipe for no-chicken broth)
• 3 cups of potatoes (thinly sliced - I peeled potatoes, cut them in quarters, then thinly sliced them)
• 1 pint of dill pickles (shredded in the food processor)
• 1/2 cup of pickle juice (from the dill pickles above)
• 1 small/medium onion (chopped) 
• 1 cup of unsweetened (not original/plain) non-dairy milk 
• 2 TBS flour (some recipes online call for instant flour. I don't have this, so I sifted regular all-purpose unbleached flour). This might even be optional, but I haven't tried it without...
• Garnish: Hot sauce and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.  

METHOD: 

1. Add broth, pickles, pickle juice, onion, and potatoes to the slow cooker. Cook on high for about two hours. 
2. As the two hours is ending, start the flour and milk mixture. Very, very, very slowly, combine the milk and flour in a separate container (or I just did that in a liquid measuring cup, adding the flour to the milk - again, very, very slowly). There might be a couple of tiny lumps, but there shouldn't be many. 
3. Add the milk & flour mixture to the slow cooker. Make sure it's thoroughly combined. 
4. Cook on low throughout the day (or overnight as I did so I could pack it for lunch the next day). 
5. Garnish with hot sauce and pepper. 

This soup is delicious, but very different. Dill pickles sound like a weird thing to put in a soup, but with the potatoes and no-chicken broth, it turned out so good. I have a couple more jars of those "soft" pickles, so I'll be making this again. Soon. 

PS: This takes a while to reheat for some reason. Plan accordingly. 

** Can you tell from the photos that I love hot sauce and black pepper? 

Spicy Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

I'm not a big chocolate fan. But when I like chocolate, I like it spicy and salty. 

These cookies did it for me. 

One of the best vegan blogs I've found in a long time is http://olivesfordinner.blogspot.com/, and when I found her Chocolate-Sriracha Shortbread Cookies, I immediately started drooling.

As you can tell from the pics, I added more chocolate to the cookies. I wasn't about presentation unfortunately. I'm about eating.