Vegan a Go-Go Party with COK

On Monday, COK held a great event at Science Club. There were samples from their new vegan menu offerings, and Sarah Kramer mingling and signing copies of her new book (which everyone got a copy of). It was so cool to be surrounded by 100 like-minded people. I even met someone who was interested in my blog - hi Michelle!

I didn't have my camera with me, so all I've got is a crappy phone pic of Sarah. She was extremely friendly and easy to talk to, and she made a nice little speech.
Science Club hasn't updated it's menu online yet, but the vegan food is available now. We sampled black bean burgers, quinoa tabbouleh, and stuffed mushrooms. The food was flying off the plates as fast as the servers could bring it out, and it was all great! I heard a couple times that the tofu skewers were amazing, but couldn't get my hands on one. For desert there were giant trays of cookies and brownies from Sticky Fingers. Ugg. So good.

My signed copy of Vegan a Go-Go:
I don't have any of Sarah's other books, though I've flipped through them a couple times. Having read through this one, I really like it! It's definitely my kind of cookbook - everything is quick and easy, with mostly cheap ingredients. It's teeny-tiny so you can bring it with you anywhere, which is a great idea. Next time I visit my parents I won't have to plan ahead and copy recipes out on paper. There are lots of things I want to try out, but I made this first:It's Fresh & Fancy Raw-Slaw. I've been bringing soup to work for lunch for weeks now, this is a nice change of pace. I've never had raw sweet potato before, it's surprisingly good!

Let's go Phillies!

This past weekend my dad took me to game three of the World Series. I'm originally from Philly and my family still lives there, so I've been a Phillies fan all my life. The last time they made it to the big show I was in 6th grade, we are so due! Despite a two hour rain delay and generally miserable weather, we had a great time. There's nothing quite like being part of a happy mob of 45,000+.

Adding to the fun - vegan cheesesteak! As this article notes, the Phillie's ballpark has lots of vegan food offerings, so many that it was named North America's Most Vegetarian-Friendly Ballpark. Sweeet. While I think it's great that they have vegan burgers and hotdogs (the sign at the concessions stand even says that they're vegan!) a vegan cheesesteak sounded like more fun. The Rick's steaks stand offers vegan chickensteak and regular steak (sadly no soy cheese, so it's really a steak sandwhich, not a cheesesteak). My dad was awesome enough to wait in line with me, in the rain, for the better part of an hour so I could get mine. Not like there's anything better to do during a rain delay, right?
The last time I went to a game I got the regular steak, so this time I tried the chicken. They're both yummy, but I think the chicken has the edge. You can customize your sandwhich and I piled it all on - onions, mushrooms, peppers and pizza sauce (aka The Works). All on the classic Philly steak sandwhich roll.
The perfect food to get me through to 2 am, cheering my lungs out!

Restaurant Review - Mr. Chen's Organic Chinese

I got some bad medical news this week, and though I feel fine physically I've been too out of sorts to cook or eat properly. Last night I basically had a pint of soy ice cream for dinner, which of course made me feel like crap, and today I ate cereal for breakfast and lunch. Ugh. In an effort to snap myself out of it I ordered delivery from Mr. Chen's, who is proving to be a great go-to dinner option when I don't want to cook for whatever reason.

Even though they use all organic vegetables, their prices are actually a bit cheaper than other Chinese places in my neighborhood. They have a big menu, but all I've tried so far is the steamed bean curd with vegetables. They offer various sauces on the side; I've stayed loyal to the ginger garlic cause it's sweet and flavorful (though if I ever order when I'm not feeling cranky I'll try out the kung pao sauce). It's obviously a very basic dish, but it's done right - the vegetables are fresh and steamed the perfect right amount, and there's a decent amount of tofu without it being overwhelming. I like having the sauce on the side so I can dip pieces in instead of drowning the whole thing in glop. Their vegetarian soups have egg but they leave it out for me. I tried the seaweed and tofu soup but it's a little too, uh, seaweed tasting for me. I know, what did I expect? But I love the tofu and spinach soup, so problem solved.

On a non-food note, I'm also trying to get out of my funk with the new Girl Talk album, Feed the Animals. It's available now for whatever price you want to pay here. Pretty darn awesome.

Restaurant Review - Joe's Noodle House

After the first time I ate at Joe's Noodle House, I haven't wanted to get Chinese food anywhere else. This is a home-style Chinese restaurant, meaning most of the menu isn't Americanized. They have a huge vegetarian menu, most of which is vegan (or can be made vegan upon request). Plus it's dirt cheap. What's not to love?

Tonight we got sauteed bean sprouts and a Szechuan style hot pot with tofu. The bean sprouts were on the specials board (they have about 6 or 7 seasonal vegetable specials). It was a nice simple dish, just bean sprouts and some scallions in a mild garlic sauce. Very light and refreshing. It made a great side dish for the hot pot, which is HOT. The menu describes it as numbing, and it doesn't lie. The first time we ordered it the waitress tried to talk us out of it. It's the best kind of spicy - flavorful, not (just) painful. I have no idea what is in the sauce, but it has multiple layers of flavors and spice, and is completely unlike anything I've had elsewhere. The big pieces of soft tofu soak it up wonderfully. It's a little light on the vegetables - just a carrot and piece of cabbage here and there - but that's a minor quibble (and what side dishes are for).
I've tried several other dishes here and have never been disappointed, but the hot pot is the best so far. Other stand-outs are the veggie moo shu and the Hunan style tofu.

Restaurant Review - Ize's Deli and Bagelry

Ize's has really, really, really good bagels. Perfectly chewy and flavorful. I can't say they're very vegan friendly, since your options here are a plain bagel, bagel with jelly, or one sandwich. But it is a darn good sandwich, and it's called The Vegan. So that's pretty cool.

The Vegan is nothing particularly creative, but it is very well executed. Hummus and veggies (lettuce, tomato and onion) on a bagel of your choice. I usually get the pumpernickel, but when I went on Saturday they were out and I tried the salt bagel. I get now why people are obsessed with salt bagels - it brought the sandwich to an entirely new level. So so good.

As much as I enjoy Ize's, I still have not entirely forgiven them for an incident a few months ago. I ordered The Vegan, as usual. Upon first bite it seemed extremely salty. Upon the second bite it had a bizarre, fleshy texture. They had put smoked salmon on it. On a sandwich called *The Vegan.* Arrgh! When I took it back to the counter to complain, they seemed confused as to why I wouldn't want a dead fish on my sandwich, but they did make me a new one.

Restaurant Review - Etete

Why, oh why, am I surrounded by people who detest Ethiopian food? DC is loaded with great Ethiopian restaurants, but I have the hardest time getting anyone to go with me. The common complaint seems to be about injera, which I guess one of those things you either love or hate.

Whenever I can manage to drag someone along, I go to Etete. I've been meaning to try out other places, especially Queen Makeda and Dukem, but it's hard to pass up a chance for Etete's vegetarian sampler. It's all vegan, so no fancy ordering required, and it's all delicious. It comes with a whole bunch of yummy things, my favorites being the yeataklit wat and the yemisir wat. The yeataklit is like Ethiopian comfort food; it's a vegetable stew with delicious but mild flavors. The yemisir is spicy lentils. The combo plate is tons of food, so I like to devour the yemisir and yeataklit plus all of the salad and gomen (collard greens) in the interest of healthy-ness, and take the rest home.

It's a tiny place and it can get very crowded, so don't try and go here with a big group. But the service is always wonderful, and if you're among the sane people who appreciate the wonderfulness that is Ethiopian food, you won't be disappointed.

I've tried making a couple of Ethiopian dishes on my own, posts on that to follow.