Being a (vegan) food snob

I realized a few months ago, that my problem when ordering in restaurants is not that I'm vegan, is that's I'm a food snob. I expect to eat a good meal every single time I'm at a restaurant, and when I don't, I pissed right off. If you can't figure out how to make something delicious without bacon in it, or cheese, or beef stock, you shouldn't be cooking for a living. If you've never expanded your palate beyond meat-and-potatoes meals, then you shouldn't be in a position where you are expected to create dishes for veg*ns on the spot. But it happens all the time: I ask for something vegan, am told the chef will make something special for me, and end up with pasta and red sauce. Or salad and french fries. Becuase if you're at a place where they can't even be bothered to have one vegan item on the menu, the management doesn't care about your business and the chef sure doesn't give a crap about making you a decent meal. I think omnivores make the assumption that vegan don't actually like delicious food; as if someone who cuts out so many "delicious" things from their diet can't possibly care about flavour. When I was at a work event on the weekend and they forgot to prepare my vegan dish, I was trying to avoid the vegan pizza. Vegan pizza usually means the same sub-par crust, without the fat and flavour that usually compensates for the horribleness of the other ingredients, instead with whatever sad vegetables they could find, whether or not they should ever be on a pizza (eggplant? please!). But when I caved and ordered the pizza, mostly due to a lack of other options, I was pleasantly surprised. The tomatoes were ripe, the onions were perfectly cooked, and the crust was both crisp and chewy. That my friends, is how you do a vegan dish--don't forget that food should always be delicious.

Tastebud salsa of joy

A food photo from the past for tonight's post: a plate of Viva Vegan dishes, and one of my most favourite things in the world. I'm probably doing a disservice to myself actually, because I tried the first few things I that caught my eye in Viva Vegan, and I keep making them over and over again: baked marinated tempeh, black beans, sofrito, and tamales. I should branch out, try new things, life is short! But holy chipotle, this plate just makes my tastebuds do a veritable salsa of joy. I'm sure my tamales wouldn't win any contests (I've been told they're small, which seems like bad/not-bad thing) but I could eat this every day, I make a big batch and eat it until I have nothing left and then I lick the bowl. If you haven't cooked anything from Viva Vegan yet, I dare you not to fall in vegan love.

Dumpling-sized review-: dim sum on the Danforth

Is it possible to be in love with a dumpling? I may just be. I dream about going to this place every week. My second time there, another person who was also sitting by himself looked up from his food and said, "Isn't this place amazing? I've never been here before, and I have to come back." He lives in the west end, and coming to the Danforth is pretty out of the way for him. But let me says this: it is worth every minute of sitting on transit, to enjoy the beautiful restaurant-made delights. These dumplings do not look like they came out of a box or frozen junk, and I would lay money on it that they don't. And what's more, they have a clearly laid out vegetarian menu, and the guy working the counter when I was there checked if anything had egg for me. Nope! I had sticky rice in lotus leaves, fried tofu, and several kinds of scrumptious dumplings. The service was basic, the decor was nothing to write home about, but the food was delicious, and fast, and an incredible price.  If you're in Toronto, go to Ha Gow Dim Sum, near Donlands and the Danforth. And if you don't live in Toronto, come visit, and we can get dumplings!

(Road)Avocado: delicious food in the jungle

Travelling in Ecuador was an experience I will never forget. One of the ways I hold my travel memories near is cooking the same foods when I return home. I have veganized chevre chaud from my trip to Paris; I make avocado toast, a cherished New York City memory, all the time; and my love of Italian food increased tenfold after travelling from Venice to Cinque Terre to Florence to Rome.
One of the things I will be making (one of these days!) is a condiment I discovered at the homestay in Ecuador's Amazon jungle. There were a dozen of us in my tour group; and I was the only vegan but there were two vegetarians as well. I was warned by the tour company that I might have trouble with vegan food at the homestay, but I ate far better there than during the (very expensive) Galapagos tour. One day at the homestay they even served us all pancakes--which I was assured were vegan! With every meal, there were two bowls of "sauce" on the table. We put it on eveyrthing and raved about how delicious it was. I asked our guide, and he said it was tomatoes, onions, lime juice, water, salt and chilis. That's it! And it was soooo delicious. It added zing to my vegan vegetable soup and jazzed up my rice and beans. And I've never appreciated delicious vegan food as much as the delicious vegan food I was given when I was in a jungle, far, far away from a convenience store.

Jackfruit joy

You know that moment, when you try a new recipe or order somethingat a restaurant that you've never had before, and you realize, "Oh my god, I am going to eat this everyday for the rest of my life." Jackfruit carnitas are one of those foods. It's like the perfect combination of flavour, simplicity and sandwich. It's like tacos and PB&J got together and had a more delicious baby. It's like the sandwich I wish I had for lunch as a kid, except I didn't eat an avocado until well into university.
I got the recipe from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day, which is one of those cookbooks I just like to flip through and daydream about. The amazingness of this particular sandwich makes up for the weird texture and look of jackfruit, which to me, kinda looks like canned brains. Disregard this, and make it anyway. Or make it for Halloween and pretend you're a zombie: braaaaiiiinsssss...

Musings: healthy and/or vegan

No photo tonight, [photo added] because I'm deep in thought. I'm thinking about the commentns on VegNews' link about accidentally vegan foods. I'm thinking about someone's reply to a twitter post I made and hashtagged "govegan". And I'm thinking about a friend of mine saying, "I couldn't live without cheese." And I know what you're thkinking: "FFS, Ms Avocado, you've been vegan 5 years and you still read the comments?? NEVER read the comments!"
Well, gentle reader, that is a good point. But I was really interested in VegNews' link to accidentally vegan foods, because I have been saved many a time by Oreos' accidental veganity. (The photo shows my airplane meal on flight back to Ecuador in the spring. Dinner of champions!) And I was surprised/annoyed/confused to see so many people who were surprised/annoyed/confused to see so much junk food in the list. "These foods are so unhealthy! They shouldn't be on a list of vegan foods. Because I conflate healthy with vegan even though anyone with a basic knowledge of venn diagrams can prove me wrong." But I think this goes back to my issue of terminology: plant-based does not equal vegan. While many people eat plant-based diets for health reasons and call themselves vegan, they "cheat" because, well, everyone cheats on a "healthy" diet. But they call themselves vegan, and then every single non-vegan on the planet has a story that goes something like, "I know this vegan, and one time she ate a bacon sandwich with dolphin meat and unicorn tears sprinkled on top. So you must bacon-dolphin-unicorn sandwiches, too, right???"
And when someone tells a story like that, we say, no, meat/dairy/egg/tears aren't vegan, we don't eat them; while no one can be perfect we do the best we can; and no, I"m sorry, while I appreciate that your cookies only have a small amount of rendered pork fat, I won't be having any, thank you.
So these people who are vegan for health reasons turn into healthy plant-based-diet police and verbally crap all over VegNews' very helpful accidentally vegan foods link. Because my way of living is the only way to live, right? If I'm eating vegan for health reasons, everyone else must be doing the same thing, right??
Sigh. Such is human nature. Incidentally, would you like a full-of-fat-and-sugar vegan cupcake?

(Road) Avocado: Popped dinner in Ecuador

When I was in Ecuador in the spring, in many places I ate better than I could have imagined. Partly it was because of our amazing guide's dedication intranslating the specifics of my crazy vegan diet. But partly it was I think that vegan food takes advantage of simple, fresh ingredients wherever possible, and therefore eating vegan--and eating well--is possible anywhere if those doing the cooking are dedicated. Which leads to the balance of the equation: I can only assume from the many delicious meals that I ate that the people who cooked for me often genuinely wanted to make me delicious food.

While I started typing by talking about food, I'm realizing that I really am talking about the warmth and the hospitality of the people we encountered. Even though I ate in a way that was foreign to many of them--probably seeming like a privileged North American, the way vegans are perceived even to many North Americans--I had very few bad dining experiences in my three weeks in Ecaudor and the Galapagos. And I had very many excellent ones. When we came home, my mother and I raved about how friendly people were, whether regular people in the stores and on the street or those in the hospitality industry that we deal with every day. And if that hasn't convinced you to go, perhaps actually talking about food now will!
In my last post on Ecuador, I mentioned that their dining involves something unique to their county. Want to take a moment to consider what that might be? In a hundred moments you wouldn't even guess, but go right ahead. It's popcorn.
Our guide told us that in pre-Columbian times, the people who lived in what is now Ecuador didn't make bread. They cooked food in pots over fire, so they made a lot of soups--even now my guidebook says Ecuador is known for its soups. So they popped corn and had that with their soups instead of bread. It was served as an appetizer in many restaurants, and served alongside soups and ceviches. In the photo, they served me ceviche with three things on the side--popped corns, roasted corn kernels, and plantain chips. Delicious! And only in Ecuador.

Breakfast of vegans, in a tortilla

When I was a young new vegan, I was kinda dumb. I didn't buy a vegan cookbook for six months or so after I went vegan. I didn't even put soy milk in my coffee, I just drank it black. In retrospect I wonder how I didn't have a hard time transitioning, because I sure didn't give myself any breaks! And I really, really, wasn't creative about breakfast. I think hummus and toast was pretty popular way back when, for me. But now my breakfast selection has dramatically improved. Vegan brunch was, frankly,  huge help. But this post is reminding me of New York City, which is where I was inspired by two vegan meals.
One is avocado on toast, which I've described here before but will again, because it's so freakin yummy. At The Jane Hotel in NYC, which is where I've stayed the two times I've visited, the hotel resto Cafe Gitane has an amazingly vegan-friendly menu. One of their breakfast items is avocado on toast, so I of course ordered it several times during my week there the first time I visited on vacation.But they don't just open up some ripe avocados and schmear it on toast--no no, they add things to it...in a way that makes you realize that the whole is wayyyyy greater than the sum of its parts. Whole-grain toast, fresh avocado spread into a perfect little pyramid, a drizzle of olive, sprinkle of salt, picnh of chili flakes and squeeze of fresh lime juice. This thing is like open-faced heaven. I will make avocado and toast like this for the rest of my life.
The second NYC meal I am reminded of is the breakfast burrito at 'Snice, a veg cafe also in the West Village. Their version has crumbled tofu and black beans, but it was so delicious it inspired me to devise my own when I got home. I usually make mine with cubed tofu (cubed tempeh is pictured), and I lean towards a Mexican-ish spice blend when left to my own devices, so I do that. But I also add some chipotles--because they're awesone, duh--and red peppers and greens if I have them, to up my nutrition first thing in the morning. And because I seriously a freak about the breads I eat, I prefer to get a sprouted tortilla instead of  those fluffy pale things most grocery stores carry--the sprouted ones are full of fiber and also have more texture. And now this breakfast burrito has become a tried-and-true favourite. Just like avocado on toast.
Um, brainwave: avocado in my breakfast burrito??

(Road) Avocado: family pancake breakfast

Today's post requires little in the way of explanation: vegan fluffy pancake breakfast. I offered to make pancakes on Saturday, since I was at my parents' with family on the weekend. Later, when I was thanked for cooking most of the meals, I just admitted it's easier. I would end up cooking for myself anyway, and I cook cook for everyone we can all eat the same thing.
The first recipe I found called for flax seeds--which were nowhere to be found. I looked high and low in the kitchen and could not find any. So I googled "vegan fluffy pancakes" and found this recipe. And they were in fact fluffy, as promised! And since my parents live in the Land of Maple Syrup, there was plenty of delicious real maple syrup to eat with the pancakes. It was a good breakfast.

(Road) Avocado: Let it bean!

I'm at my parents place for the weekend. As a vegan, this means I either eat "the sides", or I cook. So I made pancakes this morning, and I'll make dinner tonight--but last night my brother surprised me by making us all a super-simple and super-delicious red sauce and pasta for dinner.
He tells me it's a recipe from Jean-Christophe Novelli, an amazing celebrity chef who he may have a slight crush on. He makes it all the time and people like it so much he shares the recipe with them. It is one of those awesome recipe that is incredibly simple but also incredibly flavourful. And frankly, it's always a treat to not have to cook dinner and just be eating the same food everyone else is eating.
My brother says to make it with heirloom tomatoes, but he says he has made it in January with crappy winter tomatoes and it's also find. The vanilla bean is unexpected but it seems to add depth and round out the flavours.
You can Google the recipe, but basics are:
Slice as many tomatoes as will fit in a sauté pan in half, and seat a few minutes until soft. While they are searing, add salt and pepper to taste and a pinch of sugar. When tomatoes are soft, squish with a potato masher or back of a spoon to release the juices. Slice a vanilla bean in half, remove seeds and add seeds and the pod to the tomatoes. (When we were cooking last night, my brother's said at this point to add the vanilla and let it be. "Let it bean?" Eye roll.) Continue cooking over low heat to simmer. (The original recipe also calls for star anise but my brother doesn't like it.) Cook until thickened to a paste and add roughly chopped garlic, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Cook for about ten more minutes to infuse flavours. If it's too sweet, add a touch of vinegar to balance it out. Serve with your favourite pasta.

(Road) Avocado: small-town vegan pastry

Today is a road trip day. I packed myself in a car with two other adults and a baby and we headed off. At the obligatory Canadian road-trip stop--Tim Horton's--I did the obligatory vegan ingredient check. I figured I would be left with the same options as usual: bagel with peanut butter, or oat cakes. (And incidentally, who the fuck actually eats oat cakes? I've never seen anybody eat one, but they are at every single store. SRSLY.)
But this time, it was like the heavens opened and showered vegan pastry over all the earth: the allergen guide showed no animal ingredients in the apple strudel. STFU, Mr. Horton's!! No really, it's true. So I asked my travel companions about a dozen times if they wanted a vegan apple strudel, and then I went and ordered one. And it was only eighty cents. Lord have mercy!!

(Road) Avocado part 3: Polenta and Zen: Zen Kitchen in Ottawa

Remember I said I don't travel for work very often? Well, when I do it's in the summer. So in August I found myself in Ottawa for a day. Anyone in Ontario will know Ottawa isn't usually a day trip form Toronto, but my event got cancelled, and I found making the trip in order to attend the meeting that I had scheduled simply to coincide with my now-cancelled event.

My train left before many people are even out of bed, so we pulled in to Ottawa a little after eleven. I made my way downtown and stopped in to a vegan restaurant so I could get myself a delicious lunch before my meeting. And yes, yes--it was delicious.

The restaurant was Zen Kitchen in Ottawa. As you can tell from the first photo, even the ambiance was lovely. I had already checked out the menu when I was looking online before my trip, so I had settled on the Reuben sandwich with polenta fries.

I've made Reubens myself, at home (thank to Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day) but it appealed to me the most, and frankly I can always use tips on making a better Reuben. However, there was no way in vegan hell I was leaving that restaurant without trying polenta fries. And I'm glad I got to try these little golden morsels of fried polenta goodness--there were honestly one of the best things I've ever eaten! I told the waitress I'd seen recipe for polenta fries online, but admitted it was probably the deep-frying that made the difference. Yes, she confirmed, they were indeed deep-fried. Of course they were! Anything deep-fried instantly pleases my ridiculously trashy taste buds. I finished the Reuben and the polenta fries (mental note--buy industrial deep fryer and 8 gallons of vegetable oil; make polenta fries) with a happy tummy.

I had ordered tea, since I recently thought for reasons too banal to get into that I should give up coffee but I still want to enjoy a hot beverage a dozen times a day. Even my tea was lovely--the teapot itself was adorable enough that I couldn't resist taking a photo of that too.

For my evening train ride home, I got the mac and cheese and a side salad to go. I enjoyed it thoroughly but didn't dare take a photo--there were fried onion bits on top of the mac that looking like dead worms by the time I opened the container. Not photogenic at all, but mighy delicious! And they saved me from having a bag of chips for dinner at the train station.

So if you're ever in Ottawa, go to Zen Kitchen! Get the polenta fries, and maybe the chef can hook you up with an industrial deep fryer (and me too).

(Road) Avocado Part 2: La vida es Buena en Ecuador!

I love to travel. I grew up in a military family, so I think somehow all that enforced change seeped into my cells and somehow transformed into a desire to seek out new things.
However, as we know, travelling as a vegan can be tricky. So when I went to Ecuador with my mom earlier this year, a good third of my suitcase was food: instant soup, protein bars, shake'n'go smoothie powder, dried fruit... let's just say I brought a lot of food with me. But I brought a lot back home too, since I ate very well for most of my trip.
When we registered for the group tour (we went with GAdventures, by the way, and while this won't be a full-colour ad for them, I can't recommend them enough) we were told I may have trouble during the homestay part of the tour. I won't get into all of it quite yet--waxing poetic about all the delicious things I ate will definitely take more than one post--but the homestay portion was definitely not the hungriest part of my tour.
On my second day in Ecuador (my first day involved a challenging meal at a Chinese restaurant, normally a good option for vegans, in my experience, and "not much" egg), I had an amazing vegan ceviche. I knew about ceviche from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan but my attempt at mushroom ceviche from that cookbook's recipe fell flat. I was delighted to have vegetable ceviche made with peppers, mushrooms, onions, cauliflower, tomatoes and more--served with thick ripe slices of avocado. Heaven! I had veg ceviche a few more times in Ecuador, and soon found it was usually served with a unique regional twist--but more about soon.

Movie Tueday: Gauc and 'shock

I watched Bottleshock again on the weekend, because I was sick Friday night and spentmost of the long weekend recovering. Admittedly, I don't know how the rest of the world does it, but I recover by watching movies, mostly on NEtflix.
Bottleshock was in my queue/list/whatever they're calling this week because I watched it when it first came out, before the Star Trek reboot that also stars Chris Pine. Although apparently its reception wasn't as warm as my opinion of it, I enjoy this movie. This is partly because it hits upon another fandom I like, since it stars Alan Rickman, who played Severus Snape in the Happy Potter movies. (If you can find an actor in this movie who also was in Star Wars, I'll send you a bowl of guac.)
In the movie, it is the 70s, and non-Old World wines are having a tough breaking new ground (seewhatIdidthere?). The snotty British wine connoisseur who owns a wine shop in France is sampling Californian wines to take back home for a blind wine tasting. Along with a delicious New World red, one of the winemakers brings him a bowl of guacamole--one of those giant mortar-and-pestle type guacs brought out in a mortar the size of your head and twice and heavy. The snob puts down his wine, bemusedly grabs a tortilla chip, dips it in the guac and eats it, his face soon changing to grudgingly admit its flavour--just as he is eventually won over by the New World wines he tries only in the name of fairness and fully expecting to be disappointed. Another scene showed the snob sitting at a mediocre bar in California, with a good half-dozen or more open wine bottles on the table in front of him, and as he remarks that the wines are all good, you can see his carefully constructed opinions shattering around him.
these scenes particularly stuck in my memory, inspiring me to write this post, because it reminded me of many things.It reminded me to always try new things, and by golly I do my best It reminded me that some of the best foods are the simplest, and that I need to throw away my preconceived notions. It reminded that even when I think my food choices alienate me, I can find foods--guacamole, dim sum, chickpea curry--that even my most determined omnivore friends and family will devour. And most importantly, it reminded me to buy some avocados and make some goddamn guacamole.

(Road) Avocado, Part 1: Veg Out in London, ON

 Sometimes I have to travel for work. It's not that often, and since I work fore a charity, it's really not glamourous. I tend to stay with colleagues or family when possible, and these exotic locations include Kirkfield, Ontario, and Fort Erie, Ontario. Yeah, it's mostly Ontario! So when I had to go London, (yes, Ontario) in June, the colleague who offered to host me suggested we go to the vegan place for dinner Friday night. Um, doubletake what? We invited our other London colleagues but only one could join us--the one who made bacon jokes the whole time, unlike my host who seems to eat meatless a lot anyway. And I thanked her for her hospitality with a half-dozen triple-chocolate cherry biscotti, so I'm glad she wasn't too put off by vegan food to enjoy them! She emailed when she got back into town the following weekend and told me she and her husband were thoroughly enjoying them.
And I was glad, because I had thoroughly enjoyed Veg Out. The menu was varied enough to be enticing, with a mix of comfort food--chili cheese fries--and healthy food, like soba bowl with veggies.  For dinner, I absolutely had to get the crispy cremini and shiitake mushroom appetizer (pictured): I love mushrooms and anything deep-fried just has ny name on it. And yes, it was just as delicious as I thought it would be! I also got the bacon-mushroom melt, and whether it's because I didn't take picture or because it wasn't spectacular, I don't really remember it. But I was excited enough to also go back for dinner the next day!

I was there for a late dinner the next day, after the work event that I actually went to London for. I got the mushroom appetizer again, with a satisfying soy latte and this time the "fish" and chips (pictured). It was just as amazing as I hoped it would be! Almost creepily-similar battered and deep fried "fish", sinful fries and fresh and crunchy cole slaw. And I got a slice of the vegan cheesecake to go, for my train home ride to Toronto. All in all a wonderful and delicious trip to London!

Happy VeganMofo! And inspring alphabet soup

Suddenly it's VeganMofo! And already I'm behind on my posts. So I will post a photo of alphabet soup, not only to inspire you to make a hot, comforting, delicious bowl of vegan goodness to soothe your soul and fill your tummy, but also to inspire me, since I have the ingredients for this right now but have not yet made it. It has been a complicated weekend for me--I may have had food poisoning on Friday?--full of  far more laziness than even a long weekend warrants, so hopefully this photo of soupy yummines inspires us all.
Happy VeganMofo! And more to come.