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!

Dumplings redux

I made edamame dumplings a few weeks ago, and was overjoyed to discover that it didn't have to be the three-hour affair that I remembered. So I when I was at the grocery store last week, I picked up more dumpling wrappers and mushrooms for another easy-peasy version. While the edamame dumplings were delightful, I think the mushroom dumplings were even better. ...Mostly because mushrooms are one of my favouritest foods. Just saute the mushrooms and whir in a food processor or with a stick blender until small enough to stuff in a wrapper. If you love mushrooms and dumplings as I do, it'll be doubly delicious for you. I recommend going to the store right now. You can have delicious dumplings made and cooked before you're even hungry.

Don't give up on dumplings

I had given up on dumplings. I love dumplings, so I tried to make them a couple times, but I got frustrated. You need a tablespoon each of 8 different things, but they're not things I have on hand. So I'd spend $20 bucks or something like that to get $4 worth of ingredients to make $15 worth of dumplings. And what's more, chopping all the ingredients took me an hour and then lovingly stuffing and sealing all the dumplings took much, much longer. And then I still had to cook them. No! I gave up. I realized you could order dumplings from a variety of restaurants. It was more expensive but it was well worth saving the time. It was pretty much a done deal: I'd never make dumplings again. 
Then somehow I discovered this recipe for edamame dumplings. I almost couldn't believe it at first: only a few ingredients, all of which were cheap and easy to procure, which required minimal prepping on my part? Yes, I still had to stuff and seal the little darlings, but I could live with that.
And they were easy. Cooked edamame practically puree themselves, and they were so adorably green inside that they won me over. Take it from me: it'll be the only dumpling recipe you ever make again.

(Partially) Illustrated Things I can Always Eat.

I asked a colleague out for lunch last week. She said, "I was going to suggest sushi but you just had some on Friday." First of all--good memory on her, no? Secondly, I can have sushi anytime.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, midnight snack, post workout...I hope you get what I'm saying. There are a few things like that--if someone asked, "How about this for dinner, again?" I would say, hell yeah! So for my first post of VeganMoFo 2012, here is my very informative list, of (Partially) Illustrated Things I can Always Eat.

Sushi, obviously
The elegance of Japanese food is inherently appealing. The focus on the aesthetics is so different from the meat-potatoes-veg dinners so many of us grew up with. Hallelujah for that! And plus we get to use chopsticks, which is how I measured when I became a fully-formed city girl.

Pizza
Generally speaking, I have to make it myself. So I do. If I am especially disciplined, I will make a pizza and take it to work with me for a couple days' worth of lunch, health-ified with a salad on the side. Sex is like pizza, right? I can't remember how exactly, but it sounds right.

Dumplings
They're tiny and varied, they're stuffed with things, and they come with sauces. If dumplings aren't on your list of OMNoms, you must have been born without taste buds.

Grilled Cheese
Since going vegan, grilled cheese wasn't a popular item on my menu rotation. But then there was Daiya; and I discovered my panini press makes grilled cheese extra awesome. (It's all the extra space for crispy-ness that the panini press makes.) Now there is now going back. 

French toast
This has much the same appeal as grilled cheese--it's fried and it's carbs, so gimmeh! Only with French toast, it's not the gooey cheeze that make it extra nom-worthy, it's the stuff you eat it with--fruit, fruit sauce, maple syrup, icing sugar, or completing the full-on hot-breakfast trifecta of hash browns and meatless sausage/bacon. Weekends are made for this, people.

Falafel
Another food that builds on the basic fried carbs, falafel kicks it up a notch. Not only do you have the fried falafel balls and the pita, some food genius decided that contrasting this with cool, crisp parsley and adding some tahini for depth of flavour would take this food to a whole new level. And it did. 

Mexican

There is something about the flavour palate and the often vegan-ness of Mexican-style food that I can't get enough of. And seriously, anything I can add avocados to has my heart. Furthermore, chipotle peppers are the perfect addition of heat, and leave me teary with delicious joy--and a burning tongue.


Avocado
Do I really need to explain this one? If anything with avocados has my heart, then avocados themselves must be amazeballs. It's like this: if movies with Ryan Reynolds are inherently awesome, then Ryan Reynolds himself must be awesome squared. Hard to argue with my impeccable logic, right?
Avocados are smooth and creamy and go well with everything. If you're not convinced, look at the picture and try not to imagine how tasty that is.

Hummus

Humans have four basic needs: air, water, food, shelter. This being the 20th century, we can add Facebook and funny photos of cats if we wanted the list to be truly accurate. Vegans can add hummus to the list of necessities. How many sad, hungry vegan, lost and forlorn--on the road or at an event--has found that delicious saviour, hummus, and become instantly rejuvenated? Hummus is a vegan food that can be found so many places now that it frequently saves us from "just the salad". And thank hummus for that!