Revelry Review: ShopHouse

This past weekend Jesse and I tried a new-ish fast food restaurant, ShopHouse, the latest creation of the founder of Chipotle. Touted as a "southeast Asian kitchen", you can either build a bowl or have a banh mi sandwich with a variety of possible fillings. I had been looking forward to checking it out for a few months now. If I had checked my expectations at the door, I might have liked this place better than I did. I had dreams of yummy warm green curry and firm chunks of tofu with a variety of delicious veggies.

However, as a vegetarian, there was no green curry for me. In fact, the only sauce that did not count fish sauce as an ingredient was the tamarind vinagrette. Okay, fine. I was disappointed but I figured I would just appreciate that they told me and move on. The tofu looked more like the tofu scramble I make at home than any tofu I have ever had at an Asian restaurant. It was very tumeric-y and SUPER spicy. I wish I had been warned.

When you are essentially eating a bowl of brown rice and tumeric-y tofu, it would be great if you were allowed to choose more than one vegetable. My sauteed long beans were delicious but I wasn't given that many of them. I would have loved to try the charred corn, eggplant and Chinese broccoli too. Chipotle lets me have whatever toppings I want and I wish this place did too. The saving grace was the green papaya salad, which provided some relief for my super spicy lunch.

Overall, I thought ShopHouse had large portion sizes and I appreciate having a new fast food vegetarian option, but I just wish it had been less spicy and contained more veggies. Hopefully they will refine their menu over time.

ShopHouse is located at 1516 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC.

Vegan Mofo 12: Kaya's Kitchen

Last weekend Jesse and I took a road trip to New Jersey for a comedy show. Before the show, we took a small detour to Kaya's Kitchen, a vegetarian restaurant in Belmar. The menu is very extensive and it took me a long time to decide what to order. It's rare that I can order from the entire menu, especially one so big! We started with wildberry iced tea and some bread and olive oil. Then I had the Thai Sweet Potato Soup, which was sweet and spicy and very comforting:

Jesse began his meal with the cajun tofu salad. It had seasoned grilled tofu, greens, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, pickled red onion, sunflower seeds, sprouts and a cucumber ranch dressing. People, this is a small:

For his entree, Jesse had the "Acapulco Loco", which was diced veggie nuggets, peppers, corn, onion, black beans and broccoli in a spicy Mexican chipotle lime sauce over rice.

I was in the mood for a sandwich, so I tried the "Island Grilled Tofu Sandwich", which was Jamaican jerk tofu. Mmm.

To finish, Jesse got a vegan mint cake. Perfect ending to a great meal. We will be back for sure!

Dinner at The Green Elephant

When we visit Jesse's family in Maine, we always make sure to stop by The Green Elephant in Portland, which is by far my most favorite vegetarian restaurant. Every dish is stellar, they use a lot of local ingredients and the ambiance is warm and cozy. Here are a few pictures of our meal last week, starting with Jesse's appetizer: crispy wontons filled with vegan cheese and spinach, with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. This was outrageously delicious.

My appetizer: Fresh Rolls (rice paper, mixed raw veggies, avocado with a peanut dipping sauce).

Maine Root blueberry soda. I love this stuff!

My entree: Panang curry with tofu and brown rice. It even had Thai eggplant and squash in the mixed vegetables. Deeeeeelicious!

Jesse's entree: Peking "duck" served over wide noodles. It looked just like duck and Jesse said it was tasty.

Our desserts. On the left is the chocolate orange mousse cake. It's so good that we talk about it often. On the left is a trio of sorbets (with some fresh fruit and cookies). We had coconut, mango and strawberry lemonade flavors. The strawberry lemonade was definitely my favorite.

I can't wait until we are back in Maine in November!

Sweet & Natural

Jesse and I are always on the lookout for new veg-friendly places to eat in the DC-metro area. We particularly miss The Uptown Juice Bar, which is (was? I heard the may have closed) a vegan juice bar and restaurant in Harlem, NY that serves all sorts of yummy vegan soul food. We went all the time when Jesse lived in NYC. Here in DC, we've tried Soul Vegetarian many times (oh that macaroni!) and Everlasting Life Cafe (delicious!), but a co-worker recently told me that Sweet & Natural opened a small vegan eatery in Mt. Rainier, MD. I've long enjoyed their baked goods at places like Java Green and Roots Market so upon learning that they had a rotating menu of deliciousness, I needed to give it a try.

We got there just as they were about to close for the night on a Saturday (which I believe is 8 pm). I thought we might be out of luck but they still graciously served us dinner to go. I had the fried chicken, vegan gumbo and cauliflower gratin. A member of the staff asked me if I wanted to try their barbecue tofu too and when I said yes (how could I not?), she piled it on. I also got hot sauce for my "chicken". AMAZING. It's been many years since I stopped eating our feathered friends and the only thing I occasionally missed was tenders and hot sauce. NO MORE. This is sheer crispy crunchy spicy perfection!

When we patronize new veg restaurants, I feel a responsibility to really patronize them. So we ordered: two of these giant entrees (see picture), cornbread, banana bread, a lemon raspberry cupcake and a jelly thumbprint cookie. One of the staff members thought that they cupcake in the case wasn't fresh enough, so he went to the back to get me another one. And a different staff member insisted we take two of their veggie beef hand pies home to try. All of this vegan deliciousness? $30. We can barely get two salads out somewhere in this city for $30.

I want to sign the praises of this place from the rooftops! Please make the trip out there so that this place stays open! It's delicious.

If you go: Sweet & Natural is located at 4009 34 St., Mt. Rainier, MD. Warning: There is a lack of signage out front, so be on the lookout for it. It's located near Glut natural grocer. Their menu rotates and they don't have a website as far as I can tell, so be prepared to be surprised!

Saturday

In all of the years I've lived in this area, I've never been able to attend the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This past weekend, however, Jesse and I made it happen! This year they were celebrating the Peace Corps, Rhythm and Blues and Colombia. The picture above is of a Peruvian woman weaving. Her training and business are supported by the Peace Corps.

Kenyan women making baskets.

Rugs made by Kyrgyz women.

These were made my a Colombian woman. I loved the colors!

Traditional Colombian dancing during carnival.

After the festival, we drove out to Clarksville, MD to go to Roots Market, our most favorite grocery store (think Whole Foods with lots of veg items and lower prices) and had dinner at Great Sage, the vegan restaurant next door. We started with the "Almost Raw Vietnamese Spring Rolls". They came with a delicious peanut sauce. So yummy.

Jesse had the udon noodle bowl with veggies and tempura tofu.

I had the Santa Fe salad, which has marinated tofu, tortilla chips, corn, black beans, tomatos, onion, guacamole, mixed greens and lime vinagrette. Amazing!

A Mission for a Long Weekend

Jesse and I drove up to New Jersey this weekend to visit family and friends. My Mom and I hosted a Pampered Chef party on Saturday. It was so much fun! It started at 3 pm and the last of my friends ended up leaving around 11. I am excited about all of the kitchen goodies I was able to order too.

On Sunday we ventured out to the bookstore to get a guide to San Francisco and the wine country areas of California. We are heading there for about five days in late May to play tourist and visit some friends. So far our wish list includes (need to do some editing!): winery tours and tastings, Tartine Bread, Gracias Madre, San Francisco Museum of Art, Chinatown, Girl and the Fig and Muir Woods. I'd love to add Milennium and/or Chez Panisse to that. If you have any suggestions of things to do, see or eat, please let me know.

On Sunday night, we decided to complete a mission. You see, for the past few months, Jesse and I have been obssessed with the Food Network show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". Unfortunately, we can't eat about 85% of their picks since they contain meat, but we still make a note of the dishes they mention and their locations for anything that we can eat. A few weeks ago, the coconut cream pie from Ritz Seafood in Voorhees, New Jersey was raved about. Jesse asked if we could go the next time we were visiting my family, since they live about an hour away from Voorhees.

So we went. Here were are waiting for our delicious desserts. Jesse looks less than thrilled in this picture, but I assure you he was excited.


It turns out that the peanut butter banana cream pie was also featured on The Food Network. Since I don't care for coconut, I decided that this would be the dessert I would try. After all, it's famous! And for good reason. The peanut butter was baked into the crust and the whole thing was just spectacular. Even Jesse admitted that my dessert was the best. Don't worry--I shared mine. And it's back to green smoothies and healthy eats as of this morning.

And lastly, the reason we made this trek: the famous coconut cream pie. It was topped with toasted coconut and white chocolate shavings. Jesse loved it and said it was every bit as good as the show said.

If you go, you should know that it is located in a strip mall, you have to bring your own alcohol, the decor is a little "eh" and the tables are close together. However, the seafood is delicious, the servers know the food inside and out, and the desserts are amazing. You need to make a reservation (even for a Sunday night). It's totally worth it for the great eats.

Vegan Kickstart: Days 6 and 7

I had such a great weekend! During my time in grad school and working full-time I often wondered (and whined) about what people do with free time. I haven't really had very much of it in three years. Now that I only have one class until graduation (May 14th!), I can finally afford to do things just for fun!

On Saturday I took myself on a mini-artist's date. I went to Borders, wrote in my journal and perused some books. I ended up getting Tal Ronnen's The Conscious Cook (man those recipes look hard but great!). I know I said I would only buy Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Color Me Vegan and Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan! this year and stop amassing such a ridiculous collection of cookbooks, but I had a rare combination of a coupon, $5 worth of Borders Bucks and a partial gift card so I got this $30 cookbook for a mere $8! I may just read through it and look at the beautiful pictures until I am feeling adventurous. After that I had lunch at Java Green (yum!), took a long walk and went to yin/yang yoga at Tranquil Space (hurts so good!).

On Saturday night I had dinner with my friend Noel at Toscana Grill, which is located just outside the Courthouse metro station in Arlington. They have a very vegan friendly and organic menu (soy cheese and meats, vegan pastas, etc.) that has the vegan items clearly marked but they also have a lot of options for the meat eating crowd. I started with the minestrone soup and had gnocchi with marinara and mushrooms for dinner. The food was delicious and the staff was so friendly. They asked if we wanted to see their dessert menu. I nearly died when I asked what was vegan on it and they said, "Everything!". Not only was it all vegan but it was all from Vegan Treats bakery! If you ever have a chance to sample their desserts, you must try the peanut butter bomb cake. It is THE BEST dessert I have ever, ever had. They even took our picture for their blog! That is the dessert that legends are made of right there on the table! Pardon the cheesy grins--we also had a considerable amount of wine:

After dinner we went to see "The Blind Side", which I had been wanting to see before the Oscars. To my surprise, I thought it was really funny and cute (......could've also been the wine!).

Today I got a late start but I ended up trying out two new recipes. The first was banana chocolate chip muffins from Colleen Patrick-Goudreu's The Joy of Vegan Baking, which I've had for quite some time. They are so good and so easy to make! They have a lot of bananas in them, so I feel less guilty than I probably should about eating them!

The second recipe was the Spicy Chickpea Tomato Soup from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook. It was the first recipe I've tried from it and if the rest are like this, I'm cooking the entire thing! Basically you first cook a mix of garlic, onion, chickpeas, tomatoes and a ton of spices in a pan and it looks like this (I almost just made some rice and ate it over that because it looked and smelled so yummy!):

Then you mix it in a blender with a few other ingredients (this was also the first recipe I've tried that called for nutritional yeast!) and voila! You have soup! I can't begin to explain to you how good this is. It's like a spicy vegan tomato bisque, which I haven't been able to enjoy since having my gall bladder out a few years ago due to the cream, but with better nutritional value. The chickpeas also add some bulk to this soup so it is filling. This is the final product:

I will definitely be making this one over and over again! Soooooooooo good. Now it's time for the Oscars!

Have a great start to the week, everyone!

Revelry Review: Etete

This past Sunday Jesse and I went to Etete for lunch, an Ethiopian restaurant located at 1942 9th St, NW in DC. Jesse had never tried Ethiopian food so I wanted him to experience it. (Him: "Are they going to bring us silverware?" Me: "No." Him: ".....Ever??") The good news is that he really enjoyed it!

The inside of the restaurant is small but warm and welcoming. The menu is pretty extensive but typical for an Ethiopian restaurant. Clearly we weren't the only ones wanting to eat here as it was pretty full at nearly 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. We started with a sambusa, which is basically an Ethiopian lentil-stuffed empanada. It had all sorts of spices and definitely had a kick to it.

For our main course, I got the vegetarian sampler (a little bit each of collard greens, spicy red lentils, pickled cabbage and carrots, a split pea puree, something with potatoes and carrots and a few other things that I wasn't exactly sure what they were). Jesse ordered the Yemisir Wat, a red lentil stew, which was delicious. And, of course, injera. The injera here was so light and fluffy and not the least bit greasy, which was a nice surprise. I could have just eaten the injera for lunch--it was seriously that good! I also learned from Wikipedia that the teff flour used to make injera is full of iron, which is a bonus.

This was by far the best Ethiopian food I've had in DC (and I used to think Dukem was unbeatable!). If you are in the area, I would highly recommend you check it out!

{Photo credit: Kevin L}

Revelry Review: DC Bread and Brew

On Friday I ate lunch at a place that opened up not all that long ago near my work called DC Bread and Brew. As most of you know, I am a mostly vegetarian/meat avoidant/pescatarian/flexitarian/plant-based diet person, as well as trying my hardest to stay healthy and lose weight, and as such I often have a challenging time eating in restaurants.

I was first drawn in by the cozy atmosphere (but that could've been the icky D.C. weather!). The menu changes daily, but there are always pizzas, sandwiches, salads, soups and quiche, as well as a few types of bigger main entrees. The choices that day ranged from a curried okra and coconut rice dish to a spinach and tomato pizza. There were many vegetarian and vegan options. There was also an assortment of baked goods, which I veered away from, but some readers might like to know that they included vegan options as well. The staff seemed friendly and the food was fresh. You can read more reviews here.

I ordered a half of a sandwich (hummus and roasted veggie on whole wheat) and a cup of soup (an amazing vegan creamy squash soup that had basil and coconut milk with a tiny bit of spice). The best part? This yummy meal won't break the bank ($8.25, which is a steal in this area) nor widen the waistline.