Wordless Wednesday: Tampa ThanksVegan 2012

9 veg*ns walk into a Japanese steakhouse...

Amber's boyfriend had a dream. He wanted to round up "The Vegetable Friends" and descend upon one of the local Japanese steakhouses for a vegan-style habachi night. We assembled, excitedly, for this culinary adventure.

When I was The Lone Vegan, I had been to many a habachi-style dinner, but I never ate the food. As The Lone Vegan back then, I would order vegetable sushi while sitting with a group of omnivores beside the grill, sizzling with meat and butter and eggs, ducking every time the chef would fling chicken bits around the table.

Naturally, I was totally on board with reserving an entire habachi table to our vegan selves. Our destination: Kobe Japanese Steakhouse in Brandon, Florida.

I have to say, communicating our dining request was very easy. When I called to make the reservation, I explained to the person on the phone what we wanted: no meat, no butter, no eggs. He indicated on the reservation that we were all vegetarian, and he told me to explain everything when we checked in, as well. When we arrived, the host I spoke with was super understanding and helpful. After clarifying the no meat-no butter- no eggs request, he added that we would want the miso soup (as the onion soup was made with beef broth) and that the ginger salad dressing was vegan. He gave me that information without me even asking!

When we were seated at the table, I went over everything again with our server, who apparently was not given any of the reservation information. He wrote down everything we said, and seemed slightly amused that all 9 of us were eating tofu and vegetables.

Miso soup


salad


And then our chef came. He cracked a few jokes about our party ("So, I don't know if you guys saw the sign outside, but it says 'Steakhouse'...") and admitted he wasn't all that savvy in the tofu cooking department, but he did a fine job. We all had a good laugh when the tofu slabs came out.







finished product


During his cooking, the chef commented that it felt so weird for him to not be cooking with butter, and that he typically goes through a tub of butter for each party. He gestured toward the "tub" on his cart and it looked like close to two pounds of butter!

Overall, this was a fun and delicious experience. Making the reservation was ultra-smooth, and we all had a great time. I love my Vegetable Friends!

Wordless Wednesday: Hillsborough River State Park

Strange, Strange Meals

Between being harassed by a janitor at the Treasure Island public beach ladies room and almost ingesting dairy (that was a close call), my pal Lisa and I decided to try a new restaurant. Several weeks ago, we checked out Persia House of Kabob, located in the same strip mall as Kaleisia Tea Lounge. Both big fans of falafel, we were interested to check out their take on 'em, as well as some other items on their veg*n menu.

Imagine our surprise when we were told they had no falafel. It's on the menu, but they just didn't have any that day. I guess their designated Falafel Maker was on vacation.

We started with a vegetarian platter to split.

Tabbouleh, dolmades, and hummus. All very standard. I'm very picky about tabbouleh, and this one was pretty good.

But here comes the fun part: our entrees.

I ordered the Baghali Polo: "basmatic rice mixed with herbs, fresh dill, and lima beans." When I saw rice + dill, I got excited, thinking about the amazing dill rice I ate at Noon-a-Kabob in Chicago several years ago. Since the only veggies in this dish were lima beans, I also ordered a side of grilled vegetables.

On the left, what looks like a heart, is actually a whole grilled tomato. The rice itself was NOTHING like the rice I had in Chicago. This rice tasted old and dusty, like someone made it the other day, set it on a tall shelf, and then dusted a ceiling fan directly above it. It was dry and flavorless. I could not detect any fresh dill whatsoever. The grilled vegetables were okay, though a bit "well done."

Lisa ordered the Zereshk Polo: "sweet and sour currant-saffron basmatic rice." Sounds intriguing, yes? Now, think about that description, and imagine what that dish should look like. It sounds like it would be colorful and fragrant. It does NOT sound like a plate of white rice and Craisins, which is what it actually looked like.

I can't imagine what my face looked like when this was placed before us. Lisa rooted around and, no, that was it. No other goodness hidden anywhere else.

I gave Lisa my bleeding heart whole grilled tomato, which she said helped the fact that her meal was dry and flavorless.

So... I don't know if there's much more I need to say about my first impression of Persia House of Kabob. I think the pictures and descriptions say enough.

The Much Awaited Vegan Tamale

I recently crossed something off of my Vegan Bucket List. (And no, I don't have the actual Vegan Bucket List to share with you. Gosh, wouldn't it be great if I were really that organized?!) Alas, it is but a mental list (currently), which is risky, because my memory comes and goes.

Anyway, I've been in beautiful Tampa Bay for a year and a half now. I've been to the infamous Taco Bus on Hillsborough Ave a handful of times. SOMEHOW, in the last 18 months, I've NEVER been there on a Saturday or Sunday, which is when they serve VEGAN TAMALES. (And I'm pretty sure that every single time I was at Taco Bus on one of those Monday-Friday days, I'd be sure to state, "Dammit! Why isn't it Saturday or Sunday right now?!")

Considering the only vegan tamale (or any tamale, for that matter) I've ever had was the frozen Amy's Kitchen kind, I was pretty stoked about trying an "authentic" one at Taco Bus, "one of these days."

Well, 547.5 days later (give or take), I finally had one of those days.

And sadly, it was not all I had hoped it would be.

As I mentioned, the only tamale I've ever had before was the frozen Amy's kind, of which there are two vegan varieties: roasted vegetables, and black bean. I tried the roasted vegetable one once and thought it was weird. The black bean I've had at least a dozen times. It ain't half bad! So, at Taco Bus, I was expecting something with beans, maybe tempeh (since they have pretty rockin' tempeh there), and anything else would have been a surprise. I also expected TB's tamales to be about the same size as an Amy's, so I ordered two of them. This is incredibly far from factual, as these tamales are really damn big.

BAM! Check that beast!

So there I was, outside Taco Bus, with two behemoth vegan tamales before me, a moment that I had been awaiting for over a year. What would be inside? All the menu said was "vegan." No ingredients listed, no description. No point in asking anyone inside the Bus what's in it because, hell, they couldn't even understand me when I said, "Two vegan tamales."

I peeled back the corn husky layer and...



and...










AND...




This.

Corn meal. A corn husk packed solid with corn meal. And some corn, and peas, and spices, but mostly corn meal. No beans, no tempeh, no nada. Looooots and lots of corn meal.

I have to admit, I was disappointed. It's not that I hate corn meal, but I don't LOVE it, which is who this tamale is designed for: someone who really freaking loves corn meal.

The two omnivores who were with me seemed to like it (or maybe they were just humoring me), and this isn't an AWFUL tamale. It's just... not as exciting as I had dreamed it would be. The next day, I chopped up the leftovers (hoo boy, that stuff firms up in the fridge!) and simmered 'em in seasoned black beans and salsa, and that was pretty alright.

Closing thoughts: Skip the vegan tamale. Get the butternut squash tostada, which is available any day of the week.

My Second Vegan Bake Sale

Saturday, April 21st, was the day of our second bake sale for World Wide Vegan Bake Sale for 2012. Last year's was such a great success, we naturally had high hopes for this year, and we were not disappointed! Amber and I spent Thursday AND Friday baking in preparation, up to our ears in flour and sugar (hence no teaser posts). We whipped up chocolate chip cookies, wheat-free chocolate chip cookies, no-kill puppy chow, not-so-mad cowboy cookies, lemon-blueberry muffins, peanut butter blondies with peanuts and PB blondies with chocolate, raspberry chocolate chip blondies, and apple-pretzel cookies. As an after thought, we whipped up three dozen savory biscuits: pizza, cheddar-jalapeno, and cheddar-garlic, all using Follow Your Heart's Vegan Gourmet cheeses. We were barely opened for business and we had quite a crowd. It was about two hours before we could get everything labeled and get our literature/freebie table set up! We were off to a phenomenal start, but that resulted in me not getting pictures of every single thing we had. Here are the goodies that Amber and I made.

Peanut butter blondies recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I love this recipe. It's simple, only requires one bowl, and at the end you get to mash the "batter" (more like a dough) with your hands. It's an easy, fool-proof recipe that everyone LOVES. As mentioned above, we made one batch with crushed peanuts on top, and another batch with chocolate chips.

We followed the wheat-free chocolate chip cookie recipe from Veganomicon, making our own oat flour by whirring some oats in the Magic Bullet. Easy! The whole recipe is easy and the results are AMAZING. I loved the toothsome texture. They're ever-so-slightly crumblier than a classic chocolate chip cookie.

Lemon Blueberry muffin recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. These smelled AMAZING as they were baking, and we were amazed with how beautiful they turned out. I said they looked like coffee shop muffins. Eat your hearts out, Starbucks!

Raspberry chocolate chip blondies from Vegan With a Vengeance

Here's what was left of the pizza rolls and cheesy biscuits by the time I could take pictures. These were the first items on our tables to sell-out! They FLEW outta there!

Our cookie platter, featuring classic chocolate chip cookies, cowboy cookies, and apple-pretzel cookies, plus some chocolate cupcakes that someone donated (and we whipped up an amazing peanut butter frosting for them).

We used Rice Chex for the no-kill puppy chow, making it another gluten-free option. I use this recipe here, using Earth Balance in place of butter. Lisa spent her Friday night baking up a storm, too. Here's what she brought to our delicious, colorful table:

Pecan pie! This was a hit last year and was a hit again this year!

These amazing peanut butter bars, reminiscent of a Reese's cup. Lisa used crunchy PB, so it had an added, fun texture. Also, wheat-free! These were amazing and crazy-indulgent!

And THEN, she went and made baklava. Like a baller. Fo real. The baklava really Wowed a lot of people! Lisa also made brownies, but I never got a picture of them. More donations came in from friends and fellow volunteers/activists.

These mini cheesecake bites (made by Myriam) were a HUGE hit! Made with Follow Your Heart cream cheese and tucked into little phyllo dough cups, most people bought one and promptly put them in their mouth. For several people, this was their first time having vegan cheesecake, and they LOVED it!

We also received some lovely chocolate and strawberry cupcakes, both with cream cheese frosting (made by Kim)...

energy cookies (Gasp! Something healthy!), made by Maria

Jojo donated cute kitty cookies

and some AMAZING peanut butter fudge (my personal favorite of all the items on our bake sale tables)

and Lorelei brought some cinnamon rolls that went FAST! She also brought a loaf of sweet cinnamon bread and some mini baguettes.

We also sold Throwback sodas, but we kept forgetting about them, therefore they didn't sell very fast.

We had plenty of information on TNR (Trap Neuter Return), spay & neuter, and the Save 90 movement in Hillsborough County, as well as vegan recipes, veg starter kits, and stickers (Thanks for hooking us up, Action for Animals!). And then, a crazy storm rolled in and we got hit with the sideways rain. Thankfully we still had a couple of friends hanging out with us, so we had three extra helpers as we carried our baked goods into Mojo, cleared off the tables, and set them on their sides, like barricades from the rain. It was a mad rush and my pants were soaked from the knees down. Danny and Melanie were super accommodating and let us set up shop on a table in the center of the store. There was a band playing, so it was very loud and we couldn't hear or talk to people very easily, plus there were a lot of shoppers digging through stacks of records, so it wasn't the best place for our bake sale.

Within an hour, though, the rain let up and we were back outside on the sidewalk. We were able to consolidate all of our goods and literature onto less tables.

We hung out until long past dark. After 13 hours, we gave the remaining baked goods to Mojo to sell in their cafe and continue to collect donations on our behalf. During the 13 hours we were there, we raised... (drum roll, please.) $915!!!! And every penny of that goes toward spay & neuter surgeries and medical care for stray/feral/homeless cats! We had so much fun sharing delicious vegan baked goods, hanging out with our friends, and chatting with new friends. Thank you to Mojo for hosting us again, and thank you to EVERYONE who supported our bake sale! Special thanks to Florida Voices for Animals and Silverback Peace Group for sponsoring our event and providing literature materials.

Did you participate in World Wide Vegan Bake Sale 2012? Where did you host it and where did your funds go? Tell me all about it!