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!

Jasmine Thai in Brandon, Florida

Between chopping my hair off and then chopping even MORE off, I finally checked out Jasmine Thai in Brandon, Florida, a restaurant that came highly recommended by a few vegan pals of mine. And folks, I think I'm in love.

Jasmine Thai is a little restaurant located in a strip mall near the Aldi and some grotesquely-named chicken joint named Chick-N-Bones (BARF), which prompted a brief discussion on other horridly-named meat-focused restaurants, which always brings Rib Crib to mind. (I can't help but imagine an actual crib made from ribs, which is like something out of either a horror movie, or something set in the Stone Age.) Ground Round is another gross one. Makes me think of a merry-go-round made from raw hamburger meat.

GOD, WHY I AM TALKING ABOUT THIS???

Moving on! Jasmine Thai, which is simply and pleasantly named, has an impressive menu with plenty of veg*n options in almost all categories. When I spotted tempura eggplant under Appetizers, it instantly made me think of the Crispy Eggplant at Bo Ling's, my favorite Chinese place in Kansas City. It didn't take much for me to convince my dining companion to split it with me, and I am pleased to say that the tempura eggplant is just as good, if not better, than the Crispy Eggplant in KC.

Greasy, crispy outside gives way to the warm and squishy eggplanty insides. Isn't fried food grand?

I was so tempted to try something different at Jasmine Thai, as there were many enticing entrees on the menu [Garlic & Black Pepper stir-fry, Cashew Nuts stir-fry, Japanese Squash curry, Pineapple curry], but to gauge a Thai restaurant's deliciousness and returnability (a word I just made up, which means: how likely I am to return there), I knew I had to go with my favorite, my old reliable, my Old Faithful, if you will: Panang Curry with tofu. As mild as possible, please.

Panang curry is generally the same everywhere you go, but you know every place makes it just a liiiittle bit differently. As I waited for my dish to arrive, I wondered, How mild is "mild" by this place's standards? Will this make my nose run? Will there be enough vegetables? I wonder what the tofu will be like. Tofu is so important. I wasn't worried about it, though. I had a good feeling about this curry.

And my expectations were met. Deliciously.

The curry was perfectly mild and did not cause a single sniffle or watery eye. It was smooth and creamy and perfectly peanutty. The tofu was also the perfect texture: firm and not greasy-deep-fried-crispy. Of course, there are never enough vegetables for me, but this was good enough.

Dining Pal got the Amazing dish with tofu, another peanutty dish. The peanut sauce was great! (But I liked my Panang better.) I was a little jealous of his broccoli, though.

So, in conclusion, I have a new favorite Thai restaurant in Tampa Bay. Now this really feels like home.

Peanut Gallery

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity and fun times. As you already know, it concluded with a speaking event with Dr. Neal Barnard, but other good times and good eats were had before Dr. Vegan Eye Candy.

On Friday, I hung out in Lakeland with a friend. She's not veg*n, and since neither of us were familiar with the area, we decided Moe's would be a good option for the both of us. Bring on the tofu rice bowl!

In my opinion, the tomatillo salsas are the best.


I love that two of my three Moe's visits have included some kind of entertaining shenanigan-watching. The first time, it was some youngsters line-dancing outside of the restaurant. This time, it was a college kid creating balloon animals. There happened to be a table of several children next to us, so we had a great view of watching this guy create motorcycles, just about every Disney princess, a flower, and Mario. My friend had to get a Mario of her own.

I gladly paraded him about town with us for the remainder of the evening.

Saturday afternoon I met with a new friend for lunch, with the plan to meet at a Roebeks in Brandon. (I can't help but think of Sears whenever I hear or read that name. I imagined eating a salad perched atop of a riding lawn mower.) Anyway, turns out this particular location is closed. The sign is on the building, but the space is for lease. Minor detail! So we moved on to nearby Ploy Thai.

Ploy Thai is a tiny, but nicely decorated restaurant within a strip mall. (I love extravagantly decorated Thai restaurants, with Bahn Thai in Leavenworth, Kansas, still my favorite thus far.) Ploy Thai had a specifically vegetarian section in their menu with several items, but I'm a sucker for a good Panang curry, so I figured I'd order that off the "Curries" section. At the top of it, it offers tofu with it, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to get it veganized, right? Well, when a fancy-dressed lady came to our table, I inquired about getting the Panang curry made vegan, "with no fish sauce." She said most of the sauces, including the Panang, come "pre-made," with fish sauce. She named off the few sauces that are made fresh and CAN be made without fish sauce, so I flipped back to the "Vegetarian" section and chose something off of there, when she told me that that sauce was also pre-made, WITH fish sauce, even though it's on the "Vegetarian" section. Whew! So I went with the tofu and veggies in a chili sauce.

The sauce ended up being sweeter than I would have liked (I don't like sweet entrées), but the tofu was really good. This dish could have used more veggies, specifically broccoli. The "veggies" mostly consisted of cabbage. Meh. At least my rice was heart-shaped (funsies!).


My friend ordered the veggies with peanut sauce, which looked delicious (and fish-free!).


All of that fish business made ordering a little more difficult and disappointing, but luckily we were able to navigate around that fishy obstacle. And while the food wasn't terrible, I can't help but think that there are better Thai restaurants in the area.

Since I've been spending some time out in the country lately, I pass a lot of produce stands on the side of the highway, all of them heavily advertising strawberries (I'm in strawberry country!). I was more interested in other fruits and veggies, but couldn't find anything beyond strawberries and citrus at the first two stands I stopped at along highway 60. The third stop was the winner. Not only did she have zucchini, yellow squash, citrus, strawberries, cucumbers, peppers, collards, and potatoes, but she had freshly boiled peanuts. I have spotted this southern delicacy advertised several times, but never tried them out until this past weekend. After one sample, I was hooked.


The woman working the stand told me that the peanuts are boiled in salted water for 6 hours.

Holy cow, where do I even begin on how awesome these peanuts are?! They were scooped straight out of the cauldron, warm and fragrant, and poured into a bag.

The shells are soft and moist, obviously, and quite easy to tear open, revealing the warm, salty, oh-so-creamy peanuts within. Seriously, I simply had no idea a peanut could be THIS creamy without being "peanut butter."


Despite the sloppiness involved in eating these heavenly nuts, I felt like a true Southern Belle all the while.