What I remember and love about Mao’s was how vegan-friendly they were. It wasn’t just that they had vegan options, but the vegan options were just as valid as the omni ones. Once we had company and called in an order for delivery. One of the soups was not vegan, and shortly after placing the order we got a call alerting us that we had ordered something nonvegan. You gotta love that. (Of course, all vegan would be better, but I can’t complain unless I’m willing to open my own restaurant.)

We went to the Melrose location, since it was right by our hotel, but if you’re in Venice, there’s one there too! Don’t worry, both have communist-themed décor.

The Specials Board! You probably can’t see it ’cause it’s written so tiny, but every dish can be made vegetarian or vegan. “Just ask!”

They’re just fried wontons, but damn, do they make me happy. When you first walk in, they take your drink orders then get you your chips. I guess there have been enough occasions when I was sooooo hungry that these felt life-saving. Not for nothin’, they’re perfect for scooping up fried rice.

The onion pancake. I always remember getting two layers, and it was simply fluffy, oniony perfection. This was one thick layer and was sadly a bit doughy.

The $1 spring roll! (They’ve also got a $1 salad.) It’s not going to knock your proverbial socks off, but it’s a little spicy and just feels right.

The People’s Potstickers. These are filled with smoked tofu, a couple varieties of mushroom, and bok choy.

My old stand-by, the fried rice. Like all the main dishes, this comes with your choice of soft, smoked, or fried tofu. Why do I stick with the plain ol’ fried rice? Because before this, I have already eaten chips, a spring roll, and at least one other starter. This leaves little room in the belly, and what makes for better leftovers than fried rice? Oh, and it’s seriously one-third tofu.

Long-life beans, anyone? Again, simple, classic, it’s just green beans in a black bean sauce with smoked tofu.

Hong Kong Chow Mein made vegan. Saucy vegetables and fried tofu over pan-fried noodles. Food for the people!

Don’t forget your homemade ginger ale!

Turns out, Veggie Grill’s plan wasn’t foolish at all. They’re opening some new locations up here (Beaverton at the end of January, Downtown in May-ish, another Portlandy one sometime after that, with a few Seattle locations thrown in there somewhere), so they wanted to give us a head start. Honestly, for the price of a couple of advertisements they got four vegan bloggers (and a couple of omni restaurant reviewers) to try their food and listen to their story. Of course we’re writing about it—we write about everything! And you know me, I’m going to be straight with you.

We’ll get to the food in a minute, but I want to talk about the company. These guys are on a mission. They’re smart—and now they’re vegan. What started out as a business venture to build a chain of healthy fast-casual restaurants has changed their lives and just might change a few more. In researching this concept—the founders are all seasoned businessmen—they learned that vegan food can be just as flavorful and enjoyable as any other convenience food. Sure, that may not surprise you and me, but it did surprise them. Hooking up with their foodie Ray White, formerly of Native Foods, they are out to spread accessible, affordable vegan food across the country in a way that hasn’t been seen before.

You can choose to be excited about or scoff at the mass-market aspect of that. I personally don’t have a problem with it. Much like my experience at Native, sitting in the L.A. Veggie Grills, I loved looking around at a packed dining room, full of all races and ages, all eating vegan food. It’s not likely all these customers were vegan, but every vegan meal eaten means fewer animals are suffering. If we can take that to the masses, awesome. It could very well lead some to experiment at home with vegan ingredients or encourage them to try other vegan restaurants.

All right, you’ve been good and listened to me think probably way too much about this than I should. Here’s some food porn…after this photo of the Sunset location, for which I was hassled by The Man.

That’s Jess walking with Ray, who was a great storyteller. I was really glad to have met him. He has a love of produce and animals and people alike; it was nice to see the heart behind the chain, you know?

Wanna talk accessible? Vegan nachos are a gimme. They use a house cheesy blend, chili, corn salsa, and the other usual suspects for some could-be-worse junk food.

Same goes for the Buffalo wings. These drippy, saucy strips are like a gateway vegan food. You’ll find this Buffalo chick-product in sandwiches and wraps too. I’m not even a fan of vinegar, but I ate two of ‘em.

The All Hail Kale salad, ladies and gentlemen. Kale, corn salsa, cabbage, carrots, papaya-ginger vinaigrette, and agave-roasted walnuts…guess who’s gotta try to make this at home! I cannot tell you how much I loved this salad. I’m not at all embarrassed that I was the one who flat-out asked that they box up the leftovers for us. And yes, I did eat it for breakfast the next day—it held up just grand.

The VG team all had words about the mac-n-cheese. They’re apparently still tinkering with it. It’s a quinoa pasta with their gluten-free cheese sauce, so without the breadcrumbs it’s completely gluten-free. If you’re not into quinoa pasta or a very mild cheesy taste, skip it. Kids dig it and can’t tell the difference.

In addition to burgers (you know what those look like), the menu has a bunch of steaky options. The top one there is the All-American Stack, with veggie steak, dressing, the usual fixin’s, and an onion ring. (Note: Onion rings are not an option as a side, and I for one am outraged. Hear my outrage, Veggie Grill, hear meeeee!) The next is the Carne Asada, with a spicy veggie steak. I still can’t bring myself to eat vegan steak—so dumb, I know, totally psychological—but others were into it.

The sandwich I did try (and was super impressed with) was the Bayou Chicken. Here it is wrap-style, bundled up for me to take to the airport. It’s spicy and grilled, and totally satisfying. It was my top pick along with the kale salad.

It’s 2012. Your menu has to have sweet potato fries or people just aren’t going to bother with you. (Maybe 2013 will be the year of the vegan onion ring—a girl can hope.)

Dessert sampler, yes! I had three of these chocolate chip cookies over the course of the weekend and I wouldn’t mind another. The pudding has a dark chocolate base, and it’s the standard tofu pudding we’ve all made. Then the carrot cake: I loved it. It was pretty moist and mild. The frosting wasn’t übersweet, again going for the accessible, comfortable, you-could-have-made-it-at-home-but-you’re-running-errands-so-here-you-go vibe.

And that’s that. Unfortuately, I had to get on the early plane to make it back in time for work while the others stuck around for the new menu items, including full-meal, fork-n-knife plates, so check out their sites. I guess the Beaverton location won’t get the new menu just yet—baby steps—but you’ve seen the old one and they’re doing pretty OK with it. See you there!

I love chocolate. There’s no way getting around it, but honestly, why would I try? It’s delicious, it makes me feel good, and there are so many varieties out there (even vegan ones!) that I never grow bored with it.

While spending the last month moving and working the day job and taking on freelance stuff and taking care of holiday obligations and trying to keep up with my other projects, I ran myself into the ground way more often than I was comfortable with. And it’s gonna sound like junkie talk, but a little bit of chocolate was all it took to get me up and at it again: peanut butter cups, a healthy dose of Holy Kakow syrup in my coffee, or whatever caught my eye while I was waiting in line at the grocery store.

Thank you, Taza, for catching my eye. It’s just this little puck o’ chocolate, around $5 or $6—which we know is cheap as hell when it takes but a tiny taste to satisfy you, allowing you to enjoy and even share this delight for a whole week. I grabbed the Salt and Pepper one, because it listed plain ol’ salt and black pepper and I thought that was ballsy, going with very pedestrian ingredients. It wasn’t fleur de sel and poblano, you know, just that stuff you grew up with, the stuff that lives on tables in pancake houses across the nation.

The taste was anything but pedestrian, but let’s not even start with the taste. The texture is unlike anything I’ve had before. It’s coarse, dry, with grains of sugar and salt and pepper. I read about Taza’s process on their website, and everything is done by hand, no giant steel machinery, so the product has an imperfect, handmade quality to it. If you grew up on Hershey’s and are looking for a smooth, homogonized, bland chocolate, this is not it. You will experience a crude yet gorgeous collection of flavors and textures that you may not want anything to do with. And I weep for you that you cannot see the beauty in this treat of treats.

I’ve since gotten the Cinnamon variety, and it’s the same texture and slap in the face of flavor. I’m tempted to buy the sampler they have online (not the $99 variety pack!), because they’ve got a Vanilla Bean, a Ginger, a Salted Almond, and a bunch of others, including more exotic peppers. And seeing as they’re all dairy-free, I’m in for the grand tour.

Don’t worry, other chocolate, I still have plenty of room in my heart (and tummy) for you.

Last week we went all the way out to the suburbs to check out the first Native Foods in the Portland area. Rumors are they’ll eventually get to us here in the city, but until then, it’s a roadtrip out to the bling-ass outdoor mall. It’s worth it. Aside from the food it was fun to just look around and see a packed fast food joint in the suburbs…and they’re all eating vegan!

Take a look at what we got (and do notice notebooks in most of the photos—it really was a business meeting).

We started with the Native Chicken Wings. That’s right, no cute alternative spellings of these meat-alikes. They came with a bunch of sauces that I didn’t eat. The others seemed to like ‘em just fine. The texture of these is pretty soft, more like Gardein than seitan. To our delight, we got six pieces, very easily shared among three people!

I got the Chicken Run Ranch Burger…hold the ranch. Look at all that stuff; why would you need dressing? I totally didn’t care that my sandwich was the same as our appetizer. It was great and I was hungry. The fries were decently spiced. Next time I’ll try the sweet potato fries.

Behold Janessa’s Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger! The bacon is tofu, and those are fried pickles up top. This was so intimidating…and messy…and impossible to finish, but she sure as hell enjoyed herself.

Jess’s Chicago Dip Au Jus: peppered seitan, giardiniera, and au jus. I might try this one; it seems simple enough. Sorry for the schmer photo, but when you’re sitting down to dinner with other bloggers, by the time you get to the last plate you’re shooting pretty quick just so you can start eating.

We had to try dessert. These little lovelies are the Cardamom Rose Cupcake and Peanut Butter Parfait. Both were pretty good. Not pictured is the cheesecake. My photo was crap, and I didn’t really love it. It seemed sour-creamy, and when I ate cheesecake, it was the crazy cold, crazy firm kind, not squishy. So you may love it—cheesecake’s personal like that.

Some of the stuff in the recesses of my cabinets will surely be trashed. If I can’t identify the type or purchase date (hell, year) of a plastic bag of some flour or starch or whatever, I’m not eating it. But there’s still a ton I can use. Take a look at what I’m dealing with:

The refrigerator is not dissimilar.

So in week one, I’ve made two of my favorites—you know, to lighten the load come moving day.

Stuffing! Whenever I get down to the ends of my bread, whether it’s homemade or purchased, I throw them in the freezer. Then, when the mood strikes, I can tear them up, dry them out, and make any day Thanksgiving. Not only did I clear out my freezer, but I also emptied a jar of bullion powder. Score.

Sushi! I cooked up all the short-grain rice I had and used up a jar of vegan caviar for what just might be my favorite food ever. The saltiness of the seaweed “caviar” was surprisingly perfect for sushi. I’ll definitely buy it again the next time I’m at Ikea, just for this.

As excited as I am to get out of our bite-size living quarters, I’m spacing as to whether or not there’s a place for this in the new kitchen. Not quite an Ikea hack, I found this in the bathroom section and thought it’d be perfect for spices. And so it is.

Fingers crossed—I just don’t know what I’d do without it now.

Wish me luck, and I’ll keep you posted as I throw together more bits-n-pieces meals in the coming weeks. It’ll probably get a little weird. Like what am I going to do with Soy Curl shake (the crumbly, powdery bits that collect in the jar I use when I buy bulk Soy Curls)?

Have fun with it.

I’d read that people were stressing out, that life got in the way and they were having a hard time posting every day—that’s hardly the point of it! It’s a celebration of vegan food. Celebration’s a good thing. I think folks were intimidated by some of the crazy-pro MoFo’ers, with their amazingly planned menus and themes. There’s something to be said for the blogger who posts a photo of their work lunch every day, be it leftover fried rice, a gorgeous sandwich, or a cup o’ soup.That’s valid.

Sometimes your muffins will be flat, sometimes you’ll get sick and won’t be able to post, sometimes you form your croquettes and ask Tom to put them in the fridge but he puts them in the freezer instead and then they fall apart when you try to fry them. These things will happen. But you suck it up and either post about your failure or come up with something else.

Yup, that’s what I did tonight. I made a cake for Halloween. It is far from perfect, and I am far from caring. It’s 10:30 pm and we just finished frosting it. Now I have to eat a piece…which means I’ll be up for hours! Or maybe I should eat more so I run around and then crash, then Tom can just throw a blanket over me.

Anyway, here’s my John Wayne Gacy cake. (Maybe you grew up in New England and were told tales of the Founding Fathers; I’m from the Midwest—we had serial killers.) Happy Halloween, and Happy VeganMoFo!

Bagels!

Yeah, I made bagels. No big deal. Why is this a DIY, as opposed to any other food I made? Because bagels aren’t something you make. Well, at least they’re not something I make. I trust my local professional bageler. I mean, there’s a water bath involved! That’s pro stuff right there.

Or is it?

I just made some of the best bagels ever—and on my first try. After my amateur stunt, I can’t see what excuse grocery-store bakeries could possibly have for their crappy, white-bread-in-a-circle bagel wannabes!

I got this recipe online for my bread machine. It’s bread flour, salt, sugar, water, and yeast (of all things!), and the entire process, from measuring ingredients to beautiful, brown bagels, took around 2½ hours. And honestly, most of that time you’re not doing anything! The machines are doing the work for you.

Between the bread-machine phase and the oven phase, you’re charged with making your bagels bagel-shaped, boiling them in sugary water for a minute, then sprinkling them with whatever you want to sprinkle them with. I stuck with poppy for my first shot, but next time I’m doing an everything mix, dipping the damp bagels into it before placing them on the cookie sheet. It’s your chance to get way fancy! And the more stuff you top them with, the better you’ll be able to hide any imperfections.

And for the love of kittens, please enjoy your bagel in its pure form rather than toasting! Toasting is fine for old or inferior bagels. Your gorgeous, fresh, homemade gem has a chewy, tender texture you do not want to miss.

Not all Asian candies are WTF—I love Botan rice candy, and I long for a vegan Pocky. But nestled between the squid crackers and crunchy ginger prawns you can find some crazy-ass fruity snacks. Seeing as they’re cheap, I picked up a little assortment to subject myself to.

These are two olive candies. At first I was like, “They can’t really be olives,” but after biting into them, yeah, they’re probably olives. They have the same texture (even soaked through with dried sugar) and pits. The yellow ones are almost vanilla-y and the red ones were cinnamon-y, both super saturated with flavor, so as you chewed your mouth soaked up more and more. After eating them I checked out the ingredient labels, to see exactly what the difference was, but um…they were the same labels. Only then did I notice it listed “main ingredients,” so who knows what the flavors really were.

Spicy sweet prunes are just that. Individually wrapped, so you can give them away for Halloween (How badly do you want to get TP’d?), they’re just little pieces of chili- and sugar-soaked dried plums. They’re really soft, and while not offensive, I didn’t see the point in the flavor. It was bland, not fun. I guess I probably just resented that they didn’t look anything like the photo on the bag, plus the brand is Ego.

And finally, the one I had to Google before I bought them: Jujube Hawthorn Hamburger. Of the many, many haw and hawthorn candies in the aisle, I chose these because they’re called hamburgers, of course. Hawthorn is a red fruit from the tree of the same name. I just needed to make sure it wasn’t a nut, so my boy-in-the-bubble companion wouldn’t die. The texture on these was interesting. I think I was expecting Neco wafers with Sour Patch layers, but it was all-over soft and grainy. The taste was pleasant enough, not overly sweet, but they smelled awful.

So I didn’t spit any of them out, but I don’t need to try any of them again. I’m done. Again, I’ll just hold out for my vegan Pocky.

I was born an Alliumphile. Some people say we choose to love garlic and onion and all those things you’re not supposed to eat on dates, but I say I just never had a choice; it’s how I was made. As a toddler, my mom would catch me in the kitchen cupboard, eating an onion as if it were an apple. No, Michele wasn’t like the other girls.

I especially cannot think of a time when I was not super best friends with garlic bread. Garlic knots, smashed cloves of roasted garlic with olive oil on a crusty nub, even biscuits baked in sea of garlic butter (so they soak it up as they bake)—it kinda doesn’t matter, as long as it’s garlic and oil and bread.

Back in the omni days, I ate a lot of sad frozen garlic breads. Most of them were more oily than garlicky, but I ate them until I was on the brink of puking. Then I would put them in the fridge and eat them cold! So wrong. I don’t know of any vegan frozen garlic bread, but I’m old enough to make my own. And thanks to nutritional yeast, my garlic bread is fuller and richer than anything I ever ate as a kid.

My mixture is about half Earth Balance, half olive oil, plus minced garlic and (horror of horrors) garlic powder, a little salt, chopped parsley, and nutritional yeast. And I love it. I love it so much.

When I reeeally need comfort food, and nobody’s looking, I’ll sprinkle some Daiya on the top before baking it, and then I’ll dip it in pizza sauce. Please don’t judge me.

I’m always amazed at how much squash string comes out of even a smallish spaghetti squash. unless you’re cooking for a giant family, you’re lookin’ at squash for days. (Not that I’m complaining.) But what can be done with this marvelous vegetable?

Of the recipes I found online for spaghetti squash pancakes, they pretty much all involved eggs and cheese…so those wouldn’t work. But why would I need a recipe? I make potato pancakes all the time. Sure, squash and potatoes have little in common, but why not give it a whirl, just replacing the potato with squash?

That’s just what I did. Keeping it super simple, I mixed together the cold squash strands, minced onion, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. There wasn’t much moisture at all so I dripped in just a little water, then I squished in enough flour to form a patty. Five minutes in a thin layer of oil and it was time for a taste test!

Well, whaddaya know, it worked. The sweetness of the onion and squash were pleasant but not annoying. This would be super easy to bend to your favorite spices. It could go Indian or TexMex or Italian. It could serve as a bed for a seitan fillet or a saucy veg-thing. Or, if you’re like me, you could just eat a plate full of these plain as can be.

And I still got a mess o’ squash left…so what’s next?