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!

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.

I made the kolache recipe from Kelly Peloza’s The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, replacing the jam with poppy seed filling, which I confirmed with Solo is vegan.

My mom makes these cookies all the time, but her recipe uses cheap vanilla ice cream instead of the vegan cream cheese this one calls for (and she spells it differently). I used Tofutti because that’s my favorite, so I can’t speak for other brands since they vary quite a bit in taste and texture. Mom’s are a bit sweeter (I think—it’s been a while), but these are pretty darn great. They’re light and flaky and subtly sweet…you know, the kind of cookie you can shamelessly eat for breakfast. And coffee. And midnight snack.

Now I’ve got a super long list of treats to try out, including the entire “Cookies Inspired by Drinks” chapter. Pink lemonade, root beer float, white Russians, mmmmmm.

And bonus! If you’re going to be at Vida Vegan Con, you’ll get to meet Kelly.

The ultimate impulse item at Food Fight!*: the RazDillo. Twice now I’ve been just about ready to walk out of there (with Soy Curls and kale and other real food, of course), then “Wait! I need this!”

This time Tom was with me, and he did not—at all—see what the big deal was. Typical for him, really, insisting he’s not really hungry or doesn’t see what’s so awesome about awesome food, that he could live on pill-form nutrients. But you should see him when he’s in the middle of a tasty treat, enjoying the hell out of it. That’s exactly what happened this time. I should have taken a screen shot of the all-caps AMAZING he IM’d me after eating his at work today.

Who produces this gorgeous treat that far surpasses the Zinger it’s supposed to be replacing for us? Caketastrophe, that’s who. I’ve also had their Naked Dillo and wasn’t thrilled, but I’d love to try the DingDillo or the ChocoDillo. The RazDillo is soft and moist and not too sweet. The raspberry flavor comes through just enough, and the creamy filling isn’t obnoxious.

It’s so good I can’t imagine throwing it in your lunchbox, to scarf down after a mediocre sandwich or a thermos of soup. You serve this baby on a plate. You give it the respect it deserves.

*These are also available elsewhere, including online. Check the website for info.

I got super excited about the from-scratch cranberry sauce I was going to make, then wait! Oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and cranberries! No, wait! Cranberry nut(less) bread! No, wait! Cake! Cranberry cake! Cranberry upside-down cake!

I went with Manifest Vegan’s recipe, and even though she said there’d be extra batter I went ahead and followed every letter. And yeah, there was extra batter. Did I cry? No! I put a little too much in the pan, then threw some extra cranberries in extra leftover extra batter and poured it into this little glass pan I pour all my extra batter in to make tiny extra cakes. Who doesn’t love extra cake?

And it’s so good! I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten a cranberry on its own, but if you haven’t, you needn’t bother. I’ll tell ya, it’s crap. I have to believe that long ago, somewhere on an island, the people had nothing else to eat and had to make cranberries palatable. That is the only reason anyone would have tried consuming these. That’s probably why cranberry juice is used in so many alcoholic beverages, because they had to get tanked before trying the next cranberry concoction. To those poor, poor, isolated humans I thank you. I’m sure you had a lot of misses before the hits.

And this cake is a hit. The sugary, spicy, tarty, jelly-y cranberry topping is perfect. I think I’d actually double it for the amount of cake. It’s a great coffee cake, and I have no doubt it’ll be even better tomorrow. And it’s perty too. So go forth and eat cranberry cake, and thank those poor cranpeople for all their hard work.

Experiment #1: Dumplings. I wrapped dollops of filling in dough and stuck them in a greased mini muffin tin. Sure, they’re super cute, like tiny muffins, but unfortunately, just not enough filling for the dough and any more would just end up an oozy blob. This led me to…

Experiment #2: Double-decker dumplings. In a regular muffin tin I squashed the dumplings and added another dollop of filling. They spread out a little and the ratio works. It’s a very close runner-up to…

Experiment #3: Cinnamon-rollific. The winner. After rolling out the dough and spreading the filling, I rolled it up and cut into 1½-inch pieces, placing them in a regular muffin tin. I think this works best for a bake sale because the filling isn’t all oozy but you can see what you’re dealing with.

So yeah, kinda nice to have two successes from my two experiments. Let’s see what else I can put together before next week.

They’re Mrs. Fields cinnamon sugar cookies, twice removed. A friend of mine sent me a copycat recipe she found, knowing it would be easy to veganize. Sure was. I’ve never had the original cookie so I can’t tell you how close it is, but it was crazy good. The texture is light and fluffy yet has a tender chew to it. As usual, I used my Penzey’s cinnamon (by far the best cinnamon I’ve had), and I bumped up the salt a little. The recipe is just made for halving, which I always do for trial runs…or when I know something’s going to be so good I won’t stop eating until it’s gone. Both apply to this one—we polished these cookies off in what had to be record time.

I’ve been thinkin’ on what I should bring to the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale at the end of the month (April 29, at Green Microgym on Alberta, if you’re in Portland and want to support Try Vegan PDX and Vegan Iron Chef), and this might be it. I do have a few more experiments planned between now and then, so we’ll see.

Make ‘em your own self:
Rollin’ sugar
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T cinnamon (don’t scrimp!)

Dough
• 2½ c AP flour
• ½ t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• 1 c brown sugar (the darker the better, for that molassassy kiss)
• ½ c sugar
• 1 c Earth Balance (I used the original tub kind)
• Ener-G egg replacer for 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla extract (again, go for the good stuff)

Cream EB and sugars with an electric mixer. Add Ener-G and vanilla, then beat until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients, which you of course mixed together in a separate bowl, and blend until combined—don’t go overboard. Cover and chill for a bit so it’s easier to roll into balls. Roll in 1-inch balls and coat in your cinnamon-sugar, then place onto an UNgreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (these need some elbow room). Bake at 300° for about 20 minutes. Move them immediately onto a sheet of wax paper or cutting board to cool.

Of my two experiments the other night, this is the one that worked. It’s chocolate chips, hempseed, and unsweetened shredded coconut, sprinkled with a little bit o’ turbinado. It tasted as good as it looks. The one that didn’t work so swell was the Daiya cheddar; it tasted great but the one tablespoon of shreds melted way, way flat.

I’ve always loved phyllo dough. Some hate it because it can be difficult to handle, drying out very quickly, but if you have a helper, some plastic wrap to cover it during lulls, and a well-planned assembly-line setup it’s an easy-flakey-fun base for sweet and savory treats. If you’ve never worked with it before—or have, with disastrous results—here are some points to remember:

•Make sure it’s thawed. Right on the box (which you’ll find in the freezer section), it says you can leave it in the fridge for a day or on the counter for a few hours. It’s much easier to work with at room temp, so again, a little forethought goes a long way.

•Take what you need and only what you need—save the rest for later. Figure out what size and shape you’re going to need to wrap around whatever you’re wrapping around a few times. Cut out that shape and roll the rest up, stick it back in the plastic (no air allowed!) and refreeze it. I’ve done this and never had problems with later uses. Unless you’re cooking for a crowd it’s pretty tough to use the whole package, and this stuff ain’t cheap.

•Melt your Earth Balance and keep it melted. Back in the dairy days, I used butter and other margarine and had a hell of a time keeping it liquid, but Earth Balance behaves beautifully. I just keep it in the pot (no microwaves in this home). Use a pastry/BBQ brush to get a thin, even layer on your dough. Once I used a mist-o-matic bottle filled with olive oil on a savory bundle and it worked, but I like the light flavor of EB.

•Prepare your fillings for the quick bake. Because of the dryness, I like to cook these quickly. If 10 minutes in the oven isn’t going to thoroughly cook whatcha got inside, then precook. Apples, for instance, would likely still be hard so they need to be cooked down like a prepared pie filling. Soy curls, tempeh, or tofu should be sautéed up, as should raw garlic if it’s in big chunks. Try to keep the moisture of your fillings down to a minimum—nobody wants a soggy bottom.

•Line up your ingredients leading to the cookie sheet/baking pan and preheat your oven. Start with the phyllo, then EB, filling, and baking pan. If you have a helper to brush the phyllo with EB and hand it off to you for filling and rolling, awesome. You don’t even have to worry too much about the phyllo drying out. If not, keep a layer of plastic wrap on top of your waiting stack o’ sheets. Also, if you pull up a sheet and it’s stuck to another one, maybe just chuck ‘em; you don’t want to waste time separating them if all you’re going to end up with is holey, dry sheets. Boo.

I think that’s about it. Looks like a long list of stuff to think about, I know, but it’s all simple stuff. And it’s worth it if you like fun flakey foodthings.

A bit predictable, sure, but still good. Tofurky roast, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and garlic).

I tried something new with the mashed potatoes and it worked a treat. For two giant russets I used a whole head of garlic, slicing into chunks, and slowly, slowly, slowly sauteed it in Earth Balance, so it got carmelized and sweet, soft enough to mash up. As soon as I turned off the heat I added some chopped-up fresh rosemary.  I mashed this into the potatoes with some plain soy creamer and more Earth Balance. Mmmm.

For dessert, I used Vegan Yum Yum’s veganized Gourmet recipe for plum kuchen, with cherries and apples instead of plums. It’s a yeasted cake so if you’re interested, have a good few hours to set aside for this. It’s worth it, though, super creamy and satisfying. Not super sweet, it’s a great coffee cake. I’m not even ashamed of the fact it was my breakfast for the next two days.

So that was that. Tonight’s New Year’s and seein’ as we’re having some friends over, I’ve got to rustle up some ideas for snacky treats. I’ll try to get back to ya in less than a week. Have a good (and safe) one tonight. If you’re still looking for vegan bubbly, here’s my guide from last year.

Look, Mom, just like normal kids! I just whipped me up a batch of Rice Krispies treats using Dandies vegan marshmallows. At first, I’d resigned myself to a tiny, relatively expensive treat, seeing as my $5+ bag o’ Dandies was about half the size of nonvegan marshmallows, but then I noticed the weight on the package. It’s 10 ounces, just like the big nonvegan bag, so I followed the traditional recipe, using a full 6 cups of cereal, and it worked perfectly.

This beat the hell out of my last attempt, with that ricemallow stuff and some kind of healthy crisped rice lookalike. A sad, stale-tasting brick, that was. Today’s treats were spot on, not soggy or crunchy.

If—I mean when—you try this, remember to use low heat. The density causes the Dandies to melt very slowly, but they will melt. Just keep stirring and it’ll get all uniformly gooey.

And is it just me or does a good third of your crispy-mallowy mixture miss the pan entirely and end up in your mouth instead? Come on, I know I’m not the only Snackie Onassis out there.