atlanta Archives - Page 16 of 31

Brunch for mixed company

Atlanta’s vegan brunch options are definitely limited. Sometimes you need a place that vegans and omnivores alike can be happy. Stone Soup Kitchen can take care of everyone. Kevin and I even go there every once in a while just the two of us.

I usually get the Tofu Rancheros. Beans, tortillas, tofu, a bit if spicy. Yum!

Kevin got the blueberry cornmeal pancakes. I think he likes Soul Vegetarian pancakes better, but I like the cornmeal. They do have Earth Balance and soy milk for coffee, just ask.

Fancy restaurant gets it right

Did we all survive another office holiday party season? For vegans, this usually sucks. If you’re lucky, you’ll get spaghetti with marinara or some sad steamed vegetables. Even at nice restaurants where you’d think the chef would have a little more pride. Just because we’re vegan doesn’t mean we lack taste buds.

My company doesn’t give a crap about the vegans that work here (no, I’m not the only one), so I don’t even bother going to work food events. Kevin’s company usually makes a pretty good effort. This year was really nice. The party was at The Mansion in Buckhead. Our entree was ravioli but the pasta part was celery root. The innards were tasty mushrooms. It came with various root veggies scattered around. Of course, I can’t remember what the sauce was, but it was good. See people, it’s not that freakin’ difficult!

Thanksgiving-themed vegan potluck

Oh man. The Sunday before Thanksgiving our monthly vegan lunch group (join us on Facebook) had a Thanksgiving-themed potluck hosted by the lovely Lisa & David. Two Thanksgivings in one week! Our potlucks always rock and this was no exception. Somehow we always manage to have the right mix of foods.

For my blogging about them completely unsolicited, Match Vegan Meats wanted to send me one of their holiday roasts but they ran out. So instead they sent me all the vegan meats I’d need to make one, or five. 🙂 They have the recipe posted online, so you can do it too. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. Instead of herbed stuffing mix, I used cornbread that I added seasoning to. If you have a favorite stuffing recipe that isn’t super moist, you could definitely substitute it here. The amount you see here is a double batch of the recipe. I made a shiitake mushroom gravy to go with it. I also specifically shaped them long and thin so it wouldn’t totally dominate anyone’s potluck plate.

I think the Match went over really well. Some people hadn’t had it before so it was a good introduction. If anyone wants to comment with their thoughts on it, I know the Match folks would love to hear them.

But enough about me. There was a whole spread of deliciousness. I didn’t even get pictures of everything.

Vic posted the recipe for this root salad. I’m totally going to make it. I love eating stuff like this. Great way to make autumn/winter veggies pop.

sweet potato pie, chocolate almond brittle

My plate piled high. I see some mac & cheese, greens and stuffing that didn’t make it in the pics. Lisa also made a chocolate layer cake. Yum!

Negril Caribbean Cafe

Tuesday I had to take an all day class and then an exam at the health department in downtown Atlanta. It sounds kind of terrible but it was actually pretty informative. And the test was pretty easy. Anyway, we were only going to have an hour break for lunch so I had to figure out ahead of time what to eat. Calabash looked to be a bit too far to walk, so after some googling around I found Negril Caribbean Cafe. Their menu showed some veggie options. Cool!

Naturally, it was raining all day. So I stomped through the rain the 3 or 4 blocks to the restaurant. I asked about vegan options and it was pretty much all the veggie options. Cool! So I got the blackened tofu, peas and rice and green beans. She said the blackened tofu came with sweet and sour sauce. I asked for it on the side. The blackened tofu wasn’t really spicy. At all. So that was kind of odd. But everything was pretty good. The sweet and sour sauce was kind of like asian sweet and sour sauce. It also had a strip each of raw onion, bell pepper and carrot in it. And two tomato chunks. I ended up dumping it on half the rice and half the tofu. I think the green beans were just canned, but they weren’t cooked to death so I was fine with that. They also had some veggie stir fries, a curry and other stuff on the menu I’d like to try.

I almost forgot that I picked up a callaloo patty for later that became part of dinner. The greens had a bit of a kick. Very nice.

Holy crap! That wraps up my 2nd VeganMofo! 31 posts in 31 days. I might be a little blogged out….

Atlanta Vegan Lunch Group Dinner

Confused yet? We have a group that meets once a month, usually for lunch. But this past time, we had dinner. At Loving Hut. We had a nice turn out. You should join us. If you don’t have veg friends, it’s fun to hang out with a bunch of like minded folks. And even if you do, it’s nice to see every once in a while that vegans come from all walks of life.

Now, on to the food. I knew some of the things I liked from the opening day party. Their rice paper rolls were really enjoyable, so I got the basil rolls:

Kevin sneaked in an order for Heavenly Salad. I didn’t complain. I love the Vietnamese flavors in this dish.

This fried tofu also magically appeared on the table. I had a triangle and it was nice. Light crispy panko coating.

Ever since I saw Pho on the menu, I wanted to try it. It was pretty good, but I think I would prefer a more garlicy/gingery broth. This one was more beefy and had a hint of 5 spice powder. I don’t hate it, but it’s not my favorite thing.

Kevin ordered a coffee drink and it came with this lovely strawberry flavored decoration. Not sure how I would feel about strawberry in my coffee, but it sure was pretty.

Something else from the menu that I had my eye on was the rootbeer float. I mean, where can you get a vegan rootbeer float? The rootbeer was really tasty and the ice cream seemed to be standard soy vanilla. One pro tip for you, tell them to hold the ice. It seems unnecessary when you’re dumping ice cream into a cold beverage.

Kevin also ordered the hummingbird cake. If you saw my most from the opening, you’ll know I wasn’t happy with the texture of the hummingbird cake there. It was kind of mushy. This one was much better. It’s still not as good as Lisa’s, but then how could it be? 🙂