Austin Bakes for West

Austin Bakes is back!  Lots of bakeries, food bloggers, and home baking experts will be donating delicious desserts and baked goodies to help out the people in West, TX.
Come on out to the numerous locations around town and pick up a happy treat and make a donation to this worthy cause.
The bake sale will be from 10am to 2pm at these locations:

Chef Veggie will be at the Bee Caves Whole Foods location from noon until the sale ends.

I hope to have GF vegan macaroons and also Daiya cheese biscuits.
If you want to learn more about Austin Bakes and the fabulous fundraisers they have organized, supporting communities affected by the Bastrop wildfires and earthquake in Japan, please visit AustinBakes.com.

Happy 5th Year Chef Veggie

I started cooking professionally 5 years ago with my personal chef service - Chef Veggie.  I launched it on Earth Day 2008 and I'm happy to say that it has been a fun way to spend my time.
Thanks to all my clients, friends, family and fellow veggie foodies who have encouraged me and had fun eating the dishes I've made.

As a way to celebrate I giving a discount on my service in the month of May.
Mention "Earth Day" and get 25% off any service.

I'm also going to recommit to this blog space of mine and hope to post at least twice a month.
Also check out my food boards on Pinterest!  If you are wondering what to make for dinner tonight or just wanna see all the wonderful food I can make for you, check me out here!

Indian Feast 2011

This weekend is the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale and Austin's finest vegan bakers are participating.
I've participated a few times.  Here's what I've made before:

It will take place on Sunday, April 28th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This year we have expanded the bake sale to two locations :
 Monkeywrench Books (110 East North Loop Boulevard) and 
Counter Culture (2337 East Cesar Chavez).


Proceeds will benefit both Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary and S.A.R.A Sanctuary.
If you are interested in being a volunteer baker, we have a sign up form.
Lastly, here is the facebook event page. Please invite your friends :)

Thanks again! One of the best ways to celebrate Earth Day everyday is to reduce your consumption of animal products and go veg!

Fall 2011 (Part 2)

We flew to Kauai on Thanksgiving Day!  What a great day to arrive in a tropical paradise.
We headed to the local grocery store, Times, and bought some tofu, tamari, nutritional yeast, and fresh herbs.  My husband's dad lives on the island so we get to stay at his house whenever we visit.  Less money for lodging and more for yummy food!  So we made our baked unturkey tofu and headed to out host's house in Kilauea.  At the party we met the owners of Verde, a Mexican restaurant in Kapaa.  I mentioned to them that I was vegan and they said they had lots of vegetarian options and that almost anything could be made vegan or gluten-free.  We promised to make it out there.
Here's what I had when I visited:   Veggie Stuffed Sopaipillas.

Veggie Stuffed Sopaipillas

I haven't had sopaipillas in 20 years!  I've been trying to stay away from fried food in general, but this was too yummy and different to pass up.

When we are on Kauai,  I love to go to the farmer's markets.  There are just some things you cannot get in the grocery stores that only show up there.  Things like breadfruit, starfruit, long beans, wing beans, drumsticks, green avocados etc.  It's also a great place to get flower arrangements, fresh coconut, good prices on papayas and mangos, Manoa lettuce, and tomatoes that are grown locally.

Local Starfruit

  I like to treat my in-laws with home-cooked meals.  All the tropical ingredients make me hungry just thinking about them.  My father-in-law's wife owns the spice company, Aloha Spice that incorporates local ingredients like Hawaiian red salt and organic ingredients.  She created this kiawe-wood smoked salt.  It adds great flavor to my scrambled tofu.

I made sure I spent lots of time at the beach to get a good blast of Vitamin D.  Most of us are Vitamin D deficient and I had this confirmed personally with a blood test this fall.  If you are not fair skinned you will need even more sun.  This vacation did me very good!

Snorkeling at Poipu

When I got back from vacation, I spent a good amount of time completing my course in Plant Based Nutrition from e-Cornell (Cornell University's online education department).  I have learned a lot more about creating healthy vegan meals and the science behind it.  I am so excited about the wonderful opportunity I have to share this with people in the New Year.
Here's a sample of what the course is like: Intro to Plant Based Nutrition

I am looking forward to a healthy and happy 2012!

Fall 2011 (Part 1)

Chef Veggie had such a busy fall and not much time to blog.  My hubby also went on 2 extended trips to Sweden so I was single mommying it for a bit. Here's some fun stuff I did this fall including a family vacation to both San Francisco and the island of Kauai (The Garden Isle of the Hawaiian Island chain).

In October, I participated in the Austin Bakes for Bastrop Bake sale.
I made some Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and
Caramelized Onion Biscuits made with Daiya.  That same day,  me and dear daughter went to a Vegan ATX Gathering of Tribes event at Pease Park.  It's so great to able to eat everything!

A Gathering of Goodness

I am looking forward to Texas Veg Fest at the end of March.

In late November, we had a fun few days in San Francisco before our trip to Kauai. There are so many vegan food choices that we were only able to go to a few places. When we got off the plane we went straight to Loving Hut in China Town. What a lovely lunch!

Then I got to spend the afternoon in Japantown (one of my favorite places without having to go to Japan).  The Kinokinuya Bookstore is such a great resource. Here's an old blogpost from our visit a few years ago. You can find books on macrobiotic, shojin-ryori (japanese temple food), sushi and bento.  I love to pick up the latest copy of Veggy Steady Go (Japan's vegetarian magazine).  Besides cookbooks, there are books on language, crafts, anime & manga, lifestyle etc.  After spending almost 2 hours there I headed to the Daiso!  This is a Japanese 100yen store stuck in San Francisco.  Almost everything is $1.50.  Last year I picked up some great stainless steel containers.  This year I went a little bento accessories crazy.  Oh Daiso please come to Texas!

Bento Crazy

Another morning we took quite a long bus ride from where we were staying to Herbivore off of Divisadero. That was one of the best breakfasts I have ever had in a restaurant.  Their "sausage" biscuit plate was so awesome!  The biscuit roll is filled with veggie sausage and it came with a side of hearty potatoes and a fresh spinach salad with perfectly sliced avocado.

"Sausage" Biscuit

 My husband was craving Italian and since we were near North Beach where almost every restaurant is an Italian one this would not be hard.  However, finding a dish without cheese can sometimes be difficult.  We looked at a bunch of window menus and was surprised to find that Volare Trattoria Cafe (now sing:  VOLARE...CANTARE!) had a vegan bruschetta and a vegan penne dish.  When we went is wasn't crowded and had decent service too.

Our last night there we met my brother and some friends at Saha.  This Yemenese Arabic restaurant has won many awards and is a great place to go for something different.  The decor is exotic with saffron fabric draping everywhere and you lounge against cushy pillows as you dine.
There are vegan dishes clearly labeled on the menu and the servers went out of their way to make sure I was happy. I had the Vegetarian Bastille but asked for it and the Knaffe dessert to be vegan. It was a surprise.  I could have sworn it had to have dairy in it.  It you want an opulent way to end your meal I would recommend it.

After a great visit to SF we got on our Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kauai. (see Part 2)

Vegan Birthday Cakes!

My daughter recently celebrated her 7th birthday.  I usually get excited about making the food, but baking a cake for a party gives me the chills.  There was one birthday where I stayed up until 3am trying 2 different times to make a beehive shaped cake for a bee themed party.  It turned out OK (see old blog post here) but I would rather not stress about it.
I decided to leave this year's cake to a professional.  So what kind of bakery was I looking for to make the cake?

I'm not into lard balloons (that's what I call those huge icing balloons on cakes you find at Costco and HEB).  The cake also needs to be eggless, so I decided a vegan cake would be awesome.  With all the food allergies out there, going vegan is a great way to knock a few allergens off your list.  I didn't want to call all around town to bakeries asking if they would make a vegan cake.
Who knows, it might be the first one they make. I did not want my vegan cake to look or taste like a Cake Wreck.

Sugar Tooth Bakery to the rescue!



I would have to say that Sugar Tooth Bakery would be your best bet for the most creative vegan cakes in Austin.  Meghan did a great job at responding to my emails and making great suggestions.
My request for natural food based colorings was no problem.
I wanted an ice pop (Popsicle is a brand) cake as that was the theme for this summer birthday party.
I thought lemon poppyseed would be a nice refreshing flavor.
The cake was moist and not overly sweet. The icing was also light and not super thick (who needs 1/2 and inch of icing anyway) with a light lemony flavor.  The yellow portion was colored with turmeric and the pink with fresh raspberry puree.
My daughter had an extra wooden musical stick and that was the ice pop stick.



I was very happy with the way the cake came out and also very happy to support a local business that is in tune with my lifestyle.  Thanks again Meghan for making such a "cool" cake.
We hope you enjoyed the little bite off the top!  ;)

Visit Sugar Tooth Bakery at http://www.sugartoothbakery.com/ or go by their bakery in the Community Renaissance Market off William Cannon and Westgate.

Happy 3rd Anniversary Chef Veggie

After a tumultuous Sunday with fires on my street, I'm very thankful and grateful to have been unharmed and still have a place to cook meals for my family.
If you would like to support some of my neighbors who lost their homes, there will be a bake sale/lemonade stand on Saturday, April 23rd at 8007 Landsman Drive Austin, TX 78736.
Jack Allen's Kitchen on HWY 71 is also having a benefit buffet (2:30pm to 4:30pm) on Saturday.   Please RSVP if you can on Jack Allen's Kitchen Facebook page.
You can also donate to the Red Cross.

Now on to my happy announcement.  In addition to it being Earth Day tomorrow, Chef Veggie is turning 3!  There are lots of fun events in town to help you celebrate Mother Earth and rediscover ways to have a more harmonious relationship with her.  Now that I'm in my fun toddler phase, I'm continuing to see growth and changes in my business.  I'm working on a cookbook that I hope will be in some finished form in the fall.   To celebrate, I also wanted to offer all new and existing clients 30% off any cookdate in May!
So if you wanted to try my services, this would be a great time.  Spring produce is so beautiful and fresh and great to get before more of the Texas heat comes in.  Is there anything you would like to see Chef Veggie do this year?

Here's a great Spring Salad Recipe to celebrate Mother Earth's bounty:

Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Texas Pecan Vinaigrette

1 lb organic baby spinach
1 pint organic/local strawberries, sliced

Dressing:
(makes about 3 cups)
1 cup Texas pecans (you can toast them but I like to leave them untoasted to get the most nutritional benefit)
Extra pecans for garnishing
1 cup filtered water
1/3 cup olive oil
1 TBSP maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (can also use apple cider if you prefer)
1 TBSP tamari/shoyu

Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Place spinach on individual plates, top with strawberries and dressing.  Garnish with extra pecans.

私たちはビスケットを食べみましょう

Let's eat biscuits!

That's what happens when your gluten-free baking adventures come up short due to very hot water!
Please recipe writers: mention how hot the water can be, otherwise if it's too hot, your cupcake batter cooks in the bowl.

Anyway, for Austin's Bake Sale for Japan here's what Chef Veggie brought....a known yummy standard she's made dozens of times - Scallion Biscuits.  A vegan version with Daiya and a cheese version with smoked Gouda.  These should balance out all the sugar out there today :)

Here's what I picked up with my donation!

Cupcakes from Sugar Skull and a chocoholic cookie from Vegan Lazy Smurf.

There will be more goodies out at the west location (The Shops at Mira Vista - 2785 Bee Cave Road, 78746) until 5pm, so if you haven't had a chance, stop by there now.

And a big thankyou to Kathryn - The Austin Gastronomist  and all the volunteers who made this all possible.

Austin Bakes For Japan

On Saturday April 2nd, the Austin food community is gathering together to support Japan with sweetness!  Come on out to one of the various locations around town and make a donation to the relief efforts in Japan by consuming a super tasty treat.  We'll have you saying "Oishii!"

As someone who spent part of her youth in Japan (3-4  and 10-14 years old), I have a special place in my heart for Japan.  I cannot remember happier memories.  The respect they have toward each other is beyond words.  My own father resides in Tokyo so I know this will go to help all his neighbors.

I plan on having some gluten-free/vegan goodness at the South Congress location - Hotel San Jose

To learn more about  Austin Bakes for Japan, the locations, and view some the awesome treats that will be available check out: http://austinbakes.wordpress.com/

I'll update here tonight once everything is baked and ready to go for tomorrow!

Chef Veggie's Food Blog Commitment

I recently went to Austin's SXSW food blogger conference called TECHmunch  and learned more about the latest and greatest ways to be a wonderful food blogger. Lots of high profile foodies on the scene explaining the wonders of Twitter, getting your site sponsored by major brands, and creating kick-ass multimedia content (that was an actual title of a segment.)

I realized that while I do have some of the skill sets and definitely the ability to create tasty dishes, my desire to post a recipe/article/review everyday and have blogging be my life is not where I am at.

However, I think when one wants to have a space that people want to visit and interact with, there should be a consistent level of activity.  If I want to make genuine connections with others they need to know what to expect.  One of the goals I have is to be better connected with my local food community. Austin has one of the greatest number of food bloggers in the US and also happens to be a very friendly bunch.  The group (Austin Food Blogger Alliance) plans on having lots of events to further education and also to help the community at large.  There is already a bake sale being planned to help the relief efforts in Japan.  As a former resident of Japan, this warms my heart.

So here before the world and the day before St. Paddy's Day (I am married to an Irishman afterall), I plan to post at least twice a month.

If you are looking for some healthy fare for tomorrow, here's a previous post about my St. Patrick's Day Salad!   Spring is here and there's lots of GREEN out there.

Christmas Coconut Granola

coconutmacgingergranola, originally uploaded by veggiebytes.

I love a good granola filled with yummy ingredients.  To me that means lots of coconut. Some of the best granola I've had was made in Hawaii with tropical fruits and macadamia nuts. If you are looking for something to bake for family and friends as a last minute gift, granola is grand choice. It is very versatile and can be made to suit almost any taste. The granola pictured was full of coconut ribbons, candied ginger and whole macadamia nuts. It will whisk you away to the tropics on a cold winter's day!

Here's a basic granola recipe:

Grains: 3 cups rolled oats

Nuts/Seeds: 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, 1 cup nuts (almonds, mac nuts, walnuts)

Dressing: 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup of brown rice syrup/maple syrup/honey

Fruit: 11/2 cups dried fruit 
(chopped pineapple, cranberries, blueberries, golden raisins, papaya, candied ginger)

Salt: Sprinkle coarse sea salt (up to 1/2 teaspoon) over the mixture before baking

Optional: flax seeds, chia seeds, coconut flakes, chocolate chips

Mix grains, nuts, and dressing in a bowl. Put mixture on baking sheet bake at 300°F for 30 minutes (stirring occasionally), cool, stir in dried fruit.  Add optional items.

Some Helpful Tips:
I like to use a mixture of coconut butter and coconut oil. It is a natural and vegan source of fat. I don't like canola oil and try not use soy-based margarine.  Also, I add the flax seeds after the granola has cooked and cooled. Cooked flax seeds basically have no Omega 3 value as heat destroys the fatty acid structure. You could process the flax seeds in a spice grinder to get more benefit from them.
This granola would be gluten-free if you buy oats labeled as gluten-free (they are processed in gluten-free facilities). You can find natural dried fruits and candied ginger without sulfites at natural food stores.
My favorite candied ginger brands are: The Ginger People and Reed's.

I like to eat my granola with unsweetened almond or hemp milk.

Have fun making granola and I recommend making double or triple as it will be a hit.  Your kids will ask why they didn't get a granola gift too.
Warm Wishes & Happy Holidays!

Cooking at Retreats

In early November,  I had the pleasure of cooking for a great group of moms at a knitting retreat in the Texas Hill Country.

All the ladies were able to sit, knit, explore the grounds, share friendly conversation and enjoy the beautiful and rustic atmosphere.  They didn't have to worry about little ones or making meals.

My friend posted some beautiful pictures about the event.  Check it out on waldorfmama's blog.
To learn more about Moriah and getting together with family and friends there, click here.

Here's what was on the menu:

Breakfast:  Handmade Cinnamon Rolls, Smoothies and Chickpea Omelettes

Lunch:  Butternut Squash Lasagna
(I even had Stuffed Butternut Squash for our gluten-free gals)
Fall Salad with Spiralized Beets, Walnuts and Blue Cheese
Vegan Cream of Broccoli & Parsnip Soup

Dinner:  Hyderbadi Biryani, Mung Dal with Cauliflower, South Indian Brussell Sprouts, and Sprouted Mung Bean Salad with Coconut

Breakfast:  Vegan Blueberry Muffins and Spinach Tofu Scramble

Some pictures are better than others.  Everyone was so ready to eat that I had barely time to compose the shots...and I was using my iPhone.

I had a wonderful time!  If you ever think of staying at Moriah with friends or family and want some great veggie meals, give me a call!  I'm already familiar with the kitchen!

Vegan Macrobiotic Cleanse

After a week of high-fat, fried food and dairy products from some festivals we celebrated, it was time to do a nice fall cleanse.  Actually, a lot of people eat this way everyday (maybe even yourself!)
Since I'm not good at no-food or juice fasts and find them to be quite harsh, I was looking for something that involved eating real food, not taking any pills, and did not leave me hungry.

Here's what I followed for 7 days:
Ultra Slimdown  
My goal was not to lose lots of weight because I'm at a healthy amount for my height.
I wanted to see what cravings arose and to see what food may be causing me trouble when I introduced them back.  I did lose 5 llbs over the course of the week and I did crave tortilla chips and some spicy foods.

If you didn't have time to read the article, here's the basics:
Eat brown rice, lots of steamed or sauteed veggies (using a miniscule amount or no oil), some beans and legumes, have a rice protein smoothie with real fruit and flax seeds (no added sugar) for breakfast, vegetable broth or another shake for snacks. Eat all organic items.  Take an Epsom salt bath with baking soda and lavender essential oil every night.  Cut out all processed foods, meat, dairy, wheat and other gluten containing grains, corn, nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers), alcohol, caffeine, sugar (natural and artificial).  What's left you say?  Lots of honest, good food!
Anyway, it was pretty easy and you could continue to do it as long as you wanted.

Here's some of the meals I ate:

Asparagus, Green Salad, Quinoa

Broccoli, Sweet Potato, Quinoa

Golden Beets, Zucchini,
Whole Grain Rice Blend

Kale, Chickpeas, Brown Rice

Brown Rice Maki Spirals

Mung Dahl with Cauliflower &
Long Beans and Quinoa

Cabbage Subji
Wild Rice Blend

Okra Chickpeas
Brown Rice

Breakfast Shake

Organic Homemade Vegetable Broth
Full of Alkaline Mineral Goodness

Organic Ingredients for
Veggie Broth

With all the disclaimers about contacting your doctor, etc....maybe you should before doing this, even though I can't see why anyone would not be able to eat this healthily. 
If you would like to follow this cleanse, but have no time to prepare everything or make the broth, contact me.  I'll bring everything over, including items for the breakfast shake and bath, prep the veggies for you for the week,  make the beans & broth & grains, and leave some happy & healthy vibes for a great week.  The whole deal for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days is only $300 (includes the groceries)! 
Contact me today to start feeling awesome! info@chefveggie.com or 512-914-1543

A Bridal Shower

I hosted a bridal shower for my sister a couple weekends ago.  I thought that I would share some of the decor, games, and of course, food.

Everything was very elegant, neat and classic.  Her wedding colors will be white, green and champagne. I tried to keep the same scheme for the bridal shower.  White place settings with little touches of green with beautiful flowers like hydrangeas and white roses created the perfect table.

Each guest had a favor with her name on it as her place card.  Inside is a super practical purse hanger.

She will never have to put her purse on the floor again!

The food!  Here are some of the items:

Vegetarian Lumpia

White Cheddar Scallion Biscuits (the green and white theme)

Farfalle with Pesto (Tie the Knot Bowties!)

Since most women love chocolate we had a chocolate fondue fountain dripping with vegan dark chocolate!  Somehow I only got a picture of the dippers -strawberries and pineapple.

Two of the cheezy bridal shower games we played were food related.

Banana Bride
I split the ladies into 3 teams.  Each team was given a banana.  The bride was sent to another room to hang out with the flower girl.  Then I told them they had to dress the banana like a bride with only the items found in their purses!

The bride picked the one with the sunglasses and $$$

A-Z Grocery List
Here's one to test their memory.  They had to remember a long grocery list created in alphabetical order when each guest added another item.  The bride goes to the store and gets an apple, banana, cookies, dog treats, eggs, etc. I still haven't figured out if it's easier or harder to remember an obscure item - k was kitchen shears.

My sister was so happy and scored some really awesome Crate and Barrel goodies for her home and kitchen.  I'm hoping to see her in the kitchen more often!

Anyway, if anyone would like help with food for a bridal shower for their veggie friends, please let me know.
www.chefveggie.com

San Francisco Veggie Tourist Part 2 - Oishii desu ne!

Yes, I know it's been a couple months since I've been there!  But my mom and sister are visiting my brother in SF right now. I thought I would share a bit more of my trip while I sit dreaming of oishii tabemono.

One part of San Francisco that I love is Japantown.  Being slightly otaku, who can blame me? I did live in Japan from 1978-1980 and then again from 1986-1990, so I have had real exposure and love for Japanese culture. Anyway, here are some Japanese gems that I enjoyed.

The Kinokuniya bookstore in Japantown is a treasure-trove! You can look through thousands of books, anime, manga, magazines and some are even in English.
I found a couple Japanese vegetarian cookbooks near the macrobiotic ones.  I have been wanting to make Japanese rice bran pickles so I got a tsukemono book.  There is also a great Japanese chef named Izumi and she has a wonderful blog on vege dining. (You can use Google's translate service to read it)  I picked up her book on how to make several lunches for the week by creatively using the same basic ingredients.

Also if you love cute bento, there are a myriad of how-to books with beautiful pictures. And yes, bentos do not have to be filled with Sanrio characters.  I got this one: Kawaii Bento Boxes
I also found a Japanese vegetarian magazine called Veggy Steady Go.  Engrish is so funny!
I'm hoping my mom will be able to pick up the latest issue for me. And yes, after living in Japan and taking 4 semesters of Japanese in college, I can read and understand quite a bit.  Katakana is my friend.

いただきます - Bon Appetit

There are a couple restaurants in Japantown but we decided to get some snacks at Nijiiya Market.  In the prepared food section, they have a variety of Japanese takeout boxes, including organic brown rice, pickles, tofu dishes and a pleasant surprise: yasai korokke!  Oh who doesn't like deep fried veggie cutlets with tonkatsu sauce!  They were so good and since airplane food is horrible or non-existent, we returned to Nijiiya before we headed to the airport so we could have something tasty in-flight.

While not in Japantown, we did have the pleasure of having a meal at Cha-Ya.  It's a delightful Japanese restaurant on Valencia St which just happens to be completely vegetarian.  Have you ever had tofu stuffed in a portabella mushroom tempura-style served with broccolini and a kiwi-edamame sauce?  Such creative and tasty food at decent prices.  Oh Austin how I wish you had more veggie Japanese goodness!

San Francisco じゃあまたね   :)

San Francisco Veggie Tourist?

Here's more about my food experiences in SF that weren't necessarily at top ranking vegetarian restaurants.  What could we find while visiting the many tourist attractions?
Since food wasn't necessarily the focus, no real photos of food were taken so you'll have to deal with my descriptive abilities.

The dismal trip to Alcatraz. No food for consumption on the island besides the sourgrass my daughter wanted to pick despite being off limits by the National Park Service.  So we ate lunch at Boudin Bakery - San Francisco Sourdough and I had vegetarian rustic tomato soup in a sourdough bread bowl.  It was the perfect combo for a blustery day on Fisherman's Wharf.  They have frequent soups of the day that are vegetarian and a vegan chili on the menu all the time.

If you have kids, there are a lot of great places to visit in San Francisco, including the Exploratorium.
Now if you are in there a couple hours, they have a neat little cafe that serves organic lunches and snacks. All of the plates and utensils were biodegradable/compostable.  I had a cup of chickpea soup.  There were salads, wraps, and sandwiches available.

On to another museum, the newly opened California Academy of Sciences.  You can walk through a rainforest, view a Philippine coral reef, pet snakes and check out an albino alligator. I fancied the rooftop gardens.  If you get hungry, the Academy Cafe serves multicultural cuisine.  I had a vegetarian steamed bun (bao) and it was quite tasty.  There is also a fine dining restaurant called the Moss Room that serves chef-prepared meals focusing on seasonal and organic ingredients.
I just wish that their "reduce your carbon footprint exhibit" mentioned that by eating a vegetarian diet, your toll on the planet is lessened.

Coming soon...visit's to Greens, The Millenium, Cha-Ya Japanese Vegetarian Restaurant, and Japantown

San Francisco Restaurant Trip #1 - DOSA

Here's a recap of some great veggie eats in San Francisco:

On the day we arrived we decided to go on a little adventure before the arrival of the rest of the family from Hawaii.  As we made our way to Japantown off of Geary Ave, we saw a hip & urban restaurant with the name DOSA on the corner of Fillmore.  Could we be so lucky to find a South Indian fusion restaurant on a whim? Oh yes!
DOSA differs from other typical Indian restaurants in that they have a mission to provide food with the best local, organic and sustainable ingredients.  The decor is magnificent and your won't be served on styrofoam with plastic forks.

Now on to our early afternoon snacks! We started off with complementary pappadams and chutney.

Dahi Batata Puri made with organic yogurt.

Dahi Vada

This is the most beautifully presented dish.  A large savory vada (a lentil donut) is served with organic yogurt and spiced tamarind and cilantro sauces.

Paneer Dosa

We actually had 3 different dosas. A traditional masala dosa with potatoes, a cilantro mint dosa, and a paneer dosa pictured above.  They all came with traditional sambar and chutney.

DOSA will be on my definite list the next time we go to SF. Here's a video about the restaurant:

Many Morels

On a lovely Texas Spring day, we went hiking with friends along Barton Creek Trail near Twin Falls and what did we happen to find in a dry stream bed:  Morels!

Morel hunter

At first, I was wondering if they were edible as I'm not a real mycologist.  After a couple Google searches and mushroom identification sites like http://thegreatmorel.com/, we were in luck and not only were the morsels edible but super tasty.  Somehow, it reminded me of my brief trip to Lake Chapala in Mexico as an ecology student. A couple guys and I decided we would just climb one of the low lying mountains for fun.  A weathered man wearing a vest with an embroidered sun greeted us at the top of the mountain. De we reach a sacred spot?  He asked me "Quieres hongos?" (Do you want mushrooms?) and he brought out these large yellow abalone type ones.  We said no but thanked him for his generosity.

Unexpected Hongo Man at the top

Anyway,  it was fun to find something edible on our little hike and luckily we had a brown paper sack from our lunch. After a brief diversion (smashed car window and stolen goods - be careful out there friends!), we were home again and the research began on how to fix these up really good.

We gave them a quick rinse to remove debris and cut them in half lengthwise. This is supposed to help you see if critters climb into the cavities. Most people do not want to eat roly-polys!

Fresh Morels

There are lots of recommendations for cooking with morels.  Batter-fried is a common recipe, but I'm just not into eggs and cornflakes. For great vegan mushroom recipes, I recommend the The Artful Vegan by the Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco.  We decided morel fettuccine alfredo would be a decent choice and it came out beautifully.

Morel Fettucine Alfredo

We hope to find some again but it seems to have been a serendipitous occasion.  They do cost quite a lot at Central Market - $69.99 a lb dry.  There's nothing like finding a little treasure full of life.  A childlike feeling comes over you.  There really are magic mushrooms!