Do you read this? If so, drop me a comment. Consider this to be a roll call of sorts.
The reason that I want to know is that I plan to change the focus of this blog and I want to know who my audience is and whether anyone will care. I plan to make this a vegan web site with vegan recipes and information about what is and what is not vegan. I plan to address the questions that people ask me. For instance, the other night at dinner I was asked if "free range eggs are ok". I am not sure whether she wanted to know if I eat free range eggs or whether I thought that it was ok for others to eat free range eggs. So, my next post will address both of these questions.
I am hoping that my friends will read it to understand why I am vegan and I also hope to provide some information about web sites where non-vegans can find recipes to cook when their vegan friends are coming over for dinner. My friends indicated that this was a concern, so I hop I can help address that too.
You can feel free to let me know how you feel about this change. And, if you want to keep the blinders on, then you might want to unsubscribe to this blog.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Restaurant Review of Oba! in Portland, Or.
While visiting Portland, Oregon, I got the change to have dinner at Oba!, a cuban fusion restaurant. It was great. It was a really nice place and the decorations were dark and comfy. Our waiter was very knowledgeable. Oba! is veg*n friendly. The have a seperate vegetarian menu that you can get if you ask for it and on the menu it says "please notify your server if you are vegan".
We started with margaritas and spinach salads. I really wanted the butternut squash enchiladas but they came with a cream walnut sauce. The waiter walked to the back to confer with the chef. The chef said that he had just made a new pasilla chile sauce and would use that instead. Yay. The enchiladas came with a red quinoa salad. I was quite pleased with dinner and I think I need to figure out how to make red quinoa salad. That is the second time I have had something like that and I really like it.
I left full and felt like I had had some good nutrition for the day instead of all of the junk food vegan that I have been getting my sticky fingers onto here in Portland. My meat eater friends were also happy with the place. Jennifer also got the enchiladas, but with the walnut sauce (she thinks that shw might have like the pasilla sauce better, as it would have been less creamy), and Dave had the corn chowder with crab and crab cakes for dinner. If you live in Portland or are visiting, I highly recommend this place.
We started with margaritas and spinach salads. I really wanted the butternut squash enchiladas but they came with a cream walnut sauce. The waiter walked to the back to confer with the chef. The chef said that he had just made a new pasilla chile sauce and would use that instead. Yay. The enchiladas came with a red quinoa salad. I was quite pleased with dinner and I think I need to figure out how to make red quinoa salad. That is the second time I have had something like that and I really like it.
I left full and felt like I had had some good nutrition for the day instead of all of the junk food vegan that I have been getting my sticky fingers onto here in Portland. My meat eater friends were also happy with the place. Jennifer also got the enchiladas, but with the walnut sauce (she thinks that shw might have like the pasilla sauce better, as it would have been less creamy), and Dave had the corn chowder with crab and crab cakes for dinner. If you live in Portland or are visiting, I highly recommend this place.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Review of TJ Scallywaggles
HP and I ate dinner at TJ Scallywaggles. It is a pizza and sub shop gone vegan. Everything on the menu is vegan. Imagine a typical Boston pizza place and you have TJs. The only difference is that meat and cheese have been replaced on their menu by vegan substitues. The staff behind the counter were extremely friendly. We asked them for suggestions since we aren't used to having any choices when we eat out. The person helping us suggested the "Chicken" Parm sub and also the buffalo "chicken" pizza.
We decided on a salad, the "chicken" parm sub, and a "meatball" calzone. HP had some lemonade and I had a vanilla soy milk. The food was exactly what you would expect from a pizza/sub shop. It was tasty, filling, and probably not really very good for you... but hey, you aren't generally looking for health food from a pizza shop.
We liked this place and I am sure we will be back. I am curious to try the pizza and I also want to try the "chicken" gyro.
We decided on a salad, the "chicken" parm sub, and a "meatball" calzone. HP had some lemonade and I had a vanilla soy milk. The food was exactly what you would expect from a pizza/sub shop. It was tasty, filling, and probably not really very good for you... but hey, you aren't generally looking for health food from a pizza shop.
We liked this place and I am sure we will be back. I am curious to try the pizza and I also want to try the "chicken" gyro.
Review of Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown - such a downer
We tried to have dinner tonight at Deluxe Town Diner. It is an odd place in that it really is an old style diner in one of those diner shaped buildings, but the food is upscale. They have salads with goat cheese and polenta jalepeno fries as an appetizer (we were going to try those). They have a 2 page tea menu. Sadly the service was really slow and the menu wasn't as fuill featured as it appeared. The menu shows quite a nice number of vegetarian entrees and we both came in with our hearts already set on the tofu loaf with mashed potatoes and gravy.
The waitress finally came over after about 10 minutes after we sat down to get our drink order. We told her that we were ready to order and tried to order the tofu loaf. She told us that they were out of that (it was 5:30 in the afternoon, so it obviously wasn't because of the dinner rush) and that they were also out of the tofu burger. We ordered drinks (HP ordered coffee and I ordered a french herbal tea) and settled back in to stare at the menu some more.
After about another 10 minutes, the waitress brought our drinks and then walked away before we could order.
After another 5 minutes I managed to grab her to order. I ordered the Stir Fry Sesame Tofu with Spinach over quinoa. The waitress told me that they had no spinach and that they only had stir fry vegetables (their other stir fry option). I generally hate stir fry vegetables out at restaurants. It was really the spinach and tofu that was appealing to me. So now my 7 vegerarian choices had dwindled down to 3. I was pissed. They didn't even seem particularly concerned.
We left. We had been there 30 minutes and hadn't managed to order any food.
The waitress could have at least told me which other options I couldn't have the first time I tried to order. I really wonder if they EVER have tofu loaf.
I do plan to send them my comments. I would only go back if I could be satisfied that they ever have the tofu loaf and if I could believe that they were even remotely saddened by the bad experience I had at their restaurant.
Their email evidently did work and I got a response:
"sorry to hear about your visit to the diner, please tell which night and describe your waitress to me and I need to get to the bottom of this and I will answer you in the next day or so."
The waitress finally came over after about 10 minutes after we sat down to get our drink order. We told her that we were ready to order and tried to order the tofu loaf. She told us that they were out of that (it was 5:30 in the afternoon, so it obviously wasn't because of the dinner rush) and that they were also out of the tofu burger. We ordered drinks (HP ordered coffee and I ordered a french herbal tea) and settled back in to stare at the menu some more.
After about another 10 minutes, the waitress brought our drinks and then walked away before we could order.
After another 5 minutes I managed to grab her to order. I ordered the Stir Fry Sesame Tofu with Spinach over quinoa. The waitress told me that they had no spinach and that they only had stir fry vegetables (their other stir fry option). I generally hate stir fry vegetables out at restaurants. It was really the spinach and tofu that was appealing to me. So now my 7 vegerarian choices had dwindled down to 3. I was pissed. They didn't even seem particularly concerned.
We left. We had been there 30 minutes and hadn't managed to order any food.
The waitress could have at least told me which other options I couldn't have the first time I tried to order. I really wonder if they EVER have tofu loaf.
I do plan to send them my comments. I would only go back if I could be satisfied that they ever have the tofu loaf and if I could believe that they were even remotely saddened by the bad experience I had at their restaurant.
Their email evidently did work and I got a response:
"sorry to hear about your visit to the diner, please tell which night and describe your waitress to me and I need to get to the bottom of this and I will answer you in the next day or so."
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