Pow Pow Plant Based Bowls and Rolls, Washington, DC

Once I learned that we were going to DC/Maryland in August for the wedding (see previous posts), I immediately started researching vegan eats in the area. One of the most exciting places that I came across was Pow Pow Plant Based Bowls and Rolls. Mharie and I spent the better part of the day in DC on Tuesday (YouTube video someday soon) and this would be our lunch spot.

Halfway through our meal at Pow Pow across from Franklin Park, I realized that we were also looking across the park at the Washington Post! Every 5 steps you find another landmark in this town. 

Of course, my usual all-vegan joint problem raised its ugly head as soon as I tried to order namely, that I wanted one of everything on the menu. As you will see, we put in a good effort.

We started with the Habanero Midnight Maurader Eggroll, which is more than an impressive name! The habanero jack and spicy dipping sauce added up to a little heat for me but Mharie didn't seem to notice it much (luck of the bite?) This was crispy and rich and just what we had been hoping for (something a little less healthy!). The filling included "steak" but I'm not sure what kind. It was a meaty thing that could have been Impossible brand something. Very nice.

Crispy Lemon Parm Brussels Sprouts were also a treat. You can call it your greens for the day but add enough flavours and it becomes more than a veggie. The citrus and whatever kind of parmesan made us happy.

I should have busted these open for a picture so you could see their molten nature. They called it Taiwanese Fried Cashewnut Mozzarella with Korean Ketchup. Be careful not to burn yourself when you take the first bite but these are not to be missed.

We had the Yoga Dragon Bowl which was wonderful. This was actually grilled chick'n (we did a lot of fried here) which was impressive in itself but combined with multiple sauces including peanut, sriracha, and a cucumber lime drizzle, it became unique and tasty. It was served over all kinds of good stuff. A bowl to be reconned with.

Finally, we had the Fried Chick'n Fried Rice Bowl. I need to start adding perspective to my photos because this bowl was bigger than it looked. Great fried chick'n and grilled veggies over rice with Sriracha and we were sold!

So, did I order too much? Of, course I did but we packed up our leftovers for later. Remember that Pow Pow Plant Based Bowls and Rolls is 4600 miles from us so chances are we won't be back soon. We had to get our fill! The staff were friendly and everything is made fresh upon order. I notice that many folks order on their app and pick up their food as soon as they arrive. It seemed to be a pretty efficient system. 

Our favourite in DC? Just maybe!

Food                        4 1/2 out of 5

Vegan Options         5 out of 5

Comfort                   4 out of 5

Service                    4 1/2 out of 5

Value                       4 1/2 out of 5

Silver Diner, Maryland - Vegan Options

Mharie wanted to buy dinner for the two families on Sunday (see previous post) and asked me to find a place where vegans and omnivores alike could thrive. I was quite excited to find Silver Diner as the whole diner thing is less impressive in British Columbia than in the District of Columbia (see what I did there?). There are 26 Silver Diners in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area (which they like to refer to as the DVM), so it was easy to find one that would accommodate the baker's dozen of us.

I was so impressed with the exterior diner cladding that continued on to the interior diner decor. Even the tunes made us feel like we were somewhere in the 1950s or 60s. This group of restaurants was established in the 1980s.

So SD has 3 vegan entrees (plant-based) as well as some sides, a couple of breakfast items and smaller plates. They are all under the heading "flexitarian" which means, "I am not committed to anything" with vegetarian, heart-healthy and of course, gluten-free. At least the plant-based items are clearly marked!.

I had the Impossible Meatless Taco Bowl which consisted of 3 bean and Impossible tacos with some trimmings and an impressive quinoa salad with corn, squash and greens. This was a great vegan option as far as I am concerned. Full marks!

Typical for an old-timey diner, SD has a milkshake machine on the counter but here they include vegan ice cream flavours! This Vanilla Shake was wonderful. 

I was the only one ordering plant-based but this could have included quite a few more pictures of food to review. At any rate, we got to eat in a diner and it was a pretty cool place. Service was spot on considering that they were handling a dozen customers. We were pretty impressed but we lost the race to pay the check this time and my wife was not happy! Don't worry, she found another way to pay for stuff!

Food                          4 out of 5

Vegan Options           4 out of 5

Comfort                     4 out of 5

Service                      4 out of 5

Value                         4 out of 5

Kechy Pizza Company, Baltimore, MD - Vegan Options

So we arrived at Dulles International Airport on Saturday for festivities surrounding R.J. (my wife's son) and Reena's wedding. They had arranged a little boat tour of the Baltimore waterfront (at some point, I'll try to put something up on YouTube, if you're interested) and then we all (13 of us) went for pizza to a place Reena's brother had discovered! It was just a few blocks walk up from the waterfront at the corner of S. Calvert and E. Redwood.

This is a pretty new place and they had verified that there were vegan options! In fact, the folks (Reena's Family) that hosted us this week, completely knocked themselves out to make sure that I had something to eat whether we were eating out or at their house. This is a wonderfully hospitable family that Mharie and I were meeting for the first time ever!

The vegan options were made possible because they have vegan cheese ($4) and vegan pepperoni ($4) so many of the pizzas could be adapted. Aside from there was the naturally vegan Hummus appetizer which was quite good. I had it all to myself because getting anyone from either family (bride's or groom's) to try anything vegan was like pulling teeth. That particular theme would continue all week.

I went with the Margherita Pizza and paid the extra $4 but it was with it. Excellent crust with nice leoparding. I'm sure that was true for all the pizzas at the table (that were not vegan!). I'm not sure what they used for mozza but it was quite good being melty and flavourful. In addition to the sauce, there were actual diced tomatoes which were tasty, and lots of basil. Overall, not a shabby pizza!

This is a nice modern place with lots of room and good air conditioning (we would learn the value of that in our week in Maryland). I'm sure it gets very noisy when they are busier due to the floors and chairs. I won round one of "who is going to pay the check" by approaching our server privately and giving him my credit card. Service was very good, btw.

Food                              4 out of 5

Vegan Options               3 1/2 out of 5

Comfort                         3 out of 5

Service                          4 1/2 out of 5

Value                             4 out of 5

Santo Taco - Vegan Options

Santo Taco is a newly opened Mexican food eatery located across from the Woodward's complex on East Hastings in Vancouver. As soon as I saw some of their Insta postings, I messaged them to find out if there were vegan or vegan friendly items on their menu. I was assured that there were.

I am almost certainty that I took an outside picture of ST but somehow nothing was available in my photos. I was struggling with the sun and glass reflection on that afternoon so maybe I gave up without realizing it! So my title photo is instead their house made hot sauces.

So there are different kinds of vegan options (I mean, at restaurants in general).  First of all , certain cuisines have dishes that are naturally vegan (e.g.. falafel) or a chef may create vegan dishes that are not just adaptations but truly based on the plant kingdom. There are dishes that are adaptations of omnivorous dishes that use substitutes such as faux meats or faux dairy products. Finally there are vegan options that are just the regular menu items (most commonly vegetarian menu items) with the dairy or egg removed and no substations made. That is what vegan options at Santo Taco meant, at least so far. I'm not complaining as we ate some very tasty food but Mexican food (especially the Canadian version) profits from cheese, even vegan cheese. 

We started with a Tortas a sandwich made with wonderful house baked bread. There are basically 3 vegetarian fillings to choose from at ST and for this we chose the Hongos, a mushroom mixture with tomatoes, onion, guac, garlic and jalapeno. It made a very nice sandwich!

Next up were a couple of Mulitas, filling between 2 tortillas. For one of these, we chose the Rajas, a poblano pepper mixture with potato, onion, tomato and in this case guac. For the other, it was the Hongos mixture again. Naturally, they make their tortillas in house! Excellent!

Finally, la Taquiza. I apologize for not knowing the plural but we had 2 of these as well. More poblanos on one and for the other, Del Llano, pinto beans, guac, lettuce and pico. So everything we had were variations on themes. Topped with a little lime and some hot sauce and everything was tasty and maybe even a little too healthy.

This is quite a chic space and we enjoyed the soundtrack which was Mexican leaning (I think). Service was also very good and attentive. I did encourage the manager to look into vegan cheese and he assured me that it was on their list to find something that was suitable. It turns out that the extent of my vegan activism is giving restaurant managers a bad time. Really though, the food was good but a little cheese would have made it excellent!

Food                     3 1/2 out of 5

Vegan Options     3 1/2 out of 5

Comfort                4 out of 5

Service                 4 1/2 out of 5

Value                    4 out of 5

Sai Plant Deli Vegan Karaage at the Powell Street Festival

It's been 2 years since we made it to the Powell Street Festival and I have to admit that I was more motivated by food than culture this time. This is a Japanese Canadian cultural festival with stages, displays and food. We were able to experience the Buddhist Temple at Powell and Jackson on our last visit. Our real motivation was, having seen Insta posts by Sai Plant Deli for their vegan Karaage Tofu, and   knowing from their schedule that they would be here, the desire to try this delicious looking treat.And, sure enough, there they were. Of course, their biggest shingle was for Secret Ice Cream but we knew what that meant! We had enjoyed the plant based ice cream before and knew that SIC, Vegan Pudding and Sai Plant Deli were all indelibly linked.

We ordered their 16 oz cup for $17 with both the lemon pepper mayo and the maple mustard sauces. First of all the tofu was amazing, hot and crispy while nicely soft but substantial enough on the inside. The sauces were both rich and complimented the tofu very well. Lets call this a total success. 

Well, its just so rude to eat and run so we did take some time to browse the crafts and products many of which were Japanese leaning in origin.

And who doesn't love taiko. At this point in the afternoon, the shady spots were at a premium and I with my precancerous pale skin, felt the need to hide from the sun.

Donning sumo wrestling attire would not be the answer besides which I believe these folks are serious and I could get hurt.

I am impressed that there is a tent cover in front of the main stage (pictured at the top) which is reserved for the senior members of the community.

This is a lovely festival that celebrates the history and culture of one of the greatly contributing communities in our province. 

Make sure not to miss it next year!

Elephant Garden Creamery - Vancouver Ice Cream Festival - Vegan Options

We got our Vancouver Ice Cream Festival visit to Elephant Garden Creamery in just under the wire on the second last day of the festival. It was definitely worth it! EGC is just a short walk north of Broadway Skytrain Station on Commercial providing a small calorie burn that will partially offset your treats.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon to find a decent crowd but service was quick and we even managed to sit down at their communal table to enjoy our ice cream.

The first of the 2 festival treats they were offering was the Mango Coconut Sticky Rice Sundae. This was a very good adaptation of an already popular South East Asian dish proving that everything can be made better by adding ice cream. The toasted mung bean topping was a stroke of genius, adding a crunchy, savoury note to the sundae. This dish made my wife's day and I think we may be stopping by semi-regularly since the base ice cream flavour (mango coconut sticky rice) is a staple on their menu (and vegan!).

Next was the wonderful Pineapple Passion Fruit Mojito-ade. This was a delicious and refreshing drink featuring pineapple passion fruit sorbetto, a passion fruit lime coulis (wow), soda water, pineapple jelly and lots of mint leaves. Once we had gulped down the drink, I munched happily on the mint leaves. Amazing!

I'm not sure if the vegan items (there is currently one staple and one rotating item) flavours have been added recently or if I was just blissfully ignorant. At any rate, their location on Commercial means they will become a regular treat stop for us. This is a nice airy little place with a bench outside and table seating inside. Thank you so much EGC.

Food                         5 out of 5

Vegan Options         3 out of 5

Comfort                    4 out of 5

Service                     4 out of 5

Value                        4 out of 5

Killer Ice Cream - Vancouver Ice Cream Festival - Vegan Options

So the Vancouver Ice Cream Festival is running from June 21 to August 5 this year. There are 29 ice cream shops that are running special dishes or flavours for the festival and you can sample them at their places of business which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Of the 29, 6 have at least one vegan item that they are featuring for the festival. We had never been to Killer Ice Cream and decided to go for a healthy walk along 4th Avenue from Tayybeh to get ourselves some dessert!

We ordered the 2 items that they were featuring for the festival.

The first was the Strawberry Basil Shortcake Sundae which was as beautiful as it was delicious. This started with wonderful coconut cashew based soft serve ice cream. Frozen strawberry and basil were mixed into the ice cream and then the whole thing was topped with wonderful freeze dried strawberry bits and cookie crumble (which it turns out was not vegan) . The toppings reflect the owners philosophy that off the shelf DQ type toppings were not going to suffice. All the toppings here, no matter what you order, are unique and a treat.

Our second treat was the Banana Cream Pie Sundae. This time the ice cream features frozen banana and is topped with freeze dried banana slices and again a butter crumb cookie. To be honest, I'm not sure what they alter to make these vegan other than to leave out the dulce de leche topping. These were both amazing treats and were generous in serving without being too much.

So it turns out the butter crumb cookies do contain butter and since I ordered the sundaes specifically to be vegan, they should have not given us the cookies. When I order something vegan, I trust that it will come that way, even if there is butter in the name. That being said, we will not die from butter intake but make sure when you order that you double check. 

Also, be sure you check out their website to see the company mission statement. They are supporting an Orca sanctuary up the coast which is an amazing thing. That is animal rights activism on a level that would make me guess that ownership here was actually vegan.

Food                        4 1/2 out of 5

Vegan options         3 1/2 out of 5

Service                    3 out of 5 (a little disappointed with the cookie thing)

Comfort                   4 out of 5

Value                       4 out of 5

Terracotta Tummy - Plant-Based Meal Prep

I was quite excited about the arrival of this year's, Plant Curious Vancouver Deals. What had in previous years been a book of coupons is this year all online which is fine but I would love it more if there was an actual app. Anyway, one of the first available deals (the deals will come and go this year) was for the meal prep service, Terracotta Tummy. I know people who have used meal prep services and have found them OK, but we never have. To be honest, I'm not sure what the definition of a "meal prep" is as some services send you ingredients for easy cooking while this one sends you actual prepared meals. Either way, no time like the present to try out something new.

So we placed an order to be delivered to the home of Mharie's kids in Newton ( I don't know if our place in Aldergrove is included in TT's Surrey/Langley delivery area but it's not inconvenient to have the food delivered to Newton). We ordered The Whole Menu which is 4 dinners, 4 lunches and 4 snacks or sides. for $120.  The Plant Curious discount was $30 and delivery was $5 (we added a tip) which came to just under $100 in total. TT also offers a first-time customer discount in case you don't subscribe to Plant Curious (but if you don't, why don't you?)

I was negligent and did not take a picture of the whole order which would have given a better idea of the scope or value you are getting here. Instead, I'm showing you one dish at a time which seems a little too drawn out. This Bacun Pasta Carbonara was creamy, tasty and quite substantial. There was usually enough for Mharie and me to share the dinner dishes.

So, in the three photos above you see all the rest of the dinner/lunch dishes. We found everything to be of very good quality and tasty. One of the outstanding dishes was a quinoa salad with fresh strawberries. Very nice. There was a stir fry, a Mediterranean plate complete with dolmades and a soba noodle dish. The selection appears to change every week and there are things you can add on if you want. There is a lot of choice here if you are using the service on a regular basis.

Finally, there were 3 baked goods, all of which were rich and very tasty. Our favourite was the Pistachio Lemon Loaf. There was a very good vegetable soup which was full of good stuff and nicely creamy. I can see this being very convenient for someone who does not have a lot of time to cook. I similarly do meal prep so that cooking is kept to a minimum during the week. Overall, you can colour us impressed.

Food                     4 out of 5

Vegan Options      5 out of 5

Comfort                NA    

Service                 4 1/2 out of 5

Value                    4 out of 5