World Vegan Month - Kokomo

Back on the vegan trail after a slight path deviation for Dumpling Fest, we tried another cafe off the Vegan Passport. Kokomo is located on Gore on the edge of Chinatown, which we found to be a sort of an out of the way location. They seem OK with that as their place and fare becomes more of a destination for sincerely hungry vegans and not just drop in traffic. Their menu is short and to the point with bowls and smoothies as the focal point.

We tried the All-Day Breaky Macro, a scrambled tofu dish with squash, roasted tempeh, cumin pickled cauliflower, greens and brown rice in addition to cilantro crema, hemp hearts, cilantro, green onions and sesame seeds. This was a tasty and undeniably a healthy way to start the day. Both the pickled cauliflower and tempeh provided interesting notes that are a little off the beaten path.

We also tried the Golden Laksa, a coconut turmeric broth with noodles, zucchini noodles, ginger fermented carrot and more greens. This was another tasty bowl, very subtle and refreshing. Here is where the folks at Kokomo rose above what might be expected. I completely forgot to mention that Marie is allergic to flax seeds (not usually and issue when we are at our usual Asian restaurants). Sure enough the crackers topping the Laksa contained flax seed (which they had already delivered to our table). They gladly prepared another bowl with out the crackers and packaged the first bowl to send home with us! A generous response, I would say.

Kokomo is a nice airy and bright little place with one lone table for communal eating. The folks here are friendly and interested in speaking about their venture! It provides another vegan option for people interested in healthy heating in good conscience.

Vanfoodster's Dumpling Fest - Part Two

So here we are in Chinatown! As I predicted, no matter where we started our evening, we all met in the middle. As our two stops here were directly across from each other, we chose the shorter line and made our way to Hey, Dumplings!

They serve Russian style dumplings called pelmini. For Dumpling Fest, Heather (who clearly had this invasion under control) had prepared potato and/or potato-meat pelmini with our choice of poutine style or spicy ginger and scallion sauce with a drizzle of siracha! We tried both of course! We found the dumplings to be tender and very good! The poutine gravy is vegan, so hold back the curds and you have a vegan option here!

We will be back here for sure. The menu is short and focused and this lady is good at what she does! Next we joined the line at Rhinofish Noodle Bar. This is the only place during our evening that seemed confounded by our presence. 

Many of us hovered by the door and waited. It was a good place to meet fellow bloggers and Instagramers.

Once they got us sorted, we were served Chao Shou and Su Zheng Jioa (another vegan option) off their regular menu and both were very good! The house made chili oil provided a perfect note to the pork dumplings while the shiitake mushroom dumplings were tasty and beautifully put together.

Finally, we skipped our way along Prior Street and then around the corner on Commercial to Bombay Kitchen. Now that we were getting full, Bombay Kitchen served us the most generous sample of the evening.

Malai Kofta (another vegetarian if not vegan offering ) was a delicious vegetable and paneer dumpling served in a light tomato cream sauce. It was served with a generous side of rice which was perfect for soaking up the sauce. Another very friendly, enthusiastic place that we will be back to try.

So five restaurants and five places that we will return to try again. From a business perspective, it seems worthwhile to be included in Vanfoodster events!

From a foodie point of view, it is definitely worth while. Thanks Richard!

Vanfoodster's Dumpling Fest - Part One

As this is World Vegan Month, I have gone all in eating and posting vegan offerings from different restaurants and dishes that I have prepared at home (well the month is only a week old so I haven't posted that much) and I have made a lot of new vegan friends on Instagram. Here is hoping that I don't lose them all with Dumpling Fest postings! Don't worry! I haven't gone back to the dark side to stay!

Its always good to arrive at one of Vanfoodster's events hungry! The samples may be small but they add up after a few stops. We got our tickets and route info from Prado Cafe on Fraser and hungrily set out for our first port of call; Mangia in Olympic Village.

Mangia is a relative new comer. A comfortable and friendly little Italian eatery in an older home beautifully decorated and serving some very good pasta etc.

We were the first Dumpling Fest participants to arrive but were disappointed to learn that there was no prize for that!

Their offering was some wonderful Fried Gnocchi with ricotta mousse and pistachio pesto alongside very good Lobster Ravioli with a garlic, chilli, white wine, and fresh tomato sauce and peppery arugula. This turned out to be Marie's favourite dish of the evening. I have a feeling that we will be back soon to Mangia to enjoy more off their menu.They were very friendly and clearly were proud of their restaurant.

Our next stop was at a Vancouver perennial favourite in a new location. Maybe Hon's more than any other place taught me that there was more to Chinese food than chicken chow mien!

They started us with pot stickers (auto corrected to pots tickets on my Instagram feed, so I discovered  to my chagrin the next day) . These were fine as you may expect and served  with a tasty citrus ginger dipping sauce.

This was followed by Spicy Wontons in garlic chilli sauce (this was my favourite dish of the evening) with a nice pork filling (sorry vegan friends). Ironically, they offered a vegetable alternative for the pot stickers but we did not choose it.

Hon's is one of those places that is just part of our local experience. If someone visits from out of town, you should take them to Hon's. I love watching the chefs work their magic.

From Hon's we made the short jump to Chinatown. Stay tuned for part two!

World Vegan Month - The Juice Truck - Yaletown

Onward into the vegan void (there is a lot of new stuff for us). I am not a big fan  of the juice concept. I believe the juice should be deconstructed and eaten in its component parts so that we benefit from the fibre and a longer eating time rather than bolting all those mostly healthy calories but sometimes with a lot of sugar (fructose is still sugar).

The Juice truck in Yaletown is not actually a truck. It's a pleasant high ceiling space with plants and tables and a couple of coolers with some of their products prepared to go.

And OK, so we tried a juice (maybe I would be less cranky if we tried a smoothie). We were intrigued by The Turmeric; turmeric pressed with pineapple, orange, carrot, ginger and lemon.

This was admittedly a tasty drink but at $9 you'd better enjoy it!

The Almost Poke Bowl however, blew us away! The star of this show is sesame marinated  "ahini" which was virtually indistinguishable from tuna. This is a tomato based product and currently the chef's secret. It is definitely something I would buy if it was available as a retail item! The rest of the bowl was also very good with quinoa, carrots, yams, greens. edamame, wasabi peas etc. Healthy and tasty and not overpriced at $14. There are actually several nice looking bowls on their menu that would provide a healthy and convenient meal. We like The Juice Truck but just don't get sucked into the whole juice cleanse deal.

Today's uncomfortable fact (OK, so I have not done the research but accept their statement from the UN)  from Cowspiracy, the Netflix documentary, states that more than half of the global warming gasses that we produce as humans are from the animal agriculture industry. Thanks just the same if you're driving an electric car.

World Vegan Month - Virtuous Pie

This is day three of World Vegan Month and I couldn't be more excited!  A few of the local vegan restaurants or restaurants with vegan options have gotten together and built a passport to encourage us all to give them a try this month!

We have been wanting to try Virtuous Pie for some time but I had not realized that it was full  on vegan! We arrived Saturday just before noon at their location in Chinatown to a full house, picked up our passport and placed an order.

Service is counter order then counter pickup when your food is ready! Seating is somewhat communal with long tables and benches and a few seats at the front window and comfortable enough. We started with their Roast Harissa Cauliflower that came with a Paprika Aioli. I am not sure what the vegan version of an aioli is but it was very good.

We also ordered the Ultraviolet Pizza. It came with walnut and arugula pesto , cashew mozzarella, oven dried tomatoes, kale, caramelized onions and pine nuts. 

This was genuinely a pie that I could eat on a regular basis. The crust was very good with the nice little charred areas. They are baking these things in one of the 900 degree, 90 second ovens (Don't quote me on that. I didn't check the numbers. I just watched.) that is the basis of great pizza. The cashew cheese was nice and provided that melty element while the rest of the toppings provided a slightly minimalist but lovely experience. Just don't show up expecting a mountain of cheese and pepperoni and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Finally, we had to try their plant based ice cream!

One scoop turns out to be actually two scoops and we tried two of their flavours, Marion-berry Cheesecake and Key Lime. The first pleasant surprise was that the key lime did not arrive in the traditional neon green! Again, I am not sure of the vegan ice cream process but these were both excellent tasting with an ever so slightly more crystalline structure (not quite as creamy as the dairy stuff). We loved it! Honorable mention goes to the Sparkle Mouth Ginger Ale that we shared. It has genuine ginger in it unlike the stuff we grew up drinking, and strong ginger flavour! A lunch without guilt! Minimum damage to the planet and our health were caused in the making of this blog post! And my wallet did not fare badly either. Thanks Virtuous Pie!

World Vegan Month - Starting with Albert & Walter!

I swear that it was completely by coincidence that I re watched Cowspiracy on Netflix Wednesday evening! It was in response to a spirited discussion at work, at coffee time that day. I decided to review the documentary and came away prepared to double down. The single most important thing that you can do for the environment is become a vegetarian, or better yet, a vegan!
Then Thursday morning, I saw an article in the Dish, stating that November is World Vegan Month! I am in! I have to confess that I had already eaten yogurt for breakfast and I have tickets to Vanfoodster's Dumpling Fest this month which will be a decidedly non vegetarian affair and which I intend to attend but other than that...! Ironically, we were planning a trip to Chewies this weekend but that can wait!

Being excited to get started and like everyone else being aware that A & W has been advertising their new Beyond Meat Burger, I decided this would be as good a time as any to give it a try! I usually self righteously declare that I rarely eat fast food and refuse to review fast food places but I think the vegan burger thing deserves at least a little attention.

So I ordered a Beyond Meat Burger. The server at the counter asked if I was vegan and I lied and said yes. She then made sure that the burger came without "Uncle" sauce which is a mayo and something non vegan sauce.  Onion rings were not an option as there is milk in the batter so I ordered Sweet Potato Fries but had to pass on the Chipotle Mayo. And a good old vegan A & W root beer!

The burger was not the break through of which the commercial tries to convince us. It was OK and with a decent selection of condiments (Uncle Sauce may have helped) it was definitely edible. I would eat it for the planet if everyone else would do the same.  I tried not to compare it to a beef patty (which it definitely wasn't). It was however, as good as any veggie patty that I have had (Yves brand, etc.) except for the "Impossible Burger" which is available in the United States. You can read about it in our review of Ram Brewery in Marysville. That particular patty can be ordered medium rare and develops a nice crust like a well cooked beef patty. BTW, the next time someone says to me that they think someone who doesn't want to eat meat shouldn't eat something that looks like meat, I will scream! I like meat but I want to take it a little easy on the planet from time to time!

The sweet potato fries were tasty enough but a little limp. I have the feeling they had been waiting for me long before I arrived.

At least there was wonderful A & W root beer. Vegan...full of sugar but vegan. Don't worry. I drink very little soda. 

I'm not completely stupid. I realize that this meal is not really in harmony with the spirit of a healthy plant based diet. Sugar, white flour and deep fried food are not making this any healthier than if I was just munching bacon all day. In a pinch though, in a hurry, you can get something to eat where nothing had to die. That wouldn't have happened 20 years ago.

I don't think that this whole vegan month should not be that difficult for me. Other than a love of cheese and eggs and butter, my morning yogurt, and a weekend meat fix, I am not that far off from vegan to begin with, calling myself a "weekday vegetarian." So I look forward to finding the restaurants in Metro Vancouver that serve vegan fare and letting you know about them. And I apologize in advance that I will be preaching to you this month, starting from this fact that I remember from Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet For A Small Planet", that I read in 1980. It takes 16 pounds of plant protein to make 1 pound of animal protein! Happy World Vegan Month!

Qieu - Chinatown

The goal is quick and tasty before a Canucks game. Not too far from Rogers Arena or Chinatown station is ideal. Vietnamese food certainly meets the quick and tasty requirement and Qieu works location wise.

Qieu wasn't too busy when we arrived but by the time we left it was clear they they do well on hockey nights. Our hostess was not overly warm and friendly but not everyone has to gush on our arrival! I noticed that she spent most of her time seated at her front counter and did not seem overly worried about how her guests were doing after ordering although in fairness, when we asked for water, the request was quickly filled. We ordered and sat down  at a table that did not appear to have been cleaned within recent history. Soon a couple of nice Shrimp Salad Rolls were delivered.

These were fine and I never really expect to be deeply moved by salad rolls. The peanut sauce was tasty.

I have to tell you that the main event was also pretty good. The Rare Beef Pho had a nice rich broth and nice chewy noodles as well as the usual garnishes and a generous amount of beef. Not bad other than the dirty table, evident in my photo...sorry. I had walked in with my heart set on a lovely banh mi. I was already drooling over pillow soft but crunchy French bread and crisp vegetables however...

This turned out to be quite a disappointment. I'm not sure where or when they get their bread but this did not live up to the hype. The meat also was on the dry side. I ordered the cold cut but was quite  disappointed all around.

Still, I suppose you could do worse on hockey night. There is competition just around the corner at Hai Phong. We'll try them next time.