Confusion of the Corn

Yessss corn bread. The delightful smell of the corn bread, the appealing look of the corn bread, the tantalizing feel of the corn bread, the addicting taste of the corn bread and the influential sound of the corn bread calling out for me to eat it. The joys of corn bread. Vegan corn bread. or should I say: Vegan corn bread?

I was at Whole Foods this past Sunday buying groceries and I went past the bakery to buy some corn bread to compliment dinner for that evening, so I picked up a loaf of corn bread that had the vegan sticker on the front. I chose the cranberry corn bread this time because I wanted to try something a bit different and a bit more seasonal. I went for it. Bought it. and began eating it with my dinner. Well, about 1/5th into the actually log of corn bread, I flipped it over to read the back sticker of what ingredients were put into it and lo and behold I saw the ingredients listed were not vegan. This is precisely the moment where I began to flip out. I threw the corn bread down, analyzed the wrapper flipping it front to back, front to back and realized that the vegan sticker on the front didn't match the non vegan ingredient list on the back. Wow I was confused! I thought I has just picked up the non-vegan corn bread by mistake and had eaten the one with whole eggs and milk. I passed pieces of it around to my family members and had them taste test it to see if there was any difference in the taste compared to vegan corn bread (because none of them are strict veg like me). Well, no one said really said it could or couldn't be vegan, so I decided to call Whole Foods to tell them about it.

The lady from the bakery was completely outraged by it and confused and unsettled about the fact that the labels were different and they were confusing customers. She made sure the items were pulled and changed. She did mention that the bread was vegan and there was no doubt about it- they just put the wrong back label on it. I wasn't really that sure still, so I asked about three different ways if she was sure about it. She kept saying yes, so I finally believed her and spent the next 10 minutes finishing the corn bread :) I was happy! Yay to cranberry corn bread (when labeled appropriately)!

P.S. I was going to ask for my $2.87 back from Whole Foods because of all the confusion and upset I had to deal with (still planning on seeing a psychiatrist), but my mouth was too full with corn bread to bother asking ;)

The corn bread lives on!

Fajitas for the Veg

Yummmmmmy. I went to eat at Las Margaritas yesterday and had vegetarian fajitas for lunch. I was impressed with how cheap the prices were, especially because the portion sizes were the normal dinner size! I couldn't even finish my meal and with the side of corn tortillas, as well as the refried beans and rice, there was absolutely no room left in my stomach for it all!

The vegetarian fajitas came out sizzling. The plate was filled with mushrooms, peppers, onions, guacamole and more! I rolled up the warm corn tortillas with the vegetables, topped off with beans, guacamole and hot salsa. De-li-cious! Absolutely tasty and authentic Mexican food.

The seasoning of the vegetables and the spice of the salsa gave my mouth just what it deserved- a tasty sit-down lunch meal for about half the cost of other lunch dishes. Las Margaritas food has it going on, not to mention the ambiance is perfect to really feel the Mexican vibe.

Whoever said that Mexican food was filled with pork, beef and chicken?! Not true when there are so many vegetarian dishes and sides to choose from- just make sure to ask for no cheese or sour cream on anything if you are vegan because sometimes they forget!

Back in Business

Phew...I am back and ready to go. No, I didn't fly off to Italy again or go on a mini road trip this weekend. Mentally and physically I feel whole again- maybe it was that early morning workout today or the sleepover I had at my house with the fam. Hmm...whatever it was or whoever it was, thanks. I am ready to take on this week and when I say take on, I mean really get on my grind.

As academia would have it, I have about 5 million (or just 5) things due this week and I have little time left to finish it. But in the meantime, I am working on grad applications, studying for the GRE AND writing for my new internship at Philly Magazine. I am officially (they added my name to the contributors page) a writer for the BE WELL PHILLY.com website! I am starting a vegetarian/ vegan special blog on the website to welcome readers into the veg world. Not to mention I am using my job at Horizons to give me an inside look on what people want to know about the veg world and what I know enough to tell them. Very excited...check the site www.bewellphilly.com for updated blog posts and articles on healthy living tips, events going on in the city, new fitness advice, etc etc. It is honestly something worth looking at!

Who knows maybe I have a future in this vegetarian counseling/ writing thing huh? :)

Lyric of the week: "Can't stop, won't stop"---young gunz

Spriggin' Delicious!

WOW! I took a drive with my mother and sister to New Hope on this gorgeous, autumn Sunday and we stumbled upon this fairly new vegan restaurant called Sprig and Vine. Our original intent was to go to a bridal shoppe to browse through for my mom's mother-of-the-bride gown, but we made a detour to the restaurant once we saw that it was in the same Union Square Shopping Center. Upon walking into the restaurant I fell in love with the woodwork and the small, intimate dining space it had. When we were seated in the booth in the back of the restaurant, we noticed that the New Hope train passes through. This just added an even more unique flair to the space!

Let me tell you though...when the waitress brought over that Sunday brunch menu my jaw dropped and I was salivating like crazy and was surely not thinking about that train anymore! There were options like biscuits and gravy, grilled peach and green zebra tomato salad, french toast, breakfast burrito, chocolate chip pancakes, caraway-crusted tempeh reuben and...and...and...so much to choose from! We decided to order a few things and sample each other's plates. My mom ordered the biscuits and gravy and home fries. The biscuits tasted like pure buttermilk biscuits from KFC or something- definitely not anything I've been able to eat in quite awhile and the gravy was dead on- thick and creamy just like it is on Thanksgiving Day. The home fries were crispy and seasoned lightly and topped with caramelized onions- YUM! I can still taste them. Now my sister ordered the french toast. The dish was covered with berries, apples, nuts and this sweet vanilla cream. The toppings were delicious and weren't too sweet and actually the tarty berries calmed the sweetness down a bit, but the one thing I didn't like was the bread they used for the toast. The most important thing for french toast is the bread! I was annoyed by the chewy, hard to cut baguette bread that was used and would've like maybe a softer, grainier bread instead. What I had in front of me was the complete opposite of the sweet dish- it was a savory dish. The breakfast burrito was filled with scrambled tofu, potato, black beans, avocado, salsa verde and smoked paprika aioli. The flavors came together so well and having the potatoes in the burrito definitely helped- While I was eating it though I was waiting for a creamy sauce to surface, but it didn't come through until my last two bites and I was disappointed that I hadn't tasted it from the beginning. Also, my sister and I agreed that maybe it could have been made without the black beans, but then again it would be hard to call it a true burrito-wouldn't you say?

In the end, we didn't leave one bite on any of the plates! Everything was super delicious with a few personal critiques here and there, but it is definitely a place I'd go back for brunch and even try it out for lunch or dinner. Those menus had more options and could satisfy many different palettes. The prices are so reasonable and for the amount of food and quality of food- it is very much worth every penny.

P.S. we checked out the dessert menu even though we knew we couldn't fit any more in our stomachs and there were a few simple dessert items on it- nothing that really caught my eye, especially because I had just eaten the sweet french toast and savored every last bite of that burrito.

What a great way to spend the day in New Hope. Oh yea...we did end up going to the dress shop- once we digested our food!

Hut Hair

Seriously though what is up with eating out lately? I go to South Street today to try the Loving Hut that just opened up and it's the only one in Philadelphia, so I'm totally stoked because the one in New York that I went to was pretty cute and the food had a pretty decent taste. Well I ride my bike on down before work and go in to order something inexpensive and with as much food included as possible...the Vegan Burger.

I ask for the eggplant patty instead of the soy patty and I end up getting the soy patty anyway. Listed on the menu description was organic fried tofu as well, but that never made its way onto the burger. Anyway, I ask for the vegan cheese, which ended up tasting like cream cheese. Basically I had a beautiful bun filled with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onions, a soy patty, vegan (cream) cheese and some goopy sauce that was a mix between a BBQ sauce and a plain old goopy sauce. :P Somehow it had a delightful taste and I actually enjoyed it- I may have enjoyed it even more though if I ate it with my eyes closed because a lot of what was in the burger looked weird. The worst part came once I bit into the soy patty in the middle because I noticed a white hair! GAH! The server was so nice and helpful I couldn't get up the courage to tell her about it though. Obviously she was young with black hair and I'm sure she wasn't graying yet, so the hair must not have been hers so who could it have been! YUCK I was definitely turned off. I finished what I could of the sandwich and drank up my iced water before heading out. I'd have to give Loving Hut a 4 for service, 3.5 for food because some looked a little limp and not so appetizing and 4 for options- the desserts and drinks did look good, but a bit overpriced, so pricing would get a 3 ( all on a 1-5 scale).

I'm going to be making it my goal to try a new restaurant every week or so I can blog about it and you can read about it :) but really just so I can keep eating different foods all around the city...hopefully without the hair included!

Vegan Brunch? Are you serious?

So there's this fairly new place called Mi Lah Vegetarian on S. 16th Street near Rittenhouse Square that I had the opportunity to eat at this past Saturday. I didn't think it would be a full out vegan place- I only thought it was vegetarian so when I walked in and sat down to read the Saturday/ Sunday brunch menu in front of me I noticed all of these cheese items listed, as well as creamy sauces on the dishes. I was insanely disappointed and sat there staring- thinking about how I would have to go through the whole "I'll take this, but can you not put cheese on it please" deal. However, I asked the waiter if they used real cheeses because on the top of the menu it said "vegan brunch," so I was like "yo Mr. waiter dude- are these 'American cheeses' real cheeses or vegan cheeses?" and he's like "yo Miss customer- they are rice cheeses" and that was when I fell in love...with vegan brunch at Mi Lah Vegetarian.

My world opened up to all the choices I had.

My decision became harder to make.

My stomach began to growl louder...

so I decided to order the veggie sausage meal with biscuits, mushroom gravy, fried portobello mushrooms and red bliss/ sweet potato home fries....WOW- among the other choices though were pumpkin pancakes, veggie breakfast burritos and more. I just couldn't decide! Once the dishes came out I dug right in and was a bit taken back by how smokey the veggie sausage tasted. I was not happy with that part of the dish, however I did enjoy the red bliss/ sweet potato home fries and the mushroom gravy atop the biscuits. I kept questioning the fact that it was all vegan because normally places don't serve vegan brunch this way...oh but it was surely vegan. The breakfast burritos my boyfriend got was incredibly delicious and all of it was filled with spice and flavor beyond compare. I could've probably eaten his whole dish of seitan taquitos and tofu scramble burritos. It was very colorful and down right delicious! Both dishes were great and something different to experience, especially for brunch on a Saturday afternoon. One thing that kind of bugged me was the difference in food portions between my plate and his plate- his plate was completely filled with color and life and mine was sort of boring and sparse with the food. That may be something they'd want to try and keep an eye on next time they plate the food. On the other hand, I was impressed by the menu options and found it to be an intriguing place to try for dinner and for the regular lunch menu or just to go back for those pumpkin pancakes!! YUM so SSSSEASONAL!

don't be afraid to try different things...you may be pleasantly surprised at what you'll find...especially cause at Mi Lah they start you out with a plate of fruit- totally rad :P

Thai!

This is my first attempt to review a restaurant in the city and I'm just going for it. Lately I've been going to weekly girls nights with some close girl friends and we decided to try this Thai place near 2nd and South Street called Tamarind.

Let me start off by saying the place is small, but somehow looks like it could manage a busy weekend night and still manage to make the customers happy. The decor is a bit outdated, but gives one the right quaint feel one needs to sit and have a cost-efficient, delicious meal.

One thing I can say is that is BYOB, so most customers take advantage of that, especially because there is a Wine and Spirits Shoppe a few blocks West on South. The second thing I'd like to point out is that it is incredibly vegetarian and vegan friendly. I had many choices laid out for me on the menu and I didn't have to pay a lot for it either!

The ladies and I enjoyed a tasty meal together and with the fast and friendly service we could have been in and out in less then an hour, but there were five of us, so we weren't in a rush. My meal consisted of spring rolls (the vegetarian alternative to egg rolls) and though they were a bit greasy and I had to pat them down a few times, they were filled with flavor and had a nice crunch when chewing the cabbage and vegetables stuffed inside. The orange sauce on the side was so sweet and a perfect match for the rolls. Next, my entree was the tofu and vegetables sauteed with garlic and Thai red chiles and served with rice on the side. Well, I asked the waitress to make the dish fairly spicy for me and gave her the rating of a 4 out of a spicy scale of 1-7, so I didn't expect it to be that spicy. Apparently, a 4 is more like a 40 and the spiciness of the sauce burnt my tongue a few times and made my eyes water. My mouth was on fire! I wish I would've known how the scale worked- if my dish was a 4 who in the world could manage to eat a 7 dish?!?!

I was delighted and definitely pleased with my meal at Tamarind and would recommend the restaurant to those interested in a different spin on Asian cuisine right on South Street. Just make sure to be very specific of how spicy you want your food!