Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Ring out the old …

New Years is one of my favorite holidays, because I love the idea of a fresh start.

But first it’s good to look back over the year that is ending. The DawnWatch Year End Roundup is a good place to catch up on developments of all kinds that affected animals and people, including vegetarians, who are concerned about animals’ welfare.

As for that fresh start, I still have a couple days to decide – a couple more days to imagine how perfect life could be in 2009 - but one will be to post more regularly to Veggin’ Out.

Readers, what resolutions, vegetarian-related or otherwise, are you mulling over for the new year?

Friday, December 12, 2008

No more Boca “sausage”

Update: Boca sausage has returned!

I’m throughly disconsolate to learn that Boca has decided to discontinue its meatless breakfast sausages. They are still listed on the Boca Web site, but since I’ve been unable to find them in area stores, I sent Boca an e-mail and received the disappointing news in reply. The reply blamed lack of consumer demand for the decision to stop making them.

The Boca sausages have been a staple breakfast food for me for years. It was so handy to pop a couple into the microwave, and they tasted great. Even an unrepentantly carnivorous friend of mine liked them better than real sausage.

There’s really no alternative “sausage” for me to switch to—I don’t like the taste of the Morningstar Farm sausages at all.

If you are as cranky about this as I am, you can send Boca a complaint at its Web site, or call 1-877-966-8769.

Update: Boca sausage has returned!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

New Restaurant

A new restaurant is adding to the options for vegetarians in downtown Winston-Salem. Noma opened last week at the corner of North Marshall and West Fourth streets. It is good enough that after having lunch there its first day, I went back again the very next day.

On my first visit, a BBQ Tofu sandwich ($7) featured chewy chunks of tofu in a mild, sweet sauce, topped with lettuce, tomato and grilled onions. A dose of Sriracha hot sauce perked it up nicely. And, Cassandra shared a sample of her stuffed portobello ($11), which was delicious.

The second day, I tried the Tofu Hot Pup ($6) – this was actually two tofu pups on a single, long bun. So it was like having a foot-long tofu hot dog. Toppings including slaw, pickle relish and finely chopped onions came arranged along the side of the rectangular plate, an attractive presentation.

The variety of sides is greater than average, ranging from onion rings, fries and chips to garlic mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and baked macaroni and cheese.

Noma is a soothingly attractive restaurant, with iridescent walls and a color scheme dominated by chocolate brown and pale green. A bar downstairs allows smoking, while the entire second floor, with another bar, is entirely smoke free.

I look forward to going back to try other dishes – especially the Grecian Lover salad, with stuffed grape leaves.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Evos fast-food restaurant

A friend and I were in Chapel Hill recently, and when we stopped at Trader Joe’s (ah, glorious, glorious Trader Joe’s), we discovered a new-concept fast-food restaurant nearby: Evos, billed as “feel great fast food.” We had already eaten, but we were so intrigued we had to go in to check it out.

The restaurant looks like a bright version of a typical fast-food restaurant, with “green” slogans and photos on the walls. You order at the counter and wait for your food to be presented on a tray. They tout that their burgers are free of hormones and antibiotics, that their salads are made with organic greens, and that their milkshakes use milk from free-range cows raised hormone- and antibiotic-free. It’s pricier than most fast-food restaurants, but you get what you pay for.

For vegetarians, the menu offers a veggie burger, a southwestern soy taco, veggie chili and a couple of salads. Unfortunately, I was too full to try any of them.

But even though we were stuffed, we couldn’t resist getting an order of Airfries (baked, not deep-fried) and some lightly sweetened, nice citrus-flavored iced tea. A fun touch is their ketchup bar, with garlic, mesquite and spicy ketchup as well as traditional. The fries were unfortunately a tad undercooked, but we weren’t sure if that was because they had rushed them out because they made them fresh for us. I thought they tasted rather like the microwave ones that come frozen in the little paper trays. Did they taste as good as typical deep-fried ones? Well, no, but since they weren’t dripping in oil, I felt a lot better about eating them.

According to the Evos Web site, there are only nine locations across the country right now (two next to a Trader Joe’s!), so it’s pretty remarkable there’s one in North Carolina.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Chili for the Chilly

It was a damp, cold day, and I was a damp, cold gal when I first found my way into Cincy’s. But the little lunchtime diner warmed me up in every way.

Cincy’s, in downtown Greensboro, serves Cincinnati-style chili. It offers a vegetarian version, with lentils and bulgur replacing the meat. It also has a selection of sandwiches, soups and salads, including veggie dogs and veggie burgers.

But the chili is the main attraction. Cincinnati-style chili is remarkable for a couple of things. First, the chili itself contains unusual flavorings, such as cinnamon, allspice and cocoa powder. Second is the way - or ways - it’s served: Put the chili on top of spaghetti, and it’s two-way; add a mound of shredded cheese to the chili on the spaghetti, and it’s three-way; add kidney beans or chopped onions to that for four-way; add beans and onions, and you’ll have five-way chili. Oyster crackers are the usual accompaniment.

A regular-size order of five-way chili banished the autumnal chill for hours. And though it’s not always possible to get to Greensboro for lunch, it’s easy to re-create the dish at home. And you can use a vegan “cheese” such as Cheddar-style Vegan Rella to make it a vegan dish. So The Big M and I have been on something of a Cincinnati-style chili kick lately.

The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink by John F. Mariani has a brief history of Cincinnati-style chili, and a handy recipe. It says that those unusual flavorings stem from its origins as “the creation of Macedonian immigrant Athanas Kiradjieff, who settled in Cincinnati and opened a hot-dog stand called the Empress (named after the Empress Burlesque Theater in the same building), where in 1922 he concocted a layered chili (seasoned with Middle Eastern spices) that could be served in various ‘ways.’”

The Big M veganized the recipe by replacing the pound of ground beef it originally called for with about 3/4 cup of lentils, cooked and then mixed with about a half-cup of TVP, which reconstituted by absorbing the remaining lentil-cooking water. (You could also use vegetarian burger crumbles, or all TVP, or a mix of lentils and bulgur as at Cincy’s.) He made a few other adjustments as well, so here is his recipe, modified from The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink:

Lentil/TVP mix or other meat substitute equivalent to a pound of ground beef
2 chopped onions
3 cloves minced garlic
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 can tomato soup
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp red-wine vinegar
1 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
1 to 2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp mace
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Saute onions, garlic and lentil/TVP mix in the oil until the onions are tender. Add tomatoes, soup and seasonings, bring to a boil, and simmer for about an hour. Makes 4 to 6 or more servings.
Serve over cooked spaghetti, topped with chopped, raw onions, grated cheese or vegan cheese substitute and red kidney beans, with oyster crackers on the side.

According to the Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, it’s traditional to eat the chili with two hot dogs covered in shredded cheese on the side. Again, you could do this vegan-style easily enough … but finding room for even one verges on the impossible, in my experience.