Friday, April 24, 2009

Veggin’ Out in Chapel Hill

Veggin’ Out recently took a road trip to Chapel Hill for some championship-memorabilia shopping — and some great vegetarian eating. Chapel Hill has definitely become a VERY veggie-friendly town.

Lunch was at the Weathervane, the restaurant attached to the fabulous gourmet shop A Southern Season in University Mall. Because it was a weekend, they were serving their brunch menu. There were so many enticing dishes to choose from, but neither Julie nor I could pass up the Grilled Marinated Tofu with sauteed spinach, raisins, Medjool dates, pine nuts, and cardamom-ginger-carrot puree. It was every bit as delicious as we’d hoped, and the portion of grill-marked tofu was immense, at least half of a standard block, probably more.

The Weathervane’s menu changes occasionally, so if you have your heart set on something, make sure to check what’s available before you go.

While wandering along Franklin Street, we discovered Bliss Boutique Bakery in a lovely, not-as-busy-as-it-should-be courtyard near the Carrboro end of things. Bliss’ speciality is cupcakes, and we were happy to see that they feature a vegan variety each day along with the six staple kinds and two other daily specials. We were there for Saturday’s vegan version, Chocolate Pecan Coconut Fudge. Yum! Other rotating vegan flavors include Chocolate Cherry Pie, Chai Tea and Apple Spice. You can check the daily lineup on their Web site.

They make everything from scratch, and the kitchen is open to the seating area, so you can see the bakers in action.

It was hard not to go to Sage vegetarian restaurant for dinner, but we decided to give another place, Trilussa La Trattoría Italian restaurant, a try, because of their long vegetarian and vegan menu posted outside. (The menu we saw was different and more extensive than what is on the linked Web site.) It was good, and the portions were large, but I can’t say I was bowled over. (Demerits for serving little tubs of Country Crock with the bread instead of olive oil or butter!) However, their vegan gnocchi dish did completely reverse our negative opinion of gnocchi. Versions we’d had before were dense, heavy and unpleasant, but theirs was light and fluffy.

Dessert was a couple of Loco Pops—gourmet frozen popsicles—from the newly relocated shop in the small walkway beside Johnny T-Shirt. The chocolate hazelnut was particuarly delicious—too bad it’s a rotating flavor instead of a staple!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Carolina Vegan Association

Saturday was a lovely day for the Piedmont Envorinmental Alliance’s Earth Day Fair at Wake Forest University. It was a lot of fun, with good entertainment, varied and informative vendors, and plenty of delicious food and samples.

I was especially happy to learn about the Carolina Vegan Association, a relatively new group that holds “meetups” around the Triad. The members at the fair were friendly, outgoing folks, with a lot of good information and plenty of tasty samples at their booth. A vegan “chicken salad” really wowed all of us who tried it.

The group plans a meetup during the next First Friday Gallery Hop, May 1 in Winston-Salem’s Downtown Arts District. Look for their table outside the Fabric Co. store.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Generation Green Festival at WSSU

In honor of Earth Day, Winston-Salem State will hold its first Generation Green Festival April 20-22. The three-day festival is free and open to the public.

Of special note to vegetarians, the documentary “Seeing Through the Fences” will be shown as part of the environmental film festival on Tuesday, April 21, at 2 p.m. In this film, vegan Eleni Vlachos examines the contradiction between our compassion for animals and our tendency to eat them, too, as well as commenting on the state of factory farms and slaughterhouses. Vlachos will participate in a question-and-answer session after the movie.

For more information, check out the press release here.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Earth Day Fair

The Piedmont Environmental Alliance’s annual Earth Day Fair will be Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. This year it will be held at Wake Forest University, which I hope will make for a better parking situation. I look forward to this event every year. It’s generally informative as well as a lot of fun.

For more information, including a schedule and a list of participants, check out the Web site. I recommend bringing along a reusable tote bag to carry samples you may pick up.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Veggin’ Out in Wilmington

I was in Wilmington last week and had a couple of yummy vegetarian meals at restaurants I would like to recommend.

I’ve been hankering to eat at Caffe Phoenix since I was cheated out of visiting it several years ago by a huge traffic jam and a friend’s tight schedule. So it was my first stop for lunch as soon as I got into town. I had been planning to get the roasted-veggie panini, but the soup of the day—tomato and goat cheese—sounded so inviting and so perfect for the rain-soaked day, I opted for that instead, paired with the pear-and-fennel salad. Both were fresh and excellent. As a bonus, all their glasses of wine were half-price that day, so a nice Gewurtztraminer helped round out my lunch. The restaurant is snazzy and inviting, from the wrought-metal sculpture of a phoenix above the door to the large windows that provide a great view of the street outside.

For dinner that night, I ventured out of downtown to Nagila, a fabulous kosher Moroccan cafe in an unassuming strip mall on the quiet end of Wrightsville Avenue. I ordered the vegetarian sampler plate, which was a beautiful and very filling entree of six items, including falafel, tabouli, hummus, stuffed grape leaves and Moroccan carrots, served with pita bread. Everything was wonderful, and I cleaned my plate. Dessert, a poppy-seed pastry, looked delicious, but I was simply too stuffed to give it a try. The friendly proprietor checked on the diners several times to make sure we were enjoying our meal or to answer questions.

For those with a sweet tooth, I also recommend Apple Annie’s Bake Shop. It was daunting deciding what to get from their many glass cases filled with pastries, breads, cakes and a plethora of cookie varieties. I can heartily vouch for the eclairs, cranberry-orange biscotti and blueberry scones.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Just dandy

One of the fun parts of being vegan is exploring new foods that aren’t part of the Standard American Diet. Consider dandelions.

The dandelion’s scientific name, Taraxacum officinale, roughly means “remedy for disorders”—and a long list of curative powers is attributed to it. All parts of the plant can be eaten.

I can’t personally vouch for dandelion-flower wine, or root concoctions, or healing powers. But dandelion greens are versatile and delicious, with a pleasant slight bitterness. They are widely available at the local health-food groceries. They can be picked wild, too, but be sure any you harvest are from a clean place, and have not been contaminated with pesticides or such.

You can use dandelion greens the same ways you would use other leafy greens. Lunch today included fa quick saute of chopped dandelion greens, dressed with a bit of lemon juice, olive oil and salt. It tasted like a healing dose of spring. An even quicker way to enjoy the greens is raw in a salad.

“Wildman” Steve Brill, author of Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places, offers several recipes online. His more-elaborate Dandelion Saute, which includes carrots and is flavored with wine and soy sauce, made an excellent side-dish recently with another spring favorite, Asparagus Risotto.

So why do homeowners wage war upon the dandelions? Their bright flowers look so happy; their silver seed puffs so magical. They’re easy to grow, and they’re useful. If I had a yard, I’d welcome the dandelions, along with their lovely and also-edible friends the violets, clover and chickweed. As long as I’m a condo-dweller, I’ll have to settle for welcoming them into my kitchen.