An expression of gratitude for the Radical Reuben

I’ve written love poems about food before, but never as illustrious as the following for the only sandwich on my radar, The Radical Reuben at The Chicago Diner. Sure, there are other sandwiches, some just as tasty and enjoyable as the Reuben, but this is the most sentimental of sandwiches. We’ve been kickin’ it since 2007, been through two brands of vegan cheese together, and this sandwich never disappoints. I may only make the trip a few times a year, and sometimes I get a different sandwich, but the Reuben doesn’t hold any petty grudges like other sandwiches do. That innate, radical confidence must help. Actually, I’m not even sure it has feelings, but that’s okay. It remains that kind of relationship that’s as close as ever, no matter how much time has passed. My last Reuben was about a year ago, but my next trip to the Diner, I just know it’ll greet me with open arms.

We first met in 2007. Teese cheese graced the presence of caramelized onions, peppers, sauerkraut, and corned beef seitan atop crusty rye. Incidentally, this was also my first trip to the Diner. Two years of veganism had gone by before the start* of our companionship, but I think the Reuben is quite forgiving, as there are many future years to order the sandwich.

*I considered using the word consummation in this sentence, but I’m not entirely sure the word can be used outside of a sexual context. Just to make things clear, this is completely platonic sandwich love, despite the colorful language within this blog post and the title of my blog. Not that there’s anything wrong with sexy sandwich love, if that’s what you feel. You probably have your own, slightly different blog.

This is the Radical Reuben of 2008, consumed voraciously on my birthday. Birthday sandwich! This time, my side of choice was mashed potatoes and gravy. A pickle spear completed the plate. There’s always a pickle spear.

Here are the innards, consistent with last year’s experience.

Then 2009 rolled around and I did not consume a single Radical Reuben all year. Dark times. But here’s the compromise: I have photos of other people’s reubens. And yes, they were people I was dining out with, not random Reubens. So really, I vicariously ate these Reubens. This is some six degrees of separation shit.

This is Louzilla’s Radical Reuben in 2009 on her first trip to Chicago, and therefore, the Diner. I hereby declare sweet potato fries to be the default side for any Reuben experience.

I had another chance to embrace the Radical Reuben in 2009, but did I take it? Guess not! I’m not sure what else was so important that a Reuben didn’t make it onto my plate during either trip that year. Still, this Reuben has no hard feelings from across the table.

Sometimes people make mistakes. Shit happens. It can be remedied with careful attention. What to do in this situation? Make your own Radical Reuben, of course. After the turbulence of 2009, January 2010 needed to start off right with a proper reintroduction to the wonder sandwich.

Did I have rye bread? No. Thinly sliced Upton’s seitan? No. This marinading process was very questionable. The beets made the Tofurky slices look like sunburned bologna swimming in Kool Aid.

But hey, it looks like a sandwich. And it was good! As good as the Diner’s? No. But it would hold me over for a while.

Then your dog tries to eat it. And you pause for a moment while writing this blog post because you really miss your dog. And the Radical Reuben. Then reassure yourself that you’ll see your dog and eat a Reuben sometime soon. Carry on.

Ohhh, lookie here. It’s 2010′s Radical Reuben. Notice Teese has retired and Daiya mozzarella is the new player in town at the Diner, adorning the modern day Radical Reuben. Sweet potato fries and a pickle spear, you know what’s up.

This brings us to the last Reuben of this post, the Radical Reuben of 2011. I broke the sweet potato fries rule here because the soup sounded really yummy. It was chipotle corn chowder or something.

Then you realize 2012 is nearly halfway through, which is absolutely ridiculous because it was totally just February, like last week. So get thee to the Chicago Diner before it’s too late and you live your own personal Radical Reuben dry spell hell all over again. Juicy flavorful seitan, sauerkraut, roasted peppers, onions, and a liberal helping of Thousand Island are all contained within two slices of toasty rye bread and waiting at the Diner for a meal of sandwich bliss!

Vida Vegan Con West Coast Extraveganza!

Vegan MoFo is upon us! I’m starting out my MoFo with a food tour of the west coast from Vida Vegan Con last month! I will be MoFo’ing it up from both my blogs. I’ve been preparing a project for this blog that I can’t wait to start posting-a month long series of interviews! Each day of the week will have a theme (hint: one of the days is vegan bakers) and I’ll have interviews posted with really great people in the vegan community, and I guarantee you won’t be familiar with everyone! Each and every one of these people are doing wonderful things and I’d really like to feature their ideas, projects, and opinions. The interview series begins tomorrow with the Laziest Vegan, John McDevitt. Get ready for a month of interviews, then head over to The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, where I’ll be documenting the cookbook and recipe writing process throughout the month.

I cannot believe over a month has passed since Vida Vegan Con. I started school directly after the conference. Like, 12 hours after I got back after spending the first day of school on a plane with Lindsay! Needless to say, I didn’t have time to process that this event was actually over. Plans to attend had been in the works since last October, so I spent that entire time with Vida in the back of my mind, saving money so I could turn it into a multi-city trip and eat absolutely everything.
I had never been to Seattle (as a person over 6 years old) or Portland, and I love San Francisco, so those were my three stops during my 2 1/2 week long trip. Prior to leaving, I spent a few days in (the) Chicago (suburbs), attending Naperville Veggie Fest, eating at Native Foods, and getting tattooed by the amazing David Allen. I flew out of O’Hare on my way to San Francisco, which was the best flight ever, if you leave out the part about me losing my driver’s license and finding out when I get to airport security. After they let me through with my student ID (I didn’t even have to fake cry!), the flight was non-stop with free wi-fi on the Chromebooks they lent out for the flight. Google probably sold my email address to a million third parties, but I don’t even care because I got to spend a glorious 4 1/2 hours on the internet with an aisle of three seats to myself. And if you’ve ever flown Virgin America, it’s so great! The plane has ambient lighting with a nightlife vibe, but I didn’t have to stick dollars in someone’s thong to get a glass of water. A+ flying experience (and I got a new driver’s license a few weeks later).

I thought I could make it 2 1/2 weeks with two carryon suitcases. That plan went out the window on the way back after acquiring lots of Portland swag and I was forced to check a bag because I had an extra full bag of stuff and I didn’t want to forfeit my Food for Lover’s queso, Vegan Vine, toothpaste, or anything else that was over 3 ounces of liquid.

San Francisco!

My second night in town, I met up with a group of people at Source, including Megan and Kristen. Source is a relatively new restaurant in the Bay Area (they weren’t there when I last visited in January). It’s a “multi-dimensional” dining experience that “feeds your senses through taste, sight, sound, and vibrations”. The pizza oven is a giant dragon mouth and they have a waterfall on the wall! My friend Jen, who I was staying with in SF, warned me not to touch the waterfall because someone got yelled at when that happened, so maybe it isn’t really water. I didn’t touch the waterfall (or drink the water), but I’m just imagining something happening like that episode of The Simpsons when Homer eats Guatemalan insanity peppers and goes through a hallucinatory journey through the desert, but is really just convulsing on the ground of a golf course the whole time. I’m not sure that’s what Source means by “multi-dimensional” dining experience because it was really a normal restaurant with a waterfall and pretty colors on the wall.

I ordered the avocado awesome burger with “oink bits”, made vegan. Source names all their mock meat-style foods after animal noises (“oink bits”, “jerk cluck”, “peking quack”, “moo skewers”, “bow wows”) and they use beets in the veggie burgers so it really looks like meat. The menu is really extensive, so I asked for recommendations and settled on the avocado burger.

Source also makes Hostess-style desserts, so we got an assortment of desserts to share.

Earlier that day, Jen, Lisa, and I went to Little Bird Coffeehouse and got burritos in the Mission, but I’m bad at remembering to take pictures sometimes. Both were super yum!

The next day, we had a small gathering with Jen, Lisa, Nate, Mel C, Chris, and Laura at Souley Vegan, where I had to get my Toasty Crispy fix. First you do the twist and smash, then eat!

The next day there was a big food truck festival in the Mission and I wanted to check it out and find this samosa curry burrito Jen was telling us about.

I walked all the way to the fest through the Mission. Artichokes!

The Curry Up Now! truck! This truck isn’t vegan, nor vegetarian, but they have a vegan burrito they will begrudgingly make if you ask. Now, a lot of vegans would be turned off by that “sigh, whatever. I’ll make you a vegan burrito, I GUESS” attitude, but this burrito is so fucking good it doesn’t even matter! When I asked for the burrito, the response was “I guess so…but don’t tell anyone. And you’ll have to wait a few minutes”. I waited in line for 10-15 minutes, so that was totally fine by me!

The burrito. So so so good.

San Francisco knows how to do a food truck fest! This was a small portion of the crowd.

Strawberry juice

Puppies!

Later that afternoon, I met up with Wayne, Raelene, and Corinne at Cinnaholic. This is my s’more cinnamon roll.

Corinnaholic!

We walked around Berkeley and the university campus, then headed over to Saturn Cafe for dinner.

Guacamole burger

Giant french fry

The next day, Megan met up with Nate, Lisa, and me at Gracias Madre, which is probably one of my top three favorite restaurants in the country. I got an empanada, Mexican hot chocolate, and a side of refried beans. The empanada was so flavorful and the crust was flaky, melt in your mouth. Perfection.

The last meal of San Francisco was at Paxti’s, where you can get Chicago style vegan deep dish pizza. Actually, one of the ONLY places in the country you can get it. Chicago needs to get on this!

The next day, I packed up my two carryons and flew to Seattle. The flight wasn’t as fun as the one to San Francisco because the guy sitting next to me didn’t understand the concept of personal space, but it was a short flight and I got some yummy food that night!

The first night there, Kirstin, Lauren, Chelsea, and I ate at Cafe Flora, which I really enjoyed.

The classiest presentation of french fries I’ve ever seen. The aioli was delicious and I really love how garnishing with edible flowers is a common occurrence in the Pacific Northwest.

Normally, I never order salads in restaurants, especially when traveling, but the salads at Cafe Flora looked wonderful that I had to try the avocado grapefruit salad.

For dessert we shared a couple of chocolate peanut butter parfaits. The waiter brought out a tray with examples of all the desserts they were offering that night (fancy!). Not all of the options were vegan, but this one was and we all decided on it.

The next morning Lauren and I met up at Pike Place to start our day of deep fried food, that continued into Portland. All the Seattle food pictures were over the course of 12 hours, because we are awesome. Ending at the food carts picture, that is just about 36 hours of serious eating.

I have serious farmer’s market envy.

Coffee and Mighty-O from a coffee shop in Pike Place

We walked around the market, then made our way over to EMP and saw the Nirvana, Battlestar Galactica, and Avatar exhibitions!

Bamboo Garden, a Supreme Master restaurant, was lunch #1 of the day.
This was either General Tao’s or Kung Pao mock chicken, but we call them saucy balls.

Corn chowder, which tasted like liquid tortilla chips!

Spring rolls

We visited a few thrift stores and vintage shops and at one point, ended up looking through several racks of ridiculous t-shirts.
Lauren and a glittery puffy paint beauty of a shirt:

We met up with Rory and Ian at Highline Bar for second lunch and more deep fried food.
I’ve had fried pickles one other time at Handlebar in Chicago (and again recently at Palomino Bar), so I was excited to try these out. Cut in thick slices and deep fried, they’re probably my favorite fried pickle experience.

How can we not get an appetizer called Satan Fingers?

Kalimari

Philly Dip

Seattle Public Library

Basil sorbet and chia seed kombucha at Whole Foods. We are now hooked on chia seed kombucha and I can’t get it (well, this brand anyway) in Milwaukee!

The next morning, we took the Amtrak to Portland. It was a 4 hour trip with lots of legroom, entertaining conductors, and a great view!
More Mighty-O goodness

Mountain

PDX Amtrak station. We’re here, we’re here! Our friend Katie picked us up from the train station.

The first stop was the vegan mini-mall. Lemon Bar from Sweetpea Baking Company.

After visiting Food Fight! and Herbivore, we met up with Joni (who I did a cooking demo with that weekend. I’ll write about it on the cookie blog!), then went over to Hungry Tiger Too.

Corndogs and tots!

More dessert: Back to Eden soft serve

Afterward, we went to a nickel arcade. Lauren won a blow up unicorn (a pony, whatever!) named Majesty.

Food cart park at 12th and Hawthorne with Lauren and Jeff.
Whiffie’s Fried Pies, ice cream, poutine, and pizza.

Fried pie champ!

The next morning, we ate at Vita Cafe. This is the sloppy biscuit plate, recommended by Jess Scone.

Lauren and I went shopping so I could bake Margarita biscotti that afternoon for a baking demo on KATU-TV the next morning.

Louzilla arrived in town on Thursday and we met up to head over to the VVC meet and greet. Our meal on the way there was at Kitchen Dances! I’m not interested in raw food at all, but I figured if I was going to eat raw food, I should get it a. in Portland b. from the Vegan Iron Chef winner! This is the golden beet ravioli and it was delicious!

Meet and Greet at Vendetta, the first official Vida Vegan Con get together! There were SO many people there I hadn’t met yet, so I just kind of froze when I walked in and didn’t know who to run up and hug first!

Janessa and Michele with the conference schedules!

I stole these next few photos from Isa because she took lots of pictures of people for a Vida Vegan Con family album and I didn’t take enough.

The fam:

Louzilla, Isa, Terry, and me

Lou, John, and me

We then walked over to the screening of Vegucated, a really amazing new documentary. Check it out and sign up to screen it in your town!

Sizzle Pie kalamata olive, artichoke, and Daiya slice

There was a mini meetup at Native Bowl. This is the Mississippi Bowl! Mmmmmm.

Sweetpea visit 2 (of 3). Lemon cake

Homegrown Smoker!

This hypnotizing sign drew us in

The Macnocheetoh burrito. Mac n cheese, baked beans, sausage soy curls, and a whole lotta awesome in my mouth. And deep fried coconut oreos, which tasted like an inside out donut.

Jen’s reaction to the oreos

Cupcake and champagne reception! Catered by Sweetpea and VegNews

PPK represent (another Isa photo)!

We had a PPK dinner at Vita Cafe. Half the table (vegans in Portland!) ate salads.

Buffalo Tofu Wrap. Sadly, I forgot about it and left the half that I didn’t eat in the fridge at the dorm rooms.

Saturday, the first day of classes.
Young and Vegan, a talk by Hannah Kaminsky, Sunny Subramanian, and me

Our team, The Vegan Destroyer, in a game show by Kittee, Mo, and Amey. It was so much fun and they need to take this show on the road!

Galaramarama!
After a hilarious preparation for the galarama where Jasmin Singer and I laced up eachother’s corsets, we all piled into a car and headed over. There was a Coconut Bliss ice cream sundae bar, Sizzle Pie, and a whole bunch of different appetizers.

John and his Milwaukee girls, by Isa

Upton’s Naturals did a pop-up shop at Food Fight! after the galarama with limited edition seitan. I got a pastrami sandwich. We sat on the sidewalk in front of the mini mall and ate sandwiches!

After the demo at Whole Foods the next morning, Laura, Meave, Louzilla, and I went to Blossoming Lotus. This is the Pumpkin French Toast, which I really really want to recreate at home.

Closing talk by Isa and Terry

Gabrielle and me

The last night I was in town, we had a sleepover at Jess’. Gabrielle tucked in Jess, me, and Luciana.

Vida Vegan Con was such a whirlwind and the greatest time ever! So many amazing people, so much food, and great ideas and fun! I absolutely cannot wait for VVC 2013.

Happy MoFo, everyone!

(Upton’s) Seitan Beats Your Meat: Chicago Vegan Chef Showdown

I participated in this great event in Chicago last month, so this post is just a little bit late! I met the very wonderful people behind Upton’s Naturals at Mad City Vegan Fest back in June and they told me about this fundraising collaboration with Mercy for Animals taking place this summer. I heard about it on Facebook recently and planned on participating: a Chicago vegan cooking competition using Upton’s seitan where all the proceeds benefit Mercy for Animals. What’s not to love? There’s a very thorough write up on Quarrygirl to check out, and here is my take. I hadn’t been to Chicago in FOREVER so this was a fun trip. I also stopped at my friend Natalie‘s Bake (and Destroy…cupcakes in my mouth!) sale on the way and scored a french toast cupcake.

My friend Gopal and I decided to team up and cook Grilled Chipotle Seitan and Black Bean Tacos with Mango Jicama Lime Salsa and Smoky Avocado Sauce, loosely based on my chipotle black bean taco recipe.

The venue was the Funky Buddha Lounge. There was mood lighting and dance music the whole time! It was a really great atmosphere filled with nice people and delicious food.

All hail Upton’s seitan!

A few dishes I got to try.

Deep dish pizza by Vegan Miss, savory muffins by Canary Confectionery, and curry by Arathi and Elizabeth

Ravioli by Megan and Blythe (one of the winning dishes!)

As always, I got to see some great friends and meet inspiring new ones! Chicago vegans and their events better stop being so awesome, or they’re going to convince me to move there one of these days!
Thanks to Upton’s and Mercy for Animals for putting together this event!

East Coast Veganventure Day 6, 7 + 1/2: Providence, Newport, and Boston

The last part of my trip was spent with Amanda and Michael in Providence. After traveling around the east coast for almost an entire week, I was ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy some delicious food. Earlier in the week, I heard about Providence’s vegan soft serve truck, Like No Udder, so you best believe we got some soft serve.

Out first meal was at Garden Grille. This was a special of the day, a quinoa black bean avocado bowl.

Yummy seitan with chipotle and mustard

Amanda’s Vietnamese tofu sandwich

We then went to Newport and walked along the coast. So pretty!

That evening, we went up to Boston and met with our friend Angela at Peace o’ Pie. Nomz. Pizza.
Cheesy bread

White Pizza, plus olives

Black Forest Cupcake and Pecan Cinnamon Roll from Wild Flour Bakery

And…the soft serve truck! I got a chocolate vanilla twist cone. Yum.

And that concludes the posts about the east coast veganventure of 2011. I needed at least a week to recover from the trip and all the delicious food!

East Coast Veganventure Day 4 + 5: Farm Sanctuary, Ithaca, and for the Animals Sanctuary

Farm Sanctuary!
The main event of this trip was Farm Sanctuary’s 25th Anniversary Intern Retreat. I was never an intern (in fact, this was my first visit!), but Louzilla was and she so kindly invited me along for the trip. The event was loosely structured around speakers, games, meal times, and tours, all leading up to a few games of Ultimate Frisbee with Gene Baur.

We took our own tour around the sanctuary that morning.

Can you spot the tiny little frog?

Tabitha

It rained on and off throughout the day.

Hanging out with sheep.

Bunnies!

Now I’m going to make your heart melt with some baby goat pictures.

I have video of frolicking baby goats too! But I hate video editing/uploading more than anything in the whole world, so all the videos I ever take stay on my hard drive and never see the internet. Convince me to upload them?

Molly

Hey, it’s Gene Baur! I missed Gene in Chicago during his Just Eats Tour earlier this summer, so it was great to hear him speak at the Farm Sanctuary about his very positive approach to activism.

The meals throughout the day.


Strawberry ice cream cake? Fuck yes!

Giant cookie

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

The farm

Due to all the rain, we ended up spending the night in Ithaca rather than camping outside. As much of a nature girl as I am (read: joke. haha, funny!), sleeping inside wasn’t too disappointing.

The next morning it was en route to New Jersey to visit for the Animals Sanctuary in Blairstown. We had brunch in Ithaca with Megan on the way at Collegetown Bagels. I got the veganic breakfast burrito.

If you are on the east coast, definitely make a point to visit for the Animals. It’s much smaller than Farm Sanctuary, and it’s run by some amazing people. Mac n cheese, made by Debbie.

for the Animals is unofficially named the gayest sanctuary in the country, so they have a selection of vegan LGBT items for sale along with their animal rights buttons and magnets, as well as beautiful handmade metal jewelry made by Debbie. Check out her work here.

East Coast Veganventure Day 3: Cafe Santosha and Strong Hearts Cafe

After stuffing ourselves full of ice cream and Vegan Treats the previous day, no one felt like another food marathon just yet, so the next stop was Cafe Santosha. Louzilla, Jen, and I met up with the lovely Jaime K of Save the Kales, who is also organizing Bethlehem Veg Fest this September! If you are in the area, definitely plan to check it out!
We all got a variation of the Mean Green Salad. Mine has apricot dressing, and I also had kombucha.

They brought us fruit and skewers for dessert. We’re eating healthy, bitches!

L to R: Jen, Jaime, me, Louzilla

After this lunch meeting, it was time to part ways with Jen and Jaime, and Louzilla and I headed to upstate New York. 5 hours later, we made it to Syracuse. The Farm Sanctuary intern retreat started the next morning, but we made a stop that night at Strong Hearts Cafe for pizza and milkshakes with some friends.

Lettuce on a pizza? Don’t be fooled! This is the cheeseburger pizza-under that lettuce is Daiya cheese, pickles, seitan, and all the cheeseburger fixin’s. The healthy food streak is over!

Group shot!

East Coast Veganventure Day 1 + 2: NYC and Vegan Treats

7 days. 10 cities. Lots of great food and people! Louzilla invited me to be her guest at the Farm Sanctuary’s 25th Anniversary Intern Retreat. While I was out there visiting Farm Sanctuary for the first time, I made a multi-city trip out of it, starting in NYC, making stops in Bethlehem, Allentown, Syracuse, Ithaca, Blairstown NJ, Providence, Newport, and Boston!
I know I’d never get around to this blog post if I tried to cram everything into one little post, so I’m splitting it up into days!

I flew into NYC from Milwaukee on the first day, caught public transportation from the airport, then was immediately greeted with a 5 minute torrential downpour when I got above ground. I showed up a little soaked to dinner with Terry at Red Bamboo, but after some delicious deep-fried goodness, it was all good.
I ordered the Butterfly Soy Chops:

No trip to NYC is complete without a visit to Lula’s Sweet Apothecary. This is a sundae with mint chip and strawberry ice creams, caramel, marshmallow cream, and their beloved coconut whipped cream.

I stayed with my friend Rachel in Brooklyn for the night, then had a bit of time to wander around in the morning.

My plans in NYC for the day were with Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House! We recorded an interview for Episode 78. Check it out through their website or subscribe on iTunes!
Afterward, they showed me around the area. We stopped by Sacred Chow and Lifethyme Natural Market, then we parted ways and it was time for me to head to the bus station.

I had this delicious sandwich from Sacred Chow on the bus to Bethlehem, PA.

Yes, Bethlehem! Home of Vegan Treats Bakery!

Louzilla and Jen picked me up from the bus station, then we met up with Megan and Natalie at Vegan Treats and got a little bit of everything (well, almost everything).

S’mores Cake

Chocolate Lava Cheesecake

Chocolate Mousse Cake

French Vanilla Mousse Pie

This was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted! I have no idea what it’s made out of, but holy shit is it good!

We then hopped over to a Chinese restaurant across the street called Ruby Cafe. It’s good to know that restaurant is there if you want to top off your sugar coma with a Chinese food imitation meat coma. We ordered a few “chicken” and vegetable dishes, hung out for a while, then were on our way home to Louzilla’s. We went out dancing that night at The Stonewall in Allentown with a few of her friends, then got a night of sleep in preparation for a long trip on day 3.

[to be continued]

Spring break in Chicago equals dessert before dinner

Hello everyone! Long time, no blog. I’ve been meaning to re-do the design of Seitan Beats Your Meat for MONTHS, and here we finally are! The logo and design were the results of a few sleepless nights and my ability to pay attention in art history class. Not only is the layout new, but I’ve launched the vegan food travel guide (link at the top of the page) organized by city and restaurants, now with functioning links! To celebrate the new, polished blog rather than the “under construction” look that’s been going on for a while now, I’m going to start posting much more regularly again. Yay!

The bigger reason for the absence lately has been school and finals, living the broke and intensely busy student life. Luckily, my semester is over in less than a week, so summer is upon us, and I have lots of plans for projects! Besides summer school, that is. I’m officially insane for deciding to take two studio design classes that will be 13 hour days twice a week for the first half of summer. But anyway, I have plans to make a new zine, work on a new book, cuddle lots of bunnies, bake a lot, participate in a few bake sales, Madison Vegan Fest, hopefully travel and see some of the vegan friends I’m dearly missing, eat lots of delicious food, and of course, Vida Vegan Con!

I was able to escape normal life for a couple days this semester over spring break, spending two full days in Chicago eating my way through the city! The goal for these days was to try new places rather than my regulars (Diner, Pick Me Up, Earwax, Veggie Bite), save for the Diner because a trip to Chicago isn’t complete without a visit if it’s been a while.

The first day, I met up with my friend Alexis at the Diner and got the usual-The Radical Reuben! Quite possibly the best sandwich in existence. I usually get it with sweet potato fries but the soup of the day was a cheesy corn chowder and that sounded really good. And it totally was. We finished the meal by sharing a chai cookie dough shake. I love when the Diner is out of vanilla ice cream because then all the shakes can be made with cookie dough.

That evening I met up with Aleks and Kristina from the PPK for coffee and dinner. Our meeting place was at Fritz Pastry, a bakery and cafe I’ve been meaning to try ever since I found out about it through Melisser and Natalie’s video review. They were out of the blueberry muffins I was getting recommendations for, so I opted for a sprinkles donut!
I busted my old wallet last November and finally got this new cupcake one at Hollywood Mirror that day!

We drove over to Amitabul for dinner, 100% vegan Korean restaurant. I got the spicy kimchi noodles. I was still running on that Radical Reuben at this point, so I barely made a dent in my dinner, but it was so delicious, healthful, and made great leftovers.

The next day Gina, who I met at Chicago VeganMania last year, and Kate joined me for day two of dessert followed by dinner. We met up at Bleeding Heart Bakery, sampled an array of baked goods, and got properly caffeinated. The decor there is the greatest. Bold colors, punk rock, and giant motherfucking cupcakes for tables.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Mocha Cheesecake Bar

Sprinkles Cake Ball (see the sprinkles theme I’ve got going?)

After the bakery we went on a long journey to the nearest Target in search for a pair of jeans for Kate. They met me at Bleeding Heart with a hilarious story of Kate splitting her pants on the way over (haha, sorry Kate if you’re reading this!).
Once operation: acquire pants was complete, we went to Handlebar for dinner, where Marla the Cupcake Fairy of Chicago VeganMania joined us.

Fried. Pickles. Every bit as amazing as that sounds, with a ranch dipping sauce.

My entree, the Buffalo Chicken Wrap

And that concludes my Chicago foodventures over spring break. Mission of making it to new restaurants and bakeries: accomplished!

Retrovision: Vegan Treats

Okay, so maybe this isn’t from the too terribly distant past, but who’s complaining about a post largely comprised of Vegan Treats food porn? These photos never made it onto the blog, so there’s no time like the present! Vegan Treats is a bakery in Bethlehem, PA with decadent, over the top desserts. My trips to Vegan Treats were a part of the first time I met Louzilla, as she lives super close to them. We got so. many. desserts. To the left is the infamous Peanut Butter Bomb, a brownie filled with a mountain of peanut butter frosting and covered in chocolate. It was just named #25 on VegNew’s Vegan Bucket List of 99 things you must do, in the March/April issue (psst, there’s also a feature on The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur in the book review section)!

Up next is the Shrapnel Cake. Louzilla and I devoured this. I still remember the deep chocolate cake coated in frosting, with pieces of chocolate, all in one bite.

Money shot

Still warming up here. A basic brownie, with caramel and frosting.

….Taken to the next level by Peanut Butter Bombification!

Lemon Cake! This was another PPKer’s cake that I got to try a bite of, which was lovely of course as I’m a huge fan of citrus baked goods. Not that there would be anything wrong with eating 5 vegan treats cakes over the course of a week.

Raspberry Softserve (the other day was passionfruit, not pictured)

The group

Vegan Treats is absolutely killer. I can’t wait to visit again someday, and eat like 15 more Peanut Butter Bombs!

Bay Area Foodgasms

I have been lusting after visiting San Francisco for such a long time and made it over there a few months ago for a book signing, vacation, and to finally meet some PPK friends, after 5 years! Going from the midwest snowstorms to the sunny, barely chilly weather was a perfect excursion in January, and I’m just a little bit jealous of everyone in the Bay Area! So many great vegan eats, people, and things to do! I got around mostly by walking…I think it worked out to be somewhere around 8 miles a day!

Of course I’m going to start out with Cinnaholic. They’re located right around the corner from Saturn Cafe in Berkeley, so I ran over there during the book event before they closed to get some cinnamon rolls to go. The frosting and topping possibilities are endless, just take a look at their menu, so I asked Shannon for recommendations and went from there. On the right is a half and half maple/pomegranate frosting with marshmallow and brownie topping, and to the left is PBJ, which I ate at SFO while saying my goodbyes to the Bay Area.

I fucking love this sandwich, the Toasty Crispy from Souley Vegan in Oakland. BBQ seitan, deep fried tofu, amazing! You have to do a smush down before eating it because it’s really this tall.

This get together happened because Melisser had a layover in Oakland! I had spent the day with Kristen of Tree Wool and The Noochy Noodle, so we met up with Jen, Nate, Alex, Megan, Melisser, and Josh for vegan soul food!
They also had deep fried kale. Droool.

The week before I left for SF, I overloaded on fake meat-y dishes and restaurant food, so I was in the mood for something healthy. I opted for a salad at Love N Haight instead of a sandwich.
LUCKILY, I got over that and was able to thoroughly enjoy all the crazy deep fried deliciousness and sweets in the city.

Kristen pointed out Ike’s Place to me and recommended the Brutus sandwich. It has deep fried breaded chicken, artichokes, and garlic herb sauce. All the sandwiches come with a side of chips (I got jalapeño) and a lollipop (which the server pointed out was a vegan lollipop!).

Saturn Cafe’s Nacho Fries! Holy yum. I also got a side of their ranch. Erika described it as “Jesus cumming in your mouth”, so how could I not?

This is the ravioli and garlic bread from Ananda Fuara. It was a simple, healthful meal and really hit the spot. I was dining alone, so they sat me with another woman there by herself. I forgot that most people don’t photograph their food because she looked at me like I had three heads when I whipped out my camera.

Blue Bottle Coffee Soy Gelato was the flavor of the day!

I met up with Kristen at Gracias Madre and was extremely impressed.
After trying to decide for a realllly long time, I went with the Quesadillas de Calabaza. Butternut squash quesadillas, cashew crema, topped with pumpkin seeds. I also got a side of refried beans which are hands down the best I’ve ever had.

I would totally have regretted not getting the flan. This was my first flan experience, vegan or not, and the air-y creamy cloud-like dessert in my mouth was worth every bite, even though I was already extremely full.

Not pictured are Paxti’s deep dish pizza, lots of Pepple’s donuts, a second visit to Souley (this time for brunch), and the potluck food at Vegan Happy Hour!
I stayed with Jen and Nate during my trip, so Sugar Beat Sweets desserts were readily available! Their vanilla cupcake is easily the best I’ve ever had.
The San Francisco Vegan Bake Sale was going on that Saturday, so I got a few different baked goods before they (quickly!) sold out. I had the pleasure of meeting Laura and Meave from the Vegansaurus crew, as well as Colleen from VegNews.
The vegan community is absolutely awesome. And I’m jealous of Rainbow Grocery, and the access to fresh produce from the stands in the Mission in January!

I spent my last day there with Erika and Jordan and we recorded an episode of The Cosmopolitan Hour. Check it out here!

Illustration by Kelly McClellan

It’s two months later and I still regret having to leave! Thank you, Bay Area for such a great time. I can’t wait to visit again, and definitely foresee a one-way ticket there sometime in the next few years!