Monday, March 18, 2024

Bluff City Vegan Eats: SriMu

Memphis is now home to a fully vegan cheese and wine shop! Vegan cheese-maker Julie Piatt (who is married to ultra-athlete/podcaster Rich Roll) moved her SriMu cheese shop into Crosstown Concourse several months ago, but it took a long time for the space to get its license to serve alcohol. They've been in production for months, and anyone could go in and buy wheels of cashew cheese to take home. But now they're serving vegan charcuterie boards, paired with wines.

Some vegan ladies and I met up there on Friday night to check it out! Look at these beautiful boards! 

We selected two small boards to feed the five of us, and it was plenty of food. Each had three cheeses. One had Bertie Camembert (with truffle oil!), Fire (the spicy one), and Spire (SriMu's take on blue cheese), plus fig jam, olives, pistachios, stoneground mustard, and fresh and dried fruit. The other board had Bonfire (the smoky cheese ball), Gold Alchemy (a smoked gouda), and Cloud 9 (like fresh mozz balls!).

These were so good, and we gobbled every bite and pretty much licked the boards clean. Not really, but we were definitely scraping crackers along the boards to pick up all the bits.

SriMu is open Thursday-Friday from 3 to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 1 to 7 p.m. And you can find it on ground floor of Crosstown Concourse, across from Farm Burger and the red spiral staircase. 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Tacos, Burgers, and Tortilla Soup

A couple Fridays ago, I met up with my mom at our Native Brew Works, out favorite meeting spot in Jonesboro, my hometown. Neither of us live there anymore, but my me-maw still does, so we meet up for grandma visits sometimes. But we always start with lunch at Native. It's Jonesboro's only brewery, and they have several vegan menu items. This time, I went with the BBQ Cauliflower Tacos, a side of Black Beans, and we split an order of Guac and Chips.

I'm still steadily working my way through Tabitha Brown's Cooking by the Spirit cookbook. And this week, I made her Cheeseburgers. These are veggie-based patties with black beans, mushrooms, bell peppers, sundried tomatoes, red onion, and spinach, topped with Violife cheddar and all the fixins. It's really nice to have a classic homemade veggie patty sometimes. On the side, I had some air-fried potatoes with sriracha aioli.

I also recently made her Tortilla Soup. This also has black beans and mushrooms, but the mushrooms are oyster, which gave the soup a really nice, meaty texture. The soup is topped with vegan cheddar shreds, avocado, and tortilla chips (of course!).

And here's a quick week night meal I've been enjoying. I used a can of Trader Joe's Greek Chickpeas with Parsley and Cumin to stuff pitas, along with hummus, butter lettuce, avocado, and kalamata olives. I had some airfried potatoes with Cavender's Greek seasoning on the side and a garlicky vegan mayo for dipping.

Monday, March 4, 2024

Race Recap: Little Rock Half Marathon

I do the Little Rock Marathon — either the half or the full — every year. It's my favorite road race, and the medals are amazing. This year, I just did the half because I'm not getting back into long-distance stuff until this fall. And my friend Kate from Memphis Hash House Harriers signed up to run it, too. So, we made a plan to run together.

But first, I stopped by the race expo on Saturday afternoon. This year's race was dino-themed, so I grabbed a selfie with a dinosaur.

Then, I headed to my BFF Sheridan's house. I always stay with Sheridan and Drew when I come down for this race. I dropped off my things, and then we met up with Kate for pre-race pizza at Raduno Brick Oven

Raduno has some really yummy Vegan Spinach-Artichoke Dip, so Kate and I split that for an appetizer.

And then we each ordered the Vegan Pepperoni Pizza.

And the Funghi Mushroom Pie with no cheese. Yay for carbs!

The next morning, the race started bright and early at 6 am! It usually starts at 8 am, but the weather was predicted to be unseasonably warm on Sunday, so they moved the race up by two hours at the last minute. I was not too happy about this, but there wasn't much I could do. And turns out, it never really got that hot. Temps were in the 60s (not 70s), and there was cloud cover and a drizzle. Oh well. 

Kate and I stayed together for the full 13.1 miles. I had originally planned to go for a PR when I signed up, but once Kate signed up, I decided to treat this as a fun run so we could run at conversational pace. But Kate is faster than me, so she kind of pushed me more than I realized she would. And I ended up finishing with my second-fastest time! Not a PR, but I was only one minute off. 

Check out these cool medals!

I had such a good time running and talking with Kate. I'm so used to running races alone with headphones, so this was a nice change. One of the best things about hashing is having a giant group of new running partners. 

After the race, I met back up with Sheridan and Drew, and we grabbed brunch at Little Rock's new City Silo

This place is Memphis-based, but they just expanded to Little Rock. And even though I can eat at City Silo at home, I'd never been there for breakfast/brunch. I had an oatmilk latte and this Sunshine Burrito with City Silo's veggie burger, quinoa, sweet potatoes, and vegan cheese. That hit the spot and powered me for my right home!

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Yuba Noodles, Peanut Stir-fry, and Sweet Tater Hash

On my last Trader Joe's visit, I picked up a box of the frozen Tofu Sheets everyone has been talking about. They're really just yuba sheets, and I can get those at my local Vietnamese market, which is much closer to my house. But they were cheap at TJ's, and the internet is all the rage about them, so why not? I wasn't sure what to do with them, but I googled and found this Creamy Sesame Noodles with Yuba recipe on Bon Apetit.


This has somen noodles and sliced tofu sheets in a soymilk-based broth, seasoned with miso, sesame oil, and some other spices. It was super creamy and very different from my usual ramen. The tofu sheets gave the noodle dish a nice, chewy texture. Next time, I'd like to try this vegan chicken made with the tofu sheets.

I also picked up a jar of Trader Joe's Peanut Satay Sauce on that trip, so that was a good excuse to make Spring Rolls with rice paper, tofu, carrots, and cucumbers. But I still needed a main dish, so I made Thai Tofu Red Curry with zucchini, mushrooms, tofu, red curry paste, and coconut milk. No recipe, just threw some things together and served over brown rice.


Here's another peanutty dish: Peanut Sauce Stir-fry from Plant You. A savory-sweet peanut sauce coats tofu, carrots, onions, bell pepper, and snap peas. I love every dish I've tried from Plant You, and this was no exception. Carleigh's recipes are always so very flavorful. I could eat this sauce with a spoon by itself.


I've also never made a bad dish from Tabitha Brown's Cooking by the Spirit, and I loved her Sweet Potato Hash for breakfast this week. I grated the potatoes very finely in the food processor before sauteeing with peppers and spinach. It's topped with guac, salsa, and Kelly's vegan parm. Field Roast Apple-Sage brekky sausages on the side!


Thursday, February 22, 2024

Vegan Tuna, Brewery Burrito, and Scram

I've been reading Tabitha Brown's Feeding the Soul, which is her self-help book filled with Tabisms, but it also has a few recipes, including one for a Vegan Tuna Melt. Now, I never liked real tuna. But lately, I've been craving vegan tuna. I bought some canned Tuno on clearance at Sprouts (haven't eaten it yet!), and I picked out the recipe for the week. It's made with hearts of palm, lots of spices, seaweed, and a mayo-based sauce. And then it's grilled on a sandwich with vegan cheese. 

Even though I didn't like real tuna, I loved this! It had a mildly fishy taste from the seaweed, but it wasn't overwhelming. And the texture of the hearts of palm was perfect.

And speaking of Tabitha Brown, I'm also working my way through her Cooking by the Spirit cookbook. I've had my eye on her Pumfu Scramble, with soy-free Pumfu tofu (made with pumpkin seeds). She avoids soy for allergy reasons, and I thought it'd be fun to try a tofu-free scramble. But I couldn't find Pumfu. So I decided to make the recipe using tofu! It was heavy on veggies with mushrooms and kale, and unlike most scrambles, this one didn't have turmeric. So it had a different flavor. I loved it topped with the suggested Kelly's vegan parm. 

Last Saturday, I met some friends for post-run beers at Soul and Spirits Brewing. I'd run 12 miles that morning, and I only had a smoothie after. So, I got pretty hungry by midafternoon. Luckily, the Tacos Mondragon food truck that was parked there had Veggie Burritos. This was good and hit the spot! It had rice, beans, and corn salad. They were out of hot sauce, but that would have been a nice touch.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Belated Valentine's Day Dinner!

Paul worked late on Valentine's Day this year, so we pushed our Valentine's dinner to Sunday, his only day off. And I waited too late to try and make reservations. Most of the places we usually go for a vegan-friendly fancy meal were booked up. And then I remembered this little Italian place, Marciano, across from my pharmacy that always looked empty. I even sat in the pharmacy lot one day a few months back and googled it to see if it was even open. I learned then that it was, and despite always looking empty, it had good Yelp reviews.

So we called Marciano, and they had plenty of space! And they had vegan Fettuccine Primavera on the menu. So to Marciano we went!

There were only about three tables full at 5 p.m. on Sunday, and while we were there, about three more tables filled up. But there was still plenty of space. The servers were super nice, and we talked to another couple who ended up there for the same reason we did — it was the only place they could find a table for Valentine's dinner.

We were served bread and homemade pesto when we were seated, though I requested olive oil for dipping since pesto isn't usually vegan. I ordered a glass of chianti and the Beet Salad to start. This salad was awesome! It's big beet chunks, mixed nuts (almonds, pistachios!), and balsamic dressing. I had them leave the goat cheese off. The free bread was really good, too.

For my entree, I had the Fettuccine Primavera, and I have to say, it was the best I've had in Memphis! Most places around here treat primavera as an afterthought with a few tomatoes and maybe some artichokes mixed into a bland pasta. But this had a ton of veggies (mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, corn, tomatoes, and artichokes) and a very flavorful olive oil-white wine sauce.

Paul ordered a steak and said it was one of the best he'd had, too. This place is definitely a hidden gem!

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Three Meals, Same Bowl

I didn't plan it this way, but all three of today's food pics are in the same bowl. I only have one of these pasta bowls. It's shallow and wide, and I love it, so I use it all the time. Last night, on Valentine's Day, it held my Sausage & Veggie Pasta from Tabitha Brown's Cooking by the Spirit. Paul had to work late on Wednesday, so I had a little solo V-Day at home with an evening run, pasta and The Office, and a nice bath. This had Field Roast chorizo (spicy!!), zucchini, kale, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and it was so good. 

On my last Trader Joe's trip, I picked up some Vegan Bolognese Ravioli and served that in my fave bowl last week with Victoria Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo. This ravioli was awesome, and the insides were stuffed with a lentil base, so they felt kinda healthy. I served the ravioli over a pile of sauteed kale and mushrooms.

And finally, here's a non-pasta dish in my pasta bowl. I also picked up some Trader Joe's Riced Cauliflower Stir-fry, which had a nice sesame oil flavor with corn, peas, and peppers. I added some of TJ's Baked Tofu and had a TJ's Veggie Spring Roll on the side. I've almost worked through all of my Trader Joe's treasures, and I'm a little sad about it. Trader Joe's is such a long drive from my house so I rarely go. I may have to make another special trip.