Bluff City Vegan Eats: Mulan Asian Bistro

Mulan Asian Bistro has operated a location in Germantown, a fancy-pants Memphis suburb, for awhile, but the bistro opened a second location in Midtown a few months ago. Germantown is way too far out for me, and quite frankly, it's way too ritzy for my tastes. Since I live about 30 minutes away, I tend to avoid that suburb unless I have a craving for Mellow Mushroom vegan cheese pizza (the only location is in G-town). So needless to say, I'd never been to the original Mulan location.

But I'd been itching to visit the new Midtown joint since it opened. I finally got around to visiting a couple weeks ago when my Mama drove to Memphis just to meet me for lunch (she's so awesome!). Since we went for lunch, the server handed us both a regular menu and the discounted lunch menu. But none of the boundless selection of tofu dishes were available on the lunch menu.

We were about to order from the pricier dinner menu, when our adorable server man insisted that we save some money by ordering from the lunch menu. "We can substitute tofu in anything!" he said. How often does a server help you save money? Right? That was our first clue that this place was pretty awesome.

Like many Asian places, the lunch menu offered an entree with soup and a spring roll. There was a Mixed Vegetable Soup on the soup menu, but when I asked if the soup was made with chicken broth, the server informed us that it, indeed, was. But he had a keen suggestion — he'd serve the same veggies used in the soup in hot water and we could add soy sauce for flavor. It sounded kinda bland, but it was free with the food, so why not?

Boy, was I wrong about bland! My mom and I were blown away by how delicious a few simple veggies could taste with a little soy sauce and hot water. Genius!

For my entree, I went with the Generel Tso's Tofu (it was General Tso's Chicken on the lunch menu), a Vegetable Spring Roll, and White Rice:

Delicious! The fried tofu and bell peppers were coated in a sweet and spicy sauce that was perfect with the sticky rice. And the spring roll was crispy and loaded with cabbage and other good stuff.

My mom ordered the Tofu with Mixed Vegetables, which I failed to photograph. But it was equally yummy. The brown sauce was absolutely loaded with garlic, which I enjoyed the next day in the form of her leftovers.

Now, just so you know, Mulan has lots of tofu dishes on their dinner menu. But I love that they have no problem substituting tofu in any lunch entree as well.

Mulan Asian Bistro is located at 2149 Young Avenue. Call 901-347-3965.

Vegan Crunk Goes Pecha Kucha!

In case ya haven't heard, Pecha Kucha (it's Japanese, pronounced pe-chu-ka-cha) nights are a national public speaking trend sweeping the nation. It was started in 2003 by a Japanese architecture firm as a way for artists to concisely present their work — explain your stuff in 20 slides with 20 seconds to speak for each slide.

The trend has made its way to Memphis, but the topics now range from art and food to bike lanes and farming. Any topic is welcome, and anyone is accepted. Crosstown Arts (my neighborhoods arts org) asked me to do a presentation on my Cookin' Crunk cookbook tonight at their third Pecha Kucha night, which was held tonight at their office.

Here I am introducing my blog:

I had 20 seconds to explain each slide featuring a dish from my cookbook. Here, I'm describing my BBQ Black-Eyed Pea Burger:

Out of seven speakers tonight, two spoke on vegan topics! Also featured was Balewa, Memphis' raw vegan burger guru. Plus, the food at tonight's event was all raw vegan salads prepared by Balewa! I wish I'd taken a picture, but I accidentally scarfed that shit down. I was hungry!

Since we're talking Cookin' Crunk, I might as well share with you what I had for breakfast. This morning, I made the Brown Sugar Baked Tofu Ham with Red-Eye Gravy and Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits from my book.

Red-eye gravy is amazing! It's typically made with bacon fat and coffee, but that's disgusting. My version is just coffee, olive oil, and a little reserved marinade from the tofu ham. Dipping the biscuit in the red-eye gravy is a MUST!

Farm Animal Sanctuary Photo Giveaway

Photographer Sharon Lee Hart has released a series of beautiful black-and-white photographs of rescued farm animals living at sanctuaries across the country in her new book, Sanctuary: Portraits of Rescued Animals. Ten percent of the proceeds will go to the farm sanctuaries represented in the book. Those include Kindred Spirits Farm Animal Sanctuary, Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary, United Poultry Concerns, among others.

She asked me to blog about a giveaway she's doing, and since her cause is awesome, I agreed. Of course, you can buy the book and do your part to help these little miracle animals. But you can also enter her giveaway to win a 16x16-inch photograph of your choice from the book. To see all the lovely pictures (some might may you cry a little because they're so beautiful), click here.

Here's how to enter:

1) Donate $10 or more to support Sharon in the Louisville Walk For Farm Animals. 100% of the funds raised goes to Farm Sanctuary. Make sure you include your email address so she can contact you if you win. You can donate here.

2) Wait patiently. Sharon will chose one winner at random from those who donate between today and September 31st.

3) Sharon will contact the winner no later than October 5th and ask them to select the photograph they would like from her website.

4) Sharon will print your chosen photograph with the finest archival materials, expertly package it up, and ship it off to you in a timely manner.

Beans, Beans: The Wonderful Fruit

I really don't eat enough beans. They're so natural and whole foods-y. But I tend to eat more tofu, tempeh, seitan, and fake meaty stuff. When I see bean recipes, I usually just pass them by. But for some reason, I was drawn to Scott Jurek's Smoky Chipotle Refried Beans from Eat & Run. Probably just because ultramarathoner Scott Jurek came up with them, and well, he's awesome:

These are real made-from-scratch refried beans. I boiled some pintos in a Crock Pot with chipotle chilies, onions, and kombu. Then I pureed the beans and lightly fried them in olive oil. Wow! I've never made homemade refried beans. I don't think I'll ever eat the canned stuff again. Luckily, this recipe made 6 cups of refried beans, so needless to say, some are in my freezer.

On the side, I made some Jalapeno Fried Hominy from my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South (due out any day now, y'all!):

I grew up hating hominy, but I learned to love the stuff when I tried my friend Wes' fried hominy. His recipe (with my own addition of fresh jalapenos) is in my cookbook.

Here's a full plate shot. Looks as good as any Mexican restaurant, right? You've got your rice and beans, hominy, homemade guac, and salsa. Ole!

Gettin' Our Root Down

First things first, I randomly selected a winner in last week's Rudi's Bakery art pack giveaway. And the lucky winner is .... Bitt from Bitt of Raw!

Now on to tonight's post. Last night, I blogged about my trip to Little Rock to celebrate my BFF Sheridan's birthday. We had a fun Saturday night of dinner and swimming, but my favorite part of the visit was probably on Sunday morning when we brunched at Little Rock's Root Cafe.

The Root is a cute and kitschy little joint that specializes in using as much local food as possible. They even have a map that shows all the Arkansas farms where they get their produce, coffee, and such. It's not totally vegan, but The Root is very vegan-friendly. This was my first visit. When we were greeted by this mural facing the restaurant's parking lot, I knew we must be in a magical place. I mean, singing cornbread with an audience of black-eyed peas! That's magic.

Everything about this place is so adorbs. Look at the menu!

As you can see, several items can be made vegan. They have a shitake burger and a tofu banh mi sandwich, but since we were there for brunch, we had to stick with the breakfast-y items. We started with Soy Cafe Au Laits served in Mason jars:

Then we snapped some fun Hipstamatic shots while we waited for our grub. Look at me and Sheridan. Our hair is on fire!

We all ordered the Tofu Scrambler, a chunky, veg-heavy scramble with a side salad. That salad was the perfect thing for a morning after a night of indulgence:

Sheridan and Drew also ordered the Vegan Pancakes, but since I'd never been there, I was afraid that would be too much food. However, when I smelled the lovely aroma of cinnamon and maple syrup wafting from Sheridan's pancakes, I was pretty jealous. Luckily, she didn't mind sharing. These pancakes were so amazingly soft, like little pillows of awesome:

Since I loved the place so much, I vowed to come back soon and try the tofu banh mi on the lunch menu. And I bought a Root tee-shirt to commemorate the experience. It's made of the softest 80s cotton, and just look what it says!

The Root is located at 1500 S. Main in Little Rock if you're ever passing through. I know I will be again soon.

Sheridan's 32nd Birthday Dinner

My BFF Sheridan turns 32 on August 8th. But since that's a Wednesday, she decided to celebrate the weekend before. Sheridan lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, a short 2-hour drive from Memphis, so I made the trip Saturday afternoon in time for birthday dinner at The House Gastropub.

We started the festivities with Arkansas craft beers. Sher's drinking some kind of pale ale, and I started with a creamy stout. Later in the night, we switched to espresso bombs (a shot of espresso dropped into an IPA):

Sheridan had a modest crowd since many of her friends were out of town for the weekend:

Sheridan, her partner Drew, and I all ordered the House's Vegan Burger. It's one of a couple vegan menu items (there's also a Thai green curry bowl). I was in a burger mood, and this giant black bean, pumpkin seed, and rice patty on foccacia bread with beer BBQ sauce and caramelized onions did not disappoint. Oh, and the house-made herbed fries with curry ketchup were delicious too!

Sheridan and I could only eat half of our monster burgers, so we saved the rest for post-pool party snacking (we went back to Sheridan's apartment after dinner to swim).

After our bellies were full of burgers, we still had to eat one more thing — cupcakes!! I made the Lemon Blueberry Creme Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:

These are lemon cakes with hollowed out centers that are stuffed with blueberry compote and topped with lemon buttercream. Yum!

More on Little Rock eats tomorrow. We ate brunch at an adorable cafe called The Root Cafe, but it deserves a post all of its own.

Roasted Pepper and Garlic Pizza!

On Sunday morning, I was flipping through a Rolling Stone in the bathroom of all places, when an ad for a frozen very non-vegan pizza caught my eye. Suddenly, I got the world's most intense craving for cheesy pizza. I was planning to buy groceries later that day, and I considered grabbing a frozen Tofurky pizza from Whole Foods.

But I have all these free packs of Vegan Shreds from Galaxy (thanks Galaxy!), and I have a front yard garden of ripe peppers that desperately need to be used. Plus, it was a Sunday, which meant there was plenty of time to make a homemade crust. So that's just what I did.

I whipped up some crust using my old stand-by recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I oven-roasted some red and yellow bell peppers and some jalapenos (all from my pepper garden). And I oven-roasted some garlic in olive oil. I threw together a homemade sauce (also from Vegan with a Vengeance). Then I layered the veggies, sauce, and Galaxy Vegan Mozzarella on the crust and baked it. The result was a delicious pie that likely far exceeded the taste of that non-vegan frozen pizza that launched my craving in the first place.

Check out my Roasted Pepper and Garlic Pizza:

Since I used Vegan with a Vengeance for the crust and sauce, I can't share those recipes. But I will share the basics.

Roasted Pepper and Garlic Pizza

3 red or yellow bell peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
1 head galic
2 tsp. olive oil 
10 black olives, sliced
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1 homemade or storebought pizza crust
1 cup pizza sauce
1 cup vegan mozzarella cheese shreds


Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Stem and seed the bell peppers. Stem the jalapenos, but do not seed (unless you're scared of spice and then I guess you can seed ... but you're a wuss).


Coat the garlic head in the olive oil and wrap with foil. Place on the baking sheet. Place the whole bell peppers and jalapenos on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping peppers once halfway through. 

The peppers should be mostly blackened when you remove them from the oven. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for about 15 minutes. This steams the skin so it's easy to remove. Set the garlic aside.


Turn oven heat up to 500 degrees.


Dump the peppers onto a cutting board, and use your fingers to work the skin off. Discard the skin and chop the peppers.


Spread the sauce over the crust, leaving a little room on the edge for the crust. Add cheese, chopped peppers, mushrooms, and olives. Open the garlic foil and use your fingers to squeeze the soft, roasted garlic onto the pizza in various places, distributing evenly.
 
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes if using a homemade crust. If using a storebought crust, follow package instructions.