Vegan in Miami, Part Three

Last post about the delicious vegan food I found in Miami last weekend when I was in town for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention.

Some folks from our Memphis Flyer crew stayed out a little late Friday night, and on Saturday morning, Hannah (my co-worker/hotel roomie) woke up with a major craving for carbs. On the second day, I'd spotted a place down the street that served bagels with roasted garlic hummus. So we threw on some clothes and trudged down the street in search of breakfast before the morning conference sessions.

Sadly, the bagel joint was closed on Saturdays! With my dreams crushed, we continued on. I couldn't imagine that I would possibly find a decent vegan breakfast in the touristy part of town by our hotel. And sure enough, menu after menu looked disappointing (omelets, bagels with cream cheese, no hummus in sight). But then we stumbled onto this cute little French bistro called Cafe Bastille.

Hannah (pictured above) glanced at the menu and said, "You can't eat here."

"Oh, but I can!!" I exclaimed, as I pointed to the French Breakfast on the brunch menu (homemade baguette, preserves, cafe au lait). I'd just have to make sure they left the "lait" out of my "cafe." For extra carbiness, I added a side of Breakfast Potatoes.

Saturday was the day before Bastille Day, and I felt perfectly French as I spread my fresh fruit jam on this crispy-yet-tender baguette. And those potatoes! They were seasoned with herbs de provence and sea salt. This meal was way better than an old bagel with hummus.

Before the afternoon conference sessions, we found a little time to lounge at the hotel pool, which overlooked the ocean. Yes, I have freakishly strange looking feet. I've come to terms with it.

We had mid-day Bloody Marys from the pool bar, cause why not? Hair of the dog, no? Bloody Mary mix typically isn't vegan, but I requested a vodka-tomato juice cocktail with olives and limes. Almost just as good.

There was a conference cocktail party at the Miami New Times offices on Sunday night, but I wanted to grab some dinner beforehand. Hannah had plans at some uber-swanky meat place, so I split off and went to dinner on my own at the all-vegan Choices Cafe.

I found this place on blogger Emily Nolan's My Kind of Life blog. Check out her vegan Miami dining guide.

Choices was my kind of place. Just a tiny, casual sandwich and salad cafe with a lunch counter and a plethora of vegan desserts. There seemed to be more employees working there than customers dining, but they were all quite friendly.

The menu here was huge (the pic above was just a small portion)! I hated only having time to try one dish, but having read the reviews beforehand, I knew the Mentil Lentil Wrap was a customer fave. So I ordered that. Lentil-beet meat, Daiya cheese, black beans, quinoa, plantains, avocado, on a hot, grilled wrap.

I couldn't leave Miami without having something remotely resembling Cuban food, right? The black beans, plantains, and avocado lent this wrap a Cuban taste. The melty Daiya held it all together. And that lentil-beet meat was just healthy enough to make up for the fact that I was eating a giant wrap followed by dessert.

Ah, yes, dessert. On the server's suggestion, I chose the Five-Layer Pie.

I asked her twice what the five layers were because I knew I'd need to remember for this post. And I still can't remember the fourth or fifth. There was coconut, chocolate chips, pecans, and I'm not sure what else. But it tasted like the Magical Coconut Cookie Bars from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, which are one of my mom's favorite desserts. Loved every bite of this!

Well, that's it for Miami. I'm glad to be back in Memphis, but I sure do miss the ocean and the palm trees.

Vegan in Miami, Part Two

I spent the weekend in Miami at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies annual convention, a conference for staffers at alt-weekly newspapers. This is part two of a three-part post about all the vegan goodness I ate in Miami.

I woke up way early on Friday and went for a gorgeous six-mile run around the boardwalk overlooking the ocean. I'd never seen the sunrise over the ocean before. Beautiful! And I've never seen so many palm trees in one place! I mean, I've been places where palms grow, but they're never as concentrated as they were in downtown Miami.

Friday morning's conference sessions started with a keynote lecture by Matt Taibbi, the Rolling Stone writer known for his polemical commentary and often-hilarious financial journalism. Anyone who can make Wall Street and ratings companies comical and remotely interesting is a damn genius, and Taibbi does so with ease.

After a few more morning sessions, it was time for lunch. Luther Campbell, better known as "Uncle Luke" of 2 Live Crew, presented a little Q&A session about the Crew days, censorship, and some thoughts on current events like the Zimmerman case (this was a few days before the tragic acquittal). This was a plated lunch, and you know how those typically go for vegans. But this was an alt-newsweekly conference, after all. And when you get a bunch of alternative reporters in the room (in other words, a bunch of die-hard liberals and old hippies), there are bound to be some vegans. So they had a vegan option!

It was a pretty tasty and surprisingly well-seasoned plate of Barley with Vegetables and Marinara. Not bad for a hotel catered plate lunch.

Oh, and there was a pretty Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

We attended some afternoon sessions on long-form journalism and "getting the story." And then it was time for dinner! My co-worker Hannah is a super-foodie (she's our food writer at the Memphis Flyer), and she wanted us to go somewhere fancy. So she made reservations for a place called Zuma that looked to have a few vegan options.

Now Hannah failed to inform me until an hour or so before dinner that this place was, like, super-duper-fancy. Like dress code fancy. I only brought tees and sundresses to the conference, but Hannah insisted that I wear one of her sweaters so I'd be classy enough for the joint. Now, had I been alone, I would have gone in my tee-shirt, and if that wasn't good enough, I'd have flipped off the host and been on my way (okay, maybe I wouldn't actually flip anyone off for real, but I'd totally do it in my head). I don't play by rules that mess with my identity. But for Hannah's sake, I sucked it up and threw on the sweater.

Thankfully, what Zuma lacked in casual ambiance, it made up for in tasty vegan food and good service. We ordered the Spicy Fried Tofu with Avocado and Japanese Herbs:

They make their own silk tofu!! And it was better than any silk tofu I've ever had. The texture was slightly more firm than the Mori-Nu I'm used to. And it was lightly breaded in a savory herb coating and fried to perfection.

We both ordered our own sushi. Hannah went with something fishy, and I had the Veggie Roll. Classic sushi.

But the real treat was this Rice Hotpot with Wild Mushrooms and Japanese Vegetables!

I've never had a hotpot, but I've always wanted to try one. I love the way it's served in a big wooden (very hot) pot and essentially cooked at the table. This was loaded with rice, tofu, miso, and a mix of wild mushrooms. Once the rice was stirred into the broth, it transformed into a creamy risotto. Each bite was like a buttery explosion of heaven in my mouth.

We had lots of hotpot leftovers, and we crammed them into the mini-bar fridge in our hotel room. That hotpot risotto was the best late-night snack ever.

Check back tomorrow for my last Miami post, in which I'll share pics from the only all-vegan restaurant I had time to check out.

Vegan in Miami, Part One

I spent the weekend in sunny Miami! I'm an editor/reporter for an alt-weekly, The Memphis Flyer, and every year, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies holds its annual conference in a different city. This year's event was hosted by the Miami New Times.

My only knowledge of Miami comes this Will Smith video, so naturally the song from which was playing on repeat in my head the ENTIRE TIME I was there. We stayed in the fancy-schmany Intercontinental Hotel, which is right next to the ocean. I ran while I was there, and I was blown away by how gorgeous the area was.

After a little Veg Out app/Happy Cow research, I figured that Miami was about as vegan-friendly as Memphis — a handful of totally vegan places, a few vegan-friendly places that vegans rave about, and a ton of places with options that don't get much attention (in other words, the kind of places you just have to know about). Thankfully, I had this handy guide from blogger Emily Nolan of My Kind of Life.

Our plane landed in Miami at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, and my roomie/co-worker Hannah and I immediately went for a run by the hotel. We were starving afterward. Most of the vegan options I'd found online were a cab ride away from the hotel, and that seemed too complicated for a quick post-run snack. But we found a little tavern nearby.

The Biscayne Tavern only has a handful of vegan items — grilled portabellos, Brussels sprouts, homemade potato chips, and fries. We were only snacking so that was fine. I ordered the Sweet Potatoes Fries, which were thinly cut and very crispy.

And I washed those down with the best regional beer I tried all weekend — Cigar City Brewing's Maduro Brown Ale.

After our snack, we attended an AAN welcome reception with free wine and beer. The appetizers there were not vegan. While mingling with reporters, designers, sales staff, and editors of other papers, we met a reporter from Philadelphia named Randy. And guess what? Randy was vegan! So Hannah, me, Randy, and our Flyer marketing guru Matt made plans for dinner at Gigi, a vegan-friendly Asian fusion tapas restaurant in the Wynwood neighborhood (at the suggestion of our new friend Kat from the Miami New Times).

We took a cab to Gigi, which was packed with AAN folks. Randy and I split some vegan small plates, while Hannah and Matt split meaty tapas. On the vegan side, we had Shrooms Buns. These were like little tacos made with hoisin-seasoned mushrooms, tahini, and sweet chili with a steam bun in place of a shell. God, I love those spongy steam buns.

We also split an order of the Chilled Soba Noodles. Good, solid edamame-packed noodles.

After dinner, we were all sleepy. Well, except for Randy. He found his Philadelphia people and stayed up much later. But Hannah, Matt, and I retired for the night. I'll be back tomorrow with my vegan eats from day two!

Salad Days

It's hot. Like heat index of 105 degrees kinda hot. And just as jeans, socks, and anything with sleeves is out of the question, so is turning on the oven. I've been eating lots of cold stuff this week — cold noodles, salads, and the like.

I created this Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Salad for my new cookbook project (for which I'm veganizing retro foods of the past century).

I'll be using this recipe in my 1980s chapter. I'm sure pasta salad dates back to pre-1980s. But the 80s were the days of tri-color rotini noodle salads at family reunions and potlucks. Maybe that was just my memories of the 80s. But hey, it works. I'm pretty sure the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would think this pizza-flavored pasta salad was totally radical. And that's pretty damn 80s. Gnarly dude.

Rotini pasta is tossed with a homemade garlicky oil & vinegar & marinara dressing. There's lots of olives, minced onions, and yellow bell pepper. And of course, vegan pepperoni. I try to avoid using too many plant meats in my recipes and instead opt for tofu, tempeh, and seitan. That's simply to make the recipes more accessible to people in small towns who may not have access to a variety of faux meats. It's definitely not out of some health concern thing. If you like fake meat, that's okay. It's way better for you (and the animals) than meat-meat. Sure, it's processed food. But it's processed food with lower saturated fat and no cholesterol. And many vegan plant meats are made with fairly wholesome ingredients. Don't eat it at every meal. But eat it as a treat. Plant meat is tasty. It's all about balance.

Alright, I'm off the soapbox. But all that is to say, I just had to include plant pepperoni in this! You could leave it out and it would still be pizza-ish (thanks to marinara in the dressing). But pepperoni makes it pretty darn awesome.

On the side, I had this vegan version of the Caprese Salad in a Jar from my friends Justin and Amy's The Southern Vegetarian Cookbook.

That's mesclun mix, halved heirloom cherry tomatoes, diced Teese mozzarella, fresh basil, and an olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.

Justin' version was actually already vegan since it didn't call for any mozzarella at all. But I added the Teese mozzarella cause it seemed like a good idea for a caprese salad. Also, I left out the broccolini called for in the recipe because I forgot to buy it.

But I have a confession: I HATE ARUGALA. Hate it. And this mesclun mix from the farmer's market was loaded with it. I ate this salad for three days, really trying to learn to love the peppery, bitter green. But I couldn't. Next time, I will make this with romaine. I'm romaine and iceberg girl. Don't care much for all those fancy microgreens.

Anyway, I'll keep staying cool with salads. But tomorrow morning, I'm flying to Miami for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention. I won't be blogging tomorrow, but I'll be back with a Miami vegan food recap on Sunday or Monday night.

Get Energized! Only 5 Calories!

Warning: This is another mushy-gushy "I heart Vega" post. But you know, I really do! I review a lot of products here, and I really like most of them. But Vega has truly stolen my heart, likely because I started using Vega products this past January when I decided that I would run a half-marathon this year. The Vega One protein powder, the energy gels, the electrolyte hydrators, and the protein bars have been essential for my training and recovery.

And just when I thought Vega had developed all the products I'd ever need, they come out with something new! And now I have a new addiction — Vega Sport Sugar-Free Energizer.

This is a stevia-sweetened powder that you mix with water before a low-intensity or short duration workout (that's less than one hour according to the instructions on the box). And it's only 5 calories! The energizer is specially formulated to provide immediate and sustained energy, endurance, and mental focus.

You just mix the powder (it comes in tubs and travel packets) with eight ounces of water and drink up before a workout. As for the taste, well, it tastes like a healthy, fancy, stevia-sweetened tea drink. Like something you'd pay good money for in a nice glass bottle.

Here's what's in it: coconut seed oil, yerba mate, devil's claw extract, green tea, rhodiola root, ginseng, tumeric, ginger, natural flavors, spinach leaf powder, stevia, citric and malic acid, and beta carotene. It comes in two flavors — lemon lime and acai berry.

I've read all of Vega founder/vegan Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier's books, and he writes a lot about using green tea and yerba mate for a quick pre-workout boost. So that's what this does.

For the past couple weeks, I've been using this powder before my lighter workouts, such as weight training and yoga. It's not enough to power me through a long run. But my half-marathon training program includes rest days, during which I try to do light toning, stretching, and balance stuff. And these energizers are perfect for that.

Since the lighter workouts don't burn many calories, I always struggle with what to eat before them. I typically eat coconut butter-stuffed dates before long runs, but that's really too many calories before doing yoga (keep in mind that I work out in the morning and eat breakfast immediately after working out ... don't want to eat too much before a workout and ruin my breakfast or feel weighed down). So these are perfect!! I both love and hate Vega for coming out with this. On one hand, it's a great new product that will help me with my workouts. On the other hand, it's another product to add to my ever-growing grocery list (after my free samples run out).

Vegan Happy Hour at Home

I love a good happy hour — cheap drinks, small plates, office gossip. But let's face it. Going out for happy hour every night just isn't possible. Even when the drinks are discounted, they're still more expensive than making your own at home. And aside from a boring old hummus plate, it's hard to find good vegan tapas around here.

Enter the Sexy Vegan, a.k.a. Brian L. Patton. His new book, Happy Hour at Home: Small Plates, Big Flavors, & Potent Cocktails, has you covered. I loved Brian's first book, The Sexy Vegan, and his YouTube cooking videos are hilarious, so I knew instantly that this book would be a winner. I even met Brian at Vida Vegan Con when he was right behind me in line at the Food Fight gordita pop-up shop!

If you're not familiar with Brian, the first thing you should know is that he's funny as hell. His books are as entertaining to read as they are to cook from. His tapas menus in Happy Hour are creatively (and sometimes delightfully crudely) named. There's "Godyammit, These Sliders are Heavenly!," a menu of yam burger sliders, green bean fries, and spiced nuts. And my personal fave, "Nothing Rhymes with Citrus," a menu of tofu-citrus dippers, citrus soba, and grilled pineapple salad. Each menu has a libation recommendation and a shopping list.

But if you're like me, you like to pick and choose. I picked three recipes from the book. I went with the Tempeh Satay with Peanut Sauce from the "Satay-Night Fever" menu.

This marinated tempeh is battered with panko and coconut before its fried, skewered, and served with the most delicious coconutty peanut satay sauce. Loved it!

But I do have a sad story about this dish: It makes four servings, and since it was just me eating, I decided to fry up one servings worth each night for dinner. On the third night, instead of putting my un-fried marinated tempeh back in the fridge after I'd taken out what I needed for that night's dinner, I accidentally put the tupperware bowl of tempeh in the pantry. And then I left it there for two more days before I was ready for tempeh satay again. Um, needless to say, the tempeh had gone bad. Damn. But I did get three meals out of this first, thankfully.

I also made the Chapchae from the "K-Town" menu of Korean foods.

These are clear bean thread noodles (also called glass noodles) tossed with a sesame dressing, zucchini, carrots, and fresh wilted spinach. Y'all know I'm a noodle freak with a major ramen addiction, and I've long been a fan of these chewy glass noodles. This dish was amazing!

Now I couldn't review a happy hour-themed cookbook without trying a libation, right? After flipping through Brian's cocktails, I settled on The Bloody Vulcan — partly because of the name and partly because it has tequila.

This is made using fresh juiced tomatillos, agave, tequila, and lime. The tomatillos give the drink a sour flavor, but the sweetness of the agave nectar makes it taste more like a margarita. I loved it. I made one for Paul as well. He felt like the drink tasted almost too healthy, but this is coming from a guy who lives off canned pasta, frozen pizza, and frozen veggie burgers (yes, Paul eats veggie burgers now! Yay!). In a weird way, I'd take Paul's remark as a compliment. Anytime you can mix "healthy" and "booze," you can count me in.

I'd love to use Brian's book for my next house party. Perhaps I should start planning!

Bluff City Vegan Eats: The Cupboard Restaurant

From the Cupboard's website

I've lived in Memphis for 11 years, and all of my old apartments and the house that I now own have been located just blocks from The Cupboard Restaurant. I've passed by it in my car millions of times and thought, "Man, I wish a place that like that would have vegan options!"

The Cupboard, you see, is a country cookin' meat-and-three. It's the kind of place where you'd expect your server to be nice lady with an apron, her hair in a bun, and a Southern drawl that's sweeter than the diner's sweet tea. Oh, and she'd have worked there for some ungodly long time, like 25 years or something. It's totally possible; the family-owned Cupboard has been open since 1943.

Anyway, of course, I assumed a place like that would put meat drippings in everything. So I never even bothered. But a few weeks ago, Kim, who does the restaurant's marketing, emailed me to ask if I could add the Cupboard to my Vegan Memphis Dining Guide. To my surprise, she said the Cupboard offered a number of vegan sides. And she even made me a handy little chart that showed what was vegan, what was vegetarian, and what days each veggie was offered!

I went last Wednesday to check it out. The Veggie Plate offers your choice of four sides. I picked Black-Eyed Peas, Turnip Greens, Spiced Beets, and Tomato Slices:

Now I know what you're thinking: Tomato slices? Don't worry, the Cupboard has lots more vegan cooked vegan side dishes. But these were juicy, summer Ripley tomatoes picked from a little Tennessee town just up the road from Memphis. Ripley probably has the best tomatoes on the planet, and July is the time to enjoy them. So yes, I picked sliced tomatoes as a side. And they were perfect.

The turnip greens were my favorite dish. Most every Southern diner puts ham hocks or bacon fat in their greens, so I was super impressed that the Cupboard's greens are meat-free. But meat-free doesn't mean bland. These were perfectly spiced. Savory, but not too salty. And not too oily either. Just right.

The beets were cold, sliced beets, which I love. They were twangy, almost as if they were pickled. But the twang wasn't overpowering. And the black-eyed peas were simple and satisfying. They, too, were perfectly seasoned.

The Cupboard's vegan proteins (peas and beans) vary by day of the week, but the veggies are all offered everyday. So here's a handy guide to what's vegan on what day of the week:

Monday: Pinto Beans, Turnip Greens, Crowder Peas, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

Tuesday: Lima Beans, Field Peas with Snaps, Turnip Greens, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

Wednesday: Black-Eyed Peas, Turnip Greens, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

Thursday: Northern Beans, Black-Eyed Peas, Turnip Greens, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

Friday: Crowder Peas, Green Beans, Turnip Greens, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

Saturday: Peas, Beans, Turnip Greens, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

Sunday: Northern Beans, Turnip Greens, French Fries, Baked Sweet Potato, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumber Salad, Spiced Beets

The Cupboard Restaurant is located at 1400 Union. Call 901-276-8015.