Bluff City Vegan Eats: New Hong Kong

It's been awhile since I've done a Bluff City Vegan Eats post, mostly because I've been eating out twice a week at Imagine Vegan Cafe (not exaggerating ... we go every Wednesday night and every Sunday for brunch). But turns out, there's been a very, very vegan-friendly Chinese joint in Memphis for quite some time.

A friend filled me in on the magic that is New Hong Kong. This tiny, mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant is tucked into a nondescript shopping center in East Memphis, about 20 minutes from my Midtown neighborhood. Driving past, you'd never in a million years guess they'd have anything beyond the typical bean curd stir-fry.

But girl, they do! They have a whole secret vegan menu! There's only one copy and it's stashed behind the counter, so you have to ask to see it. But it's loaded with about 30 or so totally vegan dishes, most of them made with mock meats. They even have a disclaimer on the veg menu to let diners know that all dishes are free of animals and their by-products, including eggs and dairy. How cool is that?!

I met Stephanie (Poopie Bitch on the PPK), her husband Richard, and their baby Peter there yesterday to check the place out. We started with an order of Vegetable Wontons:

Now, I haven't had a wonton since I gave up dairy cream cheese in 2004. And I used to LOVE me some fried wontons. These were cream cheese-free and just stuffed with veggies instead. This batch was a little overcooked, but still tasty, especially when dipped into the sweet 'n' sour sauce. I'm going to order them again next time to see if they're not quite as overcooked.

I ordered the General Tso's Mock Chicken:

I don't think I've ever had meaty General Tso's chicken, but it's such a standard that I HAD to order the vegan version. The "chicken" was wheat gluten-based (as are all their mock meats) and fried. Then it was coated in a sweet 'n' spicy sauce. I love how they included three little pieces of broccoli! Gotta make more room for the mock meat because that's the good part.

I really loved the texture of their mock chicken. It wasn't creepily meaty, but definitely toothsome enough to fool any omni. I mean, it looks just like real chicken, right?!

Richard ordered the Sweet 'n' Sour Chicken, which came with a side of that iconic bright red sweet 'n' sour for dipping:

And Stephanie ordered the Mock Orange Beef:

This may have been everyone's favorite dish. Though I loved the chicken, there was something extra special about the fried "beef" chunks coated in a sweet 'n' savory citrus sauce.

We'll definitely be going back very soon. New Hong Kong also offers dishes made with mock ham, mock shrimp, and regular old tofu (but who would order tofu when you can have mock beef?). They even have vegan lo mein!!

New Hong Kong is located at 4594 Quince. Call 901-680-0999.

Post Punk Kitchen Cookbook Challenge: Week One

For the first time ever, I've decided to take part in the PPK Cookbook Challenge, in which bloggers and PPK-ers cook from a predetermined book each week. Now, I'm the world's worst PPK-er. Since they re-launched the vegan forum last year, I've posted exactly 34 times (I checked today). It's just so hard to keep up with the monster force that is the Post Punk Kitchen.

But I just so happened to stumble on the cookbook challenge as it was getting started this time. And I figured, what the hell? I had most of the cookbooks on the list. The book for Sept. 18th through the 24th is anything by Isa or Terry. I decided to cut two carrots with one knife (check out my clever Colleen Patrick Goudreau idiom!!) and use Veganomicon since it's by both of these lovely ladies.

I often ignore the brunch section of Vcon, maybe because there are so many more options in Isa's Vegan Brunch. But the small selection of brunch items in VCon are pretty damn good. Take, for example, this Tofu Florentine:

That's an English muffin topped with sauteed spinach, broiled tofu, and vegan cheezy sauce. How freakin' balanced is that breakfast?! Right?

I made a batch of this Sunday night, and I'll be heating up a little each day this week for the morning meal. That means I have a quick, healthy breakfast waiting for me for three more days. Oh yea, I know a thing or two about planning ahead. ;-)

What are your favorite recipes from the Veganomicon?

Beans 'n' Greens

As a Southern cook, I typically add collard greens or kale to my slow-simmered beans. But tonight, I had both beans and greens cooked separately and enjoyed in the form of salads.

This Tropical Three Bean Salad from Blissful Bites was hearty, healthy, and easy as pie to prepare:

There's kidney beans, white beans, and chickpeas, all cooked from dried beans. Then they're cooled and mixed with tomato, mango, cumin, lime, and avocado. It's super summer-y, even though summer is nearly over. But it's back in the 80s here, so I'm holding out with warm weather foods as long as I can.

On the side, I made another uber-healthy dish from Blissful Bites — Kale Salad with Coconut Curry Sauce:

The kale is blanched with carrots and radishes, and that's all mixed with rehydrated arame. Okay, I actually used hijiki, but they look almost exactly the same. Arame was, like, $7 a bag at Whole Foods, and I already had hijiki in my pantry. A sea veggie is a sea veggie, in my opinion, so I think it's a fine substitution.

The salad veggies are coated with a creamy coconut curry sauce that's made from coconut milk, curry powder, peanut butter, and miso. OMG! I really could have just eaten the sauce out of the blender with a spoon, but I suppose it's healthier when mixed with the kale and hijiki.

What summer salads will you miss the most as the seasons change?

Healthy Chips!

There's a vegan version of everything — sour cream, cheddar cheese, beef tips, chicken drumsticks. But until now, there's been no vegan ranch-flavored chips. For years, I've lamented this sad fact. When John of the Laziest Vegans in the World interviewed me a few months ago, he asked what product I'd like to see veganized, I answered "sour cream and onion potato chips or ranch tortilla chips." That's the only thing I miss anymore.

But lo and behold, there ARE dairy-free ranch chips! But they're not made from potatoes or tortillas. They're made from kale!!! Rhythm Superfoods sent me a few bags of their healthy chips to try, and one was Kool Ranch Kale Chips. They also threw in a bag of Hickory BBQ Sweet Potato Chips.

Of course, I tore into the kale chips immediately. And wow. Just wow. These super-crispy kale chips are coated in a magical mixture of cashews, zucchini, onion, nutritional yeast, garlic, parsley and other stuff that makes them taste almost exactly like Cool Ranch Doritos.

But unlike the Doritos, these babies are loaded with nutrients. One serving has 112 percent of your daily recommended vitamin A and 80 percent of your vitamin C. I wish I had, like, 20 more bags of these since there are only 2 servings per bag. They're not cheap at around $7 a bag. But these are crispier than any I've been able to make at home in my dehydrator.

The sweet potato chips weren't quite as impressive though. Good, but not on the level of the ranch kale chips. Unlike other brands of sweet p chips, these are raw and not fried. So they're plenty healthy, but they could use a little more of the hickory BBQ flavoring.

As you can see from this picture, only one of the four chips on this plate is super-coated. That one was delicious! But Rhythm should work on making sure the chips are more evenly coated. Nonetheless, I feel much better about snacking on these at my desk than I would, say, regular old BBQ potato chips. They have 310 percent of your daily vitamin A, and the whole bag is only 110 calories.

If I were to shell out the big bucks on more, I'd put my money on the kale chips all day long. And don't worry, I'm pretty sure a kale chip splurge is in my future. They also have kale chips in Mango Habanero, Bombay Curry, Texas BBQ, and Zesty Nacho. The sweet tater ones are available in BBQ and Sea Salt. There's a store locater on their website or you can order directly from the web. They aren't available in Memphis yet.

Papa Tofu and I Love Ethiopian Food!

I adore Ethiopian food — the spicy lentil gravies, the slow-cooked collards, and most importantly, the spongy injera bread. We have a great Ethiopian joint in Midtown called Abyssinia, but I always overeat when I go there. They give you so much food! Plus, they have a lunch buffet and that spells danger for an eat-aholic like me.

But I recently bought a copy of Kittee Berns' new zine, Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food, so now I can make my own and control my portions. Kittee has a few Ethiopian recipes in her original Papa Tofu zine, but this one is all Ethiopian, all the time. Plus, it's gluten-free since Kittee has gone all xgfx. You can buy your own copy for only $9 on Kittee's Cake Maker to the Stars blog. It's 85 pages, and in my opinion, worth way more than a measly $9! So buy one!

I stocked up on Soy Curls at Food Fight Grocery in Portland, so I had to try the Bakela Dinich W'et (Soy Curls and Potatoes in a Spicy Gravy) first:

Soy Curls and baby red taters are simmered in a spicy (like spicy with spices, not hot spicy) sauce seasoned with ginger, garlic, berbere (an Ethiopian spice blend ... I made my own), cumin, coriander, and tomato paste. Even though it's not traditional, Kittee suggests serving this with sliced and salted avocado. And when somebody tells me to eat avocado, I don't question it. The cool avocado slices were, indeed, the perfect complement to the spicy sauce.

On the side, I made Kittee's Y'eabesha Gomen (Mild Collard Greens):

These are similar to my own Southern-style greens in that they're slow-cooked and seasoned with fat. I typically use olive oil. But to make these Ethiopian, Kittee suggests making your own Niter Kibbeh, a butter sauce seasoned with onion, garlic, ginger, and spices. Amazing!

In true Ethiopian style, I ate with my hands, scooping up each bite with a fingerful of injera bread. That's the spongy stuff under my food in case you're not familiar with it. Now Kittee does include a recipe in the zine for making your own, but I've always been intimidated by the injera-makin' process. So I bought a big ole bag of pre-made injera from Abyssinia. It freezes beautifully, so now I'll have plenty for future Papa Tofu meals.

Have you tried Ethiopian food? What's your favorite dish?

Spreads for Breads

Somehow, I've acquired a buttload of spreads lately. And it just so happens that one of my favorite go-to breakfasts is bread schmeared with nut butter and other yummies. Here are a few of my current spreadables.

There's this homemade White Chocolate Peanut Butter that I purchased from Amber of Almost Vegan at Vida Vegan Con. She lugged, like, 30-something jars with her from Kansas City so her partner Matt could peddle them while she attended the conference. Paul and I both bought a jar, so we have plenty ... for now. But Amber, I'm gonna need your recipe. ;-)

Then, there's this cute ass jar of Maple Cream that I received last week in a care package from Rick of the Health Sleuth and his partner Sabrina. Imagine maple syrup that's thick like butter. Oh yes, it's delicious.

And my buddy Stephanie brought me back this GIANT jar of Marmite from her recent trip to the U.K. Any long-time readers have certainly read my gushings about Marmite in the past. I love this yeasty spread, and although our Whole Foods sells it, it's way overpriced there.

Last week, Whole Foods did have at least one thing seriously underpriced though. Ricemellow Creme! It was only 94 cents a tub, and this stuff usually runs around $4 per tub. There were only two left, so I grabbed both. Not sure why they were marked down so low. They're nowhere near expiration. Hope they're not phasing it out. There is no greater pleasure that a fluffer-nutter sandwich made with peanut butter and Ricemellow Creme. Take that, marshmallow fluff. Nobody needs you and your dumb old melted-down animal skin and bones. Ick! How can people eat gelatin knowing what's in it?

Paul and I each got a squeeze pack of nut butter in our Vida Vegan Con dorm room gift bags. Mine was Artisana Raw Almond Butter!

And lastly, this isn't new, but it is delicious. I'm still working on this jar of homemade Blueberry Jam from Megan of Vegan Whore. She sent it to me in a care package swap last year, but I already had so many jams open at the time that I opted to hoard the jar for later. Well, now it's later, and I am tearing this stuff up! Yum!

I bought a Italian Country Loaf from Shoaf's Loaf at the Memphis Farmers Market on Saturday, and I've been spreading a couple slices with spreads each morning this week. Monday, I had a Fluffer Nutter slice (Ricemellow Creme and White Chocolate Wonderful PB) and a Maple PB slice (Maple Cream and crunchy plain PB):

And this morning, I had a taste of sweet and savory. One slice was spread with the raw almond butter and blueberry jam and the other with crunchy plain PB and Marmite (best combo ever, by the way):

What do you like to spread on your bread?

Chili Weather!

So I sort of hate this time of year, but I also sort of love it. I hate that summer is coming to an end. I hate knowing that in a few months, I'll be wearing a damn coat everyday and shivering at my desk. I hate that the Memphis Farmers Market only has a few more weeks before closing for the season. I hate hibernation (which I totally do ... I don't go out nearly as much in the winter).

But fall means my October birthday is almost here, and I love presents. And cake. I love pumpkins. And Halloween is the very best holiday of all, followed closely by Thanksgiving. Fall also means Gay Pride Month in Memphis (we have ours in October because it's too hot during actual pride month in June), hoodies, and most importantly, CHILI!!!

I love chili. You can eat it with cornbread or tortilla chips. You can put beer and/or chocolate in it. You can slather it on your hot dogs, your fries, your mom, whatever. What's not to love? Since the temps temporarily dropped into the 70s last weekend, I cooked up a big ole vat (okay, it was really just a medium-sized pot, but I wish it'd been a vat) of Texas Chili from the Sunny Days in Texas vegan cook zine:

I bought the zine at Panda Cookie's booth at Vida Vegan Con, and the proceeds benefit the Sunny Day Farm Animal Sanctuary in La Coste, Texas. The 36-page zine is a collection of downhome recipes from my favorite Texas bloggers: Krys of Two Vegan Boys, Kristen of Sugar Skull, Mo Martin from Mo Betta Vegan, and Food for Lovers Queso makers Chris and Chrystal Tate to name a few.

The chili recipe was submitted by Molly Frisinger of Lone Star Plate, and it features bulgur in place of the more traditional TVP or veggie burger crumbles. The bulgur has a similar texture to TVP, but it's more filling since it's a whole grain.

On top of my chili are onions and a healthy scoop of Nacheez sauce, which I picked up at Food Fight Grocery in Portland. It's a nacho sauce made from red bell peppers, cashews, chilis, and jalepenos. Yummy! I served my chili with plenty of Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues chips for dippin'.

If fall weather means I can eat like this, well, bring it on.

What do you love/hate about fall?