In October, my dad and I took a short trip to Seattle. I had never been to Seattle before, so it was exciting to learn about the city’s history, see great views, and try new vegetarian and vegan restaurants. In this post, I will share a vegetarian teenager’s thoughts about the restaurants we visited (my dad helped edit this post). I hope you enjoy!

Travelers (south side of Seattle)

We first stopped at an Indian restaurant called Travelers Thali House. The restaurant was indeed in a house. It also contained a small store of Indian food supplies, and it had hundreds of Indian spices lining the walls.

We ordered the “Full Thali” to share between the two of us. If you do not know, a Thali is a collection of many dishes on a circular platter with tastings of each. The Full Thali contained Sweet and Sour Pumpkin, Nine-Jewel Korma, a potato and tomato curry, a yogurt sauce, rice, dal, fruit, a fried dough ball and an Indian dessert. We also ordered a side of garlic naan.

On the plus side, the food tasted really good. My favorite dish of the Thali was the potato and tomato curry, because it was spicy and the potato added texture to the dish. I also really liked the dal and the crunchy-chewy naan. The meal might have been too spicy for some, but the yogurt sauce and naan helped cool down the spiciness of everything else. My dad thought the spiciness was great. One thing I did not like, though, was the dessert because it did not have much flavor. It mostly tasted like coconut. The mini fruit salad was okay.

Unfortunately, I had a big problem with the service. We sat down around 1:30 p.m. on a non-rainy Saturday afternoon and we ordered our food at 1:45 p.m. The food did not arrive until 2:50! In fact, a couple even left before they ordered because they obviously knew more than us about how long it would take for them to get their food. The whole time I waited, I was starved and it was hard to focus, and each minute felt like three. To sum it up in one word, the wait was painful. For us, our enjoyment of the food was overwhelmed by the unacceptably long service times.

Grades:

Speed: F (It took way too long to get our food–over an hour–and they did not adequately warn us of the ridiculously long time it would take).

Quality/Presentation: B+ (A bit spicy to me, but overall I enjoyed most of the food except the dessert, which only tasted like sugar and coconut).

Overall: D+ (Despite the good food, the time it took to get it was not nearly worth it. Waiting over an hour was really bad).

Chaco Canyon (West Seattle)

For Saturday dinner, we met some friends at Chaco Canyon. I got the lentil burger with marinated onions, a sauce, and sprouts. My dad got an off-menu item called the Hippie Bowl, with sprouts, quinoa, carrots, tofu, and a sauce. We also sampled a Thai Peanut Salad and the Elvis smoothie. As takeout for the next morning’s breakfast, we ordered the breakfast burritos.

The wait to get our meal felt short. I enjoyed my burger because it was filling and healthy, and I enjoyed the taste of the patty itself along with the fresh condiments on top. I also liked my dad’s bowl with the fresh vegetables and the protein from the tofu. The Thai Peanut Salad had good greens and cabbage and the right spiciness level. I really liked the Elvis, a smoothie with bananas and peanut butter, because it tasted sweet and creamy and had a good nutty punch to it.

I would recommend Chaco Canyon to almost any vegetarian or vegan. It was probably my favorite restaurant we tried in Seattle that weekend.

Grades:

Speed: A+ (The food got out to all of us within 15-20 minutes of ordering, nothing got screwed up, and the waitress was nice).

Quality/Presentation: A+ (The food was presented as it should, the bowls looked like bowls, the veggie burger had all the elements of a great veggie burger, and when it came to taste, I enjoyed everything).

Overall: A+ (There was no more I could ask for from this restaurant. The food tasted great and the timeliness and friendliness was as good as I could want at any restaurant. There were no flaws of this restaurant in any aspect).

Cafe Wylde (Everett)

My dad and I toured the Boeing factory in Mukilteo (north of Seattle), so we decided to make the quick drive to Everett to check out a vegan restaurant called Cafe Wylde. When we got in the cafe, no other customers were there, even though it was around 12:15 on a Sunday afternoon. It was a troubling first sign that this place might not be great.

True to its name, the restaurant was casual and cafe-like. The front case displayed many fruits, and there was a circular staircase to an upstairs loft. The speed was good.

About half of the items contained jackfruit. I got the peach habanero tacos, which contained three tacos, each with a taco shell, avocados, peach sauce, lettuce, jackfruit, and habanero peppers. Yet, neither of the two advertised flavors really hit me in any bite. The peach sauce was covered up taste-wise by the other parts of the dish, and the habaneros were not spicy at all. I also did not like the taste of jackfruit, which felt like a weird meat substitute for me. My dad got a BBQ sandwich, which also contained jackfruit inside, and it was similarly unremarkable. While the speed was better than Travelers, this was my least-favorite stop on our trip, and I would not go here again.

Grades:

Speed: A (Nothing fantastic about the waiters or the service time, but it was pretty quick in getting our food prepared).

Quality/Presentation: D+ (The food tasted okay, but I would have rather eaten something at home, and the two main flavors that were supposed to be the stars of the dish failed to come home to my taste buds at all. Since it did not make me feel sick and was definitely edible, it did not deserve an F).

Overall: C (This restaurant was better than Travelers because the waiting time was above average, and the food was okay, but the food lacked a depth in flavor and left me expecting more from each dish).

Pizza Pi (University District)

1/2 Mac-and Yease, 1/2 BBQ Chicken

For Sunday dinner, we visited Pizza Pi, which serves vegan pizzas. Who does not enjoy a great pizza?

We ordered a medium pizza to share. Based on the server’s recommendation, we got half BBQ Chicken and the other half “Mac ‘n’ Yease.” Both versions used a white garlic sauce rather than a more traditional tomato sauce; the server told us he did not prefer their tomato sauce and we followed his lead.

The BBQ Chicken pizza had garlic and BBQ sauce, vegetables, and fake chicken. The Mac and Yease pizza was made of macaroni and fake cheese, garlic sauce, and faux Canadian bacon. It tasted just like Mac and cheese except the vegan cheese tasted a bit different and some good Canadian “bacon” was added.

We both agreed that the Mac and Yease pizza was better, both because it tasted good and was an unusual combination. I mean, who does not like either pizza or Mac and Yease? However, the BBQ pizza did not live up to the same standards. It had a weird combo with garlic and BBQ sauces, and the faux chicken tasted a bit weird to me. It was fine but not great like the Mac and Yease pizza.

I liked this place very much and would consider going back.

Grades:

Speed: A (Nothing spectacular about it, and since it was pizza it took a bit longer, but a normal wait time that you would expect for pizza to take).

Quality/Presentation: A (The Mac and Yease tasted great and was nice and funky. The BBQ pizza was still good but had some flavors that fought each other for control and did not fully work with each other).

Overall: A (The service was pretty good, and the pizzas tasted pretty good overall, so just below perfection).

Eltana (Seattle Center)

We decided to keep breakfast quick on Monday morning, so we went to Eltana in Seattle Center. I got an everything bagel with cream cheese, and my dad got a sesame seed bagel with peanut butter. It arrived pretty quickly. The bagels were pretty flat, and not that big either, so not a lot of bang for your buck. Also, it tasted like they put extra salt on mine, and I really noticed it in every bite I took. Otherwise, it was pretty good.

Grades:

Speed: A+ (It took five minutes or so to heat up and put the toppings on, and then we were eating).

Quality/Presentation: B (In terms of looks, the bagel did not look aesthetically pleasing as it was very flat. When I tasted it it was bit too salty, and there was nothing super special about this bagel relative to any other I have tasted).

Overall: B+ (If you want a big breakfast, you might want something more fancy and filling).

Araya Kitchen (Madison Valley)

For Monday lunch, we went to Araya Kitchen for their all-you-can-eat Thai lunch buffet. As a buffet, the dishes were prepared earlier, so it may not have been as fresh as if we had ordered off the menu.

I had two plates of food, so it definitely was filling enough for me. Some foods that I tried included rice, a spicy mushroom soup, curry with vegetables and tofu, spring rolls, and a few different salads. I also saw something that looked like kimchi, and a rice pudding for dessert. I enjoyed the curry the most, somewhat because I share my dad’s appreciation of curry. I liked the vegetables and tofu, and the slightly spicy curry did not overpower the dish and fit nicely with the rice. The mushroom soup, on the other hand, was a bit too spicy for me and possibly overpowered other flavors in the dish. Spring rolls are always good because it is a nice crunch with vegetables inside; nothing bad about that at all.

It was pretty filling and I would recommend it to anyone with a big appetite and anyone who enjoys good Thai food.

Grade:

Overall: A (Everything tasted pretty delicious to me, but the soup was a bit spicy. The buffet was presented nicely and made me want to start chowing down).

Sugar Plum (Capitol Hill)

For a special treat, my dad and I visited a dessert shop, Sugar Plum. We ordered a scoop of vegan salted caramel ice cream. Unfortunately, the coconut cream was a bold flavor in the ice cream (at least to my taste buds) and covered up the taste of saltiness or sweet caramel flavor you expect. I still enjoyed it, but it had the potential to wow me and enjoy it more.

Bamboo Garden (Queen Anne)

Bamboo Garden was right next door to our hotel. When rain made it difficult to get to our dinner destination, we decided to get takeout and relax at our hotel.

I got a Corn Chowder soup and a Golden Baked tofu dish that had many chunks of fried tofu stuffed with vegetables and broccoli on the outside and a sweet sauce. Dad got Kernel Corn Chicken soup and an appetizer of potstickers. We ordered everything vegan.

Dad’s soup looked pretty good to me and I enjoyed the potstickers that we shared. I don’t normally get corn chowder and it had a weird texture for my taste, but dad enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the tofu dish because of how it tasted and because it was fairly filling. I especially enjoyed the contrasts in texture; the tofu with the vegetables inside and broccoli for the “crunch” outside of it. The sauce also went well with this entree because of the sweetness compared to the other flavors present inside the dish.

Overall: A- (I enjoyed the tofu and vegetables and dad’s potstickers, but the corn chowder was not my favorite, though dad liked it because he ate most of it. The dish was plated nicely).

Sunlight Cafe (University District)

For Tuesday breakfast, we went to Sunlight Cafe. It was a homey cafe, with honey on the tables and ceiling fans.

I ordered the Huevos Picante, a breakfast burrito. They gave me an option of green or red salsa, or I could get it “Christmas style” with both. I tried that. I liked the green salsa better because the red one tasted funny to me, while the green one tasted a bit spicy and just good. Inside the burrito was beans, eggs, onions, salsa, tortilla, and sour cream. However, the sour cream seemed a little on the heavy side. The salsas were not really that spicy, so I did not need the sour cream to reduce the spiciness, and I do not love sour cream *that* much! Everything else I really enjoyed, especially the nice, beans and well-cooked eggs. It was filling to start my day off strong.

My dad got the Vegan Highlander, which was only on the brunch menu, but the waitress recommended it to him. The dish was like a tofu scramble with an english muffin on the side.

The service wait was not too long either and the waitress was nice enough.

Grades:

Speed: A (Nothing spectacular, but the food did not take too get to the table).

Quality/Presentation: B to B+ (I enjoyed my meal, but there was a bit too much sour cream on my dish, and the red salsa tasted a bit funny to me. I would still go there again next time. The food was plated nicely with beans on the side, and everything else inside or spilling out of the tortilla).

Overall: A- (The service was pretty good, but the taste of the food had a few minor errors that got it away from getting a great grade).

Plum Pantry (Seattle Center)

Our last stop was Plum Pantry for lunch. This place was very casual. We ordered it to go and ate it in the sun at Kerry Park, overlooking downtown Seattle and Puget Sound.

I got a chipotle grill sandwich. I enjoyed it, with the spiciness of the chipotle sauce and the tomatoes on two slices of bread. Dad got a make-your-own-bowl with quinoa, chickpeas, vegetables (yams and broccoli) and a basil pesto. Dad’s bowl looked pretty appealing. However, it looked overpriced at $12 for a small bowl. Both dishes definitely felt like you could use ingredients you may find in most or some pantries to make the dish–just as advertised. Not too filling, but still a nice way to finish up my eating spree in Seattle.

Grades:

Speed: A (Pretty good).

Quality/Presentation: A (I enjoyed what I ate with the freshness of the nice tomatoes, and dad’s bowl looked fresh and like something I would definitely eat at home, or really any time).

Overall: A (I would go there again, but not one of my main go-to restaurants)

The post A Teenager’s View of the Seattle Vegetarian Scene (Guest Blog Post) appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

I didn’t make it back to Café Botanika, St. Petersburg’s leading vegetarian restaurant, but I did try three other vegetarian restaurants:

Troitsky Most. This is St. Petersburg’s venerable vegetarian institution, and its only vegetarian chain. I went to the Moika Canal location, just a block off Nevsky Prospekt. While the restaurant is vegetarian-friendly, their menu is old-school and not vegan-friendly. Most of the dishes had dairy, such as their flagship lasagna. Worse, the server didn’t speak English, making it difficult to navigate the menu. I tried a cold garbanzo bean salad and savory “broccoli wheat” pancakes with sour cream, neither of which were remarkable. Cost for this modest meal was about $5. The restaurant decor was atmospheric, but the food wasn’t worth a second visit, especially in light of the alternatives.

Rada and K. This busy and large cafeteria-style restaurant mostly caters to a student crowd. They claim to offer Indian cuisine, and optically most dishes looked like Indian food, but it didn’t taste like Indian food–at all. No matter. If you don’t expect it to taste like Indian food, the food tasted fine if a little bland. As usual, the server had limited English capabilities, so navigating the cafeteria line wasn’t easy. I got a chicken “curry” with a large mound of kasha, a big bowl of “dal,” a potato pierogi (?) and a “curried” cous-cous salad. (I ordered so much food because this was both lunch and dinner). My taste buds didn’t sing, but the food was filling and satisfying, so I’d consider the meal a success. Cost for this two-meals-in-one was about $12.

Next door to Rada and K is Adi, a tiny vegetarian grocery store. I didn’t see any must-haves, but it’s a useful resource. Watch the hours—they closed promptly at 6 pm.

Café Ukrop (a photo of the storefront). (Ukrop is the Russian word for dill, though I didn’t notice an excessive use of dill at the restaurant). This is two restaurants in one. The first floor is casual with ordering out of a deli case. Upstairs is a charming sit-down restaurant, tastefully decorated with modern and festive fixtures. They claimed to have an English language menu, but no copies were available on my visit. Instead, one of the servers spoke competent English and patiently explained each menu choice to me. There were numerous vegan options, and they are separately identified on the menu.

I ordered a “Mexican” barley soup, raspberry-cherry dumplings and apple strudel—ALL VEGAN. The Mexican soup was bland and uninspired. It was thin on the barley and had no Mexican-style spicing at all; I presume what made it “Mexican” was some parsley. The dumplings were amazing. The humble-looking and plain dumplings were filled with cherries and raspberries and then covered with a raspberry drizzle. Though the dumplings sound like a dessert, they were savory. The berry sourness with a little sweetness mixed with the plain dumplings worked incredibly well—the flavors were sophisticated, nuanced and unexpected. Recommended. The apple strudel was very good and I had a hard time believing that it was vegan (though the English-speaking server repeatedly confirmed that they were). Overall, the combination of the lovely décor and the successful vegan dishes made this restaurant a must-visit on any vegetarian tour of St. Petersburg.

Others. Based on the Happy Cow listing, I also sought out Chisty List, a bar in an obscure location at the cul-de-sac of an out-of-the-way street. Though Happy Cow said they were open 24 hours, they stop serving food at 11 pm, and I arrived too late to try it. I would have ordered food to-go in any case, as the place was very smoky and my low-fashion attire apparently offended the other patrons.

There were a dozen other vegetarian restaurants I didn’t try this trip, plus numerous other long-standing vegetarian-friendly restaurants such as The Idiot (which I don’t recommend in light of other better and cheaper options) or Tandoor (which offers real Indian food, not the Rada and K bastardization, though at a premium price). Overall, the combination of strong vegetarian options like Café Botanika and Café Ukrop with the proliferation of other options has finally made St. Petersburg into a city that vegetarians can enthusiastically visit.

The post The Exciting Vegetarian Restaurant Scene in St Petersburg, Russia appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

[Eric’s note: in March 2013, Lisa and I visited Cuba. I have written several posts on the subject that I’ll be posting to my Tertium Quid blog and ultimately cross-posting here, probably in the next month. I also have posted a monstrous set of 230 photos (see a smaller batch of “favorites”), and Lisa posted her own batch of photos. Lisa has written two reflection pieces on the visit, and this is the second post. See the first.]

Cuba: I came. I saw. I did not eat (or exercise).

Guidebooks had warned me that the food in Cuba was notoriously bland, and the selection poor. I’ve travelled enough to take those warnings seriously, but I’ve never experienced anything like this. Lack of decent food choices while travelling is a familiar hazard for vegetarians, but Cuba took it to a new level. It’s the only place I’ve ever been when there wasn’t even a place to pick up a granola bar or bag of snacks – and I don’t mean there wasn’t a place to purchase these near our hotel. I mean there wasn’t a place to purchase these in the entire country. Well, now. That’ll keep a girl honest. I’ve never eaten so few calories for so many consecutive days in my life. Forget your cleanses, your South Beach, your paleo diet. If you want to lose weight, try the “Vegetarian Tourist in Havana” Diet.

The food in Havana isn’t a prize even for omnivores. Cubans primarily get their food from 4 sources: (1) ration stores for a handful of limited basics at extraordinarily low (subsidized) prices, (2) what they call a grocery store, which is closer to a liquor store in the US with a small selection of non-ration food items at much higher prices, (3) farmers markets for fresh produce and meat, again at mostly high prices, and (4) restaurants (which used to be solely government run with limited options, but has recently widened to allow for private restaurants in individual’s homes).

If you want to find a place on this planet that is untouched by the chemical sh*tstorm of processed foods and the unrelenting marketing and packaging that comes with it, try Cuba. The trade off is that Cuba has also isolated itself from knowledge and availability of healthy foods. The food that is available, like most everything else in Havana, reflects a time warp. Most options seem like items the government decided to purchase or produce for the masses during a planning cycle dating back to 1960. The government restaurants look like somewhere Arthur Fonzarelli might fit in, from the menu to the diner decor. If you like extremely bland baked chicken, ham sandwiches, white rice, white bread, canned green beans or bad pizza, you’ll be good. Otherwise, you are seriously out of luck. They have never heard of whole grain anything. A cup of yogurt, greek or otherwise? Forget it. And if you want a leaf of kale, it’s gonna be a long swim.

Here is a summary of my meals:

Day One: We arrived in the evening, and the concierge suggested a nearby private restaurant called La Moraleja. He said it had the best vegetarian selections in the area. When we arrived we discovered that the menu listed zero vegetarian options. After speaking with the waitress, she said they could prepare three vegetarian choices: pasta, lasagna or risotto. She emphasized the lasagna as a good choice, but Eric doesn’t like gobs of cheese, so we ordered the pasta and risotto. Ten minutes after placing our order, the waitress returned to our table to ask us if we were sure we didn’t want to switch our order to the lasagna. Hmmm, they were obviously struggling with our order, but we still declined the lasagna. Forty five minutes later, our meal arrived. Eric’s pasta was plain spaghetti with some oil and a diced tomato mixed in. My risotto appeared to be Chinese white rice, congealed together with some sort of cream and a tiny amount of diced eggplant mixed in. Both dishes were tasteless. The meal cost about the equivalent of US $25.

Day Two: Our hotel offered a large complimentary buffet breakfast. Surveying the options, I was initially hopeful that I would find something good to eat. My hopes were dashed quickly, and by the end of the week, I simply couldn’t face the breakfast buffet anymore (I skipped it entirely my last two days). The eggs were so greasy they slid around my plate and left a trail that made me think of snail slime. The beautiful looking fruit had so little flavor I pulled it away from my mouth to double-check that I had bitten into the melon I thought I had, and not a piece of potato. The cereal was so stale and gritty, it recalled the Passover “Crispy O’s” we’d deemed inedible a previous year. And the bread, oh sweet mercy, how did they screw this up? They were working with identical ingredients to bakers the world over: flour, water, yeast. And believe me when I tell you, I have previously never met a carb I didn’t like. But these rolls, pastries and BLOs (bagel-like objects – or was it supposed to be a donut? It did have sugar sprinkled on top so we never did resolve this) were abysmal. I’m at a loss to describe exactly what was wrong. The texture? The flavor? Yes.

Lunch on Day Two was at a restaurant with the tour group. Anna the tour guide was very good about reassuring us that she would talk with the restaurant and make sure they served us a vegetarian meal. And yet, the first thing I was served was soup with large pieces of chicken in it. Anna was embarrassed and apologetic and had them correct it with a salad. This was my first of several Cuban salads consisting of shredded cabbage, topped with canned corn and canned green beans. Mmmmm mmm. My entrée was white rice, boiled sweet potato, and “salted vegetables” (basically the same as the salad, except the cabbage is cooked and saltier). Dessert was … wait for it … white rice (this time with sugar in some sort of pudding type presentation). Oh my. Cue the search for a grocery store.

Clearly restaurants were not going to be bastions of satiety, so I asked Anna where we could find a grocery store. I was naively hopeful that I could at least find a place to pick up a few items to survive on, perhaps some granola bars, pretzels, yogurt, or produce. In previous travels when I’ve encountered difficulties accommodating my vegetarianism, I’d always been able to cobble together a work around by visiting the local market, however humble. I wasn’t expecting to find Whole Foods, but I wasn’t expecting what I did find either.

The first “market” Anna dropped me off at was so unrecognizable as such that I walked right past it. Turns out the market was the snack stand outside of a bar, selling newspapers, soda, water and a bit of candy. No food here.

For dinner that night, Eric and I decided to walk to La Buena Vida, a private restaurant that had previously been purely vegetarian but had evolved into a pescatarian restaurant. When we wandered inside, the place was absolutely empty, but adorable. It was a little disconcerting to be the sole patrons, but I felt encouraged by the apparent effort someone had put into decorating the place and designing the menu. Communication was an issue. This restaurant was deep into residential Havana, far from tourists. The menu was Spanish only, and between my poor high school Spanish and the waiter’s poor English, ordering was a bit of a stab in the dark. We ended up with a black bean soup that was so salty I could not eat it. This was beyond a matter of my personal salt level preferences. It tasted like the lid of the salt container had fallen off and dumped into the soup. At about 48 hours into our trip, plus a 5 mile walk to this restaurant, I was hungry, but this was inedible to me. Our entrees were a vegetable kebab and a vegetable pie. The kebab veggies were very oily, and had a bizarre texture. The piece of corn was so chewy and tough, if I had closed my eyes, I would have never guessed it was corn in my mouth. The veggie pie dough tasted “off” and inside the sauce was oddly sweet, as if they had put sugar in with the vegetables.

Eric and I enjoy sampling vegetarian food, especially vegan food, when we travel. We’ve been to more than our share of “funky” restaurants, since many vegan places are run by people from other cultures and religions/cults. You’ll have to take me at my word when I say I think we have a fairly high tolerance for new flavors and unfamiliar dishes. So long as they’re vegetarian, we’re pretty open-minded. But, this wasn’t simply unfamiliar, it was bad cooking. Too salty or too sweet and just badly prepared. The waiter said the chef used to work at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. We decided perhaps he was the dishwasher there. The food looked pretty, as if someone had seen how Chez Panisse presented the food, but any resemblance to Chez Panisse food ended there. After politely eating what we could and paying our bill, we departed without ever encountering another customer. I don’t think shifting from vegetarian to pescatarian is going to save this place.

Day 3: Breakfast at the hotel was identical every morning, I’ll spare you further description.

Lunch that day was at a restaurant with a large cow sculpture on the roof – not the most auspicious sign for a vegetarian traveler. I ate some black beans served with my daily staple, Chinese white rice. I was also served more “salted vegetables” that were so oily I barely touched them. Lunch was served with a glass of sangria and a piece of cake with neon green frosting, both were tooth-achingly sweet. I don’t turn down many desserts, but this one stayed on the plate.

For dinner, the group went to a Chinese restaurant. What the hell, at least the rice was thematically appropriate here. Again, we found nothing vegetarian listed on the menu, but the waiter was happy to accommodate us. Eric and I shared vegetable chop suey and vegetable chow mein (turns out these were identical dishes, except the latter was served over noodles). I found these vegetables vastly superior to the salted veggies we’d be served everywhere else. I even spied some dark green leafy vegetables in the mix. The group as a whole found the meal barely passable, but I was so grateful to see vegetables beyond cabbage and canned corn and green beans, I ate more than at any other meal all week, save one. Also, Anna had told us that this restaurant was located in “real” Havana, appeared to be filled with locals rather than tourists, and the prices reflected that. This was one of the cheapest meals we had all week. Eric and I paid about US $12 for our two entrees, bottles of water and tip.

Day 4: Lunch today was at “the best Creole restaurant in Cuba.” I ate a portion of a greasy unappealing plain egg omelet. I skipped dinner entirely. Thank goodness I had packed a few emergency Luna bars in my luggage; by this point I was rationing them to myself, 1-2 per day depending on the circumstances. Today was a 2 bar day, however there was one food highlight. Anna took us to a farmers market. By this point in our trip, finding a fresh fruit or vegetable was a bit like hunting for Big Foot. I wasn’t sure they really existed here. But, lo and behold, this was a beautiful farmers market with a great variety of produce. Has anyone told the restaurants about this??? I could no longer blame the poor vegetarian food experiences I’d had on lack of ingredient availability. I conjectured that it must be due to 50 years under a political regime and culture that restricted choices and exposure to culinary ideas. Get these people some Food Network TV and epicurious.com stat!

Today, Eric and I also ventured out in search of exercise classes. Since I teach indoor cycle, pilates and other fitness classes at home in the Bay Area, I was very curious to learn the options available in Cuba. Initially Anna had told me enthusiastically, “Of course Cuba has pilates and indoor cycling!” But, when I kept checking back with her, she was unable to turn up anything. The closest she came was a sort of a spa in the wealthy Miramar neighborhood that used to offer cycle classes, but it had cancelled them indefinitely because the bikes fell out of repair and needed to be replaced.

Turning elsewhere, we asked the concierge at our hotel for guidance. She had never heard of any classes, but suggested maybe trying another fancy hotel catering to foreigners. At Meliá Cohiba Hotel, we found a lobby and pool area much more deserving of the 5 star rating than our Hotel Nacional, but the concierge was similarly stumped by my query. We wandered by Cohiba’s gym room, asked around there, and found someone who had heard of a yoga studio nearby. Finally a lead! We walked straight there and found a yoga studio of sorts in a residential area. It appeared more of a religious gathering place that incorporated a few yoga classes a week than an exercise studio, but it was locked up and wouldn’t be reopening until after we left the country, so I couldn’t inquire further. This is the closest thing to a group exercise class of any sort that I was ever able to find in Havana.

Day 5: Field trip! This was the only day that we left Havana. We headed to Cuba’s mountains to an area called Las Terrazas. By this time, Anna and the group were so sympathetic to the pathetic food offerings all week, they made special arrangements to drop us to eat at El Romero, a vegetarian restaurant (there are 3 total in the country if you count the pescaterian one we tried in Havana earlier). This was our best meal of the week, incorporating many kinds of produce and flavors. Much of it was unfamiliar to us, and some of it was kind of bizarre. My main dish was sort of like an Italian eggplant parmesean style entrée, with sautéed vegetables in between slices of eggplant, but then it was topped with a layer of Mexican style refried black beans. I can’t say I have plans to try to replicate the dish, but I did eat it all. Also, the fresh baked bread at this restaurant was very good, and someone needs to put the baker in touch with whoever is responsible for the daily bread travesty occurring at Hotel Nacional’s breakfast buffet.

Dinner was a scoop of ice cream at the famous Coppelia in Havana. We’d heard about this place many times, walked by it and seen the lines, and even gotten a cone to share at one of the outposts earlier in the week. Tonight, when we tried to order, we learned that they only had vanilla left at that time of day, so we went to one of the satellite counters maybe 20 yards away which was still offering chocolate and almond. I ordered the almond. It tasted like vanilla. The popularity of this place with the locals confounded our group. Coppelia has about 6 different places to order under the same roof, all under the same name, part of the same property, but the flavors may vary from one counter to the next, only steps away. The upstairs area serves the identical product for a lower price (using the Cuban pesos, instead of the Convertible tourist dollars); the line for those tables can be very long, but not always. The ice cream is fine; our group found nothing extraordinary about it.

Day 6: Another 2 bar day, I skipped both breakfast and lunch. For dinner, Eric and I, along with another from our group, sought out Al Medina, a Mediterranean restaurant in Old Havana that the guide book had suggested was a good place for vegetarians. All I can say is, all the warring countries in the Middle East should join together and direct their ire here. The hummus was inedible (watered down mayonnaise maybe??), and the falafel unrecognizable (potato balls?). I don’t even know. (See the photo).

Day 7: I skipped breakfast again, and gorged on a crappy and extremely overpriced ($30!!!) veggie burger and fries when I arrived at the stop-over terminal in Cancun.

It took me about 2 months to recover the weight I lost on our Cuban vacation. I used to know someone who cycled on and off Nutrisystem every few months. I’m considering the same sort of system for myself, visiting Cuba every time my jeans get tight.

The post Want Vegetarian Food or a Spinning Class in Cuba? Tough (Guest Blog Post by Lisa Goldman, Part 2 of 2) appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

Pluses

* It’s a Korean vegan restaurant in a very meaty town. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan visiting New Orleans, you MUST make the trek and support this bold initiative.

* The food tasted authentic. The cuisine wasn’t clearly watered down for American or local tastes. Everything was fresh and good (not great, but good). We tried almost every dish on the menu and there were no standouts, but no clunkers either. On the plus side, perhaps I liked the side dishes to the braised tofu the best, and on the minus side, the lettuce wraps were so leafy that they were more lettucy than wrappy. The owner sold the scallion pancakes highly and my dining companions loved them. I thought they were fine but not hype-worthy.

* The bar was surprisingly clean and not too scary.

* We went on a Sunday evening and were entertained by two surprisingly excellent bands. No cover charge or drink minimum! It wasn’t my kind of music (the first was zydeco and I’m not sure how to describe the second), but the performers were quite talented and overall I enjoyed the music a lot. With a full belly and good tunes in a completely unexpected location, for the first time I could almost understand why people liked vacationing in New Orleans.

* Prices were fair and I’m pretty sure we were undercharged.

Minuses

* The neighborhood is sketchy.

* The restaurant faces out of the back of a dive bar, the Hi-Ho Lounge. There are a few tables outdoors. Alternatively, there are a few tables in the bar itself where the restaurant will serve food, but most drinks are ordered from the bar and are on a separate check. The arrangements were a little confusing.

* Though the bar was clean, like most New Orleans restaurants, it was smoky. The bar had high ceilings that prevented the smoke from being too oppressive.

* While the bands were great, there were some dramatic performers that acted out bizarre scenes in between the music. I had absolutely no idea what was going on or why they were there. And there was really no audience (the place probably had about 30 people in the joint, over half of whom were the band, the dramatic performers or the waitstaff) so I really didn’t understand who they were performing for. Themselves, I guess. It was all too high-concept for me.

Overall

If you can handle the cigarette smoke and the sketchiness, go ahead and order in and enjoy the music. If not, order to-go and take it back to your hotel room if the weather doesn’t permit outdoor eating. Either way, recommended.

The post Wandering Buddha Restaurant, New Orleans appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

Plant-Based Pizza has a small but clean facility with 5 eat-in tables, meaning they don’t really expect most customers to eat on-site. On our visit, we got a peppers and shroom pizza slice and a 12″ vegan BBQ pizza. The BBQ pizza had a thin crust, daiya cheese, an unobtrusively mild BBQ flavor, non-housemade fake chicken, and a few onion and cilantro here and there. Yet, the flavors worked surprisingly well together, creating an irresistible combination that meant we enjoyed every bite and had no leftovers.

Prices were on the high side but fair. The menu has many more intriguing options to explore. The world needs more vegan pizzerias! Please, let’s support this place so it will remain a viable business.

Our photo gallery.

The post Plant-Based Pizza, Willow Glen (San Jose) appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

[Eric’s note: I am occasionally asked for vegetarian cookbook recommendations by people who are becoming vegetarian or looking to eat less meat. Given that my cooking repertoire is quite limited and usually involves the microwave as a key resource, I asked my wife Lisa–who actually does cook using cookbooks–for her expert opinion. Note: the links are Amazon affiliate links, but I recommend you try out any cookbooks from the public library before buying.]

Eric has requested many times that I write a guest blog post on Vegetarian & Vegan Cookbooks. I promised to deliver and then, much to his dismay & frustration, delayed many months because I wasn’t sure where to start.

The Vegetarian & Vegan Cookbook category has exploded in the last decade. Back when I started to cook (around 1993 when I moved into my first college housing with a kitchen), library & bookstore shelves had such a limited selection, it was easy to navigate and narrow down which books to select or recommend. But now, their shelves practically groan from the load. This is a good thing! However, it has become impossible to put together a well-researched list that’s truly exhaustive of all the choices available.

My thoughts and recommendations below reflect only my narrow and somewhat dated sampling (I haven’t purchased nearly as many cookbooks in the past ~3 years as I did the previous 5+ years before that). Still, I hope it’s helpful, and I welcome your feedback.

CATEGORY 1 – MY FAVORITES

(1) Moosewood Cookbook – I’m talking about the original from Mollie Katzen. I think this was my first cookbook and it’s one of the top 10 best selling cookbooks of all time *in any category.* Originally published in 1977 (updated in the 1990s), some of the recipes are a little dated. But, many are still great. Three of my favorites: Brazilian Black Bean Soup, Lentil Bulgar Salad and Gypsy Soup. This one will never lose its spot on my shelf.

(2) Veganomicon – Isa Chandra Moskowitz has published many cookbooks. If I could only pick one, it would be this one, although it would be tough to part with her original book Vegan with a Vengeance. There are a lot of great recipes here. If you want to “try before you buy,” check out the dozens of recipes she’s posted at her website. Favorites include: Snobby Joes, Pineapple Cashew Quinoa Stir-fry, Lentils & Caramelized Onions, Pasta Della California, Tamarind Lentils, Potato & Kale Enchiladas, Jambalaya & Manzana Chili Verde.

(3) Peas & Thank You – I picked this one up on a whim at Costco a couple years ago. Author Sarah Matheny has a very popular blog. Her recipes are simple and very kid/family friendly. This isn’t the book I’d necessarily use to impress guests, as some of her shortcuts result in less exciting flavors than in Veganomicon (for example), but it still very good and certainly beats microwaved frozen food.

MY “PRETTY GOOD, IT HAS AT LEAST 3 RECIPES I REALLY LIKE AND HAVE MADE MORE THAN 3x SO I’M KEEPING IT” CATEGORY

I don’t have a lot of bookshelf space, and as Eric will tell you, I can be pretty unsentimental and ruthless in sorting and giving away lesser-used items in my house. So, the cookbooks that have made this category, while not my favorites, still deserve consideration.

(1) Books by Dreena Burton. I own Vive le Vegan and Eat Drink & Be Vegan. I’ve found many of her savory recipes to be serviceable but not “wow this is amazing.” In my opinion, she really excels in the sweets category. If you are interested in baking vegan, look here first. I prefer her chocolate chip cookie recipe to anyone else’s (including Isa’s), but all of her cookie recipes are excellent. If I were buying today, I’d probably go with her most recent and well-reviewed Let Them Eat Vegan (but I haven’t tried that book myself yet).

(2) Books by Nava Atlas. I own Vegetarian Express (now updated/revised and called Vegan Express), Vegan Soups & Hearty Stews for All Seasons, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook and Vegetarian 5 Ingredient Gourmet. I think Vegetarian Express might have been my second cookbook after Moosewood. It’s sort of the predecessor to Peas & Thank You: a simple cookbook for getting healthy meals on the table for the family quickly. No “wow” recipes, but lots of reliable and easy stand-bys (Mexican Casserole is my favorite). Nava also has a website if you’d like to try out some of her recipes to see if her tastes suit yours. I confess that, in the past few years, her books have collected dust on my shelf. I cannot recall the last time I cracked one. It might be time to pass them along. If I had to keep only one, it would be her Soups and Stews book because I’m a real soup & stew lover.

(3) Moosewood Restaurant Books. These cookbooks are often confused with Mollie Katzen’s original Moosewood Book. In fact, Mollie has nothing to do with these, and they are written by a variety of chefs from the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca. Still, these books are generally very good. I own Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favorites and Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. I flip through these on a regular basis. I particularly like the Lentil Sambar recipe in Low Fat Favorites. I’ve also heard good things about the Moosewood Daily Specials cookbook. I’m not sure I’d buy these retail, but if you see a deal on them somewhere, they’re worth picking up. (Note, most of the Moosewood Restaurant books have a “fish” chapter, but they are otherwise entirely vegetarian.)

(4) Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World – If you’re really interested in vegan baking and cupcakes in particular, this cult favorite by Isa & her friend Terry Hope Romano is definitely fun. If I ever want curry favor with Eric, I know that the Banana Split Sundae cupcake recipe here will do the trick.

COOKBOOKS ON MY SHELF THAT I WISH I COULD SPEAK HIGHER OF, BUT RARELY USE

(1) Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – Deborah Madison is a highly regarded cookbook author, and this book makes lots of other people’s “must have” lists. However, I have been disappointed with it. The recipes taste good; she does know how to cook! But they tend to be on the rich side, and she regularly does the “recipe within a recipe” stunt, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. I detest getting knee deep into a recipe only to realize that ingredient #7 is actually an entirely separate recipe (e.g. “add 1T of Romanesco sauce, found on page xx” which of course is complicated and makes a 2C batch, so now you don’t know what the heck to do with your 2C-1T of sauce). I rarely cook from this book.

(2) How to Cook Everything Vegetarian – This one was released more recently and is authored by Mark Bittman, whom everyone seems to love. And, while I have been impressed with several of his articles, I’ve been underwhelmed by the handful of recipes I’ve tried from this book. Nothing awful, but no obvious “must repeat” recipes either. Maybe I’ve just selected the wrong things. I’m not ready to toss this into the give-away stack quite yet, but it’s hardly at the top of my recommendation list.

(3) How it All Vegan – The was one of the first popular vegan cookbooks, and used to be talked about regularly, but it’s completely dropped off my radar in favor of more current vegan books like Veganomicon. I love the spirit of it, but I think Veganomicon supersedes it; no need for both.

(4) Vegan Brunch – I bought this because I thought Isa could do no wrong. And while I wouldn’t call this book “wrong,” I haven’t found a lot right with it. I like her coffee chocolate chip muffin recipe in here. Otherwise, nada.

(5) Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker – I LOVE the concept of the slow cooker. When I come home at the end of the day, I’m already too hungry to start cooking. It’s not uncommon for me to eat some crappy microwave dinner just to sate myself, and then start cooking a decent meal which I’ll have the next day (which rarely tastes as good as eating something freshly made). But with a slow cooker, I can prep in the morning, and then it’s ready for me when I come home later. But, there’s a price to pay for that convenience. Most veggie meals I’ve attempted in the crockpot come out mediocre. I bought this cookbook to help with that, but haven’t found anything amazing. Still, I’m holding on to it, because hope springs eternal. I’ll keep trying. The No Hurry Curry recipe isn’t bad.

(6) World Vegetarian – I like Madhur Jaffrey for some reason I can’t even recall. Maybe I saw her on a cooking show? Who knows. I also like the idea of this book. In general, I favor ethnic foods with interesting spices and flavors. So, I thought it’d be awesome to sample all sorts of exotic recipes from this book. Somehow, I haven’t ever found my favorites in this book though. Check it out from the library and see what you think. Let me know if you find some winners.

MY COOKBOOK WISHLIST

(1) Plenty or Jerusalem – Both of these cookbooks by Yotam Ottolenghi are bestsellers. With beautiful pictures and purported great recipes, there’s a lot of inspiration here. Yotam is a professional chef. I checked out Plenty from the library once and tried a couple recipes. They were very good, but pretty heavy (lots of oil) and somewhat complicated. I’d still love to have one on my shelf so I could have more time to peruse and try my hand at lightening some of them up a little for my tastes.

(2) The I [Heart] Trader Joe’s Vegetarian Cookbook – I am a loyal TJs shopper. I have previously purchased a cookbook devoted to TJs products before, but it wasn’t vegetarian and there weren’t many recipes that appealed to me. But, I’d love to give it another shot with this edition.

(3) The Indian Slow Cooker – I mentioned my unrequited love for the slow cooker. This book has good reviews, and I think many vegetarian Indian dishes may actually lend themselves to the slow-cooking methods. I wish my library had this book so I could try it out. Until then, it’s on my wishlist to purchase. (Not entirely vegetarian.)

(4) Super Natural Every Day – Heidi Swanson authors the very popular 101 Cookbooks blog. She’s based out of SF and I like her focus on health rather than diet. Her photography is beautiful too. Another highly reviewed cookbook that I’ve sampled from the library and enjoyed.

(5) Appetite for Reduction –Isa published this one a year or two ago. I’ve checked it out from the library a few times. The recipes are good. Not as amazing as some of the Veganomicon ones. There is a price to pay for cutting out so much of the fat and calories after all. But, if you’re interested in some lighter vegan recipes this is a good book to have around. Honestly, I can’t believe I haven’t put this on my shelf yet. (Hey Eric – do you SEE my spending restraint?!)

(6) The Sprouted Kitchen – I keep hearing great things about this one from people I trust. I’ll be looking to check this one out at the library soon. (Not completely vegetarian, but almost.)

The post Recommended Vegetarian Cookbooks for New Vegetarians appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

We first discovered Veggie Grill in El Segundo several years ago. See my prior review of that place. We fell in love with the restaurant instantly, and now we usually make a point of swinging by a Veggie Grill during our Southern California visits. Every time we go, we submit a suggestion card that they should come to the South Bay.

Our requests finally have been answered! This week, they are opening in Santana Row, less than 4 miles/15 minutes from my office. From the perspective of visibility and foot traffic, Santana Row is a great location for them; but it’s a mild pain to get to/from–traffic is rotten and parking can be a challenge. The store is bright and colorful, although I could see them running out of seats during peak periods. It was hard not to notice the generational split in the crowd; I was about 20 years older than the average customer.

I like almost everything I’ve tried at the Veggie Grill (the biggest miss is the mac ‘n’ cheese–quinoa pasta is hard to do well). My favorite entrees are the V-burger and the Carne Asada, both excellent. I also especially like the chili and the sweetheart fries. I generally don’t like kale very much, but their steamed kale is among the best I’ve ever tried, and I’ve chosen it as a side dish before.

Today, Lisa and I attended a soft launch lunch at Santana Row (our meals were complimentary). A report on the dishes we tried:

[see my photo gallery]

* V-burger with avocado. I rank the V-burger incredibly highly. I think it’s one of the first-rate veggie burgers served anywhere, although the veggie burger at Source in San Francisco–a much different composition–may be my favorite anywhere. I don’t think the avocado added much to the flavor, but I’m not an avocado fan.

* Sweetheart fries. These are outstanding sweet potato fries. I normally like potato fries more than sweet potato fries, but these are among the best sweet potato fries I’ve had. They are served with a ranch dressing for dipping (you can also get ketchup if you prefer) that complements the flavor nicely.

* Buffalo Bomber. This is a successful dish, but I liked it a little less than the V-burger. It’s a big chicken patty with lettuce/tomato/onion on a wheat bun, with both buffalo sauce and ranch dressing. The servers warned that the buffalo sauce was spicy, but it was mild by my standards. I expected the sandwich to have a stronger “buffalo sauce” taste and more kick than it did. Still, a good sandwich.

* “Bean Me Up” Chili. The chili is hearty and flavorful. Personally, I think a cup is better than a bowl; the flavor can get a little tiresome after a while.

* Chill Out Wings. Their fried chicken strips with BBQ and ranch sauces for dipping. This was a satisfying appetizer.

* Carrot Cake. I’m not a big carrot cake fan, but this was an excellent carrot cake, especially for being vegan. Both the cake and frosting were moist and flavorful.

* Chocolate Chip Cookie. I thought this was average.

* Chocolate Pudding. Lisa was lukewarm about the pudding, but I thought it was tasty. However, like the chili, a little may go a long way. A small cup was perfect, but a larger serving could get tiring.

* Drinks. I tried the strawberry lemonade, peach black tea and pomegranate green tea. I thought they were all OK, but none of them did much for me.

I’m so thrilled to have the Veggie Grill in our neighborhood! I hope you’ll check it out. I’d be happy to meet you there for a meal any time!

UPDATE: A group of 4 of us went back Wednesday night for another complimentary beta-test meal. This time, the place was so packed that all of the seats were taken, and a line formed outside the restaurant waiting until seats opened. I hope they are a success, but I hope they aren’t so successful that lines out the door are common. Comments on our second round of menu sampling:

* Uptown Nachos. I loved the taste of these nachos, more so than most other restaurants’ nachos. Recommended.

* Buffalo Wings. I would get either these or the Chill Out Wings; I wouldn’t get both. These had a nice flavor, but once again I thought the buffalo taste was milder and less pronounced than I would like. What stands out about these wings is their texture, which is quite meaty. Our meat-eater companion raved about the texture.

* Blackened Chickin Plate. This was a big disappointment. Basically, it’s a pile of the steamed kale, a pile of the quinoa pilaf–which is plain and thus indistinguishable from unadorned quinoa–and a cutlet of fake chicken, blackened, with a small dollop of papaya salsa. The steamed kale was fine, the quinoa was boring, and the chicken cutlet was surprisingly mildly flavored (tasted a little like a Gardein chicken cutlet), and the salsa didn’t enhance the flavor much. If you like bland basic food, this could be a nice dish; but compared to the better options on the menu, I don’t see any reason to pick it.

* Thai Chickin Salad. This had a great taste, and I recommend this dish as well. However, I could imagine eating the whole salad might get a little tiring. It might be better to split this dish with a friend; a half-salad might be the perfect amount before the flavor gets tiring.

* All Hail Kale Salad with blackened tempeh. My wife LOVES this salad! If you’re a kale fan, this is a must-have; but even if you aren’t (like me), this salad is very well-constructed. I didn’t think the blackened tempeh added much to the flavor.

* Carne Asada. I still love this dish, but sometimes I love it more than others. I’m not sure why that is. The V-burger is a more consistent success with me, so I will probably pick the V-burger more frequently and save the Carne Asada for special occasions. Our meat-eater companion complained (quite fairly IMO) about the bun-to-meat ratio in this sandwich.

We also got samplers of the carrot cake again, and all of us loved it. The carrot cake is a crowd-pleaser! But then again, so is the entire menu, so if you haven’t gone yet, definitely check it out.

UPDATE 2: We went back for Jacob’s 10th birthday:

* I had the VG-Cheeseburger, El Dorado style. I enjoyed the burger, although I’m not sure if I liked it a lot more than just the baseline VG Burger. It was very, very messy!

* the red cabbage slaw. This is bland. Between the chili and slaw, pick the chili or pay to upgrade.

* Lisa tried the All-American Stack. We were both surprised that the stack isn’t a single “patty’ but instead loose strips. That made the stack messy. Personally, I didn’t like it much better than the regular burger, but it’s a fun and exotic option nonetheless.

The post Veggie Grill Santana Row (San Jose): Opened November 8, 2012! appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

Mercer Caverns, Murphys.

I’ve been to Mercer Caverns a few times over the past 2 decades. I like the caverns for their convenient location and visual interest compared to the other local cave options. Moaning Cavern in Vallecito is also convenient, but the main tour just visits one big chamber. California Caverns in Mountain Ranch is interesting inside, but it requires a long twisty ride on backroads from Highway 4. Mercer Caverns, just a mile outside of downtown Murphys, is easy to get to; and the tour goes through multiple chambers with diverse and interesting formations. The cave is a cool respite to a hot summer day. We were comfortable wearing our sweatshirts despite the 90+ degree day outside.

Overall, I was disappointed with the tour. First, it’s pretty expensive. It cost our family of 4 about $45 for the 45 minute tour. Second, our tour guide was uninspired. The tour guides work off a script that’s fine (it has some stock jokes and anecdotes that I remembered from many years ago), but our guide showed her youth. Third, although the kids seemed to enjoy themselves at the time, I don’t know that the cave visit made much of an impression. The cave was soon forgotten and didn’t make any highlights lists.

Yosemite. See the photos.

Yosemite is filled with icons revered around the world: Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and so much more. Yet, I haven’t gone in decades because I’ve been deterred by the seemingly omnipresent and crushing crowds. This year, we decided to go despite the crowds because the huge runoff meant the waterfalls were running especially high.

We parked at Curry Village, took the shuttle to the Mist Trail trailhead, and hiked up the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls. The Mist Trail is noteworthy on three fronts. First, the trail is beautiful, especially as it goes into the splash zone and then to the fall’s top with its emerald pools. Second, the trail was PACKED with people. At some narrow junctures, we had to wait for traffic going in the opposite direction. Third, it is dangerous! We went right after 3 people went over Vernal Falls to their death, and more people have died since. Some of those folks made riskier choices than we did, but the trail is very steep and very slippery.

Remarkably, both kids handled the trail fine. Jacob is a bit of a mountain goat, so I wasn’t worried about him, but Dina likes the concept of hiking more than she likes the reality. My wife found a way to motivate Dina, however, by promising an ice cream cone back at Curry Village if she got to the top without complaining much. Dina got to the top, didn’t complain much, and got her earned treat. Everyone won!

We went on a Monday, and Yosemite was still quite crowded. It was unquestionably better than going on a weekend or holiday, but the off-season is a better time to visit.

Camping at Angel Island. See the photos and videos.

Angel Island is a fantastic camping destination. It easily ranks in the top 10 most scenic campgrounds I’ve ever camped at. If it weren’t for one serious defect, I’d rank this one of the best camping destinations I’ve been to.

Getting There. Ferries service Angel Island from Tiburon, San Francisco and Alameda. The Tiburon ferries operate frequently, but Tiburon isn’t convenient unless you live in Marin. We took the Blue and Gold Ferry from Pier 41, which only operates a few times a day during the week. We took the 1:05 pm ferry to the island (which stopped in Tiburon along the way) and the 1:45 ferry back the next day, giving us about 24 hours on the island.

As an integral part of our adventure, we took mass transit almost the whole way: Caltrain from Mountain View to Millbrae (we drove to the Mountain View train station), BART from Millbrae to Embarcadero station, the electric streetcar from Embarcadero to Pier 39, the boat from Pier 41 to Ayala Cove, and then a hike from the cove to our campground. The mass transit added a couple hours of extra travel time, but the multiple transportation modes was exciting to my son, more earth-friendly, cheaper than driving plus parking, and didn’t involve us leaving a car overnight in a San Francisco parking garage.

The Campground. We camped at East Bay #3. This site was huge and fairly well set-off from the other two East Bay sites. We didn’t hear our neighboring campers or see them except at the water spigot (although we could hear some shouting from the workcamp at the Immigration Station). The East Bay sites are much more private than the Sunrise sites, which have effectively no visual or aural privacy from each other. Both the East Bay and Sunrise sites have favorable microclimates compared to the Ridge campsites on the island’s southwest side. By being on the island’s east side, they are shielded from the fog pouring in from the west. Indeed, our tent’s rain-fly was barely wet in the morning. The mountain ridge also blocks some of the wind, but we did get a little wind.

When the fog lifts, the Ridge sites have jaw-dropping views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate. However, in summer, the fog rarely lifts for very long In contrast, our campsite had fantastic mostly fog-free 180 degree views of the East Bay from Richmond to Oakland. Among other points of interest, the shipping lanes run along the island’s east side, so we watched ship after ship trundle past. At sunset, I watched the fog roll through the Golden Gate and across the bay, hit the East Bay hills, and spread progressively further north. Check out my short videos of that scene. I could have spent hours just watching the fog, the ships and the sunset. It was amazing.

The campsite required about a 45 minute hike from Ayala Cove. It wasn’t very steep or arduous, but we had packed light. The campsites have a water spigot for fresh water, so you don’t need to pack water. The campground has an outhouse. Our campsite also had a picnic table and food locker.

The campsite, including the reservation fee, cost less than $40/night. If you want a comparable view of the Bay at a hotel, expect to pay many hundreds of dollars a night. Camping on Angel Island is unquestionably one of the best bargains in the Bay Area. Even better, because we were willing to go mid-week, we had no problem getting a prime campsite with about 10 days advance notice. Weekend reservations will require more advance planning.

Now, about the major downside. From East Bay #3, we could hear a buoy warning signal going 24/7. It wasn’t very loud, but I’m sensitive to those kinds of noises. If you listen carefully to my videos, you’ll hear it in the background. Then, as the fog deepened through the night, other foghorns turned on. By pre-dawn, 3 or 4 different foghorns were going simultaneously along with the buoy warning, each with their own sound and cadence. It was like a discordant symphony–beautiful in a way, but not very peaceful. I take melatonin when I camp to help get some sleep, so I ended up doing OK overall; and my son slept through it all. If you can sleep with earplugs, bring those.

What to Do. Angel Island activities mostly relate to nature, military or immigration.

For nature, you can hike or bike around the island and to the top of Mt. Livermore. We did both. Mt. Livermore offers 360-degree views of the San Francisco Bay, but the view depends heavily on the fog situation. For the best views, go on a clear winter or spring day. In summer, it’s highly likely that some of the iconic sights–such as the Golden Gate Bridge or downtown San Francisco–will be partially or wholly obscured in the fog. The good news is that the fog is aesthetically pleasing itself…so long as it’s not on top of you! The loop around the island offers constant beautiful views with the same fog caveat.

For military history, Angel Island is remarkable. I was blown away by Ft. McDowell (on the east side) and Camp Reynolds (on the west side). They are exceptionally well-preserved ghost towns with interesting ruins set among beautiful views. I could have spent more time poking around Ft. McDowell, where visitors have effectively unrestricted access to most of the abandoned buildings (be safe, but many of the buildings still look very sturdy). Camp Reynolds has a totally different feel, and it was instantly obvious that it was from a different military era. I didn’t get much out of the batteries and Nike missile installations, but they are an important part of Angel Island’s military history as well.

For immigration, the immigration station has been nicely restored. Unfortunately, we missed the guided tour, but we still enjoyed taking the self-tour and inspecting the remaining buildings. I include the quarantine station at Ayala Cove in the immigration category; and while it’s less interesting than the immigration station, it’s a nice complementary destination.

It’s hard to see all of the sites during a single day trip to Angel Island, even if you catch the first boat in and leave on the last boat out. Overnighting on the island left us with the perfect amount of time to do everything. I would have enjoyed another night on the island (except for the foghorns) but only to watch the fog and the ships; we saw virtually everything else we wanted to see.

On a day trip, you might choose to take the tram ride around the island with its pre-recorded instructions or rent a Segway or bikes. If you’re a Bay Area local, bring your own bikes on the ferry if you don’t want to hike.

Kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. See the photos and a video.

I plan to take Dina on father-daughter overnight trips similar to the trips I’ve done with Jacob the past 2 years, but I didn’t think Dina was quite ready this year. Instead, I proposed a day trip, and she said she wanted to go kayaking. This might have something to do with the fact that I took Jacob kayaking last year when we went to Mendocino and he loved it. I chose the Elkhorn Slough for kayaking due to its proximity (less than 70 minutes from Mountain View) and the odds of seeing marine mammals.

Unfortunately, the kayaking trip was an unexpected bust. We took the 2 hour family tour from Monterey Bay Kayaks. This was a disappointment on a few fronts.

First, I misjudged Dina’s readiness for kayaking. Her short arms just weren’t strong enough to hold a kayak paddle, so kayaking wasn’t very participatory for her. She didn’t complain, but it wasn’t the experience I planned.

Second, the tour guide wasn’t very good. Inexplicably, he paid more attention to the other family than ours. More importantly, he didn’t relate well to kids. He was soft-spoken, prone to tangents, and dry. Dina couldn’t hear him, and when she could, his commentary didn’t resonate with her.

Third, the two-hour tour barely got out of the Moss Landing harbor–and everything in the harbor could be easily seen from the harbor parking lot. So we didn’t see much from the kayak that we couldn’t have seen from our car. In fact, after we got out of the kayak, we walked back around the parking lot to get a better view of the sights we passed on the kayak. Naturally, a longer tour would go deeper into the slough itself, but a 2 hour tour was plenty for Dina.

On the plus side, we saw plenty of sea lions, otters, seals, jellyfish and birds. Elkhorn Slough looks worth another visit, but probably as an adults-only visit where I can see more of the slough.

Vegetarian Tourism

We are vegetourists, and that’s true even when we’re close to home. Some of our stops during the week:

Garden Fresh, Mountain View. Garden Fresh has been one of my favorite restaurants since the 1990s. I became a little disenchanted with the restaurant when it changed owners in the early 2000s because I felt the quality dropped off some. Since then, I think the quality has improved, although it’s been accompanied by higher prices and fewer freebies. For example, back in the old days, the lunch special used to include fried spring rolls, and all of the dishes included complimentary brown rice (even at dinner). Still, Garden Fresh is one of the better deals around, and its best dishes are excellent.

On our most recent trip, we got the lettuce cups and the veggie chicken curry. The lettuce cups were not nearly as good as I remember; something was “off” with the flavor. I don’t think we’ll try that dish again. The veggie chicken curry is wonderful comfort food. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for something tasting so “heavy,” but this time it was exactly what I wanted.

Some of our other favorites: Mongolian veggie chicken and Hunan veggie chicken (these dishes are pretty similar), basil moo shoo rolls, the veggie curry noodle soup and the moo shoo vegetables. Many other dishes are good too. I also like the tofu chowder they frequently serve complimentary. My wife prefers the hot-and-sour soup, and sometimes they will substitute that for the tofu chowder without charging more.

The restaurant itself is hardly atmospheric, although it is slightly more spruced up than it was in the 1990s. It’s basically a few rows of formica tables in a mini-mall. Then again, my culinary tastes were honed in Southern California, where the best meals always were in mini-malls, so the setting doesn’t bother me. For us, its convenience is an added bonus; it’s in easy biking distance from our house.

Mineral, Murphys. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around Mineral. It’s an upscale vegetarian restaurant located in Murphys, a small and out-of-the-way Sierra foothills town. There probably isn’t another all-vegetarian restaurant within 60+ miles in any direction. When Mineral first launched in 2007, it aimed for the high-end vegetarian connoisseur flush with dot com money. See my review of the restaurant in that phase. In 2008, during the last crash, it revamped into a more mid-scale vegetarian restaurant/cafe, broadening its audience and becoming a place where we felt comfortable bringing the kids for lunch.

The boom must be back on, because Mineral has abandoned its mid-scale orientation and is back to positioning itself as a high-end gourmet vegetarian restaurant. The good news is that the food remains excellent, with extraordinary attention to detail, and the prices are reasonable (compared to Bay Area prices) for the quality of the food and presentation. We had the Mineral Burger (an excellent burger), the “Land Scallops” (a tofu dish), the Watermelon Salad and the Green Papaya Salad, and we devoured everything from all plates before they went back. Total cost at lunch was about $65.

Unfortunately for us, Mineral has lost any pretense of being a kid-friendly place. Even if the menu options look passable to kids, the tastes are just too sophisticated for most kids’ palates. I understand that not all restaurants cater to kids, but it’s an issue when we’re on a family vacation. The server basically warned us when we walked in with Jacob and Dina in tow, asking us discreetly if we’d been to Mineral before as a way of trying to signal that it wasn’t a kid-friendly place. It’s even more strange because the proprietors were warm and gracious towards our kids and let them watch the laborious presentation of each dish, which our kids totally enjoyed.

For now, assume Mineral is an adults-only place. Murphys has better kid-friendly options just across the street if you’re on a family vacation. If you’re on an adults-only vacation and you haven’t tried Mineral, I highly recommending taking the trip to Murphys for a meal. It’s worth the detour.

Sunflower Drive-In, Fair Oaks. This is a funky place. Old Town Fair Oaks is a ramshackle business district with undomesticated chickens wandering around. Then, this restaurant seeks to be the cost-effective vegetarian fast food mecca that we as vegetarians dream about. Most seating is outdoors, amidst the chickens, with unappetizing views of the parking lot baking in the hot Central Valley sun.

Sunflower Drive-in a holdover from the 1970s, and the menu mostly reflects a conception of vegetarianism from 4 decades ago. Their flagship item is a 1970s-style nutburger. Nutburgers have become trendy again, but their recipe is anything but trendy. The nutburger was the best thing we ordered, but it hardly compares with the veggie burgers at Mineral or Source or even Smart Alec’s.

Other items were hit-and-miss. The falafel–which some people raved about at Yelp–was only vaguely reminiscent of a “real” falafel. I thought it was bland and uninspired. The kids’ menu items were about what you’d expect–the burrito was lots of bean and cheese but not much else; the quesadilla was cheese and not much else. Chips and salsa were run-of-the-mill. The vegan potato salad was pretty good. Vegan cupcakes were as dry as you would expect. The root beer float was a rare overpriced item: $4 buys a paper cup, a dollop of ice cream and a can of off-the-shelf root beer.

As many other reviewers have noted, for a restaurant called a “drive-in” and hawking pseudo-fast food, they process orders at a maddeningly glacial speed. I don’t know exactly why things take so long for what should be a well-oiled machine after decades of practice. We placed our order at 11:35 am and the bulk of the order took about 20 minutes on an ordinary workday. With properly calibrated expectations, this wait isn’t insufferable; but compared to a place like Smart Alec’s in Berkeley or Oreans in Pasadena where fantastic vegetarian food comes speedily, it’s nevertheless baffling. I guess their method of operation works for them, but I imagine they could boost profits and throughput if they upgraded their operations.

Although I can’t say the food rocked my world, we’ll revisit Sunflower Drive-in when we go to visit my stepfather (now living in an assisted living facility just a couple miles away). It’s cheap, filling and tasty enough to justify the small detour.

Plant Cafe, San Francisco. Jacob and I patronized the location right by the Embarcadero BART station (101 California Street). At lunchtime, it’s a high-volume operation. Order at the counter, hunt for a seat, and wait for the food to arrive.

We tried four dishes: the Plant Burger, Masala Vegetable Stew, Shiitake Spring Rolls (we took it for later) and a Chocolate-Banana Smoothie. The Plant Burger was a little disappointing after all the Yelp raves. My son rejected it outright; I thought the burger was average. Personally, I think Source has the best veggie burger in town. The Masala Vegetable Stew, which comes with some nice flatbread, tasted excellent, was a generous portion, and was priced attractively. My son hijacked my bowl and ate most of the stew. The Shiitake Spring Rolls were tasty but fairly expensive for what you get. The Chocolate-Banana Smoothie was fantastic, but it had an unexpectedly “adult” chocolate taste that I expected my son would reject. He loved it anyway. My overall assessment was strongly positive, and I’m sure we’ll be back. I know some reviewers have complained about the price. We spent about $35 for our meal, and I thought that was fair.

I noted that my old law firm (Cooley Godward) is in the same building. If I still worked at the law firm and had this restaurant in the building, I would eat there nearly every day. We need more restaurant options like Plant Cafe. Please come to the South Bay!

Saturn Cafe, Santa Cruz. Saturn Cafe is a venerable vegetarian institution, but it easily can get lost in the shuffle. Trendy restaurants like Source and Plant Cafe have stolen some of its thunder, and Saturn Cafe’s chainification has diluted its uniqueness. But Saturn Cafe always delivers a hearty, tasty, cost-effective meal, and it retains a special place in our heart accordingly.

I kept Saturn Cafe as a secret post-kayaking destination for Dina. Even when the kayaking trip went bust, I knew Saturn Cafe would be a hit. We took Dina there a year ago and she loved it–the decor, the coloring menu and the food. What fun!

This trip she had banana walnut pancakes and I had the very tasty vegan breakfast burrito. Both were completely devoured before we left our seats, feeling quite full. The bill was a paltry $15.

I wish Saturn Cafe would come to the South Bay. It would compete directly with Hobee’s in both food and price, but I would pick Saturn Cafe over Hobee’s (a long-time favorite of mine) both for being completely vegetarian and for its more flavorful options.

The post Northern California Staycation Notes appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

______

I just wanted to follow up with you about alternatives to the In-N-Out field trip. Since both the field trip & our decision to pull Jacob was kind of last minute, I didn’t have much time to research alternatives. I ended up taking Jacob out for breakfast at Hobee’s & while there, discussing the cost of his entree & what went into that. We discussed the expenses restaurants incur (cooks, servers, rent, utilities, etc.); we also touched on the differences between “fast food” restaurants & other types of restaurants as well as regular vs. organic. Then we made notes about the ingredients used in his entree. From there we went over to Trader Joe’s and priced out those ingredients (going through the store with a notepad & pen, noting prices, quantities & serving sizes – we didn’t actually purchase anything). Then, we came home and calculated the total price, and then did a lot of division to calculate the price of one serving. (BTW, the $8.50 Florentine Scramble at Hobee’s can be made at home for $2.83, and that’s with about 50% organic ingredients to boot! :-))

The same morning Jacob’s class went to In-N-Out, our daughter’s class went to Hidden Villa Farm where they saw how crops are raised, eggs are harvested, goats milked & pigs born. I thought that was a nice view into “where food comes from,” and since HV also sells commercially, they can also discuss/show how they choose what to produce, how they package, transport, market & price it, etc.

If I’d had more time, I would have looked into possible “behind the scenes” tours from places like Whole Foods Market, the local Farmers Markets, Trader Joe’s and other local farms. If you would like me to research these sorts of options further, please let me know.

______

Lisa’s alternative excursion made quite an impression on Jacob. He became especially interested in organic foods, but the cost accounting also seems to have made an impact. Lisa also told me that several people at Hobee’s and Trader Joe’s overheard her talking to Jacob and gave her unsolicited compliments for her efforts.

In terms of alternatives, I think a visit to Hobee’s is a little better educationally than a visit to In-and-Out Burger, but I think both of them are inferior to a trip to where students could get multiple vendor perspectives, such as a farmer’s market. I think it would be really neat to hear different farmers at a farmer’s market explain why they think their product is superior to their competition and why it’s financially advantageous for farmers to sell their product via a farmer’s market as opposed to other distribution options. My guess is that the students would never look at Safeway’s the same after hearing that.

The post Alternatives to a School Field Trip to In-and-Out Burger appeared first on Goldman's Observations.

I know you get a lot of gripe emails. This isn’t one of them. We love the school and have been super-pleased with the education and other support that Jacob is getting. However, we decided to opt-out of an upcoming field trip and we wanted to explain why. It seems to us that there may be an issue that warrants further scrutiny in future years.

This coming week, Jacob’s class is going on a field trip to In-N-Out Burger. [Jacob’s teacher] has indicated that the trip has the following pedagogical objectives:

“Students understand basic economic concepts and their individual roles in the economy and demonstrate basic economic reasoning skills.

1. Describe food production and consumption long ago and today, including the roles of farmers, processors, distributors, weather, and land and water resources.

2. Understand the role and interdependence of buyers (consumers) and sellers (producers) of goods and services.

3. Understand how limits on resources affect production and consumption (what to produce and what to consume).”

These are great pedagogical goals, but we’re a little confused how a trip to a fast food restaurant advances those goals. It seems like any single vendor is going to extol the virtues of its offerings. Without any critical analysis of those explanations, the vendor’s explanation will be impliedly endorsed by the school and treated as credible by students.

This could be especially problematic in the context of fast food restaurants, whose resource allocation practices and efforts to advertise to kids have come under significant criticism; yet unrebutted favorable descriptions of their practices will not yield any insights into those concerns. Jacob is very much still learning how to critically scrutinize marketing claims, and I don’t think he is ready to defend himself against such a subtle form of marketing. I suspect most other 2nd graders are about the same place.

Ordinarily, I’d recommend counter-speech as the fix, such as bringing in a critic of fast food restaurant marketing and practices and letting the students decide who they find more convincing. However, that back-and-forth sounds pretty sophisticated for a 2nd grader audience, and certainly it is well outside the lesson plan.

Thus, my wife and I are left wondering (a) if a school-sanctioned field trip to any fast food restaurant actually advances the stated pedagogical goals, (b) if it does, if there are more effective alternatives (my wife Lisa has been researching options and can provide suggestions if that’s useful), and (c) even if not, if the risks that the field trip acts as a form of surreptitious marketing to kids outweighs those pedagogical benefits.

Despite all of this, we are not complaining because we’ve decided to opt Jacob out of the field trip this year. It’s a small nuisance to do so, but we understand its our decision, and we are comfortable with that decision. Given that many classes sought to participate in the In-N-Out Burger excursion, I also want to reinforce that we don’t intend to criticize [Jacob’s teacher] or single her choices out. Instead, we hope that the faculty and administration will review the pros and cons of any fast food restaurant field trip for future years; or if that conversation has already taken place, we’d welcome any further explanation about the deliberations.

Many thanks for listening and for your and your teachers’ and staff’s hard work and dedication to educating our children. We remain very appreciative.

The post Thoughts About a Second Grade Official School Field Trip to In-N-Out Burger appeared first on Goldman's Observations.