Stuff I've been eatin'.

(Pssttt...all my entries have links to the places I'm talking about...yep. Just scroll your mouse over a restaurant name and it'll take you to the website. I'm helpful huh?)

H'okay.

First up. Look at what happened to my muffin!!

What the crap?! Actually this was totally my fault. I put it in my backpack with a bunch of other items and unfortunately it got smashed. I got the muffin at Caffetto, a really great coffee shop in Uptown Minneapolis. They have vegan baked goods that come from Hard Time Cafe so you can have delicious pastries with your delicious coffee.

Manfriend and I also had dinner at The Depot again. I got a salad this time!

This salad was covered in a coconut curry dressing and was super tasty. I think it might be the only vegan salad on the menu but it's pretty darn good.

I'm working on some freelance writing jobs for a news source in Richfield currently and sometimes I like to swing over to Edina (about 5 miles away) and go to People's Organic (the restaurant!) I LOVE their coffee-French Meadow serves it. But they also have a cute new restaurant that has a delicious veggie burger among other vegan items. It's a bit pricey, but good! Here's a what I got.

The veggie burger was SO good. So so good. It's a homemade patty with a bunch of different spices, is a bit fall-y apart-y, but nonetheless AWESOME. The chocolate raspberry tart thingy left much to be desired. This was also way fall-y apart-y and though it had good raspberry flavor, the flavor was not matched by a savory butteryness which is how I like my desserts. There needs to be a careful balance between savory and sweet and this definitely overloaded the sweet. But I ate it all. Teehee.

Finally, Zakia Deli!! This place is over yonder in the NE Minneapolis neighborhood. I could bike there if I wanted to, thats how close it is. They make kickass Lebanese food, most of which (if you ask) is made vegan! Woo! Here's what I got:

In the container from the top left and going clockwise: red pepper hummus, this tomtatoey rice dish that was excellent, majaddra, tabouleh and chickpea salad. I also got pita bread and (on the far right) some sfouf. My two favorite parts of this meal were my friend Zeina (she's awesome) and the mujaddra. Holy balls! This lentil/rice dip was buttery and delicious. I even made it at home and it is so simple to make, your head will combust. The sfouf...well...it has star anise in it. Star anise is not my favorite, but the little sugary bread was good. It was made with semolina flour and a handful of different spices. The tabouleh is like no tabouleh I've ever had! True Lebanese tabouleh has less grain and more green I guess, which in my opinion makes the dish better.

So. That's where I been in literally the last week. Good times. Everyone should check these places out! They have more delicious vegan stuff on the menus that I did not try, so get your butt over to one of these awesome places and stuff your face.

MN Vegan

Party like a rocksta!

Feast your eyes on THAT! That is what I made for the Vegan Heat n Eat event at Ethique Nouveau that happened a couple of weekends ago right here in Minneapolis. Good times. I made a orange vanilla cupcake with zesty orange buttercream and a sugared orange wedge to garnish the damn thing. Yap. You'd better believe that shit was off the hook!

Other things that were sold: vegan chili with sweet taters, some kickass pesto and cheese sauces and vegan scones that were to die for! Ugh. Take me back.

Totally dood.

Heyyy there guys. I'm really sorry I haven't been keeping up on this blog much. I've really been trying to balance my mental and physical health right now and it has never been this challenging, what with the stress at work and the eating healthy and crap like that.

Anyhoobs, I apologize, and I'm going to hop to giving you all a dose of what I've been up to (eating). Cool beans?

Cool beans.

OK! First up! Triple Rock Social Club.

I'm just going to say one thing and be done with it about these guys-they have been a bit of a disappointment to me lately. The changes they made to their menu not only added some items but it also took away some of the best items, like that huge ass vegan burrito they had with "nacho cheez". Eff that man. But in and of itself, Triple Rock is still a great place to go for vegan bar grub. I would almost always recommend the vegan cook's revenge, as it always turns out to be something real grubby and tasty. Here's a sample of a meal that Manfriend and I recently had there:

Pictured closest is their vegan nachos which are freaking huge and fantastic. They will not disappoint. Neither will that behemoth of a sammy behind it. THAT sandwich, my friends, usually comes out of the kitchen the size of your head. It is not for the faint of heart. It is....drum roll please....THE VEGAN PO BOY. Manfriend likes to get the Minneapolis Po Boy which has mock duck or tofu mixed with taters and covered in soy cheese on a huge as bun and served with chips! Yumm. I like the vegan BBQ Po Boy with mock duck personally. It's got the same stuff, only it's slathered in a zesty BBQ sauce. Urrrgh. I want one in my mouth now. So so tasty.

OK! There's a new restaurant in town (it's not really that new) and it's connected to First Ave (the famous Minneapolis music venue). We heard they had some vegan options on the menu (and did they!) so we decided to make it a date night.

I ordered the vegan mock duck tacos while Manfriend ordered a side of sweet tater fries and a vegan lemon walnut burger. Now, I have very high standards for mock duck tacos, as Senor Wong (see the side bar for the post) in St Paul has THE BEST mock duck tacos I have ever had the chance to put in my mouth. I mean, fucking yummers man. The mock duck tacos from The Depot did not disappoint, however, they did not provide the sneaky spice and beautiful savoriness that the tacos from S. Wongs did. The sweet tater fries were crispy and delicious however! Perfectly seasoned and a great start to the meal. The lemon walnut burger... oh lordy. It was sweet and savory at the same time. I thought it sounded boring but I immediately bit my tongue (not literally) when I tasted it. It was topped with sweet bell peppers which, in my opinion, made the burger fucking fantastic! Yum. I'm making myself hungry all over again dammit.

Stay tuned for another update fairly soonish. There's a new vegan pizza in town (well...there has been for a while but I just tried it recently), and it don't take kindly to be calling "cheez-less and boring".

Rock!

MN Vegan