Restaurant Review ~ Palm Greens Cafe

I was lucky to have a wonderful birthday lunch with my Dad and my son yesterday! We ate at Palm Greens Cafe in Palm Springs. This restaurant is not completely vegetarian, but it's has mostly vegan/vegetarian options, and lots of fresh and organic ingredients. Friendly service, good atmosphere with nice art. I wished I would've gotten a freshly made juice of some sort.... well next time!

I ordered the Vegan Haystack. It's a tempeh patty, tempeh bacon, vegan pepper jack cheese, BBQ sauce, pickled jalapenos, lettuce, tomato, red onion on whole wheat sunflower bun. I'm quite a pro on veggie burgers, nationwide, and this one is one of the tops! If you enjoy BBQ sauce, this is for you! The avocado wasn't on this burger, it's just that my son didn't want so much avo, so I was lucky to get some extra (LOVE the AVO!!)

Son got the Vegan Black Bean burger. This was a plus because it's soy free. It had an ample amount of avo, and that's A+ for me! Both of us ordered the vegan potato salad as our side dish. There was a choice of that, cole slaw or chips, in vegan or non vegan varieties.

Dad got the Breakfast Bowl. It was a generous helping of eggs or tofu, potatoes or brown rice, swiss chard, kale, and spinach sautéed in sunflower oil with mushroom, zuccini, onion, carrot, ginger, and garlic, black beans, salsa, with a whole wheat tortilla. Dad's was all vegan, and he mentioned that the cheese was exceptionally good vegan cheese. I think it's a filling meal for sure!

Their drinks and juices are wonderful! Our neighbors got the fresh coconut, served straight out of the nut, and I was envious for sure. Coconut water is a new obsession of mine. I wanted to first order a Thai Iced Tea, or a Lavender Lemonade but was instead persuaded by the mystery of these Dry Sodas. My first choice of the dry Lavender Soda was not available, so I went with the Vanilla Soda, my son got the Lime. They both were so delightful and refreshing with not a lot of sugar. Wesley thought his was like incense, and I did agree.

For moderately priced vegan/vegetarian food I highly recommend Palm Greens Cafe, and am hoping I will return very soon!

Restaurant Review - Gypsy Den, Downtown Anaheim

Recently we tried out the very new Gypsy Den in Downtown Anaheim, Ca. We've been enjoying the Gypsy Den in Santa Ana for a decade or more. It is one of our favorite places to eat in the OC. It has a wonderful hippie vibe, with saris used as window treatments, cool art and books, and groovy vintage colored-glass globe lamps. So we were happy to hear of a new Gypsy Den opening in Downtown Anaheim, which is just a little closer to my mother's house.

I was pleased to see a large selections of vegan options. My son ordered this Vegan Bacon-Burger and sweet potato salad (not sure if it was vegan though)

My Mother ordered a Pesto-Portobello Burger (not vegan, but veggie) with some kind of citrus-wheat berry salad.

This is my order of a Chipotle-Avocado-Chicken Wrap (vegan), and a Mediterranean Orzo Salad. The first few bites of the wrap were delightful, I was digging the chipotle taste. As I ate it though, I just kept thinking this "chicken" was too real (don't worry it wasn't!) But it seemed so real to me, I even re asked the waiter that this truly was Vegan! It was! I guess I've never had "chicken" salad before, I usually have my fake chicken in nugget or burger form, and hot. It was good though. My salad was a little boring, I don't know if there was any dressing on that thing at all. Of the three varieties I tried, I enjoyed my mom's citrus wheat berry the best (at least I think that's what it was called)

So the new Gypsy Den was good, and it's good to have some more vegetarian food in the dull droms of the cultureless part of OC, but I have to say that I like the Santa Ana version better... It's bigger, and just decorated better. Plus, they have our favorite Gypsy Rice salad, which is lacking in Anaheim. The waiter was extra nice though.

Restaurant Review - Loving Hut, Upland, CA

Crap! Where has the time gone???!

I recently had the pleasure to dine at The Loving Hut in Upland, California. It was a scrum-didley-umptious experience! Better yet, all VEGAN!

This place is a bit of a "chain" restaurant, with a little bit of variations at each one. I have also ate at a Loving Hut in Phoenix, which was also very enjoyable.

First order of business was the drinks

Thai Iced Tea. All vegan, with a choice of soy milk, or coconut milk. Dad chose the coconut.

I decided on the Rose Lemonade. Very refreshing, and rose flavor is very delightful and fresh! And the confetti of rose petal flecks add to the festivity of the drink.

Our salad was the first food to arrive. I'm sorry I forget the name, but it was pretty basic with a mustard-honey-like dressing. (although it's suppose to be vegan, so not sure what it actually was!)

A different dish that we don't usually get, at least not at the Asian varieties, is this order of Sweet Potato Fries. A favorite to my Father, seems to me!

Always a favorite to us is the fried rice. This kind had ham (fake of course!!... the best kind!)

Another favorite is the Broccoli Beef... always has some yummy sauce!

This is a new dish for us. It is Lemongrass Chicken. It's a salty flavorful concoction with a little more salad.

Finally, the dessert! Actually I do believe this is my Dad's favorite part! Since he's a vegan, he gets quite a thrill of any kind of delicious sweet stuff that is vegan. From left to right, Chocolate-Coconut Cream Pie, Chocolate Mousse (my order), Lemon Cheesecake. They were all very decadent. I did enjoy the Chocolate Mousse, but I have to say this is not for the weak! I only recommend it to those who truly have a great love of decadent, very rich chocolate. The lemon cheesecake was more light, and I really did like it, and I don't care a lot for cheesecake. The coconut was the least favorite to my dad and myself, although my son probably liked it more than he liked my rich and thick delicacy!

There are a variety of over 120 The Loving Hut Restaurants nationwide, and I highly recommend for the vegan or meat eater who is not afraid of trying vegan food. So good!! This one that I went to in Upland, seems to have smaller portion sizes than the other one I went to in Phoenix, but the price per order is a little cheaper also. Next time I think we should get one more dish, and maybe lay off the dessert. (this was a meal for 3 people, one of which is a teenage boy, yes we are hearty eaters).... I do think my Dad though, will probably still get the dessert!

Be Veg, Go Green, Save The Planet

Bright Star Thai Vegan Cuisine

It's Restaurant Review Time!

Went with Dad and son for our 2nd trip to Bright Star Vegan Cuisine in Rancho Cucamonga, California the other day. It was simply scrumptious!!

First off we ordered Thai Iced Tea and Thai Iced Coffee. I enjoyed the tea most, although both are decadent treats. Wesley later got the coffee to go, it seemed more sweet in the to-go cup for some reason. He couldn't even finish it.

Remember this restaurant is entirely vegan, so no cream in here!



We ordered the Tempura for our appetizer, featuring potatoes, brocolli, cauliflower, onions and carrots with a maple-syruppy type of dipping sauce.. yum!



The first entre to arrive was the BBQ Chicken. You can never go wrong when ordering fake meat if you choose the "chicken"! This was my favorite, I think of the meal.



The salad we ordered was the High Protein Salad... a gorgeous display of color and taste!



We have a strong craving for the fried rice at any Vegan Asian type of restaurant. You can choose from your choice of fake chicken, beef or fish. We chose the chicken, delish!



Lastly, we ate up the Grilled Beef. Every time I've had fake beef at a restaurant there is a certain mystery spice in it. Not sure just what it is, but it's very enjoyable to the taste buds!

All the food here is wonderful, I highly recommend to you vegetarians/vegans, and also to you meat enjoyers who want to be daring and try some health/karma conscious food!! Just be sure you have some time to spare, they're a little slow in preparing this delicious food. They also tend to smoke the place out a little with their woks a burning. They are on it though, and open the doors up quickly to give it an airing.

Bright Star Thai Vegan Cuisine is located at 9819 #F Foothill Blvd in Rancho Cucamonga, CA..Phone - 909-980-9797

OC in November

Thanksgiving Break is reaching it's end. We're deep in the middle of the Holiday Season again! The Holidays with many people just struggling to get by with the basics. I'm hoping for more sales than last year, but it could be difficult. I'll have to go minimal also.

Earlier this week I did go down to Orange County for busy, fun-filled experiences. First, went to a Tribal Party in the South Bay area. Met some new people, got to know some others a bit better. Fun time, but very different for me to go to that part of the world.

The next day was a party at my sister's for my 3 year old twin nephews. They're growing up fast, but just as energetic as ever!

Next was a long lunch with my dad and his friends at the best vegetarian restaurant. Au Lac in Fountain Valley can convert the biggest meat eaters to go veggie! It's vegan Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine. And has a large supply of raw selections too, if that's your preference. This has been Wesley's favorite food since he was one!


Then there was our long, but enjoyable, day at Disneyland. Always special at Christmas time. The Small World has reopened. It seems they didn't completely get rid of the Rain Forest Room, but condensed it into the Island-type of room. Not sure what happened to the original room, I didn't notice it. See my post about Saving The Rain Forest if you're interested.


The castle is completely gorgeous this time of year!


Finally our last day we went to visit a very old, dear friend and his adorable daughter. (So sorry we missed you KP!) We went on a little walk into the Coyote Hills. This is a little slice of nature in the middle of suburban Orange County. Unfortunately they want to pave another piece of paradise for more unneeded housing. Well I think it's unneeded when there are so many foreclosures everywhere. While I feel for the construction industry (I know many people struggling now with little work), I also feel the need to conserve the little bit of nature we do have in So Cal. So I say Save Coyote Hills!

Now I've got only part of weekend left until the ol' grind to begin again. The ol' grind with the busyness of Christmas thrown in. Oh Boy!

Give Thanks!

I'm giving Thanks! Thanks for my family and friends; cozy-cramped cottage with the lovely surroundings; a nice (sometimes too) comfortable community; the rain that extinguished our fire danger (even if temporary); my colorfully simple meal; fairly good health with no asthma attacks in almost a year; my brilliant, friendly and adorable son; the opportunity to be able to improve my art and business. Oh, let's not forget a soon to be new President!! Just a few of many things to be grateful for!

Here's my traditionally slightly unusual Thanksgiving Feast. Clockwise from top left... Vegan "roast"; roasted roots of yams, carrots, potatoes and onion; Indian maize with ceyenne and cumin; mashed potatoes (pretty traditional, yet new for me); spinach (just for some green...weird?); slightly over-browned rolls; and my favorite cranberries and apples cooked on the woodstove all day (luckily cold and rainy!) Plus yummy tahini dip with veggies and chips for appetizers, and 2 types of pie of dessert. All this, but probably most stuffed from the beers I had. Yes, I've must have beer on Thanksgiving, just like the pilgrims, of course!

I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Feast! What are you thankful for? Please do tell!

UPDATE.... I just heard on the news that "97% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving." Can this really be true? Are vegetarians really less than 3% of the population? What about the people who don't like turkey? Eat ham instead? Or just don't have any Thanksgiving dinner? This is bound to make the vegetarian percentage even smaller. How can this be? No wonder I always feel like such an unusual person, I'm very rare indeed!!

Restaurant Review - The Cheesecake Factory

There's a new Cheesecake Factory over by Disneyland, very near my mom's. We went to it earlier this summer, and I was craving to go back, so we did last week. The first time I went I ordered this Luau salad, but without the chicken. It seems you can order any entre without the meat if you're a vegetarian, and that's good. When I first got this Luau salad, it seemed to be over flowing the plate. I ate and ate, and never seemed to make a dent. I was able to take a whole other serving home. So it made the salad worth the $12.95, since I got 2 meals out of it. Well, last week I had the same salad. But this time it seemed so much smaller, and there was none left over to take home. What's up with that? It still was a really pretty plate of food with some sort of wantan cracker things, macadamia nuts and an assortment of vegetables, covered in their balsamic dressing. I did enjoy my iced green tea, slightly sweetened with their minty concoction. I didn't think the salad was worth the $12.95 this time, and if someone is leaving the meat off, it needs to be compensated with more of the other stuff. The meat is a big part of the money paid. I guess it depends on who's cooking the day you go!! Oh and I also think they need some kind of kid's menu. The quesedilla appetizer was good for Wesley though. Next time I think I'll order the Southwestern salad, or maybe pasta with veggies, but I'm over the Luau salad, as gorgeous as it is!

A Turkey-Less Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a spectacular Thanksgiving! Mine was enjoyable, in it's own, humbly-unique way. I'm a bit of an unconventionalist and Thanksgiving is right up there at the top of the list.

First I thought I'd share with you my favorite part of the meal... the cranberries. When I was growing up it seemed cranberries were always the weird glop from the can. I didn't care for them much. Then I grew up and started making my own, the old fashioned way. I also started cooking them on my wood stove years ago when I only had a hot plate and toaster oven. (Difficult times in the kitchen!) I loved the smell and the old way so much, I continue it to this day.



I add orange juice, apples, maple syrup, and sugar. And let it simmer for quite a while, OOh, it smells so good! And pretty too!



I've learned through the years to make the cranberries early so that they can cool before dinner. They don't taste as tart, and I just think they're better cold.



Here's the rest of my some what odd meal. It's vegetarian, and actually this part is vegan. (We also eat some tahini dip earlier in the day and that has yogurt in it). The roast is pretty good even though you turkey eaters will probably think it's so unusual! It's made with tofu, lentils, quinoa, rice, nuts, oatmeal, celery, onions, garlic and spices. It's kind of like a stuffing with protein. It's probably the most work of all the meal.

Instead of mashed potatoes we have a mixed roasted roots ensemble. Then you get your yams and potatoes all in one. Some simple corn in honor of the Indians at the first Thanksgiving. Why I serve spinach, I don't know, just needed some green. And also in honor of the pilgrims... Beer! That's probably the most filling of all!

Top that off with your more traditional pumpkin and cherry pie (with whipped cream) and coffee. YUM YUM!

And what am I thankful for? Family, Friends, Health and Home and yes all of you lovelies able to read and post a comment here on my blog. Enjoy your Holidays!!

Veggie Across America

Hello, My Dears...

You may have figured, or not, that we ran into some difficulties with the connection to the internet with the laptop. It was a little disappointing, but we took it in stride and had an adventurous time anyhow!

My Dad is vegan, and I'm vegetarian, so we went to restaurants with a veggie flare across the country. I'm going to give a little review of the ones we went to.

In Flagstaff, Arizona we ate at the New Frontiers Natural Market, at the deli. My Dad loved the Cashew-Tomatoe soup. I enjoyed the tofu patty. They had a good variety of prepared salads and eating outside was nice since there were some clouds, and it wasn't too hot.

We ate at an Indian restaurant called Gopuram, in Oklahoma City. Indian food is always so full of exotic flavor, and this restaurant had lots of vegetarian dishes, and the service was excellent. They gave us special treatment, and we had an interesting conversation.

My favorite place that we ate had to be Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville, North Carolina. We had some awesome vegan nachos, and I had wonderful veggie burger. Not the average frozen patty sort of burger. I loved the atmosphere of this place the best of all the places we ate. It's very old-school hippie. Not your new-age, clean-and-simple-lines, type of place. More artsy, funky, colorful and kick-back style. I really like the colorful murals in the balcony eating area. Asheville is just the best town!!

This is a pix of the ultra cool "balcony" area...



Our stop in Memphis, Tennessess was a little different. It ended up being a bar called RP Tracks that must just try to have a little bit of everything for every type of person. They did have vegan nachos, but it was pretty much just some BBQ-Sauce-Tofu with chips. My veggie burger was run-of-the-mill. The waitress was ultra-sweet and helpful though.

In Fayetteville, Arkansas we ate at the fairly new Greenhouse Grill. This place had terrific service from a friendly guy (maybe the owner/manager?) The Greenhouse Grill was very clean, and the food was excellent, and had a bit of gourmet quality. Wesley said that it was the best food that he had on the trip. Wow, that's saying a lot!!

Another cool experience was in Dallas at the Cosmic Cafe. This place was decorated so great. Lots of influences from India, with colorful murals, and interesting items. Bursting with energy, and color and the waitresses were very nice. My only complaint about this place is I think they need a little bit of kid food. Pretty exotic, and kind of spicy stuff. Although Wesley did love the samosas appetizer that we had.

Even the parking area is groovy...



We didn't eat in Austin this year, but I know I love to eat at Mother's Cafe. I'm sure there are other great places to eat in that town.

Our last restaurant that we ate at was in Tucson called Lovin Spoonfuls. Cute name! This place is all vegan. We ate lunch there, and I'm wondering if they have an entirely different menu for dinner. We had sandwiches, and some kind of yummy fake-chicken nuggets. I loved the carrot salad that was an option for your side order with the sandwich. Another spot with excellent service. And it must be pretty popular in the desert town, it was packed!

Of course while traveling you can usually find a Whole Foods, Wild Oats. or Greenlife in a major city. It's nice to get a break from your usual roadside, Interstate-Gas-Station food and eat some quality food, and truly experience the veggie side of America!!

Check out Happycow.net for some other restaurants that serve vegetarian/vegan food. It can be an adventure.

You can expect to see me updating my blog more regularly, well, at least for a couple of weeks until my next trip!!