We left Portland on October 19th with an assortment of vegan, gluten-free meals for the long flight to London. Vegan meals had been ordered for me, but there isn’t an option available for vegan AND gluten-free, so we had to plan for Christie. I made up some crustless quiches, we had some roasted potatoes, rice, grilled nootchy tofu, corn cakes, nuts, cookies, and hummus.

During the flight I was served a dinner with rice, spinach, a veggie/bean patty, crackers, a roll with margarine, a salad with balsamic dressing and some fruit. I totally forgot to take photos of the Delta airplane food for vegans. It was reasonably tasty. Later as a snack I was brought an apple and a roll with some lettuce, cucumber & tomato slices on it… which was rather uninspired. Breakfast was some sort of roll, again uninspired, and a banana.

We arrived in London on Monday around noonish and were so grateful for the car Christie had arranged to drive us to the flat we’d rented near Walworth Street, with good access to several buses and a reasonable walk to the Elephant & Castle Underground station. Before we let ourselves collapse, we set out to check out some of the neighborhood markets. We discovered a G. Baldwin & Co. shop just a block from the flat where we were able to pick up the bare necessities to get us to the next day: baked beans, brown rice, soy milk, tea, sugar, cookies, CoYo Yoghurt, gluten-free muesli, a loaf of seedy, brown bread (for me) and Booja Booja ice cream.

First London meal was baked beans over brown rice with cookies (GF quinoa & fig for me) and we were so grateful. Soon after we went to bed.

First breakfast for Christie, muesli and yogurt, was a little disappointing. We’d only been able to find a gluten-free muesli made with qunioa flakes as opposed to oats. They were crunchy in an unsatisfying way, probably would be alright simmered on the stove but not great cold in yogurt. I however totally indulged in two generous slices of bread with Earth Balance and some of the jam thoughtfully provided by our Air BnB host.

Our ability to be hugely adventurous about dining on trips has been curtailed by the need for gluten-free options. This means a couple of times we had a meal at a Chipotle because we knew we could get something and didn’t have energy to hunt down a place (one was pretty good, one was way over salted and we both ended up with indigestion). On the plus side of this, we cooked a lot more. Simple things like beans with rice or pasta and veggies, which helps keep costs down (which we then spent on books and other cool things). That said, there were some great meals to be had. I tried making my pumpkin curry while we were there, but didn’t find the best coconut milk and it also turned out pretty damn spicy!

For two of the days of our visit Christie was having meetings, so I set off to explore. One day I’d walked for quite a while along the south bank of the Thames from the London Eye, then onto Vauxhall Park. After all that walking out in a chilly breeze I was hungry and on the hunt for food. I happened upon the cosy Windmill Pub.

I went in hoping for no more than some chips (I was so hungry and cold I was considering not even asking about the oil used to fry the potatoes) and tea. However, when I checked out the menu I discovered I could order a jacket potato with baked beans! They also were offering mulled, hot cider by the half pint. The potato came with a salad, a nice surprise, with some suspiciously creamy topping (I later discovered while perusing a grocery store several bottles of “Salad Cream”. I didn’t know it would come with it and tried to eat around it. After a long, chilly walk in the wind, this we such a welcome find! I was delighted to find the a jacket potato is just a roasted potato and the option of having it served filled with baked beans, no butter, is an awesome gluten-free vegan option!

The next day found me enjoying seeing artifacts I’d studied in college at the British Museum.

After wandering around admiring and photographing Greek marbles, Egyptian artifacts and mummies, and much more, all amidst many school groups, of varying ages, I was worn out. I decided the quietest place would be the restaurant at the top of the rotunda, where I again hoped for at least something simple like olives and a glass of wine. What I was delighted to find on the menu was a vegan, gluten-free salad made with saffron roasted cauliflower, slivered almonds, sultanas, thinly sliced green onions, and marinated cipollini onions. I had a small glass of wine and totally enjoyed this light, tasty lunch.

On the next day we set out to explore the Tate Modern, after which we were in need of lunch and were happy to find a Crussh nearby. They were out of the vegan noodle soup option, I was sorry to say, and they ended up having only one thing we could order, an aubergine ratatouille over brown rice, with the option of fresh herbs and seeds on top, with no cream drizzle. The fresh herbs turned out to be cilantro and the seeds sunflower, but it was surprisingly tasty despite my worry that the flavors would not compliment each other.

The two days were spent at Mozilla Festival 2014. A vegan lunch option was offered, which I had the first day. It was really a carb fest (filo dough based tart, quinoa/bulgar salad, orzo salad – all tasty, but all carby) that left me longing for something heartier. On Saturday we went to Wagamama for dinner, which is known to be very accommodating to special diets. There was a soup on the menu that was already vegan & gluten-free, which Christie had. I was in the mood for udon, but all the dishes on the menu involved meat, they offered to make a vegetarian dish with egg-containing soba noodles with the udon and the result was incredibly satisfying and delicious. We also had some edamame with a garlic chilie salt and I ordered dumplings, which were really just alright but it was nice to have dumplings.

Lunch options at MozFest were the same on Sunday, so at lunchtime I went back over to get take-away. Christie had the same coconut milk-based soup and I decided to try their warm tofu salad, which was topped with fresh red chilies, fried tofu, tempura eggplant, and cashews on a bed of romaine leaves (I wished they’d been chopped up a bit). The salad was very tasty.

On Monday our day included a walk along the north bank of the Thames. Our lunch was a picnic enjoyed on some stairs in the sun and wind. We picked up an assortment of food and a Little Wait Rose. We selected some roasted, marinated artichoke hearts, hummus, dolmas, crisps, sparkling water, and a wheat-berry & bean salad for me. I regret not getting a photo, we ate everything too quickly. I did snap a shot of an impulsively purchased cocktail in a can… it tasted about as good as you’d expect it to.

On Tuesday we packed up a picnic lunch of jacket potatoes, sautéed cabbage, hummus, and a can of baked beans and made our way by train out to see Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing (AMAZING). We had a break of CoYo yogurt with an oat-based, gluten-free meusli we’d found at Whole Foods and tea at mid-day followed by a “tea” of the potatoes, cabbage, hummus, and baked beans. We were grateful the catering staff at Bletchley didn’t mind our eating in their dining area. We’d likely would have been able to get the potato & beans option in the cafe found in Hut 4, but we’d missed their open time for serving hot food.

As the museum closed up a friendly volunteer suggested the Eight Belles Pub, which was a short walk from the park as a nice way to kill time until our train back to London. We were delighted to discover a tasty English cider, Thatcher’s, and were lucky enough to get the first batch of chips fried up in freshly changed oil. There is no picture of the chips, we ate them as quickly as we could given how hot they were!

We spent a damp day visiting VX near the King’s Cross tube station, I left them with stickers brought from Herbivore and Food Fight, and we picked up some badges, stickers and a patch. We also picked up something special, food related, but it is a gift so I’ll post about it after we’ve given it to the recipients.

From there we made our way to the markets in Camden Town (Locks and Stables  Markets). We were totally delighted to find Cookies & Scream, all vegan AND gluten-free, while exploring the endless maze of stalls that make up the markets. Christie had an espresso shake and I had a cup of tea. We also got an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie (Christie) and a sticky plum & almond cake (me) to go. We had these the following day and we each found our respective treat to be awesome!

We eventually had lunch at InSpiral Cafe which was disappointingly uninspired, but we were happy to be served warm (mostly…) vegan food with a gluten-free option. Christie ordered the full breakfast fry up, however, making it gluten-free meant no toast, no sausage, and no house-made baked beans. I’d ordered rye toast with baked beans; they were just okay, not bad just, again, uninspired.

On our last day I went on a tea procurement trip and in the afternoon we finally explored a nearby street market that happened every day. I was glad we finally made it, but a little sad too, since there were several stalls with great fresh produce for incredibly cheap. I ended up buying all of this for 1 pound, 20 pence ($.192 USD) and made us dinner as well as food to take on our long journey home.

On the flight home I was served a meal with a salad (no dressing), roll with margarine, crackers, herbed tofu on a bed of sun-dried potatoes with a wild-rice blend and mushy, minted peas. There was also another roll with lettuce, tomato & celery slices, which was made tastier with one of the avocados from the market the day before. I was also served a snack of grapes and a “Tangy Tomato and Chickpea” Posh Wrap from Monty’s Bakehouse, which was pretty darn tasty.

Being an Open Letter to New Seasons Market:

Dear New Seasons Market,

I’ve decided to make this letter to you public as it is too long to put on a comment card. I’ve already filled out one comment card and have not yet heard back, I’ve seen minimal response to my complaints on social media either, so I decided to write it all out. While this might be a fairly specific complaint to the Portland Metro area, posting this publicly may provide ideas for others to use when reaching out to local businesses when they make changes that impact food safety and increase prices for vegans to match animal flesh costs.

I want you to know that we’re fans, really. We get good produce, friendly service, and a nice selection of vegan products. You’re even a favorite, inexpensive date night; we come, get a Hot Wok, bring a small game, grab a drink and have dinner while playing a game in you common dining area.

We’re big fans of your Hot Woks. Over the years we’ve literally eaten hundreds of Hot Wok meals from various of your markets. We loved that we could pick out our veggies, add tofu, self-select noodles, add hot sauce, ginger, and garlic. We’d tell you the sauce and generally it meant a generous dinner (great for days when I’m famished from teaching yoga or gardening) of healthy veggies that were nicely cooked.

Once or twice we got an overcook wok, or one with too much sauce, but on the whole they were all great.

Now you’ve changed it all and I really think it is not for the better from a customer’s perspective.

First complaint: Subsidizing Cruelty

In the past:  Cubed tofu used to be available with all the other veggies. A Basic Bowl, with tofu I’d selected, was one cost and if you wanted animal flesh it could be added while cooking for an additional cost.

Now:  You have to pay the same amount for tofu as animal flesh and it is added at the cooking line, by the cooks, not the customer.

Issue:  There is no way cubed tofu brings up the cost as much as animal flesh does. By now asking for us to pay the same for adding “protein”, it means that those customers ordering only plant-based foods are now helping subsidize your cost for people who have requested animal flesh in their dishes.

Second Complaint: Food Safety

In the past:  The customer picked everything out that went into the bowl: veggies, garlic, ginger, onions, tofu, and noodles. Only sauce was added by the cook.

Now:  The customer points at things and goes back and forth about how much they want of each thing, which takes a lot longer. The “protein”, noodles, or rice are added by the cooks.

Issue: In the past couple of weeks we’ve decided to get Hot Woks twice, this is actually pretty normal for us. In one incident, because I didn’t put the noodles on and the line cook at Mountain Park didn’t pay attention, my wok was served to me with non-vegan noodles (yakisoba) instead of the buckwheat soba I’d requested (and was marked on the ticket correctly). So we had to start all over with the conversation about what veggies to get, etc. The order was comped since I now extended the wait for taking home our dinner the addition 15-20 minutes it took to make a new one.

I have a larger concern related to the noodles now being added by the cooks: my wife is gluten-free and if she was in a hurry, getting a take-out order (so not as easy to see as on a plate) and didn’t happen to catch a mistake where wheat noodles had gone in instead of rice, she’d be sick for days.

Which brings me to the chicken I found while eating out at your Cedar Mills store last night. I was well into eating my wok meal when I started to pop a “broken” cube of tofu into my mouth. Luckily I stopped suddenly because it didn’t look quite the right color. That’s when I realized there was chicken in my meal. Which made me feel pretty queasy in general and unable to eat anything else.

I took it back to the Hot Wok station, the folks on duty were very sympathetic and understanding. In addition to being comped the cost of a meal I couldn’t eat anymore of, I was also give $20 in gift cards. Seriously, your staff are always awesome.

However, that does not alleviate my serious concerns about your cooking area. What is going wrong that chicken ends up with tofu? Are different tongs ALWAYS being used so cross-contamination isn’t happening for either animal flesh/tofu as well as noodles where some contain wheat and/or animal products and one is gluten free. Really, you should have policy in place when you’re cooks are suddenly taking over what goes into an order.

Please be aware that before you changed to the process of New Seasons staff entirely controlling what goes into my order I’ve ended up with animal products in my order twice in as many weeks, in two different stores! This NEVER happened when I made up my wok bowl and presented it to be cooked & sauced. That’s literally hundreds of correct orders with no random animal products.

As a long time customer I’m very unhappy at your changes to the Hot Wok bar. You’ve taken away my control over what goes into our meals and immediately I started seeing serious issues of health and safety. I question cross-contamination even more than I did when customers self-selected bowl contents. I also strenuously object to helping you offset the cost of consumers of animal flesh by making a customer like me pay the same amount for tofu.

I really would like to see you make some changes:

1. Put the tofu back on the bar with the veggies and stop charging extra for it. This will also prevent cross-contamination with animal flesh behind the line either from flesh falling in with tofu or the same tongs being used indiscriminately for all “protein”.
2. More clearly label the different noodles. Your menu has “Yakisoba” and “Soba”, I actually get that a busy cook might get those confused thus giving a vegan noodles with animal products in them. Similarly, a strong policy of providing single tongs for each type of noodles thus preventing both cross-contamination of animal products and gluten, in the case of rice noodles.

Better yet, go back to the way you had it as it worked best for the customer.

Regards,
Sherri Koehler
Vegan

I already am a fan of products from So Delicious and that was before they gave me a great t-shirt at Vida Vegan Con last year. We buy two brands of vegan creamers because our opinions are pretty distinct and I prefer the plain variety from So Delicious. So you when someone from the company asked if I wanted to test some of their new products made with almond milk I was pretty excited.

Special arrangements were made so I’d be home the day the shipment, on dry ice, would be delivered. Two boxes, one containing new almond milk products, and the other filled with 5 pints of new almond milk ice cream and two boxes of dark chocolate covered almond milk ice cream bars.

First, let me say that we ate the bars pretty much immediately. The Mocha Almond Fudge, dipped in dark chocolate and covered with almonds, was a real fave. That said, the vanilla almond milk bars, also dipped in dark chocolate, were also delicious.

Honestly, they arrived while Christie was in Mountain View and it was a real challenge to not eat them all by myself. Christie, upon finishing the last one off, asked me, “When can I get this at the store.”

The five pints I saved to share with the current planning team for Open Source Bridge 2012. I figured we could end a meeting with a little ice cream party.

All Meetings are Better with Ice Cream!

The team dug into the pints:

Gimmie the Ice Cream!

We all went back and did our best to “test” the ice cream thoroughly.

Woohoo Ice Cream!

In the end, we were unable to finish all five pints off. We left them in the freezer for other folks at Collective Agency to enjoy.

We Couldn't Finish!

You can see that the Butter Pecan, Mocha Almond Fudge, and Cherry Amaretto were the big favorites. That isn’t to say that the chocolate and vanilla aren’t great, but we were just so full from all the other ice cream we couldn’t eat anymore!

So Delicious, thank you so much! You made our planning meeting awesome with ice cream. We can’t wait to our local store starts to stock this fantastic choice for dessert!

**Update: April 28, 2012*

This past weekend we spotted both pints and bars of the new Almond Milk ice cream at a couple New Seasons markets (Arbor Lodge and Mountain Park specifically). We’ve already consumed a box of the Mocha Almond Fudge bars!

Mocha Almond Joy!

Just before Vida Vegan Con I was contacted by Emily from PureFit asking if I’d like to try out some of their vegan nutrition bars. I told her I would since I occasionally have a bar before going to the gym or pool and sometimes if I’m running too late to get breakfast in the morning. Eventually a pack of bars came in the mail with one of each flavor bar to try out.

Peanut Buttery

They went up into the cupboard for a little while because I just hadn’t had a situation come up where I’d usually have a bar. Then along came the first morning of VegFest and I overslept! I was scheduled to volunteer at the membership booth for NWVeg both mornings of the event and I went flying out the door on the first morning, grabbing up a PureFit Peanut Butter Crunch  bar as I went.

Uniform texture, very smooth, but not pasty.

The bars are the kind with a smooth texture and consistency, I think that’s because they are based on a soy protein isolate. There’s little crunch bits, soy crisps, here and there. The bar was very peanut butter-y, a good thing in my book, and not overly sweet. I enjoyed it between processing waves of new members (hurrah!) during a very busy 4 hour shift. The bar kept me from being hungry until 1pm when I finally got to enjoy lunch from Homegrown Smoker.

Wish this had more of an almond flavor!

I had the Almond Crunch bar a couple of days later at my office, again as a breakfast stand in when I realized I was out of something. This time I found the bar a little too sweet for my taste and I’d prefer a more intensely almond flavor coming through. This bar also has the little soy crisps, which I like (and was happy to discover is a common feature in all the bars). The little crispy bits helped balance the sweetness. The peanut butter one was a real hit that I’d really hoped for more from this one besides just candy-bar-sweetness.

Sweet + Maple Intensity

Next up was the Granola Crunch bar and I have to say this one was the one I liked least. I did finish it, mostly because it also was my breakfast option that morning and I didn’t want to face my busy morning hungry. I found the maple flavor in this bar to be way too sweet and nearly artificial. It just overwhelmed the whole bar with overly intense, overly sweet maple flavor. Little soy crisps — check… but I just couldn’t get past the taste.

Mildly Sweet and Chocolaty!

After the sweetness of the Granola Crunch I was a little put off and worried the final two flavors would follow the “too sweet” route, particularly because I’d been told the Berry Almond Crunch was the sweetest of the bunch. However, these really have made a great, quick breakfast option and in on the next very busy morning I grabbed up the Chocolate Brownie bar on my way to the office. I was really pleased by the rich chocolate flavor of this bar and was happy it turned out to be much more mildly sweetened. It was really pretty satisfying.

Nice Berry Flavor!

I put off the Berry Almond Crunch because of the comment about it being the sweetest. I’m also very picky about berry flavoring in food; most times this flavor tastes way artificial to me. This bar turned out be far less sweet than I feared and had a pleasant berry and almond flavor. It faintly reminded me of mixing granola into yogurt. I found myself really enjoying the flavor of this last bar.

The Pros:

The bars totally kept me from getting hungry, cranky and less-than-functional. They were generally tasty and nice to eat; no pasty or stickiness about them. I like that I can get them on Amazon, where they work out to $2.05/bar — which isn’t bad (I have an Amazon Prime account, so for me a box of these would be shipped Second-Day for free). These ended up making a good breakfast on-the-go for me, which is probably how I’d most likely use them. I liked 3 of the flavors quite a bit, with the peanut butter being the leader and the berry second. I found the chocolate one very satisfying and could see having it as part of my lunch or to enjoy after a good workout.

The Cons:

Only in 3 shops in the Portland Metro area right now, and I stress “metro area” — they’re out in the burbs. I admit that I’m not a huge fan of the whole “soy protein isolate” approach. It is pretty seriously processed stuff and I tend toward the more “real food” approach, which is to say less processed and closer to a whole food. I found two of the flavors, the almond and the granola, to be far sweeter than I like for something that’s supposed to be an energy bar.

I’d also note that these shouldn’t be considered a low-calorie snack. Most are 200 or more calories and the peanut or almond ones have a fair bit of fat in them. That’s why I tended to put these as a good breakfast option, augmented with a little fresh fruit.

The “Cons” aside, I’d pick these bars up once in a while. I will certainly keep them in mind while travel as something I could pick up and take with me on long flights.

I appreciate PureFit giving me a chance to try them all out!

Pictures taken entirely with my DroidX phone, which didn’t always know how to handle close-up shots of shiny wrappers!

There’s a new sandwich shop in Stumptown and I popped in today to try out one of their sandwiches. Brass Tacks isn’t too far from our house and since I was working from home today, and hungry, it seemed like the perfect time.

This is an omni shop, so if you’re ordering vegan be sure to use the right side of the order form. There is an option to have smoked cashew cheese that is vegan. Also you get the fantastic choices of housemade seitan salami, herb roasted turkey, agave smoked ham, or beanballs. There’s even a gluten-free bread option. All the sauces are vegan as is the bread. The tomato jam is $1 extra; but it is deliciously worth it!

There’s a list of topping choices that invites you to pick as many as you want. It includes: red onions, lettuce, tomato, cucumber slices, pickles, pepperoncinis, mushrooms, black olives, shredded carrots, salt & pepper, jalepenos, or caramelized onions! You can also add avocado for a buck more.

Whew! All that and some crunchy potato chips. Although there’s four really tasty vegan sandwiches on the menu, I decided to do the made-to-order and got a sandwich on a cibatta that had garlic aioli, deli mustard, tomato jam, ham, turkey, cashew cheese, lettuce, red onion, shredded carrots, and pepperoncinis!

And wow, was it fantastic. So fantastic that I made sure to take a picture of it in the middle.

Check out the full menu over on Get Sconed’s blog. Her review and the coincidence of working from home today lead me down to try this out!

We’ll very certainly be back!

For the past two years the “Recipes for Health” section in the New York Times has included a feature on vegan recipes for Lent. I didn’t get around to trying any last year, but this year’s dishes really caught my eye. I have been surprised by the huge amount of oil these dishes call for, but I honestly think they can be made without that much added oil.

Tonight we decided to give the lead dish of the article a try: Baked Beans with Mint, Peppers and Tomatoes.

Really, this is a three-chilies dish when you look at the dried, hot chilie added to the simmering beans, the paprika, and the chopped sweet bell pepper. The result was really delicious. Perhaps I should have left it in the oven longer than the 45 minutes or so, but we were famished. Longer cooking would just let the peppers and onions cook down further; the beans were tender and perfect. Honestly, after dinner I found myself standing next to the Dutch oven eating spoonfuls of these delicious baked beans!

I made a few other changes to the recipe as written, and I’d like to make a few more. That said, I’ll post a final recipe of my variation some other time. Here’s a quick recap of my changes.

• We used pinto beans, we had them on hand.
• I didn’t have 2 medium yellow onions on hand so I used 1 yellow and 1 red
• I did NOT use the 1/4 cup of oil, I used only a spritz of spray, high-heat canola oil in the cast iron skillet
• I used Muir Glen’s diced, fire-roasted tomatoes; delicious flavor!
• To my horror I discovered we were out of sweet paprika, so I used sweet, smoked Spanish paprika instead. This added a really marvelous smokey note that went well with the fire-roasted tomatoes
• In fact, I added a full teaspoon more of the paprika.
• I added MORE mint, probably 3 tablespoons. If I’d had more fresh mint, I would have added it in. At least 1/4 to 1/3 cup of fresh chopped mint would be great.
• I think some fresh, chopped parsley would also be good.
• I didn’t add any salt, just that added by the canned tomato products. Easier to salt at table if needed.
• In the future I plan to serve these delicious beans on a bed of steamed kale, collards, or other greens.
• I might cut the onions, especially, and possibly the bell peppers, into a smaller dice so it cooks down more quickly into the sauce.

In honor of VeganMoFo, and bowing to the need to come up with a whole lot of vegan food to write about, here’s a review of a product I’ve come to love in 2010! I don’t have any ties to Butler Foods and wasn’t given a sample to try out. This review comes purely from my appreciation for a good product (well, and needing stuff to write about).

We don’t eat a lot of faux meats in general, but when we do we try to stick with some of those that are somewhat less processed. Once in a while we get some Tofurky slices and the occasional package of sausages from Field Roast. Aside from those, we stick with tofu, tempeh, and loads of beans.

Given those habits, I resisted falling in love with Soy Curls. At first they were my guilty pleasure when dining out. I particularly liked them on the sopes at Los Gorditos and in the fabulous chicken salad sub at DC Vegetarian. I assumed they were some kind of heavily processed product involving lots of “soy protein isolates” and such stuff. Really, the stuff I generally try to avoid, but the Soy Curls were so delicious that I thought once in a while, as a treat, it wasn’t so bad.

Then one day it happened. We were at Food Fight and there were packages of Soy Curls on the shelf. I stood there stunned at finding out that they are made from whole soybeans. Not an isolate in sight. Not organic, but specifically non-GMO soybeans.

So I bought some and into the pantry they went. Honestly, I kind of forgot about them for a little while. I didn’t try cooking with them until the evening we were in need of dinner after putting in several hours volunteering at VegFest. We were out of lots of our usual ingredients and didn’t have any beans made up. Out came the package of Soy Curls.

I first opted to saute them with some onions in a cast iron skillet. We added some BBQ sauce to the mix, piled the results onto a hunk of a Peace Bomb from Dave’s Killer Bread, and called it dinner. Wow, just wow.

From there we went for fajita style – a saute with bell peppers and onions. Piled the results into a corn tortilla. Wow, again!

Christie has found she likes them right out of the bag. Kind of jerky like.

I’ve started to experiment with soaking them in a quick marinade instead of just water. A recent fave involved a soak in a marinade of water, maple syrup, and a little tamari. Then a quick saute with some onions before serving on a bed of brown rice, peas and BBQ sauce. Giving them a quick, flavored soak just makes them all the more delicious.

If you’re in the Portland Metro area check into the store at Bob’s Red Mill. They carry packages of Soy Curls for a very good price. We picked up 5 packages last time we were there stocking up on 25-pound bags of chickpeas.

This week O’Reilly‘s Open Source Conference, or OSCON, is happening in town. There will be a few parties and events around town, but most of the action takes place at the Oregon Convention Center (OCC). I was lucky enough to win a ticket to all of the sessions from the Linux Fund and will be attending events most of the week. It is a great chance to talk to several companies about jobs as well as connect with other Open Source professionals.

I’m really excited, except for one thing… The OCC and the neighborhood around it is pretty lame as far as vegan options and good coffee go. In general the mediocre coffee issue and lack of interesting food options pretty much affects everyone, just for vegans it is somewhat of a hassle. The OCC itself is a pretty nice place to be, but the food/beverage issue requires some planning.

I did contact O’Reilly and asked abut vegan options. They said that there would be buffet lunches and I should be able to get something. This kind of response always leaves me personally a little dubious since food often isn’t labeled clearly and/or it means some hummus and pita. It also can quite often mean an assortment of raw veggies. All of those things aren’t bad, but sometimes I find I’m still hungry!

My awareness of this really played into what suggestions I made for the catering for Open Source Bridge. Yes, we had hummus & pita, but as part of a really nice mezza plate clearly marked as vegan. We also were sure to offer soy milk as an alternative to dairy milk as well as vegan cookies and doughnuts.

Anyway, back to this week and being a vegan at a big conference in the OCC. I can say that closer to Lloyd Center (a mall) there is a Chipotle, which is a vegan option if you stick with the black beans (the pintos are cooked in beef stock). A little further away on NE 15th is Blossoming Lotus which features a fantastic all vegan menu with many raw options.

Another option to finding something beyond the conference buffet is to take MAX across the river into downtown (free from the OCC) and check out a food cart. Since we get 90 minutes for the lunch break, this option is possible and is a lot of fun. If you walk 2 blocks west up Stark from the First & Oak stop there are 3 food carts with very tasty vegan options: Just Thai (will be closed this Monday & Tuesday – they offer a vegan Thai Iced Tea made with coconut milk – yum!), DC Vegetarian, and Sonny Bowl. There are also food carts (“pods”) at SW 5th & Stark and SW 10th & Alder. Many of the food carts in Portland have vegan options and offer excellent food.

That said, check out Stumptown Vegans for reviews of mostly all local places. They have a map on the site with restaurants indicated, including those food carts I mentioned, and it is a great resource for vegans in PDX. Also, just in time for OSCON, The Portland Vegan 100 a great list compiled for Try Vegan Week that mentions many, many tasty restaurants and dishes around town.

Really though, Christie and I are actually planning to bring a lot of food. We find that eating out all week tends to leave us feeling a little blah, so having food along really helps. This means that a recipe for my raw kale and garbanzo salad with pesto is forthcoming! We’re also making up some tofu salad and my garbanzo & nori salad (mock tuna-ish). I may even write down what I did for those and post recipes too!

I have two words for you.

Vegan. Marshmallows.

I kid you NOT. After the last debacle around vegan marshmallows made with Emes not-at-all-vegan Sure-Gel it has been kind of a lost junk food. That brown rice based fluff stuff was OK for making rice krispy treats, but it wasn’t something you could put on a stick and potentially light on fire. And the so-called strawberry version of the stuff? One bite and I took to referring to it as “Soylent Pink”.

This year Chicago Soy Dairy came launched Dandies marshmallows on the vegan world. Soft, squishy, tasty, able to be skewered upon a stick, stuck into fire, and ignited!! Yes, real flames!

If you’re into that sort of thing.

I’ll be honest. I’ve kind of missed marshmallows. I haven’t had one in about 9 years and I was kind of nostalgic for a marshmallow toasted over a real fire. I’ve been reading blog posts and tweets galore about Dandies so when we were by Food Fight this past Saturday we picked up a bag to take to a birthday party, with a campfire, that evening.

We pulled out our fancy marshmallows, spent several minutes explaining that “regular” marshmallows are made with gelatin, listening to the smart-ass jokes (these seem to nearly always ensue when omnivores feel defensive about their food choices, but want to be polite), building a fire, letting it die down enough, and waiting for the birthday girl to find us something stick like.

The only thing that would have improved the experience is a longer stick. I’m not one who goes for the charcoal effect. Someone else was delighted to discover that the vegan marshmallows light on fire just like the “real thing”. I grew out of that and generally prefer a long, slow, methodical toast to golden brown.

The bamboo skewers were just too short for this approach without seriously scorching my fingers (worse). However, the result I could manage before the heat drove me back was very satisfyingly bubbly, lightly toasted, and gooey on the inside! I so look forward to trying this out with some dark chocolate, graham crackers and a better stick!