Raw for lent Day 20-24:

Monday Day 20:

Just another day.  Mom is here, we went for a walk to Fosters to get her some coffee, then I came home and made a banana/strawberry/kale/hemp/maca/cacao/epic protein shake.  I used that italian style kale which has a stronger flavor than the regular stuff, but it was still cool.

We hit up Classic Treasures and saw some really nice pieces but nothing that will be my record table.  Replaced my roommate's bananas that my mom mistakenly ate. :)

Practiced for March 16th night show with the Jos.  Need to learn the words to all these darn songs!

Late lunch, cut up a cauliflower and had it with broccoli, watched some downtown abbey (still can't get into it), then met LY for dinner at Sage.  I had a tropical salad (arugula, avocado, cabbage, hearts of palm) which was tasty, but not as big as I remembered.  Maybe I just got spoiled by that ridiculous Atlanta place.

Came home and watched The Queen of Versailles, and weirdly, just felt bad for the lady because her children saw it best: David Siegel does not love her, or his kids.  He loves success.  Forget that.

Tuesday Day 21:

CHARLOTTE!

Mom and I hopped in the car around 10.  I fixed us green smoothies for breakfast (Kale, Parsley, Celery, Tomato, Orange Pepper, Lemon Juice), then went to Ikea, which is nicer than I thought it was. I actually really liked the aesthetic and would totally use their stuff if redoing a room in my house in the future.  I got a nightstand, bookshelf and a new rug.

Following Ikea, we went to South Park Mall and looked at all the expensive clothes at Hermes and Neiman Marcus. I grabbed an unsweetened Lemon Sage Lavender tea at Teavana for a little pick me up.
For dinner, we drove to Old Charlotte and hit up Luna's Living Kitchen.  Luna's is small but cozy and our waiter was new and kind of feckless, but nice enough and we got (most of) our food eventually.  We had:
Sprout It Out Salad - delicious, dressing wins my heart.
Divine Bowl - I didn't realize entrees came with a huge side salad with that bangin tahini dressing, but even so, the bowl was great.  Mimicks a thai style curry.
Lemon Wildberry cheesecake - by far the highlight of the meal.  This was the best raw cheesecake I've ever eaten.  My mother clearly agreed, because I have never in my life had to fight her for my share of dessert.  It was light, airy and very tart, just a dream.

We stopped at Concord Mills on the way home so I could outlet shop for some shoes and a new skirt, then arrived home, where my mom also expressed her newfound love for Hail Merry Macaroons and asked if I wanted one for a bedtime treat.

Wednesday Day 22:

I dropped mom off at airport then had my take out Lunasagna for Bfast!  This was probably the best choice, and one I should've just made but man, raw lasagna is such a cliche.  Theirs was flavorful and the mushrooms added a nice "meaty" texture to it that I dug.

Later in the day, after building one piece of Ikea furniture, I had some of that not-so-great anymore raw cheesecake from whole foods and a hail merry chocolate almond tart.  Super sweet tooth, I know.

I had a grapefruit for dinner before Pub Quiz, where I totally HOUSED the classical music round but it didn't matter because everything in the last round was impossible.  We got 3 right and managed 2nd place.  The boys were a little flighty for various reasons so I left early.

When I got home, I did mango/cashews for evening snack and watched some West Wing.

Thursday Day 23:

For Breakfast, I pounded some lemon cookies from Lunas, then cleaned the room a little before heading to the barn.  I lunged Jazz before the lesson (Supposed to start at 3) and we didn't mount until about 3:30, because at the last second I switched bay horses.  I do not love riding the one I ended up on, but he's still a good dude and easy enough.

On the way home, stopped at Earth Fare and bought a bunch of stuff.  Snack was guac and flax crackers.  I went to work at 8pm, and nobody was there.  Nobody was out either, so I went home to continue cleaning up.  About an hour later, I got a text from CB about hanging out, so I had some snap peas and kombucha, finished what I was doing and went to meet him at the Fed.  We stayed out pretty late, which was crazy given that I am sober, but it was still fun.

Friday Day 24:

Woke up and ate some more sugar snap peas before driving out to Fuquay to hang out with CB again.  Got done there just in the nick of time to house a little Guac and flax cracker before work, then headed to help out at Blu.

It got pretty busy and I definitely earned my salad.  After work, I went out and drank water at Surf club with friends.  Late night I ended up having a mango as a snack then hitting the hay.

Raw for Lent: Day 27-28 (Oklahoma and Lincoln)

Day 27:

I AM IN LOVE WITH MATTHEW KENNEY.

Can we talk about how in love I am? So I went to the Route 66 laundromat to get some clothes going, then went to the fancy shopping center where Matthew Kenney OKC is. And holy shit. I was not expecting the food to be as good as it was. Which is silly, but true. It was SO GOOD. I ordered first the black and white dumplings which are filled with some sort of kimchee creamy paste and served in coconut dehydrated wrappers and over a creamy miso sauce. Then I got the "lasagna" which was so filling I had to take a little home.

I killed some time by doing a little laundry and going for a jog, as well as wandering around the Penn mall. I drove around the rich area on a golf course, then found myself back at Claussen Curve for more Matthew Kenney! For dinner, I went ahead and ordered a dragon roll, which was fake sushi, the "tortellini" with creamed spinach and tira misu for dessert. I should've ordered dessert sooner. It was so good. My favorite thing from dinner was the tortellini...it was wrapped in the same coconut thingy with creamed spinach and a tomato-y sauce. Dessert was tira misu and it was divine. Lastly, everyone says that the restaurant is "expensive" but the appetizers are 6-9 dollars and entrees are 9-13 dollars. I think, especially given that it is all raw, this place is a STEAL.

Show was meh, and I don't want to talk about it. I basically packed up and left right after I played which is mad rude but there were only about 7 people there and they were obviously not vibing me and I was obviously not going to get any dollars.

Day 28:

Went to Matthew Kenney once more for lunch...got dumplings again and a salad this time...caesar, although in hindsight I should've chosen a salad that had actual veggies in it, instead of a salad made of romaine hearts and a false cheese and fake croutons. Directly from there I got on the road to Lincoln, NE. First off, while driving through Oklahoma, I saw a ton of what I perceived to be tornado-ettes, and by that I mean like, this close to turning into twisters. I could be wrong, though. Maybe it's just the wind whipping and the rain, but the clouds were like 30 feet off the ground and turning into little points and it was trippy.

So, I-35 doesn't go to Lincoln...and neither does any other respectable highway, so I got on Scenic 177. Let me tell you about scenic 177-- scenic is the right word. There is pretty much nothing there. I would drive like, 70 or 80 miles in cattle grazing pastures and corn fields, then through a town that resembled, more than anything, Mayberry USA, and I know that's funny coming from a North Carolinian who has actually been to Mt. Airy (the town on which Mayberry is based), but it's like...the real world versions of that...the towns have pretty much one or two streets and one of the five or six I passed through had a Dairy Queen, but that was pretty much the only chain I saw anywhere (and I am including gas stations). I was sort of uneased in the one town I did stop in (someplace in Kansas) and was glad I got gas just outside of OKC.

So I rolled up into Lincoln and after a minor hitch, found myself rolling in places to stay. I pulled out my copy of Eating the Dinosaur and waited on my friend Nate (Polaver, Fuchsia Minutia) porch for him for all of about...5 minutes. We went inside, hung out, met his unfriendly but ridiculously ugly-cute dog, then walked up to 12th street for Taco tuesday. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these tacos offer a vegan option for sauces like sour cream. In the middle of the heart land!

Following tacos, I went over to Duffy's to holler at my friend Ian (Machete Archive, Low Horse) who is a bartender there. Duffy's was kind of a shit show because of the super cheap PBR and the fact that it was UNL's spring break. I'm sure the NCAA Women's tourney wasn't the draw. So I had a water there and Ian suggested I try out O'Rourke's. Yes, it's that O'Rourke's, Kasher fans. So I went in, sidled up to the bar and got myself some agua...

The bar that O'Rourke's most resembles is The Green Room in Durham, NC. Now a lot of people think they know what it's like because of Bull Durham, but that's a different bar altogether. It's not terribly rough anymore, just a place that doesn't have any frills or patience for pretension. No dim lighting. The bar is kind of shitty and tore up, but they're not trying to hide that. The bathrooms are always clean and stocked, so it's clean enough for this guy. O'Rourke's had the same feel...no pretense, just alcohol and TVs and a little semi-enclosed smoking patio in case you don't want to go all the way outside. Very nice, O'Rourkes! While there, I ran into Saber (Machete Archive) and we shot the shit about movies and TV shows to watch (I have a whole list for when I get home!), then I walked home to Nate's and crashed out super hard, even though I was supposed to wait up for Ian. Oh well!

My computer is being a jerk, so pictures will have to come later.

Raw for Lent: Days 20-21 and TOUR!

Day 20: Monday

So I got up eaarly, around 7:30 AM and got on the road to New Orleans. I realized the time zone changes, but I was already up so I headed out to the road. A big shout out to Curt and Lauren who were as hospitable as

hospitable can be.

The drive was scenic and pretty to start with; in the mountains of Georgia. Atlanta looked lovely. I decided to pull off and try the "Raw Life" cafe in Montgomery, Alabama. It was in a small house in an obviously formerly residential neighborhood. When I walked in, nobody seemed to be around, but the place was

mostly tidy. There didn't appear to be a ton of options, so I surveyed what looked best and settled on the broccoli salad. It was chopped broccoli, peppers and onions in what tasted like garlic tahini dressing. It was tastier than I had anticipated it being and I ate it pretty fast.

Montgomery was just about the halfway point to NOLA. I continued on the journey, snacking on the rest of my kale chips, an apple, my last banana and my cherry tomatoes.

I arrived at the Mudlark about 2 hours early, so headed across town to what was supposed to be a NOLA juice bar/raw place, but was a hair salon. Grrr Happy Cow. I ended up going to the mediterranean place across the street called "Mona's" where I paid $5 for a salad that would probably fit in my hand. I even put my hand down for comparison. For the record, no, it wasn't a bowl.

The Mudlark is a pretty amazing building. It started as a green grocer in the 1800s and then added a frycook element. It has a sort of Pinhook meets theatre vibe. It is also decorated with very groovy handmade paper mache puppets, created and built by the building's owner Pandora Gastelum and her creative partner Amanda Stone. I attached a picture of my favorite-- naturally a horse, but there were tons of them hanging up in the room where I stayed. Some, namely the fruit bats, were a little creepier than others.

The show was pretty good but sparsely attended. I played with a band called Vio/Mire from RI/ME that had two cellos. The guy's voice was reminiscent of Conor Oberst's, and his lyrics also recalled Bright Eye's heavy handed metaphor. I have some video of a couple of songs. The singer/songwriter, Brendan, also had an AMAZING old school organ that was like, 36x30x12 and opened up in the back and used what seemed like accordion guts to make sounds.

Day 21: Tuesday

I had sort of fitful sleep in New Orleans, but woke up early to drive around some. Pandora, my gracious hostess, sent me to a juice bar called Satsuma that was actually operational, but was sadly out of cucumber. I ordered a "green drink" which was supposed to be Cucumber, Apple, Fennel, Kale, Lemon and Celery. I traded Carrot in for the cucumber, and it was good. I had been developing a starving headache, I think, and this quelled it some.

I drove around the french quarter and up the Esplanade then decided to skip the museums and just head to San Antonio. Louisiana was quickly gone and into Texas I rolled.

Texas is gorgeous. I mean, as a horsey person, even in the gatory/oily parts (btw, I totally should've gone to the "hold a baby gator" farm. oh, americana), the sheer vastness of the fields begs to be reconciled. You can just imagine galloping them. You can not imagine how long they go on the way they do. It's like the desert, with trees and grass.

Anyway, around 2:30 I rolled up into Houston, who, according to Happy Cow, has 3 raw restaurants! I drove to the first, The Vegan Cafe, whose entry on HC promised Raw options and delicious ones at that. First off, I waited around until about 3 (because the app doesn't have hours on it) and then the very nice lady told me that she just didn't get enough business for raw and stopped making it. So I punched in the next place, only a mile away! Pat Greer's Kitchen. Well, it was in a house. And the door was closed. So I drove on. Turns out, Pat Greer's open kitchen closes at 3. Boo. Finally, I just got frustrated and went to a My Fit Foods and bought Pat Greer's pre-packaged meals. I got a veggie burger meal and an "asian fusion" meal which was really a salad with some spices added. They were both alright. The burgers were a little heavy for me. Once I added cherry tomatoes to the salad, it was totally alright. I also snacked through the day on a Pur citrus bar, a fiber raw organic bar, some kumquats and an apple.

Finally, I arrived in San Antonio at around 6pm, to my friends Doug (former drummer of tEH vODAK and current drummer of the Baby Moons) and Amy's house that they recently purchased. It is SO CUTE. My first act after friendly hellos and whatnot was to get my dirty self into a shower. They ate dinner and I inhaled the rest of my salad from Pat Greer's, then we headed out to a bar called The Mix to meet up with my friend Lauel, from the band Mrs. Howl. We had a few drinks, then came home and are trying to crash out by 12:30. Hooray friends in San Antonio!

Raw for Lent: Day 10-12...or almost 1/4 the way.

Today I ate pretty okay... it was a dark and awful day so my yoga motivation kind of died again. I got up and had a banana and the rest of yesterday's kombucha. I got my motivation and spun up a mega-batch of green smoothie so I can eat tomorrow.

Green Smoothie:
1 pink lady apple
5 stalks kale
2 slicing tomatoes
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 cucumber
juice of 2 limes
juice of 2 lemons
2 carrots
1/2 c parsley
1/2 c cilantro

I'm not gonna lie, trying to kind of bite the Green Rx formula. Next time definitely some celery and grapes to sweeten a little. The citrus juices in here are a little bit souring, but it's not too bitter from the greens. :)

Work Friday was definitely a trial of my patience but I got off early, then stayed up way too late watching Puissance trials on Youtube. Oh my horse problem is really a problem.

I took the rest of the juice to work in the morning and also bought a pineapple at lunchtime, because drinking every meal is really not particularly fun. After work, I ran home and changed, then dashed over to Full Lotus for a salad with baby greens, spinach, cherry tomatoes, figs, sunflower seeds, pepitas, goji berries, sprouts and the same ACV/cayenne dressing. Clarissa dressed the salad so it would wilt a little before I ate it, which was lovely. I ended up getting off work crazy early and meeting up with Kitchen Island Show Print to trade dollars for a screen and drop my cardboard for their screening. After the lousy Duke/UNC game, I went home to a handful of almonds and a crash at about 11:30pm.

This morning I slept about 14 hours...body is still not getting quite what it needs. I'll probably have to pull out the Sun Warrior soon to make with the protein. I'll give you the straight dope. After about 10-12 days of raw a few things happen:

1. You are no longer hungry all the time.
I don't know if this is the official amount of time it takes for your stomach to unstretch or for me to hit a raw groove, but yeah. It's always around now that I'm like, "Hey girl, don't forget to put some calories inside you!"

2. The first sort of noticeable hit of weight loss occurs
After about 10 days of mega-cut back calories, practically no salt and no preservatives, your body just lets go of tons of bloat and water weight. I generally drop about 10 pounds by this time, about 5 of which are real weight and 5 of which are probably retained water because I eat tons of sodium usually. I'm not proud, but it's true.

3. The crabbies go away
When I say the crabbies, I mean you get the sort of raw high where you feel amazing mostly. I kicked this in the teeth by staying up until 4am Friday night/Saturday morning before a 15 hour workweek, but you get clearheaded and once you start something, it's easy to stay focused.

4. The CLEANSING.
The cleansing...you get all the narsty crap out of your intestines the first several days, then you're done, right? NOPE. All the toxins stored up in your skin and your glands and whatever else decide to work themselves out next, now that you're burning clean fuel. As a result, I usually break out BAD. Like, cystic boil style stuff. It is the worst, but then it is done and my skin gets to be amazing for about 3 months.

5. The first blah hits
Along with the weight loss and the zits and the yeah okay I'm generally with it, part of the loss of hunger is loss of appetite. A lot of the raw nut cheese recipes stop appealing to me around this time and my stomach starts to get sensitive. I tend to not want more than a few bites of any one thing and have to force myself through everything. This is the phase during which small fruits and veggies (bananas, kirby cukes, cherry tomatoes, pink lady apples) become super useful.



Anyways, I pulled out my emerald kale salad that I made Friday and about six bites in totally lost my taste for it. I decided to hit the Triangle Raw Foodists truck. They had already sold out of their "Pad Thai" which sounded really appealing to me, since if I had my druthers and the ability to properly metabolize carbohydrates, I would probably live off Thai noodle dishes. The TuNOT nori rolls are good but a little rich for me. I kind of hate that all raw food people make everything with tons of nuts and oil, making everything kind of hard to swallow and fatty. Is it crazy that this year I am craving mostly whole raw fruits and veggies, less mixed together? Everything tastes so good on its own... Anyway, I also got their banana cream tart something or others and those were to die for. I think I probably just like anything sweet, but I think raw food definitely translates more easily into desserts. Fatty and oily and sweet are partners in crime.

Now I'm doing some late night laundry and watching Monk. I'm going to have to put away the rest of the kale salad and instead eat some golden cherry tomatoes and maybe some nuts if I can convince myself to eat them.

I'm considering ordering the Dr. Cow Tree Nut Sampler as a fast easy snack to have available. Does anyone know how long they keep in the refrigerator, or if there are any that are just not worth buying? It has been probably 15 years since I've had any cheese at all.

Also, any advice about how to help your skin not be a crazy volcano is appreciated. :)

Raw for Lent: Day 5!

So this morning I attempted to get up for yoga...but the bronchitis is keeping me up at night and leaves me feeling lazy and less than excited about standing in a veritable incubator, so I will start the yoga back up tomorrow morning. Pinky sworn.

Instead, I ventured to Ninth Street to check out Full Lotus, the new raw juice bar and cafe. At first the owner didn't totally understand...juice, yes please, but also ANYTHING THAT IS NOT WHAT I EAT EVERY DAY. I ended up getting a Green RX juice (cucumber, celery, parsley, kale, spinach, lemon, lime, ginger and green apple...maybe other stuff too!) which was really tasty as well as picking up some of Clarissa's Kale Chips and getting a salad with mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, goji berries, pepitas, sesame seeds, I think there were some sunflower seeds, bean sprouts, raisins and topped off with an ACV cayenne evoo dressing. It was tasty and kept me filledup...until about now when I went to Whole Foods Durham.
I hate to rant against my local Whole Foods, especially when I know the manager and a lot of people who work there and that they don't have as much space as Chapel Hill but MAN SERIOUSLY. I feel like the produce section is literally half the size. I know that it isn't, but it feels that way. I like the reorganization with more bulk, but now I have to wait until I'm in CH on Wednesday to score Macadamia nuts. What a pain. They do, like always, have some little gems you can't get at CH but at the moment, CH has a way better raw section so I think I'll be sticking to shopping there for a hot minute. Not that I really need to drop $13 on "chips" or whatever. With the amount of money I spend on crawkers and kale chips, it'd probably be worthwhile to just bite the bullet and buy a dehydrator.

In any case, I whipped up some fresh quacamole to eat with the Full Lotus chips and will be saving some for tomorrow when I make my first attempt at "walnut taco meat"...although the lettuce selection was also fairly dire and so will be eaten with celery sticks and romaine hearts.

So anyway, had some of Clarissa's Kale Chips, investigated the dehydrator (you can get one for 50 bucks, might be worthwhile) and then headed out to watch the Oscars with my friend Mississippi. Total fart fest, dominated by the Artist. Womp womp. Only upside? The return of hippie juice! (AKA, ACV and water at a bar)

Am home now, having some grapes, an avocado and half a grapefruit that looks like it's going to remain here until tomorrow morning when I will (hopefully) actually get up and go to the yoga. If not, I still have til tomorrow night for a class :)

Raw For Lent: Days 3-5

Day 3:

So Friday was actually an amazing day for me; I scarfed a banana then the whole band headed to my favorite museum (possibly in the world, now that they redid it) the MoMA, for an exhibit devoted EXCLUSIVELY to Picasso and guitars. After the museum, we stopped at Caravan of Dreams to pick up some vegan eats and live eats for me.
I ordered the live pizza and the nori salad sandwich, got a hot soup for my dad, as well as an avocado caesar and roasted veggies for my mom. Dork ordered a veggie burger and a salad. So, for those of you who followed my adventures last year, you may remember two things: 1 - I was hardcore craving bread by the time I got to NYC in 2010 and 2 - I got crazy fucking food poisoning at Pure food and wine. For those of you who have followed me longer, you'll know 2010 wasn't the first time I got food poisoning at Pure. This year,after eating this amazing pizza I literally said out loud, in the car with my mom "FUCK Pure food!" The pizza was amazing-- dehydrated chia crust, cherry tomato/garlic tomato sauce, pesto and cashew cream topped with cherry tomatoes, arugula, olives, sprouts and avocado. SO delicious that I'm considering getting a dehydrator. So my review: Caravan of Dreams. No other raw joint I've visited yet (except The Raw Choice lifestyle center, RIP!) has been worth your raw dollars. Also had a coconut mango pie that was just to die for.

Speaking of arugula, before the raw set in, my dadtotally bought us a box of rugulah, the jewish pastry treat. I kept offering it to Sick who was like "uh, no I'm cool" thinking I meant the spicy green, not the tasty cookie. Apparently they go quick. I hope my dad puts the rest in the freezer for when I am next home.

We played a good show in Brooklyn, then came home and had an evening snack (an avocado for me, a plate of chinese food for Dork).

Day 4:
Before Philly I had the nori sandwich, which was not quite as delicious as the pizza, but the chia onion bread totally made up for any topping shortcomings. My mom, as a going-away-good-luck present cut me up what I can only presume was an entire HEAD of iceberg lettuce, along with some radishes, cukes, string beans, broccoli and grape tomatoes and put it into a big freezer bag. You will laugh, but I carted that shit all over Philadelphia. I put it in the crisper of three separate punk houses. I snacked on it before load in. I snacked on it for breakfast. Aside from that sandwich, it was pretty much all I ate, and I'm cool with that.

Day 5:
I spent most of the day grazing on th rest of the salad my mom made for me. We stopped in DC (which was torture, since it was Asylum's vegan brunch!) and went to an asian restaurant where I got a salad (boring!) and drank water while we visited my awesome friend Chrissy. She just moved to a sweet apartment that's like, a 2 minute walk from the main drag of Adams Morgan and is apparently trying every ethiopian restaurant on the street so that when I come back after lent, we can get the very best. Hooray!

We rolled into dirty Durham at around 11:00, unloaded, dropped by my work so I could pick up a schedule (and found out that of course, I'm working St. Patty's Day) then came home where dork and I ate the only thing we each had in the fridge: KIMCHI! I just topped it off with a handful of almonds and am just about ready to go to sleep.

Sorry that this blog has been so foodcentric at first; most of the day-to-day ramblings are covered (or will be) in the band blog over at http://pinkflag.blog.com :)

Mom and Dad's culinary tour, Twinkie Cupcakes, Rue Cler

So my parents made arrangements to come down this weekend, and we had a blast.
First order ofbusiness was Duncan (and technically Joe) from HNMTF's joint birthday, which happened to be the same day my parents came to town. Ever the troupers, Mom and Dad helped me bake cupcakes to Duncan'sspecifications, and herequested, and Iquote "strawberry coconut...like those twinkie things, with the coconut, you know?"
Well, I do know. I can only imagine he's thinking about snowballs. And who, as a 10 year old, did not love snowballs. So I set to work. For the base, we made a hearty yellow cupcake. We let the cupcakes set while we had dinner at Dale's on 9th street. My parents did the chicken tikka, but I went old school with Channa Masala. I have to say, I know it's easy to make, but I'm a whore for someone else making me Channa Masala. When we got home, I whipped up a fresh tofu strawberry mousse (to be injected) and lastly, a lightly coconut flavored buttercream, then dyed some flaked coconut pink, rolled the cakes and garnished with strawberry slivers. The cupcakes (all 24) were eaten that night. Score!
The next day, we got up reasonably early and had lunch at the Thai Cafe down the street. I tried their eggplant red curry lunch special for the first time. It is definitely an acquired taste-- the texture of rice noodles in a curry sauce somehow feels wrong to me. My folks ended up going salad and salmon routes. They enjoyed it.
That afternoon we went and saw The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin's Facebook creation myth, which I thought was enjoyable, maybe not as good as his TV shows (although did anyone else see a hellofalot of Matt Albie happening in the "Mark Zuckerberg"?). A lot of other people hated it, but the opening scene's breakneck, trademark Sorkin dialogue had me from the get go. Monday night we hit up Sage Veg Cafe in Chapel Hill. They have added their Sabzhi to the regular menu now! Sabzhi is an herb stew flavored with dried lemon and containing beans, lentils and some sort of meat (traditionally lamb, but in the case of a vegetarian cafe, tempeh). It is served over rice and SO good. That's really all I can say about it. After dinner, we settled into a quick game of the awesome scrabble, then rest.
On Tuesday, we did a little furniture browsing, having gotten a jump on the day. We headed to Classic Treasures, Once and Again and Habitat to see if anyone had a decent small sized desk for me to work at. We found a beautiful used pedestal desk with an espresso stain that fits in very nicely. We hit up Mint for lunch,because my dad wanted to try it. We all know I would kill for some Lime & Basil Summer rolls in my life on the daily. The vegan offerings were pretty slim at the Mint Buffet, but I like lentil soup and love pakoras, so it ended up alright.

We saw Secretariat that afternoon, wandered around the mall and play

ed a little scrabble before the big event: Rue Cler. Oh, can I sing the praises of Rue Cler? I can, but first I will relay a story to you. I've been to Rue Cler before. I've had french fries and a mixed green salad. I've never thought of it in any particular way except a place I don't really eat but that seems pretty popular. When we showed up, with a reservation that I had confirmed twice, we had to wait. Like, a long time. They told me this was because someone wrote the reservation wrong in the book, but finally we were sat. I was kind of annoyed by the waiting ordeal, since my folks had been nice enough to concede to me which "fancy" restaurant we would go to (my dad loves Nana's and the Fairview) and this was not helping the Rue Cler case.

Fortunately, we were given a table and we immediately ordered drinks-- Shiraz for the folks and

a Triangle Imperial Amber for me, which is now my favorite Triangle Beer, but could be because I'm just on a huge Amber kick. The nice thing about the vegan prix fixe meal was that my parents were sort of able to eat parallel to me. My father ordered the regular frisee salad and my frisee salad with homemade vegan bacon, fries and vegan cheese (I am gonna call it out, omfg FYH!) croutons with a roasted shallot vinaigrette was THE BOMB. It was so good. I like salad, but this outdid salad. My dad even tried to convince me that his non-vegan frisee salad was actually the vegan one because mine looked better.

Next course was a remoulette (I think) basically a sweet-ish vegetable paste served with sesame crackers and an arugula salad. I liked this course a lot, flavor-wise, but I feel like its analogue, a pate dish, made more sense, since pate is rich and hard to eat in large amounts, whereas this stuff should've been given to me in a pint tub with a spoon.

Last course was a house made lentil sausage with a spinach and (very large, forgotten name) bean ragout. This was the course that astounded me. Mainly because, frankly, NOBODY else stepped up and made a protein. And these guys did. While the seitan texture wasn't perfect, the flavor was so good that it didn't matter at all. The proportions of the dish were right on. Just the right amount of spicy sausage for a forkful of soothing ragout. To be truthful, that ragout could easily have been a meal on its own, but the added protein made it feel like it was special and for us, not just a tossed together veggie plate of random sides.

After dinner my parents retired to the hotel to get ready to leave in the AM and I hit quiz. All in all, I think Rue Cler may have won my heart (and votes) tonight with their salad and main course. Oh, and their lighting is the jam.

BCVC: Caffe Beyu and Nosh

Dork and I were really excited to try the Nosh specials, but apparently they do not serve any of them at lunch, so sorry Nosh, you're getting skipped. I am not going back again after waiting in line for 15 minutes and getting nothing.

While I am wary of any place that misspells the word "cafe," I felt compelled to check out the 3 course meal at Caffe Beyu for BCVC. Dork and I headed over there on Friday for some eats.

We went in and were seated at a teensy tiny table, but whatever, I'm not looking to put together a puzzle, I just want to eat. They do have Brooklyn Brown on tap, which is a surefire way to my heart (I <3 Brooklyn Brewery!). Dork ordered a Mocha Stout from French Broad, and we each ordered the 3 course prix fixe.
The Gumbo, which was the draw for me, was tasty if a little bit thin. I suspect that it will be too spicy for some tastes, but for me it was welcome and lovely. The chunks of mushroom really made it for me. Dork was not quite so impressed, but I think her standards are higher, her being from LA and all.

The entree was made up of baked apples and sweet potatoes, a walnut-craisin wild rice blend, a couple of baked artichokes and bathed in a balsamic reduction. If that sounds like it would be overly sweet, it is. Aside from the fact that I just straight up don't like sweet potatoes (Dork got to eat most of mine), the balsamic acidity did not help to cut the sweetness but rather compounded it. Then, the rice was interspersed with craisins (more sweetness). The artichoke, however, tasted great with the balsamic reduction and the rice. I appreciated the effort (it was pretty) but the chef just sort of...missed. Some kind of protein with some reduction of one of the sweet ingredients could have made this dish stellar instead of just okay.
The last dish was an avocado chocolate pudding, and it was the winner. The chocolate was rich and tasty and the raspberry sauce hidden at the bottom of the martini glass cut the chocolate nicely. The pudding was topped with coconut cream and mint, which offered another good complement to the richness. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw Eleni and Rob (Beloved Binge) and they mentioned they were coming from Rue Cler and hitting Beyu for dessert. If I were a little bit more of a chocolate fan, I would do the same. However, I recommend all chocoholic vegans to hit Beyu for that pudding because it's a fancy little treat.

I would like to shout out our server. I don't remember her name but she was really great; enthusiastic about the menu (especially hyped about the vegan challenge), made sure to drop off voting cards, explained all of the dishes and was friendly and attentive. Caffe Beyu, she is turning 21 this month, and was working Oct 8. Someone buy that lady a beverage!

On the flipside, when we were seated, we were told that we would not be charged an "entertainment fee" unless we stayed for more than 40 minutes. Considering that our food took more than 40 minutes to come out (and nobody can reasonably expect someone to down 3 courses in less than 40, including ordering) I think it's kind of shitty that we were charged for the entertainment, which honestly, detracted from my experience. I mean, I love live entertainment. I like going to rock shows or even having a live pianist at a nice restaurant. We were seated close to the jazz band and I had a half stack turned up to volume 7 during a dinner conversation. I don't want to eat dinner at a concert. That's why pretty much every venue that is worth its salt DOESNT sell food. I'm just griping, it was only $3, but it was just added to my bill and I would've been happier sitting further away from the band and actually able to talk to my dining companion. Just sayin'.

Eating Cabbage, eating at work.

So I worked on Saturday Night (Oct 2) and even though BCVC went into effect 10/1, the kick off party was 10/3, so as a sort of pre-kick off present, Chef Micah at the Federal let me try the BCVC pakoras a day early. The pakoras are really tasty, although Micah and I had a lengthy debate about what a pakora implies-- for me it is veggies rolled around in chickpea flour and deep fried. Later in the week, he conceded and now we have an agreement on delicious pakora goodness.So the pakoras at the Federal have received some heat from taste testers for their price. Theywere recently made cheaper, so nowthey are $9. We have also sold out of them pretty much every night they run, and I know for a fact that many of the people ordering them and enjoying them are not vegan, so get your butts over here, vegans! The chutneys are the star of the dish obviously. Micah put them in "stoplight" colors. Red is bombay red chutney, and the spiciest. Yellow is mango chutney and is milder. Green is a macadamia mint chutney and is more of a creamy sauce than a spicy chutney. You have to keep in mind that I am a huge whore for spicy food, though. I paired the Pakoras with the French Broad Rye Hopper (no longer on draft) but think the Great Divide Hoss Rye Lager would be a good complement (I like the flavor of rye with the mace and curry flavors). Now that the pakoras are priced at $9, I think they're areasonable dish (they're much higher class than your traditional curry house pakoras). I know that I may seem biased because I work at the Fed and am friends with Micah, but I am mostly friends with him because HE COOKS AMAZING VEGAN FOOD. Trust me, it was our bond during a trying time.

The Federal also is offering lime shortbread cookies that I got to go the other night. They are okay. I like shortbread cookies as much as the next person, but they're shortbread cookies.

I've also been trying to figure out new ways to use cabbage,

since it's cheap and all this eating out is not great for my budget (even more since when I'm eating, I want to drink something that is better than PBR). So anyway, I've been basically just stirfrying with tofu, eating it raw, puttin it on sandwiches. Does anyone have any good ideas for cabbage, the world's possibly most boring vegetable? I'm sick of using it as filler for soups (kinda too sweer) and if I make one more cabbage tofu scramble, I think the vegan police are gonna come pick me up. For the love of Isa Chandra, help!

Speaking of Isa Chandra, the kind of meh sandwich options got me thinking about my "ultimate" sandwich. Obviously, the "ultimate" is a toss up of the trifecta: Blossom Southern Seitan, Candle Cafe Cajun Seitan and Red Bamboo Soul Chicken. Yes, I know this is 3 versions of the same sandwich. It's SO GOOD. Honorable mention goes to anything faking a chicken parm or meatball sub. But, the other old standby of all vegan restaurants is, of course, the tofu club. Everyone has his or her version, and now kids, beer as vegan has one too!

Beer is Vegan Tofu Club Sammy

rye sourdough bread

marinated broiled tofu (Vcon recipe this time)

sliced roma tomato

mixed baby salad greens

lightlife smart bacon

vegenaise

celery salt (it's my secret ingredient).

The key is fresh bread, not overtoasting and stacking perfectly. Obviously, it's not the best sandwich I've ever made, (I think next time, I'd go with the lightlife tempeh bacon, sacrificing crunch for taste).

I'm also still working on a veggie burger recipe to be revealed at some point later in the year. It is still a trainwreck, though. Ideally, I'm looking for a grillable patty, instead of a fryer. We shall see! :)

BCVC IS IN EFFECT!

One of the greatest ideas to hit the city of Durham since the now-defunct but still beloved Soul Good: The Bull City Vegan Challenge. My friends Eleni (a tireless vegan crusader responsible for the documentary film Seeing Through The Fence as well as tons of vegan outreach) and Shirle' (a personal chef and shameless vegan sympathizer, responsible for the awesomeness that is the vegan brunch!) had an idea to challenge a whole bunch of local restaurants to run a vegan item for one month. They'd tell vegans and foodies about it. The public would vote.

The ladies got together and posted photos of all of the competing dishes. Some of them look fantastic. Some of them are going to get their asses handed to them. (Note to chefs for future reference: seriously, don't ever give a vegan "salad" as an option when you're trying to impress us; we eat a lot of salad. it's not special food. Ditto "vegetable plates." You can make a vegetable plate, but if you call it that, it just sounds uninspired.) Follow BCVC on twitter to get updates and such. And if you're a vegan who was planning to come to Durham ever, come to Durham in October! It'll be FUN!

And today, the competition begins. I actually kind of forgot that it was the 1st, but then I remembered after I had already agreed to go to Parker and Otis for lunch/dinner. I went in and ordered the challenge. I also got a Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray (because I have NY homesickness).

It should be mentioned that P&O is a lunch option for me most of the time because the #14 (white bean spread, onion, avocado, tomato and sprouts on sunflower) is vegan if you switch the sunflower bread for sourdough and pay a $2 surcharge to get a side salad instead of the slaw (ps P&O-- this is bullshit. you should just give people a non-mayotastic salad for free).

The special (which is like #49 or something crazy!) is made up of an artichoke spread (tastes like bean paste with artichoke processed in), carrots, roasted red peppers, red onions, spinach

on a panini pressed wheat and served with a sweet corn, grape tomato and red onion salad. First thought: this salad should be part of the regular menu. I know I've already griped about it, but I will continue to do so because I hope that Parker and Otis's owners (who seem cool and nice) will read this and consider offering some option besides cole slaw! The corn salad was really nice (I love corn though). The sandwich was good. The artichoke spread was tangy and tasty. However, there were some problems. The red peppers were a little too slimy and caused the sandwich to drip when I ate it, then comingled with the paste and caused it to slide out of the sandwich. I liked that there was spinach, a good choice of green that isn't distractingly crunchy, tough or bitter, but bitter enough to stand up to the strange flavor of artichoke. Ultimately, my trouble with the sandwich was balance. The artichoke is good, but I think it overpowered all the other stuff in there. The reason it's not getting my vote for the win? Because #14 is better. And on the menu all the time. And for that, P&O, I salute you.

BUT KEEP THE CORN SALAD PLS PLS PLS. Thanks.

Overall, I'd recommend hitting up Parker & Otis this month to let them know that we vegans appreciate their support and trying the sandwich-- if you're more of a fan of red peppers than I am, you might be more partial. They also have the best coffee in town (Seriously, their iced coffee is the jam) and a very healthy selection of upscale/gourmet foodstuffs and products, as well as a decent beer selection. Their porch is a nice place to waste an afternoon reading the paper, and either sandwich (although #14 gets the BIV stamp of approval) will satiate your hunger and probably force you to finish it even though you're not really hungry anymore :).

*it is also Vegan Month Of Food (vegan mofo!) I think? Every october, right? Vegans out there in veganbloggerland?

So in celebration of the (3rd) vegan mofo in which BIV has sort of participated, here's a recipe for my delicious brussels sprouts. Even brussels sprouts haters can get down with it. It's also fast, which is one of my favorite things about it.

You will need:

a bag of brussels sprouts (like 15-20, or more, or less, whatever!)

3 cloves garlic

~1 tsp rosemary

~1 tsp oregano

~2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Set your oven to 400 and let it preheat. In the meantime, clean your sprouts. To clean, I chop off the bottom and then peel away the outermost layer that's wilty or spotty or whatever. It will come right off once you've chopped the little root part off. Then cut in half lengthwise and drop into a bowl. After you've chopped all of them and dropped in the bowl, mince your garlic as small as you can get it (I find doing the chef knife smash 2-3 times, then finely chopping leaves you with the sort of chunky paste type thing you want). Drop your garlic in with the sprouts. Drizzle with oil. Rub the rosemary and oregano between your hands to break it up (I use fresh herbs at the end of their growing season. If using dry herbs, this works best. If using super fresh herbs, you may need to chop a little). Use water to get the remaining off your hands. Add salt and pepper (I use about 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper, but it's yr call-- taste and make sure it's salty enough!). Mix the bowl all together. Cover a cookie sheet in foil, then dump the sprouts and their herby garlic juice on it. Spread them so they're not all touching, but they don't have to be all face down or anything. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes (depends on size of sprouts). They'll get all caramelized and burnt at the tips and where there's large amounts of garlic and aromatic and awesome in the middles. Trust me. Oh, and if you're feeling cheeky, try adding some balsamic instead of water and cutting back the salt. Happy sprouting.

Pineapple Cake, Butternut Squash again and Lime & Basil

I haven't got much to say about my attempt to make this

cake, except that I used fresh pineapple. It came out pretty good. I guess my number one wish regarding this cake was that the cake itself was a little more pineapple-y. I also wished for a moister cake. Th

is had more the consistency of coffee cake, which is probably apparent from the photograph of the crumbled piece of cake I cut off.

http://priyaeasyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-pineapple-cake.html

I also returned to Butternut Squash in Chapel Hill with Dork. We ordered the fried tofu to start with, which was tasty. She got a club sandwich and I got a the hemp burger. I was not overly impressed with either sandwich, particularly the burger which was like, three inches in diameter and absolutely drowning in the bread and the amount of mustard on that bun. I think stir fry is the way to go there. We got a chocolate cake for dessert and it was pretty but I've reached a point where I'm off chocolate for good, I think.

Across the street from the shopping center that holds Butternut Squash is probably my favorite Chapel Hill restaurant at the moment: Lime & Basil.

LnB is a vietnamese/pan asian restaurant with a focus on the awesome. I usually just order starters (one or two) and can make a whole meal out of them. This most recent trip, I was with my parents who encouraged me to just order a whole bunch of things I'd hoped to try. Pictured are the fried veggie spring rolls, tofu summer rolls, tofu curry and the edge of my coconut juice. Not pictured is the tofu summer salad. The food is always pretty good, filling and light. I was not particularly taken with the curry, but I'm not a fan of potato in curry in general. Overall I'd recommend the place for a casual lunch or dinner. It's by no means fancy but definitely well priced and accommodating.

40 Days of Raw: Days 25-28

Day 25:
Headed into Manhattan for a "day o fun" following our tepid show in the bronx. We hunted for basses for Dork at Southside, Ludlow and First Flight. Thing I never knew: guitar shops that are pretty cool for guitars tend to stock only 8-10 basses at a time. Bleh. Sick got pancakes at Clinton St. Baking Company and said they were quite tasty. I talked Dork into getting the Soul Chicken sandwich at Red Bamboo (Since my last trip, it has haunted me in a way no sandwich has haunted me since the Cajun Seitan at Candle Cafe). She thoroughly enjoyed it. I hit up Quintessence and ordered the chips and dip (and oh, holy joy, having the mouth feel of something resembling a complex carb again was wonderful!) as well as the malai kofta, which I wolfed down directly after the guac and salsa. I also stopped off at One Lucky Duck, Pure food and wine's take out joint. I got a raw lasagna as well as a tira misu and a mallomar.

Here's where it gets itchy. On the drive back, I started to feel sick. Pungently sick to my stomach. At home, the girls ordered in NY pizza and I poked at my lasagna. It was totally unappealing since my stomach felt like it had been stabbed. I ended up eating the desserts (bless my sweet tooth) which were totally delicious. I got sick that night and was not right in the stomach until...well, I'm still working on it. I curled up in my mom's bed and drank water and hoped it would be over soon. I can only assume one of two things happened:

1 - I was allergic to a crucial ingredient in the malai kofta. I am slightly allergic to carrots, but not enough to cause that much distress without eating a whole bag of them.

2 - There was too much oil or something I am no longer used to eating in the meal.

I think 2 is more likely, since the thing I found least appealing about the faux lasagna was the overly generous cashew ricotta. I actually ended up eating just the zucchini, tomato and tomato sauce out of the layers and leaving the rest picked at, then moved onto a salad.

Day 26:
Woke up, still sick to the stomach. Watched Sick and Dork eat NY bagels. My mom packed a whole bunch up, which are now sitting in my freezer along with the whole foods veggie burgers for Easter. Yay bagels! I had a couple of pickles and a banana for breakfast, a banana for lunch, a banana for dinner (bananas are supposed to be binding). I drank kombucha as well, hoping to give my flora a fighting chance. The girls stopped off at Pat's for some cheesesteaks. Last time I was in town, I hit up Giana's for what was probably my first and last vegan cheesesteak.

On the way into Philly, we were stuck for about 2 hours in Camden, NJ because the road looked like the pictures I've added. No, that's not a lake, that's Hwy 30. We got to the Terrordome and played with some amazing bands, like Big Attack, The Teenage Whore Moans (it was unfortunately their last show, but they were GREAT!) and Joe Jack Talcum (dead milkmen omfG!). The show was really cool and we were happy to have a good night. We drove about 4 1/2 hours home before things started getting bad, so we pulled over, slept an hour until I peed in my pants a little then got back on the road. Home in Durham by 9:30am.

Day 27:
Still, sadly, not totally right in the stomach, I reached for another banana in the morning and then slept most of the day away. Finally at around 6, I got up the strength to attempt to put some real food in me. I did asparagus, two ways.

Way 1: Creamy asparagus soup, from Goneraw. I actually was not overly impressed by this recipe. Too much lime and just a little...off somehow.

Way 2: Noochy spars
This worked much better for me. I ran the asparagus under hot tap water (about 115*) for about a minute until they turned a little greener, then diced 'em up fine with some radishes. I poured some homemade balsamic vinaigrette over the top then sprinkled with some homemade parma. Can you say good? It was!

After getting a taste of parma again, I also pulled together some grated zucchini "pasta" with some evoo and parma to try and recreate a favorite comfort food (spinach noodles with margarine and parma. so simple, so tasty). It didn't quite hit the same high as my noochy spars, but it was pretty good.

Day 28:
Today, I was a bum and used more produce my mom gave me. Made a banana, flax seed and agave pudding for bfast, then snacked on an apple, some almonds, a yellow pepper and have some cut up broccoli sitting next to me now that might get bumped until the morning. So, until then...thanks for watching, bloggers. Someone asked me tonight what my first food out of the gate will be when I am done with my 100% raw challenge. Any suggestions? Those bagels in my freezer seem like a pretty good call right now...but even more so, I'm craving some Daiya (to be reviewed very soon...not enough testing completed!)

40 Days of Raw: Days 21-24

Haikus for the tour days

Day 21:
on the precipice
no groceries, I rely
on the salad bar
(romaine, cabbage, broccoli, beets, peppers, strawberries, cukes)

Day 22:
pretty much the same
as day 21 foodwise
but with raw crunch bar

Day 23:
Yabba pot is whack
except their salad dressing
which I hope was raw
(for all the pontificating the Yabba Pot website does, or used to do, since it appears to be down now, I was shocked that they didn't have a SINGLE raw item on the menu and had to ask for a salad)

Day 24:
Getting by on juice
my mom stocked the fridge for me
oh, produce delight!
(and my dad bought the awesome veggie burgers from Whole Foods Manhasset which is so sad for me :()

----

By the way, my band, Pink Flag is on tour which means limited time on the internet and also a lot less food. We practiced for our tour with The Shakes and Astronomers at a secret Chapel Hill show, and since, we've been to Wilmington NC and played with Cheap Girls; Arbutus, MD where we played and had a slumber party with the ADORABLE and totally worth checking out Math the Band; and played Bronx NY tonight on a last minute show with Empire, Two O'Clock Courage, The Kezners, Smile Why Not and Soho Violet.

Tomorrow I plan to hit Quintessence and/or Angelica Kitchen and/or Pure Food and wine OR SOMETHING YOU RECOMMEND. I also found out today that I've been cheating a little by drinking Odwalla smoothies, which I realized today are "flash pasteurized"...whoops. However, besides bananas and apples, they're pretty much the best calorie food I can get at rest stops. We're also going bassssss shopping! Yay!

I'll probably wait to update again until I get home from tour on Sunday. Still looking for NYC and Philly recs :)

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40 Days of Raw: Day 7 & 8, going out to eat, falling off the wagon.

So, after all my hard work on Tuesday, I went into work and asked a couple of my coworkers about how to make kimchi. No dice. So I've got a napa cabbage sitting in my fridge. In the meantime, I portioned out some cashews and dried figs for the workday. Of course, had pickles before I left, then worked, grabbed some kimchi and drifted to sleep.

Wednesday, still my most challenging day, I grabbed a new type of raw bar, called Go Raw. This was the flax seed kind and it tasted EXACTLY like an apricot fruit leather with some flax seeds in it. Either way, it tided me over until I got to my destination, Butternut Squash, to meet a friend for dinner. I went to BNS a few weeks before I decided to go raw, noted that they had a raw entree on their menu and bookmarked it in my mind to go back.

When I first walked in, I thought, wow, much nicer than I expected. I don't know why, but I was just expecting a sort of retro cafeteria feel, so I was surprised by the soft jazz, carpets, linen napkins and overall "classy" feel of the joint. I sat down the first time with a book and ordered the tomato basil soup and the thai seitan skewers, both pictured. The soup was complex and tangy with hints of sweetness, roasted garlic, basil and chunks of tomato. The skewers, less so. I found them to be a little tough, the sauce reminiscent of tahini, the rice underseasoned with just a hint of coconut flavor. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. So I went back.

This time, being raw, I ordered the mixed salad (which, to my dismay but not enough to totally stop me, contained corn and edamame beans). If I were NOT raw right now, I would eat the shit out of that salad, all the time. My dining companion ordered the tomato basil soup on my recc, but they ran out, and instead ate the butternut squash soup which she insisted was delicious. I am not a fan of squash, so I'll pass. For entrees, we ordered the BNS salad for her, and the raw plate for me. The BNS salad was reportedly quite tasty and looked beautiful. The raw plate was a decent showing but I took issue with a couple of points-- 1, do not claim to be serving a raw plate with a live dipping sauce if you're going to put it out with a trio made up of sour cream (!), hummus and an avocado dip. Avo dip, yay. Other two, kinda nay. That said, I may have dipped a cuke into some hummus. I can't help it, I haven't gotten around to sprouting my chickpeas yet!
2- If you're serving raw dipping stuff, don't shred the carrot. You can't dip shredded carrot. 3- Don't charge $12 for cruditee and sour cream. I won't even honor it with a picture. The search for a great raw meal out in the triangle continues.

After dinner, I moseyed to the Nightlight club in Chapel Hill with the intention of seeing Kevin Blechdom's new operetta with Neill Prewitt and Leslie Moon, entitled Exponential Death, USA. For the uninitiated, Kevin Blechdom is a performance artist whose primary mediums include electronic music, banjo playing, extended vocal technique and video accompaniment. This particular piece was made up of a story about a demented birdfaced psycho-killer's victims. These victims included the crocodile from Peter Pan, A retarded man bringing home turkey for his wife (that they would dip every morsel in gravy), a Swedish nun and a priest on vacation in America, a drug addict, a SLUT (this was probably the highlight of the evening, with Neill Prewitt prancing around in a leopard print dress holding a torso-sized cardboard vagina just below the hem), and a slew of horses. There were so many clever references to pornography, pop culture and so much laugh out loud goodness that I'm considering going to see it again, in Raleigh, on 3/3. If you read this blog and live in the Triangle, GO SEE THIS SHOW. I may need to skip because my friends Pretty and Nice are coming into town again and I wanna support their goodness (at the Local 506, 3/3).

For your listening/viewing pleasure, a little Kevin Blechdom:





and my favorite Blechdom Song...

NYC for Xmas!

So I headed home for Christmas and planned a whirlwind trip of NY and the surrounding areas.

First off.  I stopped in Richmond for snackiepoos on the way up, and shock shock, Harrison St Coffee was CLOSED.  Oh well, I hit Panda Veg.  I ordered the home style tofu, a spring roll and the sesame balls.  The tofu was not the tofu I'd had at the buffet, and I ended up throwing most of it in the trash, but can I expound for one moment on the joy and beauty that is sesame balls?  Okay

, so you have these little balls that get put

 in the deep fryer and expand to 3x their size.  Nothing amazing there.  What is amazing is the crispy, sesame seed coated outside, which yields to a hot, doughy, sticky bun with dense, molasses flavored peanut butter core.  I didn't want to eat all of them before I got out of Virginia, but I totally did.  They were fantastically delicious.

My first night, I had dinner at new restaurant Dirt Candy.  Dirt Candy is a very small restaurant on 9th ave, devoted to, as they 

say "leaving the 

vegetables to professionals."  A 3 person operation, it is a 

little snug, but uses that size issue to its advantage.  The front-of-house man is very helpful, 

charming and friendly.  He asked us and all parties seated after us if anyone at the table was vegan and made reccomendations on dishes accordingly.  The menu is very small-- 9 items total. We ordered everything on the menu except spinach soup and carrot risotto.  Here's how it went down:

The "snack" of jalapeno hush puppies was tasty, but I wish that chef

 Amanda Cohen had devised a more inventive way of combining the popcorn sized snacks with the perfect condiment that is maple butter.  If Cohen ever decides to make brunch, this would be the perfect thing to serve with, well, every breakfast item possible.  It would be ideal on waffles, pancakes and toast.  It does complement the puppies, but swabbing them across the butter is a little awkward.  I'd like to see a chef who seems interested in advanced techniques like Cohen try something like flash freezing the butter, then surrounding it with hush puppies.  

The star of this meal, as far as I was concerned, was the appetizer.  My father ordered the greek salad-- I didn't try it due to the cheese, but the

 portabello mousse.  Can we talk about this mousse for a moment?  Honestly, I was scared, but t

he waiter sold me.  My love for mushrooms can turn to hate very quickly, particularly when they are pureed, mixed with gelatin and served in futuristic style cubes.  BUT these totally scored.  The mousse tasted like mushrooms, almost more so than the thinly sliced pile that accompanied it on the plate.  The pear confit was a surprising

 burst of sweet that worked out.  The crostini

 added salt and a little crunch to what would otherwise be a mushy dish.  I really loved this.  I probably could've eaten two of them.  I kind of want to 

make portabello mousse squares for my friends, but I don't think they'd understand.  My mom ordered the regular garden salad, which looked pleasant but was really saved by the grapefruit

 pops.  The grapefruit pops are essentially grapefruit sections, coated in a hard candy shell.  They were divine and have resparked my interest in grapefruit brulee.  Hooray butane torches.

I went and saw Playing Dead and Autumn People at Mr Beery's in Farmingdale.  Playing Dead are friends of a friend who played the Stately on Labor Day Weekend.  They serve up radio friendly rock which holds echoes of local Long Island heroes 

Taking Back Sunday.  Autumn People are devoted psychadelic noise rockers.  I didn't expect to like their set as much as I did, but I really liked the show.  Fabian's voice is unexpected, the bass player can really write a bassline and their drummer managed to continue playing as feet, beer, instruments and band members came hurling at him and knocking over his drumkit.

The next day was Christmas, and for Christmas I made the I'm Fucking Hungry Fajitas for my main dish, and a slight variation on VWAV's Tuscan White Bean soup.  Add about 2 cups of spinach, then tell me how much you love me.  My family was, sadly, pretty wary, but my dad tried some and drank a whole lot of soup the next day.

I also made an apple-grapefruit pound cake.  I love pound cake.  It's very beautiful, but doesn't keep extremely well because it's so moist, and because the grapefruit on top starts to go bad.  Photo at right shows the Cake, and a slab cut off of it, for your delicious joy.  I did kind of nick and modify this recipe from my friend Rachel, so I'm going to share my changes with you.

Fruit Pound Cake

Cake:

1.5 C flour

1 C sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 C apple cider (or go half and half, cide and grapefruit juice)

1 Tbsp grapefruit zest

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp almond extract

Icing:

1/2 C shortening

1/2 C margarine

2 T apple cider vinegar

2-2 1/2 C powdered sugar

Grapefruit zest to taste

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a pan.  Mix all dry and wet ingredients separately, then mix together quickly, for no more than 2 minutes, then get it in the oven.  If you use a bread pan (to make a little loaf cake like me) it will need about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you use an 8x8 pan bake about 30 minutes. You can also double the recipe and make a big honkin' cake with two 8x8s.

While your cake is cooling and shortening and margarine are approaching room temp, peel and section a grapefruit.  Then you can mix the icing ingredients together, adding more sugar if it's too loose and more cider if it's too stiff.  Ice the cake as you would any other.  Part of the beauty of this cake is that you can sub in/out almost any fruit and be alright.

On the way home, I got to go to my favorite place in the world: Vegan Treats. 

(Warning, this post is about to become a love song)

How do I love vegan treats?  Let me count the ways.  Observe the look of almost-mindless ecstasy as I bite into the love of my life, the Berliner.  Oh, how I miss jelly donuts.

I have lots of pictures of this donut because i wanted to remebmer it forever, but I won't make you look at them.  I also got a slice of chocolate covered strawberry shortcake, two (yes I know) cinnamon buns and a couple of mini cakes to taste.  They were so pretty!  How could I resist?

The cinnamon buns were exactly as I remembered-- overbearingly rich, smothered in icing, soft and chewy...so totally effing wonderful.  I shared them with my bandmates and it got everyone's seal of approval.

I'm just going to leave off with photos of all the wonderful treats now, but I propose a question or a challenge-- does anyone have any *idea* how they get their icing so fluffy and wonderful?  I know transfats are involved and don't really care.  Most baked goods are not that healthy anyway, and a little transfat to make the difference between satisfying and I-will-eat-this-until-I-cannot-physically-swallow-any-more seems like a fair trade.  Maybe it's because my real dream in life is to have a Vegan Treats Satellite here in Durham.