Currently viewing the tag: "domestic travel"
Nothing will settle me into a day of auto/train/plane travel than a hearty breakfast. And there was still time to squeeze in another stop in Atlanta. Breakfast would be served at Stone Soup Kitchen, yet another bustling breakfast spot in the hip Grant Park area.
Stone Soup Kitchen offeres patrons a menu with vegan dishes clearly marked. Thank you for this, Stone Kitchen! They also offered me vegan butter for my delicious Blueberry Corn Meal Flapjacks, made with soy yogurt and my friend Bob Mills’ gluten-free flour. Finally, a meal that isn’t predominantly constructed and bound by gluten! I am ashamed to say that I ate 4 out of 5 of these darlings… Ashamed, because trip s like this make me feel like Audrey in National Lampoon’s European Vacation. It’s ok. With my entire day tied up in some kind of transport machine, it was the last of my gluttonous mission.
It was time to say goodbye to the 7-lane north and south ping-pong of my Hotlanta excursion, time to say goodbye to Southern drawls, time to say goodbye to the obscenely ugly, bright purple-blue Hyundai Accent. And with easy-on/easy-off interstate access around the block from Stone Soup Kitchen, I managed to return my vehicle to the airport 3 days later on the exact minute of my pick-up. Stick a fork in me, I am done!
Here are some other non-food sights:
Cornelia, Georgia is home of the Big Red Apple, a bright, sweet fruit in a salad of the Gods. Why the apple? Pardon the Wiki paraphrase: The embrace of apple production in the 1920′s saved the area from the evil boll weevil who munched the heck out of the state’s cotton fields and pushed rural folk to the bigger cities.
The town was empty, save for an awesome old couple taking pictures of the apple.
I past this impressive auto salvage castle on Interstate 365 on the way to Cornelia. I thought I’d stop in and take some pictures on the way back. The friendly white-bearded proprietor let me know this was a very common occurrence. The elaborate auto salvage “theme park,” lined by a stacked-car fence, is visited often. An area college’s photography class does field trips there.
I had free roam to the expansive property, but I wasn’t going to stay long. For a million reasons. The eerie feel of the place began to make me feel claustrophobic. All of these vehicles were destroyed and they still seemed angry about it.
But I had to take a closer look at these buses. These were like the ones that got thrown at Superman.
School buses in fetal position.
If cars had a hell, this would be it.
I saw a billboard for Cinderella’s Closet, a pageant shop, and knew I had to capture some of the color. I was disappointed that the gaudiest dresses were bagged up. The place had two mini-stages with cat walks.
Bad taste for every age!
Back at the hotel I spied these two little kitties on top of the dumpster. I watched them intently for a few minutes, missing my little buddies back in New York.
Day 3 and another itinerary of food! It all starts at The Cup, which offers a daily vegan cupcake selection. The cafe is amidst a cluster of shops within a city of brand new high rises. Had I not checked their updated cupcake schedule on their blog and had my tummy tempted with Thursday’s delight: Vegan red velvet cupcakes.
This gorgeous little thing was not so much a red velvet; I will call it peach velvet, being here in the ATL. I don’t know that I know what a red velvet cake tastes like, to be honest, having gone vegan well before I knew a thing about baking or desserts beyond Drake’s and Hostess. But this seemed subtle, free of cocoa taste but in a good way. It highlighted the perfect sweetness of the frosting.
Some Yelpers mentioned The Cup’s cakes being a bit dry, but that was not the case at all. The exterior of the cake was a little overcooked and had crunchy-ish skin. But once inside that skin, the cake was moist and springy.
And because I feel like Instagram is made for pictures of cupcakes, here is my favorite shot.
It was time for lunch at Home grown, home of an award-winning vegan Sloppy Joe. This cute breakfast hot spot was bustling with down home folk with a welcoming Southern hospitality. The warm staff treated guests like family. Is that that Southern Hospitality I’ve heard about?
The Sloppy Joe was most certainly sloppy! I ate it with a fork and knife, diving into my steamed collards now and again to cleanse my palate… And then I start again like it was the first bite. The barbecue sauce was sweet, sweet, sweet! I wished I had some saltiness on the plate to balance it out. I wasn’t 100% sure the cornbread was vegan but it would have helped counter the sauce.
In the back of the cafe was the garden, the source of many of their veggies. I took a quick walk through it to bask in the warm, southern sun.
Ok, I waited as long as I could to head to Cafe Sunflower, a high-end yuppie vegetarian eatery with a stellar reputation. I was steering towards down home meals most of my visit but it seemed foolish to pass this place up. My final dinner in Atlanta. Unfortunately the lighting inside the restaurant took away from the pictures below…
Fried green tomatoes! Delectable. This tower of fried goodness sat in a drizzled grid of chive oil and a balsamic reduction, held together by layers of hummus. The chive oil and balsamic was divine, but the hummus took away from the crispiness of the breading. And breading is tough to keep crisp when it surrounds such a moist vegetable fruit.
The entree: Grilled Coconut Polenta Napoleon– artichoke hearts, portabella mushrooms, tofu, mock ham, julienne vegetables with ginger peach coulis. The coulis was so good. I could have had a whole glass of it. It was perfect with the polenta layers. I ate the tall Napoleon in sections as it was tough to cut through. This made it seem like I had two amazing, different dishes.
This veggie-heavy entree was so yummy. I don’t think it need the mock ham at all. In fact, I pushed it aside.
I had to get a slice of their Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake to go. Here I was thinking I’d have it for a morning slice.. but no. I dove in as soon as I got back to the hotel. It was probably the best slice of vegan chocolate cake since I had Santosha‘s chocolate cake back in the 1990′s. That says quite a lot!
Thanks, Atlanta, for another delicious day. Tomorrow I head back to New York!
What better excursion can one take on a day honoring our Founding Fathers than one to the city where our independence was organized and our government drafted? Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was time to head south on this blustery winter day to take in the blue sky and check some vegan eats off my growing list.
A sucker for themed posts, the vegan Philly Cheesesteak tour was born! With Genny G. as captain, we explored the best vegan cheesesteak options in a wham-bam afternoon.
A few notes: it was my intention to report on cheesesteaks only. There are a slew of eateries in Philly that offer a vegetarian version of their famous sandwich that has no cheese. These places were not our focus. I also hoped to keep vegan cheeses house-made. With several eateries filling the bill, our itinerary was set! We began at an eatery who’s tenure on my “to visit” list overruled the house-made cheese option: Blackbird Pizzeria.
Blackbird Pizzeria was an amazing place to start.
With scrumptious thin slices of Upton Natural‘s good stuff; greasy grilled onion, green peppers and mushrooms; and Daiya globs, Blackbird’s Seitan Cheesesteak looks, tastes and feels like an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. It was a dream fulilled.
With a couple of hours of driving under our belt, our appetites were ravenous. We bit too soon and burnt the roofs of our mouths. A textural reminder of the sammy that stayed with the both of us for the entire day. No big deal, however. The piping hot cheesesteak was worth the drive… and the burn.
Blackbird is all-vegan. What more do you want? Another vegan Philadelphia cheesesteak? Okay.
Pub on Passyunk East is a friendly corner pub with a super-friendly staff. We stopped in for their Seitan Cheesesteak with house-made vegan cheese.
The beer-based yeasty cheese sauce was packed with flavor. And their seitan pieces tender. A great effort in veganization! P.O.P.E. gets bar food right and the v-bombs on their omni menu is so very appreciated. They also have seitan wings, too!
The cheese was more like a thick gravy. It’s a salty, heavy dish. Nothing a beer can’t fix!
Vegan Tree has a lot of different things on its menu. From dumplings / bubble tea / sushi to burgers / pasta / fried broccoli! Had I not known I was there only for a vegan cheesesteak, I would have been a lot more confused!
Clearly they are also all-vegan!
Vegan Tree makes their own cheese. Yay! But the cheesesteak is that frozen texturized science meat stuff. The bun was real soft, merging with the sandwich’s innards. It was a good, quick bite–and having split the small sandwich we had room for another.
This sandwich is a Philly staple. I was glad to try Vegan Tree’s version, even though I would prefer another half of that Blackbird one!
What a cute space.
We didn’t hit Govinda’s Vegetarian this time around since I had already reported on them some time ago. They also offer a vegan cheesesteak in their to-go counter spot on South street. The feel of the ordering process seems most like the authentic experiences (as in a bit chaotic, involving a line and clear view of the grill), but the chunks of seitan need a bit of fine-tuning.
I was very much looking forward to trying Home Slice‘s cheesesteak out, especially since they made their own almond-based cheese. But unfortunately I overlooked the big, capital-lettered “CLOSED” on their Yelp review. Wah! There may have been other cheesesteaks with house-made vegan cheeses to report on, but they were not easily found. Burning daylight, we decided we had enough cheesesteak for the day. Even though I had some area Philly no-cheese-steaks on my list for back up: The Abbaye, Fergie’s (which no longer makes its house made tahini vegan cheese for its sammies, despite the menu online), Isabella Pizza, MiLah Vegetarian and Hip City Veg. Am I missing any good ones? Please let me know!
After all, everyone and their mom makes a cheesesteak in Philly!
Little Anthony’s is a pretty standard-seeming pizza parlor. Wood decor, a map of Italy on the wall, green/white/red, and an inviting counter with pizzeria-type guys (My definition of pizzeria guys: aimable, hard-working, Italian)… but they have a menu filled with vegan options! Vegan pizza… vegan heros (called submarines up here)… vegan stromboli… calzone… They’re also known to have a vegan lasagna on special. Staying about 10 minutes away, I knew I had to stop in for dinner.
My first bite was this fabulous chocolate chip blondie made by Angelina’s Vegan Baked Goods. The baker is the blogmaster of Living the Vegan Way. Boy, I gotta say that this blondie was absolutely special. As a seasoned vegan baked goods taster, this reigns high up there.
I decided on the calzone with their housemade meatball. It was huge! I could barely eat half of it. I found it satisfying but a bit too Daiya-filled. I wished there was some tofu ricotta to break up the glumps of Daiya. The meatball was tasty. A nice salty bite inside the tame dough and cheese. How amazing to be eating a vegan calzone in a traditional pizzeria!
Here is another shot of the awesome blondie I enjoyed. Wow again.
With the swanky Saratoga Springs just a short drive away, I decided to hit Johnny’s Gourmet Italian Ices, a homemade ice cream shoppe that makes several flavors of coconut-based ice creams for its discerning customers. The shoppe owner labels these flavors as “dairy-free” as the food ignorant still fear the v-word… and the zealot vegan types have a problem with the space once being a leather-making shop. Weird. I let him know that the v-word is the reason I was there… and there are many “normal” (ish) vegans. Haha.
Johnny (I’m assuming) was gracious and generous with samples. I tried the vanilla (the true test), chocolate mint, and the coconut cookie, which he advised against my buying as he was not satisfied with the texture. He switched the bin with his chocolate mint, a cold Andres candies taste that reminded me of my mom. In the end it was good ol’ vanilla and chocolate that I chose. And he gave me a discount on my double-scoop cone.
Creamy, flavorful and absolutely delicious. I was very impressed with his homemade stuff. The texture of both flavors was magnificent. The lick of the cone is the test. Does the lick push the ice cream off the cone (bad texture) or does it get creamy and smooth with the moisture of the tongue. Texture score! And flavor score!
On the way back to my car, I saw this place. A real gelato shop with dairy-free flavors including for fruit types and this (pixelated) banana peanut butter. I tried a sample and wished I had a bit more time in the area. Mmm.
Being tossed a couple of days to kill, I decided to spend my Rosh Hashanah out of the New York City area. Stricken with severe wanderlust at times, I need to get away once and awhile. I do this a lot. Ever since I got my first car, free time became a currency of adventure. I was often just driving away, enamored by “the road” and the set of skills that click on inside traversing the unknown. It’s the part of me that feels I was born in the wrong time. It’s the part of me that’s always hungry. It’s the part of me that enjoys time with myself fully, where I am free to chase my fancies… whether they be a vegan cupcake, a half-demolished building on the side of the road, or a location with a promising view of the sunset. Of course, I also do a food blog, fancy myself a bit of a photographer, and I love to drive. These forces are strong in me. Every once and a while I need new things to eat, new things to take pictures of, new air to breathe in. I’ve also never taken an Amtrak anywhere. So here it goes: My vegan excursion to the Empire State’s capitol: Albany, New York.
I’m planning a very extensive Amtrak trip this coming summer to hit the remaining 4 contiguous United States I’ve yet to see. I am pleased with the train-to-rental car travel so far. When I arrived in Albany I was ready to go.
Of course lunch was important after a long-ish train ride. And what better way to fuel up than with an all-you-can-eat taco buffet complete with barbecue tofu! That’s right, Bombers Burrito Bar in downtown Albany offers one delicious lunch special. Unlimited trips up to their taco spread complete with hard shell tacos, soft tortillas, lettuce, black bean, rice (not sure if it was vegan so I passed), salsa, green chilies, and their yummy barbecue tofu cubes.
The spread could have been a bit more vegan-friendly. Some more vegetables maybe… some grilled onion and peppers maybe. Or some housemade tofu sour cream, fresh cilantro and some housemade marinated seitan: cha-right. Now I am in dreamland.
Although I could have had a million tacos, I could only eat two and a half.
Thanks, Bombers, for a scrumptious start to my trip!
It was time to say goodbye to the west coast. Los Angeles and Las Vegas offered me an overwhelming selection of vegan eats, making the decision on what to cram into this short trip a bit overwhelming. I wanted to try to stick to all-vegan eateries, though CandyPenny and I agreed that sometimes an omni-eatery’s vegan menu items kick major butt, sometimes outshining an all-vegan dining option. Despite eating a lot in LA, there is so much we had to bypass. But digesting all of the amazing bites I had savored in the last 5 days, I knew I couldn’t leave without trying the award winning, Quarry Girl-recommended Vegan Reuben ay Locali in Hollywood.
We hoped Locali would be a quick morning excursion, a quick grab n’ get thee to the airport stop. With eastbound flights booked taking up the entire day, the sandwich would provide all-day sustenance, as I’d pack it nicely in my airtight to-go container, an important item to pack during food trips. (If you remember to bring it along with you to the restaurant, which I didn’t. Luckily California’s to-go containers are usually biodegradable, unlike most of the eateries of New York City, often in stark contrast to the establishment’s food and sustainability ideals.)
The gorgeous Reuben, in all its pink deli-sliced glory, was indeed an amazing sandwich and Locali, a unique vegetarian convenience stocked with some delectable treats: packaged vegan cookies, fresh-made cupcakes from Rising Hearts Bakery in Culver City and a wall of wines with pairing recommendations from their menu. But the excursion proved costly as I inadvertently locked car keys in the trunk, necessitating the services of a locksmith and a stressful dash to LAX with our nearing flight time looming. All is well that ends well I suppose. We made our flight with time to kill somehow and I had a huge sandwich to wean me back into the east coast.
Thank you, L.A., for all the amazing eats!
{The Getty Center}
I have just returned from a tremendous bout of traffic along U.S. Coastal Route 1. If I didn’t think that this was one of the most beautiful highways in the entire country, I’d probably be a bit more frustrated now. But a day of eating fried and hearty fare and I am cemented here dazed, trying to channel enough brain activity to complete this post. I’m going to be brief, as a picture is worth 10,000 words.
Today’s food highlights: Flore in Silver Lake for a spectacular brunch.
I got the Chicken & Waffles. Breaded and seared Gardein chicken cutlet and a thin banana waffle served with real maple syrup and Earth Balance with a side of gravy-smothered homefries.
Behold one fantastic dish. So, so salty, the maple syrup was oh so necessary. I was a member of the clean plate club.
I don’t usually like to eat things like Gardein (super-processed frozen patty type things), but every 3 or 4 years, sure.
For dessert, a lemon-berry cupcake. Adorable and so fine. The cake was light and spongey and the frosting was not cloyingly sweet or all shortening-ish.
The view of today, hazy and hot, from the Griffith Observatory.
Mohawk Bend is a huge restaurant, bar, and venue in Echo Park. They also have some amazing vegan dishes.
My choice, the Avo & Chips, beer-battered deep-fried avocado, side of fries, some horseradish slaw, and smoked paprika aioli. Deep fried avocado. What can be better?
Looking a bit closer.
CandyPenny‘s selection: Bangers & Mash. Amazing pub fare at an awesome space.
I think I need to fast when I get back to New York.
{Santa Monica Piers}
Vegan Reporting By Location
