How to Eat Well in a Non-Vegetarian Restaurant

I promised in my last post to show two more meals from the Christmas holidays. My very favorite item I have made so far is this:



All my other relatives had their meat-y, cheese-y dishes for breakfast on Christmas morning, but I made Chocolate Chip Brownie Waffles from Veganomicon for my mom and myself. These waffles are extremely decadent; they're the perfect treat for the best day of the year, Christmas morning. In all honesty, it tasted almost like I was having brownies for breakfast! I prepared heated a side of maple syrup for dipping, but the waffles tasted so perfect, I didn't even need to use the syrup. They tasted better without. And it figures, as I was trying to devise the perfect plating for my waffles and berries, my mom stood right next to me and made a better presentation without even trying. So here is her plate:



Again, these waffles are my favorite meal I have ever made, from Veganomicon or otherwise. Try them.

I wanted to use up leftovers before I departed from my aunt's house, so I had Chickpea Cutlets and Mushroom Gravy and steamed asparagus for breakfast one morning. It didn't feel weird at all to have a savory dish for breakfast.



And for some special announcements? In my last post, I said that I had something to tell all of you that would make you very jealous. Here goes:

I got an ICE CREAM MAKER for Christmas! I'll be making some fabulous ice cream treats next week, for sure. (I have to go grocery shopping again for that.) And guess what else I got for Christmas...?

A BELGIAN WAFFLE IRON! I am beyond excited to begin using these two new tools, but I'll have to wait until I go back to my dorm to use the waffle iron. It wouldn't fit in my family's car when we left my aunt's house. (The waffles pictured above were made with my uncle's heart-shaped waffle iron, which is way different from a Belgian one.) But let me tell you, I will be making many, many Chocolate Chip Brownie Waffles (as well as a carob version) next semester in my dorm room. I'm not sure that waffle irons are an approved appliance, but I don't care. I'm using it anyway because my school refuses to feed me well themselves. As far as Christmas gifts go, I also got a copy of Vegan Italiano, a cookbook by Donna Klein. No more lame Italian dishes for this vegan, oh no!

The second dish I wanted to share with you (we're not counting the leftovers) is a dish I tried at California Pizza Kitchen. A girl on the ppk forums works at California Pizza Kitchen and provided a list of vegan dishes and modifications to make menu items vegan. I tried the Vegetarian Pizza with Japanese Eggplant, without cheese, of course, and on Neopolitan dough.



I would recommend double-clicking on the picture above for a closer view. I love CPK's presentation! The pizza consists of broccolini, grilled Japanese eggplant, roasted corn, sliced red onions, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and tomato sauce.



While the pizza looks fabulous, I must say that the taste was not quite as good as I was expecting. It was the first time I ate broccolini, or baby broccoli, which I had been wanting to try for a long time. I made sure to pick off and devour all the little broccolinis on the pizza slices I didn't eat! So all in all, I wouldn't recommend going to California Pizza Kitchen just to try this pizza, but if you're being forced to dine out, you can at least be consoled that CPK is a place you can have a vegan meal.

I also dined at P. F. Chang's China Bistro, my absolute favorite (non-vegetarian) restaurant, this past week. My favorite dish there is the Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, made with a five-spice tofu that is out of this world. This visit, however, I chose to try something new. I opted for the Vegetarian Ma Po Tofu, which is made with crispy silken tofu and not the five-spice tofu. I was expecting extra-firm silken tofu, like the variety made by Mori Nu, but the tofu I was served was not like that. The flavor was right on, the tofu looked pretty, and I guess you could call the surface of the tofu "crispy"...but the texture of the tofu was just off! It was not very satisfying to chew on. The tofu was soft silken tofu! Next time I'm going back to the lettuce wraps. I didn't have my camera with me at the restaurant, but I found a picture on Flickr of ma po tofu made by Madhu Menon that looks like the P. F. Chang's dish:



The difference is that my ma po tofu was surrounded by perfectly steamed broccoli. Since I felt so bad about not getting a picture at P. F. Chang's, I treated myself to some Blazing Noodles with Vegetables & Tofu at Pei Wei Asian Diner and made sure to bring my camera.



Warning: This Is The Spiciest Dish On The Menu. Normally, I'm not too tolerant of spicy things, but as I've tried all the other vegetarian signature dishes at Pei Wei, it was time to try the Blazing Noodles, a concoction of tomato black pepper sauce, scallions, snap peas, carrots, cilantro, Thai basil, chow fun (rice) noodles, and tofu. I really like the texture of Pei Wei's tofu, though P. F. Chang's five-spice tofu is better, and it's always nice to be able to go to a restaurant and get a decent-sized serving of vegetables. My conclusion is that the Blazing Noodles is my favorite take on vegetables and tofu at Pei Wei; the flavor is worth the spiciness. I had to blow my nose several times throughout my meal, and I downed three large glasses of water to get through it, but I really enjoyed my food. The wide, flat chow fun noodles were especially enjoyable. I am going to continue ordering the Blazing Noodles when I go to Pei Wei to build my tolerance for spicy foods, and I also hope to be able to better taste the flavor through the heat in the future.

Until next time, my friends!