Last weekend was a fun weekend for me because I took off from work on Friday and as a result had an extended weekend. I really should take off more often. I certainly still have lots of vacation days left.
So on Friday, my husband and I decided to go hiking in Marin County at Point Reyes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Reyes). We were on this Coastal Trail that was along the cost for the first mile and the coastline was very pretty.
Saturday we decided to go and visit a pumkin farm in Half Moon Bay. Normally, that would have been a very pleasant experience but last Saturday was also the Pumpkin Festival. So the traffic was horrible on the way there. We had to see the festival, which was kind of lame but then again may be we are just not festival people. It was just a very typical festival with kiosks selling trinkets and some artsy stuff - none of which were exciting enough to buy. The food was as usual a lot of deep fried stuff. We managed to limit ourselves to some pumpkin beer (which was good), pumpkin mac-n-cheese (which has no pumpkin taste in it), and pumpkin pie. I was sorely tempted by the corn dogs but thanks goodness I prevail and didn't have any.
We also managed to see a couple movies this week: W and Religulous. With all the hype about W, I would have expected it to be better since there is so much good material with George Bush to work with :-) It is not a bad movie by any means but it wasn't a great movie. It might have been the storytelling or filming style that bugged me. Josh Brolin did a very good job with W's mannerism though.
Religulous was kind of interesting - still not best movie or my most recommended movie. Although Bill Maher can be funny sometimes, most of the time I tend to be a bit skeptical of his view since I know that he is so skewed on one side. Anyhow, my neighbors who are normally Bill Maher fans didn't think the movie was very good. So perhaps because I went in with such low expectation that I came out of the movie thinking that it was actually an OK movie and was worth seeing. Bill Maher raised some interesting points and I definitely learned a few new things from the movie. There were other points that I wished he had raised to balance out his one-sided view, but then that would not been the Bill Maher that we know :-) I think it's the science/math side of me that would like to see the pros and cons or both sides of an issue and I have to remember that most documentaries are not made that way...Most people have a definite opinion about something and that's the point-of-view that they attempt to prove in a documentary.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
My Vegan Food Adventure Continues...
So my vegan food adventure continued this weekend and I am feeling that this deserves another post. This weekend, my husband and I decided to try out a new vegan place in the city. So we googled and found Cafe Gratitude: http://www.cafegratitude.com/
Cafe Gratitude is a cool vegan restaurant with a bunch of locations all over the bay area. One of the cool features about the restaurant is the communal tables that sit about 6 people per table. So it's a great place to strike up a conversation with friendly strangers, which was exactly what we did. The folks that we met were all regulars at the cafe and so they had great tips to share about what to order. It was also very cool to hear their experiences with vegan food. We even found out that one of the girls we talked to lived a couple miles from us.
We had some split pea soup, a warm Thai quinoa bowl and a sampler plater with a little bit of everything. While everything in the sampler plater was good, I realized that I am less of a crunchy crackers and dip kind of person and more of a soft grain and warm food person. So naturally I like the "warm" Thai quinoa bowl the most and I was very impressed with how authentically Thai (not that I really know what this is) the taste was. This cafe also has so many dessert items in their glass case that it was hard to decide from the Rasberry creme pie, German chocolate cake, tiramisu, chocolate mouse and creme pie, etc. We settled on a chocolate creme pie, which was probably the best part of the meal. Ever since we discovered vegan desserts, my husband and I are convinced that vegan desserts are the best. They are even better than the best desserts that I have had at my favorite pastry shops. The frequenters at the cafe all raved that vegan desserts are the best. I think we are now sufficiently sworn off non-vegan desserts.
While eating at Cafe Gratitude, it occurred to me that the food from the vegan cafe in my gym is also very phenominal and yet slightly cheaper than Cafe Gratitude. It's also more accessible since it's inside my gym. Located at the entrance of our gym, our local vegan cafe is actually a cafe that is open to the public and not just to our gym members and so it does stock itself with a variety of vegan dishes. While I do enjoy the food and the experience at Cafe Gratitude, I am not sure that I would be back simply because I am going to go to the vegan cafe in my gym more often instead.
One great thing about a vegan meal is that we both felt lighter and brighter after the meals, which isn't always the case with non-vegan food. So because of our positive experience with Cafe Gratitude and with vegan food so far, today my husband and I decided to "join the program" and created a prepaid tab at our gym vegan cafe. The prepaid tab there is a reasonable small amount, and we can now take out food from there without having to bring a wallet with us. Also, a minor benefit to the tab is that the cafe gave us more spending dollars than what we prepaid as incentives. I am really excited about being able to take out vegan food from time to time to complement or substitute for my non-vegan cooking.
So guess what our first purchase on the prepaid tab was? I swear this was why my husband was so enthusiastic about the prepaid tab. A whole chocolate creme pie of course! I know that it is not the best thing to get given that there are other healthier options but I am just going to have to rely on my "great" self-control and not eat too much. I think this chocolate creme pie is even better than the one from Cafe Gratitude. I am not the only one who find their pies delicious -- apparently so does Whole Foods. I found out today that Whole Foods will start carrying their pies. I don't know if this means only the Whole Foods in my area or everywhere but I am guessing that it's probably just the ones in my area.
Cafe Gratitude is a cool vegan restaurant with a bunch of locations all over the bay area. One of the cool features about the restaurant is the communal tables that sit about 6 people per table. So it's a great place to strike up a conversation with friendly strangers, which was exactly what we did. The folks that we met were all regulars at the cafe and so they had great tips to share about what to order. It was also very cool to hear their experiences with vegan food. We even found out that one of the girls we talked to lived a couple miles from us.
We had some split pea soup, a warm Thai quinoa bowl and a sampler plater with a little bit of everything. While everything in the sampler plater was good, I realized that I am less of a crunchy crackers and dip kind of person and more of a soft grain and warm food person. So naturally I like the "warm" Thai quinoa bowl the most and I was very impressed with how authentically Thai (not that I really know what this is) the taste was. This cafe also has so many dessert items in their glass case that it was hard to decide from the Rasberry creme pie, German chocolate cake, tiramisu, chocolate mouse and creme pie, etc. We settled on a chocolate creme pie, which was probably the best part of the meal. Ever since we discovered vegan desserts, my husband and I are convinced that vegan desserts are the best. They are even better than the best desserts that I have had at my favorite pastry shops. The frequenters at the cafe all raved that vegan desserts are the best. I think we are now sufficiently sworn off non-vegan desserts.
While eating at Cafe Gratitude, it occurred to me that the food from the vegan cafe in my gym is also very phenominal and yet slightly cheaper than Cafe Gratitude. It's also more accessible since it's inside my gym. Located at the entrance of our gym, our local vegan cafe is actually a cafe that is open to the public and not just to our gym members and so it does stock itself with a variety of vegan dishes. While I do enjoy the food and the experience at Cafe Gratitude, I am not sure that I would be back simply because I am going to go to the vegan cafe in my gym more often instead.
One great thing about a vegan meal is that we both felt lighter and brighter after the meals, which isn't always the case with non-vegan food. So because of our positive experience with Cafe Gratitude and with vegan food so far, today my husband and I decided to "join the program" and created a prepaid tab at our gym vegan cafe. The prepaid tab there is a reasonable small amount, and we can now take out food from there without having to bring a wallet with us. Also, a minor benefit to the tab is that the cafe gave us more spending dollars than what we prepaid as incentives. I am really excited about being able to take out vegan food from time to time to complement or substitute for my non-vegan cooking.
So guess what our first purchase on the prepaid tab was? I swear this was why my husband was so enthusiastic about the prepaid tab. A whole chocolate creme pie of course! I know that it is not the best thing to get given that there are other healthier options but I am just going to have to rely on my "great" self-control and not eat too much. I think this chocolate creme pie is even better than the one from Cafe Gratitude. I am not the only one who find their pies delicious -- apparently so does Whole Foods. I found out today that Whole Foods will start carrying their pies. I don't know if this means only the Whole Foods in my area or everywhere but I am guessing that it's probably just the ones in my area.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Vegan Food
I have always been very willing to try any new cuisine or dishes because I don't want to stick with the same old cuisine when there is so much diversity. So although I am not a vegan, I have always liked vegan food because the ones that I have had are so yummy.
One of my favorite vegan food is this Indian dish (I can't remember the name) at Whole Foods with tofu as a substitute for meat. Adding a little hot sauce to it and I could eat this dish all day. My only issue with this dish now is that I would like brown rice instead of white rice.
My gym has this fantastic vegan cafe. Everything there is super healthy and vegan. They give huge portion for the meals and the prices are reasonable and so their meals make for great take-out. Their desserts, like the chocolate mouse pie and chocolate clusters, are also very good but they are pricey and so as a result I am not as tempted to eat their desserts that often.
Last night was our gym night and since my husband and I both had early gym appointments with our trainers, I decided to not cook. So we had some take-out meals from this cafe. My husband ordered the Kale Quinoa Toss and I had the Fiesta Quinoa Toss. While they were both extremely yummy, I liked mine much better because you can't go wrong with anything fiesta related. I have never had quinoa before. So I had to ask the chef about it and googled it afterwards. Apparently, quinoa is a very healthy grain that is high in protein. The good thing is we still had quite a bit of left-over quinoa for another meal later tonight.
If I can have a full-time chef like Oprah and my chef can cook vegan meals like these, then sign me up to be a vegan...in fact, I'll be anything my chef wants me to be as long as I am fed with good meals that I don't have to prepare :-)
One of my favorite vegan food is this Indian dish (I can't remember the name) at Whole Foods with tofu as a substitute for meat. Adding a little hot sauce to it and I could eat this dish all day. My only issue with this dish now is that I would like brown rice instead of white rice.
My gym has this fantastic vegan cafe. Everything there is super healthy and vegan. They give huge portion for the meals and the prices are reasonable and so their meals make for great take-out. Their desserts, like the chocolate mouse pie and chocolate clusters, are also very good but they are pricey and so as a result I am not as tempted to eat their desserts that often.
Last night was our gym night and since my husband and I both had early gym appointments with our trainers, I decided to not cook. So we had some take-out meals from this cafe. My husband ordered the Kale Quinoa Toss and I had the Fiesta Quinoa Toss. While they were both extremely yummy, I liked mine much better because you can't go wrong with anything fiesta related. I have never had quinoa before. So I had to ask the chef about it and googled it afterwards. Apparently, quinoa is a very healthy grain that is high in protein. The good thing is we still had quite a bit of left-over quinoa for another meal later tonight.
If I can have a full-time chef like Oprah and my chef can cook vegan meals like these, then sign me up to be a vegan...in fact, I'll be anything my chef wants me to be as long as I am fed with good meals that I don't have to prepare :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)