Usually we try to post food and pics soon after they happen, unfortunately some of the posts get overlooked and neglected for some time. So here I am making up some old posts from the past! They coincide with some previous posts and should have been added there..but nonetheless here they are!
So I took that trip to SLO to see Hannah earlier this year, and left behind a few relics! One of my favorite places we went to was the Big Sky Cafe; a town favorite here and by far one of the best and most unique breakfasts I've ever had! We both ordered a less conventional (and vegan!) breakfast dish
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| The interior |
As seen below, Hannah's breakfast (my favorite of our two) was a vegetarian lentil stew which contained middle eastern zhoug, kind of like a condiment relish which has a pesto-like consistency. The broth of the dish had a marvelous flavor due to the obviously liberal amounts of red wine used in cooking, absolutely wonderful! The white cubes in it are also egg replacement to make vegan, however they did not steal from the dish's flavor, just added a rich and absorbent texture to the mix.
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| Lentil stew with "zhoug" |
I had a similar dish, with different fixings inside. I had a traditional New Mexico pozole, which although had a similar texture and make up of Hannah's, had a vastly different flavor, consisting of more Mexican influenced ingredients. Hominy, peppers, tomatillos, pumpkin seeds, cumin and cilantro also with egg replacement. A more spicy and southwest flavor here :) the tomatillos make a fine base of flavors on this one, and the spices really made the flavor jump out at you. Both of our dishes were very filling and by the time we were done with them we could barely touch our lovely potatoes which come as a side to the whole thing!
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| New Mexican Pozole |
We usually try to keep a food budget, food being a huge worldly expense these days! But we don't fail to go fancy every once and a while, and given that we don't see each other incredibly often these days, it's high time to go pamper ourselves, the culinary way. We went to Luna Red, which is a well known and popular tapas restaurant in SLO.
We decided to split a few good looking tapas dishes. The first we got was a spanish flatbread (pizza like) with avocado pesto (!),summer squash, arugula and roasted garlic. A great flavor all put together!
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| Black bean balls and quinoa burger |
These next two (the one here on the left being my personal favorite) were a black bean ball thing, and a veggie quinoa burger (all vegan might i add!). The black bean balls were marvelous! What you see bedded underneath is an avocado and lime sauce, which i dipped pretty much everything else in after they were gone. The spiced flavor of the balls themselves were great, accented by their own paprika salt mix. The arugula burger was also a great choice made by the two of us. I always love it when a place can make something as classic and well known as a burger taste so dang good as a vegan alternative. The patty was soft yet firm and kept some of the similar spice characteristics of the black bean balls, and the sauce we chose to put on it was a vegan chipotle, which tied all the burger contents together splendidly :)
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| In the University district |
After reporting from Twentynine Palms (so long you rotten abode...) to my new duty station in Southern Virginia (beautiful!), I was given a few days to go home to Seattle and move over my car and other belongings to my new state (4 long days of driving). During this time Hannah and I took it upon ourselves to explore a little more what we used to and some new places that we haven't been to together.
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| Vegan quiche |
We had brunch at a place called Chaco Canyon,which is an all vegan cafe located a few blocks up from the main drag of the University District in Seattle. I was so surprised at first that her and I hadn't been here before, both being vegans at least at some point and taking a high interest in places like this. We gave it a shot (together at least, Hannah had been here a few weeks prior to my arrival for the first time), and were far far far from disappointed! I got a vegan quiche as you can see above, which was surrounded by a beautiful array of mixed fresh veggies! The quiche itself could have passed itself off as not vegan, the flavor was immaculate and had a potato like consistency on the filling made up of spinach and sweet potatoes. very hot and delicious! And what better than a home brewed kombucha to wash it down?
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| Peanut rice bowl |
What Hannah ordered I can say was equally good, as both great dishes were. She had a rice bowl with a strong PEANUT theme; a flavor that Hannah and I have fallen quite deeply in love with after making a homemade peanut sauce a while back which stunned our senses. Her bowl was great and made good use of a combination of flavors and texture from the cabbage, mixed rice (fluffy!) onion, and of course peanuts and a rich peanut sauce. The only thing we would change about it is the level of spice, it was pretty dang spicy! And it was very nice and filling regardless! Hannah had to let me take a big bunch of it which I accepted instantly.
That's all for now! Next time we will be tuning in from DC, Philadelphia, and Virginia!
Finally we made it up to the DC area!! Tyler and I had planned out a little road trip..stopping by the US Marine Corp Museum in Quantico (super cool) and ending up in Alexandria. We stayed in the Hilton at Marks Center, and it was beautiful. The front desk lady asked us which floor we wanted to stay on, and we choose the highest....the 30th floor!! We were also pleasantly surprised with the fact that we got our own private rooftop balcony overlooking DC. Amazing room and amazing view, we were happy campers.
