Scallion Pancakes

Scallion Pancakes

Scallion Pancakes. Just those two words are enough to completely grab my attention.

If you’re veg and live in the San Francisco Bay Area (anywhere not under a rock), you’ll hopefully know exactly what I’m talking about.

Garden Fresh, a popular vegan restaurant in Mountain View, serves scallion pancakes as an appetizer.  It’s a fried pancake (yum) served with a brown sauce on top of another fried pancake (double yum).

One day, I was at my local library and browsing the cookbook section.   Although I have the world wide web at my fingertips, and close to two dozen vegan cookbooks at home, I do like to occasionally check out a vegan cookbook at my local library so that it keeps them in circulation.

While in that general area, I randomly picked up this cookbook called Quick & Easy Chinese. I was flipping through it, looking at the color pictures. When, suddenly, I spotted scallion pancakes!  Okay, so the author calls them “Green Onion Pancakes”. The picture looks exactly like the scallion pancakes at Garden Fresh.

So if you also love the Scallion Pancakes at Garden Fresh, and want to try and make some at home, go look for this cookbook Quick & Easy Chinese.  I took a quick look through the rest of the cookbook, and it didn’t strike me as particularly veg-friendly.  So, you may just want to get it through your local library.

Truth in Fiction – Killer Kidney Beans

I can be an avid reader. Unless it’s something for the veg/animal rights book club that I belong to, I’m typically reading fiction. I picked up Dead Heat by Dick Francis. He’s one of my favorite authors because he writes interesting and suspenseful action novels, usually with a horse theme.

I’ve read many Dick Francis novels over the last decade. If I had to put a number to it, probably over 25. Yet, this one was a first in two ways – it mentioned vegans, and I actually learned a real fact about a food that I eat regularly.

The story involves a chef who caters two meals at a horse racing track. There is a nod to preparing food for vegetarians and “one vegan who had preordered grilled musthrooms to start, roasted vegetables for main course and a fresh fruit salad for dessert”.

Yeah, I can relate to being the vegan who has to preorder special meals. He got that part right. But then in an interesting twist, someone later dies, and the suspect is food poisoning from kidney beans. Francis says “Every chef, every cook, every housewife, even every schoolboy, knows that kidney beans have to be boiled to make them safe to eat.” (chapter 6)

Hmmm .. well, that is everyone except me! I finished the book last night, and this morning did a quick google search on “kidney beans toxic”. And it’s true, a few undercooked kidney beans can make you sick in just a few hours.

And I quote from the FDA

Phytohaemagglutinin, the presumed toxic agent, is found in many species of beans, but it is in highest concentration in red kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). The unit of toxin measure is the hemagglutinating unit (hau). Raw kidney beans contain from 20,000 to 70,000 hau, while fully cooked beans contain from 200 to 400 hau. White kidney beans, another variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, contain about one-third the amount of toxin as the red variety; broad beans (Vicia faba) contain 5 to 10% the amount that red kidney beans contain.

The syndrome is usually caused by the ingestion of raw, soaked kidney beans, either alone or in salads or casseroles. As few as four or five raw beans can trigger symptoms. Several outbreaks have been associated with “slow cookers” or crock pots, or in casseroles which had not reached a high enough internal temperature to destroy the glycoprotein lectin. It has been shown that heating to 80°C may potentiate the toxicity five-fold, so that these beans are more toxic than if eaten raw. In studies of casseroles cooked in slow cookers, internal temperatures often did not exceed 75°C.

The onset time from consumption of raw or undercooked kidney beans to symptoms varies from between 1 to 3 hours. Onset is usually marked by extreme nausea, followed by vomiting, which may be very severe. Diarrhea develops somewhat later (from one to a few hours), and some persons report abdominal pain. Some persons have been hospitalized, but recovery is usually rapid (3 – 4 h after onset of symptoms) and spontaneous.

I’ll still eat and enjoy cooked kidney beans. But it gives me a new appreciation and respect for these powerful little beans.

Red beats Green

Red Bean Salad

I grew up eating the sad Standard American Diet, consuming animals by the mouthful.  Green Salad was one of those foods, as a young carnivore, that I  liked only when it was smothered with a creamy Thousand Island dressing and crunchy croutons on top.

As a vegan, I’ve educated myself and now enjoy a variety of different salads, from bean salads to green salads to fruit salads.

Recipes for three bean salads abound.  I basically use the one from Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond.

I still don’t like green beans though.  So in my version of a three-bean salad, I replace the green beans with red bell pepper.  In this version photographed, I used both red and yellow bell peppers.

I brought this bean salad to a vegan food party (aka potluck) in Pacifica.  Purely by coincidence, I found this went well mixed with a green salad that someone else had brought.

And, thanks to Saucy Vegetarian, I can make my own creamy salad dressings for my green salads.  For crunch, I add walnuts instead of croutons.

Edible Flowers

Watermelon Flower

Downtown Santa Cruz is a great place to people watch and window shop.  During my last visit there, I spotted this beautiful edible “flower”.

This certainly gives new meaning to the concept of playing with food, eh?

Watermelon Carved into Flower

Televeganic Top Chef

Are you a top vegan chef?  In the San Francisco Bay Area? This could be your opportunity to share vegan food through one of the top reality cooking shows. And, the best part, when they ask you to choose your “protein”, shout “Seitan! Tempeh! Tofu! Kidney Beans! Lentils!”

Yes, Bravo TV is casting for season 7 of “Top Chef”.  It would be totally awesome to have some vegans on the show who choose BEANS as their protein! There is an open call in San Francisco on October 18th.

Here is the info, taken from the Top Chef website:

Chefs with a passion for food, creativity, a thorough knowledge of cooking techniques and trends and oodles of charisma are what we’re looking for. We want talented, experienced chefs with that flare that puts you over the top.

SAN FRANCISCO
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
10:00am – 2:00pm
The Parlor, 2801 Leavenworth Street, San Francisco, CA 94133

There are other open calls on various dates in  Miami, Chicago, Washington DC, New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles  through November 15th so spread the word to all the vegan chefs you know.

Or, even if you’re not a great chef, it might still be fun to bluff it with your fabulous personality and favorite vegan message t-shirt. Tell them to eat beans, not beings ….

Garlic Fries in Berkeley

Air Fries with Fresh Garlic

Earlier this Spring, I was on a day trip through Berkeley with a friend.  We had trekked across the Bay on BART, and were on a quest for vegan pizza at Bobby G’s. Everything else in between that and home was by random chance or grumbling “feed me” messages from our stomachs.

Smart Alec’s was one of those stops.  We happened to be across the street, realized we were hungry, and thus decided to refuel on the most delicious vegan “air baked fries”.

Fresh Garlic on Air-Baked Fries

Catering toward Cal Berkeley students, Smart Alec’s is cafeteria-style food (burgers and soups), with many vegetarian and a few vegan options. There are still a few folks who are long-time members of the veg community in the SF Bay Area that begrudge Smart Alec’s decision to stray away from being an entirely vegetarian restaurant.

The order shown here was a large, all for the princely sum of $1.99. Fresh garlic is an optional choice, and is a must-have for those of you who like garlic, or are worried about vampires. Side note, Saturn Cafe, a veg restaurant open until the wee hours in Santa Cruz, also serves fries with fresh garlic.

In all honestly, and hindsight, I should have gotten a small, or split an order. But sometimes those “feed me” messages from my tummy overwhelm the rational part of my brain that should be responsible for making decisions like portion control.

Farewell Asian Rose

Vegan Sri Lankan curries

Asian Rose was a restaurant in Santa Cruz, popular for its delicious and rich Sri Lankan cuisine.  It’s just over an hour’s drive for us, down beautiful and scenic Highway 1. We made it a point to visit at least once or twice a year.

Over the recent Labor Day holiday weekend, little did we know that it would be our last trip. The food has always been entirely vegetarian, with many vegan choices. For example, all of the curries on the menu were vegan, and the prices were incredibly reasonable: one item was $6, two items $6.50, 3 items $7, and 4 items $7.50.

Another three Item Curry - Asian Rose

The first two photos shows two typical plates of three item curries – a deal at $7, including rice and a papadam. I opted for the Mixed Vegetables Curry, Spinach Yam Curry, and Basil Eggplant Curry shown in the first photo.

My biggest regret, every single time I’ve eaten at Asian Rose, is that there is a finite amount of food on the plate and I eventually reach the end.

As dire as my title sounds, Farewell Asian Rose, it’s really not that grim.  We are not facing the end of vegan Sri Lankan food (yea!!)

Sri Lankan Spicy Potatoes

It’s sister restaurant, Malabar Cafe in Santa Cruz, remains open for dinner only, serving much of the same delicious cuisine.  They’re now open daily from 5 pm to 9 m, and to 9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings.  And when I talked to the owner/chef during my most recent visit, he was going to be adding crepes.  When we told him we were vegan, he assured us there would be vegan ones available, too.

So, whether it was Asian Rose or the remaining Malabar Cafe, it’s well-worth the journey to Santa Cruz for vegan Sri Lankan food.