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.

Trader Joe's Chicken-Less Beef-Less Meats

Trader Joe’s is a great place to shop,  for vegans and non-vegans.  First, they have great prices on staples, a large selection of which are organic, including tofu, jams/jellies, nut and seed butters, canned beans, bread products, frozen vegetables, and non-dairy milks, including soy-, nut-, and rice-based flavors.  (Hmm, now I’m stumped trying to think back to the basics of high school English to remember if that is the appropriate use of hyphens.  I think it is, but it’s been so long .. )

Recently I spotted a fairly new arrival at the Daly City location – a quadruplet of house brand faux meat products.  I’m not necessarily a big fan of buying faux meat products to prepare and eat at home, but they looked so darn appealing on the shelf.

Having a vague recollection of having brunch at Herbivore’s a few months back with friends, and hearing a rave review about stuffed cutlets purchased at Trader Joe’s in SF, I went for the fake meat in box number four.  Upon reaching home, it joined my other collection of vegan-foods-to-be-eaten-later in cold storage.

Flash forward to about a week later .. I’ve just been for a gorgeous hike on a late spring Sunday, didn’t feel like cooking, and so out came my home-frozen rice and O Organics broccoli, and my new stuffed cutlets.  Interestingly, the two cutlets were individually packaged, which is nice if you don’t want to eat both at the same time.

Well, I followed the instructions on the box and microwaved the cutlets (yes, in my tired and lazy state of mind, I microwaved them in the plastic bags).  It was simple to prepare, and when combined with the brown rice and broccoli, it made a decent meal.  The cutlets were good — the sauce had an enjoyable slightly spicy undertone, the fake meat tasted fine, the stuffing was okay.   I thought the cutlet on the package box looked more appealing than my actual cutlet though.

On a scale of one (low) to five (high), the average reviews from the two vegans in the household was a solid 3.0, which reflects our thoughts that while it was good enough to eat again, it seemed a bit pricey for what it actually was.

Anyways, if you’re looking for other ideas of what to eat vegan at Trader Joe’s, cheaply, check out Michelle’s recent video blog at Vegan Break.

Yet, it’s not always that easy to remove the reminders that we live in a meat-eating and animal-exploiting world.  I recently purchased a new digital camera, a Canon PowerShot SD 790.   It’s a point-and-shoot camera, but much fancier than the earlier two digital cameras I’ve used.  In fact, it has special settings for taking photographs indoors, of foliage, at the beach, underwater, of “pets & children” (who won’t stay still), sunsets, and many more than I can elucidate from memory.  The one setting that it does has, and that I cannot erase from memory, is the “aquarium”.

It will be my ongoing reminder that I am living and buying in a world of meat-eaters.  So, it was with sweet irony that I first used the setting to snap a photograph through the glass window of the freezer of one of my all-time favorite vegan desserts, Mudslinger’s FreeStyle Tarmack soy ice cream.

The best vegan ice cream

It is absolutely the most decadent and delicious consortium of espresso, chocolate and peanut butter ever created by man, in this case Michael at MaggieMudd.

The Mudslinger’s FreeStyle line is entirely non-dairy, and carried by many natural food stores and restaurants in the Bay Area (including Garden Fresh and Herbivore).

If you live in San Francisco, or in an adjacent city, this is definitely a must-try experience to visit their store in SF’s Bernal Heights and explore their many non-dairy ice cream flavors, sundaes, shakes, or custom-made ice cream cakes.