Samosa & Dosas in SF

For many years, vegetarians in the San Francisco area envied the abundance of purely vegetarian Indian restaurants in the South Bay.  Why, we asked ourselves, was New Ganges the lone Indian vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco?

Mixed Vegetable Uthappam served with a sambar and three coconut-based vegan chutneys

Then, last summer, it all changed.  Udupi Palace, which has vegetarian Indian restaurants in Berkeley, Newark, and Sunnyvale, expanded to San Francisco.  Udupi Palace serves traditional dosas and other south indian food.

Udupi Palace has been well-received, and even in this economy, they continue to do brisk business.  I’ve been there several times earlier this year, dining early and mid-week, they’ve typically been two-thirds full.

The prices are reasonable, the food is well-seasoned and delicious, and the wait staff are friendly and prompt.  There are many selections for vegans, and the wait staff have always been helpful in answering which items are vegan or can be made vegan.

Inside the Samosa: one order contains two pieces, and two different sauces.

My favorite and recommended dishes are:

Samosas (two pieces, $3.75)
Spring Dosa ($6.95)
Mixed Vegetable Uthappam ($5.75)

The Udupi Palace in SF is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco.  I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking to enjoy vegetable-based Indian foods (there are no faux meats used in any of the dishes).

And, one of those days, purely in the interest of research for my blog, of course, I need to try their lunch buffet. It’s $7.95 during the week, and $8.95 on the weekends.

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High Fiber, High Fun Advocacy

Alex talking veg with interested John Q Public

In 2007, I noticed that I wasn’t doing as much veg outreach via  leafleting as I wanted. So I decided to take some of that generic advice given to people going on a diet.  While that’s to keep track of what you eat, and to exercise with a buddy, I applied that to being an activist.  With one addition:  make sure the advocacy activity is one that is enjoyable and sustainable.  For me, leafleting with PETA’s Vegetarian Starter Kits or Vegan Outreach’s Even if You Like Meat is the high fiber activity that’s also fun when you combine it with meeting new people and yummy vegan food afterwards.  (i.e. “Will leaflet for vegan food”)

So, I found a leafleting buddy to keep me from falling into my natural state of eating chocolate chip cookies and reading novels with a feline laptop.  Her name is Alex.

Starting in January 2008, Alex and I committed to leafleting once a month (on a Saturday or Sunday, since we both work full-time), and we also invite others to join us.  I also leaflet sans buddy at a local college (i.e. Vegan Outreach Adopt-a-College program).  But because I do this one on my lunch-hour during the work day, it tends to be sporadic as to when I can do it (i.e. lunchtime meetings are common, pressing work deadlines, and I’m not always in the office); this doesn’t lend itself to leafleting regularly with a partner.

Ready-Set-Go-Vegan!

Here’s a comparison of how that worked:

Alex and I planned to leaflet 12 times.  And we actually leafleted 12 times, and have met a lot of new friends along the way, too.  This isn’t part of the diet plan, but part of the fun plan, after we leaflet, we go out and eat vegan food.  Fortunately for us, there are 22 vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco (and 10 of those SF restaurants are vegan). (Oh, and for anyone who is counting calories, leafleting also offers exercise since I usually walk around to pass out information.)

For my college leafleting, I have a general goal to leaflet once a month for 30 minutes during my lunch hour.  I got out 4 times during the same period.  (Actually 5 times, because I used a floating holiday and took a day off work to leaflet at SFSU with another friend, and then we had some wonderful battered and deep-fried food.  I wonder if deep-fried Why Vegan booklets would be irresistible?  Hmmm…) The bonus with participating in the Vegan Outreach AAC program is they keep track of your leafleting for you.  It’s kinda neat to look back and see I’ve been participating since 2003.

Anyways, it worked well for us in 2008, and 2009 is already off to a good start!  These photos are from various 2008 leafleting events, and our next one is planned for Saturday, February 21st in San Francisco.  So, if you’re another local veg activist and looking to connect with others for vegan advocacy, please join us!

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Just call us Leafleting Leprechauns

The Usual Suspects Cafe (SF)

I am happy to report that I am optimistic about this new vegetarian restaurant with a heavy emphasis on vegan food. It’s in San Francisco on Broadway St, just off Montgomery, and probably trekkable from Montgomery BART if you’ve got good leg muscles or are allured by vegan food. The Usual Suspects Cafe, opened by Bob Bosco, is making a splash with local veg folks already. It’s a diner, it’s familiar foods made vegan, it’s great desserts, it’s talented chefs cooking with passion & pride, and they’ve got a commitment to organic, too. (In passing, they mentioned a big percentage of their food is organic; I don’t remember the exact number.)

Just hours after eating there last nite, I wrote the official description review in the Ultimate Guide:

Styled like an American diner, this new face in the SF restaurant scene offers a variety of vegan favorites like pizzas, sandwiches, burger, falafel, lasagna .. and they make their own seitan and sauces/salad dressings/cashew cheese. And, yes, vegan desserts, too. In an interesting twist, there are a few pizzas made with dairy, then it says everything is vegan except items which are marked that can be made vegetarian. Room upstairs available for private parties.

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