Expecting the Unexpected: The Problems with Pesto
13 Jan
My first few months driving in Los Angeles many years ago, a brand new Thomas Guide riding shotgun, drivers pulled in front of me when I least expected. They stopped at the light when I thought they would go and went through when I thought they would stay. I felt ill at ease, like I didn’t speak the language. Finally, the solution came to me. Expect all drivers to do what I least expected them to do. At last, I knew when they’d zig or when they would zag; it was always when I thought they wouldn’t and therefore knew they would.
This same kind of circuitous logic is what I sometimes resort to when eating in places known more for their tenderloin than their tempeh. Dishes that are vegan by nature in L.A. may be served with melted cheese or fried chicken’s eggs in other towns. Of course, regardless of the location it’s important for diners to ask questions, but it seems that especially when traveling, there are even more questions than usual.
While perusing restaurants online on my last vacation, imagine my surprise when I discovered that along the Mississippi River in the small town of LeClaire, Iowa is a fairly new restaurant with a few menu items listed on their website as being great for vegans. These vegan offerings have been publicized in news articles and on vegetarian websites as well, and so my husband and I ventured to LeClaire and The Crane and Pelican Cafe. The cafe is a renovated mansion with a view of the river and a gift shop upstairs. The interior is homey and sophisticated while staying true to its Victorian design.
I perused the menu and quickly found three vegan offerings: the Avocado Dream sandwich with hummus served on focaccia with a side, a dish called Greenie Linguine, which is a pesto-based pasta dish, and a Waldorf salad made with soy yogurt. When the server arrived at our table, I ordered the Greenie Linguine. It’s listed on the menu as “a divine vegan friendly recipe. Very tasty.” Remembering my Los Angeles traffic lessons, however, I proceeded with a question to the server.
“Now, this says that it’s good for vegans, and I am vegan. So I just wanted to make sure, it doesn’t have any cheese in it, right?”
“No, it doesn’t,” she said.
And a few minutes later, she was back. “Um, I asked the chef, and there’s cheese in the pesto.”
“Oh,” I said, not really that surprised. “On the menu it says that it’s vegan friendly.”
“Yeah, that’s a typo,” she said.
I’ve seen other articles and write-ups from many months ago on the Crane & Pelican who mentioned the vegan Greenie Linguine specifically, and so I know the menu has been “misprinted” for some time. It’s too bad that instead of viewing their menu as having “typos” they haven’t decided to serve actual vegan pesto instead. Pesto is extremely easy to make without cheese. It’s really just one simple omission. The basil, garlic, and lemon juice are the most prominent tastes anyway. The heart-healthy fat in the pine nuts gives a full mouth feel. Considering the fact that 102 million Americans have cholesterol over 200, I’d say more options with less saturated fat would do everyone good. (Not the least of whom are the animals, of course.)
In lieu of the linguine, I ordered the Avocado Dream sandwich. “Are any of these sides vegan?” I asked.
“Well, the cottage cheese, no. The mashed potatoes… No. The pea salad is made with mayonaisse… I know!” she said excitedly. “We could give you a side salad with no cheese.”
The sandwich of hummus, avocado, sprouts, tomatoes, and pepperoncini peppers was on the small side with balsamic vinegar splashed a bit overzealously on the bread making it pucker-worthy.
Even considering all of this, it was still worth the visit. The view was nice, the server was sweet, and the small town of LeClaire itself has a quaint little main street for walking along with arty stores and knickknack shops. You just have to remember what Iowan Meredith Willson said about his home state. ”You’ve got to know the territory.”















Ventura, with its quaint main street of downtown, antique stores, and tsotchke shops is reminiscent of a simpler time. It’s on the edge of the Pacific coastline and is a bit like going back to another era. With its small town feel, it may come as a surprise that it also houses a creative and charming organic vegan restaurant with many raw options. 




Start your morning early, pack some snacks, gather a few friends, and hike to the ruins of Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe’s mountain railway and resort, Echo Mountain. From 1896 to 1936, it housed a chalet, hotel, and observatory. Now it is a five mile hike roundtrip with a 1400 feet gain. This moderate but steady hike will get your heart pumping, and if you leave too late in the afternoon, it will get you sweating pretty heavily as well since there’s not much in the way of shade along the path. At the top you can check out what is left behind of the resort and railway and try out your best echo-voice on one of the megaphones. The views overlooking the city are quite lovely on a clear day, and along the way you’ll have the opportunity for viewing intricate flowers, buzzing bees, lizards, and more. Unpack snacks at the top, twirl the top off of your water bottle, and bask in the view of the world below.
After you’ve taken in the views from a distance, go in up close and personal into the heart of Pasadena. If it’s a week day, use the opportunity to visit
No trip to Pasadena is complete without a toddle around Old Town. Visitors to LA on holiday and locals alike saunter down the sidewalks, bags swinging, as they cross the scramble-style crosswalks. There are a number of chain stores like Crate and Barrel, Barnes and Noble, and the Paper Source, but off the main strip you can also visit California-exclusive stores like 
If after shopping and sightseeing you’ve worked up an appetite, you can find tasty vegan offerings at Father Nature Lavash Wraps at 17 N. De Lacey Avenue. Father Nature is of the very casual, order at the cash register variety. However, their food is fresh and delicious. It’s not always advertised, but they have whole wheat lavash available. Just ask for it. Father Nature is not exclusively vegetarian, but they have a vegetarian section as part of their menu board. Many of those wraps are vegan by design or can easily be made vegan. My favorite is the double hummus wrap, which comes with chickpea and black bean hummus, stuffed with pickled turnips, romaine lettuce, and bulgur. You’re given a choice of spicy or regular tahini sauce to go with it, and those are both vegan. I always go with the spicy, which is not hot-spicy per say. It just has more spices in the sauce.
After toying with the options of bike riding on one of Des Moines’ many picturesque bike paths or taking a boat ride on one of the state’s human-made lakes, we landed instead on the 

Outgoing locals chatted with us as we rode to
After clicking pictures of Des Moines’ impressive capitol building, we left downtown and made our way to 

The next season won’t start for a few more weeks, but we had chickpea tacos early last night in Cadry’s Kitchen to celebrate trainer Bob Harper going vegetarian. (Possibly vegan—the jury is still out.) There’s an article about him in this month’s Vegetarian Times and how he was initially moved to adopt a plant based diet after reading Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin’s
Chickpea Tacos
When we were initially weighing the options of a weekend getaway destination, our top two contenders were Las Vegas and San Diego. None of us are gamblers and it’s mighty hot in July, but Vegas has
“Is this all you have?” Leah asked the dusty blond man behind the counter.
Of course, after a two and a half hour drive, twenty minutes was no big deal. They did have a few remaining items in the case, and we each picked from those options while we waited. David and I split a cinnamon roll, and Leah and Patrick also got one of their own. The cinnamon rolls have crisp outsides and chewy insides. As a fan of gooey cinnamon rolls, they were tasty but not exactly what I’d been envisioning. They taste like cinnamon rolls your grandmother used to make, if, you know, your grandmother actually made cinnamon rolls. 

Next, we made our way to downtown San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter. We discovered once we got there that it’s more of a nighttime location. There were lots of restaurants and some chain stores, like Urban Outfitters and Borders. We passed
David and I split the Veggie Burrito on a whole wheat tortilla, filled with beans, rice, salsa fresca, lettuce, and guacamole. The burrito was a bit on the bland side but inoffensive. We also split the Veggie Tacos, which came with rice and beans. The shells of the tacos are deep fried, which makes them puff a bit. They were quite good in the way that greasy junk food can hit the spot sometimes, and they reminded me somewhat of the Tasty Tacos I grew up on in Des Moines in my pregan days.
As we walked along the cliffs and watched surfers ride waves, the sun began to set on our San Diego weekend. It was one of those refreshing weekend getaways that really makes you feel like you’ve had a chance to unwind and recharge even though it was only a matter of days away. We’ll be back.
You know you’re on vacation when you start your morning relaxing in the hot tub. As we kicked it in the Jacuzzi, my friends and I charted out our plans for July Fourth. We all agreed on a drive over to Coronado Island with plenty of time to enjoy the beach and fireworks in the evening. 
Eventually our stomachs got the best of us, and with no picnic to satisfy our appetites, we wandered back into town along the well manicured streets, chatting with friendly locals along the way. Although, there aren’t any strictly vegetarian or vegan restaurants on the island, most of the restaurants displayed their menus in front of them, and there were plenty with veganizable options. We wavered between Chinese and Italian, but settled on a cheeseless veggie-laden pizza, bruschetta, and salad before making our way to the evening’s fireworks over Glorietta Bay. From the Bay, the skyline of downtown San Diego was a backdrop for fireworks lighting the night sky. 

Then I packed snacks and lunch for our time on the road. The drive from LA can be stress-free, or it can be a parking lot. You never know what you’re going to get, and so it’s best to be prepared. I filled a sealable container with a generous amount of
MEAL PLAN
When I’m planning a trip, I enjoy looking at the globe and imagining the path the plane will fly from my home to my destination. While seeing the country I’ll be visiting as only a piece of a knickknack, it’s exhilarating to imagine that in a matter of time, that will be a real place to me where I’ll be making memories.
We flew from LA to London and London to Paris. Then we took a train from Paris to Interlaken to Zurich to Venice to Verona to Assisi. Finally, we rented a car to drive up the hills of Umbria to the Country House Montali. Automatic cars aren’t common there, and I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. David hadn’t driven one since high school or college. Sadly, he was relearning it all going up hills and mountains, tiny dirt and gravel roads with no gates to keep a person from careening off the hillside. After only recently visiting Juliet’s grave in Verona, I knew all too well what can happen to star crossed lovers. “Crap,” I thought, “we’re on our honeymoon and so in love. We’re doomed.”
After some starting and stopping and rolling down the hill, we made it to the top to the intimate hotel that is Montali Country House. Surrounded by a 25-acre olive grove and dotted with fig trees, the property has beautiful panoramic views and overlooks Lake Trasimeno below.
We walked the grounds, and sat by the pool enjoying a glass of wine until it was time to get ready for dinner. People dress up for dinner every evening at 8 pm. When we walked in to where all of the guests were gathering, we chatted about our travels, from where we were coming and what was next on our journey. Alberto, Malu’s husband and the other proprietor of the hotel, came over and introduced himself to us, shaking our hands, and then showed us to our table, where we would be eating for the rest of our meals there.
At the beginning of each course, Alberto walked to each of the tables and in a hushed tone told us about the next course, the dish and the preparation methods. He sounded a little something like an announcer at a big golf competition. It created such excitement about the upcoming dish that was about to be experienced. He went table by table, and since he can speak five different languages, he seamlessly spoke to every table with ease. The food was phenomenal and the presentation was superb. The olives at the table were from their own acreage. The figs that were used for dessert had just been picked that day from the grounds. All of the dishes were a beauty to look at as much as to eat. I was still there to enjoy it, and yet, I found myself already wishing we’d planned to stay there longer than two days.
When I saw the Eggplant and Caramelized Onion “Lasagna” in 
