In many ways the Red Avocado exemplifies the best parts of Iowa City – its setting in a comfortable old house and a menu that focuses on what is seasonal and organic.  The menu evolves throughout the year.  It’s not unusual to see scapes or oyster mushrooms at the farmers market only to walk a block up the street and see it listed on their specials menu for the day.  However, it’s also a unique gift to the area, because a person would have to make a four hour drive to reach another entirely vegan restaurant.  But as luck would have it, the Red Avocado isn’t just Iowa’s best vegan restaurant by default.  It is also a wonderful restaurant in its own right.  Their hours change depending on the time of year, but it’s a great place to go for a meal – day or night.

Sailor’s Plate - $10

French toast on the Sailor's Plate

For brunch when it’s too early to start making decisions, I love their sailor’s plate.  It’s a sampling of their brunch items, and it gives the diner an opportunity to find some new favorites for future taste escapades.  There’s the caraway tempeh and pickled cabbage from their reuben, tofu scramble, black beans and barley from their breakfast burrito, home fries, and as breakfast for dessert, mouthwatering French toast.  The preserves that adorn the top take this crisp-on-the-outside and soft-on-the-inside treat to the next level.

Breakfast Burrito - $7.25

When I’m more willing to commit, their filling breakfast burrito in a whole wheat tortilla and packed with tofu, vegetables, black beans, salsa, and cilantro fits the bill nicely.  It’s spicy without having too much of a kick for the morning.

When the clock hits noon, I like to start with a cup of their soup of the day.  (In this case it was asparagus dill.)  With their focus on what is local and seasonal, it means the soup is ever-changing.  It tastes fresh and vibrant, as if it was made at home with items fresh out of the garden.

Iowa BBQ Tofu Platter - $8.50

For the entrée I like their Iowa BBQ Tofu platter with lightly fried tofu covered in a savory barbecue sauce and placed on corn cakes with a chipotle slaw.  The barbecue sauce is not too sweet and balances the flavor of corn cakes.

White Bean Paté - $4.75 small (pictured) | $9 large

For dinner, their white bean pate made with cilantro and lime juice and served with delicate pita triangles makes for a tasty starter that sates the appetite temporarily without being overly filling.

Smoky Sunset - $18

To my mind the star of the dinner menu is the Smoky Sunset.  Succulent tempeh in a cilantro-lime sauce is served on a bed of greens with oven-roasted sweet potato fries.  The fries are covered in a chipotle aioli that is so good it could be slathered on a shoe and would make for a pretty good meal.  (But I’d advise going with the fries instead.  You’ll need your shoes on the walk home.  The snow can get deep in Iowa.)

Up for a celebration?  If you’re in the area, they’re having a party tonight with live music, complimentary chips and salsa, iced tea, and chocolate cake.  Full details are on their Facebook page.  So here’s to Red Avocado on their twelfth birthday.  If they’re anything like I was, they’re probably asking for CD’s of Belinda Carlisle and Debbie Gibson….  Consider this a birthday gift.

One of the owners was working as the barista.  We ordered café au lait and two scones, and he brought them to our table.  He toured the country as a musician before opening the restaurant with his wife, and we made conversation about traveling, Kansas City, and the wonderful artwork by local artists that beautifies the walls.  The café au lait had the perfect soymilk to coffee ratio.  The scones were flaky and flavorful, the way that scones are supposed to be.

While we checked our email on their free Wi-Fi and lingered over drinks, I fantasized about being a Kansas City local – shopping at Whole Foods in nearby Kansas, picking up my favorite hot sauce at TJ’s, buying vintage dresses at Donna’s Dress Shop…  Even if I’m not loading up a U-Haul anytime soon, I’d definitely like to visit again when I have more than a few hours to spend.  Just from what I’ve seen, this small city has a lot to offer.

When the shake arrived, I knew my husband was going to have less of that shake than he’d initially hoped.  He took one sip and joy spread across his face.  “This is literally the best shake I’ve ever had,” he said.  Of course, I had to have a taste.  And then another.  The mouthwatering shake had undertones of malted flavor and was a creamy blend of soft ice cream and small, crunchy ice chunks.

Jackfruit Reuben

Cheesy mac

For our main courses, my eyes stopped at the jackfruit reuben.  I’d become a fan of jackfruit at the now defunct Pure Luck in LA, and I was eager to try this unusual spin on my favorite sandwich.  For my side, I noticed the child at the adjacent table was diving into his macaroni and cheese, and in an unusual twist, I added a small bowl of that to my meal as well.  The reuben was generous in size and unlike any reuben I’ve ever experienced before.  The jackfruit has a soft texture, and so the sandwich has a lot of give, except for the toasted bread encasing the filling.  It tasted as if the jackfruit had been marinating in pickle juice (and one would guess beet juice from the color as well).  It had a salty, tangy flavor that was very unique.  The macaroni and cheese was a mild, melt-in-your-mouth classic.  As a testament to it, I was unable to finish the whole thing, and so I took home leftovers.  My non-vegetarian nephew gobbled up all of the macaroni and cheese, and I don’t think he had the slightest clue that the cheese wasn’t made from cow’s milk.

My husband ordered the nachos, which were piled high with wild rice and mushroom meat, goji cheddar, guacamole, and pico de gallo.  It could easily have served a table of four as an appetizer.  When my husband finished, it looked like he’d barely touched it, although he was stuffed.

Tune in tomorrow when our appetites return and we go out for coffee and scones.  The deliciousness continues…

Weeks or months before visiting a new city, the vacation begins.  Through blogs, websites, travelogues, and guidebooks, in my mind I’m already there.  I’m visiting restaurants, relaxing in a cozy hotel or bed and breakfast…  I’m gallivanting through shops, hiking untracked trails, and skipping rocks in previously unknown ponds.  Visiting Los Angeles last month was different than that.  Since I lived there for 13 years, returning to my old stomping grounds was more like revisiting memories, taking walks down another dream.  Rather than turn to the outside world for inspiration on where to go, I asked myself what I needed to see again, trek again, taste again.  In the weeks before the trip, it became nightly dinner conversation for my husband and I to ponder what were the top sites on our itinerary.  Unlike most visitors to L.A. we didn’t need to see Mann’s Chinese or the Griffith Park Observatory, no Walk of Fame, and no Disneyland.  Okay, Disneyland.  But not those other places.

Soon our 6 days were all lined up with the friends we’d see, places we’d go, and the meals we’d eat.  If I had to write a list of my favorite places in Los Angeles, it would look like this:

Rahel Ethiopian Cuisine, our favorite restaurant in the world, not just Los Angeles.  (I’ve written about my adoration of Rahel before.)  The ladies who work at Rahel, including Rahel herself, greeted us with smiles, asking where we’d been.  (I didn’t realize we went that often.  Apparently, we did!)  The people who work there are always so warm.  We quickly found the Hudade combo and started salivating in anticipation.  The melt-in-your-mouth wots scooped with spongy and somewhat sour injera make for a hearty and flavorful feast.  I’ve made Ethiopian food at home, and it’s always good, but it just can’t match what they do at Rahel.

Flore in Silverlake is an entertaining place to people watch.  Hipsters abound with their look that seems to say, “It took me an hour to look like I just rolled out of bed.”  Even Flore itself has ironic rundown pictures on the walls, a disheveled look, an obtrusively loud juicer, and cramped seating that can be hard to maneuver on weekends.  But there’s still something about the place with its casual vibe and organic, vegan fare that’s simple but delicious that keeps me coming back.   After a close race with the Portobello Tacos, the Basmati Brown Rice Bowl with chewy baked tofu and sauerkraut on the side won out.

After lunch, we walked around Silverlake.  It has lots of unique independent shops, tea stores, juice bars, and a store devoted to spices called Spice Station.  Experts* say that walls packed with jars of spices from around the globe may be what heaven looks like.  (No experts were interviewed, but one can assume…)

For the most part, the breaded and fried fare at Native Foods is hardly health food with its nachos, pizzas, burgers, fried seitan and ranch dip, but for that reason it makes going there a lot of fun.  It’s not the kind of food I make at home, and that’s exactly why it’s such a treat to go and tuck into something so indulgent.  My personal favorite is the Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger made with seitan, covered in tempeh bacon, fried pickle chips, and a melty plant-based cheese.  I like to get it with a side of their kale and it almost legitimizes the meal.

My favorite location is their Costa Mesa location for its breezy atmosphere and fun little shops in the same site, called The Camp.  It’s also only twenty minutes from Disneyland, and so it fits with the day to hit it for an early lunch or late dinner.  (For my other meal to eat at the park I packed a raw kale salad.  Seriously.)  Actually, I think it would be great if Native Foods opened a location at Disneyland like Babycakes has done at Disneyworld.  Native Foods has the kind of All-American food that I think would appeal to park guests and would be a wonderful option for vegans, vegetarians, and people who love delicious food.  Until then, Native Foods is expanding their restaurant chain across the country, including three locations in Chicago.

When the revamped Tony’s Darts Away came on the scene, I didn’t think it would be a big hit with me.  I didn’t have a bar in my life, and I didn’t think I was lacking for one.  But Tony’s, with its casual atmosphere – no waiting outside for a table – easygoing staff, sliders, loads of vegan sausages with a separate grill for their vegan items, freshly made potato chips and frizzled onions, and an excellent beer menu won me over.  They have lots of board games, a pool table, and darts, of course, and it’s an easy place to kick back with friends.

Just up the street from Tony’s is one place I knew I had to visit – my favorite dress shop, Audrey K.  Audrey K is an adorable little boutique on Magnolia in Burbank.  Audrey has vintage and vintage-inspired clothing with lots of unique styles.  They also carry Skunkfunk, a Spanish clothing line, that makes organic clothes out of bamboo and cotton.  (I wore one of my Skunkfunk/Audrey K purchases in my recent tofu video demonstrations.)  Visiting Audrey Robles, the owner, is like shopping with a girlfriend.  She has a great sense of what would look good on anyone’s particular body type, and she knows her clothes well.   She orders only small amounts of each style, and so wearing it, you feel you’ve gotten something really unique.  I’ve bought jeans from her a few times, and she was able to tell me how they would wash, if they would shrink, or if they would stretch.  Best of all, she has such a sense of fun about clothes.  Her clothes are playful, sexy, and incredibly wearable.

Finally, I had to swing by the two-level Whole Foods in Pasadena to buy items that are harder to find outside of a big city, enjoy a stroll around Old Town, and stop by Alternative Outfitters to check out their shoes, handbags, and more.  I visited Real Food Daily and Sunpower Cafe, and went on a few hikes, including my favorite trail in Griffith Park overlooking the city.  I love seeing downtown Los Angeles from a distance and looking all the way out to the ocean and Catalina Island on a clear day.  Somehow it feels from that vantage point like there is order in the chaos.  And then after many amazing meals, trails hiked, and joyful visits with friends, my LA visit came to a close.

Find out how you can win this halter-style tank top at the bottom of this post.

I’m proud to announce that I recently received a long sought after vegan merit badge.  What?  You haven’t heard of vegan merit badges?  Oh, yes, it’s just like the Girl Scouts, but without the cute little uniforms and cookie drives.  There’s a badge for pressing tofu and for flaxseed prowess.  There’s a badge for excellence in kale steaming, cookbook collecting, and obstacle course badges for braving hills and subways to retrieve vegan cupcakes.  There’s even a companion animal-caretaker award, which I received for dutifully providing nutritional yeast flakes to my cats.  But it wasn’t until this week that I finally completed the final badge on the list: the seitan-making badge.  While I’ve used vital wheat gluten (the protein-rich flour that is essential for easy-to-make seitan) in chickpea cutlets and veggie burgers, I had never made my own traditional seitan.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with seitan, it is chewy wheat-meat that can be used in stews, pot pies, sandwiches, stir-fries…   Really, the possibilities are endless.  It’s soy-free (unless soy sauce is used to flavor the wheat meat), and it has a really satisfying, dense texture.  I’d heard consistently good things about the steamed white seitan in Viva Vegan, and I decided it would be the perfect recipe for my maiden seitan voyage.

First, I had to make dough using vital wheat gluten flour (available in most natural grocery stores), vegetable broth, garlic, and spices.  Then I broke it into four loaves and wrapped the loaves in aluminum foil.  I steamed the loaves for a half an hour and let them rest in the refrigerator until the next day for maximum chewiness.  At that point, the seitan could be used in any way that tickled my fancy.

Steaming the seitan loaves

I marinated half of the seitan for arroz con seitan from Viva Vegan, which Terry Hope Romero refers to as “a veggie tribute to the enduring Hispanic dish (arroz con pollo) that lets the chicken cross the road for yet another day.”  I changed up some of the vegetables for the dish, based on what I already had in my refrigerator.  This filling dish was fantastic with lots of delicious spices, and I’ll definitely make it again.  FYI, it also reheated well the next day for lunch.

Later on in the week, I used the second half for some decadent comfort food – an improvised recipe for battered and fried seitan with mashed potatoes and greens.  The seitan held up well for frying, and this would be a good dish to make for non-vegetarians in your life who want a crispy centerpiece on their plate.

Making this seitan was easy and fool-proof.  I will certainly make it again, even if it turns out that there aren’t any “vegan badges” after all…

A spicy black bean scramble from The Red Avocado

Since today is the final day of Vegan MoFo, I’m having a giveaway on my blog for a halter-style tank top from Iowa’s lone vegan restaurant, The Red Avocado.  I wrote about The Red Avocado last December in an Iowa City travel post.  The Red Avocado offers delicious dinners that are perfect for a relaxing evening out with a glass of wine and the kind of quality food you’d expect to find in a much larger city.  However, as good as their dinners are, my favorite meals there are brunches.  Their specials are always unique and full of flavor.  They have scrumptious crepes, scrambles, soups, sandwiches, and more.

This new halter is pale blue and a size medium.  (Although, it runs small.)  This giveaway is international.  To win, just leave a comment on this post before Saturday, December 4th at midnight.  I’ll announce the winner on Sunday.  Check back to see if you’ve won!

French Meadow Bakery and Café in Minneapolis, with its twinkling tree branch-lined walls, is perfect for a romantic evening.  The soft mood lighting and hushed conversations all around invites diners to sit a while – order and appetizer and a glass of wine – and just relax.  The ambience is romantic, but most people were dressed casually.  French Meadow Café is a non-vegetarian restaurant with several clearly marked vegan options and a lot of it organic.

We ordered bruschetta to tempt our appetites.  The tomatoes, basil, and garlic doused in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and spread over crusty bread was delicious but fairly standard.  (I noticed that they’ve now moved on to a more wintery bruschetta with three different flavors – tomato caper, eggplant, and patty pan zucchini tapenade.)

Butternut Squash Gnocchi - $11

Next to come – the entrees.  I ordered the Butternut Squash Gnocchi.  Pillowy gnocchi was covered in sautéed wild mushrooms, perfectly cooked and slightly chewy to the bite.  Also in the mix – zucchini, wilted and spicy arugula, garlic, and piping hot tomatoes bursting at the seams.  This deliciously garlicky dish was so delectable, it had me wishing for more.

Tempeh Cutlet - $13

My husband ordered the Tempeh Cutlet.  This dish was a blend of sweet and spicy – savory tempeh cutlets were served with a blood orange vinaigrette and complemented with braised greens and dirty brown rice.  To complete the meal, coconut red beans finished out the plate.

Grilled Tempeh Reuben - $9.00

The next day, we were both still waxing poetic about the meal the evening before, and we decided to hit it the next night for an early dinner.  This time we went with their sandwich options.

I have a deep love of sauerkraut, and so their Grilled Tempeh Reuben was an obvious choice.  Marinated and grilled tempeh was served with a tomato-soy aioli on rye bread with a thin layer of sauerkraut.  The reuben, while not bad per say, was a disappointment.  There wasn’t one standout flavor.  It was all kind of bland, which is the last thing that I want in a reuben.  The tempeh didn’t taste like it had marinated for long, and it was served in two thick cakes instead of tasty strips, which can give a tempeh reuben such a satisfying texture.  The sauerkraut was a bit sparse, and the aioli pretty mild.  I found myself wishing I’d ordered the Gnocchi all over again.

Thai Tempeh - $8.00

As for my husband’s sandwich, well, I definitely had some food envy going on.  He ordered the Thai Tempeh served on hemp bread with red bell pepper, green onions, a generous handful of cilantro, and best of all, a fantastic ginger-peanut sauce.  To me, peanut sauce is like avocado and Trader Joe’s Jalepeno Pepper hot sauce – it makes everything better.  Both sandwiches were served with small mixed green salads.

While French Meadow wasn’t a complete success, I will definitely want to visit again the next time I’m in the Twin Cities.  Just based on that first dinner alone, it’s a menu that I’d like to explore more.  French Meadow Cafe is located at 2610 South Lyndale Avenue.

The road trip continues to the city so vegan-friendly that one of their most well-known landmarks is a cherry in a spoon.  Driving into Minneapolis always puts me in the mind of Emerald City.  The mirrored buildings of downtown glimmer in the sunlight, welcoming me into a city that has the offerings of a metropolis but with the accessibility of a smaller Midwestern town.

First stop, Ethique Nouveau.   This cute and welcoming store is small but carries a wide variety of items – makeup and brushes, shirts, books, jewelry, candles, and snacks.  Word on the street is that they may even sell shoes in the future. They have a focus on local artists, but there are also well-known vegan brands.  Best of all, everything in the store is vegan, not tested on animals, and Ethique Nouveau makes a donation on all purchases towards animal advocacy programs with the Animal Rights Coalition.  I couldn’t resist picking up a candle and some new makeup brushes.

After a bit of shopping, lunch was in order.  I’d heard good things about Pizza Luce, which has several locations in the Minneapolis area.  It’s a non-vegetarian restaurant, but they have a very vegan-friendly menu, and they even make their own cashew cheese.  It’s called rinotta.  The clean and spacious downtown location was buzzing on the afternoon we visited.

Our server was bubbly and eager to tell us about their menu.  When we ordered the Pizza Athena, she seemed almost elated. Once it arrived, I could totally understand why.  Fresh spinach, tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, red onion, oregano and toasted garlic was generously spread over their Bianca sauce.  The Bianca sauce is made with olive oil, fresh garlic, and Italian seasonings.  (A red sauce is also available if you are so inclined.)  It’s served on a perfectly chewy crust – crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  It would not be an understatement to say it was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had.

Tune in tomorrow for more deliciousness from the North, and if you’ve missed any of the other recent road-trip entries with packing ideas and restaurant reviews from Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Denver, Wichita, Kansas City, and several cities in Iowa, please do check them out.

Today’s guest post is by new vegan and friend Melissa Levengood. Melissa recently went on a seven day cruise to Mexico.  What follows is her experience eating vegan on a non-vegetarian cruise ship, her tips and tricks for others, and links to the concoctions created by the Carnival staff.

Veganism aside, cruises never seemed like an attractive vacation idea to me. (I’m paying someone a large sum of money to trap me on a boat for a week and dictate all of my decisions? Could my control-freak sensibilities handle this?) But I wasn’t going on this cruise for me; I was going on it for my dad. My father just turned 60, and we all gathered to celebrate his birthday like a rock star: 7 days of debauchery, over-eating, gambling, karaoke, dancing, and tanning on tropical beach locations, ‘spring-break’ style. This 7-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera aboard Carnival Cruise’s Splendor vessel was his surprise party.

Overall, the cruise was a great time. Not my style, but lots of fun with awesome memories (like my ex-80s-rock-star dad singing “Smoke on the Water” and “Highway to Hell” at Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo. Ladies his age coming up for autographs! Priceless!) Therefore, the trip was a success.

But this isn’t about my vacation, this is about what it’s like being vegan on an omnivore’s cruise ship – the challenges a vegan may encounter while trapped on a boat for 7 days. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Los Angeles anymore.

Preparation.

I traveled with essentially 5 omnivores who were determined to be as gluttonous as physically possible (“Vacation, baby!”) and gain at least 5 pounds over the course of the next week.  My near-vegan boyfriend and I were the only ones dreading the menu-options.  I did some research prior to my embarkation — this was my first cruise, my first trip to Mexico, and my first time traveling as a vegan so I didn’t know what to expect.

I called Carnival Cruise’s customer service to ask if there were any vegan options on board. The woman on the phone said simply, “No, sorry! Is vegetarian good enough?” To which I responded, “No.” I received another, “Then, no, sorry.”

This put me into a slight panic. Maybe this woman is just misinformed, I thought. Maybe they just don’t know how to think outside the box. Or maybe everything is cooked in beef broth and butter and there is no hope for me. After my typical stops on happycow.net and lonelyplanet.com, I did more research online and found some blogs of other vegans’ experiences. I saw photos of sad silken tofu blocks on top of blank pasta, steamed veggies with rice, and fruit plates upon boring fruit plates.

I was scared. So I made preparations. I stocked up on LARA bars, single-serving soy milks, Trader Joe’s JoeJoes Cookies, vegan multi-grain crackers, and trail mix.  Multivitamins and wine were also brought. I also made a list of helpful phrases, like no queso, no carne, to help with my on-shore excursions. And good news! I only busted out these emergency rations for convenience (or because I was craving JoeJoe’s) – not out of nutritional necessity!

The Deal.

The cruise line’s food offerings are mostly prepaid with your cruise fee, and are split up into either the main dining halls (the Gold Pearl or the Black Pearl) or various smaller themed stations throughout the ship:

Breakfast.

There are essentially two choices for breakfast: open seating at the main dining hall or the breakfast buffet.

Lunch.

From noon to 2:30pm, other various buffets become available, such as Tandoori, an Indian food buffet. A Burger Bar, a rotisserie, an Asian-inspired buffet, a chocolate/dessert bar, and the Tastes From Around the World buffet are other options.

The sit down option is also available for lunch at the main dining hall during the same hours.

Dinner.

For dinner, patrons sign up ahead of time for either early seating (6pm) or late seating (8pm) in the main dining hall. We chose the early seating. My family and friends were all seated at the same table in the restaurant called the Gold Pearl. We ate there every night at the same time except on the day we were in Puerto Vallarta. It has a variety of things on the menu and it’s all you can eat if you aren’t vegan.

There is also a heavily promoted “premium” steakhouse on board at additional cost, which I obviously did not go to.

There is a sushi bar open at strange hours — 4:30-8:30pm or something. I went a few times to try their eggplant roll. I didn’t ask if they could make me anything special because I didn’t really like the taste of their rice. I couldn’t really recommend this place.

24-hour options.

There is a 24-hour pizza station near the pool as well as a 24-hour soft serve ice cream dispenser, a la Souplantation.

There is also 24-hour room service, which includes various items previously seen at the buffets.

A hint that I got from the interwebs:

The minute you board, go to your dining hall and tell the Maitre-D that you are vegan. He/she will then guide you to your server. You tell your server that you are vegan. THEN he/she reports to the kitchen administrator. In our case, her name was Angela. My boyfriend, Ray, and I didn’t get to Angela in time for our first dinner aboard.  Luckily it didn’t result in me wanting to end my life; the food was actually fine.  The most encouraging and impressive part of the first dinner was the VEGAN MENU print out Angela handed me. This is how it works: the printout has options for an appetizer, main course, and dessert. It’s limited options, but OPTIONS nonetheless.  The thing is, you had to choose your entire week’s menu on the first night. This includes breakfast and lunch. The reason: they only make a limited amount of vegan dishes or have enough ingredients for limited quantities so you have order in advance. If you want 5 helpings of bacon-wrapped duck though, they’ve got you covered.

I ordered everything in green.  Immediately, I was excited that not only would I not starve on this trip, but they actually had a MENU of options for me! Things were looking up! And on top of that, Ray and my parents also signed up for the same things I did, just in case they felt like being vegan those times in the future.

(You can check out all of the food photos from the trip on this Flickr set.)

CONCLUSIONS:

The Stats.

About mid-week, our maitre-D, for our entertainment, decided to list off several stats about how much food a single cruise consumes.

10,000 pounds of beef.

10,000 pounds of chicken/fish.

4,000 pounds of fruits/vegetables. (This, no doubt, includes fries/iceberg lettuce.)

The dining hall cheered! Ray and I looked at each other in horror. Oh, Arteries.

Avatar & Ice Cream.

One night near the end of the week, I ventured out with my family to the main deck to watch Avatar on the open-air theater. I couldn’t help but see the irony of watching a conservation-film on a boat that eats 20,000 lbs of meat each week. After a week of seeing people gorging themselves, I was watching a movie urging humanity to not kill our “mother” or eliminate the “green” from our world – a film urging humanity to see the bond it has with all living creatures and the planet!

“Learn well, Jake Sully. Then we shall see if that insanity of yours can be cured.”

Kale as décor.

While scanning the buffets for possible vegan fare, I noticed that the Burger Bar had kale stuffed between the serving trays of cooked burgers and hot dogs. Kale as decoration! I was floored. Conclusion: People just don’t know how to cook vegetables. I fought every urge I had to snatch up that kale, rush the kitchen, steal some olive oil and garlic, and demonstrate how to sauté this amazing, nutritious green. Also – It’s 2010, how are you NOT offering veggie burgers and veggie dogs on one of the most popular cruiselines?

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I had a great time, which is proof that food is not everything and that what really matters is spending time with those you love. Though there is no vegan splendor on Carnival’s Splendor, a vegan will not starve (in fact, many times I was stuffed!).

Simple changes would improve the vegan’s cruise experience immensely. How easy would it be for the cruise line to adopt simple products and protocols to make more vegan options possible in the buffets? (Like just having soymilk readily available. Really? No lactose intolerant people on board?) How about abstaining from adding butter to various veggies until people request it? How about just having vegan butter on board? Or even better – a Vegan Bar! A 24-hour soy based vegan soft-serve machine would blow my mind! I guess one can dream. Or just go on a vegan cruise, equipped with yoga and cooking classes.

What could be a more quintessentially fall way to spend a day than a trip to the apple orchard?  The crisp air, cozy sweaters, and a wooden pail puts one in the perfect frame of mind for enjoying these final days before snow, winter coats, and icy roads.  It seems almost every Iowa City local I met had a special place in their heart for Wilson’s Orchard.  It’s the sort of place that makes an impression when you’re pint-sized and your dad lifts you up to reach the apples hanging from the branches, and it’s the kind of place that years later you’re eager to take your little ones – to ride the tractor trailer bed across the pastures, over creeks, and finally to lope along through the trees until your basket is full.

On the tractor ride over to the area where the trees were still producing we were told that there are also apples inside if you’re in a hurry, but that in the fields there’s one clear bonus – free samples.  My friends and I tasted a variety of apples – delighted by the variances in each, and it wasn’t long until we had the beginnings of apple cobbler, apple pie, apple butter, and well, apples.

Back at the weighing area, cinnamon wafted heavily in the air.  Wilson’s sells apple slushies, pies, and turnovers.  I checked the ingredients of the goods, which they also sell in the freezer case, and the turnovers and several of the pies happened to be vegan.  My husband and I shared a delicious, flaky turnover, the ooey, gooey apples in a sugary glaze still piping hot.   While we were there, we also picked up organic popcorn, which they sell by the half gallon (It pops up crisp and fresh) and their own apple butter.

Back at home, my husband set his hand at making apple pie, and I looked for more ways to use the apple butter, aside from our morning toast.  Our farmer’s market has been offering a wealth of mushrooms, and so the idea for “apple smoked” mushroom bacon was born.  It’s good for Mushroom BLTA’s, veggie reubens (just add sauerkraut and vegan Thousand Island dressing), and smoky collard greens.

Marinate thin strips of mushrooms

“Apple Smoked” Mushroom Bacon

• 2 Portobello mushrooms, sliced into thin strips (or the equivalent of maitake – a.k.a. hen of the woods)
• 2 Tbsp Tamari soy sauce
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil – plus 1 tsp for frying
• 2 tsp apple butter
• 2 tsp agave syrup or maple syrup

Combine liquid smoke, olive oil (except for the additional 1 tsp), apple butter, and agave syrup in a shallow baking dish.  Coat the strips of mushrooms in the marinade and let it soak for 30 minutes, turning once.  Preheat the pan and then fry the strips in the remaining teaspoon of olive oil.  If it begins to stick, pour any remaining marinade into the pan.  Cook until mushrooms are brown, about ten minutes.

Notes:  When buying liquid smoke, look for varieties with simple ingredients.  My preferred brand is made with water and hickory smoke concentrate.

When choosing between making this bacon with portobello mushrooms or maitake, consider this – portobellos are more widely available and generally cheaper, but maitake gives a chewier, meatier texture.

Toast bread and add smoky mushrooms, avocado, spinach, and tomato slices for a tasty BLTA.

Add sauerkraut and thousand island made with Vegenaise, a squeeze of ketchup, and diced pickles on rye for a savory veggie reuben.

Saute steamed collard greens in a generous amount of garlic, and then throw in chopped Portobello bacon for a satisfying side dish.

Driving into Waterloo, ready to exit 63 North towards the Waterloo Center for the Arts, I couldn’t help but notice the stickers adorning the rickety car in front of me.  A deer with the body of a curvaceous female lay seductively above the words “Nice rack.”  To the left, an archer holding a bow and arrow, stood in a tree stand above the letters “D.F.A.”  or “Death From Above.”  Finally, to finish the triad there was reliable old Calvin peeing on “P.E.T.A.”  The guy definitely had a theme going.  The only bumper sticker missing was, “Is this vegan heaven?  No, it’s Iowa.”

Yet, at the place where I was heading, the ArtHouse Café housed inside of the arts center, about half of the menu is, in fact, vegan.  When non-vegetarian Dan Ankrum started as head chef at the ArtHouse he knew he wanted to have some vegetarian options. He’d seen how his vegan friends in the area struggled to find delicious fare in restaurants outside of the local Chinese joint.  So when he set on creating his menu, instead of simply making a few cheese-laden vegetarian choices, he decided to add a full vegan section to the regularly-changing menu.  While they do serve meat and other animal products, currently about half of the menu is vegan with several plant-based entrees, two sandwiches, and two salads.

The café has several tables for dining and a counter where orders are placed.  That’s where we met Dan standing next to the register.  He noticed that my husband and I both ordered vegan options.

“So are you vegan?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.  “That’s actually why we came here.  I read about your restaurant online.”

Dan quickly offered us the soup of the day, mixed bean minestrone, on the house.  (There’s always at least one vegan option.)  The soup was loaded with chunky vegetables and in a tomato broth.  The mixture of beans gave a nice fullness to the soup.

For lunch, I had the aforementioned wild rice and wild local mushroom succotash.  There was a nice mix of wild and brown rice, stir fried with corn tomatoes, lima beans, and scallions.  This savory dish was spiced with tarragon.

My husband ordered the toasted brown rice pilaf.  With this dish, Dan gave the rice an interesting, toothsome texture and paired it with a blackened seared tofu.  The tofu was a bit creamy for my tastes.  I prefer a dense tofu that has been given a long press and squeezed of its excess liquid.  However, the Cajun spices on the tofu gave a bold, appealing flavor.

While we ate, Dan stopped by to chat with us about his fledgling restaurant, open only a few weeks at that point.  He said that many of his customers don’t know what “vegan” means, and he’s found himself explaining it to people.  After their questions they often order one of the vegan options, and he said that the succotash is one of the most popular items on the menu.  He’s following current trends of eating locally and seasonally, and he’s appealing to a thus far untapped audience in Waterloo.

With a grin, he told us about an incident recently on a busy day at the café when a group of older ladies came in for an afternoon lunch.  They were very inquisitive, and one of the ladies pulled him over to ask, “Where do vegans come from?”

Pulling her leg and in a bit of a hurry, Dan said, “From South Detroit.”

This only added more questions.

“So what does vegan mean?” the lady inquired.

“Vegan means no meat, no animal products or byproducts.”

“Oh,” said the lady.  “Why do the people in South Detroit want to do that?”

Well, I know, Dan.  And this South Detroitian (by way of Des Moines) couldn’t be more pleased to see creative, plant-based fare in Waterloo.

The ArtHouse Cafe is located at 225 Commercial Street in Waterloo.  They serve lunch Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00am until 2:00pm.