Monday, December 27, 2010

Dao Palate-Pan Asian Vegan Cuisine for a light dinner (Brooklyn)




Tom Yum Soup (left): nice and spicy, will clear up your sinuses straight away!

Problem was there was vegan (soy) ham
in the soup, which I ate around. I choose
not to eat soy products for a variety of
reasons.








Basil summer roll wrapped in rice paper
with vegan hoisin sauce and peanuts (right):
The sauce was great; I could have eaten it
like a soup. Problem again was the presence
of soy inside the wrap, which I accidentally
ate a few bites of.








Indian pancake (below) with curry dipping sauce: the pancake was greasy
goodness but the curry sauce fell short. It was way too mild and tasteless
for my palate.
Dao Palate seemed so promising on a freezing cold night recently. Nice
ambiance with candlelight and minimalist-inspired decor. Unfortunately,
the servers (yes, two of them) did not listen to my requests for soy-free
dining and that ruined the whole experience. How is this possible when
the restaurant was literally empty otherwise? It was clearly not a question
of being too busy. When I encountered the soy in the soup, I realized
they completely ignored my requests and I was even ignored when I
asked one of the servers about it as if I had not said anything just then.
Only after repeating my question did she say it was "ham".
Not even vegan ham, just "ham". Then, when I looked dumbfounded,
she spelled it "H-A-M". Yes, I heard. I had to then explain to her that
it must be soy-derived since this is a vegan restaurant and reminded
her that I mentioned I didn't eat soy when I ordered. The response
was, tell us next time and we will omit it when we are cooking.
I thought I did that this time, no? How disappointing.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Mmm, vegan banana bread loaf













My favorite baking resource is Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking, which, of course, is legendary. I've adapted the banana loaf recipe to make it even more healthful by re
moving the chocolate chips (no, that is not a typo), using organic whole wheat pastry flour and using either SUCANAT or jaggery as the sweetener. I used to sweeten with agave nectar and adjust the rest of the liquid proportions but I no longer use agave after all the recent news about its processing. Coincidentally, I also subbed in unsweetened applesauce for half the canola oil today because I was low and that worked very nicely.

The modified recipe is as follows:
Ingredients:
2 c. 100% whole wheat organic pastry flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. unrefined sea salt
1 c. SUCANAT or jaggery, if you have time to grate
1/3 c. canola oil (I split this evenly 1/6 c. each of canola oil and unsweetened applesauce. Next time I plan to use the full 1/3 c. of applesauce)
4 ripe organic bananas, mashed
1/4 c. water (filtered)
1 t. vanilla extract (with no alcohol or corn syrup added; I use Trader Joe's brand)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, mix the first three ingredients. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil (applesauce) together, then add the mashed bananas. I find it's easy to mash the bananas right in the bowl, using a fork. Stir in the water and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and stir to mix.

Fill the baking pan about 90% with the batter leaving a generous portion in the bowl. I will get to the leftover batter in a second.

Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (normally 40 minutes on the dot for my oven).

Ahh, as for that last 10% of batter (you won't find this in any cookbook)...The best part of vegan baking is my favorite past-time -- licking the bowl! A delicious treat for when the bread is baking. What, were you going to do the dishes??

Enjoy the baked bread once it cools, and try not to eat it all at once. I won't tell if you do, though...


Saturday, December 25, 2010

Exotic fruit baskets by Yana


A friend of mine, Yana, surprised me last night with a beautiful basket of exotic fruits. The basket was so beautifully wrapped in gold mesh fabric and adorned with pretty leaves (photo, left). It was filled with goodies (working counterclockwise, right-hand photo) like miniature pineapple, kumquat, ugli fruit, cherries (from Chile), pomegranate (with 613 seeds, a tidbit from Yana), Myers lemon and a clementine. Wow - awesome!

So far I've tasted the cherries; what a treat in the wintertime when they are no longer in season locally and a kumquat, which I never had before. Both were excellent. Can't wait to try the pomegranate seeds next.

This is a great gift idea for holidays, birthdays and most anytime, really. The good news is that Yana lovingly creates these pretty baskets and sells them so if you are interested in buying one, visit her websites at:
www.fruittasting.com

Thank you Yana for the thoughtful fruity goodness!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

V-Note (Upper East Side) for dinner

We had the best table in the house...

The photos are out of the order they were eaten; it's hard to control the picture order using Blogger. Really, I did not have dessert first, although with me, it's not totally out of the realm of possibility.
Fondue! The fruit was a little too cold for my taste and the fruit, especially the strawberries, weren't the ripest (I shouldn't be too picky, I realize it's not strawberry or pineapple season). It is worth noting that our table would have been perfectly content with all bananas for dipping (they were perfect), and maybe one or two of the yummy cookies. Technically the fondue was for two but it was a fine serving for the three of us.
Soy chicken cutlets (special) with mushroom sauce and brussels sprouts. The whole dish was tasty, especially the sauce.
The small-sized Caesar salad was a good portion with nice flavors.
Mushroom risotto entree with mushrooms galore, seaweed and basil. Creamy, warming goodness on a cold night. Yum yum!
Seitan schnitzel appetizer with blueberry sauce and potato salad. The potato salad had lots of mushrooms, which is a plus if you are a mushroom fan like I am (though the person who ordered this was not, unfortunately). The seitan was good though heavy because it was fried and a sizable portion for one person.

The pumpkin and sweet potato gnocchi appetizer with sage cashew cream and kale was heavenly; it was my favorite course. Yes, even better than dessert, which doesn't happen often. Last photo but definitely not least!

V-Note is owned by the same people as Blossom, which is consistently great and one of my top picks in NYC. The quality was excellent, both food and drinks. The atmosphere is chic and modern, with spacious tables and lots of space between tables, which I like and is so rare in Manhattan.