Thursday, October 16, 2008

VeganMoFo: California Food Journal

Days 3 &4 - Palo Alto

Breakfast the past two days has been on the run, but I was able to purchase coconut milk soy yogurt and some granola to grab on the way. I also had an english muffin with jam this morning before checking out of our B&B.
Dinner on Tuesday night was at Darbar Indian restaurant. For appetizer I tried the vegetable samosas which were a little greasy (like samosas generally are), but very flavorful with a perfect bland of spices. For dinner I had the aloo gobhi which was also delicious and was enough to save for lunch the next day. A great place for Indian cuisine if you're in the area.
I was excited to try out Palo Alto's brand new, all vegan cafe: the Loving Hut. It was also a chance to catch up with one of my baking partners from vegan bootcamp this past summer in NYC. The menu was quite different from what was posted online, much more limited with only abou 5 entrees. Ordered spring rolls for appetizers, which came to our table wrapped in plastic wrap. Dinner for me was a tempeh BLT with avocado on ciabatta that came with a side of quinoa salad. John ordered the Heavenly Salad. We were both reasonably satisfied with our dinners.... But I am sad to say that the piece of chocolate cake I ordered was anything but satisfying. It took quite a bit of shoving my fork to break off a piece of this rubbery cake. Without a doubt this had to be the worst piece of cake I've ever had.

Luckily Fraiche was a five minute walk away, so I was able to sample more frozen soy yogurt, this time with blueberries and toasted almonds (after confirming that their shaved chocolate topping was indeed not vegan).
This afternoon we head to Santa Cruz!

24 comments:

Virginia said...

too bad the cake wasn't good, it looks beautiful!

Anonymous said...

That stinks about the cake! The frozen soy yogurt looks delicious, though. I'm glad you got to go to Fraiche again.

Becka Robinson said...

Frozen soy yogurt?!?! Sad that we don't have one of these in Orlando!

Destiny's Kitchen said...

So weird to be served food with plastic wrap in a restaurant. Your rubbery cake is deceptively pretty, though. :o(

aTxVegn said...

There's nothing sadder than bad chcoolate cake.

Anonymous said...

The cake is from Santa Cruz based Black China Bakery. It is rubbery and dry and dense. Black China should be replaced everywhere by Sugar Beat Sweets, IMNSHO. Um, that means, In My Not So Humble Opinion. I'm not sure if that works or not fuck screw it, there goes.

Loving Hut is I guess huge all over Asia, I ate at the SF one a couple of days ago and liked it. I have to go back to try more of the menu but my favorite by far was the Ocean Basket...hello fried delicious!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

I could have warned you about the cake! Fraiche told me the chocolate was vegan! ugh.

Anonymous said...

Awww, what a shame about the cake (a piece of chocolate cake is a terrible thing to waste. . . ) but at least the fro yo was good!

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

That frozen yoghurt sounds really good, I love the topping!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Ahhhhhhhh, stop tempting me!!! :0)

Jes said...

Rubbery cake?? How horrid! Hug a banana slug for me in Santa Cruz!

tofufreak said...

rubbery chocolate cake?! that's too bad; it looks gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

ohh crazy! you're coming to santa cruz! i just moved here from texas, and i'm from houston. i suggest la vie on front street and the obligatory saturn cafe. there are so many vegan delights here, but those two are definitely my suggestions. have a fantastic time and post all about it! i can't wait.

ps black china has been a delicious bakery in my experience. i hate that you had nasty cake. don't totally write black china off!

Sheree' said...

That new coconut yogurt by Silk is awesome! Now we hope our store gets some differnt flavors. Just strawberry right now.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Lovin Hut is rather lacking in the goodness...sorry bout that. Disappointing cake is really a major drag!

Nicole said...

FROZEN SOY YOGURT? I MUST TRY THIS!!

Too bad your cake was bad! It looks fudgey and yummy..booo!

Bianca said...

Sucks about the cake! But thank god for frozen soy yogurt!

And I really like the new coconut soy yogurt...my favorite pre-workout snack.

Kati said...

That frozen soy yogurt looks incredible! That would make up for rubbery cake any day.

Animal-Friendly said...

Sorry to hear about the rubbery cake (rubbery? ew....makes me shudder), but I'm jealous about the soy frozen yogurt- I wish we had something like that around here!

the little one said...

I think Santa Cruz is my favorite CA town so I can't wait to see what you think of it. You should partake in some local wine. There is an awesome wine shop/restaurant downtown called Soif. I'm sure you've heard of the Saturn Cafe, which is a must. If you're looking for breakfast, there is also a bagel shop that might be called the Santa Cruz bagel shop (?) that even has Tofutti cream cheese. Did I already tell you that? I swear I recently commented on that somewhere. Regardless, Santa Cruz rocks! Have a wonderful time. Next time, tell me you're coming and I'll meet you down there if you have time for a meal with the little one. Hey, and congrats on the Runway win!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Santa Cruz! I hope you enjoy eating here as much as we love eating/living here!

Alicia said...

I'm really impressed by all the restaurants you've visited in California. OMG, I want to go to California too!

I don't think it's alright to have a spring roll delivered with the plastic wrap on, honestly. And I can't believe bad chocolate cake actually exists!

Unknown said...

The coconut milk So Delicious is really good -- we've tried the plain, mango and blueberry from Whole Foods, but they are expensive!

Scary rubbery vegan cake though! You need to show them a thing or two in the realm of vegan baking. I've been lucky enough to taste your delicious vegan cake creations, so I know!!! : )

PS - Welcome back to Houston!

Brandie said...

IO love the blueberry coconut milk yogurt! (The blueberry soy is my fav flavor too, but I've only recently discovered the coconut, SO YUMMY! :)