Hell Yeah Veganism: “Challenge Accepted”

October 11, 2013

Hi everyone! I’m going to be away for about a week (unless I am able to blog on the road!), but in the meantime I have a request for you. My next TV-related posts (to appear concurrently with Veganizing “Friends” and others) will be a Barney Stinson-inspired “Challenge Accepted” series!

While the actual food made on “How I Met Your Mother” will be for a different project (which I will be able to announce soon!), this project will cover any food (or drink!) that you want me to veganize. I’m really only saying it’s HIMYM-related so I can use “Challenge Accepted” gifs like it’s my job. Give me your crazy, your interesting, your memories, whatever you want, and I will veganize it. For example, my aunt expressed her desire for chocolate-covered bacon (gross!) and fried Oreos (at least the Oreos are already vegan!). I guess I need to buy a deep-fryer!
Comment below with what you want to see, or just say hi, and I’ll see you in a bit!

New Orleans Inspirations: Cream of Root Beer & Cream of Almond Shaved Ice

September 8, 2014

One of my absolute favorite places in New Orleans was the old school (and regular type of old) shaved ice shoppe Hansen’s Sno-Bliz. Born in 1939, Hansen’s sells amazing snow cone treats that somehow have fluffy ice and sophisticated, absolutely delicious syrup flavors. I had many wonderful flavors there, but missed out on the cream flavors (because cream). So we are recreating them here with our trusty beloved Vitamix! (NB: You can participate with any method of creating shaved ice.)

Husband had the most incredible sounding combination one day – cream of root beer and cream of almond. I was hella jealous and I swore that I would recreate an even better version myself. I believe I have done that, even though I never tried the original and so cannot compare. But mine’s better. And it doesn’t hurt cows.

CREAM OF ROOT BEER & CREAM OF ALMOND SHAVED ICE

PART 1: ROOT BEER SYRUP
Ingredients:

1/4 C plus 2T white sugar
3/4 C water
2T root beer extract (mine is a soda-making base and tends to be on the weaker side)

Directions:

Boil all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat for about 8 minutes.
It should reduce somewhat but still be liquid and not be too sticky.

PART 2: ALMOND SYRUP
Ingredients:

1/4 C white sugar
2/3 C water
2t almond extract

Directions:

Boil all in saucepan for about 8 minutes (as above)

The most interesting part of Hansen’s Sno-Bliz was that they first put the shaved ice in a cup, then poured in your syrups, and then put the whole thing in a machine that added more fluffed ice on top. After that, they’d put more syrup on top of the new ice! It was a multi-part process, so this is too. (Although I guess it doesn’t have to be, but you know what they say about easy things not being worth doing or something like that.)

PART 3: SHAVING THE ICE
Ingredients:

2/3 C plain almond milk
3 C cubed ice

Directions:

Crush in your high-powered blender until completely slushified.

PART 4: SYRUPING AND RESHAVING
Ingredients:

1 1/2 C cubed ice
about 2 C shaved ice (as made above)
1 batch root beer syrup
1 batch almond syrup

Directions:

Divide the shaved ice evenly between two glasses or containers.
Pour half the root beer syrup over one glass and mix it well..
Pour half the almond syrup over the second glass and mix it well.
Now take the root beer glass and dump the entire contents into the blender with 3T more root beer syrup and 3/4 cup cubed ice.
Blend until slushified.
Empty root beer slushy back into glasses (1-3 depending on appetites).
Now take the almond glass and dump the contents into the blender with 3T more almond syrup and 3/4 cup cubed ice.
Blend until slushified.
Empty almond slushy back into glasses.
Enjoy!!!!

My root beer slush, before the second ice blend, fell a little flat…because I forgot to cool the syrup.

And then of course mix the two flavors together if you want for a delicious combination! Enjoy !

Pouring the syrup straight from the pan

Vegan Bar Food at Local 44, Philly: Gimme All You Got

October 4, 2013

Local 44 is my JAM, people. It’s the coolest, hippest, raddest neighborhood pub in West Philly. Although it can be overrun with hipsters and Penn kids (I can make fun because I was once both), it has interesting craft beer options (not that I drink it), a challenging and awesome Quizzo night (which I rock), and most importantly amazing vegan food options.
The menu has changed over the years. I remember a Frito Chili Pie and a good veggie burger. However, I’m solidly behind the latest offerings. Hot damn, they are good!

My friend and I started with 2 of the 3 vegan appetizer options, because that’s how we roll. First, the Spicy Seitan Nuggets, of which you get 5 decent-sized pieces of amazingness. I don’t know how they got the buffalo wing sauce down so perfectly, but they did. It was orangey-red and tangy and spicy like a mother. I was impressed by the actual nuggets too, far from the sponge that seitan can often produce. They were actually quite sturdy and hard to cut, but you’re probably just supposed to bite them like wings. I loved the satisfying bite the texture provided, and the mild ranch dip accompanying them. Definitely a must!

Next, we got the Fried Brussels Sprouts. You might have seen in past posts how much I love Brussels Sprouts, especially when doused in oil and nearly burnt. This is the best way to eat them. These sprouts were cooked really well and melted in your mouth, as fried things should. However, ask for the soy-chili sauce to come on the side. It made the sprouts way too tart and salty, and then the bottom layer got really soggy and even more tart. Sadface.
The third app, which we didn’t order, is popcorn doused in nooch. You can’t go wrong eating at a place that knows nooch+popcorn=love.

Bars are dark!

Brussels

Reuben!

The weirdest thing about the menu? None of the salads are vegan! And 3 of the burgers are! Up is down, left is right. But let’s focus on the good part: 3 burgers! You can choose from the ALT (avocado, lettuce, and fried green tomato), the black bean burger (which is great), and what I’m sure you will order, the Pastrami Spiced Seitan Reuben. I know!
Obviously, my friend and I both ordered the Reubens, because when you have the chance to eat a vegan Reuben, you take that chance by the horns and you eat it.
Oh my goodness, this was a good Reuben. The seitan was sliced so thinly, and the cooks stuffed as much as they possibly could between those slices of bread. It was extremely salty – I think I drank 4 glasses of water just during this course – but that’s how pastrami is supposed to be! I’m glad I asked for the side salad instead of the fries (you can do so for no extra charge!) because I put all those leaves in the sandwich, helping alleviate the saltiness and providing a different cooling texture.

Do you see how much meat is in there? It can’t be contained! So much!

This was one of my favorite Reubens, though I wish it came with a bit more Thousand Island dressing and cabbage to counteract the shittonne of meat in there. Because there really is a shittonne! Can you believe all of that? So awesome.
Local 44 definitely has vegan bar food down. You can’t go wrong with any of the current vegan options. And I’m really looking forward to having brunch here – the vegan brunch option is scrambled tofu with homefries and mushroom scrapple. What!

Another great thing about Local 44? It’s a short drive from Little Baby’s Ice Cream Parlor! Little Baby’s is a small-batch ice cream purveyor, and it always has at least 4 non-dairy options. They are uniformly delicious, for hard scoop ice cream (you know how I feel about soft-serve). Also, all of their cookies, for ice cream cookie sandwiches, are vegan! After this dinner, I had a scoop of Smoked Cinnamon ice cream. Pretty darn great.

LOCAL 44

Water speed: Great! I was drinking insanely fast, due to how salty the food is, and I never got impatient.
Bathrooms: Surprisingly clean for a bar, though you’ll set off the hand dryer probably 4x.
Service: Good and friendly. It gets crowded, and busy.
Food: Great vegan bar options, but beware if you have high blood pressure.
Bonus: If you’re a beer drinker, you will freaking love this place. They have a bottle shop next door so you can buy your favorite specialty beers. Also, Quizzo!