In Which I Go To Las Vegas On My Own Volitionby Randi / August 27, 2013 After traveling for a good 24 hours, I arrived in Croatia jet-lagged, light-headed, and in need of vegetables. I had always planned on eating my first meal at Vegehop, one of the few all vegetarian restaurants in the country, and I’m pretty happy I did.
New in a city where I couldn’t use my phone’s Google maps to get around, I was extremely anxious (as is my wont) to find this restaurant on my own. Luckily, Vegehop is pretty centrally located, and even more luckily, it is well signed from the main street (the restaurant is in a sort of alley). With a sigh of relief, I entered the quiet, nicely decorated little room and took my seat among maybe 8 other diners.
The extensive menu offers cooked and raw dishes, vegetarian and vegan, as well as a daily prix fixe menu. I was tempted by the set menu, but I decided to refresh my travel-logged body with raw food. While I love cooking at home, and I love trying most anything when dining out, I’m always so tempted by raw food in restaurants. Probably because I can’t prepare it like they can!
New in a city where I couldn’t use my phone’s Google maps to get around, I was extremely anxious (as is my wont) to find this restaurant on my own. Luckily, Vegehop is pretty centrally located, and even more luckily, it is well signed from the main street (the restaurant is in a sort of alley). With a sigh of relief, I entered the quiet, nicely decorated little room and took my seat among maybe 8 other diners.
The extensive menu offers cooked and raw dishes, vegetarian and vegan, as well as a daily prix fixe menu. I was tempted by the set menu, but I decided to refresh my travel-logged body with raw food. While I love cooking at home, and I love trying most anything when dining out, I’m always so tempted by raw food in restaurants. Probably because I can’t prepare it like they can!
Vegehop’s Multivitamin Salad
I decided to start with the Multivitamin Salad, a vibrant mixture of shaved beets, cabbage, carrots, and sunflower seeds. Not only was this salad incredibly beautiful, but it tasted great. And it was enormous! I’m sure most normal people order just this for their entire meal, which I can sort of understand but I would still laugh at them. Anyway, with just a few bites I immediately felt rejuvenated. A very light lemony dressing barely covered the perfectly bite-sized vegetables, which I was happy about. So often salads are doused with so much dressing that you can’t even tell what vegetables are underneath, or if there are any. This salad, on the other hand, was pretty perfect. Or maybe I was insanely jet-lagged, I don’t know. All I can say is that I wish I had some right now!
Vegehop’s Raw Zucchini Cannelloni
For my entrée, I chose the raw zucchini cannelloni. The waiter immediately informed me that this dish would take about 15-20 minutes longer to prepare than other dishes, but I had time to wait. How amazing is it to have a waiter tell you this straight away, rather than leave you wondering when your food doesn’t come? I really appreciated this; it so rarely happens.
It was worth the wait. Thin slices of zucchini wrapped around a gooey, salty cashew cheese and were covered with olive oil and a sort of pesto. I’ve made lots of cashew cheese in my life but this one tasted like nothing I’ve concocted. It wasn’t grainy at all, but was almost gummy (in a good way). I don’t know how it was made, but I loved it.
The only disappointing thing was that, since I was there near closing, all the good vegan desserts were gone. A huge reason I chose this restaurant was because a friend told me about the ‘Danube Waves’ cake. Of course, a woman seated a few tables away got the last piece right before I asked the waiter about it! Of course! Next time, I know to immediately ask if they have any and secure my piece before any hussies can take it away from me.
Vegehop, Vlaska Ulica 79, Zagreb
It was worth the wait. Thin slices of zucchini wrapped around a gooey, salty cashew cheese and were covered with olive oil and a sort of pesto. I’ve made lots of cashew cheese in my life but this one tasted like nothing I’ve concocted. It wasn’t grainy at all, but was almost gummy (in a good way). I don’t know how it was made, but I loved it.
The only disappointing thing was that, since I was there near closing, all the good vegan desserts were gone. A huge reason I chose this restaurant was because a friend told me about the ‘Danube Waves’ cake. Of course, a woman seated a few tables away got the last piece right before I asked the waiter about it! Of course! Next time, I know to immediately ask if they have any and secure my piece before any hussies can take it away from me.
Vegehop, Vlaska Ulica 79, Zagreb
- Water speed: Not great. I learned here that my dining in the Balkans would lead to a lot of drinking from my water bottle. It’s just a different culture here. Not as thirsty.
- Bathrooms: One or two shared stalls, not bad.
- Service: Good. Appreciated the warning about the wait.
- Food: Overall, very good and recommended.
- Extras: The sign for the restaurant out on the main road is extremely helpful. I just wish they froze some of the Danube Waves just in case they run out and someone came from America JUST for that. (K that’s not true but still.)
Related Posts
Seed, New Orleans: A Vegan Paradise & My Favorite in NOLA
Seed also has fun artwork for sale on the walls!
Seed, the wonderful vegan restaurant in New Orleans, uses a tag line that goes “Garden Based. NOLA Taste.” If you can get past this, you will undoubtedly love any meal here, unless you only get the mac & cheese.
Honestly, I have to thank the universe again. We ended up at my favorite restaurant in NOLA by pure dumb luck – and what we first considered misfortune. At about 8:30pm (not late in NOLA!) we decided to head out for dinner. Our three choices were 1) crazy hot dogs at Dreamy Weenies, 2) Killer Po’ Boys at the Erin Rose Pub, and 3) the restaurant I’ve heard nothing but raves about, Green Goddess. Well: 1) Dreamy Weenies closes at 9pm, 2) Killer Po’ Boys doesn’t operate at the pub on Tuesdays (the day it was), and 3) worst of all, we went to Green Goddess and saw this awful terrible no good sign:
ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING??? Is food some sort of JOKE to you Green Goddess, if that’s even your real name? We were there on like the 11th. That is a ridiculously long closure for something called a Decadence Festival. My goodness that is the lamest f-ing thing I have ever heard. (Actually I mean of course it sounds like the most amazing thing ever BUT F THAT NOISE NOW.)
Anyong, I am so disappointed that I didn’t get to eat here, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be back. Okay, enough sads. Thanks to the stupidest festival I’ve ever heard of, we got to eat at Seed, a more upscale restaurant that we were hoping to get to at some point during our trip. So yay! It closed at 10pm, so I called to make sure that arriving at 9:15 wouldn’t be too much of a problem, because I didn’t want our waiter to spit in our food. All the staff members were very nice and made us feel welcome. And, the meal was one of my absolute favorites in any city, really!
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We weren’t even that hungry, but this was our one shot here and man alive did we order good. We started with the gumbo with added seitan, and it was fanfreakingtastic! Just absolutely perfect gumbo made from a traditional roux, with okra, peppers, collards, and mushrooms, with a lovely scoop of brown rice on top. It was so good! Oh man. I recreated a gumbo inspired by this dish that I’ll be sharing later this week.
Then, on the waiter’s suggestion (he said it was his favorite dish on the menu!) we got the southern fried tofu nuggets. Oh holy crap, these were uhhhhhhhmazing. So many h’s. The tofu was coated with chickpea flour and deep fried, naturally, with the agave mustard dipping sauce and oh my god it was just perfection deep fried on a plate. Even now, my omnivorous husband just said “That shit was phenomenal!”
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We then tried our best to attack the mac & cheese side, which we of course had to try. The consistency was great, super creamy, but the flavor was a little bland. We added the mustard sauce from the nuggets into it, and that made it actually really good.
Next we tried to tackle the eggplant po’ boy, which was really yummy if a bit basic. The bread was a little unsubstantial, and the fillings (eggplant fried in cornmeal batter, some lettuce, red peppers, mushrooms and onions) needed some bulking up, but the taste was great. Definitely a sandwich I could eat regularly. It also came with a scoop of quinoa, which is a nice unexpected addition but I would love if it was some kind of vegetable instead. Seed loves its grain scoops! We were so stuffed, but we had to have dessert because dum da da dummmm (trumpets) Seed is the only place in New Orleans (as far as I know/was told) that makes VEGAN BEIGNETS. Oh my goddddd. These were amaaaaazing. Little perfect fried doughnuts absolutely drenched in a bowl of powdered sugar. Oh man. They were so amazing that, after we devoured them, I started just eating the sugar in hopes that it would feel like more beignets. Also, husband had had the world-famous beignets at both Café du Monde and Café Beignet, and said they were pretty much the same. Yippee! I want more! We also tried the almond milk punch, which is bourbon, almond milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and nutmeg. A fantastic combination (especially without the bourbon)! This one, however, was the strongest drink ever! Whoever mixed it wanted us drizzunk. Crazy strong! I will totally make this kind of milk drink without the alcohol. So yummy! |
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This is the best picture I’ve ever taken.
So, if you are going to New Orleans, I would definitely recommend Seed. While I liked the po’ boy, I wasn’t blown away, and the menu is too stuffed with other great-sounding dishes to try it again. Better mac & cheese can be had elsewhere as well. But, go and go again for the gumbo, the unbelievable tofu nuggets, and the super important and VITAL beignets.
SEED, NEW ORLEANS
Water speed: I remember it being decent.
Bathrooms: Clean, very big single-serve room. I always wish that the big singles could be turned into two, but luckily there was no wait here (it was late).
Service: So nice! Everyone was very friendly and helpful.
Food: Overall, fantastic. Necessary for the beignets…and the nuggets…and the gumbo.
Bonus: BEIGNETS PEOPLE!
Sunday Night! Pizza Night! In America! – Al Roker
While most people were watching football today (American football, where the foot rarely touches the ball), I decided to celebrate Pizza Night In America (as Al Roker announces every week…right?) by breaking in my brand new pizza stone! Yes, thanks to my bestie known around here as The Bean, I can no longer complain about not owning a pizza stone! (And after buying myself a Vitamix for Christmas, I’m running out of equipment-based things to complain about. Not that I’m complaining.)
Blessed with a few rolls of Field Roast sausage waiting to be used, I decided to top a bean-spread-based pizza with it, along with roasted cauliflower, a ton of roasted garlic, and some greens I had lying around. As you may know from my past pizza-making expeditions, I’m a big fan of replacing cheese or cheese-like substances, and sometimes (like now!) even sauce, with bean spreads. White beans are really the tofu of the bean world (I guess aside from soy beans…), waiting to be turned into anything you want. Except for brownies. Seriously, chill with that noise.
I’m pretty sure the pizza stone ranks as one of the smartest inventions in human history. The crust slid right off the stone, it browned nicely all around, and even though I used about twice as much dough as I should have (you can’t really tell, but I redefined the term ‘deep dish’ – and so can you!), it cooked perfectly throughout the massive folds of bread. Delicious!
Obviously, this will work with a wide variety of items you might have on hand, but I have to recommend following my lead with spinach and pre-sauteed Brussels sprouts. Or, better yet, arugula and spinach mixed together. I’m not a huge fan of arugula eaten raw, but it’s great on pizza.
Sadly, I realized that I was out of nooch. I KNOW! Perish the thought. This is a really serious problem. Please, everybody, to avoid a fate similar to mine, please make sure that you have a backstock of nooch. Don’t fail your future self. Keep nooch well-stocked as if it was the only way to thwart a nuclear attack. Happily, I realized that I can make a cheesy white bean spread without nooch. (Not that I’ll ever do it again.) So the below recipe is great for those of you who didn’t prepare well, or who don’t like nooch.
I’m pretty sure the pizza stone ranks as one of the smartest inventions in human history. The crust slid right off the stone, it browned nicely all around, and even though I used about twice as much dough as I should have (you can’t really tell, but I redefined the term ‘deep dish’ – and so can you!), it cooked perfectly throughout the massive folds of bread. Delicious!
Obviously, this will work with a wide variety of items you might have on hand, but I have to recommend following my lead with spinach and pre-sauteed Brussels sprouts. Or, better yet, arugula and spinach mixed together. I’m not a huge fan of arugula eaten raw, but it’s great on pizza.
Sadly, I realized that I was out of nooch. I KNOW! Perish the thought. This is a really serious problem. Please, everybody, to avoid a fate similar to mine, please make sure that you have a backstock of nooch. Don’t fail your future self. Keep nooch well-stocked as if it was the only way to thwart a nuclear attack. Happily, I realized that I can make a cheesy white bean spread without nooch. (Not that I’ll ever do it again.) So the below recipe is great for those of you who didn’t prepare well, or who don’t like nooch.
SOME PRETTY GREAT PIZZA
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Components:
Ingredients for pizza dough:
Directions:
Ingredients for white bean spread:
Directions:
For the Brussels sprouts:
Directions:
For the cauliflower and garlic:
Directions:
Assemblage:
 Brussels, cauliflower, and garlic successfully placed.  How good is Field Roast. This kind was pretty darn spicy. Love it. |
 Now that is some crust.  I love sharing pictures of my yeast jumping because it is magic!  Look how pretty my new stuff is! Thanks brotherrrr.  Beans & cashews & other things oh my!  I want to go to there. Not to a saucepan. To Brussels. I love that statue of the little boy peeing. I don’t know.  Objects in picture look a lot bigger than they actually were.  GLUTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I made hummus in a blender, look at me I’m a rebel.  Aw man it kind of looks like my pie mousse. It’s not!  Spinach! We’re movie clockwise here.  Cooked & shriveled. |
Enjoy! It’s real good.
Is there anything better than Pizza Night? I might have to make this a regular weekly or biweekly fixture now that I have a Stone. So exciting! What are your favorite pizza toppings? Is pizza your favorite food? I went to a casting call when I was like 11 (just for shits and giggles) and about 30 girls were asked “What’s your favorite food?” Every single one of us said pizza, except for one girl, who said “raviolis”. I said to her, “Um that’s not a word. Ravioli is already the Italian plural form.” She got a callback. Bitch.
