by | July 16, 2010

Maui Tacos

Maui Tacos, Brief Review – Kihei, Hawaii
Overall Service Food Quality Atmosphere Vegan Options
6.25 6 7 5 7
Location: 2411 S. Kihei Road, Kihei, HI
Recommended Dish: Paid Burrito
Hours: 9am-9pm
 Times Visited: 2

The Stumptown Vegans Travel!

The first thing I noticed walking into Kihei’s Maui Tacos location was that the vegetarian menu was front and foremost.  On top of that, the vegetarian menu was mainly vegan!

The menu contains your normal vegetarian options with black beans with potatoes, guacamole, rice, lettuce, and salsas.  There’s always the question about if the beans and rice are vegetarian, but Maui Tacos quickly puts that concern to rest stating on their menu that the beans are cooked fresh everyday without lard.

The menu items are listed in pigeon, a combination of English, Hawaiian, and Spanish.  I opted for the $7, Paid burrito on my first visit which had lettuce, beans, rice, and guacamole.   I took advantage of their free salsa bar and loaded up with some fresh corn and pineapple, and tomatilla, along with some limes.  I was surprised that the burrito didn’t need the condiments to add flavor- the rice was seasoned well with tomatoes and a smoky pepper flavor.  The black beans were cooked just enough to be firm on the outside and absolutely creamy on the inside.  The generous serving of guacamole helped to give the burrito the right amount of wetness among the other ingredients.  The white flour tortilla was okay, but the wrap didn’t hold it’s shape well, which is dangerous when eating a burrito.  A quick steaming of the tortilla would have helped this.

On the second visit I opted for the Haiku Burrito, which is titled differently at separate franchises.  The potatoes took the place of the rice, even with the same seasoning.  The black beans and lettuce were just like in the Paid burrito, which I prefer to the Haiku because of the creamy guacamole addition.  A serving of pineapple and corn salsa helped to pull the burrito together with the natural sweetness and spiciness from the fresh jalapeno.

The Kihei location doesn’t offer indoor seating but the shared outdoor tables in front of the shop offers many seats to be shared with Subway and Orange Julius customers.

I was surprised by the use of styrofoam for their to go contains.  Maybe you can take your own containers or donate the used box to a mongoose for permanent housing.  On an island where nothing is cheap, the $7 burritos served with a side of yellow corn chips, hits the spot.

So, if you’re looking for a cheap lunch or dinner option before heating to the beach, check out Maui Tacos for a taste of Mexican food when visiting Hawaii, or any of their other franchise locations, as they are quickly expanding.

Exterior:

Optional Dining Location:

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Filed under catering, cheap, mexican, travel, webly

by | July 8, 2010

My Thai Vegan Cafe (Boston, MA)

My Thai Vegan Cafe, Brief Review
Overall Service Food Quality Atmosphere Vegan Options
6 5 5 5 9
Location: 3 Beach Street Boston, MA
Recommended Dish: Soup of the Day
Hours: 11am-10pm
 Times Visited: 1

~

From the Stumptown Vegans Travel Log

Location

In 2008, My Thai Vegan Cafe moved into the second floor restaurant space above Pho Pasteur at the corner of Beach and Washington in Boston’s Chinatown. Prior to that, the space was occupied by a long-standing favorite of the veg-community, Buddha’s Delight (which it seems like would move downstairs, and then back up, every few years, but that’s a whole other story and part of this reviewer’s college memories).   Adding a bit more history to this dramatic back-story, My Thai first opened in a former Buddha’s Delight location in Brookline.  This original location closed in 2009. Both establishments were part of Boston’s vegetarian dining history.

Entering the current My Thai includes walking up one of the creakiest staircases I’ve ever experienced. It’s the type of stairs, regardless of being just one floor up, that would give your non-vegan family just cause to likely never visit the restaurant again. The dining area is quite calming, in contrast. I wouldn’t call it ambiance, but I would slightly credit the large room and the glimpse into the city below.

The Food

My Thai’s entirely vegan menu features 10 lunch specials of Thai and Vietnamese influence for $6.95-$7.50.  I won’t go into detail about the rest of the menu, as this is a New England based travel review specifically about a lunch special.

The restaurant was empty on a Friday afternoon for a late lunch.  The server approached quickly to fill my water and take my order. I chose the Pad Thai lunch special with vegan chicken.  The two-course lunch started with a minor oddity – my waitress did not seem to know what my request for “medium heat”, or “spicy” was about. I had to second guess myself if that was a freakish request on the East Coast. The first course to my table was the Soup of the Day, which actually contained a nice level of slowly increasing heat, one spoonful at a time. It had a light, red curry tinged broth with cubes of firm tofu and sliced vegetables. The vegetables were just cooked enough to stand up in a soup, unlike the soups of the day where soggy vegetables may have entered days before.

All lunch specials at My Thai come with a complimentary side, and I chose the vegetable dumplings. The two medium-sized dumplings served alongside my entrée were pan-fried, stuffed with a savory protein filling, and served with a generous amount of sweet dipping sauce. I was left with the impression that these were stuffed in-house, due to the custom folding. The Pad Thai itself was presently greatly, topped with fresh bean sprouts and christened with a slice of lime and crushed peanuts.  Flavor was another matter. The ample serving of hot rice noodles, a bit of garnish, and slices of soy chicken was reminiscent of a Pad Thai requested vegan at many omnivorous restaurants – incredibly bland.  It was missing sauciness and any heat whatsoever.  I can recall squeezing every last drop out of the lime! I can’t credit the addition of soy chicken strips, because those too, was odd, with a strangely burnt aftertaste.

In a city that shares the glory of Grasshopper in Allston, the recently closed but impressive raw dishes of Grezzo, and growing pride of Peace O’Pie, my lunch at My Thai was a real lackluster experience.

However, as all vegan alternative conveniently located downtown, I would be up for giving it another try.  Any recommendations?

House Soup
My Thai house soup

Pad Thai Lunch Special with dumplings
My Thai Vegan Cafe

Exterior
Chinatown, Boston

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Filed under all vegan, boston, dinner, jess, lunch, thai, travel

by | June 16, 2010

The Stumptown Vegans Present: Portland Vegan Bakery Showdown – A Blind Taste Test

In connection to Stumptown Vegans Podcast Episode 16, available on Itunes.

The Stumptown Vegans are joined by special guests Alex Wrekk, David Agranoff, Maeve and Crystal for a lengthy blind taste test and critical discussions of vegan muffins, scones, chocolate cake/cupcakes, gluten-free selections, and cheesecake from local vegan baked goods providers.

For every item sampled, the participants assigned it a score on a 1-10 scale. The points were then tallied and entered into the charts below, percentage wise. Detailed, immediate feedback is on the podcast episode. The individual scores for each bakery item were combined. If an individual did not provide a score, an average score of 5 was utilized.

Enough with the semi-scientific talk, onto the our discussion group’s picks for Portland’s best vegan bakery items!

The Bakeries in the Blind Taste Test:

As you can see, and probably guessed – favorites were very divided, and each bakery rated highly! It was fascinating, there were rounds were someone would give a 1, and someone else would give a 10. There was another round where Costco was jokingly, and somehow, fondly, namedropped about 3-4 times.

Please click on the graphs if you cannot see them clearly enough!

The Results:

Leading Chocolate Cake/Cupcake Score: Sweetpea Baking Co.

The Stumptown Vegans Present: Portland Vegan Bakery Showdown

Leading Cookie Score: Dovetail Bakery

Leading Vegan Cheesecake Score: Blossoming Lotus

Leading Muffin Score: Blacksheep Bakery

Leading Scone Score: Back to Eden Bakery

If your favorite items were missing, or you have any suggestions, please let us know!

—-

Disclaimers and Set Up:

This podcast contains a no-holds barred, colorful, opinionated conversation amongst delightfully spoiled Portlanders, who all eventually succumb, on air, to sugar overload.  The showdown is based on items acquired on a specific weekend, and purchased with the Stumptown Vegans’ own money.  We were not able to attain everything uniformly, and were missing items normally available from some bakeries. That’s just how the cookie crumbled.

For example, there are chocolate cupcakes and cake reviewed in one category, and generally available scones missing from another. We did not place any special orders.

Even as Stumptown Vegans, we purchased independently and were not aware of where each item was from.

There are vegan-friendly bakeries missing.  If they bake your favorite items, or you disagree with our results, please share!

We do not know when items were baked or prepared.

We aimed to have at least 3 selections for every category.

Various Baked Goods Tasted:

Serious Cookie Business

showdown

Behind the Scenes: Portobello (formerly Cherrybomb) cupcakes and Monkey Wrench Snickerdoodle, both picked up from Red & Black Cafe
prep

From Sweetpea:

showdown

From Black Sheep:

showdown

Sweetpea Cake!

showdown

More Muffin

showdown

The final course: Cheesecake!

vegancheesecakes

Vegan-friendly bakeries we realize we’re missing: Piece of Cake, Petunia’s Pastries, Whole Foods, Blue Gardenia, New Cascadia, and what else?


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Filed under best of, blind taste test, dessert, favorites, jess, podcast, showdown, webly

by | June 2, 2010

The Fixin’ To

The Fixin’ To, Brief Review
Overall Service Food Quality Atmosphere Vegan Options
7.75 8 7 8 8
Location: 8218 N Lombard St. Portland, Oregon 97203
Recommended Dish: Hail Setain Sandwich
Hours: :Monday-Saturday 4pm-2am
Sunday 10am-1am		 Times Visited: 4

The developing population of Southern style restaurants into Portland has brought more vegan options to this not-so-obvious genre with Miss Delta, Bye and Bye, and Delta Cafe, among others.   This is no different at The Fixin’ To – Vegan options abound!  If you can get past the odd name, then make your way to St. John’s and squeeze past the awkward entrance and try some of their vegan junk food bar food.

When you enter into the Fixin’ To, you are forced to belly up to the bar since it’s located feet from the entrance. From there you either go right to grab a table in the dimly lit dining area, or take a left and head outside to the partially covered patio.  The interior dining area is a smallish area with a variety of comfortable booths and tables that seems to be arranged differently each time this reviewer visits. But the tvs on the walls are always showing the latest game, but The Fixin’ To doesn’t have a sport bar feel.  This is the place for the more casual sports fan.  The fenced, private, outside dining area is twice as big as the interior and the heat lamps even make it a comfortable option in the colder months.  The high fence, made of old doors, and the crunchy pea stone ground cover will take you to a place where time stands still and all that matters is your current experience.

The menu is small with the vegan items clearly listed: Bean Dip, Hail Seitan Sandwich, Chicken Dumplings, Frito Pie, and The St. John’s Chili Bucket.  All are comfort foods that should be consumed with a stiff drink served in a mason jar, or with a cheap tall boy.  The lemonade, with or without booze, will help get you in the mood for some grub.  The drink menu is not listed on their website, so a visit is a must.

The Frito Pie ($6) is more like Frito nachos.  A pile of Fritos are topped with chili, lettuce, and tomatoes.  A fork is required to consume this mess of a plate. The chili beans and sauce are spiced with a flavorful but mild heat seasoning well so it does not need anything else to make this dish whole, unless you like it super hot, then grab the hot sauce.  There is no need to expedite consuming these Southern nachos to avoid sogginess because the Fritos are firm enough to hold their crunch for awhile.  The lettuce and tomatoes on top do a nice job at making a stick-to-your-ribs meal feel lighter.

The most unappealingly named dish on the menu, The St. John’s Chili Bucket, ($7) is much better  than the name implies.  Is it just me – but a bucket of anything from St. John’s just sounds suspicious.  In fact, the dish is smaller than a bucket.  A shallow bowl containing a soggy corn bread, aka corn pudding, is topped with the same vegan chili used for the Frito Pie.  The corn pudding tasted a bit old with stale corn and jalapeno chunks among the dense pudding cake.  Since the chili is only medium in thickness, it works well with another element like the Fritos or corn pudding.  However, even if this dish was fresh, I do not think it would be a favorite of mine because of the consistency of the mushy corn pudding.

The Chicken Dumplings ($7) contain The Fixin’ To’s wonderfully tender housemae seitan in a soupy gravy that is poured over some very tender dumplings.  Again, it’s  a consistency issue for this reviewer – perhaps I am not a fan of dishes where the sauce, or in this case, gravy, is mixed with a soft central item.  The gravy tasted great with a strong pepper and thyme flavor.  The few pieces of seitan really made the meal, but only left me wanting more seitan.  A serving of dirty rice would make this dish better to enjoy the remaining gravy, but this isn’t an option at the Fixin To.  If you’re a dumpling connoisseur, please, let us know your thoughts.

The menu item I will continue to order time and time again is the Hail Seitan Sandwich ($9).  Tender housemade seitan is marinated in a bourbon BBQ sauce and served with cabbage on an onion roll.  The menu notes the cabbage is actually a cirtus apple slaw, but the power of the BBQ sauce over-powered every other taste, which I could not complain about. Because the BBQ sauce had a deep, warm flavor of tomato, bourbon, and cayanne, it worked in contrast to the cool and crisp cabbage.  The seitan is tender without the chewy, rubbery, or even the too bready texture that some other restaurants in town serve.  The way The Fixin’ To’s seitan seems to melt in your mouth with the great bourbon BBQ sauce makes it a little too dangerous because you can eat the whole thing before even knowing it’s gone!

The Fixin’ To’s service is friendly and quick.  I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 10 minutes, even on a busy night.  The laid back atmosphere will have you coming back for the stiff drinks and the tender seitan and to hang out with friends on their back patio for long summer nights.  Dishes range from $7-9, with the vegan items being cheaper than the the others.

Frito Pie:

Chicken Dumplings:

Chili Bucket:

Hail Seitan Sandwich:

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Filed under bar food, dinner, N, patio, quick, Sandwich, southern, webly