Mission Mission

Dudes. New juice bar on 22nd. Oddly, it has almost the same name as the wine bar that used to be on Valencia at 24th… must be something about leaving your heart here?

Super Fresh on left features fresh mint, pineapple, cucumber, spinach, apple, and a foamier head than many beers I’ve had.

Red Zinger on right has beet, ginger, orange, and apple. Do you know how rare it is to find a menu that offers a carrotless beet-ginger juice? As a vehement carrot-hater and passionate beet and ginger lover, I can tell you: it’s very rare indeed. And if you ask most juice bar employees to leave them out, they’re likely to act all exasperated and put out, or else they try to get you to change your mind.

Corazon also has Mexican flavors of Sno-Cones, like guava and tamarind. Yes.

Wrap made with Beyond Meat vegan chicken, from their site!

Hey, you! Don’t watch that, watch this!

Beyond Meat will be serving their new vegan chicken at different Whole Foods all over SF next week! Apparently it’s very convincing, as you might have heard… it seems like every time I turn around I hear somebody (NPR, New York Times, and my beloved Vegansaurus buddies) talking about how it’s going to be the patron saint of palates as soon as we all get to taste it. Their rep emailed me today with their tasting schedule (below), and they’re also going to be in the WF hot bars, which I dig as I am a connoisseur (connoisseuse?) of salad bars. Food I already wanted to try at a place I already want to eat: yusssss.

Friends and acquaintances often ask me what I think of vegan meat substitutes. I don’t feel the need to make them a regular part of my diet, for a number of reasons. First, they can be expensive; second, I often find them overly processed– though, as Mark Bittman points out, a chicken and a machine can both take grains in, process them, and turn them into an edible substance that no longer resembles those grains. The difference is that the chicken dies to produce the edible substance, while the machine does not.

In general, I don’t feel the need to include faux meats in my diet because a) the reason I don’t eat meat is that I don’t like it all that much and b) my plant-based diet provides all the nutrients and variety I need; I don’t feel deprived without meat, or even substitutes thereof. That said, faux meats are nice for variety every once in awhile, and they can help ease the transition to veganism. Also, they make the life of the omnivore accommodating a vegan guest or family member easier, which is important to me, since one of the hardest parts about being vegan for me is knowing I’m putting people out. People are animals, too!

June 11th: Franklin store (11:15am-12:30pm); Haight store (4:15pm-5:30pm)
June 12th: Potrero store (11:15-12:30); Noe store (4:15-5:30)
June 13th: SoMa store (11:15-12:30)

I’m going to the Potrero Hill one because it’s closest to the Mission! It’s going to be Madness.

This is a strawberry-basil caipirinha. No, there is nothing in a regular caipirinha that makes it non-vegan. This did not stop SF Vegan Drinks at Dr. Teeth and the Electic Mayhem from featuring the same on its menu today, nor did it stop me from ordering and devouring one! I guess they just thought that since vegans love fresh produce we’d appreciate having it served in a cocktail? Whatever their reasoning, it worked on me, and I’m usually a tough sell.

There’s also nothing about tater tots that makes them un-vegan, unless they’re coated in animal secretions, but sweet potato tater tots are another Vegan Drinks upgrade I happily fell for. The first basket of tots to arrive at my table was neither vegan (they were dusted with cheese) nor made of sweet potato. Remember last week when we talked about how it’s tough to rely on things you order in restaurants to be vegan? That’s still true even at an event with vegan in the title! I sent them back politely and waited what seemed like months to get my order. When they came, though, they were great, and the waitress brought me a free vegan white Russian with them for making me wait so long, which was sweet of her and delicious to me.

 
Dr. Teeth:
Kitchen ≠ reliable
Servers = nice
Food and drink ideas = good (especially at Vegan Drinks!)
Back patio = Really nice (cornhole and skee-ball)

Eye on the ball

Chris Rock once opined that Richard Pryor was like the Willie Mays of comedy (flashy, fun to watch), while Bill Cosby was more like Hank Aaron (consistent performance). Foraying this analogy into vegan restaurants, then, we have a bunch of Willie Mays-type establishments here in San Francisco (makes sense, Go Giants!), but there’s something to be said for most runs batted in. Cha-Ya is a Hank Aaron, and I mean that as a compliment.

I’ve written before about how my omnivorous friends sometimes grow weary of my suggesting dinner at Cha-Ya. One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that I always seem to have success getting eaters of all stripes to eat at (or get takeout from) Cha-Ya when they’re under the weather. Hey friends, go with me more and maybe you’ll get fewer colds in the first place! It’s not like eating their veggie tempura is a hardship.

While picking up my to-go order tonight, I noticed this sign directed at employees explaining what food they could and could not cook for themselves in the restaurant kitchen. Want to make a vegan feel safe? This is how we do it:

Say hey, kids!

Josh is tracking it on his own hand. Go up on your roof and watch it happen!



I rarely go to Ritual because I live closer to Four Barrel (and I LOVE it), but I ended up at the former this evening. Ritual’s vegan apple nut bread is very mediocre: nothing is horribly wrong with it, but it’s too sweet, too dry, and has little character. But they sell all their pastries for $1 close to closing time, so at least I didn’t pay more than it was worth!

Next time I’ll just try harder to get to Arizmendi before it closes.

It is now warm enough to enjoy ice cream. Sweet. What has two thumbs and loves Bi-Rite Creamery’s chocolate coconut vegan ice cream? THIS GUY.

Most ice cream places provide a vegan option in the form of a fruit sorbet, and those are great, but they do not really ring your ice cream chimes. This one does, and you can get it on a vegan cone.

Bi-Rite also currently has a Morrissey-themed vegan sundae combining aforementioned ice cream, blueberry compote, and crushed Newman O’s. Has anyone tried it? I didn’t find it as compelling as a good old fashioned scoop on a cone, but if I’m missing out, let me know!

Bender’s has two amazing vegan tacos on its menu: the seitan taco and the grilled veggie taco, which, in addition to grilled veggies, also has smashed-up pieces of their homemade vegan burger in it. Both feature hunks of avocado, tangy pickled red cabbage, and, surprisingly, enough salt that I didn’t need to add any – remarkable since I have never in my life eaten anything and thought it was too salty.

You know what’s great about Bender’s? They don’t refer to the seitan taco as a “fake chicken” taco. I like this because seitan is real food, not fake chicken: it’s just real seitan, in all its chewy, crumbly, mouthfeely glory. Two omnivorous vegan-taco-enthusiast friends joined me for dinner and chose the vegan ones over the meaty ones on the menu. On purpose. Also, a friendly black dog named Mortimer wanted to steal them.

That’s right, friends: Seitan is real. And it’s saltier that the sweat of John Henry’s brow.

There is nothing unique about a feverish devotion to Mission Chinese Food, but I have one for the record books, and Mission Chinese keeps giving more reasons to adore it more. (This is despite the fact that I got a piece of accidental bacon in a dish there once, and it’s the only place I have ever returned to after that happened.)

My favorite thing on the menu is the tiger salad. It is superlative. The Mission Chinese magicians switch up their menu fairly often, but they never bench the tiger salad, which is the most flavorful salad in the world.

Word to wise vegans: If you haven’t been to (or ordered in from) this place, I won’t judge; I have never seen ET. Anyway, when you go, scan the menu for the Vs next to each of the vegan menu items.  You can get the Thrice Cooked Bacon done vegan, but not the Ma Po Tofu. Surprise!

In other news, I’m going to SF Vegan Drinks tomorrow night. Want to join? There will be sweet potato tater tots.

UPDATE: Just got a note from the Vegan Drinks people:

We recently saw your post about Mission Chinese and that you’re going to be attending SF Vegan Drinks tomorrow. Unfortunately, we had to cancel this month due to a scheduling conflict, but we’ll be back on in May. Hope to see you there!

Bummer!

Dudes, we are getting our own vegan storefront. And it is within a slow 60 second walk of my casita! The owners announced it on the Facebook last week, so yes, I am fashionably late to the party, but I’m still excited to be there!

The shop will be called Pinko’s Vegan Mercantile and will open May 1. I, for one, am planning to race over there on my lovely but old and slow bicycle after work as fast as my two little legs will carry me and then spend as much of my paycheck as I can muster on delicious and/or beautiful vegan items.

OK and yes, let’s put it out there: being a pinko and running a store where consumers part with their money might seem a but contradictory. But look at our neighborhood culture: Ritual and Little Star have commie-influenced logos, so Pinko’s is hardly the first communist/ capitalist establishment here, mkay?