Fern’s menu clearly indicates what is vegan and what can be made so.  The chefs are truly commited to serving local produce–we couldn’t order the Squash Blossom Hush Puppies because the restaurant couldn’t find a local vendor to supply the squash blossoms in the winter.  So my mom and I split the amazing Indian Tacos for an appetizer.  We had the kitchen swap the cheddar out for vegan cheese.

Indian Tacos: Traditional Fry Bread Topped with Pinto Bean & Squash Chili Fresh Tomatoes, Onions, Crisp Lettuce & Local Sharp Cheddar.  $10

The “shell” was awesomely puffy and light–almost donut-like.  Despite being listed under “Small Plates” on the menu, this portion was closer to an entree size.

My mom, being on a perpetual hunt for the world’s best veggie burger, ordered the Om Burger.

House-Made Crispy Burger with White Beans, Tofu & Hemp Seed
Finished with Pickled Fennel & Smoked Tomato Chow Chow
Spicy Jalapeno Aioli on our Whole Grain Bun.  $10

The burger was delicious and held together very well but I couldn’t pay it too much attention because I was busy stealing all the quinoa salad that came on the side.  I’ve had many a quinoa salad and they are always good, but this one was so damn zesty and flavorful.  If I still lived in Charlotte I would order a batch of this stuff and bring it to every potluck I was ever invited to.

For my entree I ordered the Sweet Potato Gnocchi in a Spicy Tomato Curry.  It’s a challenge to get the texture of vegan gnocchi right but Fern has evidently mastered the art.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi in Spicy Tomato Curry with Roasted Vegetables & Toasted Cashew Nuts.  $14.

The curry flavor in the sauce is very subtle.  I was in heaven eating this dish.

Fern had a couple vegan dessert offerings, one of which was a giant slab of chocolate cake which the table next to us was devouring.  Being a pair of booze-hounds, we opted for the Beer Donut Holes with a Chocolate Stout Sauce.

Beer Batter Donut Holes with Chocolate Stout Sauce.

The donuts themselves were a little chewy for my taste but my mom, a donut connosieur, said the texture was perfect.  The chocolate stout sauce was rich and beer-y and was sent over the top with the chocolate pop rocks that were mixed in.  Did you even know chocolate pop rocks existed?  I didn’t but apparently pop rocks are used often in fancy restaurant desserts where they are referred to as “pastry rocks.”  I know because I just ordered some off the internet, woo!

The food at Fern is incredible and the space is beautiful.  Again, this crappy photo doesn’t do the place justice, but just picture a cozy eco-shabby-chic room with a giant herb pouch holding real ferns on the back wall.

The food at Fern is some of the best vegan food I’ve had and the restaurant has easily secured it’s place in my top 5 veg restaurants outside L.A.  If you ever find yourself in N.C. you must check it out.

Fern, Flavors from the Garden
1323 Central Ave.
Charlotte, NC  28205
704.377.1825

If you are looking for a quick treat to whip up for whatever New Year’s festivities you may have on tap tonight, I highly recommend these rum balls that I have made many times this holiday season.  The recipe comes from this book but I saw it on Spabettie’s blog.  I replaced the bourbon with rum and the honey with agave nectar.

These are very boozey so be alert–if you don’t want a super rum-y taste, you should cut back on the amount of liquor a tad.  I sent a tin of these with my friends going to a 49ers game and they were devoured at the tail gate.

Happy New Years from me and the pup!  See you in 2012!

I have so many fond memories at that place so it truly breaks my heart that they are closing.  <<I just spent a good 3 minutes between typing that last sentence and this one playing a mental montage of all the fun Pure Luck times I’ve had.>>  One of my favorite things to do with guests from out of town was bring them out for carnitas burritos and follow up our lovely meal with a visit to Scoops across the street for some vegan gelato.  It was the ultimate foodie power combo.  To check out an awesome adios to Pure Luck see this post on Cute and Delicious.

For my last Pure Luck meal ever (or so I thought,) I wanted to stray from my usual order.  So I ordered the Baja Fish Tacos with a side of potato pals.  Believe it or not, this Pure Luck fanatic had never had the potato pals!

The pals were fluffy and rich at the same time.  They totally lived up to the hype.  The fish tacos were amazing as always.

For my real last Pure Luck meal ever, I am going to order my usual: Kristen’s Carnitas wrap with sweet potato fries, please.  Oh, and some fried pickles and a Mexicoke to start.  Get your butt to Pure Luck this weekend so you too can indulge one last time!  If you do, I also recommend by other stand-by–the beet salad.  I have many shirts with beet juice stains to prove my love for that dish.

On my first visit to Sage I was accompanied by two friends from out of town.  We started with the Beer Battered Zucchini with Almond Crusted Fried Cheese.  Unfortunately this was by far the weakest dish I’ve had at Sage.  I mean deep friend anything tastes good but these little zucchini slices and cheese (Daiya, I think) balls were underwhelming to say the least.  At $7.95 they are outrageously overpriced.  For perspective, the cheese balls are about the size of a golf ball.

I was sorta worried at this point about the rest of the meal.  But my fears were put to rest when the entrees came out, preceded by this simply but lovely salad:

I ordered the Green Bean and Portabella Casserole at the waitress’ suggestion.  She told me it would not be what I was expecting and she was right; It was more of a goulash than a casserole.  The menu doesn’t even mention the pasta which is one of the main components of the dish.  Whatevs–I scarfed it down like a champ, despite the inaccurate naming and description.  The gravy was so flavorific it tasted like it had been stewing for days.  I would order this again in a heartbeat.

My friend Craig cautiously ordered the Almond Ricotta Ravioli.  I say cautious because he is not the most adventurous eater and the “fennel lavender marinara” scared him.

This ended up being everyone at the table’s favorite dish.  The lavender in the sauce was an incredible touch and the cheesy filling had a great ricotta-like texture.  I definitely licked the last sauce remnants off Craig’s plate (it’s ok we go way back so I can do that.)

My other friend ordered the Smoked Soyrizo Burrito.

It’s very difficult to make a bad soyrizo burrito but this one was really elevated by the slew of components.  The sauteed jalapeno is a particularly genius inclusion.  The potato salad that came as a side was also delish.

At this point we were all totally stuffed, but that didn’t keep us from ordering a ginormous dessert.  Perhaps the most awesome thing about Sage is that it is owned by the fine folks at KindKreme, everyone’s favorite raw, vegan ice cream joint  They even have a little mini KindKreme outpost right there in the restaurant.  After sampling practically all the ice cream flavors, we ordered a waffle sundae.  I was imagining an Eggo-sized waffle but holy guacamole this thing was big.

Of course the ice cream was good (our flavors were something like mocha, coconut, and banana with chocolate swirl) but the waffle itself was incredibly fluffy.  This is an epic treat that should be atop every vegan’s To Eat list.

A mere two days later, Craig and I summoned Kirby Von Scrumptious to join us on another trip to Sage.  This time we ordered the Argentinian Bruschetta with Chimichurri appetizer.  Did I mention that you can awesomely order from either the lunch or dinner menu during dinner hours?  I wish more restaurants would let you do that.

I’m not sure what all the components were in this dish but basically it was an array of tasty things piled upon lightly toasted bread.

Craig liked his bite of the tofu burrito so much from our last visit that he ordered it on this go around.  Kirby opted for the Jack Daniels Barbecue Jackfruit.

This was a knock-out sandwich.  Our only complain is that it was too spicy.  Kirby can handle spice much better than I can but even she was chugging water the whole meal.

I went for the French Grain Bowl which is a melange of grains, lentils, and veggies.

I absolutely loved this dish.  It was simple but really flavorful.  I didn’t even bother using the orange fennel sauce (it tastes basically like straight up OJ and I didn’t want all that sweetness to drown out the other flavors.)  The artichoke puree atop the little toast was super scrumptious and I am already looking up recipes to figure out how to duplicate it.  According to Lex at the Healthy Vegans, the chef will even prepare you a fat-free version of this upon request.

In lieu of dessert, I picked up a pack of KindKreme’s raw chocolate truffles to take home.  Rich, silky, decadent, and full of super chocolate super powers..  that’s all I need to say about them…except this: BUY THESE AND PUT THEM IN SOMEONE’S EASTER BASKET.  The recipient will love you for life.

I am essentially head over heels for Sage Bistro.  The only problem with my two visits there was the service was incredibly janky.  Our first night my friend ordered a soup that never showed up.  On the second night, our food took over 45 minutes to show up–including our appetizer.  This was actually quite a pain as Kirby was aching with hunger pains and I, for one, like my appetizer to come out ASAP.  But Sage just opened and I think it is a rule somewhere in the International Food Critic’s Guide to Restaurant Reviews that you can’t fault a restaurant for bad service until they have been open for over six months.

I am more than happy to give Sage some time to work out the kinks in their service.  I am dying to try their brunch which looks absolutely epic.

I had to consider which type of fake bacon would best serve these cookies.  Tempeh bacon is too soft.  Lightlife’s bacon kinda grosses me out.  Coconut bacon would be incredible, but these cookies are already loaded with fat so I didn’t really want to exponentially increase it with saturated-fat-laden coconut.  I then remembered that classic Bac-Os are vegan.

It seemed like the perfect fit because they are already in little crumb size pieces.  Their nutritional profile is not ideal what with the hydrogenated oil (read: trans fats) and Red 40, but when you are eating meat-laced baked goods you shouldn’t be expecting a healthy snack.

To make these, I just whipped up Veggie Alchemy’s recipe and sprinkled in Baco’s until I thought the ratios looked about right.

Things were looking good when I couldn’t stop shoveling spoonfuls of the dough into my head.  At this point the Baco’s were still really crunchy which was delightful.

Also delightful was the final product.

The ultimate cookie judge for the day was my roommate, whose entire diet consists of peanut butter sandwiches and 7-11 hotdogs (I wish I could say I was exaggerating.)  When he gave these two thumbs up, I knew they were a success.  Further proof was the complete lack of any leftover cookies after our Super Bowl party.

I also made a batch of the peanut butter cookies sans bacon and they really were perfect…soft and chewy, just like I like ‘em.  This will definitely be my go-to peanut butter cookie from now on.

I highly recommend you try this recipe out for yourself.  In the meantime, you should check out this vegan bacon soap I came across while doing my bacon research.  Wonders never cease!

I will miss my old pal Tribest.  He used to be so good at taking a melange of raw greens and fruit and turning into a smooth juice.  But now I spend an increasing amount of time each morning picking all the giant green chunks of kale out of my teeth before I go into work (a lovely image, I know.)  It is a rather unappetizing way to start the day.  I am looking forward to some well-blended green smoothies in my near future.

This is how well my Tribest use to do…From this…

…to this:

See how I even upgraded to the extra large blending container?  R.I.P. my friend!

My friend and I shared two dishes.  I got the Tofu Benediction with tempeh bacon as my side.  Baked tofu, tomatoes, avocado, and kale with a creamy hollandaise are served over toast (I opted for the delicious millet bread to make the dish gluten-free.)  I wonder if they make that bread in-house or if they buy it–it tastes so much like regular bread!

My friend ordered the Chicken and Waffles which comes with some sort of yummy banana waffle.  This is an ideal brunch dish as it has both the salty and the sweet going on.

Every vegan loves when their omnivore friends are shocked at how “real” meat analogues can taste, but it’s even better when said friends say this not just to placate you but because they really mean it.  My friends kept saying repeatedly how chicken-y the “chicken” is.  I was surprised when they waiter told us it isn’t made with seitan but with tofu.  Now I really don’t know how they achieve the meaty texture.

Another dish that I tried at our table was the Southwestern Tofu Scramble.  It needed a few shakes of salt and pepper, but other than that it was scrump.

I am not shy about eating the scraps of food my friends leave behind on their plates, so I think I probably cumulatively ended up eating enough food to last me the whole week.  Oops, my b!  Flore continues to impress me and my friends so I hope they keep doing what they’re doing.

Melisser’s book is a hipper version of “Living Vegan for Dummies.”  It covers every aspect of veganism ranging from what one eats and wears to crafting and even gardening (shout out to SoCal’s Adriana Martinez!).  Sprinkled throughout are profiles of cool vegan chicas, many of whom have cool vegan blogs.  I wish this book had been out when I first went vegan—it is chock full of  handy info like how to make your pet’s diet cruelty-free.

I love the chapter on nutrition where Melisser’ defers to Choosing Raw’s Gena Hamshaw.  Despite spending an ungodly amount of time reading vegan blogs and books about health, I still find that I have trouble remembering all the vitamins and minerals I need to be getting.  Gena writes a concise yet comprehensive run-down of the basic info every vegan needs to know about proper nutrition.

Of course there is no such thing as a vegan book without recipes.  The book has a collection of recipes both from Melisser herself and from other vegan notables.  I have an affinity for the Tangy Cabbage Beet Slaw, so much so that I’ve eaten it for lunch the past three days in a row.  It’s healthy, simple, and delicious—just like I like it.

The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life is the perfect gift for a new vegan but also for an old vegetarian—you know the kind…the ones who have been off meat for years but just need that extra push to go all the way.  It’s also very useful for more experienced vegans will want to whip up the inventive recipes.  I’m looking forward to checking out the sites of the some of the featured bloggers that I’m not already familiar with–they all sound amazing.

Now for the best part for all my fellow Angelenos…Melisser will be in town tonight Friday January 14th, signing copies of her book from 7pm to 9pm at Doomies!  Pick up a copy of the book, get it signed, and have some delish vegan goodies.  Sounds like the perfect start to a long weekend (MLK woo woo!) to me!

Coming from L.A., the vibrant greenery was a shock to my senses.  In Southern California it’s easy to forget that other parts of the U.S. have bright green grass and real trees with leaves.  I didn’t photoshop the colors in the photo below one bit! I’m gonna go ahead and stamp Washington Park with a “must see” for when you visit Portland.

For lunch we headed to the Alberta Arts District, a super cute part of town that is very reminiscent of Silver Lake/Echo Park here in L.A.  We opted for the very-highly recommended Vita Cafe.

I started off with some really good herbal ice tea that was served, adorably, by in a mason jar.

I ordered the mac ‘n’ cheese with added broccoli.  It was very bland and wasn’t even remotely cheesy.  It was more of a plain cream sauce than anything else.  The broccoli was also plain–there was no seasoning in sight.

My boyfriend ordered the nachos and could not stop raving about them.  I agree they were pretty damn delicious.

The biscuits and gravy were ordered were not so delicious.  In fact they were downright inedible.  The gravy was waaaay oversalted.  It had absolutely no flavor beyond the power-salt.  The biscuits themselves were the sort of dense hockey pucks that would earn you an F in your basic high school Home Ec class.  I should have sent them back but, as it were, my hangover zapped me of the energy to do so.  I was really surprised because I have heard so many people rave about this dish at Vita Cafe.  I know people claim that Portland has the best vegan biscuits and gravy, but I don’t see how anyone could beat Flore’s version down here.  Overall, Vita Cafe was a definite disappointment for me.

Conveniently located a couple doors down from the disappointing Vita Cafe is the adorable and teeny-tiny Dovetail Bakery.

It was hard to choose from the selection of treats, but I finally opted for a cinnamon roll and an apricot-millet muffin to bring back to L.A.  The cinnamon roll turned out to be everything that the one from Sweetpea Baking Company was not: soft, flaky, and oozing with cinnamon-sugar goodness.

The apricot-millet muffin was perfect; the millet added a nice crunch.  It kinda makes me want to add millet to every baked good I make.

There is no doubt that Portland is a very cool city, and I had a great time there.  I know I was only there briefly and only ate at a small percentage of the city’s vegan joints…but I can’t help but question the city’s “Vegan Mecca” title.  I much prefer my L.A. restaurants to the ones I tried in Oregon.  However, PDX definitely has us beat when it comes to baked goods.  We need to open more all-vegan bakery storefronts for sure.  And where oh where is our vegan donut shop?!

Before I go in to my discovery of the perfect vegan donut, I’d like to recommend that you get to your local movie theater ASAP.  The current menu of films is muy excellente.  There are three movies I have seen in late 2010 that I cannot stop thinking: The Social Network, 127 Hours, and Black Swan.  You need to see each of them pronto!  Well, technically Black Swan hasn’t been released yet but when it comes out on December 3rd you should be first in line.  It is soooo freaky and so good.  Even if you aren’t down with the freaky, it’s impossible to not be awed by the ballet scenes.

I’m particularly enthused because I thought last year’s crop of award contenders was incredibly lackluster (Up in the Air?!  That snoozefest is Oscar worthy?  Am I the only person that finds that ludicris?)  But this year there has already been a slew of great flicks and there are only more to come!  The industry is already abuzz about Another Year, The King’s Speech, True Grit, and The Fighter and they all come out before year’s end.  But seriously…Black Swan, Black Swan, Black Swan.

Now back to this donut.  I came across it serendipitously at a Whole Foods in Berkeley.  We were perusing the salad bar so my mom could get some food for her flight back to the east coast when I spied a small selection of vegan donuts in the bakery case.  I couldn’t resist indulging when I spotted my favorite donut flavor of all time–cinnamon sugar.  A basic flavor, yes, but it is nonetheless one I have never come across in my vegan donutting adventures.  While I recently raved about Voodoo Donut in Portland (and I still stick by said rave), this little donut made by Posh Bakery in Santa Clara was the kind that just melts right on your tongue.  Its super-fine sugar topping and buttery insides lived up to my memory of my old flame–Dunkin Donut’s Cinnamon Crumb.  You Northern Californians have it so good.  We have a dearth of donuts down here while you can just get the creme de la creme of the orbicular pastries by walking into any ole Whole Foods.  But of course, down here we have cool movie screenings, so it all evens out!