Showing posts with label Fran Costigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fran Costigan. Show all posts
Thursday, April 29, 2010
FOODIE TRIP TO PORTLAND, PART 1-- FOOD CARTS ON MISSISSIPPI MARKETPLACE
NATIVE BOWL, Julie and Jay Hasson's wonderful vegan food cart at Mississippi Marketplace
It's been too long since I blogged! I've been in Portland, OR for 5 days, with 2 more days on either end for traveling to and from Vancouver. I took the Amtrak Cascades train from Vancouver-- what a nice ride! I got back on Monday, worked at the library on Tuesday, and intended to blog yesterday. I got all the the photos uploaded and resized, etc., and then our internet access disappeared yesterday afternoon about 3:00! It turns out that an underwater cable was sliced and many of us on or near Vancouver island were without internet access for about 24 hours (it came back on just a little while ago).
I did have a productive day doing chores, doing my weights, making a new bread (more about that in a later post!) and soup, and cake for yet another granddaughter's birthday, etc. The computer does take up alot of my time!
I have so many things to report on and lots of pictures, so I'm going to try to blog some of it every day this week!
Anyway, back to Portland! I had several reasons for visiting there-- to work with the Field Roast folks at their booth in the Culinary Expo at the IACP conference ("Portland and the new Culinary order"); to visit friends like Julie Hasson, who was my hostess, and seeing Fran Costigan, my friend the vegan Dessert Diva from New York, who was attending the conference.
Julie and Fran, two beautiful Vegan Dessert Divas!
I also wanted to meet Kittee, an internet foodie friend (creator and producer of the Papa Tofu zine) whom I'd never met in person and who had recently moved to Portland. As well, I wanted to see my friends Yongkie and Pokie. Kittee, Yongkie and Pokie are also friends of Julie's, and we all kind of met via my old subscription newsletter, The Vegan Feast. Julie had met another "Vegan Feaster", D., by accident. D., who is a fabulous cook and writes this blog, had attended a 5-day cooking class here on Denman Island and we all became friends. Her friends, Yongkie and Pokie, moved to Portland. D. told Julie that they were making fresh tempeh and could make it for her, so they met, too! Whew!
Kittee and Julie after a great meal at Blossoming Lotus
Pokie and Yongkie at Pittock Mansion, with the Portland panorama in the background.
It's been too long since I blogged! I've been in Portland, OR for 5 days, with 2 more days on either end for traveling to and from Vancouver. I took the Amtrak Cascades train from Vancouver-- what a nice ride! I got back on Monday, worked at the library on Tuesday, and intended to blog yesterday. I got all the the photos uploaded and resized, etc., and then our internet access disappeared yesterday afternoon about 3:00! It turns out that an underwater cable was sliced and many of us on or near Vancouver island were without internet access for about 24 hours (it came back on just a little while ago).
I did have a productive day doing chores, doing my weights, making a new bread (more about that in a later post!) and soup, and cake for yet another granddaughter's birthday, etc. The computer does take up alot of my time!
I have so many things to report on and lots of pictures, so I'm going to try to blog some of it every day this week!
Anyway, back to Portland! I had several reasons for visiting there-- to work with the Field Roast folks at their booth in the Culinary Expo at the IACP conference ("Portland and the new Culinary order"); to visit friends like Julie Hasson, who was my hostess, and seeing Fran Costigan, my friend the vegan Dessert Diva from New York, who was attending the conference.
Julie and Fran, two beautiful Vegan Dessert Divas!
I also wanted to meet Kittee, an internet foodie friend (creator and producer of the Papa Tofu zine) whom I'd never met in person and who had recently moved to Portland. As well, I wanted to see my friends Yongkie and Pokie. Kittee, Yongkie and Pokie are also friends of Julie's, and we all kind of met via my old subscription newsletter, The Vegan Feast. Julie had met another "Vegan Feaster", D., by accident. D., who is a fabulous cook and writes this blog, had attended a 5-day cooking class here on Denman Island and we all became friends. Her friends, Yongkie and Pokie, moved to Portland. D. told Julie that they were making fresh tempeh and could make it for her, so they met, too! Whew!
Kittee and Julie after a great meal at Blossoming Lotus
Pokie and Yongkie at Pittock Mansion, with the Portland panorama in the background.
Julie picked me up from the train Wednesday afternoon, we dashed to her house to drop off my luggage and change into something suitable for the IACP opening reception, which features some of Portland's best chefs, restaurants, breweries, and Oregon wineries. (We could have got totally blasted on all the samples of booze, but I'm just not much of a drinker! DH was jealous about missing all the micro-brewery samples!)
Unfortunately for hungry vegans, this was not a very vegan-friendly event (lots of people remarked that this was strange, considering that Portland is so vegan friendly!). In fact, we found few vegan items we could eat-- some bruschetta with a green pea spread topped by asparagus was the only plainly vegan item there. We managed to ask for a few things to be served vegan-- some bean quesadillas without the cheese; crostini with onion jam and arugula, minus the meat; and some pumpernickel with beets, also minus the meat. I tell, you, we were ready to steal one of the decorative red bell peppers to munch on!
(There will be more discussion in subsequent blog posts about the lack of vegan presence at the whole event.)
The next day, Thursday, I accompanied Jay and Julie to their food cart, Native Bowl, at the Mississippi Marketplace at N Mississippi at Skidmore. (If you don't already know about the Portland Food Cart phenomenon, check out this blog.)
The next day, Thursday, I accompanied Jay and Julie to their food cart, Native Bowl, at the Mississippi Marketplace at N Mississippi at Skidmore. (If you don't already know about the Portland Food Cart phenomenon, check out this blog.)
The covered area filling up with lunchtime customers
A lovely old mansion across the street
Colorful buildings right across from the food cart area-- the yellow building is a Thai restaurant
Native Bowl serves several rice bowls-- layers of fresh, fragrant jasmine rice topped with grilled tofu or Soy Curls™, crunchy vegetables, killer sauces and a topping of sesame seeds, or crushed pita chips, or other crunchy stuff. Yum!
Native Bowl Menu
Julie also makes a number of her famous vegan dessert goodies!
The Native Bowl dessert menu
Native Bowl serves several rice bowls-- layers of fresh, fragrant jasmine rice topped with grilled tofu or Soy Curls™, crunchy vegetables, killer sauces and a topping of sesame seeds, or crushed pita chips, or other crunchy stuff. Yum!
Native Bowl Menu
Julie also makes a number of her famous vegan dessert goodies!
The Native Bowl dessert menu
Jay stocking up
I had lunch at Native Bowl, of course! I had the Broadway Bowl: Grilled Tofu, house-made peanut ginger sauce, fluffy jasmine rice, shredded red cabbage, carrots, scallions & cilantro. De-licious!
The Broadway Bowl
The new lemony Hollywood Bowl topped with pita chips
Julie at the window
Jay at the window
Here are the other vegan carts at this spot (3 out of 10 are vegan and most have vegan options):
The Ruby Dragon:
Here's their menu. Here's their mission statement.
The wonderful Sushi Tree Vegetarian Sushi cart (I couldn't resist having some, even though I was full!):
Delicious Mock California Roll (made with Soy Curls™) and Smoky Tofu Roll. The lovely young owner very kindly made these especially for me.
Here's a review and their menu. Another review.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment! (And I promise some recipes soon, too!)
Cheers!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
MY FAVORITE DESSERT DIVA, FRAN COSTIGAN
What is Vegan MoFo? Click here to find out!
If you don't already have a copy of Fran Costigan's More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally, then put it on your holiday wishlist immediately! It's a vegan kitchen must-have.
Fran herself is a wonderful, warm, funny, loving, hard-working and knowledgable person. I'm privileged to be able to call her my friend.
We met at a NAVS SummerFest quite a few years ago. She was presenting the day before I was. She had a mini-disaster while baking some cookies in her workshop-- one of the helpers placed cookie dough on baking-parchment-covered trays as directed, but used plastic serving trays instead of metal baking trays! They were slipped into the oven as Fran demonstrated another dish. She began to smell plastic and peeked into the oven to see the trays melting! She quickly shut the oven door and turned off the oven, and kept going.
I needed to use the oven in my workshop the next day, so Fran and I met over a garbage can-- scraping hardened plastic off the oven racks! We had a great time, though, and discovered many similarities in our personal backgrounds, as well as both being Geminis and cooks. Even though we live on opposite ends of the continent, and usually only meet at vegan conferences, we keep in touch and have a great time when we meet.
Me and Fran in the middle, between chefs Eric Tucker and Sualua Tupolo at the airport, all looking a bit worse for the wear after the 2007 Vegetarian Awakening vegan chef's conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The chefs at the 2007 Vegetarian Awakening Conference Back Row (L to R): Tal Ronnen, Chad Sarno, Ian Brandt, Kevin Dunn, Eric Tucker, Sualua Tupolo; Front (L to R) Bryanna, Cathi Di Cocco, Fran Costigan
I visited briefly with Fran when I was in New York last March. In her tiny apartment kitchen, she was making a vegan wedding cake for her daughter, plus about 400 biscotti!
The Chocolate Cake to Live For, for Tracy & Rob by Mom Costigan (Mocha ganache and white vegan buttercream)-- spectacular!!
Fran uses the best natural ingredients, and, unlike alot of pastry chefs, she doesn't go crazy on the fats! Her desserts are absolutely fabulous and have won over traditionalists such as Deborah Madison:
"I’m a fan of traditional pastry – flaky, buttery pie crusts, sugar cookies made with white sugar and wheat flour, rich pastry creams and all of that. I’ve even worked as a pastry chef. But when I wanted to make a chocolate cake for a vegan friend, I didn’t know where to begin. Thankfully Fran Costigan came to the rescue. I made her Chocolate Cake. I couldn’t believe how utterly delicious it was! No one who tasted the tender-crumbed, dark chocolate cake guessed that it was made with whole-wheat pastry flour, maple syrup, no eggs and oil instead of butter. Even I, the big doubter, was terribly impressed and very pleased to know that such good confections can be made in a healthful manner without losing their taste. Cooking from Fran’s book has taught me to open my mind to new possibilities. Vegan I am not, but I’d make this cake (and many of her other recipes) again, purely for my own selfish enjoyment."
Deborah Madison, award-winning author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Fran also gives explicit directions and lots of information about ingredients-- so important with any baking, but especially vegan baking!
She's going to have a blog soon, so keep an eye out for it! UPDATE: The blog is still in the making, though you can see pictures at her website at that link, but you might want to "like" her Facebook page.
Get this book and start baking vegan!
Enjoy!
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