Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

Brownies with bobble-y antennae on the ferry to Vancouver It's been two weeks since I blogged-- sorry about that! We went to Vancouver for the first time in a year (!!) to visit friends and relatives for a few days, and since then I've been playing catch-up in the house and practicing with my dance class for a little show. We ate very well in Vancouver (as usual)-- Vancouver is known for its wonderful and varied restaurants. We stayed with my cousin Chris and his partner Roxanne at their lovely little house in the East End. Chris is a retired landscaper, as you can see:

Fabric art show on the walls at Bandidas

Vegan soft taco sampler plate that I had (Roxanne, too)-- these are five of the 6 vegan fillings, all delicious.  (I forgot to take the picture until after I'd already eaten one!)

MR. B’S: Roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, pinto beans, cheese, sour cream, & roasted salsa (Daiya vegan cheese is available.)

We all shared freshly-made and smooth-as-silk Humus & Matabal (roasted eggplant & tahini), a spicy green pepper sauce and olives with pita

My main course was Mujadarah: rice, lentils and roasted onions and salad.  his is one of my favorite Middle Eastern dishes.  Yummy!

Sarah and Gordon and my DH Brian has the Vegan Stuffed Fresh Cabbage Rolls with salad-- delicous! (I had a taste.) ************************************************** We ate in on Sunday--  my youngest daughter Justine and her partner George and my youngest grandson  Logan came for breakfast, along with my stepson Laurence.  Justine brought delicious whole wheat vegan banana muffins, Roxanne made a beautiful fruit salad, we had sourdough bread from a Granville Island bakery, and also a lemon cranberry tea loaf that my sister had brought to us. For the main dish, I made five vegan onion, red and orange pepper and vegan "ham" Spanish potato tortillas (like fritattas/baked omelets)  from my book "World Vegan Feast")   We had so much food left over that we enjoyed the leftovers for another casual meal in the afternoon with DH's stepdaughter Barbara and her husband Mehdi. ******************************************** Our last meal in Vancouver was breakfast with my 2nd oldest granddaughter Kate at the Wallflower Modern Diner on Main St..  Kate grew up on Vancouver Is., but she is studying at Langara College in Vancouver and she's flourishing in the big city.   The Wallflower Modern Diner is another great place for a meal with a mixed crowd.  They have several vegan items for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but they are not run-of-the-mill. ( Check out the menu here. ) The vegan dishes are flavorful and interesting, and we plan to go there again.  Brian had the BBQ Tofu and Veggie Hash My granddaughter Kate at the Wallflower Modern Diner.  I had the Vegan Benny with salad and hash browns-- English muffins topped with grilled portobello mushroom, marinated tofu, and vegan cheesey sauce.  Yum! Thanks to Roxanne and Chris for a great visit and for being such wonderful hosts, as always! ************************************* I didn't want to end this post without a recipe, so I'm posting this old favorite.  The cremini mushrooms we've been getting lately are big and firm-- perfect for this dish. (Sorry, the photo didn't turn out!)  PS: This is not the usual calorie-laden "spinach and artichoke dip" type of stuffed mushroom. It's simple, but scrumptious. Printable  Recipe BRYANNA’S ARTICHOKE-STUFFED MUSHROOMS  Makes 4 main dish servings These sumptuous morsels make great appetizers, too (enough for 12 appetizer servings) MAKE-AHEAD NOTE: You can stuff the mushrooms ahead of time, cover and refrigerate them until just before baking and serving.  approximately 1 1/2 pounds stuffing mushrooms, white or brown (NOTE: I use mushrooms about 1 to 2 inches across for appetizers and 3 to 4-inch ones for main dish servings.) 1/4 cup finely-chopped onion 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1/4 cup low-sodium vegetarian broth or dry white wine (can be non-alcoholic) 1/2 cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs (1 slice)  14 ounces frozen or canned artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (NOTE: If you only have marinated artichoke hearts, place them in a colander and rinse them thoroughly with hot water to eliminate most of the oil and vinegar. Drain well.) 3 green onions, chopped 1/4 cup soy parmesan (I use GoVeggie! soy parmesan, which used to be Galaxy Vegan, but use your favorite) 1/2 cup lower-fat vegan mayonnaise (I use my homemade version or homemade Tofu Mayo, but you could use Spectrum Naturals Light vegan mayo or Reduced-Fat Vegenaise.) 1/4 teaspoon salt  freshly-ground black pepper to taste Panko breadcrumbs for topping  Clean the mushrooms gently with a damp cloth. Remove the stems. Chop and reserve the stems. Steam-fry the mushroom stems, onion, and garlic in a large heavy nonstick skillet sprayed with oil from a pump sprayer, until soft, adding a squirt of water or white wine as needed to keep it moving.  Add the broth or wine and cook until the liquid evaporates. Stir in the bread crumbs. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool. Combine the onion-bread crumb mixture in a medium bowl with the chopped artichokes, green onions, soy parmesan, vegan mayonnaise, salt, and pepper.  Fill each mushroom cap with the filling so that it’s gently mounded. Arrange the stuffed mushrooms, just touching, in a shallow baking pan which has been sprayed lightly with oil from a pump sprayer. (At this point, you can cover the mushrooms with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.)  When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 350°F. Sprinkle the stuffed mushrooms with a little of the panko breadcrumbs (for crunch) and spray with a little oil from a pump sprayer. Bake the mushrooms for 12-15 minutes, or until golden. Serve hot.  Nutrition Facts: Nutrition (per serving): 144.4 calories; 9% calories from fat; 1.1g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 448.8mg sodium; 534.1mg potassium; 21.4g carbohydrates; 6.7g fiber; 2.5g sugar; 14.8g net carbs; 7.6g protein; 2.2 points. Enjoy!

  Spicy Green Beans and Bean Curd Skin Rolls in Black Bean Sauce at Whole Vegetarian Restaurant on Main St. Vancouver, BC.

DH and I spent about 2 days in Vancouver recently-- a little trip off  "the rock" to visit family and celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in a low-key kinda way.  We spent the first afternoon with my youngest daughter Justine and my youngest grandchild, Logan, catching up on family news, just hangin' out, having  beautiful (soy) lattes at Caffe Artigiano in Kerrisdale:
(Have you ever tried to make even a simple version of the above?  It must take years to learn how to do this!)

Later we joined SIL George and stepson Laurence for dinner at Whole Vegetarian, a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant (formerly the Bo Kong) on Main St. at 16th, which is one of our favorite inexpensive vegan dining spots in Vancouver.  Whole Vegetarian is a large restaurant, usually packed with diners of all cultures.  The menu is long and varied (you can see it here) and has vegan dishes that please our omnivore relatives and friends as well as ourselves.  This is what we ate Saturday night, and very satisfying it was!

  Won Ton Soup-- vegan, of course!

  Pan-Fried Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan)

  Chili Tofu with Sesame Sauce

  Vegetarian Cutlets with Orange Sauce (DH's favorite)

  The richly-flavored Bean Curd Skin Rolls in Black Bean sauce were deemed the favorite dish all around the table, closely followed by the Spicy Green Beans!


The service is always fast and attentive at Whole Vegetarian, and the food hot and fresh, as well as tasty. For about $15 each, we had a veritable feast!


**********************************************************
We stayed at my cousin Chris's house and on Monday he and his partner Roxanne took us down to "The Drive" (Commercial Drive) with my sister Karin and my BIL Allen to have lunch at Ya Yah Thai Cuisine.  None of us had ever eaten there before.  The restaurant is not vegetarian, but there were vegetarian options on the menu, and the young waitress thoughtfully  mentioned that no fish sauce or oyster sauce would be used in the dishes that DH, Karin (also a vegan) and I ordered. She also ascertained that they would substitute vegetarian spring roll for the crispy wonton (which was not vegetarian).  Here's what the three of us had-- all lunch special options:

  We all had some tasty vegetarian broth with cilantro to start.

  DH and I shared a summer roll bursting with veggies, rice noodles and tofu, with a spicy peanut sauce.

  DH had the Cashew Nut Saute with carrot, red and green peppers, onion and tofu.  

  Karin had the Mixed Vegetables Saute with tofu, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, red and green cabbage.

  I had the Ginger Saute with fresh ginger, red & green pepper, white & green onion,and mushrooms.  Nicely spicy!


The service was a little slow, but attentive, and the food was fresh and, at $8 for the lunch special, the price was right!  The owner came to speak to us personally and ask if our vegan dishes were to our liking-- how nice was that?

******************************************************************
We did errands and some shopping in the afternoon, making a stop at Gourmet Warehouse on East Hastings. St., and the Parthenon Supermarket on West Broadway (owned by some old friends from Denman Island).  I couldn't get too much, as were walking onto the ferry.  I was after a tortilla press and gnocchi paddles at Gourmet Warehouse but they were unfortunately out of stock on both items!  Oh, well-- another time!  here's my little "haul":

  Corn grits at the back, Old Bay Seasoning and Cajun Seasoning, white kidney beans (hard to find here except in cans, and navy beans just aren't the same thing), gigante beans, caraway seeds (I can't find them here!), and something new to me from the Parthenon-- chickpea chips.  These are great-- I'm going to try making them myself!

*************************************************************
Our final restaurant meal out in Vancouver was Monday night dinner with Chris and Roxanne and Laurence decided to try another restaurant that was new to us, but had a good review in the Georgia Straight: the Green Lettuce Restaurant on Kingsway near Victoria.  It's an unassuming little place that serves Indian-Style Chinese cuisine-- stir-fries with a kick!  It's obviously a popular spot because the place was buzzing.  Many of the diners were Indo-Canadian, I noticed.  There were lots of take-out orders going out the door, too. (All good signs that the food would be good!)  It was difficult to choose from the very interesting menu (with lots of vegetarian options), but our server helped by suggesting certain dishes that went well together.  We opted for:

 ...a dark and richly-flavored Vegetable Tofu Hot & Sour Soup.

  For an appetizer, we munched on Vegetable Pakoras with chutney.

  We ordered the Gobi Manchurian (Crispy Cauliflower) and our server suggested that the would go well with...

  the Vegetable Hakka Chow Mein-- and they were both delish!

   The Chili Garlic Tofu w/Green Bean in Black Bean Sauce was a favorite!

The Crispy Hot & Spicy Tofu was a bit on the dry side, but the chile onions scattered over it were a nice contrast.

The Vegetable Masala Fried Rice was mildly curry-flavored.

Again, for about $15 each, we were stuffed with tasty, spicy food that was familiar and different at the same time.  Some dishes were a bit greasy, but not in a bad way, and the service was fast.  I'd like to go back a few more times to try other items on the menu that looked tempting.

******************************************************

On Tuesday we made our way back to Vancouver island on the ferry and stopped for lunch in Nanaimo, where we veered from our Asian dining path of the weekend and opted for our favorite, friendly little Lebanese restaurant, Aladdin's Cafe on Victoria Crescent, which boasts a great vegan plate, big enough to share:


Starting at the top and going right: Smoky Baba Ghanoush (eggplant dip), tabouli with lots of parsley, stuffed grape leaf, the creamiest hummus you can imagine, spicy braised carrots, another stuffed grape leaf, crispy felafel in the middle, and house-made whole wheat pita bread alongside.  Heaven!

After perusing CD's in our favorite music shop, Fascinating Rhythm, and books at a couple of 2nd-hand bookstores just up the street, we headed for home.

And now I am going to head for bed!

Good night!