This blog has a mixture of ingredients: lots of Austin restaurant reviews (from a vegan perspective), some vegan product & food reviews, the occasional recipe, and restaurant reviews from other places and stories of my travels (as a musician, I travel a lot!)
Be Le
6634 South Lewis Avenue
Tulsa, OK 74136-1040
(918) 499-1414
Hours: Monday-Friday 11:00-2:30 & 5:30-9:00, Saturday 11:00-9:00, Closed Sunday
Be Le is a 100% vegetarian Asian restaurant that specializes in mock meats made from soybeans, seaweed, and yams. They use no MSG, alcohol, preservatives, or eggs. The owner is incredibly nice and can answer any questions about the menu items and what's vegan.
I've tried many different things here, but my favorite has got to be the Egg Roll Noodle Salad Bowl, which features noodles topped with salad greens (mostly lettuce, I think) and vegan "shrimp", "chicken", and "beef", along with two fried vegetable spring rolls and a clear sauce served on the side.
The Combination Noodle Soup was also a great dish (let's call it a second favorite).
Out of all of the other things I've tried, the one that was a bit of a letdown was the Fried Fish with Ginger Sauce. This was actually fairly tasty with the first few bites, but wasn't nearly nuanced or exciting enough to last through the entire dish. If you're looking for variety, this one isn't for you; it's just the "fish" on a bed of lettuce with a side of clear sauce.
For desert, I love the vegan cake and ice cream. The chocolate soy ice cream has more of an "ice" consistency than "creamy", but still tastes great, and the slightly sweet spongy cake provides an excellent follow-up to my often over-zealous hot chili sauce application to my main dish.
You know how, when you're trying to go to sleep, and you really *ought* to be asleep, you get this awesome idea? And then, you tell yourself you'll remember it and write it down the next day, but then you get even more ideas, and they're all so cool that you finally have to get up and organize them on paper (or screen)?
That happened to me last night. I was idly thinking about what my next blog post was going to be, and I started thinking about movies and television (well, Doctor Who specifically), and thought, "wouldn't it be neat to combine movies with food and make that a feature?" Boom - "Dinner & a Movie" was born! I'm really excited about this idea, and I think it's neat that I thought of it right before Friday, which seems to be the most popular day for such things. So, every Friday I'll be selecting one of my favorite movies or television shows that has something to do with travel (since I *am* the Traveling Austin Vegan, after all), and posting either a recipe or some ideas for pre-made vegan food to fit with the movie/show.
Grab your fuzzy slippers (and your sonic screwdriver) and join me for the inaugural "Dinner & a Movie" post!
TV Show - Doctor Who
Travel Tie-In - The Doctor (and his companions) travel through time and space.
Food - Vegan "fish" fingers and custard
[Amy begins cooking]
The Doctor: Ahh! Bacon!
[the Doctor eats the bacon, then promptly spits it out]
The Doctor: That's bacon! Are you trying to poison me?
[Amy begins cooking again]
The Doctor: Beans!
[the Doctor eats the fried beans, and promptly spits them out]
The Doctor: Beans are evil. Bad bad beans.
[Amy butters a slice of plain bread]
The Doctor: Bread and butter! Now you're talking.
[the Doctor runs outside and flings the bread and butter out]
The Doctor: And stay out!
The Doctor: I know what I need! I need... I need... I need... fish fingers and custard!
---From "The Eleventh Hour", Doctor Who
Mark grew up watching "Doctor Who", but even though I'd seen lots of British television, I had managed to not even hear of it until just a few years ago. (I know, I occasionally live under a rock.) About a year ago, Mark suggested we start watching the new run (with Christopher Eccleston), and I agreed. I was almost immediately enamored with the show, and we watched episodes at a slightly alarming pace until we'd caught up to the (then) current episode. I've now seen all of the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors (can't wait for the upcoming Christmas Special!), and one of my other friends has started hosting a Classic BBC night at his place, where we've been watching selected episodes from the 1st and 2nd Doctors as well as "Blake's 7". We're on hiatus now, but we're going to start up again with the 3rd Doctor in a few weeks. So far, my favorite Doctor is the 10th (David Tennant). Today's foods, though, come from the first episode of Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor. I can't remember any other episode that I've seen which has had so much to do with food (at the beginning, anyway).
As we watched the continuing adventures of the 11th Doctor, I couldn't stop thinking about fish fingers and custard. I'm always excited about trying to veganize things, and this seemed like a good challenge. On a trip to Wheatsville, I came across Sophie's Kitchen Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets, and knew I had a winner.
With the addition of some ZenSoy Vanilla SoyPudding, we were ready for that evening's episode.
Of course, if you want to take a more DIY route, you could make your own. Here's some recipes I've found that look pretty good -
I will probably try some of these out towards the end of December in honor of the Christmas special. If you make your own vegan fish fingers and custard, let me know!
