Exodus From Port Aransas (RESTAURANT REVIEW - Vegeria, San Antonio, TX)

When April left Port Aransas, she had hoped to eat at Yin Yang Fandango & Tango Tea Room in Corpus Christi, but since Monday was a holiday, they apparently decided not to open.





April and her friends decided to stop at Vegeria on the way back to Austin instead.

Vegeria
8407 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78209
Facebook page





The last couple of times April visited Vegeria, they had a full menu which featured all sorts of yummy dishes, including a burrito stuffed with two tamales that she thought would be delicious. On this trip, they were instead offering a buffet of salads, soups, and pasta -



April decided to try a little of everything. The Not-So-Chicken Salad and Sweet Potato Salad were favorites, but it was all delicious. The biscuits were extra-tasty.



Vegeria was having a "buy two, get one free" dessert special, and since April wanted the Chocolate Peanut Butter Quinoa Cup, Hedgie fancied the Black Pepper & Sea Salt Chocolate Pie, and Buttercup had her eye on the Payday Bar, April decided to get all three.





The Peanut Butter Cup was ooey-gooey and very rich, with just a bit of crunch. The pie was rich enough to require sharing between April and her fiance, Tim (the hedgehogs had tiny nibbles). The Payday bar was also yummy, though April never had an actual Payday bar in her pre-vegan days, so can't speak to the accuracy of the taste.

On the way out, Hedgie pointed out some Doctor Who art on the wall. Yay, geeky vegans!



Here's some pictures from previous Vegeria visits -
















The bookstore next door to Vegeria. They have some fun stuff!

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Tarka Indian Kitchen / Daily Juice / Sweet Ritual

Tarka Indian Kitchen
Tarka South Austin
5207 Brodie Lane
Austin, TX 78745
(512) 892-2008
Tarka Round Rock
201 University Blvd
Round Rock, TX 78665
(512) 246-1922
Tarka North Austin
2525 W. Anderson Lane
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 323-0955
Sunday-Thursday: 11 am to 9 pm
Friday & Saturday: 11 am to 10 pm

Daily Juice
4500 Duval St
Austin, TX 78751
(512) 380-9046
Open seven days a week. (Hours change seasonally.)

Sweet Ritual
4500 Duval Street
Austin TX, 78751
Monday-Friday: Noon – 10 pm
Saturday & Sunday: 10am – 10pm


Yesterday, I spend a relaxing day out with a friend, walking around central Austin, eating yummy food, and seeing another friend's play. We started out by having lunch at Tarka Indian Kitchen in Round Rock.



Tarka marks all of their vegan items with a "V", but a lot of the dishes are served with yogurt chutney, so make sure to specify that you don't want it. I decided to get the vegetable coconut curry (mild) and some roti (the naan isn't vegan).



The curry was super creamy, smooth, and absolutely delicious. At some point in the future when my gall bladder is behaving better, I'm going to try this again with a medium spice level.

After leaving Tarka, we drove down to the park behind (in front of?) Spider House, and spent some time walking around, enjoying the gorgeous weather. I needed something from Wheatsville, so I got to give my friend the grand tour (he'd never been, and was very impressed!) We then drove over to Daily Juice / Sweet Ritual for some dinner and yummy desert.



We started with a raw enchilada from Daily Juice. My omnivorous friend and I both liked it, and he was impressed that raw kale could taste that good. We could have got one enchilada for each of us, but we decided to split one to keep room for...



...desert. After much deliberation, we decided on a turtle sundae with added Oreo pieces in a handmade waffle cone dipped in chocolate and crushed Chick-O-Stick. So far, I've absolutely loved everything I've ever eaten at Sweet Ritual, and this sundae was no exception. I can't wait until I get a chance to go back and try a sundae with cookie dough (and perhaps a brownie as well - I don't think I get to eat anything else that week.)

I'm actually kind of surprised that I haven't already done a review of Sweet Ritual, so I'm going to post the past pictures I've taken here. If you're on a diet, you might not want to look...









Here's three more from Tarka -

Emerald Green Dip Of Vegan Nominess

Today's entry is my 100th post on this blog! Woo hoo!

Let's flash back in time a week or so, back to before I was having gall bladder issues and I was still trying to figure out different ways to use the large pot of black beans I'd made and what was left of a large bunch of kale.

*sound of flashback music*



While we're back here, let's remind past me to actually write down how much of what goes into specific things when they're being made. *facepalm*

I know I had at least 5 or 6 large leaves of curly kale, about 1/2 a cup of black beans, 1/3-1/2 cup of pineapple salsa, several good shakes of turmeric and ginger, and about 1/4 cup nutritional yeast. I tossed all of it into my BlendTec blender with just enough water to make it smooth.



I ate it with Wheat Thins Flatbread chips, and it was delicious!

Kale, Rice, Bean, & Tomato Wrap

This was something I made last week. Since I had a lot of brown rice and black beans, I decided to put them together with kale and tomato, sauté them in Earth Balance, and season them with a bit of garlic powder, ginger, and salt. Wrap them up in an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain tortilla, and yum!