In Which Everything Goes Awry (RESTAURANT REVIEW - Crazy Cajun, Port Aransas, TX)

Something that April didn't mention in the last few blog posts was that, upon returning to Austin, she had a gall bladder attack every other day. The 3rd one was extra painful, and didn't stop after a couple of hours like all the rest did. After several hours of pain, she decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order. A couple of days later, the gall bladder was history, and April was discharged from the hospital. The doctor said that it would be a bad idea to try and fly back to Kansas and play at the faire, so April reluctantly agreed to take another week off. Her fiance had already planned a trip to the Texas coast with his friends, so April went along with them. If one is going to recuperate, the beach is a nice place to do so!



The downside of recuperation was that it hurt to laugh, breathing deeply was impossible, and occasional abdominal discomfort made things not so great. The upside was that, with no more pesky gall bladder, April could eat pretty much whatever she wanted. Her fiance, Tim, and all of their friends had rented Tim's family's condo in Port Aransas, so a full kitchen as well as community grills were at their disposal.

Tim started out the long weekend by making a ton of chalupas (one of April's favorites!) with Daiya cheese, refried beans, avocado, and Wheatsville's popcorn tofu.



The next day, a couple of their friends took turns grilling all sorts of things. April and Tim (the two vegans in the group) got grilled corn on the cob, veggie skewers, and grilled pineapple and strawberry skewers (delicious!)



For desert, there was Purely Decadent Chocolate Obsession and So Delicious Cookies 'n' Cream.



On the last day, everyone wanted to go eat at The Crazy Cajun, a place they had enjoyed on the last trip to the coast.

Crazy Cajun
303 E Beach Ave, Port Aransas, TX 78373


The hedgehogs have their own special spot in the car.

April was a bit worried about trying to eat at a seafood restaurant, but Tim assured her that there was something they could eat. Upon arriving, the hedgehogs explored the waiting room -



After a bit of a wait (accompanied by what may have been the Crazy Cajun himself - a guy with a fiddle and a harmonica), the group was seated.


For reference, thecrazycajun.com doesn't actually work.

The actual Crazy Cajun entree is a large bucket of corn, potatoes, and dead sea animals that gets dumped on the paper-covered table, while diners are given wooden mallets to crack open shells. April and Tim sat at one end of the table and did their best to ignore the carnage. The veggie option (which isn't on the menu) consists of a smaller bowl of just corn and potatoes. Make sure to tell the waiter that you don't want them cooked in butter.



The Crazy Cajun uses a spice mix that's actually quite spicy but very, very tasty. Tim bought a big bottle of it to take home.


The Blues Brothers in the window of The Crazy Cajun.

While April has almost no sense of smell, she has heard that The Crazy Cajun has a fairly strong fish smell (perhaps a rotten fish smell), so people with sensitive noses might want to find someplace else to go.

Specifications on Freebirds Burrito

Freebirds Burrito

A couple of important notes for Freebirds Burrito - the barbecue sauce has anchovies in it, and the poblano sauce/relish is sweetened with honey. Both Spanish and Cilantro Lime Rices are vegan, as well as all three types of beans (pinto, black, and refried). Also, I believe the wheat tortillas are not vegan (though I'm not positive on this), but the spinach, red pepper, and corn are vegan for sure.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Mamacita's - New Braunfels, TX

Mamacita's
505 Business IH-35
North New Braunfels, TX
(830) 620-6565
Sun - Thurs: 11am - 9:30pm
Fri - Sat: 11am - 10pm
For other locations, see their website.

All this week, I'm office-sitting for my brother and cousin in New Braunfels, TX. So far, I've been bringing my own lunch to work (a sandwich made with Tofurky deli slices, Daiya cheese shreds, avocado, and Asian chili sauce with a side of fruit). Today, however, I had to get up extra early to go with my parents, grandmother, and 3 year old nephew to the Snake Farm and Petting Zoo.




My family was going to Mamacita's for lunch, and my mother said she'd bring me lunch after they'd eaten. I gave her my to-go container, and headed to the office.

Around 1:15, my mother appeared with a giant bag (given to her by Mamacita's, but reusable, like a shopping bag) filled with food. The restaurant had used my to-go container for the fajitas proper (onions, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms), and given me disposable containers for rice & beans, pico de gallo & guacamole, salsa, tortillas, and chips. Now, the tortillas were simply wrapped in foil, which is a good way of transporting them, and the chips were presented in a plastic bag designed to go into the microwave (pretty smart). I kind of wish they'd just put the rice and beans in with the fajitas, though - I'd rather save a container than keep all my food absolutely separate.


Chips not shown. Also, I accidentally left my bamboo fork at the house, so I'm eating fajitas with chopsticks. Don't judge.

For some odd reason, fajitas don't show up at all on Mamacita's online menu. However, they are certainly on the menu at the New Braunfels location. I've been informed that both the refried and charro beans are vegan, as is the rice, so the only things vegans will have to avoid is the cheese and sour cream (and they'll give you extra guacamole instead if you ask for it).

Mamacita's flour tortillas are some of the best I've ever eaten. They're made in-house, and come to the table (or the desk!) pillowy, hot, and fresh.




If you eat in the restaurant, the waiter will bring out chips and dipping sauces. The salsa rojo is tasty with a fair amount of heat, but stay away from the green sauce - it looks like it's made with avocado but actually has sour cream and other dairy in it, as well as some odd green coloring.

I'm not sure what other vegan options one might find besides the fajitas, though I would assume some of the enchiladas might possibly be made vegan with the right sauce and omission of cheese. I love the fajitas so much, I've never checked.

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Eastside Cafe, Austin, TX

Eastside Cafe
2113 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722
(512) 476-5858


Last week, a friend took me to Eastside Cafe. I was a tiny bit skeptical about the possibility of vegan options, but my friend told me they had a vegan menu, so I decided to give it a go. It turns out that their vegan menu is just 4 things from their regular menu with qualifiers in parentheses "(order without cheese or sour cream)".



Be warned, though, there are a few errors - I ordered the veggie enchiladas, which were advertised with three choices of sauces. One of those sauces is the suiza sauce, which is not vegan. I got mine with the verde sauce.



The enchiladas were actually pretty good for being cheeseless. I would love for Eastside Cafe to start carrying Daiya cheese, but that may not happen any time soon.

There were also no vegan desert options, though the server suggested we could go across the street to Thunderbird Coffee (formerly Clementine Coffee) for vegan deserts.

Overall, it's nice to know that there's something vegans can eat if they find themselves at Eastside Cafe. However, if you're craving enchiladas, I'd suggest a trip to Mother's Cafe instead.

Spiral Diner Picture Post

Since I'm busking at the Texas Renaissance Festival today and tomorrow, I'm going to make two picture posts of more yummy stuff from Spiral Diner in Dallas, TX (where I stopped for dinner on my way back from Kansas).


Quesadillas


Crispy Spring Wrap with Apple Ginger Juice



Tomorrow - desert!

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 -

RESTAURANT REVIEW - The Vegan Nom/Rockin' Vegan Tacos, Austin, TX

The Vegan Nom/Rockin' Vegan Tacos
120 East North Loop-B
Austin, Texas 78751
Tue-Wed: 7:00 am - 3:30 pm
Thu-Sat: 7:00 am - 9:00 pm
Sun: 7:00 am - 3:30 pm

Having finally got done with my 12 hour drive from Missouri, and having had a decent night's sleep, I talked my boyfriend into checking out The Vegan Nom, since I'd heard so many great things about it.




From their Facebook page - "First of its kind in Austin TEXAS, we are vegans who serve up Rockin Vegan Tacos featuring tex-mex breakfast tacos ALL DAY and our signature tacos, bomb nachos, handmade vegan chili con queso and our signature sauces: creamy salsa verde (hot), roasted smoky chipotle (med), and our fresh salsa la roja (mild).

All tacos are fresh and cooked to order. Fresh tasty food takes time. We do not serve any animal products with our tacos. 100% animal free kitchen and staff. We cook all are tacos with grapeseed and safflower oil."




The Jalisco and the Bean Diablo.


The Migas and the Grilled Avocado Reale

The Jalisco was my stand out favorite, with its faux chicken and flavorful spicy sauce. My boyfriend loved the Reale, saying it had a richer, fuller mix of flavors and that he liked the "avocadoness" of it. I liked the Bean Diablo, but it was quite spicy (too much so for my boyfriend), and we both liked the Migas, though he said it was a bit too "tofu-y". We also got chips and queso, which was creamy and delicious with quite a kick, and the large bag of chips was a great way to pick up all the taco droppings.

We used the Scoutmob deal and got our 4 fancy tacos with chips and queso for only $14. This was a great deal, and gave us money left to buy drinks at the convenience store on the property to go with the food.

I can't wait to go back and try some of the other offerings! Yay, vegan tacos!

Tamales and tacos and cupcakes, oh my!

Mark and I have spent our last two weekends performing at Four Winds Faire in Tyler, TX.  This means I've been eating a lot of vegan bars (Cliff, Luna, ProBar, Lara, etc.) and the occasional batch of sweet potato tots from Sonic.   Yesterday, we had our first performance with La Fenice at Whip In, doing a commedia del arte show called Sloop of the Damned.  Since we're doing another show tonight (and Mark and I are doing our steampunk music set after!), we decided to play hooky from Four Winds today.  This morning we visited the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market for breakfast.   I had a sweet potato and a tempeh breakfast taco from Happy Vegan Baker as well as a tiny cappuccino cupcake, and a nopalitos tamale and spinach and onions tamale from The Gardener's Feast. I was sad that I didn't have any room left over for the vegan pakoras down the way.  The tacos and tamales were all fresh, hot, and flavorful.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, since it was very windy and I was trying to keep all of the napkins and other stuff from flying off the table.

Tofu Molé

Since adopting a semi-nomadic lifestyle, I've been falling into the trap of not properly planning meals in advance, and just buying ingredients at the store that look like they'll be useful at some point. This happens mostly at my parents' house, since we go shopping as a family, and I am not one to turn down free food. *grin*

On a previous trip to one of the two health food stores in New Braunfels, I picked up a block of firm tofu (not silken). I decided that today would be the day that I turned that simple block of tofu into a delicious meal (or two or three), so all that remained was to try to decide what to make. I pulled up all of the recipes on my hard drive that use tofu as a main dish, and finally got it narrowed down to Tofu Scramble and Tofu Molé. The scramble was a much easier recipe, but the molé was calling to me.

The recipe comes from Diet, Dessert and Dogs.

Since I didn't have either a bell pepper or a jalapeño pepper, I substituted a small can of chopped green chilies. I also decided to indulge my inner chocoholic and use Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter instead of the almond butter. Instead of using pre-made veggie broth (since I didn't have any of that, either), I made my own, using one stalk of celery, two small broccoli florets, a bit of chopped onion, and some spices. Finally, since I didn't have 2 oz. of unsweetened chocolate, I substituted 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.


Homemade veggie broth


Fried tofu


Molé, pre-blending

After blending the mole mixture (yay, Blendtec blender!), I transferred it into the pot I'd used to make the veggie broth. In the short time it took to look at the recipe and determine that yes, the tofu *did* need to go in with the blended sauce, I discovered that the "cover the pot" step was *very* important! The sauce had started to bubble up and spew here and there, creating my very own Bog Of Eternal Stench (without the bad smell, of course). I'll spare you the sight of mole splotches all over the stovetop (and the sound of my mother wailing that I was ruining her kitchen), and we'll just jump to the finished result.



For my final substitution, I served it with corn tortillas instead of rice (guess why.)



The sauce was thick, rich, and subtly nuanced. I think it definitely could have had more spice, so next time I make it, I'll add a couple of serranos.

Overall, I think that the dish was yummy and flavorful, and I look forward to making it again.