Philly [Vegan] Eating

Against my better holiday-traffic judgment, yesterday I drove down to Philly to visit one of my best friends from graduate school.  We road tripped across the country together 2 years ago, so she knows just how food-centric I can be [the entire trip was planned around cupcakeries], and likewise we had a lovely day traveling around the city and stuffing our faces.

Steph & I circa 2008.

We started off with lunch at Mugshots Coffeehouse – we had gone here for coffee and dessert the last time I visited her, and I was secretly hoping we would return.  Their menu is jampacked with organic fare, and I’d say 50% of their menu is vegan – how about that??  Sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, muffins, cakes, cupcakes, cream cheese, etc. – all vegan options.  I had a terrible time choosing what to eat, and ended up having the barista choose for me: The Slammer: Lettuce, tomato, vegan meatballs, and avocado in a wheat wrap. It was different, messy, and delicious.  That’s why there is no photo of this – I stuffed it down faster than I was able to remember to whip out my camera. But I 100% recommend visiting this cafe – and I can say their vanilla soy latte and vegan carrot cake are creamy and flavorful – my non-vegan friend and I had to alternate spoonfuls to keep it “fair”. Yup.  Also bringing this location over the top is their prime location facing Eastern State Penitentiary – D and I will be returning next month to hit up both spots.

Steph and I then traveled across town (literally) to Sweet Freedom Bakery, which specializes in baking allergen-free: so they are vegan (dairy-free & egg-free), gluten-free, corn-free, wheat-free,  peanut-free, and even soy-free! With a list of restrictions that long, I was anxious to see how well they could pull off the goods.

The shop is cute & sweet (with nearly blue everything), and they offer a list of ingredients for each item in front of the display.  It was a hot day yesterday so I went with the Lemon Blueberry cupcake & Steph went for the mint chocolate cookie sandwich.

I was extremely wary about how tasty these were going to be – especially since I’ve had some terrible gluten-free cupcakes in the past.  These were phenomenal, and I give it to you straight – especially with cupcakes.  Really, so so moist and flavorful.  The lemon and blueberry balanced and I cannot for the life of me figure out how they were able to maintain all elements of a cupcake without so many “traditional” ingredients.  These ladies are masterminds!  The cookie sandwich was also out of control delicious – also very moist (but with a good crunch) and a fluffy sweet filling.  I can’t recommend this spot enough – especially if you have a lot of allergies.  After explaining my delight in enjoying these treats, an old woman inside (a “regular”) proclaimed she has celiac’s and this bakeshop is her lifeline!  Props to Sweet Freedom, we were happy chicas!

We walked back across town, shopped, people-watched, and then decided we could use one last food trip before I hit the road again.  We hit up The Belgian Cafe, also in her neighborhood. She piqued my interest when she said she brought her dad here and he fell in love with their vegan chicken wings. I’m in! I sipped on a Dogfish Festinal Peche – perfectly light for my developing beer palate.  We split the Vegan Spring Rolls (marinated tempeh and fresh vegetables with sour cherry compote)  & Stuffed Tofu (tofu marinated in Spaten Optimator, stuffed with dried cherries, cashews, cilantro, & garlic and  served on a bed of sesame spinach).

While the spring rolls were good – they were nothing different than any other I’ve had before.  The stuffed tofu, however, is worth mentioning.  It was delicious – I can’t even describe the flavors because they were too busy dancing in my mouth for me to break down.  They totally hit it home with this dish and you can absolutely consider me a fan of this establishment. They offer various other vegan options on the breakfast/sandwich/entree menus, we just ordered off the appetizers. Also – if you are a beer person, their list is pages long with a nice selection on tap.

Overall, after a day of walking and eating I was pretty wiped.  I had a fantastic start to my long weekend, and today was spent watching Europe dominate the World Cup quarter-finals and doing a little baking. How has your weekend been so far?

Here comes the sun..day weekend recap.

This weekend was exactly what I needed – the sun was out and the temperatures were high!  We celebrated by taking a hike on Saturday, and pretty much catching up on home chores.  I needed to make use of leftovers for lunch on Saturday and threw together a vegan nacho inspired fiesta, with totilla chips, pinto beans, follow your heart monterrey jack cheese, chunky salsa, and some tofutti sour cream mixed with some lime juice. It was pretty good for a thrown together meal, however I do realize how un-nutritious it was.

On Sunday, I met up with an old friend in Manhattan for brunch and shopping. I hadn’t seen her in awhile, and I knew as foodie friends, she was going to be hit sort of sideways when I threw the vegan ball at her.  However, as good foodie friends do, she bounced back with a suggestion to visit Counter in the East Village  for their vegan and vegetarian friendly brunch (which literally is on the same block I used to live in but never went to). I was beyond ecstatic to try their brunch due to their vegan french toast option, and because I had been reading some pretty good reviews in the blogworld.

We made a reservation for 1:30, and were promptly seated when we arrived early.  That is the peak of the experience, as everything just went down from there. We waited 15 minutes before our order was taken, and that was really not a problem to us. We ordered our drinks, appetizer, and meal at that point. Fifteen minutes later our coffees arrived.  Over one hour later and we still had not received our appetizer.  Mind you, the place was full but not crowded, as the tables next to us were empty. At first we thought, “how lovely, they are giving us time to enjoy our brunch coffee and not push us out the door”, however after an hour of thinking this we became antsy and finally flagged down the host (as our waitress had been MIA for some time) and explained how long we had been in the restaurant, and asked when we would receive our food. He snarkily responded that they “only have one cook today, terrible right?”. Uhm, YEAH? Really? That’s how you interact with your patrons? We said if our food wasn’t out within 5 minutes we were leaving – and our appetizer magically arrived. Ten minutes later so did our food.

Was the food “good”? Yes, I’d give it that much.  The grilled tofu was actually quite delicious, the perfect texture, flavor, and temperature.  The french toast was thick, crusty and cinnamony. While it was good, I think I could make it far better. The atmosphere was classy and comfortable, and probably quite romantic in the evening.  But the attitude and carelessness of the waitstaff will make me cry from the rooftops DO NOT GO TO COUNTER unless you have 3 hours to kill and aren’t hungry yet. What an intense disappointment.

We moved on through SoHo, where I eventually snagged a vegan chocolate chip cookie from Whole Foods (I know, not the most original baked good I could come up with in Manhattan, but when we stopped at Atlas Cafe in search of a vegan cookie they were all out.  However their insane menu made us regret having not ditched Counter earlier and just came here. I will definitely be returning for some goodies!

We had a lovely afternoon browsing through SoHo, and eventually I scored a key item I’ve been on the lookout for at Uniqlo. A black men’s synthetic leather hooded jacket.  The extra-small fit like a glove and I was absolutely in love with the look and the price! I love and miss shopping in the city, however I do not miss the damage it does to my wallet.

When I got home D was still at work (had to go in extra this weekend), and I was quite hungry for dinner.  I ended up picking up a new Morningstar Farms Sweet & Sour Chik’n frozen dinner from Target a few weeks ago to try out, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a try! At 340 calories and 14g of protein it seems like a pretty good deal, but with 56g of carbs it’s definitely a last-resort meal.

There weren’t very many chik’n pieces, however the flavor and texture was really good and I do wish there were more!  The meal itself is extremely sweet, be prepared.  I actually couldn’t finish it, but wish’d I had added a cup of broccoli and another 1/2 cup of rice.  Take that suggestion and give it a shot! I’d give these three stars and would return to them in a tight spot!

Tonight I cooked up a recipe from Vegan Bites, with review to come!  I hopped on the elliptical for an hour and did two Jillian iFit workouts.  The machine is still a bit unstable at times (working on it), but I have gotten a pretty good workout – need to get the heart rate monitor out soon.  Now I’m snacking on some natural  popcorn and watching t.v. – thank goodness Monday is over! Hoping to squeeze in two hot power yoga classes in Tuesday & Wednesday and cook up three more new recipes. Here’s to a fast week!