Veggie Grill - Mountain View + Giveaway

Veggie Grill has a new menu and a new location. I received a complimentary lunch from Veggie Grill to try these spring dishes at their Mountain View location recently. It was all about asparagus and strawberries!

($9.95) Strawberry arugula salad with walnuts and almond ricotta, pomegranate seeds, asparagus sections, and micro greens on top and a strawberry vinaigrette. They gave me spinach for some reason, but just imagine arugula in here. As you can tell from the ingredients, it is a very healthy, fresh, seasonal salad. 

I couldn't resist ordering a portion of their popular buffalo wings made from imitation chicken. It's vegetarian but you can't tell because the sauce is delicious. Phil and I love any of the menu items with the buffalo wings as we mentioned in our previous review of the Santana Row location.

($3.95) Strawberry parfait - another seasonal menu item with strawberries, cream, and mint. I thought it was interesting to have a parfait on the menu. I don't think the Santana Row location has this so it was quite a treat.

The other seasonal item is a side of grilled asparagus. The photo did not turn out well. Check out the spring menu here
http://veggiegrill.com/docs/VG_Spring_menu_20140424.pdf

And the new Mountain View location here:
565 San Antonio Road
Mountain View, CA 90404

GIVEAWAY DIRECTIONS
I'm giving away 4 coupons for a free entree at Veggie Grill (any location). You can enter by filling out the form below. 4 winners will be drawn on Tuesday night and announced on Wednesday morning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vegetarian Week

This past week, from Monday to Sunday, Phil and I tried eating vegetarian for the entire week. To get you started, here is an infographic explaining some quick facts about vegetarianism. The data is from 2011 and is created by Retail Me Not to get you to use their coupons so it may be biased. I mostly want to point to the "You are what you eat" and "Why go vegetarian" sections.


Source: RetailMeNot.com

Phil chose the Lacto-Ovo vegetarian diet and I chose the Lacto vegetarian diet; the only difference is I consider eggs as a meat so I excluded it.

We started off the week with a huge vegetarian haul from Costco. Here's what we bought, imagine Costco size of all these things.

• bag of broccoli
• box of Ling Ling's vegetarian egg rolls
• bag of Morningstar veggie patties
• box of mixed greens salad
• bag if frozen strawberries

There were also some food from the Asian market or that we already had in our fridge. Here's what we ate for the week.

Phil's foods and thoughts:

Before I started this challenge, my typical lunches consisted of meat and rice(provided by my work place) and dinner consisted of meat, rice, and a veggie.  I wanted to try something new, so I gave myself a challenge of eating vegetarian for one week.  To me, one week was the right amount of time for me to try something new.  It was also short enough for me to post a picture of every meal onto my facebook wall.

As you can see, the lunch meals at work did not consist of much each time.  They were plain and not delicious.  The hotel that I work at offers a salad bar, but the ingredients included in it are not ones that I personally like myself.  So all of my pictures from work look real plain.  And besides steamed veggies, there's really no other vegetarian options.  For diet purposes, I broke my lunches into two parts since I heard eating multiple smaller meals is the healthier option.

Before this challenge started, I had the opportunity to buy a lot of vegetarian food at Costco to help prep for the week.  This included greens, Ling Ling veggie spring rolls, Morningstar Veggie patties, and frozen strawberries.  By buying all this, there really wasn't a need for me to do a lot of cooking.  I always go for the quickest option for my meals.  I'm not a fan of spending hours in the kitchen after work when I'm tired, anyways, that's a completely different story.....

The first few days of the challenge was perfectly fine because everything was still fresh to me and I was experiencing new foods without meat.  I made a pasta dish that lasted at least three meals for myself(whenever I cook, I cook in large portions)

From Friday until Sunday, that was a challenge for me because I was eating the same meals over and over again and I was just too lazy to cook new foods, so everything was the same.  I even gave up on delicious gourmet food.  The hotel I work at had a reception and they had philly cheesesteak sliders, ahi tuna sliders, crab cake sliders, and other delicious meats that I would  typically scarf down if it wasn't for this challenge.  I felt proud to resist the food, but as the week wore on, it was becoming more difficult to come up with new foods to eat.

I came into this challenge thinking that being around a Vegetarian is a hassle.  Honestly, who likes to eat with picky eaters?  Being around some friends who are Vegetarians, it opened up my mind to see that if they can give up meat for their own individual causes, why can't I at least try as well?  This past week has been a humbling experience.  To resist passing up those sliders because of meat was fine for one time, but I can't imagine passing it up on a permanent basis.  To be a Vegetarian, you got to be mentally strong.  Ngoc and I went to a Vietnamese sandwich shop, one out of the 12 sandwiches was vegetarian.  It was alright, but I really wanted my usual shredded pork sandwich.  It's tough man, very tough.

At the end of the day, I give Vegetarians a lot of credit for what they eat.  I never realized how tough it is to go out and eat vegetarian.  The options just really aren't there, especially if the restaurant is not specifically vegetarian.  I'll continue to eat meat on occasion, but this last week has also taught me that I can be just as happy eating a vegetarian meal.  I'm happy I did this challenge and hope to somewhat continue with the healthy vegetarian meals in the future.

FYI, the challenge is over, yet I decided to eat a vegetarian meal for dinner by choice......

Ngoc's foods and thoughts:

Well since Phil took up all the space, I will be brief. The first set are pictures of my lunches and they are so much better than his scoops of olives. The second set is dinner and we basically ate the same thing minus the egg for me. I already love vegetarian food so this challenge was a cake walk for me. I hope we can eat vegetarian at least one night a week.

SOME FOODS TO NOTE:

I have no clue what they put as fake shredded pork in this vegetarian springroll. It looked like shreds of fried yam and taro. Also, what is vegetarian fish sauce made of? So many burning questions! Good spring rolls nonetheless.

Vegetarian shredded pork banh mi sandwich. This item alone is what really made me keenly aware of how much I depend on animal based foods. There was no pate and no mayonnaise in this sandwich. Ugh, so plain. It just wasn't the same.

On the last night, I was very tired of our usual dinners of veggie patties on lettuce with an egg so I made this fried rice. It had kale, edamame beans, cut up veggie patties, and bits of seasoned nori. The sauce was just soy sauce and sriracha. I usually put oyster sauce in my fried rice but oyster is meat based. It was actually really good. TIP: Kale can be frozen if you intend to saute it or use it in soups.

Coconut milk pudding with chia seeds, creamed corn, served on sticky rice and with mango pieces. Use ripe yellow mangoes, don't let your husband run out and buy a green mango like mine did. This dish was actually a happy accident. I wanted corn for my salad and opened a can of creamed corn by mistake. So I opened a can of coconut milk and heated it up with palm sugar, little bit of salt, tossed in chia seeds and let it sit over night. Chia seeds contain alot of protein for its size so this probably helped with my protein intake.

Cotton says yummy.

Veggie Grill - San Jose

Phil recently attended a Yelp Elite event at Veggie Grill in Santana Row. He highly recommended it so we went on a semi-double date dinner last weekend.

Phil was the only one who ordered the Buffalo Bomber ($8.95). We all had a little food envy after tasting how similar this tofu substitute was to the real meat-buffalo wings. Even better because it did not dry out like buffalo wings. I still have food envy.

VS got the B-Wing Salad ($9.95). This is a buffalo chicken burger with romaine, avocado, celery, corn salsa, and ranch dressing. Also seems like an excellent choice. Veggie Grill was giving out samples of the buffalo chicken outside their door and this really helped sell the dish to new diners. In fact, I wish I got one of the buffalo wing dishes myself.

RN got the All American Stack burger ($8.95). Although he really liked this, I sensed a bit of buffalo burger envy in him as well. 

Here is my soup and salad combo for $8.50. The soup was chicken noodle and the salad was the "All Hail Kale" with grilled tofu chicken. All in all a light and refreshing dinner but still satisfying.

Also spotted at the table was a bottle of Annie's organic ketchup. My favorite salad dressing brand makes a ketchup!How awesome.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Veggie Grill really impressed me with their food. It is the best American style vegetarian food I've ever had. Usually it's really bland or just salads and vegetables but this, I loved! Definitely check it out and you must try the buffalo wings.

Veggie Grill on Yelp (see Phil's review)

Remember the ramen that didn't come out right so I didn't serve it to my family for Thanksgiving? Well, I fixed it by adding some chicken broth and after heating up the broth and serving with a hot bowl of noodles and all the toppings, this turned out really good. I added Chinese egg noodles, blanched spinach, woodear mushrooms, the chashu pork, fish cake rings, blanched enoki mushrooms, and topped with grated fresh garlic and Korean pepper powder. I was substituting for not having togarashi pepper they usually have at ramen shops. Hooray for a semi-successful first attempt at making ramen broth from scratch.

Also, I got a bunch of garlic from my mother in law. Too much to consume in daily cooking so I pickled it. I know it looks really green and weird but trust me, after 2 weeks, they were quite tasty. Sour, crunchy, and garlicky. As you can tell, I waited too long to pickle them because they started sprouting but that's not a big deal. When making chicken adobo, I tossed in a few chunks of raw garlic and combined with the vinegar in an adobo recipe, the garlic started turning green. At the time I freaked out but learned that it's actually ok. When vinegar comes in contact with garlic that is not mature, and heat, it can turn the garlic green. This is from the internet. And hey, I've been eating a ton of this stuff this week. Still alive and the breath is stanky as ever!

Recipe was basically vinegar, water, salt, sugar, black pepper, extra seasonings like dill, thyme, rosemary, etc. Measure to taste, heat up to a boil, pour into a jar of peeled garlic. This batch was a bit too sour. Next time, I'll add more salt, less vinegar.

Alzheimers Walk - Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant - San Francisco

Phil and I did the 5K Alzheimers walk this weekend in San Francisco. The cause color is purple so I tried my best to match. I was told there were so many more people this year than last year.

This is Okami. He is huge. When he stands up, he's taller than me.

Finally I got to see the famous arrow that everyone likes to use as the backdrop for their engagement pictures.

We had not eaten anything all morning yet and were starving. Phil and Irene recommended a vegetarian restaurant they had been to before called Enjoy Vegetarian Restaurant. What a generic name.

Crispy fake chicken drumsticks. These were a little chewy but flavorful and crispy on the outside.

Mongolian fake beef. This dish was my favorite. The beef was the most flavorful. Tastes closest to real beef and had a good tender texture.

($9.99) Shanghai bean curd sauce braised fake lamb. The lamb pieces were a real hit. It is kind of amorphous blob shaped but really tasty. The sauce was the best part.

(~$18) Bai Ling Mushrooms with pea sprouts. I love pea sprouts so you can never go wrong with a stir fried pea sprout dish. I think these are the mushrooms used for fake abalone. The texture reminds me of real abalone.

($9) Spinach fried rice with pine nuts. I thought this was bland. It sounded really interesting and Phil said it was the best thing he had last time. But today it was bland. A bit of a let down. I love pine nuts though so it's always a treat to have some.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

I would not return here. Although there are alot of creative dishes using expensive ingredients (ref. the bai ling mushrooms and pine nuts) they were not seasoned extraordinarily and so many dishes just fell flat. Tofu consistency of all the "fake meats" were chewy. A few of the sauces stood out like the Mongolian beef and braise lamb but mostly just meh. Phil says it was much better the last time he went so maybe it was just an off day. Based on this meal alone, I think there are better vegetarian places.

Enjoy on Yelp (it got 4.5 stars out of 359 reviews...wow...)

Great Vegi Land - Sunnyvale

 Tomorrow I am off to the sun and tropics and drug cartels and gang violence....Yes this sentence sums up my feelings about going to Brazil. It will be fun but I must stay safe. Phil sent me off with a bon voyage meal of my choice, vegetarian food at Great Vegi Land. You know once in a while I crave really light food and I LOVE vegetarian food!

Goodbye delicious Singaporean style vegetarian noodles we had at Great Vegi Land. I will miss your light and silky strands coated in curry powder. Not too oily, not too dry. All for the price of $6.89

 Goodbye twice cooked vegetarian pork in hot and spicy sauce. Your were mild and subtle and not at all pork-like but still very good and packed a good kick of heat. ($9.89)

 Goodbye vegetarian sliced fish in black bean sauce. You were my favorite dish of the night. Tofu seasoned to taste slightly like fish but more like buttery coconutty tofu with a hint of ginger. I am glad I spent $9.89 for you over the sweet and sour chicken which was a dollar cheaper.

 Goodbye persian cucumbers which were doing well up until the last two weeks when its been ridiculously hot and your leaves are browning a little. I hope Phil doesn't kill you. I hope the weather stays a bit cooler. I hope you sprout more leaves.

Goodbye cherry tomatoes. It took you forever to turn from green to red and now I have to eat all of you tomorrow before the flight or else Phil won't care and you will drop to the ground to a neglected rotting death...Also I think you are on your last leg and this will be my only harvest from you because you seem to be very unhappy in our front yard.

Goodbye little green beans, my strongest growers of all. May you sprout more leaves and grow taller. Upon my return, I shall split you off into separate and deeper pots because it looks like 10's a crowd in there.

 Goodbye heirloom tomatoes, I had so much hope but you have shown no progress in the last 2 weeks. Our front yard sun is too harsh and your leaves are yellowing. I hope I have at least some plants to return to.

Goodbye to these guys...

Check out Great Vegi Land on Yelp. It was delicious. $1 or $2 higher than it should be but a satisfying meal nonetheless. 

Check out my class trip to Brazil on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. The first two will be partially updated by me! And of course it is not too late to sponsor, compete in, or spread the news about the business plan competition. We will be checking our email on the trip so please message us.

Basil Cha Cha Cha - Foster City

We craved vegetarian food one weekend and tried Basil Cha Cha in Foster City.
 

This is the fanciest vegetarian place I've ever seen. The restaurant was in a small and rather low traffic area. I was surprised anything in that plaza was still in business. But Basil Cha Cha proved to be a diamond in the rough.

($6.95) Vegetarian papaya salad means no fish sauce in the dressing. I think they replaced it with a mixture of lime and seasoning. Very refreshing but I still love my fish sauce.

This is his signature pose.

($7.95) Along with splitting the papaya salad, we also split the fake shrimp pad thai. While everything about this dish was nearly a perfect replica of an omnivore's pad thai, I discovered that I'm more carnivorous than I thought. The fake shrimp made of tofu was seasoned, molded, and colored to look like cooked shrimp with the orange stripes and all but I still miss real shrimp. Phil didn't mind the lack of meat in his "meat" though. He thought it was a good rendition of the classic shrimp pad thai.

Right across the street from the restaurant was a small strip of beach with coarse shell sand. The view was great and we went for a short stroll to digest our light lunch. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Pricing: I would say these dishes were about $1 cheaper than their meaty counterparts. The portions were decent.

Basil Cha Cha is one of the best in terms of flavor and seasoning for vegetarian food I've had so far. My rating for all three vegetarian places I've reviewed goes like this:

1) Happy Bamboo because their fish tasted like actual fish

2) Basil Cha Cha for fantastic flavor

3) Tofoo Com Chay, almost but not quite there...

Basil Cha Cha on Yelp

Tofoo Com Chay - San Jose

Every now and then, I get a hankering for some vegetarian food and then I hit up my friend yelp for new suggestions because a good vegetarian place comes few and far in between. My previous experience at Happy Bamboo was good but I'm always looking out for new things, just like finding a good song on the radio but continuing to surf for an even better song.

Some time ago, my friend wanted to have her birthday lunch at ToFoo Com Chay in downtown San Jose but somehow, I was not able to go. I figured now is as good a time as ever to try. They serve Asian style vegetarian food mostly for take out but you can also sit down.

Roti Drumsticks - tofu based fake chicken molded around a sugar cane stick. This looked promising.

Fake fish served with a pineapple sauce. This also looked promising.

Here's my 3 item rice plate for $5. I got white rice, pineapple fish, Roti drumsticks, and fried tofu pieces which I couldn't photograph because I ordered the last spoonful they had.

Roti Drumsticks: not as good as it looked. Not too flavorful and would have tasted better if it was warmer.
Fake fish: very good. I always love vegetarian fake fish. Happy Bamboo is still better though.
Fried Tofu Pieces: the best item on this plate. I don't know what they season the tofu with but it was crispy and the sauce was excellent.

Phil's fake BBQ pork sandwich. This was pretty bland and cold. Poor guy was disappointed and he's rarely disappointed by food.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Pricing: $5 for a 3 item + rice plate is a good deal I'd say. Forgot how much the sandwich costs.

This wasn't a total miss, but I have a few words for Tofoo Com Chay and one of them is HEAT. There's no meat in vegetarian food so having super hot food is not essential, but this fact should not be taken for granted either. Some items had alot of potential but fizzled because they had been sitting out, specifically the roti drumsticks, the pineapple fish, and the pork in the sandwich. Our server was very nice and chatted with customers about his business and ways to improve it. The sandwich itself needed sauce or a spread to add that extra oomph. Based on the two vegetarian reviews I've done so far, Tofoo Com Chay comes in second after Happy Bamboo.

Tofoo Com Chay on Yelp