Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Afternoon with AndyDufresne, and a Giveaway: The Wonderful American Vegan Kitchen!

Today I had the pleasure of having lunch with a vegan blogger you might know of, the charming AndyDufresne from the PPK and the blog In My Vegan Life. We went to an all-vegan Chinese restaurant called Green Wok and had the lunch buffet. It was medium-fine, with a standout being eggplant in a tangy sauce. The hot and sour soup was tasty too. I took photos on my phone, but they are not coming through to my email address, so hmph. Anyway, Portland is vegan mecca--who else has the luxury of an all-vegan buffet at an all-vegan Chinese restaurant? After we finished, I practiced some homework on Andy, who was very patient, and a man came over to offer us homegrown kiwiberries and another fruit. I want to say they were olive berries. We both accepted happily before realizing that we were eating food from a stranger! Andy remarked that she tended to believe the best about other vegans, and I like that line of thinking.

After lunch we made our way to Barbur World Foods to get amazing zaatar pizza and falafel and baklava for later! You should check out Andy's blog to see her haul. While we were waiting for some falafel, a kitchen employee rolled her eyes and loudly muttered in response to a question about whether some cookies were vegan, and Andy and I gave each other a look. So I think we were both kind of floored when she walked back over and started asking questions about being vegan, vegan baking, vegan health, motivations, etc. Not just one or two questions. I think we spoke with her for a good ten or fifteen minutes, and she was listening. She chose to ask us, and she listened to us wax positive. She took it in. Maybe she will take it further. It was pretty wonderful to speak from the heart, and pretty wonderful to speak in tandem with another vegan who I know is passionate about veganism. I will remember this. Thank you, Eloquent Andy, for your spontaneous advocacy! Inspired and inspiring.

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After Chinese and Middle Easter fare today, I am ready for some American food. Today's giveaway is for American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes, a book generously donated by Vegan Heritage Press! I was lucky enough to win a copy of this during last year's MoFo from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, and I really love it, especially the Incrediburgers and the Greek Town Gyros. You may be the lucky winner and maybe you'll even give one away on your blog next MoFo!

The PPK has posted five pages of their use of this book, plus another cookbook challenge thread, and here are their very favorites. This was super fun to do because people had made almost everything and nearly everybody was raving about how good that particular recipe was!

1. The favorites were Green Town Gyros and 50/50 Burger Buns,
2. . . . closely followed by Garlic Ribz and Deep-Fried Avocado Wedges,
3. . . . flanked by Tater Tot Pie, Tuna-Free Noodle Casserole, and Cinnacrunch Muffins,
4. . . . not to be outdone by Incrediburgers, Savory Wheat-Meat Loaf, Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, Cheezy Mayo, and Coffee Cake,
5. . . . followed by, seriously, everything else. Everyone loved what they made, to the tune of 85 separate ravings. Serious affection. And that was the one thread. There are more on the PPK, and there are the Amazon.com raves too, and that's just what I know about. If you are cooking vegan, this cookbook is simply a standard.

So why don't you have this book? You need this cookbook in your life! Also, psst: I do hear rumblings that Tamasin is writing a sandwich book with Celine Steen right about now. Keep your ear to the ground and your eyes peeled for this. The photos I've seen have been amazing and testers are loving the recipes.

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To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post. Tell me your about your favorite diner food, something in your kitchen, your favorite sandwich, or anything at all. This giveaway is open to everybody everywhere, no matter where you live! The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and posted tomorrow below tomorrow's giveaway. If you win a giveaway on this blog at some point this month, please be kind and don't enter further giveaways--I'd love as many people to win something as possible!

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The winner of yesterday's Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet giveaway is jacblades! Congratulations to you! Please send your name and address to me at miso...@yahoo.com. (<---make sure to click on the . . . link for the rest of the email address. This is a spam avoidance thing.)

23 comments:

  1. My fave sandwich...marinated grilled portobellos, greens, tomatoes with toasty seven-grain bread. :)

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  2. My favorite sandwich is probably the Tempeh Reuben from Vegan with a Vengeance (or at least it's definitely the fanciest sandwich I've ever tried to make for myself). Thanks for the giveaway!

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  3. You know what, there's actually an all vegan chinese lunch buffet here in SWEDEN! Not in my town thought, which makes me really sad. About diner food, we don't really have diners here so I'd love to get some cooking done from this book.

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  4. We don't really have diners here, so I'm imagining...but I love chili fries!! And spearmint milkshakes. Would love to get some more ideas from this book!

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  5. Veggie burger and onion rings. Would love to win this book.

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  6. My favorite sandwich is the basic baked tofu from AFR with lettuce, tomato, onions, hummus, and some balsamic vinegar. YUM

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  7. I really want this cookbook!

    My favorite diner food is french fries, but other than that I love veggie burgers and mac'n'chreese.

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  8. I love anything with potatoes and Daiya cheese! I also love veggie burgers, mac and cheese and any other comfort food. YUM!

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  9. I love a good grilled cheese...lately with Daiya Pepperjack!

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  10. My favorite sandwich is a roasted garlic hummus sandwich on pumpernickel bread with sweet red vinegar peppers, tomatoes, and onion. mmmmm

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  11. Right now my favorite sandwich is seitan, daiya cheese, sauteed onions & peppers with tomato, lettuce and veganaise.

    Would love to have this book!

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  12. My all time favorite snack are the seitan chimichurris from candle cafe. For some reason, they are the ultimate comfort food for me. Maybe because they were what I always treated myself to during finals, or when I was sick, when I lived in new york

    larkspurpurple (at) gmail.com

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  13. I'm a french fry fanatic :)and a huge fan of black bean veggie burgers.

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  14. My favorite sandwich at the moment is Mock Tuna Salad, made with tempeh, yum. It would be awesome to win this cookbook.

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  15. Oooh this is one I would LOVE to win, I keep meaning to order this book :)

    We don't have diners here so I am looking forward to discovering what my favourite diner food is!

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  16. I've read so much about this cookbook. I'd love to try real American recipes veganised. I'm from England so I've not had "diner food" before but all the vegan variations sound delish :)

    Emma
    http://coconutandberries.tumblr.com

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  17. my favourite diner food is sweet potato fries and an ice cream sundae

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  18. The diner near my house growing up had an eggplant burger that I loved! With lots of ketchup and super crispy greasy fries. Mmm...

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  19. Ooooh I would love to win this! I had some amazing sandwiches in NYC, mainly at S'Nice. There was this delicious vegan paninni with tofu & pesto and an insane breakfast bagel with Tofurky, cream cheese, avocado & tomato. I can't wait to go back!

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  20. My favorite diner food are reuben sandwiches omg omg omg

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  21. Aw, Celyn, you're too sweet! I had a lovely time. You much better captured our outing than did I!

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  22. I had a reallyyyyy good mock egg salad sandwich one time that was delicious, been searching for a yummy recipe ever since! But since I haven't found one I like yet, is it sad that my current favorite sandwich is just a bagel sandwich with hummus, sprouts, avocado, mustard, and spinach? Simple but super yummy!

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  23. I don't have a favourite sandwich, but one I've recently discovered that is both zany and delicious is peanut butter and fresh (or pickled) horseradish. I thought it would be disgusting, but it is fantastic.

    Also, I nominated you for a Liebster Blog Award. They're all the rage these days.

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