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.)