Stogo Turns Me into Some Kind of Salivating at the Case Sampler

I try not to take advantage of the "sample all you want" concept. It's very filling. What do I do at Capogiro? Well, don't gasp, but I'm not a huge fan of dairy. That's why I went to Stogo.

At Stogo, the dairy-free ice cream parlor in the East Village, I pointed at the ever-popular salted caramel pecan and took a stab at the cookie dough. I was only tasting around, though, because I knew I was gunning for the spelt red velvet cake.

It's got BabyCakes cupcakes in it (also sold at the store). How could I not spoon with that?

The ice cream here is quite impressive, made of soy, coconut, or hemp base. The texture is much thicker than regular ice cream, with more of a mousse-like consistency.  This one made me want a cupcake, which I denied until much later at the actual BabyCakes. They were out of Red Velvet, though, so I chose gluten-free vanilla. I also got to sample a BabyCakes doughnut, which now makes it even harder to make a decision from the pastry case there.

Saints & Sinners

BabyCakes mugs from the virtuous bakers of  the lauded NYC bakeshop. No sugar. One packet of Truvia.

Chris's Cookies Vegetarian Chrispy Treat with Sundrop chocolate candies, from Whole Foods - why couldn't they just make this vegan? 30 grams of sugar.

Veg Out: Koo Zee Doo

Some copper pots and spoons are nailed to the walls of Koo Zee Doo, but that's the only reminder that this used to be a New American bistro named after an element.

It's Koo Zee Doo to you, now.

It's an intimate set-up, one where the woman who hosts us is the same baking ingenue responsible for the bread. The front dining room is directly beside the open kitchen. The back room is smaller but feels just as close, the wafting smells not having very far to travel and adept at tickling the nose.

Our server knows everything about Portuguese cuisine. Like everything. Just ask her.

Since we had forgotten to buy wine, we were offered complimentary glasses of house wine. For my starter, I ordered an entire plate of Queijo Fresco based on the pleasure of house tomato jam. After depleting the sweet dollop of preserve, the cheese sat there wondering if anyone would finish it.

There were two vegetarian entrees, one a giant stew of bread soup involving a vast hunk of broth-sogged bread, chanterelles, a sprinkle of cheese, and room temperature poached egg. It was a pretty respectable soup meal, defiantly filling and comforting. The other choice was a fried corn porridge that sounded heavenly and unknown, but I was curious about the radish salad in a red coriander vinaigrette. Root vegetables really do entice a bit on a dreary night. The heavily dressed salad could have had a lighter hand, but the parsnips were a nice visit.

One of the clear specialties here is the bread. Given a choice between a soft white roll and Broa, a grainy Portuguese cornbread, both housemade, we split the Broa and were immediately pleased. It was a cross between a biscuit and a scone, a stick-to-your-ribs bread that you could feel stories explode from. When I finally paid some attention to the roll, I found that it was just as fresh and pillowy as a house dinner roll should be.

This is group food and you should order giant plates to send around the table. The two of us ate small intending to explore dessert, made by the front-of-house bread master. We saw no reason not to order the coffee-soaked wafers in buttercream,  Bolo de Bolacha. It was so buttery and rich that I didn't pick up any coffee, topped with chocolate shards. The next dessert was a playful chocolate salami, the closest I will get to salami again. It was a texturally appealing log of chocolate mixed with cookie crumbs, flanked by a mound of mousse. While I thought that the mousse was too sweet, the chocolate-covered figs were especially good and a giant plate of chocolate odds and ends is never a pain. The coffee, from nearby roaster Peregrine, was fantastic. I can't believe that restaurants are still loyal to the local Starbuckian dove when they can have Peregrine.

Since the menu is tight (as it should be), I don't see myself frequenting Koo Zee Doo as often as a non-vegetarian would. I do think it is my new coffee/dessert cave. Is it weird to go there for coffee in the evenings?


Koo Zee Doo
614 N 2nd Street

Stumptown Lovers Weekend: Hub Bub Coffee & Stumptown at Ace Hotel

On the Saturday of epic rain, I holstered my umbrella and set out completely uncaffeinated.

Was I certifiable?

I climbed onto the el at Girard and jumped off at 40th Street. The torrent stopped five times and precisely five times I opened my umbrella again. During a clear minute, I approached the Hub Bub Coffee truck at 38th and Spruce.

 Bright. Shiny. Red. Waiting. Weather what?

The proprietor was a fine soul and we chatted about the Stumptown tasting at Savona and the Ace Hotel in NYC. He promised to be there until 2pm on Saturdays. The coffee was deep and mystic and elvish and I kept stopping in the middle of the street to talk to myself about how insanely right it was. That's why drinking coffee alone is hazardous. I had my video camera and I wanted to sit my coffee down and put a mic on it.

This is my new everything photo

 

I walked to 30th Street Station, draining my cup and knew immediately that I would grab the first train to NYC, which would deposit me a few blocks from the Ace Hotel and its Stumptown coffeebar.  On the train, I tore into my croissant from Hub Bub, which was beautiful, you know.

At Stumptown, I went for straight up coffee again and picked up a bag of Ethiopian Mordecofe. I was glad to see how many coffees they carried. The lobby of the hotel serves as the seating area for the shop and I felt like I'd be an asshole to interrupt the perfect scene (like a library/laboratory in a hunting lodge where the internet had died) by acting like a blogger. This is perhaps the most awkward by way of magnificent hotel lobby that you can find on the East Coast. It's pretty ugly. I wanted to spend the night there but that many soy macchiatos might kill me.

Veg Out: Bella Sera Cafe

Common reactions to Vegan Treats include:

"I've been vegan for a decade and if I see another Vegan Treat, I will depress. Please don't make me eat another peanut butter bombe."

"This is vegan? It's actually really good." (Carefully worded of you.)

"It's Thursday. Time to put on my Vegan Treats panties and stalk the nearest Vegan Treats carrier."

I hear all three on a regular basis and am somewhere in the middle. When pressed about the success of the vegan dessert supplier, I must say it is the wow factor, the enormity of these vegan goods and the professional decorating that makes them sell.

I learned how to bake and am less of a good customer than I used to be. Still, I turned my oven off and made my brunch troupe accompany me to Bella Sera Cafe for the grand opening of the Fishtown dessert gallery.

Where are the sticky buns?

The thing you lose by not baking in-house is the smell in the air. The selection of Vegan Treats, however, made up for that, with a Greatest Hits selection of Danielle Konya's oeuvre - several types of brownies, cupcakes, cookies,  five kinds of whoopie pies (regular cream, chocolate mousse, peanut butter, cookies & cream, pumpkin), and crumb bars. The cheesecake was not on display, but they offered many varieties of that on a sign. Put it in the case! It looks too good to hide in a fridge somewhere. I didn't see any of the frosted buns or gooey sticky buns or I would have bought 3. Whole cakes can be be ordered.

The coffee is kept on the other side and there happens to be an unfortunate vanilla-flavored coffee, although all of it is fair-trade. It was a lot better than the swill you get at the Rocket Cat sometimes. The espresso machine is a personal-use size and I am wondering if they plan on upgrading to a commercial machine in the future? I have a machine at home and know how time-consuming it is to make drinks for a crowd when you can't steam at the same time that you can pull dirt.

Bella Sera also carries vegan bagels and cream cheese, but that seems to be the extent of the menu thus far. They do close at 3 pm on weekdays, making it pretty difficult for most of the working class to grab the last chocolate pretzel brownie when a craving strikes. I would like a dessert cafe to stay open a bit later and hope that they adjust with the needs of the neighborhood. And maybe stock some vegan doughnuts and buns? My early afternoon self just isn't ready for brownies yet.

 Update: Bella Sera is expanding their hours starting Mon., Nov. 2. They will be open Monday - Friday: 7:00am - 7:00pm and Saturday - Sunday: 9:00am - 5:00pm.

Bella Sera Cafe
2146 E. Susquehanna Road (at Frankford)

Potluck Blondies

For my first vegan potluck, I turned out some cashew butter blondies by modifying Vegan Diva's recipe here. I used cashew butter instead of peanut butter, chopped macadamia nuts instead of peanuts, 2 flax eggs instead of egg replacer, and removed the chocolate chips. I topped them with coconut and let it toast for the final 15 minutes. They were very chewy and the salty-sweet cashew flavor really came through.

We had a spread of autumn casseroles -- creamy crumb-topped macaroni and cheese threaded with spinach and nutritional yeast that was cheesier than the regular macs that I've tried, a pretty-hued pumpkin ziti that had a subtle sweetness lifted with caramelized onions, garlic chocolates that I didn't try but regret being such a breath-watcher for, caramel apples, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, apple crumb muffins, pasta salad, and cranberry-topped cake with cream cheese frosting. Excellent company, too. It's always interesting to be in a room with people who will talk about Silk Nog with you and not make you feel like a nerd about it.

Afterwards, I was too full to take on dim sum with my date, but I decided to try a couple of apps at New Harmony Vegetarian. I went with the fried chicken balls (funkiest chew texture ever?), along with a fried chinese doughnut stuffed with noodles (a pocket of grease that I was too disgusted by to finish), and something I love on rainy days, steamed veggie pork buns. It was then that we got the best fortune ever written:

Why Vietnamese Bruschetta is So Hot Right Now and Other Questions

Vietnamese bruschetta with spicy vegan mayo

Check out this week's Good Word, featuring my attempts to further promote seitan. Thanks, Drew!

Veg Out: Arbol's New Veggie Menu

Arbol has strong drip coffee that's not La Colombe, which is a huge plus, but I had never tried a sandwich there. They recently debuted a vegetarian menu that's posted on Meal Ticket.

Be prepared to ask a lot of questions if you're vegan. When I ordered a Wyck with vegan cheese on brioche (choice of brioche, bagel, or croissant), one of the owners quickly alerted me to the egg wash on the bun.  I'm not sure if the bagels are vegan, either, so one ought to check that. I stuck with brioche, as I'm just a vegetarian with a soy cheese fetish.

How do regular salad greens, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms taste so satisfying? It was the Zayda's spicy pickles, which bled their pickle juice all over the other veggies like a dressing donor. I also decided that the soft, buttery roll hugged the ingredients perfectly. New stormy weekend project: Make vegan brioche?

Port Richmond pickle pride

Arbol Cafe, 209 Poplar Street

What If I Told You About Stumptown and Pub & Kitchen Sold From a Truck?

I hadn't even picked out which Stumptown to order for next week's coffee delivery when I saw this on Philly Mag: The Hub Bub, a caffeine truck that will pair bites from P&K with brew from the legendary Stumptown, the Portland-now-sleeping-with-New York roaster. The roaming truck will appear sometime next week. Anyone wanna meet for a cup?

Soy macchiato, not Stumptown, regrettably
What's even more synergistic about all of this? Johnny Mac (of P&K) and Duane Sorenson (ST) have both cultivated my happiness more than they know. Over bread pudding at the pub last October, I got to know my future life partner. Working with Duane earlier this year for a research article about specialty coffee, I grew so excited about coffee origin that I started caring more about beverages than food.

When I'm lucky, I get coffee in bed
Stumptown, at its most innocent roast date, made via Chemex, served from a truck?

I'm assuming they will use Chemex.

Opening Day at Sweetie's Pie Diner: Pie Dinner

On my way back from Whole Foods last night (canned pumpkin! soy Nog! things you cave and go to WFM for), I was attracted to the warmth of Sweetie's Pie Diner. Vegetarian pie excites me.

There were many hands working in the open kitchen and an array of rustic-looking pie slices(read: not perfect and uniform and factory-made) swirling around in the bakery carousel. I chose a slice of sweet potato enchilada after the waitress described it as "pompous". We had it as an appetizer with our dinner and the tortilla shelled sliver did not disappoint. Appearance-wise, the slice didn't hold up that well and looked like it shrank it a bit. It tasted homemade, binding sweetness from the potato with some heat.

As ever, more pie to come...there is one vegan pie every day and a whole collection of vegetable pies.

Also, just so you know, Silk Soy Nog is now available at Whole Foods. Too early? I don't think so.

Sweetie's Pie Diner, 1822 Spring Garden Street

Ohmymy, Round 1: Weak Knees, Sweaty Palms, & Hot Sauce

Ohmymy is a new flavor profile. It is the sixth taste after umami.* 

I became aware of ohmymy one day. It is an elevation of the ordinary, a combination of decisions that results in realizing everything you want in one bite. 


Example: Red velvet cupcake-infused dairy-free ice cream at Stogo, huevos rancheros, mac-n-cheese pancakes with Tabasco syrup.


Warning: Any severe, radical vegans who are uncomfortable at vegetarians enjoying egg sandwiches should check back later this week, when I post about pumpkin carob chip muffins or something.

To further introduce ohmymy, I take you to A&M Halal, on 31st and Ludlow. Ever since Gourmet reported on this sandwich and then promptly died, I've been wanting to spend a day with it.  Ever find yourself at the 30th Street Station, with a stomach rumble that is beginning to sound like a train itself? Have yourself a little ohmymy to begin or end your travel.



At this point, I traded the camera for hot sauce hand lotion. When ordering ohmymy, if the option of hot sauce comes up, you must always say yes.

A&M is a the first cart closest to 31st.  The menu is a global hodgepodge that speaks of Indian grilled cheese, eggplant, okra, or cauliflower sandwiches, and a whole line of Fat Cat sandwiches that highly endorse mozzarella sticks as toppings. They are open weekdays.

The Fat Cat Veggie is a deep-fried-to-hell veggie burger (tastes homemade), 2 plump mozzarella sticks, a handful of fries, plus lettuce & tomato. The quickest source of calories that isn't a PYT Adultshake?  It sounds like a sandwich that my 16-year old brother would make/love/and star in a commercial for. I kind of wished I had tried it pre-hot-sauce.We both agreed that the only way it could be improved upon would be wrapping it in veggie bacon. 


Mouth-burning, swigging V-10 lemonade to prepare, I turned to the Falamlet, a deed of fried falafel ball, omelet, cheese, and sauteed onions & peppers on a hoagie roll. Can $3.50 afford more luxury?


I was deep in ohmymy, under the tracks in the ghost parking lot of 30th Street. Could you tell me anything else about what good was? Not at that second. If my phone were to ring then, I would have added it to my sandwich so that it could understand.

I point you to A&M, only if it's for a bite or two.



*This is not science. It's just an excuse to examine irregular food findings.

Falafel Burgers, the Esquire Way

Flipping through Esquire last week, I found a recipe in the letters section from the Next Iron Chef's Dominique Crenn. A reader had requested a vegetarian option from a recent food feature. Esquire decided to oblige. The Falafel Burger with yogurt sauce sounded too promising to ignore, so I ripped out the page, searched for harissa paste in the Reading Terminal Market (Jonathan Best had it, cheaper than the Spice Terminal!), and got to it. Go fetch a copy, it's some of the best writing I can find lately.

This was my first time working with harissa and it definitely packs more depth than a common chile paste. I have nearly a whole can left over. Any ideas? Harissa tofu hoagies?

The patties turned out very mushy. I got a bit pulse-happy with the new food processor and may have overdone it. Most bean burgers are high on the mush scale, but I kind of enjoy it. These needed more structure, however. I'm going to bake the leftovers to crisp them up a little.

I'm not sure that the yogurt sauce (made with Fage) and mixed with harissa, lemon, and lime, did much for the burger. The beans seemed to grasp all of the heat and stabilize the spiciness.

While ingredient-hunting at the Terminal, I found a new ketchup from Oak View at the Fair Food Farmstand's expanded quarters. Labeled as vegan and sweetened with agave and cinnamon, the condiment is closer to a tomato jam. It's missing the acidity of Heinz and could use double the vinegar. My search for that great umami ketchup continues.

Vegan Essentials: October

Anti-microbial lip balm from LaRocca, with no animal-derived ingredients, no parabens, just an extra cold-and-flu blocking boost. We might need all the help we can get this season. I can't vouch for this stuff yet, but lipcare is important. So is reassurance.

Vegan boots, prepared many ways: Riding, lace-up bootie, OTK, or chocolate vegan suede. Faux nappa leather chelsea boot? Faux lambskin army style?

Jonathan Safran Foer memoirizing about raising his tykes as future LoTV readers? Eating Animals releases early next month. The much-anticipated Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar also gets out in November, reminding me that I still don't have an actual cookie jar. My favorite wide glass jar has always been the perfect size.

Gluten-free Peanut Butter & Johnny

This weekend I tried the Johnnycakes recipe from the BabyCakes cookbook. They were a cross between a cornmeal biscuit and a cookie, very crumbly with a nice sprinkle of sea salt on top and a drizzle of agave for that salty/sweet quest. They were a welcome change for breakfast.

The "peanut butta caramel crispy" from North Port Fishington Cookie Factory is my new thing. I know you have to try something twice before it becomes your new thing, but I'm that confident. If you were ever American enough to know what Little Debbie Star Crunch is like, imagine this as the gluten-free version. The chew of caramel is an unparalleled thing.

The Most Extravagant Veggie Wrap in Philadelphia?

At the Four Seasons in Prague, everything we ordered from the restaurant or bar was in Czech korunas. We still did the math, but ended up cringing every time. A rare espresso ended up costing $36 (It had passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet, which is questionable on the animal-friendly front, but I have yet to hear about the conditions of civet farms).

So it's no shocker that the jokingly pricey veggie wrap at the Swann Lounge and Cafe at Four Seasons Philadelphia is 18 whole dollars. I know you're paying for the world-class service. But there better be truffles in there, avocados that make you forget it's now October, and some really spectacular garnish.  As Grub Street reports, the Swann actually lowered its prices on this new menu.

I am probably going to eat this thing. Because, well, I'm obnoxious and I have to know.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream Puts Soy Cream in the Corner, Plus Erin McKenna is Too Hot for Cupcakes

I find that soy cream is delicious if you buy the right brand. I've had some less than pleasant encounters with it. I've popped off lids of So Delicious Purely Decadent and thought it was convincing enough to serve to a room of depressed, single pint-buyers.

When I had Temptations in Chicago, I thought it was dreamy. I thought everything about Chicago was dreamy, even the frozen nosehairs. It's hard to track down in Philly (Essene and if you're lucky, Whole Foods South Street). We picked up a pint in chocolate, the only flavor they had.

I also cold-handed Luna and Larry's Coconut Bliss, in chocolate hazelnut fudge, on a cacao kick. It's sweetened with agave, which I'm starting to use a lot more in baking. It's good on pancakes (the agave, not the Bliss, but go on, try it).

The other week, we tried So Delicious Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream, which ended up being creamier than the regular stuff. Yes, that's right, it was profoundly amazing and earth-shattering. It tasted clean and bright and virginal. I wasn't sure that Luna and Larry could deliver, or that Temptations would still resonate.

Last night's tasting results? Luna and Larry is quite good, but this flavor is too nutty and disrupts the velvety texture we are looking for. It's close, but no Purely Decadent. I need to try vanilla. Temptations is still special, but once you get into the coconut, you realize that soy is for the freshmen.

In other iced news, seasonal Clif bars are back to keeping people alive: Iced Gingerbread, Spiced Pumpkin Pie, and one other that I haven't found yet: Cranberry Orange Nut Bread. Counter chap at the Foodery asked me how the gingerbread one was and you know, I almost opened it right there so that he could know. It's not like gingerbread. But it's got that Clif bar right of way. Why are soy rice crisps and brown rice syrup so satisfying? And every year, on Yelp San Francisco, there's a thread like this one:

http://www.yelp.com/topic/san-francisco-has-anyone-seen-the-iced-gingerbread-clif-bars

We're never alone.

For the gluten-free, vegan cupcake people amongst you, I now have Erin McKenna's BabyCakes Cookbook (another engagement gift). I had no idea that Tom Colicchio wrote the foreword or that Jason Schwartzman has a testimony recipe page, but that makes it worthwhile even before I've busted out the spelt flour. What do I make first? Johnnycakes or Chocolate Shortbread Scones with caramelized bananas? P.S. BabyCakes NYC has vegan doughnuts now.

Upgrade You

I always said that wedding registries exist so that people who are crazy enough to be life partners can be rewarded in materialistic ways. If I want a kitchen gadget, I Amazon Prime that. Love is free 2-day shipping.

When you find yourself creating one, it's still the same, but you get it. People buy you things and then drink whatever they spent at the open bar reception. Alright, it's really fun that the UPS guy has been here every day this week dropping off engagement swag. And yes, it's true, domestically banal as it sounds: fuzzy logic rice cookers do make things even hotter.

What's new in the kitchen of the vegetarian betrothed?

Kitchen-Aid 12-Cup Food Processor
Zojirushi Rice Cooker
Stainless steel salad spinner and lettuce knife

One Crazy in a Crowd of Laidback Grad Hospitalers and Of Course, She's Attracted to My Light: Resurrection Ale House

A tiny-eyed lady takes the seat across from me at Resurrection Ale House, pulls her menu in real close. There's more light at my table. Doesn't say a thing.

"Go ahead, you can borrow  my light," I say, assuming that she's a pleasant enough person.

"I don't know what this is. They've got German, Italian. This is terrible food. Terrible food," she grumbles.

The pendant lights over the bar where she came from are not bad. There's a flattering glow. She looked better over there.

She asks me what "sammies" are. "That sounds like Rachael Ray," she sniffs.

She says a couple of things that could make Tom Colicchio cry into his diary. I hide in my glass of apple-ly St. Louis Gueuze, which is tart enough to wipe her away.

She goes back to the bar, next to someone who may be her hus-bitch, dead soldier martini glasses in front of them.

There are varying comfort zones. And then there are people who haven't even tried something yet and still piss all over it because they couldn't find the Applebees.

Resurrection's menu has already changed since my early visit. If the roasted radicchio is still on there, the first thing you should do is fork off a sizable hunk of that charred business, sink it into your trap, and then immediately reach for the gorgonzola-smeared biscotti that it comes with. Hear me, radicchio before biscotti, and do not stray this course.

The owner did swing by my table for feedback on the veggie items that I tried and was very open to suggestion. He made a point of checking in with other diners as well. There's a lot to feast through here, a variety of greens and less common ingredients for the meatless, with a more polished approach.

Pie, framed in local history

I, too, experience discomfort with the term "sammies". But my night was swell. Then I saw this picture in the bathroom with light reflecting off of it. Ending the meal with pie and coffee is always a good sign.


Resurrection Ale House
2425 Grays Ferry Avenue