e & drink in san diego

 
This is a shoutout to the new eatery inside the 99 ranch complex on Clairemont Mesa in San Diego. While not a veg restaurant, they do a super yummy veggie mini hotpot, complete with a litany of sauces and pickled bits to dip in and enjoy with the rice and bubbling veggies. Not being an unfermented soy eater, I had to pick out the tofu and soy skin, but I'll just be sure to order it without next time. Two of us ate for about $12.

The owner is an afficionado of teas as well, and with our meal we received a delicious glass of sweet iced green Alishan tea of the highest quality. She said to try the red tea from Taiwan the next time I come. I think I will!

This place has been here for about 2 weeks...so go and support them if you're in the area! Then, do what we do and duck into 99 ranch for fresh coconuts, seaweed, funky mushrooms and other Asian delights. There's also a Chinese "pharmacy" in the complex with a doctor on site to help you with your Eastern medicinal needs.

E & DRINK
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

D-K-Che' in Imperial Beach

You know how sometimes you find yourself in a neighborhood that doesn't have a lot of veggie options, so you start thinking, "how bad is a little lard in my beans, really?", or, "just one donut isn't going to kill me..."?

Well, Imperial Beach in south San Diego can be that place. So I'd like to shout out to the ladies that run the new smoothie, torta and juice joint just up the road from Home Depot on Palm Avenue. Clean, friendly, fresh and a nice option for a refreshing pick-me-up.

We had the green juice, with fresh pineapple, celery, parsley, grapefruit, nopales, spinach and orange juices all in one glass. We also enjoyed tostilocos minus the cueritos (pork skin). This snack is a hodge podge of jicama, pepino, chaka chaka (?), cacahuate (peanuts), tajin (one of my mom's favorites), lemon, chile, and chamoy. It was cruncy, salty, tangy and spicy. There were salty round corn chips tucked throughout the mix as well.

Here is the pertinent info, so that next time you find yourself in IB, you know where to duck in to!

D-K-Che'

1555 Palm Avenue, San Diego, CA 92154
(619) 651 - 8595
8 am to 10 pm

Located at the corner of 16th and Palm Avenue, just west of the I-5 freeway.

Vegan Pesto with Pepitas

 I have to say, San Diego is full of hidden gems. It's good to be home for a while.
 
This past weekend, as Ryan was finishing out the 10 day master cleanse, my mom and I found ourselves poking around in the corridors of a restaurant supply store, shopping for rice noodles and fresh coconut at 99 Ranch, the biggest pan-Asian supermarket in San Diego, and eating fluffy uttapam and paper-thin dosa in Little India. While there, we tucked into Bombay Bazaar for some Indian staples, and finished up the day with a stop at a place called "The Fruit Stand". It was a fun day, completely centered around the subject of food. So much for me doing a "cleanse" at this juncture...

The restaurant supply store was fun. There are two on the same block. One is always closed on weekends, but F.S.E., Inc. is open on Saturdays. Most of their products really are for industrial kitchens, but they do carry some fun stuff, including cheap fiestaware and other fun dishes. You'll probably see pictures of some of them with food in them on this blog, at some point. This is one of those hidden gem-poke around and maybe you'll strike gold types of places.

me mum with our loot

If you live in or are visiting San Diego, I highly recommend a visit to the Indian shopping center known as Little India, on Black Mountain Road just off Miramar Road. In Little India, you will find several Indian eateries, a yoga/meditation center, a Hindu temple, a large grocery store, a bank, a travel agent, and a fantastic clothing store/herbal beauty salon that will thread your eyebrows for $9. (I can fully recommend the services.)

While there, we ate lunch at Cafe Madras, an unpretentious eatery that has a South Indian menu of dosa, idli, and uttapams, which are a thick dosa-like pancake that has pieces of cilantro, tomato and onions studded throughout. And just like a restaurant of its ilk in India, each table had stainless steel cups and pitchers of water already set. It was tasty and the dosas were proper. I have had better sambar, but considering that two months ago I didn't even know what sambar was, I'll cut them some slack. For those of you who don't know, sambar is a ubiquitous lentil soup that is always served with dosa, idli, utthapam, and wada, alongside coconut chutney. Usually sambar is highly spiced and very flavorful. There was also an all you can eat buffet that included an endless stream of waiters bringing more dosas and idli as long as the person was eating. Next time! I had the vegetable utthapam and my mom had a masala dosa. I love this simple, classic, traditionally gluten free food. In fact, I think that dosa is one of the greatest things on earth. It is a food with immense potential.

After lunch, eyebrows, and a general stocking up of Indian groceries, we headed over to The Fruit Stand. This is a really cute place that sells mostly local and organic (and pesticide free) produce at very good prices. It is just south of the Costco on Morena. We bought fresh organic basil, and at $1 per bunch, how can I not make pesto? 

This recipe is an old standard of mine. I first learned to make pesto similar to this when I was a teenager working in a café downtown San Diego. We used walnuts instead of expensive pine nuts, and we used parmesan cheese. These days, I replace the parmesan with nutritional yeast, and use whatever nuts I want. I am particularly fond of pepitas, or pumpkin seeds. If you have a food processor, then this recipe is super quick and easy. Simply pinch the leaves off the basil stems, toss everything in the FP, and blend away. You want a textured pureé, not a smooth pureé. This is why the FP is better to use than a blender. I have read that proper, true pesto is best made with a mortar and pestle, but I would be surprised if very many of you were going to that route. This pesto is excellent with on a bagel or toast with fresh tomato slices. It is also great as a pasta sauce or on a pizza. I like to have it on hand all summer for all my pesto needs. Whenever I can get my hands on fresh basil, you know I've got pesto in the fridge.

  

Basil Pesto With Pepitas
(makes about 1 cup)

• 4 cups loosely packed basil leaves (no stems)
• 1/2 cup pepitas or pumpkin seeds (walnuts or pine nuts will work as well)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 3 cloves garlic
• salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
  

Whirl in a food processor until it reaches your desired texture. If it seems too dry, slowly drizzle in more olive oil. If it seems too oily, toss in another handful of nuts (or more basil). Adjust for salt and pepper.

You could also add olives for a tapenade-pesto blend, or sun-dried tomatoes for another flavor alltogether. Sometimes I make it spicy...

Thai Iced Tea with Coconut Milk

This is a quick and easy recipe and I just want to share.

If you can find this tea, then you can make Thai Iced Tea exactly like you would get in a restaurant, only vegan, and so much better (if you ask me). I have seen the Thai-tea product at the Asian and Indian markets here in San Diego in the tea aisles. It often has orange dye in it, but otherwise seems pretty natural and straight forward. I am willing to take one for the team on the orange dye if it means I can have this yummy treat at home. Here's the secret: When we dine at Thai restaurants we always ask for this drink to be made with coconut milk instead of dairy cream...and often we are denied. There is a great Thai restaurant out in Santee that will do it. I am not actually sure why some restaurants say no, but c'est la vie...

You can make a bunch of this and then pour the leftovers into a bottle to keep in the fridge for quite a while. When you want a Thai Iced Tea, all you have to do is pour it over ice and add coconut milk!

 

Thai Iced Tea (makes 8 cups)

• 8 cups water
• 4 Thai tea bags
• 1 cup sugar (white evaporated cane juice)
• Coconut milk or cream

Bring the water with the teabags to a boil. Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes until the tea is dark and concentrated. Turn off the heat and add the sugar, allowing to dissolve. Only use sucanat, rapadura or any other brown sugar if you don't care about loosing the groovy orange color. 

Once the tea has cooled, fill a glass with ice. Fill glass to within 1 1/2 - 2 inches of the rim of the glass with tea and top with coconut milk. Drink away!

Noble Canyon & Alpine Brewery

happy love day...

Here's a "fungestion" for you...

 

About a one hour drive from San Diego proper is a trail that takes you through forest, valley, meadow and lake. This is one of those magical spots that I actually hesitate to post about as I love the tranquility and peacefulness of the place, but really, it's no big secret. People do go, especially on nice days. Sometimes we see wild turkeys here, which is always a big treat. We chose to come here most recently on a cold and blustering day and were the only people around, and it was wonderful. The dogs scampered and frolicked. There was an ice-cold swimming session for the golden lab. The African Brown dog chased butterflies and birds. The scenery was impeccable.

My purebred African Brown Dog...who came here from Ghana 4 years ago

Normally, when we visit this place, we drive to the top of the Noble Canyon trail head. The dog and I hike the easy 4-5 mile loop that takes you around Big Laguna Lake and then drive to the bottom of the trail head where the rest of the gang has ridden down on mountain bikes. It's a win-win situation for all. This time, however, we simply went on the hike, and then popped over to Alpine for a beer and some scrumptious sweet potato fries, served with a myriad of dipping sauces. Be sure to ask for the chipotle mayo that they hide in the fridge. For beer, I can recommend the Mandarin Nectar, a slightly sweet ale, and the Captain Stout, which tasted chocolat-ey...

  

There is a brewery and there is a pub. You can get a growler of Alpine beer at the brewery, or you can pop into the pub for a pint and a bite. Check the websites for hours.

I hope to see you out there! This is hands down, one of my favorite places to go in the San Diego area. If you are voyaging to, or live in San Diego, I highly recommend a visit. The trail is long-ish, but is very easy. It's a good trail for a beginner mountain bike rider, as there are little to no technical obstacles. The Noble Canyon trail, however, is not for the newbie.

Burger Lounge in San Diego

I feel like Burger Lounge was thinking of me when they came up with a soy free veggie burger on a lettuce "bun". It's actually a quinoa, sweet potato, cheese blend...very tasty. There are several locations, too, so if you are out with your carnivore friends everyone can eat happily here. I recommend asking for jalapenos on the side, but I like my food spicy...

Well done, Burger Lounge!

Saffron Thai in San Diego

Veggie voyagers in San Diego should know about Saffron. Yum!
They're gluten/veggie savvy for sure...

vegetarian pad thai at saffron

Also,  I've been meaning to mention...right next door at Gelato Vero you can get a delicious house brewed chai with almond milk. A soy free dream come true!

Green Lemonade

While I am on the subject of 'getting your greens', here is a drink that feels and tastes like an elixir for youth and vitality. The recipe belongs to Natalia Rose, author of  "The Raw Food Detox Diet".  This book is a great introductory read into the whys and hows of the raw food diet.

I am having another love affair with greens. I can't get enough of them, in smoothie, salad or saute form and this green juice is a refreshing and power packed way of ingesting the goodness of greens. I was inspired to have a green lemonade today after months of not having one while visiting a little market in La Mesa called Growers Direct, a local, organic produce shop on University Avenue. My dear friend Shelly (of vegetarian foodie fame) told me about the place months ago, and I finally went today.

The place is adorable, and they sell locally grown produce, eggs and juice. Everyone was very friendly and the prices affordable, definitely cheaper than Whole Foods or the co-op. I think this is a fine local family owned business that San Diego folk should conscientiously support.

Cut to the green lemonade. Here is Natalia Rose's recipe.
         
          Green Lemonade

• 1 head romaine lettuce or celery
• 5 to 6 stalks kale
• 1-2 apples
• 1 whole organic lemon (you don't have to peel it)
• 1-2 inches ginger

Process in a juicer. Or, if you don't have a juicer and do have a blender, you can make it as you would almond milk. First, blend up the apples and lemon (you might have to add more lemon juice or a little bit of water) into a puree. Then add the greens. Blend away until well pulverized and then pour into a paint straining bag over a receptacle. Squeeze and squeeze until the juice is extracted and all that is left in the bag is the pulp. Worms love that stuff, by the way...

I made Natalia's recipe, except I used one whole lemon and the juice of another, as well as the juice of an orange and about 1/4 cup water to get things moving in the blender. I also added an extra apple. I used a blend of romaine, green leaf lettuce and two kinds of kale, all courtesy of Grower's direct. Delicious, and I feel so good after one of these! I recommend it.

Baja Style Veggie Tacos

When we were in Baja with friends last year, we stopped for tacos in San Felipe one afternoon. Angie and Chris enjoyed the house specialty: fish fried in a delicate, crispy golden batter with the usual accoutrements: fresh radishes, salsa, slices of avocado, and crema on a corn tortilla. Ryan turned to me and said, "can't you use your Spanish skills to get me one of those, but instead of fish let there be avocado inside the batter?" At first I refused, as my Spanish skills are not all that great, but after a Negra Modelo I loosened up and started negotiating. After a couple of minutes, the reluctant chef began to come around. He looked at me like I was insane, but he did what I was asking and we got to eat the most delicious tacos ever. Now you can understand why I am so happy that the Brigantine in Coronado has caught on to this brilliant idea as well!

Now that we are back, we make this from time to time. Here, we use gluten free flours and have experimented with several different types of veggies to fry. While the avocado is delicious, I think my favorite has to be slices of portabella mushroom. Last night I steamed up some baby butternut squash and that was super tasty as well. Basically, once you batter and fry something, it doesn't really matter what you use as it is all good.

I recently stumbled upon a new product (to me), Rice Bran Oil. I found it at my favorite Japanese market, Nijiya. (San Diego veggie voyagers...go here! This place is awesome. They specialize in organic and Japanese health food. I think they actually have locations all over the west coast.) Apparently, rice bran oil is the secret to good tempura. (along with cold, sparkling water.)

Yes! Cold, bubbly water in your fry batter makes for a lighter, crispier, more delicious nugget of goodness. Or, if you like beer, replace the sparkly water in this recipe with some good cold beer. You'll notice the difference for sure.

Serve these up in warm corn tortillas with slices of avocado, salsa, a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of cilantro. I drizzled a little bit of plain yogurt on mine...

this dog is always hopeful that something will fall to the floor

Baja Style Veggie Tacos

• Rice Bran oil or some other high heat oil for frying
• Slices of portabella mushrooms, avocado, or other vegetables. For this batch, I peeled, sliced, and lightly steamed a baby butternut squash.

Batter

• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (or corn starch)
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup lentil flour
• 1/2 cup cold, carbonated water (or beer)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour about 1 inch of oil into a small pot on the stove over a medium high flame. Let it get nice and hot while you mix up the batter. Crack the egg into a small bowl and add the remaining ingredients except for the water (or beer). Whisk until smooth and then add the water (or beer) and stir to combine. When the oil is hot (test by dropping a tiny amount of batter in there. If it bubbles and turns golden it is ready). Dip each piece of vegetable in the batter and then carefully drop them into the oil. It is very easy to burn yourself here so TAKE CARE! When the batter is golden brown, use a slotted spoon or tongs to remove the pieces and drain them on a paper towel. You will be able to fry 2 or 3 pieces at a time.


Warm tortillas over an open flame or on a skillet. Place a couple of pieces of fried veggies on each one, and follow with your favorite accoutrements. Fold and enjoy!

Taco Tuesdays in Coronado

Attention veggie voyagers in the San Diego area! The Brigantine in Coronado has deeelicious fried avocado tacos ($2.50 each) and cheap glasses of champagne. Open til 10pm. A good veggie voyager discovery for sure.

this classy feast for less than $10

Himalayan in San Diego

For you veggie voyagers in (or planning a visit to) San Diego, I recommend this hidden gem, which is definitely off the beaten path.

left to right: malai kofta, palak paneer and alu bhanta

Nestled in the La Mesa Boulevard Station (read: strip mall), this unassuming restaurant has great food, cheap house wine, and a warm, cozy atmosphere. Not to mention, the waiters don the most awesome uniforms (traditional hats, vests, and tops), and as you walk in the door of 'Himalayan Cuisine', each one brings his hands into Angali Mudra and spouts a cheerful "Namaste!" before seating you.

Last night I went there with a couple of girlfriends and we shared three delicious dishes. I can highly reccommend the Malai Kofta, and the Palak Paneer. (The Alu Bhanta was good, but I've had better.) Malai Kofta consists of delicate fried potato and paneer croquettes swimming in a creamy tomato sauce. They were fluffy, creamy and savory. The Palak Paneer was a perfect balance of spinach, paneer, and what are touted on the menu as "Himalayan spices". All served with delicate basmati rice...

Another awesome feature of this place is that they have a cheap ($3.95) and decent house wine, served by the glass. I remember this being the norm in Greece and other parts of Europe, and I'm happy to see it in action at this groovy establishment! (I would not, however, recommend the mango lassi. An unnatural shade of orange, I'm sure it comes from a powdered mix. Not their best offering.)

I'm not the only one who loves this place. They get great reviews on the web as well.

Here is a link to the menu. Hope to see you there!

I love Idli

Idli (English pronunciation: /ˈɪdliː/, also romanized "idly" or "iddly", plural "idlis"; Kannada: ಇಡ್ಲಿ; Malayalam: ഇഡ്ഡലി; Tulu: ಇಡ್ಲಿ; Tamil: இட்லி; Telugu: ఇడ్లీ, ఆవిరికుడుము (Aviri-Kudumu)) is a savory cake of south Indian origin popular throughout India. The cakes are usually two to three inches in diameter and are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice. The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolized by the body.      

-Wikipedia

Idli with purple potato curry, coriander chutney and pepper chutney

We live in San Diego: a city with its pros and cons, like any other. One major pro are all the specialty markets that cater to the wide variety of nationalities that live here. There are multiple Chinese, Philippine, Vietnamese, Indian, Ethiopian, Mexican, Korean, Middle Eastern and Japanese supermarkets within a 20 mile radius. I have been told that San Diego is a hub for refugee processing entities, and that many of the world's refugees start out right here. Maybe that's true, maybe not. I would venture that its the weather, which is pretty much perfect all the time (average 70F, blue skies, etc) keeping people here. Whatever the case, I love this perk and make frequent pilgrimages to all of these awesome markets. (I will explore different markets in future posts.)

I shall now extol on the virtues of what many call "Little India". Located on Black Mountain Road in Miramar, this mini strip mall is host to two medium sized supermarkets, multiple restaurants, an ayurvedic beauty salon, a music store, a yoga studio, an Indian bank, an Indian clothing store, and my favorite fast food joint in town, Surati Farsan, where you can eat delicious Indian street food for under $10, and that includes a Mango Lassi. Not to mention, they ALWAYS have Bollywood dance videos playing on their large screen TVs. The place is hip. My only complaint is that all their food comes in styrofoam dishes: a real shame. In addition to all the sweets in the display case, they sell dosa and idli there, which I'm told are typical Southern Indian fare. Both are wheat free, delicious foods.

our idli pan in action

I love idli so much that I bought Ryan an idli pan for his birthday last year so that I could have it whenever I wanted to. They sell pre-made idli batter in the refrigerator section at Bombay Bazaar, (one of the grocery stores in Little India), so making this dish is a complete no-brainer. If you want to be able to eat this at home, you've got to get one of these proprietary pans. I got Ryan's at Bombay Bazaar for about $20, and it fits into a soup pot that we already have. All you have to do is spoon the idli batter into the indentations, stack the trays up in the pot (with about 1 inch of water at the bottom), cover and steam for about 10 or 15 minutes. A future post will explore how to make the fermented idli batter from scratch, but I haven't bothered to go there yet as the ready made stuff is so easy. (Another secret to no-brainer Indian home cooking: pre-mixed spice boxes for any dish you can think of. More on that later.)

Ryan says that idli is usually eaten simply with a chutney, but since I had leftover potato curry, I served it up as well as the chutneys, which turned out to be delicious.

(I made dosa, from a similar ready made batter, yesterday with a potato curry. I hadn't started this blog yet, so I didn't take pics but next time I do, expect a post. Dosa might be my all time favorite thing on the face of this earth. Think tangy, savory Indian crepes.)

All right. I am already breaking my first promise, (no long-winded blog posts). I'll stop yakking already! I hope that you have an Indian market near you...

Full disclosure: I have never been to India. I practice yoga regularly, and as a vegetarian I just know that India is the place for me. Ryan lived there for about 2 years, and he is my main source of information on most things India. I like to think that I know what I am talking about, but if my recipes are off...well, now you know why!