Eating Out: Boba House

In Greensboro, N. Carolina there's this great little vegetarian restaurant called Boba House, whose food is heavily Asian-influenced. Unfortunately, they don't have pictures on their website of all the dishes they offer. (Or they didn't all the times I've looked.) I shall remedy this, at least in part!

The Boba "Mixed Bowl": vermicelli noodles with shredded veg + cukes + chopped up crispy rolls. Pretty sure it had an accompanying sauce, and it was thankfully light on my (then) burdened stomach.

The "Basil Lovers," featuring Thai sweet basil and this excellent, multi-layered balance of flavors. My omnivore friend positively fell in love with it and (jokingly) demanded that I bring her some the next time I was traveling her way. I quite seriously did that for her, because depriving people of their food fantasies is cruel punishment.

I also once stopped in on short notice, on the way to this really good lecture about modernity and dadaism and etc., having a grilled "chicken" sandwich there that came with quite yummy sweet potato fries. But, alas, I didn't take a picture, what with having no camera as well as being young and stupid and whatnot.

At any rate, this is the first place I tried lemongrass as a flavor...I was smitten. Below, their lemongrass "chicken" with accompanying sides:

Here is an closeup of their mock meat "chicken," but they also make "beef" and "seafood" (neither of which I have yet to sample because I don't eat out very often).

For dessert I have only had their carrot cake. This is what I wrote about it in a yesteryear: "It was very sweet, with its whiff of cinnamon and all, but it could have benefited from a stiffer crumb. Aside from being overly moist, the cream in the middle was all kinds of yummy and the chocolate sauce [underneath] was great."

  

Sikil Pak Dip & Crisps

In this post I play the role of a recipe pirate--except that instead of certifrycation class (that's a Chowder reference), I'm standing in grocery stores, thumbing through food zines, scribbling down the one, single recipe I care about from the whole damn glossy, and not buying $11 magazines that are suppose to function as cookbooks. Arr, fucker. 

The profit of my plunder? Mayan snack recipes. Better than New World gold, if you ask me, and no one had to die of smallpox.

Is it pretty? Not really. Does it look 'suspicious' somehow? Yeah, it kinda does, actually. But, it's one of those ugly foods that's just damn delicious once you get over the visual.

Plus, I discovered that roasted habañero is fucking delicious. Delicious, delicious pain.

Sikil Pak from: "Better Homes & Gardens, special interest publications: Mexican" (April 2012, pg 46)

COMPONENTS

2 medium Roma tomatoes

One 1/2 inch thick slice of white onion

One fresh habañero pepper OR two jalapeño OR two Serrano peppers

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 & 1/2 cups toasted pepitas*

3 tablespoons orange juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

Garnish

1 tablespoon fresh chives

1 tablespoon cilantro

DICTATIONS

1)      Heat oven to 450. Coat the vegetables with oil and roast them for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly charred. Allow them to cool, then remove the cores and seeds.

2)      In a food processor, process the toasted pepitas to a ground texture. Then, add the vegetables, orange juice, garlic, & salt, processing until smooth.

3)      Stir in the chives and cilantro.

*Note: If you can only find salted, pre-toasted pepitas, then consider rinsing off their salt and allowing them to dry before grinding them.

If you only find raw pepitas, then you can toast them by this means: Set the oven at 350. Spread them in a single layer over a sheet tray and bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool completely before grinding.

As for the vehicle of maneuvering this delectable stuff into your mouth without covering your hands in ick and then stroking your mock beard from the pirate costume rental place, I suggest serving it with "Spicy Pita Crisps" (from Cooking Light, July 2012 issue). This move saves money by not buying chips, let's you control your salt intake, and may prevent you from inadvertently buying a faux beard.

COMPONENTS

Two 6 inch pitas, cut four ways {Obviously you can use tortillas as well.}

1/2 t cumin

1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

1/8 t salt

1/8 t ground red pepper

One (possibly two) tablespoons of a light tasting oil, such as canola

DICTATIONS

I usually don't do that "preheat your oven" shit until I know for certain that I have almost everything assembled for cooking; preheating your oven is a waste of energy as far as I am concerned. However, for this simple recipe it is a safe bet that you can go ahead and set your oven on 425 F once you've established a work station and gathered all the ingredients together.

1) Thoroughly mix the dry spices and the oil in a large bowl.

2) Add the pieces of flatbread and, using two implements of your choice, gently toss them about. Attempt to coat the pita/tortilla pieces evenly with spice.

3) Arrange them in a single layer on baking sheets and put in oven for five minutes.

4) Try not to burn yourself in your haste to try them fresh out of the oven.

Going to Laos for Indian Food

Although there may only be one completely veg*n restaurant in LPB, there are at least three Indian joints. Two of them I only ate at once, but the smallest one (Nisha) I ate at weekly.

The first dish I had there was curried mixed vegetables. The vegetables included potatoes, carrots, long beans, and black beans.

Chana Masala: I loved this dish, especially when paired with roti. And the chickpea/wheat combo is complete protein!

Paneer is of course an Indian cheese, but at at least two of the restaurants in LPB, the menu described the fried paneer as bits of tofu. I guess they had easier access to tofu than to milk products, since it is my understanding that people in Laos don't consume very much dairy. Anyways, it was still a good snack.

Baigan Bharta: my least favorite Indian dish of the whole trip. Thank goodness I ordered it with rice or I wouldn’t have been able to finish—boring, monotonous texture. For some reason, it also wasn’t as tasty as other things I ate at Nisha.

Aloo Baingan: my favorite Indian dish of the whole trip. 

I ate a lot of samosas. A lot. Of samosas. They became my comfort food; a bit of stability in the constant change from restaurant to restaurant (which I found rather taxing after about a week of eating out for every frickin' meal).

Look at that spice-stuffed interior. Such savory goodness...

Made fresh--thus the long wait time at basically every restaurant in LPB--and apparently stuffed with whatever was lying around in the kitchen. The potato and long bean version is below.

Also in this series: savory foods I ate in Laos & local Laotian foods I had the pleasure and privilege to experience.

The Sole Vegan Restaurant in Luang Prabang, Laos

In March I was living in Luang Prabang, Laos. Consequently, there is a gap in the post archive. (The insanity of it all--blogs going un-updated! Unprecedented!)

I moved there precisely so I could have interesting material for this blog. (Actually, I was doing some career stuff, but mind your own business about that.) It was an expensive pastime, but hey, blogs done for fun with no profit are totally worth that level of monetary investment.

On to the yield of the experience itself.

You'd think that a food culture located in SE Asia and surrounded by Buddhists would have some sort of inclination towards vegetarianism, but Laos will prove you wrong. The local food culture is very much meat-based, all the way from the seasoning stage with padaek (fermented fish paste) to the ingredient composing the entrée (lots of fish, chicken, plenty of insects, and some pork).

BUT...As it is around the world, if you stay in a city on your visit, you can find some sort of accommodation for meatlessmeals. (Thank goodness for Indian expats.) Although, whether there is variety to be found in the dairyless or eggless options is a different matter completely.

In Luang Prabang, Laos (LPB), the best accommodation for the certainty of vegan meals is at Oasis Vegetarian Restaurant off of the Khan River near the head of the peninsula where the Khan meets the Mekong. It truly is an oasis in a city with bowls of pig intestines flying everywhere. 

 

Also, local people will think you are very strange for not eating meat and passing up egg in your stir-fry. They’re still lovely people though, and will most likely try to accommodate your requests even with your relationship's language barrier.

During my month-long stay, I ate there several times before they ostensibly closed up due to the tourist high season ending.

This is a shame, because in Laotian food culture there is a minced meat salad called "laap" that is served cold, and Oasis had a mushroom version of the dish that I wanted to try. Ah well. There were lots of things I wanted to do while there that didn’t come to pass--such is life.  

Onwards to the food!

Yellow noodles with fried soy protein: I really wanted noodles the first time I went to Oasis. So, I chose this dish. I didn't really like the crisp soy protein, because I was in the mood for something more akin to tofu. Still tasty, especially with the fresh purple/Thai basil.

Curried tofu: These big hunks of tofu were welcomed guests in my mouth. Other tofu offerings around the city were smaller cuts. Poo to that.

I also happily slurped down this sauce, even if it wasn’t as thick as actual curry usually would be.

Vegetarian pork: It was interesting. A little dry. Maybe needed a sauce to absorb into the "pork." There were noodles and Mung bean sprouts beneath, and crushed peanuts sprinkled on top.

 

And I saved the best for last: Mock Duck in Five Spice Sauce. I fucking-well loved this dish. There was just something about it. I even think I am going to have to attempt to recreate it here at home...

Portabello Mushroom Burger

A portabella mushroom cap marinated in balsamic vinegar, crushed garlic, and rosemary (also with a hint of soy sauce and maple syrup), then placed on ciabatta bread that was toasted and rubbed with two roasted garlic cloves. It is topped with red onion, romaine lettuce, spicy brown mustard, and a roasted pineapple & habanero pepper sauce (out of a jar, admittedly).  

Served alongside some Batata Harra fries. (Spicy Lebanese fries with cilantro and several kinds of peppers.)