California Dreamin'

Home in CA

After six months of being vegan, I was about to embark on my first vacation – a week-long stay in California with Jason’s family. I had become at ease with my new diet, but that was as long as I stayed within the suburban sprawl of Kansas City and had access to my backyard garden, local farmers’ market, and stocked pantry. I was uncertain as to whether or not I would have to abandon my new lifestyle in order to survive. I should also mention that four months ago, my vegan partner-in-crime saw a BBQ sandwich he could not resist, and hasn't looked back since. While Jason was daydreaming about the authentic Mexican food (tacos al pastor anyone?) and seafood that would soon fill his belly, I was on my own, anxiety growing.

On our return flight home, I contemplated the experience.  I learned that it is possible, realistic, and even easy to maintain a vegan diet while traveling. Here are a few tips to help you get through your first trip.

1. Carry snacks – Airports are unpredictable, and so is traffic in LA. If the combination of being hungry and waiting makes you cranky, I recommend keeping some healthy vegan snacks with you at all times. Granola bars and trail mix can be a major life saver.

We carried fresh coconut with us on our return flight home. Such a great snack!

2. Stay with accommodating hosts – Jason’s mom and brother are long time vegetarians, so I knew there would be an abundance of veggies at the house. Jason’s mom adjusted recipes to make them vegan-friendly and made sure I had more than enough to eat all week. Each morning we woke up to two pots of chai tea being warmed on the stove – one with dairy milk for the family, and one with soy milk just for me. Talk about hospitality!

3. Don’t sweat the small stuff – It’s easy to not order meat at a restaurant, but it can be challenging to know what other animal products are used in the preparation of your food – butter, dairy, and things like fish sauce in Thai food and Worcestershire sauce can be found more places than you would imagine. Don’t obsess over it, it will cause more stress than it’s worth. Order your veggie burger, eat the bun (that may contain dairy), and enjoy yourself!

Delicious Indian food! All vegan except for the white sauce in the top pic.

4. Make Yelp your best friend – This app is a must. You can search for places to dine based on your current location. Interested in eating at a Mexican joint that also serves vegan dishes? Mexican can be a challenge as lard and chicken stock are typically used in the preparation of rice and beans. Use Yelp and search with keywords Mexican Vegan. Your resulting list will include all restaurants with reviews and dishes that mention vegan options. Thanks to Yelp, we happened upon the best street tacos in LA.

Vegan tacos - potato, mushroom, veggie

5. Splurge – Vacation means letting yourself indulge in whatever you find pleasurable. Sleeping in, a little extra wine, and lots of dessert! Let’s be honest, I’m not about “being good” when I’m on vacay. And being vegan is not a reason to resist fun and indulgences. Use Yelp to help you find some vegan delicacies. My guilty pleasures were chocolate-ginger cookies (courtesy of Aunt J), In-N-Out French fries, fried samosas, and bubble tea. 

Taro and coconut bubble tea x 3

Would not be a trip to CA without stopping at In-N-Out. Only fries for me!

Restaurant Review (Vegan Perspective): Blue Koi

Blue Koi. 10581 Mission Road. Leawood. KS. 

I wish that every restaurant had a tablet device attached to the table that allowed you to place your order and send the instructions straight back to the chef. I know I’m weird, but I absolutely hate giving waiters special instructions for my meal. I just get awkward. It’s like I don’t want to inconvenience the waiter or the chef. If I could simply type my order and text it back to the kitchen without any human interaction, I’d be in heaven.

In the IT world, I see jobs become obsolete everyday due to technology. It's only a matter of time before we completely eliminate the need for wait staff. I, for one, am totally fine and in complete support of my food being delivered via conveyor belt. 

Becoming vegan has made my interactions with waiters much more frequent, much longer in duration, and much more awkward. I usually spend a good couple of minutes discussing items on the menu before I even place my order. What has dairy in it, what is cooked in butter, can you remove the cheese from that dish or is it already mixed in, is there egg in the batter? And so on.

Hands down, the best restaurant experience I have had on this journey was this week at Blue Koi. Jason and I went with my brother and sister-in-law, professional Blue Koi diners and avid meat eaters. Blue Koi is NOT a vegetarian or a vegan restaurant, it simply caters to all guests no matter their dietary preferences. Many of the items on the menu are vegan (bubble tea is made with non-dairy milk), but my waiter assured me that EVERYTHING on the menu could be easily tweaked to fit my needs.

taro and coconut bubble tea

My sister-in-law and I had never had bubble tea and were anxious to try it. Our waiter recommended a combination of taro and coconut (this was not on the menu) since I told him I wanted something that was not too sweet. It was the perfect combination. I'm still unsure as to how you're supposed to really consume the bubble part - chew them or swallow them whole? I did a little of both, again, slightly awkward, but it was a fun experience.

We ordered the spicy chili pepper wontons as an appetizer per Bro and SIL's request. They typically order the wontons with a meat filling, but were very pleased with the vegan version. Tons of flavor, some heat, and a delicious sauce that we found out you can also buy on its own (I'm not sure if the restaurant officially sells it, or if our waiter was just willing to hook us up under the table).

spicy chili pepper wontons (boiled & vegetarian)

Although I ordered the Ants on a Tree, I ended up eating the tofu with black bean sauce entree. I sampled the Ants on a Tree, which was delicious, but was not in the mood for so many noodles. Confession: When I can't decide which entree I want, I convince Jason to order the other. Then, when both entrees come out, I determine which one looks most appealing and take that one. Jason obviously earns extra gentleman points for putting up with this behavior. Thank goodness he is so easygoing. 

tofu with black bean sauce & rice

Ants on a Tree

Forks were a great invention...

Today Jason and I cooked my parents breakfast for Mother's Day. This was our first time cooking for anyone since becoming vegan, and we went back and forth about whether or not the meal should be completely vegan. If I had a little more cooking practice, we might have gone that route. But I really didn't feel comfortable serving tofu french toast or chickpea omelets to my parents without having tried them myself. And since this meal was to honor my wonderful meat/dairy eating Mom, we decided to bring a traditional egg quiche along for the ride with our other vegan dishes. Our plates were full of colorful plant based foods, and our glasses were full of a little bubbly.

My parents, intrigued with our diet change, asked us questions about becoming vegan. We talked about some of our standby dishes and some of the various cuisines we are interested in right now. The conversation went something like this: Asian cuisine...Japan...tofu in soup...chop sticks...interesting business dinners with chop sticks...forks. To which Dad stated, "Forks were a great invention."

(source)

Dad was right about that (although I stated that sporks were probably a greater invention). But that comment reminded me of the 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives. It was instrumental in turning me on to the vegan diet, and more specifically a whole foods, plant based diet. You can catch the documentary on Netflix or watch the official trailer here. Whether or not you plan to become vegetarian or vegan, no one can dispute the fact that adding more plant based/unprocessed foods to your diet is a healthy thing to do. Also check out the Forks Over Knives cookbook. I highly recommend it.