If the shoe fits ...

Two shallow vegan bloggers (that's Bethany and me), hit the streets for a day of eating and shopping. We had to pull the car over twice, discussing where to go for lunch, but Bethany is addicted to Wayward Café, and her addiction runs deep, so of course she won. (Bethany isn't blogging or reading blogs right now, she says, so I can say anything I want. You aren't reading this, are you Bethany?) I like Wayward, too, so I don't mind going there. It's a vegan greasy spoon that piles the plates high with yummy comfort food. So, we headed in and B picked a table under the skylight so I'd be able to get good photos, though you know, this is November in Seattle, and there's not much light coming from the sky. Just keeping it real.


Sad little leftover nutlet cutlet, minus kale.

B ordered a Seitan Philly sub with fries, and I ordered a hot nutlet which is an almond-walnut cutlet (a nutlet cutlet, so to speak) served on toasted French bread, covered with mushroom gravy with a huge side of steamed kale dusted with sesame seeds. When it finally came, I was starved, and dug right in, after adding hot sauce and Bragg's. All that was left on my plate was a small section of nutlet, when I let out a anguished shriek. There we were under the skylight, camera sitting on the table beside me, and I hadn't taken a single photo. Of course I blamed Bethany. She should have reminded me. All that gorgeous kale would have made such a nice picture.



Wayward is one corner of the vegan triangle* on the Ave, and after lunch we headed across the street and down a few paces to vegan corner number two, Sidecar Vegan Store. Sidecar is owned by Pig's Peace Animal Sanctuary, and all profits from sales go to supporting the sanctuary, so shopping there is a good deed in addition to a handy spot for finding all things vegan. When you first walk in, there's a great shelf of purses, wallets, belts and such. We fingered the goods, then headed to the food shelves.



All kinds of vegan grocery products are available, but the Soy Curls shelf was bare. No Soy Curls for me.



However, something did catch my eye, and I popped two varieties of Thai True curry paste into my basket. I also got one of those little spray bottles of Braggs, that I'd played with at Wayward. I thought it would come in handy to spray just the right amount of flavor onto tofu cubes as they browned in my wok.



I pondered changing my dog's diet back to vegan, but once again, Bethany convinced me that 17 is too old for a dog to start changing her diet.



Sidecar also has a good selection of wines so you don't have to worry about whether the wine you are buying is vegan. In addition to everything I've shown you, there's also a selection of personal care items, and two large refrigerated sections as well as a cooler with frozen food. What the store lacks in size, it makes up for in variety. You can find things like marshmallows, candies and many kinds of imported and domestic vegan cheeses. I bought three Sjaaks organic almond butter cups for dessert. Then we headed to the DSW shoe store in pursuit of vegan boots.



If you've read this far, here's your reward. Bethany found the perfect pair of sexy shoes. Don't they go well with her cat socks? In her own words, "Those are sexy shoes that just crackle w/ pain. Sexy pain. i should run back there and get them." You all know we're kidding, right? Maybe you can tell from the socks that these are not exactly our style. Bethany insisted I try them on (so I could experience the pain she was feeling after removing them from her cranky feet?) but I had to be helped to my feet. I would only be able to wear such shoes sitting down.

After hours in the shoe store, we left empty handed. No shoes for us. We're both into comfort, and though there were vegan shoes and boots to be had, none were comfortable enough.

I just want to mention that we have a store in Seattle, The Chocolate Shoebox, that sells vegan shoes and chocolate. It's a great store and I've been there in my quest for boots, but nothing felt right to my hard-to-fit feet. I'm on a quest for boots that are made for walking. Do you have comfortable vegan boots? Suitable for winter? My old ones fell apart.



I was pretty tired after a hard day of shopping, but my youngest son, who recently returned from Europe and is living with us while looking for a job and an apartment, made dinner. He made a most delicious stir-fry. He has been reading and cooking from The Breath of a Wok, a Chinese cookbook that I'll write more about later.

*The third corner of the vegan triangle, across the street from Sidecar, is Pizza Pi, a vegan pizza place. Pizza and much more.

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U.S. pushes cheese sales AND warns about eating too much fat. Go figure.
All joking aside for a moment, this article about the USDA helping Domino's Pizza add more cheese to pizza, is seriously disturbing. Rather than me rewording it here, just go read the article. It's frightening.

Here's a very good response to and summary of the article by Radioactive Vegan.