Seattle vs. Madison | The Green Owl | Saigon salad

Fresh and sweet from the farmers market

Seattle.................vs................Madison
too much rain..............................too much snow
too little heat................................right amount of heat
too little sun.................................lots of sun
long growing season....................short growing season
family members...........................no family members
very few friends :(........................lots of friends
no mosquitoes..............................mosquitoes
no fireflies.....................................many fireflies
large city (too large!)....................medium-sized city (just right)
heavy traffic..................................light traffic
hard to navigate............................easy to navigate
mountains.....................................small hills
many veg restaurants....................one veg restaurant (many ethnic restaurants)
high cost of living..........................moderate cost of living
high-rent house.............................paid off house
damp cold......................................dry cold
cars stop for pedestrians...............cars try to run over pedestrians
adorable granddaughter................no granddaughter
farmers markets............................easily accessible farmers markets

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The Green Owl Cafe: vegetarian and vegan cuisine

In my previous post I reviewed our lunch at The Green Owl, and this post will be about the dinner we recently shared there with friends. Entrees come with a choice of a small salad or cup of soup; my dining companions chose salads, and I chose soup. The salads were pretty standard mixed greens and I didn't photograph them. My soup of the day was a very thin, extremely salty version of split pea. It was tasty but so salty that I actually didn't finish it. I'm used to restaurant food being salty, but the soup surprised me with the intensity of the salt flavor — almost as if someone had spilled too much salt into the pot. I think diners at restaurants should give feedback on the food but I'm always too self-conscious to do so, myself. Do you tell the waitstaff when something is too salty or otherwise not up to par?

Mary had the vegan schnitzel ($13) with porcini mushroom sauce, broccoli and oven-roasted potatoes, and she said she really enjoyed her dinner.

Ken had the stuffed red pepper ($12). It was stuffed with quinoa, lentils and slivered almonds, covered with a Moroccan tomato sauce, and accompanied by steamed broccoli. The pepper filling was sweet rather than savory and tasted of cinnamon. Although it looks large in the photo, the serving was modest but filling. Ken liked it a lot and said he'd order it again.

My vegetarian jambalaya ($12), described on the menu as "a smoky mixture of rice, red beans, vegetables and marinated baked tempeh," came with steamed kale and roasted red pepper cornbread. The jambalaya was very flavorful though I wouldn't have described it as "smoky." The wonderful kale was perfectly cooked to a melt-in-your-mouth tenderness, and tasted very fresh. I'm a kale fanatic, and this made me very happy. The real surprise was the cornbread, with its almost creamy texture and full-corn flavor. It was the one food that didn't seem to over-rely on salt for its flavor. I was too full to finish the jambalaya though I did enjoy all of the kale and cornbread.

Allen chose the special of the day, and the only non-vegan meal at our table, the "fish" fry. It came with coleslaw and oven-fried potatoes. He said he enjoyed it, but after dinner we talked about our meals, and salt kept coming up. Both Allen and Mary (not vegetarians, by the way) have cut way back on salt, and both found the food a little salty. Allen commented that the potatoes were particularly salty. We were all feeling somewhat thirsty as we left the restaurant. Extra salt is something one can add at the table so it seems unnecessary to present over-salted food. (Not everyone is sensitive to salt, and of course I understand that restaurants usually cater to the majority, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.)

Overall, dining at the Green Owl is a very pleasant experience, with attentive waitstaff and comfortable surroundings. As a vegan, it's great to be able to order food without having to ask a dozen questions and wonder if my dinner is really vegan or not. I'd love to see the restaurant depend less on salt, more on plants, for flavor. I hope Madison vegetarians will come out to support the restaurant and help it to be a success. I'll certainly eat there again soon!
note: As I mentioned in my lunch review, a gluten-free menu is available upon request.

addendum: I received a very nice note from Jennie Capellaro, owner of The Green Owl, explaining and apologizing for the extremely salty pea soup. She said, "Andrea, I like your blog a lot and wanted to apologize for the split pea soup. It was too salty. The kitchen staff who prepared it had followed my recipe but used table salt instead of kosher salt and that resulted in a soup that was, as you tasted, too SALTY. I was glad to read that you still feel fairly positive about us after that experience. I've made it clear in all the recipes which salt to use and re-emphasized the rule to staff that everyone needs to be tasting things and not simply blindly following recipes. So, hopefully you won't encounter something like that again and, to repeat, I'm really sorry you had that experience. Please try us again and don't be shy about letting your server know if there are any issues. We are very nice about stuff like that. Take care."

I want to emphasize again that although I complained a little about some of the food, I would definitely eat there again, and encourage anyone living in or traveling to Madison, to give The Green Owl a try.

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Taste of India

We had dinner at Taste of India with our neighbors Marsha and David. I had the same thing I always have at Indian restaurants, aloo gobi. I'm not kidding about always having the same thing. I've tried other dishes but have settled on this one as my favorite, and it's what I always order. My husband usually orders vegetable biryani and we share, but he must have been feeling adventurous because he chose vegetable mango. I didn't get a photo but he said it was very tasty. (Very tasty is the limit of his verbal enthusiasm, and indicates he liked the dish a lot. If he only liked it a little he would have said it was good.)

Here's Marsha looking pretty happy after her meal. She also had vegetable mango.
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Saigon salad à la Zoa

So, with all this eating out, do we ever cook? The answer is yes, but not much. We did make a terrific summer dish called Saigon salad that I found on The Airy Way. Zoa said this salad was so yummy she could eat it every night, and she's right about it being that good. We had it two nights in a row, and I believe I'll be having it for lunch. (Alas, no lunch dates arranged for today.) We made ours with stir-fried marinated tofu, and the addition of shredded raw zucchini and leftover corn cut from the cob. Actually, my husband assembled the salad, and he's not really into presentation — go look at Zoa's blog here and here for her versions.
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First corn of the season

Our first corn of the summer, bought at the farmers market and cooked shortly after purchase, was the best of the best — tender, and so sweet it tasted like someone had added sugar to it. We enjoyed it lightly steamed, straight up. It needed nothing added to enhance the flavor.