Lunch at Kisaku, dessert at Mighty-O

Bethany's vegetable sushi and eggplant sushi, hold the egg.

The first time I ate at Kisaku, in Seattle's Tangletown neighborhood, I carefully ordered vegan sushi, and was surprised when the waitress brought me miso soup too, because it doesn't say anything about soup on the menu. The soup smelled like bonito flakes, and when I inquired, I was told that, yes, it contained the fish flakes. When I asked if I could have soup without fish, I was told no, so I politely declined the soup, and decided not to go back there again. Everyone around me was enjoying soup, and it didn't seem fair to pay the same price but not get soup. Not fair. Not fair. I was annoyed that they couldn't make miso soup without fish flakes.

The thing is, Kisaku is walking distance to my house, and such a beautiful place to eat, that I recently gave it another chance. YES! This time I could order the soup without fish. Yay. And there was also an excellent salad that I didn't remember. The soup and salad come with anything you order.



I ordered vegetable curry, which according to the menu, is flash fried assorted vegetables in curry sauce on a bed of rice, and contains no animals, so they say. Granted, it's the only vegan listing on the menu, but it's so delicious, with the creamy eggplant, crispy broccoli and other perfectly cooked veggies in a rich, fragrant curry sauce, I'm happy to keep ordering it. And I have — at least three times. Plus it comes on a fabulous handmade plate that I want very badly, almost as badly as I want more curry. The plates came from LA a very long time ago, and I've searched for something similar to no avail. So the only thing I can do is to keep going back to Kisaku.



Wouldn't you know it, Kisaku is right across the street from Mighty-O doughnuts, Seattle's premier vegan doughnut shop. The day these pictures were taken, I was with Bethany, and she needed a mighty-O fix. I was too stuffed with curry to have more than a tiny little mini-doughnut — not very photogenic — but I was happy to photograph her plate.

Update, March 2012: On my last return trip to Kisaku, I was told that all soup stock is prepared in advance and contains bonito flakes (fish), and it's not possible to order a vegan version. Interesting ...  

Full disclosure: I purchased lunch on my own. Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

Sage Café | Bamboo Garden

Louisiana style seitan steak and greens over grits, with southern style biscuits

Driving is not my thing; I just don't enjoy it, and it's especially upsetting when I don't know my surroundings well. Navigation has been a sore point ever since we arrived in Seattle six months ago, and I've been getting around mainly by walking or depending on others. But lately I've started trying harder to learn my way around by car. I find mastering directions especially unnerving here because:

a. Streets stop and start with no warning, and no logic that I can detect. A street will appear to end, then two miles away, it will appear again, stop, and then appear again in another few miles. This is ridiculous. There can be three incarnations of 100th St., none of them connected.

b. Numbered streets cross other numbered streets. I find myself cruising down 65th St. looking for 25th St, which intersects 65th. I turn onto 25th St. which soon turns into 24th, then becomes 23rd. Why?

c. It's pretty typical to have intersections with five or six streets radiating out in all directions and crazy angles but no clear signage indicating which way to go.

d. It's usually not possible to return the same way you came, necessitating learning two sets of directions for each trip.

e. The street signs are practically impossible to read, especially at night.

f. Parking can be a nightmare, not to mention expensive.

These are just some of the things I find confusing, and it probably doesn't help that we're living in a neighborhood known as Tangletown because of the crazy street patterns. Also, coming from a small, fairly contained city to a larger, more spread out one feels overwhelming to a directionally challenged person like me. Yes I have maps, and yes we have a GPS, but even the GPS gets confused and takes us to the wrong 100th St. so I don't trust it.

My husband went out of town for four days, and just before he left, I learned how to get to Capital Hill so I could meet my son and his girlfriend at their apartment on Sunday, and take them out for brunch. I drove my youngest son and myself there and back without getting lost. We went to Sage Café, which used to be Hillside Quickies — it's 100% vegan and the food is great, the service less so. It's been remodeled, and looks very different from the last time we were there.

Spicy Cajun mac & yease, southern fried seitan and gravy with grits

Let's talk about the food, first. In my past experiences with Hillside Quickies, the food was always slow to arrive, greasy, salty and so good that I decided not to worry about the other stuff. At Sage, the food arrived fairly quickly, didn't seem excessively greasy or salty and tasted great. Everyone was very happy with their selection. In fact, I'm thinking about mine right now and wishing I could have another plateful. I had the seitan steak and greens pictured at the top of the post and it was delectable. I'm a sucker for anything on the menu with greens, and this dish made me very happy. The seitan texture was excellent, the greens well-seasoned — even the cranberry preserves were great with just the right mix of sweet and tart. It was too much food for me but my youngest son took care of the leftovers.

Fall harvest French toast with squash scramble and pear pomegranate sauce

I heard rave reviews from my son about his squash scramble and French toast. The scramble had squash and tofu and was melt-in-your-mouth good. Everyone else seemed quite content with their food but there were concerns about what I'll describe as "feeling unwelcome."

French toast with caramelized bananas and walnuts, topped with maple syrup and walnuts

When we first walked into the café, one couple was finishing their meal, and there were three empty tables. No one greeted us. The new tables are very small, round and high with two high stools each. We put two tables next to each other for the four of us but seating was a little awkward, and there was no place to put coats since the stools had no backs. Although it was 11 a.m. Sunday, no one else came in the whole time we were there.

We ordered at the counter and sat down. Our food was brought to us without comment or even a smile, and no one ever came back to our table to see if everything was OK or if we needed anything else. The one coffee drinker wasn't offered a refill. When we were finally ready to leave, I had to go to the counter to ask if I could pay. When I handed over the cash ($51) it was accepted without a thank-you or even a smile, and when I put $10 into the tip jar it was not acknowledged. No one said, "good-bye, come again." It was weird and uncomfortable. Even "have a nice day" would have helped. I don't think we're a particularly needy group — probably the opposite —but the lack of hospitality was glaring. Will I go back? Probably. Because the food is vegan and so good I'll give it another shot hoping that our experience was exceptional, but I can see people getting turned off by the unfriendly atmosphere. Is that why it was so empty? How important is a friendly dining atmosphere to you?

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Bamboo Garden vegan Chinese restaurant

We recently had the pleasure of taking our 2-year-old granddaughter out to lunch at Bamboo Garden after spending the morning together at the Seattle Science Center. Bamboo Garden is an all-vegan Chinese restaurant with an extensive menu. This is where I get Golden Petals on Jade Platter - a dish of fried yuba and Chinese greens that I sometimes get cravings for. But since this was lunch, and Miss E was with us, we opted for the lunch specials. We had thick corn soup and combo-plates. My plate, above, had fried rice, green beans and broccoli, sweet and sour tofu and a spring roll, and my dining companions had similar plates but with "chicken" instead of tofu, and potstickers instead of a spring roll. I enthusiastically enjoyed my lunch.

Miss E enjoyed hers, too, but I held my breath as I watched spoonfuls of the thick yellow corn chowder disappear — and I don't mean into someone's mouth. But in spite of some spoon-related mechanical difficulties, a large amount of soup did make it into Miss E's mouth. And she didn't want me cutting small pieces of broccoli for her. "Want big one," she said, as she picked up a broccoli tree in her fist and gnawed it down to the stalk. Handfuls of rice went into her mouth as she made a substantial dent in her lunch portion and some of mine. The friendly waitress brought me a stack of napkins, and it took several to restore Miss E and her surroundings to their pre-lunch state.

The food was tasty and substantial, though not as interesting as some of the regular menu items. I like Bamboo Garden even though I think the food can be a little greasy and salty, and the sauces a little too thick. I don't go there expecting gourmet health food. The staff is very friendly and welcoming, the food usually tastes pretty good and the entire menu except for the fortune cookies, is vegan.

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Recipe testing (cont.)

Here is the latest recipe I tested for Celine and Joni's upcoming cookbook. It's linguine with green beans and walnut spinach pesto. Delish!

This is my assistant tester. Delish!

Kale, Hillside Quickie's Café, Seattle

Just got back from a quick four day visit to Seattle to see the house we will be living in next year. (Our kids had seen it but not us.) The whole way there and back the airline upgraded us to first class, and if I could always travel like this, I'd travel a lot more! There's a normal amount of space, so I didn't feel like I was pinned inside a high school locker, and they kept bringing things to eat and drink. It was great. But here's the catch to the "things to eat" part. We were flying on Northwest-Delta and were told we couldn't request special food on a domestic flight. So, we were offered a grilled chicken sandwich (an ENORMOUS grilled chicken sandwich) or a salad covered in ham and cheese. We got the fruit and the bread sticks that came with the salad — mealy apple wedges, good red grapes and a pineapple slice. We know enough to carry food, so on the way there we got Spa Salads from The French Meadow Bakery in the Minnesota airport, and on the way home we got sushi in Seattle's airport.

It was probably a good thing that we ate lightly on the way home anyway, because we ran into some turbulence that reminded me of the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios, but without the fun part. For about an hour I had to close my eyes and sleep (after checking to be sure I had a barf-bag available). When I reopened my eyes, there was a horrible crash, and a spear of intense light shot in front of me, as the plane got hit by lightening. Exciting.

Are you wondering about the food in Seattle? The first evening, after traveling all day, we went to a potluck barbecue with our kids. There was plenty of good stuff for the vegan minority including bean salad, kale-wild rice salad and vegan brats. My daughter-in-law made the kale salad and it was really good. The next day after visiting the farmers market in Capitol Hill we had a late lunch at Hillside Quickie's Café in Capitol Hill, with our other son and his gf. They were serving Sunday brunch, all day. The table was sticky and the prices seemed high but they really give you a lot to eat. I knew I couldn't eat a whole meal, so my husband and I shared a plate, and it was plenty for two.


We had a plate containing Cajun mac and cheese, biscuits with berries, grits and gravy, chicken-fried steak and seitan. At least that's what I think we had! I've never had mac and cheese that tasted this good. It was spicy and fabulous — and I don't even like mac and cheese. This is something I'll try to recreate and post a recipe when I get it right. The biscuits were fluffy, the grits creamy — everything tasted great.


Our son and his gf had some kind of chipotlé yam-stuffed tortillas and fried okra. I think we liked our food more than they liked theirs but it was all pretty good.


The person at the table next to ours had a stack of waffles and seitan that looked so amazing, she let me take a picture. The person at the table next to her had a startlingly high stack of fluffy-looking pancakes and I took a picture of that, too, though without his permission and after he knocked the stack over. (You can see it at the top of the post. The orange drink is a mimosa ordered by the person at the table next to us.)


That afternoon and evening we attended another potluck barbecue at our son and daughter-in-law's house. As you can imagine, I wasn't too hungry, but still managed to eat some grilled potato, grilled tofu, grilled veggies and more kale salad. The recipe for the salad will be coming as soon as I have a chance to make it myself.


Monday afternoon I found myself alone with a sleeping baby and craving some simple, green food for lunch. I went into the garden and picked some tender, young Red Russian kale, swiss chard and lettuce. I cut them into small pieces, tossed them with a little olive oil and vinegar and topped them off with some leftover grilled veggies. This made a perfect, simple salad lunch.


On our last morning in Seattle, our d-i-l made us a yummy banana bread for breakfast.


The little munchkin of the house (my granddaughter) is an enthusiastic eater, and although she'd already had breakfast, she saw us eating, took a box of cereal from a cupboard she can reach and had a little snack.


http://cookeasyvegan.blogspot.com/2009/06/kale-hillside-quickies-cafe-seattle.html

Seattle diary: houses and eating at Chiang's Gourmet

Scallion pancakes at Chiang's Gourmet.

We recently spent nine days in Seattle visiting family and eating a lot. And because we are considering moving there, we went to a bunch of open houses to get a sense of what the housing market was like. Expensive. Whew. The cost of living is considerably higher than where we presently live. We currently live pretty cheaply in a paid-off house that we purchased for a low price many years ago. We can get rid of everything we own, downsize, and live a more austere life, but there are certain things I need — like a decent working kitchen with room to store my kitchen equipment. Not one of the houses we looked at had that.

In one house, just after I asked the realtor why none of the stove burners would light, my husband asked why there were space heaters in every room — and why was she wearing a coat? She giggled. In another, the kitchen was too small for a table and there was no dining room. “Well,” said the realtor, “you could put a narrow table along that (living room) wall. Or you could take away the TV and put a small round table in that (living room) corner. Right. My favorite house of all was listed as a (quaint, I believe) three bedroom with a studio in the yard. Oh yes, the studio was fabulous — the studio of my dreams. I’m serious. The studio was amazing, but the house had issues. We saw one bedroom, living room, dining room and “kitchen." It was the size of a toy kitchen with minimal counter and cupboard space. There was no dishwasher and no place to put one, and the refrigerator was a compact under-the-counter model. You really couldn’t put a real refrigerator anywhere, which explains the tiny one. To be fair, there was an extra, tiny refrigerator and a little freezer outside. On the porch. Outside. We went outside and discovered a charming patio and steps leading to the basement. In the basement was a bedroom and a sitting room, along with a washer and dryer and workshop space. It was clearly a basement, but I was imagining how the bedroom could be a guest room and the other room an office. (I was obsessed with the studio and not in my right mind.) But when we looked for a way to go upstairs, we realized that you had to go outside to get to the main house! I had visions of a guest down there in the celler, in winter, waking in the night and discovering the only way to the bathroom was to go outside and up to the house. (Locked, of course.) Any Seattle readers out there who have insights about housing? Houses? Rentals? Condos? Neighborhoods?

You can really work up an appetite running around looking at houses all day, so we all had dinner at Chiang's Gourmet restaurant. They have a separate vegan menu with very interesting choices. (I've blogged about Chiang's in the past.) On this trip we had eight people, so there were lots of dishes to try. Here are some of them:

Pea vines.

Homemade noodles with broccoli and brown sauce.

Homemade noodles with tofu, greens, and peanuts.

Barbecued taro ribs — a vegan house specialty.

The "ribs" are made completely of taro so you can eat the whole thing. Now, I'm not suggesting that Chiang's is a healthy place to eat, but it sure is a tasty one. Everything looks and tastes great, and you will get a big dose of veggies.

Neat loaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. (may contain eggs.)

Another restaurant I had been wanting to try in Seattle is Silence-Heart-Nest — kind of a New Age diner run by followers of Sri Chinmoy. It is vegetarian with vegan options. I love places like this. We went there for lunch with our son Aaron and his gf Erica, and it was really good. I had a very creative and tasty version of beans and rice, my husband had a cup of soup and Aaron and Erica had a neatloaf sandwich and neatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Beans an rice.