Wild Cow worth the trip to Grand Ole Opryland. Nashville.

Wild Cow, Nashville

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I love this place.  Even though they will put cheese on dishes by request, it's an entirely vegan place aside from that.  We sat at the counter and even though I was next to the register, where everyone paying a bill had a conversation over my right shoulder, I had a good time.  Even though.

We started with the Tempeh Buffalo Wings.

I had my doubts about the use of this medium for wings and my doubts were borne out.  The sauce was not as hot as buffalo sauce should be and the tempeh, although great in some uses, fell a bit short in it's interpretation of wings.  The ranch dressing was impressive and worth a few swipes with the carrots and celery.  We both thought the dish was, "not bad."  I had other things that are a much better use of the calories.

My Kale, Peanut Butter, and Banana smoothie was amazing.  It was like drinking sweet, green, peanut butter through a straw.  Thick but not so much that it wouldn't pull through a straw with a minor bit of effort.  Definitely a winner.

I chose the Philly Cheese Steak which as my loyal fans know, is not surprising.  The hero bun was soft and perfect but here is my only critique of the sandwich, it's a tad too soft for the contents.  Now Wild Cow isn't shy about loading up a hero roll and the contents overflowed but lifting this monster delight should have had the coaching of a civil engineer.  I finally tossed mustache hygiene aside and just went for it.  The onions and peppers were cooked just perfectly, nice and soft like they should be.  The house made seitan was just soft enough and mouthy enough to ride the line perfectly between matzoh ball seitan and shoe leather seitan.  The Teese sauce worked perfectly just oozing throughout the sandwich.  One of the better ones, construction materials aside, that I've had.

The side dish, usually a mere supporting actor, was a star unto it's own right.  The Lentil Stew with Garlic Aioli was a hit.  Were it not served in a side sized ramekin,  a ladle would have been a more appropriate utensil.  It was worthy of a bowl and piece of crusty bread.  As a meal.  The soft but pervasive taste of sweet roasted garlic swam under nicely seasoned lentils.  The vegan sour cream on top was cool and contrasted so nicely with the stew.  Incredible dish.

And I didn't stop there.  All through the meal the cakes and cupcakes and cookies beckoned. And now the meal was over.  And still they beckoned.  So I beckoned back.  And got a slice of Tiramisu cake.

Which I hadn't had since who remembers when.  Delicious.  I was so full that a cup of coffee, which would have been perfect with the T, was just too much to even think about.

I enjoyed the vibe, the people were friendly, and despite my cramped quarters I'd go back in a heartbeat.  I'm just glad I had a crew car.

Doomie's of Hollywood, CA. Excellent Comfort Food. Period.

I eat at a lot of vegan places and I'm a comfort food kind of guy.  I love my fried stuff and my stacked burgers and most of them are above the line of acceptability.  There's usually one or two things on a menu that are good or really good but it's been a long time since I was over the top like I was a Doomie's.

The sign as you are driving down Vine is small and buried among 20 other signs
and I just noticed the "Vegan/Vegetarian" as I went by.  Yup, had to turn around because
you can't see it if you're coming from ... well, LAX like I was.  It's also tucked
away in the corner of the "L" shaped strip mall.

Doomie's makes no bones about not being a healthy kind of place.  It's the last thing on Chef/Owner/musician Phil Doomie's mind.  What is on his mind is giving us vegans something to sink our teeth into and boy does he ever.  What else is there after textures and flavor profiles?

The chicken poppers were given to me gratis by server Tegan, who I must thank for guiding me through some difficult menu choices.  It's tough when you want to eat everything you see.

Instead of repeating myself by saying everything was perfect let me just say that in the whole array of food I glutinously had placed before me the only thing I didn't care for was the bacon bits on top of the mac n cheese.  They were a bit soft and soggy and didn't add the crunch that I think was the intent.  So what?  Big deal?  Everything else was, perfect.

Peppery, chickeny, crunchy on the outside and moist and flavorful inside.

The poppers were incredible.  I haven't had real cheese in years but this is what I remember a popper being.  The outside takes some tooth to break through and then you slide into the gooey interior, hit the resistance of the jalapeño and then feel the creaminess and heat invade your mouth.

I was enamored by Quarrygirls review of the Big Mac but Tegan suggested getting the burger Big Mac style.  Good move.  Finally a burger that doesn't squirt out of the back of the bun or need you to sharpen your incisors.  The texture of the burger was just like it should be.  Something to tear apart with your front teeth and still need some grind by your molars.  Taste was nice and beefy and the bun paired so well.  The special sauce on the bun, the onions, pickle, man, it just worked.

I also can't help but order onion rings.  I'm a junkie.  And these were worth the extra buck.  Sweet on the inside and crunchy on the out, just the way a "real" onion ring should be.  I'd order a bowl of these and 2 bottles of ketchup and leave a happy camper.

Why 2 pics?  Well, here you can see the burger better and ...

here the color of the onion rings are better.

A little out of sequence here but the start of the meal was chicken legs.  They weren't from Mai Wah but were of a similar texture and I think nothing special about the chicken but the buffalo sauce was indeed a real buffalo sauce, nice combination of Louisiana hot sauce and fat.  Now the Ranch was another stroke of genius.  If you didn't know ... well, I'm telling you you'd never know.

That's a nice big glop of special sauce on the bun and you can see where how it's grilled in a buttery garlicy shmear to a nice toast.  It really matters when you have that subtle crunch!

Seriously, can't you just feel that in your mouth?

Now the other thing I tried was the pulled pork, mac n cheese, fries, and cole slaw.  From last to first, the slaw was creamy, the fries, which I hadn't held out much interest in were so perfect that I decided to use the word perfect again.  And for fries no less!  Perfectly cooked, crunch outside and cooked potato inside and perfectly salted.  The mac n cheese was ... what can I say, cheesy.  The pasta cooked just right and not too soft or mushy.  And the pork, omg, just sweet enough, just bbq-y enough and texture, although not stringy like pork, (who cares ... really), had some tiny pieces and some medium pieces and some large pieces.  You mouth shmooshed and you you bit and you chewed.  Then if your taste buds needed an acid trip of flavor, you just dump the slaw on top and call it a day.

There is no website so before I forget here's the Facebook link:  http://www.facebook.com/doomieshomecookin 

Great job Phil.

This Is What Vegans Eat

As a vegan charter pilot I have to put a bit more THOUGHT into what and where I'm eating but not really much more effort. Websites like happycow.net and Yelp are helpful in finding vegan restaurants (or veg friendly) in cities where I travel. I even did a few blog posts chronicling my foods for a week on the road.



http://www.martysflyingveganreview.com/2012/04/eating-vegan-on-road-few-more-days.html



Marty

Marty's Flying Vegan Review

www.martysflyingveganreview.com

@veganpilotmarty
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Mai Thai but no Mai Tai near Cincinnati.

Staying at the Airport Hilton.  There is nothing vegan around here.  Chains and your standard roadhouse American kind of places.  Last night I went to Karlo's Italian Bistro and got a bowl of (vegan of course), spaghettini with a sun dried tomato, tomatoes, garlic and olive sauce served with a yeast bread and olive oil/balsamic dipping plate.  It was adequate, tasty, (if more broth than I'd have preferred), and filling.  I did have to remind the waiter after querying him that I didn't want butter in my sauce.  They probably don't see many vegans here.

Tonight we opted for Mai Thai.  I tried searching for a place that had brown rice but that's apparently not known in the hinterland of Florence, KY where Cincinnati Airport is.  Our driver couldn't find the place and I had to give him directions from Google maps.  (The driver who picked us up knew exactly where it was).

I was impressed overall.

Appetizer was fried tofu.  It was rather tasteless and came with a dipping sauce, (I was assured had no fish sauce or chickenish products), that was rather sweet as in Sweet and Sour with crushed peanuts on top.  The dish was mediocre but that is as low as the food got.

I asked about the (spiciest) green curry but apparently it's made in advance with the fish sauce and our waitress suggested a stir fry.  I asked for level 5 spice (and still added more chili), and also asked that it come with tofu and vegetables.  The dish was excellent and had a nice depth of flavor, the heat a side show to the taste.  It had a nice earthy base to it.

I ordered veg fried rice with no fish sauce or animal broth.  I repeated this a few times and once, when our waitress asked "what kind of meat?" and I said, "No meat," she did a mental forehead slap and said, "that's right."

The fried rice was also excellent and had a sweeter base but still with a nice heat level.  I loved the basil in it and thought the two dishes went very well together, both spicy, yet flavors playing off each other.

I enjoyed the meal and brought back a bunch of menus for the hotel.  I'd eat here again in a heartbeat.

Vertical Diner at 4000 feet

I was ecstatic when I found out my airline flight back east was put off until afternoon. Now I had my sights on a place I'd been to back in March and couldn't wait to get back to. It has "breakfast" written all over it. And for once, when I got up, I was HUNGRY. The airport Hilton is nice enough but I had to order up a fridge for the room, (as with most full service properties), and there was no guest microwave so my dinner last night was a huge salad somewhere over Nebraska at 38000 feet.

Getting up early in the west means sleeping in back east but then again, I didn't finish work until midnight so sleeping in until 730 wasn't really catching up on sleep

It looks so much better from the front

Green dragon and red lizard hot sauce. I tasted them but this breakfast had so much flavor it didn't really need hot sauce. For the record, green is Jalapeno based and red is Cayenne.

Side of in house nooch cheese sauce on top of the Gravy Train breakfast. Yes I double sauced it. Home fries, tofu scramble, sausage, peppers and onions. Ohhhhh, this defines breakfast. Salty and peppery potatoes cooked just enough to put a little crunch on the outside defines perfection in a cooked potato. The gravy is a tad heavy on the salt but 2 things: one I don't cook with much salt anymore and I may be hypersenstive and 2 gravy should be on the salty side. Just be prepared to grab a bottle of water later in the day. The nooch was just, well, noochy goodness and there was nooch in the scramble as well.

I realized after this was consumed that you really can't see the tofu very well.  Look closely.

The tofu was VERY well mashed and didn't replicate the curds normally found in eggs but that's ok, it was more like a creamy eggy replica. It was also seasoned with more than just your basic salt and pepper and the mix is for sale at Cali's Natural Foods market in Salt Lake. I have to find out if they ship because it's a nice easy no brainer for those of you who are just flummoxed by the concept of a tofu scramble. (www.calisnaturalfoods.com)

I first thought the sausage was a slice of Lightlife but it's not, it's home made and took me by surprise. A delicious mix of brown rice based and seasonings, (sweet with fennel!), just a tad over center on the mush scale but it really didn't detract and we in veganland haven't perfected the consistency competition), and with an amazing mix of spices in the tofu scramble, well, if I lived here I might just give up cooking my own breakfast.

Take Two - Where's the Beef?

I ordered a Philly Cheese Steak for the airline flight back to Atlanta and my mouth is watering.  I got my notch sauce on the side and they did an amazing job wrapping the plates into this leakproof cocoon.  I was so psyched.  Then in Denver I open my lunch and ...

No seitan.  Arrrgh.  Well, the bread was nice and garlicy and the mushrooms, onions and peppers were nice and I smooshed everything in the two containers of sauce but it was sooooo disappointing.  Ah well, next time.

I took a look at the check and it appears that mushrooms are an OPTION as is the seitan steak.  I had one great waiter who actually brought this wrapped sandwich out to me in my car after I got a call to rush to the airport and left it on the table.  He was excellent.  The other guy who took my order, I don't know, but I'd have asked me a lot more questions before I put in an order for a vegetable sandwich.  Just saying.

You can't eat healthy on the road?? Come on

Even if you don't have the Daiya or meat substitute you can still eat a nice dish of potatoes and water sautéed veggies. A little hot sauce or ketchup and you'll survive. Hilton breakfast buffet items with a cooked veggie request from the kithen.

I hate you but love you Whole Foods

I do have a love/hate relationship with Whole Foods. I hate that the word "humane" is even remotely associated with all of the dead animals being sold here but for a vegan pilot on the road it is a godsend. As I travel around the country I also find unique vegan product that are only available on a regional basis. You'd think living in NYC I'd get one of everything in our local stores but it doesn't work that way.

Also, just look at this calendar. How many vegan cooking classes do you see?!

There are also a bunch of sampling tables with products such as Tasty Bites Indian food to low fat guacamole.  If I'm really lucky there will be a Vitamix salesman who I can watch for an hour or two.

I hadn't been eating particularly well so a hot salad bar was calling my name. Unfortunately, in Reston, VA, there is only a cold bar and soups. I needed greens and this certainly sufficed. Big bonus; there was a chicken curry dish made with Beyond Meat and I needed to try that product. Actually, you need to try it as well because it's the closest imitation of real chicken I've tasted. (Sorry Gardein, you're still good, just edged out). It comes in strips and sloughs off like real chicken. It has a moist consistency that holds together. I really believe I've tasted the future.

I had hoped to grab a package of the product but it wasn't on the shelves, only available for salad bar items it seems. The chef found a bag of it and loaded up a plastic container. At 12.99 a pound I do wish I was closer to rotating home so I could use it in some dishes.

The top two pics didn't come out very well but you can see the color much better in this picture.

I also found some Herb Crusted Tofu. It wasn't labeled vegan but there didn't seem to be anything in the ingredient list. I nuked it for 90 seconds and it came out steaming. I think this would have been unequivocally better in an oven. The crust should have been crunchy to offset the tofu but was a bit steamed in the microwave. It was also a tad under seasoned so a quick shake of the sea salt bumped up the flavor.

The salad was a compendium of flavors as you'd expect from someone who can't make food choices, to the point where if a menu just had one item on it I'd be a happy camper. Salty, curry, sweet, and a few shakes of balsamic vinegar turned it into the perfect salad.

That's a piece of Beyond Meat on the fork.

A new product I've never seen before is Five Star Foodies Gourmet Meat-less Grillers.

It is a frozen product and I figured I'd have the best shot of reviewing it here at WFM where there was an easily accessible microwave. The instructions called for 45 seconds and it was still cold in the middle so I shot it for another 45 seconds.

Before cooking

It's a seitan burger and I found the consistency was a bit spongy but from the second bite on had a better chewiness to it. The flavor was an attempt at subtle BBQ but there was an undertone of sweetness to it and an overtone of paprika. At 100 calories a pop with only 25% fat it was a decent enough burger and truly holds up my definition of faux. I am not a big fan of vegetable burgers which turn to mush so this is much more to my liking. It's the kind of burger that will stay with a bun and not squirt out as you eat it, (unless you put it between to slick pieces of lettuce and tomato).

There's another product of theirs that you can see in the top picture.  I'll try it tomorrow but it will be defrosted by then. Still, I am looking forward to trying their Vegetarian Harvest Roast.  In addition I saw a packet of Vegetarian Gravy.  The packages are all marked VEGAN which is nice as I didn't have to go through 3 ingredient lists but that's a lot of gravy for me on the road.  There are so many other dried packets of "just add water" good enough gravy for the times I don't feel like whipping up a pan sauce that this seemed something that wasn't going to make it into my cart.

Thanks for being here WFM. Ditch the dead animals and we'll all be better off for it.