Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Meatless Mondays

Not a restaurant review but important none the less.

What a great concept, to make one day meatless. But to people who are just venturing into this new way of eating the mistakes and pifalls are profuse.

When I gave up eating beef, poultry and pork ... anything that had a lung that is ... I dove headfirst into FRIED MOZZARELLA, Doritos and salad dressings laden with fat, (and I must say CALORIES!!!).

I had no idea about how to cook with Seitan, Tempeh, or Tofu. (I firmly insisted that I wasn't going to be eating rabbit food. No plates of steamed veggies for me!)

Just giving up meat doesn't immediately turn your diet into one of bountiful healthy goodness.

While it's true that a veggie burger has no meat, if you slather it with sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and onions and throw a few slabs of American Cheese on it with a side of onion rings and a Coke or two ... are you really moving in a better dietary direction or are you just being given the tools to fool yourself. "Hey, I didn't eat MEAT today," is an excuse to let out all the stops, for some, and go (forgive the pun), hog wild in the gluttony department.

Perhaps the need is to have a Vegan meal. Good, delicious, but vegan. Cut out the cholesterol and most of the fat. Look at the menus from Chicago Diner, Gobo, Zen Palete. The options become limitless and healthy.

Meatless Monday is a great place to start but perhaps we can look at a campaign like: Have you had your vegan meal today? or Is today your Vegan Day?

Every bit helps. Let's keep up the good work.

Marty

Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Dong in Des Moines

A Dong
515) 284-5632
1511 High St
Des Moines, IA 50309

It was someone at the Ritual Cafe who recommended A Dong as they had just shut down the kitchen. Sometimes timing is everything when you fly airplanes around the country and I missed the cutoff by 10 minutes.

This meal was to be eaten on the trip home, probably somewhere over Ohio and one of the concerns, since we don't have a tray table, is how messy are we going to get in the cockpit.

Well, I ordered the spring rolls and another dish with a sauce and rice. I had them mix the rice in the container with the sauce and I must say that the gentleman waiting on me was incredibly meticulous and taped down the lids of every spill-able item. And it worked like a charm.

The spring rolls, although perhaps a tad thicker on the dough than I'd had before was nicely chewy and the inside was crisp and delicious with a nice mix of ingredients.

I can't tell you what I ordered because I sort of mixed and matched off the menu to create a dish which had the ingredients and sauce that I wanted and this certainly gets a few extra points when I can literally prepare my own dish. It was delicious and I did something I rarely do in the airplane...I taped the lid back on and took the leftovers home.

Big Big Suggestion.

Get a menu online. People need to see that you have a specific vegetarian menu!!!!