Monday, September 6, 2010

Noodles & Company, Baltimore, MD Inner Harbor

We ventured out for some family time before the wedding and famished as we were, we stopped in pretty much the first place we came to.  No time to "Happy Cow" Baltimore, get the car and drive, we just picked.

Noodles & Company is exactly that, noodles of various types and, well, things that keep noodles of various types company.

It was carb lovers nirvana.  And I love carbs.

Although all the meals that don't have meat or fish are marked with a "V" for vegetarian there isn't any delineation for Vegan meals.  I asked at the register and was given that all too familiar, "well, it's vegetarian and has a "v"."

"But does it have ... never mind."  I ordered the Whole Wheat Tuscan linguini, (instead of the rice noodles), and the satay peanut sauce with tofu as my protein.  My wife and daughter order and we go outside to enjoy some of this wonderful prespring weather, hot but not too, crisp but not too.

After an amazingly short wait a server brings out our food.

The dish is beautiful with carrots and broccoli and bean sprouts breaking up the brown of the peanut and whole wheat noodles.

There's no tofu.

I bring the plate back and the young lady at the register takes it right away, brings it back, looks up the order on the computer screen next to the pass and reorders the dish.  I go back outside and within 5 minutes a newly made hot  bowl of noodles, with tofu, is placed in front of me with an apology.

It was delicious.  Peanuts and spice, nuttiness of the noodles, sesame seeds and marinated tofu.  I swear there wasn't a drop left on the plate and I could have downed another.

So was it vegan?

I looked up the website and a full page of nutritional information was available.  Not only do they mention vegetarian options they specifically mention Vegans.  Now I don't agree with the first statement at all but they hold out their hand and invite me in:


"Vegan anyone?
While there is no commonly accepted definition for vegan, we define it as menu items that don’t contain meat, fish, dairy, eggs or other animal products. If your definition matches ours, try these menu items:
J Indonesian Peanut Sauté J Japanese Pan Noodles J Chinese Chop Salad with no wontons J Penne Rosa with no cream and no cheese J Pasta Fresca with no cheese J Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine with no cream and no cheese J Spaghetti with no cheese J Cucumber Tomato Salad J Tossed Green Side Salad with balsamic vinaigrette"

So a day later I do find out that Indonesian Peanut Saute and Tuscan Whole Grain Linguini are in fact, vegan.

Ahh.  I love this place.

4 comments:

Wendy said...

That sounds delish Marty. Peanut sauce and tofu is one of my favorite combos. I think I'm going to have cook some tomorrow night.

Marty said...

It was so good we ate there again on Monday. I added some spinach for $0.75 and it possibly was $0.50 worth of spinach if that. Added a bit more green though.

I love your blog. Somewhere I have a rant about not being a "vegetablearian".

Wendy said...

I made my version of the Tofu and Peanut sauce tonight. It was really nice to eat again, I haven't cooked it for ages so thanks for the reminder!

Marty said...

At your service for all your inspirations. Glad your dish turned out well. I'm thinking of having a blog section for dishes I cook when I'm home. I'm also thinking of having a section for people to post their own dishes that they cook.

Ah, the possibilities!