Review: Vegan Garden Vietnamese Restaurant, Seattle, WA

It is a strange sensation for me to be presented with a restaurant menu where I have 110 legitimate choices of what to eat. As a vegetarian I'm so used to having a choice of one or two appetizers and a single entree, it is bewildering to be faced with all of these options. At Vegan Garden, a bright, clean, and relatively new restaurant in Seattle's Little Saigon at 12th and Jackson, the options are both numerous and delicious. Not only that, there are items on the menu with no English translation that I can order with impunity! They are rapidly becoming one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants, so I hope to simply eat my way through the entire catalog.

Vietnamese appetizer rolls come in both fresh and deep fried versions, and they can both be spectacular. On a recent visit with Mini-Me we when for the fried Cha Gio Chay, which came out piping hot, super crispy, and filled with little bites of tofu, mushrooms and cabbage. I haven't had any as good as these since my love affair with the first dilapidated and then departed White Lotus in San Jose, CA. Then we shared Bun, the classic Vietnamese bowl filled with a bed of lettuce, a big bunch of soft, cool and thin rice vermicelli noodles with fresh and pickled vegetables. At Vegan Garden you have a choice of multiple toppings, inlcuding Egg Roll and Shredded Tofu, Lemongrass Tofu, Egg Roll with Grilled Pork and Shredded Tofu, Lemongrass Chicken, and Lemongrass Beef.

Naturally none of the Pork, Chicken or Beef is actually animal product. They are made from tofu, wheat gluten and lotus root. We chose the Lemongrass Chicken today, which had a pleasing texture, not too chewy, and a peppery lemongrass glaze. If you enjoy the mock-meats, Vegan Garden does a solid job of them, and if they aren't your cup of tea there are plenty of straightforward tofu and vegetable options.

One of the glories of Vietnamese food is Nuoc Cham, a  sauce that includes lime juice, garlic, shallot, sugar, shredded carrots, and ... fish sauce. Vegan Garden makes a lovely version that omits the fish sauce and includes some pineapple vinegar. We used it both for the rolls and to pour over the rice noodles of our Bun.

The folks at Vegan Garden are absolutely serious about being vegan, right down to soymilk in the iced coffee and eggless fortune cookies. The fortune cookies also provide insight into the spiritual beliefs underpinning their cuisine. The first one we opened said:

"When we are pushed into a situation, we realize our wisdom"
        - Supreme Master Ching Hai

and referred us to godsdirectcontact.com for more information. (But don't worry, other than the fortune cookies you won't be subject to any other religious instruction while you dine).

Our large lunch of rolls and bun came to $12 plus tip, and you could get out even cheaper if you skipped the appetizer. They were also very kind to Mini-Me, providing her with small chopsticks, asking her lots of questions, and looking bemused at her shouts of "no take my plate! I still eating!", which scores plenty of points with us dads.

NOTE: see the comments for this post - when I try new dishes at VG I'll add a note.

Details:
Vegan Garden
1228 S. Jackson St.
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 726-8669
Daily except Tuesday, 10 AM - 9:30 PM
Carryout available
Parking lot immediately east of restaurant

Spice Stalls at Mahane Yehuda Market In Jerusalem, Israel (What Kind of Harissa Is This?)

One of the things I look forward to most when touring other countries is to see the spice markets. In Delhi, my driver / guide and I braved one hour of traffic to go about 1.5 Km from where we were to Khari Baoli market and then we had to park in an underground garage that was so crowded that the attendants had to move cars around like a puzzle to fit each new one in!

By comparison the spice stalls at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem are pretty laid back, just the usual shoving and good natured shouting. I only bought a couple of things, some super-fresh green zatar (above) that tastes most strongly of thyme and sesame, and incredible dry harissa:

I've only been familiar with harissa in the sauce form, but we are pretty sure that is what the man called it. I don't know if it is intended to be soaked to make a harissa sauce or used as a rub or garnish, but in any case it is delicious. It is quite hot and has an intense flavor of roasted dry chilis, with strong herbal undertones, and very beautiful to look at. If anyone can correct me on the name of this mixture or its uses, please add a comment!

Review: The Legendary Abulafia Bakery in Jaffa, Israel (near Tel Aviv)

Sambusac Stuffed with Potato, Mushroom, Cheese and Hardboiled Egg

Here are your directions. (1) Board plane for Tel Aviv (2) Clear immigration and customs (3) Ask taxi driver to take you to Abulafia. You could tell him that it is in Jaffa, but he already knows.

SP's dad, you mention anything related to the Middle East and his eyes glaze over with desire as he tells you about how you have to make it to Abulafia.

Do you get what I'm trying to say here? This 24-hour streetside bakery has been located at the same corner in Jaffa since 1879. They pretty well have the recipes tweaked out at this point. That turnover, calzone looking item you see above is called a sambusac, and this one was filled with silky smooth mashed potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and cheese. Big deal right? When you order it, they put it on the grill for a minute, then cut it open and add a sliced hardboiled egg. The warm, creamy potatoes, the rich egg and cheese, slightly chewy but tender dough, lots of black pepper. Dang! Suddenly I understand what all the other pastries I've ever eaten filled with cold, dry mashed potatoes were referring to.

Just up the street, Abulafia has another location that serves sit down meals and apparently has unbelievable hummus, according to Hillel. I didn't have room for it today.

If you are doing any more web research about the bakery, be sure and check multiple spellings. Even on their own sign they have both Abuelafia and Abouelafia, and I've also seen Aboulafia.

While you are in Jaffa, you can stroll up to beautiful overlooks of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean, and walk through one of the nicer, cleaner Old City areas I've seen, with some high quality, not so touristy art dealers.

Just to whet your appetite further, here's a picture of Abulafia's pita with zatar, if you don't mind looking through the glass.

Pita Bread Covered in Zatar