I love you like a 100% vegan pay-by-the pound buffet (or, veganism in British Columbia)

B. and I spent most of the past week hanging out in British Columbia, and though I pride myself on keeping this blog very focused, I feel the need to blog a bit about the vegan meals we checked out while traveling around.

Really, this was the excuse and the springboard...




A vegan reuben in a serious piece of history (a piece of history that is open twenty-four hours, and though you'd expect it to be as crunchy as a raw flax cracker, manages to have the warm and pleasant atmosphere that reminds you more of a classy tea-house than the place where Greenpeace was founded back when the street was called "Rainbow Road").

I was thoroughly pleased with the Naam, even though it was a little crowded, slow, expensive (but so is everything in Vancouver, B.C.) and they managed to add completely unnecessary dairy to everything. (A Dragon Bowl of tofu, perfectly cooked veggies and...a slice of jack cheese, really?). So the tempeh reuben of course came with Swiss, you could sub for Tofurella but our friendly and helpful server informed us that Tofurella has casein. I thought the reuben was perfectly good ultimately, with tempeh, sauerkraut, sauteed mushrooms, tomato and sprouts on a whole wheat bun. Sure, it was more like a tempeh burger with sauerkraut (I slathered it with mustard), but it was tasty. B. didn't think it was a real reuben because it didn't have any kind of dressing or special sauce. I guess Portland has spoiled us. Though the pie made from pureed dates and bananas with no added sweetener in a flaky crust blew my mind.

As for eating vegan in B.C. in general, it ran the gamut from being surprisingly easy (more on that later) to somewhat annoying (the "vegetarian cafe" with the tiny pile of tofu scramble that wouldn't let me sub something I actually wanted to eat for the non-vegan English muffin).

For the sake of public knowledge, some definite highlights (read: if you are vegan and find yourself in Victoria, B.C., you must go here) include Green Cuisine, an extensive salad and hot bar that is entirely vegan where you pay by weight. They also have some awesome vegan desserts, including in-house ice cream and baked goods. The other great find was Lotus Pond Chinese Restaurant, just a few blocks up Johnson from Green Cuisine. I felt incredibly lucky to find this place, and to be able to get lunch there on a weekday, when they have their pay-by-weight buffet, which includes, wait for it, vegan DIM SUM! The ginger broccoli was delicious and perfectly cooked, they had a couple other veggie-heavy dishes that included some soy-based meat but the meat didn't dominate, which I appreciated personally, and of course I was super-hyped to try the turnip cakes, potstickers and red bean pastry. In general I found both these joints to be way better than the equivalents in Portland -- in that the food was reasonably priced (and this in a city where it is typically very expensive to eat out), and unlike some buffets that are "all-you-can-eat," these places stock the bar with stuff you actually are excited about eating (unlike that vegan lunch buffet in Chinatown that shall go unnamed).

Even though I used to shy away from buffets where you actually paid based on quantity, the above restaurants (as well as a co-op in Corvallis called First Alternative that also has an awesome salad and hot bar) have turned me around. I've realized it's great, as a health-conscious vegan, to be able to pick exactly what you want to eat in the quantity that you want.

See you soon, when we'll have another post on vegan reubens in Portland!

P.S. Another restaurant we visited that's probably worth mentioning was a 100% vegan sandwich shop with locations in both Seattle and Tacoma called Hillside Quickie's. I wasn't too excited with what I ended up with, the Jamacian Jerk tofu, but the chili was epic, and they did have a "Tofustrami" sandwich that included pickles and raw onions, among other condiments, making it almost a reuben...

TRUEBEN: The Red and Black

B. was a bit miffed that I delayed sampling the Red and Black's tempeh reuben for so long. He was eager to try the sandwich, and the restaurant in general, after hearing me rave about it as pretty much the inspiration for this blog. This Southeast Portland worker-owned cafe's tempeh-mushroom reuben was the first vegan reuben I'd ever had out, and it pretty much blew me away. True, it was directly after Bridge Pedal, I was famished, and I went crazy and got a side salad and a delicious cup of their vegan chili with it, so it was nearly the perfect meal. But I was afraid to review it too early on in this blog, because I truly believed it would trump all others, and sort of what's the point of continuing on if you've already had the best?

Well, I'll say this. B. was not disappointed. And with a 4.5, the Red and Black's reuben does have the highest score we've awarded. But it's with bittersweet sentiment that I say, yes, there is room for improvement. And I'll also add, perhaps my vision is clouded with nostalgia, but it was a slight let down after the awesome experience I had that first time.

As you may know, the Red and Black Cafe for years was located near the intersection of 22nd and SE Division. That was where I had the reuben the first time, and I'll chalk it up to extremely experienced staff: the presentation was better and the construction and the balance of ingredients were better. But like I said, despite these two differences, the reuben we had recently at the Red and Black's new location on SE 12th was still pretty awesome.

I think the highlight is the vegan dressing; it's tart and creamy, probably chock full of veganaise. It's creaminess (not runny at all) contributes to a sandwich that holds together very well -- a trait B. continually appreciates. The protein component is great, too, a mixture of tempeh and mushrooms, nicely complementary flavors that B. noted wasn't too heavy on the mushroom taste. I was excited to see that the Red and Black now makes their own kraut, which in my mind gives them extra points and thus makes this a virtual 5 on the scale from 1 to 5. The kraut was great, refreshing and slightly sweet, I did wish there was more of it. The bread was a light rye with a taste of caraway. Very similar to the bread at Veganopolis--a really dark rye doesn't seem very common in this town. The bread was toasty and warm and was probably heated on a sandwich press or grill pan.

I found the tempeh filling a little too salty for my taste, though B. didn't seem to think so. Other than that, the only other thing I found lacking was that I felt the amount of dressing was disproportionate to the other two components---definitely would have liked more kraut, and it might have balanced the saltiness of the tempeh a little. And surprisingly, we both noted on the somewhat sad presentation when the sandwich arrived. I never thought I would rate a sandwich on how it looked, but I guess after Veganopolis and other attractive sandwiches we sampled, we couldn't help but notice the sort of slipshod arrangement. I, perhaps incorrectly, also attribute this to the somewhat new, though friendly and helpful, staff.

All in all, the Red and Black tempeh reuben still comes out on top. Though not as impressive as my first experience with it, this remains a sandwich I could eat again and again. A difference between the old and new locations that I appreciate is that the Red and Black seems to be going entirely vegan -- if reubens aren't your thing, check out their other sandwiches, salads, soups and their dragon noodle bowl. The daily special always seems like a great deal as well.



4.5 out of 5 (though really a 5, probably)

Red and Black Cafe
SE 12th and Oak
Tempeh mushroom reuben. About $7, I think. Comes with a pickle and corn chips, or add soup or salad for $2.
Worker-owned coffee shop and restaurant located a block from the vegan mini-mall. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Many vegan options and mostly organic. A nice community gathering spot as well.

While I wouldn't recommend a week of reubens...

...there are enough vegan ones in Portland, if you wanted to go that path for Portland's Try Vegan Week.

The date has been set for June 7 - 14. According to NWVeg, this week will be "a large outreach event to support hundreds of people in our area who are interested in making a change in their diet. There will be mentorship partnerships arranged, lectures, dine-outs, store tours, a guide book, and even a vegan prom."

If anyone needs a mentor, I'm available! Vegan reuben contest a la Iron Chef? Vegan pub food crawl?

"Food porn" as they say...

It seems the reuben has long been the darling of the vegan food blogs, and no less so lately.

Melody over at MeloMeals gave it a try recently.



And Swell Vegan is at it again. She really just needs to add a "reuben" tag.

TRUEBEN: Veganopolis (NOW CLOSED)

UPDATE: Sadly, Veganopolis closed its doors on September 24th, 2008.



Veganopolis is a joint downtown that styles itself like a cafeteria. You order at the cash register and bus your own table afterwards. There is an extensive vegan sandwich and salad menu, and a hot brunch buffet on Saturdays. The space is clean and airy, with big street-facing windows. You can also pick up a few vegan grocery items over by the cash register. The staff in my experience has always been real friendly. It's one of those places that, if it were in another city, you'd expect to be some sort of mecca for vegans. In Portland, it's sort of just another cool place we can go to eat. There is some novelty to it. They make a number of things, like vegan chevre or ricotta, in house. And it's only one of a few places in Portland where you can go and know that everything is vegan. But I think their hours (closes at 5 every day), the their location (downtown), and the fact that they at least appear a little overpriced, gives them less of a draw. But I gotta say, they win hands down for the best sandwich presentation I've experienced in this city thus far.

And their food is good. And not that expensive for what you're getting, really. We got proof of this today. B. and I split a modest plate of their brunch buffet (a little under 8 bucks a pound) while we were waiting for our sandwich, and it was damn tasty. We passed over the typical brunch stand-bys of tofu scramble, french toast, biscuits and so on for a helping of savory bread pudding with asparagus and mushrooms, a little bit of potatoes and a sort of cabbage seitan sausage mixture and it was all delectable. I was glad we went that route as well, because, at 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was pretty busy in there, and Veganopolis is the kind of place where your food takes time even with less customers. So the brunch held us over 'til the purpose of our visit arrived.



Like I said, pretty, huh? The Veganopolis reuben is "braised corned vegan ham," sauerkraut, your choice of dijon mustard or thousand islands, and soy mozarella (is there a vegan fake Swiss out there?). For a side you can get coleslaw, potatoes or a cup of soup -- we went with the soup, which was a tasty tomato bisque, very flavorful with big chunks of tomato. As you can see, the sandwich came with a couple pickle spears arranged on a small bed of baby spinach, with fresh chopped herbs dusted over the plate. The bread was a "rustic rye," and not a stand-out on its own, but it did the job well and was nice and crunchy. This sandwich met the bar in terms of temperature and textures, though the bread was more on the thin toasty side versus dense and absorbent, so this is one of those sandwiches you'll want at least one extra napkin for.

I liked that we got a side and a generous garnish with the sandwich. I think it was probably worth the extra 1.95 over the Vita Cafe's tempeh reuben, which came with no accompaniments at all. Another way in which this sandwich differed from the Vita's was that I could really taste the fake cheese -- and I liked it. Over all the sandwich's flavors were great, though there was a sort of not-unpleasant sweetness that I couldn't figure out the source of, maybe the Thousand Islands? B. thought there could have been more of the dressing and found the sandwich a little dry. We both wished that some of the sauerkraut had been swapped out for more of the corned seitan. The sandwich filling was easily 80% sauerkraut, and I could barely taste the seitan at all. I found myself picking up a fragment off my plate to eat just so I could see what it was like. I was impressed, which made me even more disappointed that my sandwich wasn't meatier. I understand that the seitan is probably the most expensive ingredient, but at 9 bucks, I'd like to be able to savor it.

Those were our only complaints really -- more dressing, and much more seitan. I love sauerkraut, and I didn't find the quantity overwhelming, but I wouldn't have missed some of it in exchange for the other ingredients. The cheese amount was probably perfect. I would probably get this sandwich again -- or maybe just come for the brunch buffet, now that I'm in the know.

3.5 out of 5

Veganopolis
412 SW 4th
Mon. - Sat. 9:30 am to 5 pm.

Corned seitan reuben, $8.95. Choice of coleslaw, potatoes or cup of soup. Also comes with pickle spears and a tiny salad. Many other sandwich and salad options available, as well as various beverages. Buffet everyday from 11am to 3 pm (think it tends towards lunch during the week and brunch on Saturday).

In the Kitchen: Bazu's Tempeh Reuben

Long overdue for a reuben, B and I tried out this recipe from one of my favorite vegan food blogs, Where's the Revolution? You can read Bazu's original post here. Her recipe is an adaptation of the Tempeh Reuben recipe from The Vegan Cooking School. It's one of only two vegan reuben recipes we plan to try from the web (the other being the Candle Cafe's), so I'm glad to be able to direct you to the full recipe.

Of course we did change it some, just because I was out of veganaise and I couldn't use ketchup since I gave up refined sweeteners for Lent and all the ketchup in the house had sugar or corn syrup. To tell you the truth, I think the dressing suffered a bit for it, but it was a tasty sandwich, and I liked the fact it used white beans in the dressing. We also didn't use sprouts or red onion, just stuck with a more traditional tempeh and sauerkraut combination.

This recipe has further convinced me that baking tempeh is the way to go. I'm usually too lazy to marinate and bake, so I previously tried pan-steaming tempeh for reubens in broth or seasonings, and it just isn't the same. This recipe was nice because it didn't call for marinating in advance. The tempeh turned out great after just baking in the marinade for 40 minutes.





What you see above is my attempt to use up an extremely ripe tomato (I don't buy out of season produce, but I frequently get it free) and replace the 2 tablespoons of ketchup in the dressing with something tomatoey. In retrospect, I should have just broken down and opened a can of tomato paste, but I'm lazy and didn't want to worry about how to use up the rest of the can. So I roasted the tomato with the tempeh. It worked okay, but didn't give the dressing the concentrated flavor kick ketchup would have, and of course it made it more watery as well.



We didn't have to worry about watery dressing too much, though, with this rock star of a bread. I was excited to try out the loaf of Abiqua Farms Old World Rye I'd stashed in the freezer for this occasion. This bread is dense. It soaked up all the juice and still held together. I might slice the bread a bit thinner next time, to help it toast up a little crunchier, but I was happy with it over all. I learned from our last tempeh kitchen experience, and sliced the tempeh thinner, so even with the hefty bread, the sandwich was a very manageable size.

Here's B's, after warming the sauerkraut and spreading on the dressing.



This was a good sandwich over all. The only disappointment was that the dressing was sort of bland, but that was probably mostly due to the omission of veganaise and ketchup. In the future, I might sub a little oil for the 'naise and will definitely use ketchup or tomato paste. I might add some extra spices to the dressing as well, maybe even some hot sauce or red pepper, something to give it a little zip. The other change I would make is to cut down on the soy sauce in the marinade -- the original recipe calls for a whole 1/3 cup, I think a few tablespoons would suffice. I'd also like to experiment with vinegar or lemon juice in the marinade, to see if it gives the tempeh a tangier flavor reminiscent of corned beef. But over all the tempeh was definitely the best aspect of the recipe.

We give this one a 3 out of 5. Thanks to Bazu for the recipe, and if you are in the Portland area, check out that Abiqua Farms Bakery!

Veganization: Shrooben at Plan B

A well-made sandwich can be a bit of a balancing act, a vegetarian sandwich perhaps more of a challenge. A person with sandwich crafting skill understands that you need to pair mild flavors with bold condiments, soft textures with crispiness or crunchiness, lest you end up with a sandwich that is either monotonous or competing with itself. I think this may present a quandary in my quest to find vegetarian reubens and veganize them, in that a really good vegetarian sandwich, where the combination has been carefully considered and tested, is automatically going to be somewhat lacking in a vegan version, unless you can replace those non-vegan elements somehow. This was basically what the friendly bartender told me when I walked into Plan B and told him I wanted the Shrooben (a mushroom and onion reuben, complete with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Islands) but I needed it vegan.

"The vegan Shrooben," he emphasized, "is boring."

However, he appreciated my mandate and offered to grill the bread with some herbs and olive oil to make the sandwich less dry and increase the flavor. He also told me that the caramelized onions would help. I didn't tell him that I'd ordered the Shrooben before, vegan, and found it fairly tasty. But I have to admit, upon careful consideration, I conclude that he was on the right track.

B. ordered the Shrooben with no omissions or substitutions. We both got the side salad instead of fries, with vinaigrette (the obvious vegan option). I have to admit, I was looking forward to the salad as much as the sandwich. I remembered it from my last visit. It's pretty hearty for a side salad, not just a tiny pile of leaves tucked in the corner as an afterthought, but a small bowl of spinach, baby greens, black olives, mushrooms, sunflower seeds and chopped tomato and bell pepper. This and the sandwich is a pretty good deal at 7 bucks.

B. was very pleased with his non-vegan Shrooben, and I was quite happy with my choice as well. Marbled rye piled generously with sauerkraut, and onions and mushrooms straight from the grill. The sandwich was the perfect temperature all the way through, and the bread was nice and crunchy. It held together perfectly on my end, though I didn't have any sauce to contend with. A few bites in, I had to admit, it was a tiny bit bland. I'm a big 'shroom fan, but I couldn't help but notice that the mushrooms appeared to be cooked without any additional seasoning. This is where I started to see the bartender's point. On the non-vegan Shrooben, seasoning the mushrooms probably wouldn't contribute much, and might even be overdoing it, because the point of the dressing and the sharp cheese is the heavy flavors they impart. A toasty, juicy sandwich of simple mushrooms, onions and sauerkraut is great in my book, but there was potential for something more interesting. Probably next time, and there probably will be a next time, I'll ask for some mustard on the side (which, incidentally, could very well have been what I did last time I had the same sandwich). At least until Plan B comes up with a vegan Thousand Islands.

Plan B is dark and pleasant, without being too cozy, has a pretty good booze selection, and a pretty extensive, inventive and reasonably priced food menu. (I think their happy hour is late night with a limited menu). There are at least two expressedly vegan options on the menu -- a BBQ tempeh sandwich I hope to try someday, and a vegan chili dog. The bartender said they are planning to expand the menu, to include more vegan options as well as more choices for those who eat meat and dairy.

I give the veganized Shrooben a 3.5 out of 5, but not because it wasn't crafted with skill and care.



Plan B
SE 8th and Main
Shrooben: $7. To make it vegan, ask for no cheese, no dressing. Request mustard. Comes with side salad or fries. And little pickles! This is a bar (with a spacious back patio, by the way), and smoke-free inside. Go for dinner and a pint, you probably won't be disappointed.