links for 2006-08-01

Restaurant Review: Vegetarian House

Vegetarian House
22 NW Fourth Ave, Portland, OR (Chinatown)

Vegetarian House

During my recent trip to Portland, I had planned one evening to visit the Nova Queen Cafe. Before I left the hotel, I noticed that there were almost no references on the web to this restaurant except for Citysearch.com. I figured this wasn’t a good sign and, sure enough, the restaurant didn’t even exist (and if it did, it was a long time ago). So, I wandered around a bit, looking for another place to have dinner. I saw the gates to Chinatown and figured, “There’s gotta be something in there.” Indeed, the second restaurant I stumbled upon was Vegetarian House.

To start, I ordered some fried veggie shrimp. The breading was nice and while the shrimp were hot, they were kind of crunchy, like they weren’t cooked all the way through or thawed completely before frying. They tasted OK, but I’ve had better. I had some leftover and microwaved them the next day; they actually tasted better then.

For my main course, I ordered lemon glazed chicken. The glaze was so thick, it looked like a giant had sneezed on the chicken, but it actually tasted really good. It was one of those “it tastes better than it looks” moments. The chicken’s texture was a little spongier than other faux chicken I’ve had in restaurants, so I asked if they made it there. They used a prepared chicken, so I guess it’s just different than I’ve had before. I was told by the waitress, though, that they also have a chicken that’s “shaped like a chicken” and that that one has whey in it (though the owner said everything is vegan)… so, just ask before you order. None of the products have egg, so you just need to check on possible dairy.

The following day, a friend and I headed to have lunch at Tao of Tea, but decided against it when we were told we first had to pay $7 each for admission to the garden before getting food. We wound back up at the Vegetarian House where we had the buffet. It was slightly above average, with some tofu, fake beef, fried rice, and other Chinese buffet staples.

So, while the Vegetarian House isn’t the best place I’ve ever eaten, it was perfectly adequate. And two days in a row, it was in the right place at the right time.

links for 2006-07-28

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links for 2006-07-19

The City of Food Fight

Tomorrow night I make one of my rare trips to the west coast to spend a little time in Portland. I’ll be heading out there for a web conference on Thursday and Friday, but sticking around for a few days afterwards to see the city, meet up with some friends, etc. Any last-minute suggestions for places I need to see, things I need to do, or restaurants I need to visit?

My schedule’s kind of tight (so much to do!), but if any of y’all are in Portland and might want to meet up for coffee or tea or something over the weekend, drop me a note.

links for 2006-07-18

The Curse of Mock Meats

Last night my wife and I ordered out for Chinese food. It’s not exactly a huge event, but considering it’s probably the first time in eight years that we’ve ordered out for Chinese, it felt pretty significant. Neither of us really care for most of what passes for Chinese food around here, especially when there are so many good Vietnamese and Thai places around. But, a new restaurant had opened and we were feeling lazy, so we gave it a shot.

The good part: they were happy to make sweet and sour tofu for Huyen even though it wasn’t explicitly on the menu. The not-so-good part: instead of giving me the vegetable/bean curd lettuce wrap that I ordered, they gave me Kung Pao Chicken. Yes, with real chicken. And I ate a piece.

Granted it was only the tiniest of pieces, about half the size of a pea, but I still felt all gaggy when my wife said definitively, “This is chicken.”

And this is the curse of mock meats — they’ve gotten so good, so convincing, that a trusting vegetarian may find themselves eating away at something they thing is just a really good seitan/soy imitation when, indeed, it’s flesh. It definitely makes me wary of ordering anything even semi-meatlike from any place that also serves the real thing.

I returned the chicken and got the proper food in return. Not much of an apology, though, just a “sorry for the trouble.” But this wasn’t a “you gave me the wrong sauce” problem, it was a “you gave me dead animal” problem. We won’t be ordering from there again (I’m forgiving of the occasional mistake made by my regular haunts but when it happens during my first visit, there’s no second chance). It’s kind of a shame because the food wasn’t totally awful.

Anyone else ever run into this problem? How did the restaurant resolve it?

links for 2006-07-15