A juice bar should have juice.

Ohhhh, boy!  Here goes a rant.  So, I went to Sawgrass Mills Mall yesterday, and had the misfortune of trying to order juice at a juice bar.  What a mistake that was.  I used to be so naive as to think that a juice bar would be the perfect place to get a nice, fresh cup of juice.  Apparently, juice bars are places where you buy smoothies, salads, pastries, coffees, paninis...pretty much anything but juice.

Or, at least that was the case with Rio Station Juice Bar.  I asked if I could order a juice, assuming that maybe the menu excluded juice simply because there would be no need to inform people that there was juice available at a juice bar.  The obviously disoriented cashier said something along the line of "yes, um, juice, um, smoothie, um, juice, um, banana hammock," or something like that.  So, I asked for a grande watermelon and strawberry juice and reiterated that I did not want a smoothie.

Only 15 minutes later, after battling a fly and doing the samba with the other five people in line at this treasure, I was the proud owner of a watermelon and strawberry smoothie!  Just in case you were thinking of spending your day in a gigantic mall, just to defraud Rio Station Juice Bar out of a smoothie that you didn't pay for...don't even think about it!  As I quickly learned, every employee will individually review your receipt for authenticity before the reluctant blender-technician hands you the smoothie you kind of ordered, but really didn't.

The smoothie was delicious, by the way.  But, a juice bar should have juice.  I'll never go back.

Delius Restaurant - Long Beach, California: Awesome Vegetarian Fare

Wouldn't you know it?  After blasting house salads, I find a restaurant with an amazing house salad!  Delius Restaurant, in Long Beach, California, is a local gem.  I decided to keep true to my mission by reviewing a restaurant that offers food for everyone.  I was not disappointed.

Right near Long Beach Airport, at 2951 Cherry Avenue, lies Delius Restaurant.  It offers a full lunch, dinner, and kids menu, as well as a full bar.  The decor and overall atmosphere is modern and somewhat intimate.  This place does a great job welcoming business people, couples and families, alike.  The restaurant is a decent size, unlike the airport, and the prices are reasonable for California (perhaps a bit pricey for some, with entree prices ranging from $13 - $32.  There are five vegetarian offerings, and a couple of them can be vegan.  I tried the House Salad, Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese, and the Penne Puttanesca.  I did not try the Spinach Mascarpone Risotto or the Four Cheese Pizza, because there's only so much room in the tank.

Let me start off by saying that the House Salad is incredible, but, it is not the "house salad" you're accustomed to - European greens with candied walnuts, red onion, red grapes, cherry tomatoes, crumbled blue cheese and a rosemary infused balsamic vinaigrette.  It is not going to stuff you, but it is enough for a delicious light meal.  The only possible objection I could see someone having to this one is that the candied walnuts have a cinnamon overtone, which was somewhat of an odd flavor for a salad.  I loved it, though.  The greens were fresh and the bleu cheese was mild.


I tried an appetizer portion of the Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese, but there is a dinner portion and meat-eaters can add shrimp or Andouille sausage.  Assuming Andouille isn't a synonym for soy, I had it plain.  But, there was nothing "plain" about this Macaroni and Cheese.  It comes out piping hot and is incredible.  If you are lactose intolerant, this stuff may kill you.  It is cheesy.  The chipotle isn't offensive (I was really worried) and offers a vague hint of spice, which works wonders.  I highly recommend it.


The Penne Puttanesca came in a trough.  I could only eat half of my portion.  I really liked it, and enjoyed the capers, and olives.  The only surprise there was that it was a bit spicy.  I love spice, but it was much spicier than most meals that aren't traditionally considered spicy food, so be warned.  Beforehand, I also tried the Carrot and Fennel soup.  This soup was good.  It could have been better, if the fennel flavor was a bit stronger, but I cleaned the bowl nonetheless.


All in all, I strongly recommend Delius Restaurant.  Great food and service.  If you are flying into or out of Long Beach, or just in the area, give this place a try.  You won't be disappointed.  For more info: www.deliusrestaurant.com.

Gag me with a house salad.

If I had a nickel for every time I got invited to some cookie-cutter, meat-infested, casual dining craphole (if it's not a word, it is today) and told "you can have a house salad," I would use all of those nickels to buy a Bob Marley autographed guitar to bash the next person to offer me a house salad over the head.

I don't have a problem with house salads, per se, but I do have a problem with the fact that someone would invite me to eat with them while caring so little about my taste buds that they think a bowl of half-wilted iceberg lettuce, a cucumber slice, and three cherry tomatoes was going to be an enjoyable dinner.

I won't stand for it anymore, and you shouldn't either!  It is our duty as vegetarians to inform our friends, family and colleagues that we do have sophisticated palates, too.  Most vegetarians do not graze in a field.  We like variety as much as any carnivore and don't eat salads all day.  If I do have a salad for dinner, it is going to be a dinner salad, and it better have some nice, fancy stuff all over it, like craisins, apples, walnuts, artichokes or something else yummy.  If it's not on a dinner-sized plate, it's not a dinner.

Ok.  I'm done ranting.  Wow!  I could really go for a salad right now. How ironic? :-/

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Marley's Mellow Mood puts you to sleep...and it's legal!

What can I say?  I like to sleep.  Don't get me wrong, I don't sleep a lot.  But, when I do sleep, I like it to be deep and cozy.  For years, I have had issues falling asleep when I want to.  This has caused me to fall asleep when I absolutely didn't want to.  The worst instance was during a training session at a new job (they eventually stopped waking me up and let me sleep).  Now, I know there are many remedies out there, but they each have their own issues.  Many don't work.  Some work, but are addictive.  And, some are illegal (I'm not elaborating any more on that!)

That is why I was pleasantly surprised when I learned about Marley's Mellow Mood.  It comes in a small variety of flavors and potency (check the ingredients), and can be found, at least in South Florida, at many convenience stores and gas stations.  The flavor is nice, but the effect is what got me.  I am seemingly immune to most over-the-counter sleep aids.  Marley's Mellow Mood knocks me right out.  I have yet to hear any negative responses to it.  What really impresses me about these drinks are the ingredients.  They are all-natural, vegan, and even colored with vegetable juice!  You can't go wrong and I highly recommend you try some.  That is all I will say without getting paid. ;)

For more info:


http://www.marleybeverages.com/
Twitter: @drinkmellowmood

Green Wave Cafe...Raw, Vegan, Delicious!!!

This weekend, I got to experience a real treat.  I had lunch at Green Wave Cafe, in Plantation, Florida.  Now I am not necessarily a raw food person.  I'm not even a vegan.  But I must say, if I could prepare raw foods like they do at Green Wave Cafe, I would be.

It was voted the Best Raw Food Restaurant 2010 by the New Times.  However, it's not easy to find.  It's not big.  It's not fancy.  It's not cheap.  But, when you eat raw, vegan, organic food, you just feel good.  I had every color on my plate and a smile on my face.  I tasted the black bean soup, the creamy asparagus soup, the burrito and the open-faced hummus sandwich.  Neither of them looked at all like I expected.  There were lots of veggies and sprouts and beans, and I didn't even know how to pick it up.  What a delicious mess it was.

After all of that nutritious yumminess, I decided to order the chocolate banana pie.  Wow!!!  It is so, so good!  I don't want to spend a lot of my blog time talking about local spots, but Green Wave Cafe earned it.  Go there and eat a lot.  You'll thank me later.  I hear they have raw food preparation classes.  I have a strong suspicion that I'll be in one before long.

Here's their info:

Green Wave Cafe
5221 West Broward Blvd
Plantation, FL  33317
954-581-8377
www.greenwavecafe.org

New Vegetarian Resources

If you don't want to be vegetarian, don't.  I understand that it's not for everyone (you murderer - just kidding).  But, if you have any inclination to try it out, don't cop out and say that it's too hard.  There are so many resources to help you.  There are plenty of websites and plenty of blogs with all of the information you need to make the transition relatively smooth (and unlike this one, they're not all just incoherent ramblings of a fat vegetarian sociopath).

Here are some sites that can help a lot:

Helps you get started:

http://www.peta2.com/p2vsk_flash/index2.html

Things to cook:  

Lazy Vegetarian - http://thelazyvegetarian.blogspot.com/

A little fancier - http://veganyumyum.com/

Vegan - http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/

For various cities:

Miami - http://www.meatlessmiami.com/

New York - http://supervegan.com/restaurants.php

Charleston, SC - http://veganincharleston.blogspot.com/

Los Angeles - http://www.vegparadise.com/restaurants.html

Houston (yeah, Houston) - http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/cuisine/vegetarian.asp

Everywhere else - http://www.vegguide.org/

I hope that helps.  Comment, subcribe, share. :)

Vegetarian Breakfast

Well,  I'm up early today and it dawned on me that you barely ever hear of any vegetarian breakfast foods.  That's because vegetarians don't wake up until after noon (kidding).  There really aren't many options.  At home, you can make oatmeal, cereal in soy milk, and a number of soy products.  But, when you're a social animal such as myself, it is hard to eat a vegetarian breakfast on the town.

So, here's what I do.  Starbucks (where I'm going in a few minutes) has a couple of options, including croissants, bagels and muffins.  Oh yeah, there's fruit.  Fruit is light and works for most healthy types.  You can always just eat some pancakes or waffles, hold the sausage.  Speaking of holding the sausage (LOL), there is one fine establishment where I got an amazing vegetarian breakfast.  Our veggie buddies to the north, in Atlanta - I'm from Miami - have a great treasure in Ria's Bluebird.  You can check them out at www.riasbluebird.com. While they do serve meat, they also have treats such as their Southwest Tofu Scramble, Bionic Breakfast, Country Fried Tempeh, and Soysage.  What a spot!  Breakfast might not be the best vegetarian meal of the day, but hey, it helps you survive until lunch. :-p

If you know of any other places where you can get a greasy-delicious vegetarian breakfast, I'd really like to know.  For now, I have to take my proverbial hat off to Ria's for having the best vegetarian breakfast in the universe.

Bionic Breakfast @ Ria's Bluebird, ATL

Surviving Interrogation

When out and about, vegetarians all tend to get the same question, incessantly:

"So, why are you a vegetarian?"

You can reply, "because I'm not an animal-murderer" or "none of your business" ... but neither of those will earn you any vegan brownie points.  Therefore, I suggest a more measured approach - I tell the truth.

Now, there are many shades of the truth, so choose yours carefully.  I became vegetarian for many reasons, in fact all of the reasons (I think).  So, without getting to "deep" into the subject, I politely smile and say "well, all of the popular reasons."  If questioned further, I say that I enjoy the health benefits, like veggies, prefer not to eat animals if I don't have to, and feel like I'm doing good for the environment.

Usually, at this point, I get a "that's cool," and I order another round of vodka-cranberries (did I mention I'm a lightweight?).  On the rare occasion that I am questioned further, such as, "don't you know you need protein" or "don't you miss meat," I simply smile and reply "so far, it's been working for me."  If a person doesn't recognize your passive response as an invitation to stop interrogating at this point, then just punch them in the face (I kid, I kid).  Really, at that point, I just joke it off and say something like "animals don't eat me, so I don't eat them."

Remember, you don't want your diet to lose you valuable contacts or friends, and you don't want your attitude to turn off a potential future-vegetarian.  If you don't convert at least 24 people to vegetarianism in your lifetime, you don't make it into Veggie Heaven. ;-)

Vegetarian Socialite

Somewhere out there, there are vegetarians living in a campground, growing their own food, playing drums and weaving straw hats.

Then, there's me.  I am not a hippie.  I do like to camp and hike from time to time, but, I work in an office, drive a lot, play sports, go to clubs and eat in every restaurant with the decency to provide at least one meat-free dish.  I eat cheese, as I am addicted to pizza, and I eat cookies that I know (somewhere in my hidden subconscious) were made with eggs.  I won't eat any flesh, but most of my friends and family do...and I'm okay with that.

This blog is for those vegetarians who have chosen not to rage against the machine.  It is for those who just want to peacefully coexist with the majority, without compromising our own standards.  I will post about dishes, good and bad, that I've had at popular restaurants.  I will offer quick meal suggestions and make recommendations of all types for vegetarians on the go.

I hope that others will do the same.