vegansaurus!

Saffron Grill: new vegan menu!

We here at Vegansaurus pretty much love the hell out of any restaurant that buckles to vegan terrorism listens to their vegan customers and throw us a, uh, bone. Accordingly, we are happy to announce that San Francisco’s Saffron Grill has added a brand spanking new, all-vegan menu to their existing offerings.

Saffron Grill is North Indian cuisine, folks—that means flatbread, saag, and chickpeas galore! I grabbed the ol’ ball-and-chain and a couple friends and hit up SG on a Wednesday night, and the first thing I’d like to say is DO NOT TAKE THE 5 FULTON BUS. We attempted to do this, and it passed us right by, meaning we walked from Van Ness to Divisadero and were tired and hangry by the time we got there. Good thing, then, our friends were waiting, and our server kept the crispy papadums with chutney coming while we decided on food. Padpadums, in case you weren’t raised by a dad whose zest for Indian cuisine both informed and traumatized your formative years, are wafer-thin dry lentil pancake thingies that get kind of crispy and a little bit bubbly when heated up. They’re like Indian corn chips, but made out of lentils and served with chutney, not salsa. Anyway, they’re great, and they’re vegan, so eat them.

For food, husband and I split a plate of samosas (awesome) and pakoras (also awesome). The samosas were great and not of the too-spicy variety that I sometimes stumble upon and then curse vigorously. There is nothing worse than a too-spicy samosa whose samosa guts you have to scrape out and then eat the greasy, crispy shell alone. Thankfully, these samosas were not of that variety. The pakoras were flavorful and not too oily, which is nice in a pakora. The chutney they came with was also nice—flavorful and not too sweet. I think it was mango, but I was too overcome with white-girl shame to ask.

Entrees were saag aloo (for me) and some kind of chickpea dish (for him), accompanied by flatbread. Saffron Grill has whole-wheat flatbread, which is nice. It’s not huge and crazy like some of the naan I’m used to, but it’s good stuff, and I think my body likes the one-meal break from white flour. One other nice thing about the SG is that they’ll alter the spice levels for you, so if you’re a wimpy Canadian WASP, like me, they will make your food with baby spices, and it still tastes good. If you’re a spice-fiend, I have it on good authority they will do you up right as well.

Finally, the people who own/staff this place are fucking seriously nice. They decided to create the vegan menu after a few people asked them about it, which is awesome. They’re also really friendly, and I know I felt right at home, and I bet you would too.

The only downside to the Saffron Grill is that it’s a little pricey (as down as I am with the menu and the food, $3 for rice is still a bit rich for my blood). However, I’m still happy to support the businesses that support me and my stomach, so head over the the Saffron Grill; just don’t take the 5 Fulton, and if you do, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Vegansaurus NYC: Rice!

Rice! Generic name, yummy food! I’m obsessed! It’s not all vegan but there are many vegan options. There are three locations, one in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. One of the Brooklyn locations happens to be in DUMBO, four blocks from my school. I moved here a little over a month ago and I’ve been to Rice like 80 times already. That’s how I roll! I find something I like and I stick with it! Until I overdo it and get completely tired of it. It’s a system.

For the most part, it’s all rice bowls (there’s a few salads but salads are for nancies!). They have different options like lentil stew or ratatouille and then you get to pick what kind of rice you want! Hence the name. They have like 8 kinds of rice. I always get the brown rice but one day I will get the crazy purple rice, mark my words! It’s a dollar or so more but it’s purple! The color of royalty! It’s the king’s rice! I think it’s actually called black rice but I promise it’s purple.

I’ve tried a number of things there but I’ve finally settled on the tofu satay. It’s super! That’s a picture of it above—I took it myself! BEFORE I started eating! Because I’m a pro. I’ve also tried the lentil stew but it was a little bland. The Thai coconut curry is good but I’m obsessed with peanuts and that’s what the satay sauce tastes like. Now the other thing you HAVE to get is an order of the edamame* hummus. OMG IT’S AMAZING. Like, I could eat bowls of it. I wasn’t sure if it was vegan but they assured me it was, bread and all. It’s not that hummus-y; I can’t quite put my finger on what it tastes like but it’s super-delicious.

So if you get a chance, I say definitely try rice. And if you go to the DUMBO one, I’ll probably be there so you should say, “Hey Megan Rascal!” and maybe, “You look lovely today!” because that’s a nice thing to say and completely true.

*Once again spellcheck, I say screw you! Edamame is a word.

Green Coriander! Guest Review from Natalie of Bike Basket Pies!

I am horrible at reviewing things. I deleted my Yelp account for a reason. I like food, in fact, I like most food I eat, and I am generally not a snob about the food I eat, except for some things (I’m not naming names so don’t ask. OKAY YOU TWISTED MY ARM American cheese, ketchup, and milk).

Plus I’m not an expert on Indian food (see likes and dislikes above). But I can tell you about what I ate and how much I liked it!

Green Coriander is a new-ish business set on getting you healthy Indian food that you can get via take-out in the Mission (15th and Guerrero Streets) or delivered via TCB bike courier Mondays through Thursdays. Her menu is updated on Sundays and every day has a veggie options and most of the vegetarian dishes are vegan (they even mark them with a lovely green “V”! Score!).

Last week, I shared the cabbage with shredded coconut and it was delicious. Rob [Ed.: Natalie’s friend, she ate lunch with him and maybe one day they’ll get married! I really want this girl to get married to a nice boy! If you’re interested, holler! At ME! Not at Natalie, she can’t be trusted to court her own beaux. You can read that as in you’ll most likely have to have sex with me to get to Natalie I AM KIDDING, GOD/DON’T BE SO UPTIGHT] and I got a serving, plus a huge thing of rice, lentils, and two rotis (thin flatbread, like an Indian tortilla). The cabbage was delicious—the shredded coconut imparted an almost chocolaty taste to it, earthy and fresh. There are whole dried chilies in it, which I would not recommend eating but hey, maybe you like a little extra heat (the dish wasn’t spicy itself, but it could be with a bite of one of those!). The lentils were floral and were broken down to a nice, almost creamy, consistency. The rice is f’ing tasty, I could eat that stuff without anything else, but Rob and I could not pinpoint what the spice was.

All of the food Green Coriander offers is healthy and they are working with Kristin Hoppe (of Food Therapy—best nutritionist in the Bay Area 2009!) to ensure the food they offer is good for you & well-balanced. I gotta say, I am sort of over really greasy Indian food. Sure it hits the spot sometimes, but it’s nice to be able to get those flavors without all the goddamn oil and stomachaches afterwards. So I’m totally recommending Green Coriander. Plus, DELIVERY which I haven’t actually used, but I have gotten stuff delivered, to me and for my own business, but those same bike couriers so I know they’re reliable and legit. Order by noon for delivery or pickup the same day from Monday through Thursday. And Paawan, who runs the business, is super sweet (Disclaimer: I met her prior to her starting Green Coriander).

Mad thanks to Natalie of Bike Basket Pies for this most delicious review! Can’t wait to eat Green Coriander out of house and home! Photos from Yelp!

N.Y. Dosas: Street Food For The Vegans

And now, a dispatch from Vegansaurus NYC!

So you really like Indian food, but you don’t want to give your money to places that also serve flesh. And those places that serve flesh aren’t all that good anyways because they use way too much grease and you hate having to specify no raita. And you really like street food, but there’s never really any vegan food.

So, what do do? Lucky for you: there is dedicated vegan Indian food AND it’s in a cart. So you can get some authentic New York City street food without the guilt because, well, N.Y. Dosas is honestly the best fucking food I have ever had in my entire life. The guy running it is a dedicated vegan out by the park six days a week, rain or shine, to provide everyone with some sweet-ass vegan dosas. He also has some lentil-based crepe for all of our gluten-free brethren and sistren. Plus, check out that awesome ‘stache! Clearly all of the hipsters just stole his facial hair aesthetic.

N.Y. Dosas has no website (it’s STREET, remember?!), but here are the details, should you find yourself in New York:

W. 4th Street at Sullivan Street, New York, NY 10014
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Sunday.

Review: Basu’s Homestyle Indian Cuisine (IS THE BOMB!)

Basu’s graciously sent us some of their make-it-yourself Homestyle Indian Cuisine to check out, presumably because every vegan blog south of San Luis Obispo has already had the chance. This is probably because they are an adorable family startup company based in the L.A. area and distributing regionally, but I am still immediately resentful of Southern California having anything desirable or good because I am a cynical, humorless Northern California native. Anyway you can already buy Basu’s at the Whole Foods stores down there.  (What is up with Whole Foods in Southern California & Nevada having SUCH BETTER vegan selections than ours??)

As an Indian-food-loving single person (or, a not-single person who lives in a different apartment than her boyfriend and spends three nights a week over there so consequently grocery shops *less* than a single person), I already eat a lot of pre-prepared Indian food, in the form of takeout and vacuum-packs from Tasty Bite and the like. Because I sit down to depressing Trader Joe’s Punjab Choley for one and plain rice on a fairly regular basis, I feel entitled to the sense of totally unmitigated euphoria that comes flying out into the kitchen when you open a packet of Basu’s cheerily-labeled “Vindaloo Sauce with Basil - Vegan.”   Warning:this sauce smells amazing. While I was eating it at work the next day, my coworker (a real actual Indian person) was all, “That smells amazing!”

Now, it’s packaged as sauce alone, and you add your own vegetables and proteins (unless you’re just taking a bath in it—ain’t no shame, it smells amazing!) I thought, after an initial botched attempt at adding some Tofurky sausage (don’t do that) that this Vindaloo works best with baby red potatoes and firm tofu cut like paneer cubes (it does—do that instead!) Also, some cauliflower would probably be nice, but my neighborhood market was out of it.

First, I boiled the potatoes until soft, then drained them and cooled them a bit while I cut up the tofu. Then I melted some Earth Balance in a saute pan, and threw in generous amounts of powdered cumin and tarragon. I know tarragon isn’t very Indian, I just really like it. Then I threw in the tofu and (quartered) potatoes to stir fry until brown and crusty with delicious spices. When everything was nicely browned, I threw it in a pot with the Vindaloo sauce to simmer for about 15 minutes on low heat. At this point, my house smelled (you guessed it!) amazing.*

The Vindaloo dish was fast and easy, and makes for a comforting, nutritious and really delicious meal. But, the thing that really ele

vates Basu’s above the other DIY Indian foods is pairing the curry with Basu’s own Saffron Rice and Tamarind Chutney. The rice is unbelievably flavorful, in a way that would be difficult for me to replicate at home. It’s got a delightful buttery taste, offset by some kind of curried carrot (?) that really goes the extra mile in transforming your pathetic Ikea couch-and-coffee-table dining set into a charming neighborhood Indian restaurant. The chutney is dark and syrupy, and drizzled over the curry/rice combo, it’s just the perfect thing.

In sum, that was my totally savory experience with the Basu’s Homestyle Indian Food, a really good company and makers of the best DIY Indian meals.  If only I could go to my local Whole Foods and get more. Sad Face.

*I should make it clear as I overemphasize how amazing it SMELLS, that I do not mean to underemphasize how amazing it TASTES, which is AMAZING. Like, the tastiest thing to come out of my kitchen in a long time, vegan or non.

Kasa!

I don’t understand why it is so fucking hard for a restaurant to stay open late in San Francisco. If you’re out past 10 p.m. and you want something other than a slice of pizza or a burrito, you’re screwed. I think our own Maria puts it best when she says:

In particular, the Castro can be a nightmare for late-night dining. There are a lot of bars and a lot of clubs and they desperately need a sit-down where the clubbing ‘mos (and the rest of us) can get our late-night sustenance on. Yes, that is correct. I just typed, “late-night sustenance on”, and please steel yourself for more bad writing and gross generalizations in this review, FOLKS. I’m tired, I’m hungry and I just paid the IRS a couple thousand in taxes because they caught me being a leeetle loosey-goosey with my reported income. Hey! I didn’t know! I got confused! I apparently tried to deduct the same pair of donated pants 12 times? Well what do you want me to do? The max they would let me take was $10 and they were from Anthropologie and cost $140! Eff you, feds! You can take my hard earned cash to fund this horrible war and our dying nation but you cannot stop me from trying to get over. THAT is the American Dream, capital-A, capital-D, capital-FUCKED. Back to the review.

Sunday through Monday the Castro workout routine is Gold’s Gym but on the weekend, it’s the DANCE! To fuel all of this exercise, you need something nearby, adequately tasty and most importantly, LOW-CALORIE. And so begins the age of Kasa.

Kasa is a new-ish Indian-ish restaurant in the Castro that is open until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 2 a.m. (!!!) on Friday and Saturday. At Kasa you can choose from a kati roll (made with their own roti bread, let them know before you order that you’re vegan so they don’t douse it in ghee) or a thali, a plate filled with all sorts of magical things like chutneys, dal, rice, and shiz like that. After you decide on the kati roll or the thali, you choose a dish or two to go on the plate or into the roll. There is always at least one vegan dish on the menu: Aloo Jeera, which is cumin-spiced potatoes. They have a rotating vegetable dish of the day which may or may not be vegan. Last time I went, it was a spicy eggplant dish that was vegan. The food is adequate, if not amazing. The real calling card here is that they’re open late in an area that’s desperate for late-night eateries.

And when you’re done, you can head back to bar-and-club-landia, filled up with pretty healthy food that you’ll burn off in the time it takes to spin a Lady Gaga remix (aprox 35 minutes). I love, love, love Lady Gaga. I also love, love, love the cheesy dance clubs in the Castro. They are bursting with the cutest boys ever who, like you, just want to move to the power of the latest Britney track. There is no ass-grabbing (unless it’s to forcibly move you from between them and some hella hot dude, don’t hate) and if there is any inappropriate grinding, it’s usually your fault. WHAT I’M A LIBERATED WOMAN IT GOES BOTH WAYS NOW.

And with that I present…

Reasons not to trust straight men:
1) John Grisham.
2) They will get you pregnant.
3) Hitler.
4) They lie.
5) They all have the ability to become horrible, hateful, power-hungry rapists in times of war/extreme duress/you didn’t cook their hamburger right I said medium rare, bitch!!!
6) Jim Carrey.

Reasons to trust (and love) gay men:
1) Oscar Wilde.
2) They will help raise your bastard child.
3) Hitler wasn’t gay.
4) They lie, but it’s funny and colorful and usually to make a story more interesting.
5) Rape is most likely consensual and a form of fantasy play!
6) Puppies = the gayest!!!

Great India!

Great India is hot damn delicious! It’s currently my first choice for Northern Indian food in San Francisco. This is because not only is it hot damn delicious, there are many vegan selections (try the Vegetable Sabzi and the Aloo Gobi! Both are exceptional!) and they don’t use ghee (butter) in any of the food! SCORE! The Aloo Paratha (most delectable wheat potato filled bread) was the best I’ve ever had, vegan or not. It’s pretty cheap too, $8.95 gets you one LARGE dish that includes rice or nan. Lots of places do not give you rice or nan with the dish, making you pay extra because they know us assholes will pay for it! But the glorious Great India does not play us like that! I love them! The delivery is slow as fuck so order about an hour and a half before you think you’re gonna be hungry. Bonus because they deliver to the entire city.

Eating in is an awesome experience. First, you gotta find the place. It’s in outer BFE on Geary at 25th Ave. Make sure to eat a lot because you will need the fuel to get the fuck out of the Richmond. Second, the lunch buffet is ONLY $6.45! Super cheap and almost everything is vegan! Woo! Third, the wait staff actually knows what the word vegan means and so there is never any worry about eating something that will make you and your stomach very sad. Fourth, if you eat here once, they will remember you forever. Especially if you’re a girl. Ladies, if you’re ever feeling unattractive, I suggest you get yourself to Great India where you will be treated as the twin sister of Catherine Deneuve! And I’m talking her Belle Du Juor days! Although, current day Catherine Deneuve is still about 100 times hotter than most of the uglies you see showing their ugly mugs in public. For shame, uglies. Anyway, they will lavish you with compliments, free drinks and free snacks and generally do everything short of going downtown. It’s delightful. Once, I ate here with my friend, Mark. When Mark went to go get fifths from the buffet, one of the guys asked me if he was my boyfriend and told me that if he ever mistreated me that they would take him out. Listen, Mark is The Super Gay. But he does mistreat me. Conflict. So I told the guy that I would let him know and then I WARNED MARK THAT HE BETTER TREAT ME RIGHT OR THE INDIAN MAFIA WOULD BE ON HIS ASS.

Man, that was a great day.

(The first photo was found on google image searching “great india”. Great India (the restaurant) didn’t have many pictures on their website so this will have to do. It’s pretty nice, I think.)

Udupi Palace

The first time I went to Udupi Palace, we were a group of eight, and our bill for eight dosas, four (or five) appetizers, and six (or seven) beers was something like $120. That is (hang on, I have to work out the math) $15 per person, for that much food! Incredible. I guess their overhead is lower because they are a vegetarian establishment and do not have to pay for things like the bodies of murdered lambs, which tend to cost more than vegetables and grains. Their dosas are enormous, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and the different fillings are delicious. They have a large selection of vegan tidbits, but look carefully for yogurt sauce, it is a wily foe. The plain coconut chutney is scrumptious, though not very adventurous for the spicy-minded among us. You get two other, spicier chutneys for dipping, so worry not.

My first excursion to Udupi was on a Tuesday night during its first month of business, and by 8 the place was packed. At that point they had a few kinks to work out with service; that said, they certainly were generous with the water, which is very smart & considerate, especially of weaklings like me who can’t handle even moderately spicy food.

I had the Udupi special spring dosa, which came with the standard Mysore Masala filling plus spring vegetables ($7.95). It was delicious, and way too much for me to finish at one meal. One of my dining companions got the spinach masala dosa, which made me want to order next time, it was so good. The fried idli and sambar vada were really, really tasty as well.

My gentleman friend and I stopped in for an early dinner last Sunday, four months after my first trip (eating in is saving money!), and we split a Mysore Masala dosa and an idli, which was plenty of food to carry us through until bedtime. It’s still delicious, and your water glass never stays empty.

In sum, Udupi Palace’s menu is quite superior to its neighbor Dosa’s, and significantly less expensive as well. It is the best South Indian food I have had in the city, and I will definitely eat there again. And again and again. Nuts to you, Dosa, with your overpriced menu and your pushy waitstaff and your upper-class pretensions. Udupi serves the dosa of the overprivileged middle class, and we will have our meal for $3 cheaper, and we will use that $3 to buy an expensive gourmet coffee, which will make us feel guilty for wasting money we could have saved by drinking coffee at home, so when we arrive at our extremely overpriced apartments we can afford because of our low-level white-collar jobs, we will use our computers to donate money to causes like the Yes on 2 campaign because by god we are not overprivileged jerks, we appreciate our ability to buy Indian street food at 500 times its price in India, and we show it by giving some of our wardrobe money to charity! DAMN IT!