Lotsa Leftovers

The Chefs: Elizabeth, Gracias Madre, and Emmy's Restaurant

The Menu: A delightful spinach salad with grated carrots, cherry tomatoes, and avocado, served with sides of refried black beans from Gracias Madre, vegetarian ham fried rice, eggplant with garlic, and salt and pepper tofu from Emmy's.

The Goods: How does one person come into the possesion of so many delicious things to eat? Pure, dumb luck. Well, that and having awesome coworkers, such as one Hilary Pollack, who order too much Chinese food and share the spoils with you. Our publishers leave in the morning on the VegNews Great Adventure to India, so our office has been abuzz with preparations. It's days like today when leftovers really come in handy, especially ones as delectable as these.

Curry Meatless Chicken

The Chefs: Lyndsay and Family Garden Chinese & Japanese Cuisine

The Menu: The Curry Meatless Chicken, which has onion, zucchini, red and green pepper, and rice, in a delicious curry sauce.

 
The Goods: I've been doing a lot of cooking these past couple of weeks, and last night I really needed a break. So I did what any sane person would do, and ordered Chinese from my favorite local spot. I'm never disappointed with their meatless chicken dishes, and I was very happy to not have to lift a finger in the process—unless you consider opening the door for the delivery guy. Once again, after a busy and speedy week at the VNHQ, it's finally Friday. We wish you all a merry weekend!

Leftovers & Fresh Produce

The Chefs: Lyndsay

The Menu: Leftover vegetarian chicken and broccoli, with a side salad of baby greens, cilantro, and Follow Your Heart Vegan Ranch Dressing. Finally, two fresh strawberries for dessert.

The Goods: I've been working out a lot lately, so I'm a fan of big lunches—this one definitely left me satisfied. I ordered food from my favorite local Chinese takeout last Monday, so I wanted to finish it up today. I also received my first produce box from Farm Fresh to You, which I was very excited about, so I included some of the goods in my meal, making a yummy salad and dessert. I really want to use up the entire box and not let anything go to waste, which is why I included cilantro in my salad, because that is one of the things that I usually end up throwing away. Any suggestions for using cilantro? I'd be most grateful!

Buddhist Lunch in Chinatown

 The Bird's Nest at Lucky Creation in San Francisco

Chef: Colleen and Lucky Creation

The Menu: The best wonton soup on the planet; shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, and tofu over noodles; sautéed vegetables over a fried-noodle nest; and an eggplant claypot

The Goods: Of all the veg restaurants in San Francisco, I have been going to Lucky Creation longer than any. Back in the late 90s when I lived in SF's North Beach neighborhood, I would stop by this Buddhist-run, hole-in-the-wall Chinatown vegan eatery for a hot bowl of soup or a plate of vegetables over steamed rice. I could walk out having spent no more than $7, and the food was always fresh and delicious. Fast forward 14 years, I relish any opportunity to eat at Lucky, and, thankfully, it has become my mom and her partner's favorite San Francisco restaurant as well. So, yesterday, when they came up for a visit, we immediately headed to Chinatown for lunch at this veggie institution. On order were all of our favorites, including the most sumptuous bowl of won ton soup (freshly made won ton purses filled with mushrooms, carrots, and water chestnuts in a chrysanthemum flower broth), the "Bird's Nest" (a medley of Chinese mushrooms, broccoli, snap peas, and ginkgo nuts over a fried noodle ring), and my mom's all-time favorite, the #11 (shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and bok choy over noodles). In accordance with Buddhist tradition, no onion or garlic is used at Lucky, but the flavors of the food are so stellar that you don't even think about. Have a great weekend everyone—eat lots of great vegan food!

Lucky's wonton soup, featuring wonton bundles filled with mushrooms, carrots, and water chestnuts

The rich, stewed Eggplant Claypot with tofu and carrots

Vegan Chinese New Year Luncheon

The Chef: Colleen and Wild Pepper

The Menu: A Chinese New Year vegan feast featuring steamed vegetable dumplings, black mushrooms with baby bok choy, Singaporean-style curried rice noodles, Hunan eggplant with tofu, string beans with faux chicken, and brown rice.

The Goods: Gong Xi Fa Cai (Cantonese) or Xin Nian Kuai Le (Mandarin)! Only a few of us speak either of these two primary Chinese languages, but we all want to wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year. To celebrate, we ordered in from local eatery Wild Pepper and enjoyed a veritable feast of sumptuous Chinese dishes. We made sure to have noodles on the menu (which symbolize long life) along with dumplings (good fortune) and green beans (parental longevity). We dined al fresco on our private deck right here in the heart of the Mission District (it's about 70 degrees today), and then Jenn surprised everyone with red envelopes filled with wads of cash (okay, $1, but we're thrilled!). Need more inspiration for your own Chinese New Year celebration? Check out our own Alexandra Chang's enlightening guide to the holiday on VegNews.com. And speaking of future world superpowers, Joseph Connelly and I leave tomorrow for the first VegNews Vacation of 2011—to India! We'll be traveling with 25 subscribers for two weeks and enjoying the incredible sights, sounds, and food of the Indian subcontinent. Cheers!

Delightful Dim Sum

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: An array of yummy dim sum! We served up big bowls of congee—a rice soup with mushrooms, tofu, and spices—and filled our plates with crispy guotie (aka potstickers, these were stuffed with tofu and edamame), savory siu mai, and super-spicy cha sui bao. Faux meat fresh from the Asian market stood in for the traditional animal-based fillings for the siu mai and cha siu bao, and while these may not be the most perfect-looking dumplings anyone's ever seen, they certainly were tasty!

The Goods: In Asia, it's common to eat hot soup on hot days since the added heat helps get the sweat going, which of course cools you down. It's another gorgeously sunny day here in SF, so we thought, why argue with a tasty tradition? Maybe right now you're thinking that come January, you'd really like to have the recipes for all this dim sum for your Chinese New Year party. Maybe you're thinking that it would not anger you to see these recipes in the January+February issue of VegNews. Maybe you should totally make sure to keep an eye out for that issue, because these goodies are only a fraction of the insane eats you'll find in there!

The Extra: Guess what?! We have some very exciting news that warranted a special section on today's entry. In fact, it warranted a whole new blog! That's right, in addition to the, ahem, award-winning blog which you are currently reading, and Press Pass, our after-hours editors' blog, we are thrilled to bring you This Just In. Our brand-new blog chronicles all the insane, amazing, exciting, and sometimes strange loot that gets sent our way for product review. You want to be the first to know about a new vegan cheese? Look no further. Wondering what to load up on candy-wise before Halloween? We might have an idea or two. Since so much comes straight to us, we figure the only way to be fair is to give it straight to you. Well, okay, at least we'll blog about it right away for you. Now that you know about it, go check out This Just In, and tell us what you think!