Tacos, Part Deux

The Chefs: Anna and Taqueria Cancun

The Menu: Rice and bean tacos (one black, one pinto) topped with salsa and avocado, plus a heaping handful of tortilla chips

The Dish: I've been craving tacos ever since since last week's taco-filled celebration of the 1,000th Café VegNews post, and I'm happy to have caved into my craving. These tacos are totally delicious and super cheap to boot—I got everything for less than $5! After a weekend of rain and temps in the 40s, the sunny 60s have returned to the City by the Bay, so I enjoyed my delicious, cheap meal on the deck with my coworkers, where we discussed ways to make our dollars stretch at our favorite neighborhood lunch spots. Want more money-saving tips from the VN editors? Check out Savvy Vegan, our blog for smart vegan penny pinchers.

Tofu Scramble

The Chef: Joni and Boogaloos

The Dish: Tofu scramble with peanut-ginger sauce, crispy home fries, sourdough toast, and orange juice

 
The Goods: Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig and I headed over to Boogaloos for brunch. This little diner reminded me of my hometown of Saugerties, NY, where 24-hour diners are sometimes the only place to hang out with friends late at night. I’ll be heading back to upstate NY for the holidays to visit my family. Can you believe the holiday season is coming up so quickly? In fact, Halloween is Monday! Get the inside scoop on all the best vegan Halloween candy via the handy VegNews guide.

Pizza Party

The Chefs: Joni, Colleen, the VegNews staff, and Patxi’s Chicago Pizza 

The Menu: Fresh green salad with ripe avocado and cherry tomatoes, and sinfully delicious vegan pizza from Patxi’s made with spinach, crushed garlic, red onions, and Daiya cheese on a whole-wheat crust.

The Goods: Colleen decided to throw a pizza party at the VNHQ (thanks, Colleen!), since most of the staff is embarking to Portland this afternoon for the Vida Vegan Blogger Conference. They will spend the weekend getting to know the world’s best vegan bloggers and gorging on Portland’s outrageously delicious vegan food (Portobello Vegan Tarttoria, anyone?). On the other hand, I will be here in San Francisco, dreaming of sunny Portland and all it’s culinary delights, as I schlep box after box into my new apartment this weekend. Now to continue working through this pizza-induced food coma…

Masala Dosa

The Chefs: Joni and Udupi Palace

The Menu: Crispy masala dosa filled with spiced potatoes and onions, steamy sambar (lentil-onion soup), and three kinds of chutney—savory coconut, seasoned tomato, and zesty ginger.

The Goods: Nothing inspires fantasies of travel to exotic, sunny locations more than grey San Francisco mornings. Since the vacation had to fit within my hour-long lunch, travel to India via feasting on a masala dosa at Udupi Palace was the next best thing! Besides, with such a busy and exciting week here at the VNHQ as we finish up the September+October issue of VegNews, not even lousy weather could tempt me to actually leave town. We’ve also got a Twitter chat with four amazing farm sanctuaries tonight at 9PM ET/ 6PM PT. But at the VNHQ, when we work hard, we play harder, and I can’t wait for summery cocktails at this month’s Vegan Drinks Night at Martuni’s this Thursday at 6PM. 

Vegans Love Salad

The Chef: Jennifer and Herbivore

The Menu: Marinated kale salad with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and crispy soy chicken. For dessert, a deliciously sweet Saturn peach.

The Goods: It's almost six months ago that I started working at VegNews and these are three things that have changed about my life (besides, the killer job). 1. I freaking love raw kale salads, hence the lunch today. 2. I actually enjoy green juice and seek it out. 3. I now own a juicer. VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria always tops her Herbivore kale salad with avocado and soy chicken and it's the best thing I've ever had. Am I losing my New Yorker cred by admitting that I love San Francisco just as much as kale salad? Don't make me choose. If you're visiting SF this weekend for Pride Weekend or planning a visit in the near future, you've got to use our Local Vegan Guide to San Francisco. If not just for the food recommendations (deep-dish pizza, mochi, burritos!), it's a perfect list for a perfect city. I still love you New York!

Picnic Party

The Chef: Lyndsay, with the help of Jennifer and Frankie

The Menu: Frankie's homemade ribs, with a side of roasted potatoes and beets (per Jennifer), and Abby's Biscuits, which I had the pleasure of baking this morning.

The Goods: So it's officially summer in San Francisco—at least for the time being—and when I say summer, I mean hot! San Franciscans are actually not used to this type of heat, and even though it may be a little much for me, most of the VN staff are enjoying it. We received some of Frankie's fantastic vegan ribs earlier last week, and we couldn't wait to bust them out. VegNews Associate Editor Jennifer Chen had the wonderful idea of doing a picnic, so we all pitched in with the goods, and made our way to Dolores Park to eat, and to enjoy the sun for at least a little while. We finished our lunch with some cold, fresh-fruit popsicles from Power of Fruit, and they definitely helped to stave off the heat. We're looking forward to a gorgeous week!

Sweet Potato and Salad

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A big ol' salad with kale, romaine, Field Roast sausage, and red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, plus a baked sweet potato slathered with Earth Balance.

The Goods: Yes, this is a pretty enormous lunch, and yes, it was fantastic. My love for salad is well documented on this blog, but today I wanted a little something extra to go along with it. Enter, the sweet potato. I think that if I hadn't been a lazy chump today and had added avocado to this salad, that I could eat this meal for the rest of my life, wherever that ends up being. My life is currently (no surprise!) in San Francisco, which happens to be a great town to play tourist in, even if you already live here. Check out a San Francisco staycation over on Press Pass.

Cereal and Emergen-C

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: Shredded wheat with soymilk, and a glass of Emergen-C on the side.

The Goods: It's a gorgeous week (finally!) in the SF Bay area, but unfortunately, I've been sick for the past several days, which is a real bummer. So I am working from home. However, my cupboards are also bare, so this is my "Feel better" lunch. You may be asking, "Where's the soup?" Well, in my opinion, it's just too hot for soup, so I decided on a cold bowl of shredded wheat and some Emergen-C—I'm hoping the boost of vitamin C will help me feel at least a little better. So yes, I will be going grocery shopping once I'm done being sick, and I'm hoping my next meal is bit more exciting than this one. Speaking of exciting, don't forget about the Matt & Nat giveaway being featured on VegNews.com!

Vegan South Indian Food

The Chef: Alexandra and Udupi Palace

The Menu: A mixed vegetable uthappam (rice and lentil pancake) with chutney and three amazing dipping sauces.

The Goods: We're back from Expo West 2011, and though it was hugely successful and bigger than I ever imagined, it's great to be back in foggy San Francisco. After spending a weekend munching on snack bars, chocolate, ice cream, mini quesadillas, pizzas, and burgers, I wanted one nice hearty meal to enjoy. Office Manager Lyndsay and I walked over to Udupi Palace, one of my favorite Indian restaurants in the city. The servings are huge, the service is super friendly, and there's nothing quite like a restaurant that makes you feel like it's night when it's day (hence the dimly-lit photo). Now it's time to go through all the amazing new products we scoped out this weekend! Jealous that we scored so much? Then enter in this week's giveaway to win something for yourself—a $100 shopping spree at MooShoes.

Shawarma and Salad

The Chef: Lyndsay and Herbivore

The Menu: A delicious shawarma wrap with soy chicken, seasoned onions, tomatoes, hummus, pickles, tahini, avocado, and a small salad on the side

The Goods: So yes, this shawarma is half-eaten, and the only excuse I can make is that I forgot the camera when leaving for lunch. Editorial Assistant Gabrielle Pope and I went to Herbivore this afternoon with gift certificates in hand—let's just say that we were on the winning team at the World Vegetarian Festival Weekend for selling the most subscriptions. And let me tell you, working so hard definitely paid off with this delicious wrap, which came highly recommended from other VN staffers.

Jay's Cheesesteak

The Chef: Gabrielle and Jay's Cheesesteak

The Menu: A scrumptious sandwich stuffed with seitan, veggies, garlic spread, and hot peppers, all on a fresh baguette, and washed down with a refreshing raspberry kombucha.

The Goods: Today marks the first ever Café VegNews from our new offices in San Francisco's Mission district, so I thought it only right to continue the celebration that began this morning with mimosas and a fruit platter. Before I get on to the food, can I just say how unbelievably psyched we are to be in our gorgeous new space? Our spacious and sunny offices are stunning, and the Mission district is an appropriately vegan-friendly haven full of delicious food offerings. Since office manager Lyndsay Orwig and I both have boyfriends name Jay (though, fortunately not the same one), we headed to Jay's Cheesesteak for insanely delicious seitan sandwiches. I honestly don't know how I'll be able to get through every day without visiting Jay's, but at least I'll have a visit with my own Jay this weekend when he comes to help out at the VegNews booth at the 11th Annual San Francisco World Veg Festival weekend. Hope to see you there!

Tortilla Soup, Kale Salad

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: A spicy, zesty bowl of Dr. McDougall's Tortilla Soup complete with baked tortilla chips, corn, brown rice, garlic, pinto beans, and carrots served alongside a fresh kale salad.

The Goods: Nothing perks up an overcast, foggy San Francisco day more than a classic soup-and-salad combo. Today's pairing was especially satisfying, as it included my favorite leafy green: kale! Usually I prefer my kale dressed with a mixture or Braggs Amino Acids and nutritional yeast, but with none on-hand I improvised with reduced-sodium soy sauce and black pepper, which seemed to do the trick.

Cheesy Quesadillas!

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A phenomenal South-of-the-border spread including homemade tofu cheese quesadillas with a savory side of flavorful basmati rice topped with seasoned black beans and slices of fresh avocado. Elizabeth balanced our hearty lunch with a light, crisp mixed greens salad including mushroom, avocado, bell pepper, and tomato.

The Goods: Summer is here! Okay, admittedly, it's been summer for quite some time, but our generally cloudy City by the Bay has recently experienced an unusually sunny spurt of weather, and we're not complaining about it. We absolutely love dining al fresco, so soaking up some rays while noshing on tasty quesadillas pretty much made our day. In fact, if you need us, we'll be working from the beach for the rest of the afternoon. And by working, we mean working on our tans.

Indian Eats

The Chef: Joseph

The Menu: A spread of Indian-inspired delights including fragrant, slow-cooked five-spice rice mixed with peas paired with a satisfying stir-fry of zucchini, carrot, and punjab eggplant marinated in a spicy, flavorful sesame seed sauce. Joseph rounded out the meal by serving up a simple spinach salad topped with a savory, saucy dressing.

The Goods: It's Friday! Yay! We're not sure if you're big fans of the weekend, but for us, Saturdays are pretty much akin to Christmas morning. This weekend, half the VN staff is happily working over—not for—the weekend Saturday and Sunday at the second-annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival here in semi-sunny San Francisco. The stacked line-up features a handful of fantastic veg musicians, from punk rockers Social Distortion to indie darlings My Morning Jacket, and we can't wait to revel in all the festival fun. We're also looking forward to all the tasty, local vegan eats available at the event, ranging from veggie burgers to gluten-free vegan sandwiches and vegan sausages. Yeah, not bad. Come Monday, we'll be sure to report on all the Outside Lands fun on Press Pass.

Vegan Cürrywurst

The Chef: King of Cürrywurst

The Menu: A delicious, hearty meat-free take on Germany's legendary street cart cuisine, cürrywurst; a sliced vegan sausage slathered in a rich, tangy curry-tomato sauce. Our veganized currywurst was paired with a fluffy bread roll—called a brötchen—for dipping in the super savory sauce.

The Goods: Today's lunch was fantastic for a variety of reasons. First, we never complain when vegan companies such as San Francisco-based catering company King of Cürrywurst offer to cater our staff lunch. Second, we never complain when said companies bring to-die-for vegan sausage covered in spicy sauce. Third, well, that pretty much sums it up. We loved the fresh, zesty kick of the perfectly seasoned curry tomato sauce, and would definitely order this veganized version of the German standard from a SF street cart. Ideally, we will be doing so in the very near future. Currently, King of Cürrywurst is serving its meat-free fare at the SF Underground Farmers' Market.

Tuna-less Sandwiches

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Tuna-less sandwiches made with chickpeas, red onion, garlic, vegan mayonnaise, and seasonings situated between slices of tomato and avocado on a slightly toasted bun. Elizabeth balanced this hearty meal with a light, fresh kale salad which included cabbage, tomato, and puréed mushroom, carrot, and onion, and prepared a simmering side of garlicky basmati rice to top it all off.

The Goods: We love a good, meat-free sandwich here at the VNHQ, and these tasty, satisfying tuna-less sandwiches were no exception. We are also huge fans of crunchy kale salad, so Elizabeth pretty much made our day with this great, green side. Over our delightful lunch we chatted about our weekends, how awesome it is that Bob Harper has gone vegan, and how excited we are to see Skin Trade, a new film from vegan director Shannon Keith exploring the cruel practices of the fur industry, tonight at its San Francisco premiere. It's a busy week for vegan filmmakers, as the world premiere of feature film Bold Native screens tomorrow in Los Angeles.

Burrito Bonanza

The Chef: El Burrito Express

The Menu: Freshly made, perfectly wrapped burritos filled with black beans, guacamole, rice, and veggies stuffed into slightly warm whole wheat tortillas. Did we also snack on a delicious side of chips and salsa? That would be a "heck yes."

The Goods: After many months of writing, editing, designing, and then editing some more, we've come to the final step before sending out July+August Anniversary issue to press: proofs day! And while we rarely outsource lunch here at the VNHQ, it is tradition to order El Burrito Express on proof day to minimize stress and maximize burrito eating in the office. We love these hearty, hit-the-spot burritos from our favorite local taqueria, and our appetites for burritos skyrocketed after hearing yesterday that Chipotle have expanded its vegan garden blend meat alternative in Southern California. We're thrilled to see people embracing the burrito chain's vegan option. In addition to a day full of editing and eating, we're also excited to choose two winners at 5pm PST for our latest Twitter giveaway—five pounds of Daiya cheese! Haven't entered yet? It's as simple as retweeting VN before 5pm! In the meantime, if you need us, we'll be editing proofs, pretending to wait patiently for garden blend to arrive in San Francisco, and trying not to keep all this Daiya cheese to ourselves.

White Soup and Crackers

The Chef: Chas

The Menu: A light, refreshing white soup filled with cannellini beans, snap peas, kale, Yukon gold potatoes, onions, garlic, zucchini, taragon, thyme, and oregano served with stone ground crackers for complementary soup dipping. Chas paired this satisfying soup and crackers combo with a super green salad made of mixed greens, celery, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrot, chickpeas, onion, and avocado tossed in a rice vinegar dressing. 

The Goods: Having Chas volunteer as VN Chef Extraordinaire is a little bit like living inside a soup and salad bistro—except legal and 10 times better. We're big fans of soups of all stripes, and this wholesome, hearty white soup was no exception. We're also big fans of dipping crackers into soup, making this all around perfect lunch as fun as it was tasty. In addition to sharing a fun, tasty lunch together, the entire VN staff also gets to indulge in a gourmet, five-course themed dinner tonight. Every spring Millennium Restaurant in downtown San Francisco hosts its annual Southern Comfort Dinner, a celebration of deep-fried, stick-to-your-ribs standards including everything from corn dogs to buckets of beer and mint juleps. Don't worry, we'll report back with full details for those of you who can't make it to this sumptuous shindig. 

Italian Overload

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: A ton of tasty Italian treats! Liz was ready to feed an army today, and we thoroughly enjoyed her efforts. First up, Liz prepared Caesar's gnocchi with Lucini marinara, which was a delicious pairing. Then an Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza came into play, along with some roasted potatoes and carrots with rosemary. Finally, a huge romaine salad with avocado, celery, and cherry tomatoes finished off the plate.

The Goods: Yes, this was a lot of food, and that's just what we needed to power us through the last day of this week. Here's hoping that everyone has enjoyed our publishers' virtual tour of vegan New York City on Facebook as they'll be back in boring ol' SF next week. Oh wait, we mean totally awesome SF!

Mac 'n' Three Cheeses

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: Oh, that would be a little macaroni and a ton of cheese! Lyndsay deviated from our regular VN Mac 'n' Cheese recipe and created this delicious dish with a blend of cheddar Teese, Daiya, and We Can't Say It's Cheese. Yes, all three of our favorite vegan cheeses together in one dish. Yes, it was epic. Yes, there was also salad, but you really make friends with vegan mac 'n' cheese.

The Goods: Since today is the first official Meat-Free Monday in San Francisco, we thought we'd have something highly delicious for lunch. This dish totally fit the bill, and we couldn't have celebrated in higher style.