Fat Bottom Bakery Mac 'n' Cheese

The Chefs: Carolynn and Ashley from Fat Bottom Bakery

The Menu: A mighty good mac 'n' cheese. In fact, this is the very same recipe which garnered our guests second place in the SF Food Wars mac 'n' cheese competition, when they battled both vegan and pork-laden versions of the homey favorite. Our beloved Laura Beck of VegWeb fame brought some radically roasted Brussels sprouts, and we whipped up a salad. Oh, and maybe Carolynn and Ashley also brought us some cupcakes:

Yeah, what you're seeing there are coconut, red velvet, and carrot cake cupcakes. The one with pink dinosaur sprinkles was for Laura, obviously.

The Goods: Today's lunch might just have been one for the record books it was so delightful and delectable. Here's the team—very, very full of mac 'n' cheese and cupcakes at this point. These darling bakers are welcome back any time, and you can sample their wares at the next SF Vegan Bakesale!

Match Meat Monday

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: Myriad Match meats, a line of new, plant-based meat alternatives. Lyndsay took advantage of a recent shipment of products for us to try, and served up a trio of Match Foods' latest offerings. Starting at six o'clock on the plate, you see a lovely Italian-sausage infused marinara, tossed with a brown-rice ziti. Moving clockwise, we had a savory, stuffed chicken-style entrée, then a fish-free crab-cake, and finally a gorgeous green salad.

The Goods: To balance out the savory with some sweets, we had the pleasure of dining with Yvonne Smith, aka The Traveling Vegetarian, and Michelle Taylor, creator of Vegan Break. These two lovely ladies were sweet enough themselves, but they decided to go way beyond the call of duty and spoil us with dessert, which included chocolate cupcakes from Whole Foods, cookies from Peet's, and two pints of Maggie Mudd's Mudslingers Freestyle. Yeah. About that. We might be in sugar-induced comas under our desks right now, and totally happy about it. Check out the sweet splendor below, and feel free to remind us to eat vegetables!

Yellow Curry and Yummy Cupcakes

The Chef: Charlotte

The Menu: A satisfying meal of homemade yellow curry and rice. Today's plate is deceptively simple-looking: this curry was utterly rich and very flavorful. It wasn't just the curry itself that was yellow, but pretty much all the veggies kept up the flaxen theme. Yukon gold potatoes, baby corn, wax beans, and tomatoes (just for their pop of red, of course) swam in a decadent coconut-milk broth.

The Goods: As if lunch hadn't been indulgent enough, we ate the world's fanciest cupcakes for dessert. Tessa Strauss of Cookies and Candids stopped by for lunch with her charming friend Julie, and brought with her what were easily the best cupcakes we've had all year. No joke, these things were incredible, as you can see below. On the left, you see her amazing champagne cupcake with white-chocolate icing and fancy, sparkly sprinkles. On the right, um, maybe that's a chocolate-almond masterpiece topped with a layer of marzipan (eeek!), chocolate-almond frosting, and a feverish chocolate swirl for flair. Um, dead. Dead is what we are. Gosh, you say, these sweets must have certainly maxed out your capacity for eating awesome vegan things. That, friends, is where you would be wrong. Ms. Laura Beck, whom you know and love, brought in homemade caramelized-banana ice cream. Did we mention that we are dead? It's a fact. Go forth, and be sugary.

Cinco de Thai-o

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: Why, the traditional Cinco de Mayo lunchtime favorite, Thai curry noodles! OK, you called our bluff. Thai curry noodles are not typically thought of as a Cinco de Mayo meal, but that didn't stop us from gobbling down these coconut milk and cilantro-spiked rice noodles in a festive manner. And, while Thai and Mexican food are clearly from opposite sides of the globe, they are both surprisingly enhanced by healthy doses of chili sauce. We also enjoyed some of the leftovers from yesterday's potato salad mixed in with spring greens, spinach, grated carrot, and sunflower seeds. Now if only we could rustle up some lychee margaritas ...

The Goods: Nothing really completes a Thai-Mexican fiesta like chocolate and coconut Ho Ho cupcakes from Watercourse Foods. Too bad they're based all the way in Denver. Luckily Publisher Joseph Connelly arrived back from that very city, bearing those very cupcakes, late yesterday afternoon. These little puppies–chocolate cake covered with rich coconut frosting and stuffed with vanilla filling–were so rich that we split one of them amongst the entire staff. If all this talk of cupcakes is making your mouth water for sweet treats, be sure to snatch up one of the few remaining tickets to our Urban Dessert Soirée with adorable Ani Phyo.