Columbus Vegan

... well, vegan dogs at least. I wanted to create some hot dogs that you will probably never find as a vegan, or a meat eater. I hate the cheeky naming of food, but it seems to be hot dog culture so, I give you "The Reubenio" and "The Gambit". "The Reubenio" is a Mexican-styled, Reuben fusion dog topped with a Mexican thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, chopped red onion, and avocado slices. "The Gambit" is a southern, creole dog with cornmeal crusted onions fried in vegetable oil with a creole cream sauce.

I hate soggy, crappy buns so I got some fluffy, thick whole wheat buns and toasted them slightly. We also bought some chipotle dogs from Whole Foods. They aren't rubbery at all like other vegan dogs. They were hardy and when cooked right, get a delicious crispiness on the outside.

Lessner's new bar/restaurant opened last Wednesday in downtown Columbus. Inspired by hot dog stands [[and Ronald McDonald, it seemed]], the restaurant is meant to be a place where you sit and drink and order specialty dogs. The layout is very family, a collage of framed images -- Frank's featuring a small wall of cop photos as well as local artists' paintings [[including a saddening image of MJ]].

While the name of the restaurant is less than appetizing, Dirty Frank's menu as a vegetarian or meat eater is enticing and imaginative-- from sriracha cream cheeses to chutney dogs to taziki Greek dogs. The best part? She has 3, completely vegan, hot dogs to choose from: a polish sausage, a brat, and a dog. In spite of efforts to create a vegan accesible menu, you'll find that most of the items labeled "can be made vegan" are really just vegan because you remove all the toppings. For instance, the "Classy Lady" is topped with cheesy sauce and potato chips. Make it vegan, it's just a dog with potato chips on top. Or, the "True Love Always" is topped with cream cheese and olives. Make it vegan, it's just olives.

There are a couple other options that seem veggie geared like the "Chicago" or "Ohioana" loaded with veggies and great vegan flavors [[jalapenos, mustard, celery salt]]. But while you're eating your veggie loaded dog, you'll sit longing for the cream cheesy goodness.

Be careful, too, and double check stuff that sound vegan. The sriracha slaw has mayo in it. Also, the "Bollywood" dog, when we went on Friday, was labeled "can be made vegan" however there was fish oil in the sauce. Thanks to our awesome waitress who double checked, we ended up not trying that one. [[Although, Lessner has confirmed that they have since removed the fish oil.]]

I will say that the polish dog is out of this world. And I very much enjoyed the "Beano" with no cheese. I wish they were more inspired with the buns -- they only offer an all white poppyseed bun that doesn't seem to match all the flavors on the menu.

I ultimately left there inspired to make my own dogs. I don't think Dirty Frank's is anything to drive 25 minutes out of my way for, but if I'm down there, and looking for cheap drunchies [[3$ a dog!]], I'd go. And even though the vegan options are uninspired, Frank's is lucky to be in a world where they are seldom available.

Tomatillos are one of those things I always mean to try but never do. I finally saw them in the grocery store [[Kroger, for those in Columbus looking for some]] and I had to try them out. I suppose next time I should try something more creative than a salsa verde but I had to take a stab at it myself. Besides, I was really craving that tangy goodness.

I decided to make a tofu wrap. Whenever I used to make tofu burritos, Andrew's brother would complain that the tofu is too soft and doesn't really work well texture-wise. In a lot of ways, I agree. It's important to contrast textures in a burrito. Mushy tofu with mushy guacamole, while delicious, is too soft. So I baked the tofu and broiled it so it was both crispy and chewy. Topped it with some salsa verde and it was perfect.

I'm starting to think I have a crazy addiction to things in wraps. I've always loved burritos and it's a strange situation when you meet someone who doesn't like avocado/guacamole. I should open a wrap stand, or something.


[[Salsa Verde]]
I don't have a picture of this for one reason. I used a red onion, because I forgot to buy a white one, and it came out looking purple. But if you do it right, it should come out a pretty green. You can see a little purple in the picture above if you look closely.

4 tomatillos
1/2 WHITE onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 chopped cilantro
6-8 pickled jalapenos, chopped
a squirt of lime juice
1/2 tsp raw sugar

-- Remove paper husks from the tomatillos and cut in half. Turn your broiler on high. Place halved tomatillos on a cookie shit lined with tinfoil and roast until skim blisters. See photo aboved.
-- Remove blistered skin from tomatillos. Place those and all ingredients in a blender and blend until fully combined.
-- Chill before serving.

[[Chewy Baked Tofu]]
I don't really have an exact recipe for this. But I'll do my best to explain how to recreate it.

tiny, cubed tofu
nutritional yeast
whole wheat flour
cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle powder, salt, pepper
grapeseed oil

-- Wrap tofu in paper towels or a cheesecloth and cover with a heavy object. Press for about an hour.
-- Preheat the oven to 375 F
-- Lightly dust the cubed tofu with whole wheat flour until fully coated. Then do the same with the nutritional yeast. Obviously you'll be using a little less nutritional yeast since the tofu should already be pretty well coated with flour.
-- Then lightly dust with seasoning. Go light on the salt and pepper. You just want a trickle of flavor on each piece, so try not to over season.
-- Line the bottom of a baking dish with about 2 tbs grapeseed oil. Add tofu and cook in oven about 45 minutes. Half way through cooking, flip the tofu, mix it up a bit, so the other side gets golden. Then for the last minute of cooking, turn the broiler on low.

-- I put the tofu in a whole wheat wrap and topped it with salsa verde, avocado slices, lightly sauteed spinach with red pepper, hot sauce, and a little tofutti sour cream. It was off the chain.

I have a lot of issues with my feet. I'm a little more than 5'6'' and they're a whopping size 10. Most of the time when I go to the size 10 section, the options are slim. All of a sudden the cute stuff I saw on the size 7 rack has been relinquished to bright pink rhinestone heels and strange assortments of wedding shoes. Now that I'm vegan, I'll often see a pair of shoes that I love and then quickly realize they're made out of leather. And since the size 10 rack is bad enough, I'm pretty much out of options at that point. Even when I find pleather shoes, if they're closed toe, it's a no-go. I'm slightly ashamed to share with you all that pleather makes my feet sweat. And when they sweat, my shoes become horrendously smelly and completely unwearable. I think it's safe to say I have major shoe issues.

Recently, I wrote a post about Olsen Haus and how awesome her shoes are but how I couldn't bring myself to buy them. And as much as I love what she's doing, I'm glad I didn't. Payless has an eco, vegan line called Zoe & Zac that's really adorable, cheap, and doesn't make my feet sweat.

You should definitely check out this line. Their shoes are made of organic cottons [[which thankfully, breath well, heh]], 20% recycled rubber, and nickle-free metal and hemp. I'm a huge fan of the ballet flat [[at my height wearing heels makes me feel like a giant]] -- which is usually made of leather or pleather, all bad things for me. This weekend I picked up their cotton black flats, the Snapdragon Ballet, for 10 dollars. They also have some cool wedges and interesting sandals, along with a line of accessories.

A lot of people are concerned about the hidden ecological costs of these shoes. Importing these shoes from China isn't great for the environment, true. And the fact that they can charge 10 dollars for these doesn't speak well for the manufacturing conditions. To this I say, I do what I can. I'll buy American when financially able, but until then I have to settle for the lesser of the evils.

This is my "I'm sorry, let me bust out the most awesome meal ever" lunch wrap. I got short with Andrew on Friday and I felt bad, so while he was napping I tried to think of the most deliciously decadent wrap ever. This wrap is loaded with great stuff - a basil cream, roasted roma tomatoes, sauteed baby bellas, red onions, and cornmeal fried tofu. The result is a sweet and savory combination of flavors with a hint of garlic and basil.

If you've never roasted tomatoes at home, you should definitely try it. Your house will smell like garlic-y, basil-y goodness. They're also one of the simplest ways to make something instantly beautiful and fancy looking.

[[Basil Roasted Roma Tomatoes]]
This is enough for 2 wraps. You can also serve these as an appetizer. If you wanted to get crazy, when they're done roasting, grate some Follow Your Heart Mozzarella and leave under a low broiler for about 2 minutes.

one roma tomato, in 5 slices
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs dried basil
2-3 gloves of garlic, minced or pressed
a dash of salt

-- Preheat the oven to 300 F
-- Slice roma into 4-5 thin slices and place on a baking sheet
-- Coat each slice with olive oil, front and back
-- Season with garlic, basil, and salt
-- Roast in oven for about 15-20 minutes. They should look slightly withered and be sizzling.