Boston Vegetarian Society Dinner Out - Pulse Cafe Somerville, Ma

So I started a new job this week so my Cookbook Challenge cooking has taken a slight hit, but I'll be back at it tomorrow since I made some awesome food tonight. In the meantime read on to hear about my experience at The Pulse Cafe in Davis Square Wednesday night...

I have never been to The Pulse Cafe but have always wanted to try it and what better excuse than with The Boston Vegetarian Society? Especially since they have rolled out a new diner style menu. If you have never been, Pulse's menu is 100% vegan and 75% organic. And it's just a short walk from The Davis Square stop on the red line.

Typically at BVS events it is group seating, basically wherever there is a spot or two open at a table, you grab it. You meet some really interesting and awesome people that way making the vegan community even better than it already is! My brother's girlfriend came into the city to meet up with me for this dinner and we sat with a really cool couple, Adam and Sierra. They coincidentally also know a PPK friend of mine. We only learned this because Emily's(my ppk friend) boyfriend happened to be going to Pulse for dinner when she mentioned I would be there and to look on her facebook to see my pics and find me. He did! I went back to the table after talking with him and told them about my conversation with him, they realized they know her too. Small world. Did I already mention how awesome the vegan community is?!We all got along right off the bat and since we were all having a hard time figuring out what to order for apps, we decided to order 4 and split them. I am really glad we did because we got some delicious diner style food to fill our bellies! 

The pics didn't come out great, or even that good because the lighting was really poor but I'm starting to look into a more fancy digital SLR type camera. I love my point and shoot but for food photography it's not really cutting it. Moving on.

First up was the Buffalo Tofu Bites. Little cubes of perfectly fried little tofu squares tossed with hot sauce with a side of Chunky Miso Dressing. I have no idea what was in said dressing but it was different, but amazing.

Next up were the Onion Rings served with a Chipotle Aioli. I can't remember the last time I had onion rings but these definitely reminded me what I have been missing out on. They were crispy and greasy, just like a good onion ring should be.

We also got Nachos which were equally as yummy as the other dishes. The tortillas were topped with a 2 bean chili, cashew cheese, salsa, tons of jalapenos and sour creme. We also had them add guac which obviously always makes nachos better but I wish I had remembered to focus more on tasting the cashew cheese. The gauc sucked me into all of its creamy green goodness.

 

Last, but definitely not least for appetizers was the Chili Cheese Fries. I have heard a lot about these and that was the only thing I knew I wanted walking into the restaurant. The fries were smothered in the same 3 bean chili from the nachos and tons of cashew cheese. Luckily there was no guac to distract me from the luscious cheese this time! These will definitely be ordered every time I return to Pulse.

I really don't know how we managed to eat anything after the mountain of appetizers we ordered but we did. Adam and I both ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger while Gillian and Sierra both ordered the Philly Cheese Steak.

I don't really know how to describe the cheeseburger. It was topped with tempeh bacon and tons of melted chedder daiya which are two things that can make almost anything taste good. The burger was good. Different but good. When I bit into it and looked at the inside it had a redness similar to what you would see if you bit into a rare meat burger. Sometimes I have a problem with faux meats seeming too much like the real thing in certain ways that I can't stomach it(Tofurkey Deli Slices for example) so while the redness threw me off, I was at a vegan restaurant so there was no cause for alarm. I have no idea what the burger is made from but I can only assume the coloring came from beets or red beans(again it was pretty dark in there). Overall, I enjoyed the burger but am definitely looking forward to trying other items on the menu. There was so much cheese on the burger I couldn't really get a picture of the patty.

The Philly Cheese Steak was filled with shredded seitan, peppers and onions and smothered in melted cheddar and mozzarella and the sub roll was smeared with a garlic aioli. This sub was so mouthwateringly good that I didn't want to give it back to Gillian.

We didn't stop there though. We couldn't leave without trying dessert. Vegan donuts? Heck yes! We really had our heart set on the ice cream sandwich but they had run out just before we tried to order them. The donuts had an orange flavored glaze on them, which at first taste I did not like. I am not a fan of anything citrus flavored when it comes to sweets but when I actually bit into the donut instead of just tasting the glaze with my finger, I fell in love. The glaze paired so perfectly with the slight crispiness the outside of the donut had(like any good donuts) and the light but similar to fried dough insides. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take a picture before we inhaled them. We all left Pulse with extremely full bellies and full wallets because the pricing is really cheap. I can't wait for the next BVS event!

Tomorrow I will be back to my regular Cookbook Challenge cooking and posting so come back!

An Homage to Root Vegetables.

 Ok, so I clearly sucked at Mofo. I lost my steam, got busy, got sick and just got lazy. Next year I will definitely be more prepared. And motivated. I still have TONS of back reading to do on the MOFO blogs. The short time I did participate was really great though, I got to read a million new blogs, chat with some really amazing and talented bloggers, got some new readers and bookmarked some really great recipe ideas that I am excited to try out in the weeks and months to come.

I really am going to make more of an effort to keep up with consistently blogging because it is my baby. I love it, but I have definitely been neglecting it. Instead of feeling guilty and not doing anything about it, here I am. I'm back and I'm not going away again!

Moving on...

I love the Boston Vegetarian Society. This is not my first blog post about an event I've attended and it will certainly not be the last! It really is a great group aiming to promote a vegetarian way of life(all of the events I have been to have been all vegan.) They organize tons of events at local vegetarian and vegan restaurants, have monthly speakers, cooking classes, holiday outings and more. They are also the group that organizes the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. It's really great to see such a diverse community of vegetarians and vegans gathering to enjoy one of the things we are most passionate about, food.

Last night's dinner was being held at Veggie Planet, a really great veg restaurant in Harvard Square. I met up with my lovely mother and brother's girlfriend(both vegetarians, yay! Gillian is part of the reason I ended up going veg myself. More on that in another post.) and took the subway to Harvard Square. When we walked up the steps to the street and I felt the first snow flakes of the season gently falling down I experienced the same excitement that kids do when they wake up to so much snow that school gets canceled. I love snow but I can't remember ever feeling like I did tonight. In the crowd of bustling people I enthusiastically exclaimed, "It's snowing!" to which a random person with equal enthusiasm replied, "It is!" I literally did a little jump, threw my arms up in the air and shouted "It's Christmas time!!" Ha. There is something about being in Boston during a light, beautiful snowfall that I can't explain, but love. Sadly the snow stopped during dinner and there was no evidence of it ever occurring as we walked back to the train.

On to the food...

They weren't serving their normal menu(which I love), instead it was an all vegan Homage to Root Vegetables. It was a 4 course prixe-fixe menu all featuring a root vegetable as the main ingredient. The first course was Four Onion Soup with Olive Compote Crostini. I don't know how to describe the soup without sounding confusing but it was a very light soup with very few ingredients yet very hearty, if that's possible? It also had a slight tang to it that I can't figure out but it was a great flavor. On top of the soup was the crostini. It was perfectly toasted and piled with the olive compote with almonds. The mixture of the soft, salty olives with the crunchy almonds was amazing. After sitting on top of the steaming soup for a few minutes the crostini went from perfectly toasted to perfectly chewy, they way a good piece of bread should be in soup. I could have had have definitely had another bowl or two...

The second course was Roasted Fennel and Golden Beets with Roasted Garlic Dressing and Mixed Greens. Wow. I love beets so much but have never had golden ones, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know if they would taste the exactly like red beets or something completely different. I am very happy to say that they taste just like the red ones, but without all the red staining! Fennel on the other hand, until this plate, I could have gone the rest of my life without having it ever again and been happy. I hate licorice and everything that has even the slightest licorice taste to it but the fennel in this dish was great. It didn't have the flavor I was expecting, and that is a good thing. I am going to give fennel another chance. They were both roasted perfectly and slightly warm on a bed of mixed greens.
 

 The third course was supposed to be Baked Potato Gnocchi with Cashew Sour Cream Sauce, Chives and Fried Crimini Mushrooms. I say 'supposed to be' because the chef had come out to announce there was a problem with the gnocchi when they dropped it in the water, it was falling apart so they had to toss it out. Luckily they did have whole wheat macaroni elbows so they cooked those up and tossed them with the cashew sauce, chives and topped with the mushrooms. The sauce was nice and thick, it clung perfectly to each elbow. It also had this citrus-y background flavor and while we couldn't figure out what it was(I'm assuming lemon) it added the perfect amount of zest to the sauce and made it feel a little lighter. We all agreed that even though it was delicious, and quite possibly one of my personal favorites of the night, we were glad it was only a small serving. Otherwise, we could have, and probably would have eaten mountains of it.

 

 The last course was Sweet Potato Pie with Brown Sugar Ice Cream. I've never been a fan of sweet potato pie but this was pretty good. The best part was the ice cream, especially when I mixed it all up with the walnut crumble on top of the pie. I can't remember but I am pretty sure it was a rice milk ice cream.

 

All in all it was another successful BVS event and I am really looking forward to the next one!

Vegan MoFo and True Bistro

Oh Vegan MoFo how I love you. I have so many ideas for you in the upcoming days and weeks, I hope I can find the time to cook it all and blog about it. Although another day not having to cook anything was great!

The Boston Vegetarian Society often hosts vegan dinners at various vegan and vegetarian restaurants all over the metro Boston area. For the event today they were invited to attend a soft opening of a new all vegan restaurant in Somerville with the entire menu 50% off. True Bistro is an upper scale all vegan restaurant located in Teele Square. I say 'upper' because it's not super expensive and I didn't get the vibe that it is going to be a fancy shmancy place where you would feel uncomfortable wearing jeans and a hoodie while everyone else is in much less casual clothes. The restaurants official opening is Tuesday November 9 so I jumped at the chance to be able try it out before the general public, especially only having to pay half price!

Jeremy and I got there around 11:15 in the morning(they were only open from 11-2 today for the BVS event) and were able to choose where we wanted to sit as there were only a few other people there before us. I have only been to a very small amount of BVS events so we didn't know anyone other than Evelyn who runs all of the events and we were a little antisocial(aka cranky because we were starving and when I say we, I mean me) and sat at an empty 4 person table. The space itself looks like it is only able to accommodate about 30 patrons at a time and had a very clean, modern, minimalist design. The walls were painted a very light gray, all of the tables and chairs were black and there was some black and white artwork on the walls. I think it may have been a photograph but I can't remember. In the windows were a few awesome planters with what looked like some ornamental grass with this huge thing in the middle. I'm not sure that the "thing" was but from where I was sitting(not close to a window) it looked like a big artichoke.

While the small staff was very friendly you could tell they were a little nervous and overwhelmed. We did have to ask a few times for things that had been forgotten, like my salad which never came so I got it to go, and the staff sometimes had to go back into the kitchen to ask about a menu item for us or another party. They were all very sweet, willing and apologetic. The somewhat chaotic service definitely did not detract from the experience and will not prevent me from going back in the future. It was the first day they were serving actual paying customers so of course there will be questions and the occasional forgotten item. I am very confident that once they are open to the public and they get into the hang of things, service will be excellent. Ok, now to the good stuff....

The food. Wow. What the service lacked(which really, considering it was their first day ever, wasn't a whole lot) the food certainly made up for 100 times over. The menu isn't very extensive but it does have some excellent choices. Choices I had been agonizing over since I received the email about the event on Thursday.

I started with a pot of tea and it came out in a plain, yet adorable little pot with a strainer for my cup because it was loose leaf and a small bowl of sugar. I have no idea what kind of tea it was, all I know is that it was decaf. I wish I had asked now because it was awesome.

To start I ordered the Soup du jour which was Cream of Parsnip soup with cracked black pepper and an oregano oil drizzle. It was so creamy and perfectly seasoned that I would've had a few more bowls if I could have. The oil drizzle on top really did take the flavors to a whole 'nother level as well. I am going to have dreams about that soup.

As my soup was came out so did Jeremy's salad. He ordered the Local mesclun greens and he loved it. I took one bite of it and other than the fact that it had green olives in it(I hate them) it was a great salad. The whole Marcona almonds were a great touch because they are much more tender than their standard grocery store counterparts. The dressing was a lemon-caper vinaigrette which definitely had a really light, refreshing flavor. I definitely tasted the citrus but not the caper, then again, I did only take one bite. I was trying my hardest not to get full since I still had my own salad and entree coming.

Next came our entrees. I ordered the True's seitan cheeseburger which has really inspired me to finally try my hand at making my own seitan. Something I have been putting off for quite awhile now but it's gonna happen, soon. The flavor of the "burger" itself was almost like a barbecue sauce but much lighter and not saucy at all. Topped with avocado, sauteed mushrooms and melted Daiya, I really was in heaven. I think there were also some roasted red peppers tucked inside. I only ate half of it because I was still hoping that I would actually get my salad "in just a sec" like I was promised a few times. I'm almost glad they forgot about my salad because after eating only half my sandwich, half of the fries(which were delicious by the way), a bowl of soup and a pot of tea I really didn't have much room left for anything else.The bread looks a little extra toasted in a few spots in the picture below, but they actually gave the bread a better flavor, not burnt tasting at all.

 

J got the Mesquite burger and I'm really not still sure what the burger was made of, but it was pretty damn good. His sandwich had pickled red onion(yum), lettuce, tomato and aoili. I only took one small bite of it but like I said, it was pretty damn good. I'd still choose my sandwich over his anytime though.

After we were done eating, we were still waiting for my salad and since I was having my leftover half sandwich wrapped up I asked them to do the same with my salad. I got the Baby arugula salad which had pomegranate, green apple, a vegan version of queso fresco and a lime-cumin vinaigrette. I finally just ate the salad, 10 hours later but I am dead serious when I say this is the best salad I have had since I gave up cheese. I was a goat cheese junkie and that is what held me back from going vegan for awhile. I couldn't imagine a salad without it. The "queso fresco" on this salad was amazing. It had a really creamy, mild taste and texture while having a similar tanginess to goat cheese. I have no idea what it is made of but I need to find out so I can try and recreate it in my kitchen. If I can figure it out I will be one happy vegan. This salad was so good that I am going to give you two pictures of it.

All in all, even with somewhat chaotic service, I really can't wait to go back to try some of the other items on the menu and maybe ask some questions to find out what is in that queso. Meals like this make being vegan more awesome than it already is!