This is the ‘Hot Spicy Green Beans’, aka, Prik King, at Vegan Express. What’s great about Vegan Express is that they serve both really good American style food like burgers, sandwiches, wraps and salads along with real Thai food… made by real Thai people.

The Prik King was excellent, made with tofu, red peppers, Kaffir lime leaves and served with a heaping portion of brown rice. The flavor was just right, nice and spicy… the absence of traditional fish sauce was not missed one bit.

I’m so impressed with myself for pulling this off. I had a lovely organic pineapple that was nice and ripe, so in its honor I concocted my own version of Thai style pineapple fried rice with vegan shrimp.

I used quinoa mixed with TVP instead of rice. While those were cooking I whipped up a stir-fry of mock shrimp, chunks of the juicy pineapple, raw cashews, baked tofu and fresh cilantro. This was all in a combo of sesame oil (peanut oil would have been more appropriate but I used what I had), lime juice, lite coconut milk, sambal (spicy-sweet Asian chili paste), curry powder, cumin and dried onion flakes. This was then combined with the grain mix. I nailed the flavors, and while I was worried the quinoa/TVP would make it kind of funky, it turned out to be just right. A nice addition would have been some currants or raisins but I forgot to get some and was anxious to try this out. Next time.

This dish grew out of the need to use up the rest of the cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto before it went bad. Thus, I boiled up some black soybean pasta along with red bell pepper and cannellini beans, then mixed in the pesto, along with some additional crushed garlic, a bit of nutritional yeast and a squirt of lemon. Topped off with a sprinkle of gomasio (sesame salt). A perfect combination of flavors, nutrients and colors, if I do say so myself.

I had the most amazing meal today, and I feel as if I’m onto some sort of well-hidden vegan secret, because I’d never heard of this place before stumbling upon their website by mistake. Friedel Caribbean Cuisine serves “Jamaican and Asian infused Caribbean”. It’s not strictly a vegetarian restaurant, however they do have a whole section devoted to truly unique vegan entrees that you simply won’t find anywhere else, for example: Ital Stew, Vegan Jerk Chicken, Brown Stew Tofu, Jerk Tofu, Vegan Tangerine Chicken, Vegan Ichiban Stir Fry, Jah Makin Me Krazy Crab(!) and more.

After taking my order, the nice waiter (who I later learned is the nephew of the owner) brought out a free sampling of one of the appetizers, the ‘Festival Bread’. This was basically sweetened, fried dough and was delicious, as most fried doughy things tend to be. I wasn’t planning on ordering these fattening little treats, but given that he was so nice, and that they were so tasty (and free), you certainly didn’t see me putting up much of a fight as I gladly gobbled them up. This was washed down with freshly squeezed spicy ginger & carrot juice (which was not only refreshing but also allowed me to pretend that I was eating something healthy).

Now for the piece de resistance. This was the ‘Vegan Mango Lion Beef’, delicious little crispy-yet-chewy soy mock-beef nuggets in a delicious Jamaican mango sauce with chunks of fresh mango, carrots and red peppers. This was served with rice & beans, warm cabbage salad and incredible sweet plantains. Yeah, it was all that and more.

The flirtatious cook, being the only other person in the place besides myself and the waiter, chatted with me while I ate. Despite the fact that I repeatedly declined to give him my phone number or accept his, he was still nice enough to fill up a take-home box for me consisting not only of my substantial leftovers, but with what appears to be at least another two or three full servings of food. Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Friedel’s gets an “A+” from me despite the big blue “B” health code grade posted in their window. Hey, if you wanna stalk the wild vegan beef, you have to be willing to take a few risks now and again.

I love it when I make up a dish, don’t follow any recipes, and it turns out good.

This curry turned out really good in fact. It went a little something like this: the main ingredients are sweet potato, asparagus, portobello mushroom and baked tofu (’Royal Thai’ flavor by Wildwood Organics). I started the sweet potato steaming first, once it started to soften I added in the rest. While they were doing their thing I made up the curry.

I put directly into a small saucepan about 2 cups of plain soymilk, 3/4 cup of lite coconut milk, big chunks of peeled garlic and ginger (which I removed before serving), a few basil leaves (I wanted more but I’ve already depleted my little plant of too many leaves), less than a teaspoon each of garam masala, yellow curry, turmeric, and a dab of sambal (spicy-sweet Asian chili paste). This was simmered until the veggies were done steaming and I mixed in a bit of cornstarch at the end to thicken it up.

It turned out even better than I expected it to. Sweet, savory, spicy and organic… just the way I like ‘em.

I was eager to try the vegan sausage at HealthyCA, because well… it’s a freakin’ vegan sausage!

Here’s the menu description: “Homemade vegan sausage served on sesame roll with tomato, mustard, mayo, lettuce, grilled onion and fresh red pepper and pesto sauces”. I got mine without the mayo (not vegan) and without the onions (ewww). The sausage was delicious and had a very appetizing texture. You wouldn’t mistake it for real meat as it was bit mushier than a real sausage but the flavors were spot on. The sesame roll was nice too, perfectly toasted. The two sauces that came on the side were both very tasty, I liked the pesto best and spread that on the inside of the bread. You get to pick a side with the entree, my choice here is their quinoa salad.

Here’s a closer look so you can see what the actual sausage looked like.

Here’s another healthy snack platter concoction. These are Wasa “fiber rye” crackers topped with some amazing fresh cilantro-pumpkin seed pesto which I picked up at Whole Foods. Then we have some slices of baked tofu (I think it was “Hawaiian” flavored… but what exactly Hawaii tastes like I can’t tell you) and roasted red peppers. Man, this really hit the spot.

Organic cinnamon graham crackers and organic blood orange.