Here’s a delicious bowl of hot tofu soup at Vegan Express. The broth is fantastic… full of flavor, crunchy veggies and heavy on the garlic. Don’t let the simplicity of it’s appearance fool you, this is good stuff I tell you.

I wasn’t planning on posting anything here today, but I’m using this soup entry as an excuse to brag about the fact that while I was eating it, none other than Forrest Whitaker walked in to the place to have his own meal. Hell yeah, ‘Ghost Dog’ in the flesh! I recall reading about how he was among the ranks of well-known celebrity vegetarians, so here’s proof that it’s totally true. Well, I don’t actually have any proof because I only photographed my soup and not him (where, oh where are my priorities?), so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

I’ve neglected you. It’s been a difficult time. And during such difficult times, what makes things better (for a short while at least) than comfort foods? Nothing. Diet taboos to the wind, I needed a new drug. I needed something delicious.

Thankfully it’s only a short drive to Vegan Express, and also thankfully, they make the most incredible vegan pancakes and fried fake-chicken you’ve ever not yet tasted.

This is their “Chicken & Pancake” breakfast (breakfast served all day). The chicken of course is not real, it’s made of soy with a kamut, low-gluten batter, then fried to crisp, golden perfection. That’s right, I said fried, not a word I use often, or take lightly for that matter. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

This fake chicken is amazing, as good as it gets. Better even. The batter is thick and a tad sweet with a slight donuty flavor, which is just perfect with the very realistic tasting chicken. It’s normally served with the regular pancake, but they were happy to indulge my request to have it with the “Tropical Pancakes” instead, which have fresh bananas and blueberries cooked right into them. So fluffy and thick and amazing. The plate comes with Earth Balance vegan buttery spread, maple syrup and a whole lot of sticky, carb-coma inducing, who-gives-a-crap-about-carlories-at-a-time-like-this kind of yum.

The next time you need a good eat-your-heart-out because your eyes are too tired to cry anymore sort of pig out, you now know where to go, and exactly what to order.

I’ve got some backpeddling to do here, more updates for you just as soon as I can get these photos processed.

I’ve posted the Garden Salad from Vegan Express before, but this time I brought one home with me to-go, so I thought I’d share with you what a nice presentation it makes even when you don’t eat in at their restaurant. The tofu doesn’t come with the salad but I had them add it on. There’s also romaine lettuce, carrots, shredded beets, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, celery, avocado, cucumbers and sunflower seeds. An overall excellent salad. They offer it with their peanut or tahini dressings (which are both good), but I had it with my less fattening miso dressing at home.

Well, this picture didn’t come out too hot… I’m learning quickly that all things wrap-like are pretty darn hard to photograph! I’m posting it anyways though because it was so tasty that if you’re in the area, you must try it.

What this is, is the “Breakfast Burrito #4″ from Vegan Express. Tofu scramble, sweet potato and vegan cheeze in a whole wheat lavash wrap. It was great… a thick, hearty, stick to your ribs sort of breakfast that fills you up while not leaving you feeling like you need another nap. Like I said, the picture doesn’t do it justice, it’s much tastier than it looks.

On that note, I realize that I often use the name sweet potato when I actually mean yam. There’s a lot of confusion about the two out there and I certainly contribute to it. I was confused as well when I got this wrap as I was expecting the orange yams that I always erroneously refer to as sweet potatoes, but instead got… well, actual sweet potatoes! I will attempt to correct myself from now on from confusing these two different tubers when I write about them.

It’s been all about salad the past few days. This one here I brought home with me from Vegan Express.

This is their “Oriental Tossed Salad”, with romaine lettuce, napa cabbage, carrots, beets, cucumber and bean sprouts, topped with mung bean noodle strings, shitake mushrooms and tofu. They serve it with either tahini or peanut dressing, but I used my own miso dressing instead. This is an awesome and giant salad. The dish in the picture is very large, and it’s holding only about half of the salad they packed to go.

Here’s a good example of using up what’s left in the house. I shredded up some cucumber and carrot in the food processor, then added in some baked tofu, kidney beans, dried currants and pumpkin seeds. Mixed together some Braggs ginger & sesame dressing with lemon juice, dried oregeno and nutritional yeast.

The idea behind this next salad was to make a sort of cole slaw. Not that I wanted it to taste like your typical slaw, but I was more all about the different shredded cabbages.

I used red cabbage and Japanese cabbage. Into this mix also went some fennel leaves and crushed walnuts, and a dressing made from miso-toasted sesame seed dressing, lemon and flax oil. I ended up making a ton of this as the cabbage seemingly quadruples in size once shredded, which is fortunate because it’s really good.

Here’s another fine example of a completely vegan breakfast. This is the “Cowgirl Pancake Breakfast” at Vegan Express. “Pancakes, tofu scramble topped with soy baco bits and vegan cheese”. I had them substitute the regular pancakes for the “Tropical Pancakes”, made with bananas and blueberries. Served with maple syrup and vegan butter spread. The tofu was very thick, almost bread like… more like a tasty loaf than a scramble. The pancakes were… well just look at them, you don’t need me to tell you they were delicious, you just know.

All that and a vegan Thai iced tea too!

Almost too pretty too eat. But just almost…

“Romaine lettuce, carrots, shredded beets, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, celery, avocado, cucumber and sunflower seeds”. I also had them add grilled tofu, and had it with the tahini dressing. Who could ask for a more perfect lunch?

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.