Tag Archives: BBQ

The Austin Vegan Riot to celebrate Austin’s Most Vegan Friendly Trailer Yard

austinveganriot

Last week the little trailer park next to Capital City Bakery closed up (probably to make way for condos) and Unity Vegan Kitchen, one of my favorite new spots in Austin, moved to North Loop to join forces with BBQ Revolution, Red Rabbit Bakery, and Taco ‘Bout It to form the most vegan friendly trailer park around at Northloop House & Yard. The only trailer that’s not vegan is the Taco Truck and even they have some vegan options so it’s, like, the opposite of all the other trailer parks in town. To celebrate they are going to have party down. Here are the details from the press release:

We are proud to announce the arrival of Austin’s first all vegan-friendly trailer space at the NorthLoop House and Yard, a trailer space and micro-business haus at 701 E. 53rd St in Austin’s NorthLoop neighborhood. To celebrate this momentous occasion the creative minds behind the NLHY are excited to kick off Austin Vegan Riot, a twice monthly party showcasing the unique offerings of this most-Austin locale. Currently at the NorthLoop trailer yard you’ll find Red Rabbit Co-operative Bakery, BBQ Revolution, Vegan Unity, and Taco ‘Bout It. Red Rabbit serves award winning donuts and other sweet things, produced by their worker owned co-op to organic standards. BBQ Revolution is the country’s only all vegan BBQ joint, creating a truly distinct take on Central Texas fare. Vegan Unity offers locally sourced favorites made from scratch. And Taco ‘Bout It brings tastes from south of the border serving several vegan and traditional options. With Austin recently named as PETA’s top vegan-friendly city it only makes sense that a trailer space would come about as the city’s first vegan-friendly destination. Be sure to stop by every 2nd and last Thursday for the Austin Vegan Riot, starting Thursday January 30th, 6-9pm at the NorthLoop House & Yard, 701 E. 53rd St, Austin, TX 78751.

Lasagna with cashew cream, vegan barbecue, and amazing doughnuts can all be had at once! And then you can dance it all off. In a Riot-like fashion. It’ll be great.

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Portland: The Homegrown Smoker

It baffles my mind every time I think about the fact that Portland has a vegan barbecue trailer and we, in Austin Texas, do not. It makes me want to quit my job and buy a giant smoker. We all know that that is not going to happen, I am staying in the AC, not tending to a fire all day. So someone please open one, I promise I’ll go every day.

And if you do open one it is probably a good idea to do a barbecued soy curl mac and cheese wrap. I often have these two items on the same plate but never before have I had them in wrap form! Trailers are great!

They also had coconut battered deep fried oreos, Fu’fish Po’ Boys and all sorts of other barbecued madness. Last year I went and got STFU puppies. Clearly, the folks behind the Homegrown Smoker are creative geniuses and it is time someone in Austin ripped them off.

Barbecued Soy Curls

I wish Wheatsville would start carrying soy curls. Every time I go on a trip I have to stock up. Sure, I could order them and I could also hire a butler bring me a plate of olives and peeled champagne grapes while I am lounging in the solid gold hammock. In other words, it’s not going happen until I win the lottery and I am not going to win the lottery because I don’t play. I’ll just have to continue to look like a jackass every time I go through airport security to explain to the TSA folks why most of my luggage is weird looking dehydrated strips because soy curls are awesome and totally worth it. Super healthy, easy to make, wonderfully textured, and cheap they area really a vegan dream come true. I read an article on Oregon Live the other day about Julie Hasson’s technique for barbecued soy curls and we tried them later that day with greens and grits.

They were so good. The key was to first rehydrate them in a broth, we used a mix of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, along with “better than boullion” and lemony spice mix. Then after 10 minutes, drain, and then sauté in olive oil for a few minutes until browned and then add the barbecue sauce and cook until it thickens up. Delicious!

Next week starts my 3rd VeganMoFo! I am super nervous excited to blog every weekday. My plan is to focus on the million different ways you can make beans and rice along with some restaurant reviews, news, giveaways, and god knows what else. I was thinking about making some videos of places in Austin, would anyone be interested in that???

Chicago’s VEGANMANIA and a trip to Soul Vegetarian

When I landed in O’hare on October 10th you could feel the anticipation for Veganmainia in the air. I took the El to meet my good friend Becky at one of those crazy 5 way intersections that they have in Chicago to confuse the hell out of everybody. After searching for a couple blocks I could tell we were hot on the trail.

As we approached the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse the air was palpable with excitement for the celebration, finally we saw the big banner and knew we were about to be at the vegan event of 2009.The idea of veganmania was to celebrate Chicago’s vegan scene by having lots of free food from area businesses, a fashion gallery, an art gallery, speakers, and different activist groups all in one place. We got there a little late so a lot of the free food was gone but I did get to try cookies from the Chicago Diner (crunchy), chili with Match Meats (unfortunately burned but has potential), Chocolates from Cru Cacao (healthy tasting), 5 different cheeses from Ste Martaen cheeses (they had olive!!!) and some collards from Soul Veg ( mmm, southern). I also got some lemon lime lip balm that I love from Ethically Engineered. It was funny because every single booth that we went to mentioned that their product was vegan. In fact in the big hall you could hear the word “vegan” over and over in the general murmer.They also had musicians and dancers and I learned how vegans rock Chicago,It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot, next year I want to volunteer to do their sound and my friend Becky wants to make baked goods! After sampling a lot of food but not having a whole meal we decided to drive across town to go to the actual Soul Vegetarian East. It is an entirely vegan restaurant that has an emphasis in soul food. We couldn’t decide what to order because everything sounded really good. First we got the tofu bites with barbecue sauce which were a meal in themselves. In a word; succulent. I have never had tofu that was so crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside, it was delicious. The barbecue sauce was really good too.For my entre I got corn on the cob (you have to eat corn in Illinois) and the Southern Seitan BBQ sandwich. There was also another BBQ sandwich but this one was promised to be on a whimsical roll. My roll wasn’t very whimsical but it was an awesome sandwich. There was peanut butter in the sauce! I will have to try that. When we first arrived we decided we were going to eat light so we could get dessert but it turned out we couldn’t control ourselves in front of all that protein and we went home stuffed. I loved the restaurant, everyone seemed so relaxed and though it took forever to get our check it was one of those places where you don’t mind whiling away the hours. We went into a food coma and missed my friend’s art opening but then we made it to my other friend’s 30th birthday party. We got him a balloon that played “rapper’s delight” when you hit it! Look how happy he is!Happy Birthday Borgia! I love you Chicago, I’ll be back when it isn’t so cold that I am worried my eyes will freeze in their sockets.

VeganMoFo- I already miss summer cooking

In Texas it is hot in the summer. Maybe some of you haven’t ever even really experienced what “hot” can be. The warmest day in Portland is maybe 90 degrees when here in Austin 90 degrees means you wear long sleeves at night! This summer we finally got a grill off Craig’s List and could cook without heating up the whole house although it was still impossible to cook without sweating. Unfortunately, since I was in charge of cooking that meant I was not in charge of the fire which led to this.

I had lot of fun making Susan’s Ribz several different times

The smoked Tempeh from the Veganomicon & Creole Style Black Eyed Peas was really good. Using fresh black-eyed peas is so great. They are just so creamy and delectable.

In Texas there is no type of food more important than BBQ and I feel like as a vegan you can appreciate BBQ sauce more when their isn’t a bunch of fat and gristle in the way

Baked BBQ Tofu with sweet corn and collards

BBQ Black-Eyed Peas wrapped in Collard Greens

and a BBQ Seitan Sandwich from Whole Foods because sometimes it is really nice to go into a freezing cold grocery store and have some vegans cook for you!

We also eat a lot of Mexican inspired Dishes here in Austin. I made these tacos one night when I wanted something quick and easy

And I made Phish Tacos using the fish stick recipe from Vegan Lunch Box (a great recipe) and a Beet & Jicama slaw

And the delicious Pasta De La California with an heirloom tomato Serbain salad. Who would have thought that Avocado could literally be added to any dish and make it better.

Also another Southern style dish. I don’t know how they do it but the tofu at our co-op is so good that you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t like it.

Southern Fried Tofu from Wheatsville Co-op with Black Eyed Peas

From this photo essay I have really learned that I need to get some different plates if I am going to be a food blogger! I can’t believe all the things I didn’t cook when I had the chance; I never once made Watermelon Gazpacho or Tomato Pie. I guess I will have to wait for next year. But now we get to move onto the most fun cooking of all HOLIDAY COOKIN!