our vegan honeymoon in New Orleans!

My month of wedding posts is over, but I've got one more wedding-related post for you: our honeymoon in New Orleans! I've wanted to visit NOLA since I was 13 or 14, and while the husband has been there a couple times and enjoyed it, we wanted to go together! We had a really lovely five-day trip over Halloween weekend, and I'm sharing it with you... just in time for mardi gras!

We stayed at a hotel with a classy little balcony from which we could see Bourbon street.

We got a suite with a little kitchenette, so we brought and bought breakfasty food and had all of our breakfasts in our room--mostly on our balcony.

During the day, we ventured around the French Quarter and beyond to see the sights--the botanical gardens, the museums, the cemeteries, etc. At night we checked out live music and the city's active night life.

I even convinced Kevin to go on a ghost tour with me! It was fun and cheesy and not at all ghosty, but I learned a bit about New Orleans's history.

But everyone knows that New Orleans is full of things to do. What you may not know is that it's pretty easy to get good vegan food there, especially if you know where to look! I had done a lot of research beforehand; I'd been nervous that even if we found vegan stuff, I wouldn't be able to eat it (cajun vegetables and spices are almost entirely nightshades). But no! We ate really well in New Orleans. Let me show you!

First, if you want to get food for your hotel room or to carry around with you, GO TO THE NEW ORLEANS FOOD CO-OP. It had just opened when we went, and the husband and I couldn't believe how big and full it was, with all the vegan staples we could think of. The workers were friendly and lovely (as were all the people we met in NOLA, actually), and they told us it was the only co-op in Louisianna! Go there, support them, get awesome food. While there, we stocked up on breakfast foods and hotel room snacks.

Another necessity for breakfast: coffee! We mostly had some in our room, but we also had some good coffee out:

La Boucherie is more vegan-friendly than the name suggsts. They had soymilk for the drinks!

We had a really great lunch at Cafe Carmo. Almost everything on their menu can be made vegan--they have daiya and some vegan "meats." They also have vegan baked goods!

I got a "plain" banquette bread with daiya and a Carmo salad. (I had it without veggie ham, since some fake meats have nightshades). The husband ordered the Vegan Rico--under the greens is vegan pulled pork and melty daiya over a grilled plantain patty. Both of our orders were deeelicious.

13 Monaghan had a tasty Baked Tofu and Herb sandwich that was nightshade free without the tomato.

I was so hungry I ate half before remembering to take a picture. They have more options if you can have nightshades--including Tachos--TATER TOT NACHOS (vegan without the cheese and sour cream). Seriously, people, if you are able to eat nightshades, can you go order this and report back to me on how AWESOME it must be?

Out near the New Orleans Food Co-op, there's a vegan Korean pop-up restaurant called The Wandering Buddha.

They operate out of the back of a bar (the Hi Ho Lounge), and you can either sit in the bar or on their patio out back.

Though all vegan, the menu isn't too flexible for nightshade-free people--the staff was a little apologetic about only having one option for me for an appetizer, and one option for me for an entree--but I was happy with what they gave me. My appetizer was gimbap (sushi), and Kevin ordered dumplings.

My entree was japchae--noodles with a sweet peanutty sauce. It looked boring when it arrived at the table, but it was flavorful and awesome. The husband got an AMAZING-looking braised tofu dish.

Because it was our honeymoon, we wanted to go out for one big, fancy, expensive dinner, so we went to Restaurant August. I'd read a yelp review that said they were able to accommodate vegans upon request. They were really attentive and great about my allergies. They modified their farmers' market tasting menu to be all vegan, and made us a delicious meal.

This bread looks like normal bread, but is some of the TASTIEST HOMEMADE BREAD I have ever had. Sorry the light is really dim in these pictures; blame it on fancy dinner mood lighting!

Our amuse-bouche was a pickled radish over... some other vegetable, with microgreens and a cilantro pesto.

Our first course: a nice salad for Kevin (in the back) with a spicy vinaigrette, and for me, a delicious sweet chilled pear consomme, with pomegranate seeds, walnuts, saffron, and edible flowers.

This picture is terrible, but our entrees were AWESOME: Kevin got spicy broccoli with fire roasted peppers, and I had fried brussel sprouts with a pecan pesto. I like brussel sprouts okay, but these were the best brussel sprouts I've ever had, hands down. They were garlicky and fried till they were crispy but not heavy.

Dessert was a fruit plate, with mango sorbet and coconut milk tapioca. And a chocolate "congratulations!" Awww.

What do you call dessert after dessert? They also gave us complimentary champagne and these little raspberry-and-coconut jelly squares. So nice!

As delicious as our meal at Restaurant August was, you may notice it was almost all vegetables. In a few hours, we were hungry again.

So we went to Bennachin for some snacks:

Plantains and black-eyed pea fritters! Nightshade free as long as you ask for the sauce on the side. While we were there for just a snack at that time, we'd gone there earlier in our visit for a really good dinner. Bennachin serves West African food, and all their vegetarian dishes are also vegan. I could get nightshade-free versions of two of the entrees on the menu. Going without spiciness made the food a little plain, but their rolls were so good it didn't matter. Also, they have a really great ginger juice drink, and a hibiscus iced tea. But the fritters were the star for me.

The husband thought it was kind of funny that we didn't eat any "traditional" New Orleans cuisine. As I said above, nothing cajun is nightshade-allergy friendly, so I wasn't looking for any, but those of you without nightshade allergies will be happy to know there are vegan po'boys and gumbos in the city. Another thing I didn't mention is Lola's. We wanted to go, but they aren't open for lunch and we were only out in that area during the day. People on the PPK forum said that their almond/garlic soup, their paella, and their aioli are vegan. We'll have to go next time. And there will be a next time! I had such a blast, I can't wait to go back!

(Even our layover in Miami was pretty good--the airport had a sushi place!)

Korean Barbecue Seitan

A very brief post, written in advance, because I am currently in Upstate NY getting ready for our wedding! As you read this, we are probably getting our marriage license!

I spent a long time trying to find a vegan-friendly caterer for our wedding. I eventually found a few names, but our wedding is going to be so small that it wasn't worth caterers' time to 1.) make the trek out to Cooperstown and 2.) work with my allergies. We were turned down by a number of caterers. We didn't want to settle with crappy food, either, so we found ourselves at a loss for what to do.

Enter MY MOTHER! She'll be cooking all of the entrees and side dishes. She's a great cook and sooooo wonderful to do this for us. She and I talk at least three times a week, and every time we talk lately, she's been running recipes by me. "What about this dish?" and "How about this?" and "Do you really think one serving of seitan is 4 ounces?!" Over the past few weeks, she's been perfecting the recipe she's going to use for the wedding, which means my family might be tired of our wedding food before the wedding even happens! As you read this, she is probably chopping and stirring our food right now.

One dish she'll be making at the wedding is a "Korean Barbecue Seitan" recipe she found in a cookbook of hers. While she was describing it, to me, it sounded so good that I made it for dinner myself, shown here with kimchi and rice noodles.

I overcooked ours a little. Good thing my mom's doing the cooking for the wedding and not me!

The "barbecue" sauce is a marinade consisting of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and molasses. I used low-sodium tamari, so I didn't notice as much, but Mom said using regular tamari was way too salty. She'll be using Bragg's Aminos instead for the wedding version, since they have much less sodium. But it's a very tasty recipe!

Without my mom to help, we'd've had to settle for cruddy food, most of which I'd be allergic to. But thanks to her, tomorrow we will all eat well!

nightshade-free kimchi

I really love Korean food. Let me rephrase that: I really loved Korean food before I developed an intolerance for nightshades and could no longer eat many of my favorite Korean dishes. It's possible (and easy) to find nightshade-free vegan Korean food (like tofu bi bim bap, my favorite dish to order at Korean places), but I really miss the pungent, spicy hot sauces and condiments characteristic of Korean cuisine. In particular, I miss kimchi.

If you've had kimchi before, I don't need to explain; you understand how sad it is not to be able to have it. If you haven't had kimchi before, it's a standard--no, the standard Korean condiment or side dish. It is very spicy fermented/pickled cabbage, with other vegetables and seasonings thrown in. While many restaurants' kimchi has fish ingredients in it, all the Korean places I've been to have also had fish-free kimchi if you ask for it specifically. However, the point of kimchi is to be spicy, so while it can be easy to get vegan kimchi, nightshade-free kimchi has been a longtime unfulfilled fantasy of mine.

Well, readers, it is a fantasy NO LONGER! It is A REALITY. I am seriously excited about this, if you can't tell from all those capital letters. This recipe has been years in the making. Over the last three (almost four!) years, I've scoured cookbooks and the internet for dozens of kimchi recipes, and took a little from here, a little from there, picked and chose the methods I thought would work best, experimented with fermenting and pickling other foods, and brainstormed. When a big old napa cabbage came in my CSA order a couple weeks ago, I knew it was time.

Kimchi is very easy to make, but it sounds intimidating because 1.) it takes a lot of time, and 2.) you ferment stuff. Do not let this intimidate you! (It intimidated me, which is part of why it took me years to actually make some.) If you can have nightshades, feel free to add a diced hot pepper or two. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how spicy my nightshade-free version is, though! Raw garlic, ginger, scallions, and generous sprinklings of sichuan and black pepper give this version enough heat that even my pour-hot-sauce-on-everything boyfriend thought it had a good kick. We had some with dinner last night and my mouth burned a little and I was halfway through a spontaneous happy dance before I even registered I was dancing. That's how good kimchi is. And it's BACK IN MY LIFE.

Blog readers, I present to you my baby. Some notes before you get started:

1. You don't need to have a large mason jar to make it, but you do want a large glass sealable container of some sort.
2. Because you're fermenting things here, you're going to want to sterilizer said glass container. You can do this by submerging it in boiling water for 10 seconds.
3. Use the freshest ingredients you can. Your tastebuds and stomach will thank you.
4. Making the kimchi is a two-day process, then you store it for 4 days, so if you want a meal with kimchi, you'll have to plan ahead!

Vegan Nightshade-Free Kimchi
Makes a lot of servings.

1 large napa cabbage
salt
4-5 scallions (I used a whole bunch but found this to be too many; I'd say half a bunch, which I estimate to be 4-5, will be best)
6 cloves of garlic
2-inch chunk or a little larger of ginger
2 (small) carrots or 1 large one
black pepper, and sichuan pepper, if you can get it, ground

Get a large bowl and fill it with very salty water--I'd say 1/2 cup of salt for 4-6 cups of water. Dissolve the salt in the water.

Wash your cabbage well, then chop into 2-inch chunks. Put the cabbage into the salt water. To stop it from floating, put a plate on top of it in the bowl,, then put something heavy on top of the plate. Like so:

Let this sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours. (I did it in the evening, then came back to it the next day after work.) Then drain the cabbage, but save some of the brine.

Rinse the cabbage really well under cold water.

If you're like me, you'll be shocked at how much it reduced. Now get all your other ingredients.

Grate the carrots into a large bowl, preferably glass. Then chop up the garlic and ginger as tiny as you can. A garlic crusher might be good in this situation if you have one (I don't), as would a ginger grater. Chop the scallions however you like; I did inch-long segments, split down the middle, but I think I'll do smaller next time.

To these ingredients, generously add freshly-ground black and sichuan pepper. Then add the napa cabbage, and mix it all up really well. It's easiest to do with your hands. This is kimchi! Or it's going to be soon. Put it into your glass container.

REALLY pack it in there. It's going to seem like it can't fit, but it can! There will be some juice in the jar; if it isn't enough to cover the top of the kimchi, add enough brine just to cover the top.

Now this part that sounds tricky, but isn't really. Because everything's fermenting, any bits of vegetable that are floating above the liquid could end up with mold on them, so you want everything to be submerged. Easier said than done though, right? A simple way to keep things from being exposed to air is to stuff a ziplock bag in on top of the kimchi. Fill the ziplock bag with water until the water-filled ziplock bag fills the empty space in the kimchi jar. Fold the sides of the plastic bag over the sides of the glass container, and close the lid, around the plastic bag.

Voila! Refrigerate for 4-6 days. If your place is cool, you can leave it in a cool, dark place out for a day first, to speed along fermentation, but since it's June in Boston, that was not an option for me.

After 4-6 days, remove the zip lock bag and enjoy!

Kimchi with tofu fishsticks (the boyfriend says I make this dish more often than any other. If this is a bad thing, I don't want to be good), wasabi sauce, greens, and miso-sesame mashed sweet potatoes.

Kimchi is good as a side for many Asian-themed meals. It is also delicious as a topping for plain rice, a last minute stir-in for stir-fries, over noodles, and in soups and stews.