Guess Who's Back!

Oh shit, it's Billy!
We decided to hit the asian vegan friendly joint Affinity on a Monday since all the other good ones are closed. Once again, I'm only keeping tabs on my favorite dishes. Here we have the Chili Eggplant. One word, amazing.
Next up is the Kung Pao Gluten and it did not let anyone down.
Some salt and pepper breaded deep fried cauliflower will always do the trick.
I know it's hard to believe but this gentleman right here ate a vegan meal and fully enjoyed it.
We made a detour before seeing Funny People that night, sidenote great movie, and picked up my ice cream maker from Chill. Oddly enough there was some ice cream in the freezer that she had made up. If I'm not mistaken this is caramel choc chip vegan ice cream.
These kinda things happen when a concoction such as that shows itself.
Finally close to caught up. Bye.

Bat For Lashes

A trip south for Bat For Lashes happened at the beginning of August. This is what I saw now long after crossing the border. Hello USA!
When you are going through Fargo it is usually a get in, get food, get the fuck on type of adventure. This time a friend that spends the majority of his time in NY/NJ was home and would not allow me to hit Taco Bell! A just before closing Taco Shop in Fargo stop carrying out food in a paper bag to a picnic table outside may have happened. Not long after we walked out they closed the light on us and it was the real Fargo showing its ugly, ugly face. The food was actually pretty alright though. A bean n veggie tostada.
A burrito and some amazing fries although they call their fries something different than fries. I will just call them delicious.
Here he is, my gracious food picker upper, Jason! Not pictured is the desolation that is Fargo behind him. It was something to truly behold.
After a late night MPLS arrival and a serious sleep in I met Jeremy for lunch. A little garlic cheese toast to start things off.
Followed up with a Pizza Bianca that had olive oil and garlic sauce, sundried tomatoes, garlic, artichoke hearts, and topped with vegan mozza cheese.
What is lunch these days without a piece of strawberry cheesecake?
Then the dinner hour rolled around and it was time to try a new spot called Ecopolitan. A raw vegan restaurant that I heard a few good things about. I have never tried a vegan raw spot before but was really interested in what it had to offer. A little disclaimer regarding the following pics, the light was terrible and I don't like macro and flash. I split duties between the flaxseed tostadas, which consisted of lentil taco meat, greens, veggies, cashew sour cream and hot sauce. Served with salsa and guac. Actually quite spicy and really really good.
Next up was the eco-sausage pizza which was made of macadamia-cashew cheese, walnut eco-sausage, veggies and ginger marinara sauce. This was the real hit of the two dishes, even though they were both great.
I can't wait to try more dishes from this spot comin up this weekend! After this amazing meal, the real reason for the trip was realized and I headed off to Bat For Lashes with Vegan Eric. Got to the show and find out that it had sold out...and I had no ticket. Then a girl on the street is selling tickets and I get mine for cheaper than I would have gotten it in advance. Love me a deal. I can't even speak on the opening band since words would not do them justice, we'll leave it with "entertaining" for the moment. Bat For Lashes took the stage and blew me away. Natasha has an unreal voice and was hitting all her notes and moving around and having a good time. They played all the songs I wanted to hear and I wouldn't hesitate to see them again. All in all a great trip. Peace.

Hello Kitty

Another relaxing weekend at home that I was far behind on. Spent some time picking these little gems right here, also known as nanking cherries.
What are you looking at?
Who knows, but say hello to the kitty that just showed up at my parent's house one day. This little kitty is so amazing and just purrs up a storm all the time.
Oh yeah, someone is pretty damn cute too!
Now help me out and give me ideas for a name for this cat. Thanks.

The Ultimate Breed

Way behind from busy and being back at work. Let's get right to it with the little spur of the moment trip I took with Rich to Calgary for the 10 for $10 tour. Started off finding out that this was happening in Regina.
Yeah we missed it and I'm pretty damn sure that we are all bummed. There is no need to hide it. Nothing from the trip out there, getting up at 4 after maybe three hours of sleep makes for a relatively uneventful ride. Started off our short stay in Calgary at Veggie House and got the taro root app.
Had the ginger veggie beef that they make completely in house, which is really nice.
I decided to only cover my favorite parts of the meal for this post. Obviously we had a few more dishes but these two were by far the best. The next day we hit Buddha's for lunch since I have been fiending on this place for about and around two years or more. I was so excited to finally get to eat there again. Started off with the ever so classic dry ribs. Pretty much a vegan version of popcorn chicken.
I could eat these everyday, but that wouldn't exactly be the healthiest choice I could make. Next app up was the drumsticks. A maraschino cherry pretty much makes anything good. These guys even had the stick in them and everything going for that authentic feeling.
Onto the mains! Mango chicken with coconut rice. This guy is a little costly but oh so worth it.
A nice and simple veggie pepper beef shanghai noodle dish that was just really really good.
Apparently we forgot to get the ginger beef since it is out of this world. I guess I gotta go back to Calgary and I'm fine with that. This is how two men do lunch in Calgary.
No biggie, it's just the moshmutant twatting.
Here was the flyer for the show that we fixed up so that it reflected what was actually taking place and not misleading people.
A little pre show meal or the meal that took place while the bands we didn't care to see played. We hit up The Coup on 17th ave. It was a pretty natural/organic place that was wind powered and not super fried like the previous places we hit. I started off with a little fresh squeezed lemon limeade. Next level.
The app, cajun tempeh sticks with dijon maple dipping sauce.
Peanut satay salad was next up for me. Steamed broccoli and sauteed tofu on rice vermicelli with some greens and peanut satay sauce. I was so stoked to eat this. It felt like I was getting back to relatively good eating and fueling myself with a cleaner fuel. I would def grab this on the next trip to Calgary.
My little dessert creation, thanks to the cooperative staff, was the creamsicle float. Beautiful.
On the way back home we documented some of the magic that happens on truck stop bathroom stall walls. These just happen to be from the same truckstop somewhere between Winnipeg and Calgary, happy hunting.
There are some crazy people in the world, that is all I'm sayin.