This past Saturday was my birthday, Ma'shallah. I thank Allah T'allah for allowing me to see another year. I visited the graveyard of my beloved father, and gave some charity on this day to show gratitude to my Lord. And yes I did a little something for myself. Ofcourse since I'm the food business, so to speak, I took great pleasure in going out to eat with the hubby. This is something I used to do alot when we were first married, however I have to admit with a large amount of children, (I have five) I dont make it out as often as I used to.
However, today I decided I definitely want to go out and try some different foods. I was feeling like something meatless today so we went to a local vegan restaurant called Sipz. The dishes there are all vegan. There are lots of mock meat dishes, and the cuisine is Asian, which made this restaurant an attractive choice for me. Also the prices are very reasonable, around $7.00-$9.00 for lunch. My husband and I ordered a variety of dishes as we usually do, in anticipation of trying out all of the dishes.
My husband started it off with a nice cold mixed berry smoothie.
I'd have to say that this was fair. Not great. We asked them not to put sugar in it as a sweetner. They used almond milk and just the fruit. I'd say I probably would have used pure fruit juice and honey sweeten it along with the fruit. It would have given it more of a citrusy kick, rather than the affect of an unsweetened milkshake. I wasn't too fond of the smoothie so I drank my water.
Then we took on an appetizer of mock chicken drumsticks.
These little vegan treats were very tasty! They had alot of crunch, and surprisingly enough they were able to pull off a great imitation of real chicken texture. It was really delicious especially with the sweat and sour sauce that it was served with.
For soup, I ordered the Vietnamese "Beef" Pho. I'd heard so much about Pho that I had to give it a try. I didn't know of any halal restaurants around here that served Pho, so I figured this is the closest I'm going to get to the real thing. I loved it! My husband and I both killed it. It was very flavorful yet the rice noodles made it very light. The little mock beef pieces in the soup tasted good as well. It kinda gave you the satisfaction of eating meat, without the heaviness of eating meat.
Next we got to the main dishes! My husband went with my suggestion of a dish called Thai Pad. It was a delicious and spicy noodle dish with mock chicken, onions, bean sprouts and crushed peanuts. I really loved it! The hubby loved it too!
Next was my dish, the Mongolian "Beef". I've had this dish before on a previous visit, so I kinda wish I'd ordered something different. It was tasty, it had to serve as my meal for the next day however, because I was comfortably full by this point and didnt want to over do it.
So, after lunch the hubby and I went for a nice talk and walk over by the beach, to let our lunch settle. Then over to my place where I ordered my first ever gluten free, vegan cake. It was a lemon coconut cake. Now I've ordered from Stephanies bakery before and her cakes back then were the bomb. I loved her cakes so this is why I chose to come here. However I've never gotten anything gluten free from her before. This cake was okay, not the best nor the worst gluten free dessert I've ever eaten. I shared my cake with family and friends and got mixed reviews on it. I got mostly thumbs down, with a few thumbs up. Eating this cake however, got me curious to see if I could come up with something better. I'll be trying to tweek some recipes, and keeping you posted on my progress.
Over all it was a lovely day. We enjoyed all of the new foods that we tried, with the cake being the least enjoyable, but I didn't mind that much. It has sparked my interest in making my own gluten free cakes and desserts!
Do you have a favorite vegan spot where you live? If so, post it here!
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