Am I A Kabober?

I started vacation on Friday (a long weekend with the highlight being Awesome Wife and me riding 70 hilly miles at the Livestrong Challenge in Philadelphia area).  We were out running errands on Friday getting ready, and decided to head into the District for Farragut Friday, the weekly food truck conglomeration.  There were about nine or ten trucks to choose from, and we decided to try Tasty Kabob.  I've read good things about them, and I've seen their truck around.  Moreover, I have seen their tweets to their loyal band of "Kaboberz."  It sounded like a club I wanted to join, so we bypassed Ficelle, our original choice, and went all in.

The choice for vegan sounded promising--chickpeas over rice alongside spinach, served with salad, and a choice of sauces, from mild to hot.  For the lacto-vegetarians, there is also a yoghurt dill sauce (I suspect that including this may have improved quality dramatically).  The guys were very friendly, and the line moved pretty quickly.

The food looked pretty good, but I am disappointed to say, tastewise? Not so much.  I am a big fan of the hot sauce, and was excited to try my dish.  The chickpeas were pretty much flavorless, served in some kind of tomato sauce, with the hot sauce overlaid.  There was just not much flavor to be had.  The spinach wasn't bad at all--it was bland, but simple.  The "salad" was a piece of iceberg and a sad looking tomato.  AW's was even worse, as the mild sauce meant there was essentially no flavor.  A lot of food went into the trash bin, as it just wasn't good.  I really hate to write bad reviews, and I appreciate any truck that offers a vegan option, but I can only offer 1.5 wheels, and decline to join the Kaboberz fraternity.

On another note, Blue Bell, PA is not a vegan hot spot.  In an effort to be a good sport, I tried a grilled romaine salad.  It is rare that I taste something that i enjoy quite so little.  I'm not a big salad guy in general, but I think I like my salad cold.  Not grilled.

Not sure what's on the menu this week--I'm back in the office Weds.  Craving Benethiopia, but they are around tomorrow.  I, sadly, am not.

Livestrong Philadelphia--A Non-Food Truck Update

Don't worry, we'll get our belated--and not good--review of Tasty Kabob up soon, but in the meantime, Awesome Wife and I have been working hard to get ready for the Livestrong Philadelphia Challenge.  We trained to ride a tough 70 miles in the hills of Pennsylvania, and here's a report on the outcome.  This is very important to us, as AW is a 4-year survivor, and this ride helps us celebrate her successes in the healthiest way possible! Much better than a gourmet meal or a vacation!

After 70 miles, 5500 feet of climbing, one terrifying thunderstorm replete with tornado warning, and a lot of fun, I wanted to provide a final update to those who are interested in the Livestrong Challenge Philadelphia.

First, to those of you who joined our team, THANK YOU from AW and myself.  We ended up raising almost $3300 to help fight cancer by supporting Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation.  Knowing we had all of this support boosted our training, and made us determined to complete the ride without any walking up a single hill--and we did!.  Now, onto the story.

We headed over from our hotel to the starting line bright and early on Sunday, and the weather (if not the forecast) seemed perfect.  Partly cloudy, cool temperatures, but the forecast was for rain to start later in the day (certainly after 3 pm according to the forecasts.)  It was quite a sight--3500 or more riders were there (including Lance, and Stuart Scott of ESPN, who actually led out our group of 500 (they start you in waves.)) 

We skipped the first rest top and did the first relatively 21 miles in one chunk.  We felt great--we had previewed the first part of the course on Saturday as a warmup, and knew it would be pretty easy.  After the first rest stop came "Hill Road."  The last time we did this event (we did the 45-mile version two years ago) we both ended up walking at least part of "Hill Road."  This time? No so much.  We flew up the hill, passing people left-and-right.  We continued to ride a good hard pace and even briefly considered diverting to the 100-miler!  However, because the forecast was bad, they closed the 100-mile course early, forcing all but the very fastest to hit the 70-mile course.  The last 1/2 of the course was tough.  Lots of very steep and long hills.  There were more people walking their bikes up them than riding in many cases, but we were not going to do so, so we kept gritting it out to the top of each one, and enjoyed flying down the other side at speeds over 35 MPH at times, but then would come the next hill!  It only rained a little throughout the ride, and we pulled into the last rest stop.

We had been riding at different paces, and meeting up at each rest stop, but decided to ride the last 10 miles to the finish line together.  At the finish line, there are thousands of people cheering and clanging cowbells, photographers, a live video stream, and each survivor who finishes gets to go through a special finishing lane, with their name announced, and they receive a rose.  It's very nice.  We were riding strong (I had a small mechanical with my bike with about 5 miles to go, but no big deal), and then the sunny skies turned a little dark, and we heard a rumble of thunder.  With about 3.5 miles to go it started pouring.  And windy.  And lightning streaking the sky.  And lightning strikes very close.  And raining sideways.  And....you get the idea.  When we got to the finish line, rather than thousands of people with cowbells, there was one guy screaming "Everybody get to the gym and get inside!"  We were soaked to the skin, a little spooked by the lightning, and did as instructed.  When we got to the gym, we found out there were reports of a tornado in the area, and that several riders had passed by transformers struck by lightning overhead.  They kept us there for about an hour before letting us go, since there was a 30-minute break between storms (accurate--we drove home through the next batch).  A lot of people were stranded out on the course, and even after we headed back to the hotel and showered, almost 90 minutes after finishing, there was still a steady stream of rain-soaked stragglers making their way in.

It wasn't exactly the finish we were anticipating, but it was more memorable.  We were incredibly proud of the way we rode, and the fact that four years post-diagnosis, AW was completing this very tough ride ahead of much of the field was pretty incredible. As a sign of how much fun we had, we are already planning to get started training for our (flat) 100-mile ride in October!

Thanks again for everyone's support, and, as Lance would say, "Live Strong!"

Sabora Street Is A Fine Address At Truckeroo!

Awesome Wife and I had a tough week.  In no particular order, (1) we both got colds; (2) I broke my toe in a Whole Foods accident; and (3) AW had to have her regular, but very stressful, scans (long story, but see her website  for all the details.)  So on Friday, we decided to check out the monthly festival known as Truckeroo (or, it could be Truckaroo, both seem acceptable variants.)  Truckeroo is a festival of 21 trucks, a bar (also serving water and soda, for us tea-totalers), corn-hole games, and a live band, which takes place on the apparently abandoned site of the Half-Street Condos, near Nationals Park.

There were a lot of trucks to choose from, many with vegan options.  We opted for the short line at Sabora Street--neither of us had ever eaten there before.  The result---awesome food in a great atmosphere. Sabora Street describes itself as "Latin-inspired street food."  For vegans, the choice is pretty simple--there is a chili-glazed tofu that is wrapped in either arepas or soft tacos, with avocado and a salsa, and a fresh corn and onions on the side.  There is also a house-made hot sauce.  The owner/operator was very friendly and familiar with veganism--unlike some other truckers--and noted that the aioli contained eggs, so that should be omitted.  The food was tasty, with a nice zing, especially smothered in hot sauce. Plenty of food--both AW and I left some of our portion.  You could taste how fresh the corn was, and all in all, we were very pleased, and would return.  Using my 1-4 wheel system, I give Sabora 3.5 wheels.

Most importantly, Truckeroo made us feel a helluva lot happier!

The Op-Ed Page: Why Can't Restaurants Cook Healthy Food?

August is always a quiet month around the office, and this month is no exception.  So, I've taken a couple of random vacation days, including today.  Awesome Wife agreed to play, so we started off the day with a rain-soaked 20-mile loop through Arlington on the bikes, then decided to get some lunch.  We opted to go to Grass Roots Station, a restaurant nearby in Alexandria.  It looked like a nice place, has a nice website (I have intentionally not linked to it, for reasons that will be apparent), and served vegan options.  We ordered the vegetarian sampler, which is quasi-Ethopian, with lentils, chick peas, and sauteed spinach, served with injera.  The food was ok taste-wise, but was so soaked in oil, that we both left at least 1/2, and felt awful the rest of the day.  Luckily, nothing an hour of pilates with AW couldn't fix.

But, it brings up the bigger issue.  WHY?  This food was well-seasoned, and did not need all that oil.  Probably 1/4 of the amount of oil, maybe less, would have been ok ,but literally, there were pools of oil in the food.  Which brings up a funny story.  Over the weekend, we decided to head to Clarendon, and get vegan pizza (no vegan cheese) at Pete's Apizza.  While we enjoyed it the first time, we asked if they would lighten up on the oil.  When we got the pizza, we had to turn each slice on its side, mop with a napkin, and it was still repulsively oily.  All we wanted were fresh veggies on some crust with tomato sauce.  We even asked!  But, no.  The food was ok taste-wise, but was so soaked in oil, that we both left at least 1/2, and felt awful the rest of the day.   Picking up on a theme (with no variations) here?

We have tried any number of restaurants, purporting to serve healthy food, or at least to accomodate those of us who want healthy food, but food is served literally dripping in oil, or deep-fried, or some other artery-clogging variant.  Even where the flavours could stand by themselves, the restaurants just don't want to do it.  Lack of faith? Pandering to our worst gluttonous tendencies?  Don't give a crap (not really a pun, but a "bon mot.")

We work really hard to stay fit, and take care of our bodies.  It's really important to us, especially since AW is working hard to make her body a fortress against cancer (check out her website for more on that story).  We cook healthy food, we don't drink or smoke, we exercise maniacally--it would be nice if some restauranteurs might want to help Americans eat healthier, as some of our food truck friends do.

In the meantime, as much as it is a pain in the butt, we are going to stick to home-cooked food, the occasional truck, and the one restaurant that seems to get it in this area, Pita House.

The Rolling Ficelle--Work of Art?

I've been serving as resident food truck evangelist at the law firm.  One of my buddies has been up for new truck adventures, so we decided to head out between showers on Monday and see what was parked around Metro Center (although he was seriously craving Benethiopian).  We saw the Rolling Ficelle truck and decided to give a whirl.

The concept is pretty cool: take a ficelle (sort of a softer baguette), and pick a set of sandwich fillings.  The sandwiches are all named after famous artists.  The best choice for vegans: The Klee (named after Swiss/German painter Paul Klee) is served with hummus, fresh spinach, tomatoes (a new favorite of mine after many years of fearing the uncooked variety) and some roasted peppers.  The hummus is tasty, but the peppers are sort of bland.  However, all in all the fillings are good.  The real winner: the bread.  I love the bread--indeed, it might be my single biggest food weakness.  The ficelles they use (from Lyon Bakery) are just crazy good.

All in all, this is a good lunch, not too heavy, which was perfect for an ungodly humid day.  The service is very quick and friendly.  I understand that Rolling Ficelle is considering some other vegan options: I say, go forth and prosper.  Were there more options, I would put this into the weekly rotation, as it is, I will be a frequent visitor.

I thought I would start rating trucks on a one to four wheel scale.  I will give Ficelle 3.0 wheels, and look forward to a return visit!

DC Kabob and Grill--Great Food Even Though "It's 121 Degrees In Here!"

Friday was a hot day in DC.  Not Florida hot, where there's always a little ocean breeze to take the edge off.  Not Phoenix hot, where there is usually zero humidity.  Not Dashi-I Lut, Iran hot (ok, well it was nowhere near as hot as that, but you get the point.)  But it was already close to 100 degrees by 1 pm, when I had a chance to run out for some takeaway, and a lot of food trucks had opted to stay home.  There were, however, a few new trucks near Metro Center. Since I only had ten minutes, I decided to just run out the front door of the office building, and see if there was anything out there.  If not, Cosi it would be.

There were four trucks neatly lined up, and the line was short at DC Kabob and Grill (NB: I am not providing a link, as there is none.  No Twitter feed either, so you can't find them on Food Truck Fiesta, it's luck of the draw).  And I use luck in the most positive sense, as the food was excellent, as was the service.

Not a lot to choose from here.  A couple of sandwich/salad/rice options for the carnivores and for the vegans, the aptly named "Vegetarian."  The Vegetarian consists of a salad plus a whopping portion of chana masala.  The salad was simple, and featured fresh lettuce, onions, tomatoes, carrots and some spices.  They normally use a yoghurt dill dressing, but the owner stopped his co-worker from using it, and offering to use hot sauce instead.  I am a hot sauce lover, and this was delicious--flavorful and left my mouth tingling.

I've eaten a lot of chana masala, and this was much better than what you get in the generic Indian restaurant.  Thicker, less oily, more zippy, as opposed to the oily (often buttery) version served at the typical Indian restaurant.  I wonder if this was Pakistani, which might explain the difference.  Regardless, the portion was filling, the rice well-cooked, and I was really pleasantly surprised.

I asked the guy how he was doing inside the truck.  He had an internal thermometer, which read 121 degrees.  I tipped generously (particularly since it was only $7 for the meal!)  I hope that this truck will start tweeting locations.  I would definitely include it in my lunch rotation, as the food tasted healthy (I felt terrific afterwards, albeit I was starving going in having spent two hours torturing myself at the gym before work) and was just so good.  Well done, over-heated DC Kabob and Grill guy.  Well-done.

Cheese? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Cheese! Pete's Apizza Rocks!

Even before I became vegan, I've never liked the cheese.  In fact, I am a certified cheesaphobe.  The single exception--I loved pizza.  It was my one indulgence.  Italian Store, Pizzeria Paradiso, Cafe Pizzaiolo--loved them all.  But a few months before we made the switch from vegetarian to vegan, I started loathing it.  Awesome Wife would want to get a pizza and live recklessly--I'd say you go ahead, I will eat a bagel.  Seriously.

After going the full vegan, I figured the pizza chapter was closed.  But tonight, AW invited me out for an impromptu date to Clarendon, and Pete's Apizza.  And now, I say "Pizza, welcome back."

The setup is simple.  Pick your crust, pick your toppings, pay at the register and a few minutes later, your pizza shows up at your table.  We went with the plain crust with tomato sauce, and chose broccoli rabe (no relation to broccoli, but instead, a cousin to our friend the turnip), roasted tomatoes, and caramelized onions.  They add some fresh garlic, I added some hot pepper, and off we go.  The verdict: incredible!  The first observation I made (when I could stop eating) was that you don't need cheese to have a good pizza.  It tasted like the real thing, and was about 50 percent lighter.  The servings are huge--between us, we ate about 1/2 of the standard size pie (you can order by the slice, if you take the stock selections, and they also had some appetizers and pastas, plus salad).

The only drawbacks were (a) the noise level and (b) the "air-conditioner" which was blowing out hot air.  While that is quite desirable in a Wisconsin winter, somewhat less so when the ambient air temperature is 100 degrees, like today.  On the plus side, they do an excellent economic analysis of the value of their 18" pizzas.

This place was a winner.  The service was friendly and the food excellent.  For my cheese-lovin' friends, you can have a good time too, but for these two vegans, it was a gala night out.

Can Two Vegans Playing Hooky Find Food in Bethesda?

Answer: Yes, they can, and pretty darn good food at that.

After a grueling stretch at work, with a short lull that required nothing but a 30 minute conference call, decided to play hooky today, go with Awesome Wife to run some errands, and see Potter.  We were in Bethesda at lunch time, and decided to grab some lunch.  We did a thorough scouting of the area, and decided after much deliberation (AW would probably say a little too much deliberation on my part) to try Jaleo.

We've eaten at the Jaleo in Crystal City, and thought it was a bit inconsistent, but I was feeling reckless, and in we walked.  We explained to the waiter that we were vegans, and he was well prepared, offering to check if we could order off the Restaurant Week menu (we didn't but nice of him to ask), offering vegan suggestions, and accommodating our non-cheese preferences.  We ended up going with the "sandwich and either 1/2 soup or 1/2 salad" combo.

We started off with some tasty bread, served with some olive oil with garlic and rosemary.  It was fine, nothing to write home about.  AW opted for a roasted beet salad, and I (keep in mind that I was a little off the reservation today) went with the gazpacho, a food I have never eaten before. I always thought that cold soup sounded a little lame, but this was really good, with tomato, bread, onion and garlic sprinkled throughout.  AW raved about her beet salad as well, but she has a personal affinity with the beets.

Our sandwiches were asparagus, carmalized onions, arugula, and roasted peppers, served on ciabatta bread.  Alongside it was a dollop of tasty Romesco sauce.  The sandwich was very flavorful, and filling. I ate it all, and it was probably 1/4 too much for my taste.

All in all, this was a pleasant surprise.  Our previous experiences had been up-and-down, and generally very salty.  This one was a keeper.  By the way, Harry Potter was a very good movie, and since I quit after the first four books, it was all news to me!

Treating the Client to Lunch

It's always good to treat your client well and take him out for a stellar lunch. Sometimes, we'll use in-house catering, who offers a fine selection of tasteless wraps. Other times, we'll go with Au Bon Pain, where salt-laden soup is always available, fresh from plastic bags! But today, the client was ready for an adventure. And with that, we wandered down to Food Truck central, that is, 12th and G.

There were a few trucks parked nearby, but we opted for an old favorite of mine, Sauca. Two vegetarian options, both of which can be made vegan: Medi-Veggie, and SOB Veggies. The SOB (without cheese and with hot sauce) is my favorite, and I went to the old standby. Black beans, mango salsa, fresh chopped cilantro with some saffron rice, on a delicious grilled flatbread. It comes with chimichurri sauce, but I like to add hot sauce to kick it up. My non-vegan colleague and client had the Beef Shwarma and Buffalo CHicken respectively--we were too busy to discuss, but the food disappeared, so it was clearly pretty good.

The service today was a little spotty. The cashier did not give out numbers, and there seemed to be a lot of orders coming up that no one was claiming. Considering the short line, we waited a little longer than I expected in the pre-storm heat. But, as always, the food was worth it. Tasty, healthy, and light but filling. It's just a nice clean blend of flavors that I always enjoy. If I had one criticism, it's consistency--the mango is sometimes there, sometimes not, the rice is sometimes a little undercooked, but not today. I also wish Sauca would broaden the options with an occasional special. But, this is one of the solid food trucks that is in my regular rotation, and I'm glad they are regular visitors on the Metro Center circuit.

I was too busy to take a picture today, so instead, on Bastille Day Eve, I present the French flag, and extend a merci to Sauca for excellent vegan options.

District Taco--Worth the Ride?

Back home in "The 703" after my trip to Chattanooga, and Awesome Wife and I decided to seek out some Saturday lunch vegan goodness.  Food truck pickings were (as always) a little slim, but we saw that District Taco was at the Courthouse Farmers' Market.  So, we headed out on our hybrids to check it out.  It's about ten miles each way.  On a road bike, that's a warmup.  On a hybrid, it's a trek.  But, off we went.

After almost stopping at the Sauca restaurant, we continued on, and found the cart.  For vegans, they offer a veggie option (be sure to ask for no cheese).  AW added guacamole and grilled veggies, I asked for grilled veggies and habanero sauce.  The service was quick and friendly, and the price for 2 tacos and a soda for each of us was only $12.

The food was--and I am sorry to say this--"meh" to not so good.  The tortillas are nothing extraordinary, the kind of thing you'd find at your local Giant.  The veggies were fresh, and not heavy, but the beans were very liquidy, making the whole thing messy to eat.  The guacomole was just mashed avocado, and AW rated hers pretty bland.  The habanero sauce on mine was really good, but the mushy consistency was a little offputting, and it was just alright.

Was it worth the ride?  Sadly, not so much.  It wasn't bad, and I appreciated the vegan option, but I would probably not go back again.

This week is going to be slim pickings for me, as the other side in one of my cases has me hopping through depos this week.  Hopefully, there will be time to score something good--and you'll be the first to know.  Here's a picture from our ride home, which hopefully compensates for the less than attractive photo above.

No Food Trucks, But If You Ever Get to Chattanooga....

I travel a lot for work-it's the lot in life of an attorney.  For the past eight months, I've had to go to Chattanooga at least 2-3 times per month.  Food options? Have been limited to Panera Bread and Qdoba (before the recent vegan plunge, my vegetarian self would get pizza at the Chattanoogan Hotel, where I usually stay).  Got bold this time, and when my flight landed Wednesday night, I Yelped "Lebanese Food"--low and behold, there's a new restaurant in downtown, on the way to the hotel called Four Winds.

The owners were a couple of cool guys from Israel, and they were proud to offer a number of vegan options (as the guy at the bar was glad to inform me).  I grabbed a Falafel Sandwich for the road, and headed out to the hotel.  Delicious.  Last night, I got back from a long day of meetings, hit the gym, and ordered--wait for it--delivery! From the same place!  Hummous sandwich and fattoush (Lebanese Salad).  Equally fine.  I was very happy to find healthy vegan alternatives in Chattanooga, and came back less malnourished than usual.

Four Winds is located on the North Side of the river, but adjacent to downtown, in a funky neighborhood.  No website to link to, but the address is 417 Frazier Ave.

TaKorean--Worth the Walk?

It was a steamy Tuesday, back in the office after the Fourth.  I was starving after 90 minutes at the gym early this am, but there was a paucity of trucks in Metro Center.  I decided to hoof it up to Franklin Park, and check out a new truck--TaKorean.  The fusion of Korean and Mexican flavors sounded intriguing, and I needed to step away from a morning of conference calls.

There was a pretty long line, but it moved amazingly fast.  When I got up to the front, ordering was pretty easy--pick one protein (Carmalized Tofu is the veg choice), one slaw (Napa-Romaine is the veg option) and up to four toppings (sesame seeds, sriracha, fresh cilantro are vegan, Lime-crema for the lacto-vegetarians).  The helpful guy at the counter informed me that the kimchi slaw (the other slaw option) was made with fish sauce, so that was off the table.  For $8, you get three "tacos" served open-faced in a corn tortilla.  The portions are generous, but not so much that you feel sick afterwards.  And, once I got to the front, order was ready in 30 seconds!

The tofu was marinated in hoisin, and very tasty, especially contrasted with the zip of the sriracha.  I love cilantro and sesame seeds, so those added a lot of flavor, but I found the slaw a little bland.  The corn tortillas were fresh and flavorful.

The meal was tasty and seemed relatively healthy.  It filled me up for the afternoon, and had pretty good nutritional value.  I'd certainly return for another visit, and, despite the heat, it was well worth the walk.  I wouldn't have guessed that the flavors would have meshed so well, but I guess this makes a good case for a Mexican-Korean alliance (presumably, South Korea.....). Give then a follow on Twitter!

A Trip to the Fojol Brothers of Benethiopia

What more All-American way to celebrate the Fourth of July than to cut out of work early and travel to the exotic climes of Benethipioa, and the Fojol Brothers food truck?  I headed out of work early on Friday, and set off with Awesome Wife on our hybrid bikes from Old Town, pointed squarely at the State Department, with the goal of having some vegan food at the Benethiopian Embassy (er, food truck).

As you'll learn the more you read this blog, I'm pretty obsessed with cycling and healthy vegan eating.  I spent the past 8 years eating a lot of bagels and soup from the Au Bon Pain in my office building downtown.  Now, I've settled in on the food truck craze as the perfect way to nutrition up, and eat some pretty good food.

We arrived at 21st  and Virginia Ave about 1 pm, and the joint was jumping. A long line of what seemed to be mostly State Department employees were waiting to enjoy some fresh injera with four options (only three of which will be mentioned here, as we don't concern ourselves with the meat): Berbere Lentils, Split Peas, and Carrots and Green Beans. While we were waiting, folks were grooving to the cool tunes pumped out over the truck's sound system, although no one opted to partake of the hula hoops (guess the State Department folks are too buttoned-down).  The wait was fairly short, and I was at the window pretty quickly, where the costumed and friendly staff took my order (oddly, Benethopians appear to dress in quasi-Indian garb, and wear Mario Brothers-style mustaches.)

We got the Lentils and the Split Peas.  The food is served on a bed of injera, which is a thin pancakey bread with a sort of fermented sourdough flavor, along with a stack of extra injera.  To reduce the calories and make the food a little lighter, I toss the stack of injera, and just use the base--that means the heresy of a fork (or Sfork, in this case). It means you avoid the post-food coma that might come from eating all the bread, much as you will want to.

The lentils are a little spicy, and in a red sauce, made with Berbere paste which is pretty standard Ethiopian or Eritrean fare.  They make it without the heavy butter that one finds in some local restaurants, using a base of onions instead.  The split peas? Not sure how they make them, but they are both vegan, according to the staff, and freakin' delicious.  I confess, I love split peas in any form, but these are so good that both Awesome Wife and I finished them and then squeezed out the last bits from the injera beneath.

One more nice touch, the crew set blankets out in the park, so for those who didn't have to rush back to solving the world's problems, we could settle back on Benethiopian sovereign territory and enjoy the beautiful day without having to squat on the curb.

This is one of my favorite trucks, and rates first mention in the series.  We'll revisit this land again, and try some different options--they keep to a pretty regular schedule, so check them out at their website or on Twitter.