Taco Joint

Mas had the day off yesterday, so we took the dogs for a walk, hit the library for a bit and decided to walk over to the Taco Joint for lunch. Until they opened in August, he'd been stalking these guys for months begging for them to finish remodeling and serve us some vegan tacos. They've now been open for over a month and are totally awesome. Not only do they have vegan refried and black beans (both delicious), they also have veggie enchiladas. Just ask for any of the veggie items on the menu without cheese. They will also substitute their veggie mix for the meat on some of the lunch items (like The Lester, which I love). They are all nice and friendly, the restaurant is clean (which means more if you know our neighborhood...), the food is tasty and the prices are overly reasonable. Oh, and the salsa! The salsa is amazing! They have free wi-fi, too.


veggie enchiladas--probably my favorite

Newstart Veggie Garden

Speaking of restaurants that we should have known about and been frequenting, we ate at Newstart Veggie Garden for the first time today. Newstart Veggie Garden (not to be confused with Veggie Garden in Richardson) is on Royal over in Koreatown. It's a fresh, mostly healthy, vegan buffet--and it blew our minds. We tried a bit of pretty much everything on the buffet, and almost all of it was amazingly delicious. I was a little shocked at how tasty and fresh everything was. Nothing was overly oily or even a tiny bit stale. They put out small servings very frequently so that nothing sits out for too long. We had California rolls, cabbage rolls, spicy tofu soup, pumpkin soup with rice balls, yellow curry, seaweed salad, kimchi, "steak" with mushroom gravy, sweet and spicy veggie seitan, mung bean pancakes, sweet potato noodles with veggies, homemade wheat bread with raisin jam, oatmeal flax cookies and cinnamon date juice. I read somewhere that they make everything in house, and I didn't see/taste anything to the contrary. I did manage to snap a few photos while trying to stay out of the way, but they really don't do the food justice.









Mas and I agreed that this would be a good place to eat with a mixed group of vegans and non-vegans. There are several "normal" options along with the foods that some consider "weird", like tofu and seitan.

(edit: They mention agave, maple sugar and honey on the desserts page of their site, so we'll have to ask if anything contains honey next time. Hopefully, nothing--I really loved their bread!)

Vegan Pizza in the DFW

Yes, we found vegan pizza in Dallas, TX. And not at Whole Foods. At a real pizza place. A good pizza place. How did we not know about this for two years? Pizza by Marco not only has vegan cheese, they have vegan pepperoni, sausage and hamburger. I know that those are all things that you could buy at Whole Foods and do yourself, but there is just something really appealing about occasionally being able to order a pizza and go pick it up like the rest of America. Truthfully, I could usually care less about vegan cheese. We're pretty sure that it was Follow Your Heart, which I would never even bother to buy at the store. But, somehow it was extremely tasty on the Marco's pizza. We ordered one with sausage, onion, olive and mushroom and brought it home to eat while we watched the first episode of the new season of the best show on television.

Spiral Dallas

Mas and I have both been sick all week. He's managed (barely) not to miss work and I've literally been in bed all day, everyday since the Obama rally. Because of this, we missed the opening of the new Spiral Diner in Oak Cliff. Today was the first day that either of us have really felt like eating anything, so obviously, we had to go. We drove through downtown and across the viaduct to avoid the highways, but it only took about ten minutes to get over there. It's probably good that it's not easy to ride over there. We're always way more reluctant to go somewhere if we have to drive, so maybe that will keep us from spending every cent we have on tasty vegan food.



I ordered the Philly Cheeze Steak, which I've had at the Fort Worth Spiral. It was delicious, as always. The potato salad is so good! I can't stand huge chunks in my potato salad, so this one is perfect for me.



While mine was really good, Mason's BBQ Jamaican Jerk was seriously incredible. I liked it so much that I convinced him to swap me a half for a half.



They don't have the amazing Spiral ice cream yet, so we ordered a couple of chocolate chip cookies to go. I have a feeling we're going to be driving to Oak Cliff more than we probably should in the future. Honestly, if Mas wasn't working a mid-shift today, we would probably be there for vegan brunch right now.

Veggie Garden

Mason had to drive up to Richardson today to pick up some things for work. I went with him, knowing that a trip to Richardson meant a stop at Veggie Garden. We had the Soy Pork Fried Rice and the Soy Beef with Pan Fried Flat Noodles. Both were good, but the latter was incredible. And because we ordered spring rolls and a dessert, we came home with two big boxes of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Oh, and I guess that I should talk about the dessert, since it was only the most amazing thing ever. Fried Soy Ice Cream! Tasty vanilla soy ice cream dipped in a super thin batter, fried and topped with soy whipped cream. We were in awe. I wish that I'd taken a decent photo.

Summer Is For Suckers

After a morning of estate sales, Mas and I decided to have lunch at Cosmic. We shared samosas and a black bean burger on the porch. The weather is completely perfect right now--highs in the seventies and lows in the forties. It's finally Fall in Dallas, thank god. I think I have Reverse SAD.