Hi everybody! It's been awhile!!!! I went on a seven day vacation to the lovely state of Arizona and enjoyed much of its desert life and beautiful landscapes. As you may imagine I was out of my element and had no idea where the great vegan friendly restaurants were. What's a vegan to do during the traveling season? Today we will talk about what you can eat if you are on vacation or happen to find yourself dining out in a not so vegan friendly restaurant.
First off, if you know you will be going someplace new or unfamiliar, plan ahead. Yelp is an excellent website where you can search for specific businesses. I knew most of my trip would be spent in Tucson so I quickly went on Yelp and typed in "vegan restaurants" near "Tucson, Arizona" in the search boxes. I found two that sounded interesting, Govinda's and Loving Spoonfuls. It was that easy! Within minutes I had maps and directions from our hotel room to the restaurants.
Now we all know eating out can get expensive, boring, and worst of all fattening so when looking for a hotel or motel, call ahead and make sure that your room is equipped with at least a mini fridge. We were very lucky in that our room had a fully equipped kitchen. It sounds expensive and I'm sure it would have been 5 years ago but if you look around you'd be amazed at the great deals you can get, especially now.
So now that your room has a mini fridge or kitchen....do the research. Is your favorite grocery store in the area? Again, Yelp is a great tool for this. I like to look for Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Natural Frontiers, and Lassen's (all great and reasonably priced natural food stores). Some of them may not sound familiar but they are in other areas so it's good to keep these stores in mind when traveling. On this trip I was able to find a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in Tucson. I bought a couple of fruits and canned coconut milk and mixed those in the blender each morning to make breakfast smoothies. For lunch I'd whip up some Ready-Pack salads with whatever vegetables I had, mixed in with some homemade dressing and topped with guacamole. I also had canned items to add to our salads in order to keep them exciting. Some of these items included canned beans, canned grape leaves, canned artichoke hearts, canned olives. Again, all items that can also be used if you only have a mini fridge.
If you don't want to go through the hassle of cooking, Trader Joe's makes fully prepared pre-packaged salads as well as a variety of other ready made foods. Just make sure you take a can opener with you. It may sound funny but if I'm on the road traveling I always make sure to take a can opener, blender, and a wine opener.
If you are traveling by anything other than car, stick to ready packed food. Also, many grocery stores have a deli section where they have ready made foods available.
What if you end up in a not so vegan restaurant? Most restaurants nowadays have vegan friendly options. It may just be one however. You can also read the menu and get creative. Say they have a steak and baked potato menu item and they have a guacamole side on the appetizer session. Ask for only a baked potato (plain if no veggie options exist) and add on whatever sides you can find. I love guacamole so that's an easy one I always go with. You can also do this with salads. Ask for the salad and if doesn't sound very filling add on guacamole, salsa, lemon etc.
If you're eating at a Mexican restaurant ask for a bean and rice taco on a corn tortilla with salsa and guacamole. If you're at a Chinese restaurant ask for a platter of steamed veggies, with noodles if you must. Vietnamese, order the vegetable pho and or veggie spring rolls. Mediterranean, order a falafel veggie platter, or a Greek salad with no cheese, but extra olives instead! At a sandwich shop, order a veggie sandwich. It's incredible what you can find at some of these places.
During our trip we ended up at Benihana's in Phoenix, Arizona to celebrate my cousin's birthday. Benihana's is known as a Japanese Steakhouse. Gasp, and clutch the pearls a steakhouse?!?! Yes, a vegan can also enjoy some great food at a steakhouse! I was able to order Veggie sushi without rice. I don't usually go for rice because rice turns to sugar, which then turns to fat. If you must have rice you can order brown rice instead which is much better for you. I also got an order of seaweed salad and miso soup. All very good and very filling and very vegan! Also, may I suggest that if you find yourself at Benihana's make sure you order the Plum wine, since you're already not having the rice you may as well!
Our next and last stop was Sedona, with it's beautiful landscapes and amazing natural environment! I loved Sedona and I especially loved the fact that there were a handful of vegan restaurants to choose from. I ended up finding a vegan place called The Chocolate Tree. A lot of their menu items were raw which means not cooked. This is the best in vegan cooking because when you cook your food, the heat kills off most of the nutrients. Raw gets you the highest source of nutrition you can get from your veggies. The Chocolate Tree was very good. So good in fact that it was the only place I went to. I loved their onion flat bread and their nori
So the lesson here is if you don't plan ahead and end up at a non vegan restaurant don't panic, instead get creative with the food they do have. Also talk to your server and ask what they can whip up in the kitchen. You'll either get a server who is very knowledgeable or one who looks at you like you're on crack. Either way you need to read the menu and look for what veggies, sides, and soups the restaurant serves that you can change around and make work for you.
Try it and then shoot me an email and let me know what you think!
Melissa
Our Daily Veg
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