Rethinking The Cold Salad

I admit it. I used to be a salad hater. This may seem odd, being that I am a vegetarian but I think the sentiment followed over from my meat eating days when a salad meant some wilted iceburg lettuce, a few tomatoes and some slices of yellow onion. Maybe there would be some bell pepper in there. The only way to make that seem interesting to me was to drench it in salad dressing at which point the healthiness of eating a salad became null and void.

After giving the cold salad a second chance over the past few years I've learned that it wasn't the food genre that is salad I was against but rather the poor representations, the bland tasting, too watery or wilted versions.

As a vegetarian the salad is sometimes the best way to get a good meal fast. I've found that a squeeze of lemon over spinach or Romaine lettuce can make a world of difference when coupled with some olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper. Even the greens can vary. Try throwing in a handful of Arugula, red onion (instead of the yellow or sweet type) or avocado. For protein kidney beans from a can, white or red, make a great addition.

This past weekend I made a great salad for a family dinner and used a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. Despite her penchant for low cut shirts and sensual background music, to be seen on her show Everyday Italian weekday afternoons at 4:30 p.m., De Laurentiis offers consistently delicious recipes. I whipped together the Tuscan Salad in 15 minutes. Give it a try!

DIY Veggie Patties

The spring break hiatus has ended and so has my writing drought.

Today I had a yummy meal of handmade veggie patties tonight and decided to link the recipe for all of you creative eaters out there for those times when Boca won't cut it. Nothing against Boca; they make some great eats but making your own veggie patties is a good experience.

I like this recipe (from Guy Fieri of the Food Network) because it's simple and it's the equivalent of fresh hamburger meat for us non-meat-eaters. It has a cool story too. Apparently Guy decided to make the patty after his vegtarian sister (Morgan) was dissatisfied with frozen alternatives (I watch waaaay too much Food Network, I know).

There's a little bit of dicing involved with the bell peppers and artichokes for example but other items, like olives, can be bought diced and canned. Throw it together and you have get to see exactly what goes into the vegetarian version of the hamburger.

One tip that Fieri offered when he made the recipe during the show involved shaping the veggie patty in a small, round left-over container. Line the Tupperware (or whatever brand you have) with plastic wrap, place the patty mixture in, place another layer of plastic wrap over the top of the patty and press the patty into shape.

I sandwiched my patty with a Publix bakery French roll and topped it with lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard and a garlic/mayonnaise mix. Tater tots for the side. Only regret: I forgot to buy ketchup :(

Sushi Rama

My boyfriend introduced me to Bikkuri Sushi two years ago. And my life hasn't been the same since.

OK, so that might be a bit more melodramatic than it needed to be but I had to get you to read this post somehow. What I will say is that my sushi intake has increased significantly since I started going there and I haven't put too much of a dent in my dwindling funds.

Bikkuri, a small sushi take out/dine in eatery off of East Colonial, offers some of the best and cheapest vegetarian-friendly sushi you can fine in this town. I got to meet the owner, Sam Chang, while interning at the Orlando Business Journal last summer. He's a quiet guy but very hospitable and he stops bustling for a chat or, at the very least wave, every time I come by Bikkuri (with the occassional free sake plopped in there...hey, what can I say?).

Chang has thrown himself and thousands of dollars into his restaurant and turned it from a small take-out sushi hole-in-the-wall, to an eat-in restaurant and sake lounge in the upper portion of the building. The lounge has the sort of urban feel and technicolor lighting akin to the Tokyo karaoke bar Murray finds himself sitting in in Lost in Translation. Minus the pink-wigged Scarlett. While the take-out sushi operation still pumps out rolls downstairs the dine-in restaurant upstairs offers the full sushi menu plus fare like soba noodle dishes, dumplings, you name it. The best part of it all is that Chang, a Taiwan native trained as a sushi chef for close to a decade in Japan, serves only fresh ingredients, no browned avocado or frozen veggies here (if you are looking for that, however, I'll direct you to the Publix seafood department).

My long-time vegetarian favorite has been the Garlic Roll ($3.99 for 8 pieces the last time I checked) that sidles fried garlic bits right up with slices of cucumber and avocado and a creamy dollop of fresh cream cheese. Though not the best eats for your first date crowd, the play of the crunchy bite of the garlic over the slightly-cooled cream cheese is, well, awesome. An eight piece roll can fill me up.

I'm also a fan of the Asparagus Tempura Roll (fried asparagus, cream cheese), which intertwines the nutty crunch of the asparagus with that familiar cream cheese, as well as the Seaweed Salad Roll, the salty salad toned down by jasmine rice cooked just right. Other vegetarian options are available though you will have to sift through a menu decked out with every variation of sushi you can possibly think of.

I was a bit bummed when I dropped by last Thursday to pick up my order (a 12-piece Garlic Roll for me and 12-piece Philidephia Roll for my flesh eating boyfriend that totalled to about $15) and found that some of the prices had been bumped up by a dollar or so. I guess that's what you're going to find pretty much everywhere now, though. Still, when it comes to good and affordable sushi in Orlando, Bikkuri pulls some serious weight on my list.