We discuss sustainable practices, dining options, and tips.

Stumptown Vegans Episode 17: Sustainable Dining

Resources:

• Oregonmetro.gov
• Eat Well Guide
• BEST Business Center
• Dine Green
• Go Green Man
• Take Out Without
• Papa G’s Vegan Deli
• Artemis Cafe
• Portobello Vegan Trattoria
• Blossoming Lotus
• Prasad
• Proper Eats

If you have any tips about responsible, sustainable dining, please share.

Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli is dedicated to sustainable practices and was a runner up for the BEST awards this year.
Image Credit MsConnections on Flickr

The Stumptown Vegans are joined by special guests for a lengthy blind taste test and critical discussions of vegan muffins, scones, chocolate cake/cupcakes, gluten-free selections, and cheesecake from local vegan baked goods providers.

Disclaimers and Set Up:

This podcast contains a no-holds barred, colorful, opinionated conversation amongst delightfully spoiled Portlanders, who all eventually succumb, on air, to sugar overload.  The showdown is based on items acquired on a specific weekend, and purchased with the Stumptown Vegans’ own money.  We were not able to attain everything uniformly, and were missing items normally available from some bakeries. That’s just how the cookie crumbled.

For example, there are chocolate cupcakes and cake reviewed in one category, and generally available scones missing from another. We did not place any special orders.

Even as Stumptown Vegans, we purchased independently and were not aware of where each item was from.

There are vegan-friendly bakeries missing.  If they bake your favorite items, or you disagree with our results, please share!

We do not know when items were baked or prepared.

We aimed to have at least 3 selections for every category.

Coming soon to Stumptown Vegans: the pie graph breakdown, item descriptions, more photos and quotes.

Special Guests:

• Alex Wrekk
• David Agranoff
• Maeve
• Crystal (our official non-vegan opinion)

Show Notes:

The Bakeries:

• Back to Eden Bakery & Boutique
• Blacksheep Baking Co.
• Blossoming Lotus
• Dovetail Bakery
• Monkey Wrench Vegan Bakery
• Portobello (formerly of Cherry Bomb)
• Sweetpea Baking Co.

Additional References:

• Vegan Iron Chef
• Chloe and Louvella’s Dating Service
• Try Vegan PDX
• Portland Zine Symposium
• The Vegan Revolution…with Zombies – available at VegFest 2010 in September!
• Sweet Life Patisserie (Eugene, OR)
• Vegan Treats (Bethlehem, PA)
• Red & Black Cafe
• Vegan Bakeries on the Rise in Portland Neighborhood Notes

Thanks to our special guests, Portland’s fantastic vegan bakeries who just keep getting better and better, and for listening!

The Cheesecakes:

Taste test set up:

Portobello Cupcakes & Monkey Wrench Snickerdoodle:

This includes the reveal of the Stumptown Vegans’ picks for Portland’s Best Bowls, which you can now check out posted on our website, with photos.

Episode 15: Healthy Spring Dining

Show Notes:

• Blossoming Lotus
• Prasad
• The Bye & Bye
• Native Bowl
• The Whole Bowl
• Papa G’s Salad Bar
• Proper Eats
• Pho PDX
• Just Thai
• New Seasons
• Portland Farmers Market
  • Downtown PSU, King Market, Shemanski Park and Buckman Market (formerly Eastbank) are all open!
• Tastebud Pita
• Hot Lips
• Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ
• Chaos Cafe
• Cafe Yumm - coming to downtown Portland this summer!
• The Stumptown Vegans Present: Portland’s Best Bowls

Tastebud Pita from the Farmers Market

Subscribe to our podcasts

Download for free on Itunes

Webly and Jess sit down for a riveting conversation about the current advances in vegan cheese, and reflect on just how far commercial and homemade vegan cheeses have come, historically.

They contemplate:

• The Daiya Invasion:
  • Has Daiya changed the world?
  • How easy has veganism become?
  • The revolutionary melt.
• Which is the best for pizza?
• Is anything superior to homemade nut cheese?
• Past experiences with vegan commercial cheeses.
• Vegan curiosity & standards.
• Commercial popularity & restaurant use.

Show Notes:

• Daiya
• Teese, by Chicago Soy Dairy and the Teese Challenge
• Tofutti
• Follow Your Heart
• Wayfare Foods
• Dr. Cow nut cheese
• The Uncheese Cookbook
• Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, SoyInfo Center
• Galaxy Foods
• Paradox Cafe’s vegan queso

Wayfare We Can’t Say it’s Cheese Hickory Cheddar Spread and Dr. Cow’s Aged Cashew & Hemp Seed Cheese

Grilled Cheese with Tofutti Mozzarella from The Grilled Cheese Grill

Pizza with Daiya Mozzarella (formerly known as Italian Blend)

Pizza with the new Teese Mozzerella formula

Subscribe in a reader

This is modeled after recent similar listings by Willamette Week and ExtraMSG, except this time – it’s all vegan!

The full listing is published on Stumptown Vegans.

Instead of the usual Show Notes this episode, we’ll just send you that way!

Episode 13: 25 Great Vegan Foods for $7 or Less

This episode is dedicated to….

Coda was a great friend and will be missed beyond words. There was even a short documentary about her called a Cowboy Hat and a Cane. May she rest in peace.

And Happy Easter from Webly’s Parents:

Don’t forget, you can also subscribe via Itunes!

P.S. We went really cheap during one of our first podcasts – Cheap Ass Eats: $5 or Less. Recorded in March 2008.

Webly and Jess sit down with Jess, a local vegan and professional wine steward, for an in-depth conversation about wine.  Jess, the wine steward, touches upon her personal favorites, what isn’t vegan about a lot of wine, food pairings, regional wines, and more.

All three vegans also sample an array of chocolates purchased from local chocolatiers, and review in detail.  Missionary’s chocolate mint truffle, Sahagun’s brand new Stumptown pure coffee bar, and Alma’s fig and marzipan chocolate, were among the favorites!

Show Notes:

Wine:

• Barnivore.com
• Vegan Wine Guide (Frommars)
• Orleans Hill Winery, makers of Our Daily Red Organic Wine
• The issue of allergens and wine labeling (not currently happening).
• Charles Shaw (aka Three Buck Chuck. FYI, the red are vegan-friendly, according to Barnivore).

Chocolate Review:

• Missionary Chocolates
• Alma Chocolate
• Sahagun Chocolates – various
• Sweet Masterpiece Inc. – medallions
• Blossoming Lotus – raw chocolates and brunch
• Go Max Go Candy Bars
• Holy Kakow Chocolate Syrup
• Lillie Belle Farms – Caramelized Almond Bar
• Coco & Co
• Fran’s Chocolates, sold at Cacao
• LuLu’s raw chocolate
• Stirs the Soul organic raw chocolate
• Moonstruck Chocolate Co.

Of course, there are more vegan chocolates available around town, and our selection was limited to what we were able to buy in time.  Please let us know if you have other local favorites to recommend!

Which leads into…

Upcoming Valentine’s Day Events/Vegan Options in Portland

• Blossoming Lotus has a special Valentine’s Day Dinner Menu – make your reservations!
• Portobello WILL be open.
• Place your dessert orders from Sweetpea Baking Co. and Back to Eden, etc.
• Chocolates from Food Fight!
• The numerous chocolates named above!

Local Chocolate Review, Round 1

Chocolate Prep

~

Please feel free to contact Stumptownvegans [AT] gmail.com if you’d like to get in touch with Jess, the wine steward, about wine questions or personal consultations.

As always, feel free to email us or contact us on twitter with questions.

P.S. Two Additional Portland Vegan Friendly Wine Notes:

• We hear that Vino Vixens wine shop on SE Powell is vegan friendly.
• Alu Wine Bar on NE MLK has a vegan label specifying their vegan friendly wines, as well.

Opening up with a brief, yet passionate discussion of recent Portland food items we’ve been crazy about, the Stumptown Vegans tackle the subject of tipping in our latest podcast.

With the assistance of an online tipping resource, we discuss appropriate tipping at restaurants, coffee shops, carts, bars and more.  Keep a spare $1 or two in your pocket!

Show Notes:

• Tipping.com
• Cacao’s Drinking Chocolate
• Hungry Tiger Too’s Tofuffalo wings
• Spella Cafe

The new Spella Cafe:

In other news, we are seeking sponsorships and a theme song to update our DIY approach a bit.  More information to come – please get in touch if you are interested!

stumptownvegans @ gmail.com

It’s that time of year – join us as we discuss the year of the food cart, openings, closings, remarkable changes, favorite meals and our picks for Restaurant of the Year for 2009.

Show Notes:

• Gorditos II closed, Gorditos restaurant opening at SE 11th and Division.
• Slappycakes (review coming very soon)
• Pyro Pizza
• Kinta
• Koi Fusion
• Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ (closed for the winter)
• Bang Bang Cafe in Seattle
• Green Wok (review coming soon)
• Hungry Tiger Too’s new daily specials
• Mississippi Marketplace
• Back to Eden Bakery
• Sweetpea Baking Co.
• Dovetail Bakery – storefront coming soon to NE Alberta St., next to HELD Vegan Belts

& many more on the podcast!

And The Stumptown Vegans Restaurant of the Year for 2009 Picks:

• Portobello Vegan Trattoria
• Blossoming Lotus- Irvington

Shocking, right?

Breakfast in Bridgetown: It’s Vegan Week

In July 2009, Portland based food writer and restaurateur Nick Zukin abandoned his carnivorous roots for a month-long Vegan Quest.

The food connoisseur behind ExtraMSG, the Portlandfood.org forums, and both Kenny & Zuke’s establishments, was interested “to see what it’s like to live as a vegan. Call it a form of cultural anthropology, like living with a tribe in the Amazon or something. That’s not intended to be demeaning. I just mean to highlight the truly incommensurable differences between my world and the vegan world. I aim to walk in their shoes”.

Join the Stumptown Vegans as we sit down to discuss his experience in the final part of this interview.

Check  out the first half of this interview, Episode 8 here or download from Itunes.