Say It's Not Soy » Travel Guide

The Savory Side of Denver

Megan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:04:27 +0000

Now for the savory side of Denver!

Rebellion Pizza (2231 S Broadway, Denver CO 80210): Rebellion Pizza is the type of place that works for both meat eaters and vegans. Anyone of their pizzas can be made vegan and they have three different vegan cheese options. Pictured above is the vegan “meat” lovers pizza that I ordered when I was in Denver a couple of months ago. The pizza had four different types of vegan “meat” on it (MorningStar Chicken, Tofurky Italian Sausage, LightLife Pepperoni, and Yves Canadian Bacon). It’s sans vegan cheese and it was pretty good (their crust and sauce were awesome). They also have friendly customer service and killer vegan garlic sticks. Their “Vegans Only” parking sign in their parking lot out back is pretty rad too.

WaterCourse Foods (837 E. 17th Ave, Denver, CO 80218): When I visited this place a couple of months ago, it was super packed at dinner time. However, since I was dining by myself, I was able to be immediately seated at the bar section of the restaurant. After looking over their large menu I decided on the tempeh burger and the vegan seitan buffalo wings (everything pictured above). The burger came with my choice of two sides (I selected the colesaw and the gravy and mashed potatoes). Everything was pretty good except the tempeh patty was slightly overdone. To make up for the dry patty, I put some of the vegan ranch that came with the buffalo wings onto the burger and that made it much better. I would recommend trying this place out because they have a large selection of vegan items and their daily specials looked really tasty.

City O’City (V206 E 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203): I wish there was a City O’City in the Bay Area. I like City O’City because it’s open late (2am Monday – Saturday), they have a great selection of vegan pizzas, and Monday night is whiskey night! I’m a fan of their whiskey night because they have specials on good whiskey (stuff like Buffalo Trace and Bulliet). They also have great daily vegan specials too.

When I was in Denver a couple of months ago I had a couple of hours to kill before my return flight home, so I shot over to City O’City to check out their daily specials. Their daily vegan special was “Tempeh a la Sylvestre” (potatoes au gratin, roasted tempeh, green bean succotash, and dijon vinaigrette)(pictured above) and it was amazing. I think I would have licked the plate if I didn’t fear getting dirty looks from other customers. Overall, the food was great and on the inexpensive side (I think the special plus drink, dessert, and tip cost me just over $20). The atmosphere was pretty relaxing and they also sell baked goods from the WaterCourse Bakery next door.

The Sweet Side of Denver

Megan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:26:07 +0000

A couples of months ago I went to Denver for a business trip and was sweetly surprised with all the amazing vegan food. This blog entry is going to focus on the sweet side of Denver. I am going back to Denver this weekend for the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s Western Regional Tournament and I can’t wait to pig out again.

Sweet Action Ice Cream (52 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203) : How could you not love a place that makes their own vegan ice cream? Not only do they make fresh batches throughout the week but they offer more than just ice cream cones. This is the first place I have ever seen that makes VEGAN ICE CREAM CUPCAKES! When I visited this place a couple months ago I had to pass on picking some of these up because they are sold by the half dozen. I was by myself and knew that I could not be trusted with a half dozen if these babies. Sweet Action also makes homemade vegan ice cream sandwiches too. I picked up a peanut butter cookie and vanilla ice cream sandwich (win! pictured above). Another wonderful thing about Sweet Action is that they are on twitter (twitter.com/sweetactionic) and they tweet their daily fresh flavors. Did I mention that I already placed my order for vegan ice cream cupcakes for this weekend (chocolate cupcake, coffee ice cream, and vegan buttercream).

WaterCourse Bakery: bakery goods available at City O’City (206 E. 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203) and WaterCourse Foods (210 E 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203). The WaterCourse Bakery does not have a retail location but they supply the sweets for WaterCourse Foods (duh) and City O’City. The bakery is located next door to City O’City; so you know everything is fresh. While in Denver a couple of months ago, I picked up their mini vegan hoho cupcake (middle picture) and a frosted sugar cookie and a cinnamon bun (bottom picture). Everything I had was excellent and I definitely want to get my mitts on more of their baked goods.

East Side Kosher Deli (499 S Elm St, Denver, CO 80246): Want to know a secret? This deli is a vegan chocolate chip mecca! Not only do they have the hard to find butterscotch chips but they have COFFEE chocolate chips that are vegan. Check in the back of this deli for those flavors plus more! Are these chocolate chips good for you? Not really, but they do not have confectioner’s glaze or any dairy in them!

Walt Disney World Trip | Planning Guide (part 5 of 5)

Megan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:35:43 +0000

When I was planning my trip to Walt Disney World (WDW), I did a ton of research on the vegan food available at the different parks. I was very surprised at the amount of options and how well Disney could accommodate a vegan diet. I wanted to share all the resources that I used when planning my vacation and I also wanted to share some tips.

As soon as plan your trip to Disney World call Disney’s Dining Reservation Center at 407-WDW-DINE to make restaurant reservations. You can book up to 90 days in advance and most of the popular restaurants book up fast! I called a month ahead of my vacation and many of the restaurants were already all booked or had one or two openings.

Use these resources to help plan your trip:

Disney World Special Diet Information Site
Vegan in Disney World blog
Check out my flickr Walt Disney World folder for all my pictures
Use Kitty’s resources on the website AllEars.net. I also emailed Kitty when I was planning my vacation and she sent me a huge email with tips and suggestions. Kitty = excellent resource!!!

Every quick serve food vendors have a book of ingredients of all the food they serve. The book is available at the cash registers or behind the counters. Ask cashier or counter server to see the ingredient book if you have questions about a food item. For example Pecos Bill’s in the Magic Kingdom had a vegan burger but by asking for the ingredients book I found out that the bun was not vegan!

Understand that Disney views lifestyle choices (being vegan) much differently than dietary restrictions (being allergic to something). In the above picture of a reservation ticket, Disney makes sure to note when a person has an allergy or a special diet. Disney takes food allergies very seriously. For example, I am lactose intolerant and they seemed to take that more seriously than when I told them I was vegan.

Ask to speak to the chef at the sit down restaurants. I spoke with at least 6 different chefs during my vacation and they were more than happy to prepare something off menu. The key to talking to the chefs is to be patient (most of them are very busy) and not to be demanding (understand that they have unlimited resources but they will try very hard to create a wonderful vegan meal).

Be patient and plan ahead. Try to eat during non-peak hours since it takes extra time to talk to a chef and have them prepare something special. Also try to eat before you get very hungry; no one wants to be around a grumpy person on vacation. You can also carry a vegan snack bar with you just in case, although there were plenty of vegan snack options available at the parks (pretzels, fresh fruit, pickles, and mixed nuts to name a few).

If you have access to an iPhone during your vacation use my iPhone friendly Walt Disney World vegan dining resource guide, WDW Vegan (Beta). I used it during my vacation and it was a great alternative to carrying around printed resource sheets.

Walt Disney World Trip | Ohana (part 4 of 5)

Megan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:17:33 +0000

My dinner at Ohana was hands down one of the best meals I have ever had. It was quite a challenge getting into this restaurant; all reservations were booked atleast a month out, if not longer (I called a month before my vacation and got nothing). My motivation behind wanting to dine at Ohana was the rave reviews that Chef TJ, resident Ohana chef, had received from the vegan community. I knew that this would be the highlight of my vacation………..if I could only get into the restaurant! Hanford and I trekked over there on a Thursday evening, crossing our fingers that they might have an opening and Chef TJ would be working. We checked in with the hostess and she told us that Chef TJ was working (yeah!) and that they had an opening……in two hours. Hanford, being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, stuck it out with me the entire two hours in the lobby with a bunch of rambunctious children and crabby/slightly drunk adults.

The wait was worth it though. The whole experience was pretty great although make sure to ask to not be seated anywhere close to the open grill (they cook meat on the grills). Luckily they have seating that is away from the grills and you won’t have to see what they are grilling. Ohana serves a set family style meal that is pretty meat/seafood heavy. I made sure to let our waiter know that I was vegan and would like to speak with Chef TJ. After waiting a short bit Chef TJ came out and chatted about the vegan options. Chef TJ served a 6 course vegan meal (I didn’t take a picture of the noodles or salad served because that comes with the standard set dinner). Each course was personally served by Chef TJ too; which was a great personal touch. I highly suggest trying to make it to this restaurant! Below are 5 of the 6 courses served.

Soy ginger slaw with hummus and baked pita bread. This appetizer course started out the evening. The slaw was slightly sweet and the hummus was delicious.

Miso soup with an accent of tomato. It took me awhile to realize that there was a hint of tomato in the miso soup (I should have just looked at the garish, duh), which was wonderful.

Avocado and pineapple hand rolls with sweet and spicy sauce. It was a nice variation from the tradition hand rolls that usually come wrapped in nori sheets. The combination of avocado/pineapple/sauce wrapped in soy paper was great.

Tempura broccoli/asparagus, crunchy noodles rice, fried tofu with a sweet and spicy soy glaze. By the time this course came out I was getting pretty stuffed but I had to have make room for this yummy main course. The tempura veggies mixed with the crunchy noodles and tofu was awesome and the portion was huge! I could only eat about 1/3 of it.

Banana split kabob with ice cream cookie sandwiches covered with chocolate syrup. This picture doesn’t do justice for how incredible this dessert was. Like many of the nicer Disney restaurants, Ohana had the standard Divvies vegan cookies and Tofutti vegan ice cream for the vegan dessert option. Chef TJ got really creative with this one and came up with something truly unforgettable!

When the meal was over I felt like I had to be rolled out of the restaurant! It was one of the highlights of my vacation and I will definitely eat here again. One of the other bonuses of Ohana is that you can take a short walk to the lake it is located near and watch the evening fireworks across the lake at the Magic Kingdom. Hanford and I finished up dinner just in time to roll our way down to the lake and watch the firework show. Win!

Walt Disney World Trip | Tusker House (part 3 of 5)

Megan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:16:47 +0000

I thought the Tusker House restaurant (located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom) was going to be an average buffet where Hanford and I could just grab a quick meal. Tusker House turned out to be my second favorite meal during my Walt Disney World (WDW) vacation. It was a combination of the great food and the helpful Chef Joseph. I decided to do an entire blog post on this meal since it was full of yummy vegan food.

As soon as we were seated I let our waiter know that I had a “special diet” and that I would like to speak with an available chef. After waiting 10 minutes Chef Joesph came out and walked me through the entire buffet. He not only told me if an item was vegan but also what non-vegan items could be made vegan (for example, there was chicken stock in the rice! ack!). After walking through the buffet with him and selecting some items to have veganized, Chef Joseph zipped back to the kitchen and started working on my meal. A short while later he came out with two plate fulls of items and a side of mango chutney! Below are the pictures from my wonderful meal.

The buffet was set up to look like an open air market.

Sweet corn bread and chocolate bread with mango chutney, an excellent side to nosh on.

Vegetable samosas, orzo salad, and a zuchini/tofu dish. I always love samosas but the orzo salad was simple yet really tasty.

Cous cous salad with sauteed green beans,

Experimental roasted vegetable sandwich!!! This was something that Chef Joseph brought out when Hanford and I were finishing up our meal. Chef Joseph told me that he was trying out a new vegan sandwich to put in their to go boxes and he wanted to know what I thought of the sandwich. It was a truly delicious sandwich; the vegetables weren’t greasy at all, it had the perfect amount of hummus, and the bread tasted like it was fresh from the oven. It was a fun treat to try out something that was still in the works; I’m crossing my fingers that they put it on the menu!

Walt Disney World Trip | Snacks (part 2 of 5)

Megan — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:22:16 +0000

The snacks at Walt Disney World (WDW) were some of the best parts of my vacation. I never would have imagined being able to find not only vegan rootbeer floats but also vegan caramel corn?!?! The snacks didn’t stop there; WDW had lots of vegan snacks (both healthy and not). Below are some of my favorite snacks that I had.

Rootbeer float with Tofutti vanilla ice cream, Ice Cream Parlor Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. Love it!!!!! This place has Tofutti and Rice Dream ice cream right on their menu; no need to ask the for something special! Try to visit this place when it’s not crowded because it takes them a while to fill a vegan ice cream order (I think I waited 15 minutes). It was worth it!

Divvies Vegan Caramel Corn, Main Street Bakery in the Magic Kingdom. The Main Street Bakery is a small cafeteria style bakery that sells Divvies products. If you can’t find the Divvies products make sure to ask a cashier and they will be happy to let you know if they are in stock (hiding somewhere in the store) or if they are out (they were out of Divvies vegan cookies while I was there).

Honeydew, tangerine, and strawberry flavored Japanese snowcone at the Japan Pavilion in Epcot. I happen to be wearing my Loyal Army snowcone shirt the day that we went to Epcot; the Japanese ladies behind the counter giggled at me when I ordered. This snowcone made for a nice treat during the warm weather. The line was also really short when I was there.

Vegan Mickey Waffles (gluten-free too) at Port Orleans Riverside. While on vacation at WDW I stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Hotel. A couple of the mornings I went down to their food court to scout out the vegan options. The chef that was working in the morning was very happy to help and make these nice waffles. Smart Balance vegan butter was available in the refrigerated condiment area; ask for it if you can’t find it.

Vegetable sushi, fruit salad, and pasta salad at Seasons in Epcot. Cafeteria style dining with lots of vegan options. Most of the to go containers had ingredients listed on them. They also have Silk vanilla and chocolate soy milk available in their cooler.

Walt Disney World Trip | Misc. Meals (part 1 of 5)

Megan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:14:17 +0000

It’s been about a month since Hanford and I went on vacation to Walt Disney World (WDW). Life has been so hectic between then and now (a huge derby bout, school projects, and a business trip to Colorado kept me from posting about vacation sooner). I decided to break up covering vacation into several blog posts and this will be the first one. In this post I will cover the miscellaneous meals I had. The next couple of posts will cover the rest of the food and I will also include a guide on planning a vegan vacation to WDW. So check back again soon for more posts!

I was very surprised at how many vegan options were available at the various Disney theme parks. I researched ahead of time which restaurants had the best options and also had availability. The key to getting a great vegan meal at WDW is to make sure the servers know that your vegan (duh)! The folks at Disney are used to accommodating a variety of different diets. Let your server know as soon as you are seated and they will most likely bring out an available chef to discuss dining options. This was really helpful because there were several items that looked vegan but turned out to have something non-vegan in them (chicken broth in the rice or whey in the breading of vegetables, for example). Shown below are some of the meals that I had while on vacation.

Coconut encrusted tofu with snap peas, edamame, and noodles in curry at Brown Derby in Disney MGM Studios. Brown Derby was the most upscale restaurant that we dined at while on vacation; it was also the most expensive. I made sure to get reservations ahead of time (three weeks) because I was told that it was popular. Before ordering any of my food for the evening the chef came out and discussed my various dining options. The chef told me that the tofu curry dish was already vegan but that he would whip up something special for dessert. It was pretty busy the night we went (Wednesday) and I had to wait about 15 minutes to talk to the chef. The wait wasn’t that bad since they have a full bar

Mango sorbet and Tofutti ice cream with fresh mango and raspberries dessert at Brown Derby in Disney MGM Studios. The chef made this special for me (not on the menu). The sorbet and ice cream mixed together reminded me of a creamsicle.

Hummus wrap with black beans, corn, and salsa from Cosmo’s Ray located in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. This was a pretty tasty wrap considering that Cosmo’s Ray is a greasy burger type place. I double checked with the cashier via the ingredients book that this wrap was vegan (I would suggest checking again though if you go here just in case they changed this item). Overall the wrap was pretty good and it was a good quick meal option. Cosmo’s Ray also has a toppings bar too (check to see what everything is cooked in though, I heard some of the sauteed veggies were not vegan).

Seared marinated tofu with mango glaze at Sci-Fi diner at Disney MGM Studios. Make sure to ask for no honey in the mango glaze! This was a pretty unique dining experience; the atmosphere is that of an old drive-in theater and you sit in car shaped booths. This was also another popular restaurant (had to book it way ahead of time). They also have Toffuti ice cream and make a really yummy vegan chocolate milk shake!

Fried Rice with veggies and fried tofu at Yak & Yeti in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I didn’t make reservations ahead of time for this place; we only had to wait 15 minutes and they have a bar where you can wait. Overall the meal was ok, nothing too special, but the chef came out and talked with me about my vegan options. Although they didn’t have many options the chef was very knowledgeable about what was and wasn’t vegan. The chef also let me know that the wok fried green beans where not vegan (they have whey in them).

Roasted pepper with wild rice and roasted mixed vegetables at 50’s Prime Time Cafe in Disney MGM Studios. This is a pretty popular restaurant and I made sure to make reservations ahead of time. I would recommend this place because the meal itself was pretty tasty and they have Toffuti ice cream but just make sure not to put your elbows on the table

Roasted zucchini with tomato and tomato/basil hummus at Captain’s Grill at the Beach and Yacht Club. This was the last meal that I had on vacation and it was yummy! The sandwich came with a zesty orzo salad and it was great! I spoke with the chef at this restaurant (our waitress had no idea what vegan meant) and he created a very delicious meal.

Vegan.com Feature

Megan — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:49:03 +0000

While checking my Flickr account today I noticed that I received a nice comment from Erik at Vegan.com. Erik featured one of my recently uploaded pictures from my Walt Disney World vacation on the Vegan.com. I was super stoked to have one of my pictures featured on his site. I consider Say It’s Not Soy to be my baby and I get excited when other people enjoy the content I am featuring (whether it be on the blog, twitter page, or flickr account). Thanks for the feature Erik! Check out the feature here: http://www.vegan.com/blog/2009/05/27/vegan-hummus-wrap/

Also I wanted to do a mini update to let everyone know that I am working on drafts of several different blog posts to highlight my vacation that I took last week to Walt Disney World. I plan on highlighting my favorite vegan meals and snacks as well as tips for other vegans going on vacation to Walt Disney World. I also have a special surprise that I am working on showcasing soon too (I’ll give you a hint; I’m developing my first iPhone web site). So be on the lookout for some fun updates