Vegan "Pulled Pork" Sammie...Food Truck Style

Maximus Minimus has arrived and is rocking it on 2nd and Pike in downtown Seattle almost daily. the the menu is minimal, they do have an awesome vegan sandwich that is a bit like a cross between a sloppy joe and a pulled pork sandwich. It's loaded with cooked grains (I'm pretty sure there's some barley in there...) in delicious spicy (maximus) OR sweet (minimus) sauce and covered with cilantro, and served on a stellar whole grain bun. Add a rosemary lemonade and the day is made! And the truck itself? Well, that's one big-ass pig I would totally kiss!

Meet me at the Highline!

I love Asylum, a bar in DC that has awesome vegan chicken wings, cheeze fries and $1.50 tacos. With The Clash on the jukebox, a plethora of live shows and events (like vegan taco eating contests) to attend, and hot surly waitresses, it was pretty much my favorite place in DC to go. Alas, I left Asylum for the left coast, but thankfully the Highline opened in April, and it’s kind of better than Asylum. I know, I know… blasphemy…

There’s mixed reviews on Yelp, but most of the gripes are about greasy food. Really? First of all, it’s a bar. A bar that totes greasy veganized versions of classic pub foods, and doesn’t even have flesh or dairy on the menu. The first 4 items listed on the website are Beer, Sandwiches, Whiskey, and Airhockey. What in the world would make anyone in their right mind think they would find healthy food at this place? Newsflash: Vegan does NOT equal healthy (all the time). There are plenty of good healthy vegan places in Seattle to go, but this ain’t one of them.

I can’t say the service is fast, but the bartenders I’ve had are all really nice. The bar is a really large space, and there’s really not a lot of staff that work there, so don’t expect fast service, but it’s worth the wait. There’s a great selection of infused liquor (lavender infused vodka lemonade? Yes please… I’ll take 4…), cheap tall boys of Olympia beer (which, by the way, is the only cheap beer worth drinking… even if it is now manufactured by SABMiller), metal on the jukebox, and really awesome greasy bar food.

I’m in love with the poutine, which is basically French fries smothered in creamy garlicky sauce… yummmm…. “The meltdown” is their take on a tuna melt: layers of melty cheeze and faux fish smashed between greasy grilled bread with a pickle on the side. Last time I was there I had it with a cup of roasted tomato pumpkin soup. Drool. They carry fake meats galore and don’t skimp on their variety of sammies, nor do they skip on stuffing the sammies. Seriously– these are 2 person sammies, and for $7-$10 a pop, you can have a pretty cheap meal. 

So if you don’t mind slightly sticky tables, good booze, greasy food, nice bartenders and metal blaring on the speakers, come meet me at the Highline. Oh yeah, they also have cake-arokee, which is karaoke with vegan cake one night a week. So hit me up, I do a mean rendition of "livin' on a prayer," and I'll let you sing along if you can keep up. 

I totally did not take this pic of the Tempeh Lettuce Tomato sammie. Stole it from Yelp.

An Evening at Plum Bistro: Seattle

Confession: I’m a food slut. Not a foodie, not wannabe chef, not even a connoisseur of all things edible. I’m just a total slut. I sit around at night and look at food porn like “Great Chefs Cook Vegan” and “The Conscious Cook.” I go to spice stores even when I don’t need anything just so I cook gaze longingly at big glass jars filled with beautiful colours. I can tell you what channels on the TV are the food network, the cooking channel, and the travel channel, because outside of PBS, food shows are pretty much the only thing I watch. Sometimes, I even wish I were Gertrude Stein so Alice Toklas could have cooked for me on a regular basis.

“But, Colleen!” you might say, “I thought you were a foodie!” no, sadly, I am not. A foodie would have been aware that this week was restaurant week in Seattle. But not me. No, I was too busy whoring around– pouring lentils into glass jars and setting up my pantry to notice such things. Hence, I am not a foodie.

So when I wandered into Plum Bistro with a few friends on Sunday night, didn’t recognize the menu, and didn’t see a price, I felt really out of my element. I mean, I feel out of my element anyways in Plum, it being a *gasp* upscale vegan restaurant, filled with people wearing matching jewelry and black clothes that are not covered in cat hair, but the whole menu without prices thing really threw me for a loop. But no matter, a ginger-coconut-milk-vodka concoction and an explanation from our server that we had wandered into the week foodies live for cleared my confusion and we were good to eat.

And did we ever. The three of us just shared whatever we ordered. Yam and kale bruschetta, stuffed Portobello mushroom, apple and sage rubbed seitan steak, Jamaican burger, garlic aioli fries, butternut squash quinoa risotto, and three types of mini cheesecake at the end. Pumpkin, ginger, and chocolate. It was, and I do not say this lightly, orgasmic. The yams spiced with cardamom and the crisp baked kale complimented the toasted bread in perfect harmony. The seitan was so luscious it fell apart in your mouth, leaving traces of apple and sage to sing their autumn song on your taste buds. And the dark chocolate cheesecake was so dark, smooth and creamy you just wanted to curl up in a chocolate pillow and fall asleep.

See? Food slut. I rest my case. And while I was silly enough to leave my camera at home, I did jack this pic of their sliders off their facebook page, just so you too, could lust after the offerings at Plum. Come visit me sometime, and I’ll let you take me to dinner there.