Veggie Meals

Me slurping some delicious soup at the Veggie Grill, West Hollywood, CA

Late yesterday afternoon I took Bill to his favorite restaurant in Milton. 

Bill generally doesn't like to go to restaurants but he likes this one in Milton (which shall remain nameless but those who know me know the restaurant I'm talking about). He likes it because it's not noisy and crowded and no screaming kids.  It is also not very expensive and he really likes their soup (as do I) which is very good.  The restaurant has booths in addition to the ubiquitous tables with the four chairs around said tables. We always get a booth by the window.  

The waitresses are always glad to see us, they greet us with a smile on their face.  Bill has a favorite, her name is Tanya.  A middle aged, stocky, black woman.  Bill always teases her about how beautiful she is which she takes in good humor. She may not be Christie Brinkley "beautiful" but she has a beautiful soul and, as I said before, she is always glad to see us.  Bill feels comfortable at this restaurant.  And I am glad that I can take Bill out to a place where he feels comfortable and can kibitz with a nice person.  Bill can't stand to go to the usual beach resort restaurants that are noisy, expensive and uncomfortable. Especially these newer restaurants with the cushioned benched seating against the wall, where you're eating next to strangers (who came up with THAT idea?) of the spindly tables out in the middle of the floor with the equally spindly chairs.  We tried one of those restaurants (a new one in Milton directly across the street from where we ate last night) and we didn't like it.  Indifferent waitresses, noisy (see a pattern here?) and uncomfortable.  Also the choices of food are weird and expensive. Not a pleasant experience. 

Oh I know some say I don't know what I'm talking about but excuse me, I do.  We're talking about me and Bill here, not  you. 

My singular requirement for dining out is to be comfortable, eat food that I like at a reasonable price.  Also, food cooked on the premises and not this Sysco half cooked food that you see being unloaded every morning in Rehoboth Beach from their long tractor trailer trucks.  Food for the masses, food for the touristsas.   The reason you pay so much for the food in Rehoboth, which I find almost always to be mediocre at best, is because the restaurant owner/operators have to pay such high rents.  Of course you can fool yourself thinking you're eating in a fou fou restaurant, if that works for you fine.  Doesn't work for me.  You're paying a LOT of money for frozen food that's shipped in and warmed up and squirted with something of undetermined liquid for "presentation."  Give me a break.  But if that kind of dining works for you, and it does for many, then go for it.  Doesn't work for us.

A typical early morning sight in Rehoboth Beach's restaurants - the ubiquitous Sysco food truck unloading cartons of frozen (yes, FROZEN, and you thought they were cut fresh?) French Fries and other foodstuffs that you pay top beach dollar for - even the sea food is frozen.  If you want fresh seafood go to a place like Provincetown, Mass where there are actually fishermen who bring in the fresh catch of the day - Rehoboth Beach doesn't have any fishing trawlers, only beach umbrella and chair rentals.

Now, what is this too long blog posting leading up to?  Ever since I came back from Los Angeles, I haven't had one good meal out, including last night.  I go to this restaurant in Milton because Bill likes it but every time I get something there, I come home sick.  My stomach is a rumbling, saying to me "What are you doing to me!"  

Each time I go into this restaurant I look in vain for a veggie dish.  Of course most restaurants around here, "veggie" is a salad of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and (if you're lucky) a fresh red onion.  The ubiquitous iceberg lettuce which has absolute zero taste and nutritional value.  Every get one of those "Wedge" salads?  That's HALF a head of iceberg lettuce.  Talk about a make believe meal. All you're eating folks is the salad dressing that's on the worthless lettuce. 

So last night I tried something different.  I got the Eggplant Parmesan sandwich.  Hey, I like eggplant, what could go wrong? Well, I should have known.  The soggy, tasteless eggplant came in a huge roll (the roll was actually quite good, the few pieces I tore off) and was smothered in that rubbery mozzarella cheese.  Is it me or do you find that a big swab of mozzarella cheese has absolutely no taste, unless you think rubber has a taste.  The only taste I ever got from mozzarella was when it is browned on top of lasagna or a casserole. And then the taste is very faint.

I used to get a chicken caesar wrap at this restaurant but the chicken always tastes funky.  I suspect there is some old chicken sitting around at room temperature for a long time back in that kitchen.  I never order chicken any more at that restaurant.  

The one time I did get a vegetarian wrap (special request, it wasn't on the menu) I got some concoction of iceberg lettuce (there's that damn iceberg lettuce again) and tasteless winter tomatoes and red onion with a caesar dressing.  All I was crunching on was onions and slop.  

The photo above is one Pat took of me at the Veggie Grill in during our stay West Hollywood. 
 

That's Pat sitting at the table waiting for me at the Veggie Grill in West Hollywood.  Note the bright, inviting colors, space and total lack of screaming kids and NO WAITRESSES or attitude - this is relaxed dining folks

Everything they had on their menu was veggie and  . . . . delicious . . . . and tasty.  And you know what?  Made on the premise.  Nary a Sysco trailer food truck was to be seen early in the morning.  

The Veggie Grill at the Hollywood Walk of Fame - what I really liked about the Veggie Grill chain (in addition to the wonderfully healthy food at reasonable prices)  is how easy and efficient it was to place an order. Clean, fast and efficient and friendly.  What more can you ask? This restaurant is equally friendly to singles, couples and groups.  No attitude. 

I'm suffering here folks with the lack of choice of a good veggie option.  I can make something myself but I do like to go out.  Maybe someday someone will open up a restaurant for us who want fresh, wholesome food, sans grease and old chicken and . . . . . this is a BIG ONE . . . . NON-SEAFOOD (which I know is impossible being as to how we're here at "the beach") restaurant. Food when you eat it your stomach says:

"Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" 

Just two of the many veggie options Pat and I ate at the Veggie Grill in West Hollywood

And thank you faithful blog followers (and anyone new to this blog) for indulging me again in one of my all too frequent rants.  Sometimes I feel I just have to get things off of my chest and that's why I love my blog. Now I feel a LOT better. 

Dinner Out With Ron and Pat

My friend Pat from Toronto Canada visited Lower Slower last week for the Bloggerpalooza.  As is our won't, we visited out favorite restaurant, La Quetzalteca in Millsboro, Delaware. 

FREE PARKING La Quetzalteca, Millsboro, DE 

Pat and I have patronized La Quetzalteca every time he visits Casa Tipton-Kelly. While I understand that La Quetzalteca isn't chi chi enough for some of my snobbish Gayberry acquaintances who only prefer the quasi Rehoboth Beach Mexican restaurant (La Quetzalteca is owned and operated by REAL Mexicans), Pat and I find that La Quetzalteca is consistently:

• Excellent and authentic Mexican food
• Reasonably priced (obviously they don't have to pay the high Rehoboth Beach rentals)
• Comfortable and festive ambiance - spacious booths - none of those rickety tables here
• One doesn't feel rushed to finish one's meal so the restaurant can get the next wave in
• Always but always smiles from the service, you won't see any strained and sour faces here from the waiters like you all too often see in the Rehoboth Beach restaurants and absolutely NO ATTITUDE which is all too prevalent at so many gay owned and operated restaurants (no names lest I get blackballed)

The Bloggerpalooza gang waiting for their orders

So folks if you don't need the fou fou and the chi chi restaurants but just want good food, at a reasonable price and friendly service, La Quetzalteca is the place to try.  And folks….PLENTY OF FREE PARKING.  

Hasta la vista baby!

The waiters smile here - try finding that in Rehoboth

Going Vegan?

Last night I had dinner at Stripper Bites in Lewes with an old friend.  Hell, we're both old but that's another blog entry but back to my original programming, we had dinner at this fish place.  Since I'm to a fish eater I got my usual hamburger with :

lettuce
onion
tomato
cheese
and yes bacon.  

I got the WORKS!  And French Fries (of course).  Yes, the hamburger was good, well done just the way I like it with a hint of charbroiled taste.  LOVED IT!  But when I got back home and was talking to my vegan friend Pat on FaceTime I confessed to him that my stomach was churning, trying to process that beef in the hamburger.

My friend Pat is a vegan.  Not a vegetarian which is different but a vegan.  From what I understand a vegan not only doesn't eat meat, they don't eat any dairy products or eggs.  Pat is a vegan.  A vegetarian doesn't eat meat but will eat dairy products and eggs.  

Like most of you, I grew up in a household of meat eaters.  That was all I knew.  Beef, pork chops, hamburger, chicken.  My father was a hunter and he frequently brought home squirrels and rabbits which my Mother would make into squirrel dumplings, head and all. Yum!  Suck those squirrel brains out through their empty eye sockets.  In fact one of my favorite "meats" was scrapple which is nothing but corn meal and all the scraps left over from a butchered pig except the squeal.  I still like scrapple, properly prepared of course which few know how to do.

My 23rd birthday dinner with my friends Ed (on the left,t he same "Ed" I had dinner with last night) and my late friend Ron Hampton on the far right - that demure young man in the center is yours truly - 1964 - a typical meal back in 1964 - meat, meat and more meat

So where am I going with this discussion? The past several years my body has been telling me "Enough is enough!" after I've fed my pie hole with meat.  I think last night was the topper.  I did so enjoy that hamburger with all the fix ins but man oh man, did I ever pay the price for hogging down all that red meat, well done yet.

Pat in the center of Lewes, about a hour after I met him.  We were looking for a vegan friendly restaurant.

This past August a follower of my blog came down to meet me in Lewes.  His name is Pat.  Pat is a vegan.  We had dinner in Lewes.  He told me he was a vegan so I picked a place that specializes in vegetarian dishes.  We chose Cafe Azafran in Lewes. 

Pat and I at Cafe Azafran - our first meal together - vegan all the way - not bad!

For several years I've been trending away for having so much meat in my diet.  The only red meat I've had is round steak in my Swiss Steak recipe and an occasional hamburger when I went out dining with friends.  My main meat lately has been boneless chicken breasts but I'm even getting away from that.  I used to love pork chops but I just can't handle pork meat anymore, I get terrible indigestion. No more pork for Ron.

So what to do?  The standard salads served with restaurant meals bore me.  Always the decision "What kind of dressing do you want?"  However, I do love Eggplant Parmesan.  Properly prepared of course.
  

 The next night Pat and I went out, I suggested a Mexican restaurant that I liked in Millsboro. Acceding to Pat's desire for a vegan dish, we ordered grilled veggies. As the video above shows they arrived HOT. And they were delicious!  Of course the frozen lime margarita I had helped (I was on my second one folks).

Of course the all to frequent question to vegans is "Where do you get your protein?"  Folks, veggies have a LOT of protein.  

Pat with his smoothie at Nectar in Lewes - Pat is GREEN

Smoothies, that another thing I'm into now.  I have one every night, thanks to being introduced to them by Pat.  They are DEE-LICIOUS!  For any of you attending next March's Bloggerpalooza in Lewes, smoothies will be served at the Hospitality Suite along with Anne Marie and Sassy Bear's Cosmos and whatever other libations are on the granite counter.

Pat with his Three Berry smoothie at the Marathon Grill in Philadelphia during our November visit

I'm hooked on smoothies now folks!  I make a Three Berry smoothie every night for myself to put me to sleep.  Frozen raspberries, strawberries and blueberries with almond milk and two dollops of vanilla yogurt.  

The line at the Dairy Queen in Lewes this past summer - where I got my last Blizzard shake

Way better than one of those artery clogging, who knows what chemicals are in it? Dairy Queen Blizzard milk shakes (and cheaper too)!

Folks, I know it is somewhat late for me to get all healthy but better late than never.  After my numerous health crises last year (kidney stones, prostate cancer), I'm attempting to add a few more bonus years and extend my stay on this planet.

Pat and I enjoying yet another vegan meal at the Cafe Azafran in Rehoboth Beach this past August

I was so disappointed in myself last night that I fell back on my old habit of ordering a hamburger with cheese, bacon that was no good for me.  My body let me know because I suffered mightily before I went to bed last night.

My breakfast at the Marathon Grill during our Philadelphia visit - that was a veggie omelet - I'm half way there to a vegan meal - I have to give Pat credit because he doesn't preach but I can tell by his look that he is questioning my choices

Will I ever go "all the way"?  Maybe but it's going to be a gradual procedure.  I do like my creamed soups and butter and milk although I am becoming very used to Almond milk.

Pat and I at the Agave restaurant in Lewes - great salsa!

This one thing I do know though folks, is that when I eat a vegan or vegetarian meal it is fulfilling and my stomach doesn't suffer afterwards.  But can I ever give up chocolate chip cookies made with eggs and butter?  Hmmmm.

Pat, my vegan mentor, putting the finishing touches on a vegan meal he prepared for me

But folks, you know the best reason for a vegan meal other than your health?  It is the health of the millions of animals who are slain to feed our voracious appetite for "protein."  

So folks, I may soon be one of THOSE FOLKS who, when you dine with them, asks the waitress "What do you have on your menu for vegans?" 

Oh yes, I will again be the black sheep in the group and LOVE IT!

Daddy's Kitchen

One of my favorite spots to eat is a restaurant just off of Rt. 896, just across the border from Delaware to Pennsylvania.  The restaurant is called "Daddy's Kitchen" and it is in the heart of mushroom country; Landenberg, PA.

Last month my friend Pat and I took this route to Pennsylvania to celebrate my birthday in Philadelphia.  The restaurant is located about halfway up the 125 mile trip from Milton, Delaware to Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  "Daddy's Kitchen" is not a big restaurant, just a small, hideaway in an even smaller strip mall.  In fact I discovered it last year when I stopped to get gas.  

Ever the adventurer, I'm always one to try new restaurants as long as they're not too pricey and exclusive.  I'm all about good food, reasonable prices, comfortable seating environment and good service.  "Daddy's Kitchen" scores high on every one of my modest requirements for a good dining experience.  Even Bill likes it and you all know how Bill HATES to dine out.  "Daddy's Kitchen" has to have the best mushroom soup that's ever made its way down my pie hole.  YUM!  Of course Daddy's Kitchen is located in the heart of mushroom country.  In fact, this area of southern Chester County (Pennsylvania) is the mushroom capital of the world.  Lots of crap here folks but I digress.  

Daddy's Kitchen info

Pat's easy to talk to new restaurant adventures even though he is a strict vegan; no meat and no dairy products.  In fact, Pat won't even eat vegetables that share the same refrigerator space with those aforementioned non-vegan food groups.  Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit but he's pretty strict about what passed through his lips.  

Well, Pat wasn't disappointed with Daddy's Kitchen.  They happily prepared a fresh steamed veggie bowl for him.  What a restaurant!  What service!  

Our meals, guess who isn't the vegan.  Yup! Those fries belong to moi.

Pat checking the vegan options on the menu at Daddy's Kitchen

Dining Option For Next Bloggerama

Hey folks, I just found the new dining option for next year's Bloggerama, the Tokyo Steakhouse on Route One.  Let's do it!

This video was made a few years ago when I went with my neighbors for dinner at the Tokyo Steakhouse.  Part of the show, in addition to cooking your food to order in front of you, is meat is tossed into your mouth (now get your mind out of the gutter my more "worldly" blogger buddies).  
Notice that all of my neighbors missed The Toss.  Guess who didn't?  You got it!  Moi!  I don't know what that says, either I have a big mouth or I am very experienced.....well, we won't go there will we?

Note:  yes, that is me spitting out a piece of gristle at the end of the video.  Nice touch but so "me."