Dan and I had a lovely light miso soup with tofu, kombu and scallions.
Then we shared a platter of vegetarian sushi of avocado, asparagus, pickled radish and cucumber.
There was also an unpictured bowl of edamame and pot of green tea. Other than the fact that the sushi only came with white rice we were happy with our dinner.
As always we had a wonderful evening with our friends and spent hours chatting and having a great evening. We talked about the house they have a contract on, Walid's upcoming trip to Cairo to visit family, and of course the felines. Jackie is the only person I know that I would trust to watch my beloved felines. We are definitely cat mommy soul sisters which only other crazy pet parents would understand. It is so nice to spend time with friends. We had a great evening guys. We need to do it again soon.
What do all of you do when you are having dinner with omni friends or dining in an unfamiliar location? I fall back on Asian restaurants when I am out of my usual territory. Just curious what all of you do when you are out. I am always looking for new ideas.
It is getting late here and it is time to turn in. Tomorrow is another day and I am looking forward to seeing what the day will bring.
I hope you all had great evening!
Hi, there! Sounds like you guys had a very nice evening. For me, I like my cooking and know what's in it, so I actually prefer to eat at home. There are a few restaurants that I enjoy, and we patronize those. When I am in new territory, I always stick with ethnic food and check on ingredients. By the way, I made a chunky miso soup that I am going to be posting tomnorrow night, so that is another coincidence with our blogs! Have a good night.
ReplyDeleteBlessedmama,
ReplyDeleteI prefer my own cooking as well, but sometimes I run with scissors and go out to eat. No where near as often as we used to.
When you say ethnic beside Asian which others do you check out? We have had some success with Middle Eastern restaurants, but not many others. Am I missing something?
I love miso soup. It is one of my favorites. I love how healthy and light it is. Can't wait to see your version. The version I make is much more chunky than what we had out tonight.
talk to you soon,
Alicia
Dinner looks yummy and healthy for restaurant fare.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to eat at home on a regular basis too, but it is fun to go out sometimes: the table service, the tasting of the food (hopefully good), and being out among others is just a nice break in itself.
Glad you had such a lovely time.
Hi Alicia, Your dinner looks and sounds so wonderful! I believe I would order the same thing you did. I usually go to Thai, Chinese or Japanese restaurant when I go out to eat with my omni friends or family because I know for sure that there are so many choices for vegetarian dishes.
ReplyDeletep.s. Sorry I've been so busy working and I can't keep up with my food blog reading and commenting. I also have to send about 60 something Christmas cards, my deadline is today but I don't think I can finish it. Talk to you later:)
Rose,
ReplyDeleteIt is funny how we all prefer to cook ourselves. I know that I get rather obsessive about what is in the food so it is good for me to let go every once in a while.
You are right it was amazingly healthy last night. I was happy we were able to avoid a lot of unnecessary fat you frequently get at restaurants.
Alicia
We typically only eat out about once a week tops and have a few go-to restaurants. When going with friends, who all seem to eat meat, it does make it more difficult. I don't want to always seem like a control freak picking the restaurant, but I also don't want to get stuck eating a house salad - which for some reason people seem to think is perfectly acceptable as a meal. I usually try to look up menus and if they have absolutely nothing, then I will suggest another place. It can be frustrating, but it's my choice I suppose. Glad you guys had fun!!
ReplyDeleteOraphan,
ReplyDeleteThis is a hectic time of year for all of us. I am behind on everything I need to get done too, you aren't alone.
Thanks for your input. Asian restaurants are my go to as well. There is almost always something veggie that isn't full of fat there.
talk to you later,
Alicia
Heather,
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know I am not the only one that checks the menus on-line before going to restaurants. My hubby thinks no one does that but me, thanks for letting me know you do it too.
I agree with you that a house salad is not a meal. It is fuel to hold you until you can get something better, but clearly not anything I would choose. However, better than some of the steamed veggie plates I have gotten stuck with at restaurants when I didn't check the menu first.
My hubby has a holiday work lunch on Friday that he "must" attend, and this is suppose to be fun. I am curious to see what he ends up eating. The person planning the meal asked him a few days ago if he eats butter and then said something about he could always get pasta, so I can only imagine how "unhealthy and nutritionally devoid" this lunch will be. I only hope if when his meal comes and it isn't healthy he doesn't eat it.
Alicia
Ugh, sometimes that's the worst part. They do have something vegetarian or vegan, BUT it is one of the most unhealthy options on the menu. Then everyone seems baffled as to why you wouldn't want that. Duh.
ReplyDeleteI've got a cat mommy soul sister too! I never get tired of talking about cat antics with her. It really makes me wish that it would be possible to have kitty play dates, but that would surely end in disaster. As far as cat babysitters go, I have a great roommate now and she does a great job spoiling them while I travel, but you should have seen me with my last roommate! He was slightly allergic and didn't give them any loving. I wrote up 2 pages of instructions when I was going away for 5 days, and I was so stressed out leaving them with him!! It's sooo nice to have someone you know will take good care of your kitties when you are away.
ReplyDeleteI tend to invite people over to dinner rather than go out. Otherwise it's Thai, Indian, Italian, or generally anything ethnic. Thankfully my omni friends are very understanding and accommodating in any case. My big problem currently is business lunches. I have different sales reps come take me out and my boss out to lunch once a week on average (I know, poor me). It's not always up to me where these meetings take place, and often there are limited vegetarian selections, and usually you can forget about vegan. When I consider the thought of quitting dairy entirely my thoughts always come back to this dilemma. It's really silly how big a part food plays in my professional life! Well that's enough griping out of me, I really went off in a different direction there answering your question :)
Heather,
ReplyDeleteI see you have had that happen to you too. It baffles me how most American's are completely unaware of eating for health. I only hope this "fun holiday lunch" goes better than I am expecting.
Alicia
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know I am not the only crazy cat mommy out there. I appreciate the company. Some of my friends (the non animal people) think I go to far catering to the felines. But, they don't have to grow up, so what the heck, we might as spoil them, right? Kitty play dates sounds like fun, but I think you are right, it probably wouldn't work the way we envision.
I completely understand worrying about who you leave the cats with. Most people are not going to care for them the way you would, that is why I love my friend Jackie. She is a wonderful cat mommy to her two felines.
Food plays a big part in my husband's work life too, and it is always unhealthy steak house type food. Commercial real estate developers all seem to be carnivores. He does have difficulty staying vegan when out for lunch but can usually find something. Dairy is so unhealthy because casein promotes cancer growth, we both go to great lengths to avoid it. That is usually the hardest thing to avoid when you are out and also avoiding meat. Most vegetarian entrees are loaded with cheese.
Thanks for the cat and food input.
talk to you later,
Alicia
Okay, it's morning now, so I can recomment. Besides Asian, we have in our town Indian, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern and Mexican. We also have a few actual vegan restaurants, but only my parents dare to go to those with us. :)
ReplyDeleteBlessedmama,
ReplyDeleteEthiopian is a brilliant idea. We have one restaurant that I know of downtown that I haven't been to. Sounds like a great excuse to check it out.
Are you parents vegan? I can't imagine having parents that are so progressive. It must be great. My parents are the opposite end of the food spectrum, but they will eat my food so I have to give them credit for that.
Sounds like you don't have any local vegan friends either. I wish we did, but alas all our friends are omnivores. Although at least a few of them are healthy omnivores so they are more open to vegan food than most.
Alicia