So Long, Celestin's

I was sorry to read in the Sacramento Bee this morning that Celestin's Island Eats and Cajun Cuisine

(http://sacramentovegan.blogspot.com/2011/08/celestins-island-eats-and-cajun-cuisine.html) will be closing at the end of this month.  The delightful Celestin family has been serving delicious Caribbean cooking in their beautiful restaurant for many years now, and I'm really going to miss them.  If you want to try their fabulous Curry Vegetables or Vegetarian Gumbo, you should make a point of visiting the restaurant before they close after dinner on September 30th.

Old Spaghetti Factory

Parents with young children are doubtless familiar with the very popular Old Spaghetti Factory chain.  Especially exciting for kids who visit the Old Spaghetti Factory's Sacramento location, which used to be a train station, is celebrating a birthday meal in the train car that sits in the middle of the restaurant.  The restaurant is also a favorite venue for office get-togethers, so between your kids and your co-workers, it's likely that a trip to the Old Spaghetti Factory is somewhere in your future. 

Since I went vegan, I've always ordered the spaghetti with mushroom sauce whenever I visit the Old Spaghetti Factory.  I assumed it was vegan, but before I put that in this blog, I thought I'd better send them an e-mail to get a definitive answer.

The response I received informed me that the mushroom sauce is, indeed, vegan, as is their minestrone soup and their marinara sauce.  Also, their broccoli side dish is vegan if ordered without the Mizithra cheese.  Top off any of these selections with a nice glass of chianti, and the vegan life seems pretty good!

The Old Spaghetti Factory has four locations in the Sacramento area: midtown Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Roseville, and Elk Grove.  More information about their restaurants and their menu is available on their website at  http://www.osf.com/.

My Chalk It Up! Mobile Food Truck Experience

Over the weekend, my mobile food truck wish (http://sacramentovegan.blogspot.com/2011/09/sacramento-mobile-food-truck-movement.html), or something very close to it, was granted.  Several food trucks and other food vendors set up at Fremont Park for the annual Labor Day weekend Chalk It Up art festival.  I went from truck to truck looking for something vegan to eat, but I wasn't having much luck.  

There was nothing vegan on the menu at Mama Kim Cooks, but they offered to put together a sandwich with guacamole, lettuce, and tomatoes.  I decided to keep looking for a truck offering something specifically vegan.  I thought I could count on Yolanda's Tamales (a food vendor, but not a mobile food truck), since Yolanda's makes veggie tamales without cheese, and I'm pretty sure that vegetable shortening is used in the masa instead of lard.  But Yolanda's Tamales wasn't serving any tamales on the first day of Chalk It Up.

Finally, I reached the last food truck in the row -- Wicked Wich, a sandwich truck.  The menu offered not one, but two, vegan options.  One was a vegan Italian sausage and the other was a vegan kolbassi.  They were out of the vegan Italian sausage, so I ordered the kolbassi.  While I waited for them to prepare my order, I noticed a small sign posted next to the menu:

            "Yes...the fries and slaw come on the sandwich!!  It has been made this

            way for almost 80 years now...so we suggest you don't try to change it!!!"

Which necessitated the question, is everything on the sandwich vegan?  The answer to that was "yes."  The coleslaw is made without mayonnaise, and the provolone cheese is vegan too.

My husband had ordered something from another food vendor, but we were able to sit together in the park at one of the few tables that had been set up for that purpose.  My kolbassi sandwich, served on thick slices of white bread, was pleasantly spicy and quite tasty. 

Before we left Chalk It Up, we stopped at Little Rich's Italian-ice for dessert.  My small lemon and cherry combination hit the spot as we walked around in the summer heat and looked at all of the great sidewalk art.

According to the Sac Food Truck Tracker (http://www.sacfoodtrucks.net/), several food trucks have been having weekly roundups at various locations outside the Sacramento city limits.  Tonight's roundup, for example, is from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Soccer World in Elk Grove, located at 9756 Kent Street.  I'm looking forward to the day when there will be regular roundups inside the Sacramento city limits.  Of course, I'm also looking forward to the day when more of these food trucks offer something for vegans to eat!

Luna's Cafe & Juice Bar

I stopped by for lunch at an old favorite last week, Luna's Cafe & Juice Bar, where the inimitable Art Luna has been blending fresh fruit licuados and providing a venue for local artists since 1983.  In addition to licuados and other specialty drinks, Luna's Cafe serves breakfast, sandwiches, salads, and soups.

Over the years, several vegan items have been added to the menu.  Luna's breakfast offerings include a create-your-own Tofu Scramble and Vegan French Toast.  The licuados are vegan if you order them with either an orange juice or soy milk base and request that the honey be left out.

For lunch, I ordered the Hummus Sandwich, which consists of homemade hummus, olives, avocado, tomato, and sprouts on your choice of bread.  Try it with the tasty sourdough wheat walnut bread!  There is also the Baked Tofu Sandwich, which is served with mustard, tomato, lettuce, and sprouts.  La Ventana looks as though it could easily be made vegan by asking that the cheese be left out of this sandwich, which includes zucchini, celery, carrots, sunflower seeds, tomato, and sprouts, served in pita bread with a choice of dressing.

All of the soups at Luna's -- lentil & rice, split pea, or frijoles de la olla -- are vegan if you order them without the cheese or bacon toppings.  Only one of the salads, the Garden Delight, appears to be vegan, but you may want to ask about the croutons. 

Several nights each week, Luna's offers a variety of entertainment:  jazz on Mondays, comedy on Wednesdays, poetry on Thursdays, and a mixed bag (flamenco, lectures, book readings) on other nights.  There is always original art on the walls, freshly brewed coffee in the pot, and a nice selection of beer and wine by the glass.

Luna's Cafe is located at 1414 16th Street, between N and O.  Their phone number is 916-441-3931, and their website address is http://www.lunascafe.com//.  Breakfast is served Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.  Lunch is served until around 3:00 p.m., and then Luna's re-opens at 6:30 p.m. on the nights that entertainment is offered (check their website for their entertainment calendar).  Luna's is open on Saturdays from 7:00 p.m. to midnight, and it's closed on Sundays.

Sacramento Vegan Is Taking the Weekend Off

Blogging will resume on Tuesday.

Ma Jong's Asian Diner

When I went vegan, it didn't take me long to figure out that I could usually find something decent to eat in a Chinese restaurant.  So when I found myself looking for someplace to catch a late lunch yesterday, I decided to try Ma Jong's Asian Diner.

I was a little worried looking at the first page of the menu because I didn't see a single thing I could eat.  But the second page more than made up for the lack of vegan offerings on the first page!  On the second page, I found that nine of Ma Jong's signature dishes, which are served with white or brown rice, can be made with tofu instead of some form of animal protein.  A picture of a tiny pepper was thoughtfully placed next to the description of each of the dishes that are considered spicy. 

Since I like my food spicy, I ordered the tofu mandarin kung pao, which consisted of zucchini, bell peppers, onions, chili peppers, and roasted peanuts in a chili garlic sauce.  I thought the portion size was exactly right, since I left the table satisfied but without a bag of leftovers.  My second choice would probably have been the tofu General Jong's, with broccoli and bell peppers in General's spicy sauce.  That will give me something to look forward to the next time I dine at Ma Jong's.

For those who don't like spicy food, I thought the tofu with sugar snap peas, bell peppers, and onions in a garlic black bean sauce sounded pretty good too.  There are also a few rice bowls that can be served with tofu.

Ma Jong's is located at 1431 L Street, across the street from Capitol Park.  Their phone number is 916-442-7555, and their website address is http://www.theparkdowntown.com/page.php?url=majongs.  Ma Jong's is open Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.  They offer curbside pick-up if you call in a take-out order, so you don't have to worry about finding parking along busy L Street.

Sacramento Mobile Food Truck Movement

What does the Sacramento mobile food truck controversy mean for vegans?  Since the local vendors who are leading the charge to ease restrictions on mobile food truck operations don't appear to offer any vegan menu selections, is this a fight that concerns vegans at all?

Absolutely!  Allowing mobile food trucks to operate more freely in Sacramento will benefit vegans, as well as their non-vegan dining companions. 

A variety of mobile food trucks would almost certainly include a vendor or vendors providing vegan menu options.  Before the current ordinance restricting the operations of mobile food trucks was adopted in Sacramento, Roots-N-Kulchah used to set up for lunch daily at the corner of 24th and K, serving delicious vegan Caribbean cuisine.  Also, the wildly successful SactoMoFo mobile food truck festival held earlier this year at Fremont Park in midtown included many food trucks from San Francisco that offered vegan menu selections or indicated on the menu how certain dishes could be made vegan. 

Mobile food trucks are popular with consumers because they are convenient (the food comes to you), the service is quick, and the prices are affordable.  These things tend to worry some restaurant owners, who fear that they will be unable to compete with mobile food trucks parked in the vicinity of their restaurants.  One savvy restaurateur seems to have embraced the mobile food truck movement, however.  Last month, Star Ginger Asian Grill and Noodle Bar launched the new UC Davis Star Ginger Food Truck, bringing their excellent Southeast Asian cuisine, featuring both vegan and non-vegan menu options, to the UC Davis campus.

Recently, my family and I vacationed in Tahiti, where we experienced the culinary phenomenon of "Les Roulottes" in the capital city of Papeete.  Every evening, these Tahitian mobile food trucks roll into an area near the cruise ship docks and start setting up tables and chairs for their customers.  Before long, local residents and tourists begin to line up for whatever type of cuisine they've chosen for the night's dinner.  Most of the French Polynesia guidebooks mention Les Roulottes as a not-to-be-missed outing for visitors to Tahiti.

Why can't we have a similar experience in Sacramento?  Isn't there a space where mobile food trucks can congregate in the evening, providing a variety of culinary offerings to hungry diners?  If each truck were to set up a few tables and chairs in a communal setting, vegans could order food from the vendors of their choice and then join friends or family members in the communal dining area after everyone has made their own food purchases. 

Sounds like the easiest way ever for vegans and non-vegans to dine in peace and harmony!