A Ship to Pop Culture

1) At my office, the men's restroom is just on the other side of the wall from the women's restroom. Do you know what that means? It means that I CAN HEAR IT WHEN YOU DON'T WASH YOUR HANDS after you flush. And then I am secretly disgusted by you forever.

2) Yesterday there were a lot of bad Saturday afternoon movies on, and one of them was Notting Hill. I've seen it before, but this time I noticed a major inconstistancy. In the beginning of the the movie there's a scene where Julia Roberts' character is invited to a family dinner where some sort of bird (quail or something) is the main course, and at least three times it is mentioned that she's a vegetarian. Then, later on in the movie she's in a Chinese restaurant, and she tells a table of men that the tuna is really good. How did no one working on the movie catch that?

3) In Texas, if you are on a bicycle, you are required by law to wear a helmet (and yes, they will ticket you). However, if you drive a scooter or a motorcycle, you are not required to wear a helmet. Does that make any sense? Personally, I think safety laws (helmet usage, seatbelt usage, etc) should be voluntary after the age of 18. Maybe they could be called "Spencer Laws" (As in Herbert Spencer, who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"). I mean, why do we keep protecting the stupid people from themselves? If you are idiotic enough NOT to wear a helmet or a seatbelt, then we really have no need for you in the genepool. Good riddance.

i am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner

I am a HUGE fan of Spiral Diner Fort Worth and Spiral Diner Dallas. And I'm not even vegan. I love it so much I wrote a glowing review on Yelp.com.

I've been trying to convince my mom to go with me but somehow every time I suggest it the conversation goes a little something like this:

mom: "What sounds good?"

me: "Let's go to Spiral Diner!"

mom: "But I'm hungry. You know, really hungry. I need protein."

me: "They have a huge menu, with lots of protein options - not just tofu."

mom: "But I need meat."

me: "Mom, protein is protein."

mom: (getting testy and annoyed) "You know what I mean."

me thinking: No, no I don't know what you mean. What you mean is that you don't want to try anything new and anything outside of a steakhouse freaks you out.

Well, Spiral Diner is earning more and more non-vegetarian, non-vegan fans. I keep telling her that their "ate layer burrito" is to die for, but she still refuses to go with me, citing "must eat animal protein" as the excuse.

For my final argument, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would like to quote a comment left on this GuideLive article:

Posted by Melody @ 3:43 PM Wed, Apr 30, 2008

"My daughter and I went last week for lunch. She's vegetarian and I raise cattle and definitely love meat. The menu was amazing. She had the wrap with hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, spinach, and other veggies and it was delicious. I had the "traditional" burger (patty was made of brown rice, nuts and ground veggies). If it had been a blind tasting test, I would have never believed I wasn't eating something beefy and with real life mayo and fixings! The place was very busy and most all were men--overalls, suits, etc. Location is very easy to get to and we will be regulars!"

I rest my case.

*****(Click here for the full Dallas Morning News article.)*****

:) I win!

Spiral Diner coming to Bishop Arts!

How excited am I that this small vegan restaurant in Fort Worth is expanding to Dallas? Words cannot express. I LOVE IT! Spiral Diner is consistently voted in the top 10 lists for vegan restaurants for the entire country (!) and it's hard to believe it's nestled inside "cow town." And now good news for Dallasites - Spiral Diner is coming to the Bishop Arts District in the OC in October. Hoorah! Rumor is that it might even be dog friendly. Yeah!

The menu is extensive, and even your hard core carnivore friends will find something delish to try. I have had the "Ate Layer Burrito," the "all day lunch plate," spaghetti, hummus appetizer, potato salad, and the McNut burger. They have all been delicious, and the price is oh-so-right. All of their ingredients are not only vegan but organic, and their mission extends beyond just the food.

Spiral Diner pledges to:
- Use only cruelty-free and environmentally friendly biodegradable cleaning products
- Only purchase recycled and un-bleached paper products (with the highest post-consumer content available)
- Always buy Certified Organic ingredients whenever possible with conventional only as a last resort
- Use environmentally friendly, biodegradable take-away containers and disposable cutlery (we also encourage our customers to bring their own reusable containers with them to help us reduce packaging waste)
- Recycle 100% of all the accepted materials that come through our kitchen
- Donate a portion of profit to local grassroots organizations that are fighting for human, animal, and environmental causes
- Reduce waste by purchasing in bulk as much as possible and donating excess food to local food banks and shelters

And their take on pricing:
"Spiral Diner's prices are set as low as they can possibly go. Our goal is not to make tons of profit; it is to provide the community with tasty vegan food at a reasonable cost. Our goal is also to pay everyone working at Spiral a decent wage. We will never charge more than we absolutely have to in order to pay the bills.
So when you eat at Spiral you know you are getting high quality food from happy employees.
Additionally, we will continually to adjust our prices to reflect food costs. As organic ingredients go down in price we adjust our menu prices accordingly. The more in demand organics become, the lower the price."

And if that wasn't enough, they also have vegan cooking classes, hip retro decor, and a bakery.

Who wants to go with me in October?

Sufferin' Succotash!

I recently happened upon a vegan food blog and saw a recipe for "late summer succotash" from the Vegetarian Times which looked delicious. For those of you who don't know, I have been inching my way towards being a vegetarian, but it's hard with the no-wheat and little-to-no-soy thing, which rules out quite a bit of wheat-based meat alternatives like seitan, and also tofu, soy sauce, and such. I eat at Spiral Diner whenever I get a chance (thank goodness they are coming to Dallas soon) and love the fact that they use all organic produce and recycle as much as they can and all that stuff. So right now I am an ovo-pescatarian, meaning that I am a vegetarian but eat eggs (cage-free and organic eggs) and fish. Basically I don't eat anything with legs and am not eating/drinking bovine fairy but I have not excluded goat dairy. It's complicated. Most vegetarians would laugh at me and say that I'm not really a vegetarian, which is true, but I have given up a lot since January and it feels like a huge step to me.

Anyway, I emailed the recipe to Carly and was like "we should make this sometime!" And on Monday I just happened to be at Target getting groceries and things before going to Whole Foods to complete the day's list, and lo and behold I get a text from Carly asking what I was up to, which surprised me considering she was supposed to be at work. Turns out she was home from work and I just happened to be at the SuperTarget just down the street from her place. So I ran over there and we decided to make the succotash that afternoon which was quite handy since I had to go to Whole Foods anyway. We were able to find everything there except for lima beans, which we substituted edamame for.

Everything in the kitchen went well, except that the onion won in the onion-vs-Hollis'-sensitive-eyes contest. (The next day I was watching Martha Stewart and she said to burn a candle close to an onion when you chop it and the candle will burn off the onion fumes. I tried it today and it works like magic.) Our Late Summer Succotash was divine if I do say so myself. The tomatoes really made it, and I don't normally like tomatoes.

Up next: Metaphysical Quandary Green Bean Salad

Recipe here

proof we really cooked and didn't steal the above pic:




So on Sunday and Monday I got to cross 2 things off my summer to-do list and one thing off my lifetime to-do list. Hoorah! Feels pretty awesome. Next up is learning how to change my own oil. I'll keep you posted on that one.