Vegetable &Tofu Pad Thai

I'm loving all of Sara Carey's new videos! I like her style and fun attitude while cooking. Hopefully she does some more vegetarian / vegan recipes!

Vegan Fried Oysters

I recently went to Quan Yin restuarant and had their Vegan Fried Oyster dish.  The look and breading of the "oysters" was just like a real fried oyster but instead of oyster it is eggplant and a faux meat.  It was really good and the portion is huge!  If you are vegan/vegetarian in Houston you must try this restaurant.  There is a lot of really interesting and delicious choices on the menu.   

Vegan Fried Oysters 

Mango Soy Snow - Royal Tea Cafe

I recently posted about a Soy Thai Tea I got from Royal Tea Cafe and wanted to share another really good drink I've found.  It is the Mango Snow which I get with soy milk instead of non-dairy creamer.  It is perfection - my new favorite drink!  It has lots of mango flavor (as it has real mango fruit) and the soy milk gives it a really nice smooth taste that goes really well with mango.  

My mango snow with soy.  I really need to try the mango jellies with this. 

(Their mango jellies are made with carrageenan so it is vegan :D )

Here is a pic of Royal Tea Cafe.

It is located inside Northwest Mall in the foodcourt. They also have a large variety of beverages and Vietnamese food and snacks.  When I eat here I usually eat the veggie banh mi with avocado and sweet potato fries.  To see more pictures you can visit their Facebook page:  Royal Tea Cafe

Vegan Curry Chicken

I have a craving for Vegan Curry Chicken from Quan Yin restaurant...

Thinking about the crunchiness of this chicken and the curry flavor makes my mouth water.

Soy Thai Tea

I've been craving a thai tea for a while and luckily I found a place that will make it with soy milk!

Refreshing thai tea made with soy milk from

Royal Tea Cafe in Northwest Mall - Houston, TX.

Lunch at Pine Forest Vegetarian

Hello!  Today Tink and I went to try the lunch buffet at Pine Forest Vegetarian Restaurant in Houston's Chinatown.  It was my first vegetarian buffet I've been to and I was impressed.  They had a wide variety of vegetarian Chinese dishes like: fried rice, noddles, various vegetables like eggplant and green beans, mixed veggie dishes, dumplings, soup, fruit, vegetarian sushi rolls, and faux meats.

Here is my second plate with various items from the buffet.  My favorite thing is in the top right corner - they are like fried sweet potato balls. 

This restaurant has a full menu, as well as lunch specials, and the lunch buffet to choose from.  It is very clean looking and the staff is friendly and attentive.  I will definitely be back! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving this year filled with joy and happiness with your loved ones!

I am so thankful for so many things:  my family, friends, good health, happiness, and to live in a wonderful country.   I am also thankful for all the little things in life that make life so much more enjoyable: electricity, gas, clean water, abundance of good food, the internet, cell phones... there is so much to be thankful for.

My first vegan Thanksgiving!  Tink and I went to Quan Yin restaurant in Houston Chinatown.  It was really good!  (...its making my mouth water again.)

Be kind to your fellow human beings and living creatures on this planet. I hope you have a safe and productive Black Friday as well!

...now Im off to Macy's!  ;)

Lunch at Nordstom Bistro

Nordstrom is great!  They have a wide variety of high quality merchandise, wonderful fashion, and great customer service.  My favorite thing about Nordstrom is their Bistro.  The food is always fresh, delicious, and intriguing.  My friends and I always eat at the Nordstom Bistro in the Houston Galleria.  Today I went with Tink.  The dining experience was wonderful as always and its really nice to come get something substantial to eat in the middle of shopping.

Tink had the Soup du Jour - Chicken Pot Pie.  He said it was the best soup he has every tried. It was loaded with vegetables, chicken, and the "crust" which was almost like a dumpling.

My Vine-ripe Vegetable Salad (with no cheese).  It was really good as always.  I really like the heats-of-palm and the dressing is mouth watering.

Lunch at Ruggles Green

Ruggles Green is one of my favorite restaurants in Houston, TX. They have two beautiful restaurants in the city with a menu full of original, delicious, organic, and healthy foods.

With the cool weather lately I was craving something warm and fulfilling. They have a wide variety of vegan options for me, as well as vegetarian, dairy-free, and gluten-free options. Today I chose an item from the Specials Menu - the Vegetarian Pasta with no chesse and my bf, Tink, got their famous Fish Tacos.

Here is my Vegetarian Pasta. It was one of the best things I've had at Ruggles (tied with the Local Vegetable Platter). It was piping hot, full of flavor, and all the vegetables were super fresh and delicious.

...and here are their famous Fish Tacos. Whenever I go to Ruggle's Green I see tons of people order this. The other day I ate at the City Center location and saw a table of 4 girls who all got this. The sauce it comes with is nice and spicy!

I highly recommend trying this restaurant! It is wonderful in so many ways.

If you would like more information on Ruggles Green including there menu and locations please click this link: RugglesGreen.com

Lunch at House of Bowls

My favorite thing to eat for lunch is the T1 lunch special at House of Bowls in SW Houston Chinatown. It is Instant Noodle Chicken Steak with Scallion Sauce and a bowl of broth and a drink - I always get Hong Kong Style Cold Milk Tea. It is $5.95 before tax and it very fulfilling! The lunch special is everyday from 2:30pm-6pm and dine-in only.

Lunch at E-Tao

Yesterday, Tink and I spent some time shopping at the Houston Galleria and we went to eat at E*Tao restaurant. It is located on the second floor near Nordstrom. It is nicely designed and feels open even though the space is actually pretty narrow. The kitchen is behind a glass wall so you can see them cook and see how clean it is. The menus is pretty large and has dishes from all over Asia. The dishes range from more Americanized-Chinese to more authentic. Many of the items don't take so long to cook so its a good place to go if you are on a lunch break and want to get away from the Food Court.

Crispy Eggplant - this was really good! It is a vegetarian dish and has lots of flavor. The eggplant was prepared well.

Dry Vancouver Calamari - also very good. The calamari was nice and soft and not too chewy. The dipping sauce was a good too - sweet and sour.

White Rice - shaped into a pyramid.

So over all it was very good. There are also lots of other things on the menu I'd like to try.

For more information on this restaurant and to see their menu you can visit their website.

etaoasian.com

Dinner at Uni

A few days ago my friends and I went to the Woodlands, TX to have dinner at a place called Uni.

Uni, which is the Japanese name for sea urchin, is located in the Market Street center very close to the Woodlands Mall. It was my first time visiting the Market Street shopping area which is a clean, lively, and diverse center. The restaurant Uni is next to the Cinemark theater across the street from the Central Park area. The outside of Uni is decorated with black tiles which makes it stand out from the many country style shops. The inside of Uni is nicely designed and service was good. But more importantly is the food...

Everything we had was really good. The presentation of each dish was very nice, the ingredients were fresh, and all the rolls were made neatly. Here are a few things that we had:

Chirashi bowl - mixed sashimi which was fresh and sliced to the prefect portion.

Tiger Eye and Brendy - Specialty Rolls

Specialty Rolls - the cutest Caterpillar roll I have ever eaten!

Chipotle Salmon

We also had seaweed salad, gyoza, and miso soup, which were all very good. The miso soup was much more hearty than many other places I've tried - it had a lot of mushrooms, seaweed, tofu, and green onion.

ahh.. Whenever I make post about food I get hungry. Overall, I really liked this place and will definitely be back!

Lunch at Thai Cottage

For lunch Tink and I went to Thai Cottage restaurant on Westheimer Rd in Houston. It was excellent. I had the lunch special Pad Thai which came with a salad and spring roll. It was the best Pad Thai I've had in Houston so far. For the price ($6.25) the food quality was very good!

Photo taken with my iPhone.

My Pad Thai was very good. Not too wet or dry and lots of meat and veggies.

Lunch at Nordstrom

Yesterday was such a nice eventful day! I did a few new things like: seeing my first musical while living in Houston and also eating at a new restaurant for dinner. For lunch I ate at a familiar and regular place - Nordstrom Bistro at the Houston Galleria.

The Nordstrom Bistro is located at the Galleria inside the Nordstrom department store. You have to go up to the third floor and it's entrance is situated between the At Home and BP section. It is a lovely place to have lunch especially while you are in the midst of shopping. Every week they have a Chef's Special, which I usually try as long as it doesn't have any red meat in it. The service was very good as usual.

Today Tink and I had the Chef's Special and the Crab Stack:

(photos taken with the iPhone 4)

Ahhh.... the delicious Crab Stack... the crab meat is so plump and the mango, tomato, and cucumber always fresh.

Ahi Tuna Flatbread... The Tuna was perfectly seared, the tempura green beans crisp, and the grape tomatoes sweet!

Lunch at Ra

Tink and I went to go see a movie at Movie Studio Grill in Houston's new City Centre but we were there really early so we decided to have lunch instead. We decided to try the new Ra sushi restaurant. It is a very beautiful and modernly designed restaurant. It is a pretty popular night hangout spot. So for lunch I had a bento box and Tink had Unagi (fresh water eel). We wanted to order some sea urchin (because we are now uni addicts) but they didn't get there shipment in yet. So here's lunch:

My bento box. It was very good. The salmon was perfectly done.

Tink's unagi (eel). It was also really good. The presentation was simple but different than many other places that serve the same thing.

My miso soup. I don't know why I don't like miso soup. I like tofu and seaweed a lot, but I can never eat this soup. As you can see, it's starting to separate, which looks pretty cool.

So, right in the middle of us eating our lunch our waiter informed us that they just got there sea urchin in. So we got 2 orders, which is there weeks worth of sea urchin. :P It was nice and fresh. You can tell cause it looks like a dry tongue and doesn't look like it's melting! Some places have really bad sea urchin, so this is an example of good sea urchin:

... I wasn't hungry when I started this post... but now Im starving!!!

Dining at Kaneyama

Last night my friends and I ate at a Japanese restaurant in Houston, TX called Kaneyama. I just wanted to share some pictures of the yummy food we had! Hope your mouth doesn't water too much! ;D

Unagi - fresh water eel, its very good.

One of the rolls we got with soft shelled crayfish, also very tasty.

... another roll with soft-shelled crab.

...this roll has king crab inside.

Black Cod fillet

Salmon sashimi... my favorite

...this is another one of my favorites, Uni or Sea Urchin, it is very soft like custard and melt in your mouth good.

HK Iced Milk Tea

I wish I had one of these right now...

Hong Kong style Iced Milk Tea! This one is from one of my favorite restaurants, House of Bowls in Houston. It's so delicious and creamy... perfect for this stifling hot weather!