Poppy Birthday Dinner September 23, 2013

This past July for my birthday, my Aunt K treated me to a wonderful birthday dinner at Poppy. Poppy is a restaurant on Capitol Hill here in Seattle that specializes in creating thalis, which are platters of food served to each guest. While Poppy doesn’t have a vegan thali on the menu, if you call ahead and tell them that you are vegan, they will create something wonderful for you. As our waiter said, they can always create something for a vegan to eat, but if you want something spectacular, you need to call ahead.

We started with drinks. This is the sort of place that has a bunch of ingredients in their cocktails that I had to Google to figure out what they were. After consulting with the waiter (and hearing him use the word bitter three times to describe the other cocktail I was considering) I ordered “lovage story.” What is lovage? Read more here. We also ordered pakoras to start, and they were really good, slightly spicy but not overwhelmingly so.

Lovage story (and pakoras).

Next up was my custom vegan thali, the main event.

Vegan thali.

Counterclockwise from the bottom yellow dish, I had a potato and carrot stew with dill (probably my favorite), pickled radishes, a bean and cucumber salad, carrot ginger soup, potato salad, steamed peas and other veggies, and quinoa. Poppy is known for their naan, but they use dairy in it, so it isn’t vegan, so I got the quinoa instead.

Veggie stew

Carrot ginger soup

 

This was so much food that I couldn’t finish it, but it was all very well seasoned and thought out. I loved that each dish was different, but used similar enough ingredients (potatoes and carrots throughout) and seasonings that everything harmonized, and didn’t compete with each other.

No birthday dinner is complete without dessert, and when my aunt asked the waiter to bring out their best vegan dessert (the menu didn’t have anything vegan) he said he had just the thing, and disappeared in to the kitchen for a minute.

When he re-appeared he had a fruit gummy candy, which is naturally vegan since they make them with fruit pectin. The candle was a nice touch.

Fruit squares

After dinner we took a stroll through their garden in the back, where they grow some of the veggies they use in the kitchen. There was the biggest fennel plant I have ever seen in my life back there (no pictures, unfortunately). In the summer there is seating out in the garden as well.

I really enjoyed my meal with my aunt at Poppy. The food was fantastic, well thought out and beautifully presented, and the service was attentive and knowledgeable. I look forward to returning in the future.

Poppy is located at 622 Broadway East, Seattle WA 98102.

 

VVC 2013 Photo Essay September 2, 2013

Hello. Well, it has been a while hasn’t it? Pretty classic move for me, to attend a blogging conference (Vida Vegan Con) in May, come away completely inspired and blown away and “recommitted” to blogging, and then…. not blog until September.

Since many a re-cap has been posted by my fellow attendees at this point, I will just bring you a few photos of my favorite meals, and people that I spent time with at VVC. The memories and the network is still strong (I was just talking to my Mom about possible new cities to visit/consider moving to, and for each one I said “I know someone who lives there!”).

There was mac and cheese at White Owl Social Club.

There was photo booth fun.

There was Portobello. So good. So so good.

Sweet pea gnocchi. This was incredible. They are known for this dish for a reason. Also, a shout out to Crissie from Run Crissie Run and Megan (@veganwtsn) for sharing this evening with me.

Raw food platter from Blossoming Lotus.

Some of the sweet treats from the “Breakfast Showcase/Showdown.”

“Prom pose” from before the Gala with my roommates for the weekend, (L-R: Helen, Megan, Dawn and myself).

Isa teaches us vegans how to properly eat cheese.

Epic swag pile.

So, there you have it. VVC 2013 in a few pictures. It was such a fun time and I look forward to many cons to come.

P.S. September is Vegan MOFO, the month where vegan bloggers all over the globe blog at least 20 times in the month about all things vegan food. I am not participating this year, but if you want to read some of the other blogs that are, hop on over Randomofo.