Thursday, July 23, 2015

Spokane and Seattle

We have made it to the west coast and we are out of the vegan food desert!  We did okay in Montana and Wyoming, but I will be happy to not have to eat at Subway again for awhile.  My saving grace was in Columbus, MT where there was a cute little coffee hut across the street from our hotel.  They had real coffee (I had been drinking the Bud Light of coffees for the past few days from our hotel) and non-dairy smoothies.  They even give an animal cracker with their coffee!



We finally made it to Spokane late Tuesday afternoon, where there are multiple vegan options.  Our first choice for dinner was Mizuna, but unfortunately they were closed because they were filming a Mackelmore video on the street and were using the restaurant as their base.  Thank goodness for Happy Cow; we quickly decided to try Saranac Public House.  It turned out to be an excellent choice!  They had a great selection of local beers and many vegan options on their menu.  We started with the baked pretzels, which came with a very spicy mustard and vegan cheese.  For our entrees, we ordered the vegan mac and cheese and the Thai bowl with peanut sauce and coconut rice.  Everything was delicious!  The peanut sauce was perfectly spicy, and the mac and cheese was one of the best vegan versions I have tried.  Thank you, Happy Cow!  (and Mackelmore, who incidentally, we will be seeing tonight at Amazon's 20th anniversary celebration).




On Wednesday morning, we walked to Boots Cafe, which is all vegan!!  They had many pastry choices, but I opted for the pumpkin waffles (a little early in the season, I know!).  They were served with a delicious cinnamon butter, which I opted for as my only topping, leaving the fake "maple syrup" aside.  The waffle was outstanding!  I tried Laura's muffin and coffee cake, which were okay, and her rice pudding, which was pretty yummy.  I also got a breakfast cookie to go, which was peanut buttery and not bad, other than the consistency; I'm thinking they used Teff flour (the bakery is also gluten free).


We arrived in Seattle around 2:30, and had a late lunch at Plum Bistro, which is a vegan cafe.  We let our waitress decide on our side dish, and she opted for the yam chips, which were served with a salty ranch dip.  The chips were good, but the dip was a little too salty for me.  I ordered the Jamaican wrap, which had some delicious, spicy tofu and mashed yams - yum!  I tried Laura's arugula salad, which was tasty, and her crepe, which was salty.  Overall, I would rate Plum Bistro as good, but they could cut way back on the salt.  Last night we had a late, light dinner at Betty, where they made their green been salad with apricots vegan for us; it was a perfect late dinner after a heavy lunch.  Today we walked to Mighty-O Donuts where I tried the raspberry frosted on a regular cake donut.  The donut was okay (I'm not a huge donut fan, in general), but the iced latte was fantastic!

We have lots more eating to do in Seattle and Portland, so stay tuned!

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