VeganFabulous

the lowdown: Pizza A Go Go | 3240 N Williams Ave., Portland, OR 97227 | 503.335.0300 | Website | Lunch, Dinner | Pizzas $16 - $26.75 or Build Your Own $9+ | **

Just another pizza place.

Last weekend I invited my parents over for lunch and had grand plans of ordering Dove Vivi par baked pizzas to serve. It wasn’t until that afternoon that I discovered Dove Vivi changed their hours and is no longer open for lunch! Since everyone was coming over at 2pm and we didn’t want to wait until 4pm to eat I had to find an alternative. Enter Pizza a Go Go.

I have found myself curious about Pizza a Go Go since I started taking the Kerby exit off 405 as a quick way to jump into North Portland. The small orange building with a silhouette of a mod woman on the outside intrigued me.  Now that it is a short distance from my house and they are open for lunch I called to place an order. When I called I asked if they had any vegan specific pizzas and the woman floundered the answer “not really but we have tempeh”. I proceeded with building my own pizza 12″ (the smallest they have) with mushrooms, tempeh, and roasted peppers in addition to two other non-vegan custom pizzas. When I arrived I gazed at the menu with astonishment as I noticed an entire section dedicated to veggie pies, not to mention some of which were labeled vegan. The problem here isn’t that I missed the opportunity to try one of their stock pizzas, it is that I spent quite a bit more building my own! After pizza sauce and three toppings I spent $15+. This was especially disappointing coupled with the bland taste of the pizza sauce. Perhaps I wasn’t giving Pizza a Go Go much of a chance because I had really wanted Dove Vivi. There simply is no substitute.

the lowdown: Small World Cafe | 416 SW 4th Ave., Portland, OR 97204| 971.255.5589 | Lunch | Entrees $5.99 - $12.99 | ***

Full fledged downtown Ethiopian option!

Previously on “VeganFabulous Does Lunch”, Megan met up with a few former co-workers who drove all the way from the giant tech corporation in Hillsboro. The three of them lunched at Bijou Cafe, enjoying good food and geek talk. This month…Watch Out! Megan gives the downtown Ethiopian scene a try.

Strapped with $7 dollars and a craving for Enjera, Megan meets up with yet another former co-worker. This time her peer hails from the nearby gas company prepped to teach her a thing or two about home furance efficiency.  While ordering, Megan reviews the menu with a perplexed look as she notices a dish containing fish is included on the “Vegetarian” menu. She pondereds the plausability of Ethiopians’ considering fish a vegetarian item before ordering the “Beyeaynetu”, a dish containing split peas, lentils, cabbage and of course enjera. She could have chosen any one of the other 5 vegan options but she had a strong affinity to the $5.99 price tag. Although Megan thought the food was decent and appreciated the spice of the lentils, it just didn’t have quite the same pizazz as Queen of Sheba, Dalo’s, or Enjoini. Nor was the enjera as big!

the lowdown: Peemkaew Thai in the Pearl | 323 NW Park Ave., Portland, OR 97209 | 503.621.3164 | Website | Lunch, Dinner | Items $4.95 - $15.95 | ****

Yet another fantastic NW Thai option!

As my time in NW Portland comes to a close, I am doing my best to dine at places in the area. As previously noted, it is slim pickings, but I managed to find fantastic takeout that everyone else in my building seemed to be aware of except me. On a break from the rain last Saturday evening, I saddled up my bike and ventured out to bring home food for a relaxing dinner and viewing of the movie Across the Universe.

There is always much debate over whether local Thai restaurants are really omitting the fish sauces when preparing vegan/vegetarian dishes. Peemkaew’s stance is that they only cook with vegetable oil and no fish sauces are used. Not that I would be able to tell the difference anyway, I took their word for it and ordered the “Red Curry” with brown rice and “Tofu Satay”. Good Lord the food was fantastic! The curry came with eggplant, bamboo shoots, red peppers, and basil. The satay was fried tofu on a stick with thick peanut sauce. I really wish I had discovered this place sooner. Not only was the food fresh, there are many veg options and if you live in the neighborhood and the delivery guy doesn’t have the day off, you don’t even have to get off your ass!

the lowdown: Dalo’s Kitchen | 4134 N. Vancouver Ave. #207, Portland, OR 97217 | 503.808.9604 | Website | Lunch, Dinner | Items $5 - $10 | ****

The veggie platter is amazing!

This last weekend I attended my second PPK meetup held at Dalo’s Kitchen. The meetup was attended by cupcake, joannalovesyou, pdx-nummers, theprocrastinatingcook, strawberryrock, michelle c., jdfunks, and susie tofu monster. Admittedly I have attempted to visit Dalo’s once before but was scared off by the strange exterior. I now realize how foolish I was because sometimes the best food comes from the most unsuspecting places.

While listening to an array of cover songs, hip-hop, top 40, and world music we feasted on salads and the veggie platter. The veggie platter consists of huge rounds of Injera bread used for dipping into split peas, lentils, spinach, and potatoes. Between 11 of us were had a huge amount of leftovers, not to mention the tab rounded out to $60! Until recently I had never had Ethiopian fare but after Dalo’s I can see myself craving it on a regular basis.