Veg Hawai'i: Part III of III: Tofufreak eats KAUA'I!!!!!

Well people, it's now the very last installment of my trip. Thanks for reading about my travels! Enjoy!

Friends, you are looking at heaven on a plate. Pan fried cheese-free risotto cakes with grilled asparagus and balsamic reduction with a drizzle of basil oil and fresh salsa!!! This was REALLY SUPER GOOD. This was probably one of the best meals that I had on all three islands.

On our last morning, I went to the Lotus Root (albeit a little bit ruefully; I was unable to make it to the Blossoming Lotus :'( ) . I got a breakfast burrito that had scrambled tofu, YUMMY seasoned potatoes, black beans, and salsa. What I really loved about the LR was the fact that they had NOOCH IN A SHAKER !!!!!! That was really exciting ;)

LOOKIE WHAT I GOT!!!!!!

RAW COCONUT FUDGE!!!! OH. MY. GOODNESS. Words cannot describe this at all. It was super rich (this was only a half-piece) . Chocolate, Coconut, (and some kind of nut that I can't remember, for the life of me) . I would go back for THIS piece of fudge. Really. Really. Good.

Brownie!!! How good does this look?!?!?! Unfortunately, that's about as good as it gets. It was moist; yes, but other than that, it lacked chocolate-ness, despite it's color and abundance of chocolate chips. :(

Mint Chocolate Cookies!!! I was a little apprehensive of these at first (I mean, mint and chocolate; sure, but mint, chocolate, and OATS?!) Needless to say(hehe I broke off a corner; couldn't resist!), they were VERY extraordinarily scrumptious!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies!!! GAHHH!!! These were the best things that I bought!!!! SOOO yummy. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Choco-Macadamia Nut- Coconut Cookie!!!!! This one was particularly rich, toothsome, and textured.

Can you see why I was in a sugar coma for about a week? lol.


For lunch on the way back home, I had a tuna-free tempeh wrap that I bought at the Lotus Root. It was light and refreshingly good, especially when compared to the EXTREMELY oily airport chinese food that everyone else was having.

Thus ends my journey to the lovely islands of Hawai'i. Hope you enjoyed!

Veg Hawai'i: Part II of III: Tofufreak eats O'ahu

Sorry for so few pics on this island; I got lazy :P Plus, many times, my food was narrowed down to boring choices like the ubiquitous BOCA burger or (even a veggie sandwich that was just lettuce, ketchup, mustard, and onions on a bun!!!! gahhhh!) and things of that nature, so I just took whatever pics I could.

Check out this hilarious pic my brother got! It looks like their spirits are coming out, lol!

Gasp! The horrors!!

We spent a lot of time driving around, so lots of times, we had snacks on the car to satiate our hunger after the activity(ies) of the day. I used to love eating puffcorns or whatever those puffy popcorn-esque snacks are called, so I was pretty excited upon eating Veggie Booty. It is really quite delicious! It's made with spinach and kale too so that's a plus! ^_^ AND........I finally got to try Tofurky and Soy jerkies! Tofurky is DEFINITELY the better choice, as soy jerky has a weird aftertaste. I also bought some roasted edamame, 'cause that stuff is just SO GOOD. Yeah, if you haven't tried it before, I highly recommend you go and try that NOW!!!

This was a bamboo roll at some random Japanese place that we went to. It was pretty good, consisting of avocado, cucumbers, assorted roasted Japanese veggies, nori, and some other stuff wrapped up in the ever-so-chic soy wrappers that seem to be all the rage now.

You might be wondering, "Tofufreak, what IS that?!" Perhaps you remember my last post in which I spoke of the ramen-type noodles. This was a different flavor, made in the coffee pot on our last morning in O'ahu (clever, I know ^_^) This version has dried chinese mustard greens with dehydrated seitan that rehydrated once the water was added! hehe; it was very exciting!

Check out that fruit! I love Hawai'i for this reason. The pink glass in the back is ..... FRESH GUAVA JUICE! It is so amazingly good and difficult to describe. This was my breakfast everyday at the hotel we stayed at. Called "the healthy" breakfast, this plate of fruit+juice cost...... $17. Seriously. It actually would have been cheaper to go out and buy the fruit and juice, but oh well.
Sorry for the shortage of pics! Kaua'i has the Lotus Root pics which will make up for these!

Veg Hawaii: Part I of III: Tofufreak eats the Big Island

Because my family went to three islands, I will do 3 separate posts on our travels/eats. Hope you guys enjoy!

Here is a picture depicting the pre-trip excitement that my brother and I both shared! haha. This was taken on the airplane on the way to Honolulu.

Au Bon Pain Mediterranean wrap, (I believe) no feta, please! Oh, and a bag of potato chips too. Nummy. There was some kind of hummus and sundried tomato spread or maybe it was a roasted red pepper spread or something. I don't know. At any rate, it was pretty good! (Dallas/FW Airport)
Lookie what I found at the airport store! ABC Company's Vegan cookies! I was super excited and wanted to buy one of each flavor, but I restrained myself and limited my selection down to this lemon poppyseed cookie. It was really really good! Too bad I can't seem to find them anywhere else other than the Health Food Store.

Pickup dinner that I ate around 10 PM upon arrival in Hawaii. Cold noodles and veggies with sauce. Good portions, good price, can't recall the place.

This is my first lunch on the Big Island. Pretty boring. Inari sushi with a seaweed salad. We bought this from a Foodland or something like that.

For our official dinner on the Big Island, we went to Huggo's. I can't remember what this was called, but it was just ok. It consisted of grilled onions, portobello mushroon, asparagus, a black bean and corn salsa stuffed tomato, and a wild rice pilaf with a balsamic reduction. Meh-ish. The view was really lovely though.

Since we lived in a condo, we were able to store things in the fridge and cook! We took advantage of that on several occasions for breakfast. Here are examples of what I had for brekky:

This was basically my breakfast most mornings on the Big Island. Plain, but good. Plus, it was lower in calories so that I could indulge later in the day!

Apparently my uncle rarely cooks, so this noodle soup was an extra special soup! My relatives brought Ramen-type noodles from Taiwan. They are completely vegan, not fried, contain no MSG, and are perfectly delicious! We added tofu blocks and bean sprouts. Mmmm!

One thing that I loved about Hawaii was the fresh fruit. It was all so good! This is (very) fresh papaya. SO DELISH(with lemon squeezed on top)!

After going hiking (I think) we stopped by Hilo to find lunch. I can't believe we came across this place by chance! This is probably the best place on the Big Island. I loved and will love Abundant Life Natural Foods for the rest of my life.

This cookie that you see here is undeniably one of the best cookies in the world! I kid you not! I literally would go back to the Big Island just to get this cookie! It was soft, moist, nutty, oaty, chewy, wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free, sugar free, and YUMMY! yea. sigh... Oh yeah, the shake in the back is a carob shake. (I though of VeggieGirl when ordering) :)

This is the grilled tofu salad of some sort. I believe my uncle got it? I don't know. At any rate, it was good.

My parents ordered this East Meets West Sandwich, which consisted of tofu, sprouts, vegenaise, and some other stuff. My mom liked the tofu lots. :)

I ordered the ginger tempeh burger. This, to date, is probably THE best burger I have ever had. Really good.

On our last night, we went to Sansei Sushi. They have some veggie options, as well as karaoke, if you're interested in such things. Here's what I had:

Blah. Miso soup. Pretty Average.

HAHAHA! This cracked me up so much! My relatives are Buddhist vegetarian, so they don't eat onions/garlic/green onions. Apparently that's all this dish had on top, so they brought out a block of pure, unadulterated, naked tofu!

I finally had a chance to try natto! I thought of Kamutflake girl when I was ordering this natto maki. :) I forget what the other roll was. In the back is some veggie tempura.

This is the grilled veggie roll with grilled squash, carrots, zucchini, and shiitake mushrooms.

These were the cups that they used for tea. The same advice was printed on the back in Kanji Japanese/Chinese. Clever, no?

And here I shall leave you with these words of wisdom. Tune in next time for eats on Oahu!

Hale, Sweet Hale! Home, Sweet Home!

Yes I am finally back! I'm sorry to announce, however, that due to impending projects due at school (i know! it's crazy! i had one day of recovery from the 6 hour time difference and then school started!) I must take a temporary leave. I couldn't leave you without anything, so I decided to let you see the awesome drinks my family members and I got. I don't think all of them were vegan (some had cream, I think). I had a virgin ambrosia (2nd drink). Anyhoo, I'll get around to posting all about my trip ASAP (hopefully on saturday. I have a LOT of catching up on your blogs to do). See you all again soon!