Nu Age Cafe Dinner and Six Weird Things About Me

For Christmas I received a $50 gift certificate to the best veg restaurant in town, Nu Age Cafe. Of course I had Chase go with me and he thought just the two of us should go and pig out. So we did. To use up the $50, we had to order appetizer, entree, and dessert. The meal cost $49.80.

Our appetizer was Rainbow Soy Wrap. It is described on the menu as cabbage, soy, enoki mushrooms, snow peas, bamboo shoots and carrots wrapped in handmade red yeast rice batter and served with a tangy red dipping sauce. I've never had red yeast rice, but it sure is pretty. The wraps and sauce were delicious, although a little oily. (Chase couldn't believe I wanted to take pictures.) Off to the side and very green is a glass of lemongrass lime iced tea.



When the cafe first opened, the menu was entirely vegan. Now many of the menu items have dairy added in, which I think is mainly in the form of whey powder added to the sauces. Chase ordered Sizzling Soy for his entree. It's a barbecue style soy protein served on a sizzling platter. It came on a bed of veggies with sides of mashed sweet potatoes and rice. He liked it, but not as much as he liked my entree.

I always get either the house salad or the soy tenders with broccoli. So I decided to venture off and ordered the Soy Spinach Rolls - "Sliced rolled soy tenders, spinach, pistachios and beets topped with mango cream sauce and a medley of chopped asparagus, squash and bell peppers. Served with mashed potatoes, portabella mushroom gravy, and brown rice." It sounded so good, but guess what -- not vegan anymore! So I stuck with Broccoli Soy Tenders - it comes with bell peppers, snow peas, squash, and a side of rice. It's always yummy. Oh, the rice comes in a banana leaf cone.

No room for dessert, but we ordered it anyway and ate it all. Chocolate Cake - Homemade organic whole-wheat chocolate cake with chocolate cream and dark chocolate icing. Thank goodness it's still vegan!

On another note.... I was tagged by Erica to tell six weird things about me, so here goes:

1. I never eat breakfast, I always eat a huge salad for lunch, and I always eat broccoli at dinner.

2. I never go to movies and I can't sit through an entire tv show, even a 30 minute one. I always have to get up and do something.

3. I have never eaten in my car, but I always have something to drink.

4. I can leg press 332 pounds - 3 times my body weight!

5. I have never had a pedicure.

6. I'm a little more tolerant now that I'm into plating my food, but normally I don't like the foods on my plate to touch each other. I eat a few bites of things at a time, and I actually plan what a want my last bite to be. When I was a kid, my mom would always serve us at the table, and she would pile everything into the middle of my plate. I would always get mad at her. She would always say "Sorry, I forgot." And my dad would say "Get over it. It all winds up in the same place anyway." This was a nightly ritual.

Am I weird? My first tag -- I tag Crystal.