Woodlands Indian Cuisine, Nashville, Tennessee

 
 

Woodland Special Thali ($17.00) - Soup, samosa, chapatti, special rice, white rice, rasam, sambar, dhal, special curry, dessert, curd, pickle, and apad.
 
 

So Kong Dong, Chamblee, Georgia

 
 
 
 

Only in New Orleans

Sylvain, New Orleans, Louisiana

 
 
 
 

The Wandering Buddha, New Orleans, Louisiana

Through sheer luck, I saw a post on Twitter about the Grand Opening of The Wandering Buddha in New Orleans the Friday we were there. How often do you have the opportunity to have vegan Korean food? I had no choice but to check it out.

The Wandering Buddha, as it turned out, had been serving occasionally at the Hi Ho Lounge located just North of the Faubourg Marigny district. The grand opening signified that they were going to be serving permanently several nights a week.

 The Hi Ho is a total dive bar in every respect, but these are the types of places I really settle into.

 The pretty menu.

 Gimbap (Seaweed and Rice Rolls) - Cucumber, carrots, spinach, danmuji (sweet pickled yellow radish) and seasoned rice rolled in roasted seaweed and sliced into small pieces. Served with a Korean dipping sauce.

 My latest obsession is with Japchae (Stir-fried Glass Noodles with Vegetables) - Glass noodles stir-fried with spinach, carrots, onions, and bell peppers. Served with a side of kimchi.

 Andy ordered his favorite, the Bibimbap (Rice with Vegetables) - Steamed rice topped with oi muchim (spicy cucumbers), sigumchi namul (seasoned spinach), carrots, zucchini, kongnamul (seasoned soybean sprouts) and kimchi. Served with a spicy pepper sauce.

The experience was truly unique with the mashup of cultures (i.e. dive bar meets vegan korean cuisine). On the whole, I really enjoyed what I ate and found it to be the most memorable meal we had during our time in New Orleans. I wish them great success!

New Orleans

 
 
Andy and I went to New Orleans to meet up with some friends who were attending TypeCon, an annual convention about typography. We had not made official plans to attend ourselves, but we did end up participating in a couple of their events.
 
Most of our time in New Orleans was spent avoiding Bourbon Street as much as possible and trying to suss out the true bits of local culture.
 
And of course the food.

I knew it would be a difficult task finding anything vegan or gluten-free on our trip when a place such as New Orleans features meat-laden cuisine like po' boys, muffalettas, and gumbo. Traveling with food restrictions is tricky unless you plan in advance. I didn't have the luxury this time since I was just coming off of two back-to-back business trips. So I had to settle for ho-hum vegetarian. There were a few surprises, which fortunately were documented with my camera, but I would warn anyone visiting, that New Orleans felt like a food desert; however, any area that relies on tourism often feels that way unless extra effort is exerted to go find fresh food.