V-Day

Being vegan does not mean living like a monk. On Saturday, our pals from Track+Field Bryan and Thi visited from Philly via Las Vegas where they picked up some vegan donuts (more on those later) and even brought us a dozen (including fancies).


But before we could dig in, we had to have lunch at Au Lac in Fountain Valley. Bryan and Thi had a deal to buy each other only 20 bucks worth of stuff for X-mas, and he got her a gift certificate there! Not super local for them, but it turns out Thi's birthday is a few days later; he bought her a plane ticket and another certificate. Awwww...

Wendy and I were more than willing to drive out, meet them, and make a bigger table so they could try more dishes! Since the last time I was there, the restaurant has undergone a complete makeover--substituting the old thatched booths for a more polished HK cafe look. I thought the food was pretty tasty--we had the four-person set menu, the beef salad stood out--and the desserts were good, too (crust side of a strawberry ice-cream cake, above). In my experience, sweets can be hit or miss in vegetarian or vegan joints.

Afterwards, B+T went to the beach to build up an appetite for dinner at Zen Vegetarian. I gotta go try that place.


Wendy and me? It was too early to think about dinner and too late to stick around, so we grabbed veggie ham sandwiches to go at Banh Mi Che Cali down the street on Brookhurst. Then it was off to share vegan donuts with anyone who was in our path and at home--including Wendy's brother and sister-in-law, my sister, and my mom, but mostly me.