A Vegan Repast On The Coast
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In the little town of Cambria, on the central coast of California, sits a popular restaurant by the name of Robin’s. Robin’s serves primarily local, organic food, prepared fresh. We can (and will) argue about their meaning of the word “sustainable” but we have to give them credit for moving a wee bit to the vegan side. They always have several vegetarian dishes, and they now promote “Meatless Mondays” as well. But what draws some of us is the twice-yearly prix fixe vegan dinner: one in the fall, one in the spring, both celebrating fresh ingredients of the season. I went for the spring meal last Friday night:
Honeydew melon sashimi: slices of honeydew with a “creme fraiche” made of coconut and kaffir lime, with red onion and hijiki (seaweed). It was good, interesting, but not great. It’s pretty, isn’t it? I have to admit that when I saw this course I thought of one reason vegan gourmet may not be as popular as we’d like. A slice of honeydew with some decoration? Kinda funny.
Chilled sugar snap-pea soup with tofu “scallop”. Good soup. I’d have it again. And the “scallop” was a cute way to serve a bit of tofu, and good too.
Dim Sum comprised of char siu shiitake steamed bun – there was a mushroom inside the bun – plus a crispy tempeh “lollypop” – this was sort of like a meatball – and red cabbage wonton. Loved the wonton, liked the rest. The sauces in back were the house mustard sauce, which was VERY hot, and a sweet-sour sauce that I forget what was in, some kind of berry or something like that, very good.
Tempeh Pad Kee Mao, which is made of rice noodles, garlic, spring onion, asparagus, chili, basil, lime – typical Thai flavors. Bits of tempeh in it. Chiles in oil so one can add as much or little as one likes. I put a bit of chile in there, not a lot.
Cashew-Caramel Ice Cream – with salted kettle corn that was bought at the farmers’ market that morning. Quite delish. I love the idea of the popcorn with the ice cream. I never would have thought of it.
A “wine flight” is available as well, for $20 extra.
So there you have it. I didn’t have the wine flight but I did have a glass of Pino Grigio with the meal. The individual portions tended to be small but altogether it makes a satisfying and filling meal. I find it’s good once in a while to stretch my vision of what a vegan can eat. Most days I am happy with simple easily-prepared dishes. Sometimes, though, I like to go that extra bit farther, find out what might happen if one spends a bit more time and attention on the preparation.
The soup and ice cream look the best to me. Soooo yummy. I’m jealous.
That ice cream was heavenly. The soup was good.
MM that looks good. The first course, reminds me of French Cuisine a little bit & some sort of melon is traditional in a lot of fancier cooking between meals to cleanse the palate, so perhaps it was just to get things going. Soup looks great! I like the idea of the ice cream too. Will have to let my kids try that soon.