BEST RESTAURANT EVAR!!!

So Zip scolded me throughout the trip (and cussed me out and punched me often) for making her my "budget buddy" and not pampering her with a relaxing vacation. So she made us reservations at Millennium.

Millenium, which is a swanky restaurant attached to the curiously named Best Western Hotel California (you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...) in downtown SF, is THE BEST VEG RESTAURANT I've ever been to. Ever. ever ever.

Although it's swanky and high-end, I felt totally comfortable eating there (in blue jeans and t shirt no less). The menu was utterly indecipherable but intriguing-- like watching Top Chef contestants explain their concoctions. I had no clue what to expect, so I ordered something Mexican-ish (Oaxacan green corn arepa with mango habanero salsa) that was delicious. ("sour orange and achiote glazed crimini and oyster mushrooms, tofu "chorizo" charred onion, Petaluma bean and espazote ragu, sauteed asparagus")

And Zips opted for this "Hedgehog Mushroom Roulade" with roasted celery root, tofu-meyer lemon "cheese" and walnut filling, apples and cabbage, beluga lentil ragu, citrus and current mostarda.
Now, I realize it's not much to look at, but it was AMAZING. The arepa was tasty, but this was one of the most complex, delicious meals I've ever had. It seriously made me giddy. I know endorphins create a sensation of euphoria. And I enjoy chocolate and other foods a great deal. And I like to think of myself as a fairly well-seasoned, well-traveled foodie. But I've never had such a happy food coma as I did at Millennium. I'm all zingy and lightning-y just thinking about it.

And of course dessert!

Zips got a lemon "cheesecake" with a rosemary huckleberry ice cream (which reminded both of us of the lavender blueberry ice cream we made over the summer), but I was the big winner here, with my Chocolate Almond Midnight:

I have no idea what the top layer is made of, the menu said white chocolate mousse. White chocolate is pretty much my kryptonite. I don't like it. Ever. But every single aspect of this was aaaaammmmaaaaazing. I got teary as my plate got emptier. I've never been so simultaneously euphoric and wistful. sigh. When we go back (and I think we will), we'll HAVE to make reservations. and rent a car.

Eating around SF

Okay, since it's been too long since I've written here, I'm going to have to catch up, but not chronologically. Since I made my own delicious tofurky roast over the holidays (seriously, it tasted A LOT like Tofurky, only without that wild rice stuffing that I never eat anyway). I have a handful of new cooking adventures since January, but California beckons. And tales of the BEST VEG RESTAURANT EVAR!

We stayed in Oakland, near the 12th st. City Center BART station, and a vegetarian Vietnamese resaturant with this great sign in their window. They were NOT the best veg restaurant ever for either of us. Zips loves pho and theirs had all manner of unidentifiable vegetarian mock meats. I had a slightly better spicy noodle soup, with a smaller quantity of different mock meats. Still weird. They had pretty good goi cuon, though. A tad overpriced. If I had to do it again, I would've just stuck with those and spring rolls or ordered a rice dish.

In the morning we tried another promising-looking cafe (but it doesn't open until 9, that makes it suspect for a breakfast joint to me..)

The Breakroom Cafe has a cute locale and menu board (I'll admit it, I was seduced by their website), but the breakfast bagels we got were just m'kay. I liked the tempeh bacon on mine and the coffee was great, but overall found the place overpriced and underwhelming (not unlike the $8000 art for sale above my head there).

In Berkeley, there were a plethora of restaurants that boasted veg-friendly joints. We decided to go off book and picked Thai House, which I'm sure I ate at in my carnivorous youth. They had a wonderful pumpkin tofu red curry, and a HOT DAMN green papaya salad that you can ask for without fish sauce. I simultaneously salivate and cringe at the memory of that salad

mmmmmm... limey spicey crunchy tangy green papaya salad. Seriously. It made my eyes water.

In the Mission district, there's a charming little place called Herbivore (they have 2 other locations)

It's adorable inside and has a great menu, TONS of options. Zips got a southwest tofu scramble (they are unfortunately in the turmeric school of tofu scrambles) and I got a tempeh burrito...

and vegan donuts.

But that wasn't the best veg restaurant ever, either!

Four Months Later...

I can't believe I haven't written in so long. My last post was just before our trip to Boston. And now we've just returned from a conference in Berkeley. Both incredibly unglamorous trips. To scrimp on money, for both trips, I decided not to rent a car and wing it via public transport. It worked just fine in Boston. Our hotel had a shuttle to the airport, which is where the conference was (the Airport Hilton-- not the airport). And when we did venture out, we took the "T"-- to the Science Museum to see the Harry Potter exhibition.

We also took the T to Harvard-- just to say we walked through Harvard. We did try out one veg-friendly joint, Veggie Planet, in the Harvard area, but were sorely disappointed. It certainly looks promising, and perhaps we simply ordered the wrong thing.

That's Zips' greek salad (they were out of kalamata olives, so doubled the quantity of feta thereby rendering it inedible). I had a half of some other kind of salad and a mushroom barley soup. The salad was soaked in lime juice and the soup was disappointingly watery. Like mushroom slices and barley literally floating in hot water. bleah. Traveling to Boston in November was not something I thought through entirely, and we packed for November in New Mexico. After the sour stomach effects of this outing, we spent the majority of our time at the Au Bon Pain in Terminal A downing fresh orange juice and the vegetarian soup of the day.

Again, I chose (stupidly) not to rent a car for our trip to SF. The public transport is supposed to be among the best in cities in the US. That may be, but I made us walk all over the place, block after block of "it's just up there." However, we had the FINEST veg dining we've EVER had. Ever.