Great Vegan Eats in Sedona

So we're back from a short vacation in beautiful Sedona, AZ, where Zips happily discovered a lovely vegan restaurant, D'Lish Very Vegetarian. Since Sedona seems such a hippie, yuppie, tourist-y little town, we weren't surprised to find there were several places to choose from (including a raw cuisine joint called Bliss Cafe that we'll have to find next time), but loved D'Lish so much the evening we arrived, we ate there again the next day!

The first time, I ordered and greatly enjoyed a Retro sandwich (avocado, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, etc) until I tasted Zips' choice, the BLT. Their tempeh bacon was INCREDIBLE, and made me rethink my entire relationship with tempeh. I mean I've tried making breakfast sausage patties with it, found a great recipe for tempeh bourguignon, but rarely fix it-- especially now that we live in a hot climate. Now I can't wait to purchase some again. I can't wait to test a couple of tempeh "bacon" recipes myself. So the next night I got the BLT with an avocado added (best of both sandwiches, too much of a good thing is even better!). Everything seems to come with blue corn chips and a little house salad whose dressing is also DELISH!

And for dessert, we shared a "young Thai coconut"-- which a guy simply whacked at with a large knife to open the top, and offered us straws. The fresh coconut water was excellent, and when we had emptied it, we fought over scraping out and eating the insides. Zips said it is among the most decadent thing we've ever done.

More Crazy Signs

So we just got back from our great Grand Canyon adventure, and I have more less-sane signage from the road. The above is from a rest stop somewhere along I-40 in the eastern part of AZ. I saw a great deal of lizards. I hope they weren't poisonous.

The buffalo stands in front of a gas station in either Valle or Tusayan, AZ, not far from the Grand Canyon.

And this seemed a hilariously explicit warning posted both at the Grand Canyon, and at a scenic point along 89A between Sedona and Flagstaff.

New Favorite Places: Tucson, AZ

We took a roadtrip to Arizona several weekends ago, just to see what we could see, and discovered the wonderful 4th Ave. district near the U of Arizona. A great place to blow your paycheck is independent bookseller (and t-shirt seller, poster seller, and doo-dad seller) Antigone Books. They have a wonderful selection of graphic novels, political bumper stickers, notecards, and gifts. I found myself purchasing a rechargeable (hand-crank) cat-shaped flashlight. It'll come in handy, I know it. A wide array of japanese paper design notecards. Entirely too lovely and expensive.And a happy discovery (not in the 4th ave. neighborhood, but happy nontheless): Lovin' Spoonfuls is an entirely veggie restaurant. I ordered a chili dog, and Zips had a turkey club. A nicely stocked menu. Lots of critter-friendly choices! We can't wait to go back!