Vegging WAY OUT

I'll start with my trip to the UK. I went over there for nine days to tour the country with my sister. When we were in Edinburgh, we went to a 99% vegetarian restaurant called Black Bo's where I had a very nice tofu dish and my sister had vegetarian haggis balls in a strawberry sauce. We didn't hit any other "veggie" restaurants on our trip, but I also really enjoyed a visit to one of the wagamama locations in London, which has excellent Asian noodle dishes served in a modern row table setting.

In general, it was pretty easy to eat vegetarian as a traveler in Great Britain. I only rarely had to say no to a place that looked interesting because of a lack of appealing selections, and while there's a traditional British cuisine that's pretty poor, awareness of healthy eating has improved tremendously there in the last couple of decades.

I spend some time in Boston back in June, and I need to give shout outs to several places. Spike's Junkyard Dogs, is chain that has veggie dogs with lots of interesting toppings and really great homemade buns. Upstairs on the Square, near Harvard, had an amazing gourmet vegetarian tasting menu served in a very cool dining room, and it was a great date location. Finally, Asmara, in Cambridge, was a nice Ethiopian food experience, with lots of interesting stew-like dishes served with spongy Injera bread and eaten by tearing off bits of bread and picking up veggies from the communal plate.

My final recommendations come from the San Jose, California area where I travel often for work. I'll start with a pointer to Elisa Camahort's column "Silicon Valley Veggie" that is interesting reading both for its reviews and its tips on living as a vegetarian. Onward to eateries: a favorite of mine is Dishdash, a great Middle Eastern place in downtown Sunnyvale. I've loved everything I've had here, and service has always been good, although it gets quite crowded for lunch. They have a very generous appetizer platter where you can fill up on dolmeh, hummus, tabbouleh, and more. I love bringing friends here so we can try even more items together. I've also enjoyed several trips to Saffron Restaurant in San Jose. It's Persian cuisine, and they bring out flatbread with butter, herbs, and onion when you're seated. I really liked both the veggie kabob and the vegetarian stew.

Now, back to your occasionally produced entries on great stuff here in the Austin area!