Last week, after a morning at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, we headed to the Tasty Harmony Cafe for lunch. It’s a vegetarian café in Fort Collins that we’ve been trying to go to for a several years, but somehow never make it during our annual summer visits. My brother and my sister-in-law really like the food and wanted to share the café with us. It was finally time for a culinary field trip at a vegetarian restaurant!
I don’t have a lot of experience eating vegetarian meals. I often choose vegetarian entrées when dining out and I cook meatless meals a couple of times a week at home, but those dishes are usually just a meat dish we leave the meat out of (spaghetti with cottage cheese or veggie pizzas). I guess I was half expecting the menu to be filled with unrecognizable ingredients and dishes. I didn’t know if P and I would have to be polite and fake liking our food or not. It turns out neither of us had to fake it, which is good because P doesn’t do “polite” faking!
P started whining before we even got there because he thought there wouldn’t be anything for kids on the menu that he’d like. No worries there. I was hoping he’d choose the nachos with beans because I wanted to try the cashew cheese, but he (predictably) chose a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with apple slices. He ate every last crumb.
I couldn’t decide what to order, There were just too many choices that sounded delicious. I could have gone safe and had a salad. The BBQ Seitan Skewers were tempting and the Kentucky Fried Freedom was intriguing, but I finally decided on the BBQ Pulled Jackfruit. I had no idea what jackfruit was, but I took a chance because I love BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and it sounded so good: “Smoked Jackfruit cooked in homemade BBQ sauce on a roll with pickles, coleslaw, tomatoes and red onion.” It was delicious. So delicious that P finished his PB&J and started begging for scraps of my sandwich.
It turns out jackfruit is a large fruit that grows on trees in South and Southeast Asia and it’s enormous. It’s prepared and eaten in many ways around the world and is often used as a meat substitute in vegetarian recipes. The BBQ jackfruit in my sandwich looked just like pulled pork to me. I’m not sure I would have noticed that it wasn’t if I hadn’t been told it was something else.
Sadly I didn’t remember to take a photo of our food. I can’t believe it! I had two cameras with me and I always take pictures of our food when we eat out, but I still forgot to take a picture of the sandwich. Thank goodness for creative commons photos!
I’m curious about your favorite (or not so favorite) vegetarian meals. Leave a comment and share your favorite meals, recipes or experiences!
I love eggplant Parmesan. Not sure why…I was a vegetarian for 4 years before my last pregnancy…apparently my kid is a major carnivore! Not sure if I will be going back to it or not.
Ooh! I love eggplant parmesan, too! I should actually make it sometime 🙂
I’ve never heard of that before, but now I’m intrigued.
I love making taco bowls by baking the torilla in a bowl-pan and add black beans, veggies and cheese; we also have gourmet grilled cheese often with cheese, of course, slices of avocado, onion, sweet peppers, mustard or mayo, black olives, with tomato soup. They are glorious. I also make fake refried beans in the crockpot with pinto beans and it is awesome over rice or potatoes or in a mexican dish.
I think you should do a post on your crockpot pinto beans! I’d love to try making them.
So many foods that Ive never heard of before that I learn from reading blogs-lol. Here’s a new one!
Trying new foods is something I love so you’ll probably see more odd foods here 🙂
Impressive that you liked jackfruit because it usually has a very strong smell! I guess they cooked it very well! 🙂
It was very well cooked. I couldn’t smell anything unusual and I have a strong sense of smell!
Growing up in the Caribbean I ate quite a bit of Jackfruit and loved it. Didn’t know you could do it this way though. As for vegetarian foods, my oldest in vegetarian and she has actually gotten me the carnivore to eat a few of her dishes and they were pretty good. Still not good enough to convert me. 🙂
I’m the same. I can appreciate a good vegetarian dish, but I’m not there yet!
What??? You can make a fake pulled bbq sandwich?? I want one. Also, fort Collins? My husband will be there soon for work, he is always looking for somewhere cool to eat, I will tell him about this place!
I know, right? And it *has* to be good for you if it’s a fruit 😉 There are lots of good restaurants in FC!
I have never heard of jackfruit..New to me!!
It was definitely new to me, too!
I’m not familiar with jackfruit, but now I’m intrigued! Very cool that is substitutes so well for meat!
Am I the only one that could happily live off raw fruits and veggies?
I love raw fruits and veggies! I just don’t see myself going vegetarian in the near future 😉
me neither not while nursing.
Raw fruits and veggies are okay with me…as long as I can have Dr. Pepper too. 🙂 I’m more fond of fruits than veggies. Berries and melon. Yum!
I totally agree. And I love a tall glass of Dr. Pepper with lots of crushed ice on a hot summer’s day!
Im pretty sure I ate my weight in bananas this last pregnancy
Now I want to try it!
Wow, that sounds yummy! My hubby and I recently decided to start adding a few veggie meals into our meal plan each week. We haven’t been very adventurous yet, though. I’ll have to mention this to him – thanks!
I don’t know if I’m ready to cook with jackfruit yet, but it was fun to try 🙂