Pleasantly suprised at Thai Tanee

When we pulled up to Thai Tanee on Alpha Rd. in Dallas, we were a little unsure about going in. Situated between a laundromat on one end and a pool hall on the other, we weren’t sure what we were walking into; but when we found an elegant room and a friendly staff inside.

From the many appetizers, we went with Fried Tofu (4.95). Fresh from the pan, this was hot, hot, hot with very crispy corners and a soft interior. With pretty much the same flavor all tofu has, the sauce made the dish delicious with its light sweetness and crushed peanuts.

The Pra Ram (peanut sauce) with veggies (8.5) is a wonderful dinner. This came out like a curry, with plenty of sauce and vegetables beside a cone of rice. The sauce was thinner than other peanut sauces we have experienced, but it was so full of flavor we were surprised. A strong peanut smell filled the area surrounding our table as we tried the amazing dish. Sweet and nutty, this comes with plenty of peanuts crumbled over the top of mushrooms, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, cabbage and baby corn. We can’t recommend this enough. If you can only come here once, we encourage you to try the Pra Ram.  

We always like Pad See Ew, so tried it here with tofu (8.5). The dish is sweet, but not so much so that it builds to a sickly sweetness before finishing. Always mild, this is one of our favorite versions. The tofu is firm and big noodles are well cooked. The sauce is darker than others we’ve tried, but also more delicious.

The Pad Woon Sen (8.5) is also quite nice. Crisp celery, carrots and onions with whole mushrooms accent wonderfully chewy glass noodles that perfectly cooked to a complimentary texture. We had this with tofu, which is pretty basic, but if you prefer meat, that is an option.

We also enjoyed Pad Thai (8.5) with its spicy green onions and sweet sauce. This is extremely flavorful and the noodles are thick and well coated in sauce. The spice from a green onion spice took us off guard at first, but it worked with the sweet to create a wonderful dish.

We were only one of three tables on our first visit, and one of two on our second. This is most likely because of the variety of ordering options. Dine in, of course, carry out, and delivery are all available. And, you can even order online, so the lack of visible customers is not indicative of the restaurant’s quality. The atmosphere is nice, the staff friendly and the food ranges from great to amazing. Thai Tanee is an instant favorite we can’t wait to visit again.

Until next we meet, enjoy great food and keep a happy heart.

Come back next Sunday for another ride through cattle country.

Sweet and Salty Love in Oak Cliff

We’ve written a couple of times about restaurants and events around Oak Cliff, and we’re getting the impression this may be the go-to place for vegetarians around the Dallas area. This week, we followed a tip from our friends at Greenling (we don’t work for them, scout’s honor, we’re just in that honeymoon phase) and tried Bolsa on Davis Street. Another Oak Cliff restaurant, another beautiful meal. And, like some of our other favorites, Bolsa serves vegetarian fare and meat dishes with equal attention to detail, so put this on your list of mixed group destinations.

While we usually visit restaurants together, this week one of us went with a couple of friends who don’t usually contribute to the VICC Project, so when you read “we,” it means the VICC vegetarian and some omnivorous friends. (Really, it’s the same setup with different people, but we don’t want to mislead anyone.)

The recommendation that sent us out this time mentioned that Bolsa strives to use local ingredients whenever possible. Of course we love the concept, so we had to check it out. We walked in and immediately noticed a collection of bird houses above the bar. This is only one of uncountable personal touches that make this restaurant/wine bar stand out. The wait staff is friendly, one wall is made of garage doors (part of the building’s original purpose, according to the site) and something about the place just makes you relax when you walk in. We did walk past some sort of hide on the floor to get to our table, but that was the only thing to cause a question.

When we asked the waiter for their best vegetarian dish, he recommended the cucumber and avocado sandwich (9) without so much as pausing to take a breath. If you can come up with something that fast, we’re sold. He thought about it, and said margherita pizza is also great, but since it was lunch time we all had sandwiches. Thin cucumbers must have been stacked an inch tall with avocado sliced equally thin between them and the baby lettuce on the sandwich. Tomatoes, pesto and locally baked focaccia bread made this an amazing meal. This place definitely takes flavor into account when creating vegetarian options, which are not limited to salads and sides. Mixed baby lettuce salads with cranberries and slivered almonds with an amazing vinaigrette dressing came standard with the sandwiches. Healthful and delicious, we can’t recommend this enough.

The reuben (9), which comes on a beautiful marbled rye, also received a good report. Not a crumb was left on the plate, if that is any indication, so bring your meat-eating friends.

After lunch, we headed (a couple of blocks at most) to the Bishop Arts District for a summer stroll through the shops. While there, we visited Dude, Sweet Chocolate, an artisan chocolate shop specializing in dark chocolates. The owner created chocolates in the open view kitchen while we browsed the boxed selections. We tried some samples (the two of us who tried the blue cheese and sea salt in chocolate had mixed opinions, but we all loved the hazelnut spread) and had the opportunity to chat her up. Extremely informed about the politics of cacao farming around the world, she said she buys her ingredients based on their quality and flavor, but that often turns out to be fair trade and/or organic. She doesn’t buy things because of their certifications, even though the stuff she buys may have them. From talking to her, we got the impression that she’s more of a fair life supporter than someone who demands or chases a certificate. And she cares about the source of her ingredients. Certifying organic or fair trade is expensive, and putting that money back into the land and those who work it makes more sense than chasing documentation that may or may not mean you’re getting something better. It makes sense to us! She is intelligent and impressive, but when you’re talking chocolate, you should really let the chocolate do the talking; and it did. Beautiful dark chocolate, this stuff is amazing. We joke about different foods being addictive, but Dude, Sweet actually sells “Crack in a Box,” which is a bark-style dark chocolate with soy nuts, almonds, nibs and who knows what else inside. Yes, we’ll tell you now, this is the stuff of dreams.

With names like “Break Up Potion” and “One Night Stand” for chocolate sauces containing bourbon and tequila, respectively, you know you’re in for a treat at this little corner of heaven. Make a point to visit Dude, Sweet the next time you are in Oak Cliff. You won’t regret it.

Until next we meet, enjoy great food and keep a happy heart.

Come back next Sunday for another ride through cattle country.

BEE: Another great Oak Cliff restaurant

Thanks to a link Dallas Vegan Roundup shared on FaceBook, we recently found a new (to us) place to eat. BEE (Best Enchiladas Ever) Enchiladeria on Davis Street has been in Oak Cliff for about a year and a half and given the tasty food and large portions, we hope it’s here to stay.

Slightly confused on our first visit, we walked to the pick up area thinking we could order there. A very nice woman at the cash register saw we were clueless and pretty much led us by the hand through the ordering process. Similar to Which Which’s ordering style, you enter and go to a counter with pens and two-sided order forms, check off your boxes, put your name on the form, and head to the cash register. (As always, we were trying to do everything backward.)

When we asked if the sauces were made from chicken broth, our guide asked if we were vegan or vegetarian and proceeded to put little red marks on each of the vegetarian options. Of course the vegan options, which are marked with a heart, were included, but she showed us a few additional items. A few of the sauces that we might intuitively think were safe, like sour cream sauce, actually contain chicken broth, so we appreciated this personal tour of the menu.

 

We went with the two enchilada plates (6.99) for the first visit. Completely customizable, you might find it difficult to put together an enchilada you don’t like without trying. But we went outside our standards and ordered things we hadn’t previously tried elsewhere. For the vegetarian, this was heaven. The Quinoa and Tofu in a corn tortilla with avocado verde sauce and Vegan Special in a blue corn tortilla with tomatillo sauce were both great. The tofu is cut into squares and has a nice smokey flavor. A close preferential second, the Vegan Special comes filled with julienne zucchini, carrots, potatoes, red peppers and more. All those thin veggies make it a little awkward to get onto a fork, but we somehow managed to clear our plates.

The omnivore tried the Chicken Tinga with sour cream sauce and Brisket with queso blanco sauce. While the chicken combo is good – comparable to Primo’s chicken enchiladas – the Brisket is incredible.

Never having been to an enchiladeria, we were surprised when they called our names and asked us which fresh toppings we’d like to put on our enchiladas. Everything looked good so we went with our favorites. The uncooked vegetables add a crunch factor to the plate as well as mixing cool and warm in each bite. We love juxtaposing opposites in our food, so this was a welcome addition.

While drinks are pretty standard anyplace you go, we recommend getting a cup of water here. BEE offers chilled water with lemon and lime that actually tastes good. Sure, it’s only water, but that little something extra makes it better and memorable.

As we started eating, our guide came around to see how we liked our food. She noticed the vegetarian’s plate contained mexican rice, which is made with chicken broth, and immediately brought a bowl of vegan rice. Honestly, she was more broken up over if than we were and she made it right before we had started on the rice or even realized anything was wrong. The fact that she made an effort to correct the error and apologize goes so far beyond what our paper plates and plasticware lead us to expect from this restaurant that we are convinced she’s the best staff member in town. (Although, another visit to BEE brought us another, equally kind staff member, so maybe it’s the training.)

The vegan rice (which is lighter in color) was actually better than the mexican rice, according to the omnivore who tried both, and has a buttery flavor we all liked but didn’t ask how they created the flavor without using actual butter.

On another visit, we thought we’d branch out and try some other options. From the back of the order form, we chose a spinach and mushroom bee burrito (5.99). The menu says that all of the vegan burritos include a spoonful of guacamole but we didn’t see that scoop in our burrito. We did instantly taste the rice, and the mushrooms reminded us of the wild mushroom soup from La Madeleine, so we may just not have noticed the avocado if it was there. Either way, we didn’t miss it. Once the standard ingredients go in, you have the option to add your choice of fresh ingredients before the burrito is sealed. The tortillas are big, but our burrito maker had to have used a little magic to get everything inside. Like Freebirds or Chipotle, BEE gives you more food than one person needs.

Given that most people can find something to love here no matter where they fit into the dietary spectrum, BEE is a great place for mixed groups. We left our visits full and happy and we agree that this place lives up to its name.

Until next we meet, enjoy great food and keep a happy heart.

Come back next Sunday for another ride through cattle country.

Thai Soon, Richardson, TX

With lines in the menu stating they will compromise their sauces to accommodate a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, it’s no wonder Thai Soon displays “Best Vegetarian Restaurant” awards along the walls. While this restaurant does serve meat dishes, everything on the menu can be made vegetarian. Everything. This is perhaps the first place we’ve wandered into without knowing much about the menu ahead of time and experienced option overload. No limitations on what we can eat? Vegetarian soups? Really? We were just about to panic, then we remembered that most people have an entire menu from which to choose. How nice it is to feel “normal” for a change.

A dedicated lunch menu keeps things rather simple with a list of specials for $6.95 or passion lunch specials for $7.95. All options come with soup or salad and a vegetarian egg roll. We tried the Vegetarian Fried Rice with tofu and Rad Na with tofu, both on the standard lunch menu. Crispy vegetables in the fried rice are fresh and flavorful. The rice is sticky enough to (mostly) stay on the fork and out of the lap on its way from this mountain of goodness to your mouth. When we ordered, our waitress asked if eggs were OK, so they can make this vegan, too, if that’s more to your liking.

While we liked the fried rice, we loved the Rad Na. We’re suckers for flat noodles around here, so that’s part of our preference, but this would have been good with any starch base. Loaded with crisp vegetables, tofu, and a brilliant sweet, dark sauce, this is a wonderful dish for lunch or dinner. And for such a generous portion, the lunch price is quite a deal. Definitely an instant favorite.

On our lunch visits, we went with salads, which were simple and topped with a super thick and creamy peanut sauce that made them rather addictive.

From the dinner menu, we ejnoyed the Royal Curry (8.95), which is a spicy yellow curry. Perhaps because we asked for a vegetarian version, this was more of a green color. But the sweet coconut comes through well and the spice builds as you eat your way through the dish. Even when the heat caused a runny nose (come on, we can’t be the only wimps around), this was so good we couldn’t stop eating. Soft grilled tofu against fresh, firm mushrooms and a collection of white vegetables, carrots and red bell peppers comes together for a sweet and spicy delight.

Possibly the nicest surprise, the Vegetarian Egg Rolls (4.95) are simple and good. Without too many competing flavors, these are perfectly crispy and well complimented by the sauce, atop which crushed peanuts and cucumber bits float. With crushed red pepper throughout, this is a flavorful, sweet and barely hot sauce we have since learned to crave.

After several visits, we understand why so many publications chose Thai Soon as their favorite vegetarian restaurant. We have added it to our must frequent list and hope anyone near the Richardson area has the chance to stop in and try it.

Until next we meet, enjoy great food and keep a happy heart.

Come back next Sunday for another ride through cattle country.