The Plum Cafe & Bakery - A Review

I know you think I'm crazy. I've already tried Sugar Plum Vegan and it has not ended well. But I've been really curious since it changed hands and became The Plum Cafe & Bakery (or Bakery & Cafe, I'm not sure if they've decided). I've also noticed that they have a large selection of gluten free options, including baked treats, so I stopped in for lunch recently.

I ordered the gluten free macaroni & cheese, and a selection of treats.

The Mac & Cheese was underwhelming. The noodles were good, but the sauce was weird and clumpy and did not taste a lot like cheese. The salad was good, but it's hard to fuck up spring salad mix and vinagrette.

The brownie was ridiculously good. Rich, moist, and chocolatey, it tasted neither vegan nor gluten free. The cupcake, as well, was very good (only one was for me, y'all). I waited too long to try the cake, so I cannot comment other than to say that two days in the fridge do not do it justice.

I will probably give The Plum one more chance before making a final judgement (after all, I did give Sugar Plum two chances). As of right now, I can recommend it highly for vegan and gluten free pastries, but not so much for the rest of the menu.

I do, however, adore the back patio area

It's quiet, cool, and homey, and was a lovely place to while away an afternoon hour.

Nation's Giant Hamburgers - A Review

For years, Fuddruckers was the Big Burger On Campus in Citrus Heights. Any weekend night would find a line out the door and good luck to you if you planned to eat it there. The economy started to take a bite of their business a few years ago, and, in the last couple of years, new burger joints have been popping up literally within a block of Fuddruckers.

First it was The Habit. I'm totally going to admit that I have a deep love of their Ahi Tuna burger. It is so simple and good, and I can order it with a salad and have a reasonably healthy supper.

Next came Smashburger, which I have yet to try. I've heard differing reports about vegetarian options and the "worthiness" of the food.

Finally - and fairly recently - came Nation's Giant Hamburgers, which we checked out one desperately stormy evening last week.

I ordered the salmon Caesar salad because, dude. It's a salmon Caesar salad. I was underwhelmed at best. First fail: you just don't serve Caesar salad dressing on the side. It really needs to be tossed with the salad so it's even. Chowing on random clumps of Caesar dressing is not the business, nor is forkfulls of dry salad.

MonkeySee ordered the Chili Burger with a side of Chili Cheese Fries. He had to request onions, because they weren't served with them. As you can see, the chili cheese fries were topped with two slices of what appears to be American cheese. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, but in this increasingly "foodie" culture, this just does not fly.

To quote MonkeySee in regards to his meal: "It's like a middle school dance: They aren't really too close, and both parties were forced together by a third party."

And y'all should know that Monkey is an afficianado of chili topped foods.

Overall, I would say Nation's has a vaguely cafeteria feel to it and not much to distinguish it from the multitude of other burger & sandwich fare in the area. The prices seemed reasonable, until you added in sides and drinks and all of a sudden you could have eaten somewhere less hair-netty.

Maybe I missed out by not ordering breakfast*, but I suspect that I will not be back to find out.

The Verbosery verdict on Nation's Giant Hamburgers is: Decidedly Meh.

If you haven't checked them out, you probably aren't missing much.

*Pro-tip: If you're off gluten and sugar (as I am this month), you probably shouldn't get supper somewhere that specializes in pancakes and pies.

Saul's Deli - A Mostly Review

The weekend before last, SweetPea and I went on an adventure with friends. They brought their boxer and we brought Gomi and we hit the huge dog park in Richmond called Point Isabel. While I was convinced that we had one good dog and one asshole, it turns out that we have one short asshole and one tall asshole. Apparently my pit bull thinks that mouthing the necks of strange dogs is an appropriate greeting. So that's awesome.

Anyway, after the dog park, a visit to Berkeley Bowl, and trying to figure out where the heck to stop for dinner, we ended up at Saul's Deli.

Saul's is a restaurant and deli specializing in Jewish and Eastern European cuisine. Some of the stuff on their menu I remember from my childhood, with both German and Jewish grandparents. SweetPea ordered the day's special - cabbage rolls - because it was something her mother used to make. We also got an order of potato latkes to split.

I ordered a sandwich.

Now, the thing about being a vegetarian and ordering a sandwich at a deli is that, often, that sandwich consists of all the veggies that would go on a meat sandwich and that's about it. In the same way that vegetarian pizza is often just a meatless combination pizza. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it's boring and kind of sad. There are so many truly awesome, inventive and delicious ways to feed vegetarians (and there are so many of us now), that it really sucks when you lack the creativity to do more than peel the meat off of a regular menu item.

At Saul's, this is not a problem.

I ordered the Eggplant Schnitzel. As you might expect, it came with eggplant cutlets that had been breaded & fried, roasted beets, roasted onions, pickles, arugala, harissa and mayonaisse.

It was kind of amazing.

The eggplant was crisp and warm, the perfect compliment to the cool, sweet beets, and everything else highlighted this pairing. It was perfect.

You can tell I'm not a food blogger, because that's all you're getting.

I had it with the potato salad, which was better than most offerings, but not grammy's potato salad. I also had a Trumer Pils, which I will blog about tomorrow.

SweetPea reported the stuffed cabbage rolls were good, although not exactly like her mom made. The latkes were good, but slightly more dense and less crispy than I would have expected. Having never before had latkes, I have no idea if they were right or not.

I also had baklava for dessert. It was served warm, and the kind of "made right here in the kitchen" flaky that I don't usually see. Most of the baklava I've had has been made elsewhere, so the layers have time to kind of soak into the honey. Saul's baklava was flaky, gooey, crispy, warm perfection.

Saul's is definitely worthy of a do-over, and may even be worth its very own trip to the City.

Natomas IHOP is The Suck

Our waitress was cute and sweet and friendly but, y'all, that just didn't help matters at all. She was slow as hell. I had to tell her three times that I wanted a diet Coke, even though I was looking her in the eye the other two times I asked. Hello! I'm the one that can't hear, not you. We ordered these Horton Hears a Who drinks that they had - red and blue jello in sprite. That's what the Monkeys were sucking down in that picture. That one was SweetPea's, but she was too chicken to try it.

Food took forever to come out. It is a bad sign, y'all, when not one but two other tables are eating before you when they arrived after you. She brought out our appetizers with our dinner. When the food did come out, all the plates were hot, but not fresh from the dishwasher or a warmer hot. It was way hot. Like they'd been sitting in an oven or under a heat lamp long enough to heat the plates up real good. Uh. Nice, good to know. None of us had whipped cream on what was supposed to have whipped cream on it. And she only brought out half of my order.

Here's a free tip for all of you IHOP waitresses:

IHOP does not sell pancakes, by themselves, in plates of two pancakes. If you order just pancakes, no eggs and whatnot, that comes in a plate of four pancakes. If there is a plate of two pancakes, there is, by default, another plate that goes with it. So, when you're checking the oven for the order because you're finally done with your cigarette break and feel like serving your customers? Get both plates.

My eggs, which I had ordered over medium, were rubber on the top and on the bottom, and runny as hell/practically raw on the inside. My pancakes were burnt and cold.

I understand that my lack of hearing was fortunate given the dinner conversation going on at the table behind us. IHOP can't really help that, so I guess I'm not going to hold it against them, but it certainly didn't assist our experience much.

Also, I just have to say this: Miss Stripper Lady? Why is a hotass African American woman trying so hard to look like LiLo? I don't know if you draw those freckles on or what, but that spray of country-girl freckles? Seriously. Fucking. Hot. You really need to rethink your dating choices, though. As hot as you are, you should be dating people that will take you some place nice. Not the "airport" IHOP.

All in all, I have to say that I have a more enjoyable time and get better food when SweetPea and I go down to the KMart Diner. Even the time when that one toothless old lady looked like she wanted to throw down because that poor baby was trapped at a table with all the Damn Dykes (*gasp*!).

Yeah. Even that time.

Noble Vegetarian Redux

In the last two days there have been two seperate visits to my page linked from a google search for "Noble Vegetarian".

I have no idea what y'all are looking for, but I can at least offer some information on the restaurant.

Noble Vegetarian is located at 5049 College Oack Dr., Ste. A (it's the first one on the left) in Sacramento, CA. It's right near American River College, Aida's Bookstore and Wishing Well.
You can call them at (916) 334-6060.

They do have really good food and the prices are reasonable. The first time we went, we got two "family style" dishes and an appetizer, plus iced tea and the bill was about $25 with tax.

I highly recommend the Ruby Pearls and the Roti Drumsticks. SO GOOD. I have heard that the Pho is pretty good, as well.

Everything they serve is vegetarian, and most of it is outright vegan.

The Noble Vegetarian is definitely not a fancy, swank diner. It's clean, friendly and good. Also, one of the few places in the area where you can enjoy vegetarian and vegan foods without having to place special orders.

Noble Vegetarian

Last Friday SweetPea and had an adventure.

OK, so we had dinner out. But after that night we spent helping Neighbor clean The Nastiest Restaurant on the Planet, eating out – at a new restaurant – is considered an adventure.

During my morning drive, on the way to drop Monkey See off at school, I was sitting at a red light and noticed a sandwich board sign. It said “Noble Vegetarian” and had an arrow and some other stuff that I couldn't really read because it was on the other side of the road. I promptly sent a text message to SweetPea lest I forget about this little sandwich board because, hello, vegetarian? Yes, please!

I did some searching on the internet and found a couple of reviews proclaiming it good stuff and reasonably priced and, yes, vegetarian food.

Noble Vegetarian is a Vietnamese restaurant tucked away in a strip mall on College Oak. It's easy to miss if you don't know it's there. And we did. Twice.

Once we got parked and got inside, the restaurant was clean and bright. The tables were well laid out and the décor was nice.. simple, elegant, clean.

We ordered two “family style” dishes, an order of “Golden Rolls”, rice, and iced green tea (for me). Now, some of you may know that I have an issue with the green teas served most everywhere. I like plain green tea. It doesn't need to be flavored or sugared or whatevered. It's good just the way it is. Plain. Well, Noble Vegetarian serves plain green tea, loose leaf no less, hot or cold. Very nice!

Everything came to the table piping hot. The Golden Rolls were very good. Light, crispy and tasty, with a sauce that fit the rolls perfectly. There was a dish called “Ruby Pearls” that SweetPea and I both loved very much. They were described as “sweet and sour 'chicken'” but were so much better than that! Smallish balls of fake meat, with a dense, slightly crispy texture. The “sweet and sour” wasn't the same florescent orange sauce of some Chinese restaurants. The sauce was a dark reddish orange, and it didn't cover and suffocate the way the sauce ordinarily does. It seemed almost like the balls were marinated in it, and then cooked. It was very very good, and our favorite dish of the evening. Much better than anything we get at our usual Chinese restaurant. The other dish looked similar to beef with broccoli, and I'm sorry, I forget the name of it. The “beef” strips looked very realistic, and, had we been anywhere else, I'd have made SweetPea try them first just to be sure it wasn't actual beef. The strips were just a little softer than you'd expect for real beef, but very good, and very “realistic”. The broccoli, carrots and bok choy were all cooked to perfection, and the sauce was perfectly light, just the right compliment.

Service was very nice – friendly, attentive and prompt. Our meal, which included two family style dishes, one order of appetizers, rice for me and iced green tea for me, totalled just $20. Now, let me tell you, SweetPea have been known to spend that at Taco Bell. I was surprised to find the bill so low, actually, with everything we got.

I would highly recommend Noble Vegetarian. Even if you aren't vegetarian, the food will impress you, and so will the service.

Noble Vegetarian
5049 College Oak Dr (Suite A)
Sacramento, CA 95841

(916) 334-6060