Category Archives: He eats She eats

He eats, she eats: Jordan Pond House in Acadia Nat’l Park

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Jordan Pond House lunchOur recent trip to Maine was awesome. We spent five days tent camping in Acadia National Park while hiking its lovely (and rocky!) trails. The weather was a bit rainy… just enough to make us don rain jackets, but nothing that ruined our spirit or slowed us down.

On our second to last day in Acadia, we hiked the Jordan Pond Trail, which is a moderate 3-mile trail around, well, Jordan Pond! The trail is fairly easy and flat but gets its rating from a stretch of rocky path that some folks might find challenging. I was really excited to hike this trail because it put us in the vicinity of the Jordan Pond House—the only restaurant inside Acadia National Park.

After the morning trek around the pond, we took a break from our trail food and stopped inside the House for lunch. The Jordan Pond House lunch menu had a few vegetarian options, including Cranberry Island or Kitchen Garden salads; Hummus or Vegetarian Panini sandwiches; and Vegetable Quiche. I ordered the panini with a cup of tomato bisque soup, and hubby got the roast beef sandwich with a cup of lobster stew. We enjoyed the food, but felt it was a bit over-priced. We definitely seemed to be paying for the privilege of dining inside the Park rather than exceptional food. Still, it was a nice to eat from a plate rather than a plastic bag in camp!

He eats, She eats: Michigan Renaissance Festival

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The Michigan Renaissance Festival holds a special place in the hearts of hubby and I. We had one of our initial dates here back in 2005 and have made the effort to return to the festival annually as often as possible.

This year’s journey to the festival was a little different, largely because I am striving to eat vegan as much as possible and anyone who has been to a renaissance festival knows that vegetarian cuisine–let alone anything vegan–usually is not a top priority at an event like this.

Turkey legs reign supreme here. Previously, I’ve eaten the festival’s broccoli cheese soup served in a bread bowl–which is usually fine for a vegetarian diet, but not suitable for a vegan lifestyle. Would I be able to find vegan food at the festival?

To my surprise, I did! In fact, one of the flyers we received upon entering the festival prominently pointed out the various vegetarian and vegan meal options along with the general area of where they were located on the grounds. We’re talking vegan pizza, hummus, sweet and spicy veggies, Pad Thai, portabella burgers and more! Awesome! Definitely a new and welcome addition since the last time we attended the festival.

I was really anxious to sample the vegan pizza. I searched high and low for it, inquiring about its whereabouts at several of the food stands in the general location of where it was supposed to be. No one could tell me where it was. The vegan pizza turned out to be the only elusive item on the list though, as all the other vegetarian and vegan foods were eventually found within the festival.

For lunch, I had the vegan Pad Thai while hubby had the pulled pork sandwich. For being served on a plastic plate from a festival food stand, I thought the Pad Thai was quite good. It contained tofu, cabbage, baby corn, pea pods, red peppers, carrots… all good stuff!

We stayed late enough to have dinner at the festival too. Since the vegan pizza eluded me, I opted for the portabella mushroom burger while hubby ate a regular hamburger.

Major props to the Michigan Renaissance Festival for making vegan food options available to its visitors. It’s encouraging to see an event like this make an effort to accommodate the palettes of all its guests. Also of special note: The horses featured in the main jousting photo at the top of this page were from a local horse rescue. The cast mentioned this at the end of the jousting event and solicited donations for the cause after the show.

He eats, she eats… Buffalo Wild Wings

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She eats a Boca burger. He eats a dozen boneless hot wings.

For a long time now, I’ve wanted to introduce a “He eats, she eats” feature for this site. I thought it would be an interesting way to demonstrate the differing palettes of our union and show how a vegetarian married to a meat eater copes with various dining situations.

What’s held me back is usually hubby and I are consuming the same foods. When we eat at home, I cook vegetarian food and he eats it. Our main differences show through when we dine out, but that is not very often. Yet, I’m ready to take the plunge and give this feature a try, with the hope that some of my readers will help me!

Recently, hubby and I dined at Buffalo Wild Wings — one of his favorite restaurants. I ordered the Boca burger and hubby chose a dozen boneless hot wings.

Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t have anything vegan on the menu, according to an e-mail from their research and development department.  They went on to say…

We do have a few options that would fit a vegetarian life style. Boca Burger,  Flat Breads minus the Chicken, Garden and Side salad.  We do fry all our products in a beef tallow oil which we understand would not be an option.

They fry all of their products in a beef tallow oil – which means, I should not have eaten the fries since they are not vegetarian when cooked that way. I tried to confirm that the fries, specifically, are cooked in the beef tallow oil, but all I could pull out of the customer service e-mail staff was the same canned response above. Therefore, you have to assume that the fries are cooked in the tallow oil. :( I understand why restaurants do this but I get frustrated when a perfectly good vegetable is deemed nonvegetarian due to how it’s prepared!

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Hubby and I dined out over the long holiday weekend, so I’ll have a few more “He eats, she eats” entries in the coming days but I’d like to open up this feature to my readers who may be in similar relationships.

If YOU are a vegetarian or vegan married to an omnivore, I’d love to know how you handle mixed-diet situations. Please send YOUR images along with a brief description to veggiecookster [at] gmail [dot] com and I’ll feature it here on the website in a future post. :)