In which I develop a serious habit

La Taza coffeehouse is in close proximity to both my daughter's school and PVCC, where I have been taking classes during my long absence from writing about food. La Taza has amazing coffee, and I'm clinically addicted to the Cuban coffee con leche. One of the best breakfast bargains may also be found there: tiny taquitos with egg, green chile, and cheese. I usually get two.

In which there are snacks

Carnivorous Husband and I decided to try the new frozen yogurt place on the Downtown Mall the other day. As unappetizing as the name "Sweet Frog" sounds to me, we'd heard that their not-too-sweet plain frozen yogurt should be sampled. But first, lunch.

Marco & Luca is one of our go-to lunch places if we're short on cash. It's not exactly a well-balanced meal, so we plan to eat a more nutritious dinner when we eat there. But it's fast and tasty. I'm not a huge fan of cold noodles, and I don't eat pork dumplings, so I generally get the "vegetable hot bun," a variation of traditional Chinese "bao," a word that also means "purse." The buns are steamed and filled with a mixture of napa cabbage, cellophane noodles and some other veggies. They also come with a sweet and spicy sauce. I do sometimes make these at home, and my father made a comfort-food, pork-filled variety, but Marco & Luca's are good when I have neither the time nor the inclination to make my own.

As for Sweet Frog, the tart yogurt was surprisingly good: I tire of overly-sweet desserts. It is apparently also fat-free and contains live cultures. It was very cold and became slightly icy in texture, probably due to the lack of fat and sugars. But it was good nonetheless, and I didn't feel like I'd swallowed a butterball after eating it or anticipate that my brain wouldn't be functioning for a while. After some dishes of ice cream, I need a lie-down.

I'm not a fan of self-serve bars of any kind, because of the germ factor, and their toppings are in such a case. They have the usual suspects as well as tropical fruits and an oddball topping of soft, opaque squares called "coconut jelly" or something similar. I tried one, and it wasn't my favorite.

The yogurts are in a vault-like dispensary. Everything was very clean: the floors, tables, counters, and dispensers. One spoon had fallen, handle and all, into the strawberries, but it was the place's only flaw. It was also affordable, and I do like that I can choose how much (or little) I want on a given visit. There are no set sizes, and price is determined by weight.

In which we eat burgers and fries

Burgers and fries for a vegetarian? In a restaurant? Actually, yes. No, the burger didn't come out of a box in the freezer section of the supermarket.

The restaurant in question is Boylan Heights, one of many restaurants in the "Corner" district by UVA. It has been a favorite spot for our family to watch the UVA baseball team compete in the College World Series. For this post, Mr. Persnickety will be known as Baseball Fiend.

Miss Voracious and I have both tried Boylan's vegetarian burger: it's a patty made with quinoa, corn, zucchini, and other less-identifiable but tasty veggies and grains. I find it tasty but a little tough to digest. Baseball Fiend really only likes the fries: the grilled cheese wasn't his style, but I imagine most other children would like it. They also offer a peanut butter sandwich with bananas. It sounds very sweet from the description, which could be good or bad, depending on the child. No, we don't just feed our child fries--he eats at home, and fries are his dessert when it's baseball season.

Boylan Heights is very casual and has tables of various heights on two levels. We have only eaten downstairs at traditional tables with chairs and benches. The tall tables with stools don't look as comfortable to me.

Last night, on a date with Carnivorous Husband, I tried the vegan burger: a brown rice-and-nut affair with an addictive savory flavor like Thanksgiving stuffing. It's a bit crumbly, so be prepared to use your fork. Actually, the burgers are generally piled high with toppings of your choice, so they can be hard to eat in the usual way. Vegans will be happy to observe that there are multiple toppings to suit them and lots of tasty sauces. Vegetarians will enjoy selecting one of several possible cheeses and then tackling the mostly-vegetarian topping list. I tend to have trouble deciding where to stop. The menu also suggests several topping combinations if you're feeling indecisive or overwhelmed by all the choices. I favor spicy toppings and sauces, and I also like cheese on my fries, but the milder choices and sweet potato fries are also really hard to pass up.

I now prefer the vegan burger to the vegetarian and find it to be easier on my tummy as well. Both are superior to anything you can buy in the store. I commend Boylan Heights on being the sort of restaurant to remember that vegetarians like their food to taste good, too. They could have purchased a pre-made frozen burger, but they didn't. They want us to come back often and bring our friends. And this is a burger joint.

In which we have tapas at Bang!

Carnivorous Husband and I were pleased to re-discover Bang! over the weekend. The evening was pleasant, so we decided on the front porch rather than the shabbier, dark, and very red interior. Bang! also has a nice outdoor seating area in the back, but it was closed for some reason.

Most of the vegetarian options on the menu, which must be filled out with a pencil or pen, are also vegan. There were certainly more than we could try in one dinner, and we'll have to return soon for the others. We picked tempura green beans, which I seem to remember was listed on the menu in Franglais ("Haricot vert fries" or something similar), beet salad with goat cheese, and chickpea spring rolls. I had the vegetarian noodle dish, with asparagus and mushrooms.

Carnivorous Husband had the scallops, and he insists they were good.

The green beans were heavier than the fried desserts we ordered later, the banana fritters and Asian doughnuts. Still, they were tasty, as was the spicy garlic sauce,

but I'd recommend sharing them, possibly with several people. The beet salad was half eaten before we remembered to photograph it: very fresh with lots of goat cheese. The chickpea spring rolls have been on the ever-changing menu for years, and they are a favorite: creamy, crispy, and savory. They're also piping hot, so be careful. My noodles were good but not incredible, and the asparagus was a bit woody. The desserts, which we ate entirely before we even thought of

taking pictures, were, well, gone.

The service was friendly but not overbearing, and we had no complaints. In fact, servers kept trying to serve us dishes from other tables. We didn't accept them, but we might have liked to.

Everything was very tasty.

In which I avoid Cooking

It's been a slow week for cooking and baking. When the Carnivorous Husband is out of town, I tend to put my own culinary desires on hold and appease Master Persnickety and Miss Voracious instead. In other words, we've been eating pasta. Last night's hoisin seared tofu and vegetables pushed Master Persnickety to his limits of open-mindedness, even though he loves tofu and vegetables and hoisin sauce--just not together.

We've also had our hands a little fuller than usual with a certain house guest. He's the gray and white blur on the photo's left. His name is The Professor.

The Professor returned to his usual home today, and the children, who have been uncharacteristically reasonable in their demands this week, required a small treat to take their minds off things. The best solution to a house with no kittens is, of course, Eppie's.

You'll be hearing about Eppie's again. It's not one of those family restaurants with only Kraft-like macaroni, french fries, and stewed apples for vegetarian diners, because the "vegetables" actually contain more meat than the meat dishes. Here, herbivores can peruse the menu with confidence. The greens do not contain bacon and are nonetheless delicious. Actually, much of the menu, unlike several trendier ones in town, is pleasantly bacon-free.

You won't find gourmet fare at Eppie's--the food is much like what I would make at home if I wanted to cook a long time and use lots of pots and pans, which I don't. Master Persnickety had penne with pesto and pumpkin bread, his favorite. Not a bite remained. Miss Voracious loves to partake of the ample vegetarian selections on the menu, and tonight she settled on one of the myriad options of the "Three Veggie Plate:" the Greek salad (a favorite), the cornbread (featured on the plate unless a substitution is requested), and the evening's dessert: banana pudding. Yes, dessert counts as a veggie; if you go when they're offering a crisp or cobbler, get it. My three veggies also included dessert and cornbread as well as black beans--sort of a chunky soup/stew--and a large baked sweet potato. It is also possible to order Four Veggies, but I usually find this amount to be too much for one meal. Not being able to decide on only three because there are so many choices that sound good is a novel problem for a vegetarian to have.

The combination provided the hearty meal I needed after a long week with no husband, and the banana pudding was not in the least bawdy like the song of the same name (Southern Culture on the Skids). The salads are crisp and freshly-prepared with no wilted greens and several interesting flavor combinations. The Daily salad (a favorite of mine) is spinach with blue cheese, cranberries, tomatoes. The Greek salad has lots of onions, feta, and olives. A special I've had several times, an inspired Cesar salad, has a chipotle dressing and cornbread croutons. Vegans can enjoy several selections here, from a hummus sandwich to several of the veggie options. Personally, I love the black beans, sweet potatoes and collards with a generous drizzling of their spicy vinegar, but there are several other possible vegan combinations, and the marinara sauce for pasta appears to be vegan--just make sure to ask for no cheese. For conventional vegetarians, even the macaroni and cheese is tasty and has tiny bits of mushroom cooked into it for added depth of flavor.

I could go on and on, but I'll leave you in suspense until the next time. Eppie's is quick and great for those weeknight meals after baseball practice or dance class. It's probably not the most romantic choice and does not offer table service, but tables and restrooms are kept clean, and it's a favorite spot of mine for a casual dinner with friends.

In which I order the Blue Plate Special

Having first moved to Charlottesville more than ten years ago, I have seen many restaurants come and go. Some of the departed were exclusively or predominantly vegetarian: Garden of Sheba, Liquid, and Veggie Heaven. Last week, on a rare lunch date without kids, we went to an old favorite that always has a vegetarian offering: Hamilton's. It's the most upscale local restaurant to offer a decidedly vegetarian lunch option, so I thought, "We may as well start at the top."

Their soup of the day is always vegetarian, and they have a vegetarian "Blue Plate Special" that may vary subtly from day to day and changes entirely from time to time. Because, aside from a salad with goat cheese, these are their only vegetarian dishes, it's fortunate that they are not always the same. This statement might sounds snarky but isn't: the food here is a lot more interesting than most. You won't find the ubiquitous "veggie lasagna" or sandwich smothered in sprouts here. In fact, my plate has always been blissfully sprout-free.

Hamilton's cuisine is not "budget" fare, but the lunch is, in my opinion, generally a good value for the calibre of the food. Last week's lunch specials included a chilled vichyssoise as the soup, and a mini tofu burger, two bean salads, and eggplant fries could be found on the blue plate. The vichyssoise was simple and seasoned mainly with black pepper and a splash of bright green infused oil. The flavor was mainly pepper: not bad, but another herb wouldn't have been unwelcome. The tofu burger was a bit overwhelmed by the copious spicy sauce but wasn't oily, and the texture was pleasant. The only funny bit was that the tiny bun had a papery film of baked egg-wash stuck to its bottom. One salad was of green beans in a buttermilk dressing, and the other was black-eyed peas: both were fine. I was a little put off by the elderly-looking undressed watercress that was taking up a lot of room on the plate. It and a small sliver of tomato looked like they might have gone on the burger, but it was much too small for them. The eggplant fries were good and light rather than greasy. I might have liked a bit of that spicy sauce from the burger to dip them in. Lunch was filling, so we didn't order dessert, but the desserts I've had there in the past have been delicious. The service was, as always, efficient and amiable.

For vegans, there were no menu options. The salads on the blue plate did not seem to have been made to order, so it's unlikely the green beans could be had without the buttermilk. Usually, there are more dairy products in the vegetarian special--this time, the other elements were plausibly vegan.

Note to self: Next time, remember to bring the camera.