KFC: Kentucky Fake Chicken at Adama

Even though Adama is one of the only 100% vegan restaurants in Santa Barbara, I don’t find myself eating there often. It’s probably because I (sadly) have no vegan friends... I have friends, okay?! Just not vegan friends.

But last night I convinced Dave, a particularly attractive – and definitely not vegan – computer nerd, to take me there for dinner. When I previously wrote about Adama, they were not yet serving dinner, so I was excited to check out it out.

From the dark wood floors and crown molding to the confusingly designed pink chairs and random decorative stove, Adama feels strangely formal. But the building clearly used to be a house, and there is something distinctly homey about the friendly staff.

The group of people sitting next to us included a particularly curious baby named Lucas who, when he wasn’t smearing fake butter all over his hands and face, was escaping from his entourage of adults and toddling around. The Adama staff welcomed Lucas the Baby with open arms, alternately chasing him down and talking to him in silly voices. I was entertained, but if you take formal dining very seriously (or if you hate babies) you might not dig the atmosphere.

Now, I’m participating in the Eating Rules October Unprocessed challenge, so I’m avoiding processed food for the month. But as a vegan I had to build in two caveats: I’ll eat processed food if other people make it for me (because if they’ve gone to the trouble to make a special vegan dish, I’m not going to be a total jerk and reject it) or if I’m eating out at a restaurant (because at regular-people restaurants there are usually only like, two things on the menu I can order anyway).

But I hadn’t thought about the possibility of eating at a 100% vegan restaurant. Would I stick to my unprocessed guns? I took one look at the Adama menu and realized that no, I would not.

Adama brands itself as "vegan comfort cuisine," and it’s obvious why. From the shepherd’s pie to the pizza to the barbeque sandwich, there’s something on the menu to make everyone comfortable. Everyone except maybe for Dave, who was looking decidedly uncomfortable in his confusingly designed pink chair.

Most of the main courses are made of Gardein™ or seitan – processed fake meat. I didn’t want to order a boring unprocessed salad at the one restaurant where I could eat whatever I wanted. And I figured that since Dave was eating at a vegan restaurant for my sake, this meal fell under the first caveat: food from other people.

So I ordered the “KFC” with mashed potatoes and gravy because I figured it was the closest I’d get to eating actual KFC. I would never eat actual KFC. And not just because it’s chicken. Luckily, the Adama version was way healthier than the "real" thing:

Unfortunately, the mashed potatoes and gravy were kind of weird. The potatoes were the texture of hash browns and the gravy didn’t really have much flavor. But the chicken was delicious; it was fried, after all. Dave tried a bite and said it tasted better than actual chicken! He went with the spaghetti and "meatballs" with zucchini:

Neither of us had room for dessert, but I had heard so many good things about Adama’s dessert creations that I decided to go for it and ordered the apple pie with vanilla ice cream (made of rice milk):

I wasn’t disappointed. The rice milk ice cream was much lighter than regular dairy ice cream, and I loved it. Adama was the perfect place to break my unprocessed pledge; I can’t wait to try more of the
"comfort cuisine" on the dinner menu next month, when I’ll have nothing to feel guilty about.

Get Adama Dreams (and into My Belly)

I recently read about Adama, an all-vegan restaurant that opened a short while ago in downtown Santa Barbara, in the Santa Barbara News-Press. So when my friend Micah recommended it to me at my roommate Emily's birthday picnic, it moved right to the top of my to-visit list. He said Adama (pronounced Ah-dahm-AH) offered fancy but not prohibitively expensive vegan comfort food.

Vegan comfort food? Say no more. Actually… please say a little bit more. In my experience, vegan food (especially in the presence of other, non-vegan food) makes most people rather uncomfortable. But I was curious. So I convinced Amy and Emily to go out to a lunch at Adama after their graduation ceremony the next day with a couple of other friends.

The first surprise was that Adama is right next door to Alchemy Arts Café, another vegan joint (although “joint” might not be the right word – both restaurants are pretty classy). That seemed like risky business planning to me. Sure, it’s awesome for all the vegans in the neighborhood… but why are two of the only vegan restaurants in Santa Barbara directly next to each other? Talk about some healthy competition (am I right?).

The second surprise was that Micah was there with his family. For some reason, he didn’t look pleased to see us. I think he was embarrassed of us. He shouldn’t have been, because we were the best customers ever. We were all thrilled with the ambiance of the place and wandered around, marveling at how cute it was and asking questions. The food was good, too.

I went with the pumpkin pecan pancakes (or “pe-pump cakes,” as Emily and I quite maturely nicknamed them). The pancakes were incredible, but here’s the best part: the pitcher of 100% pure maple syrup. Adama is the only restaurant I have ever been to where you get an entire pitcher of pure maple syrup for free. Usually restaurants charge you at least a dollar extra for it, and you get a tiny little bit that’s enough for half a pancake. Here’s what my meal looked like:

Everyone was delighted with their meals. Here are some pictures of the other dishes we got:

Rihanna's soy-free grilled "cheese" sandwich

Amy's grilled veggie wrap

Right now, Adama is only open for breakfast and lunch. But they’re planning to start serving dinner soon in a couple of weeks, and I can’t wait to see (well, taste) what they offer.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It (For Free)!

Free news is like free dinner on a third date with someone you're just not that into. You want to take it, but you really should pay for it.

I think it's a shame that a lot of trained, talented reporters can't find a job (at least not a paid job) because we've started taking free news on the internet for granted. I'll gladly pay to read my 21st article on the New York Times' website; measures like paywalls are necessary if news sources are going to keep paying their reporters. (The previous link is to the Huffington Post, so you won't waste one of your 20 monthly article views at the New York Times reading about the paywall!).

Photo: Chan Lowe http://blogs.trb.com/news/opinion/chanlowe/blog/

But even though I believe in the necessity of paying for quality news, I was still kind of bummed when I tried to read an article about veganism in the Santa Barbara News-Press, recommended to me by my friend Paul, and found myself thwarted by a membership fee. I didn't want to pay $60 for a yearly membership, I just wanted to read that one article!

Well, it meant that I had to purchase a print version of the paper for 82 cents. Totally worth it. I've been frustrated with the lack of vegan options in Santa Barbara - which is quite disproportionate to the number of hippie granola-eaters here - so I was thrilled to see the whole food section was dedicated to veganism!

I decided to summarize it here so that people who aren't as dedicated to getting their hands on vegan news will be able to "read all about it" without actually paying to read "it."

First of all, Dave Mason reviews three vegan restaurants: Alchemy Arts Cafe, Adama, and Vegan Mario's.

I've been to Alchemy Arts Cafe - last week after morning yoga, I was so hungry I couldn't wait to get home to make breakfast. To my delight, I saw a chalkboard on the sidewalk advertising "Vegan Breakfast!" Say no more, Chalkboard! I'm sold. The cafe is attached to a wellness center, and the whole place was much too fancy-looking for me in my sweaty T-shirt and stretch pants:

The executive chef, Kai Mueller, took my order and served me. He was quite friendly and helped me put together a delicious bowl of granola, flax seed, blueberries, apples, raisins, almonds, and extra almond milk. A little part of my thrifty identity died when I paid $12 for it, but it was delicious and huge. I got so full that I couldn't finish all that granola-y goodness.

In addition to restaurant reviews, the article in the Santa Barbara News-Press includes a little section on Kathy Freston's book Veganist. She is quoted as saying of veganism, "It's no longer just hippies eating granola and not shaving their legs." As I read that, my heaping spoonful of granola froze halfway to my lips. I self-consciously tucked my week-old-stubbly legs up under me so nobody would see them. Some of us vegans don't have it together yet, Kathy! Sheesh.

The next section I read cheered me up. J.M. Hirsch writes a piece called "Meatless burgers that don't mimic meat," in which he provides a recipe for Miso Chickpea Sliders. Hooray! I disapprove of non-meat things trying to be meat, and Hirsch feels the same: "Thing is, if I want the flavor and texture of meat, I'll do something crazy. Like eat meat." Well, I won't. But I will attempt to cook these falafel-inspired sliders at some point.

Another recipe I'm definitely going to try is for Vegan Cheese Grits. According to the author of the piece, Ellen Kanner, Daiya is a vegan cheese that "tastes like the real thing." I disagree - there's just no way something that is dairy-, lactose-, casein-, gluten-, soy-, preservative-, and cholesterol-free can compare to something that got pumped out of a cow's udder. But I'm going to try this recipe anyway, since I have a lot of Daiya fake cheese left over from my experiment with the Libido Burrito, and it's not like I'm going to snack on it by the handful.

Finally, there's a piece called "Oh! Soy Good!" by Niesha Lofing, but I didn't get past the title. Is it supposed to be a twist on "Oh! So Good!"? As in, "Oh! This food I made with soy is so yummy!"? Or is it supposed to be Spanish for "Oh! I'm Good!"? As in, "Oh! I'm doing well, thank you, since I became a Spanish vegan!"? I was too baffled to keep reading, but I bet it's just a piece about how tofu doesn't really taste like brains.