Southern Comfort Night: The Full Belly Report

Who: (Almost) All the VN Ladies
What: Millennium's Annual Southern Comfort Dinner
Where: San Francisco, Calif.
When: May 22, 2008
Why: Who would want to miss when haute cuisine goes lowbrow?

The Scoop: Virginia Blue Ridge Mountain Oysters. Yes, those are the small round items with the skewers on the plate you see above. When dinner starts out with faux-bull balls, you know you're in for a certain kind of night. The VN team has made an annual tradition of attending this outrageously fun, decidedly down-home event, and we pretty much spend all year talking about what will be on the menu. This year's lineup was just as artery-clogging and decadent as we were expecting. Along with the "mountain oysters," appetizers included beer-battered onion rings, pickled okra, pizza rolls (in the foil), corn bread, bacon cheese bread, and large, icy buckets of the finest Pabst Blue Ribbon around.

From there things just got greasier. Deep-fried Tofurky sausages, anyone? How about salad with a highly thick and creamy bacon-ranch dressing? Remember, this was all before our entrées came out. We had the choice of tamales, barbecue seitan, hoisin-apricot tempeh ribs, or Doritos-crusted catfish. Yeah, you try and pick from that roster. Just in case there was any extra room in our stomachs, Miss Jazz's DIY brownie sundae bar—named for VN contributor Jesse Miner's chihuahua—completed the meal with brownies, rocky road ice cream, hot fudge and butterscotch sauces, and a smorgasbord of toppings.

To complement the over-the-top eats, a few of our group dressed to their trashiest nines, complete with blacked-out teeth and faux-pregnant bellies. As if all this weren't enough to make for a memorable evening, Executive Chef Eric Tucker took Colleen and Elizabeth into the kitchen for a quick lesson in deep-frying onion rings. Maybe they were ecstatic about it. Maybe they totally freaked out and blushed like schoolgirls. Maybe it's not, you know, every day that you get into the kitchen at Millennium.

Here's the whole group of lovely ladies, all of whom, amazingly, were still able to button their pants at the end of the night.

Laos is for Losers (who forget to wear sunscreen)

Who: VN Managing Editor Aurelia d’Andrea
What: Phase Two of a SE Asian holiday
Where: Vientiane, Laos, & Bangkok, Thailand
When: Early March
Why: Because I forgot to wear sunscreen

The Scoop: In issue #50, I penned a VegVacations piece on Cambodia wherein I cautioned VN readers to slather on the sunscreen should they visit this part of the world, since the equator is practically right there and the sun’s intensity matches its proximity. Well, I neglected my own advice on my most recent vacay with painful, potentially skin-cancer-causing results. Leaving Koh Chang earlier than anticipated meant I didn’t get to volunteer at the local animal shelter as hoped, but I did manage to squeeze in one day of awesome snorkeling before redirecting my focus northward.

VN columnist Caitlin Sandberg recently returned from Laos (look for her travel story in the May+June 2008 issue) and it sounded intriguing in a non-beachy sort of way. So, off I went by overnight train, from Bangkok to the Laos border and, ultimately, the capitol of Laos, Vientiane. Days were spent temple hopping on my single-speed bicycle, cruising the Laos countryside on the back of a motorbike, and discovering new and exciting food. My favorite restaurant was simply called “Vegetarian Food” and offered a killer all-you-can-eat lunch buffet (see plate #1 of 4 above). I’ve got loads of food recommendations for anyone traveling to Vientiane—email me if you want leads!

Back in Bangkok at an early hour, I sniffed out a street stall on a quiet alleyway for a yummy breakfast of unrecognizable grains and beans topped with hot soymilk and a side of Chinese donuts for dunking (see below). My final night in SE Asia was spent eating dinner not just once, but twice, since two new vegan restaurants have opened up in the Khao San Road area since my last visit. The newest is Ethos, and the Tom Ka—loaded with fresh vegetables and tofu in a spicy broth—comes highly recommended. The English guy who helps run the place is pretty nice, too.