Leftovers! Maine: Tofusion, Ployes and S’Mores!

So we decided to include some of our experiences at non-veg restaurants who are “veg-friendly” here in Leftovers! We had a bit of a time constraint this time around in Maine so we know we are missing many veg-friendly joints.

Day 1

Given that Kristin had just driven 5 hrs from upstate NY and I had driven a few hours from Boston we were anxious for food! But we had to save room for our stop at Taste of Eden later in the day. We decided to share a meal at Portland staple, Silly’s, a veg-friendly fusion restaurant. One could describe the “Tofu in a Dinghy” as a Thai/TexMex whirlwind of a vegan chimichanga filled with rice noodles, fried tofu, mushrooms, scallions, vegan cheese and thai peanut ginger dressing. A side of BBQ tofu bites may have been more than we needed but the leftovers of the two dishes made for a welcome snack later on.

Day 2

Our second day in Maine was filled setting up camp in Augusta/Richmond and vegan stops at Little Lad’s in Portland and Eden Vegetarian Cafe in Bar Harbor. On Day 2, We didn’t really have any Leftovers! type stops in the restaurant department though we did go see Rise of the Planet of the Apes after dinner. Rise was strong on message and it worked very well in that department. My complaint was the cookie cutter personas. It is hard for me to picture a genius scientist who works with apes as behaving so naively. Anyhow I’d give it a B.

Day 3

Good morning KOA! A successful first night of camping and we’re back off to Portland to conduct an interview with vegan personal chef, Chris McClay (click for interview!).

Our meetup destination: Local Sprouts for a double stack of Ployes vegan pancakes with Maine Maple Syrup. Very nice!  A Ploye is a type of pancake or crepe created by the French Acadian settlers of Northern Maine. The original recipe is already vegan making this an easy inclusion for modern vegan friendly breakfast establishments.

Traditionally a ploye is topped with either butter, maple syrup or molasses and then rolled up or folded before being eaten. Most of the time, breakfast joints pitch them as the almighty VEGAN PANCAKE to be served with Earth Balance Buttery Spread and Pure Maple Syrup, but really the Acadians thought of them as more of a flatbread made from buckwheat flour. [For those with a Gluten intolerance, please ask ahead of ordering regarding the house recipe, as some establishments blend the buckwheat flour with whole wheat flour thus eliminating any gluten free-ness] Another distinguishing factor in preparing a ploye is that you only cook one side all the way through as opposed to the pancake, which is flipped.

Mine came topped with a fruit compote and maple syrup. I didn’t ask if they served a vegan butter substitute but I found it wasn’t needed. So delicious! Kristin and I shared an order to save room for our stops at Green Elephant and  Meatless Mainers Meet-up.

After a long day of interviews and running around it was time to to get in some proper camping R&R. Vegan S’Mores! We had stopped off at the Portland Whole Foods on our way to the Meatless Mainers meet-up with two goals in mind. Chips, salsa and drinks for the meet-up and ingredients for post meetup campsite chill-out. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 Campfire.
• 1 Vegan Marshmallow (ours were from Sweet & Sara!) toasted over said campfire topped with:
• 2 Squares of Mint Dark Chocolate bar from Endangered Species Chocolate,  sandwiched between:
• 2 Einkorn Crispy Cocoa Cookies by Jovial (we couldn’t find any vegan graham crackers at this supermarket. Have no fear. The cookies worked just fine!)

What’s your favorite vegan s’mores recipe?