My Summer Vacation: Yummy Vegan Dinner!

If you've eaten vegetarian food and found it unappetizing, you haven't found the right places to eat. Vegetarian doesn't mean just rice and salad; and there are also many ethnic vegetarian as well as vegan dishes. And chefs can create 5 star vegetarian & vegan dinners, such as we had tonight. Sam & Kasondra invited me to join them at Roy's Waikiki for dinner; Kasondra has an app on her phone that said Roy's has a vegan menu on request. We all decided to try the Vegan Prix Fixe Menu; it was fabulous! Roy's Waikiki changes the vegan menu every month, it would be worth going there once a month to try the new offerings. Unfortunately this is the best photo I was able to get of our menu tonight, my phone was not fully charged & the flash really drained the battery. (I think I need a new battery.)

We started with an edamame appetizer. It was similar to what you would get at a sushi bar.

(Photo by Kasondra)

The first course was Kaila Butter Leaf Salad, which included deep-fried avocado. I'll have to remember that when my avocado tree starts producing fruit; deep-fried avocado is so ono!

(Photo by Kasondra)

The main course was Coriander B. I. Hearts of Palm Dumplings. There were many other things on the plate including Kahuku Sea Asparagus, which is a vascular plant of the Salicornia genus found in salt marshes in North America and parts of Europe, but not in Hawai'i. It is grown hydroponically in Hawai'i.

(Photo by Kasondra)

For dessert we had Kiwi Lime Parfait. It was like a key lime pie in a parfait. And also ono! Our only complaint was that the spoon provided with the parfait is too large to get to the bottom of the glass; it left about an inch of deliciousness at the bottom. They did give us a fork along with the parfait, we turned it around & used the handle end to get the very last bit of parfait at the bottom of the glass.

(Photo by Kasondra)

Earlier in the day my back was acting up from the steam cleaning yesterday so I looked in the medicine cabinet to see if there was any Salonpas. Mom used to have a lot of it around but I only found one box of very old Salonpas. I put it on and felt a little of the warming "burn" as the salicylate is absorbed through the skin. It wasn't as strong as usual but it did provide enough relief from the spasms & allowed me to take a short nap since I didn't sleep well last night. (They also now make a Salonpas with lidocaine if you need more than just the salicylate for your pain.)

Newer boxes come with opaque green wrappers surrounding the plasters.

And I found some camphor! I have not been able to find any in the stores so I shall take this back to the Big Island with me to keep the moths out of the clothes.

I kinda remember this box from when I was in high school!

While rooting around I also found some Bag Balm. For those unfamiliar with this, it was originally used to treat abrasions and other skin irritations on the udders of cows. Although the tin said "Veterinary Use Only", while applying it farmers also discovered it was great for human skin, too, so they disregarded the warning. Grandpa raised a few head of cattle for the family so I suspect that is why we have Bag Balm in the medicine chest even though Mom and Dad never had any cattle. Now Bag Balm is used for a lot of other things besides udders.