peanut sauce, triple chocolate, and vegan pie.

happy memorial day!

how are you spending your day? i was planning on spending mine by the pool, but it’s a little cool out for that, so unless the weather goes up about ten degrees, i’ll probably be gardening.

i’d much take this cool weather over the crazy stuff we had yesterday! i spent most of my day in boston, where we had a couple sudden thunderstorms, but tommy said that it even hailed out here in the ‘burbs! i immediately worried about the new plants i had JUST put in the ground the day before. we checked on them as soon as i got back and they were fine…but look at those chives (and the haze!)…the rain smooshed the whole plant. hopefully, they’ll bounce back.

what do you put chives in other than the usual potatoes and eggs? any recipes?

anyway, backtracking to sunday morning. tom and i immediately devoured this last tupperware of watermelon upon awaking.

after a few games of tetris party, i headed out to boston to hang out with inna. we decided to get lunch at myers + chang which should sound familiar cus i just enjoyed dinner there last week.

yay! i was so excited to be back at myers + chang since there was (still is) so much left on the menu that i want to try.

inna and i started off by splitting the dan dan noodle salad (with fresh peanut and chili sambal).

all mixed up:

so yummy! i was really curious how dan dan noodles would work in a salad…well, it worked perfectly:) i’m a sucker for anything in peanut sauce, so this easily won me over but i also really loved how the cool and crunchy veggies (romaine, cukes, celery) added a fun texture and volume to what would otherwise have been a carb heavy dish.

i found the recipe for joanne chang’s dan dan noodles on food & wine’s website…sub in some cold buckwheat noodles and toss with raw veggies- doesn’t that sound like a perfect summer dish? if only my cilantro would decide to grow.

i didn’t realize that the lunch portions were much larger than the dinner portions, so we each ordered our own dish as well. i got the banh mi with grilled homemade 5 spice tofu. they only serve these vietnamese subs for lunch, which is why i NEEDED to go back for lunch

the sandwich came with a side salad/slaw and shrimp chips. mmm…have you guys had a banh mi? they’re SO good…it’s like all those yummy spicy vietnamese flavors in sandwich form. i’ve only had traditional pork banh mi’s so i was really excited to try a tofu version!

i would have loved this sandwich if not for the buttered roll…the tofu was grilled perfectly and the daikon carrot slaw was flavorful and refreshing…but they were overpowered by the taste of melted butter. i’m not complaining because of the calories either- this whole meal (and day!) was a caloric splurge, i was just disappointed that it masked the other yummy flavors.

i ended up eating it open faced after a couple bites and took half to go in order to make room for MORE goodies!

we walked down the street to flour (joanne chang’s bakery) for dessert, where we decided to split two pastries- one chocolate, and one “other.”

mmm…so much to choose from! inna and i had a fun (if not difficult time) choosing what to get…luckily we had some help from the friendly staff…

for our chocolate choice, we got this adorable triple chocolate mousse.

according to the menu: “milk, dark, and white chocolate mousse in between flourless chocolate cake layers”

i had no clue what would be inside that chocolate dome, but i was so pleasantly surprised because i was expecting something dense and decadent (and i was already pretty full). this was sweet and chocolatey but so light and creamy…i had no trouble finishing my half

our second choice was the granola bar, which is a treat we had both seen often on cristin’s eatlikeme blog. according to the menu, this is made with oats, honey, walnuts and cranberry-apricot-apple jam.

i only had a tiny taste and saved the rest for later. if you love fruit crumbles then, this is for you! buttery flaky crust, big chunks of fruit in the middle with a crumbly oat and nut topping. so good! and you get a nice sized piece too

thanks for treating inna!! we have to go back and try the sandwiches (and more dessert!)!

if only the eating stopped there…i told inna about a vegan pie bake-off that i had seen posted on yelp and despite our full bellies, inna decided to go with me. YAY!

this was held on the other side of town in harvard square, so luckily we had a little time to work up an apetite.

after we paid our donation, they handed us a plate, a spoon, and five lego pieces. we helped ourselves to some pie (or what was left of it) and voted by placing the lego pieces in the lunch sacks next to our favorite pies.

there were some savory pies….

that’s a tamale pie down there…

and then there were the sweet dessert pies…which had been demolished before we got there

no chocolate cherry pie left for us fortunately, there was plenty of this peach and berry (i think….) pie that tasted like it was fresh out of the oven. i think this one was submitted buy the pepper pot, which is a jamaican restaurant and caterer in dudley square. i’ve never been to the restaurant, but i do know that they’re really popular on yelp for their vegetarian and vegan fare.

if this pie is any indication of their food, i need to get myself to pepper pot soon. i had my slice with some soy ice cream on the side

i gave all my legos to this pie, but i also enjoyed the mac & cheese and what little i could scrape from the banana cream pie tin

we walked back to the subway after the pie tasting and parted ways…right before the crazy thunderstorm hit (i hope you didn’t have to walk home in the rain inna!). a bus ride, subway ride, and a car ride later, i was home! it was a really quick trip home because the bus and subway were pretty empty, but i was still too tired to eat a big dinner.

i tossed the leftovers from the dan dan noodles (mostly veggies and sauce) with some carrot ribbons. i added a little dollop of “the heat is on” peanut butter and mixed it all up for a light and tasty meal.