Let's Play Pretend

[Shimmer]

I have a book where I write down my imaginary restaurants. It si more of an exercise to me to come up with menu items/ ingredients that match a certain theme or price range or region. Its fun for me, I thought it would be fun for you.

I am probably going to be a librarian, and if I ever open a restaurant it will be a tearoom.

But I was thinking the other day how nice it would be to have a vegetarian fast food chain. I would call it Speedy Veggie. I thought who but my CTC friends would enjoy playing my game with me? The more I thought of it, the more I realized how quick (and how much healthier) some veggie cuisine could be. The rules of this game are simple- figure out a dish that is inexpensive, vegetarian, and fast. Something that can be eaten easily while driving is a bonus but not necessary.

I will tell you my ideas soon, but as you can probably tell, I think about this one a lot, so I have quite an extensive list.

Any ideas?

~~Shimmer~~
Future CEO of Speedy Veggie, yeah right

[coolJ]

I keep a book as well. I've got all sorts of menus, floor plans, cost figures, etc... anyway, here's a veggie dish for you, fried parsnip chips, there pretty good.

[shroomgirl]

Hummos wrap with assorted veggies
veg sticks...carrots, celery, sugar snaps, radishes etc with herb dip/hummos/baba ganoush/etc...
Tempe salad nicoise
tapenade/feta/capanota/ with crostini
Fried tofu on a stick with peanut sauce
Eggplant/ricotta/tomato/roasted garlic sandwich
Crisps or pies ground up with ice cream we call them concretes in St. Louis
As always you have great ideas, keeping a log of them is important when ideas run dry.

[Suzanne]

Felafel!!!!! Especially the Israeli way, with all sorts of chopped veg salads available as garnishes. In fact, you could use the salads for lots of different items.

Spinach pies (without cheese if you want to be vegan, otherwise with), either in phyllo or a knish-type dough. In anycase, they'd be baked, not fried.

Tabbouleh. The real kind with lots of parsley.

Gee, there are so many fabulous Mediterranean and Middle Eastern items -- you could just change the names to something "American" so as not to scare people .


BTW: your project sounds like what we had to do in the management part of restaurant school: make a business plan for your dream restaurant. We had to include EVERYTHING: Concept; Walk-Through (the design elements); Menu (including pricing and food cost percentages); Purchasing Specs; Recipes, with costs; Financials (P & L projections for 5 years out); Labor (staffing needs, scheduling); Marketing Plan; and a Layout, to scale, of the dining room.

[Svadhisthana]

Originally posted by Suzanne


Gee, there are so many fabulous Mediterranean and Middle Eastern items -- you could just change the names to something "American" so as not to scare people .

That reminds me of a "Simpson's " episode:

The Investorettes visit the Fleet-A-Pita franchise.

Helen: Hmm, Pita. Well, I don't know about food from the Middle East.
Isn't that whole area a little iffy?
Hostess: [laughs] Hey, I'm no geographer. You and I -- why don't we
call it pocket bread, huh?
Maude: [reading the ingredients list] Umm, what's tahini?
Hostess: Flavor sauce.
Edna: And falafel?
Hostess: Crunch patties.
Helen: So, we'd be selling foreign...
Hostess: Specialty foods. Here, try a Ben Franklin.
Helen: [takes a bite] Mmm, that is good. What's in it?
Chef: [poking his head out of a window, looking of Indian origin]
Tabbouleh and rezmi-kabob.
Hostess: [trying to cover-up] Uh, th-that's our chef... Christopher.
Chef: [mutters, and closes the window, cursing in Hindi]

[Suzanne]

[Shimmer]

Shroomgirl- tofu on a stick? You crack me up!! It reminds me of the state fair- everything was deepfriend and on a stick....

But tofu on a stick would be much easier to eat while driving, that's for certain! A gold star for you!

I was thinking of fried veggies too- mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, etc, served in a cardboard holder with ranch or some other dipping sauce (hey, it doesn't HAVE to be healthy).

More ideas to come! I like the ideas so far.....

~~Shimmer~~

[Jim]

Shepherd-less Pie - an amalgam of Napoleon-like layers of sliced potatoes, fried eggplant, mashed potatoes and pepper-ladden gravy. It can be part of the $1.99 Value Veg Menu.

[shroomgirl]

Yep and instead of mustard on a corndog you'd get really thick peanut sauce with ginger, garlic, orange, cayene and a pinch of sesame oil slathered on your tofu kabob.

Those kioski sushi places do great in grocery stores why don't they have drive through sushi places....Veitnamese springrolls would work too...how about a ricestick noodle, veg bowl or wrap...

hmmmmm deep fried spinach/ricotta cannolinis with red sauce to dip....deep fried raviolis are huge here...whatever.

[foodnfoto]

Black Bean Burgers with pepper jack cheese on ww buns with salsa and shredded lettuce

[pklizard]

fried yucca, cut about the size of thick french fries,
served w/a spicy garlic catsup sauce.

-pk