Merit Vegetarian Restaurant- Sunnyvale, CA

I've told all of my children that when they were teenagers, I would take them on a special weekend trip, just the two of us, anywhere they wanted to go in California.  The exception being Disneyland: if I was able to afford Disneyland, I wanted to take all the children.  SR for the last couple of years has been mulling over Death Valley, but whenever she decided upon it, it was not the right season.  Apparently the temps are better in the Spring, and there are certain flowers that blossom during that time as well.  But something even better than Death Valley came up for her last June.  One of her favorite artists was performing a rare American tour, and one of her stops would be in Mountain View, a mere couple of hours from our home.  When I offered that to SR as her special weekend, she jumped at the chance.  So, off we went to the Emilie Autumn Asylum Experience.  Now, this music is not for everyone, not even me, but it wasn't about me.  It was about giving SR a special weekend. So, we left on Friday night, spent the night in a hotel, spent all day at the Experience, stayed over again, and had lunch the next day before returning home.  I researched restaurants before we left home and found Merit Vegetarian online.  It was open on Sundays, so I thought we'd give it a shot.  See my review below along with a a few shots of our trip.

 This is a funny shot of the hotel's room service menu.  If you look on the left side of the page, it lists appetizers and sides.  Then the right side of the page lists more appetizers and sides.  Notice how they are completely identical.  I wonder whom they are trying to fool?  

Okay, here's a pic of SR with others talking with someone who does daguerreotypes at the Experience.  Just so you know, SR has an unusual style in clothing.  She likes layers, gloves, employs a Goth influence along with some Victoria era influence, and adds her own unique touch.  I completely support her expressing herself with her attire.  Here, for once, she found others that dressed in a similar way.  She completely fit in and had made a few friends that will last a lifetime.  I'm the one that stood out with my baseball cap and camera and pants.  Oh, by the way, she's the one in the striped tights and dress.  Don't you see her?

Here she is locked up with other prisoners in one of several cages at the Experience.  You can see how utterly miserable everyone is.  Okay, okay, she's the one on the right with black hair, black dress and black and white striped tights.

 Here is Emilie Autumn and a couple of other permanent patients performing.

SR had a fabulous time, and that made it a great weekend for me too.  I love you, SR!

Here is Merit Vegetarian.  They are in a nondescript strip mall down a busy street.  Their info is: meritvegetarian.com, ph: 408-245-8988, 548 Lawrence Expressway. Sunnyvale, CA 94085.

SR and I started off with Drumsticks and a sweet sauce.  They were very good.

 Then we went for their Orange Nuggets.  Great glaze, very tasty.

SR had one of their freshly made Mango Smoothies.  She let me have a sip, and it was delicious.

I ordered their Noble Broccoli.  It was a beef and broccoli style dish.  Very good, I liked the sauce it came with, too.  Lots of broccoli, which is one of my favorite veggies.

SR ordered the Spicy Noodle Soup.  She didn't realize it had mushrooms, which she despises, but she worked around it, and liked it in the end.  It had a tangy taste to it and was good.

 We ended our meal - and our stay - with desserts.  SR ordered the Caramel Flan and completely loved it.  I tasted it, and it was light and sweet, very good.  But...

 I had a penchant for chocolate, so I ordered their Mocha Chocolate Cake.  The cake itself was a little too dense for me.  I like light cakes and cupcakes.  But, the frosting made up for it.  So light, so creamy, it was in a word, delightful.  

All in all, I highly recommend Merit Vegetarian. The prices were reasonable, and if you're a vegan, looking for an open place to eat on a Sunday, this one will definitely work.  If you're in Sunnyvale, look them up.

Monterey Bay Trip and Food - May, 2010

Beautiful Monterey Bay. My husband and I spent several days there last week celebrating fifteen years of completely blissful matrimony! I took pictures of the beauty we saw, the things we visited, and of course, the food. Hopefully, if you ever visit the area, this will give you a few ideas of where you can enjoy a good vegan meal.

Some of the most beautiful ocean landscape in the world.

Because we got in late on the night we arrived, we didn't go out to dinner, so this is actually our anniversary dinner! Leftovers from lunch at a Sacramento-based Chinese restaurant, and some snacks I brought. Luckily, I'm an easy-going gal.

This was our basic continental breakfast that we had each morning, courtesy of the Magic Carpet Lodge in Seaside.

I thought these cones on this tree looked interesting. Monterey Bay has some very unique indigenous plants that you will continue to see below.

After breakfast, we visited the Presidio Museum. My husband went to the Defense Language Institute to study Russian, so we had to go there and visit the museum. That's G standing on the far left.

A serene picture of Monterey Harbor.

The back view of Cannery Row, made famous by John Steinbeck.

The souvenirs we bought for the little blessings. We actually bought them the next day, but I messed up with blogger. The coconut pig bank is for my oldest daughter who is crazy about pigs. The shell trinket box is for my younger daughter who loves these types of things. The soccer ball is for my little guy who loves to watch his sisters play soccer.

The China Garden in Pacific Grove is where we had lunch on our first full day. The towns here are only five minutes apart, so it's easy to jump from one to another.

This is my husband's starter salad partially eaten before I remembered to take a shot. Mine is even more diminished. It had a subtle sesame dressing.

I thought we were ordering family style, but the meals came as individual entrees. I scored with my tofu vegetable delight.

This was my husband's scezhuan tofu. Nice guy that he is, he actually took a shot of his food for me. Blogging confounds him, and doing anything but eating during a meal confounds him more. So, this was a big deal.

After lunch we took a long drive to look at the beautiful coast. Here's Mr. Babealicious checking out the sights, while I'm checking him out. I like his, er, back...ahem.

Deer are plentiful here and roam freely. Here's a mama with two fawns grazing at some beachfront homes.

Here's a memorial for John Denver who crashed his plane a few feet from here in the water.

Cute purple flowers.

We stopped off at Whole Foods to get dessert for later on, but G decided that he had to have his German chocolate cake immediately. He wouldn't even let me open up the package to get a picture - not enough time, not enough time!

Here's my chocolate mousse cake poised on a rock. Well, you didn't expect me to watch him eat cake right in front of me, did you? But, I saved about half of it, which I ate the next morning.

Don't you think this rock looks like a big manatee laying down on its side?

Some of those things that look like large pebbles are actually hermit crabs. There are tons of tide pools here that we love to walk around. G saw a big hermit crab scurry under a rock before I could snap a picture.

Here's my rock in front of a rock. He's glad to show the world his Raider devotion. He only wears black and black or black and gray for that reason. Seriously.

The water was cooooold on my toes!

We had dinner at Cafe Lumiere in Monterey.

This is my portabello panini with a side of a brothy salad that was absolutely delicious. The server called it a salad, but it could pass as a cold, chunky soup, perfectly seasoned. The panini was very good too.

Here is my surprisingly agreeable husband opening his grilled veggie panini for all of you to gaze upon. He had the same side salad. He was very impressed with his sandwich and salad, as well.

They offered two vegan desserts, so we took them both. I had a chocolate peanut butter cup, that was only a dollar! And he had his first of several oatmeal, cranberry, chocolate chip cookies. We had to go back for more and bring some back for the kids.

The next day we headed to the beach - you have to do that every day, you know. Here's a crazy looking bush that caught my attention. There's tons of these down by the rocks.

A stunning field of purple. People have this a lot on their front yards instead of grass, especially down by the water. This was giving me ideas about my own lawn.

We finally went to the Thomas Kinkade National Archive. I say finally because at our last trip down here, I really wanted to go, but it didn't fit in with the family's schedule. Yeah. So, this time, we were going!

Here's a shot of just one of Kinkade's pieces inside. Justin, the director, was very friendly and helpful.

We stopped for lunch at Paprika Cafe in Monterey run by a very nice man named Christophe. (That's right, no "r" - it's not a typo.)

I took a picture of our happy hands there. My husband doesn't like to wear any jewelry, but he wore his ring for the whole trip. Aw.

We were served an amazing lunch, and we both had the same thing. We had tabouli, hummus, dolma, spinach salad, falafels, baba ganoush, and fresh pitas. It was unbelievably good. He also doesn't have a fryer in his restaurant, so Christophe baked the falafels. Very tasty.

Some of Christophe's homemade baklava. G especially liked them because they weren't sticky. Don't even try to get him sticky - watch out!

Finally the front of Cannery Row. This is really where I bought the children their treats. I don't know why, but I love this place.

We thought about renting bikes, but then we took another walk instead, where G snapped this gorgeous flower. Yes, G did it! For my blog! You heard me!

Here was a funny sight. This is actually a fake screen meant to look as if a dog is sitting there. It's not real at all. I guess it's the Monterey single woman's home security system. I also saw a road sign that had a picture of a deer with a red nose. I guess Rudolph is running around in Monterey now.

We went to D'Anna Thai Kitchen in Marina for dinner where Paul waited on us and was very helpful and sociable.

We started with their fresh rolls with peanut sauce. These were very tasty.

This is G's green curry. He said he really liked it, and he actually asked if I wanted a taste so I could remark about it on my blog. Who is this guy? By the way, I did taste, and it was delicious with a kick.

I ordered the coconut soup, which was sweet and very different from G's green curry. They couldn't have been more different, but they were equally satisfying.

Our dessert was sticky rice with fresh mango topped with coconut sauce. I've never had this before, and I was surprised by its sweetness and how good it tasted. Excellent.

We caught a late movie at a theatre house that shows independent films. That's G walking up the steps. The rooms were so small, they only held four full row of chairs, about 36 total.

Before breakfast on our last day, we visited the beach once again and made friends with gulls, like we always do. There's a brave guy coming close to G's chip. The only regular animal friends that we didn't see this time were the sea lions, which we thought was strange.

Back to Cafe Lumiere for their Sunday brunch. We both had breakfast burritos, which were filled with tofu scramble and soyrizo. We also had roasted potatoes (mine is smothered already with hot sauce) and very fresh fruit. I don't drink coffee, but G said all the coffee he drank on the trip was excellent. I ordered an apple juice, and they gave me probably sixteen ounces for two dollars! Overall, we were both very impressed with all the meals we had on this trip. We really lucked out. I will keep you posted when we leave town and what we eat on trips. You can use this as a resource for when you visit those places.

I leave you with those hungry gulls staring at you.

I love you, G! Happy 15!