The Picky Vegan

How do you find vegan eats when you’re somewhere new?

I’m sure that social media figures in there somewhere, along with recommendations from family and friends.

Social media helped me find this one. I stumbled across the Facebook group Cape Cod Vegans, looking for any recommendations for restaurants that weren’t from Happy Cow (not that there’s anything wrong with Happy Cow, there just weren’t a lot). And here I saw that Siena, an Italian Restaurant in Mashpee had its own vegan menu!

I eagerly looked up their website, but couldn’t find anything about a vegan menu, though it looked as though many of their vegetarian dishes could probably be made vegan. Since I couldn’t confirm anything online, I actually picked up the phone and called (if you knew how much I hate the phone, you’d be impressed). Indeed, they have a vegan menu. Look!

It’s a small menu, but it is one!

I didn’t ask a whole lot of questions about the rest of the menu. For instance, I have no idea if the pasta is made with eggs, since I didn’t order any. I suspect at least some of it is fine, but I can’t vouch.

I did feel confident in ordering the Crispy Chickpea and Kale Salad, sans cheese, of course.

Fried chickpeas are the bomb.

My big folly of the evening was not asking about the bread and olive oil (not pictured). I’m fairly confident that the bread was fine, but the olive oil plate apparently had cheese at the bottom, under the oil, that I did not see.

I dipped.

Fortunately I didn’t dip deep enough to get any visible cheese on my bread, but my mom did. She didn’t tell me until after we left, because she didn’t want to ruin my meal.

Had I known, I would have simply asked for a plate without cheese. I can’t imagine they would say no!

But there is your lesson on always ask.

Lastly, the entree.

Please forgive the B & W photo. It got dark in the restaurant and my picture wasn’t very good- but I wanted to share this, because it tasted delicious!

I’m sometimes a little wary of artichokes, but this dish delivered! Again, I am so sorry that the picture is black and white- but it’s a dish worth ordering!

I hope that I can find some other restaurants with hidden vegan menus!

Siena is located in Mashpee Commons, next to the movie theater.  There’s outdoor seating as well, but there was a pretty long wait for that.  I’d suggest reservations if you want to dine outside!

While it would be nice if they incorporated the vegan items right on to the regular menu, I’m thrilled that they do have clearly marked vegan options.  Thanks, Siena!

That now makes five posts for VeganMoFo!  I am 25% to the finish line.  Stay tuned next week for my new favorite place on Cape Cod, a wrap up on the Cape and heading through CT and back to NY.  After that?  Who knows!

I lived on Cape Cod when I first went vegetarian and then vegan.

It was not easy.

Vegetarian was not so bad, as I expect it’s not so bad pretty much anywhere.  It’s not that hard to find a veggie burger when you don’t have to worry about eggs and dairy; you can eat out almost anywhere (steak houses and seafood restaurants being the biggest challenges).  It’s nice to be able to find somewhere that caters to vegetarians, though, and this was one of those places.  I started going to Earthly Delights probably in 2005 or so, before I was vegan.

In the year or two before I made the leap from vegetarian to vegan, I tried many times to make the change, and kept failing.  It was too hard to eat out on Cape Cod as a vegan off-season.  Finally, a few months before I was making the move from Cape Cod to New Haven, I made the transition for good, and haven’t looked back.

Earthly Delights was pretty much the only place I could go out to eat on the Cape, at least in the Mid/Upper Cape areas.  I sure appreciated it!

Since I moved away, Earthly Delights has consistently been on my go-to list whenever I’ve visited in the last few years.  It’s right near my mom’s, the food is easily to take to-go, and it’s consistently good.  I typically get either the Tempeh Reuben or the Fakin’ Bacon Tempeh sandwiches.

Not the prettiest sandwich, but very tasty!

I love tempeh. I think they also used to use Follow Your Heart cheese, but they must have switched to Daiya. Both are good choices!

Besides being not too far from my mom’s, Osterville is one of those places you should be checking out when you visit the Cape.  It has an adorable main street area, and the ride to and fro is rife with ocean views and tree lined roads.

Earthly Delights is not an exclusively vegan or vegetarian restaurant. They do serve meat, and their focus is on organic foods. They are also quite close to the Cape Cod Natural Foods store in Centerville, so you might want to combine a trip if you’re heading over from another part of the Cape!

As much as I love Earthly Delights, there are now more options on Cape Cod for vegan eats, and I’m really excited about them and to share with you.

But I do love you, Earthly Delights.  I really do. You will stay on my must visit list!