A Taste of Vegan Chicago

I went to Chicago this weekend to visit some dear friends of mine from high school and just had to try some of the Windy City's vegan cuisine. As you can see from the picture above, I was even able to get in my green drink! (Don't worry, I also sampled some of the best hot fudge and non-vegan cupcakes I've ever had too). We visited Karyn's Raw Cafe in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Now, it's not all raw so in addition to my green drink (called the Peaceful Warrior) I also had the Wild Rice Mix which included rice, barley, avocado, spinach, tomatoes and other yummy veggies. It was fabulous. Here's what it looked like:

My friend had a portabella dish, seen here:

Overall the food was quite good and I felt especially healthy after the Peaceful Warrior. Attached to the cafe was a little vegan shop with everything from vegan desserts to trail mixes to books about healthy eating. There are also several other Karyn's restaurants in Chicago so check them out if you happen to be in the midwest! Here is the website: http://www.karynraw.com/

Yesterday, we went to brunch at a place called Orange, which was also in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. It's not a vegan place (and I didn't eat vegan there) but they had a very interesting and yummy dish I wanted to share. It's called Frushi and it is essentially coconut rice with fruit instead of raw fish (thank you very much). It was a delicious treat and a nice addition to the rest of my meal. Here is the website for Orange:  http://orangerestaurantchicago.com/Main.html