Gourmet vegan meals delivered to your home I've been meaning to write up BuyKind.com for weeks now. For some reason I thought I had, but quick search revealed that, no, I haven't. So, if you aren't yet aware of BuyKind, let me paint you a picture. Ever wanted to visit any of the following top-notch vegan restaurants?:
Sublime in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Good Karma in Venice Beach, California Lovin' Spoonfuls in Tucson, Arizona The Vegetable Garden in Rockville, Maryland Red Avocado in Iowa City, Iowa Spiral Diner & Bakery in Ft. Worth, Texas Me, too. I imagine if you live in a city with no creative vegan options, you're even more keen to try some of the amazing food these restaurants serve. And, with BuyKind, you can. Now, you're not getting the experience of the decor and being surrounded by other people sampling delicious vegan food, plus you're basically just reheating meals as if they're leftovers, but I've tried this service a couple of times now, and, for the most part, it works. Packing up gourmet meals and shipping the via DHL does bring with it some compromises, but the food still tastes great, even if sometimes shipment co-mingles certain items or shakes up your key lime pie a bit too much. My wife and I had a couple of entrees from The Vegetable Garden, including the Veggie Sesame "Beef" with Yams. My wife got a similar entree, I want to say the "chicken" with asparagus, but it might have been the "beef" with pineapple (hazards of waiting too long to write the review!). At any rate, the ideal preparation for both was pretty much the same. Since the veggies and fruits heat up much faster than the faux meats, you can either separate them first and add the produce once the mock meats are getting hot or, if they're too stuck together, you can warm them all at once in a large frying pan, separating out the yams and such as they get hot, which is what I did, though I recommend the other option to make sure everything is hot at the same time. All it took was a little olive oil and some heat, and the entree was good to go. Instructions for the brown rice were to reheat in a small saucepan with a little extra water, and this actually worked out great. The meals were delicious, if unevenly heated. The key lime pie was a bit on the chalky side, but that didn't stop me from eating every last bite for dessert. Now, there is a fair amount of packaging involved. I couldn't reuse the boxes the meals were shipped in, since they were so beat up, nor could I reuse the foam (my main strike against ordering food like this), but I have reused the ice packs a couple of times (they're super-handy!) and my wife reuses the take-out containers to bring other leftovers to work. But, if you're only doing this once in a while, and ordering maybe a few meals at once, then you're probably getting the most out of this service. One delivery could save you 2-3 trips to restaurants in your car, and this adds up to a financial savings, too. It may seem like expensive to order online, but if you factor in the cost of driving to and from 2-3 restaurants like this, and tipping a server each time, you start to find the expense closer to the real cost of eating out, so the price is not unreasonable at all for people who'd be dining at a restaurant for $10-15 meals anyway. You can place your order at BuyKind.com. It's definitely a home-grown website, with awkward navigation, a couple of broken links, plenty over-sized (but mouthwatering) photos that take too long to download, etc., but don't let that dissuade you from getting your tastebuds on some delightful food! In fact, soon BuyKind will be offering delivery from Madeleine Bistro, my favorite vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, so keep checking back, and please comment on your experience below. PS - BuyKind has kindly offered to donate to the Boston Vegan Association 10% of the profits on any purchase you make when you use the BOSTON code at check-out. These proceeds will be used to promote the expansion of veganism in the Boston area. Email to a friend Article Search Related http://www.chooseveg.com/meet-your-meat.asp The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. -Albert Einstein __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
