Bay Area Vacation, Part IV: Santa Cruz

We took a brief detour down the coast in the middle of our trip to visit my aunt in Santa Cruz. Plus, I had read about some great restaurants in the summer issue of VegNews, and wanted to try some of them out! We drove down on Wednesday afternoon and stopped in Capitola to poke around a bit and watch the sunset on the beach. Then it was time for dinner, and I had my heart set on Malabar Cafe, a Sri Lankan veggie restaurant that VegNews had raved about. We navigated over there , and settled in for a wonderful meal in their sophisticated, candlelit dining room. They had a very inventive drink list, so we decided to try a few instead of just sticking with water as we usually do. BB ordered the watermelon-pineapple slushee, and I got the Persian Nights (an unbelievably delicious mixture of pomegranate juice, banana, almond milk and rosewater). The drinks were both amazing--I loved the fragrant rose aftertaste that lingered on my tongue every time I took a sip; it really enhanced the flavors of the meal! We also tried the coconut roti, which was likewise amazing, before our main course was served. BB had chosen the curry sampler plate (5 curries plus a pickled vegetable dish), and I ordered the Tahu Java (tofu, eggplant and cashews in a "Javanese" sauce). It was a ton of food, but we loved every bite. Each curry was completely unique and expertly prepared, and my dish was magnificent. Though our knowledge of Sri Lankan cuisine is admittedly limited, we felt like the selection of foods was more pan-South-Asian. However, it was all so delicious, so perfectly spiced, that I would probably rank it as my favorite meal of the journey. And we even had leftovers (though once again, forgot to take pictures at the restaurant)! So we enjoyed them the next day al fresco at my Aunt's house, rounded out with a salad and some yams:
We had a wonderful time in Santa Cruz, walking on the beach (it was sunny and beautiful, warm enough to go barefoot!), strolling around Pacific Avenue, harvesting tomatoes from my aunt's garden, drinking tea, and just generally having a relaxing, laid-back day. For dinner the following night, my aunt took us to Dharma's, a local veggie legend. The atmosphere was quite different from what we had become used to--the food was served fast-food style--but it was good, straightforward "hippie" food. I got a tempeh rueben and BB and my aunt both chose the Indian empanadas (which seemed to us like an interesting mix of cultures, but were in reality similar to a baked samosa). We were all satisfied with the food, and rounded off the meal with a pleasing coconut-raspberry tapioca pudding. After that, we caught a movie at a local theater (The Darjeeling Limited, which we all really enjoyed), then headed back to my aunt's awesome house. Although we were back to SF the following day, it was such a nice little sojourn; we're so glad that we were able to get down there, and can't wait to explore it more in the future.

Well, that's the run-down of our journey. As you can see, we feasted on wonderful food throughout the veggie paradise that is the Bay Area. But even better than that was being able to spend time with our loved ones, and with each other. It really was the perfect vacation!