Christmas Day eats~

     Somewhere in Smithfield Rhode Island, there's the Vietnamese/Thailand fusion joint that my mother and father fell in love with while my brother and I did the studying game in college. Whenever either one of us would hang out with the rents we'd somehow end up at this restuarant...anyways long story (sentence) short, my mom fell in love with spring rolls and now makes them all the time. This Christmas she whipped up some nearly raw wraps (I'm not a vermicelli rice noodle fan) and though not as tight as the ones I've gorged on while kicking it in Vietnam, they were delicious!..

photo taken by VeganBeats

photo taken by VeganBeats

      Strange fact, while being in Korea, I haven't once had any kimchi fried rice! It's such a go to dish for so many people and when I was a kid I loved this stuff but in the nearly two years I've been here, it's never passed my lips. Anyways, it was ont he table this Christmas. Even though I wanted it...I ended up picking out the kimchi.  

photo taken by VeganBeats

     My mom also bought a bunch of eggplant, with plans of making some vegan eggplant parm...I can't deny it was tempting but when it comes to breading, I get really uncomfortable. So she whipped up a really light and flavorful dish of steamed and lightly blnched eggplant, scallions, garlic (loads of it), and some black and white sesame seeds.

photo taken by VeganBeats

     I prepped a MASSIVE salad for the family to nom on. They were having a "poor man's lasagna" which is basically all the fix-ins of the classic dish, except dissected. So it more resembles a cheedey noodle salad versus the elegant layered dish.

     My salad was composed of everything organic (and mostly local)~ romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, green and red kale, celery, sweet vidalia onions, and cucumbers. UGh~ all that green!!!

photo taken by VeganBeats

     It was a feast for sure...I ate tons of salad, and of course mixed it with the sides, but it was mostly greens and my "dressing" was the surely missed hummus, salsa, and balsamic~

^^*!~