I had a wonderful bowl of brown rice at Linda's Seabreeze Cafe this morning. I wonder, how many restaurants in Santa Cruz serve brown rice? Seems like there should be a lot of places, especially since this is Santa Cruz, but I can only think of three... Little Shanghai's, Linda's Seabreeze Cafe, and Dharma's.
Besides brown rice, what other kinds of whole grains can be found in restaurants? Oatmeal for breakfast is the most common, then there's polenta (Gayle's Bakery has that), and Dharma's also has quinoa. If I can't find any whole grain, then toast made with whole wheat flour, whole wheat tortillas and burritos, or corn tortillas would be my next choice. Also, in some restaurants, like Rosie McCann's, I can get a veggie burger. If I'm lucky, the veggie burger has whole grains in it, like the original "Garden Burger."
I've often day-dreamed of starting up a chain of veggie-burger diners (Alice's Brown Rice Diner!) sweeping across America, and starting a competition for veggie burger recipes -- I can think of so many different kinds! made with rice, beans, different kinds of veggies, barley, oat groats, whole wheat berries, millet, quinoa... and besides veggie burgers, each diner would also have simple side dishes like a bowl of whole grains, soup, or vegetable in season. Every ingredient would be fresh, organic and GMO-free. And you'd have your choice of wheat bun or lettuce wrap to hold the burger.
Wouldn't that be fun! I wonder how feasible it would be... I can imagine little old houses or buildings converted and fixed up to look like old fashioned diners with black & white checkerboard tiles and chrome bar stools with red seat cushions and planter boxes with tall bamboo (what?) and pink & white checkered gingham curtains. I think it would be fun to decorate with a mixture of yin and yang, east and west, old and new -- in simple, pure, and clean lines. Oh well, I can always have fun dreaming!
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