Vegetarian Lunch in America 19: Nachos

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Today's vegetarian lunch: Nachos from the Plaza View Cafe, the cafeteria in my office building.

Nachos is a Mexican dish. It is more of an appetizer, but you can also have it as a meal. In America, you can have almost anything as a meal! Nachos is nothing but tortilla chips topped with refried beans, shredded meats, salsa, chopped jalapenos, olives, onions, shredded cheese, guacamole and sour cream. I ordered my nachos without refried beans and shredded meat. I had it with my favorite Cholula hot sauce.

Cost: $4.97 (includes tax and office discount), about 218.68 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: In some Mexican restaurants, the tortilla chips may be fried in beef lard. So, gotta be careful about that. The refried beans might have chicken broth in it. The beans in my cafeteria did, and so I did not add them to my nachos. Nachos traditionally contains refried beans and shredded meat. So, you have specify what you don't want, when ordering it. Also, the usual warning about animal rennet in cheese applies.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 18: Chile Cheese Quesadilla, Mexican Cole Slaw & Thai Watermelon Salad

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Today's vegetarian lunch: The Plaza View Cafe, lunch special today consisted of Chile Cheese Quesadilla and Mexican Cole Slaw.

Quesadilla is a Mexican dish, which consists of a torilla folded in half, stuffed with cheese and grilled. That is a plain cheese quesadilla. Along with cheese, the quesadilla can also be stuffed with grilled meats or vegetables. For my lunch dish today, it was stuffed with grilled big chillies. I don't know what kind of dressing was used in the Mexican Cole Slaw, but it did not have the sweetish creamy mayonnaise taste of regular Cole Slaw. Apart from the lunch special of quesadilla and cole slaw, I saw some Thai Watermelon salad available in the cafeteria, and I had to have it. Watermelon is one of my favorite fruits. This salad was made with watermelon chunks, basil leaves, little bit of crushed peanut and sunflower seeds, and some kind of Thai dressing. The small cup in the picture with a red sauce is my favorite Cholula hot sauce.

Cost: $5.71 (includes tax and office discount), about 251.24 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: The quesadilla had cheese in it. So, the usual warning about animal rennet in cheese applies. The Cole Slaw dressing might have had eggs in it.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 17: Fettucine Noodles & Caesar Salad

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Today's vegetarian lunch: My Plaza View Cafe lunch special today consisted of Fettucini Noodles Topped with a creamy Sage sauce, served with a Parmesan crusted tomato-half, Caesar Salad, and a dinner roll.

Cost: $4.97 (includes tax and office discount), about 218.68 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: Although my lunch dish itself had no meat or eggs, the Fettucine noodle pasta might have been manufactured with egg. I think the Caesar salad dressing might have egg in it. Also, the usual warning about animal rennet in cheese applies.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 16: Cheese Ravioli & Caesar Salad

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Today's vegetarian lunch: Stuffed-cheese ravioli with pesto sauce on top, Caesar salad and a piece of garlic bread on the side, from the Plaza View Cafe, the cafeteria in my office building. The piece of bread is half-covered with the Caesar salad, and so not clearly visible in the picture above. I added an orange to my meal.

The ravioli is a type of pasta. For my lunch special today, the ravioli was filled with cheese and baked. Then a pesto sauce was poured over it. It was a little too rich for me today, although at just under 5 bucks, it was still cheap money-wise!

Cost: $4.97 (includes tax and office discount), about 218.68 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: Although my lunch dish itself had no meat or eggs, the ravioli pasta might have been manufactured with egg. I think the Caesar salad dressing might have egg in it. Also, the usual warning about animal rennet in cheese applies.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 15: Veg Wrap & Veg Salad

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Today's vegetarian lunch: A vegetable wrap, with a side of vegetable salad and my favorite Cholula hot sauce, from the Plaza View Cafe, the cafeteria in my office building. I also added an orange to my lunch.

Our cafeteria makes some really good sandwiches and wraps. The veg wrap is made with grilled vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, cucumber, plus fresh tomatoes, onions, spinach and avocado, on a spread of hummus and a slice of pepperjack cheese, wrapped in a large tortilla and grilled for 30-60 seconds. It is excellent and filling. I the veg wrap for lunch about once a week, with different side salads - vegetable salad, pasta salad, potato salad, fruit salad. Sometimes I just have it with potato chips.

Cost: $4.62 (includes tax and office discount), about 203.28 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: My veg wrap had pepperjack cheese. So, the usual warning about animal rennet in cheese applies.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 14: Yakisoba Noodle bowl from Blue Fin

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Today's vegetarian lunch: Yakisoba noodles and vegetables bowl from the Blue Fin Japanese restaurant in Downtown Phoenix. This place is always crowded and I thought they might have some good food. But I did not like the noodles at all. The quantity was also so less. And when I asked them for some hot sauce on the side, they said it was $0.35 additional for the tiny cup of the size pictured above!

Cost of the meal deal: $5.07 (includes tax), about 223.08 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: None for the food. However, my food was most probably prepared in the pan which is also used to prepare meat dishes, as would happen in any restaurant which serves meat.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 13: Asian Noodles from Coin Room Cafe

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Today's vegetarian lunch: Noodles and vegetables stir-fried with hot and sour sauce at the Asian Station of the Coin Room Cafeteria in the basement of the Chase Tower (formerly Bank One building) in Downtown Phoenix. My meal deal included a drink (I mixed iced tea with lemonade) and fortune cookie.

Cost of the meal deal: $6.48 (includes 0.49 tax), about 285.12 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: None for the food. However, my food was prepared in the pan which had been used to prepare dishes with meat. The chef scraped it clean and wiped it before preparing my food, but some tiny parties of meat would have remained.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Downtown Phoenix Lunch-hour Secrets

If we are around downtown Phoenix during lunch hour and we are looking for some place to eat which is quick, cheap, with good quality food and nice ambience, we are not merely day dreaming! There are two not-so-secret-yet-not-so-well-known lunch-hour watering holes of downtown Phoenix professionals, which definitely live upto our day dreams.



I am talking about the Coin Room Cafe and the Plaza View Cafe, both located right in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Coin Room Cafe is in the basement of the Chase Tower (formerly, the Bank One building) and the Plaza View Cafe is in the second floor of Arizona Center Two building, whose most prominent tenant is APS.

Since these are cafeterias which mostly serve specific businesses, they are not advertised or listed in the usual places where restaurants are listed. As such, they are not known to many people. Not even everyone who works downtown knows about them. The lack of popularity in no way reflects the great quality of these places. Their excellent food choices and their great dining areas are better than many downtown restaurants. And you won't even notice or mind the lack of restaurant-like full service when you consider the low prices (and no tips) and the staff, who are always nice, cheerful and helpful in both places. You can have a really good meal for around $6 or for lesser. Quite often, for lesser.

Both cafeterias offer a variety of choices for lunch: soups, salads, sandwiches, wraps, pizza, a whole array of sides and the daily specials, of course. They also serve breakfast, which changes daily! Even picky vegetarians like me can usually find something on the menu, or have the very nice staff customize something for us. Just look at their menus for today:

Coin Room Cafe:
Breakfast: Blueberry pancake.
Lunch: Chicken mushroom & swiss steak sandwich, Stuffed Deli sandwiches, Big Stuffed (1.5x meat) Featured Panini's:Fresh mozzarella & tomato, Chicken noodle soup, Vegetable soup, Chili, Spinach & portobello salad, Three melon salad, Prime rib with sides, an asian station, pizza, quesadillas, chicken tenders, wings, and more by the piece or combo, pastas.

Plaza View Cafe:
Breakfast: Denver Omelette with Ham, Green Bell Pepper, and Cheese, Served with 2 Toast
Lunch: Cream of Potato soup, Beef Barley soup, Saguaros - Tostada Grande or Super Burrito with Your Choice of Beef or Chicken with all Your Favorite Toppings, Baked Alaskan Cod Topped with Warm Red Tomato Relish Served with Rice and Fresh Vegetables, "Coachman Sandwich" - Grilled Beef, Cheddar, and Chili Served with Mexican Coleslaw.

The above are just specials of the day, and they are all under $6! Apart from the above, each cafe has a selection of other regular sandwiches, burgers, wraps, pastas and a full salad bar, fountain drinks, coffee, tea, desserts, etc.

Bookmark the below links to check their daily menus:

• Coin Room Cafe - Basement of Chase Tower at 201 N. Central Ave Phoenix. Closes breakfast at 10 AM and lunch at 1:30 PM.


• Plaza View Cafe - 2nd floor of Arizona Center Two at 400 N 5th St Phoenix. Closes breakfast at 8:30 AM and lunch at 1 PM.

While you bookmark and note the addresses, I shall race you to one of these cafes now. :-)

Vegetarian Lunch in America 12: Pasta from Foccacia Fiorentina

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Today's vegetarian lunch: Yummy pasta from Focaccia Fiorentina, one of my most favorite pasta places. All pastas are served with a piece of excellent rosemary bread, which I usually eat with some butter. Unfortunately, they did not have the rosemary bread today. So, they gave a piece of foccacia as shown in the pic above.

When given a choice of many items, all equally tempting, librans like me find it hard to decide on one. This restaurant is considerate towards people like me and allows us to choose two kinds of pasta, half portions of each. Today, I chose my favorite Fresca di Campagna (penne pasta with mozzarella cheese, fresh chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar) and Penne Alla Vodka (penne pasta in a pink tomato sauce, a touch of cream, red peppers with green peas and a hint of vodka). For a list of all their pasts with pictures, check out their online menu. On that page, click on the pictures of their pasta trays, to view them in bigger size. If you are interested in the pasta types and shapes (penne, rigatoni, etc.) check this link for an illustrated list: pasta shapes.

Cost of the meal deal: $6.50 (includes 0.50 tax), about 286 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: Even if a pasta dish contains no eggs and no meat, eggs are often used in the making of the pasta noodles themselves. You can get pastas which are made with no eggs in the stores, but I doubt that most restaurants are very scrupulous about this (unless they are vegan restaurants). I don't know if the bread at Focaccia Fiorentina is made with eggs. I should check with them the next time I am there. Of course, the usual warning about animal rennet in cheese applies.

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.

Vegetarian Lunch in America 11: Summer Squash Curry & Japanese Eggplant

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Today's vegetarian lunch: Summer squash curry, Japanese eggplant and cauliflower curry, with rice and flat-bread, and a hot sauce on the side, from the Plaza View Cafe, the cafeteria in my office building. Both the curries tasted extremely good. I wish they would make this more often. I should tell them.

I am quite surprised to realize that my office cafeteria food is appearing in this vegetarian lunch in America series for the first time only today! The Plaza View Cafe is one of the best lunch-time options in Downtown Phoenix, on week days. Not even everyone who works downtown knows about this place. The lack of popularity in no way reflects the great quality. The excellent food choices and great dining area are better than many downtown restaurants. And you won't even notice or mind the lack of restaurant-like full service when you consider the low prices (with no tips) and the staff, who are always nice, cheerful and helpful. You can have a really good meal for around $6 or for lesser. Quite often, for lesser. They offer a variety of choices for lunch: soups, salads, sandwiches, wraps, pizza, a whole array of sides and the daily specials, of course. They also serve breakfast, which changes daily! It really works great for people who eat meat. Even picky vegetarians like me can usually find something on their regular menu, or have the very nice staff customize something. Their daily specials, like my lunch today, have vegetarian options about 2-3 times a week.

Cost: $3.89 (includes tax and office discount), about 171.16 Indian Rupees.

Vegetarian alert: None for today!

Background: Vegetarian Lunch in America.