Pie Spy - Sugar Plum Vegan

We had cruised Sugar Plum Vegan's web site (http://www.sugarplumvegan.com/) a few weeks ago to see what was up with their new shop opening at 2315 K Street. The web site told us that they were open, but a drive-by shortly thereafter gave us contradictory data. So on a recent sunny Friday, we decided to check in again.

The shop occupies the space that had been True Love Coffee House, Sanaa, and Jasmine in recent years - it's a white Victorian next door to Hina's in Midtown. The interior has been modified slightly to brighten it up and make the small rooms seem less busy. Baked goods are prominently displayed at the counter, where you can order breakfasts, salads, soups, sandwiches, and other eats. Every item on the menu is vegan. Sugar Plum also offers some gluten-free items.

I looked into the display case for the pie, but saw only cookies, muffins, and scones. The pies and cakes are in a cylindrical display case all their own, up near the front window. This is the kind of pie cabinet that diners and old-time bakeries have, with shelves that rotate. However, all the pies and cakes were stationary on our visit. The case held a tantalizing array of stuff on that day: apple pie, with either crumb or pastry topping; apple-granola crisp with raspberry; peanut butter mousse pie, and beautifully decorated deep chocolate cake. I have to say, the cakes were very pretty compared to the pies. What, exactly, is in a vegan frosting that makes it look and behave like butter cream frosting?

I am beginning to think of apple pie as the litmus-test pie for Pie Spy's eating-out adventures. It was certainly the most attractive pie in the case -- so I ordered a slice. There was only one of each variety of pie and cake in the case, which made me wonder whether you could purchase a whole pie there without ordering ahead.

While vegan frosting and cupcakes may be a bit of a challenge, vegan fruit pie is not much of a stretch. Still, I wanted to see for myself what Sugar Plum's vegan version was like.

Sugar Plum's apple pie slice was generously sized (at $3.95 a slice). Full of thinly sliced, almost crisp pieces of apple, and very gently seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg. The filling was exactly moist enough. The pastry of this slice was very white, although not underbaked. It felt a little bit granular rather than flaky, and a little bit sticky. I think both of these attributes have to do with the type of shortening (fat, for lack of a better word) used. I find that certain shortenings do take quite awhile to brown. A cup of coffee would be the perfect accompaniment to this rendition of apple pie to help with that feel of stickiness.

While this slice held no surprises or revelations, it had a welcome home-made quality and it celebrated the apples, rather than drowning out their freshness by overloading the spice.

We sat in sunshine on the patio and enjoyed our dessert, one big fat delicious forkful at a time. Next time, we will have the Pie Spy Camera handy, we promise. By all means make a visit to Sugar Plum if you are in the mood for dessert but want to feel virtuous about it afterwards. [And if you don't want to virtuous about it, go across the street to Rick's Dessert Diner.]

And - of course! - tell them Pie Spy sent you. We will be waiting for your report.

P.S. On our last trip to the Davis Food Co-Op, we spied a placard that read "DFC is pleased to supply pies to Sugar Plum Vegan, Sacramento's new vegan restaurant." This calls for further investigation!

Pie Spy In Los Angeles

When you’re in LA, treading those boulevards of dreams, and you want to sit down and have something sweet, where ya gonna go?

Your Pie Spy visited several iconic establishments throughout the city, some of them better known for other selections than for pie. This turned into a mini urban pie safari. The featured stops along the way included these:

Musso and Frank (www.mussoandfrankgrill.com)

The Original Pantry (www.pantrycafe.com)

Clifton’s Brookdale (www.cliftoncafeteria.com)

And Pea Soup Andersen’s, on the way home, in Buellton (www.peasoupandersens.net).

There was no pie at the Pacific Dining Car, none at the Nickel Diner, or Rincon Criollo, or Tender Greens, or – understandably – at the Formosa Café.

Obviously there are many, many more pie venues in the big city than these, but there were other missions on the urban safari besides eating all the pie we could. It can get overwhelming if you don’t bite off small pieces.

Among these pies, Musso and Frank's apple pie (pictured above) was notable for being the thickest and being served on the prettiest china. Not a fancy restaurant, but it was a standout for the ambience. The fare at M &F is traditional, and maybe even plain. But eating pie where stars have dined – maybe even at our table! - has its own sparkly charm.

The Original Pantry’s apple pie (shown above) came warm and dressed with cinnamon sauce, which wasn’t mentioned on the menu, but turned out to be an interesting embellishment. It was $3.95 a slice, or $1.25 extra if you wanted ice cream with it. (But pretty good without!) That place is always hopping, and you might decide well before you’re hungry to go there – there is often a line out the door.

Clifton’s Brookdale had cherry pie as well as apple, but Pie Spy was tired of apple pie by the time we got there. The cherry (below) was the winner in the price category, at a bargain-licious $2.39 per slice. Tart fruit and buttery pastry. Home/cafeteria cooking that is hard to find in our own part of California. You gotta go to Clifton’s to experience the crazy décor as well as the pie. Notice the moose head and the fancy forest wall decoration, with tree trunk in the right foreground.

And let us not forget Pea Soup Andersen’s. It has been there by the highway so long that maybe you don’t even notice it anymore. Choices of food stops along the road are generally not very good for you. Pea Soup Andersen’s, however, is a welcome alternative to the burgers, pizzas, and chicken buckets. The eponymous soup is vegetarian and very, very delicious, full of protein, and just eating it makes us feel calmer. The copper-topped tables and the non-truck-stop lighting also make you feel more civilized. If you’re not into green soup, try the salad, and if you’ve had enough pie for one week, order a chocolate milk shake. Then you will have the courage to keep on driving. The pie was warm, but as you can see from the picture below, it was a little bit oozy. We neglected to inquire about the makeup of the pastry, but I believe it is vegetable shortening–based. In my opinion it is not quite as good as homemade pie, but even so one should be grateful that pie is anywhere to be had out there on the freeway. And we were very grateful!

The inaugural SoCal Pie Spy mission was a big success. When I can get back into the skinny jeans, I'll be ready for the second phase.

Post-Pie Party 2010

Do I detect a slight bowing of the table legs under the weight of all those pies?

Estate-grown pecans from Clarksburg were the star of the pecan pie.

SacPie's first annual Pie Party pix are in. By my count, we had about 0.8 pies per guest. Yes, that is - truly - a lot of pie.

Above, Kim's veggie pot pie following the Food Network recipe I cited last week. With fennel - doesn't it look great? And it was absolutely a hit. Also on the savory table were a potato-cheese gallette, broccoli-mushroom quiche, a second, different veggie pot pie (Jim), impossible seafood pie (Linda), a mushroom frittata (Kim), a beautiful Waldorf salad (Linda), and a tasty green salad with homemade croutons (Amy). All devoured. Next time, I will have to hang a sign that reminds eaters to save room for dessert.

Below, Mark's homemade samosas, reheating on the stove. Although my plan was to send everyone home with extras, there were none of these left within about 15 minutes of this photo. The filling was all-vegetables, with characteristic Indian flavorings. And the dipping sauce was a quince chutney contributed by none other than Sacatomato's Lynn Gowdy.

Here you can see how difficult it was to work one's way down the dessert table. There are only six pies shown above, but there were two more out of the frame. We had two pumpkin (Amy, Kim), one double-chocolate (Celia), one Linzer torte, one sweet-potato (Pat), apple-mince, an estate-grown pecan (Linda), and gluten-free apple (Sid). The gluten-free apple was the baker's first-ever pie, and he infused the filling not only with cinnamon but anise and fennel seed. The crust was made with rice flour -very tasty.

Why was it that we bought all that ice cream?

The seasonal abundance of Northern California was represented at the Pie Party in some spectacular small-label wines, home-grown almonds, a pie made with a garden pumpkin, and fresh-squeezed lemonade.

My thanks and appreciation go out to everyone who came, for sharing their recipes and spending time with us. If you did not get a chance to grab the recipes for the pies at our party, please let me know and I'll make them available.

Meanwhile here at SacPie, we have pie leftovers coming out our ears:

Based on the success of our First Annual Pie Party, I will be planning others for the spring and fall. Why not organize your own to showcase the apricots, peaches, cherries, and berries that will be ready in June? May I appropriate Slow Food's word, convivium, to apply to this and all future Pie Party gatherings in our town?

Pie of the Week - Apple

I have never met anyone who expressed a dislike of apple pie. Maybe because it feels subversively un-American to voice such nonsense. But I think, on the contrary, that almost everyone who has eaten a good apple pie finds something in it to love.

Apples, of course, were one of the least perishable and abundant fruits available to the white settlers of the United States. Today, 60% of all apples raised commercially in the U.S. come from Washington state. And the U.S. is the second largest producer of apples worldwide, after China.

As to the pie, I consider apple pie a playground for experimentation because of the varied but gentle flavoring of the fruit. Endless possibilities can be explored - a different mix of apples, addition of dried fruit or chopped nuts, a crumble topping instead of crust, pouring heavy cream through the slits in the crust after the pie comes out of the oven. In southern Ohio, homemade apple pie was offered to me warmed with a small slice of melted cheddar on top. That variation becomes an apple-cheese gallette when you bake the cheese on top in a tart pan, without an upper crust.

And when, in my 30s, I discovered that I could warm up a slice of apple pie in the toaster oven, pour some milk over it, and make it my breakfast on a hostile winter morning - well! It changed my life. Not only because I felt like I was getting away with something naughty, but because knowing that there was apple pie out in the kitchen was singularly motivating when it came to getting me out of a warm bed and waking to the cold world. Apple pie is wintertime pie for me.

So, I've made the point that apple pie can be different every time you make it. Take some time to explore variations on the theme so you can decide whether you have a favorite.

I am a big fan of the old reliable, Betty-Crocker variety template - a double-crust pie with nothing but sliced apples, cinnamon, sugar, and a little bit of flour in the filling. This is the pie of childhood and it never disappoints, even if the crust is ugly (as it turned out today).

There are many new apple hybrids out there in the stores and farmer's markets, which I am certain have their merits - HoneyCrisp, Fuji, Braeburn, Gala, and on and on. Many of these are grown just outside the Sacramento Valley in the Apple Hill area. I have not tried a pie with any of these. My preference is for a slightly tart apple that has little juice, so I look for MacIntosh as a first choice. When I can't find those, I go for Granny Smiths. Granny Smiths don't cook down much. I love their firmness and the snap of their tartness. The Macs are good not only for pie, but for applesauce too. But they are a little juicier, and tend to reduce as they bake, yielding a creamier consistency. Macs have the slight disadvantage of being less abundant in Northern California markets in the winter months. This is an apple that hails from Ontario, Canada and was in my lunch box pretty regularly when I was a kid. The Macs today tend to have an overly tough skin, but a crisp white interior and great appley-ness.

I have never pretended to be an expert baker, and you don't need to be in order to make a terrific, flavorful apple pie. The main points are 1) make sure the apple slices, or chunks, are of a uniform size for even cooking, 2) press down on the mound of apples slightly to compact and settle them into a symmetrical domed shape, and 3) add a little starch of some sort to the filling in order to prevent the dreaded wet pie syndrome. This could be a tablespoon of flour, or a little less of cornstarch, or tapioca, mixed in well with the sugar and cinnamon. Bake it until the crust is golden and you see bubbles of fruity steam coming out the vents.

You can make an apple pie in the hour after dinner and have a warm slice of it before bed. Or, better yet, just skip making dinner and go directly to pie.

Pie Spy - Dad's Kitchen

I have two stories to relate about Dad's Kitchen and its pie offerings. Check out http://www.ediblesacramento.com/content/index.php/winter-2009/comfort-food.htm for a capsule review of what Dad's is all about.

Dad's Kitchen, at 2968 Freeport Boulevard in Sacramento, was written up in a local publication last summer for its excellent pies. I was not a Pie Spy then, but already a pie snob, so I had to check this out. It was the peak of fresh summer fruit season. Pies at Dad's were reportedly made in-house by a lady named Anne, and the word was that you had to get there early in the day if you wanted to sample her wares. How could this not be good?

Here's how: In July, I ordered a slice of Anne's pie to go, while I was still having lunch, from my very charmingly inked server. Lunch was very filling, mainly because we inhaled the Spuds of Joy, so I decided to save the pie (SOUR CHERRY!) for later. Apparently it took a few attempts to convey the pie order to the kitchen, during which several minutes went by. First, a generously sized slice of pie a la mode was delivered on a plate to the table. We hailed our charming server and reminded her that we had asked for the pie to go. The plate disappeared immediately into the kitchen, and we waited several more minutes. When the box finally arrived , we decided to check and take a look at it. Recall July? Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? The kitchen staff decided had scraped the original slice from the plate to a cardboard go-box ice cream and all, on one of the hottest days of the year. Upon discovering this lapse in culinary judgment, we returned the box to a server and explained, no ice cream. Whereupon several more interminable minutes went by, until at last, a dry slice of pie materialized. This slice was about half the size of the original piece, and in addition, it had sort of been mashed into the box. By then, a half-hour had elapsed since we ordered the pie, and I was questioning whether I really wanted it at all.

And to top that all off, it was a $7.00 piece of pie.

I will say that the sour cherry pie was very fresh, not overly sweet, and not gelatinous with thickener. And sour cherry pie is not all that common in restaurants, so just having it as a choice really scored some points with me. The crust was buttery, brown, and - where intact - very flaky and sturdy enough to stand up to the cooked fruit. But worth all the trouble?

Sheesh! This experience is one reason that SacPie was born. We can all improve upon pie experiences like that one, and you can have an entire, fresh pie, all to YOURSELF, for $7.00!

Pie Spy's more recent experience at Dad's Kitchen was an improvement. [Note: In addition to the fruit pie on offer, there are also two varieties of pot pie on the lunch menu. You could conceivably eat pie for your entree and pie for dessert. Not many places can offer you that!]

This past week, the fruit pie was apple. We ordered a piece as we were finishing lunch but decided to dine in with it. We experienced the same difficulty with getting the order placed. When you are waiting for a slice of pie, minutes seem much longer than, say, when you are waiting for a bus in the rain. One reason the order was taking so long, we later learned, is that they warm it up in a standard oven before serving it - nice on a cold Saturday.

The pie arrived with the very smooth and lovely vanilla bean ice cream in a separate bowl. I had forgotten to ask them to hold the ice cream, but now I'm glad I got it. Three compact little scoops of the stuff - a dessert serving all by itself. Apple pie is one of my favorites. This one had very thinly sliced apples, a full double crust, no other embellishments. As you can see, it was good looking as well - straightforward, like-home pie. There was some sugary, spicy brown stuff mixed into the apple filling, and the texture and flavor were pleasant. Just enough cinnamon to enhance the apple without overpowering it. I don't usually eat ice cream with my pie, and least of all vanilla, but the freshness of both made for a wonderful combination. It was still $7, but it seemed like money well spent this time.

The pies are now made in-house by one of Dad's servers, Maria. Anne has apparently moved on. Maria uses all butter for her crust. Be advised that there is only one flavor of fruit pie available each day, and if you want it, I would advise that you get there before 2 or 3 in the afternoon (Maria has other things to do besides bake pies all day) and order it before you start the second half of your sandwich (or pot pie), unless you don't mind lingering. Fruit pies are not offered on the printed menu; you'll need to ask your server, and be sure to tell them that the Pie Spy sent you.