Nha Trang: Peanut Sauce of the Angels

Living in Lincoln, I always wondered what kind of food was served in the white restaurant with the round windows on 13th and L street. Once I finally explored, I discovered that within the walls was a giant menu of Vietnamese and Chinese food, featuring the best peanut sauce I've ever had. Inexpensive, with generous portions and employees who know what veganism is, Nha Trang quickly became one of my favorite places to eat.

To be fair, I always get the same thing: vegetable spring rolls and B10, bún chay or a rice noodle bowl. Basically, I'm just trying to get as much of that smooth, coconut-y peanut sauce sent to my table as possible. The spring rolls feature cooked vegetables, bean curd and rice noodles, as well as peanut sauce to dip them in. Though the house sauce that the bún comes with isn't vegan, a substitution of peanut is easily made and absolutely delicious. Rice noodles, bean curd, pickled and fresh vegetables all combine to form a delicious, refreshing meal. Maybe someday I'll order something else, but only if I can get a side of peanut sauce to eat with a spoon.


As a bonus, this place is totally omni-friendly, as evidenced by my father's enthusiastic thumbs up. With such a huge menu, there's definitely something for everyone here. Plus, it was $22 for myself, my mom and my dad to eat there. It's officially been added to my list of places I can eat with my dad.

Yay for Yia Yia's!

The bread is also vegan. Score!

My love for Yia Yia's pizza goes back to eighth grade, the first time I ate at their establishment. Cozy, a little bit dark, with outstanding food, Yia Yia's has held a place in my heart from the first time I took a bite of their pie. I've always loved Yia Yia's for the fact that you can order by the slice, preventing any topping related fracas among friends, but also allowing you to try crazy combinations (sauerkrauts, potatoes and almonds, anyone?) without committing to the whole pie. My love for Yia Yia's was finally cemented when I found out that they had vegan cheese for their pizza. As a new vegan, I had condemned myself to a sauce-only existence when it came to dining out, but Yia Yia's showed me the light and I now know better.

Up until a week ago, I thought I couldn't love them any more. I was wrong. They introduced a whole wheat crust. The new crust is thick, a major change from their traditional thin crust. It's also fantastic. It held up perfectly to the onslaught of ingredients I requested on my pie (black olives, sauerkraut and garlic), without overpowering their flavors. The thick wheat crust is a welcome option at Yia Yia's and will most likely be my go to from now on.

Yia Yia's is located at 14th and O Street in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's a great place to take anyone- friends, family, meat eaters, vegans and picky eaters. Seriously, I've never heard anyone say they don't like Yia Yia's.

Pepe's Veggie Mix Bistro

 This gem of a restaurant is tucked away above an art gallery in the Havelock district of Lincoln. Pepe's is a vegetarian restaurant that uses locally sourced, fresh ingredients as much as possible and the result is stunning. On my last visit, both my mother and I ordered the sweet potato quesadillas, mine made vegan with the omission of the sour cream drizzle, and they were fantastic. Garnished with apple salsa and guacamole, it managed to be both comforting and gourmet. The great thing about Pepe's is that the ingredients of the dishes are simple and therefore each ingredient is allowed to shine.

For dessert, we split a slice of the chai apple pie. Apple pie is normally pretty low on my list of preferred pies, but the chai spices in this made it delicious and memorable. I love chai tea, and this was the perfect balance of chai spice and apple pie.

Pepe's is worth going a little out of your way for but if you need some extra motivation, there is a fabulous fabric store down the street, a vintage theater that screens movies and Husker games and several other little shops in the area. While I do wish that Pepe's had a location in Omaha, I'm still more than willing to make the trip to Lincoln to get my fix.

WhoaWren's Guide to Lincoln

PETA recently named Lincoln, Nebraska one of the most veg-friendly small cities in the United States. While I maintain that Omaha is substantially more vegan friendly, I am super happy to see that Nebraska is finally getting her due. We really do have more than just corn (but our corn is seriously good)! Having spent a good chunk of my life, 23 years, in Nebraska's capitol city, I thought that I should write a guide to being veg and entertaining yourself in Lincoln, NE.

Food: 
PETA name drops Maggie's, Taj Mahal, and Grateful Bread/Freakbeat Vegetarian, but there's more to dining in Lincoln than just these three...

Nha Trang: Huge, huge menu, so it's good for groups of people who have differing tastes. Be sure to switch out the house sauce for the peanut sauce. No worries, the peanut sauce is probably made by angels and is so good.

Open Harvest: Lincoln's own little co-op! They have a fantastic selection of foods, a great bulk section, fresh produce, a bakery and a deli. The deli has everything labeled as containing meat, vegetarian, beegan (vegan with honey) or vegan. Try the baked tofu. You won't regret it.

Parthenon: Greek food with a separate vegan menu. There are belly dancers some nights! Oooh!

Oso wonderful!

Let's say you meet this dude. His name is Chipotle and he's lovely. He's made of good things and he's consistently wonderful. That being said, that consistency is getting a little boring. Black beans, rice and salsa have their place but you need variety, spice! Then it happens. You meet Chipotle's sexy, adventurous cousin named Oso Burrito. Here's what you've been looking for. Chipotle is great when you need a little somethin' somethin' in the burrito department, but your heart belongs to Oso.

Oso Burrito is a little local chain in Lincoln (Does two locations constitute a chain? I think so.) that does veggie burritos right. They offer fillings such as tofu, potatoes, portobello mushrooms, guacamole and chickpeas, as well a variety of salsas and sauces. As an FYI, the only vegan sauces are the Thai peanut and the ginger garlic. My personal favorite there would be portobello mushrooms or chickpeas with Thai peanut sauce, cabbage, pico de gallo and ginger garlic salsa, all wrapped up into a mini burrito.

What's that you say? You don't have to purchase your burrito in nausea-inducing huge sizes? Nope! The regular size burritos have the advantage of different flavors, such as spinach, but if you aren't terribly hungry, you can opt instead for a mini-burrito.

Oh yes, Oso is the burrito joint you have been waiting for. With a plethora of options and a veggie special on Tuesdays, Oso will always keep me oh so happy (Get it? Oh so? Oso? Ha!).

Great Wall: Thanks for the fried tofu!

When it comes to getting Chinese food in those tiny, white to-go boxes, I only get the best. FYI, by best, I mean fried and super bad for me. This is why I love love love Great Wall, located at 70th and Vine Street in Lincoln, NE (phone number: 402-488-2112). My family and I used to go here a lot when I was in elementary school, but it fell by the wayside until I was almost done with college. In that time, it changed owners and improved significantly. We rediscovered it when, much like A Christmas Story, we needed somewhere to eat on Christmas eve (I know I'm a day off. Deal.) and it was the only place we could find that was open. Luckily, the menu boasted the chef's special of sesame tofu. After verifying a lack of animal ingredients, I took an order of it home. Fried with a thick, almost-but-not-quite sweet sauce, this is one of my favorite meals in Lincoln. This is heavy on fried tofu, but light on the veggies, so if that's a requirement of your meal, be sure to add it in. For best results, call about 20 minutes in advance, place your order, pick it up, go home, put on sweatpants and eat. You can thank me when you're out of your food coma.

PS- That's my parent's cat, Gizmo. He's adorable and not at all interested in tofu.