My week in Tacoma - and Grandma Rose's Yum Yum cake recipe

[Guest guest]

Hi, all. I'm just back from a week's visit of family in Tacoma. I

have a few things to share of a vegan/vegetarian nature.

 

Hit the farmers market down on Broadway last Thursday morning (9-1).

There was a woman there with blackberries from her Puyallup area

farm – so there are some berry growers left in Puyallup! Bought a

half flat to share with the family. Ate some portion with unrefined

cane sugar and vanilla soy milk. Put some in pancakes, using the

Arrowhead Mills buckwheat pancake mix I found at the Stadium

Thriftway – that mix having no eggs or dairy, and I was able to make

the pancakes vegan.

 

Also found a bag of anaheim-type peppers in assorted colors. Made

these into a corn relish/salsa with some of the fresh-picked corn,

tomatoes, cukes and scallions I also found. Fed mom and brother this

with red beans, brown rice and corn tortillas that were warmed until

soft.

 

A couple of large bunches of chard and another of basil from the

farmers market went into a dish like a lasagna without pasta for a

family gathering on Saturday. Made a layer with sesame cheese

(recipe at

/message/23086) cut

half and half with fork-smooshed firm tofu from Tacoma Tofu and the

basil chopped up. The sesame cheese/tofu/basil layer set up nicely,

and a person couldn't tell it wasn't dairy unless told. The

construction was like this: olive oil, then tomato sauce (I used a

new Safeway Select variety that I found to be very nicely seasoned,

unlike most kinds) on the bottom, then a layer of chard, then the

sesame cheese/tofu/basil layer, then another layer of chard, and

then a final layer of more tomato sauce. Baked this for an hour at

350 degrees.

 

Friday evening, some of us went out to eat at the Thai Garden at

11th and L Streets in Tacoma's Hilltop. I have eaten there for

decades and it has been one of my favorite places for Thai food, but

now the woman who used to do the cooking is gone. It's her son-in-

law that does the cooking now. The food is still very good, but it's

just not quite the same.

 

Tuesday, my brother and I went to eat at the Vietnamese restaurant

that has been one of his favorites. It's on the 1000 block of Martin

Luther King Way. It has switched places with the Asian grocery on

that block, the restaurant getting bigger and the grocery getting

smaller – though it is now the place to get the tofu from Tacoma

Tofu which is still manufactured up MLK Way on the 1400 block but no

longer sold there. The guy who started the restaurant is no longer

there – he reportedly has his place out in Federal Way now – so like

the Thai Garden, it's not quite the same, though the food is still

very good.

 

Wednesday, however, my mom and I checked out the Quickie (see

www.hillsidequickie.com), a dedicated vegan eatery on the same block

as Tacoma Tofu. Last time I was in Tacoma, the owner was still

adjusting to their expanding wholesale distribution, but now they

are very well settled in – even a couple of new eateries in Seattle

now run by their kids – one in the University District, one up on

Capital Hill. I was eating her tofu sandwiches twenty-something

years ago when I was working at the downtown library, getting them

at their little grocery at 16th and G Streets. Back then, the tofu

sandwiches were called " bombs " and " megabombs, " being the

nonviolent " weapons " for real revolutionary/evolutionary change of

humanity. Now with a regular eatery where they prepare the

sandwiches as you order, these sandwiches have taken on a whole new

level of yum. So while some changes haven't been for the better at

some of our favorite eateries, this is one set where things have

gotten better.

 

At that family gathering on Saturday, my aunt brought some Yum Yum

Cake. She got the recipe from my Grandma Rose, and it's a vegan,

depression era recipe with spice, nuts and plumped up raisins. It's

been a family favorite for decades, and some in the family have

their own variations, but my aunt used the version closest to how

Grandma Rose would have made it. Here it is:

 

Yum Yum Cake

2 cups Brown Sugar

2 cups Water

3 tablespoons Shortening

1 cup Raisins

1 tablespoons Cinnamon

Boil all these together while constantly stirring until syrup forms.

Cool.

3 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1 teaspoons Allspice

¾ teaspoons Salt

1 teaspoons Nutmeg

1 teaspoons Vanilla

1 cup Nuts

Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

My aunt's note: This recipe comes from an era when some people still

use woodstoves, so the timing may different for some newer ovens.

She said her batch was done at 45 minutes. In my version of this,

though I haven't made it in years since I had lost my copy of the

recipe, I use unrefined cane sugar instead of brown sugar, oil

instead of shortening, and whole wheat pastry flour instead of the

usual white flour, and it comes out just fine. Key points in making

this, besides adjusting cooking time for your own oven: When

properly done, there will be a subtle crust where the sugar has

caramelized more, and this is a part of the experience of eating it.

While those first ingredients are boiling, check for the syruping by

taking a spoonful a pouring it back into the pot. I'm not sure how

to describe what it should look like – it's thicker than water, but

it doesn't have to be too thick. And feel free to use more nuts and

raisins.

 

It was a nice week.

[Guest guest]

Sounds fun...

 

We like to get vietnamese food at Mekong in the Tacoma area...it is by

the mall off Pine and 40something...it is a small family owned place,

a little house really & part of it is also a nail salon (separate from

the restaurant, you cannot smell it)...a man and wife run it and his

mom is often in the kitchen, I love listening to them chat and argue!

 

m

[Guest guest]

20 years ago, the bomb and megabomb sandwiches were the first

attempts by the woman of the Hillside Quickie to make an all

natural, ready to eat product that could be sold elsewhere, like at

the Food Bag Co-op that used to be up on 6th Avenue. They were an

nth of the complexity of what they now sell at their outlets. The

tofu was frozen to result in a chewy texture, and also to absorb

maranades readily - a technique that I learned from her. The

maranade was/is a smoke flavored bbq, and I don't quite know all of

the secrets to that flavor, which I haven't found anywhere else. She

used to have a spread in the sandwiches made from potatoes and more

of that bbq maranade. The potatoes worked very nicely with the tofu.

The buns where sprouted wheat, slightly toasted. All together, it

was very yummy and satisfying.

 

By the way, my sesame cheese recipe is not a slicible kind. It's

more of a spread. It can be set up with agar to make it slicible,

and many of the recipes I've seen are variations of this idea....

 

, subprong <subprong@g...>

wrote:

> So, what was on the " megabomb " tofu sandwich back in the day?

>

> Shawn

[Guest guest]

Sounds very nice. I'll forward your recommendation to my brother, who

very much likes Vietnamese food. He's not a vegetarian yet, but he

says he could be one if it was all like Vietnamese food. And I'll

check it out myself when I get up there again....

 

, " melissa_hopp "

<hoppmel@c...> wrote:

> Sounds fun...

>

> We like to get vietnamese food at Mekong in the Tacoma area...it is

by

> the mall off Pine and 40something...it is a small family owned

place,

> a little house really & part of it is also a nail salon (separate

from

> the restaurant, you cannot smell it)...a man and wife run it and his

> mom is often in the kitchen, I love listening to them chat and

argue!

>

> m

[Guest guest]

They aren't a veggie restaraunt...but have options and are very

accomodating!! So your brother will love it either way!

 

m

[Guest guest]

My brother isn't a vegetarian, but gets relatively close to it when he

eats at a Vietnamese or Thai place. The more options I can give him of

that sort......

 

, " melissa_hopp "

<hoppmel@c...> wrote:

> They aren't a veggie restaraunt...but have options and are very

> accomodating!! So your brother will love it either way!

>

> m