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About two weeks ago, I was running way late for school (I’m a teacher’s assistant) and had forgotten my lunch. Not wanting to either spend my lunch hour hungry or have Taco Bell (the only fast food restaurant in the vicinity that offers vegetarian options that aren’t salad) for the fourth day in a row, I decided to order one of the new Bistro Boxes from Starbucks. Namely, the Sesame Noodle box:
When I broke it open at lunch, I was happy that I’d made such a good choice. It’s the only vegan Bistro Box the chain offers (what I initially thought were honey-sesame peanuts are, in fact, brown rice syrup-sesame peanuts), and all of the Taco Bell had started to mess with my stomach.
First up, the sesame noodle salad itself. This is the star of the box, and rightly so: The vegetables are crisp and tasty, and the sauce the noodles are coated with isn’t overpowering. The lettuce at the bottom is something that I, personally, could take or leave, but it makes for a nice presentation. (I firmly believe we eat first with our eyes, and especially when ordering from a restaurant. Who wants to eat something that looks like this, even if it does have raisins? [Also: Oh, don’t you love it when people use a scene from an 80s teen comedy to push their political beliefs? Way to miss the point!])
The peanuts I didn’t care for. They’re just a little too hard, and your friendly neighborhood Veggie Goth has enough dental problems already.
The pickled-cucumber and carrot salad makes for a good break between the sesame noodle salad and the square of dark chocolate. Which, come on. Dark chocolate. How can this go wrong?
So what does it pair with? A nice cabernet sauvingion, perhaps? Chianti? Pinot Grigio?
How about a can of orange-flavored Izze? Is that acceptable?
A Little to the Left 