Mommy Makes Vegan Vietnamese

Chuc mung nam moi! Happy new year to all of our family and friends. We wish you all peace, happiness and good health.

On May 23, 2019 the stars were aligned for us. On that particular Wednesday, we brought our God daughter Marzhan and Mommy Dan to have lunch at the local Farmers Market at Natividad Hospital. It was the first farmers market that we had ever been to in Salinas, and we were happy and excited to see a progressive movement towards fresh & healthy eating here in our small home town where we’re more commonly known to be the supplier of such instead of the consumer. Before that day,... we had many talks amongst our family about having a food stand or some kind of restaurant many times just because we all knew how talented of a cook Mommy Dan was; the timing was just never right. Mommy Dan had been preoccupied helping our Dad with his grueling commercial fishing business for almost two decades while raising 5 children as a new immigrant and refugee from Vietnam. She never had the privilege or opportunity to pursue her own dreams & passionsuntil we met Azalea, the market manager of @everyonesharvest who also shared the same passion for vegan food. Plant based options was something not only the market lacked, but at the time there was not one single vegetarian/vegan restaurant in all of Salinas. We were determined to be the first. We agreed to arrange a time in the near future for Azalea to come over to the house to try some of Mommy Dan’s cooking as part of the approval process. But Mommy Dan was so excited, as soon as we got home she whipped up a mango salad with tofu and black sesame crackers (which is now featured on our menu), and brought it back to the market for Azalea to try that very same day. We received a text message that same evening that read, Mommy Dan’s food was delicious. Let me know when she can start. Over the next 3 weeks, we completed all of the necessary paperwork, applied for the appropriate food handling permits from the health department & fire department, designed a logo and had signage printed. We took a few trips to Costco for a portable stove and some coolers and ordered a pop up tent off of Amazon. (......continued in comments....) @ Natividad Medical Center

Our authentic (aka STRONG) slow-drip Robusta coffee with sweetened condensed coconut cream will keep you buzzing through the afternoon. Our vegan version might even be better than the real thing.. we’ll let you be the judge! #veganvietnamese #cafesuada #plantbased

If people in your neighborhood are working hard to make something great happen, you choosing to buy a coffee at their shop instead of Starbucks or buying lunch from an independent food stall instead of a chain restaurant it’s directly helping them achieve their dreams. All of that gets paid back to the community and strengthens it, it’s a reciprocal energy. @ Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System

The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. Located within Monterey County, it is west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara ValleySilicon Valley. We are proud to call Salinas our home and feel blessed to be able to enjoy and create our dishes with world class produce. - Mommy Dan #salinasgrown #organicproduce #salinasproduce #veganvietnamese #veganfood #831derful #vegansofmonterey

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