Nicomi Nix Turner: French Fry Love.

Nicomi and I share a love of French fries. Which ultimately made us sisters for life. Check out what Nicomi has to say about veganism and, of course, food.

MM: How long have you been vegan? 
NNT: This is my 15th year of being vegan. Let me put it this way, I was eating things like tofu & mustard sandwiches and feasted heavily on Tofu Pups for years.

MM: What is your favorite restaurant in the United States? 
NNT: I can’t pick just one but you don’t have to twist my arm to take me to Flacos, Souley Vegan or The Butchers Son in the East Bay or Crossroads in LA.

MM: What is your favorite snack food? 
NNT: Grapes are my favorite thing to snack on but good lord am I addicted to Dandie’s Marshmallows… by the handful…

MM: Do you cook or get take out/go out more often? 
NNT:  I was raised in a household that worshiped Julia Child on Sundays and totally love to cook, so I usually just cook at home. There are so many options out and about but I still heavily value homemade meals.

MM: What’s your go to quick meal to make at home? 
NNT: My schedule usually gets clogged so the quickest (and most comforting) things I make at home is either a Vodka sauce pasta bake (Pasta sauce, Tofutti Sour Cream and Rosemary tossed in Rigatoni) or a simple veggie bake, which usually means chopping up whatever veggies or protein I have on hand, tossing it in oil, seasoning and then roasting it.

MM: If you could only have two spices in your kitchen to work with at all times, what would they be? 
NNT: Hungarian Paprika and Cinnamon

MM: What do you think the most major change with vegan cuisine has been in the past 5 years? 
NNT: The biggest change to me has been the accessibility of vegan foods. It used to be that you had to take your covered wagon to a Co-Op and get your carton of soy milk – now, you can go to big box stores and grab essentials and then some. The other big thing is how much corporate interest there is with introducing vegan products into their product line up… but that’s another can of worms.

MM: Since you travel a lot, what snacks do you bring with you to save yourself from the dreaded hummus only airports? 
NNT: Almonds or any nuts are my go to. When I leave the country things get dicey buts its so nuts at how many vegan friendly spots there are if you just look for them ahead of time. Happy Cow definitely has been a savior.

Funny side note: I went to Prague a few years ago and did the whole “guess I’m just eating carbs” until I went to this restaurant and saw they had vegetable sides. I ordered a plate of boiled potatoes, a plate of steamed broccoli, a plate of carrots and a plate of cauliflower. I have never slammed a plate of steamed broccoli faster in my life.

The next night however, I got to eat at this vegan spot Lehka Hlava, which blew my mind. There are also really good health food stores in Europe that sell stuff you can take back to your flat to prepare. The world is pretty accommodating these days but I think traveling also takes vegans realizing that they’re not always going to get to dine like a king.

MM: If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and what restaurant would you eat at? 
NNT: Oooh tricky. Oscar Wilde at Doomies. (Did you hear that? I think old Wilde just rolled in his grave).