Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

Thai red curry on Tuesday nights at Doshi House.

When I'm not eating out on official paper business, I'm on a budget just like most people my age who are still paying student loans on top of car notes, mortgages, ridiculous cell phone bills and more (how do I use so much cell data just browsing Reddit?).

For occasions in which the manfriend and I want a nice evening out without a huge -- or even an average -- outlay of cash, Doshi House is my destination of choice. Every evening at this chic Third Ward cafe, owner Deepak Doshi prepares a single type of dish, and each night's dinner is only $6.95.

On Monday nights, it's Creole red beans and rice. On Saturday nights, it's "not so butter chicken." On Tuesday nights, my preferred night, Doshi makes a Thai red curry that's thick with the deep flavors of cumin, chile peppers, galangal and bright squiggles of Sriracha that bleed into the rust-hued curry.

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Photo by SodexoUSA

This weekend, I'll be attending the 3rd Annual Friendster. While it may sound like the name of a defunct social network, it's actually an Easter potluck with my degenerate group of friends. Last year's bounty was quite interesting -- from my homemade spinach bread and raspberry French macarons to a bag of McGangBangs. Yes, you read that correctly.

This year, I'll be making one of my family's favorite Easter treats: spanakopita and tiropita, or Greek spinach and cheese pies.

Layers of crisp, buttery phyllo dough are filled with garlic-studded spinach and tangy feta cheese, or creamy ricotta, crumbled feta and eggs. These pastries make the perfect springtime treat and are super easy to make for a crowd.

Here's how:

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

A classic on gluten-free bread ($5).

I was fully prepared to turn my nose up at Monster PBJ. A $7 peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Prepared with your choice of locally sourced breads, nut butters and jams? It sounded like a Portlandia episode. "We can pickle that!"

I love it when I'm wrong.

I'm officially here to tell you that if you have $7 and you want to spend that $7 on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you're going to receive the best dang peanut butter and jelly sandwich of your life at Monster PBJ. But be prepared: It truly is a monster.

The "monster" size is the largest that Monster PBJ sells, and features three slices of bread along with your choice of nut butter, jam, sliced fruit and sweetener (if you're more of a peanut butter-banana-honey or peanut butter-banana-Nutella) person. You can get it grilled, which I heartily suggest. I also suggest splitting it with a friend, because it's truly massive.

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Photo by VJ Beauchamp

Portland has two all-vegan craft beer bars like Bye & Bye (seen here). GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, HOUSTON.

"Another new crafty beer type place just opened, Cottonwood. And if this is not the 15th of these types of craft beer-meet-upscale food, but with a casual vibe, places to open up in Houston that serves nothing vegetarian," a colleague here at the Houston Press recently complained. "The food of these places is all very high-end, despite their want of a laid-back patronage, but with nothing vegetarian-friendly," she continued. "It's so odd, and a trend in a weird direction."

Even as an omnivore who considers herself pretty sensitive to the needs of my vegetarian friends, this isn't an issue that had honestly ever occurred to me. I'm firmly of the opinion that people who choose a restrictive diet are also choosing to have their options narrowed when dining (or drinking) out, so complaints I field about such-and-such restaurant not offering, say, vegan quinoa usually fall on deaf ears.

The statistics bear out what seems to be a small -- if very vocal -- minority: Only 5 percent of Americans identify themselves as vegetarians, according to a 2012 Gallup poll. That number is down slightly from the 6 percent who identified as vegetarians in 2001 and 1999. An even smaller number identify as vegan: only 2 percent.

Despite this, the two minorities -- craft beer fans and vegetarians -- often find themselves overlapping, as both groups tend to be more mindful and supportive of small, local or "artisanal" food and beverage producers. But craft beer bars aren't necessarily the best place for a vegetarian to eat, drink and be merry all at the same time.

"I think the trend in menus at beer bars is to offer food that is basically 'bad' for you and manly," says Mike Sammons, owner of Mongoose versus Cobra as well as its wine bar counterpart, 13 Celsius. And -- as most vegetarians are well aware -- vegetable-based diets are rarely considered "manly." What's a man without his meat and potatoes?

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Photo by Troy Fields

Although the Third Ward recently lost vegan cafe and art space The Eat Gallery to the Heights, the neighborhood is still home to a small but dazzling array of vegan and vegetarian restaurants. A friend of mine raised in the area recently noted with equal amounts irony and approval that the "veganization" of the historically black area was fascinating.

Doshi House, the subject of this week's cafe review, is the most recent addition to the number of vegetable-centric restaurants in the Third Ward. Part coffeehouse, part art space, part cafe, it serves many purposes to the community that lives near Dowling and Holman -- including supporting local food producers by selling their wares alongside homemade soups, salads, paninis and more.

Breakfast features pastries and other goods from local bakers such as La Unica and Ashcraft, while lunch offers a small selection of hot sandwiches, soups and salads. But dinner is where Doshi really shines: It offers a very egalitarian "evening meal" each night that's completely vegan and also completely filling.

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Photo by Troy Fields

Fresh, fast vegan fare at our No. 2 pick.

It's becoming easier than ever to go vegan in Houston, with local restaurants filling nearly every niche possible: You can get vegan baked goods from Sinfull Bakery, wedding cakes from Jodycakes or all-raw falafels at Pat Greer's Kitchen. There are food trucks like Bare Bowls, which makes exquisite vegan meals with vegetables fresh from Urban Harvest's farmers markets.

Snap Kitchen carries its own take-out vegan meals -- even if it doesn't always mark them as such. I like its oatmeals or mueslis for breakfast and its red-and-green salad or a vegan green curry for lunch. You can even get a cauliflower "steak" or spicy sambal tofu for dinner.

And there are plenty of restaurants, too, from an all-vegan Mexican taqueria to an upscale vegan wine bar (with attached juice bar for the mornings). You can get vegan pizza, vegan Chinese, vegan sushi, vegan Indian, vegan Vietnamese -- you name it, and Houston's got it.

In celebration of World Vegan Day (yes, that's today!), here are 10 of our current favorites for vegan meals, although be warned: Not all of these restaurants are entirely vegan. A few are simply standard restaurants (great for eating with a mixed group of veg and carnivorous friends) that offer great vegan options.

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston® issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

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Photo by Andrea Nguyen

In my opinion, if you're not a pickle lover, you're absolutely nuts. On a sandwich for an added bite, alongside homemade barbecue, as a savory snack with afternoon cocktails, or just straight from the jar, pickles are good on any occasion.

And while I'll never discriminate against any pickle, my all-time favorite are the incredibly sweet, tangy and crunchy bread & butter variety.

Which is why, of course, I made some at home. These uncanned pickles have hints of brown sugar, ginger and Thai chili, and they're incredibly easy to make.

Here's how:

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Photos by Mai Pham

Stir-fried water spinach with garlic, at Rice Bowl II

See our cover story on water spinach and its cultivation locally in a Cambodian village near Rosharon.

Water spinach, sold in Asian markets, where it is called ong choy, is called rau muống in Vietnamese. It thrives in swampy, wet soil, where it grows like weeds, and is harvested by cutting at stalk. When I was a kid, we used to eat it every week, served with rice and a salty protein dish.

Fresh from the grocery store, water spinach comes in a long, leafy, bright green bunch, about 18-20 inches in length, and costs a bit less than $2 a pound.

In Houston, you can find water spinach stir-fried with garlic, or rau muống xào tỏi, at most Vietnamese family restaurants that serve a la carte dishes. In fact, if you ask for a vegetable recommendation at a Vietnamese restaurant, the server will probably recommend the water spinach -- it's that common. I've had it at most Vietnamese restaurants I frequent: Bodard Bistro, Thuan Kieu Com Tam and Que Huong, among others.

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Photos by Molly Dunn

Eggplant is the perfect substitute for potatoes.

There's nothing better than a crispy french fry; golden and crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. However, sometimes a greasy french fry is too much. But there is a substitution you can make that will satisfy those crispy and crunchy fry cravings, minus the extra calories.

Eggplant not only is a wonderful vegetable to add to lasagna for a vegetarian twist on the Italian classic, but it also serves as a great alternative to French fries.

The thick flesh holds up nicely when coated with the crunchy bread-crumb exterior, and you won't even notice that you're eating vegetables instead of a starch.

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