week 12: sacred chow
my week-long trial period of near-veganism culminated last friday,
with a trip to
in the west village
it was recommended to me by vegan friend justin,
whom i did not know was vegan until he turned down an offer
for a cookie bar made by mum
{and you must know that no one turns down jody's cookie bars}
so in our post-concert rush,
we taxied downtown
with just enough time to place our dinner {and dessert} order
by closing time.
and the style was
tapas
and our appetites were
big
here's a list of what we ordered,
and my thoughts about them
{in twitter form, of course}
sacred caesar salad
taste simulation at it's highest.
are you sure there are no anchovies in this, justin?
yes, pumpkin, i'm sure.
sunflower lentil paté
tasty,
not too weird or grossly offensive,
but, alas, i've never had real paté so i don't know how this compared.
mama's soy meatballs
with sicilian sauce
delicious!
reminded me of the vegetarian meatballs that an ex's mom made,
and since i wouldn't dare ask her for the recipe,
these compensated quite well.
baby root vegetable latkes
like soggy waffles.
no one likes a soggy waffle.
and last i checked, "crispy" is a word that is indeed in the vegan dictionary.
sliced ginger soba noodles
with spicy peanut sauce
by far my fave.
it's hard to mess up peanut noodles, i know,
but i was afraid of the word "soba"
til i tried these.
indonesian roasted tempeh
contrary to what i predicted,
i didn't run the other way screaming.
the texture was new,
kind of like paper maché,
but i think i'd like to try it again to give it a fair shot.
seitan.
seitan.
roasted black olive seitan.
there's a reason it's so close in spelling to satan.
kidding.
sort of.
i actually muscled through a whole piece of it thinking it was the meatballs.
and then the meatballs came out and i was like
oh no what did i just eat? that's such a terrible feeling.
it tasted like that egg carton foam you put over your mattress.
but edible, definitely edible.
sort of.
top to bottom: paté, tempeh, seitan
and for dessert:
brownie sundae
i didn't feel so guilty gobbling all of it up because
if it's vegan,
it must be healthy,
right?
please let that be right.
because i pretty much ate it all.
and i couldn't believe it was vegan.
i was, after all, that bitch of a little sister when lactose-intolerant stoop had to eat soy dream.
...
anywho,
i really enjoyed my first vegan restaurant experience.
it was sort of like being on another planet...
most things were recognizable with their non-vegan counterpart,
but there were things, mostly textures, that distinguished them.
i mean, how close can one really get to simulating a chewy, still bleeding steak without a cow?
but this new food world
is like discovering a new ethnic cuisine,
it is so interesting,
that i just might extend my near-veganism
for kicks.
and because my jeans were looser this week.
i think i'll go back to sacred chow,
or try to incorporate more vegan things in the
40
restaurants that i have left...
xoxo
yeh
sacred chow is on sullivan street between west 3rd and bleecker in the village.
sun-thu 11-10, fri&sat 11-11.