Vegans and the City: Part 1 – Buddha Bodai

Last weekend, I had the honor and the pleasure of taking a break from my summer training in Philadelphia and meeting up with two of my beloved vegweb friends in NYC.  Cali, Kennedy and I met up for some vegan food, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, some more vegan food, some walking, a little more vegan food……It was so nice to be able to agree on restaurants, share off each other’s plates, and bond over our love of cruelty-free cuisine.

Our first stop was Buddha Bodai, a Chinese restaurant that’s 100% vegetarian.  They feature a lot of faux meats–chicken, beef, fish, duck, and jellyfish, to name a few.  I am not usually a faux-meat type of person, but these were absolutely delicious–far better than any “real” meat I have stashed in the depths of memory.

First, we ordered the baby cucumber.  It was basically cold, crisp slices of pickles with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.  These were so, so good–they were nutty, bright, and not too salty.  They were nice and cold, which was a treat after walking in the blazing sun all day.

Next came the appetizer plate.  I can’t remember exactly what everything was supposed to be, so I’ll have to consult Kennedy’s notes and get back to you.  But I know that the one on the right is the tofu chicken, and the pink in the middle is jellyfish, both of which were quite good.  We thought it was eerie how realistic some of the skin was.  They also put some candied walnuts on top, which were positively yummy.

We could have stopped right there and called it a meal, quite honestly, but we were going all out.  We still had three more dishes to go, starting with the sweet and sour chicken.  This one had a very thick sauce (almost too thick) and some pineapple and green peppers mixed in.  It was good, overall.

Next, General Tso’s beef.  We concluded that while the chicken had the better meat, the beef had the better sauce.  It also had some darn good broccoli, which was a welcome change from the overcooked, brownish broccoli that’s the only cooked vegetable in the dining hall where I’m eating during my training.

Next was some of the best rice I’ve ever eaten.  I give you veggie fried rice in all it’s splendor:

Room for dessert?   Heck yes!  We split a piece of cheesecake.  It was my first experience with vegan cheese cake, and it won’t be the last.  This tofu-based cheesecake was surprisingly similar in flavor to dairy-based cheesecake.  I do like a nice, thick crust on my pies, and this one was kind of wimpy.  Otherwise, it was great!  Note the sexy red drizzles and brown top:

In the end, it was a great value–lots and lots of food for a relatively low price.  I’ve rarely felt as full as I felt after that meal.  We sat for a long time before venturing back out into the devil sunlight.

And that was just the first meal!  Up next: cupcakes, sorbet, waffles, and french toast!

Bonus pic: the three of us on the subway!

Oprah Winfrey and heavenly, heavenly mousse cake.

What do Oprah Winfrey and the slice of mousse cake I had at lunch today have in common? If you don’t know the answer to this one, you might visit the “About” page of this blog for a quick hint.

Ready? Wait for it…..wait for it….

They’re both vegan.

For the next twenty one days, at least. Let me explain. Oprah just announced that she is about to embark on a 21-day “cleanse” in which she will drop the caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and animal products from her diet. Sounds like a heck of a lot of food to forgo, no? Well, from what I understand, the cleanse has multiple purposes–it will be both a health cleanse and a spiritual cleanse, she says, in which she makes an effort to think about the “animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony.”

Now, Oprah has touched upon the topic of vegetarianism on her show in the past. Several years back, when she found out that cattle are fed the remains of other cattle–that they are quite literally made into cannibals–she announced that she would never eat a hamburger again. And guess what! Sales of red meat dropped noticeably. And, well, the Texas Beef industry got a little miffed and delivered her a big, fat “food disparagement” lawsuit. Because, gosh darn it, how dare she infringe upon their right as Americans to turn a profit through cruelty and exploitation! The suit was dismissed, but Oprah has been reluctant to touch vegetarianism with a ten foot pole ever since.

And that’s why, when I found out about Oprah’s 21 day flirtation with veganism, I didn’t believe it. Granted, she does not use the words “veganism” or “vegetarianism” to describe her experiment. But this is for the better, I think. The word “vegan” is still quite scary to many people. But the fact of the matter is, vegan recipes are starting to pop up on Oprah’s website!

Who knows what will come of this. Maybe she’ll be miserable and give up on the third day. Or maybe she’ll love it and keep this lifestyle for good. I sure hope so! Either way, the thought that legions of Oprah lovers across the country might be inspired to think about the impacts of their diet and maybe even make some small changes is incredibly exciting to me.

In other news, I found vegan goodness in another unexpected place today! To celebrate being my receiving the student worker’s award at the library where I work, my wonderful supervisors at work took me out to lunch at Aladdin’s Natural Eatery, a Mediterranean restaurant in Ithaca. When we were done with our fabulous meal of pita-falafel-olives-hummus-eggplant happiness, I took a cursory glance at the dessert case, which I expected to be barren of vegan delectables. But lo and behold, there it was: Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake. I kid you not. Now, this was before I heard about this Oprah business, but had it been afterward, it might have been too much for my fluttering vegan heart to bear. Here is what remained of it after everyone had tasted a forkful:

I have made vegan chocolate mousse before, and with highly satisfactory results. But this mousse was unlike any dessert I have ever tasted. I defy any lover of sweets–omnivorous, herbivorous, or otherwise–to distinguish it from it’s non-vegan counterpart on the basis of taste, texture, or mouth feel. I was so in awe of it that I asked the gentleman at the front desk for a list of ingredients. “How, good sir, is this accomplished?” I begged him. Alas, the restaurant orders its dessert from, well, God himself, and there was not a box to be found in the back room. But I will ask again next time I visit. Mark my words, Gadget, next time…

Scrambly tofu scramble and musings on turmeric.

This tofu scramble is doubly scrambly (say that out loud, please) because I made it in a hurry. It is really more of a veggie scramble with tofu than a tofu scramble with veggies because of all the vegetables–broccoli, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, and spinach. Well, mushrooms aren’t a vegetable, they are a fungus. But they might as well be an honorary vegetable because it’s lonely in the fungus food group. Heck, it’s not even a group, it’s just “fungus” in the singular. Poor shrooms.

Tofu scramble makes me nostalgic because it is one of the first recipes I made after going vegan. It is, I think, one of my favorite dishes to make. You can use any ingredients you have, you can use any spices you like, and you can make it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. So much awesome in one little meal.

I used turmeric to make it yellow, which got me thinking about this enigma of a spice. Does anyone really like turmeric? Does anyone actually use it for its flavor and not to color foods radioactive yellow? Honestly, by itself it tastes like powdered sidewalk chalk that’s gone a bit stale, if such a thing were possible. But it does turn tofu into sunshine, and that’s what matters here.