It's so outrageously thrilling to open a menu at a restaurant and know that I can have anything on it. Such was the case on Friday night at the V-Spot, a "100% Vegan" restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
I'd heard that the menu here was uneven, that the cafe might be going through hard times, and that it's unhealthy vegan food. (This is more possible than you might think.) But I found the experience of dining there to be delightful. The food is not particularly exotic or gourmet, but very, very tasty. I got to enjoy my favorite comfort food, nachos, with soy beef chili and soy sour cream--delicious! The pesto portobello panini featured soy mozzarella that tasted amazing, and the California veggie burger brought wonderful flavors together.Nicely priced, friendly service, a back patio, and an extensive menu of the kinds of dishes people think vegans can't eat. I'm the V-Spot's biggest new fan!
V-Spot's marinated tofu sandwich pic by copacetique on Flickr.
4 comments:
Hm. What is the point of putting the words "beef" and "sour cream" in the names when that is not what they are?
Because it's delicious, that's why.
Okay, but seriously, I asked that question, too, before I became vegan. Like, "Why do vegetarians want to eat faux-meat if they don't want to be eating meat?"
After reading in the book, "The Face On Your Plate," where it talks about the effect cultural influences on our eating habits, and after three months (today) of eating vegetarian, I now have a better answer for your (and my own) question: comfort.
That is, as a kid growing up in America, you're indoctrinated to think that a meal is not complete unless it's centered around (a large chunk of) meat.
And it's hard, in a way, to move past that idea. If I had been brought up in a society where vegetarianism was more the norm, then it would be more natural, psychologically, to exist on the kind of fruit, veggie, and grain-based diet I've adopted.
But dangit, I enjoyed beef nachos before I became vegan, so occasionally I'd like to indulge in something similar to that!
Ok. That is a WAY better answer. "Because it's delicious" was not cutting it. Thanks for adding something.
Post a Comment