Friday, September 24, 2010

Grilled Asparagus vegetarian restaurant

If any of you would like to check out the Grilled Asparagus’ Facebook page, you can find it here.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Almost time

and the time is coming.
and the time is coming.
and i can feel the time coming.
and i know that you can feel the time coming, yourself. – The Mountain Goats, “Fresh Berries for You.”

The Mountain Goats’ charming song expresses the anticipation I feel building as we near the grand opening of The Grilled Asparagus, Winston-Salem’s first vegetarian restaurant, on Monday, Sept. 27. According to a flyer handed out by the restaurant, the festivities will start about 10 a.m. There will be a ribbon cutting, as well as remarks from Mayor Allen Joines and chef and owner Darryl Murray. Best of all, I’m told that there will be free menu samples. Later in the day, live music and a wine tasting are scheduled.

The restaurant will begin serving lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Oct. 1, it will serve lunch, and will begin serving dinner at 4:30 p.m. The restaurant is at 239 W. Fourth St. It’s phone number is 77-3414.

As the song continues, “It’s gonna be so nice …”

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Genetically modified salmon

I was quite distressed to read about the potential of genetically modified salmon making it onto plates in the near future. Even if you don’t eat salmon (as true vegetarians of course don’t!), I think that this is a worrisome environmental and public-health issue. There are so many things we don’t know about the potential effects that fiddling with the DNA of a living creature may have on the food chain. I think this is a case where extreme caution needs to be exercised at the beginning, rather than after the fact when it is too late.

Currently, wild salmon is considered a healthy food. But will GMO salmon contain the same vitamins and minerals, at the same levels?

Regardless of how many safeguards the company says will be in place to prevent contamination of wild salmon, I don’t think any can be 100% effective. There will always be mistakes, negligence, greed or bad luck that can undermine safeguards. After all, there were safeguards in place to keep the Deepwater Horizon oil from going into the Gulf of Mexico, too. And once endangered wild salmon gets contaminated with modified DNA, there’s no going back.

What really gets me is that, if this is OK’d, consumers may not even be allowed to know if the salmon they’re eating is genetically modified or not. The company doesn’t want to have to label their salmon as GMO—which tells me that they want to hide it from consumers, because they know that many would be opposed to eating it. This seems dishonest to me. I think we should know exactly what it is that we’re eating.

I also find it odd that this is being handled as a veterinary drug issue, rather than as a food issue.

The FDA is currently holding hearings on the matter. You can enter comments to the FDA docket by going to this government site, clicking on “Submit a comment” and entering FDA-2010-N-0385 in the keyword field.

How do you feel about this issue?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Hidden chicken stock at Mozelle’s

Julie and I had lunch at Mozelle’s last Friday (their tomato pie is to-die-for), when we discovered to our dismay that the side dish that comes with it, creamed succotash, contains chicken stock! The waiter offered this after I asked him to describe what was in it. He said it depends on the chef who’s making it—sometimes they use chicken stock, sometimes they use vegetable stock. I found this to be pretty upsetting, that the side dish that comes with a vegetarian entree isn’t reliably vegetarian. And the fact that it changes makes it even worse—someone might ask if it’s vegetarian on a day that vegetable stock was used, be told that it is, then assume that it’s always vegetarian and not ask again. (For the record, the spicy collard greens contain bacon.)

Moral of the story: ALWAYS ask if something is vegetarian, even if it seems like it should be. And maybe someday restaurant owners will wise up and learn to make this clear on the menu—and not think that chicken stock is OK for vegetarians.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Veggie restaurant update

On the way to lunch at Mooney’s today, we walked by the site of The Grilled Asparagus, the vegetarian restaurant that’s going into the former Downtown Deli spot. It’s coming along nicely and looks close to completion. The walls are painted in alternating vertical stripes of green and orange, the tables are all set up, and an open sign and schedule board hang on the windows. Sept. 20 is the opening date that’s being bandied about right now. It can’t come soon enough for me. I’m dying to see a menu.