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.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Breaking the Egg Habit

With a half-billion eggs being recalled because of salmonella contamination, it’s a great time to consider alternatives to eggs.

Apart from food safety concerns, the cruelty of the battery-cage system—which involves at least 95 percent of the chickens that lay eggs in the U.S.—is more than enough reason to avoid eggs.

Happily, there are so many “eggscellent” alternatives, you won’t go hungry. The one to choose depends on what you’re doing.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of such popular books as Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, says of eggs in baking, “like a bad boyfriend, they can be replaced, and with pleasing results.” She offers specific suggestions at her Post Punk Kitchen website.

Isa doesn’t mention it, but soy flour is another simple egg replacer. Just use about a tablespoon of the flour and a quarter-cup extra liquid (soy milk, or whatever other liquid you’re using in the recipe) for each egg you’re replacing. One caution: The raw soy flour can cause an unpleasant taste in cookie or cake batter. But never fear, the off taste completely disappears once the dish is baked.

There’s even a mix for making vegan meringue from Angel Food of New Zealand, which is available through mail-order sources in the U.S. I haven’t tried it, but it has received good reviews online.

For breakfast, scrambled tofu is almost as much of a cliché as scrambled eggs. You can find dozens, perhaps hundreds of recipes for it. Isa has a good one. Another great source for breakfast recipes is Chooseveg.com, a project of the group Mercy for Animals. It has at least three scrambled-tofu recipes, plus recipes for “eggs” Benedict; French toast, crepes, and other delicacies you might imagine require eggs. After breakfast, explore the rest of the Chooseveg.com site for more egg, dairy and meat-free ideas.

My personal breakfast favorite is banana pancakes. Add more spice than the recipe calls for, top them with blueberries and a side of vegetarian sausage … breakfast of champions! (They’re even better if you have leftovers and reheat them.)

This post is getting long, and it could go much longer because there are so many delicious alternatives. For lunch, maybe you like egg salad sandwich? ChooseVeg.com has a simple recipe. Maybe for supper you fancy Caesar salad? It’s no problem to make the dressing without eggs (or anchovies)— Beautiful Vegan offers one version—and there are many others.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Veggie Awards

It’s that time of year again to vote in VegNews magazine’s Veggie Awards. You could win prizes, including a trip, a year of Daiya cheese or a collection of vegan cookbooks.

Go here to vote.

Friday, July 30, 2010

It’s On!

Plans for Winston-Salem’s first vegetarian restaurant are on again. A sign at 209 W. Fourth St., the former site of Downtown Deli, promises that The Grilled Asparagus is coming soon. It was reported in May that the restaurant would be in the building vacated by Mary’s of Course! but those plans fell through. It’s very exciting that they have take root at another location—especially one in easy walking distance from my office.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Farm-fresh meal

Serendipity (and an inexplicable police barricade of Sandy Ridge Road) led me to discover the J&S Country Store several months ago. You might remember J&S Farms and their organic produce from their space at the right rear of the retail building at the Triad Farmers Market in Colfax. Well, now they have their own small country store about a mile away at 2301 Sandy Ridge Rd. It’s a wonderful place to find quality organic produce—plus freshly baked goodies, since they share the space with an artisan bakery, SwedeBread.

I visited Saturday and came away with a nice assortment of produce, including several pints of what I mostly went for, organic blueberries. One of the fun things about summer farmers markets is buying what is fresh and in-season and then figuring out what to make with it. Here’s a picture of what resulted from my buying trip:

I made an eggplant, squash and tomato gratin; sauteed kale with white beans, red onion and veggie bacon; and baked sweet potatos with pecans and maple syrup. All the produce came from J&S, apart from the tomatoes and fresh herbs, which came from my own garden. The hearty, multigrain roll came from SwedeBread.

All in all, it was a bright, fresh, filling (and tasty, if I do say so myself) meal. So take this summer challenge: Next time you visit a farmers market, try going in without a meal plan and see what develops!

The phone number of the store is (336) 665-0350, and you can contact them at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). They send out an e-mail weekly to let subscribers know what’s fresh in the store that week. (Just a note: The SwedeBread baker, Lena, is on vacation in Sweden, so there won’t be any fresh bread there for the next month. You can see her Web site here.)

Monday, July 12, 2010

A story to relish

Make sure you check out this Thursday’s edition of relish. The cover story is just for you! Laura Giovanelli talks to area vegetarians and vegans to find out some of their favorite local dishes and places to eat—plus how they get creative when eating out.