The Great Vegetarian Empire Review

I am about to review a whole lot of seemingly independent vegetarian restaurants in New York City that I am convinced are owned by someone who has monopolized the vegetarian restaurant business here. These restaurants are: Vegetarian Paradise 3 (China Town), Vegetarian Paradise 2 (West Village), Red Bamboo (West Village), Soy and Sake (Greenwich Village), Vegetarian Palate (Park Slope), and Zen Vegetarian House (Flatbush!!). I thought I might as well review them all at once since they have such similar menus. (I've never been to Veg. Paradise 3, so I can't offer a review on that, but I'm assuming it's related to Veg. Paradise 2!)

Most vegetarians in New York have heard of Vegetarian Paradise 2 and Red Bamboo since they are right next to each other in the NYU neighborhood, home to many vegetarian and vegan friendly establishments. Here is a hint (and the first evidence of there being an overarching empire): if you want to go to Red Bamboo, but its too crowded, go to Vegetarian Paradise and ask them for Red Bamboo's menu. No kidding. They'll just give you both menus, and you can order whatever you want. I can't certify whether the other restaurants are under the same ownership, but if they aren't, they are plagarising each other's menus to no end.

These restaurants are known for one thing, and they do it very well: fake meat. Everything on the menu is mock meat, so they don't even bother explaining it; it's common sense that it isn't actually duck or beef or fish if it's called Vegetarian Paradise. It's a *great* place for bringing meat-eating visitors and friends who think vegetarians eat twigs and nuts. It's also great if you used to eat meat and miss it. My husband is addicted to these restaurants, and he's a meat eater; he says it has all the flavor of meat but its easier to chew.

Now, these restaurants aren't exactly healthy... it's sort of like chinese food; greasy, fried, battered, saucy... but very, very tasty.

So, since many of these restaurants have the same items on their menu, I'm just going to list my favorite menu items, and list where you can try them out.

Appetizers
**Almond Coconut Chicken: Crispy soy strips, fried with almond slivers and shredded coconut, with a sweet chili sauce.
Available at: Red Bamboo
**Sugarcane Drumsticks: soft shredded soy with a thin fried shell, cooked on a stick of sugarcane, with sweet chili sauce. If you have a sweet tooth like me, press your teeth down on the sugar cane when you're done with the drumstick and suck out the sugar. Mmm...
Available at: Vegetarian Paradise 2, Vegetarian Palate, Zen
**Malaysian Pancakes: Thin crepes with a very sweet (but not tangy) curry sauce. I absolutely love the sauce.
Available at: Zen, Vegetarian Palate (I think Roti Canai at Red Bamboo is probably the same thing)

Sushi
Yes, one of these establishments stands alone in this area: Soy and Sake. Thank you, Soy and Sake, for the most delicious vegetarian sushi experience of my life. The classic rolls are decent but nothing special; I didn't think too much of the spicy salmon roll. But the special rolls are really outstanding and huge, so come with your appetite.
Favorites:
**Hawaii Roll: Big, juicy roll layered with strips of sweet mango, filled with banana, avocado, and Korean pear. Oh, my, goodness.
**House Roll: Well, I never had chicken in my sushi in my meat eating youth, but I've had it in my vegetarian sushi! This roll features fried soy chicken, and has eel sauce on it, a sweet brown sauce usually served with eel rolls, that vegetarians often miss out on! Delicious. I still haven't figured out how to eat this roll. Huge sauced up pieces full of soy and avocado that barely fit in my mouth but don't stay together well when eaten in bites. It's worth the struggle, though.

Meals
I should note that it's hard to go wrong. The only thing I haven't enjoyed so far is the duck l'orange at Vegetarian Palate. But, especially in the beef and chicken sections of the menu, it's really hard to go wrong. Here's some stand-bys:

**Hawaiian Chicken/Sweet and Sour Chicken: Deep fried soy strips, Chinese style, with a thick, goopy, tangy, wonderful sweet and sour sauce. Most locations (not Zen) jazz up the sauce, adding lychees and pineapples. Very yummy dish.
Available at: EVERY LOCATION :)

**Mango Chicken: A ridiculous amount of sweet mango comes with this dish, making it a great value. It's definitely a mango-lovers delight. Chicken strips slightly healthier in cooking style, marinated in a mildly sweet sauce and the juice of the mango.
Available at: EVERY LOCATION :)

**Double Delight: A great combination of soy beef and soy chicken in a nice mild sauce, with lots and lots of steamed vegetables. I get this dish when I want a balance rather than an overload of fake meat. It is great for variety and comes in a nice, light sauce that tastes like thick sugar water. It's a great fall back choice for when you can't decide.
Available at: Vegetarian Paradise, Vegetarian Palate

So, go find the location nearest you, and enjoy a really indulgent, can't-believe-this-is-vegetarian meal.

Vegetarian Paradise: 144 W 4th St, Between 6th Ave & Macdougal St (near the BD, West 4th stop)
Red Bamboo: 140 W 4th Street, next door to Veg. Paradise
Soy and Sake: 47 7th Ave S, Between Bleecker & Morton St (near the 1, Christopher Street stop)
Zen: 773 Flatbush Ave, Between Clarkson Ave & Lenox Rd (near the Q at Parkside)
(Btw, Zen is a really delightful addition to this neighborhood. It seems a little out of place where it is located in Flatbush, but it seems to get good business. They have really fast delivery!!)
Vegetarian Palate: 258 Flatbush Ave, Between St Marks Ave & Prospect Place (near the Q-B at 7th avenue)

On What We Are

Watering my bonsai tree this afternoon, I remembered something that Dave Matthews said in his acceptance speech at Haverford, a Quaker university, the religion he was raised in, although he considers himself agnostic/atheist. I thought it was very beautiful and insightful, so I thought I might share it:

I do find myself praying a lot, and I don’t know what I pray to, but it seems like I pray to the undamaged things, to the natural things, to breasts before enhancement, to the way that a child runs across the lawn, to trees or to a forest. I pray to those things; to the mountain. That’s where I think God might be at least: the mountain next to Mt. Rushmore. Although Mt. Rushmore is impressive, it’s not as impressive as it was prior to the damage done to it. So, what is our obligation to this God I don’t really believe in? ...
God made you what you are, so why would he want you to be something other than you are? Why would he want you to pretend you are something you are not, because your heart is what God made it. And so, our responsibility to God, however difficult it is, is to be what we are. To be present, not to put up a façade that makes us feel safer. It’s not always easy. I’m faking it a lot of times. I wish I could fake it a little better right now. Although in a way you are more vulnerable and vile things happen to you when you experience joy, you get a mouthful of it, you know when you experience goods things. Because it comes right to you, you’re right there, because you’re not busy trying to make sure no one notices that behind that perfect, or average, or fitting-in façade is really what God made you. So be yourselves I guess is what I wanted to say. Be present. I have a little poem that I was going to read because I think that this guy was much more able to say what I said in the last five minutes—or ten if it feels like that—in just a couple of lines. I went to Australia and I found this poet that I don’t think has landed on these shores, and I thought he was kind of magical. And it’s May, and this is called, “A Prayer in May.” And it says, it starts,
“God relieve the dark unease.
God of valves untie my throat,
and God let sink the weight of mind to the belly of heart’s content.”
Thank you very much to everybody for having me today. So save the world now by being yourself.

(Note: Post title drawn from this song. This footage is from a Central Park concert!)

On Interconnectedness, and Dhara

A couple weeks ago, I joined perhaps the most eclectic yoga class ever. Well, this needs clarification. It isn't a yoga class. It isn't qi gong. It isn't meditation. It isn't a discussion group. It isn't a lecture. It isn't a wellness seminar. It isn't a group of people hanging out and eating fruit together in the late afternoon deep in the heart of Flatbush. It's all of those things. I stumbled upon a flier while trying out Third Root's free Wednesday morning meditation session (this is a place I spoke about with excitement in a past entry, and it certainly lived up to my own self-created hype), for a Young Adults Wellness Program. I am, just barely, within the age range, and, though I was worried I'd come face to face with a group of frenzied 14 year olds, I decided to drop my judgements and just be open to trying it. Turns out, most of the group is also composed of early twenties college age students, still making me a rare bird, a college graduate, but all the same, this is probably one the best experiences I've had so far in the city, and I'm sure I'll talk about it from many angles again in the future. The teacher, Jenna, has just returned from basically living alone in a cave in the middle of China for at least a year, and she is immediately engaging herself in non-profit endeavors (Her organization is called Dhara, and her website offers an introduction to one of the breathing techniques she uses. It's nice.) to put her learnings to work. In addition to a young adults program, she works with mentally ill students in a program called Six Weeks To Wellness (This program was featured in Time Magazine). She is such a calming presence, fully aware of how quirky and out of place she seems in this furiously active city, doing Tai Chi in Central Park, coming to class bearing Carribean fruits one week to celebrate the culture of Flatbush and apples and honey the next, explaining that in the Jewish tradition they eat this to symbolize the wish that "the fruits of your year be sweet." She's got a beautiful, magnetic soul, and her students follow her with total adoration. It's really bewildering; this young American woman with all the spirit of an old Chinese sage. Kind of turns your perceptions of culture and social standards on its head.

What is coming to mind at the moment about her class is that yesterday we practiced tree pose, first on our own, and then by standing in a circle together and touching palms. The pose was much easier to do with this subtle touch, and we all could feel the sway and struggle of everyone else in the group. Rather than creating a domino effect, it led to a gradual decrease in swaying, and near-total stillness. As one student put it in discussion afterwards, we felt both the strength of the person next to us and the responsibility of helping them stay stable by remaining stable ourselves. Jenna replied, "We're in our natural state in this way. Oneness. Interconnectedness. We just need to learn to feel like this all the time, out there in the world, because in reality, we effect each other just as much out there as we do right here."

What a concept. I won't even explain it, or attempt to explain it. Needless to say, there is, absolutely, a universal law of interconnectedness. Down to the atoms. I mean, really, what is keeping us apart? There is no break in the line of molecules leading from you to me. But you don't even have to go that deep. They say a butterfly flapping its wings causes a tsunami half way around the world. Could a peaceful stance, a loving attitude, somehow effect the day of all the someones inevitably connected to us in our urban everyday life, and bring peace to their family, to their work place, to their relatives and friends and organizations, bring perspective and balance and energy to their outlook, to their output, to the effect they have on this world?

Food for thought. Vital food for thought.

As for me, I kind of get caught in the awe of it, of that total interconnectedness, and maybe that's a good place to get stuck. In perfect, complete awe of this terrifyingly alive, terrificly interwoven city.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

On Subway Mosaics

Do you ever take notice of the beautiful mosaics in the New York City subways?

I do. Maybe it's the mindfulness practice. Maybe it's because I actually dabble in mosaics myself. But I find them stunning.

My favorite to date? The Delancey F/M/J/Z stop on the Lower East Side.

If you find yourself there someday, take a moment to pause and take in the rich textures the artist created out of shards of tile. Funny how instead of simple square white tiles, a bit of color and creativity can transform a dirty station stop into an apple orchard.

Maybe if you're lucky, they'll be a street musician there, too, like there is in this picture I found:

On Generosity

Last Wednesday, I began taking a one-month course at the Insight Meditation Center in downtown Manhattan. I was interested in deepening my formal meditation practice, and intrigued by vipassana meditation, the meditative tradition of Theravada Buddhism, the oldest and most traditional form of Buddhism. While I do not identify as Buddhist, I think meditation is an important tool, regardless of our religious and philosophical background, to cultivate mindfulness in our everyday life. This reminds me: mindfulness is actually in the title of this blog, so I might as well explain what that means to me. To paraphrase Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is essentially moment-to-moment, non-judgemental, openhearted awareness. Which means? In terms of living here in the city, it is the challenge of being open and alive in each moment, without placing judgement on what we see around us or feel within us. And it's incredibly important for city-dwellers to cultivate in particular, given that we are in a world of sensory bombardment, advertisement, persuasion, temptation, and are often too busy to even know where we are, or even what we are doing and why. When I am running to a meeting after downing my breakfast in two seconds and drowning the noise out with my Ipod and thinking about what so-and-so said to me last week, where am I?

Lost.

So, mindfulness is important, and meditation is a tool to get more mindful more often, so why not draw from a tradition that has been studying this tool for ages.

All this said, when I arrived at the first session, the instructor, actually a woman trained by Kabat-Zinn named Elaine Retholtz, explained that we Westerners are getting ahead of ourselves trying to meditate. Apparently, when you study in Sri Lanka or Thailand, where Theravada is prevalent these days, they won't teach you to meditate for years. Instead, you sit around being told to contemplate deeply your intention to meditate, and, more imporantly, the concept of generosity.

This is fascinating to me, since often I find myself walking around the city, saying, "Be present, you have to be mindful, don't judge the situation, look at it with an open mind, be loving, be kind..." And all of these statements are about what I cultivate within myself, aimed at, what? Too often, at my betterment. At my happiness, contentment, even my sanity.

Yet, if you think about it, all those qualities- not judging, being present, being open and loving and kind- can also be looked at in a different way. Done right, it is for the betterment of others. I give my open mind to their perspective, and make them feel more at home in their world. I give them my ear for comfort, my time, for companionship, my love, for their wellbeing. Everything I do can be seen in this light, and sure, it benefits me, too, but also the woman selling me mangos on Flatbush Avenue, and the guy checking out books to me at the Brooklyn Public Library, and my husband when he comes home from a long, stressful day of work. By being mindful and happy myself, I bring that ever-needed sense of presence and belonging to the inhabitants of New York City.

It was an extraordinary lecture, to shortend it, and I highly recommend taking a course, going to a daylong retreat, or attending a lecture or sitting group at the Insight Meditation Center. You don't have to be Buddhist to practice meditation, so I invite you and encourage you to explore and use this wonderful tool, to be more alive and more happy, and therefore, shed light and happiness on the bustling, stressed, underslept, over-worked, starving-for-love world around you.

The Insight Meditation Center is located on 28 West 27th Street (10th floor). Go to http://nyimc.org/ to view the upcoming events there.

On Love For Rastafarianism

When I first moved to Flatbush, my first thought was, "Dear God. I will never make it here." The reason? I was overwhelmed by bakeries and shops advertising Jerk Chicken, Beef Patties, Curry Goat, and Oxtail Soup. It's a Caribbean/Jamaican neighborhood, and I quickly doubted if I would ever take part in their culture in any way, at least from a culinary standpoint. It was sad, because I really wanted to get myself mixed into the culture, learn about the music and the traditions (actually, as I write this entry the West Indian Day Parade is happening around and about the neighborhood, celebrating heritage and culture in a bold, boisterous, and colorful way. Check out the beautiful costumes!)

Then I read about a place called Strictly Vegetarian on a great blog I stumbled upon, Flatbush Vegan. And I discovered my culinary niche in this neighborhood: Rastafarianism!

Now, I don't entirely understand the religious backdrop to the Rastafari movement, but according to Wikipedia they believe the last Emperor of Ethiopia was an incarnation of God. Anyway, whatever the deal is, the ones in my neighborhood are fierce vegetarians, and follow an Ital diet, which is pretty exciting, given all the deep fried chicken shops around here:

Though there are different interpretations of ital regarding specific foods, the general principle is that food should be natural, or pure, and from the earth; Rastas therefore often avoid food which is chemically modified or contains artificial additives (e.g. color, flavorings, and preservatives.) Some also avoid added salt in foods, especially salt with the artificial addition of iodine, while pure sea or kosher salt is eaten by some. In strict interpretations, foods that have been produced using chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizer are not considered ital.

Awesome.

So, here are my reviews of the three Ital stops in the area I've eaten at.

Four Seasons: Four Seasons is probably my favorite Ital stop. From the outside it looks like a big Rasta clothing store, but don't be fooled; they have a full juice bar, baked goods, hot foods, bulk foods, and frozen fake meat products to cook with at home. I am a big fan of their dried mango. The small mixed plate of hot food is $7, and it's more than enough for two people. Menu changes all the time; when I ate there we had soy meat, lomein, some sort of chopped greens, rice, beans, etc. They just layer it all, one thing on top of the other, which is a little strange at first, but since all the food is mild it works fine; we asked for a paper plate and scooped things onto that to make more sense of the mountain of food. It's healthy, filling, and delicious.

Strictly Vegetarian: The guy that runs this place is really nice. It's right across the street from Four Seasons, and has a limited bakery and a nice hot bar. Same deal as Four Seasons, except $6. We liked the variety at Four Seasons a little more, but both places are great. Not so keen on pictures of half naked women on the walls, but if you can handle the atmosphere, it's a great place to stop in for a cheap, hugely portioned meal.

Scoops: Scoops is actually in Lefferts Gardens, but its totally worth the trip. Isn't open on Mondays. Like Strictly Vegetarian, it always seems to be the same Rasta guy in there running the shop. The food was great, $7 for a small mixed plate, portions slightly smaller, but the quality on par or even a little better. We had beans, rice, noodles, really great mango flavored hot sauce, and this amazing stuff they called "soy chunks" that was covered in some sort of barbeque sauce. The unique thing about scoops is the ice cream; they offer half a dozen flavors of Non-Dairy tofutti. I recently had the chocolate and thought it was very good, although the cone was a little stale, so you might go for a cup. Tiny, but there is a little bit of seating in there. Altogether, really great place.

So there you have it! Thank you Brooklyn Rastas, for bringing vegetarian culture to Flatbush!

Scoops is on 624 Flatbush Avenue, right near Fenimore Street, down from the Q-B Prospect Park stop or up from the Q Parkside stop.

Strictly Vegetarian is on 2268 Church Avenue, between Flatbush and Bedford, across from the post office.

Four Seasons is on 2281 Church Avenue, across from Strictly Vegetarian, next to the post office.