Cherry Orange Cornmeal Cake, or How To Have Polenta All Day Son 

   Philadelphia’s vegan scene keeps getting better and better. Seriously, every week an announcement comes for a new vegan something in the works. The most important announcement of last year was that Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of Vedge were opening a more casual vegan joint with a menu inspired by global street food. Considering the owners’ track record, we all expected V Street to be top-notch. Well, now having eaten every single item on the dinner menu, I can assure you that it’s more than you could possibly wish for. It’s incredible. Let’s take a look at this ridiculously great dinner (an epic lunch happened as well; we’ll do that later.)
     On my recent trip home to Philly, my parents told me to pick a restaurant for a special dinner out. Obviously we went to V Street, the restaurant I’ve been freaking out waiting to go to since it opened. With four non-vegan adults eating with me, I was extra hoping that everything would be incredible, to prove how great vegan food can be. That’s a lot of added pressure that I secretly put on V Street, but they more than came through. My dinner mates were blown away. 

      As my non-vegan parents and two of our non-vegan friends pored over the menu, my dad (I think) said to the waitron (omg p.s. this is my new fave non-gendered word) “Why don’t we just get everything?” I love that that was not my idea. Never knew I could get away with that. Having done it now, I realize it’s really the only wait to eat out. Get the entire menu, every time. I don’t care where you are. It’s the coolest. 
     Waitron was like, that’s actually a good amount to order for a group of five, so right on. Plates started coming out reasonably soon considering how edge-of-my-seat eager I was. First up were crunchy papadums with whipped dal and aleppo pepper. I freaking adore the idea of whipped dal, or lentil puree if you don’t want to sound as fancy. 

   In Indian restaurants in my neck of east London, papadums are always already on the table with little saucers of pickley things and sour sauces. Not my favorite. If papadums regularly came with what was effectively hummus made with lentils, I’d eat them nonstop. This was a fantastic start. (Also easy to share, which when you are sharing everything five ways becomes important.)

  Another must-get are the Peruvian fries. These are really big chunky potato wedge-style fries with aji amarilla, cilantro, olive, and peanut droppings. They tasted like the best loaded cheese fries you may have had in your ignorant youth. Just amazing. I want these again right now. 

     Two more dishes under the “Market” section of the menu were equally stellar. The Carrot Asado comprised whole long grilled carrots with smoked black lentils, a bbq glaze, and curtido, which is a Central American fermented cabbage relish. Some cilantro was thrown on top and it was all perfect. Below left is the Jerk Trumpet Mushrooms, mushrooms glazed with dark rum, dotted with cashew pieces, and served with a dollop of sweet potato mash. Mushrooms are one of my favorite foods, and these were some of the best ever.

     Next up came the dishes under “Plates”, which are more like entrees. All of these dishes were also just I can’t even continue to think of words they were that good. My absolute favorite, maybe of the whole night, was the Langos, an Eastern European deep-fried flatbread, sort of like an extra greasy focaccia, with smoked beets and sauerkraut remoulade. This, man alive. This was like an extra-puffy savory donut. If you go to V Street get 5 of these. Even if you are by yourself. 

    The other two ‘mains’ were more main-like, focused around a protein of tofu or tempeh, which along with seitan are cooked by Landau like no one else in the entire world. The Piri Piri Grilled Tofu with coconut chana salad and pickled celery won over our guests who were scared of tofu and I’m pretty sure had never really had it before. I loved it because I finally had great piri piri something! I live next to a Nando’s, where everything is piri piri (well peri peri), but they literally have not one vegan item, so this has been a long time coming. Just delicious. 

    Next we have the bowls! The Singapore Noodles with char sui tofu, broccoli, peanuts, and lime sambal were absolutely delicious. Sambal is another type of chili pepper paste, so this was very spicy, but the flavors weren’t overpowered. The angel-hair-like noodles were unexpected and lovely. The Mushroom Dan Dan Noodles with shaved zucchini and spicy sesame also blew me away. The thicker creamier sauce was fantastic. I expected them to be my preferred noodle bowl, because a) mushrooms and b) dan dan noodles are like the greatest thing on earth, but I think I may have preferred the Singapore noodles. Maybe they’re tied. You should get both and see for yourself. I think I just have been spoiled by Han Dynasty’s dan dan noodles, which are unparalleled even in China. I’m assuming. 

     That’s it for the savory food. Whew!!! I’m exhausted and also super hungry and very sad that I can’t have this food tonight; how about you? We still have dessert though. Getting all the dessert on the menu isn’t as notable a feat because there were only two options. (Their soft-serve machine wasn’t working that night, which is probably the saddest turn of events you could ever imagine, but luckily I had soft-serve at my lunch there, and we still had two excellent desserts.) The Halo Halo parfait contained taro ice cream – holy mother of god – and orange granita with pickled fruit mixed throughout. For a fruity dessert, this was surprisingly excellent. It was like fruit mixed with a sweet white cream but in ice cream parfait form. So lovely. Even better, obviously, because it’s a waffle, was the Waffle. Lolol that’s what it’s called on the menu. So the Waffle of Dreams which I renamed it (you’re welcome Rich) had a base of the most perfect waffle you could ever imagine, topped with chocolate ganache (like there’s ever any other kind of ganache), banana, miso caramel ffs, and sriracha peanuts. And then there was this peanutty chocolate cookie circle stuck on top. Freaking extraordinary. That’s all Kate Jacoby, mastress of the desserts. These people are amazing. Also, Danielle Konya of Vegan Treats was sitting near me, and I really wanted Kate to invite her backstage (into the kitchen) so the two of them, poss the best vegan desserters in the entire world, could work together on something and probably cause a new planet to form in the resulting wonderful flavor explosion. 

    So that is V Street, at least its current menu. I think I can safely say that this was one of the top five meals of my entire life. And I’ve eaten at all the great restaurants. Oh man. I cannot wait until May, when I am going back to visit home, and I get to eat here again (for my birthday!). I CANNOT WAIT. 

V STREET, PHILADELPHIA
Water speed: Great – they give you glass bottles for the table! My favorite! 
Service: Fantastic. Helpful and nice and had perfect timing. Of course, coming from the land of terrible service in London, I probably would think anything was good. 
Bathrooms: Past the kitchen with the bar seating around it, so every time I went (all the time) I got to see Rich holding court. 
Food: Freaking. Amazing. 
Bonus: Since you can share everything, it ends up being a great value. They also had a superb drinks menu, according to my companions, especially the tequila-horchata specialty. Also, they don’t take reservations, but they do take your phone number to call you when your table’s ready so you don’t have to wait outside. And if you are like me, you can see Kate, Rich, and Danielle all in one night. If there was a vegan celebrity bingo game, I prob would have won. 

Berlin is the home of Europe’s first all-vegan grocery store, Veganz, and it is definitely a must on any vegan’s to-do list. While it is chock full of really fun, and some hard-to-find, products, the stock is not necessarily rare or unique. But, the fact that you don’t have to check labels on anything makes this the fun stop it is. Also, all your favorite junk foods are in the same place!

Berliners are fortunate enough to have this vegan mecca, but guess what – there are two of them! There’s one store in Friedrichshain, of course, because that is Germany’s East Village for veganism, and one in Prenzlauer Berg. The stores are roughly the same. We actually went back and forth between the two a few times, especially when one didn’t have the soft-serve delivered yet. (I mean what???) But yes, you read right! Both Veganz stores house a cafe called Goodies, which sells cafe food, including bagel sandwiches, pastries, cookies, and vegan soft-serve ice cream! The soft-serve comes from a powder mix, like all addictive drugs, and sometimes it takes all day for that powder to be delivered, apparently, but it’s definitely worth trying because VEGAN SOFT-SERVE! It wasn’t very delicious by any stretch of the imagination, but come on, you can’t pass up trying vegan soft-serve. 

Okay, so here is what I bought. Well, here is what made it home. Not everything I bought made it home. It’s like the perfect stop for all of your plane snacks. 

As aforementioned, the giant pink bag of Manner is a must-buy. Manner is the greatest wafer cookie treat in the entire world if you don’t know. They sell it all over America in shitty little convenience stores, but it all contains milk in the USA. Ughhh! It makes no sense when the same product changes formula in different countries. Anyway, this one is obviously vegan, so stock up. Oh my lord Manner is the best. 

Continuing from the left: That red/coconut Bonbarr was okay, but those purple/nougat Bonbarrs are REVOLTING. Oh my god, do not buy them. They taste like unsweetened baking chocolate that you left unwrapped in a dusty old pantry for so many years that all the current inhabitants of the house with said pantry don’t remember who you are. Don’t buy it. 

That Oskri cashew-coconut-cereal bar was really yummy! I’ve loved all Oskri products that I’ve tried, but watch out when you find them in the wild because I think some have honey. 

The Vivani black cherry bar is banging, though nothing can beat those cheap Cella chocolate covered cherries for me. But this was great. 

Those biona cool cola bottles are just alright. The flavor is spot-on but the gumminess is lacking. It’s more like a soft candy that you’ll just bite through and be like whaat, where’s the gumminess? They sell them at As Nature Intended in London, FYI.

If you’ve never had Primal Strips, you need to go find them right now because they are a godsend for traveling vegans! My friend beanerschnitzel introduced me to them, and I am so grateful because they are amazing! They are soy, seitan, or mushroom-based (depending on the flavor) protein strips that are softer than traditional jerky and much more delicious (and much less disgusting in theory than dried meat). The Thai Peanut is my absolute favorite flavor; it is one of the seitan ones and has the perfect amount of spice and peanuttiness. 

That White Chocolate Dairy-Free bar, whose brand name I can no longer make out, is great for baking and was pretty okay for regular eating, but who eats plain white chocolate anyway? 

The Moo-free Caramelized Hazelnut Nibs bar is my favorite thing out of the whole gosh darn stash. This chocolate bar was one of the best I’ve ever had! It was just the perfect chocolate depth and the perfect nibby stuff on top. You can’t beat caramelized hazelnuts, so yeah, get a lot of these. 

That Chocolate Donut Pastry near the top? That’s from the selection of refrigerated yummies that Veganz sells and it was REMARKABLE. It was like a hard donut that had a creamy filling and a crunchy cookie-like base inside all of that chocolate coating. I want another one very soon. 

Baby food pouches are always welcome buys for me, and this apple banana one was yummy. I do prefer my travel baby food with a mix of veggies and fruit, but Veganz only had fruit. 

Okay, the Stroopwaffels. These carmelly syruppy waffle cookies are ridiculously good! Oh my goodness I don’t know how to describe them. They are soft but not crumbly, more like softly glued together or something fantastic. And the sweetness isn’t just sugary, it’s like deep and caramelly and beautiful. These are amazing. Except the picture on the wrapper is misleading, because it looks like there are 10 or so cookies inside but there are only 6, so you are going along eating all these amazing cookies and thinking you have so many more before you will have eaten half the package, but then the whole thing is gone. 

Amore Mio’s Chocolate Hazelnut treat thing was okay, a little unsubstantial and airy but good.

Fruit leather – no surprises there.

The Giant Gallon Bag of German Fruit Gummies was another of my favorites! Again, the lack of gelatin makes for a very interesting chewiness, in that your bite goes right through a little too easily. But, these tasted great and they are still vegan gummies so yay buy a gallon, why not! 

The Nirwana Noir chocolate bar was very interesting. It’s a semisweet chocolate with a nut truffle filling, and as amazing as that sounds, I was surprised that I wanted it to be a little sweeter. Still, definitely worth trying. 

That Naturata Stracciatella Kirsch white chocolate bar has the greatest concept and name, definitely, but like all white chocolate bases it was a little lacking in depth. The chocolate cherry bits were really yummy!

So that is Veganz! I hope this helps you decide what to buy. When it doubt, buy it all.