In Which I Go To Las Vegas On My Own Volitionby Randi / August 27, 2013 After traveling for a good 24 hours, I arrived in Croatia jet-lagged, light-headed, and in need of vegetables. I had always planned on eating my first meal at Vegehop, one of the few all vegetarian restaurants in the country, and I’m pretty happy I did.
New in a city where I couldn’t use my phone’s Google maps to get around, I was extremely anxious (as is my wont) to find this restaurant on my own. Luckily, Vegehop is pretty centrally located, and even more luckily, it is well signed from the main street (the restaurant is in a sort of alley). With a sigh of relief, I entered the quiet, nicely decorated little room and took my seat among maybe 8 other diners.
The extensive menu offers cooked and raw dishes, vegetarian and vegan, as well as a daily prix fixe menu. I was tempted by the set menu, but I decided to refresh my travel-logged body with raw food. While I love cooking at home, and I love trying most anything when dining out, I’m always so tempted by raw food in restaurants. Probably because I can’t prepare it like they can!
New in a city where I couldn’t use my phone’s Google maps to get around, I was extremely anxious (as is my wont) to find this restaurant on my own. Luckily, Vegehop is pretty centrally located, and even more luckily, it is well signed from the main street (the restaurant is in a sort of alley). With a sigh of relief, I entered the quiet, nicely decorated little room and took my seat among maybe 8 other diners.
The extensive menu offers cooked and raw dishes, vegetarian and vegan, as well as a daily prix fixe menu. I was tempted by the set menu, but I decided to refresh my travel-logged body with raw food. While I love cooking at home, and I love trying most anything when dining out, I’m always so tempted by raw food in restaurants. Probably because I can’t prepare it like they can!
Vegehop’s Multivitamin Salad
I decided to start with the Multivitamin Salad, a vibrant mixture of shaved beets, cabbage, carrots, and sunflower seeds. Not only was this salad incredibly beautiful, but it tasted great. And it was enormous! I’m sure most normal people order just this for their entire meal, which I can sort of understand but I would still laugh at them. Anyway, with just a few bites I immediately felt rejuvenated. A very light lemony dressing barely covered the perfectly bite-sized vegetables, which I was happy about. So often salads are doused with so much dressing that you can’t even tell what vegetables are underneath, or if there are any. This salad, on the other hand, was pretty perfect. Or maybe I was insanely jet-lagged, I don’t know. All I can say is that I wish I had some right now!
Vegehop’s Raw Zucchini Cannelloni
For my entrée, I chose the raw zucchini cannelloni. The waiter immediately informed me that this dish would take about 15-20 minutes longer to prepare than other dishes, but I had time to wait. How amazing is it to have a waiter tell you this straight away, rather than leave you wondering when your food doesn’t come? I really appreciated this; it so rarely happens.
It was worth the wait. Thin slices of zucchini wrapped around a gooey, salty cashew cheese and were covered with olive oil and a sort of pesto. I’ve made lots of cashew cheese in my life but this one tasted like nothing I’ve concocted. It wasn’t grainy at all, but was almost gummy (in a good way). I don’t know how it was made, but I loved it.
The only disappointing thing was that, since I was there near closing, all the good vegan desserts were gone. A huge reason I chose this restaurant was because a friend told me about the ‘Danube Waves’ cake. Of course, a woman seated a few tables away got the last piece right before I asked the waiter about it! Of course! Next time, I know to immediately ask if they have any and secure my piece before any hussies can take it away from me.
Vegehop, Vlaska Ulica 79, Zagreb
It was worth the wait. Thin slices of zucchini wrapped around a gooey, salty cashew cheese and were covered with olive oil and a sort of pesto. I’ve made lots of cashew cheese in my life but this one tasted like nothing I’ve concocted. It wasn’t grainy at all, but was almost gummy (in a good way). I don’t know how it was made, but I loved it.
The only disappointing thing was that, since I was there near closing, all the good vegan desserts were gone. A huge reason I chose this restaurant was because a friend told me about the ‘Danube Waves’ cake. Of course, a woman seated a few tables away got the last piece right before I asked the waiter about it! Of course! Next time, I know to immediately ask if they have any and secure my piece before any hussies can take it away from me.
Vegehop, Vlaska Ulica 79, Zagreb
- Water speed: Not great. I learned here that my dining in the Balkans would lead to a lot of drinking from my water bottle. It’s just a different culture here. Not as thirsty.
- Bathrooms: One or two shared stalls, not bad.
- Service: Good. Appreciated the warning about the wait.
- Food: Overall, very good and recommended.
- Extras: The sign for the restaurant out on the main road is extremely helpful. I just wish they froze some of the Danube Waves just in case they run out and someone came from America JUST for that. (K that’s not true but still.)
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Philly’s Best Dim Sum at New Harmony, Chinatown
Philadelphia’s Chinatown is packed with vegetarian-friendly restaurants, and while they are uniformly decent, some stand out from the pack. New Harmony is one of those standouts. Specializing in vegetarian mock meats and seafood, as well as insanely good steamed buns and dumplings, this is one of the (very) few non-Szechuan Chinese restaurants I’ll go to excitedly. Owned by Ming, the nicest restaurant proprietor this side of anywhere, New Harmony mixes crazy good, greasy comfort food with a casual atmosphere and, on Thursday, a doughnut delivery from Vegan Treats. I know.
Give me all of it, please and thank you
One of the best deals in town is New Harmony’s all-you-can-eat Dim Sum for $12 per person. You get to order from the pictured dim sum menu – but it’s not like ‘choose two measly items from section A, one from B’ or any kind of limiting crap like that. You can have every single item, and as much of each as you want. (Strangely, I’ve never actually gotten every item, or asked for more of something, because there is always so, so much amazing food. But…challenge accepted? No?) The dim sum menu is always so hard to pass up, because two of the restaurants best dishes – the sesame beef and the steamed pork buns – are on it, so there’s no reason to order off the menu. (Actually, there are about 60 other reasons…)
 Vegetable and bean curd soup The sesame chicken tasted great and had a wonderful texture, like most mock chicken nugget-things at Chinese restaurants. But the sesame beef is the restaurant’s big deal. It’s crunchy and chewy, and it’s covered in a surprisingly mustardy cream sauce that just works even though it seems like it shouldn’t. So so good.
 Sesame beef Next, we took a needed pause between the glutinous rounds with some standard steamed and besauced vegetables. More broccoli! Chinese cabbage! Good stuff. Then came my favorite part of any meal: the steamed buns and dumplings. Hooo boy, how great are steamed doughy things holding fillings? So great. We had a mix of pork buns, vegetable buns, spinach dumplings, shrimp dumplings, and vegetable dumplings.
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I’ve had the hot & sour soup several times, and it’s really great, as is the wonton. This time, I tried the vegetable and bean curd soup. It was nice and simple, perhaps not very exciting, but a good starter before all the heavier food. It was a little salty for me, which is my #1 gripe about Chinese food (actually, about restaurant food in general), and I would have preferred a thinner broth. But I’d get this again. It was nice to have broccoli before the storm hit.
 Sesame chicken  Vegetables. Nice. |
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The two different kinds of buns were absolute perfection. Next time, I’d order all the buns and forego the dumplings. The latter are great, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t stand out from the standard veg dumpling scene. The buns, however, are tremendous. I want 20 of them now.
I also loved the final thing we got, the bean curd skin rolls. Okay, so bean curd skin (aka tofu skin) sounds disgusting, I’ll give you that. But it’s so strangely delicious. Over the past few years, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with the stuff, in soups, in sushi rolls, in life. But I’ve never had it act as the wrapping in a spring roll-type of thing.  |
 They look like fun/weird sea creatures The rolls were so interesting! Just like a spring roll, it contained a gingery, garlicky mix of stringy cabbage and what not, but instead of fried, greasy wonton exterior, it was the chewy beyond chewy tofu skin. Ok, it sounds gross, but it was really good!
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We were too full to order the dim sum menu desserts, and wayyy too full to order the absolutely mind-blowing specialty of fried cheesecake (from Vegan Treats, but fried in-house) off the regular menu. But Ming informed us that the Vegan Treats doughnut delivery had just come in, so we pretty much bought out his stock (to go, of course). Then, he kindly brought us little dishes of strawberry ice cream, which is sourced from Klein’s, the best soy ice cream maker. It was a nice way to end a deliciously indulgent, yet affordable, dinner.
NEW HARMONY, Philadelphia’s Chinatown
- Water speed: Doing Chinese restaurants proud
- Bathrooms: One shared, not the nicest but it works at least
- Service: Great. It may have helped that my companion is likethis with Ming, and he waited on us, but it’s usually great.
- Food: Comforting, rich, heavy but doesn’t leave you feeling sick
- Bonus: Copious amounts of dim sum for $12…and Vegan Treats!
Lucky Leek, Berlin: Fantastic Fancy Food With A Few Minor Hurdles
To celebrate our engagement, husband and I decided to treat ourselves to a fancypants dinner at Lucky Leek, an upscale all-vegan restaurant in Berlin. The food was stellar, but there were a few issues that prevent me from completely raving about it. However, based on the food alone I would definitely have to recommend Lucky Leek if you are looking for something lavish and delicious.
The restaurant itself was decorated simply and nicely, with lots of fresh plants and clean white and black decor. The menu options sounded delicious and was heavy on the spargel (asparagus), because it was spring and spargel (our new favorite word to say) was everywhere. We decided to each get the Chef’s Menu, which offered about five solid courses and several additional items. We got this for one good reason and one dumb reason (restaurant’s fault): Good reason: It sounded delicious and we were doing what Retta was telling us to do. Dumb reason: Only with the two of us getting the expensive 50 euro Chef’s Menu would we be able to hit the restaurant’s incredibly lame and stupid 100 euro credit card minimum. I mean…what restaurant on earth has a credit card minimum that high? That is super lame.
The only thing dumber? The restaurant would not give us tap water – you had to buy bottled water. I have never encountered this shittiness anywhere in the world. Even in cities where drinking the tap water would kill you, restaurants would still happily give it to you for free. Okay that’s a bad example but still. I am still battling rising blood pressure thinking about how stupid this is. If the food wasn’t so good, I would say let’s picket Lucky Leek with fire hoses until they give us free tap water. I mean, let’s do that anyway because I am starting to super hulk out again, but still, you should eat here because it is so damn good.
The only thing dumber? The restaurant would not give us tap water – you had to buy bottled water. I have never encountered this shittiness anywhere in the world. Even in cities where drinking the tap water would kill you, restaurants would still happily give it to you for free. Okay that’s a bad example but still. I am still battling rising blood pressure thinking about how stupid this is. If the food wasn’t so good, I would say let’s picket Lucky Leek with fire hoses until they give us free tap water. I mean, let’s do that anyway because I am starting to super hulk out again, but still, you should eat here because it is so damn good.
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We began with a really delicious amuse-bouche sent out from the kitchen with “our compliments”, which was nice but I was like “a better compliment would have been free tap water, yo. Or at least tell me I’m pretty.” Anyway, the amuse was a toasted carrot sandwich with a pepper and a pickle on top. It was delicious! I could have had 100 of them!
Our first real course was this fantastic salad that featured a raw zucchini roll-up filled with amazing truffled cheesy cream (I think the phrase cream cheese is disgusting even though I am from Philadelphia (snaps)). The salad was arugula, fancy carrots, and salted almonds in a potato dressing. I don’t really know what that means, but it was delicious. The main focus of the plate aside from the zucchini roll-up was kohlrabi carpaccio which was fantastic. Fanciest salad ever!
* Next up was this ‘spring consomme’, which was a lovely French-oniony soup with like wonton balls in the middle. Delicious wonton balls! It said it came with herbed pancake strips but I don’t remember that being the case, unless those little squares are the strips. The wonton was a cheesy semolina dumpling that was really yummy. * The standout dish was next, the pasta. I wrote in my notes that this ravioli dish was perfect! It had a ridiculously large spear of spargel across the top, and the ravioli was filled with more spargel! (Remember spargel is asparagus. We learn languages on this show!) The ravioli pasta itself was superb with that perfect chewiness and taste. It was in a Hollandaise sauce that was not disgusting; it was in fact delicious. The dish was spotted with beluga lentil samsa (which Google tells me is just a misspelled samosa, which wasn’t the case here) that was the perfect spargel accompaniment. It also was topped with ‘sage panache’ but that just sounds like a dapper old wise man. Like the nicest way to describe a dandy British man. That bloke is full of sage panache. Hahahahah. * THEN THEY GAVE US FRUIT SORBET TO CLEANSE OUR PALATES LIKE WE WERE FREAKING ROYALTY OR SOMETHING. It was melon and rose hip sorbet and it was so lovely! It throws me a little though to have dessert before the main main. (As a vegan, even the blandest lightest sorbet is usually our dessert, so my brain was like, oh man it’s over? And then it was hard to get out of that.) * The main main, or piece de resistance, as the menu actually said, was a “Seitan and Onion Roast Joint“, which I assume is similar to a Spike Lee Joint, but more delicious and filling and less upsetting in most ways. It came with potato and carrot puree, which is the kind of thing I make a lot (a LOT a lot) but obviously not as perfectly as this was. It also came with pak choy, which as far as I know is bok choy, but in Europe they call it pak choy and I kind of love the discrepancy and kind of hate it. But I love love bok/pak choy! And I will always welcome more greens on my plate! It was the perfect unexpected Asian accompaniment to the meat and potatoes. The joint was also topped with a beet and walnut confit and just wow everything was perfect. * Then came real dessert, a trio of uhhhmazing cake and cream confections. In the center was the raspberry cake, which was good but fruit flavored dessert is not my favorite when it could easily be chocolate instead. Much MUCH better was to the left, the coconut and nougat tartlet. Yes, that’s right, this entire meal was sponsored by the first Jon Lovitz episode of “Friends”. The crust of the tartlet (hehehe) was a bit shortbready, which normally I hate because it feels like my teeth are hurting, but this was fantastic – and cold, which helps. That middle layer of coconut nougat was incredible. Oh man. Just the most perfect layer of cream imaginable. Lastly, probably my favorite component was the mocha banana ice cream with the chocolate praline sticking out of it. I don’t usually like mocha or coffee flavors, but this was mostly banana with just a hint of something deeper and bolder. And I love ice cream so much. I don’t like that the amount of ice cream in this and every single restaurant is just that little ball that is so difficult to eat because you end up smearing most of it around the plate and you’re like, am I allowed to lick the plate? And you are like no, but then they should have just given you a large bowl of it to begin with. Anyway, it was fantastic, and that chocolate praline was like those really thin and crunchy Pepperidge Farm doodads but sooo much better. Everything was delicious and perfect and we were extremely stuffed at the end of it, as it should be.
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Carrot sandwich amuse-bouche 
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All in all, Lucky Leek was an absolutely fantastic meal, and if you are looking for something fancypants in Berlin, I can definitely recommend it. But bring a bottle of water with you — which is the dumbest thing to have to say about a fancypants restaurant, but I do not like being forced to pay for water.
LUCKY LEEK, BERLIN
Water speed: UGH FFS!
Bathrooms: Hilariously, the bathroom is in the back of the restaurant through a freaking beaded curtain, like in 1970s dorm rooms. So out of place and funny. Bathroom was fine.
Service: They were pretty nice, those water selling bastards.
Food: Delicious delicious delicious.
Bonus: Decent location. & maybe by the time you go they will have gotten the memo about the water? Go for the food.
