Veganizing “Friends”: It’s Pronounced ‘Nes-LAY Too-LOUSuh’

   As a Philadelphia native, I was lucky enough to eat at Horizons restaurant several times in my life. It was the restaurant I always chose for celebrating a special occasion, but simply going there was a special occasion in itself. The food overall was sublime, the desserts and seitan in particular were just perfection. When Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby suddenly announced their decision to close Horizons and open a more vegetable-focused restaurant, I was crushed, as was every vegan, vegetarian, Philly person, and anyone who appreciated great food. 
    Luckily for me and my therapist, Vedge Restaurant is, if possible, even better than Horizons. Hurrah! Sure, it is different, and the focus on vegetables leaves little room on the menu for the wondrous things Landau can famously do with seitan, tofu, and tempeh. However, he graciously keeps a few of those dishes in rotation. More importantly, the focus on vegetables will blow your freaking mind. Obviously, I love vegetables, and my many years as a vegan have given me a pretty great appreciation of what you can do with them. But I’m still a civilian, and the chefs at Vedge, well, aren’t. The food is ridiculous. I’ve been to Vedge about five times since it opened, and each time, the many (many) plates ordered were all stupendous. This post will cover what I had on the latest visit in August; I’ll cover other seasons at Vedge in later posts.

    I recommend, if you have the option, that you go to Vedge on a weekday. For one thing, try getting a reservation on a weekend now that Rich won Chopped! For another, better reason, on weekdays from 5-7pm, you can order off the Happy Hour menu (if seated in the bar section). You get a menu of drinks and four dishes that cost only $4-$6, about. The first one we ordered was the Pho Spiced Mushroom Sandwich. Holy crap was this incredible. I could eat so many of these. The mushrooms were grilled perfectly and seasoned beyond what I could imagine, on great, thick toast covered with a white bean puree and topped with arugula. This perfect sandwich combined all of my favorite things: mushrooms, bean puree, good bread, and fresh greens. 
    We also ordered the Korean Seitan Tacos and the Kung Pao Cauliflower from the Happy Hour list. Oh man. the Seitan Tacos are a must-0rder if you go to Vedge. The seitan is just as spellbinding as you might remember from Horizons, and is put to its proper use in a spicy taco. Again, I could eat so many of these. So amazing. 

     Next, we ordered four items off The Dirt List, a rotating list of fresh vegetables prepared in incredible ways. My favorite was the summer beans on white eggplant puree. I’m a sucker for fresh legumes, probably because I never really use them in my own cooking. This dish was so simple and comforting yet refreshing and delightful. I loved it! We also ordered Zucchini Toast and a Beet Salad & Puree with Beet ‘Pastrami’ off the Dirt List. 

     The Zucchini Toast was delicious, as most bread-based sandwich-type things are. Taken at the height of its season, the zucchini was grilled lightly and gave bursts of summery flavor. The Beet Pastrami, however, was insane. Look at it (above right)! This really blew my mind. So amazing. The accompanying salads and purees were of course delicious as well. But that pastrami, man alive. Good work. 
    The last dish we ordered off the Dirt List was the Heirloom Tomato and Corn Salad over quinoa. Or, Summer on a Plate. It was just everything you could possibly love about summer. Fresh tomatoes! Good corn! Quinoa! Fresh herbs! And the most incredible sauce on earth. Seriously, I don’t know what it was, but it was magical. My dining companions and I were fighting over who got to lick the plate. (I think we all ended up cleaning the plate with our fingers.)

      Next, we ordered three dishes from the main menu. (I was with more than one other person I swear!) The Rutabaga Salad, pictured at the top of this post, was cool and energizing, a refreshing break from the complex and heavier flavors of other dishes while still being very interesting itself. 
     Not willing to miss any of Landau’s magic with proteins (I knowww I hate that but it works), we also ordered the Spicy Grilled Tofu, served on a bed of edamame puree, covered with smoked miso sauce and a yuba cracker. It tasted as incredible as it sounds. I’m not a huge fan of blocks of tofu, but this I can do.I can’t remember another time I’ve had such amazing tofu!  The last dinner dish we had was the Shwarma-style Carrots. These were so good that I forgot to take a picture. Spiced to evoke the well-known smoked Middle Eastern meats, the carrots came over black lentils and garbanzos, with a side of olive stew and topped with green harissa. Everything worked perfectly and transported me back to the best restaurants in Israel. 

Of course, a meal at Vedge (or any vegan restaurant) would not be complete without several desserts. Kate Jacoby is not a pastry chef but a wizard, and the offerings this time around astounded as always. The most interesting, and most evocative of a Chopped basket of randomness, was the Summer Corn Custard, with fried jalapeno peppers and berries, berry sauce and jalapeno caramel. I know! Can you even wrap your head around how one creates that dish, because I can’t. I was so skeptical, but I’m glad one of my dining companions  pushed for it, because dayummm, it was amazing. The custard was reminiscent of old school creamed corn, but much more delicious, obviously, and light and sweet. The fried jalapenos were hot! But the custard and the berries cooled them, and they really proved to be a perfect accompaniment. The caramel, oh my, what genius is behind that! It all worked so well, I still am in awe. 

At left is the dessert I would probably choose over and over again, based on the title alone – the Chocolate Peanut Caramel Mousse, with stout ice cream and a chocolate peanut crumble. I can’t even. This is like everything you could ever want in a dessert – chocolate! peanut butter! caramel! in so many forms! The mousse was thick and layered, so you had to dig deep like ShaunT tells you to in order to get all the layers in one bite. Man alive this was good mousse. Usually I find chocolate mousse to be too rich, or too dull. This mousse puts all others to shame, with the thick, gooey layer of peanut caramel just making everything in the world happy. The stout ice cream was beery! If you like beer, or alcohol of any sort, you will probably like this ice cream. While I appreciated that it served as a really refreshing counterpoint to the deep, heavy flavors of the other two components on the plate, I couldn’t get too into the ice cream because I don’t like alcohol, and I hate beer. So it’s really not fair for me to comment on it. Moving on, the most surprisingly amazing thing was the chocolate peanut crumble! It was like a cross between a blondie, a shortbread cookie, and a soft candy. So perfect, and topped with chocolate ganache. I can’t even deal with how good this was — AND how small it was, especially when shared between three people! It’s a tiny little bite! Note to Vedge: next time I come, give me all of the chocolate peanut stuff. Thanks. 
     On that note, I really can’t wait to go to Vedge again. I believe it is the best vegan restaurant in the world, and while it can get pricey, it can also be done economically if you go with people and share lots of small dishes. If you have the opportunity to go, you must. And if you think I’m wrong that it’s the best vegan restaurant in the world, I will gladly accept your challenge and eat at and blog about whatever restaurant you believe takes that spot (on your dime, right?). Enjoy! 

Vedge, Philadelphia 

• Water speed: Pretty good considering how busy they were
• Bathrooms: There are nice single-serve bathrooms in a hallway off the dining room. Best part – they are handicap accessible! 
• Service: Great. It’s rare that you get new silverware between courses nowadays!
• Food: The best vegan magic happens here
• Bonus: Happy hour menu!

       For the last official day of VeganMOFO, I want to talk about London’s hottest new nightclub. London’s weekend-long VegFest happened a few days ago, and I was lucky enough to eat my way through both days! It was so fun to be surrounded by like-minded people, including some great friends I am so happy to live near again. The best part of any festival like this is the food, and I was not disappointed here. Okay, I was a little disappointed. The actual food for sale from the many, many caterers was overall subpar. However, the vast number of companies giving delicious samples and the overall spirit of the weekend made up for it. I realize I’m a few days late, but it’s always the right time for judgment. 

THE GOOD 
      The best part of the weekend was the people! I saw my friends from Vegan in Brighton and Alien on Toast (their blog names are so descriptive!), some other mighty fine PPKers, and new blogger friends I admire from Hasta la Vegan and Tea and Sympatico. Jojo spoke to a pretty large crowd about vegan travel, and despite my best efforts to catch her eye and make her laugh, she did a great job! I also caught a little of Brendan Brazier’s talk about using nutrition to reduce stress. Audience members were furiously taking notes during his entire presentation, with their eyes wide and bulging like the crazy alien dog at the end of “Ghostbusters”, so I assume he is now some sort of cult leader and/or too much Vega.

     Most of the food and products on offer were fabulous! I loved talking with several company representatives, most of whom were very friendly and helpful. Before I get to good product booths, let’s talk about the food I actually bought. 

    The best thing I ate were the baked spring rolls full of duck, mustard greens, and sweet chili from this place to the left, The Hungry Gecko, which for two days I thought was called the World Street truck. They were a decent size and priced well at 5£. And they were delicious! I had never heard of this company before and was pleasantly surprised by these rolls. Unfortunately, the next thing I tried from them (and from everyone else, almost) was not as good (see below).

    As for the vendors, many were outstanding! Even if your product is great, it takes more than that to have a good stall at a fest like this. You need samples, and you need lots of them. You need nice people, and you need to offer deals better than what you usually retail for.  Let’s look at the vendors who succeeded. 

     While Ananda had a great product but no samples or legit discounts (I mean I’m not mad), moo free chocolates shared their great product, good deals, and had ridiculously sized samples. They shared new holiday flavors and had the advent calendar for sale for only £4! (I should have gotten one; I’ve never had an advent calendar!) They also had buckets of broken up chocolate bars for you to try. I loved the people working this booth. They were so friendly and were like, ‘Hey did you try this flavor yet?’ and held up a bucket to me and I pulled out a ‘sample’ piece that was like 5 inches long. I couldn’t even finish it! And then I bought stuff from them, because that’s the point of nice people, good deals, and samples to know if you will like the product before you buy it. People. It’s easy. Moving on…

     I think Vegusto had the most popular booth in the entire place, because they were selling their hot dogs and sausages on buns. They are sooo good! They had samples of their hard cheeses, which aren’t my favorite, but you couldn’t even get to them because the line for the food was so long. So worth it! They know how to sell their product and increase interest. 

    Other great caterers were St Best Caribbean caterers, who had fantastic veggie-filled patties, and Rainforest Creations, whose raw and delicious food I always enjoy in Spitalfields market. Bangwok also had really popular pad thai that people said was great. 
      The always great Ms. Cupcake sold out on both days super quickly! So impressive! 

I also really liked Jollyum ice cream. The lady who helped me was really nice and took time to answer questions. And the product was good too! 
    Aside from food, I loved the dishware from Magpie. How pretty is it? 

    While so much was good, I want to also talk about what was bad and what was worse. Yayyy judgment!!

THE BAD
    Unfortunately, a lot of the caterers made food that did a disservice to the glory of so much vegan food. It was bland, tasteless, weird, not worth it. Boooo! There is so much delicious vegan food (that even I can make!) so there are no excuses. 
    First, unfortunately, was the much-anticipated food at Rupert Street’s truck. I have been looking forward to them for months, but this experience was disappointing. The corn tamale on a bed of grains and vegetables was so bland that it was like eating weird air. 

     Next up on my list of sadness was the Pani Puri Pops at The Hungry Gecko. The menu said they were ‘traditional Indian street food’. So that sounded promising enough. 

    The Primal Kitchen was there with unremarkable bars to taste, placed on rough wooden slabs so we got the whole caveman thing. The bars are all vegan, and they weren’t terrible, but I’m bothered that a company whose mission is to get people to eat meat, eggs, seafood, and their bars was at VegFest. 
    The next super sad table belonged to Fry’s Vegetarian. I’m sure most of us love their products, but they do not know how to present at a festival. They had 20% off their products, which is definitely awesome, but the table was just their products’ boxes, sitting there, doing nothing, no singing, no dancing. Like, who is going to be lured into buying something you can’t taste or even see? They had the saddest little sample trays as well, just a few cubes of the weirder meats as far as I could tell. Paltry showing for such a large company.

THE UGLY

     What makes the following stuff ugly and not bad? Well, for starters, most of the products were actually delicious. Most of the companies are ones that I adore. What makes this ugly is the kind of interaction I had with them during VegFest. It hurts me that our encounters weren’t as great as their products, or as great as I had hoped. Some people, man. 
     First up, well let’s just start with the one that broke my heart the most. Vega. 

      Next up! The ridiculousness of Organic Livity. The raw cakes looked delicious, and what I tried was indeed great. But, they don’t look or taste raw. I bought a raw Mexican chocolate brownie with mint cream icing. I was so excited! I love raw brownies and I love mint! But I am not convinced that the mint cream, which tasted exactly like the icing sugar- and margarine-filled frostings every nonraw baker (including myself) uses, was raw. However, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. (Even though some of the raw cakes looked like baked flour. I don’t know how on earth that stuff could have been raw. Unless, as my companion said, the ingredients were raw; the final product wasn’t. Love it.)

     Lastly, my favorite encounter happened with The Chocolatier, this super fancy water ganache maker who sells to Michelin-starred restaurants, fancy businesses, and of course the Royal Family. The chocolate is outstanding (it better be for £10 per bar), and again I was so excited to buy some of the truffles, but nooooo. 

        Just to be clear, the slightly older lady working this booth (at least on Saturday) was the sweetest person ever. When you walked by, she stuck out little spoons of their ganache shots and smiled until you ate it. I love her. However, she wasn’t there when I was ready to buy on Sunday. A young woman, with what looked like professionally done makeup, who was probably my age but treated me like a child, was in charge. And my friend and I didn’t even have a chance to open our mouths before this girl regaled us with how fancy their usual clients are. This is almost verbatim: “We normally do business with Michelin restaurants and five-star hotels, and extremely high-profile private businesses. The rest of our clients are the Royal Family and other highly sophisticated people. We just loooooove doing this public events so that members of the public who normally wouldn’t be able to experience our services have this wonderful chance to experience something that normally only highly sophisticated people get to experience.” I guess I’m not highly sophisticated enough for her because I immediately vomited upon her. BARRRRRF. 

     I of course don’t want to leave on that vomitous note, so here are a few of my absolute favorite images from VegFest. Overall, it was a wonderful time, and the shitty aspects at least made it interesting. 

WHATTTT. 

WHAAAAAATTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing.