Vedge Restaurant, Philadelphia: The World’s Greatest

    Today we are making the Joey Special!!! I hope you are excited, because I am. What is the Joey Special, you ask? If you recall from “The One With Ross’s Wedding”, Joey, in London for Ross’s ill-fated wedding to Emily, calls Phoebe (who couldn’t go to London because she was 9 months pregnant) and they have the following conversation: 

    Preheat the oven to 400°, and then get to decorating! Because I had a thing of tofu and some peppers to use up, I made one Asian-y pizza. And because my mom’s twin was coming to dinner and they are ‘tah-yins’, I made one Italian-y. 

     To make this peanut-ginger tofu, I combined the pictured ingredients (and more!): rice vinegar, Trader Joe’s peanut dressing, mix of tamari and soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, sesame oil, and water. I poured this over the tofu and baked it at 375° for about an hour. 

     For the Italian-y one:
     I made a cheesy hummus as a base, then topped it with diced tomatoes, chopped kale, vegan bacon bits and jerky, and a drizzling of olive oil. The cheesy hummus comprised: 1 can of garbanzo beans (it’s for the Italian one, you can’t say chickpeas), juice from half a lemon, 4T olive oil, splash of water, 1t soy sauce, 1/3C nooch. 

     Bake your pizzas for about 20 minutes, until stuff looks golden. This dough got SUPER puffy, which is the best thing you could ever hope for. I’m really pleased with it! And the random topping decisions worked really well. 
     I don’t know why anyone has ever settled for just one pizza before. Two are so much better! And you’ll probably have leftovers. Unfortunately my aunt took the leftovers with her!! Ughhh! You know how I feel about that: 

     It’s kind of ridiculous how much I love green juice. I’m probably the last person (/vegan blogger) who would tell people to eat something that doesn’t taste great just because it’s good for you. But guess what? Veggie juice, when done right, is AMAZING. It’s like my favorite thing after hummus and Ron Swanson. So how happy am I that a new juice place has opened in Philly?
    Philly has been screaming for more juice bars, at least in Center City. (At least in my head.) I needs my juice! And with more vendors creating more competition, the prices are getting much more affordable. I’m tired of spending upwards of $10 in the suburbs for a juice that I down in about 9 seconds. (I drink juice fast.) No juice should cost almost a dollar per second! Luckily, the new Yellow Juice Bar, right across from Helium Comedy Club at 2046 Sansom, is not only well-priced but delicious. 
     Upon entering, I was delighted to see that Yellow Juice Bar offers smoothies with protein add-ins, some vegan food options, and banana whips in addition to juice! Also, adorably, they call the banana whips Banana Twirls. It’s like ballet dancing for fruit.

     Before getting to the important stuff (what I ordered and how it tasted), can we just take a moment to appreciate those prices? Yes, it’s still a lot of money for a drink, but not compared to what other juice bars charge for the same if not inferior products. $6 for the biggest size is good in my book for a place in Center City. I do wish they had a 24oz. size, though. 

     Usually my juice tastes veer towards veg-heavy and fruit-light, so I ordered the 16oz. Green Day juice: spinach, cucumber, celery, kale. With no apple in it to balance all the green, I asked the guy if he’d add some ginger so, because I love ginger. He added a bit of lemon and ginger, and had me try it before declaring it finished. I don’t know why, but when he said, “Do you want me to add more ginger?”, I said yes. Oops! It was pretty spicy, but it wasn’t overpowering and I still tasted mostly green. Pretty nice! 

     I also ordered a shot of wheatgrass. At $3, it’s on the more expensive end of what wheatgrass shots should cost, but this could have been the best shot I’ve had of the stuff. It was really sweet and had no aftertaste, which in itself is worth an extra dollar. So good. And, it comes with a frozen orange bite, which I adore. I can’t abide places that don’t give a piece of orange with their wheatgrass. 
     I was nearly awash with juice, but then the two guys working behind the counter offered me a shot of ginger. I stood by the counter and the three of us clinked our little shot glasses and downed a fresh ounce of pure ginger. Umm, have you ever had just pure ginger juice before? It is ROUGH. I mean, I loved it, but it is rough! My insides were on fire for a good 3 hours. Hot damn! You have to try this! It was so nice of them to offer me some after I made my love of ginger known. There were a few other patrons watching as my face and body went through convulsions for a good minute, so that was a little embarrassing, but then I felt kind of amazing. So much juice! 
     I’m definitely going to frequent Yellow Juice Bar, and I’m eager to try the smoothies, the food, and of course the dancing yellow fruits. Did I mention that they have a bathroom? And it’s pretty clean? Another point! And they deliver! If you’re into that sort of thing.
    The only thing I really dislike about this place is that it opened now, after I’ve moved out of the building literally a block away. Other than its bad timing, it’s pretty great. I’ll be going here often! Hopefully they will institute some punch cards for frequent customers, because I love me some punch cards. Almost as much as I love green juice. (No, not nearly as much as I love green juice.)