Seed, New Orleans: A Vegan Paradise & My Favorite in NOLAby Randi / September 3, 2014
This was behind our table!
Several people, both vegan and omnivorous, told us about Feelings, saying it was a great dinner spot for vegans and omnivores to go together. They have a traditional and very exciting main menu, along with an entire separate vegan menu! It’s pretty much the restaurant equivalent of when both parties in Congress sit together at the State of the Union.
The food didn’t blow me away like some parts of Seed did, but overall it was good and very enjoyable. Still, the best part, and why it’s so recommended (especially for couples on their honeymoon?), is because most of the tables are in an inner courtyard, filled with flowers, plants, little fountains, and a lovely, intimate atmosphere.
Yeah, there were some spiders, but it was worth it for this lovely setting
I started with the Emerald City Salad, solely because of the name and because it was kale-based. I hadn’t had kale in DAYS. The salad was tossed in an olive oil dressing with bell peppers, fennel, and a Cajun grain mix. There were a bit too many peppers for my taste and not enough fennel or grains, but it was still pretty good. The kale pieces should have been chopped a bit smaller, though. I did some very unladylike maneuvering of the larger kale pieces. NBD, I mean it’s not like I have any table manners anyway.
For my entree, I had the wonderful Potato Tempeh Patties. You have the option of getting two of these patties, one of them and one Eggplant and Creole Tomato Napoleon thing, or two of the latter. While the waitress didn’t believe that I understood – because I guess most people like to get one of each option – I vehemently stuck to my order of two potato tempeh patties because I read on LazySmurf’s blog that they were fuuuuunom. And she was right! They were wonderful, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. I love tempeh, and blending it with potato sounds like the perfect thing to do. The tomato topping was a little too vinegary; I would have preferred something a little creamier, like a tomato cashew cream, rather than a vinaigrette. But it was still very good! The side of zucchini ribbons was kind of ridiculous. They should have been actual ribbons, sliced with a mandolin or a spiralizer, but instead they were just long chopped zucchini pieces. So that was kind of dumb.
We also shared a mushroom boudin, a vegan take on the very famous local sausage. I’m sure using seitan or soy would have produced a more realistic dish, but I liked the mushroom base. It was served with some decent bread. OH important note – the garlic bread that they put on the table at the beginning is NOT vegan.
 |
 |
The different kinds of mushrooms were mixed with jasmine rice and coconut oil, and steamed in a corn husk. It was really fun to play with the corn husk, but I think it made it a little too soft. It would have been even better with some crispy edges. It was still pretty yummy though!
The desserts were just sorbet – restaurant cheating/laziness in my opinion – and a carrot torte that sounded good but I had that Whole Foods carrot cake waiting. The staff didn’t rush us at all, though, so we just sat and enjoyed the lovely atmosphere for a little longer.
Overall, Feelings was a wonderful dinner spot. While the food wasn’t amazing, it was solid and enjoyable. The courtyard setting is so beautiful with all the greenery and candlelight, so if you are looking for a romantic spot, this is where you should go.
FEELINGS, NEW ORLEANS
Water speed: Pretty good!
Bathrooms: Ahhhh I don’t remember!!! That’s probably good?
Service: Very very nice and helpful.
Food: Solid!
Bonus: Sit in the lovely courtyard and you will be so happy.
Related Posts
Happy News Alert: 2nd Annual Vegan Family Reunion (San Antonio, TX)
I think we all need something wonderful to look forward to! With impeccable timing comes the 2nd Annual Vegan Family Reunion, the brainchild of host Rooted Vegan Cuisine of San Antonio, Texas. This special occasion is THIS WEEKEND, Sunday March 6, and promises to be an epic day of food, fun, festivities, and community building. Featuring more than 30 Black-Owned small businesses and artists, the event will benefit local nonprofits and support local charities, including the Black Birth Fund.
San Antonio’s Rooted Vegan Cuisine, once a pop-up vegan restaurant and now a maker of incredible frozen vegan foods, hosts the Vegan Family Reunion for the second year. From 12-5pm on Sunday, the pop-up market and party at the San Antonio Food Bank will convene more than 30 Black-owned and vegan small businesses, artists, entertainers, and more to celebrate “food, fun, and Black excellence!”
The event celebrates the intersection of Black equality and veganism, raising funds that will pour back into the local Black community through small businesses, artists, and charities. It will do all this while highlighting the importance and benefits of veganism and its direct impact on the Black community.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND
- VEGAN FOOD
- PRO CHEF DEMOS
- MUSIC
- LIVE DJ
- VEGAN RAPPER GREY
- DANCING
- PONIESSSSS (from Ponycycle)
- HAYRIDES
- LIVE ART PRESENTATIONS
- PET ADOPTIONS!!!
- BOUNCY HOUSES (YESSSS)
- NUTRITION SEMINAR
- VEGAN BEAUTY & HAIR DEMOS
- MINI SKATEBOARD PARK
Did I mention it’s free to attend? It’s free to attend! But please RSVP in advance so they can anticipate the crowd size. Book your space here and register either for your free space, or with a donation (omg you’re so awesome!), or as a VIC (Very Important Charity). More ways to contribute – including from afar! – are listed further down.
I must take this time, before I forget, to tell you that there will be two bounce houses – one for kids and one just for adults. LITERALLY THE DREAM.
The strength of a local community is so important, and that’s clearer now more than ever. So many different businesses, organizations, and various community members are coming together to make this happen. Host Naomi of Rooted Vegan Cuisine said the list of participants and supporters is “incredible and humbling”.
She also said she’s bringing to-go containers to make sure she doesn’t miss any of the amazing food…so…follow her lead!
Some of the food vendors expected to blow your minds on Sunday include: Wheatsville (I know, one of our faves!), Vegan Sushi Spot, Alamo City Cakes, The Vegancy, Chef Cidney, and Bake Love. Non-food amazingness includes Art by Sheri, Gardopia Gardens, Tracy J Jewelry, and Ionic Soul Spa. I MEAN. COME ON!
There’s a whole packed schedule for the day too, with kitchen demos, nutrition and fertility seminars, and musical entertainment. It promises to be an incredible day!
We’re all aware of how exponentially veganism has increased in recent years, and a large part of that is due to Black activists, who have been promoting veganism even back to the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. And African-Americans compose the fastest-growing vegan demographic. This event aims to respect and acknowledge these facts while cementing the connection between veganism and Black activism, especially on the community level.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the Black Birth Fund, created by the San Antonio Nurse Midwife Birth & Wellness center. The team said they learned of this organization through one of the Vegan Family Reunion committee members, who was herself a recipient of assistance from the Fund when she gave birth. This chance to give back to the fund that helped their teammate so greatly makes this event all the more special, they said.
Vegan Family Reunion has also teamed up with Black Restaurant Week San Antonio to raise money for the San Antonio Food Bank via donations and other funds raised. Attending the event is free, but guests are encouraged to buy t-shirts, buy raffle tickets (see below), and donate whatever they want to raise funds for these worthy organizations.
They are going even further this year in making the space accessible and inviting for so many types of attendees: There will be maternity lounges with doulas for expecting and new parents. There will will a special needs sensory retreat, with trained assistants, for people who need a break from the hubbub. There will be a sign language interpreter, and a toddler soft play area. The level of care is off the charts here. And there will also be a Zero Waste initiative, with the team measuring how much waste is saved from going into landfills.
HOW TO SUPPORT THE EVENT IF YOU AREN’T IN TEXAS
I’m sure many of you are, like me, watching and wishing from afar that we could attend. While we cannot eat its amazing food (or jump in the bouncy house) remotely, we can support it by doing the following:
- Spreading the word – on social media, use the hashtag #veganfamilyreunion and tag @veganfamilyreunion
- Buy raffle tickets – even if we cannot collect or use certain prizes, think of it as a donation, with the money going to truly worthwhile beneficiaries
- Or, Buy tickets to the event as a donation
- Buy the official tee shirt HERE
- Support Rooted Vegan Cuisine – their frozen vegan goodies are available to ship in the USA nationwide (someone please work on getting this to the UK!)
Whatever you can do to support this wonderful event is great, and let’s hope that we can be in San Antonio in person next year!
Juice Merchant: Main Line Philly’s Awesome New Vegan Restaurant
My recent trip home to Philly and NYC was jam-packed with new and delicious vegan food options, from the carrot lox at Orchard Grocer to Philly’s amazing new joints Wiz Kid and Goldie. Add in all the incredible new finds at Trader Joe’s and I was almost overwhelmed with vegan options, especially considering my dearth of options this past summer in Central Asia! With vegan treats coming at me from all sides, you’d think it would be hard to choose a favorite, but that was the easy part. The new (at least in my book, come on I’ve been gone forever) outpost of Juice Merchant, an all-vegan 100% organic cafe, on Montgomery Avenue in Narberth wins that honor. (There’s also one in Manayunk.) The food, while not Landau-levels of otherworldly perfection, is solidly good, sometimes great; the menu is the exact perfect size for offering tons of options but not being overwhelming (us vegans aren’t used to having such choice!); the drinks menu is flawless; the staff is insanely nice; and the desserts – guys – the desserts are from Vegan Treats. Finally a place on the Main Line with a constant supply of that peanut butter mousse!
If you’re a devoted reader, you know that if I don’t have salad access, I’m pretty cranky. I love salad, what can I say, I’m a total boring stereotype. I’m also a big fan of Joey so I love sandwiches, especially those that can pass as somewhat healthy. This in large part explains why I loved Juice Merchant so much – their menu is composed primarily of interesting salads and fun but still healthy sandwiches, so it’s like it’s tailor-made for my tastes. It reaches that hard-to-find balance between fun-but-greasy-tummy-ache food on one side of the spectrum and so-raw-and-health-conscious-that-it-tastes-like-feet on the other. Everything I tried – and hoo boy, did we try a lot – was good, and some was great. And next time I’m in town, I know some easy tweaks (“t-w-e-a-k-ing tweaking”) for when I order that, given how nice and accommodating the staff was, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind making. And I’ll share my thoughts on those tweaks herein so you can use them if/when you go. And if you’re in the area, you should.
THE FOOD
For dinner one evening between my party, we tried the three sandwiches and one flatbread. I know you’re thinking, ‘dude you JUST said how much you love salads and I see a prettayyyy prettayyy big salad section on the picture of the menu above so are you a liar or what?’ And I know, I was going to order at least one salad but guess what, ALL the sandwiches come with side salads! So it’s like winning extra prizes and getting to try two things when you get a sandwich! I mean OBVIOUSLY if I had my druthers I would have gotten a full salad too but I was with sandwich-preferers and honestly you can’t lose with this menu. Damn I LOVE side salad inclusions! My first choice was the Vegan Cubano, because I love jackfruit and I love the cubanos I’ve had in the past (like at Blackbird in Philly, man alive, but definitely a place that veers towards the too-fun-for-me side of the spectrum). Juice Merchant’s cubano was made with dehydrated jackfruit, vegan cheese, dijon mustard, and pickles. Dehydrating the jackfruit is a really interesting move. I’m not sure how necessary it is, since it makes the sandwich a little drier than it would be otherwise, but it gives the sandwich a kicking smokiness which is the payoff. I think my edition needed a bit more on the pickle-side to cut all that dark smokiness, and maybe a piece of lettuce would help as well. It also didn’t have that much cheese, which is usually a good thing for me but maybe the teensiest bit more would have been good. But my two non-vegan dining companions thought it was amazing and I’m very particular, so it’s all good. It came on a cute little English-muffin-almost-looking bun that gave it the right bread-to-filling ratio. I’m all about ratios. ALSO, the side salad it came with had chickpeas and a great balsamic-based dressing so yay!! This entire big platter was only $9.50, which, living in London and coming from NYC in the days before, seemed just about free to me.
Jackfruit cubano
My next top choice (I have a lot of tops and bests and favorites, as you know) was the BLTA, a twist on the classic with automatic avocado. Automatic avocado is a surefire way to win me over, especially outside of the UK where the avocado might actually be good. The B in this sandwich was made from portobello mushroom, flavored and cooked like bacon, and it was delicious. The ratio (I’m all about ratios) of the mushroom bacon to tomato to lettuce to avocado was right, and the regular sandwich bread it was on was grilled and it was all perfect. It had a good amount of red onion too, which normally I hate but it worked well here. This was my fave sandwich by far. Just so perfect and delicious. This whole big mess of food (minus the chickpeas in the cup; they were from another person’s plate and I wanted them, but the chickpeas on the salad were again included I love this place) was also $9.50 which like come onnnn it’s almost annoyingly well-priced. They could easily raise their prices, I think.
the BLTA
The last item from the sandwich board we tried this evening was the Avocado Toast, which is always great and didn’t disappoint here. They offer it with either tomato and sprouts or arugula and pine nuts; both options cost the same, $6. This is avocado toast that won’t be the reason you can’t buy a house, millennials! Look at the size of this plate for $6. I cannot even. One good avocado in London will cost that much, I mean if such a thing existed. It’s hard to find pine nuts in the wild that don’t cost you an extra $20 so we ordered that option. So good! I really can’t with this whole mess costing $6. And on the Main Line!
Avocado toast
You can order all the sandwiches as is, on wraps, on multigrain bread, on gluten-free buns or wraps, or in lettuce wraps. I love all the options.
Lastly, we ordered the mushroom flatbread. There are three flatbreads, including one Hawaiian style made with jackfruit that sounds amazing. This is a big ole pizza-like shebang for $10, with mushrooms, walnuts, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and topped with red onion, parsley, mint, and lemon juice on top of a whole lot of melted cheese. I think they use Daiya – I’m not sure, I should have asked, but it seemed like Daiya – so if you don’t absolutely adore Daiya or just a lot of cheese in general, ask for less cheese than usual. I don’t mind Daiya – I’d prefer if they switched to Violife, which is the best and would be amazing even in an overdose – so the one change I’d make is the lemon juice. I don’t think it’s necessary and I think that was the culprit that detracted from the goodness overall of all the rest of the ingredients. There was something just a tad off, sharp, and I think it was lemon juice. The mushrooms and cheesiness without it would be like creamy and warm and amazing. The mushroom and nut mix is a great idea to add more substance, and the bread was a little crispy and a little chewy. Overall it was pretty good.
I can’t wait to try the rest of the food menu. My mom raves about the grilled cheese sandwich – and it’s only $5 with tomato and a dollar extra for the portobello bacon, so like, damn. The salads looked amazing, and I think the salad menu would be even more stellar with maybe a protein add-in option for all the salads overall. One had seitan, one had crispy tofu, and while I’m positive that they would add them to your salad choice if you asked, it would be easier and very cool if it was just listed, like ‘add crispy tofu for $2’ or whatever like that. The only weird thing about the menu (not actually weird, just weird to me) is the curious lack of tempeh in sight! Usually vegan places are all about the tempeh (as am I). It’s not bad, just weird to see (or not see!). If they make some menu changes seasonally or something I’d love to see a tempeh reuben oh oh my god I’d fly in just to try it. Maybe instead of the more basic options like the grilled portobello sandwich, which has been our only option at restaurants for so long that I can’t see many vegs ordering it when so many amazing options exist here.
Anyway, that’s enough about food. Juice Merchant also has a killer drinks menu – juices, smoothies, and coffee! I didn’t take a pic of the coffee options because I’m not a coffee drinker but even so I was still impressed by the extensive list.
The smoothie options sound great, and given the existence of the hemp and soy protein powders in the Protein Power smoothie, I bet you could add that to the others if you asked (as I would because I’m a protein powder fiend). I don’t know what the Blue Majik in the Cool Blue smoothie is but I wish I noticed that when I was there and asked! Those combos sound great, as do the juice options. We tried the Beet It juice and it was good. It was premade in the display case which helps speed things up if you’re in a hurry. The carrot-cinnamon-apple-maca options sounds like the first good use of maca! I’ve never been able to figure out how to use it so as not to vom but this sounds worth a try for sure. Genius. I love the $7.95 price for all the drinks, damn, especially having come from NYC where a small juice was like $11. I still can’t get over the Banana Whips and how amazing they sound (I LOVE banana whips) and how I was too full to try one. Le sigh. Next time! I love that they add granola; I wonder if it’s house made. And an Acai Bowl! Next time I’m going for breakfast. Except I need to try a salad. Dammit there’s too much!
THE DESSERT
Speaking of too much:
Juice Merchant gets Vegan Treats treats delivered every Thursday, and the selection is off the chain. They have the giant cinnamon buns (they are GIANT) which are the best ever. They have the peanut butter mousse brownie-cake bars which are THE BEST EVER. (Everything from Vegan Treats is the best ever, if you didn’t know.) They have the whoopie pies (three flavors!), the donuts (oh my god), and – THE CANNOLIS! I am NEVER able to find the cannolis because they’re usually just at Grindcore in South Philly and when do I ever get to go to South Philly anymore. So this is exciting. I got everything. It keeps!! IT KEEPS.
HELLO LOVER |
DANISHES? |
Okay I’ll stop. It’s all the best. I’ve never seen those Avocado Truffles before and I’m not sure if they’re Vegan Treats or Juice Merchant-made but I loved them!
Aside from the VT, there’s MORE dessert that is indeed house-made, and it’s amazing. We tried the chia pudding and the avocado mousse that you can sort of see in the big display case picture below. Both were SO good. I think I preferred the avocado mousse more even though I’m a huge chia head (ch ch ch chia!) because they made that subtle cocoa flavor just spot on.
The best part (how many best parts did I already say there were?) aside from the great food and drinks and the amazing desserts was how nice the staff was. And that there’s a big clean bathroom. And that they give a discount for teachers which I LOVE. Hooray for being kind to teachers. I can’t get over how perfect this place is and how close it is to my USA home. I can’t wait to go back and I highly recommend that you go if you can. Next time I think the chocolate peanut butter banana whip will be my first order of business. Or the carrot-maca juice. Or the blue magik smoothie. Or the veggie burger; I must try theirs! Or the cabbage and seitan salad! Oh my god I want everything. Who am I kidding it will be the peanut butter mousse cakey-pie thing. Okay now I’m hungry and I have to cook for myself ughhhhh. Go and enjoy!
