“Three Tall Women” on Broadway: A Magnificent Revival for the Agesby Randi / June 24, 2018
I have a theory, and it’s not about people who live in Lake Erie, although I have been listening to the cast recording of “Bandstand” a lot lately. (I have to throw some bones to the theatre readers when it’s not Thursday.) I think the most vegan-friendly cities are places that are extra-trying to show how progressive they’ve become since their not-so-great pasts, whether consciously or not. In Europe at least, the places that were hit hardest during World War II, whether literally by being destroyed or politically by falling prey to fascism, have been incredibly vegan-friendly in my experience. When I’ve been in Berlin, for example, with its endless vegan signs and tattooed yoots and overall sense of freethinking and tolerance, it seems like the people are on a particularly passionate mission to prove that they’re no longer Nazis, and with that sort of progressive thinking comes veganism! I got the same vibe when I was in Warsaw, Poland, which was decimated by the Nazis during the war as we learned last week. Warsaw’s rebuilding after the war came with sort of a rebirth similar to Berlin’s, and I was delighted to find that it is a bona fide vegan paradise.
We didn’t have too much time planned in Warsaw, because this was intended to simply be a quick stop off the train on our return journey from our months in Asia. However, as we left Kyiv, I finally looked into my food options in Warsaw. I had NO idea. My HappyCow app was blowing up and every place I found, I added to my list. We had time for maybe three meals and I had a list pushing 50! Luckily, we made fantastic choices and had some of the best meals ever. With all of its vegan options, Warsaw is at the top of my list for must-return-to cities, because there’s so much incredible-sounding food I didn’t get to try. Of course, I’d have to make return visits to my favorite two restaurants, which we’ll talk about below, so I’ll need a lot of eatin’ time on my next visit, or a bigger tumnus.
The counter at Organic Coffee Stare Miasto. They get right to the point with that name
Before we talk about those meals, I have to say how, with all the many options in the Old Town, vegan food is usually convenient. On the morning when we were meeting our walking tour, we had only a few minutes to find breakfast (it was early! it was probably not that early), and the closest coffee shop was a HappyCow entry called Organic Coffee Stare Miasto! They had a green smoothie for me! They also had a few vegan baked goods, like cookies (which we tried – twas decent!) and cakes. They had a very interesting sounding porridge kind of thing that I don’t remember too much about except that I would have had it if we had more time (I am not a cookie for breakfast person!) but anyway, it’s a great thing to know about since you can literally see Sigismund’s Column from inside. The smoothie was fine; it would have been better blended with ice but hey it was a green smoothie while traveling.
Okay, onto the stars of the show, the talk of the town. During the short break in between our day of INTENSE walking tours, we found ourselves close to a few lunch options: one of the burger chains Mango Vegan Street Food, or Veg Deli. The former is a popular, casual joint with burgers and fries that I’m sure are all great, but I am weird and enjoy healthier or at least healthier-seeming food more. And I needed vegetables!
Veg Deli gave off a sort of Scandinavian vibe, with its modern, simple, and clean interior and its slightly upscale menu. The options all sounded great, so true to form we over ordered, getting two starters and two entrees. First up was my choice, as it always has and always will be when they’re on a menu: salad rolls. Or summer rolls. Whatever you wanna call them; it’s veggies in rice paper rolls. I love them, which is weird because I usually hate everything with that gummy consistency. (Don’t you EVER double up on the wrapper to make it more durable, future restaurants. I’d rather the wrap break and everything pinata out then deal with mochi-like gumminess GAG.)
Red cabbage summer rolls
These were filled with red cabbage, mint, basil, coriander (that’s cilantro for non-Europeans), and avocado. So many herbs! So many good things. The sauce was, I wanna say peanut, which seems weird but hey I love peanut sauce.
Our second starter was the Mexican soup, with black beans and corn and so that makes anything Mexican. Very good!
SOUP GOOD
For our mains, I of course ordered the closest thing to a salad – this mess of greens and avocado with balls of some sort. Hehe balls. They were like cake-y bean-y beancakes or whatever and it was great. They went a little heavy-handed on the dressing, and that tomato is too big I mean look at it I am NOT going to eat that, but otherwise I loved this. My perfect kind of dish – greens, avocado, beany thing.
delicious ball salad
But Z always orders best, because while I get distracted by GREENS and SALADS he always zeroes in on the best thing on the menu, like these fried giant oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are THE SHIT(ake), and this dish was hella ethics as my man Pillboi would say. That white creamy sauce for dipping was PHUH NOM. I don’t know how they made it but it was not tofu or cashew, just thick fatty white cream gunk I don’t know it was delicious. And it came with fried spinach so it was well-rounded.
mushroom manna
That amazing lunch set us up nicely for the rest of our day walking all over tarnation learning about how horrible humanity can be. But if you can believe it, it wasn’t even the best meal I had in Warsaw. It’s not too far off from the lead, but I guess I’m a sucker for pierogies because I’d give the edge to the vegan town favorite Vege Miasto. I think miasto means city so it’s an appropriate name for what I took away about Warsaw, that and Nazis being so bad.
Vege Miasto’s claim to fame is that it’s doing traditional Polish food, but all vegan. Well it also has non-Polish food like wok-fried vegetable stirfy (wat) and spaghetti with pesto (huh) but stick to the Polish food since it’s such a treat to get it veganized. As we learned when I ate in Beijing by myself that time, I am obsessed with dumplings of all sorts, and that’s what pierogi are really, so in honor of the sequel coming out soon and starring CHER, (what), sing it with me “MAMMA MIA (2)! HERE WE GO AGAIN!”
anyone else’s first thought ‘OOH! DUMPLINGS!’ in the voice of John Mulaney’s former coworker when she says ducklings no okay
So Vege Miasto is FORKING AMAZEBALLS. Again, true to form guys, do you expect anything else from us, we ordered wayyy too much, so much that most of the non-dumpling dishes came back to the hostel with us (and did not get stolen! praise the yoots!). We got two of the five pierogi options (one is a sweet pierogi, like blueberries and tofu! so weird!), which can come pan-fried or boiled. I think we did one fried, one boiled. I prefer boiled. If I recall correctly (I probably don’t), we got spinach & tofu pierogi and cabbage & mushroom ones. All sooo good. The best part was that both enormous dishes of pierogi came with little salads! It’s like they saw me coming and were happy about it! Omg this was sooo much pierogi and I want it now! Is there anywhere like this in London? I guess I have to make them, and I do make very good pierogi (ask Z!) but it takes time.
HEY PIEROGI HO PIEROGI HEY HEY HO PIEROGI HEY HO PIEROGI THE FAMOUS TROIKA DRIVER
For our mains (lololololol), it was a hard choice but we went with super traditional Polish options of Buckwheat Crepes and the Cudak. The Buckwheat Crepes, oh man, these were CHOCK FULL of veggies which are my favorite kinds of pancake type things, AND it had a little baby salad in the middle too! THIS IS MY DREAM RESTAURANT! EVERYTHING COMES WITH SALAD! I’M NOT SHOUTING! The mini buckwheat crepes (BLIN) were topped with a tomato-based stew of chickpeas, kale, spinach, mushrooms, and then also pumpkin seeds and herbs and sprouts and it was hearty and earthy (anything with buckwheat is automatically earthy I guess) and delicious. I wasn’t a huge fan of the orange-y sauce that was also on top but everyting else about it was great. It’s extraordinarily filling too, especially after you have eaten dozens of pierogi, so we had that show that everyone tells us to watch. (Leftovers.)
BLIN!
Lastly, we got the Cudaki, because supes traditional. Talk about filling – these were halved potatoes stuffed with tofu, nuts, white cheese, spinach, tempeh and like 100 kinds of creamy sauces. Hot damn this was deeeelicious. Creamy potato things are delicious! And I adore tempeh, even just plain, so this bacon-y version of tempeh was a treat and worked so well in the dish. We ate like one potato. Damn it was good. And it came with a pickly salad, with marinated zucchini, carrots, pickles, and fennel. Such a smart salad for this super heavy dish.
I must add that Vege Miasto has a very impressive Main Salad section, and left to my own devices I probably would have ordered one and been happy but would have missed out on this traditional food! Thank goodness we made sure I wasn’t led to the dark side. Stuffed to the absolute gills, we nevertheless had to order dessert. I mean, LOOK at this dessert set up! Luckily they were able to pack up a few pieces of cake so we could eat them later without exploding, and since we were already taking home bags of food a few pieces of cake thrown in on top wouldn’t be a problem. We decided on the chocolate cake and the Bounty-inspired cake (Bounty is a famous coconut-chocolate candy bar). Here I made a fun little slideshow for you.
The Bounty cake was the best. Cake is good. I’ve been watching a few episodes of Susan Blackwell’s Broadway interview series, “Side by Side with Susan Blackwell”, and at one point she asks everyone the same five questions, including ‘Cake or Pie?’ and everyone always says Pie and she gets SO UPSET and screams NO ALWAYS CAKE! and I think we could really be friends.
At the train station the next day, I was excited to see this huge Juice Factory outpost in the center of the terminal. I got a Cleansing Green elixir – kale, avocado, parsley, kiwi. It says vegan on their sign! I don’t think they are all vegan but it’s nice to see.
So if you are planning a trip to Warsaw, a) bring me pierogi and b) get ready to eat so much delicious food! I’ll share a few places that were on my list but we didn’t have time for.
- Vege Bistro: more pierogi and traditional Polish food, veganized!
- Mango Vegan Street Food: the popular burger chain I turned my nose up at earlier but I do want to try it!
- Falafel Bejrut: falafel chain with locations around the city. There’s lots of other falafel outlets too, as it should be in every city.
- Hocio Vegan Hot Dog Truck: self-explanatory. I don’t even like hot dogs but I’d eat a vegan one from a food truck in Warsaw just to be like whaaaat fuck you Jurgen Stroop!
- Keboom: vegan kebab shop with three locations! What is life
- Krowarzywa: vegan burger joint with three locations! Again I ask you!
- Leonardo Verde: a vegan Italian place with lots of good reviews and pizzaaaa!
So that was my Warsaw visit, and I am now sooo hungry and sooo without anything resembling pierogi. Le sigh. I can’t wait to go back. I really loved this city and not just because of the food. I hope you want to go now!
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In case you missed it: WARSAW CITY GUIDE
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Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk: Three Days of Train
June 29 – July 2
Dear little baby laptop diary,
I titled this post after one of the most random Broadway plays I’ve ever seen, “Three Days of Rain”, with Julia Roberts making her lackluster debut, Paul Rudd just being our universal boyfriend, and a not-very-famous Bradley Cooper, whom I knew from Alias and was super excited about. Who knew that in a few short years he would be the biggest star of the bunch! Anyway, it was a kind of boring show, and that’s all I remember, which is a shame because I am currently on a train with two days and two nights left to go, and I would like to be thinking about a play instead. How is it going so far, you ask? Let’s just say if I didn’t want to talk so much about Broadway whenever I had the chance, this post would have simply been called Three Days of Pain.
Dear little baby laptop diary,
I titled this post after one of the most random Broadway plays I’ve ever seen, “Three Days of Rain”, with Julia Roberts making her lackluster debut, Paul Rudd just being our universal boyfriend, and a not-very-famous Bradley Cooper, whom I knew from Alias and was super excited about. Who knew that in a few short years he would be the biggest star of the bunch! Anyway, it was a kind of boring show, and that’s all I remember, which is a shame because I am currently on a train with two days and two nights left to go, and I would like to be thinking about a play instead. How is it going so far, you ask? Let’s just say if I didn’t want to talk so much about Broadway whenever I had the chance, this post would have simply been called Three Days of Pain.
After our 24 hour stay in Yekaterinburg – our lovely, fancy-hotel-staying-to-reward-ourselves-after-the-24-hour-train-and-to-treat-ourselves-before-the-3-day-train stay- we boarded The Train. This would be our longest train journey yet, longer than the baby-sized sleepers we’d done so far, longer than when we took Amtrak from Chicago to San Francisco and thought we were so brave. I want to slap old me across the face. Amtrak was luxury. We had a tinier cabin but it was just the two of us, and man alive if I ever slam Amtrak bathrooms again, remind me of where we are now. I would kill for an Amtrak bathroom on this train. We boarded 10pm Thursday, as I write it is 2pm Friday, and we get off this Snowpiercer on SUNDAY at noon. SUNDAY. From boarding THURSDAY! Guysss I don’t know if I’m going to make it. Well if anyone is actually reading this it means I made it, because there’s no wifi so I have to post this after we disembark on that magical day (and actually, after I post all the other posts that come chronologically before this because that’s how I want to do it), BUT STILL, who knows how changed I will be. Who knows if I will still have the same likes, the same dreams and passions, the same hair or if I tore it all out in a ravenous fit of cabin fever unchecked by all the Ativan Caki gave me (thank you Caki)? Will I even be human? Are we human or are we dancers? It’s already starting, see.
Oh dear sweet little baby 8 pound 6 ounce newborn infant laptop, don’t even know a word yet…
We boarded last night and found an empty cabin, which was nice so we could put all our stuff away without bothering people already there (this train started all the way back in Moscow). A very clean surprisingly non-smelly older gentleman (our first non-smelly gentleman in the whole country!) joined us, and he was fine. It was a lucky roommate to have! He was a history professor who was very nice and we chatted for like a minute before we all went to sleep. Perfect! Unfortunately, it was short-lived. The train made approximately 25 stops during the night, during which I started thinking about how excited my brother is for the new “Murder on the Orient Express” movie (me too what a cast hooray for Baby Leslie Odom (I decided to call everyone who is a ‘Jr.’ just ‘Baby’ instead, shout out to Baby Robert Downey)) but then of course I started THINKING about Murder on the Orient Express and how I’m as close right now to that situation as I’ll ever be and these strangers are always in our cabins and everyone smells bad and has knives because we all came prepared with days of food and the appropriate cutlery and I was like don’t let anyone stab anyone tonight Dame Judy! So then I couldn’t sleep for a while. I finally started to maybe get closer to sleep, despite the rocking motion of this train being worse than the downtown trains of the NYC subway the ones you cannot possibly try to surf hands-free during else you’ll fly into the opposite end of the carriage, and much worse than the tube with all its own dragon noises and bumping and creaking and omg. But then, at 4am, our friendly cabinmate got off at his stop. Lucky guy was only on a train for 6 hours! That’s nothing! Then, unfortunately, it started. The kind of cabinmates I had feared started coming in our room. Our first new cabinmate was a smelly Russian man about our age who immediately took his shirt off and let the smell fester even more. I was on a bottom bunk, Husband was on the top, and Shirtless Youth was on the other top. Then a few hours later after another frighteningly jerky stop, our next cabinmate arrived. He is maybe in his 40s, maybe 50, and he is a giant flesh person. He is just a giant sack of human. This is a tiny f-ing cabin and either his endless flesh or his even worse stench is EVERYWHERE. We can’t put our legs down to sit on my bunk because his are there. We can’t breathe without breathing in his b.o. He is scratching right now while humming. He scratches his uncovered skin (he’s wearing shorts and like a belly shirt) and flicks whatever comes up all while humming, Guys. I’m trying to be strong and brave and grateful. I am grateful that he doesn’t smell like smoke. That’s literally all I got.
I thought the unwritten but definite rule of these cabins was that whoever is on the top gets to sit on the bottom bunk on their side during the day and use the little table for their meals. Each side keeps to themselves. I begrudgingly learned this on our first long train when Husband and I both had bottoms so the woman on top of mine sat on my bed a lot. I learned, great, that’s how it’s done, she can’t prepare her food and eat up top. OK, I got it, sorry I gave you a bad look. But this morning, after I exercised outside our door in the hallway (there’s a bar running down the hallway of our cabin, it’s tight but it’s enough space to do barre exercises like I’m a GODDAMN BALLERINA and lots and lots of squat variations and calf raises. No one was up when I was out there so I also got out my resistance bands and worked my back so darn happy about that I think I’d go insane if I was cooped up here and couldn’t at least try to work a muscle), I came back to sit on my bed and read and Shirtless Youth was sitting on my pillow by the table making his breakfast. Like. NO. You get the bottom bunk and table part from the guy BELOW YOU. That’s the rule!! Omg! I guess he literally couldn’t because the Giant Flesh Ball Man was oozing out everywhere you turned and they couldn’t both sit on that bunk, but still, that’s not my problem man! I waited outside and did more calf raises and then when he got up I claimed my spot back and haven’t left since. Except to pee in the literal pits of despair. These toilets are so grimy and sludgy and I’m spending so much time in there because I pee a lot and Husband and I brought 15 liters of water on this trip with us and I have to drink it even though I fear it’s not enough for three days. That’s for two people! (We each carried a 5L jug and had three 1.5L bottles between us and I also had about 1/2 liter left in another bottle. Hey I guess that is 16L maybe we will make it.)
OH MY GOD Giant Flesh Ball just went to the bathroom and came back shirtless and is now putting deodorant on while sitting next to me I am going to vomit. OH my god Shirtless Youth is also still shirtless and just got down from his top bunk by jumping onto my bed with his smelly feet right on my sheets, right next to my physical body. He was just ‘cleaning’ his grundle with his towel I cannot believe this. GFB Man is still humming and now is drumming his fingers in rhythm the whole time on the table omg I am going to LOSE MY MIND.
Oh wait. Oh my god they both seem to be getting dressed! And not in their smelly sleep clothes, in real clothes with buttons and things! Ahh praise Jesus are they disembarking? Did we reach their stop? Or did we reach my melting point? We don’t stop for like 30 minutes I cannot wait to see how this goes! I’m so nervous and excited and scared that I’m getting my hopes up! Are they going?? Will our new neighbors be even worse? Even smellier? Even more in my personal space? Why do men think they have the right to my personal space? I guess we will see what happens in 30 minutes when we stop at some combination of letters I already forgot. I have to go pee before they lock the bathrooms at the stop (they get locked at every stop because, well, because everything ‘flushes’ onto the track, so at least it’s a civilized reason). We will see what happens.
Oh my god she already locked the bathroom! We don’t arrive at the stop for another 30 minutes this is INHUMAN. GFB Man is brushing his crumbs from his side of the table towards me and the computer. That’s just swell of you. He’s still humming. Shirtless Maybe-Not-So-Young Man is now shirtless again, despite having dressed himself five minutes ago, so I have less hope of his departure now. He’s also sitting on his top bunk with his feet hanging off pretty much in my face (it’s tiny room) and they smell so bad my eyes are tearing. I’m also equally frightened that if they do get off, our newbies will be even worse. What if THEY reek of smoke? Ughhh that would be worse. And we have TWO FULL DAYS LEFT. Two more sleepless nights. Two more days of having to time my bathroom breaks between frequent stops. Two more days of constant Purell because there’s no soap in the bathrooms. Two more days of using precious bottled water to brush my teeth and wash my face because the train water would give me cholera. Two more days without contacts because no way I’m touching my eyes. Actually that last one is good, my eyes need a break from contacts.
While I wait on my ability to pee and breathe from the smelly guys maybe leaving and cry from possibly worse new cabinmates, I will tell of all the food we had to buy and bring onboard for 3 days. No meals are included in our ticket and the dining car is very expensive, but also I think they have zero options for me anyway. Husband will check it out later or tomorrow I’m sure (we can’t both leave, someone has to guard our stuff). So in Yekaterinburg, we found a few giant supermarkets that were very expensive (they had no cheap supermarket, so weird! No little bodegas like have been all over the rest of Russia either). We found lots of good treats and bought a lot, but considering it’s three days worth of food for two people it’s probably just right. We bought jars of white beans in tomato sauce with some veg in there, which I’m sooo pumped about. Like mamma ‘taliano looking stuff, I hope. We also found vegetarian grape leaves in a can, another tomato sauced bean thing in a can, and lots of bread. And we brought that fantastic Russian staple, instant kasha! Sooo good. I used to think kasha was just a part of that disgusting Main Line Jewish dish of kash’ n’ bowties but aside from that it’s actually really good. And good for you! Along with cucumbers, tomatoes, and pickles (probably not the best idea because they smell, but if people don’t care how their bodies smell why should I care how my food smells), and more apples and orange, we are set. Plus we found a lot of chocolate in Yekaterinburg so happy dance. And cookies! Every city we’ve been in so far, I’ve scoured ingredient labels and found one package of accidentally vegan cookies. Never the same one, so we’re on our third try. The chocolate chip ones in St. Pete’s were still the best, but the cinnamon ones in Moscow were very yummy too. I will report back on these weird blueberry puffballs I found! I hope that when we eat all this stuff I don’t have a Meg Ryan in “French Kiss” train moment (LACTOSE INTOLERAAAAANCE who knows it? best movie ever I pretend Kevin Kline won his Tony a few weeks ago as a belated gift for “French Kiss”).
quick cooking kasha! |
this chocolate bar is ALL OVER the country !! accidentally vegan wooohooo |
these amazing Trader Joe’s finds are gonna get me through! Brought two bags! |
found these amazing dehydrated veggie crackers at Veggie Bro in Vladimir (go back and read about it if you missed it last week!) |
There are good things. I got to have an instant Quaker oatmeal packet for breakfast today, which is (I’m sorry) one of my favorite foods and one of the easiest things to make because of the samovar in our carriage (every carriage has a samovar of endless (god I hope!) hot water, so anything instant is good). We also use the boiled water to clean our dishes and stuff. I read “Between the World in Me” already, which was wonderful, “The Days of Abandonment”, which I actively despised (sorry Kip), and David Sedaris’s new diary-entry book, which is better in short bursts than all at once. I also reread dear sweet Nora’s “I Feel Bad About My Neck” because it’s the best. I have a lot of podcasts on my phone, and I could listen to at least half of one Gilmore Guys (or five regular length podcasts) before my battery dies. Also, there are really nice Dutch women with two little kids down the car who we are talking to a bit. They smell fine. It’s a treat.
Well, back to reality. The two smelly guys did indeed get off. But we immediately got two new Russian men who…I’m not yet sure, but I think they might be worse. They’re meaner, that’s for sure. When they came by, I said hello (in Russian) and smiled and they didn’t even blink or glance at me just threw their stuff on their bunks and went back out. WTF. A few minutes later, Husband did the same thing when they returned and again, no eye contact, no utterance of any kind in our direction. Stupid Russian jerks! Fine don’t talk to us, that’s good for me. But they smell a little smoky, which better not get worse. I’m promising myself two things: If they ‘magically’ get smokier (meaning they’ve smoked on the train, which is not allowed), I am going to say something (I am able to say ‘you smoked? where? not allowed!”); and if they sit on my bed at any point I am putting my foot down and getting super scary and yelling “NYET! that is your side, and this is our side.” I think I know how I say that. They know each other so that makes it easier. I hope it doesn’t come to my having to yell in very poor Russian at men I have to sleep next to for at least one night. Their phone noises are on, too, which is a big no-no, and just as the icing on the cake, their phone noises are incredibly loud bits of very bad songs.
Dear little baby laptop, lying there in your ghost manger, just watching your Baby Einstein developmental videos, learning about shapes and colors…
Guys! The men all left super quickly and we had the cabin to ourselves for dinnertime on the second night! Then an army man joined us and was so well behaved and organized (and made his bed immaculately in 8 seconds flat, we were very embarrassed about how ours looked after that). He smells fine! The Dutch family down the hall has become our friends, and they are vegetarian so we are going to all meet in Mongolia (where we all end up for Naadam) at Loving Hut! And there’s a Danish girl (not to be confused with The Danish Girl) about our age who is now also our friend and we will probably see in Mongolia! Things are looking up in Duloc! Oh man it all really depends on your cabinmates, I guess. Well but the constant bathroom locking is terrible, especially for me, so that is really rough. But with decent, nonsmelly roommates this whole train thing might actually be…fun? Okay obviously I need a nap since I’m clearly losing it.
