Veganizing “Friends”: My FAJITAS!!!

   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!

   If you know “Friends” (and I hope you do!), you know that Chandler hates, I mean HATES, Thanksgiving. His parents announced their divorce on Thanksgiving when he was nine years old, and he was so upset that he threw up all the traditional foods he had eaten. Subsequently, he refused to ever celebrate the holiday or eat ‘Thanksgiving-y’ foods. (If I recall correctly, he also started smoking at this point too. At age 9.)     
So, we learn through flashbacks that, during college, Ross brought his roommate Chandler home for several Thanksgivings. The first time, Monica offered to make him mac & cheese since he didn’t eat Thanksgiving food. When eating it, Chandler said, in an offhand way, “This is great, you should be a chef!” and Monica just excitedly said “Ok!” And as we know, she became a professional chef. It’s one of my favorite Fat Monica moments, though I love her allatimes.

     So, the following Thanksgiving, Chandler (having dropped his Flock of Seagulls look for a Miami Vice one) asked Monica if she’d again make him some of that “righteous mac & cheese”.

    So yay, we are making some righteous mac & cheese! And it’s not even Thanksgiving! (Mac & cheese is ideal for any occasion.) This is the dish that gave Monica her start as a chef! Soo important. This recipe is my usual weekly go-to, but I added a secret ingredient today – caramelized onions – to give it a richer, more autumn, more Thanksgiving-y taste.

You start by boiling carrots and potatoes. I got the idea from the famous VegNews recipe years ago, and since then I’ve adapted it into my own specialty. I usually do two pounds (!!) of each, like 7-8 small potatoes and 10 peeled and chopped carrots (not baby carrots, too sweet). Come on, you need lots of sauce! Then, you blend the vegetables with margarine, milk, nooch, cashews, mustard, lemon, salt and pepper, and sometimes soy sauce/tamari/miso if it needs to be saltier. Mix in your pasta, and voila! My favorite mac & cheese.

    I make some version of this every week. I love it. The addition of caramelized onions added a warm depth of holiday flavor, but it made the dish a bit too sweet for me. However, just the natural sugars of plain cooked root vegetables, like sweet potatoes and butternut squash, are often too sweet for my tastes. So, if you are a normal person, you’ll probably really like this! You can always make it the regular way first, and then try blending the onions into a portion of it to see if you like it. Either way, it’s a delicious creamy pasta dish. It’s not as blue-box ‘cheesy’ as other recipes, but it’s my favorite. Let me know if you make it!