Love From Philly: My Grandmother Does the Most Amazing Thing With Polentaby Randi / September 24, 2014
Philadelphia gets more and more vegan-friendly by the day, it seems. In the past year, we’ve gotten a second outpost of the consistent & incredible HipCityVeg, a new all-vegan bar with upscale small plates called Charlie was a sinner. (review to come tomorrow, and yes, the period is in the name), a new bar from the Landaus of Vedge fame (to open any day now), and much more just in Center City! It’s sometimes hard to get out of the center because it seems there’s no real need to, with so much delicious vegan food within a few blocks of Rittenhouse. However, South Philly is veganizing as fast as it’s gentrifying, and if you can get someone to drive you (not it!), the vegan scene there is unmissable. My favorite new place there? Vegan Commissary! I think it’s the best brunch in town. It’s only open during lunch hours, but call it brunch so you can also order the cinnabuns.
Look how fun this menu is! You might be thinking, hey, that looks a little pricey! (Well not if you live in London because everything is sick expensive here.) The prices are a little higher (for the entrees anyway; the sides are stupid cheap) than you’d expect for a small little vegan joint, but guess what – they include tax and service, and they pay the wait staff a living wage. UHHHMAZING.
The food at Vegan Commissary is very much brunch-based, with giant pancakes, an extremely impressive Veggs platter, various kinds of scrapple, French toast, burgers, hash, and a dish actually called cream chipped beets. Every dish seems super clever and well thought out. Some items still require some work (I went pretty early in the restaurant’s life) but overall everything is crazy delicious.
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Of course I start here with a green juice, called the Groovy Grub Green. It was yummy and gave me a shot of necessary green veggies before I dove into the gluttony of what was to come. (You can’t help but over-order here because everything sounds so crazy good.) Then, in order to immediately counterbalance whatever good I ingested with the juice, I have the cinnamon buns.
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 Green juice above; cinnabons to the right. The perfect duo |
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The mini cinnamon buns are delicious. Oh man. Warm and gooey and covered in a sweet vanilla just-barely-cream-cheesy frosting (I usually hate cream cheese but this is subtle), they are the perfect little treat to share with your brunchmate or hoard for yourself.
One of the most creative menu items is also the most incredible – the poached avocado & tempeh hash. It’s a platter of diced fried tempeh and potatoes, the ‘hash’, topped with a perfect poached avocado and covered in a decadent hollandaise sauce. Oh my goodness! It’s like all my favorite non-kale foods. This is so good. I would have loved if a non-potato vegetable came with it for balance, but I guess we already took care of that need with the juice. This is ridiculously good.
One of the most creative menu items is also the most incredible – the poached avocado & tempeh hash. It’s a platter of diced fried tempeh and potatoes, the ‘hash’, topped with a perfect poached avocado and covered in a decadent hollandaise sauce. Oh my goodness! It’s like all my favorite non-kale foods. This is so good. I would have loved if a non-potato vegetable came with it for balance, but I guess we already took care of that need with the juice. This is ridiculously good.
Poached avocado & tempeh hash
Another fantastic and insanely creative dish – one that I’ve ordered every time I’ve been to the Commissary, actually! – is the Veggs Damian. I don’t know who Damian is, but thanks dude, because this is the most impressive brunch item I may have ever seen. And it’s delicious.
Veggs Damian
Look at those eggs! They are made from pressed tofu and filled with a yolk made from the Vegg, so perfectly set that you can dip your toast (buttered, of course; you get so much vegan butter!) in it. I just don’t understand how this is even possible. And they are really good! Equally impressive is the ‘side’ (in quotes because it’s quite large) of vegan scrapple that comes with it. Real scrapple may be one of the grossest ideas in food history, but vegan scrapple? Amazing. The Commissary’s version was a little too salty the last time I went, but still good. I love that this dish comes with asparagus – yay a vegetable! – and extra hollandaise.
 Corn scrapple |
Actually, the item I enjoyed most? Even more than the regular vegan scrapple? This corn scrapple! It tasted like a cross between a corn fritter and a polenta pancake. Oh man, SO freaking good!
Yet another ridiculous, over-the-top, must-order dish is the biscuits and gravy. I think every vegan feels the need to order biscuits and gravy whenever that amazingness is available, but here you must be warned: It’s freaking huge. Huuuuuge. I couldn’t actually finish it. It was really great. The biscuits are a little dense, not very light and fluffy, but they are perfect in this dish, with this delicious gravy smothering it. And it comes with more potatoes! Oh man. And it’s topped with the most glorious fried onions, like huge onion ring-style almost. |
Biscuits & gravy
I also loved the carrot dog, another very inspired dish, this time playing off a hot dog. It’s a lovely seasoned carrot in a bun, just like a hot dog but so much better! Topped with lentils and extra harissa mayo, it’s pretty darn fantastic.
Carrot dog & harissa mayo
I’ve also had the gluten-free chocolate peanut butter pie, which is like a decadent little peanut butter cup. It’s an almond and chocolate crust, filled with whipped peanut butter and chocolate ganache. Sooo decadent!
I definitely recommend that you get your bottom out of center city and over to South Philly for a wonderful meal at Vegan Commissary. Everything is good if not great, and it will only improve with time (as it already has!). Philly is such a freaking vegan mecca nowadays, it’s absolutely mind-blowing! I already miss this place and can’t wait to go there when I visit home.
I definitely recommend that you get your bottom out of center city and over to South Philly for a wonderful meal at Vegan Commissary. Everything is good if not great, and it will only improve with time (as it already has!). Philly is such a freaking vegan mecca nowadays, it’s absolutely mind-blowing! I already miss this place and can’t wait to go there when I visit home.
VEGAN COMMISSARY, PHILADELPHIA
Water speed: Good, because the servers are extremely attentive, but I just wish they used bigger glasses.
Service: Very good and super friendly.
Bathrooms: One single-serve very close to the kitchen. Pretty clean.
Food: Wonderful! Such an interesting variety with inspired ideas.
Bonus: Service and tax are included in the menu prices because they pay decent wages! Dessert, Veggs, pancakes, and scrapple! Can’t go wrong.
Note: Cash only; closes at 4pm.
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Feelings, New Orleans: Solid Food, Wonderful & Romantic Atmosphere
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.
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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.
Veganizing “Friends”: It’s Pronounced ‘Nes-LAY Too-LOUSuh’
COOOOOKIES!
Oh, I KNOW you know this one! It’s “The One With Phoebe’s Cookies”!! We’ve got everyone exactly in their element: Phoebe being silly and a bit ignorant, Monica absolutely obsessing over getting something perfect, Ross making everything about him (remember “IT’S BATCH 16! BATCH 16 PEOPLE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!”). This episode also has a fantastic Joey & Rachel storyline on Joey’s new boat*, and one of my favorite cold opens EVER. But back to the most important issue – cookies! So, Phoebe’s grandmother had the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, and Monica wants it as her engagement present, so she can one day be the mother who makes the best chocolate chip cookies:
Monica: Hey, I know I what I want!
Chandler: What we want honey.
Monica: No, you don’t want this. I want to have your grandmother’s cookie recipe.
Phoebe: You mean the chocolate chip cookie recipe?
Monica: Uh-huh, yeah.
Phoebe: You mean the one that my grandmother made me swear on her deathbed that I would never let out of our family?
Chandler: Dying people say the craziest things.
Monica: I wanted it for years! I was gonna make cookies for my children.
Phoebe: Break my heart—Oh, all right.
BUT SACRE BLEU!!! Phoebe lost the recipe in the fire*!! She does, however, have a few cookies frozen that were made from that recipe. Monica, the amazing chef she is, is determined to reverse-engineer the recipe from the few finished cookies. She spends dayyyys working and reworking various methods of CCC construction, with dozens of batches both good and, like Batch 16, terrible! And then…and then…and gentlemen, and then…this happens:
All this time, this miraculous recipe was the one ON THE BACK OF THE BAG OF NESTLE TOLL HOUSE CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!!! (It warrants all caps.) My anger on Monica’s behalf is only lessened by the subtitles in the above video. (I love subtitles; I don’t know why.) To honor our dear Friends, we’re going to make the famous Nestle Toll House chocolate chip recipe found on the back of the chips! And we’re going to veganize it! Since I don’t buy NTH chips (do they even make any that are vegan?) I found the recipe online here. It’s pretty easy to veganize – vegan butter for the butter, and egg subs (I chose flax eggs) for the eggs! Let’s see if they are really the best. Do you think they could actually be better than Dreena’s Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie? Or Isa’s, or Kelly Peloza’s? SUSPENSE.
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VEGANIZED NESTLE TOLL HOUSE COOKIE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS:
Finished ball
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Making the flax egg
Man alive that’s a lot of butter!
Creaming the butter and sugars
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So wow, these puffed up like whoa! I think from the egg! Can you believe, the vegan version of the Nestle Toll House cookies are TOO EGGY! They were of course really good, and I particularly enjoyed how slightly salty they were. If you like your cookies puffy and almost cakey, you will love these!! I prefer mine a bit crunchier, so if I made them again, I would cut the egg in half at least. Also, wow they use a lot of butter for my tastes. Wow! So, they are really good, but I don’t think they are better than the above-mentioned 3 stars of vegan chocolate chip cookies. It’s too bad these other recipes didn’t exist 10 or so years ago, because Monica would have flipped out over them and avoided all of these dramazz. Oh well! If cakey and buttery is your thing, go make these yummy cookies!
Editor’s edit: These may be the only cookies that are 100x better hours after baking than they are straight out of the oven! So good, actually! Go make them!
Congratulations on reaching the end of VeganMoFo, for all of my fellow participants! Don’t worry, I will still be Veganizing “Friends” recipes – just not everyday! And if you have any requests, please let me know in the comments.
Giveaway Trivia: Last Chance!!!
Giveaway Trivia: Last Chance!!!
- What was the name of Joey’s boat?
- When out on the water, who does Joey yell at and call a jackass?
- What caused the fire in Phoebe’s apartment?
- In Chandler’s hilarious side-plot, what happens when he plays racquetball with Monica & Ross’s dad?
