Oh Irony!

I’ve been a Vegetarian for about 3-4 years now, I don’t keep much track.  It was just something I decided to do, with not much fanfare, to see how it affected my diet.  I was feeling sick & run down all the time and thought it was a good time to give change a try.  I stopped eating cold turkey, har har, and only slip up once.  On Thankgiving I will have Stove Top turkey stuffing.  It doesn’t sit in the bird, but it does have a little chicken stock in it, that’s my weakness.  But the rest of the year it’s no Red Meat, Chicken, Fish or any meat stocks.  I do, however, eat gelatin which some other vegetarians do not.  Everyone has their own lines I suppose.

Red Bamboo is New York City is one of the best Vegan restaurants I’ve been to.  It was always a treat to go eat there.  Situated on West 4th Street it was right near the IFC Center so I always go whenever I check out the Asian Film Festival.   I know some people are confounded why someone who is a Vegetarian would want to eat fake meat.  I do enjoy the taste of meat, and I like the way meat dishes are prepared.  The breading, the seasonings, all that rot.  But, getting the same nice package with cruelty free insides is a pretty good trade-off.  So I love fake meat dishes!  The Soul Chicken, BBQ Chicken Wings, Fish N’ Chips are all awesome!

So this Saturday I was in Brooklyn & decided to go to their sister location, and found myself at a place called “Poppa’s Place”.  Luckily they had retained a couple of the dishes from when they were Red Bamboo, but now the restaurant serves a fusion of what they refer to as “Neo-American” meat dishes as well as some of the old favorites that Red Bamboo served.  From looking on their website I was able to get some more information.  Apparently with the skyrocketing prices of Soy the owner of Red Bamboo was taking a hit economically, so he decided to change the focus.  This is really unfortunate news.  I was pretty sad I never got a chance to check it out before the change-over.  At least the one in NYC will still be going strong, for now.

This happened another time to me recently as well where I read all these amazing reviews of a great Vegetarian restaurant in New Brunswick and when I went to find it, it had been closed down.  I hope this is not a wide-spread side effect of this economy that making gourmet food for vegans will cost too much to keep it up.  Fortunately, living in the NYC area, it’s not impossible for me to find some nice vegetarian places to eat.  But since I do not like Indian food, it’s not that easy either.  When Gaz and I went to Las Vegas for a trip people looked at us like we had a million heads for wanting vegetarian options.  I was surprised seeing as how it was so close to California that it would be so difficult.  I don’t even necessarily need restaurants with an all Vegan/Vegetarian selection, though it is nice to be able to order ANYTHING from a menu.  But even if big name places offered a couple of meatless options that don’t involve Eggplants, that will be nice.

For anyone else in this area, or visiting that likes Vegetarian options, here’s some recommendations.

New York City:

Red Bamboo NYC 140 West 4th Street,  New York, NY 10012-1049|
Vegan/Vegetarian Soul food options.  Many of my meat-eater friends have loved this place.  There’s a lot of great options.  And for those who are lactose intolerant they have some pretty wicked Vegan desserts.

Lodge – 318 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
This is my favorite place to go to Brunch in NYC with my friend!  They serve Biscuits and Gravy with Eggs & Veggie Sausage.  The gravy is amazing, and you can’t really find meat free country gravy at too many places.  They also serve Avacado Benedicts ( Same thing as Eggs Benedict but without the Spam and with Avacados instead).  Really great atmosphere and nice place to eat.

Crif Dogs – 113 St. Mark’s Place, New York, NY 10009
I totally forgot to put this on on the first draft of this entry, thanks Jeff.  Crif Dogs is awesome because they sub Veggie Hot Dogs for any of their combinations.  They have almost anything you could think of to put on the dogs so there are tons of Vegetarian friendly combinations!  Eggs and Avacados on Hot dogs, mmmmm.  I’m not really a huge fan of Veggie Dogs, but this place is the tops, they really do it right.  Great Hot Dog place for meat eaters as well

New Jersey:

Kaya’s Kitchen - 817 Belmar Plaza, Belmar, NJ 07719-2752
A lot of traditional american dishes are served here.   A good variety of food is available.  There’s a nice relaxed environment, and sometimes they will have musical events planned to enjoy while you’re dining.

The Crust & the Crumble – 658 Cookman Ave, Asbury Park, NJ 07712
This is a great little pizza house on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park.  They are rebuilding the area, and there’s an awesome Pinball Hall of Fame that’s down there.  They have Vegan Sausage, Pepporoni and a lot of amazing sauce options for the pizza.  They also offer the choices of real meat for your toppings as well.

The Eurasian Eatery – 110 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701
Not a personal favorite of mine because I am very ethnocentric with my palate, but this has some great choices for people into more of a European & Asian menu selection.  Great vegetarian choices.

Surf Taco – 94 Brighton Avenue, Long Branch, NJ 07740
They serve all kinds of meat here, this is not a vegetarian restaurant.  HOWEVER they have a lot of great options and they are delicious.  Their refried beans are vegetarian which is more rare than you would think.  Their burritos give you a lot of bang for the buck.  They also have a delicious vegan chili This is one of my favorite places to eat lunch ( just about every day)