Veg Out: Kanella Brunch

Sunday. The sun burns your youth off with a puck of espresso shot.

Turn into Kanella, the Greece of Spruce Street. Mint iced tea, Greek frappes, the road to satisfaction is paved with hummus. It doesn't matter how many times, it's always time.

You looked the weekend in the eye. It took you back.

The two of you went in the corner and had the Kanella platter. You figured that it had everything you wanted, even if the shaksouka did make a pass at you. Approximately one falafel sphere, a zucchini fritter, cool borders of tsatziki and white bean salad, plump stuffed grape leaves, spicy tomato salad, and pita. Somehow you stayed away from the grilled halloumi, but you'll go back. Grilled halloumi is like vegetarian Grecian BBQ.

The piercing blue eyes of chef Konstantinos Pitsillides channel every bodice-ripper you can think of.

Kanella, 10th & Spruce

McPope

I had the seitan version of a McNugget at the P.O.P.E. the other night.

It was like nine years erased.

Newly-appointed chef Pete Miller has got vegan food on the brain. The breaded and fried seitan fingers are not quite the brunt of it. In addition to the LoTV-adored seitan cheesesteak, one might consume the mighty veggie burger armored with a deep-fried tomato, seitan nachos, tofu skewers, or a vegetable medallion.

Those tofu skewers were sold out. How the shit.

Oh right, Passyunk Ave 2009.

Pub on Passyunk East, 1501 E. Passyunk Ave.

Veg Out: Honest Tom's

When I heard that someone was french pressing Stumptown from a lunch truck near Drexel, I came to like a drunk that decides it's not too early to start drinking.

Everywhere I turn, I see Duane Sorenson. Be it inside NY Mag or in the shiny metallic future of my coffee spoon, the founder of Portland's Stumptown Coffee and I have not actually crossed paths. I truly believed that I had never tasted the Pacific Northwestern black gold.

So when I did set upon the leisurely 15-block trek, when I did blacken my mouth with the soul of Portland, and when I did instantly feel like I was another person - admittedly, a cowboy with breasts - it wasn't the first time.

I had sipped Stumptown before. I knew this. It had happened in an alley at San Francisco's Four Barrel, a coffeeshop that had carried Stumptown beans up until January of this year, when they started roasting their own.

There was something about this hearty lava that knew me and understood my needs.
I know what. I do go overboard.

It was a $1.50 to Honest Tom, who looked so right that I had to order a breakfast taco from him.

For $2.50, Honest Tom's will do a scrambled egg and potato dance partnered with fresh guacamole and salsa on the floor of a soft taco. Some days there is chicken. Other days there is steak. But always, always, friends, if you look like you need it, there is breakfast. Currently, they are working on a bean or seitan version.


The correct way to feast is to lean against someone's car, maybe your own, and lean over slightly into your taco. Immediately wash with coffee. It is like a condiment here, and the flavors move like two leads, so that you're always wanting to keep up with one.

Honest Tom's, 33rd & Arch

Empanada Alert

Have you been to Institute Bar yet? There's whiskey. There's Wii. Surely you like one of those things.

Last week, I had the pleasure of sampling the vegetarian dishes that the owners have planned for their upcoming Puerto Rican menu. They're looking to roll out their island cuisine on the tentative date of May 8, but I couldn't wait. I craved plantains. I wanted to know about Recaíto. My heart beats for sofrito.

Here's the rundown:

Chilled mango soup - Cinnamon, cinnamon, and more cinnamon. Here's to hoping they thin out this chunky puree a bit. Vegan.

Avocado salad - Holy tang. Not the orange drink. This app was beyond refreshing, a melange of avocado bits, mango, FRESH tomatoes, marinated in a slap of garlic and citrus. 'Twas a hit. Vegan.

Veggie burger - I feel like a better person for having eaten this. The white bean-based patty was perfected with the right amount of fat and texture from coconut-milked bread crumbs. Can't wait to try it on a bun. Vegan.

Plantain fritters w/ sofrito dipping sauce - This housemade sofrito could make anything taste great, so I had to try the plantain fritters sans sauce to realize that they, too, were incredible. Shredded plantain is quite meat-like. Vegan.

Stuffed papaya - This one was difficult to eat, as it required cutting into a not-yet-perfectly-ripe papaya boat that was stuffed with a cheese and fruit mixture that was like the second cousin of rice pudding. Pretty, but not too functional.

Empanadas - The highlight of the tasting for me. These were possibly the best empanadas I've had yet, more of those agreeable shredded plantains shrouded in a golden-fried veil. Vegan.

There will likely be more additions to the final menu, with lots of veggie sides and a couple of desserts for you coconut-milk-lovers. There was much talk of BBQ seitan experimentation. It's like the Seitan Association is paying me sometimes.

Get on over there when they do whip out their Puerto Rican breeze. This is a bar that cares about food.

Institute Bar, 12th & Green.

Rx and the Curious Case of Burnt Vrapple

Set up BYO shop in a former pharmacy. Make playful menu consisting of New American remedies, emphasis on seasonal bounty and handshake extension to vegetarian palate. Furnish with local art and medicinal tchotchkes. Throw in a retro Coke machine for kicks. Fill stainless mugs with soothing amounts of piping hot joe. You are RX in West Philly, a brunch prescription for the peckish on high Spruce.

Do me the pancakes, hold the chocolate chips, enough bites for the great hours ahead. The pale, slighty underdone cakes are a batter lover's drug of choice. French toast is fixed with Grape-Nuts for the nutritionally aware. Eggs Florentine holds steady with the green. Orders of Vrapple, that lower in fat veggie scrapple alternative that one might scoff at, are burnt bricks banished back to the kitchen. They return as lightly fried loaves, edible and much tastier when topped with apple butter.

The atmosphere, however, makes up for the few missteps. I'll return for dinner when I come down with that West Philly fever.



Rx, 4443 Spruce St.

Veg Out: Bombay Express

See that orange in there? Meet paneer.
I headed back to Bombay, the lower quality and fast-foodier alternative to Minar Palace. Why would I do such a thing? The good fight between curiosity and common sense found me inspecting the paneer tikka panini. I absolutely had to try it.

Now, I should have had one bite, captured my blog thoughts, and disposed of the naan-wich right away. Not that it wasn't good, because it was. There just weren't enough redeeming qualities to justify this bastardization of Indian and Italian cuisine.

Slabs of orange paneer tikka are arranged next to thin slices of cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and onion. The whole thing is covered with a mildly spiced cream sauce that drips out of the flatbread, which isn't grilled enough. I demand major grill marks.

Considering that this is a $3.5 sandwich, it might be protected from my scrutiny on value alone. It's Indian grilled cheese. As long as you accept that, you'll be fine. It at least got me thinking about paneer burritos.

Bombay Express, 122 S. 12th St.

The Sweet Potato Roll: Year-Round Thanksgiving Veg

For the longest time, vegetarian sushi was an easy, wholly unexciting decision. Cucumber or avocado. A or B. A feast of why-bother. You were better off buying a whole cucumber and eating a bowl of cold rice, alternating bites.

Then things happened. Years went by. We showed up.

Now, seafood-less sushi with a zing is the norm. You'll find options like potato, fried tofu, tempura, shitake, multi-grain, and asparagus. Sushi every day and you? You could. But add a vitamin, please.

My flexitarian assistant and I have been fast on the tracks of the veggie sushi revolution. Last night we popped into Vic Sushi Bar for their sweet potato roll special, and walked out with three other rolls as well: avocado, seaweed salad, and fried tofu (inari). The avocado is nothing special, but it's sort of a must. The seaweed salad was the most complex, with its refreshing crispness and slight tang. I was all over the sweet potato roll, which had regular potato inside, too. The sweetness of it was a nice kick. The fried tofu is also exceptional, with the chewiness of the tofu adding an interesting texture to the roll.

Vic Sushi Bar, 2035 Sansom St., www.vicsushi.com

It's Not Another Post About Pie

Walking past the Swiss Haus Bakery confirmed that the whoopie pie craze is still on strong. That's after the NYT love letter ran. Whoopie is in, but think about it: it's cake on cake, the cupcake of Oreo. Vegan Treats has been popping out these lovelies for years - in pumpkin, mint, peanut butter, and regular.

The pie that is whoopie has always been on my mind. There's something about whoopie pie that gets people all starry-eyed and weak. Nothing sophisticated about it. Calorie jammed and gloriously messy, yet most decidedly fun.

Everyone knows I major in Pie, but sometimes I slip into Cake, particularly if it includes the word Pie in it. My Boston Creme Pie is arguably better than most pie I have made. After baking up a fleet of whoopie pies, I found that my caking skills are truly getting there. I'm proud of enough of these that I'd consider a blind taste test up against the Amish version. Sometimes cocky is plain right.

Don't ask about my shoo-fly, though. I wasn't born with those jewels.

The Mt. Olympus of Breakfast

The greatest thing to happen to vegetarian breakfast: Greek yogurt. Fage. 2%. Protein routine.