My Monday lunch was cancelled, but I did meet up with Isa again, along with Jim from veganfriendly.com, and a guy some of you readers may know from the world of online messageboards as Eppy, though there's obviously more to him than that, as I learned over the course of the evening. My wife joined us as well, and the five us met at Wild Ginger, a restaurant that has more recently become even more vegan that it was before.
It's a little weird, because Wild Ginger seems to be trying to transition from Wild Ginger Vegetarian Restaurant to Wild Ginger Vegan Cafe, but it's not really a cafe vibe, at least at dinner, and I still felt like I had to be clear about making sure soymilk was coming in my Thai iced tea, and not cow's milk, because both options are still available. Other than that, though, I felt fairly confident in assurances that even the items on the menu originally marked "(not vegan)" had been veganized, and the three of us ordered some appetizers:
These were a pretty good start. I didn't have any of the rolls, what with there being only two, and me not knowing how to easily share a roll with a chopstick. I was mainly keen on the tempura and the nuggets, both of which were very satisfying, except perhaps for the taro tempura, which did not provide the immediate pleasure of the yam tempura. The taro wasn't exactly bad, but I didn't really respond to it, if that makes any sense.
I did respond to my dinner, though. Described as plainly as possible as Teriyaki Wheat Gluten, you may be able to see from the photo that it was basically mock duck. I didn't know that until I realized that the crispier exterior was supposed to be mock skin. That was kind of disturbing until I got over it, since fake is fake. The moist interior and crispy, tangy teriyaki exterior made for a flavorful combination, and the snap peas were nice and crispy.
I liked my wife' s Singapore-style Mei-Fun, too. It was pretty subtle for a dish described as containing curry. While it had a slight curry flavor that I liked, it wasn't exactly what we were expecting from previous curry experiences. The vegetable "fish" was okay. Not bad, but not delectable, either. Mainly just an easy form of protein for a dish that is mainly noodles and a smattering of bright, colorful veggies.
I tried a bite of some other items around the table, and that was a mixed bag. Writing this so late, I can't remember what the items were called, but Isa's was only okay, Eppy seemed to like his quite a bit (though I didn't have a chance to try any), and I remember trying and liking Jim's, but I can't remember for the life of me what he had.
For dessert we were going to give Babycakes another shot, but they were closed, so we kept walking all the way to Kate's Joint. That was okay. I think if we hadn't done it for the company, I would have been a little disappointed. The apple pie with tofu "cream" was okay, but would have been better if hot. The chocolate mousse cake paled in comparison to the peanut butter mousse cake we had at Teany days earlier. The banana tiramisu was probably the best. I guess I like my desserts moist. I didn't get any pictures, but they weren't the most photogenic desserts anyway. Mainly the time was best valued because it gave us all a chance to hang out and chat some more. It was a lot of fun, and I found myself wishing I could sort of replicate the experience in L.A.
Before heading back to Los Angeles, though, I had a bit of a detour through the Midwest. I'll get to that in my next post.
Labels: Isa Chandra Moskowitz, restaurants, travel, vegan food
