weekday vegetarianism

Continuing the vegetarian/vegan restaurant chain of thought and eschewing discussions on ethics and implementation, I found this TED talk by Graham Hill (of TreeHugger) a particularly fascinating one (not to mention an extremely compelling and cogent argument). Truly an idea worth spreading, imho:

Graham Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian

Ipanema to the rescue

I recently had the conundrum of trying to satisfy a couple of vegan palates on a Sunday morning. Normally, this problem can be addressed by a few reliables – Indian, Thai; Italian and Ethiopian also offer some possibilities. Mexican food to a lesser extent. This challenge was further compounded this time by an added constraint - even eggs were ruled out.
Having tried the sub-par Indian places here (possibly a subject of another voluminous post to come, the lowest common denominator “beef” with them being the generic food they serve that bears little resemblance to that eaten in India itself, particularly a major chunk of the country), they were out. Sheba was closed, Nile opened only at noon as did some other Thai places; so along we went to Ipanema.
Coffee and juice made way to dishes of spicy veg “chorizo” with spinach, tofu scrambled burritos with black beans and tempeh served on an English muffin with marinated tomato, mushrooms and a citrus bernaise. Polishing up the sweet potato hash and fruit, I was delighted that Ipanema takes vegan dining seriously. Now these were perhaps the only 3 or so options lacking eggs, but it was nice to see the unheralded place trying something different with their menu that perhaps only a handful of people are fastidious about (trailblazers like the wonderful Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca come to mind).
An aside and a matter of 'taste' - the new art by Seth Ganz on the walls was one of the nicest coherent ensembles I've seen in a non-gallery setting.

Constraint–based modeling: It would be useful to find/compile lists of constraint-based dining options nearby. Not factoring substitutions/omissions but choices at the very least for example - vegetarian (no fish, egg ok), gluten free and (relatively easier in a sense) – halal, kosher etc. I hope to keep an eye out for some possibilities in this arena.

pasta paparazzi plagiarism & (former) primes

"What happened to eating your food and having conversation?" - David Chang. an interesting concept, what?
http://bit.ly/cfLtfA

Never quite been tempted to take pictures of dinners, but the one time I was glad someone did was the fabulous 6 seat Minibar ! food as art indeed and I can see the fascination !!

The fun with numbers lunch -
lunching with la niña y el niño to celebrate the end of the semester and the acceptance of a paper, we decided to try the "new look" 821 cafe, now housed 2 doors down (or is it up ?) at 825 Cary St. Never got the fascination with mojos and another unfortunate lunch last week just reinforced my opinion of the same.

I must confess, I'd only eaten a couple of times before at 821 (not counting the few times the wait was impossible); always felt I lacked the requisite HQ (hipster quotient), so it was with some trepidation that we ventured over. The place does seem to have undergone quite a transformation - you're greeted (oddly enough) by a magazine rack, but theres the mismatched chairs and tables and the crazy art but the light....lots of it ! and its decidedly cheery !!

Speaking of quotients, now 821 is a prime (of course :)) and so is 823...but I found out that 825 is a Smith number - one where the the sum of its digits is equal to the sum of the digits of its prime factors (8+2+5 = 3+5+5+1+1 from 3x5x5x11). Ah numbers....and since I like things like this, I ended up counting a whopping 56 different items on one side of their menu !! (not including variations/substitutions)... The other side had an equally long list of items, implying at the very least, a crazy list of 100 different options for lunch !! For another day - pruning lists....

Well bottomline - a fairly decent enough and tasty lunch, albeit a long drawn out one and not just from taking time to decide ! (the bad news) there was the lone efficient waitress serving a packed, rather diverse dining room ! given the waits, a small number of people apparently decided to try their luck some other time, a problem that might intensify when all the students return. lunch ~ $10.
given the generally subterranean feel of the previous location, the airy and bright look of 825 was nice. i wonder how long it will take for the light levels to attenuate (from assorted flyers?) I hope they dont. In the meantime, my HQ remains pitifully low....

Tempus fugit

While on a Latin kick - Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore ("But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail"). The semester is almost over and the streets empty. Time flies indeed and its time for some quick notes around campus before the lull. I am late to jump on bandwagons or in this case, carts but the Olio cart was my revelation of the semester with quite a few good weather al fresco lunches coming off it.
I think I am ready to appoint Rev it Up as a place du jour for now for semi-formal lunches.
Despite the shaky tables, the often messy interior and difficulty finding places to sit amidst the glued-to-laptop student crowd, we’ve had a bit of a soft spot for Crossroads for some time - generally steered there for between-appointments-lunch (if we’re not going to Elephant Thai – note to ET: Please increase the sizes of those pitifully small rice portions).
RiU has now proffered itself as a great alternative. I had earlier noted that the new owners had completely spruced the place from the rather dingy Common Cup and the interior has been transformed to something quite welcoming for lunch. The sandwich options are quite standard but well assembled. A matter of taste perhaps, but I’m also glad they made the switch from tortilla chips to regular crisps. However, the incipient vegetarian (or even experimental theoretician) in me longs to see more interesting variations (the thing I liked at x-roads) or options (the rather quirky and fun Harrison Street Coffee Shop being exhibit A in this department)...or even anything that migrates (even by a delta X) from basic tuna/chicken salads, roast beefs and BLTs….( add Sriracha ! ;-)..)
Lunch + coffee in all these places ~$10.

Probably an equal length of a saunter, but Belvidere on Broad seems worth a try for lunch (will be turning 1 in August). Had a dinner there recently and quite liked the tuna sandwich I had. Admittedly the walk to and from the restaurant was a bit of an assault on the senses.

Levamentum

A recent experience finding Rustica closed (note- Monday evenings!) caused a detour that landed in comfort (lower case c intended). After a perfectly adequate dinner, I realized that this was one place that had been visited several times and yet never written about. The first time, a couple of years ago, we didn’t know what to make of the place with the strange wall art and the usage of mason jars as glasses, while quite liking the creaky floorboards and the basic soul food. Several fried catfish, okra, green tomatoes, collard greens, creamy sweet potatoes, macaronis et al. later, Comfort continues to serve up satisfactory, well cooked and tasty no-frills Southern food in a pleasant environment (a little noisy, noise levels typically required a raised conversation). Portion sizes were quite substantial (an entree with 2 or 3 sides was quite enough for a meal). At times, we have felt that the food at Comfort tended to be under-seasoned. However, taken in unison with the overall composition of the platter and general preparation, this was easily forgotten/rectified.

I feel that CR and Comfort both fall squarely in the wysiwyg category. Now, this is not necessarily diametrical to say, trompe l’oeil cooking but there is something to be said for places that are quite down to earth in a range of departments (attitude, service, prices et al) and most importantly the food. If only more places in RVA realized exactly where they stood in the gastronomic hierarchy and adjusted accordingly.
Dinners at CR and C. ran to around ~$75 for two, with drinks and dessert and t&t.

Comfort has a rather exhaustive bourbon and whisky list, although not being quite a connoisseur of the malted stuff, I wasn’t quite able to discern if they complemented the food. But it was an impressive listing of alcohol nonetheless. Reading the list reminded me of this poignant piece by my one of my all time favorite bloggers on the hard stuff. (I liked the Omnivore line that the good things in life taste good).
Speaking of favorites with a certain way with words, I end on a rather tangential note (another markov chain !): I was quite elated to recently stumble (hypertextually speaking of course) upon an intriguing and prolific local with a je ne sais quoi and evocative writing style.... momentarily makes a life lived vicariously rather satisfactory.
levamentum to a point…

Comfort - Richmond, VA

Edit: While on the subject of critiquing food preparation, this recent blog posting by Ron Lieber on why he got kicked out of a restaurant makes for an interesting debate.
I generally agree with this philosophy (violations on this blog are woefully noted/accepted with some caveats, primarily the nature of the establishment)
"And when I eat in a higher-end establishment like this, I try to respect the artistry of the proprietor. I ask to have the food cooked the way the chef thinks it’s best. I don’t ask for salt. I don’t ask for skim."

I’d posted about Das Wald café as a place to satisfy a teutonic craving within a radius of 60 miles. But I recently noted that I had quite forgotten a local favorite – Café Rustica has wienerschnitzels, bratwurst and schwineschnitzels on its menu. With potato salad, sauerkraut and red cabbage, these are sehr gut and quite satisfactory and one doesnt have to hit the autobahn either !!

Dining acoustics....

Having recently pondered this subject and seriously considering springing for a db meter after several loud experiences here in RVA, it was quite amusing to see some um..."science" behind acoustic disruptions/stimulations while dining (a distinction to be made between loud patrons vs loud restaurants or generally poor acoustics), this excerpt from -
In pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik

A study completed in the summer of 2008 in France found that when music was played at 72 decibels, men consumed an average of 2.6 drinks at a rate of one drink per 14.51 minutes. When the sound level was cranked up to 88 decibels, the numbers spiked to an average of 3.4 drinks, with one consumed every 11.47 minutes.

Ah...statistics !