Soup's On, Baltimore

Soup's On, located at 11 West Preston Street, is a great quick stop if you are in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore and require a fresh bowl of soup. They are located up a steep staircase, directly above OK Natural Food Store. It's a unique row house space with cool alcoves and artsy tables that have, you guessed it, soup themes painted on them. I visited recently for lunch and found the place packed with starving students and hungry office workers. 

The restaurant's operating procedures are admiringly efficient and economical. You order at the front counter, from a small chalkboard menu that changes daily. Like the menu, their condiments are very streamlined: Old Bay and large canisters of sea salt are the only options. The sea salt comes in handy, as they make their soups extremely low-sodium. They also offer free water, which you need when you go overboard with the salt.  

Soup's On always offers a vegan soup option. The day I visited, it was a creamy Mediterranean-spiced stew with chickpeas and brown rice (top). Excellent, seasoned crostini accompany the soup. I ordered the combo deal (above), which also comes with a sandwich. The vegan sandwich--featuring roasted eggplant, mushroom, and red pepper--was served open-faced with ample arugula.

Grind House smoothie and wraps

I know I should stop blogging about Baltimore, as I have moved to DC now, but I have to add Grind House Juice Bar & Market to the VeganMoFo excitement. Last month I finally stopped by this new vegan spot, located at 2441 St. Paul Street, after seeing their colorful postcard flyers all over town. It was pouring rain that day but the juice bar was dry and welcoming. 

The "market"portion of Grind House is small, with just a few shelves of veggie food and natural products. However the juice bar menu is overwhelming large and they have a full display case of to-go foods. I drank a "Sweet Greens" smoothie in their lounge. The smoothie was a expert blend of apple, cucumber, celery, kale, and ginger. I also purchased an artfully arranged take-away tray of delicious coconut seaweed wraps that featured millet. (How clever to use nori for more than sushi! I want to wrap all sorts of things in it now.) Grind House is about a 15 minute walk from Penn Station in Baltimore and well worth the stroll, even in the rain. They also play great music and offer free Wi-Fi.    

Go Goatocado!

This is my final dispatch from Baltimore, a report from the Baltimore Book Festival. I love this festival for the readings and bookish delights, but usually the food options are mediocre for vegetarians. At the typical festival food stands, one is lucky to get a sloppy hummus wrap sans dairy.

Side note: The Book Fest does have some appealing food at the cooking demonstrations. One year I had some of the best dosas ever, cooked on a makeshift tent griddle. And today, Doron Petersan, from Sticky Fingers, is scheduled at the Food for Thought stage. Another festival food tip is to visit the Radical Bookfair Pavilion for Red Emma's vegan baked goods and fair trade coffee.

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to discover a Book Fest food vendor with veggie offerings. Goatocado is Richmond-based traveling food stand that serves up freshly-prepared sandwiches. The stand itself looked promising, decorated with colorful veggies and a wood-crate theme. And their logo is cute: a goat with an avocado-shaped head. (Initially, I was worried that goat meat was on the menu. Turns out the veggie sandwiches are jokingly called "To-Goaties." Some To-Goaties feature cheese but not goat cheese.)

I had the Haberdash wrap, which is regularly vegan. Okay, it was technically a hummus wrap. But it was fresh and inventive take on the typical ho-hum wrap. First of all, the hummus was a creamy sweet potato version with quinoa mixed right into it. (What a great idea to boost the nutrition of your hummus!) The whole wheat tortilla was pressed in a panini grill, making the outside toasty and crunchy. Packed inside were healthy veggies, including spinach, red pepper, red cabbage, carrots, and squash. And avocado chunks, of course, not goat.  

Overall, this was a healthy and filling lunch. It was rather expensive, especially for Baltimore, at $9.50 a wrap. However, I've spent more on crappy "fair food" like the ubiquitous greasy spring rolls. Goatocado also had gluten-free options and iced coffee.            

Dirty Carrots opens Fells Point storefront

This past Saturday, Dirty Carrots opened their Fells Point storefront at 600 South Wolfe Street, with its entrance on Fleet Street. It is a tiny takeaway spot, offering an array of vegan sweets, mainly packed into one display case. Despite the odd moniker, Dirty Carrots bakery is my go-to source for baked goods in Baltimore. I frequent their stand at the Sunday Baltimore Farmers' Market and seek out their items at coffee shops around town. This new location has limited coffee shop hours, open daily from 7:30am-1:30pm.

There are few thrills like taking a coffee and a freshly baked vegan treat onto the street. And Fells Point is a fun area to explore while munching on baked goods. Below are photos of the brownie and coffeecake that my boyfriend and I scored and quickly devoured. The brownie, available with or without nuts, was moist and chocolaty. It reminded me a little of Sticky Fingers Bakery's Jenny's Brownie, a DC favorite. The decadent coffeecake had the correct springy texture, dense without being heavy.    

In addition to its baked goods, the new Dirty Carrots location features fresh brewed, fair trade, locally roasted coffee with a nice assortment of vegan creamers, spices, and sweeteners. They also have some "penny candy" for sale, the kind that makes PETA's "Accidentally Vegan" list. (I consult this list every Halloween to prepare for trick-or-treaters.)

Indigma's grand lunch buffet

 

Indigma, located at 801 North Charles Street, touts itself as "the best modern Indian restaurant in Baltimore City." I must concur. What makes Indigma special? First of all, they have a romantic setting. The restaurant has high ceilings, chandeliers, colorful walls, and large windows that look out onto the iconic Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Park. (I bring all of my out-of-town visiting guests to Indigma because it is sure to impress on appearance alone.) But what's more important than looks is the food.

The best way to sample this fresh, inventive, and delicious food is at Indigma's lunch buffet, available Saturday and Sundays from 12-3pm and weekdays from 11:30am-2:30pm. This truly grand buffet offers all-you-can-eat lunch with salads, condiments (including excellent pickle), traditional snacks, desserts/fruits, and breads.

The highlight of the lunch buffet is their sambar (photo below). It is a rich, savory, and addictive stew. On a recent visit my boyfriend polished off six bowls of it. The other food items on the buffet are variable, but, thankfully, the sambar seems to be a staple. Also of note, the "spicy salad" is wickedly hot and flavorful with fresh veggies, onions, and chickpeas.      

Indigma uses a color scheme to denote which buffet dishes are vegetarian (usually green). Even more impressive, they have started posting labels for dietary preferences on each buffet dish, including the biranyi and rice. For example, the smooth and subtly spicy chenna masala gets labeled "G-F, VEG, VGN." One word of caution here is that the servers often bring a gratis basket of non-vegan naan to your table. I recommend ordering a vegan roti or chapati instead.         

Sadly, the buffet isn't available at dinner. However I have visited Indigma for dinner and the restaurant has some amazing vegan fusion dishes that are not found on the buffet, as well as killer cocktails.

Remember the moment in the film The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy hugs the Scarecrow goodbye and cries, "I think I'll miss you most of all!"? This is what I've been thinking about Indigma's grand lunch buffet, as I prepare to leave Oz for Kansas. Or rather, in my case, move from the Technicolor dining world of Baltimore back to Sepia Tone DC. (Please expect to see more DC restaurants featured on this blog soon. Because: "there's no place like home.")

Ethiopian lunch buffet at Dukem, need I say more?

I love a buffet! And Baltimore has several great ones, largely Indian and Nepalese, that I frequent. However one buffet opportunity that is still rather novel to me is the Ethiopian buffet.  I've been to only three Ethiopian buffets so far in my life and the lunch buffet at Dukem, 1100 Maryland Avenue, is a fine example of the form. Available weekdays only, the lunch buffet offers five vegetarian dishes and ample injera at an affordable price.    

It seems to me that you lose the communal nature of Ethiopian eating when dining from the buffet but you gain individual control of your plate. (This buffet style can be helpful, if you are dining with non-veg friends too). 

Photographed above is a buffet plate with mild yellow split peas, spicy berbere-flavored lentils, garlicky collards, savory tikil gomen (cabbage, carrot, and potato stew), and the requisite tomato, onion, and jalapeño salad. Everything on this plate was excellent. The friendly waitstaff also brought my boyfriend and I a pitcher of refreshing lemon water and even more injera. Because, of course, we had practiced bad injera management in our buffet glee.    

Baltimore's Dukem is like the quiet sister of their thriving DC location. Instead of a VIP bar scene, this Dukem has a chill atmosphere, with a wood-paneled interior and soft Ethiopian music playing in the background. They also have a rather secluded upstairs with a good view of the street below.

"Something Vegan" at City Cafe

Recently I read this interview in b, in which Jared Rhine, the new chef at City Cafe, said his favorite dish on the menu was called "Something Vegan." Most chefs rarely cop to preferring their vegan menu items, so I had to check it out.

This comically titled dish seems like a response to the question that vegans often pose to chefs at modern American restaurants when they find no dining options, even at the height of summer's bounty.  "Please, can you make me something vegan?" Usually what comes back from the kitchen after this request is a hodgepodge assembly. It can be fresh and tasty, but it can also be laughably thrown together with whatever happens to be on hand.

City Cafe's "Something Vegan" sampler benefits from forethought but seemed to fall down on the seasonal focus of the restaurant. The quinoa center of the dish was the bomb!  (I'd go back to have a full plate of it. Maybe two.) The quinoa was surrounded by squash tempura, grilled tomatoes, and roasted cauliflower, which were well-cooked and most likely local. The asparagus seemed more like an appropriate springtime offering though. And the mango salsa felt out of place with the rest of the plate. Maybe if the overly sweet salsa could be swapped out for more supremely delicious grains, this dish would be a clear winner.       

Not content with one option only, my boyfriend and I quizzed the staff about the appetizers. (This restaurant is hip enough to have a vegan main dish in place but they could work on adding "vegan option available" cues for their other menu items.) The helpful staff was able to offer some fresh and tangy meatless nachos (minus the cheese and sour cream) and a nicely-dressed chopped salad with cannellini beans, squash, hearts of palm, and tomatoes (hold the feta).

So City Cafe clearly can serve more than "something" vegan and they can use seasonal veggies to great effect. Located at 1001 Cathedral Street, City Cafe is a bustling, energetic space with a large, attentive staff. It can get crowded, especially during brunch. They also have sidewalk seating, an excellent coffee bar, and a "bar bar" with happy hour specials.    

Liquid Earth rocks!

I don't know why it took me so long to visit Liquid Earth, one of Baltimore's most beloved veggie spots, located at 1626 Aliceanna Street. My boyfriend and I finally made it to this Fell's Point restaurant for lunch last weekend. I wasn't sure what to expect, especially from their rather busy website, but I was looking forward to sampling the highly acclaimed juices and smoothies. 

The actual restaurant is a relaxed environment, with houseplants, a cool antique cash register, and pressed tin ceilings. Chill music plays in the background, punctured only by the noisy blenders and juice machines. We started our lunch with drinks, including the bright red AntioxDetox, cleverly served in a pyrex measuring cup. This delicious juice truly deserved the "liquid earth" label, featuring carrots, beets, red cabbage, and apples. We also ordered a peanut butter and berries soy shake (not pictured) that was rich and filling. 

Next we had a cup of the soup of the day: veggie lentil. This was a mild, comforting Moosewood-style stew. I loved the creative positioning of the soup spoon in the crusty sesame brown bread. Finally we had two excellent sandwiches. The vegan reuben, with tangy sauerkraut, tofu, and onions on rye bread. And the TLT--tempeh, lettuce, and tomato--on multigrain. This sandwich came with an artsy side salad that was almost too pretty to eat. Overall, I though the food presentation was strikingly inventive, especially for a relaxed lunch. The food itself was colorful and vibrant to match. I'll definitely return again to Liquid Earth, perhaps to try the many raw menu items.    

Thai Arroy lunch specials

I recently visited Thai Arroy, 1019 Light Street, for lunch with my cousin. This small, mural-wallpapered restaurant is in Federal Hill, on the Charm City Circulator Orange Route. (The restaurant also has a location in Virginia Beach, which sounds like potential beach vacation salvation.) Thai Arroy offers an affordable lunch special: $7 for a large main veggie dish with side salad or soup.      

For the main course, the menu instructs you to pick a protein, then a style.  So we had mock duck in Nam Prik Pao and tofu in Med Ma Maung. The mock duck dish is also charmingly called, "Mr. Green," and had lots of green beans and some impressively large, albeit slightly over-cooked broccoli. The spicy tofu dish had hot peppers, cashews, carrots, scallions, and onions. The brown rice was an extra dollar than the white rice but well worth it.  

For the sides, we tried both the salad and the soup. I'd recommend the latter, as the salad was bland with iceberg lettuce and a typical peanut dressing. On the other hand, the delicious tom kha soup was rich and mushroomy. It did cost an extra dollar more than the veggie and tofu soups listed on the standard lunch special. (Maybe it's a coconut milk tax?)  We also had sweet and refreshing young coconut drinks, not pictured here. Overall, this lunch deal seems like a winner, just be prepared for some surcharges.  

    

Three summer highlights

Here are three quick highlight shots of late July summer excursions. I had a fine slice of tomato pie in Ocean City, New Jersey. Tomato pie is getting harder to find on the boardwalk because most places drown their pizza with cheese. However Primavera Restaurant's takeout window, located at 1102 Boardwalk, sells a nice, thin crust version with fresh basil.

Next is the vegan pistachio ice cream at New Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant, 135 North 9th Street, in Philadelphia's Chinatown.  I loved the presentation of this dessert with the fortune cookie on top.

Finally, a shot of filmmaker John Waters' head and me at Baltimore's Artscape, a cool annual arts fest. This mural was located in front of The Charles Theater, our excellent, local indie movie theater. (I've spotted actual John Waters there too.)

Baba's Med-ley Plate and cool drinks at home

Recently I visited Baba's Mediterranean Kitchen, located halfway between Federal Hill and Locust Point. (There is a handy stop on the free Charm City Circulator's new Banner Route.) This Med-ley plate was just the thing for the hot weather of late. All the mezza (appetizers) at Baba's are vegan with the exception of the spanokopita. The helpful staff graciously let us swap it for "Baba's Gannouge," a creamy baba ghanoush. The appetizer plate also had lemony dolmas, green falafel with tahini sauce, garlicky hummus, and salty olives. It was a great combination with lots of variety--and this is just the "small" version. In addition to the tasty food, the restaurant is also BYOB.  

I forgot to snap a photo of the tea that I enjoyed at Baba's. But above are two drinks that I've been relying on to beat the heat at home. On the left is iced matcha. On the right is a cold brew of Celestial Seasoning's Red Zinger, a hibiscus tea blend. These beverages are healthy and refreshing. And, in my opinion, they don't require any sweeteners, just lemon. Both of these drink selections were inspired by watching Dr. Michael Greger's NutritionFacts.org videos. In particular, I recommend these three videos:
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/better-than-green-tea/  
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-hibiscus-tea-good-for-you/
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-matcha-good-for-you/

New veggie menu at Thai Landing!

I love it when restaurants debut new vegetarian menus. Thai Landing, located at 1207 North Charles Street, was already a satisfying Thai restaurant for veggie diners. Now, it has taken the top position for vegetarian Thai options in downtown Baltimore, with little fanfare. In fact, if I hadn't spotted the cute new menu sign displayed in their window (while on my vegan froyo mission--see an earlier post), then I would not have known to revisit this spot post-haste.  

  

Unfortunately, the new vegetarian menu doesn't appear on the restaurant's website yet. But it is an impressively large menu. It also helpfully denotes which dishes are gluten-free or contain eggs. (I wonder if a local veggie group like Compassion Over Killing or The Vegetarian Resource Group has been working with them?) And, although it was a separate menu, we didn't have it ask special for it.  It was placed on the table with the regular menu.  

We started our meal with the "Guiltess Fried Chicken." These were two flaky soy chicken drumsticks with foil wrappers, served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. I'm not sure if these drumsticks are made in-house, but they were tasty. The second appetizer, called a "yum dish," was Neur Nam Tok Jae. It was a generously spicy and tangy dish of soy beef, mushrooms, and onions. It was served with some listless iceberg lettuce, which we ignored.       

We also ignored the bowls of white rice came out with our main courses, as both dishes were rather noodley. (It would be nice if Thai Landing had a brown or red rice option, in general.) Served in a silver pan is the Obb Woon Sen, a hot pot filled with noodles, tofu, veggies, and mushrooms. This flavorful dish was unlike any that I've had at a Thai restaurant before. It had a fine mix of spices, including ginger, garlic, and cilantro. The second entree, Pad Woon Sen, was a stir fry with bean thread noodles, tofu, and veggie chicken. It was also full of veggies, including baby corns, and reminiscent of a Chinese-style stir fry.

Overall, it was an excellent veggie meal. I'm eager to return to explore more of the new menu, including the vegan Thai iced drinks.

Vegan Froyo

Tutti Frutti, the world's largest self-serve frozen yogurt brand, recently opened a tiny location at 1209 North Charles Street.  This spot wasn't on my radar until a "Love Hate" shout out in the Baltimore City Paper swooned about their vegan options.  So I decided to check it out, expecting a fruity sorbet at best.  They do have a sorbet, orange-flavored the time I visited.  (Their website lists many more exotic options: lychee, kiwi, mango, etc.)  
      

More thrilling than a banal sorbet, is the non-dairy egg-free soy frozen yogurt.  "So fresh, so light, so tasty" is how they plug this "healthy" and "green" alternative.  I wouldn't tout this vanilla froyo as healthy, as the second ingredient is sugar.  But it was a tasty treat--ice cold and super sweet.  It didn't taste strongly of soy but wasn't overly "creamy" either.  I was thrilled to find fresh berries and diced fruit on the toppings bar.  (Amid lots of junk food, some nuts, and syrups.)  Maybe the thing to do go skimpy on the froyo and have a fruit salad focus instead.  Priced by weight, the toppings bar must be where the chain makes it real green.    

 

State Center Community Farmers’ Market Haul

I've discovered another farmers' market in my neighborhood: the State Center Community Farmers' Market. The market happens on Wednesdays, from 10am to 2pm, right in front of the State Center subway station at Preston & Eutaw Streets. It is really close to my favorite restaurant, The Land of Kush, too.  

This market is much smaller than the downtown Sunday market but it has a pickle stand with less crazy lines. There are also a couple of nice produce stands and some "healthy" lunch offerings that seem to be targeting state employees. Here is a photo of yesterday's mini haul of cherries, asparagus, and tangy jalapeño pickle chips.