The Peak

Takes of a herbivore

By Jenny Shutek

When I decided to become a strict lacto-ovo vegetarian (i.e. a vegetarian who consumes eggs and dairy products, but no meat or fish) several years ago, my days of eating at restaurants effectively ended. This, in retrospect, should have hardly come as a surprise — for who can you trust to deliver the goods when you are on a quest for health-oriented, strictly vegetarian food if you haven’t cooked them yourself?

However, being the raging foodie that I am, I inevitably (after a solid few years of eating exclusively at home and, consequently, learning my way around a kitchen) was drawn to the culinary creativity that new restaurants have to offer. To my surprise, I discovered that there was a whole world of healthy, vegetarian-friendly eateries out there (and by “out there,” I am referring to the restaurant and café scene of the Lower Mainland). Discovering appetizing, health-conscious, and vegetarian-friendly restaurants, though, can be a shot-in-the-dark process, especially if you are a neophyte to the vegetarian lifestyle.

For those of you who are being indoctrinated into the cult of vegetarianism or, alternatively, would like to dabble in the art of mindful eating, I will be writing a restaurant review per week for the following six weeks to shine a light on a few vegetarian restaurants in the Lower Mainland. My list is by no means exhaustive, but it will hopefully be a starting point from which you can launch your own vegetarian forays.

These reviews are also partially motivated by a desire to debunk that rampant myth that vegetarians are a group of anemic, raw-vegetable eaters whose relationship with food is one of constant self-denial (“Jenny, don’t you just crave steak?”).

Personally, I believe that quality food is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and it has been during the past seven years since I became a vegetarian that I have truly discovered the joys of the culinary realm. Being a vegetarian is on no level a compromise, or at the very least it need not be one. Hopefully, my exploration of vegetarian-friendly restaurants over the next few weeks will inspire some readers to explore vegetarian cuisine.

To initiate my mastermind scheme of converting the world to vegetarianism — and by that, I mean, to kick-start my six weeks of gourmet vegetarian eating in the Lower Mainland, I have compiled a handy-dandy top 10 list of guidelines to follow when your hunger pangs, health-consciousness, and love of animals force you to forage for a decent vegetarian eatery.

10) Picking the meat off of a pre-made food item does not make it vegetarian.

9) You do not have a legitimate vegetarian option if staff members use the same utensils for meat and vegetarian dishes.

8) Vegetarian options stored alongside meat options also point to an operation that is only paying lip service to the idea of vegetarian cuisine.

7) Beware the dreaded soup stock pitfall; beef stock precludes vegetarian food.

6) Approach the “tempeh steak” menu item with caution — it is not necessarily the best choice simply because you recognize the word “steak.”

5) Proceed with caution if your server gives you a blank stare when you inquire after “gelatin” or “rennet” (neither of these ingredients are vegetarian and can be found in the ingredient lists of yogurt and cheese, respectively, among other seemingly vegetarian foods).

4) “Organic” does not guarantee vegetarian (remember: you can purchase organic chicken).

3) Do not be led into thinking that because tofu is part of a meal it is necessarily a healthy or strictly vegetarian meal.

2) Do not assume that all desserts are vegetarian; desserts such as zabaglione often contain gelatin.

1) Do not accept the stereotype that vegetarian food is exclusively comprised of raw vegetables. Good vegetarian food is exciting, delicious, and should take your palate for an adventure — do not resign yourself to the bland.