Tag: buford highway
Oct
Hey folks! All month long I’m blogging about Atlanta’s noteworthy vegan-friendliness. It’s my hope that, through the power of MoFo, I’ll be able to break through that Ghostbusters-like gunk clogging up everybody’s perception of vegan livin’ here. As we’ve seen so far this month, it’s really quite lovely and easy and delicious! With your help, fellow bloggers, maybe next year we’ll see ATLANTA as an option on VegNews’ survey about favorite vegan-friendly cities.
Today I want to talk about Atlanta’s vegan Chinese choices. We basically have three:
- Harmony Vegetarian at 4897 Buford Highway is a vegan restaurant.
- Green Sprout at 1529 Piedmont Ave (midtown) is a mostly vegan restaurant. Twelve of their 150 dishes contain egg, and egg can always be removed. No milk or meat (beef, pork, chicken, seafood) is served.
- Chinese Buddha at 100 10th Street NW (midtown, near Georgia Tech) serves all meat & seafood, but has a separate vegetarian menu. A number of items on the vegetarian menu are vegan or can be made vegan.
I recommend our restaurants in the order listed above: Harmony first, Green Sprout second, Chinese Buddha last. In fact, I don’t really recommend Chinese Buddha at all, except for the fact that they’re open til 6am (seriously) and they have vegan (not vegetarian, vegan) eggrolls. Sadly, they failed their health inspection in July AND played host to a really “confusing” shooting in September. Aaaand the food is just so-so. I ordered the “Buddha’s Mushroom Lo Mein” ($10) one very late night and found one – ONE! - mushroom buried in the mass of noodles. ONE MUSHROOM!! WTF.
In this post I’m going to focus on Harmony since it is by far my favorite. But since I’ve noticed that the Atlanta vegan scene is very divided on the issue – you either love Harmony and think Green Sprout is so-so, or you LOVE Green Sprout and think Harmony is just okay – I’m gonna post Green Sprout’s menu at the bottom for those who are interested.
It’s not that I don’t like Green Sprout, it’s just that I think Harmony is consistently better. The service is kinder & more attentive at Harmony, the prices are better (usually by a buck or more), the food is much, much faster, and it’s a totally vegan restaurant. There are also “freebies” at Harmony: they don’t charge you for rice (GS does) or pots of good-quality tea (comes with the meal, all you have to do is ask). Each meal begins with a simple, complimentary cabbage salad with condiments. The restaurant is more spacious with tables instead of creaky old booths and the occasional table. If you’re a regular they’ll remember you and treat you like family – often with even more little gifts of food and Mandarin lessons. It’s just about the closest you can get to dining in someone’s home while still paying for the experience. :)
Green Sprout gets no points from me as far as service, speed, prices, and lagniappe are concerned, but the food is tasty. I like the sesame tofu (not the sesame chicken, it’s a fried mess) and the mushroom soup. Oh, and one time I was sick and got the udon noodle tofu-vegetable soup and they were really generous with noodles and broth (not so much with tofu). It made me happy! Atlanta folks: Since a lot of out-of-towners are keeping up with the series, do be sure to defend your favorite in the comments and I’ll add it to the post later!! Thanks!!
First, Harmony’s menu. These are pictures from the take-out menu, but the dinner menu is almost identical.
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Looking over the menu, I realize Nate & I have tried a lot of dishes – but we still have a ways to go. My old favorite used to be the “lamb” with string beans (I’ve never actually had flesh of animal lamb) which was made of trumpet mushrooms. But the trumpet mushrooms became too expensive and they had to change the recipe. Now it is not my favorite. :-(
Lately I’ve loved the vegetable beef with orange peel. The crunchy beef pieces stay crispy amid a sea of sweet orange sauce. The orange peel itself is abundant but mild – not bitter/pithy. Chicken with string beans is a long-time favorite & good as a lunch special. One of Nate’s favorites is the bean curd skin roll with pepper & bean sauce, but he always substitutes broccoli for the pepper because it’s better that way. The item I hear ordered most often is the fried crunchy chicken with spicy salt. Really, you can’t go wrong with the House Special menu. And don’t forget the lunch specials – just $5.50 for a large entree with white or brown rice, two curry pockets (MMMMM) or a spring roll AND a bowl of soup! It’s so. much. food.
We rarely don’t like something, but I didn’t enjoy the chicken with cashew nuts and Nate wasn’t a big fan of the “spare ribs” dishes.
My old favorite:
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All of the soups are out-of-this-world yummy and a great value, too. For $4.25 – $5.50 you get a giant bowl that serves two people two bowls each! When my Chinese history professor from college joined me at lunch one day, she was most impressed with the Buddhist’s delight soup. “It takes a lot of skill to make such a delicious broth,” she said.
It’s worth it to order the appetizer platter. I think it’s in the six dollar range for four curry pockets, two fried shrimp pieces, and two “chicken” on a stick. The “chicken” is the same that’s served in the ever-popular “fried crunchy chicken with spicy salt” dish, just seasoned differently. The curry pockets have this totally mysterious creamy sweet curry center. I’ve never tasted anything like them before. I’ve noticed that kids seem to LOVE these.
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the interesting wallpaper
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a recent freebie, savory and scallion-y
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Sadly, Harmony is often mostly empty. I think it’s because they’re “way out” on Buford Highway, about a twenty minute drive from downtown – whereas Green Sprout is always busy because they’re in midtown Atlanta. (Maybe that’s why service is always so harried and slow?) They’re great at accommodating large parties because they have so much room and flexible seating (tables and chairs). Let me know if you’re ever in town and want to join me – or if you’re a local and want to get a cheap lunch!
I promised – here’s Green Sprout’s menu :)
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Happy Monday, y’all!!
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May
hey gals n’ pals! First, welcome to all the new visitors Google Analytics tells me I’ve had recently! (Yup, I spy on y’all.) I’m so glad you stopped in and I hope you find something you like. Questions/comments/ancient family recipes for sharing? Check out the “About” tab for contact information.
Second, an apology for my sudden, totally unintentional departure! A certain cable in my computer’s innards gave up the ghost and it’s been in the shop for over a week. In the shop? It almost feels unreasonable to type this fact. Yeah, yeah, you Appleheads might be pretty used to sending your crapintoshes to Applecare, but among us trusty Lenovo users, a shop situation is pretty unThink(pad)able! Okay, maybe just for this Thinkpad lover. But I couldn’t resist the Apple jab! Or the corny pun. Forgive me/deal with it!
On top of things, the internet is out in our apartment. Worse still, it’s projected to be down for a few more days! All of these facts add up to few (AKA no) posts at Crack the Plates. But never fear! Your vegan darlin’ has been up to plenty of fun things. I’ve already uploaded a bunch of pictures and planned five other posts, including recipe tutorials, so (be well, do good work, and) keep in touch.
For now, sweetheart & I are holed up at White Windmill on Buford Highway. Owing largely to the fact that I discovered accidentally-vegan mini donuts here tonight, it’s pretty much become my favorite place in Atlanta! Behold:
Closer, closer…
I love White Windmill! It was recommended by one of my favorite undergrad professors, a certain Wu, and though this is only my second visit, it’s one of my favorite places in Atlanta to hang. Call me corny, but I dig the cutesy cafe decor. It doesn’t feel prefab or corporate at all… mostly, it reminds me of my epic twenty-seventh birthday. (Relive those incredible mad tea party memories through pictures here.) Since you’ve probably never been here – I don’t personally know anyone who has, aside from my prof (correction! friend Jefferg loves the place!) – here’s a little tour.
Umbrellas inside.
Lots of little study nooks – with TONS of outlets for your gadgets – like this one.
Pots with flowers everywhere. See what I mean about the birthday connection?
Trees and topiaries abound.
The entrance, where you can pick up local papers and lots of stuff in Korean.
I love this random smiling lady. She saw the camera and knew what to do. Surprise grinner! I salute you.
The (upward) view from my seat.
So yeah, White Windmill is the best. There are tons of vegan treats, excellent quality soymilk for coffee drinks, a selection of weird & wonderful other beverages, and we’re pretty much the only white people here. Bonus! You know how I love diversity. If you’re ever in the neighborhood (Buford Highway Farmer’s Market? Harmony Vegetarian? Chef Liu?) definitely stop in. Open til midnight on Fridays!
What else is new? For one, the vegan carne asada tacos at Whole Foods recently made the short list of my favorite cheap eats in Atlanta. By recently, I mean yesterday. And by cheap? $2.25 for a giant grilled tortilla filled with at least a half pound of beautifully seasoned marinated seitan and a salsa of your choice. I heard about these on twitter via a bunch of local vegans howlin’ about WF’s short-lived injustice of taking them away. Dear Whole Foods, I’m so glad you learned your lesson about snatching beloved yummies away from your (bitchy/outspoken/assertive) vegan friends, if only because it gave me a chance to try them. I’m hooked! I mean, wouldja lookit that?
There’s way more to tell, but it’ll have to wait for future posts. My coffee cup has run dry and it’s too late for a refill. Check back for collard greens and crudites, an update on my Vegetable Husband, outings to Cottage Ethiopian, L’Thai, Noodle, and Udipi, recipes for curried turnip greens and haricot vert with vegan bacon (?!?!?!) and finally, a super-special ice cream cone. Mwah!
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May
Last week I decided to join the rest of civilization and upgrade to a bona-fide google smartphone! Now I’m wondering how I ever lived without it. Since we’ve both been working extra hard recently, Nate & I decided to take a break and have what came to be dubbed our very own freezerpop rollervegan day!
As is the case with most great days, it began with a photoshoot with Perl.
Lookit that belly! It’s irresistible!
Note that she rests with her little paws touching, like the vampire that she is!
Next we biked over to Dulce Vegan in Kirkwood. Remember my bike? I love my bike. The cages need a fair bit TLC, though…
Dulce Vegan
We had a cookie…
…and a marinated tofu pesto sandwich of extreme delight and deliciousness.
Dulce Vegan is just getting started in their retail/cafe space (they’ve been doing catering for a while), and that means a lot of hard work and insanely long days. I took the opportunity to advise co-owner Howell of the French stagiaire method – just find some hardworking local talent to put in a bunch of hours for free in return for on-the-job training.
Sadly, I think that’s illegal here. Sigh!
Next we drove up to Marietta for Nate’s first visit to Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe! I hadn’t been there since 2007 or 2008, when they were housed in the N. Highland location. We picked up some DrCow vegan cheese from Brooklyn and even got to meet the baby!
On the way home, a stop at King of Pops – cuz you can’t call it Freezerpop Rollervegan Day unless you eat a freezerpop! He had only two flavors left in stock, and weirdly, they were perfect for us! Nate chose the grapefruit star anise (?!?! “You know that means LICORICE!?” I barked) while I drooled and dribbled over the honeydew lime zest. Perfect.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows us that our hands-down FAVORITE restaurant in Atlanta is Harmony Vegetarian in Chamblee. When I moved back here in January after a nearly four year sojourn at grad school in Indiana, I was so excited to return to a place with *REAL*LIVE*VEGAN*RESTAURANTS* that we ate there up to four times a week. (Sheepishly, I’ll admit – once I even ate there twice in one day!)
Note: this is a major reason we started budgeting so carefully these last few months.
House-made battered & fried “shrimp” with vegan duck sauce, above; Nate’s gorgeous smoky Buddhist delight lo mein, with two different kinds of tofu and three kinds of mushroom, below.
My favorite dish at my favorite restaurant, “lamb” with string beans. Not too pretty, but so delicious it’s almost last-meal worthy.
I haven’t confirmed this with the kitchen at Harmony, but I’m pretty sure the faux lamb is made out of black trumpet mushrooms, like the one above. (Only, you know, a darker-colored variety.)
With an order for 100 mini cupcakes for Mother’s Day at Nakato looming on the horizon, I decided to do my signature raspberry shortcake, topped with an organic berry. These prices suck, but the moms of Atlanta are totally worth it, so I sucked it up and paid almost sixteen dollars for the amount needed. That’s what I get for buying berries out of season!
I went down this aisle for organic roasted chestnuts – probably about the only bagged thing that didn’t have “essence of prawn” as the first ingredient.
I make these. Except for, yanno, organic and vegan. And with slow-cooked, small-batch anko. Hey, I ain’t braggin’! It’s a lot of work, but you can tell.
Who can resist?! Sadly, my pocketbook.
The best way to end Freezerpop Rollervegan Day: with a childhood favorite, Ghostbusters!
For future reference, I think the original is *much* scarier than the second one – and Nate kept telling me it’s “more of a comedy!” Pshaw.
/Freezerpop Rollervegan Day – 7am wakeup to bake from 8-noon on Mother’s Day. Mmm!
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Nov
So it turns out that those pesky little stomach cramps I mentioned in my last post developed into something way more awful—full-blown flu! I’ll spare you further yucchy details; just know that I’ve been stuck in bed, drinking gallons of tea and catching up on all my New Yorkers (when I’ve not been simply asleep). As I’m finally—if just barely—to the point where I can sit up long enough to write emails, I figured I might as well give a quick blog post a try. (I’m also just really lonely…being sick stinks.) HOWEVER, I make no promises as to the coherence, focus or readability of this post!
Getting the flu has really derailed the No More Costly Food (NoMoCoFo) blogging project I started this month, as I’ve had to rely on a lot of (expensive!) pre-packaged stuff for sustenance. Bless my sweetie’s heart—he tries, but he’s just not a very seasoned cook. Besides, he’s had his hands plenty full just making me dozens of cups of tea a day.
On that note, I know you’ve probably heard this a million times, but seriously–the best thing you can do for yourself when sick is drink an insane amount of fluids. Tea, water, soymilk, juices, veggie broth…you name it, you drink it. I honestly believe I have skimmed at least a day off my illness just by staying laughably hydrated. (Laughably? Bathroom every half hour.) Mainly I’ve been drinking Traditional Medicinals and Celestial Seasonings bagged teas. When in good health, Nate and I drink loose-leaf tea (from Adagio.com) pretty much exclusively. But when you’re drinking as much tea as an illness requires, and you want the convenience of drinking different things without a lot of effort, bagged teas are worth the expense. (Thankfully, we had all but one of these already in stock.) My favorites have been:
From Traditional Medicinals:
From Celestial Seasonings:
Apart from the fact that the flu often acts as an appetite suppressant, it also often comes with a sore, scratchy throat that further discourages you from wanting to put anything down it. Yet the warmth or coolness of soft foods has helped my aching throat. I’ve tried to keep my diet pretty diverse to help the healing process, making sure not to drop the ball on protein, fiber, or B-vitamins in favor of just eating lots and lots of Vitamin C (a common route for sick people). Since Friday, I’ve been eating:
- chilled organic applesauce
- grits prepared with nutritional yeast (for B vitamins, yeah!)
- watermelon (more Vitamin C per serving than citrus, and non-acidic!)
- kiwifruits
- vegan pudding or Nasoya chocolate silken tofu (for protein and smiles)
- chocolate soymilk (again, protein & giggles)
- Annie Chun’s Udon Noodle bowl Fried tofu, green onions, bok choy and big ol soft udon noodles
- vegetable potstickers with tofu: In Atlanta, I’d totally go for Chef Liu’s on Buford Highway, but here I make due with the Ling-Ling brand found in the freezer case of the natural foods section at Kroger.
- Imagine Organic tetra-pak Soups: I’ve got the corn (not very nutritionally-dense, but tasty) and the sweet potato (TBD, but it has almost 200%-DV Vitamin A per serving!
So there you have it, some ideas as to how this vegan’s getting by with the flu. That said–sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
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