Wednesday, July 21, 2010

When we lived in Brooklyn, there was a vegetarian Asian restaurant - Vegetarian Palate - around the corner from our apartment and it delivered, which is particularly nice after a long day and a four story brownstone. I was particularly fond of their Orange Tangerine Beef and their Hawaiian Chicken. Even better, there were two veggie restaurants near my school and office in Manhattan: Red Bamboo and Vegetarian Paradise 2, both (oddly) located on the same block of 4th St. (I figured if any of y'all travel to New York, you might like the names of some tasty veg places.) At all three, the variety of mock meat dishes amazed me and I longed to be able to reproduce them. Now, I'm kind of less impressed with their chefs' skills because I just ordered an immense quantity of mock meats from May Wah, and it's like having these restaurants in my freezer.

I know, I know - this has nothing to do with seitan other than that many May Wah products are made from seitan. But, I'm so excited that it must be shared. Last night, I made soy-agave lacquered salmon with sesame noodles and a cucumber salad. Unfortunately, we were starving, so it got eaten before it got photographed. The mock salmon is weirdly salmony, although it would never fool someone. It was pretty good, though.




However, of all the things we've tried so far, the absolute, stand-out best has got to be the chicken drumsticks. They're so good, in fact, that I just ordered a case. They even have a little "bone" made of sugarcane so that you can hold them like a real meaty drumstick! (That might appall some; I liked it.) I tried them fried (and will do so again) and barbecued, which was amazing. I have quite a bit of yuba sitting in the pantry, so I also plan on covering them with "skin" before frying them as an experiment.

So, just a shameless plug for May Wah - www.vegieworld.com. Try it - tis fabulous!

2 comments:

  1. Thx for the NY restaurants--we're planning a trip there for Christmas.

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  2. Oh, you should also consider Candle 79 - it's somewhere on the (fairly) upper East Side in Manhattan. It's on the pricier side, but worth it for a chance to have a fancy dinner where the entire menu's vegetarian (vegan, actually).

    This comes with a caveat: I can't remember what I ate when we were there, which says it wasn't one of the most standout dishes ever (I have very fond memories of about four restaurant meals I've ever eaten and will never forget), but I remember liking it a lot except for thinking that it was a little too salty. I NEVER use salt, though, so that might just be me.

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