Delicious Veggie Dishes at One World Vegetarian

As much as I enjoy eating meat, there are those days when I just want veggies. Luckily, a friend suggested that we check out what she considered to be one of the best vegetarian restaurants in town. Considering that she's Vegetarian, I figured she would know her stuff so I had no qualms about making the trek with her to West Covina to dine at One World Vegetarian Cuisine.

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Before I start talking about the specific items we ordered, there's just a couple of things I want to mention about this restaurant. First, unless otherwise specified, everything on their menu is vegan. All their dishes are prepared without meat, poultry, seafood, eggs or MSG and they cook all their food with filtered water. Second, the menu is globally influenced featuring everything from American to Hispanic to Asian to European cuisine.

Our meal that afternoon revolved around their Asian-style offerings, starting with the Summer Rolls, which had veggie ham, tofu, jicama and carrots rolled in thin rice paper and served with peanut sauce. One thing to note is that the veggie ham didn't pass for real ham as far as I was concerned; however, it had just the right amount of salty-smokiness that played well with the tofu and the jicama, which don't have strong flavor profiles on their own anyway. The juicy crunch of the jicama and the sweet crunch of the carrots also added nice textures and flavor to this spring roll.

Next to arrive was the Golden Crescent, which were crispy veggie shrimp served with sweet chili sauce. Although they were a tad over fried and the batter was a little heavy, the veggie shrimp itself actually did a good job mimicking the sweetness of real shrimp.

Time for noodles and we shared the Everlasting Unity Chow Mein, which were deep-fried chow mein topped with veggie ham, tofu, mixed vegetables in house sauce. I enjoyed the crispy chew of the noodles and compared to the Summer Rolls, I actually thought the veggie ham in this dish tasted more like the real thing. I think the difference lies in the fact that the ham in this chow mein was sauteed and perhaps, picked up a bit of carmelization from the sauce it was cooked in.

Green beans is one of my favorite vegetables so it's not surprising that we also ordered the Emerald Threaded Pearls which are green beans wok-fried with carrots and button mushrooms. By the way, aren't you loving the names of some of these dishes? Just based on the names alone, I almost felt like I was eating at a Hara Krishna temple at times. This green bean dish was straightforward in that it wasn't cooked in any fancy sauces, but I enjoyed the crispness and the freshness of everything on that plate.

The last dish, before we ordered dessert, was the Spicy Lemongrass Tofu and it was also my favorite of the entire meal. I liked that the tofu was deep-fried and the sauce was amazing. It definitely had a kick to it and so flavorful. Even after the tofu was gone, I was spooning it over rice and enjoying it that way.

Even after 5 shared dishes, there was still room for dessert and we ordered two of them. The cheesecake was wonderful. I just loved how creamy it was.

I also enjoyed trying what was referred to on the menu as the Divine Chocolate Cake. Divine is a pretty strong adjective and while I wouldn't classify this cake as divine, it was still pretty good and something I wouldn't mind ordering again.

Overall, I really enjoyed my meal from start to finish and considering that One World Vegetarian Cuisine is fairly close to my part of town, I would definitely return to try other dishes from their extensive menu.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157618274755696/

One World Vegetarian Cuisine
178 S Glendora Ave
West Covina, CA 91790
(626) 917-2727
www.oneworldveggie.com




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Taiwanese Vegetarian Cuisine at Bean Sprout Cafe

I'm a carnivore through and through. The smell of grilling meat is like the best French perfume to me; however, I also love my veggies and after my less than successful foray into Raw Cuisine last year, I can definitely say that cooked veggies is the way to go. I've been driving past Bean Sprout Cafe, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, for a couple of years now and although I've been curious about it, I was never really motivated to check it out. One day, after a heavily-meat based dinner the night before, I was in the mood for something different and like a siren's song, Bean Sprouts pulled me into its depths.

So I walked in, sat down and right away, I took a look at the lunch menu and the prices were certainly right. For $5.99, you had a choice between 7 different dishes that included an order of Rainbow Rolls and soup. The lunch deals didn't stop there. You could also order 6 different appetizers for $1.99 each and choose 1 of 3 different teas for $.99. In perusing the menu, I saw the words "Taiwanese" referenced a couple of times and finally confirmed with the waitress that Bean Sprout Cafe was a Taiwanese-Vegetarian restaurant.

Deciding to take advantage of the great prices, I went ahead and ordered two appetizers. One was the Pan-Fried Radish Patties which consisted of shredded radish, rice flour and oatmeal as well as the potato-cilantro-curry powder filled Crispy Spring Rolls. Before those two dishes arrived, a small vegetable bowl showed up along with the order of soup that came with the lunch special. The vegetables, which I think were broccoli stalks, had a nice crunch to them while the soup, though a little oily, still had a nice clean flavor to it.

Then out came the Pan-Fried Radish Patties followed by the Spring Rolls. The combo of the golden-brown, slight crispy exterior and softer eating texture of the radish patties was a definite hit while the slight pepperiness of the cilantro mixed with the curry powder added some really good flavor to the potatoes in the spring rolls.

Entree time! I don't have much experience with "meatless" meat so I was looking forward to tasting the Soy Pork with Pickled Vegetables on Brown Rice that I ordered. With my first bite, I did get a bit of the chewy texture you'd associate with meat and there was a hint of smokiness also to this faux pork, but would it replace real pork for me? Not by a long shot. Yet, I liked it. It was tasty. One thing to note is that when something is described as vegetarian anything, that label is just a benchmark to help you go in the direction of what appeals to your palate, whether it's fish, chicken, beef, etc. I wanted something "porky" and my soy pork, for the most part, did the trick and the pickled veggies it was mixed in added just the right amount sour to the whole dish.

Props to the brown rice, which was the best brown rice I've ever had. The thick brown kernels of rice didn't err on the dry side which brown rice tends to gear towards. I also was totally crushing on the rainbow rolls. The ingredients consisted of mayonnaise, carrot, lettuce and peanut powder, all wrapped in seaweed and rice paper. Absolutely delicious!

I don't know I managed, but I even ordered the Tofu Flower with Peanuts for dessert, which was sweet, but not overly so and the tofu was wonderfully silky. So I bet you think I'm done now, huh? Well, not so. I enjoyed my meal so much at Bean Sprout Cafe, I came back a couple of days later with a Vegan friend of mine just because I wanted her to check out my find.

For our lunch together, we started with the crispy seaweed wrap with bean curd skin as our appetizer. Wow, a winner! You get sweet, salty and crispy in every bite. It totally blew both the radish patty and spring rolls I had at my earlier visit clear off the water. As for our entrees, she went with the Noodle with Curry Sauce, which had potato, mushroom and carrots while I had the Sweet and Sour Sauce with Soy Fish on Rice. We also shared the Crispy Soy Chicken which was made up of soy chicken, basil and white pepper.

My soy fish was very good. It was light and crispy and also had a distinct fish taste to it without "being fishy", if you know what I mean. I also felt that soy chicken also tasted quite chicken-y. Both of these "meats" were definitely closer to their counterpart than the soy pork I had earlier in the week. Afterwards, my friend who follows a vegan lifestyle gave Bean Sprouts Cafe a thumbs up so I think that definitely counts for something. However, the fact this self-confessed carnivore would sometimes be willing to forgo a steak for soy fish speaks for itself.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157603921798676/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157603926124789/

Bean Sprout Cafe
103 E. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA 91006
626-254-8708