Vegetarianism

Q&A: Dovetail's John Fraser on Mixed Martial Arts and Vegetable-Forward Cooking

When much-lauded chef John Fraser isn't tending the pass at Dovetail, the acclaimed Upper West Side restaurant he opened in late 2007, he's living a lifestyle that includes vegetable-forward eating and practicing Muay Thai, a form of Mixed Martial Arts known also as Thai boxing. His personal diet ma ... More >>

Dirt Candy's Amanda Cohen Gets Down With Vegetables in the East Village

Dirty Pleasure

10 Best Restaurants for Vegetarian Food in New York (Even if You're Not a Vegetarian!), 2013 Edition

There are plenty of vegetarian-friendly restaurants in New York. Some deal in chewy gluten strips and meat facsimiles, others turn out raw foods and seed pastes, but there are plenty of places where you don't need to be a devotee to enjoy the food. Go for a meatless meal at these restaurants for a ... More >>

Tokyo Restaurant Pioneers Vegetarian Sushi, See the Video

Mmmm, that looks like really fresh uni (sea urchin) A hot new Tokyo restaurant in the Rappongi Hills section turns the sushi and sashimi traditions on their heads by offering an all-vegetarian menu. This is not just a collection of cucumber and pickled-daikon rolls, either, but beautifully turned ... More >>

Q & A: Dirt Candy's Amanda Cohen on Vegetable Restaurants, Graphic Novels, and Bacon, Part 1

Amanda Cohen doesn't want to get political about vegetables. The chef and owner of the East Village's Dirt Candy is more interested in offering an exquisite and innovative meal of vegetables than in convincing you to go vegetarian. This plucky attitude, combined with a moratorium on fake meat, has a ... More >>

Hazar: The City's Best Falafel

And other pleasures at a Bay Ridge Turkish joint

Potbelly Sandwich Shop Launches Vegetarian Sandwich

Potbelly is adding a new vegetarian option to their menu. Introducing the Mediterranean sandwich. It's made with red pepper hummus, feta cheese, artichoke hearts, cucumbers, and roasted red peppers. "Our current vegetarian sandwich is a Potbelly classic and a toasty favorite," Carl Segal, senior v ... More >>

Year of the Takeout Day 155: Kosher Delight

Egg Roll from Kosher Delight (1359 Broadway, 212-563-3366)

Taste of India and Thali (Food) Court Jersey City

There's hope for your tongue at Newport Centre Mall

Champs Bakery in Williamsburg Now a Vegan Diner

Despite the tattooed, fixed-gear-bike crowd that inhabits Williamsburg, there is a curious dearth of vegan options aside from Foodswings and Bliss Café. Champs, a small bakery tucked away on residential Ainslie Street, is changing all of that by transforming itself into a full-service vegan d ... More >>

Kick Off Vegetarian Awareness Month By Hugging a Vegetarian

October is officially Vegetarian Awareness Month, meaning for the next 31 days you should be aware that vegetarians exist. Also, try eating a little less meat. PETA is backing off its usual controversial tactics to advocate something a little more adorable -- hugging vegetarians. So, where should yo ... More >>

Dish No. 31: Westville East's Veggie Burger

Rebecca Marx​ Westville East is our go-to for unassuming yet often very well-prepared comfort food. This is in part because of the restaurant's veggie burger, which is as idiosyncratic as it is delicious.

Cheap and Filling Veggie Fare at Aussie-Inspired Tuck Shop

​ This Aussie-inspired mini-chain is best known for its cheap and filling meat pies, hearty things perfect for a quick meal before or after a night of drinking in the East Village. Its vegetarian options are no less tasty (or cheap). Take the vegetarian chili. At only $6, it has a flavor and c ... More >>

Takashi Inoue and Saheem Ali of Takashi on Meeting at the Roxy, Falling in Love, and Celebrating Cow Intestine

Photo courtesy Takashi Inoue Beefy love: Takashi Inoue and Saheem Ali ​ Mixing business and pleasure is a challenge for most people, but it wasn't for Takashi Inoue and Saheem Ali, who are both partners and business partners, running the West Village Japanese temple to all things beef, Takashi ... More >>

Hamburger America's George Motz Talks Burger Hype, Burger DNA

photo courtesy of George MotzGeorge Motz amid his beloved beef.​George Motz was just a documentarian when he came out with his seminal burger film, Hamburger America. But considering he had to eat thousands of burgers in establishments around the country for years as he researched the film, th ... More >>

In a Salute to Eater's Burger Week 2011, Fork in the Road Offers 5 Off-the-Wall Burgers

​The #1 Veggie Burger at Elevation Burger is all orange and ricey. We've snuck peeks at Eater's week-long burger coverage somewhat enviously, but our peeking has also made us want to get into the act. Accordingly, here are some of the more perverse burgers we've encountered over the last few ... More >>

Veggie Mag Uses Meaty Models; Daniel Boulud Plans Montreal Resto

​A food blog has introduced a food-cart walking tour, charging $40 to take participants to some of the city's most talked-about mobile vendors. [NY Post] Underground food markets are cropping up around the country, allowing vendors to avoid hefty fees for health permits and insurance. [NY Tim ... More >>

'Jazz Night'

NYC Tofu Guide: A Springy Food for Spring

Isn’t bean curd the blandest substance on earth? Not on your life!

MIGHTY MEAT

Break us off a piece of that

Vegetarian Delights of NYC: The Meatball Shop's Veggie Meatballs

​ Although the Meatball Shop makes its carnivorous allegiances abundantly clear, the restaurant shows a surprising amount of love for the vegetarians.

Posts of the Week

Hello, Friday afternoon. And hello, highlights of the past week: Sarah DiGregorio ranked her 10 Favorite Brooklyn Restaurants. Schmaltz Brewing Company's Jeremy Cowan talked Geektoberfest, Jewish celebration, and how sour is the new bitter. Battle of the Prawn Cocktail Crisps: Walkers v. Skips.

Chatting With Veggie Burgers Every Which Way's Lukas Volger About Reinventing the Bête Noire of Vegetarian Dining

Veggie Burger MadnessLukas Volger displays one of his creations.​Even though it's generally accepted that vegetarian food has evolved by leaps and bounds over the past several years, veggie burgers by and large remain stuck in the herbivore ghetto. There's the Morningstar-Boca Burger contingen ... More >>

Success! Realistic Fake Chicken Has Arrived, But Will Vegetarians Rejoice?

All the flavor; none of the flesh.​Apparently, vegetarians who have been enjoying their soy-based meatless chicken are about to get a flavor and texture wake-up call. Researchers have only now cracked the code to realistic tasting fake chicken with the first soy product that acts like fowl fle ... More >>

Oops: Dos Toros' No-Meat Burrito Isn't Actually Vegetarian

Sarah DiGregorioDos Toros' steak taco contains no rice. But it does contain steak.​When Sarah DiGregorio first checked out Dos Toros, she liked the Mission-style burritos but advised skipping the rice in favor of the beans and guacamole. It turns out that vegetarians would do well to take her ... More >>

Sexiest Vegetarian Mere Tip of Sexy 'Tarian Iceberg

Sexy, yes. But not as sexy as a libertarian.​Someone at PETA feels that making the cause sexy is the best way to promote the cause. And that person might not be wrong. A little sexy on our soy burger is always welcome. But their latest effort, a search for "The Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door," ( ... More >>

PETA Holds Sexiest Vegetarian Alive Contest for Mere Plebians

Hot, bothered, and compostable.​If we've learned anything from PETA, it's this: if you're trying to promote a cause, the most effective, if not subtle, way to get your message across is to use boobies, or some other means of conveying that someone, somewhere, is getting laid. Hence the organiz ... More >>

Melissa Febos--Former Dominatrix--Talks Food Fetishes, Sexy Vegetarianism, and the Allure of a Tube of Cookie Dough

Melissa Febos knows from sexy vegetarians.​ Melissa Febos hosts the Mixer reading series at the Cakeshop on the Lower East Side, a delightfully low-key and hip night of live music and literature where one might see Jonathan Lethem read his latest work or witness Pulitzer-prize winning poet Pau ... More >>

New York to Get Its (and America's?) First Vegan Food Truck

Say it with tofu: Cinnamon Snail launches this V-Day.​What better way to say "I love you" this Sunday that with a plateful of tofu? Adam Sobel, owner of what may be the only vegetarian catering company in New Jersey, is gearing up to debut a new vegan food truck in Hoboken this Valentine's Day ... More >>

Vegetarian (and Vegan) Delights of NYC: Samosas at Curry in a Hurry

​One of the great cheap vegetarian meals of the city is a pair of potato samosas--it would be vegan, too, if you ignored the green sauce on the upper left. The samosa is one of India's great culinary achievements. Though it has antecedents in Turkey and Central Asia, the little hand-held pie ... More >>

Vegetarian Delights of NYC: Mushroom Sandwich at Northern Spy Food Co.

​ When the Northern Spy Food Co. opened in early November, it brought a helping of San Francisco name recognition (chefs Christophe Hill and Nathan Foot cooked at A16 and Myth, respectively) and promises of rustic, market-driven grub to the former Old Devil Moon space. While a sizable percenta ... More >>

Updated: Vegetarian (and Vegan) Delights of NYC: Smoked Tofu Sandwich at Birdbath Bakery

​Vegans and vegetarians: No longer is it necessary to resort to meat substitutes. The smoked tofu in Birdbath Bakery's smoked tofu sandwich is every bit as good as the best smoked bacon. I know, because I also eat bacon.

Chatting With Sarma Melngailis of Pure Food and Wine: Raw Food, Criticism From Vegan Purists, and Global Expansion

​At Pure Food & Wine, the Gramercy restaurant that serves gourmet renditions of organic, vegan, raw food (nothing is heated above 116 degrees), there's a glow coming from the candles being lit in preparation for dinner service on this dark winter afternoon. Dressed in jeans, black sneakers, an ... More >>

Vegetarian Delights of NYC: Western Tofu Sandwich at Black Shack

​ ​ Black Shack may be a carnivore's playground, but that doesn't mean that the newly opened Midtown burger joint doesn't have any love to show for herbivores coerced there by meat-loving friends or would-be tormentors. For them, the Shack's Jeff Maslanka has concocted what he described ... More >>

The New Vegetarianism

​ A delicious bunch of purple mustard greens from the New Amsterdam Market, grown in Queens. In the past, vegetarians have extolled their dining habits with evangelistic fervor. They were often prone to wrinkle up their noses, and even make snide and pious comments, when others were scarfing ... More >>

This Year's Chefs Congress Will Eat Its Greens

Dirt Candy​The Star Chefs International Chefs Congress, which will hold its fourth annual gathering next week, is a fairly big deal among food industry types, replete as it is with big-name panel discussions, demonstrations, and its Rising Stars awards. New York, as always, is well-represented ... More >>

Sausage-y Sweets--Old Candy Shop Poses as Meat Market

Modern Mechanix unearths this 1929 story of a meat-themed candy shop. And TreeHugger, ever the crusader, recommends it as a way to go vegetarian undercover. [Modern Mechanix via TreeHugger]

Vegetarian Delights of NYC--Noona Vankaya Pulusu

Noona vankaya pulusu at Southern Spice (click to distend) Sometimes a vegetarian dish is so good it slaps you across the face, leaving a tingling on your cheeks and a slight burn in your mouth. Such is the case with the noona vankaya pulusu (it's even fun to say!) at Southern Spice, a new resta ... More >>

Many Young Veggies are Anorexic

A study conducted in Minnesota suggests that many young people who claim to be vegetarians actually suffer from eating disorders. Researchers advise parents to talk to their teens about vegetarianism. [LA Times] Ben & Jerry of ice cream fame have launched a food-tracking campaign. Since the FDA ok ... More >>

Vegetarian Delights of NYC -- Bolanee Kadu

Jack-O-Lantern fritters are crunchy and sweet (click to engorge) The meatiness of Afghan cuisine can be a turn-off to vegetarians, and the smell of lamb grilling over charcoal is a feature of most of the city's kebab houses. But dig deeper at Balkh Shish Kabab House and find that strictly v ... More >>

Ethiopian Coming to Fort Greene

Brooklyn's Fort Greene will soon be getting an Ethiopian restaurant of its very own. Bati (747 Fulton Street, Brooklyn) is aiming for a soft opening this weekend. Co-owner Hibist Legesse says they'll be open just for dinner at first but then add lunch in the coming weeks.The menu will feature tradit ... More >>

All Tomorrow's Parties: Now In List Form!

The Early Word: Ghenet Brooklyn

Our Man Sietsema: 'Maybe Mayor Bloomberg has Declared SoHa a Fat-Free Zone'

Meat Puppets

Eat your greens: chewing over the history and politics of vegetarianism

Letters

Where's the Beef?

The author might have forgotten why she's a vegetarian—but don't ask her to quit now

Egg Lover's Paradise

Exploring the mysterious dish chicken 65 on Curry Hill

Eat It Raw!

Blenders, Sprouters, and Mashers Process Food in the East Village

Bean there, done that