Unless you get the Y&H newsletter — have I mentioned that it’s free just for giving us your e-mail address at right? — you missed my small broadside directed at Danielle, a Y&H reader who took me to task for not highlighting enough vegan and vegetarian dishes. She called me “worse than the Post,” which was really a low blow.

So I dedicated Veg Day on Monday to Danielle, in a contrived attempt to get back in her good graces. I then added the parenthetical potshot: “assuming she has any.” Good graces, that is. It wasn’t one of my finer moments, particularly after Danielle was kind enough to write back yesterday and express her thoughts about Veg Day.

She wrote:

Read More “Danielle Responds to Y&H’s Veg Day” »

The seasonal pumpkin-tapioca dessert at New Kam Fong

From the look of things, y’all have a strong interest in vegetarian food. Yesterday, the Y&H blog had some of its highest traffic numbers ever for a Monday, which, of course, is not why we do these kind of themed days. We do them in the name of dietery balance, the environment, human health, and the animals!

OK, sure, we also do them for the traffic.

Regardless, you seemed to enjoy the change of pace, even on the weekly Y&H newsletter, which yesterday was similarly devoted to veg eats. (You can sign up for the newsletter on the right, if you’d like.) One reader, Caroline, e-mailed to say:

Thank you so much for devoting this week’s newsletter to vegetarian/vegan dining! My boyfriend is a vegan and I am a carnivorous foodie. I almost lost it on Sunday morning when we couldn’t find a vegan pancake mix at Whole Foods. Keep the veg/vegan articles coming and maybe someday I’ll be able to go out on a date with him someplace other than Chipotle!

If you aren’t a newsletter subscriber you missed a number of other veg options that Y&H has recently highlighted, like the following:

Read More “Veg Day on Y&H: A Postscript” »

I ask the question with tongue pressed firmly in cheek, because I know, sure as hell, someone, somewhere has slapped an even higher price-tag on a veggie burger. Still, it wasn’t that long ago people were bitching about paying $15 for a real hamburger. When will this madness end?

The veg burger at Redwood combines white beans and wild mushrooms into a mammoth patty that apparently wants to compete, in terms of sheer volume and prestige, with the 8- to 10-ounce gourmet steakhouse burgers out there.  To its credit, the burger tastes light on traditional binders like breadcrumbs and rice. But it has other problems, like a mushiness that I can only compare to oatmeal, even when the patty is topped with house-made pickles and tomatoes.

It’s like eating Quaker Oats between two brioche buns. The flavor isn’t much better.

Read More “Is This the World’s First $15 Veggie Burger?” »

The charm of this sandwich, part of the brunch menu at Black Market Bistro in Garrett Park, lies almost exclusively with the ciabatta bread, which is among the best I’ve sampled (perhaps because it wasn’t squashed to death in a press). Its extremely crackly crust gives way to an airy crumb, creating the perfect toothsome environment for almost anything placed between the slices. Too many ciabattas, I find, have the chewiness of shoe leather, which is perhaps only too appropriate for a loaf named after a slipper.

But I stray.

Read More “Veg Dish of the Week: Tomato, Mozzarella, Pesto Panino at Black Market Bistro” »

Vegetarian Gravy Recipe – Watch today’s top amazing videos here
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Some of you may already know about my dislike for the standard roast turkey, an often juice-less and/or gamey bite of bird that requires a small vat of gravy to make it palatable. Unless that turkey comes smoked, brined, deep-fried, or Judy-fied, I’ll take a roasted lamb over a roasted turkey any day, particularly the holi-days.

I say that as prelude to this: I don’t feel a ton of sympathy for vegetarians during the turkey-heavy holidays. Frankly, they’re not missing much, particularly if their families produced the same dried-out birds mine did over the years. My gaze becomes much more sympathetic, however, when I think about gravy, that savory soup of pan-drippings, thickener, seasonings, and, if you’re lucky, giblets. How you can eat mashed potatoes without that brown gold is beyond my limited imagination.

Read More “Veg Day on Y&H: How to Make a Good Vegetarian Gravy” »

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

When I want to eat vegetarian, I don’t visit one of those mock-meat places that press mushrooms or tempeh into something that resembles a chicken breast. That strikes me as wishful eating, the saddest of all possible dining experiences. I prefer to sample cuisines that have a rich history of vegetarian cooking, like South India’s. Every day, Udupi Palace in Takoma Park offers a grazing tour of the South Indian cuisine inspired by the ancient Vedas texts. For a modest sum, you can have, if not a religious experience, then at least a damn fine meal pulled together from a buffet table filled with idly patties, vada doughnuts, sambar soup, pullavs, and an ever-changing lineup of curries, some so hot you’ll drink every drop of water from the carafe on your table.

 Udupi Palace, 1329 University Blvd. E., Takoma Park, (301) 434-1531

Photo by Darrow Montgomery