The same rationale of reducing waste can also be applied to vegetables and fruits: stem-to-root cooking. The New York Times provides plenty of unique ways to create edible uses for items, such as peach leaves (steeped for an aperitif), melon rinds (for crunchy cucumber-like garnish) and corn cobs (for stock).

Logan Cox's contribution to the full usage veg movement: crispy beet greens. Ripple's executive chef found a way to turn the magenta sphere's stems into a crunch reminiscent of Rasika's famous Palak Chaat (crispy spinach).

The green was found in a squash agnolotti dish a few weeks ago, although now this meatless composition has since changed with cubanelle peppers filling in for the gourd and cranberry beans instead of beet greens. Cox promises, though, that the beet greens will be back on the menu. (Oh, the troubles of reporting on constantly rotating farm-to-table restaurants.)

Cox separates the leaves from the stems, then adds the greens to a cold pain with olive oil. The leaves crisp up in three minutes, just as the pasta is cooked to order. The kitchen keeps the sauce, a ricotta fundido, away from the stems "so there's no liquid that can moisten the leaves," he explains, "so it won't be soggy."

The effect enlivens the dish, contrasting the soft pasta rounds with a snappy green, and squarely lifting Ripple into the thrift-is-chic paradigm.

Photo by sashafatcat /Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

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:

Thanks for your response. I am very familiar with Vegan Treats; they were a major hit at the recent DC VegFest (in September). Their desserts are utterly decadent and insanely rich.

Believe it or not, I do have good graces. I just want acknowledgement of vegan options when I dine out I do get a little grumpy when I see cheesy foods touted as meatless options, but then I'm a would-be foodie looking for really good meals in a town that desperately needs awesome vegan dining options.

And please tell your editor that I gave up meat, dairy, and eggs, but I did NOT give up chocolate. I'm not in it for my health, I'm in it for ethical reasons. But if she doesn't want vegan dessert, more for me.

BTW, have you heard of the grown-up cupcakes at Sticky Fingers? Yes, that is liquor in the frosting. And check out their grilled "cheese" sandwiches made with Daiya vegan cheese.

You're welcome, Danielle, and I'll definitely check out those "grown-up cupcakes," even if I'm far less excited about yet another hand-held baked good than about seeking out more delicious veg dishes.

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:

• The Match Point pizza at Comet Ping-Pong;
• The vegetarian option at the Gondar fine dining service at Almaz;
• The plate of Tex-Mex cheese enchiladas at Cantina Mexicana;
• The veggie roti at Caribbean Palace in Takoma Park;
• The cheddar tart at Eatonville;
• The french fries at Inox; (yes, I said the french fries; one bite and you'll understand.)
• The "Cornucopia" dessert at Hook (assuming the sugar topping isn't torched).

Rest assured, Y&H will return to this vegetarian topic again soon, regularly even. Perhaps I tease too much about the self-righteousness too often tied to ethical eating, but I'm also aware that it is important — and that our future may even depend on it.

As a small thank you for your continued presence on this blog, I leave you with this sweet sweet from New Kam Fong, a new Chinese eatery at 2400 University Blvd. in Wheaton. I didn't actually order this dessert; the waitress just brought it to us at the end of the meal. If your server doesn't do the same, ask for a small bowl of this seasonal treat, a mix of tiny tapioca balls, coconut, pumpkin, and God knows what else.

It was simple, light, sweet, fresh, and delicious.

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.

The problem is the choice of main ingredients — beans and mushrooms, which are both loaded with earthy, dare I say, mushroomy flavors. The patty needs some assistance from other vegetables, other flavors. Check out Chow.com's excellent experiment two years ago to create the perfect veggie burger.

Then there's the price-tag. I don't care if the managers, after pricing out the dish, had to affix a $15 price-tag on it. Psychologically, no one wants to pay that much for a veggie burger, especially when Redwood's Roseda Farms dry-aged beef burger is the exact same price. A major error in judgment there.

So if Redwood's veggie burger doesn't cut the mustard, whose does?

Good Stuff Eatery has an artery clogger of a veg burger, called, condescendingly enough, "Vegetarians Are People Too 'Shroom Burger." It features Portobello tops stuffed with two different cheeses, coated in panko, and deep-fried. The thing's tasty, but it's more about oil and fat than veggies.

Where else? Where are all the good veggie burgers hiding?

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.

Black Market's kitchen adds the perfect amount of basil pesto to the sandwich — just enough to flavor the bite but not so much to drown the bread in olive oil. The tomatoes, as you might expect, are the weak link, rather bland and mealy, but both the pesto and the fresh, creamy, and stringy mozzarella cover for any sins committed by that out-of-season summer fruit.

I'd suggest pairing that sammie with even more bread: Start with Black Market's pastry basket (pictured below), a small basket of six baked goodies, most notably a lemon scone and a moist, delicious slice of banana bread. Together, they make for a lusty, yeasty, and decidedly non-meaty brunch.

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.

There are, of course, a number of good veg-friendly gravies out there, like this one. This recipe includes a number of strong flavoring agents, including soy sauce, sage, and both garlic and onions, those two delicious bulbs of the allium family. The only strange thing about the recipe its is lack of specificity over "broth." I'd recommend a mushroom broth, which will give you a deep, woodsy flavor.

All together, I think the gravy will go a long way toward making you forget about your heathen, meat-eating brothers and sisters and cousins — and how much more fun they're having at the dinner table than you.

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