vegansaurus!

Be still my heart: Love Bar vegan chocolate!  »

You know I’m the resident Philadelphian around here—well I live in New York but I’m still a Philadelphian at heart—so I was super-excited when I saw this chocolate! Love Bar chocolate and I are basically the same person! Just look at the stats: Love Bar, like me, is vegan, from Philadelphia, artsy, and full of fair-trade chocolate. OMG twinsies! I thought Mast Brothers chocolate had some nice wrappers but hot damn, Love Bar is on some next-level sheezy. And now all their wrappers are being printed at Space 1026, the ultra-cool screen-printing collective/studio. They also say they’ll do custom wrappers—is a Vegansaurus series in order?!

From their blog:
We Love: food, community, art, youth, Philly. You’ll find a little of all of those flavors in our chocolate—Love Bar is a community-supported chocolate project believing in the possibilities of business nourishing communities as opposed to exploiting them.

They have two chocolate bars that are both vegan and gluten-free (I know we have some gluten-free peeps in the crowd—I’m always looking out for you! Jeez, I’m the best). To top it off, “10 percent of profits go back to programs that support urban agriculture and/or youth development in Philadelphia.” Um, color me impressed!

I haven’t tried the chocolate yet but trust that I will be picking some up when I’m home for Thanksgiving. They are available at the Fair Food farm stand in the Reading terminal market. Oh, if you go to the Reading terminal market, make sure you stop by Basic Four, the vegetarian spot. Tell them Megan Rascal sent you! Just kidding, don’t really do that.

[Photo of wrapper designed by Joshua Mays via Love Bar blog]

Vegan Thanksgivings taking over newspapers across the country!  »

Well, at least in Philadelphia. The above-the-fold (newspaper talk!) article in the Philadelphia Inquirer food section on Nov. 11 was all about accommodating guests with different dietary needs—namely, VEGANS! They featured several vegan recipes from Skinny Bitch and whatnot but I’m kind of more interested in this vegetarian cornbread-stuffed squash pictured left from The Adaptable Feast by Ivy Manning. Care to veganize? Looks like it’d be pretty easy; most of the non-vegan items are in the corn bread and I find baking goes well with the replacements.

Oh! There’s also a vegan wild mushroom and asparagus risotto recipe that sounds BANGING but there’s no picture. I love risotto!

So how about other cities? Anybody spotted any of the local papers with some vegan Thanksgiving-related articles? Holler at your girl!

[photo by Ivy Manning via philly.com]

Let’s go Flyers! Also, adopt a dog!  »

Philadelphia sports fans are kind of crazy. Whether they are pummeling Santa with snowballs or rioting for joy, they have a special kind of sports fever. Now with the Flyers in the Stanley Cup finals, even the animals aren’t immune to the excitement! The Pennsylvania SPCA, where I got my dear animals, is honoring the Flyers by lowering adoption fees for black adult dogs, and orange, black, and orange-and-black adult cats. Those are the Flyers’ colors, silly West-Coasters! Through the end of the Stanley Cup finals, you can adopt animals like Roger here for $20 off the normal adoption fee. How cute is Roger? SO CUTE I LOVE HIM! And I was just talking about What’s Happening! yesterday so it’s basically destiny.

The Philly SPCA is very nice in my experience. Having a special promotion for adult black dogs is good too since it’s widely believed they are the last to get adopted at shelters. Hopefully Flyers fever will totally kick Black Dog Syndrome’s ass! GENIUS IDEA!: the Giants’ colors are orange and black, yeah? The San Francisco SPCA should totally do the same kind of promotion! IF THE GIANTS EVER MAKE IT TO THE WORLD SERIES AGAIN.

Road Trip: the Great Vegan Cheesesteak Debate!  »

Here ye! Here ye! This time I’ve really done it! I took my Philadelphia holiday as an opportunity to seek out and compare the vegan cheesesteaks available in the cheesesteak Mecca, and boy are my arms tired! I’m kidding, I’m just fatter.

I want you all to know, this is an important debate! You know how some well known cultural icons are just for tourists? Like how Hawaiians don’t speak Hawaiian and stuff like that? Cheesesteaks are not like that. I know plenty of Philadelphians (generally men) who eat a cheesesteak just about every day. It especially cracks me up when one of these people is concerned about my health as a vegan. Cheesesteaks are fatty fat fatness with a heaping side of cholesterol! But they are concerned about my health. Hilarious!

Two themes that arose in my search were taste and legitness (apparently that’s not a real word. You can’t fence me in, spellcheck!). Some of the sandwiches were good but didn’t really resemble a cheesesteak. I grew up eating meat cheesesteaks, so I have that to compare these veggie versions to. So just keep that in mind. Now, let the games begin!

The P.O.P.E. (pub on passyunk east)
I was pleased to find out that the POPE offered a vegan cheesesteak. This is a great bar, popular with my homies. It’s one of many Philly bars that specialize in beer. Philadelphians love them some beer. OK, so this cheesesteak was fairly legit. But it wasn’t that great. I give it 2 out of 5 Veganstaurs (see what I did there?) for sheer edibility. They go with the vegan cheese whiz route. Though some people swear up and down that cheese whiz is the authentic cheese of choice, I prefer the provolone cheesesteaks I grew up on. In this case, the sandwich was too gooey already and the whiz just added to that. The cheese was also a little sweet and a little tangy, which I wasn’t into. But this cheesesteak was more legit because the meat wasn’t super chunky—the meat is supposed to be fairly shredded or chopped up.

Sabrina’s
This is the only steak sandwich I’m including that doesn’t come with vegan cheese. I was going to ignore those but people love Sabrina’s and it’s a nice place, so I decided to give it a shot. The meat was too chunky but the sandwich was pretty good. It was a little spicy in a good way. The standard way to order cheesesteaks is with grilled peppers and onions and that’s what I asked for, but instead of the sweet peppers you’d normally get, they gave me hot peppers. That’s kind of crazy, but whatevs. It gets 3 out of 5 Veganstaurs because it was a really good sandwich, just not really that legit as a cheesesteak. If you find yourself at Sabrina’s though, this is definitely a safe bet to order.

Govinda’s
Govinda’s, the well-known Philadelphia vegetarian spot. How cute is this? I told my omnivore brother and our friend Randy about my vegan cheesesteak hunt and we had some time to kill so they suggested we head to Govinda’s! How sweet! Randy even got the vegan steak with vegan cheese and everything. I love it! What’s also amazing, my brother got the chicken cheesesteak and didn’t realize it was vegetarian chicken until I told him several hours later. So cute. We all had similar reactions: the sandwiches were very fresh-tasting and good, not greasy at all. Again, for me the meat was too chunky; it was kind of more like chicken chunks than cheesesteak meat. The sauce on it also gave it sort of a teriyaki flavor? Something to that effect. Not overpowering but just not super-cheesesteak-like. This sandwich was definitely good though and gets 3 out of 5 Veganstaurs.

Gianna’s
If you want greasy vegan food, Gianna’s has greasy vegan food. This cheesesteak was eerily real-looking except kind of mushier than the real thing. Though this sandwich was pretty legit, it was also pretty gross. I’m sorry to say it but it was not that edible. It had a real sodium flavor to it, and was gross and as I said, mushy. Upside: solid roll. That’s about it. One Veganstaur.

Homeslice
The picture is not that beautiful, but that’s just how it looked. This sandwich was a little odd because it was just made with your average tofu instead of seitan or whatever else people use. So from the get-go, it does not resemble a cheesesteak. The grilled onion, peppers and mushrooms are a must. It would be boring without it. Big points off because they put mustard on it—WTF? That’s weird. So I guess you have to know and ask for it without mustard. But this is a totally edible sandwich, good even if you’re looking for something light. Cheesesteaks aren’t known for being light. I give it 2 Veganstaurs. It was good, just not much of a cheesesteak.

Basic 4
This little kitchen in the middle of Reading* Terminal Market is a goddamn slice of heaven. 5 out of 5 Veganstaurs! This cheesesteak was A++ delicious! This is not just an OK alternative to the real thing, this is a damn good sandwich. I would eat this every day, no joke. They even have an awesome vegan mayonnaise they can put on—I highly recommend it! This is like a totally legit cheesesteak except it’s not tough and chewy the way real meat is, know what I mean? The one thing was they didn’t have the Italian rolls you normally get, they had these healthy-looking rolls. I thought it would be a problem but it ended up being fine.

Well my friends, dishes are done! Basic 4 is the winner by far. With these other places I reviewed, it’s like if you’re there, maybe you get the sandwich; with this place, it’s like, crawl across the city on your hands and knees if you have to because this is worth it. I am dead serious!

I thank you, I thank you, and I thank you. It was a rough journey but I was brave! Megan Rascal knows no fear! Now you have it, your Philly cheesesteak guide.

Disclaimer: there was one place I wanted to try that I wasn’t able to: Mi Lah. I had never heard of it but some people online were raving about it. So if any one has any opinions about the Mi Lah cheesesteak, please share in the comments.

*rhymes with “Redding.”

[all photos by Megan Rascal]

Product Review: Peanut Chews!  »

Peanut motherlovin’ chews. They are MY JAM. They’re a chocolate-and-peanut candy from a Philly company and they are delicious. Falling under the accidentally vegan category, they are enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans alike. I grew up on these! They were my big brother’s favorite candy, and as he’s the first-born male and no cares what girls think (what about MY needs, dad!), we’d all get peanut chews. I haven’t seen them ANYWHERE in San Francisco! WTF? You people need to import these mofos! Better yet, I should import them and make a million dollars selling them to you non-peanut-chew-having Bay Area folk! Every day I’m hustling.

PS, you can also order them online. Laura believes that you might be able to get them at Phat Philly but it’s unconfirmed because we’re the laziest.

Jay’s Cheesesteak, Philly Perspective!  »

The comment section of my vegan hightop review has become a lot of talk about Philly and of course, Philly vegan cheesesteaks. Then tonight! I went to Waziema for a going-away party, felt awkward and decided to go outside so I could feel awkward outside. But then! I found myself standing outside Jay’s Cheesesteak on Divisadero. So I says to myself, “Self, let’s get a vegan cheesesteak!” So that’s what I did.

I didn’t really understand what the many choices of seitan meant so I got the mushroom seitan, thinking that meant it would have fried mushrooms in it. It was more like lots of slivers of shitaki-like mushrooms. I kind of hate shitaki mushrooms so it was not exactly what I wanted but I can still give you a rundown of Jay’s authenticity as a cheesesteak resource.

Survey says: pretty legit! The roll especially is on-point. Cheesesteaks come on these specific rolls but a cheesesteak from anywhere outside of Philly generally comes on some kaiser-type roll and it’s really different. This roll was exactly right! One major thing about Jay’s, all the cheesesteaks automatically come with tomato, lettuce and mustard (non-vegan has mayonnaise too), this is not normal. It’s not unheard of, it’s just that we call that a cheesesteak hoagie because those are the things you get in a hoagie. And I’ve never heard of getting mustard on a cheesesteak but I’m sure someone somewhere likes it that way.

All in all, pretty authentic, though it’s actually a cheesesteak hoagie. And that’s my word!