The Rich Vegetarian

Simply Being | Simple Being

Category: Reviews (page 11 of 20)

August 9, 2011 / 1 Comment

Lara Bars

A few years back, my dear friend V introduced me to Lara Bars. And I was officially hooked.

Dried fruit and nuts have to be hands down the most delicious combination ever. I chanced on a raw food site where I found this lovely recipe for raw fig and date squares. It is oh-so simple to make but it does get terribly sticky and messy what with blending dates and figs into a paste. But delicious? Oh yes, so tasty.

Back to Lara Bars… this is one delicious fruit-nut bar. It has zero additives of any kind, just plain old-fashioned dried fruit and nuts. Plus it costs only $1.25 a bar!


There are a bunch of delicious flavors to choose from. I have seen Ginger Snap, Carrot Cake, Lemon Bar, Coconut Cream Pie, Banana Bread and others at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. My favorite? It’s a toss-up between Ginger Snap and Cashew Cookie. Hmmm, add Pecan Pie to the mix.

Enjoy the Energy!

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July 23, 2011 / 2 Comments

I scream, you scream!

It is the season for ice-cream in the city. In the last seven years, I don’t remember daily temperatures being so high in Atlanta. This is almost as bad as hot and sweaty Mumbai, as humid and muggy… Ugh. Last week, I was talking with my colleague and good friend Arvie telling him about Natural Ice Cream in Mumbai. They have the most amazing flavors – Watermelon, Chikoo, Tender Coconut, Fig, Custard Apple and more! The ice cream is incredibly light in texture; in fact you can eat two cones in a single sitting, one delicious flavor after another. It is definitely creamy but the fresh fruit flavor is the star in this ice cream, not the milk-sugar-cream combo, as one experiences often in most American brands of ice cream.

That being said, I should mention about Breyers Ice Cream. The reason I buy this brand most often is that it contains a short list of ingredients, all of which are easy to pronounce, and most of which I recognize. I prefer buying simple flavors; none of the Chips Ahoy or Reeses or Oreo flavors for me. Also, most of the flavors don’t contain egg. But I was beginning to tire of the same offerings – Neopolitan, Dulce De Leche, Strawberry, Butter Pecan. But my options were limited.

Or so I thought.

Then I peeked into the far corner of the rack and found the Publix Premium range of ice creams. I had always skipped over them, thinking that they’d contain egg and a host of other unknown ingredients. But this time, I looked closer. Maple Walnut… hmmm, that ingredient list didn’t look too bad. And egg didn’t feature in the list of ingredients.

I know ‘natural and artificial flavors’ don’t say much but I suppose I have to live with that lack of information.

How is the ice cream, you ask? Delicious! My father-in-law thought it too creamy for his taste. He also thought that there were way too many walnuts in there. I agree that it’s creamy but not overwhelmingly so. The taste and texture is a little like malai kulfi. Also, I found the proportion of walnuts perfect as well. There is a wonderful flavor of maple that goes very well with the crunchy nuttiness of the walnuts. I had to stop myself from taking seconds.

Now I look forward to trying the other flavors from this line.

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July 18, 2011 / 2 Comments

Fresh To Order

The world of Twitter got me in touch with the lovely Sucheta Rawal from Go Eat Give, an innovative website/blog that combines three great passions of people – food, travel and service. We met for lunch at Fresh To Order. Despite it being Friday lunch hour, we got seats easily. If it wasn’t for the rain, we would have sat on the patio.

The conversation was illuminating, the food was nice too! The online menu didn’t show many vegetarian options (probably just one) but Sucheta pointed me to some others in the menu handout. She picked the Club Salad that combined mixed greens, toasted almonds, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, cheese, golden raisins and cranberries. The salad usually includes bacon but Sucheta asked for seared tofu instead. She mentioned that she orders it often; so I am guessing that it’s a good pick. I picked the Soup + Salad combination that included Wild Mushroom Soup and Tomato Mozzarella Sandwich (fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, whole leaf basil, tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette).

The soup was wonderful! I am happy that it was a half portion; eating an entire bowl would have probably weighed me down all day long. Mushrooms are heavy to digest. In fact, they are regarded as Tamasic in nature; they can aggravate all three Dosha imbalances, I have heard. In any case, mushrooms are an occasional indulgence for me. I don’t cook with them and hardly ever order them when we eat out. I have to admit, even with half a bowl, my tummy felt unusually heavy post-lunch. Not sure if it was the cream (assuming the soup contained cream) or the mushrooms themselves… But I thoroughly enjoyed the soup. The sandwich was nice as well. There was a generous stuffing of roasted red peppers in there, and the whole leaf basil added a fresh flavor to the sandwich. Neither was the balsamic vinaigrette too strong, and the fresh mozzarella tied all the tastes together with its creaminess.

At the cafeteria at my older workplace, the menu used to feature Roasted Red Pepper and Mozzarella Sandwich with Balsamic Vinaigrette. It used to be my favorite lunch option those days.

I can see myself going to F2O again, if only to sample the salad Sucheta ordered – it looked delicious!

Fresh To Order
1260 Cumberland Mall
Atlanta GA 30339
678-564-1400

Fresh To Order - f2o on Urbanspoon

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July 17, 2011 / 0 Comments

Peace within World Peace Cafe

World Peace Cafe sits on a little street, a minute or so away from Roswell Road. The instant you enter the cafe, the quiet envelops you in a loving embrace. There is a quiet hum of cheerful activity that permeates the expansive space with colored lamps and plants and the meditating Buddha who sits quietly between the plants. Colored teapots line the shelves behind the counter and paintings of Oriental women line the tall walls. Sunlight streams in through the multiple windows and you can see the quiet street below.

What did we get?

A pot of Raspberry-Ginger Tea, a plate of vegan Cranberry-Orange Pancakes and a plate of Tofu Scramble.

 

 

The pancakes were fairly good. They had the perfect level of sweetness, and didn’t weigh me down all day long (as most pancakes are wont to do). Syrup and maple syrup were part of the table condiments. The server asked me if I wanted honey. Guess I should have said yes. But the maple syrup went just fine with these pancakes. The orange-cranberry combo lent a faint sourness to the pancakes but all in all, it was a great pick. P’s Tofu Scramble was quite nice. I sampled just a bit off his plate. I am not too fond of potato wedges first thing in the morning (fried!) but I think it went well with the tofu scramble. This dish can be super-Indianized by the addition of cumin, cilantro leaves, slices of tomato, roasted peanuts… Yum.

These were the only two non-egg dishes on the breakfast menu. Every other item on the menu included eggs in some form. Hope that changes in the near future. The tea was wonderful! Mild and warm, it didn’t have excess sharpness (ginger) or sourness (raspberry). Just perfect.

A long time back, we’d visited this place for lunch and ordered their unique burgers. Innovative flavors, attractively presented, delicious sides… Mmm, it is time for a second trip, this time for lunch.

World Peace Cafe
220 Hammond Drive, Suite 302
Sandy Springs, Atlanta GA 30328
404-256-2100

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