A rustic Gujarati meal; a perfect lacy masala dosa; a Jain meal without a hint of onions or garlic; a katyal biryani as aromatic as the one your mother makes.
Wait, there’s more! A Pad Thai brimming with vegetables; a Korean vegetarian feast inherited from ancient temples; and an organic Zen meal which is as soothing as it is satisfying.
Nor do you have to travel to India, Thailand, Korea or China for these pure vegetarian delights – they are all available in New York! Indeed, if you’re a diehard vegetarian and have been a bit nervous about potentially starving in this land of burgers and steaks – don’t be! The Big Apple is very veggie friendly and there are innumerable food choices available in this amazing city of over 17,000 restaurants.
“New York City has the greatest wealth of vegan and vegetarian restaurants of any city in the world,” says Ryn Berry author of the Vegan Guide to New York. When he started the guide in 1994, there were barely a handful of strictly vegetarian restaurants, but now there are scores. His list of 22 top vegetarian and vegan restaurants has everything from Indian to Chinese to American food, and includes such restaurants and cafes as HanGawi, Franchia, Candle 79 and Vegetarian Dim Sum House.
For the early Indian immigrants, being a vegetarian was a bit of a punishment unless they wanted to survive on pizza – which was at every street corner – and salads. Meat items were embedded in just about everything else, including soup and, as we know all too well, the McDonalds fries! Yes, vegetarians had to be guarded about what they put in their mouths.
As America has become more health conscious and discovered the value of vegetarian cuisine, many western restaurants have also expanded their repertoire. In the old days a vegetarian would be served a platter of indifferent boiled vegetables or even fish (‘but fish is vegetarian!’) – now every cuisine from Mediterranean to Greek to Italian has superb offerings which are meatless. Sometimes these dishes are even tastier and more inventive than the ones for the meat-eaters. In fact, at some restaurants what I have on my vegetarian platter looks so delicious that I have the carnivorous lot eyeing my food!
The reasons for this trend are many, including the fact that many young people on college campuses, especially women, are into vegetarianism and animal rights. Chelsea Clinton is perhaps the most famous young vegetarian but many stars also know the value of vegetables and fruit in their diet. Some like Phylicia Rashad, are vegetarian for spiritual reasons.
The biggest reason for the boom in meatless foods in the US, though, is the changing demographics. After the 80’s the Indian immigrant population in America has exploded – now touching 2 million. There are literally hundreds of Indian restaurants in major cities and even in the strip malls in suburbia and small towns.
Since the 80’s, the Indian population in New York has escalated to over 600,000 and for most new immigrants, the borough of Queens is where they started out. Jackson Heights is the core of Little India but you have many other outposts in neighborhoods like Elmhurst, Flushing, and Richmond Hill. Indeed, a wonderful dosa meal can be had at the Ganesh canteen, which is hidden in the basement of the Hindu Temple Society of America, the oldest temple in New York!
For vegetarians, a walk into an Indian grocery store in Manhattan or Queens will yield enough frozen dinners and ready to eats as well as fresh samosas and mithai to make them feel they are back in their neighborhood bazaar! Yes, Jackson Heights even has fresh paan, Kulfi and sugar cane juice or gane ke raas! Indeed, 74th Street in Jackson Heights is the mother of all bazaars because it has almost a dozen grocery stores, which carry thousands of ethnic products from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as the UK, US, Canada and Africa.
In these areas as well as Manhattan, which has the famed Curry Hill or Lexington Avenue area, you have so many Indian restaurants here that you will feel you have never left home! Both Jackson Heights and Curry Hill are rich in inexpensive fast food restaurants which embrace everything from North Indian to South Indian cuisine, and even Indian Chinese, all with a rich variety of vegetarian dishes.
Earlier one had just the big fancy restaurants with stereotypical ‘Indian’ food – the palak paneer and chicken tikka masala – but now there are scores of desi restaurants, each with their own identity. Many mainstream restaurants which are not vegetarian now offer great veggie alternatives so you are not just watching your friends gorge while you sup on bread and water!
Indeed, you have many choices, depending on your pocketbook. If you are feeling flush, try Tabla, which has been on the list of New York’s top restaurants for several years, and where everyone from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates to Madonna has dined. Celebrity chef Floyd Cardoz, who is from Goa, has created his own signature India inspired cuisine, using Indian spices with western cooking techniques.
Tabla has a special 3 or 5 course vegetarian menu with a wine pairing which offers such dishes as Paneer Stuffed Squash Blossom and Egglant Stuffed Vidalia Onion. The Bread Bar at Tabla is slightly lighter on your pocketbook and offers such interesting dishes as Saag Paneer Pizza, which is spiced creamed spinach with coach farm goat cheese on a corn roti. Cardoz is constantly adapting American produce with Indian spices. He says, “Asparagus is not really a part of Indian cuisine but I’ve been able to cook asparagus south Indian style with mustard and coconut, and it has worked very well.”
One of the most expensive Indian restaurants with great food is Devi, which has been awarded the Michelen One-Star rating in the 2008 Guide to New York City which notes that the dining room décor of Devi seems fit for a goddess. The chef-owners at this restaurant are Suvir Saran, the noted cookbook writer and teacher, and Hemant Mathur who is known for his tandoori cuisine. Saran is the author of ‘Indian Home Cooking’ and ‘American Masala’. Together they whip up some wonderful dishes inspired by many different regions of India, and served very stylishly. Try Abha Aunty ke Baigan or the Jackfruit (kathal) biryani for a taste of home, or even an entire vegetarian tasting menu paired with wine.
Another pricy restaurant which has superb food is Tamarind, where the late great chef Rajji Jalapelli was the consultant chef. The Sabzi ke Baag Se menu has over a dozen vegetarian specialties, not to mention Raji’s Vegetarian Thali, which is an assortment of tandoori salad, lentils, vegetables and chutneys.
Amma is a cozy popular restaurant in Zagat’s list of top Indian restaurants which offers a special vegetarian tasting menu paired with wines: This includes a mouth-watering array such as Tandoori Aloo Bharwan – potato filled with dry fruits and paneer, sauteed mushroom garlic sauce, Kele Ka Kofta – plantain dumplings in onion, tomato sauce, crispy lotus, Paneer Kundan Kaaliya – Indian cheese patties, aromatic tomato cream sauce, crispy okra; and Nawabi Kumbh Kati Roll – sauteed fresh mix vegetables in a crepe with pumpkin sauce.
On the other side of the price line is Minar, a small storefront reminiscent of the dhabas of India, which has little ambience but the food is finger-licking good. Here there are a lot of meat dishes but the vegetarian platter for just $ 7.95 is satisfying with a whole array of dishes like baigan ka bharta and malai kofta . It’s a great stop to get a cheap meal and a chilled mango lassi as you shop in the 34th street area of Macy’s and other must-see shops, or on 46th Street which is the diamond district.
Of course, you get a lot of variety at cut-rate prices in Lexington Avenue or Curry Hill in Manhattan, the city’s Little India. Here you will find an array of vegetarian eateries including Chennai Garden, Saravana Bhavan, Pongal and Madras Mahal.
You’d expect to buy diamonds in Manhattan’s diamond district, right? Well you still can but you also get some good Indian food in the 47th street area, simply because many of the diamond merchants happen to be Indian. Interestingly, many of them are vegetarian, so you can also be assured of really good vegetarian food. Basant Johari, who is the past president of the Indian Diamond Merchants and a board member of the Diamond Dealers Club, points out that are at least four Indian restaurants in the area, not to mention the Dhabawala, a food service that delivers a complete home cooked meal to your office.
Another place in the diamond district where you will get a solid Indian meal with vegetarian options are Kati Roll Company (which is also downtown) where you can pick up an aloo masala roll or achari paneer roll for just a few dollars. Sitting in this small eatery, surrounded by Bollywood posters on the walls, you get a quick spice-fix.
For diehard veggies who do not want meat products in the same kitchen, Sakhadia’s Gokul is a new fast food restaurant, also in the diamond district, with a very inexpensive buffet lunch. It is also the only place in New York with a separate Jain menu since so many diamond merchants are Jains. This restaurant also finds a place in Ryn Berry’s list, since he does not include any places which serve even a sliver of flesh.
One of the best – or possibly the best – place for a strict vegetarian is Vatan, a delightful place set up like a Gujarati village complete with a well, seating on the ground and where shoes have to be abandoned at the door. The $23.99 all you can eat menu includes 20 items and servers dressed in ethnic garb bring you course after course, until you literally have to be carried from the restaurant!
The unending menu includes everything from Mirchi Bhajiya (fried hot peppers) to Batakanu Sak (potatoes cooked with mild sauce) to Am ras (mango pulp) to khadi (yogurt and flour stew). Recently the owners of Vatan bought over Dimple, a small well-known Gujarati fast food place and have given it a Cinderella like renovation to make it a second Vatan, while keeping the well-known Dimple name.
Ryn Berry gives special mention to Tiffanwalla, a new purely vegetarian restaurant which has opened in Curry Hill by Pradeep Shinde who was the creator of New York’s first Indian vegetarian restaurant, Madras Mahal, and now also owns Chennai Garden. He’s one engineer who’s found his calling in providing great vegetarian food in the Big Apple!
Berry, who traverses the US looking at vegan and vegetarian restaurants, also gives high marks to Desi Junction, a working man’s vegetarian restaurant which has a very innovative mix of soy dishes rarely found in other Indian restaurants. Berry sees a lot of Sikh cab drivers there and the large television set is always tuned to Bollywood films. It’s all no frills, he says, but the food is superb and very inexpensive.
One of the specialties there is Punjabi Pindi chane and as one blogger wrote on a website, “ My theory is that cabbies always crave authentic ‘home cooked’ taste and if you see an Indian place that cabbies frequently go to then the place must be good and this holds true for Desi Junction.”
The best part of being a vegetarian in New York is that you are not just restricted to one cuisine but can circumvent the entire globe right in Manhattan. You can grab delicious falafels wrapped in a pita from one of the vendor carts or if you happen to be in the NYU area, you can get a Pondicherry dosa from the cart, New York Dosas, which won the second prize in the Vendy contest over thousands of food vendors across Manhattan!
One of the most reputed vegetarian restaurants is HanGawi, a Korean restaurant which has been tops on Zagat guide’s list of vegetarian restaurants. Its hundred percent vegetarian menu is based on mountain roots, greens and grains eaten in ancient Korea. This is an amazing place – a tranquility zone where food is served as exquisitely as if it were a poem or a work of art. The owners are conscientious Buddhist vegans, and here you can not only be good to humanity but to yourself with some very tasty and tasteful dishes, which are both fresh and healthy. Franchia is a new vegetarian restaurant from the same group.
For Thai food, many New Yorkers, especially Indian-Americans, swear by Jaiya which has orchestrated spices the way they like it, combined with an extensive vegetarian menu and moderate prices. For years it was the place to go to in Queens, but recently it has moved to Long Island while another branch is still in the city.
Candle 79 was named “Best Vegetarian” in the Zagat’s Guide for 2008, and the reader’s choice in “VegNews magazine.” Berry also gives it high marks for its vegan cuisine and great atmosphere. Some of the unusual dishes are Seitan Chimichurri,
citrus herb marinated seitan skewers, and Tuscan Lasagna which combines
grilled zucchini, peppers and onions, tofu basil ricotta and seitan ragout topped with a tomato truffle sauce, served with sautéed greens.
Another delightful experience for vegetarians is Zen Palate, which has several branches and has been providing its unique offerings since 16 years. I remember visiting it many years ago when vegetarians usually got no respect, and was delighted to find the multi-layered menu of meatless dishes. Here vegetarians were king! The complex dishes using plant proteins and meat substitutes like tofu, seitan and tempeh are presented in many global styles and the beautiful Buddhist inspired setting makes you feel you are in a Zen culinary temple in a beautiful Buddhist setting make you feel you are in a culinary temple.
No doubt the biggest reason for vegetarian food’s big boom is the vast Indian population which has familiarized mainstream friends and colleagues with not only the ubiquitous samosas but their own regional, home food. Also, Americans are traveling so much more that many have sampled the great cuisine of India firsthand and are more knowledgeable now so chefs can also go out on a limb and give them innovative dishes.
Indian chefs are graduating from American culinary institutes and creating their own novel dishes blending east and west. Two young chefs who have experimented with restaurants, catering and books are Vikash Khanna and Hari Nayak. In their latest book together, ‘Modern Indian Cooking’ they have a section on vegetarian cuisine where they show how east and west can meet: Paneer Picatta, Zucchini with Yellow Mung Lentils, and Aromatic Butternut Squash and Coconut will surely be new tastes for many. How about Toasted Cumin Chapatis with Orange or Spinach and Thyme Roti? Or Pink Peppercorn Chocolate Truffles?
All these efforts and experiments will surely trickle down to the restaurants – so come to New York armed with your wallet and a very big appetite!
