Restaurant Review - Grezzo's (Vegan raw food)

Friday night, I went to Grezzo's in the North End for vegan raw food. The menu on the link is mostly the same, though the specials have changed.

For those of you who aren't familiar with vegan or raw food, the basic concept is this: vegan means that there's no animal products involved (no meat, eggs, milk, cheese, honey, yeast, maple syrup) and raw means that nothing is heated over 112 degrees. They also don't use any canned or processed ingredients. The literature on the table mentions that raw food is supposed to give you a buzz after the fact, but I don't honestly remember the whys of it. For more about the raw food movement, visit the Living and Raw Foods website.

I was intrigued by the idea. I've heard of the raw food movement, and I know a lot of people swear by it. I'm neither a raw foodist or a vegan, but I am an adventurous eater and figured I'd try it. Plus, my cousin was in town to run the marathon, and had expressed interest in eating there. So after the race, I headed over with her (I'll call her C, for cousin, just so I don't have to keep writing "my cousin") and P (as a side note, P and I had stayed with C when we went down to the inauguration, so we wanted to treat her to an awesome night out as thanks).

So, we get to the restaurant for our 6:30 reservation. And this place is tiny. I mean, seriously, probably about the same size as my shoebox condo, but elongated. It was very cute, though, tastefully decorated, comfortable chairs, and (/open geek out moment) cool menus with magnets that slid open so they can change the menu (/end geek out moment). The tables were very tight though, because they were trying to squeeze in as many people as possible, and there was very little room to actually sit in the seats if there was someone sitting at the table behind you. P is tiny, and even she felt like she didn't have enough space.

The waitress was very friendly and had a great spiel about the menu. Answered all our questions (what's the lobster really? mushrooms. What're the oysters? mushrooms. What's the cheesecake? nuts. What's the cream? nuts.) and was all in all quite enthusiastic. So I ordered the drink special (Grapefruit and Orange cocktail with lemongrass, thyme, and chili-infused sake with a pink salt rim) while P and C were deciding what they wanted to drink. And we waited. And waited (no water mind you, though they did bring some spiced olives for the table). It took about a half hour to get my drink and more time after that to get P and C's drinks. Another ten to fifteen after that to get the straws we'd asked for (by then, we'd just decided to drink out of each other's glasses to taste. My drink was not good. I tried to take a couple sips, but it just wasn't happening. So I set the drink off to the side and asked for water. And the waitress didn't even ask how my drink was until right before dessert (when it was far too late). She did take it off the bill, though, so I have to give her props for that.

I decided to order the tasting menu and P and C each got an appetizer and an entree (plus P got a dessert). We all shared the dishes around, so I'll just list below what we got and my reactions to them.

Vietnamese Coconut Soup - lemongrass, ginger, mustard greens, mint and basil
This was ok. It was actually pretty creamy, and while I realize I prefer soup hot, it was better than I expected it to be. The basil was quite good, the mustard greens added a kick, and the lemongrass and ginger added some crunch. The tasting menus size was definitely enough of it, though.

Mushroom Soup - baby bellas, soaked dulse and pineapple
This was also ok, and I definitely didn't need more than my little serving. I'm not sure what all was in it, but it was a little sweet, a little savory, with a small spicy kick.

Sliders - spiced patties on vine-ripened tomato, pommes frites and pickles, creamy "bleu cheese" watercress
This was the best course of the whole meal (except dessert). It's the only one I really truly enjoyed eating. It was their take on a hamburger (not sure what the patty was made of), but the tomato buns went together really well with the pickle, watercress, and potato chips (the chips were potato slices soaked in vinegar and then dehydrated).

Gnocchi carbonara - dumplings, creamy rawmesan and fresh English peas with pea shoots and crispy eggplant
The dumplings were made out of mushroom, the peas had some wasabi on them I think, and the pea shoots were pretty but rather tastless. All in all, this course was fine but pretty uninteresting and didn't taste like much. C ordered a full appetizer of this in addition to the smaller one I got on the tasting menu, and it didn't come at the same time as mine. In fact, when her entree came out, she still hadn't gotten the gnocchi, even though we'd already asked twice. The gnocchi came out after the entree (the waitress said the kitchen was backed up, but when I went to the bathroom, I noticed that they were chatting. It's seriously restaurant 101 to deliver food in the right order and at the same time as the other people eating at your table).

Seaweed salad - kelp noodles, sea beans and nori with wasabi vinaigrette
I hated this dish. It's the only one I really couldn't eat at all. Not because of the spicy, because I like spicy. But it tasted like they'd just sprinkled wasabi over it, like wasabi flavored veggies. Ugh. Thankfully, C enjoyed it and ate the whole thing.

Falafel in a lettuce cup
This was pretty good as C's entree. Didn't disappoint (though I only had two small bites, but she seemed to like it well enough). The problem was that it came out by itself and P and I were left without our entrees. Ours came out after C's was already finished. Again, restaurant 101.

Star Anise Crusted Papaya Steak - dill vermicelli with cucumber and olive salad
The papaya steak was really interesting - it looked like fish (they even made the little hash marks), but tasted like papaya. It was pretty good, actually.

Land and Sea - maitake, yellow oyster, black trumpet, hedgehog and honshimeji mushrooms. Smooth lemon "ricotta", dulse and Maine coast kelp
The first couple bites were good. But raw mushrooms only go so far, and I guess I realize now that I vastly prefer them cooked. I think that might be personal preference, but I couldn't finish this dish.

Rich brownie sundae - vanilla gelato, chocolate truffle sauce, brazil nut crumble
This was the best course of the night. There was also a little dash of mango and raspberry coulis on the side that was a wonderful counterpoint to the chocolate.

Chocolate Torte - apricot and candy macadamia crust with lavender blue gelato
This was quite good as well. The torte seemed rather like chocolate mousse and the gelato was delicious. The waitress forgot to put the order for this in, so there was another wait at this stage.

In looking at my overview, I realize I gave a lot of pretty goods and fines for the courses. But really, for the price we were paying, only the sliders and the dessert seemed worth it to me. None of us really enjoyed the meal (I don't think), though we found it very interesting, and there were courses here and there that were enjoyable.

But the thing is, we were there for three and a half hours. Yup, that's right, three and a half. And it's not because we were chatting non-stop and just never left. It would good to catch up with both these lovely ladies, but it was also frustrating because there were such long waits for everything, and by the time we left, it was 10p.

I would definitely not recommend this restaurant. If the service is poor and the price high, then I'd expect the food to be fantastic to make up for it. But it wasn't. I hear there's another raw food place in Beverly that's better, maybe I'll try that one next.

Voting and Vegetarian Festivals

Attending a vegetarian festival

I went to a vegetarian festival this past weekend. I'm not a vegetarian in the slightest, though I do eat vegetarian food frequently. I haven't had much experience with vegan food. So I went to the festival with a vegan friend and her vegan sister. It was an experience! Some of the interesting stuff -

1. It's possible to make some really tasty vegan food. I was most surprised by the vegan cake. Because I couldn't figure out how you make a cake without using butter, milk, and eggs. But what with new technologies, they now have butter made out of oil instead of dairy, and some of those cakes came out really well. I honestly wouldn't know the difference.

2. DO NOT think that if you're eating a soy slim jim flavored with "pepperoni" flavor, then you're not going to need to wash your mouth out immediately afterwards. Ok, maybe if you're a veggie/vegan, and you haven't had meat in a while, then it might taste better (kind of like if you don't eat a particular food for a long time even the worst version of it starts to taste good). It managed to be sweet and chemically pepperoni flavored at the same time. Blech.

3. Goldenberries are AWESOME! Ok, so apparently I'm the only one who thinks so. They're also called gooseberries or incanberries. They're reallllllllly tart, like the tartest grapefruit you've ever eaten mixed with something sweeter like papaya, and they look like big round golden raisins. I gave a taste I think to about three people and all of them looked at me like I'd officially lost my mind for having spent $4 on a small bag of them. Hey, more for me, right?

4. I do not understand the fake meat the Chinese stand was cooking up. I'm trying, but I can't remember what it's called, begins with a G. It's basically soy, but cooked with "meat" flavor, for those people who enjoy the taste of meat without the animal-killing properties. It doesn't taste like meat, I just can't quite get around the weirdness of it.

5. The tofu empanada was incredible! The best thing there, by a long shot. It was spicy and it tasted real, not like it was full of substitutes.

6. Hemp milk, while intriguing, really is not all that good. If I were to go vegan, I'd definitely stick with soy milk. I have, actually, tried hemp milk in the past and managed to get it down in the chocolate flavor. But this was original flavor. I can't really describe what it tasted like, but it wasn't very good.

7. The sense of community there was awesome. I swear my vegan friend knew half the people there. It's really a bonding experience, how people come together over food and its advocacy.

8. Teese is the new vegan cheese. There's also Sheese, but that booth had already run out, so I didn't get to try any. I tried the Teese just for the hell of it. I didn't expect much. It was nacho-style cheese, in a big squeeze pump. It wasn't near as bad as I expected, and if I were a vegan I might like it. But I've never been a fan of nacho cheese, even when it's full dairy.

9. Vegetarian or vegan doesn't necessarily mean all natural and healthy. Sure, there are no animal fats, so not as much saturated fat, so that's a plus. But I feel like in making a lot of that food, they're adding quite a few unnatural elements to it to make it tastier. When I cook, I use as many natural ingredients as I can, and I don't buy much prepackaged food at all. So while I understand the abhorrence some people have of meat and animal-based products, my personal abhorrence is for chemicals and unnatural ingredients.

10. There was a great variety! I was surprised by just how much vegan food there was, and I was pleased because I've never really tried that much of it. I tried chinese food, latin food, pastries, "milk," "cheese," dried fruit, power bars, and I'm sure many other things I'm not remembering. It was awesome in it's variety and it's great that the movement has come to a point where there can be such variety. Vegetarianism isn't fringe anymore, it's mainstream.

I'm glad I went and it was a great experience. It didn't change my mind about eating meat, but I now know about a greater variety of vegetarian foods, and I bought some cookbooks there as well (Jamaican and Greek).


Getting on the Soapbox

I voted this morning. Considering the reports I've heard about insanely long lines and people queuing up at 4am, I'm incredibly lucky that my line was only about 15-20 minutes long. My ballot was pretty easy to understand too, just take the marker and fill in the bubbles. Some of you might remember that whole big butterfly ballot brou-ha-ha from 2000 (in the link, take a look at the 3rd image from the top). I've heard lots of people say that the people were stupid who voted for Buchanan instead of Gore because of the butterfly ballot. But let me tell you, I almost voted for Buchanan until I realized at the last minute my mistake and punched the right hole. And I was in a swing state at that point, so it mattered.

What I don't get is the people who've said they don't believe in voting. I understand the negative reaction to the 2000 election, when the popularly elected candidate didn't actually win the election. But how often does that happen, really? If you're in a swing state, then I find it socially irresponsible not to vote, because you really do make a difference. If you're in a state which always goes in one direction (like me, for instance, in MA), you vote does still count. It won't come down to the wire like it would in Ohio or Missouri or Virginia. But the more votes cast and the better we get a view of what the American people really wants. Either it's really close (like 2000) and we're biting our nails watching the returns, or those extra votes just affirm that the president elect has the decided support of the people.

But hey, if you're not into voting, then you're not interested in complaining about any of the decisions the ensuing government makes, right? I'm not gonna twist your arm, but I will look at you askance if you then hold them to account. Because our society runs on elections. The system may not be perfect, but it's what we've got. So until we have a system of direct popular election of president, we still need to hit the polls even if we think the electoral system might leave something to be desired.

Getting off the soapbox now