Curried veggie chicken

Curried veggie chicken with cabbage and rice & peas, from Soule Carribbean restaurant in Brooklyn.

Chinese rice & nut dumpling

Vegetarian Zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed) from a sidewalk vendor in Manhattan's Chinatown. This one was filled with some combination of chickpeas, cooked peanuts, chestnuts, and/or some other kind of legume. I always assumed that these dumplings were all meaty, but thanks to Jaimie for asking (in Chinese) and finding out that there were veggie options! (there were sweet ones too, with red bean paste) For those of you who don't speak Chinese, it's probably worth asking in English for vegetarian options next time you see these for sale - they do exist...

Burmese curry with yams & mushrooms

Burmese-style curry with yams, mushrooms, and ginger, topped with cilantro - great for a cold winter night
From Nancie McDermott's Real Vegetarian Thai (even though the dish isn't really Thai...)

raw desserts!

Strawberry mousse (top) and chocolate brownie (bottom) from Leaf Cuisine: raw, vegan, delicious.

lemon pepper tofu & white bean spread sandwich

with shredded carrots, red onion, and sprouts, on homemade bread
a typical lunch around these parts...

eggplant with chinese peanut dressing

steamed white eggplants with spicy chinese peanut dressing (peanut butter, vinegar, rice wine, sesame oil, sugar, salt, chili paste, ginger, cilantro) and cilantro stems
from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian

Pizza!

It seems that others, upon discovering that one is vegan, often lament the sadness that must be life without pizza.

Allow me to quote Dan Piraro from an old VegNews magazine:

As an Italian American, I know a little about pizza. My grandparents immigrated to America from Sicily at the turn of the century with little more than the clothes on their backs, too many children and a pizza recipe. I grew up eating my grandmother's pizza — real Italian pizza — and guess what? It didn't have cheese on it. Yes, you read that correctly — Italian pizza does not always have cheese. Furthermore, it doesn't always have meat, either.

Anyhow, they only wish that *their* cheesy pizzas were this good. It was loaded with zucchini, mushrooms, olives, artichokes, peppers, 'homemade' seitan, and some fennel. It isn't yet baked in the foto, of course. Really, we would recommend using slightly fewer toppings in order to bake everything well into the middle — but once you start, it's hard to stop!

In conclusion: yes, vegans eat pizza. :)

chocolate cordials

New Years toasts: Venezuelan almond liqueur in tiny Belgian chocolate cordial cups (a Christmas gift from Renate's parents)
one of the best drinks I've ever eaten :)

stuffed chilis & ragda patties

Whole jalapeño chilis stuffed with spices, then fried in a chickpea flour batter, with tamarind and mint sauces.


Ragda patties (Indian potato patties) with white pea masala, topped with tamarind chutney and fried noodles

Both from Sukhadia's, in Manhattan.