City of Veganly Love
March 13, 2009
Must-eat Day Trip series, Number 2
A blog series featuring the country’s best upscale vegan restaurants.
The short drive to Philadelphia for dinner at Horizons was well worth it. The food was “new vegan” perfection and the service was flawless. The meal started with some warm and delicate house bread with an herbed olive oil for dipping. The attention to detail in this delicious bread, with its perfectly scattered sea salt gratings, would become foreshadowing for the nuanced and distinct flavors of our meals.
Wok Man, in his quest for simple perfection, opted for the baked Yukon potato fries with a chipotle dip (below) and their Jamaican BBQ Seitan with jicama slaw. The seitan was one of the best I’ve tasted! So, not much hung around for a photo opportunity.
My entree was oozing with flavor! “Pacific rim” gochujang-glazed grilled tofu topped with edamame puree and seaweed shards atop Korean fried rice in a pool of miso glaze. A fabulously balanced dish that was plentiful but not too heavy.
On my side, Brussels sprouts and Tokyo turnips in a mustard cream. Perfectly cooked and spectacular.
Dessert absolutely floored me. Both Wok Man and I and fellow blogstress CandyPenny all opted for the same dessert. A saffron crème brûlée with biscotti. Yes, a vegan crème brûlée! It was heavenly- to the spoon-tap crack of its caramelized top to its soft, buoyant cream innards. This has got to be one of the most fantastic vegan desserts I ever did try!
Being in Philly most of the day, we needed lunch as well as our dinner! We followed the suggestion of the VegPA flyer-hander-outer outside Reading Terminal Market and hit Govinda’s To Go for a vegan-style Philly cheese chicken-steak.
Not to mention a cupcake or two at Gianna’s Pizza Parlor.
On the non-food front, we spent the afternoon at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historical Site. The museum was housed in the residence Poe took in Philadelphia, writing such classics as The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher, among many others. The site’s Poe experts, particularly Joann, gave us a rich context in which to explore the three floors of his old home, including the cellar which was the influence of The Cask of Amontillado. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon! We were hardly able to leave the reading room at the end of our visit. But this had nothing to do with immurement.
