Grindcore is located at 1515 S. 4th St.  The interior is really nice- beautiful old pressed metal ceiling. There was an art show of Philly-themed prints hanging in the back room.

We got iced coffees and two pastries to go. Most coffeeshops have some sort of non-dairy milk available these days, but it was awesome to have a choice of several- soy milk, soy creamer, almond milk, and rice milk! I went for soy creamer, which I’ve never seen at a coffeeshop before.

Most of their pastries come from Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, which are always awesome. We had a hard time choosing, but settled on some sort of delicious-looking peanut butter/chocolate thingys, which turned out to be an item that Vegan Treats makes especially for Grindcore House.

They may not be open fulltime yet, but they’ve already got dessert boxes with their logo on them! Awesome metal-tree roots!

These pastries were SO GOOD! First of all, I thought the little cup things were paper, and it was just a regular cupcake with lots of stuff on top, but the cups are actually chocolate. Inside the cups are peanut butter mousse, topped with chocolate cake, topped with some sort of magical peanut butter chunks and more chocolate. Yumyumyum!

I only wish Grindcore House was closer to where I live! But I’ll definitely be going back again. Rock on, vegan coffee house!

Bonus picture- some of the best street art I’ve ever seen in Philly! I love how the shape matches the mail box perfectly.

The owner/chef was sous-chef for seven years at Horizons, the star among Philadelphia vegan/vegetarian restaurants, so I had fairly high expectations for the food.  I was also curious to see how much of the Horizons influence was present in this new establishment. The restaurant is located in a little shopping center along with Triumph Brewing Co. The interior of the restaurant was appealingly modern-elegant but comfortable.

For starters we had grilled oyster mushrooms with za’atar spice and carrot-cabbage slaw. I love oyster mushrooms and if they appear on a menu it’s almost certain that I’ll order them. These had a pleasant grill-charred flavor that went well with the lightly tangy slaw.

D. got the soup of the day, a corn-black bean-tomato-quinoa combo. It had a nice subtle flavor, slightly smoky but not overpoweringly so. The veggies were all cooked perfectly. If I had made this soup I probably would have pureed it a bit to make it thicker, but D. prefers his soups with a thinner broth and intact veggie-bits. I enjoyed it too in this case and am rethinking my habit of automatically reaching for my immersion blender whenever I make soup.

Next up was a salad of grilled peach, heirloom tomato, red quinoa, arugula and basalmic vinaigrette. Although all the salads sounded great, I chose this one because summer is peak time for peaches and tomatoes. I was very, very happy with my decision. The peaches were lightly grilled and just the right sweet-tart flavor. The arugula on top was lightly dressed with a basalmic vinaigrette, and there was a little bit of red quinoa which added an interesting texture contrast. But the real standout of this salad were the heirloom tomatoes. Oh, the tomatoes. These were just the perfect summer tomatoes, juicy and flavorful. I really enjoyed this salad- simple, flavorful, beautifully presented and a fine example of what can be done with just three or four interesting, quality ingredients.

Choosing entrees was difficult since everything sounded so good. There is cornmeal-crusted tempeh on the menu, which sounded interesting, but I’m still a bit uncertain how I feel about tempeh. It’s definitely not my favorite thing. I was thinking about the BBQ-miso eggplant because I love the combination of miso and eggplant, but I ended up going for the blackened tofu. You can tell a lot about a restaurant by how they handle tofu. D. chose the cajun-crusted green tomatoes. After tasting the wonderful tomatoes in the salad, he knew he had made a good choice.

These fried green tomatoes were served with soft polenta, collards with black eyed peas, charred onions and smoked cherry tomatoes and topped with a spicy remoulade sauce. I’ve never had fried green tomatoes before so I have no basis for comparison but these were delicious! The creamy polenta was a nice contrast to the other elements. My own attempts at soft polenta in the past have been rather lackluster, so I was impressed by this example of it.

My blackened tofu came with summer squash, grilled spring onion and tomato stew, coconut-mashed sweet potato, and was topped with avocado and pickled red onion. Of everything we had, this dish was perhaps the most clearly influenced by Horizons. But I think it took that influence to a different place, with perhaps subtler flavors.  The tofu was crispy on the outside and had a pleasant texture on the inside. The spice crust wasn’t overpowering or too salty as I’ve sometimes found the tofu to be at Horizons.  I’m not usually a fan of mashed sweet potatoes since they can taste like some sort of gross baby-food puree.  But these were definitely grown-up sweet potatoes that complemented the other ingredients well. The tomato stew had a lovely broth and perfectly cooked vegetables, and the slightly salty avocado and tart pickled onions provided the perfect contrast.

After eating all that I was pretty full, but couldn’t resist the offer of vegan dessert! I got a chocolate mousse pie with creme anglaise and and D. got an olive oil cake with orange-blossom ice cream.

The chocolate pie was excellent- rich flavors in a perfectly smooth mousse. The coffee ice cream was delicious too and provided a nice contrast to the chocolate.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect with the olive oil cake. I’ve seen recipes for olive oil cakes but had never actually made or tried one. The menu also mentioned black pepper and rosemary, which sounded unusual for a dessert. The cake was dense and moist, somewhat like a biscotti except not so dry. It was sweet but not overly so, and even though I was skeptical about the idea of rosemary in a dessert, the slight flavor of it that I could detect in the cake was actually quite appealing. The orange-blossom ice cream was lovely- it tasted of oranges but something slightly different too. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think if I went back I would choose the olive oil cake over the chocolate pie!

Overall, this was a fantastic meal that I completely enjoyed.  The only true negative I can come up with is that this place isn’t closer to Philly! It’s not a bad drive though and I’ll definitely be back. They have vegan brunch on Sundays which I DEFINITELY want to check out sometime (hello chicken-fried oyster mushrooms with biscuits and sage gravy!)

There is an abundance of beautiful, fresh, organic produce from my CSA. BUT we’ve also had a whole bunch of 90 degree and up days, even a few in a row that got up over 100. Which means that we’ve been eating a lot of salads and other minimally-cooked things, which although delicious, are really boring to share with the world on the internet.

I did borrow a food dehydrator from my parents and made some zucchini chips (a great way to use up an excess of CSA zucchini!). They turned out really good although after three batches I never felt that I figured out the perfect thickness to cut them. Too thick and they take forever to dry out. Too thin and they stick to the trays.

D. and I made a huge feast for the World Cup final, but unfortunately didn’t get any good photos. Here’s a crappy photo of the spread:

We tried to go with a vaguely Spanish and Dutch theme. Lunch was a variety of salads and tapas-type things. Cucumber salad (cukes from CSA), pickled beets, barrel pickles, hearts of palm, red leaf lettuce (CSA). Pickled red onions, candied almonds with cayenne and smoked Spanish paprika, tomatos with basalmic vinegar and basil, a sort-of Spanish potato salad with saffron-sherry vinaigrette (potatos and onions and garlic from CSA). Olive tapenade. Celery root salad. Stuffed grape leaves, which are nothing whatsoever to do with Spain but whatever. And some nice crusty baguette. More French than Spanish. Whatever. Dessert represented the Dutch side, with vanilla ice cream, apple-cinnamon syrup, chopped apples sauteed with sugar and cinnamon, and stroopwafels. Yum.

It’s been marginally cooler, so I’ve been cooking a bit more. Tonight was a perennial quick and easy favorite around here, a dish we refer to by the generic term NoodleSoup.  The actual ingredients may vary, but it is always more or less Asian-leaning in style and flavor. The noodles are whatever is on hand, soba or somen or ramen or rice noodles or even spaghetti in a pinch.  The broth almost always has lots of onion and garlic, and ginger if I have it. Usually dried shiitake mushrooms, sometimes sesame oil, sometimes seaweed, once in a great while miso. Toppings/content consist of whatever is in the fridge that makes sense. Soups are great for getting rid of random odds and ends. Tonight I threw in some yuba skin and some chard (CSA). Sometimes I put tofu in while the broth is cooking and let it absorb the flavors. Sometimes I sautee it seperately with a sauce, which is what I did tonight. I like to top this soup with some sort of green things, like finely shredded kale tossed with sesame oil, or scallions, or in this case some snow pea sprouts tossed with mirin and rice vinegar.

I also decided it was cool enough to bake something and made some blueberry/strawberry cobbler. I also made peach cobbler last week. I think cobbler is one of my favorite desserts of late. I’ve never been a huge fan of cake. I love pie, and sometimes used to request either cherry or lemon meringue pie for my birthdays. But all that business with rolling out the crusts is a pain. Cobbler is all the fruityness of pie but with more and better dough applied in a haphazard manner that I find appealing.

First up, an amuse-bouche “Vegetable tartlette with star anise tomato chutney.”  I think I was expecting something more tart-like, with a softer shell, but the little crispy shell worked well too. There was an assortment of little diced veggies inside, and the tomato chutney was delicious and stood out above the other veggies. This was a tiny little thing, maybe an inch and a half across, just a bite of good flavors to start off the meal.  I’m fascinated by the whole amuse bouche concept, so this was pretty cool.

Next up, something not on the menu- an herb-filled flatbread served with some sort of red-pepper dipping sauce. There was a delicious aroma of rosemary, and the sauce tasted a bit like coconut. The flatbread was the only true weak spot in the whole meal- some of the pieces were definitely undercooked.

The next course was “Heirloom tomato salad, cucumber granita, pickled red onion, Thai basil emulsion, crispy rice cracker.”  This was a refreshing and simple summer salad. I loved the presentation and vibrant colors. The tomatoes were the best I’ve had yet this summer- juicy and sweet and lightly salted. I thought the cucumber granita was interesting and a great compliment to the other elements, although my dining companion was less convinced. It did compliment the other elements of the dish quite well though. I’m a huge fan of pickled red onions, and these were lovely.

Next was “Grilled Japanese eggplant, salt baked fingerling potatoes, gingered carrot puree, Indonesian kaffir lime curry sauce, crispy chickpeas.” Another beautiful plating. Unlike some previous unfortunate encounters with severely undercooked chickpeas (hello, Mi Lah), I loved the chickpeas in this dish, with a perfectly cooked interior and crispy exterior.  I really liked the crispy lotus root garnish too, having looked with envy at a similar garnish on a chicken dish at a work lunch last week. Not much flavor in lotus root, but they sure are pretty and have a pleasing crunch. The eggplant was perfectly cooked, although I would have added some sort of glaze (miso?) to them. I couldn’t help but compare it to the heavenly miso eggplant at Kaijitsu. The carrot puree was far more interesting than one would expect carrot puree to be, and I’m always a sucker for a pretty microgreen garnish.

Then the main course- “Mushroom lentil sticky rice in a banana leaf, shallot confit, fricasse of asparagus and royal trumpet mushrooms, lemongrass espuma.”  Often when dining in restaurants I find myself thinking about what elements or techniques I want to explore in my own kitchen, and banana leaves are now definitely on the list. I was pleased to see some fiddlehead ferns, which I just experienced for the first time this year at my favorite NYC restaurant, Candle 79. The mushrooms were perfect and full of flavor. The rice had an interesting vegetal flavor which I assume came from the banana leaf, and was accented by a wonderful smoked tomato topping (this is one of the elements I inquired further about since it was so good). It made me wish that I had someplace for a grill so I could smoke things (I had a similar reaction to the smoked coconut tofu club sandwich at Memphis Taproom. All this fascination with smoky flavors isn’t terribly surprising considering that one of my favorite scents in the world is a nice smoke fire, my favorite Scotch whisky is Laphroaig, and my favorite spice is smoked paprika.) Anyway, the lemongrass espuma was a nice high-note accompaniment to the low-note flavors of the rice and lentils and mushrooms and smoky tomatoes.

For dessert- “Rhubarb soup, coconut panna cotta, strawberry salad, sesame tuile.”  We got a flat disc of dark chocolate instead of a sesame tuile. The flavor of the chocolate complemented the rhubarb, strawberry, and coconut well, but the solid disc texture felt a bit heavy compared to the rest of the dish. As my dining companion and I were talking about the meal afterwards we both felt that a lighter, more web-like presentation of the chocolate would have been more appropriate, so it was interesting to revisit the online menu and see that something like that was the original intention.  I’m not a huge rhubarb fan, but the soup was nice, and the coconut panna cotta was yummy.

They also went to the trouble of getting a definitely-vegan wine to go with the meal, which really impressed me. I tend to not fret too much about the vegan-ness of alcoholic beverages since the problem is usually just a matter of filtering or processing, not in actual ingredients. I won’t drink something that is obviously un-vegan with milky ingredients, but I also don’t worry too much about isinglass filtering or whatever. But if presented with an option that I know for sure is vegan I’ll always choose it over one that isn’t. Unfortunately we didn’t get to have the wine with the meal since we were one of the early seatings and it was still chilling, but we had a glass after the meal and took the rest of the bottle home. It was an Australian rose, that was quite nice. I don’t really know enough about wine to be able to review it with any confidence whatsoever beyond a gut-level “I liked it!”

So, big kudos to the chef at Meritage for a successful and interesting foray into vegan fare! This is definitely something that would fit more into my “special occasion” dining category, because it isn’t exactly inexpensive, at least not for my budget. But you can also tell from the quality of the food and the care of the presentation that it isn’t cheap, and that is a good thing since too many people equate vegan food with bland rice and beans or boring salads. I hope Meritage continues to offer this menu and I’ll definitely be interested to see if they explore different flavors for each season.

We don’t eat there too often, and of course depending on what you get, it’s not exactly health food (but you can say that of any Chinese place in America). Delicious fried things abound, and there are non-fried things of course. We always try to get at least one entree that is mostly vegetables, but the real favorites are of course the fried things, like General Tao’s. My absolute favorite dish that none of the other vegan Chinese restaurants in Philly have is the Malaysian Barbecue Roast Pork.

We like to get a few old favorites and then also try something new- this time it was the Taro Whole Fish with Szechuan Sauce:

The szechuan sauce was delicious. We also got the wonton soup, which has a nice delicate broth, and cold sesame noodles. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything from Singapore that I didn’t like! I think the portion sizes may be slightly smaller than some of the other vegan Chinese places in town, but I also feel like the quality of the food may be a little bit better too. I’ve taken meat-eaters here on several occasions, and they’ve all really liked it too. I definitely recommend Singapore!

*A slightly amusing anecdote regarding cheesesteaks- on a family vacation to Boston, my mom ordered a “steak sandwich” from a food truck for lunch, expecting to receive something like a Philly cheesesteak. Instead she received something like an actual chunk of steak on a sandwich, which seemed so incredibly weird to me as a child who grew up in the Philly area, not realizing that cheesesteaks were a regional specialty and not something totally ubiquitous.

I’ve made any number of cupcakes, pies, cakes, crepes, and other assorted desserts, but this was really my first foray into making candy (unless you count candied Buddha Hand Citron). The original recipe is mostly vegan, except for the caramel which calls for heavy cream. I just added some coconut cream instead. I also added a little vanilla to the caramel. My first attempt at the caramel was a disaster since I didn’t get it off the heat soon enough and it scorched. I was much more careful the second time around and it turned out much better. I don’t have a double boiler, having never bothered to purchase one since the trick of putting a large bowl atop a large pot of boiling water seems to work just fine. I used some aluminum cupcake papers for forming the cups, which worked well enough, but I think I would have been better off with something smaller. The cups were also kind of flimsy so it got pretty messy. I didn’t know how far up the sides to push the chocolate, so I just went way up to the top. Which then caused a problem with not having enough caramel to fill the cups, which I solved by putting a big dollop of peanut butter on top of the caramel layer. The cups still weren’t filled by the time I used up all my peanut butter, so I just put the top layer of chocolate on top of the filling. So there’s a weird little frill of excess chocolate at the top, but extra chocolate is never a bad thing!

Here’s a shot of the inside. The verdict: despite some snafus and mishaps and the whole thing being a bit of an experiment, these turned out WONDERFULLY. I’ll definitely be making more, perhaps after investing in some sort of proper candy mold!

I was inspired by vegan chef Lagusta’s beautiful photos of artichokes, and also realized that it’s completely ridiculous that a vegetable-loving vegan cooking enthusiast has never actually eaten a fresh artichoke. So today I bought two. They’re so pretty inside- they are a member of the thistle family and definitely look thistle-ish!

Artichokes are a little intimidating to look at, but are actually quite easy to prepare. I was going to steam them but then decided to boil them instead. I threw in a couple of bay leaves, a chunk of lemon, some salt, and some pepper and fresh thyme as well. I don’t think you could actually taste any of this in the end, but it was a nice idea.

I served them with some spinach fettucini (not homemade unfortunately), sauteed zucchini, onions, and red pepper, and a sauce made with olive oil, garlic, shallots, vermouth, and fresh tomatoes. And a salad of organic romaine hearts with pickled red onions, chopped tomatoes, and carrots, with Penzey’s Creamy Peppercorn salad dressing (made with vegan mayo and sour cream of course!).

The recipe calls for “black beluga lentils or French lentils.” I just used whatever black lentils I had sitting around. I think baby red lentils might also work, but the larger brown lentils would be too large. I also forgot to buy a red pepper, so I just used some from a jar. The recipe also calles for a globe eggplant but I can never seem to find those so I just used a regular one.

This is a really easy dish to prepare- eggplant, red onion, garlic (and the red pepper if you don’t forget to buy it!) get marinaded in a simple olive oil/garlic/basalmic mixture and then grilled/broiled until soft and slightly charred. They all get pureed along with some kalamata olives and seasonings, and then the cooked lentils get folded in at the very end. I got a chance to use my new smaller pressure cooker to cook the lentils. If you don’t have a pressure cooker and cook beans or lentils, I highly recommend one. They make cooking time so much shorter!

I put the finished puree on some nice garlic bread along with sliced onions and tomatoes. It was quite tasty. I thought it was perhaps a bit too lemony, so if I make it again I’ll probably cut back on the lemon zest. I almost always think things are too lemony though if recipes call for lemon. There were leftovers, and I bet this is the kind of thing that tastes even better after it sits for a while.

More importantly- the food. They have a vegan burger on the regular menu, as well as vegan specials. The day we went they had seitan tacos, but since it was our first visit we opted for the burgers. We also decided to be completely gluttonous and get fries and vegan milkshakes too. The shakes arrived first, and were thick and yummy. It’s been ages since I’ve had a shake and I enjoyed it greatly. At $7 each these are a bit of an indulgence, but how often do you see vegan shakes on a menu? The fries were tasty and obviously made from actual potato, not processed potato pulp strips or whatever it is you get in some restaurants. D. thought they were a bit dry, but I enjoyed them.

The burgers arrived last, and looked impressive in their baskets. They come with lettuce and tomato, and there are a variety of extra toppings you can add for an additional $1. I got sauteed onions and D. got sauteed onions and avocado. I was impressed that there was an entire half of an avocado on there- a lot of times restaurants skimp on the avocado since it’s fairly expensive.

The burgers were crispy on the outside and pleasantly soft on the inside, not mushy (a common pitfall for this kind of burger). They were clearly homemade, not a frozen Boca patty, and chickpeas and some other kind of bean were visible. There was a bit of a dominant cumin flavor that reminded me of falafel, but I love falafel so that was ok by me! Overall, I was quite impressed. I don’t often find myself in Fishtown, and since it takes nearly 30 minutes to get there and find parking I doubt I’ll be back to Sketch frequently. But it’s terrific to know where to get some tasty food should I find myself in the area again.

Been a while since I’ve posted any food! That should change once the summer CSA season starts and I have an abundance of beautiful local organic veggies to work with. In the meantime, I’ve been getting back into experimenting with new recipes instead of my winter standby of huge pots of lentil soup and my lazy-night standby of tacos.

While searching for asparagus recipes today I found Roasted Asparagus with Poached Eggs and Miso Butter. Of course in my opinion, the addition of poached eggs ruins the whole thing, but I’m a firm believer in stealing what I can from recipes and adapting them to my own ends, and miso butter sounded delicious. I made the miso butter with white miso and Earth Balance instead of dairy-butter. It went really well with sauteed asparagus and shiitake mushrooms. I also made pan-fried tofu with an orange-sesame-agave-mirin-tamari-siracha sauce, and basmati rice with caramalised shallots, green onions, and crushed cashews. Served with some homemade kimchi and dots of siracha. Yum yum! I will DEFINITELY be making more miso butter in the future!