A Vegetarian in Toronto, Canada

Fresh restaurants in Toronto
http://www.freshrestaurants.ca/

Before I left on a business trip to Toronto recently, V did some research for me and saw rave reviews for "Fresh restaurants", a vegetarian chain in Toronto. Toronto has a lot of ethnic restaurants and finding vegetarian food would not have been a big problem, however, V and I love to ferret out the exclusive vegetarian restaurants whereever we go. There are three "Fresh" locations in Toronto, but if you are a tourist, you would want to take in the sights at the Harbor Front, gawk at the CN Tower, and then walk over to the Fresh on Spadina (at the intersection of Queen).

Taking a slight detour from my intended post, the revolving restaurant called 360 at the top floor of the CN Tower is worth it just for the view. They have a separate vegetarian menu. Agreed, it is rather uninspired, and the prices are very steep. However you get a free ride to the top (ticket price of $20) with the purchase of one entree (around $30). The restaurant makes a full rotation in about 70 mins offering gorgeous views of the bay, the small airstrip and the entire downtown.

Back to Fresh - the restaurant is rather low-key. Appetizers cost around $7 and entrees cost around $12. There is seating inside as well on the sidewalk. Fresh was started by Ruth Tal, primarily as a juice stand. It has since evolved in to a full-fledged restaurant serving an eclectic menu consisting of salads, wraps, burgers and fresh bowls. The burgers are supposed to be very good as per the reviews we read, and the sweet potato fries that come with the burgers are to die for, apparently. This time, though, I did not get the burger.

Curious to try what they call "dosas", I opted to get the "Avocado White Bean Dosa" from their starter menu. The dosa was not bad at all, it was filled with an avocado - white bean filling instead of the regular masala that is served at South Indian restaurants. It would have been great to have some chutneys on the side though.

My entree of choice was the Baby Buddha bowl - a mix of marinated tofu, sprouts, and fresh vegetables dressed with Thai peanut sauce, served over brown rice. A full Buddha bowl or any other variety (around $12) would make a very satisfying and filling meal all by itself, since the baby Buddha bowl itself was quite big.

I got the food "to-go" and it was ready in 10 minutes. While I was waiting I browsed the two cookbooks written by the founder, Ruth Tal and her partner Jennifer Houston. The cookbooks seemed interesting, and started from the basics of preparing vegetarian food. I need to check them out at the library. Service was very pleasant. The bill came to around $20 for the two items. I would like to try the burger if I go back to Fresh.

Jyun Kang in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

Jyun Kang restaurant
City of 10,000 Buddhas
Talmage, CA
http://www.cttbusa.org/jyunkang/jk.asp

Located in the beautiful hills of Mendocino County, a couple of hours north of San Francisco, “The Sagely City of 10,000 Buddhas” is a large Buddhist monastery, that includes schools, prayer halls, and a vegetarian restaurant. Upon entering the city, visitors are required to register first in the visitor center before wandering the grounds.

Since it was a warm day, V and I registered at the visitor center, and then headed straight to the restaurant via the Buddha Hall. We went into the Buddha hall and sat down for a few minutes of quiet meditation. Outside, we were amazed to see peacocks and peahens wandering the grounds freely, and making quite a bit of noise disrupting the silence in the sleepy afternoon. Some of them decided to show off their plumage for us. (We were later looking up peafowl factoids, and one of the interesting things is that they need a rather stress-free environment to survive. They are certainly in the right place!).

The restaurant is in a separate nondescript building, and is open from 12 noon to 3 PM every day. Jyun Kang, apparently means “to your health” and this health-restaurant does not use any garlic, onions, eggs or dairy in their preparations. We got there a little before closing time, and were seated immediately. The inside is quite pleasant with about 10 tables. Service was friendly and the food arrived very quickly.

The cuisine is mainly Chinese-inspired. We ordered steamed dumplings as an appetizer and one entree each. V ordered one of the house specialities - the “Seaweed rolls”, and I decided to try something new and got the “Veggies with Gingko nuts”. The dumplings had mushroom filling and were truly out of the world. We gobbled up the 6 pieces very quickly. As for the entrees, V’s choice was definitely better than mine. The seaweed roll in spicy sauce (which tasted closer to Thai curry) topped with shredded mango and carrots was very flavorful and in contrast, my dish was rather bland. Not that I hated it. The Gingko nuts (yellowish in the picture below) had a slightly bitter taste.

It was a very filling meal and we cleaned it up quickly. The bill came to $25 with tax and tip. It would be nice to go back on a cool day and take a nice walk in the grounds before lunch.