Good ideas beget other good ideas. One of the main reasons I wanted to check out The Dish was to see if I could learn something new. I learned a long time ago during my short marriage to my macrobiotic ex that when you remove the meat from the middle of the plate, good things can happen. That’s when I learned to make a soy sauce/tahini gravy to go with my wild mushrooms and brown rice. Very good stuff. I love meat, live for barbecue, but we all know meat comes with baggage in the form of accepted sides prepared in accepted fashion. Not to mention heartburn and indigestion. Even if you always order the Meat Lovers at your favorite pizza joint, taking a break from warm blooded flesh can often be refreshing, and, in this case educational. On this day, at this new counter service in White Star, I took a chance on the Hibiscus Quesadillas, and that chance paid off wonderfully.
The quesadillas were stuffed with black beans and hibiscus and a vegan gouda that made a wonderful bite plain, but was even better with the excellent (of course) guac and the nut based “queso”. The star of the show for me though was the light lime juice and cilantro dressed slaw which immediately made me think of a new way to dress my fish tacos. The red bell pepper was a nice edition as well, but the movement from creamy slaw back to a more traditional taco style dressing really turned the light on. And that’s the thing about vegan cuisine. It sometimes mirrors traditional dishes, with vegan substitutions. Sometimes it’s an homage like a vegan “queso”. Sometimes it is just a straight up better rendition of a classic veggie construction like guacamole. And sometimes it steps outside of the lines entirely with something you’ve not had before like a lime and cilantro dressed slaw. All of which can set you on a new course in your own kitchen. I remember some pretty awful vegetarian meals when I was younger, but I think that was mainly due to people who couldn’t cook but wanted to eat healthier serving up some plain and very uninteresting fare. I’m pretty sure their steaks and pork chops and fried chicken would have sucked too because they hadn’t yet figured out that all herbs and spices are plant based and salt is mineral, not animal. Now that so many people who really know how to ply the trade are going plant based, you never know what pleasant surprises are right around the corner.