Vegan New York

[Gorilla]

i'm off to the US in a few days and i'm really excited.

has anyone been to Kajitsu? looks like it's fairly new. i thought i'd decided where to eat as i'm only there for three nights but then i heard about this place and i'm wondering whether to give it a try. there are a couple of glowing reviews on Yelp and the menu sounds amazing.

http://www.kajitsunyc.com/

i'm going to Red Bamboo on the first night, as it's the only place i want to go that'll still be open when i reach New York (so much for 'the city that never sleeps'!); and Blossom and Candle 79 - i'm considering doing Candle 79/Candle Cafe for lunch instead of dinner so i can check out Kajitsu, as they're only open in the evenings.

[DiaShel]

I've never heard of it but wow, pricey!

I've heard of the others and I think it's a great plan. I want to do Candle 79 as soon as I move back and Red Bamboo looks great too. You have to go here for desert though: http://www.lulassweetapothecary.com/
:thumbsup:

Reviews when you get back please! :D

[Gorilla]

thanks Dia, that looks great, and it's in the area i'm staying. i'll definitely check it out :)

Kajitsu does indeed look pricey but i love Japanese food and it's pretty much a once in a lifetime trip for me, so i'm making the most of it :D

[Mahk]

Careful, Gorilla, I didn't see any promise that they don't use for example egg or dairy in any of the dishes. In case you don't know, in America "vegetarian food" often contains egg, dairy, and honey.

edit to add: I see several reviews (http://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/new_york/new_york_city/) mention they believe it to be vegan but I haven't seen the restaurant themselves state so. Many Zen Buddhists (http://www.ctzen.org/sunnyvale/enBuddhismQnA.htm) use dairy I believe:

[I]Q: Are eggs and milk included in vegetarian diet?

A: Buddhism encourages vegetarian diet out of compassion for the animals. Eggs may be fertilized and therefore have consciousness, so we don’t eat eggs. Milk does not involve killing of the animal, so dairy products are fine.

[Enchantress]

Google "kajitsu vegan". You will find many, many articles describing Kajitsu as a vegan restaurant.

[harpy]

Mmmm! Have you got room in your suitcase for a stowaway, Gorilla?

[Gorilla]

Careful, Gorilla, I didn't see any promise that they don't use for example egg or dairy in any of the dishes. In case you don't know, in America "vegetarian food" often contains egg, dairy, and honey. [I'm not sure how it is commonly thought of where you live so I thought to mention it.]

i've checked and they're a vegan restaurant. i'm well aware of the difference between 'vegetarian' and 'vegan' - funnily enough it's the same here, too. but thanks for mentioning it.

[Mahk]

i've checked and they're a vegan restaurant.

That's good to know. They are now officially the first vegan restaurant I am aware of that makes no mention of that fact on their website.

[Gorilla]

Rootmaster (http://www.root-master.co.uk/) in London are vegan yet they don't explicitly describe themselves as such on their website either. it's not unheard of.

[spooky]

Lulas is a must! Blythe is so sweet and happy to let you know where to get other vegan goodies too.

[harpy]

Rootmaster (http://www.root-master.co.uk/) in London are vegan yet they don't explicitly describe themselves as such on their website either.

Yeah, there used to be a restaurant called Gardners opposite Chelsea football ground, and they used to call it a "restaurant potager" or something like that IIRC. The proprietors reckoned that calling it "vegan" would put non-vegan customers off coming in. ETA this was before websites were invented I think :D

[Buddha Belly]

kajitsu is not a vegan or vegetarian restaurant. It is a restaurant that serves traditional religious Japanese food that happens to be entirely veggie or vegan.
I think it is a good move not to label itself as a veg*n restaurant as it will pigeon hole itself with a movement it is not part off.

Hare Krishna eateries advertise themselves as veggie food and get mocked and probably looses custom from some omnis for what is in fact a religious diet eatery.

[Mahk]

The style food this restaurant serves is called shojin, short for shojin ryori. Although Gorilla knows them to also be vegan, people shouldn't walk away thinking shojin = vegan. It's probably a safe bet to assume shojin restaurants are usually vegetarian but here's an example of a San Francisco "new shojin" restaurant named Medecine (http://www.medicinerestaurant.com/menu/) that serves several forms of fish. [Once at the site click on "Bento" and read the first four options] In case people are unaware that fish are animals they've denoted that fact on their menu with the letter A in brackets. [A]

"* all bento boxes contain NO animal ingredients unless indicated by [A]"

[Marrers]

I just spent 10 days in NY.

Lula's Apothecary was good for ice cream but there wasn't much in the way of cakes - at least not on the day I was there - just some chocolate covered pretzels and peanut butter truffles. The shop front is very low key and I walked past without noticing it so keep 'an eye out for it. It is listed as a stockist for Sweet and Sara marshmallows but I didn't notice any there. (Sweet & Sara stockist are listed on their website - only some Wholefoods branches carry them so if you are keen to find them it's worth checking.)

I was very disappointed at Dirt Candy and would not recommend it. There aren't many choices. They veganised our starters and mains but we both thought all dishes were very bland and boring except for the dessert which was quite nice. Also they had no idea whether any of the wines were vegan. :rolleyes:

All my usual favourite haunts like Red Bamboo, Blossom, Candle 79 and Candle Cafe did not disappoint.
Counter, Pure Food & Wine and Curly's were nice as usual. I tried Zen Palate (twice) and Pomme Frittes (just chips) for the first time and both were great.

At Sacred Chow as before I wasn't that impressed with the main dishes but the dessert was fab - their home made truffle cake was one of the best cakes I had on the trip!

There were some great new Purely Decadent ice cream flavours (like Pomegranate Chip, Key Lime Pie and the ones made from coconut) - all delicious. I also had Blackwells dark chocolate sorbet and some frozen yogurt dessert.

Previously people said they couldn't find Peanut Chews anywhere - I found they were everywhere so I don't know where you lot were looking!

Can't wait to go back in December! Looking forward to hearing your reviews soon Gorilla. :)

[Marrers]

Forgot to mention Jivamuktea Cafe (http://www.jivamuktiyoga.com/cafe/) near Union Square. We only had soup and cupcakes there but it was very nice, I'd like to go there again.

I watched the NY Dosa food cart guy (in Washington Square) making his wares but sadly didn't have enough room to eat anything at the time.

[Mahk]

Also they had no idea whether any of the wines were vegan. :rolleyes:

For anyone who might care to know, that information is not nearly as readily available to American vegans (or American vegan restaurants) for several reasons:

A) We don't have an annual compendium in the way of the "Animal free shopper" guide to confer.

B) There is no equivalent organization to the UK's Vegan Society here who monitors and certifies the vegan status of beer and wine companies.

C) I've never seen the word "vegan" or an ingredients list on any bottle of beer in my life here (I almost never drink wine so I can't comment on that), the only way to tell is to contact the company in question personally each time you buy it and hope they are willing to cooperate. About half the time the response I get is,"We are under no legal obligation to inform you about any ingredients that aren't allergens nor the filtration or finning process we are currently using this month. We consider it a trade secret."

About all we can do is compare email responses with each other from those who do cooperate and hope they are accurate and up to date which is always sketchy, at best. They could change at any time since they haven't been certified by anyone and are free to change their finning/filtration process and ingredients at any time, for any reason, and with no indication of such on their label.

[Enchantress]

As all wine is labelled with the year in which it was made and all the bottles of wine in that year's batch would be produced in the same way it couldn't suddenly change status. If a company's 2004 Chardonnay is confirmed to be vegan then all the bottles of 2004 Chardonnay will be vegan, of course the 2005 may not be, but then it would be immediately obvious from looking at the bottle that it is a different wine.

Of course it's not always easy to find out which wines are vegan, but there are some wine producers that have such information readily available, and I would expect a vegetarian restaurant that caters for vegans to ensure that all their wines are vegetarian and to know which ones are vegan.

[Mahk]

Arguably, but some of us drink NV wine. To the best of my knowledge all beer is NV.

[Mahk]

As all wine is labelled with the year in which it was made and all the bottles of wine in that year's batch would be produced in the same way it couldn't suddenly change status.
Oh?

A. - "Bob, this bentonite clay we use for fining looks like it's about had it."

B. - "True, let's break out the isinglass for tomorrow's run. It's not like we'd have to change the labeling or anything. It's still the same batch of wine and year."

[Mahk]

If a company's 2004 Chardonnay is confirmed to be vegan then all the bottles of 2004 Chardonnay will be vegan.

You can't have a "confirmed product" without having a "confirming organization" such as the Vegan Society, UK who absolutely never address American wineries.

If I contact a US winery and ask what fining compound they are currently using, even if they do divulge this info to me there is absolutely no guarantee they won't switch the next morning to an alternate one for any number of reasons, such as cost.

[Buddha Belly]

Arguably, but some of us drink NV wine. To the best of my knowledge all beer is NV.

There are lots of beers that are vegan. Everywhere, there are whole hosts of Canadian and US breweries that do announce themselves as vegan friendly. It is always best to contact them directly though if you feel it could be an issue. There is a wonderful thread on this forum where people are contacting companies on a regular basis and US based websites that do the same with US/ Canandian brews.

[Mahk]

There are lots of beers that are vegan. Everywhere, there are whole hosts of Canadian and US breweries that do announce themselves as vegan friendly.
Would you please kindly name one that "announces" they are vegan? All I've ever found were ones that coincidentally at the time of someone's email correspondence said they were currently only using bentonite clay as a fining compound, for example, but an established, "known" American beer company that actually announces by label (or website) that they are vegan would be most useful to me. That gives me an assurrance that they won't change day to day. Thanks.

[Buddha Belly]

The best thing you can do is e-mail the company direct list here
http://www.barnivore.com/beer

[Mahk]

There are lots of beers that are vegan. Everywhere, there are whole hosts of Canadian and US breweries that do announce themselves as vegan friendly.

I beg to differ. There are none. That is to say there are no established name brand American or Canadian beer manufacturers which announce by label or website that their product is promised to be vegan, nor is there any outside vegan certification organization such as the Vegan Society UK which certifies American or Canadian breweries.

Thank you for the Barnivore link, which I've seen before.

[Enchantress]

You can't have a "confirmed product" without having a "confirming organization" such as the Vegan Society, UK who absolutely never address American wineries.

If I contact a US winery and ask what fining compound they are currently using, even if they do divulge this info to me there is absolutely no guarantee they won't switch the next morning to an alternate one for any number of reasons, such as cost.

You contact the winemaker and ask about the fining process and vegan suitability. That's what the Vegan Sociey do when compiling the Animal Free Shopper. Seeing as the Animal Free Shopper has been known to list Californian wine as vegan I'm guessing they do contact wineries in the US.