Teany

I’d been to Teany once before, and noticed the veggie burger on their menu… but that was an evening when I did not have my camera with me, and this was before I had the iPhone 4 so I didn’t want to risk taking crappy cellphone pictures at the time.



But last weekend when I was in the Lower East Side to shop for some sandals at Moo Shoes, I decided to treat myself to a veggie burger brunch.



The menu notes which items are vegan or can be made vegan upon request. Oddly, the veggie burger was not marked as such, although the waitress assured me that if I ordered it without the feta cheese, the patty, bun, and everything else were indeed vegan.



My first impression was surprise - the patty had already fallen apart before I even picked up the burger! Although I’m well aware that many veggie burgers don’t hold together so well, and sometimes a messy, drippy meal is part of the fun, I usually anticipate the patty at least looking whole before I eat it. However, it tasted good – lots of quinoa, which I’m becoming quite a fan of in burgers, and a very nice blend of spices that were more savory (did I detect a hint of cinnamon too?) than hot, although the menu called it a chipotle veggie burger.

The patty by itself was rather dry, but luckily, there was enough vegan mayo to compensate for that. Actually, maybe too much mayo (and I, mayo lover that I am, hardly ever say that!). Perhaps they gave me extra to make up for the missing feta cheese? The tomato slices were nice and juicy, but the arugula was actually slightly cooked in the center by the heat of the patty! Another unexpected feature.



The bun was a delicious, light brioche. Overall, the flavors of the burger were great – the execution just had a few flaws. I like Teany, and I’d eat here again, but the veggie burger is not the strongest feature of their menu. Luckily, they have a lot of other veggie and vegan sandwich options to choose from.

Fun fact: Several of my friends have informed me that musician Moby owns Teany, although Wikipedia clarifies that he co-founded and used to co-own the restaurant, but does not anymore.

Cost: $10
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3       Bun: 4      Toppings: 2

Teany
90 Rivington Street
between Orchard & Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002
212.475.9190


YumVeggieBurger review #84

Meet Lynx

By the way...
In all the chaos of various film shoots last month, I neglected to mention some exciting non-veggie-burger news:

I have a cat now!


His name is Lynx. I adopted him from the ASPCA in Manhattan.


And I'm in love with him :)

The Cinnamon Snail Vegan Food Truck

I’ve been dying to try the Cinnamon Snail’s veggie burger for a long time. Last year, I was planning to go to Jersey just for the sake of their food (that’s how highly it came recommended to me by other vegetarians and vegans!) – but then they started parking their fabulous truck on the streets of Manhattan! Unfortunately, I was always working in Queens during the same hours.

So when I recently had a week between film shoots, I immediately sought out this mecca of vegan food.



Of course there was a line – and it wasn’t even noon yet! I’m sure the line gets even longer at peak lunch hours. While everything on their menu sounds mouth-watering, I had my eyes set on the veggie burger, of course. Actually, there are TWO veggie burgers on their menu (is this heaven or what?). I opted for the ancho chili seitan burger.


Look how massive that is!

The first bite was all bun – which normally would have left me dismayed, but in this case the bun alone was so tasty I didn’t even care! Wow. Herbed focaccia bread, lightly toasted. Delicious!



The patty was rich and chewy, with just the right amount of spice. I like seitan, I think it lends itself very well to the texture of a burger, and this was one of the best ones I’ve eaten. It’s also quite filling! I could barely finish the burger, as hungry as I was – you’ll definitely get a full meal out of this one.

And the toppings were excellent too – “beer simmered” onions and garlic, arugala, pepper sauce and horseradish cream (I thought I tasted wasabi, but looking at the list of ingredients now I suppose that was just the spiciness of the horseradish). The patty might have been a little dry on its own, but all these toppings saved the day, creating the perfect combination in my mouth.

Definitely a five-star burger!

Yes, my stomach was totally full after devouring that monster of a burger – but I couldn’t resist trying one of the award-winning crème brûlée donuts too… vegan as well, like everything that the truck serves!



See that picture of the Maker’s Mark bottle on the truck? That’s because these amazing donuts are made even more amazing by BOURBON. Yes, I was seriously in heaven. The friendly truck employee told me that the Cinnamon Snail is now actually sponsored by Maker’s Mark! Can you get any more perfect than that? A vegan food truck that serves a five-star veggie burger and the best donuts I’ve ever tasted… sponsored by a bourbon brand??? That must be what heaven is like.


my new favorite donut

I think I have to go back this week to try the other burger, the “gochujang burger deluxe”, especially after reading A Soy Bean’s review of its amazingness

Cost: $9 (plus $3 for that orgasmic donut)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Burger patty: 5       Bun: 5      Toppings: 4

The Cinnamon Snail
Parking in various locations around Manhattan, check their Twitter feed for current location.
201.675.3755

YumVeggieBurger review #83

NYC Healthy Bites Food Cart

I’d seen this cute little food cart once before, outside the Union Square Barnes & Noble, but the other day when I was running errands in midtown and on my way to the Home Depot I finally ran into NYC Healthy Bites again, and had time to stop and order a burger.



I got really excited to see vegan sausages on the menu – how unfair is it that there are so many hotdog carts in NYC but none of them serve veggie dogs?? I’m definitely going back to try one of the sausages. But today I was here for the burger!

Intrigued as I was by the “Bollywood burger” on the menu, I was told they were out of that at the moment and only had the black bean burger. That’s okay though, I’m a huge fan of black bean burgers. I picked my own toppings off of the menu – shredded lettuce, cucumber, caramelized onions, and a whole wheat bun. This combination equals an entirely vegan burger (yes, the buns are vegan too! This cart knows its vegan rules!), but I was far too curious about the “spicy cilantro sauce” listed on the menu to pass that up, even though the guy who took my order made sure I was aware that it contained dairy (educated and conscientious, thumbs up!).



My burger looked a bit sad and smushed when I sat down on a bench to open the foil wrapper – but don’t let that fool you. It still tasted delicious!


side note: I didn't have my "real" camera with me, but I just got a new iPhone 4S to replace my 3S which finally died a tragic death, and I have to say I'm quite impressed by the quality of the photos! Maybe not print-and-hang-on-your-wall quality, but for blogging? Sure! Now I won't have to turn down the chance to try a veggie burger just because I didn't bring my camera with me

The patty was a classic black bean patty, with whole beans and chunks of other vegetables, slightly spicy. The bun was soft and fresh, but just a generic bun – nothing special (and admittedly a bit small for the size of the burger patty, which stuck out on all sides). But it was the toppings which really made this burger amazing for me – the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the spiciness of the cilantro sauce was just perfect. And the crisp coolness of the cucumbers and lettuce balanced it off nicely.

If you go to the NYC Healthy Bites cart, I’d definitely recommend ordering the spicy cilantro sauce and the caramelized onions! Unless you are vegan. In which case you should beg them to add a vegan version of the sauce to the menu. Because it was just that amazing.



I can’t wait to come back to try one of the sausages next!

Cost: $6.50
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 4       Bun: 3      Toppings: 5

NYC Healthy Bites Food Cart
Spotted on the corner of 5th Ave & 20th Street
Check the schedule on their website for their current location

YumVeggieBurger review #82

Courage Burger

Life and work have been a bit crazy (in good ways, though!) for me the past few months… I’m actually working from home this month, which is a new experience for me (those long periods of sitting at my desk editing my resume and searching for work between jobs don’t really count as working from home because they didn’t come with a paycheck attached). But it’s certainly got its benefits… wearing pajamas all day? Check! Home-cooked lunches? Check!

…Which gives me a chance to try some new store-bought veggie burgers!

First up: “Courage Burgers”



I’m not entirely sure why they have that name, but I kind of like it. (Is it saying you’re courageous for eating it, or saying that eating it will give you courage? Who knows!)
I’ll admit, the name was half the reason I picked this box of veggie burgers from amongst all the other choices at Whole Foods. The other half of the reason was they they were among the cheapest! And they’re vegan.



The instructions on the back of the box suggested heating the patty in a toaster – which sounded so crazy and unusual that I just had to try it!



And surprisingly, this cooking method actually worked pretty well – nicely crisp on the outside, and warmed all the way through the insides.

Oddly, although most people associate traditional meat-burgers with beef, these burgers claim to have “the terrific taste of chicken” – which certainly proved true when I tasted them. They were more like faux-chicken patties than faux hamburgers, certainly. But the texture was less stringy than most faux-chicken I’ve eaten. This was more like a mash, although it still held together quite firmly.



The flavor itself was mild, slightly sweet. It probably would have been best paired with a slightly spicy or sweet and sour sauce, but I wanted to use up some leftover sundried tomato hummus so that was what I put on mine.



I’d probably market this as more of a chicken patty than a burger patty, since it was not too memorable as a burger. But I think I prefer the Boca chicken patties over this, if chicken is the flavor I’m going for… I actually chopped up and fried the remaining three patties in a stir-fry a few days later, and enjoyed them much better that way!

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Soyboy “Courage Burger”
purchased at: Whole Foods in Manhattan
price: $3.39 for a box of 4 patties

YumVeggieBurger review #81

From the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival: Perelandra Natural Food Center's Veggie Burger

I was so excited to see a veggie burger for sale at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival this year – last year I sampled a lot of delicious food, but I have to admit that I am biased and I was therefore disappointed that there were no veggie burgers amongst the options. So that’s another improvement in this year’s festival over last year’s!



The lovely folks from Perelandria Natural Food Center had a table set up with samples of yummy banana bread and information about their store. I eagerly stepped up to purchase a veggie burger – they were cooking them right there behind the table, and so many people were ordering them that there was a ten minute wait. No surprise, people love veggie burgers! ☺



My friend Sasha ordered one too, and when they were ready we fought our way through the increasingly-crowded room to some empty chairs by the stage area where a band was playing some amusing songs…



Even though we’d been stuffing our faces with free samples for the past hour, I was still hungry enough for a whole veggie burger, and this one looked delicious. The coleslaw was fresh and crunchy, and there was some kind of spicy sauce on it as well that gave the whole thing a nice kick. The patty itself (seitan and lentils) was tasty, and nice and crispy on the outside, but just fell apart too much. “My god, it’s everywhere!” Sasha exclaimed as she attempted to eat it. Luckily, I’d saved a fork from another vendor’s free samples earlier.


moments before the whole thing fell apart in my hands

The bun was a yummy ciabatta roll which tasted great but was a bit too chewy to eat a burger on (you know the type of bread I’m talking about – not the crispy, flakey kind, but the kind that’s so chewy you have to play tug of war with it in your teeth!). Nonetheless, I still enjoyed my burger and felt quite full afterwards. And like almost everything at the festival, it was happily clearly-marked as "all vegan!" on the sign at the booth.

If I lived in Brooklyn I’m sure I would love to shop at Perelandra (they gave us fliers about their brick and mortar store, which advertise a large “climate controlled” bulk room! Maybe I should make a special trip to Brooklyn just for that…)

Read my full review of this year’s NYC Vegetarian Food Festival here.

Cost: $5
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3       Bun: 3      Toppings: 4

Veggie burger sampled at the 2nd NYC Vegetarian Food Festival in Manhattan
Perelandra Nautral Food Center store located at:
175 Remsen Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.855.6068

YumVeggieBurger review #80

2012 NYC Vegetarian Food Festival

Here's my recap of the 2nd NYC Vegetarian Food Festival which I attended two weekends ago:


The line was much shorter than last year's! And moved much faster!


My good friend, fellow vegetarian, and soon-to-be roommate Sasha joined me for the adventure.

Inside, the event was much more spread out than last year (yay, bigger venue!). It was still pretty crowded when we arrived though, and the more popular tables were already hard to get to with so many people clustering around them.


Let the food-sampling begin! Even though I make this kind of daiya quesadilla at home all the time I had to have a slice...


Free snacks? Don't mind if I do... (I saved these in my purse and they made an excellent dinner later, by the way)


Probably the most popular booth: Sweet & Sara! I happily purchased some vegan marshmallow peeps. They are just too good.


more samples - mmm kale.


This stuff was really delicious!


And I finally got to try that Faux Gras stuff everyone has been blogging about! I have to say, I thought it was going to be gross, just because fois gras always sounded gross, so wouldn't a vegan imitation have to be gross too? But nope, it was really tasty!


Love this picture of the little kid enjoying vegan ice cream :)

By the time we left, the place was about as crowded as I remembered it being last year (so crowded it was hard to walk around or see anything!). I was starting to feel claustrophobic, so I was glad we'd arrived earlier this year and gotten to see and sample everything.

Was it worth the $5 ticket? (last year it was free) I'd say yes - I felt like I got my $5 worth of free samples, not to mention some cool coupons, etc. And having the chance to try samples of things I wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to was great.


And there was a veggie burger this year! Naturally I had to try it... stay tuned for the full review ;)

Vegetarian Food Festival

Hey, what are you doing this weekend?
Are you going to the New York City Vegetarian Food Festival? I am!

I went last year, and it was crazy crowded but I'm still glad I went. This year the festival has a bigger venue and is two days long, so I am hopeful that they have worked out some of the kinks and the whole thing will be even better! You can read my recap of last year's festival here.



p.s. yes, it's been awhile since I posted a new burger review - my real job (which I LOVE) has kind of dominated my life for the past month, but more veggie burger updates are to come in the near future, never fear! :)

The Meatball Shop

On new year’s eve, my friends and I started our big night of festivities in Manhattan and then hopped on the L train to go over to Brooklyn shortly before midnight. Then we decided we wanted one last snack in 2011 before the new year – and ended up at what I consider one of the finest choices in bar-hopping food: The Meatball Shop.



Which would probably sound weird coming from a vegetarian anywhere but NYC, because here you know the odds are they have a veggie version of even the most classic meat dish. Funny thing is, I never ate meatballs before I became a vegetarian. Now I always keep two bags of Trader Joe’s veggie meatballs in my freezer, but I digress…

Because this raises, once again, the question of “Is a meatball slider a burger or not?” which I asked just before the holidays in my review of Mighty Balls at the Union Square Holiday Market.

And I’m still saying “yes”, meatball sliders count as a burger. Mostly because they are just so delicious that I want extra reasons to justify eating them whenever I encounter them.



And The Meatball Shop’s sliders are delicious. I’ve eaten them a few times previously, but I was without a camera at the time and didn’t want to do a full review without decent photos to really do these yummy morsels justice.

I’m also a big fan of the menu system at the Meatball Shop – you mark your order on a laminated menu with a dry-erase pen, checking off the type of meatballs, sauce, etc. that you want. This greatly appeals to the OCD list-maker in me as well as the “please oh please make sure you don’t get my order wrong and give me something that I won’t realize is actual meat until I bite into it by mistake!” fear that I still get when eating in restaurants.



I ordered two sliders because I had actually eaten a first dinner earlier in the evening, so I was just hungry enough to sample two for variety for this review, but not hungry enough for three which would probably be a better number for a full meal.



Mmmm… what a great taste to end the year with! I had one slider with traditional tomato sauce and another with pesto. Because I frakking love pesto. The tomato sauce is delicious too, don’t get me wrong, but really nothing holds a candle to pesto in my book!

And the veggie meatballs themselves were amazing as well. These ones really hold their “ball” shape and don’t flatten out like burgers (but they still count, right?), they’re perfectly crispy on the outside and dense and chewy on the inside. A nicely-spiced and herbed mix of beans and veggies, which particular beans and veggies I honestly could not tell you though – although I was told the balls are not vegan, because they contain eggs and cheese. There’s actually a recipe for them online here, if anyone is interested: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/the-meatball-shop-goes-vegetarian/ Also, highly important when dealing with meatballs/burgers of slider size: the buns were light and puffy and perfectly-sized for their contents!


And look how warm and cozy this place is!

It was kind of quiet when we stopped here around 11pm on new year’s eve, but most times I’ve come it’s been packed full of drunk people, as I’m sure it became as the night wore on. I’ve seen people waiting in a line outside the Lower East Side location at 3 in the morning before (tip: if you’re only a group of 2, you should be able to bypass that line easily though!). We enjoyed our food and went on to ring in the new year with happily full bellies, fueled for the rest of the night’s festivities…

Happy 2012!

Cost: $3 per slider, you’d probably want to order 3 for a full meal.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 4      Bun: 4      Toppings: 5

The Meatball Shop
170 Bedford Ave
between North 8th St and North 7th St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718.551.0520

2 other locations in Manhattan – see website for addresses

YumVeggieBurger review #79

La Cocina del Sol

Happy New Year!

I'm back from the holidays, very excited for the fresh start of a new year, but my first veggie burger post of 2012 is going to be a nostalgic one: one of the earliest veggie burgers I ever ate at a restaurant, back in Virginia where I grew up.



Going out to dinner at a restaurant was a rare and special treat with my family, growing up. Living in NYC now, I’ve become accustomed to a lifestyle where it is much more common, for better or for worse (we have so many restaurants to choose from in this city! It’s impossible to resist, although my bank account would probably be better off for it if I did). But even as infrequently as our family would go out to eat, I remember going to La Cocina Del Sol quite a few times. They first opened the summer before I left for college, but it became one of our favorite places to go out to dinner whenever I was home for holidays or a summer break.

I liked this place especially because they served one of the better veggie burgers that I remember eating as a teenager. I hadn’t eaten there in over two years, so when I visited my parents this year for Christmas, I wanted to go back and see if it was as good as I remembered.



The menu calls their veggie burger the “Santa Fe Vegetarian Burger” (the restaurant serves primarily Mexican/southwestern food) and says the patty is made with roasted corn, Anaheim pepper & artichokes. In retrospect, I’m amazed I liked this burger so much as a teenager as I have never cared for artichokes! Everything is mashed together in the patty though, so I didn’t really notice them. It’s definitely a pre-made patty, but it’s a pretty good one. Must have some soy in it for texture too, as it’s more chicken-like than beef like and holds its shape well. The restaurant told me it’s a vegan patty – no eggs binding it together, even though the default toppings aren’t vegan and they weren’t sure about the bun.



The bun was one of the best things I remembered about this burger – a rosemary thyme roll, which proved to taste just as good years later as it did when I first enjoyed it. A nice, sweet and herby complement to the southwestern flavors of the rest of the burger. Yes, it doesn’t seem like that would work as well as it does, but it really tastes great!



The toppings include cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and chipotle mayo. I asked for mine without cheese, something I would have never done a couple years ago (I remember it being very good with the cheese) but I am still a sucker for chipotle mayo. It comes with fries or corn on the cob - I opted for the fries.


With a tall glass of horchata, of course.

So, was it as good as I remembered? Pretty much! I have to admit, I’ve tried a LOT of different veggie burgers in the intervening years, so my palate is a bit more refined, if you can say that about something like veggie burgers, haha. But it did taste like I remembered – and I enjoyed it. And it gets extra points for that nostalgia factor. It’s nice to know that it hasn’t changed, because maybe some teenage newly-vegetarian kid in rural Virginia is enjoying it now too, and learning that vegetarian food can truly be delicious.

Cost: $7.50
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 3      Bun: 5      Toppings: 4

La Cocina del Sol
1200 Crozet Ave
Crozet, VA 22932
second location in Charlottesville – see website for address

YumVeggieBurger review #78

Happy Holidays!

I'm off traveling and spending the holidays with my family and pets, so here's to you and yours and Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas Eve!



I'll have some new posts up after the holidays, including an old favorite veggie burger from my hometown which I just had the chance to enjoy again last night for the first time in several years, and finally photographed for a blog review :)

Union Square Holiday Market: Mighty Balls

Question of the Day: Does a meatball slider count as a burger?


I confess, I have a sentimental weakness for the Union Square Holiday Market. Sure, it’s a lot of the same stuff year after year and it’s way overpriced and I rarely even make any purchases… but I love just walking through the festive atmosphere and looking at all the beautiful things under all the holiday lights.



This year, a new vendor caught my eye – Mighty Balls (har, har), serving gourmet meatballs on heros and sliders. Sliders! That means burgers, right? Their menu said they had veggie balls. So I decided that, even though you could argue it’s not really a burger, I had to try them.



I ordered two sliders – you get to choose your balls and your sauce, so I got African Onion sauce on one of my veggie balls, and Cranberry Horseradish on the other. All of the sauces are vegetarian except for the “Not Your Average Brown Sauce” – which I appreciated the vendors warning their vegetarian customers about. The balls themselves contain egg and cheese, so they’re unfortunately not vegan-friendly.


They look like burgers to me!

The Onion Sauce was definitely the better of the two – saucy and tangy and the perfect compliment to the patty… er, meatball, I mean! And it had peppers and pieces of onions in with the sauce, so it was more than just liquid poured over the meatball. The Cranberry Horseradish was tasty but there wasn’t enough of it on the slider, so that one ended up being too dry.

The buns were light and sweet, easy to hold, kept the balls and sauce safely inside with minimal oozing out the sides, and were the perfect size to accommodate the veggie balls. The veggie balls themselves were a mixed mash of vegetables (I couldn’t really identify specific ingredients), fried on the bottoms, which really brought out the taste of the cheese in them. I probably would have appreciated this more if I still ate dairy with any regularity, but since I hardly ever eat cheese now I’ve kind of lost my ability to enjoy it. The balls were a little dry, but the onion sauce at least made up for that on one of the sliders.



Mighty Balls just opened last spring. They don’t have a brick-and-mortar location but they describe themselves as a “mobil vending company” and sell their meatballs at fairs like the Holiday Market and the Hester Street Fair, and do catering and other events. Check their website to find out where you can find them next.

Cost: $3.50 per slider
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Burger patty: 3      Bun: 5      Toppings: 4

Mighty Balls
Currently selling at the Union Square Holiday Market until Christmas, December 25th. Check their website for other upcoming events and locations.

I feel like there's enough of an argument to be made in favor of reviewing meatball sliders like burgers… or maybe I’m just trying to justify another trip to The Meatball Shop in the near future? ;)
What do you think?

YumVeggieBurger review #77