Vegan fast food – Veggie Grill has arrived in Boston!

This review will be backwards compared to how I usually do them. Usually I research a place, studying the menu and then go there, writing a review afterwards. Last week I was in Harvard Square, Cambridge with the kids, we were at the Museum of Natural History and spent longer there than I thought I would so we couldn’t to the place that I had researched beforehand and was pushed for time. I did a quick search of vegan places and found a place within walking distance.

I had not heard of Veggie Grill before I went there, not that surprising since they are a chain primarily located on the West Coast and just opened up a location in Harvard Square, Cambridge in October 2019 which is the only location in the Boston area. The menu is completely vegan and I would describe it as a veganized menu of a traditional fast food restaurant. There are burgers, ‘chicken’ sandwiches, burritos and tacos and a kids menu with ‘chicken’ wings and mac and cheese. I repeat everything is vegan, including the sauces (eg. ranch), cheese and toppings. I hadn’t seen the menu beforehand and was surprised at the variety – at most restaurants you have a couple of vegan or vegetarian options but here there is a full menu of all the favorites. Since it was my first time here I decided to order a bunch of different items to try them out.

First thing I noticed was that I could have pre-ordered on an app – will definitely do that next time. Ordering through an app ahead of time is ideal if you have kids since you have a limited window before they get bored. The restaurant is super clean and the staff are very friendly. The kids meals all came with a main, side and dessert – we ordered a chikin’ wings, 2x mac and cheese with sides of fries, cauli-mashed potatoes and gravy and carrots and cookies for dessert. I also ordered the crispy cauliflower and tempura green beans and a Nashville hot chikin’ sandwich. The kids demolished their lunches and the sides. The gravy on the cauli-mashed potatoes was delicious – would love to know the recipe. They also loved the crispy cauliflower and tempura beans. My oldest son kept calling the cauliflower, chicken. The Nashville hot chikin’ sandwich was also very good, chikin’ was like a pressed chicken texture, sauce not too hot and the ranch sauce was a good addition. I kept thinking throughout is all this definitely vegan? I even asked one of the workers to confirm which they emphatically did. It was quite the effort to make everything vegan. I left quite impressed and happy with myself that we all had a vegan lunch that everyone enjoyed, wishing there were more locations in the Boston area closer to where I lived.

Tempura green beans

Crispy cauliflower bites

Nashville Hot Chikin’ Sandwich

Be prepared for an amazing Indian vegetarian or vegan eating experience at Indian Accent

I have never been to India, I live in the US and while the Indian food here in Boston is pretty good it is just better in the UK.  To me Indian food is a flavor paradise, great for vegetarians and vegans, there is often a wide range of dishes on the menu that include unique dishes which can be difficult to replicate at home.  When I am in London I try to go out for an Indian dinner.  When I was there recently I discovered a new place, Indian Accent in Mayfair, what attracted me was the vegetarian and vegan tasting menus (they is also a non-vegetarian menu as well) which can come with a wine pairing.  They also have a restaurant in New York and New Delhi.  Now I am not saying this dinner is going to cheap but it will be a dining experience that you will remember. Next time I will have to go back and try the premium whisky flight!

From the website:

“Indian Accent showcases inventive Indian cuisine by complementing the flavours and traditions of India with global ingredients and techniques. Its path-breaking menu has been designed by award-winning Chef Manish Mehrotra.

Located in the heart of Mayfair, the London outpost of India’s No.1 Restaurant has received great reviews from critics and guests alike. Fay Maschler, Restaurant Critic for Evening Standard gave Indian Accent a 5-star rating and described our menu as Indian food unlike any other.”

Here is the link that describes the dishes and the wines for the vegetarian tasting menu.  Everything was amazing, incredible flavor and unique combinations of ingredients. I am going to let the photos of this amazing dinner speak for themselves this time….

 

Why become a Selective Flexitarian?

Since I started this journey of eating meat from responsible sources (pasture raised, grass fed, free range, heritage breed, all natural, cage free, no hormones, etc) there are some economic and logistical consequences that arise. Firstly it is quite expensive to buy responsibly raised meat, either from the supermarket or a farm. Meat from a factory farm is less expensive since they grow their animals faster using hormones and non-natural diets. Also by cramming these animals into confined spaces they get more return per square foot. These factors and many more result in factory farms being able to produce relatively inexpensive meat so people can afford to eat meat every day if they want. And most people want to eat meat every day, I was one of them for most of my life. Raising animals on pasture or truly free range is labor intensive and more expensive just like organic vegetables are more expensive than non-organic. If you make the decision to only eat responsibly raised meat then you need to make a choice. Spend more money on meat or eat less meat. Seems obvious right?

If all factory farms were banned today the smaller farms that raise animals the right way could not produce enough meat for everyone. Meat prices would go up and would become a luxury item just like it was 60 years ago before factory farms really took hold of the farming industry.  So there are some options here for the consumer that believes that factory farming is wrong.  The most obvious one is to become vegan.  There has been a large conversion of people to veganism in the last 10 years and the realization of the practices that occur at factory farms has contributed greatly to this shift.  Being a vegan in 2020 is still a lot of work and a big commitment.  The other option for me is to become what I call a “Selective Flexitarian”.  Flexitarian is an actual word in the dictionary (adopted in 2012, so not sure why the spellcheck keeps saying it is a spelling mistake) and is defined as : “one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish”.  If you google flexitarian a lot of articles will come up and it is closely tied to the Reductarian movement which is aimed at reducing the amount of meat in people’s diets due to concerns with animal welfare and the environment.  A lot of vegans may say that eating some meat is cheating, I kind of agree, and I don’t think I am ready to give up meat completely.  Also, for me if the meat is not raised responsibly then it is really cheating, hence the term ‘Selective Flexitarian’, if one is to eat meat then it should be selective from a responsible source.

So now I want to be a ‘Selective Flexitarian’ what does that mean?  For me it means finding responsible sources of meat which is eaten on occasion, while the rest of the food I eat should come from vegetable or plant-based sources.  The majority of my blog to date has focused on the responsible meat part of the journey; looking for farms, food brands and restaurants that meet the criteria.  There has been a steady shift to find more plant-based, vegan or vegetarian meals in my week, going forward I will be writing more about the second part of my conversion!