Attention all vegans: Now you, too, can indulge in palm-sized servings of fancier-than-thou food. Meritage Philadelphia will offer a vegan Chef Tasting Menu every Tuesday starting June 8. At $35, it’s cheaper than your average Meritage Chef Tasting Menu but just as opaque and intriguing, offering specialties like heirloom tomato salad with cucumber granita or what Executive Chef Anne Coll (pictured) described as a “cucumber snow-cone,” and lemongrass espuma, which is just a more ethnic way of saying “lemongrass foam.” Here’s how it all shakes out:
–Amuse Bouche: Vegetable tartlette with star anise tomato chutney
–1st course: Heirloom tomato salad cucumber granita, pickled red onion,
Thai basil emulsion, crispy rice cracker–2nd course: Grilled Japanese eggplant, salt baked fingerling potatoes,
gingered carrot puree, Indonesian kaffir lime curry sauce, crispy chick peas–3rd course: Mushroom lentil sticky rice in banana leaf, shallot confit,
fricasse of asparagus and royal trumpet mushrooms, lemongrass espuma–4th course: Rhubarb soup, coconut panna cotta, strawberry salad , sesame
tuile
For now, the menu will only be offered once a week, but if reception is good, Coll says that it could be done more often. So if you’re into it, scarf down that cucumber water ice and be loud about it.
Meritage, 20th & Lombard Sts. 215-985-1922
I don’t think kaffir is vegan … Isn’t it fermented milk?
“Kaffir lime” is a type of fruit. You’re thinking of “kefir.”
I think it’s ridiculous that a restaurant that serves fois gras is offering a vegan tasting menu…no serious vegetarian or vegan would eat at this establishment.
Personally, I disagree that no serious veg*n would eat at such a place. I certainly have. I find it generally unhelpful to place such a big distinction between foie gras and veal vs. other animal products. It’s almost all tortuous and horrible for the environment and I’m not going to miss out on everything in the city besides Horizons and a few other veggie places just because they serve one form of meat or another.
“Fois Gras” = “Fat Times”
SANCTIMONY FAIL
Actually, foie gras is not much better or worse than other animal products. It’s an easy target for groups wanting to chalk up “victories” by strong-arming restaurants to pull it from their menus, though.
thanks, Fred, for the reminder why I hate so very many vegans and vegetarians. I had recently excised from my life the last remaining vestige of sanctimonious veganism from my friend circle.
Come on Paul – I missed the key…does that mean I’ve lost my credibility? I was pretty into this deal at first, though I do think foie gras production is heinous and ought to be banned. Feel free to disagree – like I said I think it’s ridiculous but you’re free to go there. Where I think I misread this offer is that I suppose it’s not really a reaching out to vegetarians and vegans as it is just an experiment with limited ingredients or an effort to focus on vegetables.
rk…I think we should be friends…I’m really not a sanctimonious veg – I just think a lot of these restaurants want more customers and want to get in on the trend without giving much thought to what they’re doing. Like I said though, maybe I just misread this special menu as an effort to court vegetarians/vegans when it’s really not.
I will admit that my typo-baiting was not so nice, but it was in response to the tone of your original message. Your follow-up at least explains your point of view, rather than making blanket statements about what “serious” vegetarians “would” or “would not” do, which is at odds with your somewhat more open-minded follow-up. I think rk, while a bit harsh, does make a point that dogmatic, prescriptive comments like those only serve to turn people off to your point of view (especially in this particular case where the restaurant is doing something special specifically for the benefit of vegans).
As for the ingredient itself, I can’t help but think that some of the objections to its productions come from a well-intentioned, though misguided, form of empathy. While you and I wouldn’t want a tube shoved down our throats, ducks and geese, being waterfowl and not humans, have very different anatomies and lack a gag reflex, so it’s not nearly as horrific as you’d imagine it yourself to be. Of course I completely respect anyone’s decision not to eat it, or anything else for that matter, because hey, what do I care, but just putting that out there.
I am a serious vegan and I am excited to try this menu. Anything that makes vegan food more accessible and appealing to the public is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I see no reason to boycott places that serve foie gras if I’m not also boycotting places that serve any other animal products, which would be quite difficult and would really have little positive impact. I think it’s more effective to support restaurants’ forays into vegan food and show that there is a demand for such items so they continue to offer them.
I completely agree with Jen. I also understand Paul’s point and have read information to back it up. I applaud Meritage for this and look forward to trying it.
Well now that that debate is finished..I’ve been there and loved every course. The heirloom tomato salad was unbelievable and the rhubard soup with coconut panna cotta was a refreshing finish! They are even offering a vegan wine. Nice Job to the ladies at Meritage!
Coconut panna cotta is a damned good idea. Actually I wonder how they thicken it without gelatin; maybe agar (or pectin?)
I went there on Tuesday and was quite impressed. Not on the menu but served to us was some herbed flatbread with a roasted red pepper sauce, which was the only weak spot in the meal (the flatbread was a bit undercooked but the sauce was tasty). The third course (sticky rice in banana leaf) was my favorite. I liked that they made the effort to get vegan wine too (a very nice Australian rose). Kudos to a mainstream restaurant being willing to branch out into vegan food and doing it so well!
From some of the comments here, I may have to make a trip up to Philly to try this menu. It sounds absolutely tasty. I am not a vegan, but very open to alter my current diet to eat much more vegan entrees and experience fresh and flavorful vegan dishes.
Merri