my first vegan restaurant experience
i figured i'd go for one of the defined questions as my inaugural VeganMoFo entry.
i had gone to both 1010 cherry (before it closed) and harmony (before it changed hands and became new harmony. but i don't remember if it was a vegetarian place back then. this was back in 1993 or 1994, before i even became vegetarian, so forgive me if my memory is rusty.) although i don't remember which came first, so i'll just write about both.
in my freshman year of high school, i had become friends with an asian girl, and then in usual fashion i had become friends with her friends, so i would hang out in chinatown a lot. so here goes my memories of the restaurants. for harmony, we went only knowing it was a vietnamese place. no idea it was a vegetarian place and still, i don't remember if it was. i do remember eating bean sprouts though. and i remember the separated dining. one open space with tiles on the floor on the left, and another more "romantic" area on the right. new harmony seems to have kept the divisions, but both sides seem "romantic" now.
as for 1010 cherry, we had just happened upon it. (probably how many of their new customers found them)
i remember having this incredibly simple brothy tofu and spinach soup. it was soooo good. so good in fact, i went back in 2000 looking for it. but it wasn't on the menu. when i ordered stuff that time, it was no good. no good at all. a chestnut soup that was totally mealy, the "blintzes" were icky. the "sour cream" that accompanied the blintzes was brown and chunky and tasted like it had gone bad. and to top it off, there was a hair on the plate. sometimes it's better to hold on to a memory than to try to relive it.
(as for photos, i actually do have a picture of harmony. but it's totally on paper/negative. i had taken a photography course in my sophomore year, and i had taken a pic of the neon buddha in the window. i really liked the way it looked. especially in B&W. but alas, it's on paper, and i have no idea where my prints/negatives are. and even if i did know where they were, i'd then have to scan it, and you know as well as i do, that just ain't happening. and now that i remember that photo, i think it did say "vegetarian")
i had gone to both 1010 cherry (before it closed) and harmony (before it changed hands and became new harmony. but i don't remember if it was a vegetarian place back then. this was back in 1993 or 1994, before i even became vegetarian, so forgive me if my memory is rusty.) although i don't remember which came first, so i'll just write about both.
in my freshman year of high school, i had become friends with an asian girl, and then in usual fashion i had become friends with her friends, so i would hang out in chinatown a lot. so here goes my memories of the restaurants. for harmony, we went only knowing it was a vietnamese place. no idea it was a vegetarian place and still, i don't remember if it was. i do remember eating bean sprouts though. and i remember the separated dining. one open space with tiles on the floor on the left, and another more "romantic" area on the right. new harmony seems to have kept the divisions, but both sides seem "romantic" now.
as for 1010 cherry, we had just happened upon it. (probably how many of their new customers found them)
i remember having this incredibly simple brothy tofu and spinach soup. it was soooo good. so good in fact, i went back in 2000 looking for it. but it wasn't on the menu. when i ordered stuff that time, it was no good. no good at all. a chestnut soup that was totally mealy, the "blintzes" were icky. the "sour cream" that accompanied the blintzes was brown and chunky and tasted like it had gone bad. and to top it off, there was a hair on the plate. sometimes it's better to hold on to a memory than to try to relive it.
(as for photos, i actually do have a picture of harmony. but it's totally on paper/negative. i had taken a photography course in my sophomore year, and i had taken a pic of the neon buddha in the window. i really liked the way it looked. especially in B&W. but alas, it's on paper, and i have no idea where my prints/negatives are. and even if i did know where they were, i'd then have to scan it, and you know as well as i do, that just ain't happening. and now that i remember that photo, i think it did say "vegetarian")