![]() The guise leaf tree picked at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Science of Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry is dried and sliced. Piper sarmentosum, scientifically known as Piper sarmentosum, is a common endemic species in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and contains many ingredients that are used to treat osteoarthritis pain. Piper lolot, extraction, essential oils, distillation, solvent concentration Abstract Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic.Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Vietnam With lots of takeout passing out the door. The good news is, whenever they made up their minds, they’d eat quickly - service at Vinh Loi Tofu is rocket-fast. But another table insisted in staring in puzzlement at their menus. The table next to mine did just that - they seemed happy to be surprised. ![]() And I noticed diners at a number of tables staring at their menus in puzzlement at which point the cheery servers happily jump in, and offer to bring a selection of the most popular dishes. The meat subs fit better into the noodle dishes, where they get lost amidst the greens and pickles and peanuts. So, I picked out the subs, and had a good dish. But the rolls come with a good peanut sauce, and the veggies within are nice and crisp. ![]() I didn’t much like the texture of the vegan beef and chicken in the spring rolls - too rubbery for me. Not as richly flavored as Thai vegan cooking, but a fine variation on the theme. The rack sits next to a large glass-fronted refrigerator filled with green tea and fruit drinks.Īnd, despite my reservations about the meat substitutes, the food here is very good. There’s a rack of do-it-yourself/help-yourself seasonings between the two rooms, with several spicy sauces that make the crispy tofu that much better - Sriracha makes just about everything taste like, well, Sriracha. And those crispy pieces - like the fried tofu flavored with lemongrass and chili - were very tasty, though, of course, they weren’t pretending to be anything but tofu. The tofu dishes were my favorite creations here, some served in crispy pieces, others in blocks. It’s not the sizable crowds at Vinh Loi Tofu, who show up in droves for the 16 soups, seven salads, 12 noodles dishes, nine spring rolls, eight banh mi sandwiches (they call them “subs” on the menu), sundry rice dishes - and nine tofu dishes. I don’t entirely understand the need for meat substitutes. Vegetables taste good, and they’re good for you. I’ve eaten at a lot of Asian vegan restaurants over the years, and have long wondered at the need to pretend to be eating meat there are Chinese vegans in the San Gabriel Valley that offer vegan intestines. There’s vegan chicken, vegan beef, vegan shrimp, gluten duck, vegan fish, gluten abalone, soy ham, vegan tuna, vegan seafood. which stands for “Healthy Organic Positive Eating.” Oh well.)īut though the menu may be meatless, it’s not without meat substitutes. The menu declares this a “No Meat Zone.” (It also says this is “A Better Way of Life,” as vegan restaurants tend to remind you of their moral superiority … as is the case of the café in Studio City whose name is H.O.P.E. You go to Vinh Loi Tofu - a couple of small rooms with a counter in the front - and you’re told, in no uncertain terms, that this is not the land of beef or pork. You go to any number of Vietnamese pho or banh mi joints around town, and you’re confronted with a choice of any number of cuts of beef, some fairly obscure, along with pork pates and sundry sausages. ![]() Here in Los Angeles, without too much effort, you can exist quite nicely at vegan Indian restaurants, Thai restaurants, Mexican restaurants, Chinese restaurants, Middle Eastern restaurants - and on an odd corner in a barely noticeable mini-mall in Reseda, a vegan Vietnamese restaurant, which definitely stands out as a meatless variation on one of the beefiest cuisines in the world. Over the years, I’ve happily collected meatless options. ![]() Even if my mother did overcook everything she made. And so, several times a week, we had vegetable plates. You grow up in an economically challenged family in the South Bronx, you get used to eating more grains and vegetables, than beef, chicken or fish. ![]()
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