Starting the Tiger year with Herbivore
Being a blatant ruthless carnivore all year round, I know that going vegan one day of the year won’t help me redeem myself in hell, but I still follow my mom’s tradition on the first day of Tet. No cheese, no animal milk, no bone marrow, no lard, no skin, no fishy business. It’s the first day of the new spring, everybody deserves to live, so we believe it’s nice to spare the lives of yummy things that can move. Or at least we should try not to cause their deaths. That means I have to find a vegan restaurant in Berkeley. Mudpie was estatic. (Mudpie has been fighting to go to Herbivore down the block for months, and I’ve been “gently” suggesting other places all this time.) Mudpie went online and picked his order even before we got there: the Indonesian noodle salad with tamarind dressing (pictured above).
When we got there the place was packed to the roof. Lucky for us, we got the last free table, and some folks who came later had to wait for at least an hour to be seated. If you wonder how I knew how long the wait was, it’s because that’s also how long we had to wait for our food. I had nothing to do within that hour except looking at other customers and eavesdropping on their conversation. The table arrangement is quite efficient, everyone’s utensil is within everyone’s neighbor’s reach. We ordered a yerba mate tea to sip boredom away. The hot kind comes in three choices: organic (plain, no sugar, no milk), organic latte, and chai spice tea; the chilled bottle kind is flavored with either raspberry or mint. The plain kind wasn’t anything spectacular. It’s just commonplace bitter like any other unflavored tea. I don’t want to sound snotty, but yerba mate is just another overhyped foreign substance, worthy of seeking after only for its novelty and cultural value.
Moving on to the food. The Indonesian noodle salad was like a garden harvest. Cucumber slices, pineapple and orange cubes, a few streaks of bean sprouts, lettuce, cilantro, cabbage, onion, whole peanuts, carrots, all partied up in a spicy chili pepper tamarind sauce. It was sour and refreshing. The thin rice noodle got lost in the jungle. For a salad, it scored well. For an entree, it needed more warmth and more substance.
What the noodle salad didn’t have, the “curry-coconut udon noodle” had: warmth and substance. I don’t know why it’s not “coconut-curry,” and I don’t know why it’s called “udon noodle,” because this was not udon. Texture aside, the curry noodle didn’t have what the noodle salad had: flavor. It was coconuty, but a pinch of salt and a few tablespoons of sugar would be a nice boost. After all, vegan food doesn’t have to be unseasoned food.
It’s not clear to me why Herbivore has gained such popularity in the region. The two entrees we got did not make us oomph and aahh. Looking around at other tables, we saw many sandwiches, italians and happy faces, so was it just us not picking the right plates? Being on the verge of disappointment, I almost decided to leave without dessert, but Mudpie and a second thought made me grab the waitress to order a wedge of vegan pie with one scoop of ice cream. We heard that strawberry rhubarb was good, but since it was out, we opted for the olallieberry pie (just because of the name). According to Wikipedia, the olallieberry is half blackberry, a quarter raspberry, and a quarter dewberry. The pie filling was more tart than sweet, which is always nice. The crust was thick, dense, and plain enough to shelter us from a sugar flood. The mudslide vegan ice cream swept me off my feet with its creamy texture, chocolaty sweetness, and sneaky coconut shavings. If anything, this awesome dessert assortment would draw me back to Herbivore.
Address: Herbivore the Earthly Grill
2451 Shattuck Avenue (the corner of Shattuck and Haste)
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 665-1675
Click for Herbivore’s Menu
An order of 1 curry tofu noodles, 1 Indonesian noodle salad, 1 yerba mate organic tea (plain), 1 vegan pie + a scoop of ice cream set us back by $30. Overall, a decent and healthy catch. But in all fairness, dessert aside, Herbivore is not in the least comparable with Garden Fresh in Mountain View.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
1It is really a great and useful piece of information. I’m happy that you just shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
2You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!
3Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!
4Loving the info on this site, you have done great job on the content.
5Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
6I got good info from your blog
7I’d constantly want to be update on new posts on this web site, bookmarked! .
8You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!
9I’m really loving the theme/design of your site. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems? A few of my blog visitors have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any suggestions to help fix this problem?
10I really like your writing style, good information, thanks for putting up :D.
11Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thankyou. “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” by Mother Theresa.
12I’ve been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this site. Thanks, I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your web site?
13It is truly a nice and helpful piece of info. I’m satisfied that you just shared this useful info with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
14As I website owner I think the written content here is very superb, appreciate it for your efforts.
15Needed to create you that little remark to be able to thank you so much over again on your incredible tricks you’ve documented on this page. This has been surprisingly generous of people like you to supply openly precisely what most people might have supplied for an e book in order to make some profit for themselves, notably since you might well have tried it in case you desired. Those tips additionally worked to become a good way to understand that someone else have the identical dreams much like mine to see good deal more when it comes to this condition. I believe there are numerous more pleasurable times in the future for folks who go through your site.
16wonderful post, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector don’t notice this. You should continue your writing. I am sure, you have a huge readers’ base already!
17Hey, you used to write fantastic, but the last several posts have been kinda boring?K I miss your super writings. Past several posts are just a bit out of track! come on!
18Rattling fantastic info can be found on weblog.
19Generally I don’t learn article on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, quite great article.
20Hello there, I discovered your web site via Google even as searching for a similar topic, your website came up, it seems to be great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
21제주에서 가라오케를 알아볼 때는 위치와 이용 구성을 함께 확인하면 좋습니다. 제주가라오케 안내에 방문 전에 확인할 항목들이 정리돼 있습니다.
22Pembahasan mengenai Flavor Boulevard menarik, terutama cara topiknya dijelaskan secara runtut dan mudah dipahami.
23