Sometimes, Vegan Food Doesn’t Mean Tofurkey

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From the New York Times: By STEPHANIE LYNESS Published: August 19, 2007 Until recently, it’s been difficult to take vegan cuisine (made with no animal products) seriously. Vegan menus were full of things like vegan meatloaf and tofu cheese, imitations that only served to highlight what the food was missing. Without a cultural context, vegan has seemed more contrivance than a cuisine. Skip to next paragraph In the Region Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut and New JerseyGo to Complete Coverage » But with the influx of immigrants from Asia and the subcontinent, vegan has found a new footing in the New York region. These cultures rely more heavily on vegetables and legumes than Western cuisines do, and as a result, the food is naturally (so to speak) vegan. Ahimsa (Sanskrit for “nonviolence”) is a nice example of this new breed of vegan restaurant. It is a family place that is the brainchild of

18-year-old Nirav Shah, who designed and opened the restaurant as a way of putting his passion for vegan philosophy into practice. His mother, Anita, and Mr. Shah’s younger brother, Nikhil, do most of the cooking, and one night I met Mr. Shah’s father waiting tables. Both parents are from Mumbai. The menu is made up of dishes from several cultures. About one third of the dishes are raw. Nearly 80 percent of the restaurant’s produce is organic, and, according to Nirav, the family plans to use some locally grown produce in the fall. My favorite meal was the $38 chef’s tasting menu, gracefully served by Nikhil. At my request, choices were predominantly Indian with some Sri Lankan dishes; none were on the regular menu, but I was told some will be soon. The meal began with bite-size rounds of cumin papadum topped with a fresh tomato-onion chutney, followed by a salad of spiced cucumber and carrot, and little open-face “sandwiches” of red

bell pepper topped with homemade lemon pickle (a not-yet-acquired taste on my part) and mango. Next came three tiny plates of thin, fresh Indian wheat noodles, steamed and served at room temperature with three different chutneys; this was followed by a delightful Sri Lankan coconut-rice pancake (appam), crisp at the edges, moist in the center. The fifth course was a delicately cinnamon-spiced, tomato-based vegetable korma (stew), from India’s northwestern Gujarat region, and the savory portion of the meal finished with a plate of upma, creamy semolina garnished with cashews, carrot, peas and a sour homemade green-mango chutney that was a perfect complement to the upma. Dessert was a soft, oblong warm pastry (apparently the same dough as used for the noodles), stuffed with cinnamon and coconut and served with tea. As for other meals ordered from the regular menu, appetizer spring rolls were appropriately crisp, the vegetables engagingly seasoned

with Indian spices; pot stickers were nicely browned on one side, and their bed of roasted seaweed was dynamite — sweet, salty and crunchy. Plantain chips were cut too thick to be truly crisp and the accompanying mint-flavored guacamole was made far enough ahead that its color had grayed; the Indian puffed rice appetizer, bhel, suffered the same fate, the crisp rice no longer quite crisp, having soaked in the sweet tamarind chutney and vegetables. A chopped avocado and mango appetizer on endive spears was bland. On the entree menu, my favorite dishes were nasi lemak — a plate of coconut rice, mounded to a point, served over cooked spinach, with peanuts and coconut — and an eggplant Florentine, in which the still-firm eggplant had a mildly sweet taste that was terrific with that same spinach. I didn’t miss dairy in the Indian-spiced soymilk rice pudding or wonderful warm, chocolate-filled, deep-fried won ton “raviolis.” Carrot cake,

while dry, had good flavor, but the raw avocado-lime mousse was impossibly bitter. The dishes I like best here are Indian and Sri Lankan. It’s good homemade food that happens to be vegan. Ahimsa 1227 Chapel Street New Haven (203) 786-4774 www.ahimsainc.com VERY GOOD THE SPACE Large high-ceilinged room with big windows, done in cool contemporary shades and decorated with local paintings, sari fabrics and wooden statues, pots and gourds. The juice bar is next door. Wheelchair access. THE CROWD Quiet,

casual, urban; lots of students. THE BAR Beer, sake, a small collection of kosher wines, and fruit “mocktails” (the blue sunset is sweet and refreshing). THE BILL Lunch entrees, $6 to $15; Dinner entrees, $13 to $18. WHAT WE LIKE Pot stickers, spring rolls, bhel, dhokla; beet ravioli, eggplant Florentine, sambal brinjal, nasi lemak, chef’s menu (particularly upma, Gujarati korma, appam); chocolate ravioli, carrot cake, rice pudding. IF YOU GO Buffet Monday to Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner Monday to Saturday, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Closed Sunday in summer (new hours when school begins). Reviewed Aug. 19, 2007 Peter H

 

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