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.
I simply could not go away your web site before suggesting that I actually loved the standard info a person provide for your guests? Is going to be back ceaselessly to check up on new posts
1I like this web site so much, saved to my bookmarks.
2It’s really a cool and helpful piece of information. I am happy that you just shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
3I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this web site. Thanks , I’ll try and check back more often. How frequently you update your website?
4I am very happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the accidental misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.
5Some truly great information, Gladiola I discovered this. “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
6You have brought up a very good points, thanks for the post.
7It’s really a nice and useful piece of info. I am satisfied that you just shared this useful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
8We stumbled over here coming from a different website and thought I should check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking over your web page for a second time.
9Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research about this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I’m very glad to see such great info being shared freely out there.
10I was wondering if you ever considered changing the page layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?
11naturally like your website but you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I will definitely come back again.
12I constantly spent my half an hour to read this blog’s posts daily along with a mug of coffee.
13We’re a gaggle of volunteers and opening a new
14scheme in our community. Your web site offered us with valuable info to work on. You’ve performed a formidable job
and our whole community shall be grateful to you.
I got this website from my friend who informed me on the topic of this website and now this time I am visiting this web site and reading very informative articles or reviews at this
15place.
Great web site. Lots of helpful information here. I am sending it to several pals ans additionally sharing in delicious.
16And obviously, thanks for your effort!
Hello I am so grateful I found your weblog, I really found you by accident, while I was researching on Google
17for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like
to say thanks for a marvelous post and a all
round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so
when I have time I will be back to read more,
Please do keep up the excellent work.
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by
18searching for cost of installing a garage door
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!
19It’s really a nice and useful piece of info. I’m satisfied that you simply shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
20