Vegan Pizza! and introducing people to the joys of vegan food

My mom drove in to visit me yesterday. I decided to take the time to try out Peacefood Cafe. My mom was apprehensive and suspicious at first; joking that she might need a hamburger afterwards. But after she saw 'Kale and Lentil Soup' on the menu she cheered up. The food was fantastic, an instant favorite. The cafe is lovely, comforting candlelight setting, excellent staff and great food. Mmmm, I'm still dreaming of the dumplings and mushroom pizza (see the end for details of our meal or my fiancé's yelp review).

I do not understand why some people freak out at the mention of vegan food. To me vegan food is just another genre like Chinese or Mexican food. In America it's common for the average person to try all genres of food. However, mention vegan food and they think the worst. Just like with every other genre of foods there are great vegan restaurants and bad ones; there are extremely strange food items and common ones.

It's been a struggle trying to incorporate vegan items for our wedding in July. Since I will be the only vegan there, it's assumed the food will be all meat/dairy etc. However, I am the bride. If the bride can't eat at her own wedding, there's a problem. I've made many concessions to include BBQ chicken, non-vegan pies etc on the menu. All I want is vegan cake/cupcakes and a small portion of West Indian style vegan food from Strictly Roots. My fiance and I used to go to Strictly Roots every month, it holds great memories. In the end a wedding should represent the bride and groom. I'm so tired of the "consumer driven" and "cookie cutter" wedding industry. But we are standing strong in our goals to plan an environmentally and budget friendly wedding that represent us and our beliefs. For anyone trying to plan an out of the box wedding I recommend you check out OffBeat Bride and The Green Bride Guide.

What we ordered at PeaceFood Cafe:

1. Pan-Seared Shanghai-Style Dumplings (homemade dumplings filled with chinese chives, shitake & wood ear mushrooms, marinated tofu & vegetarian protein, served with a ginger balsamic dipping sauce)

2. Chickpea Fries with dipping sauce

3. Mushroom Duxelle Pizza with roasted sweet peppers, onions & zucchini (I got half with soy cheese and half without)

4. Thai Curry

5. Kale and Lentil Soup

Peacefood Cafe Inc

www.peacefoodcafe.com

460 Amsterdam Ave

New York, NY 10024

(212) 362-2266