110205 Wed Jan 02 13:22:50 -0800 2002 11 7 Chicago Area 0 594587 1980. i'm six years old and i'm going to a birthday party. at mcdonalds. everyone's eating quarter pounders. fries. sundaes. i'm eating an extra order of fries instead of the cow packed between two slices of bread. someone asks me for the seventh time "don't you have any cravings for a good juicy burger?" no. i've never had meat. it's hard to have a craving for something you've never had. "so do you eat lots of salad then?" 1984. i'm ten. and my mom walks in with the groceries. i'm looking for the good stuff. snacks. chips. doritos. brownies. peanut butter and apples. peanut butter and anything. vegetarian eating habits can be unhealthy. fat vegetarians do exist. buddha was a vegetarian. i hear he was fat. as i rifle through one of the brown paper bags i push aside hamburger buns. i take a moment. i'm stunned. she's never bought hamburger buns before. and somewhere below, there is a box of morningstar grillers. meat flavored substitute patties. i nuke one and put it between the buns. i search for a slice of cheese to top it off and douse it with ketchup. i'm eating a burger. it tastes really good. and i feel very american. i go to school the next day and guess what i'm eating for lunch. jaws are agape. whispers resonate. "subbu's eating meat." and i love every minute of it. i've matured. a little bit. i still like eating fake meat, but not to turn heads and fool those around me. a lot of the meatless meat products that are available are good. i mean they taste good, not that most of them tend to be good for you (although they usually are). so for those of you who think fake meat has no place in supermarkets and in restaurants, i say try it, and judge it just for what it is. a food product. would a meatless burger substitute be acceptable to you if it wasn't in a patty form? SOUL VEGETARIAN EAST. so i read annieb's post on fake meat, and i was excited when she mentioned this place. i've never had real soul food, so i may as well try the fake stuff. it's on the southside, east of the kennedy on 75th street. the waiters and cooks are all dressed in african influenced attire. big smiles greet you. lots of people wait for carry out orders-- a good sign. the restaurant itself is very small-- and the decor is minimized. i wouldn't say cheap, but some might say so. the prices are cheap. i visited for lunch with my sister (in town from boston). we ordered the mixed basket of fried vegetables (tofu pieces, cauliflower and mushrooms) as an appetizer. it's served with BBQ sauce. and it was okay. i've had better. the batter had some cajun spices which perked it up a bit. and then we each had a pair of the BBQ twist sandwiches. wheat gluten with a bit of peanut butter, deep fried and soaked in BBQ sauce. it had a good texture, but it was way too sweet for me. i think it might have been better if it was spiced up on the hot side. in fact, i asked for hot sauce, and they didn't have any. there is a shaker of cayenne pepper on every table, but really, that didn't do zilch to spice up something soaked in sweet BBQ sauce. i'll probably give this place one more chance. the prices are cheap, so it's worth a try. i'll be searching for more spicy options on the menu. and i'll make sure to have a bottle of tabasco sauce in my pocket as well. Wed Jan 02 13:22:50 -0800 2002 0 subbu 1 594589 Sorry you didn't like the soul twists. I'm quite fond of them, myself. It's not bbq, but in its own way it's very satisfying. They have a very nice house salad dressing that I'm also fond of. And their smoothie-type drinks are, if not cheap, delicious. I have usually only had the soul twist there, sometimes in a sandwich but sometimes as nuggets, which perhaps came with less sauce, more of it on the side. I did buy their cookbook, and have cooked soul twists and other things out of it. The proprieters belong to a religious sect of some kind that has dietary dictates...I'm not sure if not spicy is one of them. I've liked what I've cooked out of the cookbook, in particular some collard greens that are cooked with eggplant, which surprisingly enough, gives them kind of a meaty, smoky flavor, and were a big hit at a vegan potluck. Wed Jan 02 13:45:46 -0800 2002 594587 0 annieb 2 594596 hi annie. they are african hebrew israelites. i notice you've referred to your usual option as "soul twists." on their current menu, if you're referring to the same thing, i believe the sandwiches are referred to as "BBQ twists." the same item is given special mention in the trib review (linked below). i'll be visiting again, and i'll let you know what else i try. they have a "steak" option that i was curious about. Link: http://metromix.com/top/1,1419,M-Metromix-DiningReviews-venue!ArticleDetail-4220,00.html Wed Jan 02 16:29:49 -0800 2002 594589 0 subbu 3 594609 I used to know they were african hebrew israelites, but I had to make room in my head for other information. Read the Trib review, which I hadn't seen. It focuses on what I see most people eating at SVE--dinner combos, even at lunch. They usually have some sort of meat substitute with lots of spagetti. I hadn't seen the mac and cheese being eaten, I probably would have tried it as a side. I have a hard time wrapping myself around the concept of spagetti or mac and cheese as a side dish, even though I know it's a soul food classic. Must be the RC upbringing. The review did mention the dressing, which I find superior to almost any "house dressing" or other offerings. I usually get salad undressed except at the "best" restaurants, where they know how to dress a salad, not just douse it in dressing. But this is good stuff. Too much of the RC left in me. I will try the carrot salad too, it was one thing I always loved in school (and other) cafeterias and I'll bet theirs is superior. For some reason, the people who turned me on to SVE, southsiders all, all called the BBQ twists "soul twists", and again, that is what has stuck in my head due to lack of space. Next time be sure to get a smoothie. If my functioning memory banks serve me well, they have fruit and veggie, but the ones with pineapple are great; I'm a sucker for pineapple. Wed Jan 02 20:52:19 -0800 2002 594596 0 annieb 4 594645 hey i've been meaning to ask - do you know if this place is related to one in atlanta? they also featured many of the same items and shakes even if not do they have t-shirts for sale (i have a friend who i tried to get one for from the one there but they didn't carry any) and soul vegetarian would make his day. Thu Jan 03 13:03:22 -0800 2002 594609 0 zim 5 594647 Yes, they're run by the same group (check out this link) http://www.kingdomofyah.com/SV.htm And just to add my two cents--when I first tried their BBQ roast sandwich, I also thought it was too sweet. My boyfriend (a devoted carnivore) loves it and kept encouraging me to give it one more chance, and sometime during the third one I realized it was amazing... now we go there all the time. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm not there right now. (oh wait... it's because I'm at work. In the northwest suburbs.) Thu Jan 03 15:44:47 -0800 2002 594645 0 Ellen 6 594651 Yup, it seems to me that the first three or four times I went there, it was because a devoted south-side carnivore who worked for me (not too hard) would agree to meet me there for lunch (me buying) and insist on the BBQ twist sandwich for us both (chauvinist). And, like I said, I just can't wrap myself around spagetti or mac and cheese as a side dish, which left out a lot of the menu and specials. Now I am a devotee of the soul twist sandwich. And that salad dressing. Must have one soon. Thu Jan 03 20:31:38 -0800 2002 594647 0 annieb 1 594592 vegetarian express gourmet, at 3031 w. 111th st., was started by an ex-chef from soul veg. (so i'm told). they have a pretty broad array of fake meat, and the menu is fairly diverse, so you might find something to more appropriately suit your tastes. my fave dish of theirs is the tvp taco salad. they also do vegetarian/vegan catering, and have a good buffet on the weekend. Wed Jan 02 15:04:56 -0800 2002 594587 0 j3s 1 594612 Actually, what I don't like about the imitation beefburgers I've tried is that they taste like dog food. That's the only thing I have against them. Well, actually, price is a factor, too. But I can't think of any reason to search for better ones when beef is so tasty. And by the way, I love tofu and make my own seitan. Just don't like commercial vegeburgers. Wed Jan 02 22:55:59 -0800 2002 594587 0 ironmom 2 594643 if you ever want to give them a chance again, try these brands-- they're all in the frozen section: "grillers" by morningstar. (actually, anything by morningstar, including their "chik patties") "spicy chik'n" by boca (or is it boca-burgers?) these taste very good. friends who are carnivores claim that "grillers" are very close to beef in flavor, not that i really care about that, i only offer the statement as an anecdotal differing opinion. the ones that you are probably referring to as dog excrement, are probably "better'n'burgers" (by morningstar, so forgot that i said anything by morningstar is good.) actually, these are good if they're grilled on an actual BBQ (not nuked) and eaten hot off the grill. there are other "flavored" burger patties-- and i forget who makes them-- but the flavors are like "sante fe" and "oriental" etc, and those just don't nuke well. they come out soft and messy. i haven't had them hot off the grill, but i suspect BBQ them would be more appetizing. Thu Jan 03 12:50:40 -0800 2002 594612 0 subbu 3 594644 ** Thu Jan 03 12:52:44 -0800 2002 594643 0 subbu 4 594652 For me, the taste of dog food is soybeans + cheap boullion cubes, the kind that only contain salt and chemical flavor enhancers. Although my ex-mother-in-law once served a meatloaf made from extra-high fat hamburger, large chunks of bread to soak up the grease, and an indeterminate cheap seasoning mix packet. We all thought it tasted like...dog food. Thu Jan 03 22:52:44 -0800 2002 594644 0 ironmom