Happy Birthday To Me

I’ve had two great meals in honor of my birthday this year, on Sunday I took myself out for a four course meal at Vegetarian Haven, and on Monday, someone was kind enough to take me to the new Loving Hut (on Spadina & Richmond). Both places were great!

Vegetarian Haven (17 Baldwin St, Toronto, ON) is easily my favourite restaurant in the city. It’s an intimate space, the lighting is soft (though not ideal for photos), and the food is always delicious.

I’ve never been to a Loving Hut, but I was excited to try this new location at the corner of Spadina and Richmond ever since I drove by it a few weeks ago. It’s really bright, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it, but it’s not uncomfortable.

Vegetarian Haven was having a special 3 or 4 course holiday meal on Boxing Day, so I went with (of course) the 4 course option, and started with their lovely two tone beet and sweetpea soup. I just love the way the soups are thick enough to maintain their position in the bowl.

Second course was a Smoked Marble Konnayku Roll wrapped around Enoki Mushroom & Baby Spinach, with little dots of Black Sesame Tahini. It was my first experience with marbled konnayaku, and it was weird. I think it is the closest thing to bacon that I’ve had in all the years I’ve been vegan. If I wasn’t at vegetarian haven, I probably would have asked them “um… is this vegan?”

I picked the Seitan Cutlets with sauteed mushrooms. It had a side of roasted baby potato, braised Brussels sprouts & a few pieces of beets in a coconut curry sauce. I’m not gung ho about seitan all the time, but I was particularly in the mood for it that evening.

And the only good fruitcake I’ve eaten in years. Though it helps that it was covered in custard and had a side of better pecan ice cream.

Something awesome that came out of VeganMofo this year is that I “met” several people that I might never had interacted with. While at Vegetarian Haven I ran into a twitter friend and her friends. One of which, aka Scrap.Eat.Book, hooked me up with a yummy rumnog pecan cookie straight out of Veganomicon.

The next day I went to the new Loving Hut (140 Spadina Ave (at Richmond), Toronto, ON) with a friend (her treat! Yey for me!). I had some great food, and I was thrilled to try it out. It was my first visit to a Loving Hut (not just in Toronto, but ever).

Since it was deep fried day, I ordered the Savory Crisp and a small order of wontons, they were all tasty, though we didn’t get any dipping sauce with the wontons and I think that would have made them taste better.

Then a nice big piece of chocolate cheesecake from Sweets from the Earth.
Yummy birthdays are the best. I hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve!