the classy vegetarian.

my lovely mama and i celebrated her birthday at the greenwood vegetarian eatery carmelita. mama is a vegetarian, and i am a recovering vegetarian, so the swanky little place was right up our alley. aside from minor parking difficulties, the evening was amazing, and the food was even more spectacular than i might have imagined.
now, mama's birthday is a special holiday, so we really went off and tried a ton of stuff. eating on a budget is usually my rule of thumb, but that definitely goes aside to celebrate her! we started with an appetizer of a port-poached pear with goat cheese sorbet and a green salad with candied walnuts. it was a borderline dessert, but absolutely delicious. the pear was named in the menu as a jerzy boyz pear, which i felt suprised i'd never heard of. but after some research, i learned that jerzy boyz is the name of the farm of origin of the pears, not a specific variety. [for more info on jerzy boyz organic apple and pear farm click here]. the table next to us ordered the enviable beet carpaccio, which i will definitely order next time.
as for entrees, i had the absolutely irresistible root vegetable pot pie--served in a ramekin with a warm side salad of greens with hazelnuts and marinated hedgehog mushrooms. the pot pie had a rich, mushroom-y base and featured carrots, potatoes, and turnips. the crust on top was perfectly flaky and the overall result was ultra-comforting and addictive. i could barely stop eating long enough to try my mom's dish on the other side of the table. thank goodness i did, because her purple rice and green onion cake was completely spectacular. served with sugar-pie pumpkin mash and a phenomenal cashew sauce, the dish had the hearty complexity that one typically misses in vegetarian dishes. the giant man to our right looked over and said "i'll have what she's having," when harry met sally style.
now, it being a celebration, we certainly ordered dessert. we didn't even split it. we got TWO. first, mom's pick, the carrot cake [sans raisins, much to her excitement] topped with fennel ice cream (!) and candied fennel seed. the cake was not-too-sweet, and the ice cream was the star of the dish. my choice was the special, a passion-fruit and goat cheese creme brulee that was topped with minced pickled rhubarb. YUM. the brulee was super rich, extremely complex in flavor, and with the perfect bruleed sugar crunch on top.
my mom is seriously already planning on what she might order when we go back, which will definitely happen in the not-too-distant future. and we might just have to take a gallon of that fennel ice cream home with us!