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I went to two locations for Whole Foods in Philadelphia centre in early September.
1. 2001 Pennsylvania Avenue, Philadelphia (A bit off in the area, kind of weird, but offers a lot of vegan stuff)
2. 929 South Street, Philadelphia (Nice street, posh neighbourhood, busy)
Do you know what I think of Philadelphia’s Whole Foods?
Fucking impressive.
It’s probably the best Whole Foods I have ever seen, a huge dream for me. They offer everything vegan in the bakery section: pies, cookies, muffins and of course a macrobiotic vegan section (which I was familiar with because I’ve seen these products in metro Boston, but this is only available off Pennsylvania Avenue). I have been to Whole Foods in Boston, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas. The worst Whole Foods I have been to was downtown Portland (Oregon), trust me, it was a bit miserable compared to Philadelphia Whole Foods.
I was also impressed that they have a vegan turkey salad including cornbread and coffee bread.
Categories: Philadelphia | Tags: vegan Miam, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo Philadelphia, vegan turkey salad, vegan Whole Foods, veganmiam, veganmiam.com, Whole Foods Philadelphia
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Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar was the last vegan stop in Philadelphia during my 8-hour trip (Following up my posts in Philadelphia, I only have 8 hours out of 15 hours to enjoy Philadelphia due to missed flight in SFO, thanks lots United) My partner ordered it and brought it with us to the airport. The vegan stop was located at the Reading Terminal Market, about few minutes walk from our hotel. The vegan philly cheesesteak sub was about $7, if you add some veggies. Pretty cheap for a vegan foot-long sub, but damn good! They have another filling for the sub which was called “tuna salad”, but it was mostly made of carrots. So I wasn’t sure if I wanted vegan tuna salad made of “carrots” but it was interesting (you can see the orange stuff in the bowl).
I had to admit after flying to San Francisco (6-hour flight from PHIL), I ate this vegan Philly cheesesteak sub from “Philadelphia” and it tasted damn good. I liked how they don’t have to rely on Daiya cheese such as Blackbird Pizzeria (the worst type of vegan restaurant I’ve been to). They have an interesting creamy cheese within the sub as well as the yummy Philly-style seitan. I wished I have another one. I would go back to Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar for their yummy Philly cheesesteak sandwich.
Mind the gross wraps. It was like that when it was wrapped plus the long flight from PHIL to SFO, made the sauces all concentrated within the sub.
Categories: Philadelphia | Tags: Alfoncie Austin, Basic 4 Vegetarian Cafe, Basic Four Vegetarian Snack Bar, famous Philly Cheese Steak, Happy Cow Philadelphia, Reading Terminal Market vegan, vegan cheesesteak, vegan Miam, Vegan Mofo, vegan Philadelphia, Vegan Philly Cheese Steak, veganmiam, veganmiam.com, VeganMofo Philadelphia
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Following up my posts in Philadelphia, I only have 8 hours out of 15 hours to enjoy Philadelphia due to missed flight in SFO (because of maintenance and excuses on the other plane). So Memphis Taproom was the third vegan restaurant I dropped by, because of their famous coconut club sandwich.
Getting there was a bloody pain the arse. What’s up with taxi drivers and their lack of use in GPS? Guess what? The taxi driver don’t even know where the fuck is Memphis Taproom or the street name “East Cumberland Street”. So we were the taxi driver’s fucking GPS guide, and the iPhone’s Google Map saved our arses. “On left, on right, 3 blocks away….”
It was a $9 taxi fare from the second vegan bar, the Abbaye.
It wasn’t that busy, around 2pm. The guy at the bar was pretty nice and asked my purpose of photography. I said I was a vegan blogger and he mentioned a few vegan dishes that would be nice to photograph.We also grabbed beers and I had Philadelphia-style Sour Flemish Ale because of my pleasure in Belgian sour ales. With the beer and all the vegan binge I had in Philadelphia, I wasn’t sure I had enough room in my stomach already.
I had these two following dishes and they tasted fabulous, probably the last favourite meals to have in my stomach in Philadelphia, and after the worst experience at Blackbird Pizzeria, Memphis Taproom has met my highest expectations. Thank you, Memphis Taproom, for making my dining experience absolutely brilliant.
1. Vegan Smoked Coconut Club (Grilled Lemon Garlic Tofu, Smoked Coconut, Tomato Herb Mayo) – $8
2. Grilled Peach (Buckwheat noodles, sesame, cucumber and cilantro) – $9
Categories: Philadelphia | Tags: Grilled Peach with buckwheat, Memphia Taproom, Memphis Taproom Smoked Coconut Club, Smoked Coconut Club, smoked coconut club Philadelphia, Smoked Coconut Club sandwich, vegan Miam, vegan Philadelphia, vegan Philadelphia restaurants, vegan smoked cococnut club, veganmiam, veganmiam.com, VeganMofo, VeganMofo Philadelphia
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Like I said in my previous post: Vegan Mofo 8, I missed a total of one day in Philadelphia due to the missed flight (thanks a lot SFO Airport), so that left me 15 hours in Philadelphia (that includes my sleeping hours). I arrived late in Philadelphia, approx 9pm, and Blackbird Pizzeria was the first vegan restaurant I went to. We walked all the way there in the awful humid weather and it was in early September. Awful.
After hearing the good parts about their “fungi pie”, that was one of the primary reasons I wanted to go to Blackbird Pizzeria. My expectations from the restaurant was high. When we came in, it wasn’t that busy. There was no line. I noticed there wasn’t any fungi pizza slices in the display that people spoke of. Nothing special. So I was a bit disappointed.
My review on BlackBird Pizzeria (Rating 2 out of 5 stars)
My partner made his order: Marinated Tofu Cubano sandwich (marinated tofu cubano: baked tofu, seitan pepperoni, pickles, caramelized onions, dijon aioli, daiya cheese). And once I was trying to figure out my order after noticing there wasn’t any fungi pizza available, this black-haired female cashier was being rude, stating the total of the meal already without even asking for my order. She repeated the price to us, like she had no patience at all. Hell, there was no fucking people in line and that lady has no manners at all! Resisting her obvious rudeness, I randomly chose a pizza slice from the glass display, and I believe it was: South Philly pizza slice (seitan sausage, broccoli rabe, fennel, eggplant, red sauce, daiya cheese).
Now I noticed this: POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. and GREASY FOOD. Eating there made me uncomfortable already. Thanks for making my first night uncomfortable in Philadelphia!
1. The pizza has way too much Daiya cheese (mozzarella). I felt like the vegan pizzeria itself focuses too much on Daiya cheese. To be quite honest, I have huge respect for Daiya Cheese and I eat it almost everyday on my usual sandwiches and breakfast, but I respect vegan restaurants more who make their own cheese, to make their foods ORIGINAL without having to rely on Daiya cheese. Hell, you can make your own mini pizzas out of English muffins with Daiya cheese! Plus, these toppings are a bit bland. No flavour at all because of the overpowering Daiya cheese.
2. The marinated Tofu Cubano sandwich was way too greasy. There was absolutely no Cubano flavour within the sandwich or the tofu itself (which was marinated with sweet sauce). But the bread was overall good. I think I liked the toasted bread more than the filling.
Categories: Philadelphia | Tags: blackbird pizzeria, Philadelphia pizzeria, vegan cuban sandwich, vegan Miam, vegan pizza, vegan pizzeria, veganmiam, veganmiam.com, VeganMofo Philadelphia
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I only stayed in Philadelphia for approx 15 hours (Sept 7th evening to Sept 8th afternoon). I missed 1 day due to missed flight in San Francisco, so it sucked. So I went on a vegan “lovely binge” for 8 hours to try nearly all the vegan restaurants in Philadelphia as much as I can.
The Abbaye was the second vegan restaurant that I stopped at and it is well known for its vegan chicken wings. The first vegan restaurant I stopped at was Blackbird Pizzeria, which was really late at night after my arrival in Philadelphia. It was worth $20 taxi fare to The Abbaye from the downtown area near Reading Terminal Market. The location of the restaurant was a bit odd, maybe in a rougher side of Philly. When we first entered the restaurant, it was a pretty dark with bar setting, but quiet still with locals enjoying their drinks.
So I had their vegan hot wings with no blue cheese or ranch dressing at the side because it’s not vegan. The service was a bit long, but understandable that it was just a vegan appetizer. The texture was soft, a bit soggy, but the flavour was definitely hot-wing style (more of a Tabasco hot sauce flavour). The price for a vegan hot wings is pretty high: $9.00 for an appetizer plate. But it’s cool to see that they can create vegan chicken wings. Beer was dandy, nice ambience and definitely a nice way to escape the disgusting Philly rain.
Categories: Philadelphia | Tags: 637 N. 3rd Street, PA 19123, Philadelphia, The Abbaye, vegan hot wings, vegan hot wings Philadelphia, vegan hot wings The Abbaye, vegan Miam, Vegan Mofo, vegan Philadelphia bar, veganmiam, veganmiam.com, VeganMofo, VeganMofo Philadelphia
