On the Sunday of our Autumn 2006 New York trip, my Very Special Ladyfriend and I had brunch in Chinatown. A good friend of my VSL is not only a vegetarian, but is a well-known vegetarian chef on the New York vegetarian scene, or so I’m told. I’m not familiar with the New York vegetarian scene, but she seemed to know what she was talking about and is also in the planning stages of opening her own vegetarian restaurant on the Lower East side. Her husband, a reviewer of Asian cinema (among other things), didn’t seem to be starving, so I supposed I was in good hands. If I wasn’t satisfied, I could always get some dumplings from a street vendor afterwards, which I had planned to do even if I was satisfied.
We were brought to the appropriately named ‘Vegetarian Dim Sum House’ and the place was empty. Uh oh.
We ordered a few dishes:
These dumplings looked pretty good, but when I cut one open to split it with my VSL, I noticed a lack of filling.
I could already taste the street dumplings….
As the rest of our food arrived, I was relieved to notice that the dumplings were getting more substantial and the tables were filling up. I guess vegetarian dim sum lovers get a late start, and we had come early. Things were looking up.
Here are some photos of the food, which was all delicious, even if it was vegetarian:
Porridge. I don’t like porridge, but I tasted it. Actually, I shouldn’t say that I dislike porridge, because up until now I hadn’t ever eaten porridge, but this tasted slightly better than what I imagined porridge would taste like.
Here are some gluten thingies that arrived towards the end of our meal - very tasty but a little weird:
Here is some fake meat from inside a dumpling:
Pretty realistic.
All in all, a pleasant experience. I don’t know if I’d eat here again, but only because New York’s Chinatown is so big that I doubt I’d eat at any restaurant more than once. I bet this place would do well in Montreal.
After our New York Vegetarian Dim Sum experience, my VSL and I wandered around Chinatown a bit, and I noshed a bit more. Our first stop was a place on Mosco Street between Mott and Mulberry called ‘Fried dumpling‘.
‘Fried dumpling‘ sells dumplings, 5 for a buck. Here is the menu:
And here are the dumplings, in various stages of dumplingness:
I was expecting ‘Fried Dumpling’ dumplings to be anywhere from dull to normal, but these were truly great dumplings. I guess if you’re going to only make one thing, you may as well do it right. My VSL watched me eat my fried dumplings on a park bench while we watched children play basketball. It felt very New York. 
This was the best dollar I ever spent. I wish the dollar store in my neighbourhood had a little stall in the back corner that sold these. I think I’ll suggest it when I get back home.
And the money shot:
After the dumplings, we picked up a few things at a Chinese Bakery. 
We had a scallion roll, a sesame bun, and a few other odds and ends. Here is a photo of what the very first vegetarian dumpling should have had inside:
All in all, this was a great morning. I wasn’t feeling the least bit peckish after all those dumplings, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, but since we were wandering around the Lower East side, I couldn’t help having a couple of doughnuts from the doughnut plant.
My VSL thought that the dulce de leche (I think that was the name) was the best doughnut she’s ever eaten. 
I’ll easily admit that it was a good doughnut, but I don’t think my VSL has eaten enough doughnuts to quantify that sort of a statement. That would be the equivalent of me saying that the gluten thingies at ‘Vegetarian Dim Sum House were the best gluten thingies I’ve ever eaten.
On our way home, I walked into Russ & Daughters and wished I were hungry, and then strolled by Kossar’s and picked up a couple of Bialys for later on. 
I also stopped in at Moishe’s Kosher Bakery 
and got a cheese danish and some chocolate danish for the subway ride home, just in case we got hungry.
