Vegetarian Heaven

I have thought many times about what kind of restaurant I would open if I had the chance - a small neighborhood cafe serving only a few options, which changed daily, plus a couple of freshly baked cakes for dessert.  When I walked into Dynamic Dish, my dream restaurant was realized but the food turned out to be even better than I had imagined.
I met a good friend for lunch there so I got to try several dishes.  Between us, we had the white corn soup, oyster mushrooms and collards, plus a almond-scallion cream cheese sandwich.  The best thing I tried were the oyster mushrooms which tasted of caramelized tamari and garlic.  The accompanying collards were steamed and bright green instead of dark, green mush that is usually served most other places.  The sandwich was a close second.  The delicious almond-scallion cream cheese (I will be trying this at home) was topped with sliced bosc pear, basil, and fresh cranberry sauce.  There were bits of crunch from the almonds and sweetness from the pear - very tasty!  The white corn soup had bits of potato and was topped with pumpkin seeds and chives.  It was very complex and I had a hard time identifying the flavors (some sort of curry blend?) but this was not a typical, sweet, corn soup.  It tasted good but there were a bit too many pumpkin seeds getting in the way of everything else.
Dyanmic Dish is not located on the best of streets but at lunch time safety was not a concern.  Some people have issues with the portion sizes and prices.  The portion sizes are small to medium and the prices are that of a mid-priced restaurant - the soup was $6, veggie plate was $8 and the sandwich was $10.  You'll probably spend $15 to $20 on lunch but you are paying for pristine vegetables and very creative cooking.  I think of Dynamic Dish as 'gourmet vegetarian' and I am happy to splurge for an exciting meal on occasion.

Breakfast For Dinner

I usually don't go out for breakfast, unless I am traveling, because I like simple breakfasts and rarely feel like I get my money's worth (two eggs cost how much?).  I heard that West Egg Cafe on the West Side serves breakfast all day and decided to give it a try for an early dinner.  West Egg also has a lunch and dinner menu but the breakfast offerings sounded better.  I went with the Black Bean Cakes and Eggs - fried eggs served over two black bean patties, topped with chipotle salsa and sour cream, all accompanied by pan-fried potatoes.  Service was a little slow the night I was there so I was fairly famished by the time I received my meal.  I unearthed a black bean cake and took a bite.  It was heavily spiced with cumin but when combined with some egg and salsa, the spice was tempered.  The smoky chipotle salsa added flavor but not heat and the small dollop of sour cream was just enough to add a bit of richness to the dish.  The potatoes were nicely crisped with some red onions and properly seasoned.  The portion did not seem huge but I was quite full by the time I was done.  I wasn't expecting a great dinner but I was pleasantly surprised - and at $7.50, it was much cheaper than most dinners out.  West Egg has a great modern industrial space that fits in with the West Side aesthetic and seems like a fun place to stop off for a coffee and a snack even if you're not up for breakfast all day. 

Southern Farm to Table

Farmstead 303, a Southern-style restaurant, recently opened in the Old Decatur Train Depot space.  It embraces the 'Farm to Table' concept that is now trendy among restaurants.  I am a proponent of eating locally and was excited to eat at Farmstead even though Southern food is not historically vegetarian friendly.  However, this is 2010 and in Decatur so I figured I'd be okay.  I went to dinner there on a Tuesday night.  The decor was modern country (lots of dark wood and wrought iron) and there were lots of young families dining.  True to it's Southern-style, a lot of the appetizers were fried (blue cheese grits, onion rings and cauliflower) and most people around me were having fried chicken as their main dish.  There were two vegetarian options for the main course, a mushroom spinach stroganoff and the vegetable plate.  The stroganoff didn't appeal to me so I went with the vegetable plate.  I find the vegetable plate, when offered at restaurants, to be a lazy solution to appease vegetarians.  This isn't a well-conceived dish but a cobbled together plate of sides - what you end up with at Thanksgiving when you're the only vegetarian present.  Despite my misgivings, I wanted to see if the local vegetables would shine enough to alter my opinion.  There was certainly a variety - sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, squash casserole, turnip greens and collard greens all on one plate.  The turnip greens turned out to be the best testing vegetable - fresh and mildly bitter.  Everything else was a bit off.  I was looking forward to trying the squash casserole but it was under-seasoned and flat.  The peas also needed a bit more seasoning and the sweet potatoes were leaning toward dessert in terms of sweetness.  I felt good about eating so many veggies but I was not full and ate a couple of bites of my son's mac'n'cheese, which tasted so-so.
I really want restaurants who support local farmers to do well but Farmstead needs to improve some of its basics.  The cornbread offered at the table was dry and tasted more of egg than of corn.  There was only one soup offered and it wasn't vegetarian.  When it's cold, I like soup - or a bean stew of some sort would be nice.  Local vegetables are fabulous on their own but a chef should be able to add some creativity to make a proper main course.  I know I didn't try the stroganoff, so maybe I missed the good stuff.