I”™m as keen to reduce my meat consumption and improve my diet as the next mung sprout-chomping new-ager, but I can”™t help thinking there”™s an element of Emperor”™s New Clothes to our current obsession with plant-based cooking. Let”™s face it: It”™s been a slippery slope. From avocados in the 1970s to tofu, quinoa and soybeans going mainstream in the 1990s; from pumpkin flowers, brassicas and kelp in the noughties and 2010s to this year”™s faves ”“ finger millet, teff and khorosan wheat ”“ we can surely be forgiven for wondering what the future may hold. (Tree bark, cacti and the front lawn is my guess.)
Put it this way: Some 20 years ago, you”™d have been laughed out of Le Cirque at New York”™s Helmsley Palace Hotel if you”™d announced yourself as vegetarian, let alone vegan, but today its offspring, Le Cirque Las Vegas, proudly offers an eight-course vegetarian tasting menu and it”™s not exactly a snip of trendy Siberian chive at $388 per person, plus tax and service.
Thinking about a less wallet-busting option, I”™d heard good things about Green & Tonic, though never visited any of its Westchester and Fairfield plant-based eateries. Established in Darien in 2012 but now with outlets in Cos Cob, New Canaan, Westport, Chappaqua and Rye Brook ”“ with a further franchise at Stamford”™s Harbor Point slated to open over the coming months ”“ this popular local chain claims that its food is not only healthy but “crave-able.” What”™s more, says the blurb, it “will nourish mind, body and soul.”
Time to test the waters. At the Rye Brook establishment ”“ which is the only one without indoor seating, although there are some tables and chairs and picnic-style seating outside ”“ I found a full complement of hot and cold beverages, smoothies, breakfast acai bowls, salads, wraps and soups, all made from organic raw ingredients. What”™s more, the packaging ”“ the drinks display especially, with its cheery yellows, reds, deep blues and oranges ”“ was arresting, tempting me to buy more than I intended.
But issues quickly arose. While I”™m no purist, labeling an assembly of rice noodles, kale, cabbage, red pepper, carrot, edamame, scallion, almond butter, sesame oil, tamari, ginger and sriracha as a “pad Thai salad,” when an authentic pad Thai comprises no more than rice noodles, peanuts, sesame oil and bean sprouts, struck me as over-egging the custard. None of which would have mattered had this very “busy” salad tasted good, but it didn”™t. It was bland, undressed and crying out for salt.
Adding a slightly farcical element, when I returned to the shop to ask for salt, the unsmiling manager told me there was none but suggested a dollop of Caesar dressing instead. That, I think, would have been a mixed salad metaphor too far.
Instead I tried a “Fuel-Up” falafel salad, this one comprising no fewer than 23 separate ingredients. While it may have provided fuel, it offered no kind of kick, its kaleidoscope of pulses, vegetables and seeds being indistinguishable one from the other, all lacking any “bite” or contrast in texture. I felt this salad could have been twice as delicious with half the ingredients, had they been well deployed. Less is more, right?
The most successful mid-day snack I sampled was a small tub called “Kelp Me Out” ”“ kelp noodles, watermelon radish, snow peas, almonds, sesame oil and dates, among the many ingredients in a light salad that at least warbled even if it didn”™t quite sing.
You”™ll fare better with drinks, I reckon ”“ a thick Mango-Tango smoothie with coconut milk, orange juice, mango and banana, for instance; or a Berry Garcia, with coconut water, acai, strawberry, blueberry and banana, although both had a slightly chalky texture. Then again, a customer sitting at right-angles to me around the picnic table raved about her green energy bowl (which included kale, spinach, banana and avocado) and her Sweety Beety (a cold-pressed apple, ginger, orange, lemon and kale juice). One man”™s moringa is another woman”™s psyllium husk, I guess.
Green & Tonic also sells what it calls Meal Plans and Cleanses, each comprising eight drinks to be sipped hourly or bi-hourly throughout the day and designed to “reboot your system” or “make you flourish.” They can be ordered online for in-store pick-up or delivery. If it works ”“ and far be it from me to say it doesn”™t ”“ better health is always an appealing proposition and the business plan, catching the zeitgeist as it does, seems sound.
Just remember to add salt to taste.
For more, visit greenandtonic.com.
