Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Urban Herbivore


I was at U of T this afternoon for a panel, so I decided to go to my favourite place in the world afterwards..Kensingon Market. I didn't recognize the area where I was at U of T, but decided to just start walking randomly in the direction that felt right, not really having any clue whether I was walking in the right direction, but not really caring since I wasn't in a rush. I later turned onto College, since I knew that bordered on the Market, but still wasn't sure if I was headed in the right direction. Then I started to recognize things, and before I knew it I was there!

The first time I ever went to KM was with a bunch of friends from highschool on my birthday, and I remember we went into this cool Chinese gift store on the way there, but I haven't seen the store since. Well today I noticed it and went in, it felt cool to be back in the same place from a couple years ago. It was kind of nice go there by myself, since I could leisurely spend the day doing whatever I wanted. I bought a couple of Christmas gifts for my family, wandered through store upon store, bought a few groceries and some new kinds of tea, and had dinner at Urban Herbivore.

Urban Herbivore is one of my favourite restaurants, located on the corner of Augusta and Oxford. It is bright and clean inside, with wooden counters and stools to sit at, ferns hanging from the ceiling, and it even has a green roof. The menu is small but healthy. Salads are incredible, you chose which greens you want and then get to select six toppings. Choices are endless with both raw and cooked ingredients of all kinds. Be prepared to have the tastiest salad of your life! They always have some meal of the day (chili, rice bowl, etc.), and have several sandwiches to chose from. Even though I should try something different, I always order the BBQ tofu sandwich, because it is just so incredibly good. I'm not a huge sandwich person, but this sandwich is most definately an exception. I may not be entirely correct here, but I think the sandwich consists of bbqued tofu (of course) on a grilled herbed bun which seems to be homemade, topped with sprouts, tahini, olive spread, pesto, and spinach. The tofu has great flavour and texture, I suggest trying it even if you don't generally like tofu. They also make fresh juices and serve organic teas and fair trade coffee, and sell homade muffins, cookies and banana bread (all vegan). Resusable dishes are used for eat in, and take out containers and utensils are biodegradable. They sell soups and sauces to take home, a large container of pesto is only $3 and is delicious. My Mom bought some once and we were eating it by the spoonful and made an incredible pizza with pesto sauce. I picked up some more today, it fell out of my bag and the container smashed on the sidewalk, but I managed to carry it on the bus and subway without too much leaking out and transfered it to another container when I got home.
Just to warn you, as I mentioned the seating consists of counters and stools, which are comfortable to use as a place so sit and take a meal break or meet a friend, but I probably wouldn't go there for a birthday or formal meal to meet a bunch of people. I give Urban Herbivore five stars for taste, health, sustainability, atmosphere and style.

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