Nicola’s Veggies is this tiny door in the wall veggie restaurant located on 110 2nd St. NW (the north side of 2nd street on the Downtown Mall).  When I say “door in the wall”, I literally mean it.  Nicola’s interior space must not occupy more than 35 square feet.  You order through a screen window next to the door, and someone inside, most likely a nice woman named Kimberly will scramble away making your lunch a hopefully green experience.  And she really does scramble, but it must be ridiculously hard working in that tiny space, so if it takes 5 min to build you a great salad, please don’t give her any crap.

Their size does not detract from the food quality.It is owned by the same owners as Marco and Luca.  I have had the exquisite pleasure of ordering lunch from them since they opened, and every time its delicious.  Now I have to warn you, if you don’t like vegetables, like really hate them, then you might not like this.  Nicola’s offers you a veggie overload.

WTF is Raw Food?

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Popularity: 20% [?]

There has been a lot of talk on cVillain related to the local/slow/organic food movement. Gobbler wrote a post on the economics behind sustaining a 100% organic diet, thanks to his wife’s new infatuation with the hit-book “Skinny Bitch”. Vanillavy submitted himself to days upon days of a 100% vegetarian diet and prepared a local vegetarian food guide.

So the Charlottesville City Farmers Market is one way to participate in this scene, but there are many other places to embrace this spirit all over town. Courtesy of the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Buy Fresh Buy Local guide, here is the directory to end all directories for the local food scene:

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Popularity: 45% [?]

So I embarked on an odyssey last week (does that sound too serious?), to find out about cville’s vegetarian offerings. Given some of the comments on the posts related to this, let me clarify what that means. I was not looking for vegetarian ONLY restaurants, just places that, lets says you took a date to that happened to be vegetarian, he/she would be quite happy. So all of you hippies take a hike, this is not the post for you.

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Popularity: 61% [?]

Dependable Zo.Ca.Lo…what do you have to offer to those meat weary folks? Apparently just one dish, an amazing dish I have never had before in my life. The lone vegetarian warrior on the entrees menu is the “Black Bean and Corn Relleno”. I really didn’t know what to expect, I just read the description: smoked tomato grits, smoked pico, cilantro buttermilk honey”, figured it was cool to eat and ordered. I should warn you, this isn’t some “I am on a diet so I am trying out vegetarian food” type of dish. This thing definitely has healthy quantities of butter and cream…perhaps French cuisine had an affair with a Mexican damsel from the south and many years later Mr. Frenchie comes back to town to find out he has a lost daughter…this is his little chalupita.

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Popularity: 39% [?]

If you are looking for the vegetarian deal of the century, then Eppie’s on the downtown mall is the place to be. Their menu offering is pretty meat heavy except for the side’s section, which allows you the choice of a veggie only platter in 3 or 4 choice combos with a generous piece of corn bread.

I opted for mac n’ cheese, collard greens and coleslaw. For around 6 bucks I received an impressive amount of food that I couldn’t even finish. Everything on the plate was good quality. Not to say there isn’t any room for improvement like making the collard greens in a more modern manner or using a different cheese on the mac n’cheese, but the value per vegetable was really good. They had a wide variety of sides on the menu which I will definitely go back for. For a southern food lunch, it was light and left me happy…happy to know even with western fare this vegetarian craze can be satiated!

I also noted one of the kitchen staff came outside to offer a bowl of water for one of the customers that had their dog with them. I found that to be a terrific gesture. Talk about southern hospitality!

Images most graciously linked from Flikr

Popularity: 33% [?]

I know, a brewery? I would think the same thing…but I go where the wind takes me this week, and everyone seemed to finish the work day at South Street’s famous Tuesday evenings, full of cheap excellent beer and worthy grub. This review will be short and snappy.

I feared South Street would break my vegetarian streak of the week (and it was only Tuesday), but the words “portobello ravioli” called my name from the menu. I didn’t even bother reading the description assuming there was nothing in this meat related. Yes, I was right. The ravioli were giant round circles cooked perfectly and filled with sautéed portobello…they were dam good. The sauce was a crème based cheese sauce topped with parmesan cheese. This dish alone made the evening a success.

I couldn’t find anything else on the menu that appealed to my inner veggie except for the veggie optioned nachos. Did I miss something else on the menu worth noshing on?

Ravioli pic on Flikr

Popularity: 30% [?]

I had the pleasure of attending yesterday’s UVa student presentation on the Charlottesville Glocal Food System. I know, Vanillavy is handling all of the “green” stuff this week, but a flyer for the event caught my eye and I thought it would be a great break from the office. This is (what appears to be) a yearly event for a class at UVA focused on the local food economy/eco system. The class, consisting of both graduate and undergraduate sutdents, is titled “Healthy Communities, Healthy Food Systems (Part III): Global-Local Connections”. Now that is a mouthful. The following presentations were made:

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Popularity: 36% [?]

Day 2, the fight to eat vegetables continues. I feel a bit lighter and have a little more energy, but also feel a little gassy (I know, gross). Yet, the challenge goes on, and yesterday I found myself at the hippie strip mall on Preston Avenue. I mean hippie with the best of intentions. There is a yoga studio, The New Body Mind Spirit, where I had the pleasure of speaking with a hippie instructor. Apparently if you are part of the elderly or pregnant population in cville, this is the yoga studio for you. They focus more on the “intention” than the movement like a traditional vinyasa. Next door to the yoga studio is Blue Ridge Eco Shop. This is basically a store that has more green than your stomach/wallet/house can handle. They have everything from clothes to lights to cleaning products, very cool.

And then in the corner a couple feet away is Café 88. What is it with Asian restaurants and double digit numbers anyways? The previous founder/owner of cville’s vegetarian haunt Ming Dynasty, Li Chen, started a new Taiwanese café. The place is teeny tiny like a little baby, and the menu is even smaller. While some might balk at that, there is something refreshing about having limited options…there are so many restaurants out there that give the consumer so much choice, it’s a task in itself to order.

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Popularity: 31% [?]

Inspired by reading Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” as well as previous posts about the lack of vegetarian offerings in cville, I wanted to look deeper into Charlottesville’s vegetarian friendly scene. I know, Pollan’s book focuses more on “local” and “slow” food, but I have to start somewhere. This post is thus part of a multi-series journey into all things vegetarian in Charlottesville. The next couple of days will be spent only eating veggie fare in Charlottesville. Meat haters rejoice.

Despite the dreary weather, we can always rely on comfort food. And what better way to remind yourself of your American upbringing than a dinner in the city’s only Tibetan Slash Nepalese Slash Indian restaurant? I know, the logic is shocking. But the weather does inspire you to try something new, and I am very glad we did.

The downtown mall was totally dead last night…and then we came across Himalayan Fusion and the place is packed (as much as it can be on a Monday night in cville).

And as you walk in…

• Décor (check)
• Ambient lighting (check)
• Full bar (check)
• Open check (double check)
• Theme music (check)

It seemed to have all the puzzle pieces a solid restaurant has to offer, but what of the food? We decided to start with an appetizer, or how about three?

Chat Papry: Chickpeas, potatoes, and crispy wafers tossed in a tamarind dressing and finished off with a a wonderfully plated yogurt sauce. This dish is served cold and could be compared to an Indian salsa. It was dam good. The menu says crispy wafers, but they really looked like fried wonton wrappers…still good though! This dish is definitely worth a try to the shy diners…it shouldn’t dissapoint.

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Popularity: 33% [?]

You’ve heard of Earth Day, now there’s “Earth Hour“… This just in from “Plenty” magazine:

Q: I’ve been hearing about a lights-out thing happening tomorrow, called Earth Hour. It seems like a vague concept—what is it, exactly, and will it really accomplish anything? - Mandy, DE

A: Earth Hour is a global, voluntary, lights-out event taking place March 29 from 8-9pm. The idea is to take some time to think about how we use energy, and, of course, to actually save energy. Earth Hour kicked off last year in Sydney, Australia, and the 2.2 million people who turned their lights off saved as much energy as if 48,000 cars had been taken off the roads for an hour. Now raise that number to the N^th degree, because this year, Earth Hour is a global event. Roughly 30 million people in cities large and small, from Dublin to Copenhagen to Tel Aviv to Toronto have said they’ll flick the switch for mama Earth. Earth Hour has even got its own burning cocktail. Check the official site for more details.

Okay, you say—if it’s happening in cities all over the world this year, what about differing time zones? Don’t worry about them. Just turn the lights off from 8-9pm, your local time. And as for how to spend an entire hour of darkness, why not invite friends over for a candle-lit party, read by candlelight, camp out in your backyard, or just relax and have some time entirely to yourself?

For a bit of Earth Hour history, an interview with supporter Cate Blanchette, and adorable words of wisdom from children, check out the Earth Hour video.

Oh, BTW, I am Morgan… Morgan, I am. Just another lurker who has been enjoying cVillain from the sidelines, and thought it was time to chime in. Howdy.

Popularity: 19% [?]