Being vegetarian on a budget, Part 1

Now that I'm living in New York where the cost of living is higher, I'm wondering how someone with no/low income can stick to the healthy vegan/vegetarian lifestyle (read: not just consuming bags of cookies to stay full). I'd like to save my pennies until I find a job up here, but I also want to try the numerous options of vegan/vegetarian fast and slow food New York has to offer. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to check out all the vegan/vegetarian hot spots in Brooklyn and NYC and see how well I do in replicating the tastiest of them in my own kitchen. (More to come on this later). But until I have my own kitchen, I’m going to relive the positive vegan experiences I’ve had thus far in my first three weeks of living here.

Drool Memory #1
I made a risky decision to come up to New York with no job and no apartment—but I figured it'd be easier to secure the two once up here. So for my first week here, I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn Heights. Before coming up, I had read about Vegetarian Ginger and made excited preparations to visit even before I knew how I was going to transport my stuff from D.C.

Stopping in one evening for dinner with the friend I was staying with, I was not disappointed. I ordered the Pineapple Soy Protein with brown rice. I’m not usually a fan of brown rice but it was cooked in a manner where the deliciousness overpowered the “nutritious” (read: what I normally find dry) taste. The pineapple (and mango) soy protein portion was pretty tasty—a nice combination of fruity and salty. The prices weren’t bad either. About $10-12 for a good portion-size entrée.

The presentation of my dish was lovely. I certainly did not expect it to actually come out in a half-pineapple casing.

While I enjoyed the experience of eating out of a pineapple, I found this dish a little too fancy for the everyday fake-meat craving. What made me go back for seconds was actually my friend’s dish—the General Tso’s Soy Protein. After tasting just one of her “medallions” of soy chick’n, I went back the next night to get my own. The next time I’m in the area, I fully intend to visit again and check out the rest of the menu—that is if I can resist the urge to go back for more General Tso’s…