New Years Day Vegan Palooza

WOWZA, was I blessed this year. Those of you in the Boston area have probably been to or at least heard of Grasshopper Restaurant in Allston. It is labeled an Asian vegetarian restaurant, although I believe their entire menu is vegan. Well, every year on New Years Day they do a huge lunch that you have to purchase tickets to ahead of time through the Boston Vegetarian Society. The hubby scored us 2 tickets and we got to start our new year off with 8 appetizers, 2 soups, 5 main courses, and dessert. We managed to control our food intake enough to still be breathing by the time we left, but I'm not sure everyone else faired so well.

Sorry for the crappy pictures - we were seated at tables of 8 and some of the things were passed around before I got the chance to grab a shot. Also, the sunshine coming in the window made for a perfect lunch, but for some not-so-perfect photos.

Anyway, check out this spread:

First came the appetizers...

Throughout our entire meal we were only given appetizer sized plates so that we would just sample small portions of everything. I really appreciated that, but there were so many dishes that it was still a TON of food!

Our table post-appetizers, pre-meal, complete with brown rice and tea.

Hot & sour soup, spring rolls, california rolls, and deep friend lentil cakes.

Fresh ginger salad.

This is just a sampling of the appetizers. You could also have ordered WonTon soup (the hubby's choice - quite delicious), and there were additional platters of tempura and other unidentifiable things for dipping into a myriad of sauces.

Then came the "main" courses...

Bird's nest packed with veggies.

Sautéed kale topped with peppers, leeks, tofu, and sausage.

My personal favorite - Grasshopper's "No Name" platter - very similar to sesame chicken. It is deep fried gluten topped with a sweet orange glaze served atop a bed of broccoli. DELISH!

Portabella steak with asparagus and leeks. 

Sweet potato dahl atop rice noodles.

Then came the dessert...it was low key, thank goodness.

Did I mention that we stopped at FoMu for non-dairy ice cream on the way home? Ok, I love ice cream, but NOT enough to eat some after that. We grabbed some pints to go and took them home for after our food settled :) We don't get to that side of town very often, so we have to take advantage!

We popped in just in time to grab one of the last pints of Pumpkin Spice - amazing - and another of Salted Caramel - my personal favorite. Topped with a few gingersnaps, this made for the perfect afternoon treat alongside a movie :)

See? This is pure proof that being vegan is clearly not always the healthiest way to eat, but it's so rare that I get to enjoy a deep-fried treat that I was not going to pass that up. I also really appreciate that Grasshopper's menu is not focused around meat substitutes. The majority of their dishes are focused on whole, non-processed foods, making vegetables the star of the show. I'll support that any chance I get.

Onward and upward,
AvocadoAthlete