A vegetarian's nightmare no more

By Ariel Barkhurst - Express-News

Web Posted: 05/08/2009 12:00 CDT

Tofu can stand in for the chicken in Thai Chili's Sesame Chicken. Thai restaurants usually offer a wide selection of vegetarian items. HELEN L. MONTOYA/hmontoya@express-news.net

Comments(2)

RSS

More stories

(Page 2 of 6)

"It's funny that some of my favorite places to eat are steakhouses," said Mike Behrend, owner of Green, San Antonio's only 100 percent vegetarian restaurant. "Some of them have the best side dishes, and they're really cheap. You can go to Cappy's, and for $3 get their really great truffled potatoes or saffron rice. And their asparagus, which is like $4, is great, too."

Raw Culinary Arts Classes, (210) 710-4793 — Vegetarianism is one step. Veganism, which takes dairy products, honey and eggs out of the picture, is another step. And raw food dining, or eating only uncooked foods, is yet another.

Christa Emrick is a chef offering raw food preparation classes in San Antonio. These classes teach students to prepare their own gourmet raw vegetarian foods.

If raw dining is too extreme for your tastes, start with dessert. "Desserts and smoothies are the gateway drugs to raw foods," said author and raw-food expert Kevin Gianni.

Emrick's dessert class includes preparing raw pie crusts, brownies, truffles and chocolate mousse.

For more information, go to www.cme-change.com.

Other options:

Whole Foods Market, 255 E. Basse Road, No. 130, (210) 826-4676 — Go to www.wholefoodsmarket.com for week-by-week cooking classes.

The Cove Restaurant, 606 W. Cypress, (210) 227-2683 — This restaurant with a progressive edge — it serves sustainable, organic and local burgers — offers everything from a veggie burger and a vegetarian sampler plate to falafel, a Middle Eastern specialty. Also try the hummus, or puréed chickpeas, tahini and olive oil.

Other American options: