I had a boyfriend who was vegan and I was a vegetarian for many years. It wasn't so bad!
We ate a lot of Chinese food. Every Chinese place has vegetarian options. (just make sure they don't put ground pork in dishes that are in the vegetables section of the menu). Lao Sze Chuan has lots of good vegan options, especially some of the eggplant dishes. (don't try taking a vegan for dim sum, at least not here. In other cities there are vegetarian dim sum restaurants. I wish there were some vegetarian/buddhist Chinese restaurants in Chicago like I've found in San Francisco and New York! are there any here I don't know about? ok, end of rant.)
We also ate a lot of Indian food. He wasn't particular about specifying not to use ghee but I would imagine that they could use vegetable oil instead of ghee if the food is made to order.
I really like Irazu Costa Rican restaurant on Milwaukee near Armitage. They always have a vegetarian plate of the day. If the vegetable of the day has cheese you can substitute fried yucca with garlic or some other vegetable. It comes with rice, beans, salad (usually with beets and avocados), fried plantains, and tortillas. I always find their food to be especially delicious.
Also, any good Lebanese/Middle Eastern/Persian/etc. restaurant will have a vegetarian platter or two. Usually they are vegan. You might have to ask some questions to avoid yogurt or cheese.
And, Ethiopian food is another good bet. I don't know if they use butter in cooking their vegetables, though. My vegan boyfriend was conveniently loose about those things.
In general we avoided the places that cater specifically to vegetarians and vegans like Heartland, Chicago Diner, Blind Faith. Its a matter of taste but, I'd rather have a spicy vegetable dish in Chinatown than a tofu, carrot, tamari, brown rice scramble.
good luck!
-Laura
Last edited by
comradelaura on December 22nd, 2007, 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.