Conscious Choice Seattle: Vegetarian Champion

July 2004 | Local Food

Vegetarian Champion

Madison Park’s Café Flora goes pan to pan with any gourmet restaurant in town

by Andrew Mulholland

Vegetarians tend to be a self-assured lot, at least when it comes to what foods they won’t eat. Vegans can be even more sure-minded about their dietary choices.

But veg-heads’ confidence can be a bit shaky when trying to show off their preferred cuisine to non-veg friends. A rice-and-beans burrito or macrobiotic plate only goes so far with friends who crave a steak or a piece of wild salmon.

Happily, Seattle and the Puget Sound area offer lots of vegetarian options for serious and casual non-meat eaters alike. Café Flora in the Madison Park neighborhood tops that list — and goes one better by standing pan to pan with any gourmet restaurant in town.

Its dishes are inventive and delicious. You feel like the Wellington preparation? Café Flora does it with portobello mushrooms, leeks and mushroom-pecan pâté in puff pastry with Madeira wine sauce ($17 as a dinner entree).

Rather go with something creative and locally grown? Try the delightful spring garden pea salad, which combines sugar peas, pea shoots, snap peas, radishes and cherry tomatoes properly, but not overly, bathed in buttermilk-dill dressing and white balsamic orange vinaigrette ($9.50 for lunch or dinner). I thought I was in the distinct minority as a diner who likes to mix more than one salad dressing. The crunchy vegetables were nicely matched with the creaminess of the buttermilk and sweet tang of the vinaigrette.

The pea salad was a special the week I dined at Café Flora. The menu rotates regularly to take advantage of produce in season. You can get a weekly menu update at www.cafeflora.com.

Café Flora serves a memorable Sunday brunch, which is how I first experienced this restaurant years ago. My dining companion and I sat admiring all the greenery surrounding the restaurant and sipped on perfectly hot, smooth-tasting coffee. It just felt like a place for return visits, even before the food arrived. Some suggestions on the impressive and varied brunch menu: Hoppin’ John Fritters (black-eyed pea cakes, $9.50); morel scramble (sumptuous mushrooms with eggs, $11; for a dollar more, you can get scrambled tofu instead); cheesy grits (with various dishes or as a $2.25 side to share), strawberry teabread (with some dishes or nice idea as a $2 starter) and New Orleans-style beignets (three for $4, five for $6, served with the customary powdered sugar and the twist here, offerings of blueberry coulis and saffron-cinnamon crème anglaise).

An early 2004 lunch trip to Café Flora was part business and part catch-up with an acquaintance. We took a good-sized table in a light-filled atrium on an overcast day. One companion ordered the coconut tofu, starting with a Caesar salad. It was a big “make your own lettuce wrap” plate, and she was willing (bless her) to share the lightly but flavorfully breaded coconut-marinated tofu with accompaniments of basil leaves, cilantro and the house sweet chili sauce with tamarind and chipotle (available currently as a starter, $7.75, for lunch or dinner).

Being a journalist who seeks out the public’s common denominators, I opted for the Oaxaca Tacos ($15), which reportedly are the most ordered dish day in and day out. It is easy to discover why. The first bites had me praising the tastes and looking to get the menu back to figure out the delicious blend of ingredients, which include — ready for this? — a roasted corn tortilla with mashed potatoes, cheddar and smoky mozzarella cheeses with lime crème fraîche, feta cheese, black bean stew, pico de gallo and wilted lettuce. I offered to share a taco but my companion (bless her again) encouraged me to finish the whole plate.

I can rarely resist a Caesar salad ($6.50 or $8.25 large) and ordered Café Flora’s version on the strength of its inclusion of fried capers and optional crumbled Gorgonzola. Doubly delicious. Again, I thought I was the only diner out there who has ever wondered if the kitchen might just find a little smidge of Gorgonzola for my Caesar. Café Flora answers the question before I even ask.

Take your meat-and-potatoes friends here if the situation dictates. They will be impressed. But especially don’t forget to introduce the like-minded vegetarians or fish/chicken-eaters in your life, whether locals or visitors. They will be both impressed and grateful.

Café Flora, 2901 E. Madison St., Seattle, 206-325-9100

Hours: Lunch Tues. to Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (light afternoon menu served 2:30 to 5 p.m.); Dinner Tues. to Sat. 5 to 10 p.m. and Sun. 5 to 9 p.m.; Brunch Sat. and Sun. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Service: Friendly, professional; Noise: Conversation-ready. Cards: MC, V, local checks.

Andrew Mulholland is a regular contributor to Evergreen Monthly.

HEALTHY TO GO

Belgian fries for the small fry in all of us

SITUATION: Spent the day with a few well-behaved small frys at the zoo who deserved a treat-namely French fries (make that Belgian fries).

SOLUTION: A trip to Capitol Hill to Frites (925 E. Pike St.). It’s a small counter operation, mainly equipped with fryers, that serves up delicious Belgian-fried potatoes. That’s it. These frites are served wrapped in white paper, coming in three sizes: small, medium and grande ($2.50, $4.00, $5.50).

A multitude of sauces is available, from standard ketchup to curry ketchup, plus barbecue sauce and various mayos. I’m not a mayo person, especially with my fries, so I stuck with the ketchup-based sauces. That suited the small frys just fine too.

We each had our own small bag, which was plenty. But if you are extra hungry, there are always the larger sizes. I’ve mentioned before that fries represent a splurge food for me. When I do eat them, it seems they should be worth it. Frites is worth the trip and the nutritional digression.

There are a few tables in the place, but this is the perfect street or walking-around food. Grab a bag and stroll around the neighborhood. Even the most health-conscious eater needs a little decadence once in a while, don’t you think?

At this time, the owners don’t have plans for any additions to the menu other than more sauce choices. Why mess around with success? Soft drinks are available.

— Nora West

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