Restaurant right around town: Wondermeat out of Chinaland by FerrisAs you walk in, notice the various references to “vegan” foods, such as the gumball machine, the toothpicks, the baby behind the counter, and nearly everything on the menu. The non-vegan foods are clearly marked; the m&m’s dispenser says, “Not vegan, but still good!”
Harmony is a different kind of Chinese restaurant. They have the fortune cookies, the six dollar dishes, the traditional flavors of American-Chinese food, but they don’t sell any meat. One might have trouble imagining Mongolian beef without the beef, but the restaurant offers a unique alternative.
Instead of serving only traditionally vegetarian dishes, Harmony simply replaces the meat in most recognizable Chinese dishes with imitation meat. The imitation meat is not tofu, but an actual substance that appears and feels like the meat being replaced.
The Mongolian beef was amazing, the imitation beef tasting better than Black Angus. The orange chicken was also very tasty, the breaded imitation chicken exceptionally better than rather bland bird. The sauces and vegetables, as well as the steamed rice, were also of superb quality, reminiscent of Golden Buddha or New China Town.
It is a great place for pseudo- vegetarians like myself, people who haven’t really mastered the lifestyle that comes so easy to some and seems almost sinful to others -- the diet without any meat. But if worry about tortured animals, concerns for health, or just the basic compassion for animals leads you to seek an alternative diet, Harmony will soon be a quick favorite.
Harmony, offering a unique escape from traditional meat dishes at a reasonable price, definitely deserves a monthly visit, if not weekly.
