business and pleasure - rochester, new york

You know how when you move away from someplace and then go back years later, nothing seems to have stayed the same? Well, I'm happy to report that wasn't the case in Rochester, N.Y., which I revisited this week on a business trip.

Sure, some things have changed. My favourite downtown bagel shop is now a money-changing hole, and the publishing company where I used to work now has a different name. But the changes at my favourite Wegmans location are all for the better.

Now, if you don't know Wegmans, you're in sore luck. And you should find one post haste. Wegmans is a Northeast institution, based in Rochester, and from the outside you might think it's just a grocery store chain. But how wrong you would be. Wegmans is an experience -- you can find everything you need for any occasion there, and even their store brands are high-quality. Few other grocery stores can compete; only Whole Foods, which I love, comes close, and it's more expensive.

So Wegmans is the place to shop for food in Rochester, and the Monroe Ave location is the one to hit if you want a nice meal whilst you shop. I was thrilled to see that the hot bar/prepared food section had only grown in my absence, and even more thrilled to find that it now includes a pair of vegetarian bars with all manner of delights, from tantalising Indian curries to cool cucumber slices, from fresh fruit to chopped salads to Asian dishes. All clearly marked, too, with "vegan" or "vegetarian" and a full listing of ingredients. My coworker and I stopped in for lunch on our first day, and I enjoyed a spicy helping of aloo gobi with brown rice and some berries for dessert.

Monday night, we were faced with where to go for dinner -- and we had the age-old problem of one rental car for two people, one vegan and one omni. But as fortune would have it, my favourite spot from my Roc days was still there and thriving: Mamasan's, also on Monroe Ave (they do meat dishes but are very veg-friendly). The meal we ate that night was so good that we got the same dishes again on Wednesday. Mine was a hearty portion of steamed veggies and tofu with a light but rib-sticking peanut sauce, served over rice. The second time I requested some hot sauce to add a little kick, but it was perfect with and without the spice.

For quick downtown lunches, we hit up Hot Rosita's, a Mexican place where I grabbed tasty, highly filling veggie burritos with pinto beans, cilantro-lime rice, guac and pico de gallo.

It's sometimes unfortunate that I travel so much for work, because although I love trying new vegan options in new or old places, I tend to come back home a little heavier -- the jeans I'm wearing today are protesting the bigger-than-usual lunches in particular. But it was worth it, even if it's a change I could have lived without.

Rochester, NY
Best Bets:
* Wegmans: Grocery store with hot and salad bars. Various locations, but the best is at 3195 Monroe Ave, Pittsford, NY. Web: http://www.wegmans.com/
* Mamasan's: Vegan-friendly restaurant. 2800 Monroe Ave, Rochester, NY. Web: http://mamasans.com/
* Hot Rosita's: Mexican fast-food joint with vegan options. 17 E Main St, Rochester, NY. Web: http://hotrositas.com/

[Laur]

Image: Peanut Rice Dish at Mamasan's; taken by me in May 2011.

it's only natural - middletown, connecticut

Sometimes you find the most wonderful places just because you happen to be nearby.

That's how my wife and I found It's Only Natural (ION), a vegan/vegetarian restaurant in Middletown, Conn. I travel a lot for work, so one weekend earlier this year when she was dropping me off at a hotel near Bradley International Airport to await my 3 a.m. wake-up call, we decided to find a nice vegetarian restaurant somewhere in the vicinity. As always, we scoured Happycow and Google, and we came up with a short list of options. But although we appreciate it when omni restaurants present vegan options and even vegan menus, we do prefer to support wholly veg establishments. And after trolling the online menus we could find, we just had to go with It's Only Natural, even though it was more than a half-hour's drive from the hotel.

I mean, just look at their menu. Here's a taste:
Bullet-point descriptions below are from the ION menu.

APPETISERS
* Bread & Spread: fresh baked whole wheat bread & organic carrot-miso spread
* Chili: spicy vegetables & beans, tortilla chips, tofu sour cream, salsa & scallions
* Vegetable Dumplings: served with a tamari, ginger & garlic sauce

ENTRÉES
* Tempeh ‘Crab’ Cakes: with caesar dressing, sautéed garlic greens & sweet potato fries
* Pierogis: potato spinach dumplings with apple butter, caramelized onions, brown rice garlic greens & tofu sour cream
* Macrobiotic Plate: organic brown rice, legumes, sea & other vegetables & cucumber pickle
* Cajun Tempeh: with roasted red pepper sauce, caramelized onions, brown rice & garlic greens (also a sandwich with soy mayo, carrots, red onion, roasted red peppers & lettuce)

Hands down, their best appetiser is the Southern fried tofu, each breaded and deep-fried bite of which is a tender and crispy, savoury, spicy, satisfying complement to their tangy, garlicky caesar dip. Bring someone to share your meal, because the heap of tofu they serve with this could fill you up on its own. But of course you want room for a hearty entrée as well, and dessert.

Oh, dessert. They offer a wide variety of vegan desserts as well, and I never can resist -- even though I'm always so full after the meal that the idea of another forkful is torturous.

I take figure skating lessons at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, and I happened to have won a free drink in one of ION's Facebook contests, so we dropped in for dinner after my lesson last weekend.

For my free drink, I decided to try the Lemon Drop, a freshly pressed carrot juice with loads of lemon and ginger. Then we started with the Southern fried tofu, of course, stuffing ourselves before we even got to the next course. ION's salads are generous, and we got the caesar, which comes with breaded, fried tempeh and perfectly crunchy croutons. Then we split a piece of chocolate velvet cake. The cake and frosting were the kind that could fool nonvegans, and the presentation included a drizzle of a tangy dipping sauce made from apples. With a chocolate cake, I would expect raspberry or strawberry or even orange in the sauce, but the apple was refreshing and even exotic.

Middletown is an eclectic-looking little town, kind of in the middle of nowhere, but trust me -- ION is more than worth the drive. So go ahead -- find yourself nearby soon.

Middletown, CT
Best Bet:
* It's Only Natural: Vegan and vegetarian restaurant. 386 Main St, Middletown, CT.
Web: http://www.ionrestaurant.com/

[Laur]

Image: Southern-fried tofu at It's Only Natural; taken by me in April 2011.