Lunch at the Moosewood

After nearly two weeks of eating road food and the best that the South had to offer, Daphne and I thought we needed to start a bit of a cleanse. So, for our last meal on our way home, we stopped at the Moosewood, the near legendary vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca, N.Y.  Now, Ithaca wasn't directly on our path back to Ottawa, but we thought it might make a fun side trip. Daphne had never been, only heard me and others talk about making a pilgrimage to the little restaurant. It was the weekend, so the place was pretty busy and we had to wait for a couple of minutes for a table, all the while perusing the Moosewood branded merchandise, for it is no longer just a restaurant. And when you say you made it from the Moosewood cookbook, you now have to specify which Moosewood cookbook you mean as there are many.

Our meal began with the standard house salad and dressing. The salad is pretty standard, but the dressing is great. It is just a herb dressing, but it nicely balanced. A bright green. Lovely start to the meal.

Daphne had a Mexican bean and cornbread dish for her main. Bright colours, flavours. Lots of cilantro. Very good.

I had a white bean stew with vegetables. Terrific. As any regular reader will tell you, I'm not a vegetarian. I love meat, but that doesn't mean I don't love vegetables and the Moosewood knows how to cook vegetables. And for me, that means not overcooking them. Even though it was a stew-type dish the vegetables were still slightly al dente with a bit of bite to them. Very good.

To drink I had root beer and Daphne had ginger beer from the Ithaca Soda Co. The Ithaca Soda Co. drinks were something that I remembered from my past trips to Ithaca. I love really good root beer and it just isn't all that common. If you're in the Ithaca region I would highly recommend picking some up.

For dessert we split an order of their tiramisu. Instead of the chocolate and coffee flavours, this was made with berries and lemon. Fantastic.

Moosewood Restaurant. 215 N. Cayuga St. Ithaca, N.Y. 607-273-9610.