New Vegan Spot Has Jamaican Accent

[Guest guest]

This room was a garage. Now it's a kitchen. The " chicken " is ready. Where's all

the grease?

 

At dinner hour at Elaine's Healthy Choice, the grease couldn't be found.

 

Three months after the vegan take-out restaurant opened at 117 Whalley Ave.,

replacing the Good News Garage, the walls inside the bright kitchen seemed as

clean as the day they were painted. The floors were spotless. The air, too, was

clean.

 

Elaine Bernard was cooking cabbage. Not only didn't she use oil; she didn't

bother adding water to the pan. She counts on the water expressed by the cabbage

to provide the steam.

 

She and her husband Richard had just finished preparing barbecued vegetarian

faux-chicken for a customer. No oil there, either. Fried oil is bad for you,

Richard said. And their restaurant is all about what's good for you.

 

The Bernards are vegans. That means they don't eat any food containing animal

products, including eggs or dairy. They've been vegans since coming here 15

years ago from Jamaica.

 

For them, veganism is about health. So on top of the animal products

prohibition, they avoid frying — and even avoid dark chocolate.

 

Click on the play arrow to the video above to watch them in the kitchen as they

prepare cabbage, discuss Richard's road to veganism, and explain why they serve

carob instead of chocolate brownies.

 

Their restaurant brings the number of vegetarian restaurants in New Haven to

four. The others are Ahimsa, an Indian vegan restaurant; and Claire's

Cornercopia and Edge of the Woods, which include many vegan dishes among their

vegetarian items.

 

All four offer different menus, from different traditions. The Bernards cook

with the accent of their native Jamaica, including a milder curry dominated by

turmeric. Besides the soy-based meat substitutes, they serve split pea soup,

curried lentil, " macaroni and cheese, " and " vege fish. "

 

Because the Bernards are Seventh Day Adventists, the restaurant is closed for

the Sabbath, from Friday mid-afternoon through Sunday morning.

 

Richard left an accounting job to open the spot with Elaine, who was home with

their three children. The younger two keep them company in the kitchen at the

dinner hour.

 

Hard economic times didn't daunt them.

 

" Even in a recession, " Richard said, " people can still eat wisely and healthy at

the same time. "

 

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/04/new_vegan_spot.php