Adventures in vegetarianism

Deana Lancaster

News Reporter
deana@rsncws.com

LINDA Jackson has a
case of Crisco she wants
to get rid of.

The owner and operator of
the Green Spor Vegetarian Cafe
says her cook bought it when
the restaurant opened nine
months ago, but they've never
newded it.

“It’s still in the tridge. We
found ways around using oil,”
she says.

As well as creating menu
items without oil, the feod at
the Green Spot uses no animal
products in the preparation of
its foods — including dairy

products — and has plenty of
mneals thar are gluten-tree.

But, contrary to what many
might think, they're delicious.

Dishes like Babs Ganouch,
Hearty Grain Burger, Baked
Penne {using brown rice
penne), organic fruit juices pre-
pared on the premises and
incredible desserts like the
peach-tofu. cheesecake recently
prepared as the daily dessert
special, wil} appeal to people

with food - allergies, vegans,
vegetarians and people simply
’ secking a delicious and healthy
meal

Jac kson has even created a
Sunday brunch menu, which
offers scrambles using cither
eggs or tofu, dairy or non-dairy
pancakes and French toast.

“Actually, lots of non-veg-
ans prefer the vegan pancakes
because we use masned

. bananas,” says Jackson.

The Green Spot’s creation
came about because she saw a
need for a restaurant which

catered to people with specific
dietary requirements,

Her daughter started her
own family on the path to veg-
gie-ism more than five years

~ ago, and her other two children
soon followed.

_” “Lused to say ‘Til be a veg-

_ etarian when ii itt tastes as good as

regular food,” ” says Jackson.

But it soon became a matter

“non-vegetarian “husband often
- travelling, it became too ardu-
ous a task to prepare meat-free
” dishes for her kids, and a sepa-
rate onc for herself.
“And I didn’t want the kids
to become ‘cheesetarians’ so I
had to leam how to do it right
if they were going to do it,” she
says. (“Cheesetarianism” is a
. trap Jackson believes inany veg-
etarians fall into, especially if
they don’t like vegetables
much.)
Once she discovered where
to find the grains, organic pro-
duce and soya . products to

SUNDOWNER
opal RESTAURANT

&

from 5pm

Sat. & Sun.
noon-4pr

UNDA Jackson, owner and operator of the Green Spot
Vegetarian Cafe, shows off vegetarian rolls, peach tofu
cheesecake and chocolate couscous cake.

make different dishes, things
got casier.

“You can cook a greater
variety of meals than with meat
.. more than [ ever realized.”

She knew there was a mar-
ket for a restaurant which
served such meals — whenever
she and her children wanted to
go out to eat, their options
were limited.

But the restaurant has yet to
claim booming success.

The Green Spot is located
between Ambleside and
Oundarave, so there isn’t much
foot traffic passing by. They rely
on repeat customers or those
who have already heard about
the restaurant.

As well, when the restaurant
had its grand opening — last
November, the staff wasn’t
quite ready’ to serve the volume

of customers it attracted.
Jackson says she thinks the
bumps have all been ironed out
bur fears some of the initial cus-
tomers may nor have made a
second visit.

Her hope is that adventur-
ous diners will come and check
the Green Spot out.

“We'd rather be looked at as
something to try that’s differ-
ent, rather than only for vege-
tarians. It would be great if
people had a ‘vegetarian
tonight, Chinese tomorrow
night’ attitude.”

The Green Spot Vegetarian
Cafe, located at 2220 Marine
Dr. in West Vancouver, is open
every day except Monday for
lunch and dinner, and brunch
on Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2

p.m. There’s plenty of parking
fs the back.

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