Friday, July 13, 2007
Restaurants Friday Grazing: Green Sprout and Aurora
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 9:43 PM
People often ask me if my tastes have changed over the 20-odd years I've written Grazing. I usually reply: "No, but the city's taste has gotten better."
So, it's a chicken-egg game. I know that 20 years ago, I really couldn't stomach most vegetarian food I encountered. The "fancy" stuff always seemed to be overseasoned, usually with awful Tex-Mex seasonings, or it was vaguely Asian with too much soy sauce, lots of brown rice and cubes of squishy tofu. I'm talking the final days of Earth Shoes and tie-dye.
Then, with the explosion of ethnic eateries in the city's suburbs, especially Buford Highway, we began to get some really authentic and very tasty vegetarian food, from Korean (88 Tofu House) to Indian (Madras Saravana Bhavan). We've also had some great fusion vegetarian restaurants come and go, like Lush, while a few have stuck around, like Cafe Sunflower and the kosher Broadway Cafe.
In the Midtown area, the best vegetarian food I've found is at Green Sprout (1529 Piedmont Ave., 404-874-7373). The completely inconspicuous restaurant features Chinese dishes of Buddhist inspiration, many of which feature faux seafood and meat (like Harmony on Buford Highway), but my favorites here are the more straightforward dishes under the menu's "vegetable" heading. My favorite is the bean sprouts wrapped in bean curd (pictured above). It seems like every time I order the dish, a total stranger gawks and says, "Do you eat all of that yourself?" Yes, I do. It is bean sprouts, not pork! I also like the spicy stir-fried Yukon Gold potatoes with minced garlic and pickles. Of the faux flesh, I find the shrimp best and surprisingly "accurate."
My usual server at Green Sprout is Eddy (shown at right), a chatty guy who remembers his customers by name and their favorite dishes.
Another change in the city's taste has certainly been its appetite for decent coffee. There was no good espresso in our city outside a few fancy restaurants until Aurora opened its original shop at 992 N. Highland Ave. (404-892-7158) in 1992. I stopped by today for the first time in a few weeks and was blown away, as always, by the perfect latte. It's all about the balance of bitter and sweet espresso flavors blended throughout with dense foam. I usually get a double or a triple shot in a short cup.
Aurora made me turn my back forever on drip coffee. I don't care how French-pressed the coffee is, I only want espresso now. As I wrote last month, I buy Lavazza at Whole Foods for my home brew, but when I want a perfect coffee drink made for me, I head to Aurora in Virginia-Highland or the second shop in Little Five Points (468 Moreland Ave., 404-523-6856).
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