Everest Café’s weekday downtown lunch buffet is a vegetarian’s version of a Thanksgiving feast – but even better because you won’t have to wait for the fourth Thursday in November. It also won’t leave you in a tryptophan coma. Everest’s buffet is a guilt-free Nepalese, Indian and Korean feast made with fresh ingredients and the intention of promoting healthy living.
While this buffet can appear overwhelming with so many great meatless eats in one place, here’s a sampling of a few must-save-room-for items.
The Vegetable Korma, a thick Indian coconut curry, is sweetened by tomatoes and seasoned with a heavy hand of turmeric, which provides its golden hue. The sauce itself has subtle depth of flavor thanks to key ingredients like chili and ginger. Stewed onions, cauliflower and zucchini immersed in the curry are the perfect sponge to transfer all this goodness to your mouth.
The Chap Chae is a Korean dish of sweet potato noodles with hints of honey. The soft, slivery strands are mixed with thinly diced veggies, such as carrots and onions. Sure, you’ll find some other carbs in the buffet line like Basmati and egg-fried rice, but these noodles are the ones to try.
The Vegetable Pakora is vegan junk food. Different types of squash are breaded, deep fried and ready to sop up whatever sauces are left on your plate. The chickpea flour used for the breading is less oily than a tempura batter that you might find in Japanese restaurants.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ll still be loading up on mashed potatoes, casseroles and other meatless sides on actual Thanksgiving. But when I’m in need of a feast that just so happens to be meatless, well, now you know to whom I’m giving thanks.
This article appears in October 2012.