Savory veggie dishes
One does not have to be a vegetarian to appreciate the savory vegetable dishes Lunhaw Vegan Café offers. Lunhaw, says its part-owner Rem Harvey Segarino, is the only food outlet in the city that offers purely vegetarian dishes with absolutely no milk, cheese or egg products mixed into its dishes. Surprisingly, Vegan dishes are not just nutritious but are truly palatable.
Segarino, 22, relates that he is a Seventh Day Adventist and therefore, has always been vegetarian. He honed his cooking skills when he was a kitchen volunteer for two years in his church-sponsored Philippine Youth Congress in Manila, where the kitchen staff fed 700 youths with pure vegan meals. He also trained in Manila in a “Complete Health Improvement Program” which had different modules on diseases and nutrition, and on proper lifestyle management. So he knows what dishes are good for cancer, diabetes and heart patients. His partner, Noel Arandilla, is one of those who believe that the vegan diet can cure or at least manage life’s threatening diseases.
Lunhaw’s menu is very simple. It has salads –green mango-pomelo; local greens, with saluyot, spinach, kamote tops amd tomatoes topped with tofu croutons and served with a house dressing; and Italian pasta salad with fusilli carrots, ginger, green tomatoes, red bell peppers topped with tofu croutons. The soups are color-coded: white (potato with coconut cream); green ( green pepper, spinach in coco cream); and yellow ( ginger, squash in coco cream).
Lunhaw has three kinds of pastas: pasta Bolognese with fettuccine in sweet spicy basil sauce topped with vegetable balls; alfredo, with fettuccine and sauce made with basil, garlic, cashew and topped with vegetable balls; and lasagna with spinach, tofu or monggo meat substitute. and white coconut cream with a sweet and spicy tomato and basil sauce. For main meals, all served with turmeric brown rice and house salad, and sweet-sour sauce, there’s buffalo wings (broccoli and cauliflower coated with wheat flour and spices); vibimbap with mixed vegetables and topped with tofu” egg”; sweet and sour tofish (breaded nori-wrapped tofu); airfried tofish (air-fried tofu, tomatoes, kangkong); and vegan sisig (tofu-mushroom sisig in coconut butter sauce, topped with tofu egg).
For dessert, there are choices like the vegan ice- cream and vegan cupcakes. There are also health drinks available like apple carrot juice, gingercucumber juice and mais coffee.
The dishes, explains Segarino, are all delicious, mostly mildly spicy, because the café wants its clients to realize that vegetarian dishes can be made savory too with the proper spices and condiments. His clientele, he describes as pure vegans like him, animal lovers, the curious and experimental and others whose religion prohibits the
eating of animal meat. When Buddhists came, the cafe had to tone down on the spices because certain spices (like garlic and pepper) are a no-no in Buddhism.
It is quite a refreshing experience, to eat a Lunhaw meal and not miss one’s favorite meat dishes. And yes, the prices are incredibly low, for the quality of food served.
Lunhaw, at the ground floor of Maxwell Hotel, is open from Sundays to Thursdays at 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 7 to 11 p.m. The gap between Friday and Saturday represents the Adventist’s observance of the Sabbath Day.