The Gadarene Swine: Redefining Vegan

The Gadarene Swine
11266 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 508-5500
www.thegadareneswine.com

Eating your greens isn't always the easiest or most delicious way to go, especially with holiday treats popping up everywhere you look, like David Bowie in the Labyrinth. This year, you tell yourself, is going to be the year you won't gain those 10 extra holiday pounds.

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Well, with a little help from the new Gadarene Swine in Studio City, this may not actually be the most ambitious statement you make all year. At this vegan (don't stop reading yet) restaurant you can enjoy delicious fresh fair without gaining that extra holiday layer.

If you are familiar with Phillip Frankland Lee's passion for carnivorous cooking, you may be surprised to learn that he recently opened the gates to this new meat-free eatery. We know, it's shocking to believe a meal without meat even exists in this world of ours. That should be a crime, right?

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Well actually, by hiring non-vegetarians to cook in this vegan style kitchen, Lee and his team found the perfect equation to turn out unbelievable dishes—seriously, you won't believe you are eating food that is good for you. With choices like the Vegetables in a Box (a small crate made of crispy potato in an blackened eggplant puree, filled with bites of asparagus, kernels of sweet corn and any other veggie laying around the kitchen), or the Tomato Shooters (caramelized tomato on a toothpick, followed by a shot of tomato-infused sake, and complemented by an avocado mousse) you may have a difficult time accepting your new identity as a vegetable lover.

Though your world may be turned upside-down by the realization that vegetables can actually be good, maybe wait to seek out therapy just yet… at least until you start proclaiming yourself a Vegan.

By Amanda Blum