Don't Call It a Roach Coach

In 1775, Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia Convention and, in what may well be the most quoted moment of the American Revolution (OK, OK, maybe it was second to "The British are coming"), exhorted the assembled delegates to "give me liberty or give me death!" Stirring words, no doubt, but I have to admit that I always felt a much deeper connection to the perspective of the Dead Kennedys, who titled their 1987 compilation album Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death. Much of my teenage and adult life choices have been based on that philosophy, and my dining preferences are no exception. The trick has been figuring out a way to apply it to healthy, tasty vegan options - finding gourmet options in a fast food world, as it were. Magic Carpet Foods (Spruce at 36th, Philadelphia), a tiny lunch cart no larger than my bathroom, fulfills that need perfectly, as it's less than a five-minute walk from my on-campus office and only about a mile from my front door at home.

The menu is 100% vegetarian, with a large number of vegan options. We went with the Seitan Grinder - a pita full of seitan, marinated red and green peppers, lettuce, sauce, and cheese (vegan options available) - and the Tempeh Salad Sandwich, a pita stuffed with tempeh salad, lettuce, and a sesame tahini dressing.

The Seitan Grinder (above left) was quite good - the shredded seitan was perfectly seasoned; spicy but not overpowering. Its taste and texture were a nice complement to the peppers, which were sliced large and had just the right amount of crunch even after being marinated. My only real complaint is that the ratio of peppers to seitan was pretty highly tilted in favor of the peppers and I would have liked to see a more even balance. Jessica, a huge fan of all pepper-based dishes, agreed, but we both felt like that was a minor concern when considering the overall goodness of the sandwich. The Tempeh Salad Sandwich (above right) was a bit more controversial. Jessica declared that the tempeh salad was "the best I've ever tasted," and was quite enthusiastic about the entire sandwich. Truth be told, I think she was a little disappointed when, halfway through lunch, it was time to swap sandwiches, kind of like that episode of "Family Ties" where Ellen leaves for Paris and Alex takes Sharon the waitress to dinner but ends up spending the entire date trying to turn her into a carbon copy of Ellen. Kids of the eighties, you feel me here. But I digress. The point is, Jessica loved the Tempeh Salad Sandwich; I was a little lukewarm about it. I thought that there was way too much sauce, which gave the fillings a heavy consistency and overwhelmed me with rich flavors. It was kind of hard to taste the tempeh for all the sauce, actually. That's not to say that the sauce was bad, just that there was way too much of it. I'd recommend asking for light sauce; that might help things.

Overall, I'd say that the Seitan Grinder was an absolute winner and the Tempeh Salad Sandwich had potential but didn't quite live up to it. That said, though, it's no surprise why there's always a line outside: both sandwiches provided an enormous amount of food for a reasonable price ($4.75 each) and the guys behind the counter were very helpful and made sure that we got what we needed (ie., when we initially ordered the Meatball Sandwich vegan-style, they made sure to tell us that the "meatballs" were made with eggs). If you're a Penn or Drexel student - or any West Philly resident in general - this is probably the best all-vegetarian/vegan option going. Small complaints aside, I'd recommend it highly. [[justin]]