Craig LaBan goes vegan in Philly | Let’s Eat

This week we are going plant-based. Craig LaBan picks his favorite 19 dishes from salatim at Laser Wolf, to the barbecue corn ribs at Huff N Puff BBQ. We’ve also got tips on how to eat your veggies all year long, not just in Veganuary, plus: bad news for pasta fans and the closing of a beloved Northwest Philly restaurant. Also egg prices are frying grocer shoppers’ budgets, and the most upsetting cocktail we’ve heard of this week isn’t the chicken martini (which is actually pretty good), but Tom Hanks’ own concoction.

Mike Klein is out this week which means you’ve got me, your friendly neighborhood Deputy Food Editor, Margaret Eby, filling in.

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Whether you’re cutting out meat for the month, a longtime vegetarian, or just on the hunt for more interesting plant-based options, Craig LaBan has rounded up his favorite vegan dishes to try in Philly. He had a lot to choose from. Philly has long been a hot bed of innovative vegan cuisine, and now, he writes, “plant-based cooking has ensconced itself in Philadelphia restaurants of all sorts as an essential genre, not simply a fad to placate with veggie pasta of the week.” Vegan sushi, anyone? 🔑

Adjusting to a plant-based diet doesn’t mean major changes. From “Meatless Mondays” to “eating the rainbow,” our colleague Henry Savage drops a few tricks to help you regularly eat more fruits and veggies, and suggests some of Philly’s best vegetarian and vegan eateries.

No more Ronzoni pastina?! The pastamaker has discontinued the little star pasta known as “Italian penicillin,” the ultimate comfort food that chases the blues and even helps with gastrointestinal distress. As Alfred Lubrano observes, “America is not happy.”

The price of eggs has skyrocketed, making Philly breakfast spots and consumers scramble. Hopefully, this crisis will be over easy.

Garces Trading Company, chef Jose Garces’ combination coffee shop, restaurant, bakery, marketplace, and corporate-catering outlet, has a new outlet at the Kimmel Center, taking over the former box office on the Spruce Street side near Garces’ posher Volvér, open daily at 7 a.m. In the spirit of the location, there’s a coffee blend named after Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Yannick Nezét-Séguin.

This week in soup updates: Campbell’s is planning a major upgrade and expansion of its facility in Camden. The company plans to add 330 jobs as well as executing a $50 million renovation of its current headquarters, where it runs a portfolio of brands including Pepperidge Farms and Kettle and Cape Cod potato chips.

For the first time in almost three years, Chinatown bar Hop Sing Laundromat is offering bar seating. Noted bartender Toby Maloney will be behind the stick all this month as he preps for a Hop Sing residency. He works Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m-midnight. To snag any of the six seats at the bar, you must send a message on Instagram to @hopsinglaundromat with a preferred date, time, and party size. There’s a $75-per-person minimum at the bar and it’s cash only. Maloney, who led Chicago’s The Violet Hour to the 2015 James Beard Award for outstanding bar program and wrote The Bartender’s Manifesto, will pour from HSL’s list but prefers to chat up his guests to get a feel for what they like, and then create something on the spot.

But speaking of restaurant week, Northern Liberties Restaurant Week will gather nearly two dozen restaurants for specials Jan. 27-Feb. 5 basically following the current Center City District Restaurant Week. The list includes Añejo Philly, Pera Turkish Cuisine, Cantina Dos Segundos, Figo, Apricot Stone, Urban Village, El Camino, and Standard Tap as well as new participants Nourish Cafe, Hikari Sushi, Las Cazuelas, The Winston, The Shake Seafood, and D’Oliva EVOO Pizza & Grill. Lunch tabs are $10 and $15, and three-course dinners are $15, $25, and $40.

Sunday will be last call at Relish, the West Oak Lane restaurant that’s been equal parts date-night destination and political hangout for nearly 14 years. The owners, Robert and Ben Bynum, seek greater simplicity in their lives. Meanwhile, a new operator may be on the way.

Actor Tom Hanks shared his drink of choice with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. It combines Diet Coke and ...

A) Red Bull

B) Champagne

C) Fanta orange

D) Triple Sec

Take a guess and see what’s taking TikTok by storm.

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