Jyoti Bihanga - http://www.jyotibihanga.com/ - is a mellow, relaxing, spacious, warm and inviting vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurant in San Diego. Run under the auspices of peace-loving musician, artist and spiritual rock Sri Chinmoy, this place is a relaxing and wonderful eatery located in a neat, very urban, hardly chic part of San Diego.
They have a fab menu during the week, but it's Sunday that brings a plethora of people. And yesterday was no different. It was packed with peeps! On Sundays, they serve a great all-you-can eat buffet, with plenty of vegan options. Peter & i decided to go there yesterday. Hooray!
Above you can see some of what i had - gently cooked and cubed potatoes with an insanely outrageous vegan mushroom gravy & scrambled tofu with veggies. Below that is a plate of vegan blueberry pancakes and a slice of apple cake with maple syrup, some ultra sweet strawberries and a slice of pineapple. It was an incredible meal. And only $9 per person. Such a bargain!!
We brought the girls with us but ate inside, so they had to wait. Awwwwww! We let the windows down some and kept the top up on his car. Here you can see Heidi looking out intently, waiting for us to get out of Jyoti Bihanga. Mat's in the front seat...
This morning when i was getting out of my car to take Mattie to the vet, a woman stopped me in the parking lot of the shopping center my veterinarians are in and walked over to me and asked me, "What do you do for protein?" I had a nice little chat with her. It's times like that i'm glad i have kind of an obnoxious array of bumper stickers... It's a good day when i spy people behind me on the road or at a stoplight pointing at my car's behind & commenting to one another. Makes me smile.
Yesterday after Peter and i were at Jyoti Bihanga, we drove over to where Heidi's foster mom lives to visit her. Surprisingly enough, we ran into Cheri (Heidi's former caretaker) not far from her house. She was out walking her own yellow Labrador. Peter pulled over. We all talked for a while and i told her where we'd just been for brunch. She said, "You know, i stopped eating meat and i've been thinking about becoming a vegetarian... A lot of my friends are. What do you recommend i do?" Needless to say, i'll be getting her e-mail from Peter and i hope to help her become more knowledgeable... Yay. That made me happy.
***************************************
A cool Web site from "Down Under" with some wonderful ideas, hopes, dreams & plans...
****************************************
How do you feel about Wikipedia's entry for "Vegan" and the Vegan Cookbook entry?
***************************************
Above photos from http://vaveg.org/
Hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead!
26 comments:
Kleo, what a wonderful post! First, the restaurant sounds fab (and makes me a little jealous, I have to admit). But more importantly, it's AWESOME that you got to have some conversations about veg*nism--it's always rewarding. I got to have a great conversation about veganism with my friends last week over a delicious plate of veg sushi, and it quite possibly made my week. I love your bumper stickers! :)
Wow, Jyoti Bihanga sounds like an amazing restaurant. And what a deal, $9 per person? How cool they have a buffet on Sundays. The food looks delish. The blueberry pancakes are making me hungry!
Heidi is a cutie too. Look at that face....awwww
Love the bumper stickers too. Glad you were able to clue that woman in on what vegetarians eat :) And that's awesome you'll be able to help give Cheri some pointers on making the transition to veg.
Hope you have a lovely week Kleo :)
Yay! The world needs more veg*ns! You'll be a great veg resource :-)
Kleo, I love everything about this post! Yeaah, now we have another restaurant to go to when I'm in town. Did you get a new car? We've been seriously thinking about getting scion - they look rad, but yours is ultra-rad b/c of your personal plate & awesome stickers. You are spreading the word -- changin' it one person at a time -- & you're doing double time w/2 people askin' in a day. You rock so hard! give the pooches some lovin' from me. :o)
THANK YOU KLEO! You are so wonderful to send me the beautiful card and my contents ; ) i smiled the whole time from when i saw'r it to when i opened it.
and, my license plate says "meat's no treat, for those you eat" (from peta's kids stickers)
Love you today and tomorrow and forever more. hope you're having a wonderful, wonderful day...
Wow! The food looks fantastic! Scrambled tofu - so simple and yet my favorite meal of all time!
You lucky San Diegoian, you!
Jyoti Bihanga sounds like a dream come true. One of life's true joys is the all-you-can-eat buffet (spoken like a true American, eh?) but when you're vegan, good ones are few and far between.
I love your obnoxious bumper stickers and am glad you had the opportunity to enlighten a soul or two. Your life is the best example. I have a bumper sticker too- it says, "insatiable is not sustainable" - I should get some more veg. related ones!
I'm so jealous of people who get to live near actual vegetarian/vegan restaurants! Then again, I get overwhelmed when I actually have a choice of what to eat on the menu. I'm not used to that anymore, sadly.
The restaurant you visited looks fabulous!
I love your bumper stickers and the fact that you take the time to enlighten total strangers on veganism. I looked at the wikipedia definition of veganism. It was quite lengthy so I didn't take the time to read it all, but it seemed to be very informative and accurate.
Thankyou for the comment
Lloyd is no my owner but is a friend that i play with every day..LINUX
In San Francisco, we ate at Ananda Fuara, a restaurant run by followers of Sri Chinmoy. The food was great! One of our favorite places to eat during that trip. I didn't know they had restaurants elsewhere. Lucky you, it sounds like a great brunch.
Oh, just want to let you know that I have been thinking today a lot about what you wrote on my blog.....'Slow or fast, we all gotta get by in life somehow!' So true, so true.
Another inspiring post.
Love the picture of the cow. She looks like my Mum's cow Polly thinking she might jump the fence tonight,
best wishes, The Artist
What fun place- yum vegan buffet- let the drooling begin. Heidi must have known there was lots of vegan yumminess in that place which is why she was staring out the window like that!
That's great that you have those bumper stickers and it's great that it opens up conversation and generate interest. I don't have a car nor do I know how to drive, but I might have to start sporting t-shirts in place of bumper stickers...
Hope your friend comes 'round to the light and you will make is easy for her because you be there to guide her and show all the delicious things that vegans eat!
Fab post and I really like that pic with the dog on it. So adorable. Now I noticed that we share the same sign
Hello my Pisces Pal....guess the big days are coming up.
That restarant looks fab. $9 all you can eat vegan? That's it. I'm coming to visit!
I admire your bumper stickers. I always get funnyloooks when people at the gym read my "Peace, Love and Vegetables" shirt--but no one ever strikes up a conversation about it.
awww, poor heidi! so cute i want to squish her.
Visiting new and fun resteraunts is one of my favorite things to do!
I had a delicacy this morning that was new to me- raw lemon 'cheese' cake (made with ground raw cashews)-MMMM- it was so creamy and tangy- I loved it!
Thanks for the super websites to go to- I haven't look at them all yet, but so far, so good!
K - That restaurant sounds incredible! Yummy. Well, I was sold after "vegan pancakes"...that's all I need in life, truthfully.:-)
Heidi looks adorable! So rueful, and sad that mommy was gone. Awwww!
Kleo---
Glad to see you back to posting. Great pics of Mattie and I dig the bumper stickers. That's awesome that they sparked a conversation with someone in the parking lot like that.
The wiki article is funny. Pretty accurate at the beginning, but as it gets into the nutritional and scientific info...it seems a little off. Maybe someone from the dairy industry is on the editing team.
You're back !
I'm so happy about that :) I was so happy to see your comment on my blog too !
JB sounds like an amazing restaurant ! You are so lucky <3
That doggie face in the car is so cute. Also, thanks for stoppin by my blog. Don't be a stranger=:)
How cool that someone came up and asked you about vegetarianism!
The girls are so patient, waiting for you two.. that restaruant sounds great..
Such cute puppy piccies! And great story about the bumper stickers. If I had a car, I would totally plaster the back of it with AR messages.
great post!, love it
I love the picture of Heidi looking out the back window of Peter's car. I can see that you have been a very busy vegan activist, my daughter has a bumper sticker on the back of her car and I notice people straining to read it when I drive her car. It's neat how the conversation went and you even know a number of food bloggers that she could refer to for cooking inspiration. :)
I enjoyed the pictures of the trees above, although I love the creativity and aristic value I am sad that some urban kids has never seen a real tree or green grass. I smile as a revolutionary idea enters my mind..... if you see any kids like that there, send them my way :)
I also enjoy seeing the many wonderful food restaurants you show from around you, although I will probably never get a taste of the food there it is comforting to know that small business is still alive (and catering to a good cause!).
Cheers!
I didn't know about the convention in LA! That sounds like a blast.
Teddy
Post a Comment