meansoybean

Sorry in advance for the bad photo. Crappy camera phone and low light don’t make for pretty pics.

Thanksgiving Sunday I went out to Aux Vivres for dinner. Now, I’m an early-adopter type so I’ve been known to try their plate of the day special. That night the blackboard boasted Moussaka Royale. I didn’t notice it then, but there was no description. When it arrived at the table I was skeptical and disappointed, feelings that stayed with me to the very end of the meal. The base consisted of TVP and brown lentils. Then there was a very thin layer of eggplant covered in, I kid you not, almost three inches of mashed potatoes topped with béchamel sauce.

Totally not what I was expecting, in terms of moussaka. Aux Vivres rarely uses TVP, in fact I think this is the first time I’ve encountered it here. I don’t like the taste of TVP on its own, it has to be mixed in something. The lentils were just murder for me. I wish there had been more eggplant slices — that’s the whole point of moussaka! And WTF was up with all that mashed potato? The lack of costly eggplant and abundance of cheap, cheap potato was suspicious at best.

For the next little while I’m going to stick to my tried and true regular menu picks; the dahl, the dragon bowl with tofu or the sirocco sandwich on chapati. Something you need to try if ever you go: I stopped eating their BLT on chapati shortly after Aux Vivres moved to their St-Laurent location, only because they cheaped out on the coconut “bacon” and filled it with lettuce. But I recently picked it up again, brilliantly combining it with a side of dragon sauce. I highly recommend it and wouldn’t have the BLT any other way. Try it!

BTW if anyone from Aux Vivres is reading this, you should totally make a portable sandwich version of the dragon bowl.

Edit: Ever wonder what’s in that crazy Dragon Sauce? Right this way…