Look at what is going on at Elaine"s Healthy Choice!!!!
Heart Healthy dish selections that feels as good to your soul when you eat as it is to look at when your meal is served on your plate. Come and share some good feelings and great food, at our place. Don't forget you are never so close to home as when you are at our place. See You soon (like today okay!!!)
It's been a long time since I've done anything explicitly for my health. I don't pay attention to calorie counts and I don't always make the wisest leisure decisions. So, if you're like me and you've zipped down Whalley Avenue and spotted the sign for the new Elaine's Healthy Choice, there's a good chance you've thought, "Like hell I'm gonna make the healthy choice." Your loss. Elaine's Healthy Choice, a vegan Jamaican take-out joint that claims to use no animal products in its cooking, serves up the sort of food one might call "incidentally healthy" — hearty stuff with well-balanced flavors, food that sticks to one's ribs. If it happens to be healthy, that's just details.
While I was chatting with the friendly woman behind the counter (not Elaine — she was picking up fresh supplies, a good sign) and goofing with Elaine's adorable small son and daughter (hanging out behind the counter), a man with a Jamaican accent came in for a small order of split pea soup. Pulling the cup out of his bag, he commented almost indignantly about its $4 price. "You go up the Boulevard, you get it like this" — he motioned to a point a couple inches above the cup's rim — "for $3," he said. He took a long sip. "Mm," he said. "I'm not complaining." Another sip. "Tell her she should use a bigger cup, but I'm not complaining." I took that as a cue and asked for a cup of the same soup. And, I should note, the woman working the counter filled up his cup with more soup at no extra charge.
He was right: There's no complaining about the split pea soup (all soups are $4 small, $6 large). Big, soft chunks of potato and hunks of carrot added texture, but the slightly peppery broth was so thick it would be fine alone. I dipped a spoon in, and not only did the broth pile high on top of the spoon, it clung to the bottom, too. It came with a roll (fresh baked daily in-house), but the soup was so thick and rich I didn't see the point in dipping. On its own, the roll was hearty, fresh, soft and sweetened just enough.
The entrées (all $6.95 small, $8.95 large) sampled were equally warming and substantial. The "steak" pieces were tender, not chewy. Its seasonings were mellow but still bore a zest most evident in its aftertaste. The "chicken" pieces might almost be mistaken for chicken, with a similar texture and with each chunk wrapped in a gooey, buttery-tasting "skin." Spiced similarly mellow, it tasted remarkably rich for a vegan concoction — between that and the saltiness of the "steak" there was no way I'd expect either of these offerings to be "healthy" if I didn't know beforehand. And they were quite filling: Entrées are served with rice and beans, a simple and lightly seasoned combination that feels rustically hearty on its own but certainly benefits from being mixed in with the sauces in which the fake-meat pieces are cooked.
Even though I'd skipped lunch that day, I felt full after a small cup of soup and half of a small entrée. It's easy to keep chowing, though — while Elaine's doesn't deliver the spicy kick a lot of Jamaican food does, it also avoids the habit of some Jamaican eateries of going oppressively heavy on the salt. This stuff goes down smoothly. (Perhaps more so than the printed sheet that came in the take-out bag, explaining how medicinal drugs are a poor remedy for disease. I appreciate this concern for my well-being, but I'll get my Jamaican food from a Jamaican restaurant and my medical advice from a doctor. No offense. The vegetarian pepper steak was way yummy.)
That evening the only dessert available was the carob chip cookies. I munched slowly, after downing a meal that made me feel fortified enough to split firewood. It had a thick, bready texture and was only slightly sweet. I saved half for later. Incidentally, the next morning, it made an excellent breakfast treat, with its wholesome texture and lightly nutty undertones.
One-page menu and tiny parking lot notwithstanding, Elaine's is worth checking out if you're interested in any combination of health, vegetarianism and Jamaican food. Elaine's eats make you feel like you're doing something indulgent. Afterwards, they make you feel like you've actually done something good for yourself. Healthy? Sure. But incidentally.
