The Vegetarian Gazette

 | home |  eating & drinking    |  recipes  | snacks | people | tech | how you can help animals  | coffee | tea | gizmos   |  events  | books  | tips & tricks  |  love  | travel | deep thoughts | about | contact |
Cabbages seen on the Vegetarian Gazette

Plant-Based Food For Carbon-Based Units

Veggie Burger on a Pedestal

The Vegetaria Gazette's review of Hillstone Veggieburger

The first sensation the Houston’s/Hillstone veggie burger triggers is panic. Why does it glisten? Are those red splotches blood? The burger looks so carnal.

 “Please take this back,” you’ll tell the server. "We ordered a veggie burger.”

There, there now. No cows died in the making of this delicacy. Key ingredients are beets (for that vicarious blood thrill), brown rice black beans, and prunes (for a seductive touch of sweetness). They dress the burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, mustard, mayo and Monterey Jack. (Hold the mayo and cheese, if you so desire.) It’s served on a pedestal in the form of a glazed bun.  Its taste offers echoes of the grill upon which it is made. This delight is juicy, and offers a great mouth feel so familiar that it’s absolutely guilt-inducing. You’ll love it!

In true burger verisimilitude, the side is french fries. Instead of the golden shoestrings, you can get a nice fat baked potato or one of the other sides. Go for the kale salad with cashews. The Thai-influenced dish contains just an iota of heat.

Amazingly, this delicious concoction is offered not by some esoteric, purist shrine of a restaurant but at the varied outposts of a privately-held chain of restaurants. (Some are called Houston’s and others Hillstone). The one near me was originally named Houston’s and then was renamed Hillstone. Go figure. To find some locations, click here