Dirt Candy

Last week, my favorite Chicago vegan blogger was in the city and we finally made it to Dirt Candy. 

We were both DC virgins, and had been looking forward to it for quite some time. The restaurant is tiny, so they fill up pretty quickly. If you're prepared to eat dinner at 5.30, you'll be much more likely to get a table. The first thing they ask when you sit down is if you're vegan. I love this, because sometimes vegetarian restaurants aren't super accommodating for vegans (strange, but it does happen). Luckily, Dirt Candy can make almost anything on their menu vegan without sacrificing flavor nor texture.

We started with the Jalapeño Hugh Puppies with Maple Butter. You seriously can't go wrong with deep fried goodness dipped in sweet butter. I'm still thinking of all the things I could eat with maple butter.

For appetizers, we shared the Mushrooms - portobello mousse, truffled toast with pear and fennel compote...

And the Potato - warm potato salad, crispy Japanese yams, grilled sweet potato, olives, bitter greens and apples. Both were delicious and complex. I'm pretty picky about mushrooms, but I really loved everything in the Mushroom dish.

For entrees, we went for the Beets - salt roasted with Thai green curry, beet gnocchi and whipped coconut galangal cream...

And the Corn - stone ground grits, corn cream, pickled shiitakes, huitlacoche and tempura watercress. Again, both very filling and full of flavor. I like beets, but I don't love them. This was interesting but I definitely preferred the corn. I did really enjoy the coconut cream alongside the beets.

For dessert, it was the Ice Cream Nanaimo Bar with sweet pea, mint and chocolate. Mint chocolate with a hint of something else, very intriguing.

And the Popcorn Pudding with salted caramel corn. The caramel corn was delicious.

I love the trend of taking one ingredient and showing how many iterations you can have in one dish. It really highlights the magic of vegetables.