Oh my. Do I actually now like beets? I may have to seriously re-evaluate my dining options.
This past Sunday, I discovered that Tom Colicchio, the head judge on Top Chef (to which I was ridiculously addicted this past season) owns a chain of take-out sandwich shops, including some in New York. Including one just around the corner from where I work near Bryant Park.
My first thought was, how can I have never seen this place? Turns out I have. It’s actually a handful of small kiosks inside the park; one serves soup and sandwiches, a couple others on the other side of park serve desserts. (They maybe blend in a little too well.)
So I decided to try it for lunch today. And, inspired in part by two recent New York Times articles — the 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating and Putting Meat Back in Its Place — as well as my desire to lose weight and maybe ease a little of my back pain, I decided to go vegetarian.
This actually didn’t leave me with a lot of options — I’m still fairly secure in my distaste for chickpeas and olives — so I went with the roast beet salad. (Not as uber-healthy or vegan as it might sound; it was topped with goat cheese and candied walnuts, and I also bought a cream soda on the side.) But it’s worth noting that I don’t like beets, never have. And yet it was a really good salad. I genuinely liked the beets. It was akin to the moment, maybe fifteen years ago, when I realized that, oh hey, I actually did like mushrooms. Not exactly an epiphany or anything — the clouds didn’t part — but it does open some more eating possibilities.