Lila Elkins
Centerspread Editor
Unit Su Vege is a pan-Asian, vegetarian, and kosher restaurant in the Benjamin Franklin Parkway area of Philadelphia. Only a few minutes walk from the Barnes Foundation, Unit Su Vege is the perfect place for a bite mid-day or evening. Their menu is filled with Asian cuisine favorites such as kung pao chicken, pork buns, Peking duck rolls, and hot and sour soup. Their ‘meat’ is made with tofu and seitan but tastes and presents as something better than meat itself. So, when (not if) you go to Unit Su Vege, here is my guide on what to order:
First Course
It’s important to start off a good meal with a hearty soup. My personal favorite is the hot and sour soup, a traditional Chinese Sichuan dish that is thick and gloopy and tastes much better than it smells. The texture reminds me of those sweet and sour sauce packages from McDonald's, but don’t worry, since the taste completely makes up for the texture.
Hot and sour soup
Main Meal
This is not an ‘order one thing’ type of place. Fill up on dim sum dumplings, tofu, vegetables, and rice. So here’s what I’d order for a perfect Unit Su Vege dinner.
Mushroom strips– candied and caramelized fried strips of mushrooms that taste absolutely nothing like mushrooms but candied morsels of heaven.
Dim Sum– there are many options of dumplings which I highly recommend but do not order every time personally. D1 and D2 are great options.
Pork bun– just for the texture, having a light and fluffy, cloud-like bao is always a must. The center is filled with pork-flavored seitan that balances the sweet and soft exterior of the bun.
Fried rice– it’s great. A must.
Sizzling tofu– a sweet and salty piping hot delicacy. With cooked vegetables and fried tofu in a cast iron skillet brought to the table, this dish is a showstopper.
Ebony and ivory– a hot dish of mushrooms, sprouts, and bok choy that tastes LITERALLY like a grandmother’s matzoh ball soup.
Dessert:
Boba– there are many flavors of boba and options of slushies and milkshakes at Unit Su Vege that you could add boba to. My favorite is taro milk boba! It is made from a purple root vegetable that tastes nutty and sweet.
Photo Credit: http://www.unitsuvege.com/