A more thoughtful tonic Mr. President: Joseph's book & Sacred Chow!

At the end of our conversation, when I asked him if he was reading anything good, he said he had become sick enough of briefing books to begin reading a novel in the evenings — “Netherland,” by Joseph O’Neill. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03Obama-t.html

In the Village, tasty vegan food at Sacred Chow.

• By Joseph O'Neill
  

After the omnivorous delights of Chinatown, Sacred Chow, 212-337-0863, http://www.sacredchow.com, an established mecca for New York vegans, comes as a tonic. If there is a more thoughtful, nutritious, and -- here's the key -- flavorsome, vegan restaurant in New York, the Underground Gourmet is a Dutchman.

Sacred Chow's Cliff Preefer dreams up "thinking food" to make a less violent impact on the globe; and surreptitiously, a political contribution to the gourmet world. So if you're biologically or ideologically intolerant of meat or wheat or gluten or dairy products or artificial sweeteners, you'll find this a particularly amenable place. But members of all food tribes will be well served by Sacred Chow and its warm and knowledgeable staff.

My seat is by the window, where, as I swallow a Mediterranean basil roll with grilled marinated tofu (the bean curd's savory answer to pain au chocolat), I watch the pedigreed dogs that gambol along the street. Sometimes their exquisite owners come inside for food. After 11:00A.M., many make off with the best-selling soy-buttermilk biscuit and a coffee, or with a wheat-free scone (in blueberry -- my favorite) and hot cocoa. If you are lucky, they'll have their Omega-3 oatmeal, if so, splash some soy milk on or get a dollop of coconut creme, and partake of this austere but peerless feast.

Come lunch or dinnertime, choose from small plate specials of more than a dozen tapas. Regulars generally organize their meal around the famous grilled western tofu, or the near-mythic home-produced olive seitan, which comes roasted. The tofu is firm, suffused with a perfectly judged marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic, and very fine gluten-free soy sauce. The seitan is made in the ancient, labor-intensive way of the Buddhist monks: Whole wheat and water are added to yeast-free dough, and the compound is washed like a T-shirt until, abracadabra, the protein separates from the carbohydrates and a musclelike wheat-protein appears. If you boil that, marinate it in olive puree, cocoa, and black pepper, and roast it, then you have -- if you're at Sacred Chow -- a springy, tender steaklet that eats like a cooked meat you've never tasted. Try the seitan as a tapa or as a pitch perfect hero.

I order the vegetable of the day with portions of glazed parsnip and onions (excellent: the parsnips retain their crunchiness and are not oversweet), a helping of their grain, a subtle mushroom-miso-onion risotto mixed with some pearl pasta (i.e., Israeli couscous). Grilled portabello mushrooms! A deal of 3 tapas can come on a plate or as small plates on a 3-tiered pedestal. If I want a quick bite, any souperhero does the trick.

Dessert is sweet! There's an amazing gluten-free brownie sundae (made with organic cane sugar; topped off by a ganache frosting and sprinkles, made of dark chocolate, vanilla extract and coconut cream. Or a flower-shaped halva-macaroon petal filled with white-chocolate cheese-cake and drenched in a dark-chocolate ganache bejeweled with almond pralines.

Sacred Chow extends to drink too. There are great smoothies and lattes with liquors, a selection of draught beers, sustainable, top-notch kosher wines that help dissolve cramps, indigestion, stress, and other symptoms of the violent world.