Take a trip to Balasia for an exciting adventure in vegan-organic
Morning Call, Susan Gottshall, 11/23/06
Original Article
As uncommon as its name, Balasia is an adventure in dining. This new
Emmaus eatery serves up fine organic, vegetarian fare -- strongly
influenced by Asian cuisines -- so a meal here can be like taking a
trip into territories unknown.
This "green world cafe" makes its home, appropriately enough, in a grand old house -- recycling and renewing quarters that once housed a doctor's office. Right in step with the cuisine, the spare decor feels eco-friendly. Saturated, earthy hues of gold, chestnut and beige color the walls, hung with large paintings of watermelons and just-picked orchard peaches that celebrate earth's bounty.
Chef owner Wendy Landiak opened Balasia about four months ago, bringing with her a consciousness of the interrelatedness of food, nutrition and the environment from South Side Bethlehem's Green Cafe (now closed), where she used to cook, and a world view of vegetarian fare inspired by travels to India and Indonesia, where she studied ethnobotany (how cultures use indigenous plants).
Landiak's menu changes daily, certainly a reflection of the dynamic of working with fresh, seasonal foods. Many selections are vegan, and many ingredients may be foreign to those unfamiliar with vegetarian cuisine -- seitan (a protein-rich cake made from wheat gluten), for example, or dulse (edible red seaweed) and hatcho miso (fermented soybean paste from central Japan).
Even so, there's no need to be a card-carrying vegetarian to enjoy a meal here, if you enjoy tasting outside the box. I found Balasia's flavors, textures and combinations amazing, interesting and exciting.
Consider these brunch dishes (which may just coax me out of bed some Sunday morning): fig waffles topped with roasted walnuts and fig-mint yogurt; honeydew melon with hot passion fruit sauce served over quinoa and organic greens; and coconut baked tofu topped with cilantro coconut spiced vegetable sauce and brown basmati rice.
On second thought, I may skip the early rising and stick to lunch, which offers fare just as interesting: Think "Bow-Thai Seitan" (cranberry infused farfalle tossed with cilantro, tomato and coconut milk sauce served with avocado pomegranate sauce) and carrot and pear spring rolls (filled with fresh mint, roasted cashews, shredded carrots and pears over black sesame rice noodles).
Our server, Ethan, guided us through the overwhelming menu, and dinner, with great patience and aplomb, thoroughly answering questions and explaining the nuances of sauces and ingredients.
In the quiet, comfortable and intimate setting of this small restaurant, we explored a brave new world of food, setting off on our "Sanskrit Trip" and "Indonesian Dream" -- two of four three- course "Balasian Adventures" on the dinner menu.
The former started with piquant peanut soup, thick with the sweetness of sweet potato and background notes of peanut butter, touched with a hint of heat tempered with fresh cilantro and coconut sauce.
The flavors of Karachi lentil salad -- the second course -- exploded with complex, layered spice. Organic field greens and shredded carrot added crunch, and the salad's presentation on a large bamboo leaf made it look as exotic and exciting as it tasted.
Crisp Indian fenugreek flatbread accompanied the "main" course, tofu topped with diced zucchini and miso curry cream served over cinnamon and cumin seasoned rice. I loved the subtle spice of this rice and its interplay with other flavors.
Carrot mint soup -- bright with fresh flavor and texture, balanced with toasted coconut -- kicked off the Indonesian adventure, followed by quinoa salad with coconut, pineapple and more carrot.
This salad, with its textural crunch and fruit flavor, was simply seasoned and clean in character.
A vegetarian version of traditional Indonesian "rending" completed this excursion. Tofu, baked with garlic, shallots, ginger and nutmeg, was topped with fennel coconut vegetable blend and served with spicy hot sambal (an Indonesian chile condiment) and mango salsa.
If you think desserts here would be variations on a theme of nuts and seeds -- boy, would you be wrong.
Balasia offers sweets from Vegan Treats, the Bethlehem bakery that supplies New York City and Philadelphia restaurants with vegan confections that will stand up to mainstream desserts anytime, anywhere.
We heeded Ethan's advice, sampling the pumpkin cheesecake, and he was right on: We never would have guessed there were no dairy products or eggs in this dense, creamy, autumnal favorite.
But frozen chocolate mint grasshopper cake was even better. The dark, rich cake was perfectly paired with its subtle minty green and super creamy frosting that rolled across the tongue like butter.
If the pumpkin cheesecake was "to die for," as Ethan promised, this cake was heaven on earth.