Before leaving the Kushi Institute in Becket, Massachusetts, I met with my friend Angela, a long time New Yorker and avid health food restaurant goer, to get a list of places in the big apple where a person wanting to consume healthy and clean food can feel comfortable ordering almost anything on the menu without pestering the waiters with questions regarding the sugar and chemical content of the dishes, or what oil has been used for frying.
In the 5 following days I spent my time in Manhattan, tasting and evaluating a few of the Macrobiotic restaurants this massive metropolis has to offer, and I found the selection quite satisfying.
The category of “Macrobiotic” in restaurant listings takes the term “Vegetarian”, “Vegan” or “Organic” one step further in ensuring the customer he will be getting only organic food, non refined oils and no sugar or chemicals, as well as avoiding nightshade vegetables (i.e. potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants), so virtually everything on the menu is “kosher” for someone on a macrobiotic diet and unable to cook for himself while visiting the city. Furthermore, the customer can be sure (in most cases) that he is getting a properly balanced meal including grains, beans, vegetables, pickles and condiments and that the entire health benefit of the meal has been thought out and not just conforming ingredients to a definition of of a loose category which can include many harmful and imbalanced foods.
My review begins with the most well known of the Macrobiotic establishments:
Souen (Soho location)
(210 Sixth Ave at Prince St)
With 3 location in Manhattan (Union sq., Soho and east village), Souen provided a casual, semi noisy atmosphere, and the prices reflect this simplicity of ambiance without compromising on the quality of the food.
The menu offers a wide variety of soups, salads, entrees and fish, with an emphasis on balance in each dish, having the main course always accompanied with Brown rice and green vegetables, so whatever you order, you are getting a full Macrobiotic meal. I would have liked to see a wider variety of grains besides brown rice though.
I ordered a Broccoli soup which started my meal in a very calming and soothing manner. The hustle and bustle of Prince street and 6th ave became a dim background in the presence of the clarity and focus attained by the energy of this soup. I was more able to focus on my breath and sensations rather than on the chatter of the couple sitting at the table next to me. I was still unaccustomed to the NY pace of life, just returning from the Berkshires, and this was a good transition dish, though for a Macrobiotic establishment which should encourage mindful eating and slow chewing, it was too noisy and sometimes soup is not enough to deal with the rampant energy.
My main course was fried tofu with a selection of steamed vegetables: pumpkin, broccoli, chinese cabbage, onion, snowpeas and chard with a miso-tahini dressing. Generally the dish was very tasty, although the greens' stems were unchewable and the dressing was oversalted. I assume the emphasis on salt is the norm for health food restaurants that have to cater to the wider public, however, being macrobiotic for sometime, my taste buds have developed a sensitivity for too much salt. This causes me to drink water while i'm eating, interfering with a harmonious digestion process.
Another factor related to catering for the general American public is the size of the dishes – huge, much more than the capacity of an average macro stomach, but maybe more fit for a heavy meat-eating big-sized individual. Nevertheless, I was hungry and I finished it all.
To sum up, Souen lives up to its reputation and the food is of high quality, staying in line with macrobiotic principles. They hold weekly workshops, including lectures by John Kozinski and others, which gives the place much value as a macrobiotic education center.
I would make the place a little more quiet and energetically fit for the subtle art of eating in a balanced way – better insulation from noise and easy on the salt.
More locations:
Union Square:
28 East 13th Street
(bet. University Pl and 5th Ave)
(bet. University Pl and 5th Ave)
East village:
326 East 6th Street
(bet.1st ave & 2nd ave)
(bet.1st ave & 2nd ave)
Purumé:
11 E. 13th Street (opposite Souen at Union square)
By far my favorite of the Macrobiotic joints in New York. The place is big, spacious, smack in the middle of downtown but retains an intimate and refined energy, suitable for a conscious and mindfully balanced meal.
The decor is Japanese style with a modern NY touch, A big bar serving a wide variety of organic wines and sake, Excellent jazz music played at moderate volume and a Marx brothers movie projected on the wall, providing fun entertainment if one is dining alone and needs to gracefully pass the chewing time.
The menu is simple but rich with Macrobiotic favorites. A daily special menu is also available on the board including a variety of dim sum wraps, fish, a daily grain and bean and 4 different desserts. A wide selection of home made macro-quality pastries, sweetened only with rice and maple syrup or fruit juices is sold on a table by the bar. All tables are well equipped with a Gomashio shaker and a shoyu
I started with a miso soup. Standard and excellent small portion for only $4 with wakame, tofu and scallions, not overdoing the miso like in many regular Japanese restaurants. I then had Vegetable Tempura (zucchini, sweet potato, green beans, broccoli and cauliflower) with a tangy, delicious shoyu-mirin-ginger-kombu dipping sauce with grated daikon and scallions to help break down the oil in the stomach. Tempura was not too oily but satisfying the fatty-sweet craving one can get after walking around the city for a few hours.
The main course was comprised of the daily grain – brown Basmati rice with wild rice, wonderfully sticky, sweet and aromatic – and the daily bean dish, a soft delicious bowl of soft black beans.
The experience was a delight, chewing thoroughly and enjoying every bit of flavor I could savor from the food. To top it all off and help it go down I had a blueberry-strawberry kanten with a huge (?!) cup of kukicha tea. The fruit were fresh and the mild sweetness I have become accustomed to was permeating throughout my mouth and body with every bite. The texture of the kanten was smooth and not overly agar-agared, enough to relax any contracted colon...
I returned two days later with my friend Ricardo who teaches Yoga around Union square. I had the fried salmon, which was slightly on the dry side, but still delicious and mildly flavored with shoyu and ginger, accompanied by a mixture of short grain and sweet brown rice. Ricardo had the vegetable stew, thickened with kuzu, full and hearty. Yes, we were again very satisfied.
Purume is a gem in the city's natural foods restaurants and a true joy if you want to experience authentic Macrobiotic food. Its presence in the middle of Downtown is a good balance to the craziness going outside and one can return the balance to mind and body even in the middle of a workday.
Mana
646 Amsterdam Avenue
91st - 92nd Street
91st - 92nd Street
Located away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, the upper west side has been graced by the presence of two Macrobiotic restaurants, not far from each other on Amsterdam Ave.: Mana and Ozu. I didn't have the time to eat at Ozu's, but all I can say is that their logo on the sign of two joined Daikon radishes says it all and can make every macrobiotic person sigh in relief (and it's kosher too...).
My experience at Mana was like eating in a Buddhist monastery compared to the other 2 I have reviewed here. It is very quiet, simple and non-pretentious. There is no air-conditioning (that's a plus fro me) and the walls are bare, reflecting the pastel reddish orange color of the tables and chairs. The place was so simple, I wasn't even offered water as I sat down at the table by the window, something I've gotten so accustomed to in the USA. I actually liked that too.
The menu is short but rich with a good selection of of tufu, tempeh, vegetable, noodle and fish dishes, a daily grain, bean and some variations with seaweed.
I started with a split-pea soup, which may have been a bit of a heavy choice for such a hot July day, but nevertheless it was sweet, nourishing and relaxing for the entire being.
I then ordered the "simple palate" which means short grain brown rice in a small (finally!) bowl, and a big plate of steamed vegetables with chickpeas and arame seaweed. It was so simple, my taste buds were working overtime to extract the flavors from the food, but they loved it, and so did I.
The service and the prices reflected this simplicity as well, and I was really enjoying my ascetic experience, so uncommon in these parts of the city, where style and status are the name of the game.
After the meal I walked around all day with a light feeling in my body and a brightness of the mind, ready to embrace all the endless appearances of reality which manifest in this crazy city. It helped me remember that in order to fully integrate the abundance of experiences New York has to offer without being overwhelmed, I must create balance from within and the presence of these restaurants in strategic places in town can help us do that beautifully. Of course, there is no substitute for cooking at home...
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Ozu - 566 Amsterdam Avenue (Between 87th and 88th Streets)
