green nosh in nash

The Music City isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think vegetarian, but The Wild Cow is here to set the record straight. This Nashville restaurant’s staff say they love cattle so much they want them to be as free as the honky tonks that dot the town.

It was my first time in Tennessee, and I was staying with my good friend Jamie, a self-confessed fussy eater who has given up bread for Lent.  That means a quick glance over the hummus and pita before settling on the tortilla chips and salsa ($3.25) – a generous, fresh rendition of the dynamic duo.

We both order the Grilled Tofu Salad ($8), and Jamie surprises me by eating almost all of it, praising it as the best tofu she has ever had.  I concur, and I’m not much for tofu these days.  Tofu is a highly-processed product, and I stick by the theory that it is overused in the West.  I used to be a big soy consumer, but today I eat it only occasionally and prefer to have it as they do in the East: sparingly and fermented in the form of tamari or miso.

The Wild Cow dishes out a preponderance of mock-meat items, something my fellow dinner Liz calls the restaurant on.  “If you’re eating vegetables, why do you want to be reminded of meat?”  I agree with Liz and think the plant kingdom has too much to offer to be disguised as anything but its glorious self.  However, I also know, as Jamie pointed out, that these types of dishes have a rightful place in “transitioning”.

I’m a little perplexed by the necessity of a “What’s Tofu?” section on their website, especially since a quick Google search brings up a handful of veggie establishments in the Nashville area – there’s even a Woodlands Indian Vegetarian, for crooning out loud!

Cheatin’ chikn aside, if you’re roaming East Nashville then The Wild Cow is definitely worth a graze.

Stay tuned for more Tennessee tastes later this week, including my pre-flight fuelling deserving a round of applause.

© 2009 Jessica Stone www.greenappetite.com