my first experience at an all veg restaurant was at veggie heaven in parsippany, nj. i went with my friend paul, who was the first vegan i knew and who was my inspiration to become vegetarian and eventually vegan. actually, the very first vegan food i ate (barring naturally vegan things like fruits, veggies, grains - that kind of thing) was a boca burger at paul's house. it was gross. and i'm still kind of iffy about boca.

anyway, paul used to drive me home from school. instead of bringing me right home, we would go to the photo store and buy a couple rolls of film or ten, go out and shoot them, then grab dinner at veggie heaven. from there, he would either drop me back off at my house or we would go into new york for a movie or something. actually, paul was the first person i went into the city with that wasn't a parent. it was very exciting. we would drive to hoboken (hoboken!) then take the path (the path!) into the village (the village!) and go to the movies. we were very very cool.

the first thing i tried at veggie heaven was the sweet and sour veggie chicken. i loved it and i used to get it all the time. from there i moved onto general tso's veggie chicken and from there i bounced around the menu before settling on my current favorite: veggie chicken with black pepper sauce.

so, hooray for paul for introducing me to veggie heaven and veganism in general and for showing me that it wasn't so hard.

old vs. new, sweet and sour chickn meets chickn with black pepper sauce.