Photo by John Zur

They might not look spectacular, but those bricks of tofu pack some incredible tastes and textures.

​Of all of the Latin American-Asian fusion dishes on Asia de Cuba's diversely unique menu, why would you order slabs of brown tofu? Because they're damn good and you don't have to be vegetarian to enjoy them.

Dining with a vegetarian - when you are a natural carnivore who seeks out beef, veal, lamb, and anything that had its head cut off - can open you up to an appreciation for how inventive meatless cooking can be.

Such is the case with the marinated crispy tofu at Asia de Cuba, the inventive eatery inside the Mondrian Hotel on South Beach.
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Camille Lamb

This Labor Day, leave the killin', keep the grillin'.

​Labor Day, the holiday with the name that never fails to confuse scads of recent immigrants, is upon us yet again. So kick off your shoes, enjoy not working, and celebrate.

If you're a human, that is. For cows, chickens and pigs everywhere, Labor Day is a murderous nightmare. Livestock all over the country hunker down and clench their gaping wet nostrils to avoid inhaling the stench of their brethren's charred flesh wafting from barbecue grills. It's a truly barbaric ritual. No wonder PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's will requests that the "meat" of her body, "or a portion thereof, be used for a human barbecue, to remind the world that the meat of a corpse is all flesh, regardless of whether it comes from a human being or another animal, and that flesh foods are not needed."
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A. Cuevas

For both rabbits and tortoises, the fast ends with a party on the 9th

​Vegan Assassin and soon-to-be Miami restaurateur Alex Cuevas is at the helm of yet another veg-head initiative here in Miami --- a mass juice fast lasting from five to seven days. Via Facebook, 45 Miamians and friends have committed to joining one of two groups of juice fasters: the rabbits and the tortoises. Rabbits started their fasts yesterday, and tortoises link up on the 5th. The final fast day for both groups will be July 9th, when all will convene to toast a glass of wheatgrass juice at Cuevas' new (and not yet officially open) Choices Cafe (379 SW 15th Road) and celebrate their victories (which will likely include detoxing, weight loss, and mental clarity). The event runs from 7 to 10 p.m., and the health conscious public is also welcome to attend. Vegan DJ Golden Del will be spinning chill house beats for the event. Entrance fee is a bag of organic greens, ginger, lemons, green apples, or the like.   More >>

Camille Lamb

The entrance fee for a vegan potluck is an animal product-free dish, like this "fruits of the forest quinoa."

​At 7 p.m. Sunday, Short Order pulled up to the quiet block near Brickell where Om Garden used to be. It was a little dreary outside, but we followed some smiling, healthy looking people carrying Tupperware dishes to an open door at 379 SW 15th Road. It led to a bright stairwell from which dance music trickled down out onto the sidewalk.

Upstairs, a group of people whose appearance defies categorization was chatting over paper plates of colorful food. It was a vegan potluck hosted by vegan galvanizer Alex Cuevas, thrown directly upstairs from the site of his forthcoming restaurant, Choices Cafe. The entrance fee? A vegan or raw vegan dish, preferably home made, like the "fruits of the forest quinoa" created by Short Order. (It consists of pecans, raisins, and mushrooms sauteed with vegan Earth Balance spread, sprinkled with sea salt and turbinado sugar, folded into several cups of organic quinoa and topped with raw walnuts.)

Lightly promoted via Facebook and word of mouth, this was the fourth potluck Cuevas has thrown since the outset of his campaign to promote the vegan lifestyle, nutrition education, and the ethical treatment of animals in Miami.
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​I am a happy girl, because a wonderful new fully-veg restaurant has opened not a mile from my house. Mi Vida Cafe is located on NE 72nd Street and Biscayne, in the small space next-door to thrift store Divine Trash. You may sit inside and watch your meals being prepared as we did, or there are some tables out front. In a few weeks they're planning to open up even more seating in the urban garden out back.

MVC has a board of daily specials. The regular menu has an extensive list of fresh juices and smoothies, several starters, and six main entrees. The day I went, the specials were: Raw Spaghetti al Pesto, Spicy Kale Chips, Raw Carrot Cake with Coconut Icing, and the soup of the day was Raw Celery & Sunflower Seed.
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​A quick recap: I went vegetarian in '94 and over the years phased out eating gelatin, buying leather, and cut way down on eggs and dairy. Toward the end of 2009 I decided to stop making excuses to myself and just go vegan.

Never imagined I'd do it, but it's now 1.5 years later and I've settled into it just fine. Not only am I not huddled in a corner in an anemic coma, but I'm better for it. I upped my fitness level, maintained tons of energy and even passed my iron test with flying colors the last time I donated blood.
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John Zur

Hakkasan's vegetarian dim sum.

​Four Diamond Award-winner, Hakkasan, at the Fontainebleau Hotel, may not be the most likely destination for vegetarians. But the menu is rich with offerings to suit most every taste and preference.

Executive Chef Ooi Soon Lok offers fresh, well orchestrated food that is likely the area's best. Consider he fried rice ($16) with pumpkin, French bean, and Thai fragrance. Chef Lok says, "The secret to any fried rice is the wok must be hot enough before you add the rice; if the wok does not have enough heat, the rice will stick on the wok and the dish is ruined."
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via Thrive

Treats at Thrive.

​A friend and I recently lunched at Thrive (1239 Alton Rd., Miami Beach). We split two entrées and a fresh juice. Our bill came to about $32. For $16, we each had half a portobello mushroom "pizza" topped with cashew nut cheese, a half portion of sweet potato and black bean stew with brown rice, a small side salad that comes with each entrée, and half a beet, carrot, and spirulina juice. Each of our meals totaled somewhere around 600 calories. That's a generous estimate. So if you do the math, that amounts to about 2.7 cents per calorie.

Compare that to a meal at Burger King (110 Fifth St., Miami Beach). A small Whopper Value Meal, consisting of the sandwich, a Coke, and fries, costs about $5.50 in Miami Beach and contains about 1,200 calories. That's .46 cents per calorie, which means that a calorie at Thrive costs about six times the price of a calorie at the Burger King seven blocks down the street.

Better deal? Maybe. But Whole Foods and many authorities on nutrition have recently looked to the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) to calculate the value of a calorie.
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Laine Doss

Govinda's gardens.

Govinda's Dining Club is painted bright corals, greens, and blues. A large porch beckons diners to relax as birds and butterflies flit among garden flowers. Soft music reminiscent of smooth jazz plays in the background. Listen closely to the words and you'll hear the familiar chants of "Hare Krishna," which makes sense since Govinda's is located inside Coconut Grove's Hare Krishna Cultural Center.

All food is cooked fresh and is 95 percent vegan (there is an option of having vegan or dairy cheese on the whole-wheat pizzas). Meals are cooked to order, and no microwaves are used. Govinda's manager, Parama, says, "Ingredients are as organic as we can find them. We buy local as often as we can. We're trying to be part of the neighborhood, not the system."

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Vegan Assassin, Alex Cuevas

​Alex Cuevas is a buff vegan, but it hasn't always been that way. Vegetarian for 24 years, vegan for the last 14, he met a guy named Nature at a raw vegan potluck in New York City in late 2009. It was then he heard the words that would change his physique and his life. "Never underestimate the power of greens," said Nature, a raw vegan with an imposing, rock solid musculature, all the while chewing on a celery stick.

Cuevas observed the muscle man with awe. At the time, despite working out like a madman, Cuevas still hung steady at a squishy 205 pounds. He slammed Red Bulls before hitting the gym and slugged down protein powders and scientifically engineered supplements by the gullet full. And here was this behemoth body builder who swore he didn't touch creatine or any other laboratory concoctions, extolling the virtues of sprouted almonds and chewing on an unadulterated piece of celery. "I couldn't believe it, no peanut butter, no anything. But I thought to myself, 'I can't just dismiss this guy, because he's strong and muscular.'"

Cuevas had always been invested in the ecological and ethical advantages of veganism. But this chance encounter with Nature was the push he needed to explore the world of super foods and shed the chemicals he'd been relying on for energy and muscle building.

"I started eating a lot of greens. I switched from all the tortillas and beans I had been eating," he says. "I would come home and eat all this crap and wouldn't be able to stop. [As I started researching], I realized it was because I wasn't getting the right nutrients."
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