Friday, August 01, 2003

It seems that all the friends of Munch flocked to Zen Garden in its first weeks of business, last week and the week before that. Munch was not only curious about how they liked it, but also wondered: How do some restaurants inspire a flock of visitors in their first weeks? How do restaurants achieve "the buzz"?

For Zen Garden, it's probably location, location, location. Due to a high number of pedestrians, Squirrel Hill is a good neighborhood in which to be a restaurant.

People get tired of walking. They want to sit and eat.

The Squirrel Hill leg of Forbes Avenue is transforming into a regular Asian restaurant row. Next door is Rose Tea Cafe. On the corner is Ho Lee takeout. Down the street are Cafe Asia and Bangkok Balcony. In one long block, you can find Japanese noodles, Thai, pan-Asian and now an all-vegetarian Chinese smorgasbord.

Munch caught the buzz and met FOM outside Zen Garden, where the line from Rita's snaked by, and a friendly gentleman passed cubed samples of something, cloaked in a reddish sauce, on a tray garnished with orchids. Many stopped to sample, then swerved into the restaurant.

Inside, Zen Garden is as cool and cavelike as Zeb's and Sweet Basil's -- prior tenants of the space -- ever were, dimly lit, with wooden tables.

While many Chinese restaurants offer few interesting vegetarian options, Zen Garden's menu is all vegetarian. Though lamb, chicken, shrimp and beef are on the menu, what you actually get is "veggie" chicken, an unchicken made of tofu.

FOM, who has traveled in China, says that meats made of tofu are quite common in Asia as part of a Buddhist feasting tradition. In temples, what closely resembles a delicious platter of roasted lamb or steaming prawns is built of tofu.

As well as the unmeats, Zen Garden offers stir-fries, noodles, steamed vegetables and plenty of tasty appetizers. Munch's eyes slid over to the specialties of the house, with their wacky, precious names, as if they were named by MOM, who really, really wanted you to eat your veggies: Stuffed Spinach Deluxe, Sizzling Sensation, Mushroom Forest, Veggieland Stewed Casserole, Pineapple Melody, Fisherman's Delight, Eight Treasure Casserole, Thailand Halo Vega Shrimp, Fresh Meadow and Veggie Paradise.

After three hot, clean, cabbagey steamed dumplings each ($3.25), Munch and FOM felt ready to tackle a heaping plate of Mango Veggie Chicken ($14.95), accompanied by nutritious brown rice. The unchicken is a bit chewy, but it absorbed the thick, tangy sauce, and made a good partner to plenty of softened mango slices.

Dreamland ($14.95) was a darker, woodsier dish, due to pungent black mushrooms, and much heavier on the tongue, due to its glutinous cornstarchiness. A twirl of spinach fettuccine, bright with basil, was Munch's favorite thing on the table.

Zen Garden has a menu with a mission: vegetarianism in all forms. Yet heavy sauces and Baroque presentations detract from the freshness of the vegetables.

Munch can't help but sigh a bit that other cities get lovely little green market cafes, while here in Pittsburgh, a metropolis surrounded by endless miles of farmland, our new vegetarian option is every bit as corn syrupy and starchy as P.F. Chang's.

Then again, Munch cracked a fortune cookie and this fell out: "Two small jumps are sometimes bigger than one big leap."

There may be something green and innovative in our future.

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