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| - Not to brag or anything, but I am kind of a mock meat aficionado. Years ago, I used to quest into the dark soul of Chinatown for vegan Chinese and Vietnamese food at places that don't even exist anymore. White Oak II, Veggie House, none of this overpriced Buddha's FUSIONBECAUSEWEDECIDEDTOPUTMEATONTHEMENU garbage. The lighting would be dingy, the walls would be made of room dividers, and if you asked nice, you could purchase the gluten required to make the stuff at home which I would often do. This was before nice little internet sources like Yelp would tell me where to go, so I would go seeking these places based on word of mouth from friends of friends.
Fast forward to 2012, and Heart's Choice opens up in the CALGARY FARMERS MARKET, which is basically the equivalent to a yuppy farmers market shopping mall. This is a pretty neat little place, and they do all the work for you, so you don't even have to season the fake meats yourself. Thaw, throw it in a pan with some veggies, and you have yourself some classy Chinese/Thai inspired food. They even make some pretty bomb curries that you can buy frozen if you're too lazy to make yer own. Yay! No hard labor in the kitchen, and no animal suffering!
While I was a little irritated at the SURPRISE of patrons, that they could possibly be enjoying something NOT made out of a corpse (hi, it's 2012 you cavemen creeps), I am really happy to see Heart's Choice thrive. The owner and I had a nice chat about the struggles of following a vegetarian diet sometimes in Calgary, and I congratulated her on these awesome products which are winning the hearts of even non-vegetarians. I myself went home with her two recommendations, some ginger "chicken", and black pepper "beef" steaks that I plan to throw into a wok with some Shanghai noodles, carrots, bok choy, and broccoli.
Also, Le's Vietnamese Subs a few rows down makes a killer vegan kungpao chicken sub with some of the proteins sold at Heart's Choice.
*Review 9/30 for Yelp's 30 day challenge 2012
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