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| - THE MENU: There isn't a menu per se since this place is buffet style . Buffets have such a bad rep, because we immediately think of Mandarin Chinese Restaurants that are teeming with fried foods. Not here. Commensal is a vegetarian buffet that also offers gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free menu items. There are 3 sections: Hot Buffet (chili, lasagna, tofu, stirfries, etc), a Cold Buffet (salads, fresh veggies) and Dessert Buffet (cakes, cookies, puddings). Each buffet item is labelled to make the experience a breeze for any with food restrictions.
MY ORDER: I started with my usual pre-scanning of all the choices, scoping out those with the "GF" label. You want to make sure you know what's on the buffet menu so you can leave enough room for everything you want to try. Tonight my stomach and I didn't have the patience to scan all the buffet items. We wanted some food. Now! So I randomly started scooping anything that caught my eye into my takeout container.
I know many people who prefer their foods compartmentalized into individual sections, and are probably cringing at the sight of my meal. As you can tell, I'm not particularly anal about different foods touching each other. My hot veggies are spilling onto my cold lentil salad. And the curry sauce is starting to blend with the tomato-based ratatouille. It's all the same to me. Won't look much better once it's in our belly:)
Lentil Salad - This was one of many prepared salad options. Potato salad, bean salad, grain salads, beet and apple salad. I could go on and on. Lentils were my choice because they are high in iron and being anemic, my naturopath suggested I eat more of them.
Steam Veggies - I love that the veggies are lightly cooked. They aren't boiled to death and don't fall apart when you touch them.
Ratatouille - This is a wonderful blend of stewed eggplant, bell peppers, onions, and other veggies in a thick tomato sauce. This was a staple while growing up so I always gravitate to it when I'm here.
Tofu Curry - I'm a saucy person and Commensal offers a good variety of saucy dishes like curries, stews, chilis. Some with seitan (a wheat protein), others with tofu or simply veggies. The one thing they're lacking is tempeh (fermented soy that's better for you). I'll have to look into this.
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