By Jill

To paraphrase one of the great works of the American cinema, trying to find a vegan menu at Winterlicious is like searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie. Judging by the vegetarian prix fixe menus offered at the midwinter food fest, we’d think Toronto is wholly clueless about what makes fine veggie cuisine.
This is of course far from true and it’s a shame that some of our favourite veggie establishments are not featured. But how to make the most of the menus presented?
The Winterlicious web site lists restaurants by name, cuisine and neighborhood and features a friendly carrot icon to identify restaurants meant to serve vegetarian fare. The carrot, however doesn’t stand for much. Some restos bearing the symbol clearly believe fish to be a vegetable. Some, like Caju, carry at least one innovative vegetarian option and aren’t marked at all. Still others list both dinner and lunch sittings but only offer vegetarian fodder at one or the other.
If you just happen to have spent your winter so far craving a mixed green salad, followed by pasta and crème brulée for desert, you just might be the luckiest vegetarian in Toronto. Until Thursday, when Winterlicious suddenly stops, its arteries clogged by béchamel, that’s what eateries from steak houses to italian joints to purveyors of fine “Canadian” cuisine are lining up to serve vegetarians. If you’ve been a vegetarian for more than a week, chances are the great epicurean adventure that Winterlicious promises to be will feel like more tagging along behind giddy meat-lovin’ friends. Forget about the thrill of discovery. For vegetarians, there’s not much new about the so-called “choices” offered.
What’s most frustrating is that there’s so much promise lurking beneath all the ricotta and bolognese. Some establishments such as Jump, are known employers of chefs with a talent for vegan cuisine, but their inflexible menus skew towards eggs and meat. Others, such as Tundra take a prime vegan staple like quinoa and stuff it in a fish, or toss ham into lentil soup, then neglect to include a vegetarian dinner option. In too many cases, the flavour is in the fat and the spices are stuffed up the wrong end of some hapless quail or tossed on as an afterthought of garnish.
What to do if beef cheeks ain’t your style? While our vegan diet leaves us in the Winterlicious cold, less strict vegetarians may want to dig into classic French cassoulet and tarte tatin at Provence Delices or head over to Zucca Tratoria for a creative chickpea cream with fresh porcini mushrooms followed by buckwheat noodles with winter greens. A few Italian eateries, like Innocenti win some points for daring to serve gnocchi or risotto where they would have been well within their culinary rights to stick with fusilli primavera.
Unfortunately, at least for this year, while vegetarians chew the fat at tables across the city, vegans will again have to fall back on their finely-honed menu-bargaining skills, forgo the prix fixe, cobble together an alternative meal from appetizer lists or boycott the Winterlicious experience altogether.
A rough chart comparing the vegetarian choices available at Winterlicious, is available here.