Now, let’s be honest here – I hadn’t eaten many donairs before I became a vegetarian at the age of 13, so I never really had a chance to miss them. And while I did go back to eating chicken and fish for a few years in my mid/late twenties, donairs still wouldn’t have been on my menu. But I do have fond memories of them from my childhood in Nova Scotia – friends and family would order them and I’d order some garlic fingers or a vegetarian sub. The smell of the donairs was just awesome and I sometimes wished there was a vegetarian version for me to try.

So tonight I made Sheryl’s vegatarian version, and I have to say it was quite awesome. The sauce recipe was better than the one that I’ve used before as garlic finger dipping sauce, and the ‘meat’ was super flavourful. I did right by the donair by using plain old tomato and yellow onion, but admittedly I did use whole wheat pita. A correct version would have used plain white pita, preferably the more ‘Greek’ style (slightly thicker and often made without a pocket).

How did it all taste? It was awesome. I’d make it again in a heartbeat. If you’d like to make it too, go check out the recipe over here.

A search on Happy Cow turned up a decent list of veggie-friendly places, including this gem, called The Wooden Monkey.

The Wooden Monkey has been open since the summer of 2004. Housed in an old stone building on a fairly tourist-y bar and restaurant strip, their concept is good food based on local, organic, fresh ingredients, with a focus on healthy dishes. This isn’t to say that the entire menu is healthy, of course, but rather that they don’t deep fry, they don’t slather everything with oil, cream or butter, and they offer alternatives for vegans and those on a gluten-free diet.

Upon entering you’re greeted with a cute bar that has at least a dozen different monkeys around it – monkey pictures, monkey statues, monkey trinkets. It sounds pretty silly, but it’s really a lot of fun, and the pieces they’ve chosen blend in well with the rest of the decor – a nice wood bar, simple wood tables and chairs, clean white plates, and your standard glassware.

The menu contains a lot of comfort foods cooked in a healthier way. They’ve got burgers, sandwiches, pastas, soups, and other bistro type fare. They also have a fully stocked bar and several local beers on tap, including ones from Garrison and from Propeller.

Rich started with the vegetable rolls, which were rice paper rolls filled with vegetables and served with a mildly spicy peanut dipping sauce. My starter was the Japanese dumplings, filled with vegetables and tofu and served with a chili sauce. We both enjoyed our starters and found the portions to be reasonable.

Rich’s main was the fish and roasties, which is their healthier version of fish and chips. His fish was flaky and delicious, with a crispy exterior. The roasties are a good substitute for french fries – roasted potato wedges with olive oil, herbs and spices. They’re just salty and just crunchy enough to take the edge off any salt cravings you might be having. My main was their lentil burger, served on a pita made in-house with honey mustard mayo and some of those roasties. I found the burger had good flavour, but I didn’t love the bun. I think if we’re ever there again, I might ask for a more traditional bun, if they happen to have something of that sort available.

For dessert we shared their most popular item – chocolate tofu pie with a cinnamon, walnut and almond crust. The pie is non-dairy and vegan, as long as you ask for it without whipped cream; as you can see from the photo, we got ours with the whipped cream. It was delicious, and I’d happily order it again any time.

Other than the food, the real highlight of the place was our server, Matt. He was very well-versed in the menu contents, and a quick conversation with him determined he’d been a professional server for a few years; the evening we were there, Hurricane Kyle hit Nova Scotia, and he mentioned that he was working at another restaurant the night that Hurricane Juan hit back in 2003. His experience and knowledge were also evident as Rich discussed beer with him. That was our first evening in Halifax, and we had not yet learned about the local breweries. Matt was quick to tell us about the merits of some of the offerings from Garrison vs Propeller, including a discussion of IBUs (International Bitterness Units, or in other words, how ‘hoppy’ the beer is) . He even gave us a small sample of Garrison’s IPA, which has won awards for the last two years at the Canadian Brewing Awards. Nice.

I do have one small bone to pick with the place, though. Their menu is very vegan and gluten-free friendly, I don’t dispute that, but their labelling of vegan items isn’t as good as it should be. All items that are vegan are supposed to be marked with a ‘V’, however, there are items that clearly are not vegan, as they contain cheese or mayo. The reality is that those items aren’t usually vegan as written, but you can request that they be made vegan, and the chef is more than happy to do so for you.

Even with the small snags, we still highly recommend this place!

The Wooden Monkey – 1685 Argyle Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia – (902)444.3844. Dinner for two with drinks and dessert, $80. http://www.thewoodenmonkey.ca/

On Sunday, we left the Valley for Halifax, just in time for Hurricane Kyle to hit Nova Scotia.  Very unfortunate timing for our trip, but at least it did no where near the damage of Hurricane Juan a few years earlier.  It did make for some pretty empty streets and very windy conditions, so we hunkered down in local favourite pub The Old Triangle for drinks and some good old Maritime Music.

Both mornings we were in Halifax we went to an awesome cafe for coffee and breakfast.  When we first saw the sign for The Wired Monk, we figured the name had something to do with the place having internet access available.  Of course, that was pretty silly of us to assume – who has wired internet access in a cafe, anyway?  In fact, the name comes from the story of a monk who discovered coffee beans and how after he brewed them with water he found they gave him energy to get through late night prayer. Huh.

It also turns out this place is a franchise, with Halifax being the only one outside of British Columbia.  Honestly, I never would have guessed, as I found the place to have a very indie cafe feel, with funky decorations by local artists and hand-labelled signs for their food and beverages.

A big selling point for The Wired Monk is that all of their coffee and tea is fair trade.  For those of us in Toronto, that’s not such a big deal, since fair trade products are available almost everywhere these days. But for folks in Halifax, where fair trade is far less common, a place like this is a welcome addition to the city.

While we were there we tried cappuccinos and americanos.  Their cappuccinos are a bit on the wet side, but then, most places in North America make them that way.  Their americanos are quite nice, and not at all bitter.  And the food?  We stuck to the baked goods because we were usually pressed for time but also because they looked so darn tasty!  The chocolate banana scone I had on our first morning was extremely good and very filling.  I probably could have saved half of it for a snack later in the day.  The apple rolls we had on the second day were lightly sweet and also quite filling.  Sure, they were probably also 200 calories per bite, but hey, we were on vacation.

If you’re in Halifax and want to check them out, The Wired Monk is at the corner of Morris and Hollis, not far from the Via Rail station.

More Halifax-related posts coming soon!