Day 23: Turn Any Carnivore Herbivore At Izaka-Ya by Katsu-Ya

Today's vegan bites include:

1.) 16oz. Starbucks coffee with Silk creamer

2.) Strawberries & blueberries (2 cups)

3.) Strawberries & blueberries (1 cup)

4.) Raw cashews (1 cup)

5.) Shishito peppers, miso soup with mushroom, mushroom w/garlic-soy (non-butter), agadeshi tofu, grilled eggplant & a mojito

6.) Frozen rosewater & sweet rice

(117.6lbs, 21.1% body fat)

I nearly died when we walked into Izakaya by Katsuya. Why? Because sushi is one of my favorite foods!! It is right there with pastries and cookies. Both of which smile down at me, side-by-side, my two sources of happiness and all things gleeful.

It was really hard. I sat down and looked at the menu and I've never seen a list of items more beautiful, more perfect, more exquisite--foie gras and kobe beef, yellowtail and scallions, crispy rice & spicy tuna--GOD HELP ME!! And with this particular friend who was with me, we eat and we eat well. And here I am, feeling limited, feeling so, so limited.

Well, I over-ordered to make sure that I'd be physically full, stuffed, to ensure there physically would be no room for me to satisfy a craving. I'll stuff my face and stuff my face and stuff my face so I'd be so full and borderline in pain, that I physically would be unable to have anything non-vegan. I wasn't worried about the enjoyment part. I was going to stuff myself to capacity because that's the only way I could possibly see me pass on anything non-vegan here.

They had a fairly extensive vegetarian menu but not many vegan options. The restaurant did offer to turn any vegetarian dish into a vegan dish. Huh? How, or even, why, would you do that? Butter seems to be the primary ingredient of these vegetarian dishes. Why would you remove it? If you replace the butter, it won't be the dish that the chef created. Exchange pork medallions with grilled vegetables, okay. Replace chicken with tofu, all right. But take the butter out of a butter-based dish?! Huh? How? What? Why? It'll be a whole 'nother dish, completely unrelated to what it was originally. And I don't want to screw with that.

Anyhow, everything, everything I ordered was to die for!! Particularly the agadeshi tofu. I've had it elsewhere but here it was ridiculous. A light touch of crispiness on the outside and a soft, buttery inside. With a slightly sweet sauce. Needless to say, I lost my mind over the deliciousness of my vegan selections. Lost it!!

So here's the secret and it's nothing new: Don't go anywhere starving because your cravings will kick in and you'll eat the whole house down. Like they say, don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry because you'll buy things you normally wouldn't. So no rocket-science here. Just the practical basic.

And good god, this place sure knows what they're doing. I loved them for their sushi and carpaccios and pretty much everything. And now, I freakin' lose my mind for their vegan options.