Tell Me More About This Vegan Hoagie

Right, so anyway, after the show last weekend, I and my compadres (Zandar and his brother) stopped into the South Philadelphia Taproom for some post-show vittles. I was fricking starving from having eaten (and subsequently not held down) three Fritos all day. Being pretty determined to enjoy a feast of mammoth proportions (no mammoth on the menu, unfortunately), I started rifling through the menu and compulsively ordering anything that struck my fancy.


I ordered some wild boar tacos that were really damn good. It's possible that these might otherwise appear on a menu as "pulled pork tacos" but let's not split hairs. I'm sure they put some really wild basil or something on it.


Following that I looked at their sandwich section, and they had a really appetizing-looking burger that had a six-or-seven-word description, uh hang on...here it is: "100% LOCAL GRASS-FED BEEF BACON CHEESEBURGER" How does that grab you, carnivores?


And yet, there, above it, was a modest two-word offering: "VEGAN HOAGIE". Underneath, in italics, the ingredients were listed as "grilled tempeh, marinated mushrooms and tofu mayo". Yeah, I really wanted that burger. But fresh after that awesome show, and shaking hands with the inspiration for this madness, I guess I figured that maybe I should catch a glimpse of the kind of grub that awaited me a couple months down the road. Plus, what the hell is tempeh, or tofu mayo for that matter?"


I ordered it with a side of macaroni and cheese, which I suspected might raise an eyebrow or two. Sure enough, when bringing it out, the food runner did ask me whether I was aware that cheese wasn't vegan. A conversation grew out of this, in which she explained that she herself had been a vegan for years. What brought her back? A hot dog stand in a Home Depot. Inspired, I also ordered a hot dog. It wasn't that good.


As for the hoagie? Not bad, I'd have to say. The tempeh kind of impressed me as lightly-fried cornmeal (Wikipedia tells me it's cake-ified soybeans). The tofu mayo was, frankly, indistinguishable from real mayo (which I admittedly rarely eat anyway). A recipe online says it's made from silken tofu, white vinegar, salt, dry mustard, and sugar. I didn't finish the whole thing but that's because I was totally stuffed by that point, and a shame it is because they had a nice-looking dessert menu.


Oh and hey, last post featured a pic of the Rocky Run. Here's a video of same! So sad I missed out.