Carrotcadabra

Since my raw food adventure I have, ironically, become even more wary of vegetables. See, I was once a vegetarian - and I was a total failure. My indignation after an RSPCA campaign against the terrible suffering of cows lasted until a succulent grilled sausage wooed me back to the dark side.

Still bearing a tinge of carnivore guilt, the suggestion to try out Mrs. Marengo’s, the new take-away venture from the institutional Mildred’s, wasn’t popular. Just last week, I turned down a lunch hamper from Pod because it reminded too much of my raw diets, being entirely organic, vegetarian, and recyclable. (More fool me: apparently it was also delicious.)

On first sight, yes, there are vegetables, and the menu reads like a kind of Sub-Continental dialect I missed a class on. Tofu this, gyoza that. But it’s also cooked. Hooray. And the window is filled with pleasing homemade meringues and cakes, whilst the counter boasts an impressive selection of fresh salads and daily specials.

One Asian stir-fried vegetables over rice noodles and a slice of delicious strawberry cream cake later, and I’m sold. Mrs Marengo? More like Merlin Marengo. Anything that convinces me vegetarian isn’t a complicated form of self-flagellation must be magic.

Mrs. Marengo’s - 53 Lexington Street, W1F 9AN •
020 7287 2544

by MaM

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.