Shira Kiku Korean: Fab Food & Welcoming to Vegans

I love my vegan eatin’, but I will admit it is hard to go back to some of my favorite restaurants and try to find things on the menu that are vegan or veganizable. We can go to vegan-friendly places, but that can get a little boring for a meat eater like Husband. As an aside, I love the new words that can be created for vegans.  Veganize. Veganizing. Veganizable. That English degree sure is coming in handy!

Husband and I LOVE the Korean food and Sushi at Shira Kiku in Nashua.  Of the two of us, only Husband has been to Korea.  He dug the stone pots with rice and veggies and the little dishes of pickled goodness.  If he hadn’t tried it, I don’t know if I ever would have been brave enough to try kimchi.  I’m so glad I did!

The lady who runs Shira Kiku is so sweet.  Every time we wolf down the kimchi she brings us, she seems so pleased and surprised that we did. Tonight was date night and, partly because of some work-related digestive issues, I was craving Korean food.  Kimchi is fermented so it is rife with healthy bacteria for your digestive system. In addition to all the little mini dishes of kimchi, scallion pancakces, tofu, potatoes, and sweet radishes, I ordered the Kimchi stew with pork, veggies, and tofu but asked for no pork.  Meanwhile, Husband got a spicy pork dish.  No pictures, sorry, we forgot the camera.  BUT!  Later on, the already great meal got even better so Husband busted out his iPhone for posterity.

After we were full of cabbage and rice and spice and other good things, the chef stopped by our table to ask how we liked the food.  He kidded me about not liking pork (last time we were there, he kidded me about ordering an extra dish of his mom’s spicy kimchi) and I explained to him that I’m a vegan.  THAT was when the fun began!  Rob, the chef, is a terrific guy. He immediately told me that I should have told him I was a vegan because he could do any dish I wanted vegan-style.  I thanked him and thought we would definitely be back next week to put his offer to the test.  Little did we know while we were finishing up our tea and paying our bill, Rob had a treat in store for us:

Sweet Potato Sushi

This was incredible!  I’ve never had vegan sushi before (I think the only veggie sushi I’ve had are California rolls, but those have cream cheese in them and I think they’re kind of icky).  Rob proceeded to sit down with us and go over the entire menu and listed the different vegan sushi selections already featured on the menu and the modifications he could make to the Korean dishes for me.  He mentioned one of the other people dining in the restaurant was gluten-sensitive, so he makes special dishes for her all the time. He even knew her by name.

For awesome service, for incredible food and for being so willing to make wonderful food for vegans and no-gluten peeps, I encourage everyone to try Shira Kiku.  If you’re nervous about the more exotic dishes, there are plenty of stir fries and Pad Thai type dishes to try that aren’t intimidating.  In my pre-vegan days, I had the sashimi and fish sushi and it’s super fresh and delicious. I asked Rob how he learned all of his sushi skillz and he told me he got it all from his Dad — a sushi chef of 47 years who works in Boston. It’s a family gig for sure! Meat lovers will certainly find amazing morsels of animal here as well — Korean’s ain’t famous for their barbeque for nuthin’.

I was sort of sad I was so full of Kimchi stew, because I wanted to giddy-up on some of that vegan sushi.  Oh well, the next date night is just a week away!

Peace,

E.

PS.  The kimchi?  Took care of what ailed me.  Bless the Koreans for this magical tummy elixr!