Vegan Hills proves virtues of fresh, mindful eating

Food writers are prone to overeating rich, fatty foods, so a day at rest for me often means retreating to the basics of hummus and crudites, or a homemade chicken soup with kale. Or friends will call and suggest going out for healthful food.

The question is, where? I am always on the lookout for food that won’t send me to an early grave. There are so few options that after running through a shortlist that fails to excite, we give up and inevitably somebody suggests the opposite of our intent, like, “Let’s eat Mexican!” or “Let’s get burgers!”

So much for willpower.

One of our saviors is Megumi Odin, who opened the vegetarian restaurant Peace Cafe about seven years ago. She sold the restaurant in 2013 to focus on the strict protocols of presenting shojin ryori (Buddhist temple cuisine) in a series of Satori Hawaii pop-ups at the Soto Academy on Nuuanu Avenue.

The events delivered plenty of food for thought. In Buddhist belief, mealtime rituals are intended to allow a diner to pause and express gratitude for the meal, considered a gift of nature. You are asked to consider whether you are even worthy of this food, something most of us take for granted given the repetitive, somewhat tedious nature of feeding ourselves every day.

Odin wanted eventually to return to the commercial arena to introduce these beliefs and values to a wider audience, and now she’s back with Vegan Hills, next door to the First Hawaiian Bank at the top of Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki. There, her aim is to deliver what she describes as “a taste of nirvana, inner peace, light and bliss.”

That’s quite a tall order. I don’t know how many are on the path to finding nirvana through food, but at a time when people are beginning to question the safety of our food sources, many will appreciate Odin’s devotion to offering fresh, non-GMO and mostly organic vegan meals.

Odin considers veganism to be the most ethical way of eating because it is based on values of nonviolence, kindness and compassion for all living creatures. Dabbling in veganism on occasion might assuage the guilt of meat eaters on their own paths to enlightenment. The food at Vegan Hills may well convince them it is possible to go meatless in delicious ways.

The Vegan Hills dining room is spare, with a minimalist Zen aesthetic inspired by the Japanese notion of wabi-sabi, or natural, unadulterated beauty.

The same aesthetic permeates the menu, where greens in their unadulterated glory are presented alongside dishes reflecting a mix of Western and Asian influences, as well as macro­biotic, ayurvedic, raw and Taoist medicine traditions based on energy flow and food’s contribution to yin-yang balance.

Those with food issues might note that Vegan Hills meals are gluten-free, made without onions or garlic and minimal condiments in order to maximize nutrition and the natural flavors of produce used. Odin also uses no cane sugar. When needed, she uses spare amounts of maple syrup or coconut sugar.

Newbies might start with dishes most like their mainstream counterparts, such as the Red Hot Chili Bowl ($15), Coco Cove Singapore-style curry ($17) and Why Not Chos ($14), nachos featuring organic corn chips layered with organic black beans, tomato, avo­cado and a few jalapenos, then drizzled with a creamy cashew sauce. If you happen to order the chili bowl, it doesn’t hurt to add some of the chili onto the nachos. The chili isn’t really “red hot” but it packs enough flavor and heft with the beans that I didn’t miss the meat associated with many other chili bowls.

The yellow-coconut curry of Coco Cove is served with silky rice noodles, organic vegetables, tofu and meaty-textured baked organic oyster mushrooms. It’s a dish you might want to share with a friend because of its richness, a good reminder that vegan and vegetarian food is not necessarily diet fare, as ingredients such as coconut milk and nut sauces are not low in fat. Because the dishes are plant-based, you may feel a false sense of security that it’s OK to indulge, more so than when eating meat. It’s not.

Those with a taste for Indian cuisine will be drawn to Nirvana ($16), an ayurvedic-style dal curry on brown rice with a side salad of organic mixed greens.

What intrigued me most was the vegan lox ($16), a sesame bagel topped with a salmon-like pate of hummus and paprika, and an organic tofu ricotta. Topped with the orange of carrot, plus lox accompaniments of capers and dill, it was a trompe l’oeil accomplishment for both eye and palate.

The most hardcore of eaters are those of the macrobiotic set, who adhere to a diet of mostly brown rice and vegetables from land and sea. The Satori bowl ($19) is made for this small subset of diners. In it, brown rice is layered with organic mixed greens, sauteed turnip greens, ume-infused beets, hijiki seaweed and baked organic oyster mushrooms. This turned out to be one of my favorite dishes, with a yuzu-miso dressing that brightened the ingredients. It also comes with a cup of soul-satisfying wakame soup.

Similar effort goes into such dairy-free and reduced-sugar desserts as a cashew-based key lime pie and my favorite, a lemon-poppyseed cake topped with coconut cream.

Hours are odd for now, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., inconvenient for those unable to get away mornings and at lunch time — virtually everyone who works outside of Kaimuki — but plans are in the works to open for dinner this summer, when a liquor license will allow Odin to offer food pairings with organic wines. Looking forward to it.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser.

Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.