Companion Animal Trust Fundraiser

Saturday, I dined on vegan chow with fellow animal lovers to raise funds for Companion Animal Trust, which rescues and places homeless cats and dogs in the northern New Jersey/New York City area into their forever homes. Run by a guardian angel named Carol, the group also feeds feral cat colonies, and is a strong advocate of a no-kill policy. The dinner was organized by Claudia, who runs my HEARTS for Animals meetup group and fights for various animal rights causes, including elephants abused by Ringling Bros. It never ceases to amaze me how many animal advocates there are. I also believe it is important to give my charitable dollars to local organizations such as this group, in addition to national organizations like Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society.

Dinner was at Su Restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant in Edgewater, New Jersey. While I was disheartened by so much dairy on the menu, I'm still glad that another vegetarian restaurant is now open. I can still count on one hand the number of vegetarian restaurants in northern New Jersey, a stone's throw from New York City.

A sampling of some dishes. To start, yam and yucca fries. Delicious.

Baby spinach salad with battered onions, mangoes and tomatoes. The dressing needs work.

Pad Thai rice noodles. Hard to get this dish wrong, and Su didn't.

One of my dining companions let me sample his Malaysian coconut curry. It was divine.

Mango pudding with banana coconut tapioca pearls. There are only a few vegan options on the dessert menu. This one was very sweet.