Vegetarian Restaurant by Hakim North Miami

I get into Opa Locka airport the other day in North Miami and I'm panicked.  I don't know why I'm so afraid of being without food because one look at me and you know I could miss a meal or two.  I'm just speaking theoretically here.  I don't think I actually have missed a meal.  Maybe some suppressed childhood memory of being threatened with having to go to bed without dinner.  I dunno.

I'm panicked because I have, ... oh, like 90 minutes.  I borrow a crew car and on the way I call up Hakim and order a Seitan Philly Cheese Sub.  He originally suggested a Curried "Chicken" with coconut rice.  I'd have preferred the entree but one bump and I'm wearing a turmeric tinged 4 stripes on my arm so I went with the sandwich.  Less stress.  Less drippage.

Nice new sign.  No problem figuring out what this place is now!

It was Hakim's 2nd (I think) Anniversary and I was given a piece of vegan (of course) carrot cake.  I love starting a meal with dessert.  If you die in the middle of the meal you already ate the most important dish.  

The carrot cake was moist and ginger-y.  It was of course vegan but brought in from another off site bakery.  Ah Hakim, it's carrot cake.  You can do it!

Now look at this menu.  You should click on it to enlarge it because you don't want to miss one mouth watering bit of drool.  Oh, not drooling?  Imagine this place is around the corner from you.

I am a sucker for patties.  I love the veggie patties from Georges Jamaican Bakery in Baldwin NY (off the menu last time I went in there and now, years later, I wonder if they used butter back then).

Here of course I don't have to worry about butter or any other crap in my patty.  So I get one of each, (of course).  I wasn't a great big fan of the ackee but loved the spinach and potato.  (Or is it the other way around?)

I don't remember now which was which but the green one wasn't my favorite.  It tasted like very very well cooked greens.  The other was a potato based filling.

The bread is the most perfect bread for this sandwich, perfect density to filling shmoosh ratio.
But, it could use a bunch more seitan.

This seitan is heavenly.  It is just the right texture; not too dry or too wet.  It is just the right amount of moist, not like a matzoh ball), yet firm enough that the bread needs to be held down and the seitan ripped away with your teeth.  That and the creaminess of the cheese.  And the taste, man this is hearty and delicious.

And yes, I made it back in 90 minutes!