Places Where You Can Get A Healthy Helping These Vegetarian Restaurants Use Grains, Meat Substitutes And, Of Course, Plenty Of Produce In Their Dishes. They're All Over. One Is Even At A Septa Suburban Rail Station.

You can eat well in Philadelphia and not kill a single living thing (well, maybe an azuki). You can trust me on this: I'm not a vegetarian. In fact, I love hoagies, cheesesteaks, barbecued chicken, mesquite-grilled breast of wallaby and pan-blackened spotted owl in a light lemon sauce. I think organic brown rice is for cultists. I think tofu is for sissies. And I think gluten is to a meal what AstroTurf is to baseball.

But many of my friends have become vegetarians, either to protect their health or to salve their consciences. Where to dine with them is a complicated issue. Sure, plenty of restaurants offer non-meat dishes, and even alternative vegetarian menus, though it's a trifle awkward to be putting away a honey- roasted boar's leg au poivre while your dinner partner's eating bean curd. Many vegetarians prefer to eat in vegetarian restaurants and, even if they're

pains in the neck, it's kind to accommodate them occasionally.

So, carrying a carnivorous chip on my shoulder, I recently embarked on a grand tour of every known vegetarian restaurant in the region. For the purposes of this exercise, I ruled out places that served any meat or poultry, though I left in restaurants that had seafood on the menu, since people who avoid meat for health reasons often include fish in their diets. I expected to find primitive food stalls run by tofu-crazed gurus - and I did. But I also found some decent places where I didn't miss the meat.

What I did miss was a cold beer. None of these restaurants serve alcohol. Many do ban smoking, or at least provide a decent non-smoking section. I also discovered that many don't take reservations (or credit cards), and tend to be cheaper than their flesh-serving competitors.

EASTERN CUISINE

CHERRY STREET CHINESE VEGETARIAN. In the film My Favorite Year, Mark Linn- Baker says, "Jews know two things: Suffering and good Chinese food." The certification by Rabbi Moshe Saks that Cherry Street's food is kosher therefore stands as an imprimatur beyond religious stricture. Cherry Street is indeed the best of Chinatown's three vegetarian restaurants, with imaginative, flavorful dishes served inexpensively in a pleasant, shoe-box-shaped dining room.