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"Surrender to the experience" of vegan Polish food at Apteka

"Surrender to the experience" of vegan Polish food at Apteka
That's three all day. Just one potato from. Right. I think ***, is *** strange experience for *** lot of people in the sense that like, even if you know, polish food and you know what *** vegetable is and like, you're gonna walk in here and like the menus have been polish and it smells weird because we just smoked the place out with spruce branches from last year's Christmas decorations that are drying in the back and the music's *** little funky and like the whole thing I am, we don't do table service. So it's like all these things I think are pretty normal for *** restaurant all of *** sudden are like creating new expectations for what somebody was planning for whenever they showed up. And with that, I think like *** lot of people just surrender to the experience of like being in this like new thing and eating things that they don't really know what they are and just like pointing on the menu and being like, oh, I will have this, I don't believe in human exceptionalism. I think like we live in *** small world with *** lot of intelligent life. You know, being vegan isn't like the perfect solution to that, but I think it helps minimize some of that harm that humans cause uh I'm just candying some hazelnuts. I, I got some hazelnuts. I'm just gonna candy in *** little bit of sugar. Not so much so that it's uh it's hard to bite through and that's just gonna be the crunch in our ice cream dish right now. It's gonna be *** chocolate sorbet and some flour milk ice cream. I think you gotta remember. You can't make something out of nothing. I, I think you gotta have good ingredients. I think you have to be thoughtful about what you're cooking from. It doesn't magically turn delicious like you kind of have to have something tasty along the way. In most cases, you're not just gonna suddenly turn around and the dish is gonna be tasting great. Like you kind of gotta work for it. You gotta gotta taste and be mindful along the way. *** is like *** complete collaboration between Kate and myself. I think we both are eager to collaborate and we want to collaborate fully. So *** set up in *** really interesting way where we work on everything together and we do it not out of obligation but out of like AAA desire. It's like pressing spell check. I don't know, you just wanna have no mistakes uh or it's maybe something more beautiful than that. We have *** partnership that allows us to really explore food together, basically every single dish, like we're talking out as two people and like bringing ideas together. And *** lot of times like shooting them down and saying like, this isn't gonna work or I see this differently, but it's like *** 100% collaboration on like how food happens here. If we make *** dish, like the other person's trying it the whole way and giving feedback and like ideas. So it's just, it's, it's kind of just *** different style I think than other places. *** kate and tama. And I, we talk *** lot about how things that I'm growing are being used. I come with *** lot of ideas about the crops I'm growing and how to use them and like how they're used traditionally, like what kind of recipes and stuff like that. So there's *** lot of discussion between *** and myself about, you know, I have this particular green. How is this used? How can they use it and stuff like that? Me giving them samples and them thinking about it. It's like *** lot of ner out about really specific varieties of, of things and I want to work more to like give them the things that are cool that are not available here that I'm excited about and they're excited about using, oh Honker. Are they all this size? Uh The ones you get could be, these are right. People talk about working with farms but working with farms is really not that easy in Pittsburgh, but, but we're really committed to it like all the time trying to be like more and more organic, more and more, less waste and more honest and more, you know, real deal, whether it's the wine producers that we pull, who are trying the same thing or, you know, or using *** product from someone like Jodo, you know, who are trying to do something special and trying to do something really well. And I think that that drives *** lot of the culinary kind of mission of ***.
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"Surrender to the experience" of vegan Polish food at Apteka
Apteka is a vegan eastern European restaurant in the city's Bloomfield neighborhood. It's gotten some national attention, including being named one of the 50 best restaurants in America by the New York Times last year. Co-owner Katy Lasky says being vegan "helps minimize some of that harm that humans cause." That along with other aspects of the restaurant — including menus "half in Polish" and "funky" music" — prompt customers to "surrender to the experience." Watch the deliciousness unfold in the video player above.What is Very Local?Very Local is a streaming app where you can watch local news, original series and more. Keep connected to your hometown with the news team you trust and discover original series and specials that explore your community and beyond. Very Local, from WTAE-TV parent Hearst Television, is available free on all mobile, tablet and connected TV devices.

Apteka is a vegan eastern European restaurant in the city's Bloomfield neighborhood. It's gotten some national attention, including being named one of the 50 best restaurants in America by the New York Times last year.

Co-owner Katy Lasky says being vegan "helps minimize some of that harm that humans cause." That along with other aspects of the restaurant — including menus "half in Polish" and "funky" music" — prompt customers to "surrender to the experience."

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Watch the deliciousness unfold in the video player above.

What is Very Local?

Very Local is a streaming app where you can watch local news, original series and more. Keep connected to your hometown with the news team you trust and discover original series and specials that explore your community and beyond.

Very Local, from WTAE-TV parent Hearst Television, is available free on all mobile, tablet and connected TV devices.