Two Carnivores Walk Into a Vegan Sichuan Joint

Michael Musto, the legendary nightlife and gossip columnist and one of my closest pals, has several reasons for hating vegan food, or more specifically, for hating vegans. “Part of my distaste for vegan food all these years,” he says, “is that I demonize vegans as being holier-than-thou and patronizing about their choices.” I stifle an eye roll as Michael continues. “I sometimes feel like they disapprove of me even if they don’t say so. But in reality, most of them are actually perfectly fine humans.”

I smile at Michael reassuringly and say, “We do disapprove of you.”

Of course, I’m kidding. I’ve been vegetarian for 38 years, after making myself ill with a diet of burgers, fries, and Cokes straight out of Super Size Me. And although I have close friends who are also lifelong vegetarians, I also have BFFs like Michael and style icon Lynn Yaeger, hard-core carnivores that I’ve known and loved for years.

Lynn and I met in the ’90s on the CFDA bus that shuttled fashion editors from show to show during Fashion Week. Despite both being fashion lovers, we are also very different. I love royal history, and Lynn is a left-wing former union negotiator. I’m a cruelty-free vegetarian, and Lynn is a fur-coat-wearing fashion plate whose go-to meal is steak-frites.

We are sitting together for lunch at Spicy Moon. A friend first took me to the restaurant last year and I fell in love with their yummy vegan Sichuan food: fresh, amazingly seasoned, spicy, and delicious. Along with Indochine and Cafe Gitane, it became one of my favorite NYC spots. I had become used to having only a few options to choose from at most restaurants, but at Spicy Moon, I could literally order anything on the menu without worrying whether or not it was veg. Giddy and overwhelmed, I was in vegan-hog heaven. I became friendly with one of the partners, Jo Mee, after I posted about the restaurant a few times on social media. Jo Mee said she’d love for us to do something together, and immediately a lightbulb went on over my head: A lunch for people who say they hate vegan food!

Together, Lynn and Michael are anti-tofu activists of the highest regard, as Lynn will happily tell people. “We were once at this charity dinner, me and Mikey, and the menu said ‘cauliflower steak,’” she begins. I can imagine where this is going. “We were super excited. We thought it was a big steak with cauliflower on top, but, in fact, when it came, it was a cauliflower. We were like, What the hell? Remember that, Michael? That was very upsetting.”

Michael does remember: “I don’t like something pretending to be something else — except for Lynn.”

Lynn explains her friendship with a jewelry-world pal of hers, Michelle, who is vegan. Four times out of five, when they’re having dinner together, they go to non-vegan spots. “With Michelle, we usually make her come with us, and usually she has to order corn on the cob — with no butter!” Lynn chuckles. “There’s nothing for her to eat.” We plant-based eaters all know the trauma of eating a vegetable side dish as our main course at unenlightened restaurants.

Spicy Moon began as a small vegan Sichuan restaurant in the East Village in 2019, founded by June Kwan (who is the mother of Daniel Kwan, one of the Daniels, the filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once; there are those who say June is the inspiration for Michelle Yeoh’s character in that movie). From the word go, the restaurant’s dumplings created a huge splash, and Spicy Moon expanded to a second location in the West Village in 2020. They opened their third location on Bowery in 2023, and one in Chelsea debuted last year. Jo Mee joined the family as a partner in 2021. (She is a proud rescue-pit-bull mom of two and a board member of Korean K9 Rescue who’s on “a mission to advocate for animal rights by offering a delicious, ethically sound alternative that elevates plant-based dining to new heights.”)

At lunch, as we’re chatting, the appetizers start to arrive. Wontons in chile oil are stuffed with mushrooms and spiced pressed tofu and drizzled with the restaurant’s own spicy oil. The carcass-consuming cuties gobble up the wontons, but how could anyone hate a wonton? Next up are chopped-cheese spring rolls, made with vegan beef, onions, peppers, vegan mozzarella, and love. They are another smash. “This is delicious,” Lynn announces with more than a whisper of shock in her voice. “It is just … I find it unbelievable. I just don’t know what to say. Michael?”

“I’ll never eat meat again.” Michael declares. “And all it took was one spring roll!”

Michael is also cuckoo-crazy about the dan dan noodles, warm flour noodles sitting in more of the house chile oil, sweet soy sauce and sesame paste, topped with fermented veggies and scallions. It makes sense that Michael loves them because they’re basically spaghetti in a delicious sesame sauce, and Michael’s late mother was an incredible cook. “I grew up with my mother being the best Italian American cook in history, and even though she did wonderful vegetables including broccoli, eggplant parmesan, and escarole, her specialty was meat,” he remembers. “We started our meals with what she called gravy meats.” Gravy meats, I think to myself. It sounds like a horror movie. Michael continues, “She would literally make retching noises if anyone mentioned Ragú sauce in the bottle at the grocery store. She made her own sauce and would put in sausage meatballs — those are the gravy meats,” Michael laughs, “and that was an appetizer!”

As we’re chatting, the next round of mouth-watering munchables arrives, including some of Spicy Moon’s signature vegetable dishes: sautéed green beans with a touch of dry peppers, crispy Brussels sprouts drizzled with Sichuan peppercorn oil, and steamed asparagus with a traditional black-pepper sauce.

While we chow down on this trio of greenery, Michael reminds me why — even though veggie-first diets are growing in popularity and acceptance in this country — some meat eaters remain stuck in the past: “Can you explain to me like I’m in third grade, what’s the difference between vegan and vegetarian?” he asks Jo Mee.

“Vegan …” she begins, before Lynn jumps in to finish the thought: “… is even worse-tasting than vegetarian.” Jo Mee continues graciously and explains that she’s strict enough to avoid honey and truffles, since both are produced or found with animals.

I start to feel a little nervous as we’re sizing up our main courses, General Tso’s vegan chicken made with seitan and dry pot: mixed veggies and tofu stir-fried and served in a mini sizzling wok. I’m worried because I happen to know that Lynn is particularly dubious around “fake” meats like the seitan chicken. Also, everything we’ve had up to this point were things that could easily be meat-free under normal circumstances. These two main dishes feature vegan substitutes for their star ingredients. But both my guinea pigs are surprised and delighted with how much they enjoy all of the food.

“Let me ask this,” Michael says between bites. “What is the main reason people eat vegetables only? Is it for their own health or is it for concerns about animal cruelty?” Jo Mee explains that she knows vegans who are in it for health reasons, but the main concerns are over animals and the climate. I jump in to add, “Climate-change experts say the two biggest things anyone could do to reverse climate change are to stop eating meat and never buy a car.”

“It’s not for feeling better?” Micahel asks. “That too,” Jo Mee responds. “I do know some people that had health issues and cancer and their doctors said that they should turn plant-based, and it reversed a lot of their issues.”

“I’d rather die eating a steak,” says Michael before he takes another bite of his General Tso’s seitan. It might not be gravy meats, but I consider that last bite a good start to my vegan-haters charm campaign. It’s gratifying to see how quickly some wonton diplomacy can start to win over the hardened carnivores in my life.