Home on 8th: Good Vegan Chinese, Check, But...

Brown bagging lunch is usually my preferred way to go, but recently I decided to try Home on 8th, a Chinese restaurant that has a sizable vegan and vegetarian section on their menu. Is it the best Chinese food ever? No. But if you're looking for a quick meal before a show at Madison Square Garden, or you work nearby and are craving Chinese, this an option.

A feast: Tangy Sweet And Sour Soy meat, carrots, peppers, onion and pineapple; brown rice; miso seaweed soup; and two spring rolls, $9.75 for the lunch special.

This place did lose some points for the styrofoam soup bowl and the hard plastic container my meal came in. They have a plain by pleasant enough seating area, and I don't see why reusable dishes can't be used. And styrofoam? I remember being inspired as teenager watching R.E.M.'s 1989 concert for their Green album, captured on my now outdated VHS copy of Tourfilm, when Michael Stipe told an audience member, "That better not be styrofoam, pal." That's my kind of rock star.

What's wrong with plastic and styrofoam? They both take between 500-1000 years to decompose in a landfill, according to GreenMuze. Styrofoam is thought to have the second worst environmental impact behind aluminum production, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

Home on 8th, 391 Eighth Ave., between 29th & 30th St., New York City.