La Madre Tierra

At first, I thought that hipster vegetarian restaurants could only be found in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boulder, and other similar cities in the United States. It turns out I was wrong. One of the most uppity of all the uppity vrgetarian restaurants is right here in modest Toledo, Spain. When I studied here two years ago, my friends and I walked past the restaurant La Madre Tierra many times. We, or at least I, always wondered how it stayed afloat since nearly every table in the establishment was empty. This was the case no matter what time of day we passed by. That does not seem to have changed since I was here last. When I say that La Madre Tierra had a snooty atmosphere, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Immediately upon stepping through the doors, we were greeted with a stronger smell of incense than you'd find in a stoner's house. The soundtrack provided for our listening pleasure was composed entirely of Enya songs. Everything from the walls to the placemats to the waiter's skin-tight jeans (which left very little to the imagination) were the same shade of melon orange. The aforementioned waiter left us unattended to a far greater degree than should ever be acceptable, even in Europe. When he did find the time to stop by, he seemed extremely put out. Despite these "quirks", however, I must admit that the food was fantastic. I ordered the lasagna with soy cheese, my father had the veggie burger, and after being informed that we each had to order an entree (my mother and I had originally intended to share the lasagna), my mother ordered the salad. The quality of the food almost made up for the 45 minutes that we had to wait for it.