This was a bunch of pre-made ingredients I picked up at Whole Foods and then put together to make a fast and yummy meal.

The rice and beans is a tasty mix that also has some kombu seaweed in it. Over this we’ve got some chunks of smoky flavored baked tofu. This was then topped with a delicious cilantro and pumpkin seed vegan pesto and a healthy sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Quick and easy because it was too hot to cook anything, as well as healthy and relatively low calorie so that I can pretend that I’m sticking to my diet.

I’ve been wanting to attend the tofu festival since I’d first heard of it years ago and last weekend I got my chance. I can’t say that I was overwhelmed by it’s greatness, I was expecting something better. My favorite point was getting to catch about 5 minutes of the Taiko group playing their amazing drums.

It was super hot and sunny out and there is nowhere along the few festival blocks to get away from the sun and into the shade. Couple this with the fact that the festival was packed, and closed off on both sides so that everyone is stuffed into the middle of a narrow street filled with booths on both sides.

For a festival all about tofu I expected more… uh, tofu. And food in general. But the focus didn’t seem to be on the food, with just as many vendor stalls as there was food. Many of the booths had nothing for vegans or even vegetarians, and some of those that did only had unappetizing options. A lot of what I saw just didn’t look tasty or in any way unique. On the other hand, there were a few places that did have stuff that looked really good, but all of those places had super long lines, where you would get stuck standing in the middle of everyone’s walk way on this packed street, with the sun beating down on you. Not my idea of fun. Even though it wasn’t chaotic and everyone (including myself) seemed to be having a pleasant enough time, I still felt that it wasn’t laid out well from a space planning perspective (it felt quite claustrophobic in there), and it wasn’t well organized either in regards to the food options and ways of getting it.

That said, here are some pictures of what I did get to try:

This was the “Vegan Sweet Potato Pie with Tofu Cream” from A New Way of Life Cafe. This was my favorite of everything I tasted at the festival, it was quite delicious. I want more.

House Foods of America were one of the sponsors of the event, this one above came from their booth. First off was the “Honey Orange Tofu”. It was pretty good but nothing special. Generic Chinese food restaurant sort of flavor. Next to this dish you’ll see the (non-alcoholic) “Mock Tofu Margarita”. I tell you, this was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted, and trust me, I’ve eaten some weird shit in my time. It was so gross! You’ve all seen the sorts of things I eat, you know I have eclectic tastes and appetites and am open minded when it comes to food. This though… this was just wrong. I took two sips of it and threw the thing away with disdain. They basically took Margarita mix and blended some plain soft tofu into it, at least that’s what it tasted like to me. I don’t know if there was anything else in there such as soy milk maybe, but whatever was or wasn’t in it, that was just a bad idea that should have never seen the light of day.

This was the last thing I got to try, anything else that looked good had at least a half-hour line in front of it. From Curry House this is the “Tofu Keema Curry Rice”. It was very tasty, a thick Japanese style curry over tofu, vegetables and white rice. Came served with hardboiled egg which I declined. They also had iced barley tea which I love and theirs was very good. I should learn to make it at home.

So yeah, I rode the subway (an adventure unto itself), ate some tofu and got a bit too much sun. Oh, and I also walked over to Olvera Street and had a fresh sweet corn tamale filled with pineapple (not pictured) which was way better than anything at the festival. I probably wouldn’t go to the tofu festival again but it was nice to get out of the house. Plus I just read on LAist website that this may have been the last year for the festival because they didn’t bring in enough money. That’s a bummer because even though I didn’t fall in love with the food, after all it is a festival all about tofu, and than in and of itself is pretty damn cool.

I feel somewhat silly labelling this as “raw” mainly because I’m not a raw foodist, just someone who happens to eat plenty of food that just happens to also be raw.

The salad consists of chopped carrots, fennel bulb, tomato, baked flavored tofu, chickpeas and fresh basil. I added in a few splashes of Bragg’s “Healthy Vinaigrette”, lemon juice and couple dashes of black pepper. I guess it doesn’t qualify as raw now that I think of it, considering the tofu. Either way, it was a cool and refreshing dinner on a hot and humid SoCal night.

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Here are two very different pasta dishes I recently cooked up.

This first one began as a saute of fresh organic zucchini, fennel and garlic. The pesto was made with a whole bunch of basil leaves, sun-dried tomatoes, cashews, lemon juice, olive oil and dehydrated garlic bits (I like their garlicky crunch). The whole shebang was mixed with brown rice pasta.

This next pasta plate involved spelt pasta noodles and a saute of asparagus, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, fennel (can you sense a theme?), grilled seitan and a lovely organic heirloom tomato. Seasoned to taste with lemon juice, rice vinegar, black pepper and oregano.

The “Power of Green” salad currently on the Hugo’s specials menu pretty much rocked my world.

Check it out: “Chopped spinach, green chard, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, organic dried cherries and avocado. Served with toasted sunflower seeds and a Matcha green tea honey herb dressing”. I had it with their fantastic grilled tofu. Note that honey is not vegan so if you don’t eat it you’ll want to have this with a different dressing.

The vegetables all had a perfect texture, still crispy but not tough or woody. The star of the salad was the amazing Matcha dressing which was both very flavorful and yet still subtle and light, letting the flavors of the individual vegetables and the tart-sweet cherries to come through.

This was so great, tastier than it looks in the picture actually. I was riding a nice green chlorophyll rush for the rest of the day.

Here’s a tasty vegan lunch I had a few weeks ago at Real Food Daily in West Hollywood.

I was enticed by the menu and the hot weather to order the soup of the week, “Cool as a Cucumber”, a cold cucumber soup with fresh dill. It was simple, light and refreshing. Plus I got to eat flowers and that’s always cool.

This was the Tofu Wrap which involves “herbed tofu, vegetables and sun-dried tomato pesto in a spinach tortilla”. The presentation was rather sparse with nothing else on the big plate other than the wrap, but aesthetics aside, it was hearty and tasty.

I made this one up as I went along and it came out fantastic. It went something like this…

First I started heating up some olive oil and crushed garlic (one large clove). Then I added in chopped red bell pepper, chopped “baby bella” mushrooms and roughly chopped artichoke hearts (from a can, drained and rinsed) along with some lemon juice and rice vinegar. As the pepper started to soften I added in one tub worth of crumbled super-firm tofu. As this cooked I also added in some sun-dried tomatoes (these had been soaked in warm water first for about 15 minutes, then chopped up), fresh basil, yellow curry powder, coriander, black pepper and cayanne pepper. I let this cook until most of the liquid had been soaked up and the tofu had just started to brown around the edges.

This was so quick and easy to make, and every bit as tasty as something that would get served at a restaurant. Don’t be afraid to make your own version of tofu scramble, throw in whatever you’ve got on hand, season to your liking (may I suggest curry?) and there you have it: dinner! Or breakfast, or what have you…

I’ve neglected you. It’s been a difficult time. And during such difficult times, what makes things better (for a short while at least) than comfort foods? Nothing. Diet taboos to the wind, I needed a new drug. I needed something delicious.

Thankfully it’s only a short drive to Vegan Express, and also thankfully, they make the most incredible vegan pancakes and fried fake-chicken you’ve ever not yet tasted.

This is their “Chicken & Pancake” breakfast (breakfast served all day). The chicken of course is not real, it’s made of soy with a kamut, low-gluten batter, then fried to crisp, golden perfection. That’s right, I said fried, not a word I use often, or take lightly for that matter. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

This fake chicken is amazing, as good as it gets. Better even. The batter is thick and a tad sweet with a slight donuty flavor, which is just perfect with the very realistic tasting chicken. It’s normally served with the regular pancake, but they were happy to indulge my request to have it with the “Tropical Pancakes” instead, which have fresh bananas and blueberries cooked right into them. So fluffy and thick and amazing. The plate comes with Earth Balance vegan buttery spread, maple syrup and a whole lot of sticky, carb-coma inducing, who-gives-a-crap-about-carlories-at-a-time-like-this kind of yum.

The next time you need a good eat-your-heart-out because your eyes are too tired to cry anymore sort of pig out, you now know where to go, and exactly what to order.

I’ve got some backpeddling to do here, more updates for you just as soon as I can get these photos processed.