I love the Hollywood Farmers market. So many tasty vegan options… the amazing tamales, the Indian food, the salad lady, the fresh juices and so many other awesome options. Most especially though, I love the vegan soul food over at the ‘Taste of Life’ stall.

I went full force ahead today and got the sampler plate which lets you pick four items. I got the mac & cheese, kale, BBQ tofu and pot roast. This also came with corn bread. It was all delicious, especially the mac & cheese and pot roast. I was wishing they would have had some sort of yam dish but there was none to be found. I sure wasn’t lacking for food though, you can see what a huge serving this is and I only made my way through about half of it.

This fine food is only one of many reasons to wake your ass up early on a Sunday morning and head on over to one of the best farmers markets in town.

I love the food at Follow Your Heart but it’s more on the hippy end of things, so I wasn’t sure how well they would pull off Indian Food.

This is the ‘Tandoori and Curry’ plate, and I’m pleased to report that it was fantastic. “Tandoori Spiced Vegetarian “Chicken” and a Savory Tofu Curry, Served with Basmati Rice, a Vegetable Samosa and Mango Chutney.”

It was a large serving of food. The chicken was some sort of gluteny-seitan concoction. It was a bit on the chewy side, almost jerky-like, but that was a good thing. The tofu was also firm with a really nice texture, and both the tandoori and curry flavors were great. The samosa was tasty, though nothing special. The mango chutney was sweet and I enjoyed it with the rice. Overall a very yummy dish. FYH, sorry I doubted ya!

Won’t you take me down, to yummy town?

Here is the lovely ‘Ciao Bella’ with “Portabella mushroom, onions, red peppers, lettuce, tomato, pesto spread, hemp bread”. Got mine without the onions and with the potato salad option. Very good, in particular the pesto and hemp bread are quite tasty.

Hugo’s rocks for adding this lovely vegan breakfast to their current specials.

“Almond, lemon and lavendar vegan pancakes with agave nectar: Just released from our test kitchen and prepared with all organic ingredients- vegan, sugar free, gluten free, wheat free and dairy free. Topped with almonds and agave lavendar lemon syrup.”

These were so delicious. I mean, come on. Totally indulgent yet uber-healthy at the same time. Thank you Mr. Hugo, wherever and whoever you are.

Los Angeles county may be burning down around me, but that doesn’t put a damper on my good mood. Why? Well, because Pure Luck is now open during the day and serving lunch. That’s why.

Pictured is “Todd’s BBQ Sandwich: BBQ jackfruit “pulled pork” with pickles and vegan mayo on a french roll”. I loved it, truly a finger lickin’ good sorta thing. The bread was perfectly crispy yet chewy, the jackfruit deliciously meaty yet light and the BBQ saucy perfectly sweet and tangy. This sandwich for sure gets two thumbs up. It comes with french fries or salad, and my salad was great. You might recall my last report on Pure Luck was mostly positive expect for the not so good salad. I was quite pleased to find they worked out their salad issues since my last visit, and this one was generous, fresh and tasty. The vegan Cesar salad dressing is really good.

You really must try this unique creation. You won’t believe how well jackfruit can pretend to be pork.

These are the equally fantastic “Palatanos Tacos: fried plantains and onions in a corn tortilla topped with sweet cream”. Got mine without onions and they were just divine. Yes, divine. Really. I don’t know what the sweet cream is made of but I can tell you that it’s sweet, and that it’s cream and that it’s so yummy you’ll wish you had an extra bowl of it so that you could eat it with a spoon. The whole shebang is a little bit greasy, but after all, this stuff is essentially gussied-up bar food so you get what you came for. And now you can get what you came for at lunch time too!

So cool! Kevin Tran, the mastermind behind Vinh Loi Tofu in Reseda will be appearing on the Discovery Health Channel show, Lyon in the Kitchen. He told me it would air October 24th at 4:00pm, however when I looked it up on the Discovery website, the “Pho Ga” episode is listed for the 29th. To be safe check your local listings… you won’t want to miss this.

Kevin will not only demonstrate some of his fine Vietnamese vegan cooking, he’ll also be giving us a sneak peak into his tofu factory to show us how it’s made. If you’ve ever wanted to know what goes on behind that small little window that leads back into the heart of Kevin’s kitchen and through which yummy food magically appears, this is your chance.

Kevin also let me know he’s been hard at work adding lots of his food photos to the Vinh Loi page on Yelp.com and would love it if you’d have a look:
www.yelp.com/biz/vinh-loi-tofu-reseda

Oh, and to the mystery reader who saw my post about Vinh Loi’s porridge soup and then went there to try it… RIGHT ON! I hope you enjoyed it :)

Organic fruit and nut plate. Figs, grapes, walnuts and agave nectar.

Another “Create a Plate” at Hugo’s. I stuck with my favorite roasted beets, roasted yams & sweet potatoes and black bean cakes. I also got their new menu addition of leafy greens with garlic and olive oil.

Super filling and super yum. Ate half and had a whole other meal left over for later.

Oh, and guess who was sitting across the way from me while I was eating this lunch. Go ahead, just guess.

Wrong, it was Fabio. I kid you not. It was the funniest thing, sitting there eating next to Fabio of all people, a mere table away. How ridiculous my life is sometimes! Seeing him made me want to laugh out loud. It also made me want to go wash my hair in luxurious shampoo for some reason, an involuntary reaction which from here on out I shall refer to simply as “The Fabio Effect”.

Fred 62 is awesome not only because they’re open 24 hours, not only because they’re in the trendy part of Los Feliz where everybody was born beautiful, not only because they’re walking distance from the Metro stop, not only because they have all kinds of unique and eclectic dishes in their snazzy “retro-kitsch diner”, but most importantly because they’ve got vegan Tofu Chilaquiles.

I’ve never had real non-veganized chilaquiles, so I don’t really know what I’m “missing” or what they’re actually supposed to taste like. What I can tell you is that this tofu version they serve at Fred 62 is fantastic. From the menu: “Tofu scrambled with ranchero sauce, black beans, tomatoes and cilantro. Garnished with fresh tortilla chips. All the flavor and texture of the original Mexican chilaquiles.” Well alright then! Really, these were just great. When I was done I wanted to lick the bowl clean.

Fred 62 has a number of other vegetarian items, most all of which seem like they could easily be made vegan. There’s plenty to choose from… in fact, you’ll have a hard time choosing. May I recommend perhaps the tofu chilaquiles?

I always end up getting my usual favorites when I got to Vin Loi Tofu, so on this visit I opted to try something new. I was very intrigued by the ‘Chao Bao Ngu’ which is a soupy porridge with soy abalone, faux shrimp, shitake mushroom and Chinese donut. Truth be told, it was the unknown thrill of what the Chinese donut might be all about which made up my mind to order this. Sounds like something naughty and forbidden, doesn’t it?

The huge bowl of soup arrived and you can imagine how exciting it was to delve in with a spoon to figure out what all was swimming around in there! The porridge/soup is thick and has an interesting texture similar to really watery oatmeal hot cereal. It’s filled with chopped bits of the fake abalone, shrimp and (real) mushrooms. For those who aren’t too hip to the taste of seafood, don’t worry. I don’t like things that taste fishy either and this soup isn’t that, the flavor is very mild. There’s also a healthy topping of fresh cilantro and crispy onions (they don’t have that gross raw onion flavor, instead they just give a nice crispy, chewy texture to the already very texturized soup). The flavor, consistency and just about everything else about this soup is unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before… which is generally a good thing. It was delicious and the owner (hi Kevin!) told me that it’s the best thing to eat when you’re feeling sick or under the weather… he claims it will take care of whatever ails you.

The soup came served with a large serving of bean sprouts, lime and the most delicious fried bits of dough which apparently are the Chinese donuts. I’m pretty sure that the sprouts and dough were meant to be put into the soup, but the donuts were too good for that and I just ate them straight off the plate with my fingers. The lime juice spritzed into the soup was the perfect finishing touch, consider that lime juice makes just about anything taste that much better. The verdict is: the porridge soup rocked and has now been officially added to my list of Vinh Loi favorites. If you go, definitely give it a try… take a friend and share it because there’s more than enough to feed you both. Since you’ll be sharing, it’ll free you up to order something else and not feel like such a piggy about it. If you’re there with me though, don’t even think about bogarting my donuts.