Jeez, I’ve been such a slacker since Thanksgiving. I’ve done little else other than eat. I swear, my jaw is sore from all the chewing. When we last met I was preparing some snazzy vegan Thanksgiving recipes to share with my family at their otherwise non-vegetarian, carcass centric dinner. I am very happy and relieved to report that everything I made turned out great!

The first item I tried my hand at was Dreena’s Festive Chickpea Tart. I originally found the recipe while looking through back issues of VegNews Magazine, but since then I’ve found it posted online over at the Serious Eats Vegan Thanksgiving Menu.

For those of you who actually cook for reals, this is a very straightforward and relatively easy recipe. For me, this was one of the more fancier things I’ve ever cooked. The recipe calls for a pre-made whole wheat pie crust but those with the gumption to make their own certainly could. The filling of the tart is made from chickpeas, walnuts, spinach and cranberries, and flavored with fresh parsley and thyme. I followed the recipe precisely, even the onions (spawn of satan), and this turned out really nice. I was worried it would taste too much like falafel, what with all the chickpeas and parsley, but thankfully it did not and was totally delicious. It looked really nice served on the table that evening but I actually think it tasted even better as 1st and 2nd day leftovers.

Next up, I made the Red Pepper Hemp Cornbread from ExtraVeganza: Original Recipes from Phoenix Organic Farm. This great cookbook was a birthday present earlier this year from VegYogini of Hugger Food and this was my first time making anything from it (thanks again lady)! On that note, this was my first time ever making cornbread. And on one more note, this was my first time making any kind of bread, ever.

It came out so good… beyond my expectations. I was so proud of myself for not messing it up, especially since I had to make a last minute substitution. The bread is made from corn meal, spelt flour and hemp seeds (or meal). I ended up not having enough hemp seeds (needed 3/4 cup but I only had less than 1/2 cup), so I filled in the rest with extra corn meal, hoping this wouldn’t cause some sort of unknown disaster. Thankfully all was well & good and this bread turned out extra delicious. It’s action packed inside with pieces of corn and red pepper and flavored with yummy basil and oregano. Next time I make this I’ll add a bit of jalepeno to spice it up.

While it wouldn’t be very nice of me to post the recipe out of this book, I don’t think it’s hurting anyone if I clue you in to the fact that if you search Google Books for Extraveganza, you’ll find a limited preview which just so happens to have page 138 with this recipe included. Better yet, you could head on over to Amazon and just buy yourself (or your friends) this awesome cookbook and then you’ll have all of it’s excellent farm-y organic-y goodness always at your side. For more info on ExtraVeganza or to purchase a copy, click here….

I hope all of you had a great holiday. I’ve been enjoying stuffing myself with fine vegan holiday food left and right, and plan to get back to some restaurant adventures for you here shortly. I’ve also got lots of your great comments in previous posts to reply to… if I can stop eating leftovers for long enough, I just might be able to get to them all soon :)

Related posts:

1. Thanksgiving, vegan style.
2. Portabella mushroom sandwich at Real Food Daily
3. Chickpea and fennel “almost raw” salad
4. You win some, you lose some.

Oh boy do I owe you guys an update. Too bad for you my pretties… I’m too busy cooking up a vegan Thanksgiving storm! Here’s partial proof (there are a lot more ingredients in the fridge and freezer which I didn’t feel like dragging out for the photo):

Really it’s a big deal considering I hardly ever cook and I’m serving this stuff to my very-not-vegetarian family. I’m making a Chickpea, Spinach, Cranberry & Walnut Tart (from VegNews magazine, Nov. 07), Red Pepper, Hemp Cornbread (from Extraveganza) & the infamous Pumpkin Couscous Cake. They’re all going to love it and beg me for more vegan food. That is if I don’t mess any of it up. If everything goes as planned and as awesomely as I expect it to, rest assured there will be photos.

In the meantime I wanted to share a couple of last minute cruelty-free Thanksgiving links:

Adopt-A-Turkey Project:
www.adoptaturkey.org
For as little as $25 you can sponsor a turkey who will be very thankful. This year I adopted Serendipity because she reminds me of my kitty. Start a new tradition, don’t eat a bird… save one!

Gentle Thanksgiving:
www.gentlethanksgiving.org
“An opportunity to encourage friends, family and neighbors to adopt compassionate alternatives to unnecessarily cruel turkey dinners. We accomplish this by demonstrating the great taste and superior nutrition of gourmet vegan recipes and a variety of festive plant-based foods.”

Wishing you all a thoughtful and delicious holiday!

Related posts:

1. My first vegan Thanksgiving
2. Indian style red lentil frittata at Hugo’s.
3. Just not very hungry…
4. Another visit to Leaf Cuisine

Last weekend I had a fun food & foodie filled adventure. First I went to check out the Food Fight documentary, knowing I’d be meeting up with the one & only Teenage Glutster but also pleased to make the acquaintance of Pat from Eating L.A. as an extra added bonus. It was a unique experience to view this food centric film as part of a Los Angeles foodblogger trifecta, each of us with our very different approaches to food and this fine city we enjoy eating it in.

By the time the movie was over The Glutster and I were feeling famished. There was some yummy looking stuff in the film (it was the pomegranite salsa that got me) and my taste buds were ready for action. After a bit of deliberation we decided to go to Cru, the vegan raw food restaurant in Silver Lake. Neither of us had eaten there before though we’d both been wanting to. Perfect! This was the night of the big rally/protest/march againt Prop 8 at the Sunset Junction (basically right near the restaurant), so I wasn’t sure we’d even be able to get there, but the street had only just begun to fill up with protestors when we arrived so there was no crisis to avert. The scene was rather festive, the vibe friendly and vibrant… it was exciting to see so many people come together to fight for what is right. We however were not there to protest, we were there to eat!

Now before I go any further, I must tell you that it’s very dark inside of Cru… very low ambient lighting and candles. It’s quite lovely in there, not at all too dark to see by, but certainly too dark to take good pictures in without flash. Not only that but my battery was dying too. That said, I did my best as this wonderful meal deserved to be shared.

Being the hardcore food-loving gluttons that we are, we without hesitation started off with not one, but two appetizers. The first was The Mezze Platter: cucumber tzatzizki, beet & apple salad, fig pate, cashew cheese, flax crackers and garlicky rubbed kale. Everything was delicious, the cashew cheese was rich, thick and creamy, not really tasting like cashews or cheese, but of something better than both. The fig pate was really something special, not as sweet as you would expect figs to be and I noticed a deep, almost fermented touch to it, as if it had been steeped in wine… exquisite. Everything else on the plate was just as excellent, right down to the perfectly brined olives. I think it’s fair to say we were both equally impressed.

We also had the Kim-chi Noodle Salad, which I mistakenly imagined would consist of noodles made from kim-chi, but that was not the case. Basically it was kelp noodles on top of a salad of greens, all topped with a healthy portion of kim-chi (I told you the photos were going to be craptastic). This was an odd combo for me, I do like all of the ingredients but I’m not sure I’d think to put them together that way. Plus the kelp noodles were just plain, I’m used to the delicious way they gussy them up in the Kelp Noodle Salad at Hugo’s or how I cook them at home. I didn’t hate it, I certainly ate quite a bit of it, but I’m not sure I’d order it again.

For my main course I got the Pizza Duo: one slice of mushroom pizza and one slice of pesto vegetable pizza (that’s a salad in the back). These were both so delicious. The one on the left is the mushroom pizza featuring a gorgeous heap of shitake mushrooms. I wish I could tell you what all the other ingredients were but I’m just not sure. I think there might be dried tomatoes on there, those green leaves might well be basil, and a most delicious creamy sauce on the crust that was kind of sweet, which may or may not have been made of cashews. The crust itself is made from kambucha squash. I have no idea how they do it, but… wow. It’s soft and chewy, yet firm enough to withstand being picked up and eaten like a normal slice of pizza.

The slice on the right has some glorious pesto sauce on the bottom, thinly sliced zucchini, tomatoes, radishes, and more of those awesome olives. This was a great example of pure food simply prepared and transformed into something spectacular. The vegetables were so fresh and all the flavors came together so well that each one of them ends up being seen in a whole new light. This was very different from the raw pizza at Blossoming Lotus that I got to try on my visit to Portland. That pizza was also really good too, so it’s interesting to see how different raw chefs interpret their versions of the same thing.

When raw food is done well, as it most definitely is at Cru, you really start to understand what the fuss is all about. I doubt I will ever become a raw foodie but the skilled staff at Cru really know how to work some serious alchemy in their kitchen. Another thing I really liked is that the prices at Cru are not outrageous like they are at some of the other raw places in town. That beautiful Mezze Platter was only $11, and it was big. Both of us were still picking at it until the end of the meal.

They also serve a number of cooked dishes at Cru. The Glutster had a lovely cooked meal of a mushroom quinoia rissotto which was also really, really good. I’ll leave it to him to tell you about that one of these days. I can’t wait to go back there to try more of both their cooked and raw foods.

But don’t think the food adventure ended there. No my friends, for even though Cru is known for their Chocolate Truffle Cake and Chocolate Brownie a la mode, we couldn’t resist the lure of the vegan Twinkies that we knew were right up the street at The Vegan Spot. I was concerned they’d be out of them at this late stage in the game, so imagine our delight when we walked in and saw exactly two beautiful golden Twinkies sitting there in the display case, waiting for us, almost as if they’d known we were coming and had saved themselves just for us. Oh joy! The best part was that not only had The Glutster not yet tried one of these vegan Twinkies, but… get this… he’s never even had a real Twinkie before! Not ever! Hopefully he won’t mind that I just outed him from the Twinkie closet, but the cool thing is that his reaction to it and the way he described the Twinkie while eating it was exactly how I described it the first time I had it. Even though he didn’t have any reference to compare it to, he immediately picked up on the awesome dense and cake-like consistency and thick creaminess of the filling. In other words, he noticed all the things that make JennShaggy’s vegan Twinkies so great in comparison to the far inferior Hostess originals.

Let me tell you that when at days end you’re burping up kim-chi, pesto and Twinkies, you know it has been a good day indeed.
www.crusilverlake.com

Related posts:

1. The Vegan Spot continued: Reubens & Twinkies
2. Delicious vegan breakfast at Real Food Daily
3. Another raw food adventure at Leaf Cuisine
4. Kelp noodles salad with tofu

While my last post explored the horrors of abominable customer service in my pursuit of hummus, today I come to you with far better tidings. Thankfully my run of hummus denial is now over.

Amir’s Falafel is located in Studio City at the corner of Ventura & Colfax. Situated in the middle of a typical mini-mall, don’t let it’s humble appearance dissuade you from venturing inside, for once you do you will be richly rewarded. I used to eat at Amir’s all the time when animal flesh was my thing but I all but forgot about the place when I went vegan. I was reminded of Amir’s when Mr. Meaner of quarrygirl.com wrote a great review of it a few months back. Surely if the meaty stuff I’d had at Amir’s was as good as I’d remembered it, their vegetarian offerings would be equally good, right? Right indeed!

Still bearing a grudge of unrequited hummus love, I knew what I was after when I walked through Amir’s doors. While they don’t have a large menu, they’ve got a number of customizable options for vegans to enjoy, from pita sandwiches to a nice variety of Israeli style salads.

I went for the Falafel Plate, a generous assortment including a green salad with pickles, hummus (at last!), carrot salad, tabouli, beet salad and falafel. As pictured on their menu the plate would usually come with a nice looking cabbage salad, though it appears to be made with something creamy which may or may not be vegan, so I asked for the beets instead. I’m sure if I would have asked what the cabbage salad was made of they would have told me, but I actually preferred the beets so it worked out nicely for all involved. Along with the plate they also served two nicely toasted pitas, tahini, a spicy green sauce and amba (more on these in a minute).

Everything you see here was awesome. I am in love with their cute little bite sized falafels, fried fresh right in front you. I think this is the perfect size for a falafel, a concentrated little ball of love that you can pop in your mouth or eat out of a pita without it breaking off and crumbling all over the place. The folks at Amir’s know how to fry them to just the right shade of crispiness too… crunch crunch crunch all over the outside while still soft and chewy and chickpealicious on the inside. I’m not a falafel expert, but this is probably the first falafel I’ve had anywhere that’s actually had me craving to go back for more.

The hummus is very good, thick and creamy just the way I like it. While it might not be the best hummus on earth, its humble and common nature is both comforting and delicious. And best of all, served without attitude.

Both the beet and carrot salads are great, mildly spiced yet full of flavor. The tabouli is pretty good but maybe a bit plain. The green salad is fresh though it didn’t come with much of a dressing on it, so that’s what I used my tahini for, a fine tactic.

Back to the other saucy condiments. The green stuff, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s fantastic. They make it with cilantro and chili and it’s supposed to be spicy. The weird thing is that I don’t find it spicy at all even though others, such Mr. Meaner, have described it as “hot as hell”. Either way, the stuff rules and I suggest putting it on everything.

The yellow/orange sauce is the amba, a glorious concoction born of an incestuous meeting between Indian & Iraqi Jews made of pickled mango. It’s pungent, it’s pickled and it will make you pucker your face in delight. Like the green sauce, you’ll want to eat it all over everything. I like to tear off a section of pita, lather it up with some hummus, stuff it with a falafel or two, then drizzle both sauces all over that sucker and dig in.

Amir’s Falafel is in no sense of the word a fancy place. I already mentioned it’s in a strip mall, sandwiched between a Subway and an adult video store, but if you’re up for relatively cheap, quick and tasty Middle Eastern food, Amir’s has got you covered.
www.yelp.com/biz/amirs-falafel-no-2-studio-city

Related posts:

1. No Hummus for You! Meeting the Hummus Nazi.
2. Thai Vegan-Chicken Salad
3. Hy Mart Deli serves up the vegetarian goodness.
4. Another action packed salad from HealthyCA

Did you ever see The Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld? On the show, Jerry and the gang frequent a soup kitchen that serves delicious soup run by an extremely controlling chef who has very specific rules about how the soup must be ordered. He’s basically a real prick and if he gets mad at a customer or just doesn’t like someone for any reason, he’ll refuse to serve them and shout out the now famous catchphrase, “No soup for you!”. This guy is known as The Soup Nazi.

Well, I recently had an experience that was so ridiculous that it reminded me of this Soup Nazi incident. Usually I avoid writing bad reviews because for the most part it’s a lot more fun writing about things I actually enjoyed, and I also would rather offer you, my dear readers, good recommendations rather than focus on where you shouldn’t go. This however… this was unlike anything I’ve had happen to me before and if I don’t share it with you, I will explode.

I’d been hearing wonderful things about The Hummus Bar & Grill in Tarzana from many sources. Most all of the reviews on Yelp and Chowhound are ravingly positive and hardly anyone’s got anything negative to say about the place… well, allow me to be the first. Hummus Bar & Grill is an Israeli restaurant known for their excellent hummus as well their skewered meats and many varieties of Israeli salads. Not being an eater of meat on sticks, I was drawn to this place after learning that they have a special where you can order a sampler of all their tasty salads (10 to 12 different varieties) for the all-you-can-eat price of $10. Being both an Israeli and a lover of salads, this seemed like something that would be right up my alley. I convinced my mother that it had been long enough since she’d treated me to lunch, and off we went.

As soon as we sat down, the Hebrew speaking Israeli waitress immediately brought us some small plates of pickles, tahini with chickpeas and skhug (a spicy salsa-like Yemenite dip) along with an enormous round of laffa bread, which is similar to a cross between naan and pita bread. So far so good, everything was delicious.

It comes time to order. My mom wants the chicken skewers, I want what I went there for- the salad sampler which is listed on the menu for $10. I ask the waitress if all of the salads are vegan but she has no idea what the word means and just stares at me with a blank look on her face. Now, I fully understand and accept that not everyone knows what vegan means, but the empty, slackjawed look she gave me was so blank that I was beginning to worry that she’d soon start drooling onto my arm. So then I tell her in Hebrew that I’m a vegetarian who doesn’t eat animals or anything made with eggs or dairy products… are the salads suitable for me to eat? Oh yes, she tells me, and I assume that at this point she understood what I was asking her considering the large amount of Israelis who are kosher and share similar concerns about dairy in their food, so I say ok, that’s what I’ll have. This is the part where it starts to get really entertaining.

The waitress then proceeds to tell me in Hebrew that if I want to order the salad sampler it will have to be an order for two since there are two of us dining together. Mind you, my mother has already placed her own order for chicken, she’s not here for salad. I tell her this and she says, yes, but since there’s two of you, you have to order the salads for two people regardless of what the other person has ordered. I’m feeling really confused at this point so to make sure I understand, I ask her (in Hebrew, because this was clearly the language she spoke and understood better) if she’s telling me that even though I am the only one who wants salad, that we both have to order it, at double the price of what one person would normally have to pay? She replies simply, yes. At this point I’m starting to get upset and my mom picks up on this and attempts to step in and talk to the waitress, knowing what my temper is like once I get going. She basically repeats my questions back to the waitress, who in turn repeats back exactly what she just told me… that since there’s two of us, we both have to get the salads. I am dumbfounded.

Then I ask: so if I came in by myself and ordered the salad sampler, you would give it to me for $10, but because there’s two of us here, even though only one of us wants salad, the other has to order it as well, for $20? Yes, she tells me, then silence and that same “I don’t give a shit” stare. I tell her that this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard and that I want to speak to the manager. She tells me there’s no manager on hand but that this is always the policy. I tell her that the policy makes no sense and I cannot understand where she gets off telling me that we have to order double of something because only one person wants to eat it. At this point she switches over to English and says to me, and I quote: “Well you know, it’s because of the Israeli mentality. Even if just you order the salad, she’s going to eat it from it too, so we do it this way because we know you’re going to share anyway”. Then she gives a little chuckle, like it’s all just really funny and no big deal.

Wait a minute… did she really just say what I think she said? Oh yes, she really did. Allow me to translate this for you: what she just told me was that because of our “Israeli mentality” they already know that we’ll cheat and steal, so we cannot be trusted with only one salad order. In other words, even though my mother and I are both telling her that only one of us wants the fucking salad to begin with, they’re on to us (because we’re Israeli, see?) and there’s no way they’ll trust us with only one all-you-can-eat salad at a table with two people. The best part is that she said all this with a smile, like from one friend to another, after all, it’s just one Israeli putting down another, no harm done, right?

Now, I’m not some politcally correct type who gets offended at every little thing, but this was really beyond belief. Who the hell says something like that? She’s not my friend who is entitled to joke around with me on potentially touchy subjects, she’s a waitress whose job it is to take my order and serve me what I want to eat, not lecture me on the deceitful and guileless ways of the Israelites. In case you’re still not comprehending why I was so offended, imagine if you will for second that we had all been black and instead of this comment being about Israelis being thieving food stealers, the same comment was made about blacks, or Mexicans, or anyone. It was so beyond inappropriate and so rude that at that point all I could do was sit there somewhat in shock, speechless. And I wanted to leave.

Unfortunately we’d already eaten most of the bread and pickles, as well as had been sipping on our drinks, so either way we’d have to finish up and pay. My mom being the sweetheart that she is tried to calm things down and said that we should just go ahead and get the two salads, she could always take the leftovers home for my dad. I did not want to agree to this on principle, but at the same time I could feel all eyes in the place on us because I’d started to raise my voice (I couldn’t help it) and I really didn’t want to embarrass my poor mom any further despite how absolutely pissed off I was. It gets even better though because then the waitress tells us that because it’s an all-you-can-eat type deal there’s no taking leftovers home. All I could do was laugh at this point… the whole thing was beyond absurd. Ok, so despite all of that we agree to order two salad samplers for $20 even though only one of us will be eating them and even though the price on the menu clearly states that it’s only $10. We totally just got played for suckers.

Realizing who I’m dealing with though, I figure I better ask more questions before agreeing to this highway robbery. I ask the waitress what salads they are going to serve… mind you that just a few minutes ago we had the whole vegetarian/vegan/non-dairy conversation. So Miss Smartypants starts to list them for me: egg salad, chopped liver salad, eggplant salad with mayonnaise… ok, it’s all starting to make sense to me now… she’s clearly retarded. I stop her and tell her that liver is not vegetarian and that eggs and mayonnaise are not vegan, and so therefore I cannot eat any of them, even though just moments ago she told me the salads wouldn’t contain any of these things. Again, all I get is a blank stare. I swear that I could actually hear the wind blowing between her ears.

I’d previously studied the menu so in an attempt to calm myself down instead of getting even more upset and causing a bigger scene, I tell her to forget the damn salads and that I’ll have the grilled portabella mushrooms instead. All this after nearly 15 minutes of back & forth over the rip-off salads, most of which it turns out I can’t even eat.

Finally, after more than half an hour of this circus, our food was served. What I hate most is that given all of this, I’d love to tell you that the food was awful, but I cannot tell a lie. My mother loved her grody chicken and in the spirit of full disclosure I must admit that the mushrooms were delicious.

The mushrooms were marinated in herbs & garlic and then grilled, served with a tasty green salad. Hey look, a salad… better watch out or my mom might try to steal some off my plate when the watchful staff isn’t looking! In all seriousness though, the mushrooms were very tasty, although also way too oily. I had to first soak up some of the oil with my napkin before I could eat them, but they were honestly very good. That said, the price for my plate of two tiny mushrooms (more like baby bellas than actual full sized portabella mushrooms) was $11.99. Due to the angle at which I took the photo above, these actually look much bigger than they really were. As good as I thought they tasted, I felt that for what they served the price was way too high, this was at best an $8 plate of food.

And that’s basically the jist of it. The waitress was unapologetic and I’m quite sure that she was totally clueless about just how totally offensive her comments were and had no idea why I got so mad. Despite the fact that at one point I was practically seething in my seat and about to go all green Hulk on her, she was oblivious to how upset I was and to just how rude it was to say something like that about anyones nationality, regardless of whether she’s from the same country or not. You just don’t do that, not in a restaurant where people are coming to give you their money in order to be fed, not insulted.

We really should have left before ordering the food but in retrospect the whole situation was just so preposterous that we were caught off guard… and hungry. The full absurdity of what happened didn’t sink in for me until much later. What I can promise you though is that they will never again have to worry about me or any other of my tribe of cheating, food thieving Heeb relatives absconding with any unpaid for food at their restaurant ever again (I’ve strictly forbidden my mother from ever returning). I’m perfectly happy taking my sneaky Israeli mentality elsewhere and supporting businesses that don’t treat their customers like they are worthless and then try to get away with doubling the price. There certainly is no shortage of delicious Israeli restaurants in Los Angeles.

This is normally the part where I’d link to the restaurants website, but they don’t have a website, and even if they did I wouldn’t link to them because they do not deserve the free publicity that a link from my site would bring them. If you’re that curious, Google ‘em. The place is very popular and supposedly quite the hangout for the young & hip Valley Israelis (who obviously forgot to send me the memo), and to hear all the meat lovers go on and on about this place, you’d think their food rained down straight from heaven. True, the food was good… but nothing extraordinary judging by what they allowed me to eat (I never actually got to taste the hummus), and certainly not worth the rudeness and frustration of dealing with an utterly clueless waitress who insists on charging you double. Who knows, maybe if you’re an American they’ll treat you differently and actually let you order what you want, because… you know, the American mentality and all. It makes me wonder if I had I told her that I’m actually only half-Israeli, if she would have let me have half-off on the 2nd unwanted salad order that she was attempting to ream me with.

Thank you for listening, rant over.

P.S. - A disclaimer before anyone starts giving me grief over the Soup Nazi thing:
I am not calling the waitress a Nazi, I am not calling the restaurant or it’s owners Nazis, I am not calling Israelis or Jews Nazis. I used the term Hummus Nazi solely in reference to the very funny Seinfeld episode involving a crazy and controlling restaurant chef who treated his customers with the same amount of disdain that this waitress treated me. The Soup Nazi wouldn’t let them have soup, she wouldn’t let me have hummus or salad… get it? It’s funny, ha ha! You either get the association and laugh at the irony of it all, or you’ve never seen Seinfeld and therefore have no idea what I’m talking about. Either way, please don’t fill up my comments with outrage over my using the words Nazi and Israeli on the same page (they will be deleted), it’s a joke and nothing more… and yes I already know that the Holocaust is nothing to laugh at. This has nothing to do with any of that and it’s not in the least bit offensive if you get the reference. If you don’t, I highly recommend renting that episode of Seinfeld (#116) because it’s one of the funniest things to have ever been aired on television.

Related posts:

1. All’s well that ends with hummus!
2. Israeli couscous and grilled seitan
3. More Thai food at Vegan Plate
4. Vegetarian food downtown at Tierra Cafe

FOOD FIGHT is a new documentary that takes a look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement rebelled against big agribusiness to launch the local organic food movement. It features Alice Waters (Chez Panisse), Wolfgang Puck, Michael Pollan and other big names involved with food.

As part of the AFI Film Festival, FOOD FIGHT is premiering at the Mann Chinese 6 on Hollywood Blvd. at 3:15 pm on Saturday, November 8 (that’s this coming weekend). The screening is FREE and open to the public.

Did you catch that last part? You can see this movie for free, all you gotta do is just show up!

Here is a short synopsis of the film:

When we walk into a supermarket, we assume that we have the widest possible choice of healthy foods. But in fact, over the course of the 20th century, our food system was co-opted by corporate forces whose interests do not lie in providing the public with fresh, healthy, sustainably-produced food.

Fortunately for America, an alternative emerged from the counter-culture of California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where a group of political anti-corporate protesters–led by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse–voiced their dissent by creating a food chain outside of the conventional system. The unintended result was the birth of a vital local-sustainable-organic food movement which has brought back taste and variety to our tables. FOOD FIGHT is a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter-revolution against big agribusiness.

I have not yet seen the film and am planning to catch the free screening on Saturday if I can make it. I’m very interested to see if any of the various aspects of animal rights and welfare are addressed in this movie, if at all. While I am interested in and grateful for a lot of the work that these people have done in the name of advancing clean, organic and healthy food, I am often disappointed by the fact that these movements often ignore the core issues regarding the animals that are at the center of it all. I do not subscribe to the idea of “happy meat & dairy” (raising animals “humanely” only to slaughter them for food) and I truly believe that if people want to have clean and healthful food, the best way to do so would be to redefine the concept of food to one that does not include animals. I do not believe in killing them with kindness, I believe in not killing them at all. That said, I’m looking forward to seeing what this film has to say about all of these issues and more.

Wanna see it too? All you gotta do is show up this Saturday at Mann Chinese 6.

For more information about the film, visit the website at: www.foodfightthedoc.com

If you are not in Los Angeles or cannot attend the screening, you can join the Facebook group to get updates of future screenings: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40070554427

Related posts:

1. Delicious raw food at Cru. And Twinkies.
2. Vegan Food in the East Bay
3. Vegan Jamaican Caribbean Food
4. Cold weather food at Real Food Daily.

Happy World Vegan Day everyone! I’ve been spending this day and the entire Halloween weekend sick at home with what’s proving to be the worst cold/sore-throat combo I’ve had in forever. It’s been a drag having to cancel all of the fun stuff I had planned, but at least I had a backlog of scary movies to watch and some creepy Japanese ghosts to keep me company.

In honor of World Vegan Day I’ve decided this would be as good a time as any to release the new design for this site that I’ve been working on for a while. Everything you’re used to is still here and you’ll still find all of the content you know and love, just with a snazzy and sleek new look. I’ve got more exciting changes and additions planned for the future, but for now I figured I’d at least get this new fangled theme up and running. I’ve been testing the heck outta this thing so everything should work and look awesome on all browsers, but should you happen to notice anything not working properly please feel free to drop me a line and let me know.

On that note, my apologies for the huge backlog of comments and emails I haven’t had a chance to reply to yet… as noted, I’ve been illin’. Soon as my nose stops dripping long enough for me to get a word in edgewise, I’ll do my best to catch up. In the meantime, keep it coming… stay happy and stay healthy!

Related posts:

1. Is that a fake sausage on your plate or are you just happy to see me?
2. In search of vegan Portland.
3. Quick and yummy veggie pasta at home
4. Another action packed salad from HealthyCA

Well ok, I’m really stretching the meaning of the word “featuring”, but they did use one of my photos (by permission of course) to illustrate a very tasty sounding recipe by Robin Robertson for vegan Vietnamese Pho soup (she of the infamous couscous cake contest). You can see the recipe along with my photo here: Vietnamese Faux Pho.

Now the odd thing is that while the recipe is for Pho soup, the picture of mine used is not of Pho but of a tofu appetizer that came served with Pho. You can see my original article where this photo was used on my post about vegan Pho soup at Blossom restaurant. I explained to them when they asked for it that the picture they were requesting is not of Pho but of tofu, but for some reason they wanted that particular picture instead of my pictures of actual Pho. Odd, but I ain’t gonna argue!

They did credit To Live and Eat in L.A. for the photo but sadly it is not actually linked back to my blog. Their new website looks nice but I’m finding that it’s a bit wonky in some sections… seems like it might have been released before they thoroughly tested it on all browsers, but overall they did a nice job and it’s a big improvement over their old site. I’m hoping that in the future they’ll have a better system for crediting solicited contributors who offer their work for free, and also that they’ll turn the links on in their comments section… I tried being sly and posting my link in the comments but they’ve got hyperlinks turned off. Hey VegNews, why not spread the link love around a bit?

Anyhow, my minor grumblings aside, it’s nice to see all the great articles and info on their new site… there’s a lot more content than there was before, so check it out when you get a chance, and don’t let me discourage you from bombarding them with comments about what a freaking amazing picture of tofu that is! One of these days someone’s actually going to pay me (or at least link to me?) for my talents… just you wait and see.
www.vegnews.com.

Related posts:

1. What the Pho?
2. Vinh Loi Tofu vegan Vietnamese restaurant
3. Vegan Vietnamese Porridge Soup
4. Non-GMO soybeans for the win.