To Live and Eat in L.A. - A Vegan Food Photo Blog

Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana is an upscale vegan restaurant that serves organic, seasonal, “pan-ethnic dishes with a decidedly French influence”. I had always wanted to go there, so I was happy to accept an invite by Vegyogini to join her there in attending a local vegan meet-up for brunch. This coincided with my one year vegan anniversary (way to go, me!), so what better way to celebrate it than at one of the fanciest vegan restaurant in town.

First we were all treated to “Beignets with Seasonal Fruit Compote”. I’ve never had beignets before so I have nothing to compare these to, but I can tell you they were really good, tasting to me like a cross between a sugary churro and an apple fritter.

For my meal I ordered “The Skillet”- Scrambled tofu, seasonal vegetables, farmers cheese and home fries. I thought about getting something a bit more decadent, but along with trying to be good by avoiding off-the-hook sort of stuff like french toast, I also figured that at a gourmet restaurant, a simple dish like tofu scramble would probably turn out pretty special.

And yes, it was awfully good. The tofu had a very close-to-the-real-thing scrambled egg consistency and the seasonings were just right. From what I could taste and see, I believe it included some asparagus, shitake mushrooms, sun-dried tomato, tempeh bacon… I could be making some of those up and/or leaving something else out, but whatever, you get the idea- it was delicious. You can see that the home fries were nice, crispy chunks of little potatoes, served with THEIR OWN HOMEMADE KETCHUP.

This brunch was great but apparently their dinner service is where Madeleine Bistro really shines, so I hope to try that out someday too. The vegan meet-up was a nice time, not something I’ve done before so I’m glad I went. I even got to meet some readers of my blog which I didn’t even know I had! (Hi!) There were a lot of us there, 30, maybe 40 people… I don’t think the organizers of the meet-up were expecting a show of more than 20 people at most, but the restaurant staff did a flawless job of accomdating us all.

We got a nice introduction to the owners, Chef David Anderson and his wife Molly Anderson, the general manager. They both come from extensive and impressive backgrounds, including David’s time as Sous Chef at the Inn of the Seventh Ray and Executive Chef at Real Food Daily. They’re both really dedicated to good quality food and veganism, and their excitement and dedication to it is obvious and refreshing. Before going there I’d heard nothing but raving reviews about Madeleine Bistro, now that I’ve been, I can vouch for their good reputation being well deserved.

I’ve written before of my love for Korean style barley tea (Mugicha). I’d heard it was pretty easy to make so I decided to give it a go. I combined what I learned about making it from various online sources, as well as some info I picked up from Alton Brown on his recent Good Eat’s episode on barley.

First I dry roasted the barley in a skillet. I wasn’t sure exactly how much to roast them, so I let them go until they got nice and browned, removing from heat just before they were about to burn.

The roasted barley then went into 2 liters of boiling water, continued to boil for about 3 minutes, then was removed from the heat and left to steep. I also added in about a quarter cup of agave nectar and half a lemons worth of juice.

After steeping for half an hour, I strained the liquid from the barley and set it aside to cool. The cooked barely looked and smelled really good too, I’ll get back to that in minute.

And here’s the result! It came out pretty good for my first try, though it wasn’t exactly like I wanted it to be. I didn’t like the lemon, or maybe I just used too much of it. The lemon idea came from Alton Brown (damn you, Alton!)… next time I make this I’ll leave out the lemon all together and add some in afterwards if I think it needs any. Also the tea had taken on a bit more of the roasted flavor than I would have like, so maybe I did let the barley roast for too long after all. It didn’t taste burned, but the taste had crossed over from a delicate tea flavor to more of a roasted coffee flavor.

Now back to the cooked barley. When cooking barley to eat it should be cooked longer than the half hour I boiled this batch for, but because it was left to steep in the hot water for a while, it got cooked through and was only slightly “al dente”. It had a wonderful nutty scent and the taste of sweet agave nectar had been cooked right in, so instead of wasting it I decided to make a hot cereal out of it.

I added in some rice milk, cinnamon and drizzled on a little bit more agave… and this turned out to be one of the tastiest late night breakfasts I’ve ever accidentally invented by way of making something else.

And it’s with those delicious New Year’s eve brownies that I kissed off a bittersweet 2007. Now that it’s 2008 I’m getting back to basics after some much deserved indulgences.

This was a quick sauté of chickpeas, mushrooms and red chard in small amount of olive oil, lemon juice, Bragg’s, fresh garlic and red pepper flakes. I served it over a mound of quinoa tabbouleh which I picked up from HealthyCA. I’m not sure exactly how they make it but I can tell you that it’s better than crack. Yeah, it’s that good.