We interrupt this program to bring you some startling news: sometimes what qualifies as “vegan food” is just lame. I’m spoiled living in Los Angeles where practically every neighborhood has a multitude of awe inspiring delicious vegan food options. Every once in a while though you happen upon a clunker… and boy did I.

It all started when I scored some free tickets to go see the excellent movie Vicktory To The Underdog at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood as part of the Artivist Film Festival dedicated to addressing Human Rights, Children’s Advocacy, Environmental Preservation, and Animal Rights. Later on the same night as this screening was the event’s closing ceremonies, “followed by an exquisite Vegan Dinner Reception and Musical Performances. This year’s Organic Vegan Feast is specially prepared by renowned Chef Mark Kearney of the Mark Kearney Group.”

That last bit about the vegan feast got my attention, then I noticed the cost was $50. Alas, too rich for my wallet today. As my friend and I who were already both rather hungry were leaving the theater, we couldn’t help but notice a large food area set up outside, vending what we were stoked to discover was an all vegan menu by none other than the same chef catering the event. Nothing fancy on offer, but still, how often do you randomly walk into a vegan food station at your local movie theater? Here’s the menu:

Vegan Hot Dogs?!! With VEGAN CHILI?!!! Well of course I want one! Dogs ordered, the guy serving them up tells us (in what I realized after the fact was a somewhat apologetic tone) that it’s not exactly like real chili, more like their own special white bean concoction. Hmmmm, well ok… the sign says chili dog and all, but we were willing to give it a try. Forking over $5 per “chili dog”, here’s what we received:

Where to begin? These were your basic, mediocre tofu dogs that had absolutely nothing done to them. I’m pretty sure they were heated in a microwave for a few seconds… mine was luke warm while my friend’s burned his mouth when he took a bite. The beans tasted like baked beans straight out of a can. I don’t know, maybe they made these from scratch, but I doubt it, and even if they did, they still SUCKED. Bland, bland, bland… like something you’d be served at a public elementary school or a hospital cafeteria. Even the buns were stupid… mine was too doughy and stuck to the roof of my mouth like Wonder Bread, while you can see the other one is all shriveled up and sad looking, like maybe it was the last end piece in the bag or something. Even with some generic mustard squeezed on to try and enliven the proceedings, this was one pathetic presentation and a shoddy, half-assed attempt at vegan “cooking”. Come on, who serves something that looks like that? Have some pride in the food your feeding people or don’t bother.

Before we got our dogs we witnessed another order of food being served to a customer, and I shit you not, we couldn’t identify what it was. It was nothing but a bunch of beige ingredients of differing textures poured together. To me it looked like a bowl of lumpy vomit mixed with oatmeal, but my friend suggested it may have been some kind of quinoa and tofu something-or-other. He was probably right but I still think beige vomit is more descriptive of what it looked like. I think this may have been the curry bowl, but it resembled curry about as much as my shoe resembles a hot fudge sundae.

They also had listed “MK’s Chili with Tortilla Chips” ($5). This was a tiny plate with a handful of corn chips out of a bag with the same baked bean “chili” spooged on top as we had encountered on our depressing tofu dogs.

What a bust. How sad that people who may have never before tried vegan food were being served this slop. It gives vegan food a bad name and literally leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Is this the same sort of bummer food that people were being served as part of the spectacular $50 organic vegan feast? If so, well, that would just be shameful.

But let’s finish on a positive note, shall we? The movie I mentioned above is something everyone needs to see. Here’s how Vicktory To The Underdog is described by it’s producers:

Vicktory To The Underdog takes an in depth look at world renowned tattoo artist Brandon Bond and his dog rescue efforts – particularly rescuing the infamous Michael Vick fighting dogs.

Rather than focusing on the dog fighting problem, the movie sheds light on solutions leading to “Vicktory” for all the underdogs in the movie – tattooed people, pitbulls, parolees and all the other people in this world that society has turned their back on through ignorance and racism.

The movie also examines the life of Brandon Bond and his struggle with balancing fame, fortune and the Rock-N-Roll tattoo lifestyle with a more fulfilling life that focuses on the betterment of both animals and society as a whole.

Featuring celebrities like Debbie and Danny Trejo, Michael Berryman, Pixie Acia and Donal Logue, the movie takes you on an incredible journey you will never forget!

It’s that and so much more. Truly a moving film that makes you laugh, makes you cry, and most importantly sheds an unflinching eye on the subject of dog fighting and the people working behind the scenes to rehabilitate these wonderful dogs. It breaks my heart that such cruelty exists in the world and I’m so blown away by the compassionate people out there trying to make a difference. If you have a dog, especially if it’s a pitbull, you’re going to want to go hug them and never let go after watching this movie. If you don’t have a dog, you might find yourself like I did afterwards approaching strangers with dogs on the street just so you can give the pooch some head rubs and a few kisses. Even people who don’t like dogs or who think all pitbulls are vicious killers would be hard pressed to watch this film without shedding some tears or not gaining a greater appreciation for these dogs, and insight into the misunderstandings about this much maligned breed.

I’ll leave you with the movie’s trailer, and my highest recommendation and suggestion that you see it, and get other people to see it. Check around for a screening in your area or pick up a copy of the DVD.

My delicious all vegan Thanksgiving meal, featuring the AMAZING “Hazelnut cranberry roast en croute” by Field Roast. So delicious!

This video is mostly making fun of vegans, but it’s funny cuz it’s true. Bitch, I’m vegan… gangsta vegan!

Hello foodies! I’ve been away a little longer than I would have liked, due mostly to being way too busy over the holidays, along with being kinda lazy, and for the past few days… super sick. Seems like everyone is sick right now so I won’t whine too much about it. I figured I had to at least post something today because (drum roll please) it’s my two year vegan anniversary! Yay me! I would be celebrating out on the town with awesome food if I wasn’t so ill, but rest assured celebrating is yet to come just as soon as I can actually swallow again.

For now, before 2008 gets too far away from us (good riddance!) I figured I should do a quick catch up on the fun vegan blogger potluck I got to take part in just before Christmas. The idea was to bring an appetizer to share, and then we’d all write about it on our respective blogs. Knowing myself well, I knew that if I attempted to cook something it would either end up a disaster, or take far too long, or both. My best bet was to purchase something… but what? I didn’t want to bring something too boring, nor did I want to bring something that everyone would already be familiar with. In a fleeting moment of genius I came up with the idea of bringing some delicious treats from Thai town.

These funky looking goodies are made of sweet sticky rice stuffed with bananas and black beans. They come wrapped in banana leaves in which they’ve been steamed, and the leaves impart an earthy, almost smokey scent and flavor to the rice. I love these guys and I like to think of them as the Thai version of a tamale. Sometimes you’ll also find them stuffed with taro instead of banana, but I prefer the sweeter banana version myself. Chewy, hearty, filling and delicious. A quick search online for the actual name of these beauties turned up a seemingly easy to follow recipe for Khao Tom Pad. I might just have to refer to them though as Khao Tom Yummy.

Next up was the star of the show… Saku. These are awesome little handrolled balls made with a thin, soft outer “skin” made of tapioca floor and the filling is an amazingly flavored concoction of ground peanuts, radish, sugar, salt and magic love power directly channeled through the nice Thai lady who makes them. In the past I’ve gotten them ready-made from Bangluck Market (both the North Hollywood & Hollywood locations have them) where you can buy them in a little plastic container but this time around I went for the real deal and walked around the corner to the Cha Chaa Restaurant were a little birdie told me I could find a group of ladies at the back of the restaurant making these (and other) wonderful Thai goodies fresh to order.

There’s actually two different kinds shown in the photo above, the lady convinced me to give them both a try. They both have basically all the same ingredients, the only difference as far as I can tell is that one version is a nicely rolled up ball (the ones in the center) while other version is shaped more like a dumpling with a looser wrapping (the ones around the edge). She made them fresh in front of me on this really cool gizmo that’s got a flat top and a heat source below that sends up steam. I have no idea what it’s called but I’m pretty sure it would be illegal for me to own one anyways since I’m not a cute, little old Thai lady who reeks of fish and fresh cut durian. Rules are rules.

I served the saku with some fresh leaves of butter lettuce, spicy sambal chili sauce, cilantro and lots of lime. You take your lettuce leaf, plop in your saku, pile on some cilantro and spice it up as you like with chili and or lime… wrap it up and pop that sucker in your mouth. They are fantastic!

While the pre-made version I’ve had in the past is quite tasty, it cannot compare to these freshly made delicacies. The peanut filling is slightly sweet and when combined with the hot chili and zing of lime… oh mama… I love the stuff. I’ll never get the packaged ones off the shelf again now that I know I can get them made to order.

Now a few words about appearance and texture. These are a little bit odd looking so people who aren’t used to weird foreign foods may be initially put off by how they look or by the slightly slimy, sticky feel to ‘em. The last thing you want to do in a situation like this is tell people, like I did, that these little balls have the texture of baby testicles. But hey, I’m one to tell it like it is and well, these genuinely do remind of little tiny testes! They are soft and mushy and… well, you get the idea. Thankfully no babies were harmed in the making of these saku, neither the human or animal variety, so you are free to love and devour them without being a labeled a pervert or ending up in jail. Aside from the few folks I scared off with my overly honest/graphic description, these seemed to go over very well, so they may have just become my signature weird potluck item of choice.

Everything that everyone else brought was great too. A few of our potluck attendees have already blogged about their goodies and I have no doubt that they can describe their foods for you better than I can, so here’s where you can find their versions of what they brought:

• VegYogini of Huggerfood was our lovely hostess for this event, and she made Potato Parsnip Laktkas.
• Your Vegan Mom was our bartender for the evening with her fancy bourbon, ginger, pear concoction.
• Miss Alix of Cute and Delicious made some really tasty mini-paninis filled with portobellos, spinach and white bean spread. These were so good… I had to conjure up some serious willpower to not eat them all up before everyone else had a chance to try some. She’s definitely invited to the next potluck :)
• JennShaggy made not only an insanely complex and delicious vegan peppercorn and red wine braised brisket (made from seitan) but she also brought some of her signature Twinkies, though keeping with the season she Hanukkah-ized them with cherry filling and a sugar coating, reminiscent of the Jewish style donuts known as Sufganiot. Yum!

There was a hell of lot more tasty food there but I think those are the ones that have been blogged about thus far. It was a fun and filling evening with old friends and new, hopefully we’ll have more such gatherings in the future.

On that note, I’m wishing you all a happy, healthy, prosperous, fantastic and of course, delicious new year. Thank you one and all, friends and foes alike, for being along for the journey these past two years. My switch to veganism has been a lot easier than I expected it to be and I have no doubt that I am now a vegan for life. If you’re someone who is still on the fence about if you can handle going vegan or not, allow me to be your proof… if I can do it, any of you can too. You will be glad you did.

And now… I’m off to tackle some of those resolutions!

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!