Here’s a great stick-to-your-ribs breakfast I recently tried for the first time at Follow Your Heart, the “Two Bean Hash”.

“White and Black Beans, Vegetables, Wheatmeat and Spices, Pan Fried Crispy. Served with Two Vegetarian “Sausage” Links, Guacamole and Sour Cream.”

This was delicious, a simple and straightforward combo of flavors and textures that all went very well together. Mixing in the guacamole, salsa and sour cream gave the dish a nice Mexican flair. If Emeril Lagasse were here he’d probably say that they kicked it up a notch. The sour cream was vegan but make sure your server knows that’s what you want just in case.

I didn’t like the sausages much at all; they tasted like your average fake-sausage from the freezer, and not of an amazingly realistic or particularly tasty variety. Spiced, smoked cardboard comes to mind. Nevertheless, the hash was lovely and I highly recommend it. Next time I’ll ask for a side of fruit or something instead of the snausages.

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!

The vegan Reuben at Follow Your Heart has long been at the top of my list of favorite foods to eat in Los Angeles, and I was loving this sandwich long before I was ever even a vegetarian or vegan. Yeah, it’s that good.

This monster serving consists of: thinly sliced wheatmeat, sauerkraut, mustard and Vegenaise on oversized rye bread, with oven-baked baked fries. Served with dill pickle and Thousand Island dressing. It normally comes with Swiss cheese, but they offer it with their amazing non-dairy “cottage-style tofu” instead to make it vegan, and I tell you, that stuff is so delicious. I preferred it to the real stuff even when I was a cheese eater. I don’t know if the Thousand Island dressing they served it with is vegan or not, but it’s delicious without it.

Despite how huge it looks in the picture, this really does not do justice to the size of this beast. It’s truly a giant sandwich. One half of it is probably enough to feed two people, so you can imagine that I was working on leftovers for a while. I’m not exaggerating when I rave to you about how yummy this sandwich is. It’s the sort of thing that you suddenly get a craving for late at night, long after the restaurant has closed and there’s not a thing you can do about it but wait until daytime. I’ve been going to Follow Your Heart specifically for this meal since I was a teenager and I still love it. They’ve got so many other fantastic items on their menu but I’ve tried only a few of them, because every time I go there and start checking out the menu, it’s always the Reuben that calls my name.

That said, I did have something different there recently… more on that soon to come.

p.s… Thank you Don Bolles, because if it wasn’t for the little review you wrote about this sandwich in the L.A. Weekly many years ago, I may have never learned of it’s existence. A tip of the hat, and a squirt of Dr. Bronner’s soap to you, Sir.

As mentioned, another visit to Follow Your Heart presented itself, so for once I opted to have something other than the vegetarian Reuben.

I had the “Organic Tempeh Tacos: Two organically grown, stone ground corn tortilla shells, filled with seasoned, grilled organic tempeh, jack and cheddar cheese (substituted with their excellent vegan cheese), tomatoes and fresh cilantro. Served with Spanish rice, black beans guacamole and lime wedges.” It was good, they managed to give the tempeh a texture that was very similar to ground taco meat. The sides were all tasty too, and this serving like everything else there, was huge.