To Live and Eat in L.A.

I recently got to enjoy a nice lunch with my fellow blogger in crime, Quarrygirl. After much deliberation, we opted to have our lunch at Real Food Daily. We settled on RFD because we both like it, and also because her man hates it… so she doesn’t get to go there often. I on the other hand have always enjoyed their food and they offer one of the best vegan brunches in town. Quarrygirl has already posted her write up about our lunch at Real Food Daily, so I better pick up the slack here and give you my take on things.

It was a given that we’d start off with the vegan nachos. I mean, who goes to RFD and does not get the nachos? You’d have to be crazy! The “Better with Cheddar Nachos” involve tortilla chips, melted cashew cheese, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and tofu sour cream. Now don’t go getting all excited thinking this stuff tastes like real cheese or sour cream, because it doesn’t. That said, it’s delicious. The creamy cashew cheese is more of a melted cheese-like sauce, and it reminds me of those super cheap nachos you can get at places like 7-11 where you ladle the watery cheese sauce out of a heated pool onto a paper tray of stale chips. Only these chips were not stale, the food was not cheap, and the taste is amazing. It doesn’t taste much of cashews and to my tastebuds it’s reminiscent of Cheese Whiz, but in a good way. That’s probably not the comparison it’s creators were after, but there you have it (comfort food is comfort food, regardless of how you slice it). They serve a regular and jalepeno version of the cheese. We got the jalepeno but just like each time I’ve been to RFD in the past and asked for the jalepeno, it wasn’t at all spicy. I never know if they’ve messed up and brought me the wrong one but I’m starting to think that their spicy jalepeno cheese… just isn’t. Spicy or not, I still like it, and there was hot sauce at the table to make up for the lack of heat so all was well.

The sour cream doesn’t come very close to tasting like real sour cream either, but it’s yummy all the same, spiked with herbs of some sort (dill?) and with a nice creamy texture. Mix it all together with fresh pico de gallo, beans and all the rest and you’ve got yourself a rather delicious appetizer.

I’m glad that we were served a generous and filling portion of the nachos because I didn’t get through much of my main entree.

I got the RFD Burger with The Works and I’m sorry to say that it was just awful. You know I’m not very picky and that most of my reviews are usually good ones… that’s because I genuinely like most of the stuff I eat, so I don’t use the word “awful” lightly. The burger is a tempeh vegetable patty that comes with grilled onions (none for me thanks), lettuce, tomato and is served on a rustic roll. When you pay extra to get it with the works you also get avocado, tempeh bacon and cashew cheese. Sounds good right? Nooooooooooooooooo.
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Hello friends! It’s been a long and introspective one month plus since you last heard from me, the time away was much needed. I’d like to thank you all once again for your kind words and thoughts during what was a whopper of an ordeal for me… and I’m so glad you’ve stuck around because I’ve got a ton of food tales and photos to get you caught up on. I have a feeling that some of my groupies out there are at the edge of their seats in anticipation of some drool-worthy vegan food porn, so how about we just dispense with the niceties and get to the heart of the matter? In this particular case, the heart of the matter equals breakfast.

One of the upsides of personal calamities is that they tend to make me forget all about being on a diet… which brings me back to breakfast. This is one of the fabulous vegan tofu scrambles at Real Food Daily. I can’t remember the exact name and try as I might I cannot find their breakfast menu online anywhere, but whatever it’s called just know that it’s divine. From what I recall it involved avocado, tomatoes and spinach topped with their yummy cashew cheese sauce which comes in regular or jalepeno. I, being a devotee of spice chose the later. This came served with hemp bread, vegan butter and choice of fruit or hash browns (I already mentioned throwing diets and giving a shit about carbs to the wind, right?).

Here we have yet another scrumdidliumptious breakfast at Real Food Daily, which you might have figured it out by now is one of my favorite places for a delicious and comforting morning meal (not that I would turn down a visit for lunch or dinner either). This time around it was the omelet with avocado, spinach, spicy cashew cheese along with tempeh bacon. Their tempeh bacon is to die for… a perfect texture and smoky flavor that to someone like me who hasn’t eaten bacon in many years, tastes awfully baconish (in a good way). The omelet itself is a thing of beauty… far surpassing anything that would come from an egg. It was crispy on the outside with a well-cooked eggy feel on the inside… both chewy and flaky at the same time. I absolutely loved it and ate up every last crumb of the stuff. I had the hemp toast again but this time opted for fruit instead of potatoes.

As far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with breakfast at Real Food Daily. FYI, I’m talking about the West Hollywood location, I have not been to the one in Santa Monica yet. Despite the not cheap prices (come on, it’s all organic, kosher & rad) and regardless of the occasionally hard-to-find parking and often über-hipster/celebrity patrons, the food at this place truly is good: real, healthy and unpretentious. The next time you’re feeling like crap and are up and mobile before 3pm (on a Sunday… just found out this is the only day they do brunch), head on over there and set yourself up with a plate full of anything on their breakfast/brunch menu and you’re sure to leave feeling a lot more positive about the day ahead of you.

On that note, here’s to moving forward and feeling good. See you all soon with more gastronomic indulgences!

Along with the regular menu at Real Food Daily, they also offer weekly specials as well as one monthly special. For my last visit I had November’s special, the “Vermont Harvest”.

Maple dijon tempeh and winter vegetable stew over wild rice and quinoa with pan seared delicata squash, sauteed apples and walnuts over wilted baby spinach. It was fantastic. I’m not even a big fan of wild rice but I loved every last bite of how it was prepared here. It was a delicious, filling, warm and hearty cold weather meal.

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.

Here’s a tasty vegan lunch I had a few weeks ago at Real Food Daily in West Hollywood.

I was enticed by the menu and the hot weather to order the soup of the week, “Cool as a Cucumber”, a cold cucumber soup with fresh dill. It was simple, light and refreshing. Plus I got to eat flowers and that’s always cool.

This was the Tofu Wrap which involves “herbed tofu, vegetables and sun-dried tomato pesto in a spinach tortilla”. The presentation was rather sparse with nothing else on the big plate other than the wrap, but aesthetics aside, it was hearty and tasty.

I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had pancakes, and these were a perfect re-introduction.

This action packed ensemble is the “The Weekender” brunch plate at Real Food Daily. “Scrambled tofu with onions, tomatoes and cashew-cheddar cheese, two pancakes or french toast (my pancakes were made with blueberries), tempeh bacon & home fries or fruit”. The pancakes are made with almond meal and contain no gluten, wheat or soy. All organic, all fantastic.

Above is the corn-grain bread, served with shredded raw carrots and beets.

This was my first visit to Real Food Daily, an organic, vegan restaurant in West Hollywood. Everything we had was amazing.

Nachos with jalapeno/cashew “cheese”.

Pictured here is the “Total Rueben”, with tempeh, herbed tofu cheese spread, thousand island dressing and sauerkraut. Loved it. The bread wasn’t really burned, it just looks that way in the photo for some reason. It was served with Asian style cole-slaw (something in this had a bitter flavor that I didn’t like so much).