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

Wow, this was really good! It’s the spicy chicken salad from Vegan Plate. I therefore don’t need to tell you it’s not real chicken, right?

“Soy chicken tossed in a spicy lime juice, served with red onion dressing on a bed of mixed greens”.

I asked for medium spicy and the heat level was just right. Their fake-chicken I already knew was awesome, but the lime and onion flavoring was just great. Even as an unabashed onion basher, I gotta say I loved it. It didn’t taste oniony at all, it was just very limey… a perfect mix of sweet, sour and spicy all in one plate. Good stuff I tell ya, good stuff!

This is the miso soup from Vegan Plate (take out). Yummy miso broth with seaweed, mushrooms and tofu, which I served over steamed brown rice.

Here we have the Larb Tofu from Vegan Plate (take out).

Minced tofu tossed in lime juice, chili, red onion (I opted out) and mint leaf. I used to love real larb made with beef or chicken, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve had so far from Vegan Plate, but I must admit I wasn’t a big fan of this salad. I’m not sure what exactly I didn’t like about it, just something about the flavor that didn’t do it for me.

This is the ginger dish from Vegan Plate (take out): “Stir-fried mushrooms, fresh ginger, garlic, green onion and bell pepper in chef’s special sauce.” I had mine with the soy chicken option, served on brown rice. Very good.

Took a friend from out of town to check out the Thai food goodness at Vegan Plate.

I had the mint leaves with the soy-shrimp. “Stir-fried mint leaves, fresh chili, garlic, onion and bell peppers”… so good. I think it was in a light soy-sauce base, tasty and not too salty (as soy-saucy things tend to be). You’re probably thinking: “But Foodeater, we thought you hated onions!”. Too true observant reader… yet as any true onion hater will tell you, we actually prefer large chunks of onions in our food like these seen here… they’re much easier to eat around or pick out when they’re big like this, rather than when they are small and sneaky. I do enjoy the flavor that cooked onions offer to a dish, it’s the actual onion itself I cannot abide. Big pieces like this make my job easy.

My buddy ordered the orange flavored soy-chicken. I generally don’t take pictures of what other people are eating, but not only was this totally beautiful and deserving of a photo, but I also tried some of it, therefore deeming it worthy of a spot on my blog. I wouldn’t dare order a giant plate of fried stuff like this for myself, but boy was I ready to encourage my friend to order it so that I could get a taste!

The batter was super crispy and sweet, reminding me of a donut or funnel cakes… made even sweeter by the syrupy, almost candy like sauce. Sounds kind of weird huh, all that sweetness paired with the meaty flavor of fake chicken… but man alive, did it ever work! This was the tastiest orange chicken I’ve ever had by far, vegetarian or otherwise, not to mention the prettiest.

Oh these were so tasty! Vegan Plate serves up this lovely appetizer dish of vegetable steamed dumplings slathered in a delicious green curry sauce. The sauce was rich with curry, coconut and basil… truly one of the tastiest green curries I’ve tried.

The “Green Power Salad” .This photo does not accurately convey the size of this beautiful monster! It’s so big that I’m really not sure how our tiny little waitress was able to carry it with one hand (I’m not kidding). Amazingly good, especially with their perfect peanut dressing. I ate about a third of it (along with the miso soup below) and was full, so I gave the leftovers to a homeless man.

Miso soup and iced chrysanthemum tea.

Thai spaghetti (rice vermicelli), soy chicken, romaine, bean sprouts and fresh herbs (I tasted lots of cilantro) wrapped in rice paper, served with hoisin sauce and chili paste. This was just an appetizer but so filling and tasty that I didn’t order anything else, other than Chrysanthemum tea.