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

Kinta Restaurant serves what they call “New Malaysian Cuisine”. My Portland friends suggested it to me as soon as they learned I was on a mission to try as much of the awesome vegan & vegetarian places in their lovely city as I could. Kinta is not all vegetarian, they will add in chicken or shrimp by request. Most of the menu is totally vegan however, with exception of the egg noodles, though vegan rice noodles are available for any of those dishes instead.

If you’ve never tried Malaysian food before, imagine a well-crafted blending of Thai food, Chinese food and Indian food… well, that’s what it always makes me think of when I eat it. There used to be a great little Malaysian restaurant here in Hollywood years ago (on Wilcox if I’m remembering correctly) where I had developed a major obsession with their cashew curry. Damn that was good! Then one day they were just gone… that was well over a decade ago at this point and I hadn’t had Malaysian food since then, so I was very excited to have it again here and now in Portland.

For starters we had the sweet potato fritters and curry puffs shown above, both delicious. The batter (made of chickpeas) on the sweet potatoes was thick and crunchy and lightly spiced with something unidentifiably great. I don’t know if these are made with an egg wash or not, so be sure to ask if you need to. The curry puffs (pastry shells filled with curried potatoes, shitake mushrooms and crunchy woodear mushrooms) were of an equally high yum factor, tasting a lot like an Indian style samosa. The dipping sauce was just ketchup, which actually worked quite well.

These refreshing drinks are a tart and perky tamarind & lime concoction, two of my all time favorite flavors. Reliable as always, here they did not let me down. I wanted many refills.

Here we have the Tropical Malaysian Curry Soup: Curry in house-mixed Malaysian spices. The way it works here at Kinta is you choose your entree item, be it a noodle soup like what I chose, a noodle stir-fry or a rice dish, and then you choose from an impressive list of fresh and mostly organic vegetables. They’ve got a standard list of items like bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, eggplant, etc… but they’ve also got stuff that gets added to the menu as it comes into season, including some of the more interesting Asian greens and veggies. The silly thing is that I don’t remember what all items I picked to go in mine, though for sure I got the broccoli, tofu, and beet greens. There was more in there as well that I’m forgetting.

This soup was so delicious. Along with the cuisines of other countries mentioned above, Malaysian food also reminds me of Indonesian food, as it’s got a similar sort of pungency to the flavors that’s always quite striking. I’m gonna say that it’s a sort of flavor that’s got a bit of funky going on… it’s not exactly foul, but there’s a certain dark musky or mustiness to it that while being super delicious also always makes me think of dirty socks or B.O. Now don’t go letting me ruin your appetite or turning you off of Malaysian food… I mean, just look at that incredible soup… of course it was good! I’ve got nothing against funk when it’s done right. And I tell you with funk this good, I think Malaysia should change it’s official name to Funky Town.

OrganicGirl ordered the Macadamia Curry: – Malaysian curry spices infused with Macadamia nuts. Wow, this was out of this world! I think she got it with the onion infused tofu, eggplant, amaranth greens and I’m thinking perhaps those little brown guys in there are shitake mushroom. This dish was particularly rich in the funkified goodness of secret Malaysian curry magick that I described above, and the macadamia nuts gave the entire thing a most wonderful, full-bodied silkiness. Outstanding.

Overall I loved Kinta…. loved the food, the concept, the friendly service and plenitude of vegan options. The simply prepared food was simultaneously beautiful to look at and a pleasure to eat. If you enjoy Asian and especially Southeast Asian food, or even if you’ve never tried it and are open to full and exotic new flavors, move Kinta to the top of your Portland food list for a rewarding foodie experience.
www.kintarestaurant.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 8!

Tags: curry, malaysian, Portland

The magic is in the hole! Or so they say over at Voodoo Doughnut, the place itself being a teeny-tiny little hole in the wall the size of a large walk-in closet. Voodoo Doughnut is a well established and somewhat legendary donut shop in downtown Portland. They’re open all night and are an obvious choice for grabbing yummy sweet treats after shows or when the bars let out. I’ve been told the scene there late at night is quite fun and exciting, a real taste of Portland. Truth be told however, I wasn’t there to check out the scene, I was there for the vegan donuts I’ve heard so much about.

We stopped by there in the afternoon and there was a line out the door snaking around the side of the building. There was a brewfest going on just a few steps away by the river, so that may have had something to do with the crowds. The line moved quickly though, especially considering there was only one woman both serving the donuts and running the cash register, and soon enough I found myself with a front row view of the display case. The vegan donuts are nicely segregated on a plate in the spinning display case so you can easily see which ones are available.

Maple bars have always been one of my favorites in the non-vegan donut world, so of course that was my first choice to try here (that’s the one on the back right of the plate, the one that’s not chocolate, or a bar for that matter). It was pretty good, the fact that it was vegan made it better. I do like my donuts to be of the lighter and fluffier variety, while this donut was more of a cake donut, very thick and dense. The flavor was great, the maple frosting delicious, but the actual donut itself was too much for me to get through much of, and I was thankful to have a bottle of water with me to wash it down with otherwise it would have stuck in my throat.

I also tried the donut that you see there at the front left of the plate. I don’t know what they call this one, but it had a very sweet white frosting which was coated in toasted coconut. I loved both those flavor toppings, the white stuff was sticky and gooey in a very good way and well, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with toasted coconut. The donut itself was the same as the maple bar, so again it was thicker than I would have preferred and hard to get down without a beverage. I guess it’s true that for some girls, size does matter. And lube always helps.

They were both very tasty donuts, even though I was only able to get through half of each before feeling totally stuffed and over the craving to have donuts again anytime soon. If they had been a lighter type of donut I could have easily made my way through three or four. Maybe I’m just spoiled by the mindblowingly light and airy donuts I had at Madeline Bistro back in May (which I still haven’t gotten around to blogging for you yet but you can get a peek over at VegYogini’s blog), because those donuts were so incredible that there’s no way you’d know they were vegan, nor would it matter. In my mind those are the vegan donuts that all others will be measured against. I can’t say that the Voodoo Donuts came close in comparison, but I can say that they were quite enjoyable for what they were, and any place that will provide me with fresh made vegan donuts be it 12 noon or 12 midnight is alright by me.
www.voodoodoughnut.com

Here’s a cute 10 minute documentary about Voodoo Doughnuts called Gimmie Doughnut (some of which is NSFW)

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 7!

Tags: donuts, Portland

I’ve been super excited to share this meal at Portland’s Tin Shed Garden Cafe with you, so I hope you’re sitting down, comfortable and not distracted… this food requires your full attention. The Tin Shed is located in, you guessed it, a converted tin shed. There’s also a beautiful patio garden area where patrons are welcome along with their dogs… the restaurant even serves special doggy meals including a vegetarian rice and garden burger! Of course, I wasn’t here for no dog food.

This glorious plate of food you see above us the cleverly named Tim Curry: Tofu, roasted garlic, yam, zucchini, mushroom & sweet onion in a coconut-curry sauce, served over a bed of spinach & topped with roasted peanuts, raisins & avocado. This was what my friend ordered (the sour cream is not vegan), but of course she let me try some and… oh mama… will you just look at this thing? The only reason I didn’t order it was because I didn’t think it would feel breakfasty enough, and that’s what I was craving. Once this was served though it all totally clicked into place and I fully understood the logic of it’s sweet & savory curry morning appeal, and was appropriately jealous.

I sure wasn’t jealous for long because just look at what I got: this is the veganized Big Hit Burrito: Scrambled eggs (substituted with really great tofu), sausage (which they subbed with a tasty vegan sausage, not the typical freezer variety), roasted garlic, yams, zucchini, mushroom & onion in a flour tortilla topped with pesto sauce and tomato. I regret not getting a photo of its insides for you because they sure were pretty, but also so delicious that any thoughts of stopping to take a photograph once I’d gotten started eating were out of the question. This is probably the best breakfast burrito I’ve ever had.

As for that gorgeous contrast of orange and white to the left of the burrito, those are the homemade grits topped with vegan cheddar. The cheddar looked and tasted so real that I had to ask twice to make sure it really was the vegan cheese. I don’t know what brand they use but I was impressed. The grits were very tasty and a nice change of pace.

Now here’s the point where it turns even more decadent… but how I could I see something like this on the menu and not try it?

The Belly Pleaser: Coconut milk, jasmine rice, fresh ginger & vanilla simmered into a porridge and topped with fresh mango & cinnamon. You don’t even need me to tell you how delicious this was do you… you just know by looking at and reading about it, right? Allow me to tell you that in your wildest imaginings it doesn’t taste as incredible as it did in real life. My belly sure was pleased. It reminded me of the “arroz con leche” (rice with milk) that my grandmothers cook in Bolivia used to make when I was growing up, but with the wonderful coconut milk infusing the whole thing and the spice of ginger perking it up and blending perfectly with the sweet mango. Wow. And this was just the half-order!

While not a vegetarian restaurant Tin Shed is very veggie & vegan friendly. They’ll substitute tofu in any of their egg dishes (their tofu rocks) and any of the burgers can be made with a garden burger. There’s also a selection of salads, sandwiches and dinner plates, a full bar and a happy hour if you’re into that sort of thing. The crowd here is hip & young, with lots of tattoos and babies in strollers, willing to hang out and wait for sometimes more than an hour for a table as there’s usually always going to be a wait… and judging by this excellent meal we had, it’s probably always going to be well worth it.
www.tinshedgardencafe.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 6!

Tags: breakfast, brunch, Portland

One of the restaurants I was most looking forward to eating at while in Portland is The Farm Cafe. As their name describes, they get their ingredients fresh from local farms whenever possible and offer a rotating seasonal menu. It’s known for having great local microbrews and an extensive winelist along with plenty of ambiance, but not for having a lot of vegan food as there’s only one vegan meal offered as an entree.

It’s this one entree though that’s been driving vegan Portland eaters wild with glee, the Herb Crusted Tofu with Mushroom Marsala which also comes with some bad-ass garlic mashed potatoes. I’d heard it was excellent and I was all set to try. Once we got there though, I was thrown a curveball in the form of a nightly specials menu which listed something which sounded even more enticing…

Tempeh Masala: Tempeh marinated in East Indian spices, pan-fried crisp then served with braised summer vegetables, tandoori jasmine rice, stela cherry chutney (also served with dilled yogurt which isn’t vegan so they left it off for me).

This was so good, and not really at all what I expected it to be like. I was thinking it would have a more recognizable Indian food taste to it but I didn’t get that from it, but wow, what I did get was awesome. The texture was almost meatloaf like, though with a nice thick and crispy crust. Juicy and delicious with all kinds of exotic spices I wouldn’t be able to identify. The cherry chutney was both sweet and tart at the same time, a divine jam covering all the bases. I’d just had these stela cherries fresh at the farmers market earlier that day, how nice to see something like that moving from farmer to plate. The vegetables were tasty though relatively simple. The serving was huge, with two GIANT tempeh slabs and a healty mound of rice. I barely got through one portion of the tempeh and had a lot of leftovers to take home. My friend’s reaction to this dish was that it reminded her of Thanksgiving with cherries instead of cranberries.

Along with our main courses we’d also ordered the appetizer which OrganicGirl (who’s been here a number of times) was very excited about getting, and I can see why:

Rosemary-roasted Hazelnuts: Special house recipe involving brown sugar and tabasco. And that’s all they’re telling. These were amazing… just perfectly roasted and coated in this yummy sticky sweet hot goodness, all infused with an almost overwhelming taste and sent of rosemary. These were flavors I’d never think to put together, which is why I don’t run a great restaurant and they do.

p.s. Here’s the recipe for Farm Cafe Roasted Hazelnuts at Let’s Get Sconed!

I mentioned the ambiance, and as you may have noticed by the dark and blurry photos, it was rather dark in there. The restaurant is in a small converted house and it’s lit up inside by lots of candles and low lighting. The effect is magical and romantic and this would be a fantastic place to go on a date or with a small group of friends for special occasions. It’s very open with a small patio in the back where we initially waited to be seated. Apparently they get very busy but we didn’t have to wait long at all, though we did get there pretty late at around 10:30pm.

The Farm Cafe definitely lived up to and exceed my expectations, even though my expectations were to eat one thing and I left eating something else entirely. If I lived there this would for sure be on my list of places to eat when feeling fancy or flirty, or both.
www.thefarmcafe.net

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 5!

Tags: Portland, tempeh

I’m noticing that each time I start one of these Portland posts, I want to tell you that THIS was one of the best meals I had on my trip. The problem is that, if you could call it a problem, everything I ate was delicious. I’m having a tough time picking favorites, but if forced to rank my meals this one at Blossoming Lotus would definitely be a top contender.

I’m not a raw foodie, but I certainly eat a lot of raw veggies and fruits by default. My last experience at a raw food restaurant was less than stellar. They do serve some cooked foods here as well but it’s the raw stuff that’s their specialty. Ordering something cooked here would be like going into a Thai restaurant and ordering Italian. So it was with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity that I approached my lunch at Blossoming Lotus.

Everything on the menu sounded good. I was having trouble deciding what to order, and not really knowing what to expect made the choice even more difficult. It was a no-brainer therefore to order the ‘Live Sampler Platter’, which came with everything that sounded most yummy to me on the menu. I figured if there was ever going to be time to impress me with raw food, than this was it. And impress me they did! Allow me to break it down for you…

In the picture above, from top left we’ve got:
Live Pizza: buckwheat crust with cashew cheese, live marinara & veggies. Mine was on a flaxseed cracker/bread and I’m pretty sure that sweet fruity sensation (the yellow chunks) was mango. Fantastic! Even up until the last second before this gorgeous thing hit my mouth, I was a doubter. I was concerned that the flax seed cracker would crumble and the whole slice action of it all would fall apart. Up until I bit into it I thought, “I hope this doesn’t suck, it just looks like a fancy salad on a pizza shaped cracker”. Any such silly concerns of mine fell away as I realized how delicious this was turning out to be. The crust-cracker-bread did not fall apart and held up quite nicely, and tasted great too. I loved the whole thing, too many flavors here for me to be able to discern them all. The salad topping was perfectly dressed and everything just came together perfectly. I could have eaten a whole plate of this pizza alone, and I was somewhat envious of my friend who did just that. But not really, because everything else on my plate was just as good.

Move to your right over the tomatoes and find yourself at:
Cilantro Lime Pate: made with sunflower seeds, served with cucumber, tomato & flax crackers. If you love cilantro, and I do, you’ll love this. I never actually received the crackers so I made due with scooping it onto my cucumbers and that was a wonderful work-around. Intense flavor, I couldn’t eat all of it in one sitting (maybe with the crackers), but I’m a better person for having tried.

Next, wedged comfortably between the cucumbers and avocado is the:
Live Pasta: zucchini noodles, carrots, spinach, beets, sea vegetables & scallions, tossed in basil pesto, served with cashew cheese. Just rad, there’s no other way to say it. Ok, I wasn’t under any sort of impression at any time that this was anything like real pasta, but who the heck cares when it’s this tasty? The combo flavors of the basil pesto and cashew cheese blob were out of this world good.

Last but certainly not least head over to the tastefully beet & sprout adorned…
Live Garden of Eden Salad: mixed baby greens, carrots, beets, sweet & spicy eden nuts with ginger dressing. Simple ingredients but not simple flavors. The ginger dressing rocked, the nuts I don’t specifically remember, but as you might imagine I was somewhat in an altered state of mind at this point brought on by all this pure, unadulterated nutrition.

Because you really need to get the full effect of all this, here’s another view of the same plate from the other side. I’ll understand if all the foodporn pervs out there need a moment to compose yourselves before going on.

Another of the star attractions at Blossoming Lotus is their vegan soft-serve ice cream. At the end of our meal though I was so stuffed and satisfied that I just couldn’t see myself putting down an entire serving of ice cream (tempting though it was). Instead, my two friends and I opted to share the equally popular ‘Live Fudge’, made with raw cacao.

We’d planned to take it to go, but I noticed that it was meant to be kept chilled and was rapidly starting to melt in the bag. So we quickly passed it around, getting a couple of bites each out of it. Please excuse the blurry photo… we’d eaten our little bundle of joy before I even thought to photograph it, so I grabbed a quick shot of the display counter.

Wow, Live Fudge is amazing! I’ve never had such a concentrated sensation of chocolate before, it was so rich… and tasted darker than the darkest chocolate but not at all bitter. The taste was incredible, rich and thick and gooey, and I’ll be damned if it truly didn’t feel alive. I’m not even kidding when I tell you that I got an immediate rush after eating it, feeling for a little while afterwards much more alert, awake and aware. An appropriate sort of reaction to be having I suppose in an organic, raw food place situated inside of a yoga studio.

Like I told you back at the beginning, I’m being non-committal on picking favorites from this vacation. I will say however that eating at Blossoming Lotus was definitely one of the highlight meals, especially so because I wasn’t expecting it to be. For sure I’d recommend them as one of the “must have” vegetarian/vegan restaurants to try when in Portland, a fantastic thing to do for yourself after too many days of waffles and vegan donuts (more on that yet to come). They’ve also got another location on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, so if you go there please take me with you.
www.blpdx.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 4!

Tags: Portland, raw

The FlavourSpot truly does bring the flavah! This small foodcart located in a video store parking lot is all the rage for their vegan waffles and fillings, so I knew I had to try it out.

Foodcarts are very popular in Portland, and I highly approve. We just don’t have this sort of thing here in Los Angeles aside from the occasional harassed street food vendors and taco trucks or the food stalls that come and go at our farmers markets. In Portland they’re all over the place and all the time, serving an amazing array of all sorts of ethnic foods as well as the usual stand-by’s, like hot dogs, pizza, etc… The other cool thing is that a lot of them also cater to vegetarians and vegans. Duh, it’s Portland.

Back to the waffles. What drew me here was the allure of the Vegan Maple Sausage Waffle. What a dreamy combination of flavors to have been veganized, right? I placed my order but unfortunately the girl told me they were out of their vegan sausage. Eee gads! They did however have the vegetarian patty available, so I got that. I didn’t come this far to try this thing only to walk away empty-bellied because of a microscopic bit of whey. I know, shame on me.

Here we have a not-so-stunning picture of the piece-de-resistance. Don’t let the simplicity of what your eyes are taking in fool you… this was gobsmackingly good! The waffle as you can see is a little on the thin side, which is nice because it doesn’t overwhelm whatever it happens to be stuffed with. To me it tasted exactly like a waffle-cone (for ice cream) that would usually be thinner and crispy, only here it was puffy, soft and delicious. The sausage patty was your typical fake meat variety, but what hits this one way out of the park is the incredible maple butter, made from 100% organic maple. This stuff is the nectar of the gods I tell you, with a texture like melted caramel and the taste of velvety, liquid love. Put it all together with waffle, sausage and this… and you’ve got a sweetly, salty foodgasm in the making.

They’ve got a number of other vegan choices too. I also tried one with mallow fluff, which while not as transcendental as the maple/sausage orgy, was still rather tasty in it’s own gelatin-free marshmellowy way. I think by the time I got to it I was already all sweet-toothed out. There’s also a peanut butter & jelly combo, fresh fruits and various other options that come and go. They’ve also got many enticing options for your meat & cheese eating friends and many coffee drinks, cold and hot. The iced soy latte that I had with my waffle hit the spot.

Loved it, and I’d go back far too often if I lived there. They’ve got a second cart going now too, so visit their website for hours and locations the next time you’re in PDX and owe your tastebuds a flavor favor®. Expect a bit of a wait, the waffles are made fresh as you order them and when we were there they were very busy. Now I know why!
www.flavorspot.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 3!

Tags: breakfast, maple, Portland, waffle

[Please see the bottom of this post for an update... Nutshell is unfortunately no longer vegan.]

I’m back from sampling Portland’s multitudinous vegan offerings, and have returned rejuvenated, inspired and over-fed satiated. I can totally see why Portland has earned the reputation of being a vegan town. For a city that felt tiny in comparison to the megalopolis I call home, they’ve packed in a hell of a lot of vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants into a small (yet lush) space.

I ate so much awesome food in fact that there’s no way I can get it all into one blog post without it being crazy long. Instead I’m going to break this up into sections, basically giving you a report on each place I ate at. Shall we being?

Hot off the plane, my fabulous and gracious hosts took me straight to my first food destination, Nutshell. This place gets mixed reviews but it was high up on my list of vegan places I had to try. I’m so glad I did because I loved every single thing here that made it’s way into mouth… and there was a lot of it!

Our first appetizer was the “Crispy rice fritters with avocado puree & chili sauce”. These were so great! They were made with a highly fragrant jasmine rice and seemed like they had been lightly fried in coconut oil… finger lickin’ good. Both of the dipping sauces were equally yummy in their own ways.

Appetizer two: “Bigfoot’s bamboo fries with kung foo sauce”. I don’t know what kung-foo sauce is all about but I can tell you that I like it. And I loved the bamboo fries. They had a firmer texture than fried potato, I really enjoyed the bite and chewiness they had going on. The flavor was good, not mindblowing but more on a simpler scale, something I could easily and happily stuff my face with alongside a burger or beer (if I was a beer drinker these would totally be the fries I’d be craving). They were cut thinner than regular fries and were slightly oily too, in an enjoyable “wow, these sure are some good, greasy fries” sort of way.

My friends ordered the “Fuji apple salad with beets, preserved marionberries, micro greens & muscatel vinaigrette” which they kindly allowed me to have my way with. Everything here tasted so fresh, both bold and subtle at the same time. The taste was surprising, not really what you would expect from looking at it, and I mean that in a good way. They’d also mixed in some finely chopped peppermint which woke up and brought together all the different flavors. I could eat this every day if someone would be nice to enough to make it for me. Thanks in advance.

For my main dish I had the “Fried quinoa & polenta. Tandoori roasted summer squash, quinoa greens, Romesco sauce & summer savory”. So delicious, and very hearty. This was a gourmet version of comfort food, the flavors leaning just slightly towards Italian, with the nice sweet twist of corn from the polenta and the refreshingly bitter bite from the earthy greens. It was excellent, and I left hardly a drop or crumble behind on my plate.

…which certainly didn’t stop us from ordering dessert: “Fresh local raspberries with coconut custard, brown sugar sauce, pistachios & phyllo cookies“. Yeah, the picture looks a bit of a mess, and it kind of was, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t taste great. It had a really nice mix of sweet and tart, the phyllo and sugar reminding me of baklava, and the coconut custard reminding me of very decadent Thai desserts.

Overall all, an excellent meal. The service is often complained about in various online reviews that I’ve read, but our waiter was friendly, informative and attentive. There was no wait, we walked right in and were seated and served immediately, which apparently isn’t usually the case either.

Now one controversy which does not sit well with me at all is that Nutshell is owned by the same person who owns another popular Portland restaurant, Ten-01, which serves foie gras (foie gras is a “delicacy” of fattened duck liver acquired by inhumanely force-feeding the birds until their livers are diseased and swollen well beyond normal… one of the most vile, unnatural and cruel things anyone could ever consider eating). So on the one hand, I am guilty of putting money directly into the pockets of a man who’s got disgusting foie gras on one of his menus, and on the other hand, I just ate one of the most unique & delicious, locally grown, vegan meals I’ve ever tried. Oh the irony and moral dilemma of it all! Knowing what I know now I probably wouldn’t go back and support this place if I lived there despite the amazing food, but I don’t live there, so I will leave it up to you to sort out your own ethics on the matter (to clarify: Nutshell is all vegan, the foie gras is on the menu at another restaurant by the same owner). I’ve done my part in giving you the facts. I’d love to be able to whole-heartedly recommend Nutshell to you based on the great food alone, but doing so without providing the above background info would be remiss. Maybe if enough people make a stink about this, something will eventually change. If not, at least you’ve got my pictures to show you what you’re deliberately not eating for a good cause.
www.nutshellpdx.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 2!

I’d like to thank all of you who took the time to send me your very helpful Portland food suggestions… as you’ll soon see I took you up on many of them! Special shout-outs are in order for both Stumptown Vegans and Veganazi, both being Portland based vegan restaurant blogs, and both being indispensable in my research of veg places to visit while putting together my itinerary. Your city rules and so do you.

Thank you also of course to OrganicGirl and The WolfMan for your steadfast and admirable foodeating abilities. I could not have accomplished this indulgent feat of feasting without you.

————————
UPDATE- AUGUST 27: Word on the streets is that Nutshell has now bowed into the wrong kind of pressure… rather than the owner removing foie gras from his other menu, he’s changed the menu at Nutshell from being all vegan to now being only vegetarian… eggs and dairy are on the new menu. True, at least it’s still a vegetarian place, but I seriously doubt this new menu is going to do much to help their business, and will only add to the controversy of why some people just won’t go there.

Tags: foie gras, Portland

Awww… two of my wonderful readers have both decided to nominate me for the “Brillante Weblog Award”, which basically means none other than that they think I’m rad. Or rather, that my blog is rad. And how cool is it that I too in turn hold their sites in equally high esteem?

Liz at ¡Yo Soy! calls To Live and Eat in L.A.:

“the definitive L.A. vegan blog”.

Kirby Von Scrumptious had this to say:

“I think this blog has already been nominated for this award, but whatever — this is an AWESOME site, and it showcases some of the best vegan food in Los Angeles. I was so depressed when it went on hiatus for a month, and I am so pumped that she is back up and running!!”

Sorry I left you hanging there for a bit Kirby, but I’m back with a vengence! Many thanks to you both!

Along with this honor it is expected that I will in turn pass on the love and nominate 7 of my favorite blogs. Let me see what gems I can dig up for you:

Teenage Glutster: This by far one of my favorite food blogs. The Glutster is not a vegetarian, though he does love veggie food. See, the thing is… he likes ALL food, labels need not apply. This young man is an eating powerhouse and his love & passion for food are both frightening and exhilarating in their ferocity. I’m hoping he writes a book someday so that I can read it. And one of these days I will meet him for lunch (I promise).

Vegan Bits: A husband & wife run Los Angeles vegan food blog that covers restaurants as well as product reviews and current topics in veganism. I like that they don’t shy away from giving their opinions on controversial topics, and I find that I’m often in agreement with the side they take on matters. Always a good read.

Where’s the Revolution?: Always with the food porn here, and Bazu travels all over the place and shows you what to eat once she gets there.

VeganYumYum: Beautifully photographed step-by-step recipes. It’s like having the most amazing vegan chef holding your hand while you glide effortlessly through your kitchen.

Vegan Tickles: What’s better: the delicious looking food that she cooks or the super cool action figures she poses it with? Thankfully I don’t have to choose!

Vegan Visitor: One of the most beautiful sites out there, run by a professional chef, food photographer & stylist. And it shows.

Your Vegan Mom: I’m constantly inspired by how she’s able to juggle being a mom to an adorable monkey, an amazing home-chef and a super groovy chic all at the same time (who frequently eats and writes about great L.A. restaurants as well). She’s always cooking up something healthy and delicious looking in her kitchen, seemingly out of thin air.

Well I’m only allowed seven, but you know I’d be listing many more if I could. I guess that’s what my blogroll is for over yonder on the right. Visit all these sites I’ve just told you about because they’re great… then visit all the rest because they are great too!

p.s… Sorry if you are noticing some non-vegetarian ads running. My sponsor is not supposed to be putting that sort of thing up on here but apparently some setting has changed somewhere. I don’t want to see that stuff any more than you do… rest assured I’m on it.