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

Just when you thought you’d heard the last of my birthday for the year, it resurfaces it’s jolly head with another tale of celebratory feasting. I somehow managed to stretch my birthday for all of May, and then a little into June. This time around I was privileged to enjoy a lovely afternoon brunch with the masterminds behind Quarrygirl.com at Inn of the Seventh Ray. You can read their own account of the adventure right over here.

Known as an upscale restaurant that attracts both hippies and new agers alike, Inn of the Seventh Ray is an enchanting break from the norm hidden away in the hills of the Santa Monica mountains, deep in the heart of Topanga Canyon. It lives up to the stereotype while winning you over with it’s charm at the same time.

Inn of the Seventh Ray isn’t a vegetarian restaurant, and they don’t offer too many vegan options on their regular menus; where they shine is with their Sunday vegetarian brunch buffet service. But first the setting.

The restaurant is both quaint and lavish at the same time. It’s set into the curve of a lovely creek, and if you’re lucky like we were, they might seat you right at the waters edge surround by the tranquil stream on one side and a waterfall grotto on the other. A grotto!

Regardless of where you sit, you’ll be surrounded by trees, white canopies and white table cloths- you’ll feel like you walked into some storybook village set somewhere out of time, but with attentive service. At night the place totally transforms with candlelight and white twinkly lights providing most of the illumination… it’s super romantic, the perfect place for those magical moments. I know I sound like a Hallmark card but trust me, this place is special.

Ok now the food. The all-you-can eat brunch buffet comes in a vegetarian version, and it ain’t cheap at $31 a pop. If your aim however is to indulge the hell out of yourself or impress the hell out of someone else, it’s money well spent. The vegetarian options are not all vegan but there is so much that is vegan that it’s not even a concern.
Read the rest of this entry »

Mani’s Bakery Cafe on Fairfax, which has been in business for over 20 years, is one of those places that people seem to either love or hate. I haven’t come across anyone who’s neutral about it. Me? I’ve got my foot firmly on the LOVE side, which is why I was sad to learn that Mani’s is having a hard time staying in business during this lameass economic meltdown.

Back in January the founder of Mani’s posted on their blog in regards to being in dire straights, basically putting out a plea for help in the form of business and feedback. The story was picked up by Quarrygirl who wrote a great review and helped get the word out that Mani’s is in urgent need of support. The story was also picked up by Eater L.A. where a bit of a backlash started to go down in the comments, a.k.a, those with their feet firmly on the HATE side. Poor dear Mani’s basically got shredded by Eater L.A.’s commentors… so much so that Mani’s then in turn responded to this back on their own blog. Wow… such drama!

While it’s always helpful to take into account the feedback that’s out there whether it be from online reviews or word of mouth, ultimately you won’t know if you like a place unless you try it for yourself. One mans trash is another mans treasure, and vice versa. While I don’t doubt that there is some truth to the negative stuff floating around out there, I for one have only had great experiences each time I’ve been to Mani’s, including great food (it’s more than a bakery, it’s also a full service, vegan-friendly restaurant) and a nice staff. If you were to avoid Mani’s soley because of the gangbang they just received on Eater L.A., you’d be sorely missing out on what for many has become an established local favorite. It’s an awesome place worth saving… just look at some of this excellent food:

Let’s start at the most logical beginning: breakfast. This is the Breakfast Wrap: “The whole enchilada’s wrapped up for your morning meal. Black beans, guacamole, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, cilantro, and your choice of turkey ham & scrambled eggs or vegan tofu scramble in a whole wheat tortilla. Served with our Ranchero Sauce and Pico de Gallo.”
Read the rest of this entry »

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 is 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!

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!

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!

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.

This past Sunday was a monumental day of fantastic vegan food eating for myself, VegYogini and Your Vegan Mom (let’s just call her Trina). It started off as a beautiful sunny day brunch at the home of Trina with her lovely family and friends. It ended with an amazing dinner at a new (not-yet-open but sure to blow your mind) vegan Japanese restaurant in Little Tokyo. I’ll be telling you all about that special adventure soon, but for now let’s get back to brunch, shall we?

We were greeted first thing at Trina’s to a basket of scrumptious, freshly baked muffins and mimosa. One type of muffin involved apples and all other manner of yummy, the other muffin was carrot… and dang, I don’t really remember what all went into these. In a testament to their awesomeness though I can tell you that I ate them in multiples (and got to bring some home with me too).

VegYogini and I got to lend a helping hand in sectioning grapefruits for a fresh citrus salad with mint and agave nectar.

Trina’s pièce de résistance were these incredible little mini crustless quiches. They were based on the recipe over at the Fat Free Vegan blog but using different veggies. One was made with Swiss chard, the other with sweet potato and roasted Pablano peppers (it’s highly possible that I’m getting the details all wrong, so if Trina is reading this, feel free to correct any errors). Anyhow, these were soooo good! They tasted exactly like an egg quiche but were in fact totally vegan… and totally delicious. I’ve got to try and make these.

Tasty rosemary roasted potatoes.

And here’s my plate bringing it all together…

What a groovy way to spend the day. I highly suggest that you find someone to invite you over to their house for a homemade vegan brunch. Or if you’re up to it, host one yourself. Then invite me.

Check back soon for “Foodeater’s Day of Vegan Feasting, Part 2: Dinner”

Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana is an upscale vegan restaurant that serves organic, seasonal, “pan-ethnic dishes with a decidedly French influence”. I had always wanted to go there, so I was happy to accept an invite by Vegyogini to join her there in attending a local vegan meet-up for brunch. This coincided with my one year vegan anniversary (way to go, me!), so what better way to celebrate it than at one of the fanciest vegan restaurant in town.

First we were all treated to “Beignets with Seasonal Fruit Compote”. I’ve never had beignets before so I have nothing to compare these to, but I can tell you they were really good, tasting to me like a cross between a sugary churro and an apple fritter.

For my meal I ordered “The Skillet”- Scrambled tofu, seasonal vegetables, farmers cheese and home fries. I thought about getting something a bit more decadent, but along with trying to be good by avoiding off-the-hook sort of stuff like french toast, I also figured that at a gourmet restaurant, a simple dish like tofu scramble would probably turn out pretty special.

And yes, it was awfully good. The tofu had a very close-to-the-real-thing scrambled egg consistency and the seasonings were just right. From what I could taste and see, I believe it included some asparagus, shitake mushrooms, sun-dried tomato, tempeh bacon… I could be making some of those up and/or leaving something else out, but whatever, you get the idea- it was delicious. You can see that the home fries were nice, crispy chunks of little potatoes, served with THEIR OWN HOMEMADE KETCHUP.

This brunch was great but apparently their dinner service is where Madeleine Bistro really shines, so I hope to try that out someday too. The vegan meet-up was a nice time, not something I’ve done before so I’m glad I went. I even got to meet some readers of my blog which I didn’t even know I had! (Hi!) There were a lot of us there, 30, maybe 40 people… I don’t think the organizers of the meet-up were expecting a show of more than 20 people at most, but the restaurant staff did a flawless job of accomdating us all.

We got a nice introduction to the owners, Chef David Anderson and his wife Molly Anderson, the general manager. They both come from extensive and impressive backgrounds, including David’s time as Sous Chef at the Inn of the Seventh Ray and Executive Chef at Real Food Daily. They’re both really dedicated to good quality food and veganism, and their excitement and dedication to it is obvious and refreshing. Before going there I’d heard nothing but raving reviews about Madeleine Bistro, now that I’ve been, I can vouch for their good reputation being well deserved.