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

The San Fernando Valley is no longer the dreaded no-mans land that it used to be, and while those of us who live here in the SFV are used to the derision, snide remarks and upturned noses of those who live over the hill, the tables have begun turning as the Valley fills up with delicious restaurants that have both the east and westsiders hopping over the Cahuenga Pass or Laurel Canyon and pouring into our humble basin… the same folks who previously would have never dared venture into the realm of the (818) area code are now streaming in at record numbers in order to have some of what we’ve got. What’s bringing them here isn’t the oppressive heat or the medical marijuana dispensaries on every corner… no, it’s the excellent vegan food.

One such Valley treasure we’ve recently gained out here is SunPower Natural Cafe. SunPower serves up healthy organic vegan and mostly raw dishes, though a few of their items are cooked. They’re located on Cahuenga Blvd, right where Ventura Blvd. and Cahuenga do their little dance and turn into one. This makes it a prime location for serving not only most of the Valley but also anyone right up the street over in Hollywood and beyond. It’s also conveniently located right off the Lankershim Blvd. exit from the 101 freeway.

What I really like about SunPower is that they aren’t like most of the other raw places in town. Those restaurants either tend to be on the fancier side (Cru for example), too expensive and far away for my blood (the various places in Santa Monica), or to put it bluntly, not good (I’m talking to you Leaf Cuisine). SunPower is nothing like any of those- not only is the staff genuinely friendly (and vegan themselves) but the food is also bona fide delicious without being pretentious. I’ve had the pleasure of trying a number of items off of their menu and so far I’ve enjoyed everything.

Because I love all things barbecue, the BBQ Burger naturally seemed like the first thing for me to try. “Sunflower seed patty smothered in raw BBQ sauce. Topped with marinated onions, mushrooms, chopped lettuce and ranch dressing. Served on choice of bun”. For your bun options you can pick from a sprouted sesame bun, fluffy wheat bun or a raw green bun. I’m a bread loving kinda gal, so I went with wheat. Even though you can’t see it in the photo I also got some extra avocado added on. You also get a side so I went with the kale salad (you can see it with the salad pictured up at the top of this post).

This was really good. The sauce tasted sweet & savory at the same time while the patty was meaty and full of flavor. I didn’t taste like a bunch of mushed up sunflower seeds, it tasted like a hearty, healthy and action packed burger. And when I say healthy I don’t mean bland… both the patty and the sauce were very well seasoned and quite tasty. I could totally feed this to my meat-loving dad and I don’t think he’d complain that he was eating bird food.
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I’m not a raw foodie but I do enjoy well prepared raw dishes when I’m in the right mood. I was in one of those moods when I remembered hearing about a raw, vegan place in West Hollywood and I was pretty sure I’d driven past it on Santa Monica Blvd. before, so I set out to find it. I remembered that it had something Goddess-y in it’s name.

I drove to where I remembered seeing it but instead of the raw place I was looking for, I had arrived at The Flowering Tree instead. Turns out the other place I’d been trying to find was called Taste of the Goddess, had been located farther up the street, and has been closed for quite some time.

Well here I was at a restaurant that looked decent and I was really hungry, so I checked out their menu. The Flowering Tree is not a raw restaurant or even a vegetarian restaurant but they have many vegetarian options, most of which already are or can be made vegan. Sounds good to me… let’s do this thing!

I went with the flame-grilled Lemon Herb Tempeh Burger which came with lettuce, tomato, dijon mustard and Veganaise. I also had them add the soy cheese for a bit extra. I think you can see why I called finding this place a tasty mistake because this was one damn fine vegan burger. It’s not really a burger patty, rather it’s a heaping pile of marinated tempeh chunks…and it was delicious. I don’t know if they make the tempeh there or if it’s a pre-packaged variety because the flavor was somewhat familiar to me, but either way, it’s good stuff. The burger was gigantic and the whole wheat bun was nicely toasted. It came with a choice of sides from which I picked the fruit, also a fresh and generous portion.
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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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Flore in Silver Lake has become one of my favorite lunch spots. It would probably be one of my favorite breakfast spots too if I were ever up that early. I’ve eaten there a bunch of times lately and have been saving ‘em up just for you.

Let’s open with the Avocado and Seitan Salad: a bed of mixed greens with sliced avocado, daikon sprouts, grilled seitan and tomato with tahini dressing. I love this salad and order it often, you can see a previous version of it here. It tends to look a bit different each time but the jist is usually the same, and it’s always tasty. There’s a lot more of the seitan in there than the picture shows, it’s hiding under the sprouts.

Now for my new favorite sandwich, Flore’s Club Sandwich: battered & baked tofu, lettuce, tomato, avocado and daikon sprouts served with eggless mayonnaise on toasted organic sourdough bread. Served with their awesome potato salad. This sandwich is so good, the way they make the tofu is fantastic… it’s chewy & slightly crispy with really good flavor. Their fake tempeh bacon rocks too, adding the perfect touch of meaty smokiness to make this a really hearty meal, made even more so by the buttery fresh avocado. YUM.

The yum doesn’t end there, I’m also giving Flore the distinct honor of being my current favorite veggie burger of the moment. As described: The Flore Burger: Our own black bean burger grilled and served with tomato, sprouts, green leaf lettuce and Thousand Island dressing. I also had them add in the extra avocado and cashew cheese.

This is one outstanding vegan burger. I sometimes worry that bean burgers will tasty too beany… you know, nothing but a mouthful of mashed beans like some of those hippie burgers? Nope, this was no granola hippie shit, this was an action packed powercombo of black beans, brown rice, oats, corn and I don’t know what else they stuffed in there but I can tell you that they worked it. It was solid, thick, fat, delicious AND healthy. I slathered that sucker up with both the cashew cheese and Thousand Island, packed on the avocado slices… then had to figure out how to get that monster into my mouth. I love love love this burger and if I could marry it I totally would. Consider yourselves invited.

And what’s a raving review about a restaurant without the obligatory desert porn?

This precious beauty is a vegan lemon cupcake. Sounds simple but it was anything but… more like smooth and silky and sinful. When you taste vegan treats this good it baffles the mind why people still cook with milk, eggs and butter by choice. It’s so not necessary and exquisite deserts like this are proof. Flore is also now selling the vegan Twinkies (because the vegan Twinkies are taking over the world).

There are a number of both good and bad reviews of Flore floating around out there, the bad stuff mostly having to do with service issues. While some of that stuff is to an extent true, I’ve been lucky to usually get that one excellent waitress who just kicks ass. I don’t know her name but she’s the dark haired gal who’s always there and is often the only openly friendly person working. She more than makes up for some of the restaurants other shortcomings, and their great food wins out over any other minor complaints that hipsters on Yelp like to make about other hipsters.

Oh and they’ve got their own website now so I can send you somewhere other than Yelp or Myspace to check them out:
www.florevegan.com

It’s hard to argue that we’re not spoiled foodies here in Los Angeles. What, with all the fresh local produce and overabundance of exceptional vegan & vegetarian restaurants, we’ve really got nothing to complain about. Still, sometimes you just want to be able to walk into to any ol’ place and order something off the menu without having to worry about what secret ingredients are lurking within. It’s getting easier to do just that these days as more “regular” restaurants are expanding their menus to include not only vegetarian but also entirely vegan options. Johnny Rockets, the 50′s style burger joint is one such place. Known for their jukeboxes, milkshakes and all-beef grilled patties, Johnny Rockets has taken a step in the right direction and added an all vegan burger option to their menu.

Here we have what Johnny Rockets has dubbed “The Streamliner”: the original meatless Boca® burger with grilled onions, fresh lettuce, ripe tomato, pickle & mustard. I ordered mine without the onions, natch. I inquired as to if they also offered soy-cheese, which they do not, but which they really should. I mean if you’re gonna come this far, why only come part of the way?

This burger was darn good! As mentioned, they use the Boca burger which is made from soy and is entirely vegan. I don’t recall ever trying a Boca burger before and I really liked it. It had a smokey, charbroiled flavor to it which I don’t think came from the grill itself but was actually part of the burger seasonings. The buns are also vegan. I did not order fries but you’ll be happy to know that their fries are also totally vegan, cooked entirely in vegetable oil, not beef tallow. Sadly, they do not have any vegan shakes. Yet.

My verdict: very tasty. Certainly not the greatest burger I’ve ever had in my life, but definitely enjoyable… and added with the fact that I was able to eat it while at a place as ridiculously normal, corporate and contrived as Johnny Rockets while listening to Leslie Gore cry about her party on the jukebox, well, it was pretty special. My only complaint is the color of the pattie… kind of beige and homely looking. A darker color would make it look more appetizing. I’m not big on additives and unnecessary ingredients being put into my food, but on the other hand, this is already a processed, pre-packaged, frozen convenience food, not an organic, locally grown, pristine salad… so I don’t think that adding a bit of “caramel coloring” to make it look a little bit more appealing would hurt. Are you listening Boca people? Your burger is mighty tasty, but it’s also butt ugly.

Giving credit where credit is due, I learned about the Streamliner burger at Johnny Rockets via Lane at the excellent VeganBits blog when he wrote about it back in May, though I only now got around to trying it. I was so hungry when I sat down at the Johnny Rockets counter to try this burger that I forgot to pay attention to whether they used a separate grill or not to keep my innocent soy burger away from the bloody meat juice on the main grill. Thankfully Lane was paying close attention on his visit and confirms in his post that indeed, his eagle eye noticed that the burgers truly were cooked on separate grills from their meat & cheese counterparts.

The Johnny Rockets website also assures us that:

“Please be aware that we designate a special area of the grill on which to cook only the Boca Burger and we do everything in our power to keep the area free from other materials. We also have special color-coded turners and tongs which help to keep cross-contamination to a minimum.”

It seems like they’re making a real effort to be vegetarian-friendly, well… as vegetarian-friendly as you can get while still being a meat peddler that proudly boasts of serving 13 million beef hamburgers to your guest each year. Oh the irony.

Johnny Rockets has locations just about everywhere in the USA other than the Midwest Western Middle of the country (and Portland for some reason), so if you’re anywhere other than those areas, you’ll probably be able to find a location just by throwing a rock in any heavily foot-trafficked direction. I ate at the Encino spot on Ventura Blvd., though for the full experience you might want to visit their original Melrose location, that is if you can find yourself a seat between the hoards of Japanese tourists and hairy bikers.
www.johnnyrockets.com

P.S. You might also want to know that Boca burgers are owned by Kraft Foods.

Which of the following statements are true?
1.) Kraft is EVIL
2.) Kraft is owned by Philip Morris tobacco
3.) Kraft uses Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) in most of their products.
If you picked “All of the Above” you would be correct.

Some of the Boca burgers are made with organic (and therefore non-GMO ingredients), though I cannot confirm which exact Boca product Johnny Rockets is using. The menu says it’s the “100% Soy Boca Burger”, but that’s not an actual name of any Boca product. Boca lists two vegan burgers on their website, the “Original Vegan” which is not organic, and the “Vegan made with Organic Soy”, which is. Beats me which one J.R’s is feeding us. So, if after eating this burger you turn into a mutant and/or start to sprout purple soybean monsters with teeth from out yer ears, don’t come cryin’ to me.