To Live and Eat in L.A.

Today I got to enjoy a fun mini-meet-up with two other Los Angeles area vegan food bloggers Vegyogini and Your Vegan Mom (with Her Vegan Son). We chose Pure Luck for our lunch, whose close proximity to Scoops across the street made it a no-brainer.

I had the cold noodle salad, a delightful rice noodle dish with fresh spinach, basil, sprouts, grilled tofu and peanuts. It was similar to pad thai but without the usual tamarind flavor. It had it’s own unique and delicious dressing, and unfortunately I’m not remembering what was in it right now (I’ll get back to you on that). It also came with these yummy, chewy, doughy things that you can see over on the right side of the plate, they tasted like eggroll skins. I mixed everything up with the chili sauce and fresh squeezed lime and it was awesome. It’s nice that there’s a diet friendly option on their menu (which you’ll see quickly becomes irrelevant when followed by the next two paragraphs).

Over yonder at Scoops, I tried Strawberry & Jasmine and the Spiced Pumpkin. The strawberry was excellent, not too sweet or tart with a nice flowery hint of jasmine. The texture was like buttery smooth ice cream, just right. The pumpkin was pretty good too, but I can’t say that I loved it. The spice was a bit much and the texture was kinda grainy. The strawberry would have passed as real dairy ice cream with no problem, the pumpkin not so much.

And to top all that off, our fabulous Vegan Mom brought us some delicious homemade almond-apricot-chocolate cakey thingies. These wonderful little treats were so good! The cake part tasted like amazingly soft marzipan… then top that off in your mind with sweet apricot filling, more almondy goodness… then chocolate and nuts. Wow. It’s a good thing I only had two because I probably could have eaten 20.

I took myself on a date to Fatty’s & Co. in Eagle Rock having heard it’s an awesome vegetarian cafe. Good news… it’s true!

I started with their soup of the day, a bean and vegetable soup which was basically a minestrone without noodles, topped with pesto. Very tasty.

My main dish was the Potato Skin Tacos: “Organic potato skins made crisp and filled with fresh edamame, mango, carrots, onions, celery and ground veggie crumbles saute in our south of the border spices. Served with a golden-brown potato-red bell pepper cake with creamy cilantro sauce, Martin’s mildly spicy tomatillo salsa and radish sprouts”.

As you can see the presentation was stunning, and the taste was equally delightful. The taco filling was really good, a meaty texture and good taco flavor but still retaining the crispness and freshness of the vegetables it consisted of. The potato-bell pepper cake was also great, perfectly crispy on the outside and soft and yummy on the inside. The sauce and both salsas brought it all together and made this dish not only delicious but also fun to eat.

And what would a date with oneself be without not having to share dessert with anyone? This was the apple pie with vegan vanilla ice cream. Awesome. And all mine.