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

Recently one of my intrepid informants, let’s call her Agent Kate, uncovered a hitherto unknown development on the Valley eating front. Valiantly she told of her discovery: a new Indian food restaurant in Woodland Hills featuring both a vegetarian and a full vegan menu (along with a regular menu of animal parts for the Neanderthals among you). Good work Agent! I’ll take it from here…

Copper Chimney Indian food restaurant was recently opened by Chef Dewan Bisht of New Delhi. He has trained and worked at many fancy-schmancy places all over the world and after my first meal there I can solidly say that the southland is lucky to have him right here in our very own backyard. Offering a full menu of tantalizing tandooris and tikkas and curries and vindaloos and you name it… what will you find half way down the menu but the beautiful sight of a separate section labeled Vegan and another named Vegetarian. It also mentions that most of the vegetarian dishes can be made vegan. The vegan section boasts gloriously of exotic dishes like Samber Soup, Kurkuri Bhindi (okra), various Dals (lentils dishes), Mushroom Muttar, Jeera Aloo (potatoes with fenugreek) Tofu Masala, Chana Masala, Began Bharta (eggplant), Aloo Gobi (potato) and much more.

We started our meal with samosas, from which you have a choice of peas & potatoes, corn or green peas. I had the peas & potatoes accompanied by the enticing combined melodies of the chutney trio being displayed for you by one of my lovely assitants up at the top. Sweet, spicy, minty, refreshing… all three delicious, as were the samosas themselves. It was obvious they were freshly prepared, not something that had come out of a freezer or package.

For my main course I went with the Tofu Masala: Tofu sautéed with tomatoes, onions, spices & garnished with cilantro. The masala sauce itself was a revelation, thick with tomatoes and amazing Indian masala spices… tangy and slightly smokey/sweet/sexy… the tofu had been perfectly cooked to a chewy yet still soft consistency which made it an excellent vehicle for the sauce. Even with all the onions (demon vegetable spawn) I loved this dish and would highly recommended it.

This was the Vegetable Biryani: rice cooked with assorted vegetables. Eating it was as enjoyable as looking at it! It seemed like all the dishes served throughout the restaurant were coming out of the kitchen with similar artful and whimsical presentations. It was fun to hear and watch everyone “ooh” and “ah” as the various tables were served.

Everything I ate here was fantastic and my aforementioned Neanderthal eating companions (who, like the cavemen in those insurance commercials, are also ironically hard to please considering the crap they are willing to put in their mouths) enjoyed their meals every bit as much as I did. It’s nice to know there’s not only another Indian restaurant around that understands what vegan means (so that you can order off the menu without fear of hidden ghee or other undesirables in your meal) but where the food is also genuinely delicious.
www.copperchimney-woodlandhills.com

I love the food at Follow Your Heart but it’s more on the hippy end of things, so I wasn’t sure how well they would pull off Indian Food.

This is the ‘Tandoori and Curry’ plate, and I’m pleased to report that it was fantastic. “Tandoori Spiced Vegetarian “Chicken” and a Savory Tofu Curry, Served with Basmati Rice, a Vegetable Samosa and Mango Chutney.”

It was a large serving of food. The chicken was some sort of gluteny-seitan concoction. It was a bit on the chewy side, almost jerky-like, but that was a good thing. The tofu was also firm with a really nice texture, and both the tandoori and curry flavors were great. The samosa was tasty, though nothing special. The mango chutney was sweet and I enjoyed it with the rice. Overall a very yummy dish. FYH, sorry I doubted ya!

My latest visit to the Bay Area involved a whole lot of fun, and a whole lot of eating. Here are some of the highlights:

This was the Aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry) from India Palace restaurant in Oakland. It was really good, as was the garlic naan, rice and yummy chutney. In retrospect this was probably not vegan, I always forget that most Indian food is cooked with ghee (clarified butter), which no doubt went a long way in making it taste as good as it did.

This tasty vegan sweet corn tamale with vegetables and black beans came from the Grand Lake Oakland Farmers’ Market.

Ah, now we’re getting to the seriously good stuff! After my failed attempt at having Zante’s pizza the last time I was in San Francisco (they are closed on Sundays despite the 7 days a week sign!), the efforts of my trusty pizza pals and I finally paid off.

Zante’s is an Indian restaurant with a twist… they also serve pizza… vegan Indian food pizza! I know it might sound weird at first, but trust me, it’s the most brilliant thing ever. We ordered the “Best Indian Pizza” (that’s really what it’s called, and it’s true), vegan style. They use crispy, thin crust, a very special green onion based sauce (and you know I don’t like onions, so that should tell you just how good this is if I love it) and top it with spinach, eggplant, cauliflower, ginger, garlic (a whole hell of a lot of garlic!), green onions and cilantro.

Mere words cannot describe how amazing this pizza is. If you live in the San Francisco area or plan to visit, you absolutely must try it!

Another very satisfying discovery for us… vegan Jamaican and African food at Vital Ital Calabash in Berkeley (there is also one in Oakland). Everything on the menu here was healthy and sounded amazing. I had the “Negril Jerk Bliss”, homemade jerk sauce on a tofu-veggie patty with lettuce and sprouts on a cracked wheat bun. I got it with all the fixin’s, all of which I don’t remember, but in looking at the picture, obviously one was vegan cheese. As the menu says: “from Negril to the Bay, this burger screams Reggae!”. It was really good, the sauce was slightly sweet with a hint of spicy. If I lived up there I’d probably eat at this groovy little place all the time.

These were the super good fried plantains with jerk sauce. Though they were fried, they weren’t at all greasy.

Here’s the cool and spicy ginger beer (non-alcoholic). It tasted freshly made, not something they just poured out of a bottle. Delicious and refreshing.

This was the eggplant and roasted red pepper sandwich at what I think was called the Lakeshore Cafe in Oakland. Everything about it was great, though I also realized about halfway into it that the pesto on the sandwich probably wasn’t vegan as it had probably been made with parmesan cheese. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. The salad was good too (I was quite in need of fresh vegetables at this point), as was the strawberry mimosa.

Last but defintely not least, a fabulous way to end a fabulous weekend, a fine meal at Golden Lotus vegetarian restaurant in Oakland. Golden Lotus is one of those awesome veggie restaurants known for their fake meat dishes, and they specialize in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. And boy do they!

First up we had the Vietnamese style spring rolls. These were really good and I regret not taking a picture of the inside to share with you. They were stuffed with basil and mint and nuts and I don’t even know what else. The sauce was tasty and mild and heaped with peanuts.

This was the delicious Spicy Lemongrass Chicken. I’m not sure what the fake chicken is made of but given the texture I assumed it was seitan. The flavor of the sauce was just perfect.

This dish, the Tamarind Beef, was out of this world good. The sauce was thick, almost gravy like, with a sweet-spicy tamarind tang. The faux-beef was covered in heaping mound of mint leaves and peanuts, and served with puffy rice crackers. Like the chicken, I think this beef was also made of seitan.

Not the best photo, but here’s a close-up to give you a better look under all the toppings. Like Zante’s, take my word for it and consider Golden Lotus in Oakland a must stop for amazing vegan food that even your meat-loving friends will be able to enjoy.

The ‘Potato Samosa Quesadilla’ at Hugo’s is fantastic. It’s a whole wheat tortilla stuffed with Indian spiced potatoes, carrots and peas… basically everything you’d usually find inside a samosa. It was served with a delicious mint chutney that was both sweet and spicy, the sort of thing you start to salivate about when you think about it later on, attempting to translate it’s flavor into a blog post.

Up close and personal.

Indian buffet at Govinda’s restaurant at the Hare Krishna Community Temple.