To Live and Eat in L.A.

There are those who hate on L.A something fierce. I’m willing to bet that none of them have ever visited the Hollywood Farmers Market on a fine mid-winter day like today (sunny and warm, crisp blue skies and just the tiniest hint of a breeze).

The Hollywood Farmers Market rules for so many reasons, so don’t even get me started. Just go if you haven’t already. And ride the metro… it’s right there and you won’t find parking any closer, or cheaper. You might even run into a celebrity. Like Gwen Stefani.

Instead of my usual soul food lunch at the farmers market, today I ventured out and tried the Korean food stand instead. The nice lady there makes these delicious vegan vegetable pancakes.

The plate came with noodles, rice and kim chee. It was all great, though my pancakes were a little bit under cooked on the inside. If I get these again I’ll ask for them well-done and crispy. I also want to try her tasty looking tofu, which looks like it’s nice and spicy with Korean goodness.

And here’s the bounty I came home with. From left to right: mandarin oranges, purple cauliflower (oh joy!), artichokes, fuji apples, arugula, watercress, mint, sage, cherimoya, rainbow chard. The lemons are not from the farmers market but they insisted on being in the picture. What was I going to do, argue with a lemon?

All of this, along with the lunch and a round trip on the metro = under $30.
Wearing sandals and a t-shirt in January while sampling strawberries = priceless.

This was my first visit to M Café de Chaya in Hollywood and I really enjoyed it. They serve organic “Contemporary Macrobiotic Cuisine”. Rather hoity-toity and very California, I know, but don’t knock it till you try it. Everything on the menu sounded excellent, and everything I saw on other people’s plates looked lovely.

I decided to try the ‘Bi-Bim Bop’ rice bowl: “Pan-fried tofu, Korean-style vegetables, spicy miso sauce & house-made kim chee”. It was great. The different veggie toppings included kinpira gobo (a Japanese burdock root and carrot salad) as well as a pickled cucumber salad, a mushroom salad, bok choi and a number of other goodies you can’t see under all that which I can’t really identify. The spicy miso was very tasty, similar to Korean style bbq sauce.

Along with my entree I also had a carafe of iced barley tea (yum, I wish I had more with me right now)…

…and to top it all off, a flax seed and currant scone.

M Café de Chaya is not an exclusively vegetarian restaurant, but the vegetarian/vegan items do seem to be their specialties. I’d be happy to eat there again sometime, being especially intrigued by their Gado Gado with tempeh (an Indonesian salad with peanuts) as well as their Madras Tempeh Wrap which involves masala-baked tempeh and soy yogurt. If you’re doing the hipster thing and happen to find yourself hanging out down on the trendy side of Melrose (it’s just before La Brea), be sure to give this place a try.