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

[Update 10/12/09] Sadly That’s Amore is closing it’s doors this week and is no more :(

That’s Amore. Actually, it’s an anomaly. That’s Amore is an all vegetarian / vegan Italian restaurant in Cerritos. In a strip mail. No really, think about that for minute. Cerritos is one of the last places you’d think to find a vegan friendly restaurant, not to mention an Italian one. After all Italian food is all about the cheese, right? Sure, but did you really think that would stop us vegans from enjoying it? No way, Jose.

The fine folks at That’s Amore, a pleasant family run operation, have mastered the art of making vegan cheese indistinguishable from the real thing. They’re using Follow Your Heart cheese, which, unless you posses the secret magic power that enables you to get it to melt properly, you already know can be tricky to work with. Well the chef at That’s Amore has that power and this faux cheese melts at their command. They’ve got it down to a science… a breakthrough if you will.

But first we need to discuss the Bruschetta.

Straight up, That’s Amore makes a mean bruschetta. While bruschetta is a pretty simple concept, crusty bread with tomatoes, garlic, capers, basil, olive oil, they’ve managed to make it into an art form here. This bruschetta was 100% scrumptious! By some kind of precise combination of ingredients they’ve concocted a perfectly delicious appetizer that had my companians and I all greedily eying the last piece, quite ready to fight for it if necessary. Guess who won?
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To make use of the last few ripe tomatoes I grew (until the next batch ripen), I made a fresh chunky salsa.

I chopped up my red juicy red tomatoes along with some orange heirlooms I purchased, and added in a bunch of cilantro and chopped green onion. I was going to forgo the onion but decided to go against my usual preference so that the salsa would taste authentic. I didn’t use too much, just taking some little baby steps. Into this medley went the juice of two fresh squeezed limes, one finely chopped jalapeno pepper, black pepper, dried garlic flakes and nutritional yeast. I added the yeast because the lime along with the juice from the tomatoes made it all a bit more watery than I’d hoped, so the yeast made it just a bit thicker, plus I’m addicted to the flavor.

This was poured over a piping hot bowl of steamed red potatoes and carrots. For my first time ever making anything even resembling salsa, this came out great! So fresh and quick and easy, I’m sure I’ll be coming back to make something like this often.