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

The folks over at SunPower Natural Cafe, the lovely raw restaurant in Studio City, wanted me to pass along this info about their Valentines Day specials. Here’s the lowdown:

Enjoy a 6 Course romantic Valentine’s Dinner at SunPower Cafe in our newly remodeled dining room!

Sunday February 14th 5-9pm
With Live Entertainment!

Both Raw and Cooked versions available for each course:
Appetizers: Raw Cabbage Tacos with Nacho Cheese / Vegan Tofu Cabbage Wraps
Soup: Raw Tomato Basil / Vegan Butternut Squash
Salad: Mango Spinach Salad with Candied Pecans and cranberries with Raspberry Dressing
Entree: Heart Shaped Pizza
Entree: Raw or Vegan Lasagna
Dessert: Chocolate Cup with Rum Cherry Custard / Additional raw layered dessert to be announced!

Whether as a couple or with friends, feel special with a unique dinner at SunPower Cafe! Price: $45 per person (paid by Feb. 13th), $55 per person (day of event). Seating 5pm to 9pm.
Reservations Essential: 818-308-7420 or ronald@sunpowernatural.com

Sounds delicious. SunPower manages to make raw food taste decadent. I’ve been back there since my last post about them so this is probably a good time to show you some of the good stuff we got to try.

To start, Bruschetta. “Zesty tomatoes and garlic on crunchy toast.” When my plate arrived it was so much more action packed than that simple description.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good news, the excellent, mostly raw food restaurant Cru in Silver Lake is now open daily for lunch! Daytime service is from 11am-4pm, with dinner starting up from 5:30pm-10pm.

Previously their only daytime hours were on the weekend, now it’s everyday with a special brunch on Sundays from 11am-2:30pm. I haven’t been to the Sunday brunch yet so I don’t know what goodies are on that menu, but I can tell you that I so enjoyed their new daily lunch that I went back two days in a row. Cru was already one of my favorite restaurants, now it’s become even more so.

The daytime menu features a selection from their regular menu, which inlcudes quite a few new dishes since my last visit. There’s a nice selection of appetizers, wraps, and even stuff like their take on a raw pizza, a tostada made with raw vegan chorizo, rice bowls, über healthy salads and more.

Bruschetta is pretty much at the top of the appetizer food chain. I love love love it. The Bruschetta Rustica at Cru isn’t the traditional version as usually served on thick crusty bread, but they’ve got the essence down pat, and this reinvented raw(er) version is delightful.

It comes on sunflower flat bread with chopped tomato & basil and cashew cheese. I believe the saucy drizzle along the plate is a pesto infused oil. Everything about this bruschetta tasted so fresh and clean, the cashew cheese was delicious and the tomatoes perfectly ripe and full of flavor (in January!).

You know what’s even cooler about Cru being open for lunch? It’s that they’re also serving breakfast and brunch inspired dishes, all with a unique and tasty twist. The dishes I’ve had so far all sound so simple on the menu but then when my meals arrived, I was dazzled by the presentation and tastiness of it all. Behold:

Read the rest of this entry »

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend I had a fun food & foodie filled adventure. First I went to check out the Food Fight documentary, knowing I’d be meeting up with the one & only Teenage Glutster but also pleased to make the acquaintance of Pat from Eating L.A. as an extra added bonus. It was a unique experience to view this food centric film as part of a Los Angeles foodblogger trifecta, each of us with our very different approaches to food and this fine city we enjoy eating it in.

By the time the movie was over The Glutster and I were feeling famished. There was some yummy looking stuff in the film (it was the pomegranite salsa that got me) and my taste buds were ready for action. After a bit of deliberation we decided to go to Cru, the vegan raw food restaurant in Silver Lake. Neither of us had eaten there before though we’d both been wanting to. Perfect! This was the night of the big rally/protest/march againt Prop 8 at the Sunset Junction (basically right near the restaurant), so I wasn’t sure we’d even be able to get there, but the street had only just begun to fill up with protestors when we arrived so there was no crisis to avert. The scene was rather festive, the vibe friendly and vibrant… it was exciting to see so many people come together to fight for what is right. We however were not there to protest, we were there to eat!

Now before I go any further, I must tell you that it’s very dark inside of Cru… very low ambient lighting and candles. It’s quite lovely in there, not at all too dark to see by, but certainly too dark to take good pictures in without flash. Not only that but my battery was dying too. That said, I did my best as this wonderful meal deserved to be shared.

Being the hardcore food-loving gluttons that we are, we without hesitation started off with not one, but two appetizers. The first was The Mezze Platter: cucumber tzatzizki, beet & apple salad, fig pate, cashew cheese, flax crackers and garlicky rubbed kale. Everything was delicious, the cashew cheese was rich, thick and creamy, not really tasting like cashews or cheese, but of something better than both. The fig pate was really something special, not as sweet as you would expect figs to be and I noticed a deep, almost fermented touch to it, as if it had been steeped in wine… exquisite. Everything else on the plate was just as excellent, right down to the perfectly brined olives. I think it’s fair to say we were both equally impressed.

We also had the Kim-chi Noodle Salad, which I mistakenly imagined would consist of noodles made from kim-chi, but that was not the case. Basically it was kelp noodles on top of a salad of greens, all topped with a healthy portion of kim-chi (I told you the photos were going to be craptastic). This was an odd combo for me, I do like all of the ingredients but I’m not sure I’d think to put them together that way. Plus the kelp noodles were just plain, I’m used to the delicious way they gussy them up in the Kelp Noodle Salad at Hugo’s or how I cook them at home. I didn’t hate it, I certainly ate quite a bit of it, but I’m not sure I’d order it again.

For my main course I got the Pizza Duo: one slice of mushroom pizza and one slice of pesto vegetable pizza (that’s a salad in the back). These were both so delicious. The one on the left is the mushroom pizza featuring a gorgeous heap of shitake mushrooms. I wish I could tell you what all the other ingredients were but I’m just not sure. I think there might be dried tomatoes on there, those green leaves might well be basil, and a most delicious creamy sauce on the crust that was kind of sweet, which may or may not have been made of cashews. The crust itself is made from kambucha squash. I have no idea how they do it, but… wow. It’s soft and chewy, yet firm enough to withstand being picked up and eaten like a normal slice of pizza.

The slice on the right has some glorious pesto sauce on the bottom, thinly sliced zucchini, tomatoes, radishes, and more of those awesome olives. This was a great example of pure food simply prepared and transformed into something spectacular. The vegetables were so fresh and all the flavors came together so well that each one of them ends up being seen in a whole new light. This was very different from the raw pizza at Blossoming Lotus that I got to try on my visit to Portland. That pizza was also really good too, so it’s interesting to see how different raw chefs interpret their versions of the same thing.

When raw food is done well, as it most definitely is at Cru, you really start to understand what the fuss is all about. I doubt I will ever become a raw foodie but the skilled staff at Cru really know how to work some serious alchemy in their kitchen. Another thing I really liked is that the prices at Cru are not outrageous like they are at some of the other raw places in town. That beautiful Mezze Platter was only $11, and it was big. Both of us were still picking at it until the end of the meal.

They also serve a number of cooked dishes at Cru. The Glutster had a lovely cooked meal of a mushroom quinoia rissotto which was also really, really good. I’ll leave it to him to tell you about that one of these days. I can’t wait to go back there to try more of both their cooked and raw foods.

But don’t think the food adventure ended there. No my friends, for even though Cru is known for their Chocolate Truffle Cake and Chocolate Brownie a la mode, we couldn’t resist the lure of the vegan Twinkies that we knew were right up the street at The Vegan Spot. I was concerned they’d be out of them at this late stage in the game, so imagine our delight when we walked in and saw exactly two beautiful golden Twinkies sitting there in the display case, waiting for us, almost as if they’d known we were coming and had saved themselves just for us. Oh joy! The best part was that not only had The Glutster not yet tried one of these vegan Twinkies, but… get this… he’s never even had a real Twinkie before! Not ever! Hopefully he won’t mind that I just outed him from the Twinkie closet, but the cool thing is that his reaction to it and the way he described the Twinkie while eating it was exactly how I described it the first time I had it. Even though he didn’t have any reference to compare it to, he immediately picked up on the awesome dense and cake-like consistency and thick creaminess of the filling. In other words, he noticed all the things that make JennShaggy’s vegan Twinkies so great in comparison to the far inferior Hostess originals.

Let me tell you that when at days end you’re burping up kim-chi, pesto and Twinkies, you know it has been a good day indeed.
www.crusilverlake.com

I’m noticing that each time I start one of these Portland posts, I want to tell you that THIS was one of the best meals I had on my trip. The problem is that, if you could call it a problem, everything I ate was delicious. I’m having a tough time picking favorites, but if forced to rank my meals this one at Blossoming Lotus would definitely be a top contender.

I’m not a raw foodie, but I certainly eat a lot of raw veggies and fruits by default. My last experience at a raw food restaurant was less than stellar. They do serve some cooked foods here as well but it’s the raw stuff that’s their specialty. Ordering something cooked here would be like going into a Thai restaurant and ordering Italian. So it was with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity that I approached my lunch at Blossoming Lotus.

Everything on the menu sounded good. I was having trouble deciding what to order, and not really knowing what to expect made the choice even more difficult. It was a no-brainer therefore to order the ‘Live Sampler Platter’, which came with everything that sounded most yummy to me on the menu. I figured if there was ever going to be time to impress me with raw food, than this was it. And impress me they did! Allow me to break it down for you…

In the picture above, from top left we’ve got:
Live Pizza: buckwheat crust with cashew cheese, live marinara & veggies. Mine was on a flaxseed cracker/bread and I’m pretty sure that sweet fruity sensation (the yellow chunks) was mango. Fantastic! Even up until the last second before this gorgeous thing hit my mouth, I was a doubter. I was concerned that the flax seed cracker would crumble and the whole slice action of it all would fall apart. Up until I bit into it I thought, “I hope this doesn’t suck, it just looks like a fancy salad on a pizza shaped cracker”. Any such silly concerns of mine fell away as I realized how delicious this was turning out to be. The crust-cracker-bread did not fall apart and held up quite nicely, and tasted great too. I loved the whole thing, too many flavors here for me to be able to discern them all. The salad topping was perfectly dressed and everything just came together perfectly. I could have eaten a whole plate of this pizza alone, and I was somewhat envious of my friend who did just that. But not really, because everything else on my plate was just as good.

Move to your right over the tomatoes and find yourself at:
Cilantro Lime Pate: made with sunflower seeds, served with cucumber, tomato & flax crackers. If you love cilantro, and I do, you’ll love this. I never actually received the crackers so I made due with scooping it onto my cucumbers and that was a wonderful work-around. Intense flavor, I couldn’t eat all of it in one sitting (maybe with the crackers), but I’m a better person for having tried.

Next, wedged comfortably between the cucumbers and avocado is the:
Live Pasta: zucchini noodles, carrots, spinach, beets, sea vegetables & scallions, tossed in basil pesto, served with cashew cheese. Just rad, there’s no other way to say it. Ok, I wasn’t under any sort of impression at any time that this was anything like real pasta, but who the heck cares when it’s this tasty? The combo flavors of the basil pesto and cashew cheese blob were out of this world good.

Last but certainly not least head over to the tastefully beet & sprout adorned…
Live Garden of Eden Salad: mixed baby greens, carrots, beets, sweet & spicy eden nuts with ginger dressing. Simple ingredients but not simple flavors. The ginger dressing rocked, the nuts I don’t specifically remember, but as you might imagine I was somewhat in an altered state of mind at this point brought on by all this pure, unadulterated nutrition.

Because you really need to get the full effect of all this, here’s another view of the same plate from the other side. I’ll understand if all the foodporn pervs out there need a moment to compose yourselves before going on.

Another of the star attractions at Blossoming Lotus is their vegan soft-serve ice cream. At the end of our meal though I was so stuffed and satisfied that I just couldn’t see myself putting down an entire serving of ice cream (tempting though it was). Instead, my two friends and I opted to share the equally popular ‘Live Fudge’, made with raw cacao.

We’d planned to take it to go, but I noticed that it was meant to be kept chilled and was rapidly starting to melt in the bag. So we quickly passed it around, getting a couple of bites each out of it. Please excuse the blurry photo… we’d eaten our little bundle of joy before I even thought to photograph it, so I grabbed a quick shot of the display counter.

Wow, Live Fudge is amazing! I’ve never had such a concentrated sensation of chocolate before, it was so rich… and tasted darker than the darkest chocolate but not at all bitter. The taste was incredible, rich and thick and gooey, and I’ll be damned if it truly didn’t feel alive. I’m not even kidding when I tell you that I got an immediate rush after eating it, feeling for a little while afterwards much more alert, awake and aware. An appropriate sort of reaction to be having I suppose in an organic, raw food place situated inside of a yoga studio.

Like I told you back at the beginning, I’m being non-committal on picking favorites from this vacation. I will say however that eating at Blossoming Lotus was definitely one of the highlight meals, especially so because I wasn’t expecting it to be. For sure I’d recommend them as one of the “must have” vegetarian/vegan restaurants to try when in Portland, a fantastic thing to do for yourself after too many days of waffles and vegan donuts (more on that yet to come). They’ve also got another location on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, so if you go there please take me with you.
www.blpdx.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 4!

When the weather’s hot as hell like it’s been here in Los Angeles the past few days, I enjoy light, cool meals. The thought of eating something hot and heavy when the temperature is in the triple digits just doesn’t do it for me. This plate of raw goodness at Flore in Silverlake however, did.

Talk about light and cool… these raw jicama tacos are not only meat free and dairy free, but they’re also wheat free and gluten free. Did I leave anything out? Oh yes, the part about how very delicious they are!

Julianned seasoned jicama, kale, chopped cilantro, raw sunflower seeds, raw cashew cheese and pico de gallo wrapped in green leaf lettuce and served with lime wedges and dehydrated mango slices.

This was unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before, and I loved every last, somewhat sloppy, bite of it. The texture and the seasonings on the jicama mixture was delicious on it’s own, but then you’ve also got the nutty-sweet-creaminess of the cashew cheese underneath, and to add to the multitasking excitement of it all, you can also add a heaping spoonful of the salsa and a generous squirting of lime. The next part of the fun is figuring out how to pick it up and get it in your mouth without looking like a dork and getting food all over yourself, but after a few messy attempts I fell into a good rhythm (and I’m already pretty comfortable with being a dork).

Overall a very tasty raw meal without the pretentiousness and exorbitant prices that I’ve come to associate with raw food. This was raw food that didn’t really need to announce itself as such, instead it was just a refreshingly good plate of food on a ridiculously hot day. Cooked food would have felt like overkill.

(Update January 2010: Leaf has closed. I’m not surprised)

I was hungry but craving something light and fresh, so I figured I’d visit Leaf Cuisine. I’m not totally sold on the whole philosophy of raw food, but I do eat a lot of raw food by default, being big into veggies and salads. A salad was what I’d planned on getting, but the Pad Thai listed as a special seemed too intriguing to pass up.

“Kelp & squash noodles with red peppers in a spicy peanut sauce”. The menu on display did not mention kelp noodles, but that’s the basis of this dish (I see it’s listed in the take-home menu). The display also mentioned mango… while I didn’t actually see any mango on the plate there may have been some well hidden in there. As you can see there’s also a bunch of crunchy little sprouts added to the mix.

It was very different from anything that actually tastes like Pad Thai, but not bad. It wasn’t spicy at all and had a sour lemon or vinegar tang to it. The flavor and texture was ok, but I didn’t want to eat all that much of it as the flavor was overwhelming after a few bites.

Along with the Pad Thai I also had the guacamole and kale chips. The guac was great, the chips even greater. Not sure what herbs were used to flavor them but they where very yummy.

I like the food here but I can’t say that I love it. I’m a pretty open-minded and adventurous eater, but even for me some of this stuff is just a little bit out there (in the sense of not being what I look for in a satisfying meal). Maybe I’m just feeling biased rght now because one of the girls working there gave her other coworker a look when she saw me taking a picture of my food as if to indicate it was the strangest or most annoying thing she’d ever seen in her life. Come on lady! You eat nothing but raw food, ever, and I’m the weirdo for wanting to take a picture of it? Another deterrent to loving this stuff is the price. Fancy shmancy raw food ain’t cheap.