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

Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana is an upscale vegan restaurant that serves organic, seasonal, “pan-ethnic dishes with a decidedly French influence”. I had always wanted to go there, so I was happy to accept an invite by Vegyogini to join her there in attending a local vegan meet-up for brunch. This coincided with my one year vegan anniversary (way to go, me!), so what better way to celebrate it than at one of the fanciest vegan restaurant in town.

First we were all treated to “Beignets with Seasonal Fruit Compote”. I’ve never had beignets before so I have nothing to compare these to, but I can tell you they were really good, tasting to me like a cross between a sugary churro and an apple fritter.

For my meal I ordered “The Skillet”- Scrambled tofu, seasonal vegetables, farmers cheese and home fries. I thought about getting something a bit more decadent, but along with trying to be good by avoiding off-the-hook sort of stuff like french toast, I also figured that at a gourmet restaurant, a simple dish like tofu scramble would probably turn out pretty special.

And yes, it was awfully good. The tofu had a very close-to-the-real-thing scrambled egg consistency and the seasonings were just right. From what I could taste and see, I believe it included some asparagus, shitake mushrooms, sun-dried tomato, tempeh bacon… I could be making some of those up and/or leaving something else out, but whatever, you get the idea- it was delicious. You can see that the home fries were nice, crispy chunks of little potatoes, served with THEIR OWN HOMEMADE KETCHUP.

This brunch was great but apparently their dinner service is where Madeleine Bistro really shines, so I hope to try that out someday too. The vegan meet-up was a nice time, not something I’ve done before so I’m glad I went. I even got to meet some readers of my blog which I didn’t even know I had! (Hi!) There were a lot of us there, 30, maybe 40 people… I don’t think the organizers of the meet-up were expecting a show of more than 20 people at most, but the restaurant staff did a flawless job of accomdating us all.

We got a nice introduction to the owners, Chef David Anderson and his wife Molly Anderson, the general manager. They both come from extensive and impressive backgrounds, including David’s time as Sous Chef at the Inn of the Seventh Ray and Executive Chef at Real Food Daily. They’re both really dedicated to good quality food and veganism, and their excitement and dedication to it is obvious and refreshing. Before going there I’d heard nothing but raving reviews about Madeleine Bistro, now that I’ve been, I can vouch for their good reputation being well deserved.

Before the holidays my mom asked me to take her downtown for some bargain shopping on Santee Alley. I did my homework ahead of time and researched our food options, and decided we’d try out Tierra Cafe, a “vegetarian cuisine, organic coffee and tea house”.

They’ve got a small space in a shared food court, but this thankfully wasn’t your usually cafeteria style fast food. They’ve got a full menu including breakfast (vegan french toast!), soups (vegan tortilla soup!), salads, Mexican entrees (vegan nachos!), sandwiches & wraps (portabella panini!), plenty of beverage specialties including their own freshly made herbal elixirs.

It was early for me so I opted for breakfast with their tofu scramble, which involves tofu, onion (no thanks), tomato and mushrooms, served with La Brea Bakery bread. It was pretty simple, yet tasty, warm and filling.

My mom, being an earlier riser than I, was already in lunch mode, so she ordered “The Salad” (they have other salads but that’s what this one is called). Mixed greens, shredded carrot, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, mushroom, red cabbage, tomato, tofu egg salad and hummus with lemon-tahini dressing, dill sauce, and that same yummy bread. I usually don’t photograph or post pictures of what other people are eating, but this salad was so pretty and tasty (you know I tried it) that I figured it was worth sharing.

Good stuff to be found here, if I worked or lived downtown I’d probably become a Tierra Cafe regular thanks to their quick, healthy and very vegan friendly food.

I made this one up as I went along and it came out fantastic. It went something like this…

First I started heating up some olive oil and crushed garlic (one large clove). Then I added in chopped red bell pepper, chopped “baby bella” mushrooms and roughly chopped artichoke hearts (from a can, drained and rinsed) along with some lemon juice and rice vinegar. As the pepper started to soften I added in one tub worth of crumbled super-firm tofu. As this cooked I also added in some sun-dried tomatoes (these had been soaked in warm water first for about 15 minutes, then chopped up), fresh basil, yellow curry powder, coriander, black pepper and cayanne pepper. I let this cook until most of the liquid had been soaked up and the tofu had just started to brown around the edges.

This was so quick and easy to make, and every bit as tasty as something that would get served at a restaurant. Don’t be afraid to make your own version of tofu scramble, throw in whatever you’ve got on hand, season to your liking (may I suggest curry?) and there you have it: dinner! Or breakfast, or what have you…

I’m only now getting around to sharing my bay area food stories with you nearly a month after the fact, but as they say, good things come to those who wait. So without further adieu…

My first stop was Neecha Thai which recently opened in the Grand Lake district of Oakland. They are not an exclusively vegetarian restaurant but they have a plethora of vegetarian/vegan choices. For starters we had their incredible corn cakes. Think of these as an edible orgy of crispy, slightly chewy corn and lime love. Fantastic. [Update: Probably made with egg]

As I’d just stepped off a plane I opted for a lighter meal and went with their salad. Sadly I can’t recall it’s name or all of what was in it, but I do remember it involved apples, crispy yams and a very tasty, citrus dressing.

The next day we got to catch up with the folks vending vegan soul food at the Lake Merritt farmers market. Wow… this was so awesome! My plate consisted of spicy greens, stickily-sweet amazing yams and finger-lickin’ good BBQ tofu. They also had a great potato salad as well as a lentil dish. Now that’s some good eating right there.

Next came a special treat as we learned that Herbivore had just opened in their new Berkeley location on Shattuck. Of course I had to go!

First came our appetizer of soft tacos: “two soft taco shells with beans, guacamole, vegan sour cream and salsa”. Yum!

My entree was the Lemongrass Noodles: “Char-broiled vegetables garnished with fresh cilantro and crushed peanuts in a lemongrass-ginger dressing over rice noodles with tofu”. It was delicious with the strong and pungent flavor of the lemongrass and the spiciness of the ginger. Berkeley just got even that much cooler.

I’d heard tell that the vegan brunch at Fellini (also in Berkeley) is something else. I can now attest to the fact that these rumours are all true, it was excellent. I had the tofu scramble with vegan sausage, which came with grilled potatoes & vegan sour cream, wheat biscuit, jam and vegan butter.

Yet another breakfast spread, this time on another visit back to Herbivore.

I tell you, I can’t get enough of their blueberry cornbread. It’s the best thing on earth!

I had already starting moving stuff around on the plate before remembering to take a picture, which is why it looks a bit of a mess. Anyhow, this was their Southwestern style tofu scramble which comes with potatoes, black beans, guacamole, vegan sour cream and spicy cornbread. All of it rocked. Talk about being in multi-flavored cornbread heaven! I actually only tasted some of this savory-spicy version, which was great, but at that point I’d really had my fill and needed to go catch my plane.

Here’s to another delicious time well spent eating and cavorting up north. I highly recommend it.

Here’s the tofu scramble at Hugo’s.

I can’t believe that I’ve been dining at Hugo’s all this time and I’d never tried their tofu scramble until recently. It’s really freaking good! “Organic tofu scramble with sweet potato, green onion, tomato, spinach, garlic and mushrooms with ginger-soy sauce”. The tofu was the super firm kind and it nicely picked up the flavor of the sauce, which was delicious. The addition of the sweet potatoes give it a really nice depth, sweetness and texture. Definitely one of my new Hugo’s favorites.

My eating frenzy this weekend while in San Francisco began appropriately enough at Herbivore, a vegan restaurant with two locations… I visited the one in the Mission district on Valencia. I think it’s safe to say that this place is any vegetarians dream eatery, with an extensive and affordable selection of items ranging from American style burgers and sandwiches, to Asian noodle and curry dishes, through to Middle Eastern and Italian style fare. Seriously, they’ve got anything you could possibly want.

I ordered the shawarma wrap which is made with grilled seitan, seasoned onions (and I didn’t even hate them), tomatoes, hummus, hot sauce, pickles and tahini, and served with a green salad. For a bit extra they’ll also stuff it full of potatoes and eggplant. Who was I to say no to that?

It was so totally yummy! I can’t really say that it tasted anything like real shawarma, but that hardly seemed to matter considering just how delicious it was on it’s own merit. As you can see, it’s gigantic and could easily feed two or three people. And no, I didn’t share.

On my second visit to Herbivore I got their veggie shish kabob. This was basically grilled tofu and vegetables on skewers (corn, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms) served over brown rice and with two different sauces (lemon-garlic & peanut orange-miso). Simple yet delicious.

And how could I pass up dessert? We’re talking a vegan carrot cake the size of a small island in the Pacific. Truly delicious, and so big that even with four of us digging into it, there was nearly a third of it left over when we were all stuffed. How is it that some people still think that vegan food is boring?

Last but certainly not least, I had breakfast at Herbivore on my last day there. I got the scrambled tofu with with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes (and a lot of garlic) with house potatoes.

As you see it comes with yummy whole grain toast, but I passed that up in favor of a sideorder of the blueberry cornbread. Words really cannot convey how amazing this bread is…cornbread has always been one of my favorite foods on earth, and the addition of delicious blueberries along with vegan buttery spread just took it over the top. All this along with the double soy-latte that I ordered had me in a sufficent enough breakfast food coma just in time for my flight back home to L.A.