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

Hello foodies! I’ve been away a little longer than I would have liked, due mostly to being way too busy over the holidays, along with being kinda lazy, and for the past few days… super sick. Seems like everyone is sick right now so I won’t whine too much about it. I figured I had to at least post something today because (drum roll please) it’s my two year vegan anniversary! Yay me! I would be celebrating out on the town with awesome food if I wasn’t so ill, but rest assured celebrating is yet to come just as soon as I can actually swallow again.

For now, before 2008 gets too far away from us (good riddance!) I figured I should do a quick catch up on the fun vegan blogger potluck I got to take part in just before Christmas. The idea was to bring an appetizer to share, and then we’d all write about it on our respective blogs. Knowing myself well, I knew that if I attempted to cook something it would either end up a disaster, or take far too long, or both. My best bet was to purchase something… but what? I didn’t want to bring something too boring, nor did I want to bring something that everyone would already be familiar with. In a fleeting moment of genius I came up with the idea of bringing some delicious treats from Thai town.

These funky looking goodies are made of sweet sticky rice stuffed with bananas and black beans. They come wrapped in banana leaves in which they’ve been steamed, and the leaves impart an earthy, almost smokey scent and flavor to the rice. I love these guys and I like to think of them as the Thai version of a tamale. Sometimes you’ll also find them stuffed with taro instead of banana, but I prefer the sweeter banana version myself. Chewy, hearty, filling and delicious. A quick search online for the actual name of these beauties turned up a seemingly easy to follow recipe for Khao Tom Pad. I might just have to refer to them though as Khao Tom Yummy.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been cobbling together a post about my recent visits to both locations of Bulan Vegetarian Thai Kitchen. Apparently great minds really do think alike, as just earlier today Bulan was also featured over at quarrygirl.com. Not wanting to steal any of the glory away from that great review, after conferring with the Lady of the Quarries herself, I’m going to go ahead and post this now anyways. We both ate different things, so this way you get to see even more of the deliciousness that Bulan has to offer… and they get double the free advertising :)

Bulan’s food contains “NO meat, NO refined sugars, NO m.s.g. and NO trans fats”. Most of the menu is vegan, with many of the vegetarian items being vegan optional. Everything is clearly marked on the menu so you know what’s what. The food here is not of the same variety of those many other vegan Thai places around with variations on the same menu. The food is a cut above, with more authentically Thai style cooking and higher quality ingredients.

My first visit to Bulan was as their location on Melrose, just west of La Brea. We started off our meal with a palate cleansing blast from the sweet & sour florescently green lime sodas pictured at the top, then began our feast with the Tempeh Appetizer: “nutty-flavor fried bean curd served with sweet & sour sauce”. Just lovely… I could snack on these all day.
Read the rest of this entry »

I recently let you all know about the new vegan Thai restaurant that just opened up here in North Hollywood, Lotus Vegan. I’ll refer you back to that post for the info and lively comments (New vegan Thai food in NoHo: Lotus Vegan)… for now I’m really just in the mood to talk about food.

This exotic dish, the Silver Noodle Salad was what I had on my most recent visit, and it was delicious. “Glass bean noodles mixed with soy chicken, soy shrimp and chilis in lime juice”. Yum… so good!

Not being a fan of onions I spent a minute picking those away to reveal the goodies underneath. What makes this dish a hit is the fantastic lime dressing. I’ve had some lime based dishes and salads at other Thai places where they’ve either just used straight up lime juice with nothing else (too sour), or they mix it with some herb or spice that I don’t like which gives it the distinct taste of dirty butt. Not that I know what dirty butt tastes like mind you, but I can send you to a few Thai joints where they’ll gladly give you a sample. Thankfully, this dish had no butt flavor whatsoever! I loved the dressing, sour but not too sour, pungent but not too pungent, spicy but not too spicy… ok, you get the idea. Both the soy chicken and soy shrimp are very tasty, though I would have liked a few more pieces of the shrimp. Slimy, slippery glass noodles are always fun to eat, and the greens and veggies were crisp and fresh.

Now let’s go back to the future. This last weekend was my birthday (yay me!). Because dorkiness apparently doesn’t go away once you hit middle age, I managed to take a major nosedive while climbing my steps, landing with all my force and weight on my right knee. Hard…. on concrete. Thankfully I didn’t break any bones, bust my kneecap or cause any permanent damage, but I did for all intents and purpose seriously mess up my knee and ability to walk for a few days. [This did not stop me from attending, eating my way through and hobbling around at Worldfest... to be blogged about soon!] While I was laid up at home with an elevated and ice-packed leg, I called Lotus Vegan up to bring me a delivery. If I’m going to be stuck at home on my birthday, you best believe I’m going to be doing it in style.

Talk about over indulgence! I swear I didn’t eat this all in one sitting. And it was my birthday, so shut up. From left to right: That’s the Hot & Spicy Green Beans (aka Prik King) with tofu and their awesome brown rice. Prik King has always been my favorite Thai dish, and I love how they prepare it here. In the middle is the lovely High Protein Salad and tahini dressing, right top has got the glorious sticky rice & mango, and in the front right we’ve got the quesadilla, made with vegan mozzarella cheese and served on chapatti bread. Their cheese does not contain casein and is very, very melty. It melts to an almost liquid consistency then firms up pretty quickly. Careful when biting into it as the drippy cheese is hot! But don’t let it sit for too long either because the cheese will cool fast. That’s not likely to happen though because it’s so tasty that you’ll want to scarf the whole thing down right away. Unless your name is Scott, in which case, would you pass me your quesadilla please? I will gladly eat it :)

For those of you who just can’t get enough scrumptious vegan Thai food, there’s now a new place in town to get your fix: Lotus Vegan in North Hollywood.

Brought to you by one of the delightful ladies from Vegan Express in Studio City, Lotus Vegan has just opened it’s doors on Vineland Ave., a few doors down from the pirate shop (there used to be a Thai restaurant in this same location).

Their menu includes much the same fare you’ll find at Vegan Express and some of the other vegan Thai joints in town, with a few newer items I haven’t noticed at the other places. They also told me they plan to offer specialties of the house on a rotating basis.

On my first visit I tried the Orange Chicken plate, which comes with rice, spring roll and a side salad. The faux-chicken was delicious, perfectly crispy on the outside with a sinfully sweet and just slightly spicy orange glaze. This is totally the sort of thing I could order over and over again if it wasn’t so fattening. Thankfully they’ve got a large menu with many other delicious and less calorie intensive choices, including a number of great salads and vegetable dishes. They’re also aiming to use only organic produce and products whenever possible.

Another delicious item they’re serving is the traditional Mango and Sticky Rice. The rice is the most amazing consistency of sticky-meets-chewy-meets-awesome, and I was told it’s made with the chef’s special vegan coconut cream. The mango was perfectly ripe and the whole combination was in a word, heavenly. They’ve also got a refrigerator case full of those yummy No Udder mini-cakes in case the mango isn’t enough dessert for you.

I spoke to the host regarding some of the issues and speculations regarding the fake meats and cheeses served at some of the other Thai vegan restaurants and how some of them claim to be vegan while their food contains hidden dairy. He told me that the cook herself is a vegan and he assured me that they are 100% committed to serving only truly vegan food. Right on!

The space is tiny and cute, not fancy but nicely decorated… a fine option for an quick, inexpensive lunch or a more leisurely dinner. Even though you’re eating out at a restaurant, the place has an intimate, homey feel and you know that your food is being cooked fresh and with love, made just for you… the next best thing to homecooked. I like that they’ve got a seating area out front which will be great during the hot summer months… and I also like the fact that they’ll deliver.

Vegan Lotus is just getting up and running, so pay them a visit, stuff your face full of flavor, then come back here and tell me all about it in the comments. For more info visit their website (which really doesn’t have much info on it yet but most likely will soon): www.lotusvegan.com

Here’s a delicious bowl of hot tofu soup at Vegan Express. The broth is fantastic… full of flavor, crunchy veggies and heavy on the garlic. Don’t let the simplicity of it’s appearance fool you, this is good stuff I tell you.

I wasn’t planning on posting anything here today, but I’m using this soup entry as an excuse to brag about the fact that while I was eating it, none other than Forrest Whitaker walked in to the place to have his own meal. Hell yeah, ‘Ghost Dog’ in the flesh! I recall reading about how he was among the ranks of well-known celebrity vegetarians, so here’s proof that it’s totally true. Well, I don’t actually have any proof because I only photographed my soup and not him (where, oh where are my priorities?), so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

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.

Wow, this was really good! It’s the spicy chicken salad from Vegan Plate. I therefore don’t need to tell you it’s not real chicken, right?

“Soy chicken tossed in a spicy lime juice, served with red onion dressing on a bed of mixed greens”.

I asked for medium spicy and the heat level was just right. Their fake-chicken I already knew was awesome, but the lime and onion flavoring was just great. Even as an unabashed onion basher, I gotta say I loved it. It didn’t taste oniony at all, it was just very limey… a perfect mix of sweet, sour and spicy all in one plate. Good stuff I tell ya, good stuff!

Here we have the Larb Tofu from Vegan Plate (take out).

Minced tofu tossed in lime juice, chili, red onion (I opted out) and mint leaf. I used to love real larb made with beef or chicken, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve had so far from Vegan Plate, but I must admit I wasn’t a big fan of this salad. I’m not sure what exactly I didn’t like about it, just something about the flavor that didn’t do it for me.