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

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.

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.

This is the miso soup from Vegan Plate (take out). Yummy miso broth with seaweed, mushrooms and tofu, which I served over steamed brown rice.

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.

As promised, I’m now making my way through the salads at HealthyCA. This one here is the “Tofancho” salad.

“Ancho chili marinated grilled tofu, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, daikon sprouts and cilantro on a bed of greens”. I got mine with the roasted peppers dressing (love it) and quinoa salad as choice of side. As you can clearly see for yourself, this baby is huge! Their portions here are always quite generous… there’s actually more tofu there than you can see in the photo, there is a whole bunch more stacked underneath that slab. This salad as excellent, everything was perfectly fresh and so beatifully arranged. The ancho chili tofu was tasty, though I like the other marinated tofus (tofus’? tofuses? tofii?) better (for example their “Vegan Feast“). The daikon sprouts had a spicy kick to them, nicely tempered by the smooth & creamy avocado and juicy, crispy cucumbers.

The “Veggie Delight” at HealthyCA features a “macrobiotic tofu-grain patty with pesto sauce” and choice of two sides. I got the red smashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Everything on the plate was delicious. The yummy patties were more moist and flavorful than they appear (I thought they looked a bit dry and bland but I loved the flavor and the texture was very nice), the potatoes are super good and olive oily and the asparagus gets grilled in a tasty marinade that I have yet to figure out how to describe, but I’m guessing there’s some soy sauce in there, and something slightly sweet. I wish they’d give me a bottle of it to take home so I could put it on everything.

Update: I just learned the potato salad here is not vegan, so don’t eat it if you are so (not) inclined.

Another perfect 10 from HealthyCA. This is their “Almost Raw” sandwich with grilled tofu, hummus, avocado, tomatoes, purple onions (declined), olive spread, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and sprouts. I got it on their oh-so-fantastic seseame roll along with the baby mixed greens salad and roasted peppers dressing. Everything here tastes so fresh and so good.

I think I’ve officially made my way through all their vegan entrees, now I need to get to work on their salads. Stay tuned.

At Hugo’s restaurant you can get this massive vegetarian club sandwich with grilled tofu and fake bacon. There’s a yummy topping on there too, I think it’s a mix of guacamole and veganaise. Their seasoned french fries are to die for, not an indulgence I’ll often allow… yet displayed here shamelessly for one and all to see (and covet).