To Live and Eat in L.A.

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.

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).

This lovely arrangement is the ‘Kelp Noodle Salad Bowl’ at Hugo’s. The kelp noodles (which you can barely see under there) are topped with “julienned vegetables, sprouts, snow peas, cilantro and scallions. Tossed with orange-mango-sesame-chili dressing. Garnished with mixed sea vegetables, pickled ginger and toasted sesame seeds”. They offer a choice of protein, mine was the grilled tofu. It was fantastic, the dressing was very subtle and let the flavors of the other ingredients come through. The pickled ginger took it over the top.

This was my first visit to “Native Foods” an organic vegetarian – vegan restaurant. The food here was amazing! This was at their location in Costa Mesa.

Seen here is the “Thai Sticks” sauteed and grilled tempeh satay with peanut sauce.

This was the tempeh Reuben sandwich. Perfectly seasoned, delicious saurkraut, yummy sauce, loads of veggies, served on an organic wheat and sprouted brown rice ciabatta roll with a very tasty slaw side salad. This was so good I almost ordered another one.

My friend ordered the “Iron Yam” salad. Steamed yam on salad greens dressed with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with steamed veggies, tofu & caramelized onions. He said it was fantastic. Who could resist a giant phallic tower of tofu for lunch?

This was their vegan carrot cake with “dream cheese” frosting, whatever that means. It was simply to die for. I’m willing to bet a non-vegan wouldn’t know the difference if they weren’t told… it was moist, fluffy, sweet and delicious, rivaling any regular recipe for carrot cake that I’ve ever had.