Posted on March 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

A very fortuitious event has occurred.  Just as I was lamenting the slow death of my beloved Tribest blender, CSN stores offered me the chance to do another product review.  CSN sells everything from swingsets to Swiffers, but I’ve got my eye on a fancy new mixer.  Hopefully it will arrive soon and I can concoct some great new smoothie recipes.

I will miss my old pal Tribest.  He used to be so good at taking a melange of raw greens and fruit and turning into a smooth juice.  But now I spend an increasing amount of time each morning picking all the giant green chunks of kale out of my teeth before I go into work (a lovely image, I know.)  It is a rather unappetizing way to start the day.  I am looking forward to some well-blended green smoothies in my near future.

This is how well my Tribest use to do…From this…

…to this:

See how I even upgraded to the extra large blending container?  R.I.P. my friend!

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Posted in Home Cooking

Brunch with Friends at Flore…the Perfect Weekend Morning

Posted on January 15, 2011 | 4 Comments

There are few things I love more than brunch at Flore.  When my friends Emily and Derek were in town from Oregon last weekend and suggested we go there with the rest of our gang, I was pumped.

My friend and I shared two dishes.  I got the Tofu Benediction with tempeh bacon as my side.  Baked tofu, tomatoes, avocado, and kale with a creamy hollandaise are served over toast (I opted for the delicious millet bread to make the dish gluten-free.)  I wonder if they make that bread in-house or if they buy it–it tastes so much like regular bread!


My friend ordered the Chicken and Waffles which comes with some sort of yummy banana waffle.  This is an ideal brunch dish as it has both the salty and the sweet going on.

Every vegan loves when their omnivore friends are shocked at how “real” meat analogues can taste, but it’s even better when said friends say this not just to placate you but because they really mean it.  My friends kept saying repeatedly how chicken-y the “chicken” is.  I was surprised when they waiter told us it isn’t made with seitan but with tofu.  Now I really don’t know how they achieve the meaty texture.

Another dish that I tried at our table was the Southwestern Tofu Scramble.  It needed a few shakes of salt and pepper, but other than that it was scrump.

I am not shy about eating the scraps of food my friends leave behind on their plates, so I think I probably cumulatively ended up eating enough food to last me the whole week.  Oops, my b!  Flore continues to impress me and my friends so I hope they keep doing what they’re doing.

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Posted in American, Flore, Silver Lake

Melisser Elliott’s Handy New Guide

Posted on January 14, 2011 | 2 Comments

These days it seems like a new vegan cookbook hits the market every week.  It’s awesome that the vegan population is large enough to support all the new titles but I’m noticing that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for authors to find a vegan niche that hasn’t already been covered in print.  There are already vegan books on everything from Caribbean cooking to  gluten-free baking and everything in between.  I was delighted to find that Melisser Elliott a.k.a. The Urban Housewife’s new book, The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life, is so unique and is a welcome addition to my kitchen bookshelf.

Melisser’s book is a hipper version of “Living Vegan for Dummies.”  It covers every aspect of veganism ranging from what one eats and wears to crafting and even gardening (shout out to SoCal’s Adriana Martinez!).  Sprinkled throughout are profiles of cool vegan chicas, many of whom have cool vegan blogs.  I wish this book had been out when I first went vegan—it is chock full of  handy info like how to make your pet’s diet cruelty-free.

I love the chapter on nutrition where Melisser’ defers to Choosing Raw’s Gena Hamshaw.  Despite spending an ungodly amount of time reading vegan blogs and books about health, I still find that I have trouble remembering all the vitamins and minerals I need to be getting.  Gena writes a concise yet comprehensive run-down of the basic info every vegan needs to know about proper nutrition.

Of course there is no such thing as a vegan book without recipes.  The book has a collection of recipes both from Melisser herself and from other vegan notables.  I have an affinity for the Tangy Cabbage Beet Slaw, so much so that I’ve eaten it for lunch the past three days in a row.  It’s healthy, simple, and delicious—just like I like it.

The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life is the perfect gift for a new vegan but also for an old vegetarian—you know the kind…the ones who have been off meat for years but just need that extra push to go all the way.  It’s also very useful for more experienced vegans will want to whip up the inventive recipes.  I’m looking forward to checking out the sites of the some of the featured bloggers that I’m not already familiar with–they all sound amazing.

Now for the best part for all my fellow Angelenos…Melisser will be in town tonight Friday January 14th, signing copies of her book from 7pm to 9pm at Doomies!  Pick up a copy of the book, get it signed, and have some delish vegan goodies.  Sounds like the perfect start to a long weekend (MLK woo woo!) to me!

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Posted in Books, The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life

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Portland: Our Last Day

Posted on January 6, 2011 | 5 Comments

We started our last day in Portland with a trip to Washington Park.  The weather was so awesomely fall-ish and their were plenty of crunchy leaves on the ground.  We hiked through the park to the rose garden which has a bazillion different varietals of roses all in one spot.  The garden also provides an awesome panorama of the city.  The Japanese Garden is what we really wanted to see and it really lived up to the hype.  It was so lush and quiet.  Here is the quintessential shot of me ambling over a babbling brook:

Coming from L.A., the vibrant greenery was a shock to my senses.  In Southern California it’s easy to forget that other parts of the U.S. have bright green grass and real trees with leaves.  I didn’t photoshop the colors in the photo below one bit! I’m gonna go ahead and stamp Washington Park with a “must see” for when you visit Portland.

For lunch we headed to the Alberta Arts District, a super cute part of town that is very reminiscent of Silver Lake/Echo Park here in L.A.  We opted for the very-highly recommended Vita Cafe.

I started off with some really good herbal ice tea that was served, adorably, by in a mason jar.

I ordered the mac ‘n’ cheese with added broccoli.  It was very bland and wasn’t even remotely cheesy.  It was more of a plain cream sauce than anything else.  The broccoli was also plain–there was no seasoning in sight.

My boyfriend ordered the nachos and could not stop raving about them.  I agree they were pretty damn delicious.

The biscuits and gravy were ordered were not so delicious.  In fact they were downright inedible.  The gravy was waaaay oversalted.  It had absolutely no flavor beyond the power-salt.  The biscuits themselves were the sort of dense hockey pucks that would earn you an F in your basic high school Home Ec class.  I should have sent them back but, as it were, my hangover zapped me of the energy to do so.  I was really surprised because I have heard so many people rave about this dish at Vita Cafe.  I know people claim that Portland has the best vegan biscuits and gravy, but I don’t see how anyone could beat Flore’s version down here.  Overall, Vita Cafe was a definite disappointment for me.

Conveniently located a couple doors down from the disappointing Vita Cafe is the adorable and teeny-tiny Dovetail Bakery.

It was hard to choose from the selection of treats, but I finally opted for a cinnamon roll and an apricot-millet muffin to bring back to L.A.  The cinnamon roll turned out to be everything that the one from Sweetpea Baking Company was not: soft, flaky, and oozing with cinnamon-sugar goodness.

The apricot-millet muffin was perfect; the millet added a nice crunch.  It kinda makes me want to add millet to every baked good I make.

There is no doubt that Portland is a very cool city, and I had a great time there.  I know I was only there briefly and only ate at a small percentage of the city’s vegan joints…but I can’t help but question the city’s “Vegan Mecca” title.  I much prefer my L.A. restaurants to the ones I tried in Oregon.  However, PDX definitely has us beat when it comes to baked goods.  We need to open more all-vegan bakery storefronts for sure.  And where oh where is our vegan donut shop?!

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Posted in Dovetail Bakery (Portland), Vita Cafe (Portland)

Cinema and Donuts

Posted on November 13, 2010 | 8 Comments

Before I go in to my discovery of the perfect vegan donut, I’d like to recommend that you get to your local movie theater ASAP.  The current menu of films is muy excellente.  There are three movies I have seen in late 2010 that I cannot stop thinking: The Social Network, 127 Hours, and Black Swan.  You need to see each of them pronto!  Well, technically Black Swan hasn’t been released yet but when it comes out on December 3rd you should be first in line.  It is soooo freaky and so good.  Even if you aren’t down with the freaky, it’s impossible to not be awed by the ballet scenes.

I’m particularly enthused because I thought last year’s crop of award contenders was incredibly lackluster (Up in the Air?!  That snoozefest is Oscar worthy?  Am I the only person that finds that ludicris?)  But this year there has already been a slew of great flicks and there are only more to come!  The industry is already abuzz about Another Year, The King’s Speech, True Grit, and The Fighter and they all come out before year’s end.  But seriously…Black Swan, Black Swan, Black Swan.

Now back to this donut.  I came across it serendipitously at a Whole Foods in Berkeley.  We were perusing the salad bar so my mom could get some food for her flight back to the east coast when I spied a small selection of vegan donuts in the bakery case.  I couldn’t resist indulging when I spotted my favorite donut flavor of all time–cinnamon sugar.  A basic flavor, yes, but it is nonetheless one I have never come across in my vegan donutting adventures.  While I recently raved about Voodoo Donut in Portland (and I still stick by said rave), this little donut made by Posh Bakery in Santa Clara was the kind that just melts right on your tongue.  Its super-fine sugar topping and buttery insides lived up to my memory of my old flame–Dunkin Donut’s Cinnamon Crumb.  You Northern Californians have it so good.  We have a dearth of donuts down here while you can just get the creme de la creme of the orbicular pastries by walking into any ole Whole Foods.  But of course, down here we have cool movie screenings, so it all evens out!

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Posted in Restaurants