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By Hater of Iceberg, June 28, 2009 10:58 pm

I’ve mentioned my weariness of certain “vegan” restaurants in Los Angeles, and the team over at Quarrygirl has gone above and beyond what any other vegan blog/website has done in the past regarding the food we’re all being served. I’m sure most of the people who read this site also read Quarrygirl as well, but if there is any one who doesn’t, you need to read this post:

http://www.quarrygirl.com/2009/06/28/undercover-investigation-of-la-area-vegan-restaurants/

I think we should all send them “thank you” chocolates.

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By Hater of Iceberg, June 24, 2009 9:24 am

Actually, the west side is good for two things: 1) Surfas Restaurant Supply and 2) Casa de Tree. I had to venture out to Surfas recently and took the opportunity to try out a new restaurant. Casa de Tree was super close to my destination so I decided to go there. I drove past it a couple times because the sign isn’t very big or noticeable. I apologize yet again for the shitty picture quality, I had a whole list of things I needed to bring with me on this outing and I forgot pretty much every one, and that included my camera.

I walked in around 12:30 and was the only person in there besides this creepy old dude who was just sitting at a table with nothing on it and shortly left after I arrived. Weird. I walked up to the counter and glanced over the menu – I had a super hard time deciding what to get. I definitely knew I wanted a curry donut, though, after reading QG’s review.

Curry Donut - $2.50

I took a cross-section photo but iPhones are really shitty for close-ups. Just know that there’s a yellow curry paste inside.  I thought this was pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of curries other than panang, and this tasted more like an Indian-style curry.  I was having little flashbacks of the “Vegan Kitchen” samosas I used to buy from Whole Foods, though, which I absolutely loved.

For my meal I ordered the Go Go Croquette! sandwich with fries. After I ordered I realized that pretty much everything I would be eating was fried. Yikes. I punished myself at the gym, be assured. I also went to use the bathroom and caused a fuse to blow when I went to use the hand dryer, which the girl working the counter couldn’t fix and it left the whole restaurant eerily quiet. To the point where I could hear myself chew. Awkward!

Anyway, the sandwich:

Go Go Croquette Burger - $8.95

Poor quality cross-section photo

First of all, this sandwich was fucking HUGE. I had to nibble off little sections at a time because I couldn’t get the whole thing in my mouth. Living as a vegan in LA I’m used to paying $10 for dinky sandwiches so this was a pleasant surprise. It didn’t take too long before I was completely stuffed – I had the left overs for dinner and was stuffed after that as well.  $9 for basically two meals is not to shabby! The taste was incredible, too. A soft wheat bun that didn’t overpower the insides, a perfectly seasoned fried potato patty, cabbage, and a “special” sauce that I would drink with a straw. I don’t know what was in it, but it was definitely vegenaise-based and it was definitely delicious.

I can’t wait to get back to Casa de Tree and try some of their other things. They offer a buffet where you pay by the pound which is very tempting, and a lot of the things on the menu are definitely going to be consumed by me at some point. If you go, though, just bring cash because they are CASH ONLY. I guess this means I’m going to have to start carrying cash more often. Bleh!

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By Hater of Iceberg, June 17, 2009 8:20 pm

I’ve spent my fair share of time in Ventura over the last few years – my parents lived out there briefly, my aunt and uncle currently live out there, and the thrift stores are far superior and not picked over. It’s a quiet town and I wasn’t surprised to find out they have a vegan restaurant downtown. I’m actually surprised there aren’t more vegan restaurants, because there is quite a hippie vibe.

I emailed my uncle to see if he and my aunt were interested in having lunch with me at Mary’s Secret Garden. They’re into healthy foods (although definitely not vegan) and were interested in checking it out, so I drove out there, ready to eat. We arrived shortly before noon, and we were the only people in there, must have been right before the lunch rush.

Mary’s menu has a mix of cooked and raw items, and bunch of different smoothies and juice drinks. I wasn’t quite hungry enough to try multiple things because I’d had chocolate chip pound cake for breakfast (seriously), and decided to just go with Mary’s Secret Burger.

Mary's Secret Burger - $10.50. "Bakin" - add $2.00, avocado - add $2.00

I got the burger “Mary style” which added tempeh “bakin”, avocado, and extra sauce. I don’t know if they upcharged for both the bacon and the avocado, but I would certainly hope they don’t. While this did taste quite awesome and was the BEST veggie burger I’ve ever had (including M Cafe’s Big Macro – I haven’t had the Bigger Maque from Madeleine Bistro yet), $14.50 would be way too much to spend on a burger. ANYWAY, as I was saying, this was delicious and messy. It reminded me a lot of an In-N-Out burger, which I always preferred to Big Macs in my pre-gan days. The sauce got all over my hand, and I was only able to polish of half of it because I was STUFFED.

My aunt and uncle ordered two appetizers and shared them: The thai spring rolls and the hummus plate.

Thai Spring Rolls

Hummus platter

I sampled each of these and I must say, the hummus was amazing. The peanut sauce for the spring rolls was also really delicious, but without them, the rolls are basically just lettuce and carrots with a tiny bit of tofu. Which is fine, but I think both of these plates were $13 each, which is also pretty pricey for what they are.

Overall, Mary’s Secret Garden is fantastic. The drive from LA isn’t so bad during off hours and the food is top notch, although a bit spendy. My aunt really liked it and said she’d be back, but I’m not sure my uncle was convinced (he and my dad were raised on a dairy farm), I offered a bite of my burger and he said he’d just go get a double-double. I, personally, will be looking for excuses to drive out that way again, the menu had a lot of things I want to try – raw ravioli, bbq chicken wrap, another burger smothered with sauteed mushrooms and grilled onions… YUM! I’ll also come extra hungry so I can try a dessert, I hear the chocolate mint cake and the raw apple pie are amazing. Expect reports on those in the near future!

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By Hater of Iceberg, June 16, 2009 10:59 am

So, this Sunday – June 21st, and the following Sunday – June 28th, I’m going to be participating in a bake sale. I’m going to be bringing different things to each one, so stop by and try one of everything! My proceeds are going to help a dog named Koda who was born with some severe joint problems and needs thousands of dollars of surgery. He is in constant pain but you’d never know because he’s so sweet. He’ll be making an appearance at the event on the 28th!

Here’s what I’ll be serving up:

6/21:

• CinnaNOM rolls
• Whoopie pies
• Chocolate spice cookies
• Chocolate chip poundcake
• Chocolate peanut butter mousse bites

6/28:

• Strawberry shortcake whoopie pies
• Chocolate Mousse cake
• Cheesecake bites
• Peanut butter krispie bars

Comments (9)

By Hater of Iceberg, June 10, 2009 7:08 pm

So it’s been a few weeks since Daiya cheese has been available for purchase online and I’ve already talked at length about how much I love it. While I never really missed cheese (except for goat cheese), ever since I got the stuff I’ve just been looking for things to put it in or on. Aside from the standard pizza, here are some other things I’ve made:

chik'n quesadilla

Look at how fucking melty it is! Daiya definitely melts better when it’s in something like a sandwich or quesadilla. I used to eat quesadillas like there was no tomorrow. Thanks to Trader Joe’s Chickenless Chicken (AKA Gardein),  some cheddar Daiya and some Toffuti sour cream, it’s just like old times!

flaky scones... mmmm!

I’ve only made scones once prior to this and they ended up like soggy rocks. How something can be soggy and hard at the same time, I don’t know, but that was before I knew anything about baking. These were buttery and flaky and delicious. I only put 1/2c of Daiya in and the flavor was there, but I think next time I’ll double the amount. The recipe I used as a base for the scones only made 6 and they lasted about 5 hours.

reuben loveeeee

I never put cheese on reubens I’ve made at home until now. The mozzarella Daiya added an awesome flavor and an extra creaminess to the party. Now I have to have this stuff on hand at all times!

I’ve been making some other things: grilled cheese (cheddar – tastes just like I remember it: AWESOME), philly “cheesesteaks” (TJ’s beefless beef strips + onions + mozzarella daiya)… I’m totally trying to think of new ways to use it. I don’t know what it is about things like a new vegan cheese but  I suddenly feel the need to use it in every thing possible, not because I missed cheese, just because I can.

Comments (9)

By Hater of Iceberg, June 8, 2009 11:26 am

I’ve been a busy little bee lately, playing around with new recipes in the kitchen. Mostly, I’ve been inspired to make sweet things and desserts, maybe the gloomy Los Angeles weather has made me crave carbs. I’ve been making savory things, too, but this post is dedicated to all things sugary. Some of these are a work in progress.

"Cupcheesecake" or more simply, "Cheesecake Bites"

Cheesecake, raspberry goo, and chocolate ganache

These were concocted after I made a chocolate mousse cake for a birthday party for some of my beloved vegan friends. I had a lot of left over raspberry goo, some cashew crust, and chocolate ganache and I wanted to put it to use. I also had a tub of cheesecake batter left over from Thanksgiving sitting in the freezer, so I decided to put these together. The result was awesome, Jonathan went gaga over them. I thought they were pretty great as well, but I think when I make them in the future I’ll make them thicker. The only reason I didn’t this time was because I only had a small amount of batter.

Next up is something I’ve been trying to tackle for a while, a vegan oatmeal cream pie. I used to love those preservative-filled Little Debbie cookies as a kid. It was a good day when my mom would pack one in my lunch, and almost made up for the time she made me a sandwich on pimento loaf. Seriously, my 7 year old self thought my mom hated me and made a sandwich for me on moldy bread. DISGUSTING. Anyway, this has been the closest of my attempts. It’s not quite there yet, the cookie still doesn’t have that super-moist-not-really-a-cookie texture, but these were still pretty delicious.

So close!

Next up is something that I made to satisfy a personal craving, a sesame cookie. I’m a sesame fiend, and I love the salty/sweet combination when sesame is used in desserts. I made a half batch of these jumbo cookies because I knew Jonathan wouldn’t touch them, and I’m embarrassed to say they lasted less than 24 hours.

My heaven

They don’t look too pretty, but I used a fair amount of tahini and then dumped  1/2c of sesame seeds into the batter. So. Fucking. Good. I totally want to make these again but I’m trying to lose a few pounds and they would definitely throw a wrench into my plans.

Finally, the coup de grâce. Strawberry Shortcake Whoopie Pies.

I am a genius.

This was totally an experiment and by far the best thing I have ever made. I’d like to thank Melisser for convincing me to buy high quality vanilla, because I’m pretty sure it made all the difference. The sandwich cookies came out super moist and full of vanilla flavor. Then I pureed some strawberries and sugar with a little lemon juice, and then boiled the syrup with some agar. It was my first time using agar and I’m not sure how successfull it was because I didn’t get the gelatinous texture I wanted, but that’s completely moot because it didn’t affect the taste. I also feel like I kind of accidentally invented a vegan whipped cream – that’s what the frosting ended up tasting like – fresh whipped cream that had been whipped really thick. Once again, I think the flavor was so great because of the vanilla.  I took these along with me to a weekend trip in Joshua Tree where there were several fellow vegans, and everyone (vegan or not) loved them. One guy even said it was the best dessert he’s ever eaten!

So, there we have it. Sorry if I just gave you diabetes.

Comments (4)

By Hater of Iceberg, June 4, 2009 9:30 am

Alright, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 8 years and I’ve never been to the Venice Boardwalk. Nope, not once. I’ve briefly been in the surrounding borders of Venice, but never in the heart of the 90291 zip code.

Seed is yet another one of those places I’ve been meaning to go to for months. I’ve also been meaning to make a list of all of the places I’ve been meaning to go, but that hasn’t happened yet. I can finally check Seed off the list in my head, though. Jonathan and I drove down on a gloomy Sunday evening after a good workout at the gym. We were hungry and ready to chowdown.

Seed is set up like so many other restaurants these days, where you order at a counter and then your food is brought out to you. It reminded me a lot of M Cafe, which is not surprising because I believe the chef who owns it used to be the head pastry chef M Cafe.

One thing I was really excited about trying was the elusive vegan soft serve. Unfortunately, when I got to the counter and asked about it, I found out the machine had been shut down for the day. The guy at the counter also told me that they had been testing a new formula and it would never again be made. He said he’d give me a sample at the end of the meal, so more on that later.

I ordered the blackened tempeh burger.

Blackened tempeh burger - $9.95

It looks pretty, right? I’ll be honest, I really couldn’t taste much besides the bun. The bun is a really thick whole wheat bun and it really overpowered the whole thing. I could taste the tempeh patty and some of it’s spices, with the occasional taste of vegenaise. I really couldn’t taste the mango salsa or the sauerkraut at all. I feel like I would have really liked it if I didn’t just taste a mouthful of wheat.

Jonathan got the Southwest Burger.

Southwest burger - $9.95

I had a bite of this and I had the same problem as I did with my burger. The patty, from what I could taste, was really good, though. Jonathan really enjoyed but said next time he’d get it without all of the toppings and just have the patty and the soy cheese. The man likes his food plain, what can I say!

We also split an order of fries that I didn’t take a picture of, because fries are fries. They were pretty tasty, though, and while $4 seems like a hefty price tag for fries, it was quite a large serving.

For dessert, I had a small sample shot of the soft serve (lemon ginger flavor) and Jonathan and I split a vanilla coconut cupcake.

Vanilla coconut cupcake - $3.75

Both desserts had a strong taste of maple syrup. Refined sugars are banned from macrobiotics, so a lot of times desserts are sweetened with pure maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or agave. Seed definitely uses maple syrup. I couldn’t really tell the soft serve was lemon ginger, because it tasted like maple.  The frosting of the cupcake was very good and had a good vanilla flavor, but the cake, once again, just tasted maply.

Overall, I would go to Seed again because the meal I had was good enough, but I’d probably try some of their other menu items. Either that, or I’d have them slice half an inch off each end of the bun so I can actually taste what’s goin’ on in the middle.

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By Hater of Iceberg, June 3, 2009 8:54 am

Jonathan and I had a business lunch a few weeks ago in Santa Monica regarding our film (I love how important that sounds). We met our lunch partners at La Grande Orange in Santa Monica. I, having looked at the menu online, was freaking out and totally worried that I was going to have to sit through this lunch starving, patiently waiting for it to be over and then I would have to convince Jonathan to drive down to Seed so I could finally try their food.

La Grande Orange is kind of cafeteria style where you order at a counter and then they bring your meal out to you. I asked the girl at the register if anything on the menu was vegan or could be made vegan. She didn’t know, so she called over one of the managers who was very knowledgeable. Here’s a list of things he told me were vegan:

First off, they have these gigantic english muffins in the front bake case that looked delicious. They happened to be vegan! The veggie burger is vegan if served on an english muffin, without the mayo. The asparagus roll is vegan. The sweet potato roll WOULD be vegan but it is fried in the same oil as non-vegan items (he said they were done in the morning before everything else, so if that flies for you, go for it). The Venice Beach burrito is vegan if you omit the egg whites. The vegetarian tacos are vegan HOWEVER, the black beans are not (he didn’t say why), so you can sub rice for them. If the beans are cooked in beef or chicken broth, that wouldn’t make sense because they wouldn’t even be vegetarian. He went over the salads but I honestly wasn’t listening because the only “salads” I eat involve mock meats or potatoes slathered in vegenaise.

I went with the veggie burger option: sub english muffin for the bun, hold the mayo. The first time they brought it out, it did have the mayo on it and I had to send it back.

La Grande Orange Veggie Burger: probably around $10

The downloadable menus on LGO’s website didn’t say anything about a veggie burger, and I don’t remember the price so I just guessed. This was pretty good, once smothered with ketchup. It definitely was vegan, because there was no kind of binder at all, and the patty eventually spread out of the bun and all over my hand. It was a little messy. It tasted very good, though, and the engish muffin it was served on was also pretty good. It didn’t taste as good as it looked, but I was more than satisfied with it.

So, you can add La Grande Orange to the list of “restaurants I can go to with omnis”, but I wouldn’t make a special trip just for a veggie burger and an asparagus roll.

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By Hater of Iceberg, June 2, 2009 9:57 am

I’m going to admit it, one of the hardest things for me as a vegan is going to a party where there is a big stack of pizza boxes with hot, cheesy pizza inside just waiting to be devoured. Seeing people pull piece after piece, with gooey cheese stretching and glistening with oily fat, makes me question my morals, especially as I sit in the corner with my cheeseless pizza that doesn’t have enough sauce or veggie toppings.

Thankfully, there have been many advancements in the way of vegan cheese these days, each attempt bringing me closer and closer to what I remember a pizza tasting like. My recent purchase of a pizza screen has inspired me to do some experimenting at home with a few cheeses and toppings, and here are some of the results:

Thin crust? You got it.

First, I used the pizza dough recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I’ve made it before and I really like it, although I don’t know what happened this time because the recipe says it’s enough for two 14″ pizzas, and last time the dough was much thicker. I’m a thick crust kind of girl. But I divided the dough in half and once it was the appropriate size, it was a lot thinner than I remember it.

Jonathan's half is the boring half.

I bought Trader Joe’s pizza sauce for this. Usually I like to make my own, but I was too eager to wait through the process. I also bought some delicious Field Roast sausage, and on my half I put some red onion.

For this pizza, I used mostly Teese with some Follow Your Heart mixed in, because I had some and I needed to use it before it went bad.

Lots-o-cheeze

I set my oven for 475 degrees. I could have gone to 500 degrees but that freaks me out a little. Fresh pizza should be cooked at an extremely high temperature for the least amount of time! This pizza went in for about 9 minutes.

Liquid cheeze

The thin crust got a little toasty, mostly because I had to turn the broiler on to get the Teese to melt the way I wanted it to. Teese is supposed to melt and be awesome, but I’ve honestly had issues getting it to melt fully. Maybe I shredded it too thin. Anyway, this pizza was pretty decent, but didn’t fulfill what I was searching for. But since I had a 2/3s of a block of Teese left, I made a few more pizzas.

Field Roast and pineapple... it actually works!

Jonathan is huge fan of pineapple on his pizza. I could take it or leave it. This pizza was all for him, although I did try a bite just to make sure it tasted good. I also made homemade sauce for this one, which really made it a lot better.

Okay, so, I didn’t plan on writing a pizza post at the time so I didn’t take a picture, but I attempted to replicate my FAVORITE pizza in the world, Pizza Luce’s BBQ Mock Duck pizza. I’ve written about it before and I will reiterate, this is the best fucking pizza I’ve ever had. I would even get it in my pre-gan days (only with regular cheese, bleh!). Mock duck can be found at most Asian grocery stores, and it looks like this:

Photo used without permission

Looks gross, right? Well, once you drain that shit, slice it up thinly and smother it in BBQ sauce, it makes my absolute favorite pizza topping. I don’t know what they do that makes it taste different than regular ol’ seitan, but it’s SO MUCH BETTER!

Next up is a pizza that I made with Daiya mozzarella. I was SUPER excited to make this because I’d already tried Cruzer’s vegan pizza with Daiya, and the cheese was phenominal.

sofuckinggood

I made this one evening and it finished cooking right as Jonathan got home from work. He asked me, in all seriousness, “So what are you having for dinner?” Half of that motherfuckin’ pizza! The Daiya is shredded a little too thin so it didn’t melt completely, but I don’t care, because it’s fucking delicious.  Jonathan is slowly weaning himself off cheese and I think this may just do it for him. He really has no need to eat that pus-filled garbage that’s stolen from a baby cow.

I am a Daiya fan for life. Daiya people, if you want to give me free cheese for talking up your product so much, I won’t reject it!

Comments (2)

By Hater of Iceberg, May 29, 2009 4:57 pm

Okay, LA vegans forget about whatever you had planned this weekend, because QuarryGirl and I are about to tag-team you again about a MAJOR development in the LA vegan scene.

Starting THIS WEEKEND as in RIGHT NOW, Cruzer pizza in Los Feliz will be making vegan pizzas with DAIYA cheese. For those of you who don’t know, Daiya is an amazing, revolutionary vegan cheese that obliterates all of the other vegan cheese out there, and Cruzer is the only place currently using it on the entire west coast. I’ve had it on pizza and I’ve made grilled cheese with it (pictures coming in a later post). It’s gooey, it stretches, it melts and doesn’t turn in to pink soup, and it TASTES LIKE CHEESE!

ANYWAY, back to the big news. Cruzer Pizza, in collaboration with Farm Sanctuary and their Veg for Life program, have created several new vegan additions to their menu ranging from a vegan margherita pizza to a vegan hawaiian pizza. Thanks to QG, I was lucky enough to taste test some of these pizzas before the floodgates are opened.

Hawaiian Pizza

Portobello Sausage Pizza with fresh basil

Margherita Pizza with fresh basil

All three of these pizzas were SO amazing, I almost cried. The crust and the sauce are top notch, and I’ve already gone on too much about the Daiya. My favorite pizza of the three, though, was shockingly the portobello sausage. I only say shockingly because of my dislike of mushrooms, but these mushrooms were marinated, meaty and delicious and worked so well with the Daiya cheese. Obviously we couldn’t polish off all three pizzas (okay, that’s a lie, I totally could have but didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself), and we got to bring a few slices home. Jonathan practically swallowed the slices whole and said they were delicious – and he still eats real cheese!

And more good news: Cruzer, wanting to not cause any conflicting feelings, has taken veal OFF their menu! Score for vegans and for baby cows! They’re also VERY open to expanding their vegan menu so the more people that buy the vegan pizzas, the more options we will have in the future. Just think of all the possibilities: vegan mediterranean pizza! vegan philly cheesesteak pizza! vegan bbq chicken pizza!

Ya’ll seriously need to try this pizza ASAP. Whatever your plans were for this weekend, going to Cruzer is more important. Just get there before they run out of vegan cheese!