Comments (8)

By Britt, February 3, 2010 8:34 pm

That is a really awful title. I apologize.

Hugo’s rolled out their specials for February and I wandered over there during my lunch break to check them OUT. And to eat a few of them.

I started off with the mac and cheese appetizer which my homegirl QG has already posted about.

I also the ordered the po’ boy, which I ended up taking to go because the mac and cheese had me stuffed, but I snapped some pix before I went on my merry way.

mmm

so pretty

This baby was stuffed with polenta-battered mushrooms, slaw, avocado, tomato, and tons of southwestern mayo which gave it a little bit of a kick. It’s fucking delish and I want everyone out there to go to Hugo’s and order it so they put it on their menu permanently (although this could make my trips to Hugo’s more stressful since I wouldn’t be able to decide between the Po Boy and the burger). As you can see, I got the sandwich as a wrap which was a good call because it’s fucking messy. Slaw juice everywhere. Yeah.

I also got a side of fries since Hugo’s fries are now officially vegan. While I’m stoked that these spuds didn’t share hot oil with animal bits, I will say I am not as big of a fan as I was of the old fries. These fries were covered in seasoning and were super crispy. I like my fries with some salt and that’s it. Someone needs to tell the fries to just be themselves!

And I don’t know how to end this so I just will. End.

Comments (9)

By Britt, January 10, 2010 10:37 am

Hi friends.

So by now it’s pretty obvious I’m awful at blogging. Oh well. I’ve had a few places to write about and have just been lazy, and I want to start 2010 off fresh so I’m just going to post allllllll of the stuff I’ve had sitting in iPhoto, waiting to be talked about. Some of this stuff dates back to June (seriously) but I’m going to do my best to describe things, and if I can’t, well, whatever I was eating wasn’t very impressionable.

Veggie Grill, my second home, recently started serving some cheesy dishes at their El Segundo location. Jonathan and I drove out there last weekend to sample the goods after hearing a lot of hype.

I love Veggie Grill more than most things, and the cheese sauce was good, but a little lacking in flavor. Jonathan, lover of all things bland, was going crazy for it (he let me have the smallest bite of his cheeseburger and no more), but I think it needed a little more flavor. To me, the cheese sauce just added some creaminess to the texture and no real taste. It’s definitely a good base for a sauce, but I think they need to build on it a little more before they bring it to other restaurants (and they still need to invent a buffalo chicken sandwich!!)

Cafe Flourish is pretty much right across the street from my manager’s office, so Jonathan and I usually eat there before or after meetings. Everything I’ve had there has been deeelicious but I usually leave feeling a little ripped off. The Mi Casadilla was really great in the taste department, but reeeally tiny and not worth almost $9.00.  The menu also describes it as being spicy but I don’t remember that being the case, but since it tasted good, I didn’t really care. Next up is the Cheese Louise, which was listed as a special (I believe it still is). Once again, it was delicious, but almost $10 for two pieces of bread, some daiya and some guacamole is a little extreme. Plus I felt like it was something I could make at home if I had a panini press (if someone wants to buy me one, awesome!). Finally, the cupcake. This was Jonathan’s dessert but I had a small bite. Most (all?) desserts at Flourish are gluten-free and made with agave or some other alternative sweetener (no sugar!). This cupcake was much better than other “specialty” cupcakes if had, and much, much better than that playdoh cake Babycakes is serving up… but I’ll stick with the bad stuff when I want dessert

On our last trip to Vegas, Jonathan and I made our usual trip to Go Raw Cafe. Go Raw serves up some of the best raw food I’ve had, and this previous trip I strayed from my usual purple burrito and went with the enchilada. I ordered the half, which came with a side of “pasta.” As usual, everything was really fresh tasting and delicious. I loved the zucchini pasta, too.  I kind of inhaled everything Jonathan’s pizza had a lot of the same ingredients as my beloved purple burrito, Jonathan liked it but he said it was very “tangy.” There’s obviously quite of lemon juice squeezed on top which scores big points with me.

For the last few months I’ve been working in North Hollywood, right up the street from my 3rd home, HealthyCA. I go at LEAST once a week, and while I don’t have a photo of my usual order (HealthyCA sausage with no mayo), I do have a photo from a lunch date I shared with QuarryGirl. Is is the Vegan Feast. It has 3 different kinds of tofu (teriyaki, tomato and ginger olive) and comes with two sides. This was a ton of food, I was beyond stuffed about half way through. The mashed potatoes are killer, and the quinoa salad is something dreams are made of. It’s very similar to M Cafe’s quinoa without the beets and the citrus-y flavor. The bad part about HealthyCA is that around lunch time it’s usually PACKED and there is seating for about 10 people. It’s best to get your food to go or have it delivered.

This meal was from last June or July, and it wasn’t mine, it was Jonathan’s. It was also a special so it’s not currently on the menu, but if it shows up again, I highly recommend it! Hugo’s has some of the best veggie patties out there, and the “meat”balls are made out of ‘em. Then they’re covered in grilled onions and peppers and FYH cheese. Hugo’s needs to start using daiya

I went in to Locali one day lookin for some grub, and the BLT (with avocado) came highly recommended by the staff. While the tempeh bacon was delicious, the rest of the sandwich really left something to be desired. Maybe it’s my dislike of lettuce and a lot of tomato, but aside from the bacon everything else was kind of blah. Maybe they forgot the mayo or something???

This was a pre-Thanksgiving trip to Madeleine Bistro. We were considering getting food from Madeleine’s on Thanksgiving day, and since that was $50/person, it was nice being able to try out the goods ahead of time. This was pretty much my exact Thanksgiving dinner meal – Country Fried Seitan, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and coconut yams (!!!!!). The coconut yams were sooo delicious I wanted to hole up in some shady motel with a giant tub of them and eat them until I OD. Seriously.

On our way out to San Luis Obispo last July, we stopped at Mary’s Secret Garden for lunch. Wanting to switch things up, I got the club wrap. Faux chickin, tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, vegenaise and mustard. This was so fucking good I force fed myself the 2nd half even though I was stuffed, not wanting it to potentially go to waste while I was out of town. Yes, I have a problem.

These are from Vinh Loi Tofu. Jonathan and I went out there despite Jonathan’s request to keep driving down Sherman Way to Follow Your Heart. I ordered the Bun Bi Thit Nuong, which is shredded “pork” and vermicelli noodles. Vinh Loi makes some of the best faux meats in town, and this bowl was loaded with it. As you can see I doused the entire thing in sriracha, which was a mistake and and ended up with a nasty stomach ache. Jonathan ordered the chicken nuggets and tofu fries, and I tried a little of each and the nuggets were good, but I couldn’t jive with the tofu fries. They look like those crappy crinkle-cut fries my mom would serve up out of a bag for dinner (ah, the 80’s), so I was expecting them to taste like that, salty and starchy and oily, but they tasted like tofu (duh).

Finally, to end with dessert. At work, we had a going away party for one of the long-time/much loved employees, which meant CUPCAKES! I am actually NOT the only vegan in the office, which is awesome, and the place I’m working at is really cool about making sure there is a vegan option or two at gatherings. For this going away party, we had cupcakes from Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank, which offers vegan options a few days out of the week (I believe it’s Monday, Tuesday and Friday but I’m not positive). This was, by far, the best cupcake I’ve ever eaten. It makes me want to stop baking because I’ll never make a cupcake this good. I couldn’t get over how delicious it was – light and fluffy, and full of sugary vanilla flavor. The frosting was also some of the best ever – It was almost light enough to be considered whipped cream. I couldn’t contain myself and actually started eating my cupcake while everyone else was still eating dinner (whoops), and us vegans were the only two with full-size cupcakes, everyone else had minis. Suckas!

So, that concludes my 2009 backlog. Now I am off to the Hollywood Farmers Market to get some fucking breakfast (I had to throw a “fuck” in there somewhere).

Comments (9)

By Britt, November 30, 2009 10:47 pm

Today is sickoflettuce’s first birthday and I almost missed it. I’m going to celebrate by not posting anything new. Here’s to another year of sporadic posts!

Thanks for reading, friends!

Comments (5)

By Britt, November 22, 2009 2:55 pm

I’ve been to Native Foods a whopping 3 times. Why? Well, the majority of the locations are far, far away from my home in the valley, and the closest location to me is in Westwood. I hate going to Westwood because of the traffic and shitty parking BUT really, I just need to shut up and go because Native Foods is totally worth dealing with all of that crap.

On my LA –> PHX –>LV triangle road trip, Jonathan and I happened to be cruising through Palm Springs around lunch time. Sounds like the perfect excuse to stray off the freeway and stop at the Native Foods out there, no? I thought it sounded like a GREAT idea!

First off, the Native Foods in Palm Springs is a little different than the other Native Foods I’ve been to as it is a sit down restaurant where a waiter takes your order, rather than ordering at a counter. I’d already been planning to eat at Green in Phoenix so I didn’t want a shitload of food. I wanted to go with one of the bowls but this location doesn’t make/serve bowls before 5:30. I decided on the french dip. I’ve never had a “real” french dip, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Au jus!

I loved every bite of this sandwich. The avocado made things fairly slippery, though, and being some what of a putz who usually gets food on herself anyway, food ended up on my lap more than once. Whoops! My favorite part of this sandwich was the au jus, it really added a delicious flavor. Mmmmm… au jus…

Jonathan ordered a huge order of chili cheese fries (which I did not photograph since I’ve taken pictures of it before) and a cheese pizza. Everywhere we go, if there is a pizza available, Jonathan WILL order it.

Pizza!

I had a small bite but I honestly can’t remember what it tasted like. Which isn’t a great sign, but I am writing this post almost a month after my visit. I do remember liking the crust, though. It was thicker than most pizza crusts I’ve had recently and I like thicker crusts so bonus for me! Jonathan had issues with the tomatoes/cheese sliding off the top.

So, IN CONCLUSION, Native Foods is the shit. Everything I’ve had there has been de-fucking-licious and I should make more of an effort to go there more frequently. YOU should, too!

Comments (8)

By Britt, October 29, 2009 11:32 pm

Last weekend was quite the adventure. My foster dog for over a year, Ralph, found a forever home. Hooray! …in Phoenix. I love a good road trip so I was more than happy to drive Ralph out there to join his new family and some new furry friends, and it meant I got to check out some of the local vegan cuisine.

I honestly didn’t investigate the vegan scene in Phoenix too much because I already had a place in mind thanks to Alix and a post she made earlier this past summer. That place was Green Vegetarian in Tempe. We rolled into Phoenix a little late and after we dropped Ralph off with his new owners, we got to Green about and hour before they closed. The place was PACKED and get this… Jonathan and I sauntered in and everyone gave us a once over! I was all like “WTF, are we still in LA?” I didn’t realize I was walking into the Tempe equivalent of M Cafe. I would have worn makeup!

Side note – I kept pronouncing Tempe “tem-pay” like the food.

Anyway, we walked up and glanced over the menu. We were still pretty stuffed from our lunch, which I will write about in the (hopefully) near future, so we decided to split a tsoynami (vegan blizzard!) and order meals to go and eat them for breakfast the next morning. WELL that changed when I saw they offered CRAB PUFFS! One of my favorite chinese takeout staples growing up was an appetizer of cream cheese puffs, and sometimes they’d have some crab meat inside. I was all over this shizz!

CRAB PUFFS!!! $4

There were four of these babies and I decided to be nice and let Jonathan have two of them. They had a little crab taste but mostly it was all about the cream cheese and the delicious fried wonton. These were also some of the prettiest cream cheese puffs I’ve ever had.

We decided to get a S’more Tsoynami to share.

S'more tsoynami - $4.50

In this baby was vegan ice cream, graham crackers, chocolate syrup, and ricemallow fluff. It was DELICIOUS. There was a slight coconut taste to it and I’m not sure I’m not sure if that was the ice cream or the fluff, which I’ve never had before. I imagine it’d be the ice cream. Jonathan fucking wolfed most of this thing down. I was okay with it because it then justified me getting another one. I wasn’t hungry anymore but I saw they also had a fluffernutter tsoynami and I thought, “fuck it, when is the next time I’m going to be in Arizona?!” so I bought another one.

Fluffernutter tsoynami - $4.50

In addition to the delicious vegan ice cream, this cup o’ heaven also had banana, peanut butter, and ricemallow fluff. Since it had peanut butter, I was going this one alone and I definitely didn’t finish it. When I came down to it, I pretty much paid $4.50 just to taste it, but it was worth it! Despite that, I liked the s’more tsoynami a little better but I feel like if there was more peanut butter in the fluffernutter tsoynami I would have liked it muuuuch better.

My only complaint is that since the restaurant is green and eco-friendly they use disposable bamboo spoons which I really didn’t care to eat off of. It made me think of those shitty ice cream sundaes I’d get from the scary ice cream man with a handlebar mustache when I was in elementary school. Bleh.

After this we took our meals and headed back to the hotel, where we proceeded to run around on the hotel’s golf course in the dark.Canvas shoes + wet grass = soggy feet =(

The next morning we woke up and got ready for another day of travel (we were heading to Vegas and made an unplanned detour to the Grand Canyon). Thankfully our room had a microwave so our to go orders were able to be eaten warm!

Green to GO!

At this point my digital camera’s battery was dying so I had to switch to my iPhone for pix. Jonathan got the Mexicali burger, which I didn’t get a cross-section of since the iPhone takes super shitty closeups.

Mexicali burger - $8

I got to have a bite and this burger was DELICIOUS. I can only imagine how good it was freshly made. It was a little on the spicy side thanks to a spicy chipotle sauce. The burger also had hummus, vegan nachos cheese, and mayo. SO GOOD!

I got the Kung Pao Bowl in an effort to be somewhat healthy.

Kung Pao bowl - $7.50

Okay, first of all, I don’t know what the faux chicken they used in this was, but it was SO incredible. It wasn’t Gardein and didn’t have the texture of chicken, but I absolutely loved it. The flavors in this dish were amazing: sambal, garlic, ginger, tamari and chiles, and topped with peanuts. I ordered mine with brown rice (you know, for FIBER). This was by far the best kung pao dish I’ve ever had.

So if you’re in Phoenix, going to Phoenix, have a lengthy layover in Phoenix, etc., GO TO GREEN. I would eat at this place multiple times a week if it were in LA, I can’t say enough good things about the food. I’m only sad that I really have no justifiable reason to go to Phoenix for the time being.

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By Britt, October 18, 2009 11:21 pm

I LOVE ZPIZZA!  I’d heard Quarrygirl rave about zpizza on several occasions, but honestly I’ve been super lazy about trying new stuff, especially pizza. Maybe it’s because I’ve been burned by Cruzer Pizza so many times in the past (CURSES!) but when QG invited Jonathan and me up for pizza night and Mitch Hedberg standup, I was all over it.

There was a brief and mild drama earlier  that day when it’d been discovered that Morningstar made the extra assholish move of adding animal products to several of their once vegan items. Zpizza uses Morningstar, but the drama was resolved when we found out that Zpizza has about a 2 month supply of the vegan products still in stock, and according to their twitter account, they’re searching for a different vegan product to replace Morningstar. Hooray!

We went with the Tuscan (veganized) and a plain ol’ vegan sausage and mushroom pizza. The Tuscan consist of homemade garlic sauce, mozzarella daiya, cremini and button mushrooms, truffle oil and caramelized onions.

mmmm

you love it

My favorite part aside from all of the garlicky goodness was the caramelized onions. They added a nice sweet taste to the party in my mouth. I’m also usually grossed out by mushrooms  but these were AWESOME!

I had two giant slices of the Tuscan and 1/2 of a slice of the sausage. Honestly by that point I was 3 glasses of wine in so I was a little drunk. All I remember is that the pizza was delicious and it tasted JUST like sausage pizza used to in my pre-vegan days. SO GOOD!

jonathan ate half of this pizza.

I believe QG ended up paying something like $10 for these two giant pizzas because she had a $40 gift certificate. Sounds like an awesome deal to me! I think it’s safe to say we were all pretty satisfied with our meal!

PS Jonathan doesn’t really look like an acorn, but Mr. Meaner is in fact a lego.

Comments (13)

By Britt, September 28, 2009 12:52 am

I know I just posted about Veggie Grill, but there is a new location opening up THIS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th and I am SO FUCKING EXCITED about it. I got to attend not one but TWO pre-opening meals this past weekend, one on my own reservation (and Jonathan as my guest) and one thanks to the wonderful and amazing Foodeater (check out our feast and my sweet rack here – I had the Bayou Chickin, SO GOOD), and walked out absolutely stuffed full of delicious food both times. Here are some pictures from my 2nd dinner with Jonathan:

Veggie Grill Carne Asada - $8.95

Chickin Caesar Wrap ($8.95) with sweetheart fries ($2.25)

If you live in LA, GO TO VEGGIE GRILL ASAP. They’re located at Sunset and Crescent Heights in WeHo and are open as of THIS TUESDAY! All of those OC/South Bay people have been spoiled long enough with the 3 locations out there, let’s give Veggie Grill some Angeleno love so they open more locations! Preferably, a Studio City location, so I can walk there.

Comments (5)

By Britt, September 15, 2009 4:26 pm

First off, I must apologize to my readers and to SunPower Natural Cafe because the photo of the meal I’m writing about has sat on my computer since June 20th just WAITING for me to post about it. I’ve been distracted, lazy about posting and continuing to go out to eat while this more than post-worthy meal has been buried in iPhoto. And now: REDEMPTION.

SunPower Pizza - $10

The SunPower pizza – savory sunpower “sausage,” creamy cashew cheese, garlic pecan cheese, marinated mushrooms, onions and red bell peppers on whole wheat pita crust. This was SO GOOD. I think I liked it especially because it reminded me of my childhood elementary school cafeteria favorite, the hexagon-shaped Mexican pizza. Oh, how I loved that pizza, and now all these years later I’m able to get a pizza that tastes similar, is cruelty-free, and a LOT more healthy.

Also, the kale salad in the middle was fantastic! Kale is definitely my favorite leafy green, and pretty much the only kind of salad will willingly eat, aside from faux meats or potatoes that are slathered in vegenaise.

Another awesome thing about SunPower is they carry cinnamon rolls and turtle brownies from The Fakery Bakery, so you can reward yourself for eating such a healthy meal with a delicious treat!

Comments (2)

By Britt, September 13, 2009 5:05 pm

I’ve been heading out to Canoga Park lately (business) and I pretty much stop and grab lunch at Follow Your Heart every time.  Follow Your Heart is known for having one of the best vegan reuben sandwiches EVER… but did you know they actually serve other food there?! I can only eat so many reubens and I definitely don’t want to burn out on them, so I’ve been sampling some other things on the menu.

Tempeh Tacos - $9.50

I LOVED these. The tempeh was crumbled up and seasoned perfectly, I slathered these babies in some guac before chowing down. I bet they’d also be good with some hot sauce, which I always welcome and always forget to ask for. I didn’t even mind the unmelted FYH cheese! I’m fine with FYH’s cheese once it’s been melted, but unmelted it can be pretty gross. Not this time!

On another trip I tried the “meatball” sub.

"Meatball" sub - $8.95

This was also SUPER delicious. I took the peppers off before eating. The meatballs alone were a little dry but when smothered in marinara sauce and super melty FYH cheese, the dryness wasn’t noticeable. This sub was also fucking massive, I took about half home to eat for dinner and was absolutely stuffed after lunch and dinner.

While the reuben still reigns supreme, FYH isn’t a one trick pony when it comes to delicious food. So far everything I’ve eaten there I’ve absolutely loved. Side note: Jonathan has gotten the pizza every time we’ve gone together. I saw him giving my meatball sub a once over, though, and predict he may get a little adventurous next time!

Comments (14)

By Britt, September 8, 2009 10:42 am

I’ve been wanting to go to Veggie Grill for months, but the closest one to me is all the way over by LAX, and in the few times I’ve been over there, I’ve been 1) late to pick someone up 2) late to drop someone off or 3) dropping off/picking someone up too late in the evening. This past week I had to go over to the west side and I was like, “What the hell, let’s keep driving!”

Jonathan and I pulled up to the Veggie Grill in El Segundo around 2pm. It was still packed with busy lunch eaters, even after what is most people’s designated lunch hour. We walked in hungry and ready to chow down, and there was a line of 8 or so people in front of us. My immediate thought was “GREAT, this is going to take forever and I want fooooooood!” Well, we ordered, found a table, washed our hands, and within 10 minutes were having our food served to us. Quick service = happy Brittany!

We ordered the “Chill Out Wings” to share as an appetizer.

Veggie Grill Chill Out Wings - $6.25

Holy hell, I LOVED these! Delicious crispy faux chicken with a side of bbq sauce and a side of chipotle ranch. I, of course, dipped my half of the tenders in both. It was delicious, fried goodness. Jonathan went a little crazy for them, too. I also think these would be amazing served up buffalo style with some hot sauce – I saw a few bottles of Cholula hot sauce but they were all in use by other people. Wompwomp. There were an odd amount of strips and I let him have the last one since I’m a good girlfriend. And because I had more fried goodness on my sandwich.

Santa Fe Crispy Chickin - $8.95

I got the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin’ sandwich, which consists of “crispy fried chillin’ chickin’, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, and southwest spiced vegan mayo.”

This.

Was.

So.

Fucking.

Good.

The chickin’ was absolutely fantastic – a nice crunchy breading surrounding a tender faux chicken breast. It went so well with the avocado and the spiced mayo (which I slathered on). And the sweet potato fries! Fried, crispy and also delicious – They tasted really good dipped in the spiced mayo as well! During the meal I kept asking, “How is this so good?”  The pondering continued on through the drive home. Seriously amazing.

Chipotle BBQ - $8.50

Jonathan got the Chipotle BBQ sandwich – shredded veggie steak, marinated in tangy bbq sauce, with chipotle ranch, caramelized onion, lettuce, and tomato. Jonathan nixed the caramelized onion because he is a fool! We traded bites of our sandwiches and I must say that this was incredibly tasty as well. The BBQ sauce almost has a sweetness to it that really worked well with the slight chipotle heat. I would really like to order this for myself (with the caramelized onion, of course!) and give it a go.

THANKFULLY by the end of this month, I won’t have to drive all the way to El Segundo to eat at Veggie Grill, because there is a new one opening up right at Sunset and Crescent Heights! I have been waiting oh so patiently for September to roll around and for Veggie Grill to open up. Now that I’ve actually eaten there and know what I’ve been missing, the anxiousness is building. I MAY have to drive out to El Segundo one more time before the 29th, when the West Hollywood location opens, just to curb some cravings. Veggie Grill has immediately jumped to the top of my list as one of my favorite vegan restaurants, and I think every vegan needs Veggie Grill in their life! I can only hope it has continued success and spreads throughout the country so that even when I’m visiting my folks in the middle of nowhere where they eat alligator tail, Florida, I can get me some Chill Out Wings!