had a ridiculously good dinner tonight with some friends at the somewhat recently reopened fatty’s in eagle rock. top notch food in a really nice environment—-this is definitely one of the best vegetarian restaurants in LA, and the ambiance can’t be beat. go there if you haven’t been.
clara’s cakes provided the delicious dessert (not available at fatty’s).
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vita cafe is one of my favorite spots to hit up in portland. the menu is huge, almost entirely vegetarian, and everything on it can be made vegan. big hearty breakfasts, sandwiches, burgers, salads, entree platters, even tap beer—-vita has it all.
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caulipots with 40 clove chickpeas and broccoli. 2 of my favorite recipes from appetite for reduction.
not all gardein news is bad news: green truck in los angeles now has a vegan gardein menu and it looks insane! apparently it’s part of gardein’s new cheat on meat campaign, and i’m all about it.
here are some photos of the new green truck gardein grub via herenah and royalefatale on instagram:

vegan sliders and tacos

gardein food truck offerings!
i can’t wait to try it! hey green truck, please keep this stuff on board indefinitely…!!

i know that on my old blog, i posted about the vegan options at yard house several times…and i was super stoked when they started carrying gardein. after some back and forth with their staff in person and their PR company via email though, i’ve determined that it’s probably not safe to eat the gardein options there. the yard house prides itself on its ambiguity when it comes to vegan items, and though they have a menu full of the most popular fake meat on the planet, they refuse to confirm that they offer even one vegan item. i’ll spend my money and my calories elsewhere.
below is an abbreviated email exchange with someone on team yard house, which started with them sending me a press release about gardein items:
the first is the original email from yard house’s PR team about the gardein menu items:

then my response:

and their reply:

fucking bummer! what a wasted opportunity to offer vegan items at a huge chain restaurant. yard house should take a clue from zpizza and expand their customer base to include vegans.
if you have any more info on yard house’s continuation or departure from lameness, let me know.
vegan “bbq sloppy faux” sandwich on special right now at mendocino farms: shaved seitan and pinto beans slow braised in chipotle citrus barbeque sauce with avocado puree, vegenaise, pickled red onions, candied jalapenos, tomatoes, shredded romaine on toasted ciabatte. $9.50
jon wiener ate it, loved it, and sent us these pix. here’s his review:
Unlike The Shitty Beatles, the Sloppy Faux isn’t just a clever name. It’s a fantastic combination of thinly-sliced seitan, big fat pinto beans, lettce, vegenaise, etc on amazing soft (with just the right amount of chew) ciabatta bread. Each bite is a struggle because you are so happy to be eating the amazing sandwich, but so sad that each bite contributes to it being finished sooner.
What I wanted to say, however, has nothing to do with the experience of the sandwich, but with the name.
The Sloppy Faux is clearly a take on the Sloppy Joe. When most people think of the Sloppy Joe, they probably are thinking about the meaty, saucy concoction that gets served in a bun so porous that it is incapable of holding the aforementioned death-slop, resulting in an in-tact top bun and a piece of bread-slime on the bottom.
You probably remember them from the classic scene in Billy Madison (warning: the following clip contains ground up animal carcass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJf8Je5H7-k ).
I grew up in New Jersey, not too far from New York City. Where I’m from, a Sloppy Joe is something totally different. It’s a t stacked sandwich consisting of several different meats (pastrami, corned beef, roast beef, turkey, etc), cole slaw, swiss cheese & russian dressing on rye bread. It’s basically the TurDuckEn of deli sandwiches. This is what they sometimes look like (warning…more rotting flesh):
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_V2vvFqyFKZ8/SLYru_oqcfI/AAAAAAAABo0/nCPA-MH32X0/s400/EvergreenSloppyJoe.jpg
Here’s an accurately labeled diagram from a very vegan unfriendly site called The Porkchop Express: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_V2vvFqyFKZ8/R-lT—OTDMI/AAAAAAAABYg/Er1kcjQEu8w/s1600/AnatomyOfASandwich.jpg
In my “pregan” days, these were a fixture at Super Bowl parties and downtown “hangs” with my friends. Jeez…I was so young and stupid!
Anyway, as much as I loved the SLOPPY FAUX, it should consider a name change, should Mendocino Farms decide to add it to the regular menu, and create a true SLOPPY FAUX that matches the name more accurately. Has anyone ground up seitan for a classic Sloppy Joe vibe? Maybe create a New Jersey Sloppy Faux using different “meats” along with the seitan. In fact, I’d like to challenge several Los Angeles vegan delis to step up and give it a try. Locali? Figuroa Produce? Let’s start giving the Ruben a run for its money in the sandwich wars.
vegan banh mi special at tony’s darts away! i tried a bite of brittany’s and was super impressed. at first i was skeptical because it didn’t look like your usual vegetarian banh mi—-it was made with seitan (not tofu) on a typical roll (not a baguette). i was dead wrong though; this thing ruled! the flavors were exquisite and it was spicy as fuck. try it.
russian river damnation at the little bear, a new belgian bar in downtown LA. this place rules: the beer selection is killer and it even has a vegan burger option!
giant burrito at pokez in san diego. tofu, potato & mushroom all rolled up in a massive flour tortilla, crowned with salsa ranchera and served with a cabbage salad garnish for $5.25. best mexican food i’ve ever eaten!
the weekend is almost here which means two days of BRUNCH coming up at tony’s darts away from 10am-afternoonish. this only happens on saturday and sunday, so get with it. my favorite thing thus far is the breakfast burrito: quinoa & tofu all scrambled up, onions and salsa in a giant tortilla. it normally comes with daiya and bell peppers—-but i opt out of both.
is that a beer at 10am? it sure is!
really lame anti-soy/almond/rice milk commercial put out by the dairy industry. can’t they do better than this? the kid would have WAY worse nightmares if he knew what really happened to dairy cows…