native foods in westwood has been one of my regular haunts since becoming a vegan. i mean why not? they’ve got great food and have used to have a huge menu with reasonable prices. that’s right, it’s all changed. imagine how bummed i was to walk up to the native foods counter over the weekend only to find the enormous novel of a menu replaced with a one page paper hand-out. it was tiny! and there wasn’t even enough food to carry on to the back side of the menu, so it was just covered with creeds and missions about saving the earth. really? a disposable paper menu, that you are handing to each customer who is dining in, just because you haven’t had time to get the real menus printed. that’s not saving the environment, now is it, tanya?

so let’s get to the food. upon opening the menu, my heart sank because most of my favorite items had gone. latino lover pizza, malibu veggie burger, farrah’s fatoush…all history. drats. so i went with something that sounded exciting, the portobello & sausage burger.

portobello & sausage burger: big grilled beauties with seitan sausage, pommodoro, caramelized onions, vegan mayo, pesto and sweet roasted garlic. $10.35

while the portobello & sausage burger is by no means a new item, it did used to cost only $9.50, and now it’s $10.35. don’t think i didn’t notice, native foods! while this burger was pretty tasty, it had waaaaaay too much oil. a more appropriate name would the grease & grease burger. seriously, the drippy pesto, globby cheese, and runny olive oil totally overpowered any protein. in fact, the burger got so covered in grease that the bun fell apart and i had to eat it with a fork. ick. a little too slippery for me.

grease and oil on top of fat

also, i just wanna add that the sausage patty tasted EXACTLY like a celebration roast. it even had the same little ridges on the side.

not a bad thing, just makes me wonder if native foods has started buying in bulk.

while navigating the new menu was a little bit intimidating for me, it was especially daunting for my husband, because he’d never ordered anything at native foods EXCEPT the malibu veggie burger. he decided to go with the new burger option that looked kind of similar. unfortunately, it wasn’t.

veggie-mighty-vita burger: 100% angus friendly veggie patty, lettuce, carrots, sprouts, beets, onions, pickles, and 1000 island. $8.75

the veggie-mighty-vita burger isn’t much to write home about, especially since it comes in at a buck more than the malibu veggie burger. the patty is smaller and thinner, and doesn’t have the same combination of grains and quinoa that made the malibu so luscious. the vita is kind of limp and bland. don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t BAD, and it did come stacked with a ton of lovely vegetables, as you can see…it just wasn’t great, either. ooh ooh ooh!–and another thing to note: all burgers used to come with a side of coleslaw, rice or black beans. now the default side is 8 pieces of slightly brown edamame that taste fresh out the microwave. hmmmm.

one cool thing though, as the kind lady at the counter pointed out, is if the new menu is missing one of your old favorites, they can probably still make it for you with the ingredients that are still around…for now. oh really? let’s just see about that. i decided to return to native foods and give this offer a shot with the poltz burrito, a wildly popular item from the previous menu.

poltz burrito: black beans, brown rice, original seitan, flamed banana salsa in a whole wheat tortilla, topped with salsa fresca, chips and guacamole. $8.95

i guess this emasculated version of a poltz burrito counts as making something off the old menu. but seriously, who would want this? i mean, does that look “topped with salsa fresca, chips and guacamole” to you? no! and the inside of it was even more depressing.

pitiful

this burrito used to be massive, overflowing with guacamole, beans and colorful salsas. why did they have to go and ruin a good thing?

oh well, i’m sure i will keep going back to native foods anyways. after all, they do still have the awesome greek gyro on the menu, although it costs more now as well. it’s always a bit sad when menus shrink or prices rise…and it’s especially sad when these two things happen at once.

R.I.P. all my old favorite dishes from native foods.

here is the new menu for you to check out.

and here is the old menu, if you wanna reminisce.

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next stop on the quarrygirl roadtrip, crazy hippie sushi from santa rosa at tex wasabi’s! what makes these sushi rolls hippie, you ask? is it organic ingredients? creed of the establishment? psychotropic drug references? nooooooooo. it’s just the names of the dishes, of course—what more could you ask for as a tourist? if the menu makes me think i’m eating hippie food, then i’m gonna buy into it.

morgan’s earthy crunchy roll: tapioca rice paper roll with sushi rice, crunchy tempura bits, avocado, cucumber, julienne vegetables, daikon sprouts served with a ponzu dipping sauce. $6.95 (double order pictured, so i will have a double amount of hippie-ness and feel twice as close to the earth)

woodstock roll: sunset mix, romaine lettuce, daikon sprouts, cucumber, avocado and topped w/ ponzu sauce. $7.95  (of course this roll reminds me of watching janis joplin, the who and jimi hendrix while under the influence of several unmentionable substances…but in sushi form. how did they capture the fantasy so accurately with just a few daikon sprouts?)

in all seriousness though, this sushi was pretty tasty albeit a bit fusion-y. the rice paper was a welcome change from the nori i’m used to…and it was nice to have a wide variety of innards in my role, rather than the standard avocado and cucumber combo. morgan’s earthy crunchy roll was the favorite at the table (good thing since we got a double order); the crunchy tempura bits blended together with the creamy avocado tasted divine.

although there’s not much for vegetarians to eat on the menu (most of the sushi has fish, and they also specialize in southern bbq) these 2 rolls are enough to please and definitely delicious. plus, the place has that chilled out rockin’ roll vibe that a lot of sushi establishments have been adopting lately. i like it.

oh, and don’t forget to start off with some edamame. it’s the root of all that’s good in the vegan diet.

eddie’s mommy (eda-mame): blanched soy bean pods, dusted with kosher salt. $4.25

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as the summer rapidly approaches, it’s handy to have an arsenal of cool, refreshing meals that can be whipped up in less than 15 minutes. enter veganomicon and pete’s tofu to go.

veganomicon’s corn & edamame sesame salad, atop spinach leaves with asian dressing

pete’s tofu 2 go ready made tofu, with mango wasabi sauce (and we added in some chili garlic sauce as well)

so simple to make and ready in minutes, this was the perfect meal for a scorching hot evening spent sitting on the couch with a bottle of wine. there was just enough to satisfy without leaving us full, bloated and feeling guilty.

more pix after the jump…

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I’ve been to Yard House outlets in Long Beach, Pasadena and Palm Desert, although there quite a few in the chain. What I like best is the selection of beers on tap (usually over 100) and a very nicely prepared vegan option on the menu. What better way to enjoy four beers than by ordering two half-yards of beer (or one yard if you’re feeling rather adventurous and have strong biceps).

Sitting at the bar (and this is a real bar: black granite and stainless steel with cared-for keg pumps by the polytope, and nice seats to boot) one can choose from by far the best selection of beers in any bar probably anywhere.

I usually order Young’s Double Chocolate Stout which is also served from a keg back home so tastes almost the same as in the White Hart (incidentally a pub that Roger Waters can often be found drinking in).

Oh yes, a Yard House is a GREAT way to drink away the afternoon with nice beer and chilled edamame served just right. Do it. Do it now. You know it makes sense. And, there’s a Yard House under construction at LA Live right now, due to open at the end of the year so we Los Angelinos will have less distance to travel.

See the rest of this post for more pictures…

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