unfortunately, in the past, i have been guilty of giving the vegan restaurant native foods mixed reviews. the westwood outlet can be hit-or-miss, with it’s long wait times and inconsistent food. although i have had lots of great meals at the west side eatery in the past, after a couple bad experiences i found myself not returning for months. well, lemme say i am ready to give them another chance after some recent lunches that were nothing short of amazing at the palm desert location. over the weekend i ate there twice and had the opportunity to sample 4 different dishes, all of which blew my mind.

as you probably know, from friday to monday i was trapped in palm desert attending coachella. the only eating options were pre-made grocery store meals, over-priced festival fare, and dining at native foods, palm desert’s most popular (and maybe only?) vegan restaurant. we found ourselves eating at native foods 2 of the 3 days it was open during our stay…and we couldn’t believe how refreshingly delicious everything was.

mina's macro: brown rice, quinoa, tempeh, steamed veggies, sea greens, sauerkraut green onions & sesame salt. Served with lemon miso sauce. $13.95

on both visits to native foods, i ordered mina’s macro, a hot bowl filled right up with fresh warm vegetables, tangy sauerkraut, sesame salt and crispy tempeh. it also came with a side of lemony miso sauce that tasted just brilliant drizzled over the crisp broccoli and cauliflower. from the quality produce, to the perfectly-grilled tempeh, to the flavorful creamy sauce, everything about this bowl was perfect. i wanted to order something different on my second visit, but i just couldn’t bring myself to. mina’s macro FTW!

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Not very far from where he met her in a club down in old Soho, I used to hang out at one of London’s most famous music venues – The Marquee Club on Wardour Street. Back in the 80s this part of London was teeming with the post-punk and new wave music scene and was rapidly becoming a center for obscure indie acts – many of whom, by the end of the decade, would be mainstream pop idols. I saw bands like Guns N Roses, Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, The Clash and Marillion, to name but the ones I recall.

The Marquee Club is now long gone (replaced by a crappy Italian restaurant and block of apartments) but that area has a different draw for me these days, as it has become the epicenter of London’s vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant scene. All the best restaurants are within a very short walk of where the Marquee was – Maoz, Beetroot, Mildreds, Itsu (for example). Indeed, only four doors away from The Marquee’s old entrance is Hummus Bros restaurant. While not vegetarian, it is vegan friendly with all but two things on the menu being veganizable. So, it was with a certain sense of nostalgia that I walked into the restaurant that I used to line up outside, inebriated and smoking cigarettes, so long ago.

Let’s get to the point (hooray!). Hummus Bros does an AMAZING job at making a boring, middle eastern garnish (hummus, of course) come alive with flavor and texture. It’s right up there with Maoz, serving top-notch and fresh hummus with delectable trimmings and the warmest, softest pita bread on the planet. While Maoz is almost entirely self-service, Hummus Bros take each order and individually prepare it to your liking, served right to your table in moments.

hummus and warm pitta bread with stewed button mushrooms and caramelised onions. £6.90

We ordered hummus with mushrooms (sauteed with onions and herbs, sprinkled with paprika), and a side of falafel balls with pita. We could have gone nuts ordering tabouleh, aubergine, pine nuts and various salads and salsas, but we were a little full on arrival after a HUGE lunch of chips and mushy peas, so opted instead for some of the lighter menu choices.

Those prophets of popular culture, Bananarama, said “It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it…” and that applies so well to Hummus Bros. I mean, hummus, pita and sauteed mushrooms are pretty freakin’ easy to make at home, but you can never get the experience of such good food, a super atmosphere and great location, adding immensely to the experience. Inside the restaurant there are long tables, so dining is “family style” (meaning you could be sitting next to some asshole NOT in your family who is on a cell ‘phone talking loudly), although when we were there late at night, the place was pretty empty so we had a 16-top table to ourselves.

hummus bros in london

The quality of the food, and its presentation, were absolutely lovely. The whole experience reminded me of fine dining – extremely attentive and competent servers (though you order at a counter), shiny silverware, impeccably clean tables with nice lighting, décor and ambience, only without the high prices. Hummus Bros should be a stop-over, or mainstay for every vegan visiting London. I know I’ll never be able to go home again without paying them a visit!

Finally, I can confirm that the Champagne in Soho clubs DOES taste just like Cherry Cola. I’ve been there and I’ve drank it. But that’s a whole different story.

hummus bros
88 Wardour Street
London W1F 0TJ
tel 020 7734 1311
opening times
Sunday – Wednesday 12pm – 10pm
Thursday – Saturday 12pm – 11pm

hey everyone, just another quick vegan update from coachella. if you are an adult (or a cool kid with a fake ID) attending the festival today, be sure to get over to the beer garden across from the sahara tent and try some of the vegan pizza from slices…it’s amazing. that’s right, VEGAN NY-STYLE PIZZA at coachella.

vegan pesto pizza at coachella. $6/slice

i would have never thought to go to the sahara beer garden in search of vegan food, but luckily a quarrygirl.com reader named nick read my last post about coachella and told me i needed to try this place. i guess slices has been selling vegan pizza in the beer garden for years…i don’t know how i missed this place. seriously, the pizza was incredible. enormous thin slices you can fold in half with a light and crispy crust, all topped with a flavorful pesto sauce and huge chunks of vegetables.

slices even advertises one of their pizzas as vegan (you don’t have to modify it or anything)…and the vegan stuff goes really fast. when we got our pizza, they were just taking a new pie out of the oven and it was all sold within about 5 minutes.

there are tons of places to get pizza at coachella, but so far this is the only vegan-friendly place i’ve seen. it kind of sucks that it’s in the beer garden, so it’s off limits to people under 21. and the only other decent vegan food at coachella is in the VIP section. what fucking gives? i guess you have to be either old or rich to eat amimal-free at this festival.

sunday coachella goers, have a great time out there today. hope you check out tons of awesome bands and get some vegan pizza. thanks to reader nick for finding this place.

yo yo yo los angeles vegans, if you are in town tonight, be sure to hit up the frankenstand! the all-vegan hot dog cart is one of our favorite places to eat, and they will be out in full force this evening from 5:30pm for vegan drinks at the little bar!

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hey vegans, quarrygirl here reporting from coachella. yesterday in between drinking $7 beers, watching morrissey, and waiting in line for the bathroom, i was running around snapping vegan options all over the festival with my iphone. i wrote a quick post from my phone but had to delete it upon finding out that some of the stuff i suggested contained honey. so here is the updated info on vegan coachella 2009:

the best spot for vegan food is definitely inside the vip area. there you have luscious organic desserts selling a kick-ass selection of vegan cupcakes, plus a raw vegan stand called jenny’s. i had a cupcake from luscious and it totally blew my mind. more to come on that later.

luscious organic desserts

jenny's raw organic

if you don’t have vip access, never fear…you can get food in the dining area across from the dance tents. over there they have sweet leaf, an almost all vegan organic stand…except there is honey in all their dressings. so grab a wrap or salad at sweet leaf…just get it with no sauce or dressing. there is also a mexican stand called leno’s that uses no lard and a curry/mex stand called cowboys and turbans that sells vegan tofu masala. there’s also a middle eastern stand where you can get a falafel sandwich and some garlic fries.

sweet leaf

leno's lard free mexican

cowboys and turbans

so that’s it for now. if you are at coachella this weekend, i hope you enjoy the festival and that this helps you find somewhere to eat!

it’s no secret that i’ve been eating at vegan-friendly restaurants all over los angeles for quite some time. however, throughout the last several years of living here as a vegan, for some reason i never bothered to check out fatty’s in eagle rock. the all vegetarian restaurant on colorado boulevard has high prices, gourmet menu items that i can’t pronounce, strange opening hours, and a pretty dairy-heavy menu. for so long i just assumed the place wasn’t for me. BOY WAS I WRONG. i finally had the chance to check out fatty’s a few weeks ago and it rocked my my vegan socks off.

my husband and i ended up at fatty’s on accident. we had an epic double-date dinner planned to attend shojin’s 1 year anniversary party with lex and kristin of vegan-la, which also coincided roughly with when they would be leaving los angeles to embark on backpacking trip around europe. turned out shojin was way too crowded to eat at (i’m talking line-out-the-door savage nightmare), so we headed out to fatty’s eagle rock for of the best vegan meals i’ve had in this town.

fudgey: a two layer chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache, toasted coconut and pecan frosting with a creamy center. $8

just because it was so fucking scrumptious, lemme start by telling you about the fudgey. this was the dessert that lex and kristin ordered and were kind enough to share with us (had this been my cake, nobody else at the table woulda got even a bite of it!), and we all agreed it was delicious. the thing was big enough to feed a boatload of people and it came with layer after layer of sugary goodness. chocolate, coconut, and pecan creaminess made this one of the best sweet things i’ve ever encountered. dense and decadent, this cake could fool ANYONE who is addicted to eggs and milk. nothing about it tasted vegan. fudgey is the perfect name for this ridiculously fudgey dish.

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every monday, malo in silverlake serves $1 tacos all night and offers three different vegan options! i first read about the vegan-friendly taco nights on LAist about 6 months ago, and i don’t know why it took me so long to get my ass over there. i was really missing out!

soyrizo soft tacos w/ onion and cilantro, hard shell eggplant & potato taco w/ guacamole (no sour cream) $1 each

i finally hit up malo on monday and was happy to see that of the 5 $1 taco options, 2 were already vegan and 1 could be made vegan by omitting sour cream. the vegan selections included a hard shell eggplant and potato taco with guacamole (hold the sour cream), a grilled and marinated vegetable soft taco, and a soyrizo soft taco with onions and cilantro. you can check out the menu here. i skipped the vegetable taco because it came full of bell peppers (which i hate) and went for 2 soyrizos and 1 potato and eggplant. seriously, i don’t think i’ve ever eaten so well for 3 bucks!

the hard shell potato & eggplant was beyond delicious. it came rolled up in a fried shell with squishy warm insides and a dollop of creamy guacamole (malo’s guac is AMAZING). the soyrizo tacos were a little lighter and just as awesome. spicy fake meat topped off with crispy onions and fresh cilantro. i love the way they cook up the soyrizo at malo, it was super hot and bright orange…someone definitely has some skillz back there in the kitchen. the whole plate came with a radish garnish and extremely tasty hot sauce. damn good all the way around.

so vegans, i implore you to head to malo on a monday for $1 taco night as soon as you get a chance. don’t do what i did and wait around for 6 months. it’s a recession, people. take advantage of this shit.

malo
4326 W Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90029
(323) 664-1011

$1 taco night! mondays 5pm-10pm

who doesn’t love going out for a big slap-up brunch on sunday morning? it seems like the right thing to do on the last day of rest before the start of a week: wake up late, lounge around, and then eat a ridiculous amount of food before lounging around some more…right? so imagine how bummed i was when i headed out with my husband on sunday to indulge in flore cafe’s all-you-can eat vegan brunch, only to find that the restaurant was closed. wtf!! i think it had something to do with a fictional character like jesus or the easter bunny or something, but either way we left empty-stomached and disappointed. luckily for us, there is always a very vegan-friendly plan b in silverlake at millie’s cafe just a few blocks away.

millie’s cafe is a great little breakfast/lunch spot with loads of vegan options, open everyday (even on easter apparently) from 7:30am to 4:00pm. they have been around since 1926, and for los angeles that is one of hell of a long time. the staff is friendly, the service is quick, and most importantly the food is really good. so good in fact that by the end of our meal, i was pretty glad that flore cafe was closed. this was nice for a change.

angel's mess: tofu scrambled with vegan sausage and casein-free soy cheese. served with your choice of toast and a delectable fruit cup. $11.95

the angel’s mess is one of the heartier tofu scrambles at millie’s cafe, as it comes with vegan sausage and soy cheese. the menu even says the cheese is casein-free (isn’t that a relief?), and from the taste of it, i’m pretty certain they use follow your heart. the vegan sausage is pretty much the soy ground you can buy at the supermarket, but they season it and cook it up right nice. what really makes this dish though is the fresh salsa and guacamole. the cool vegetables and creamy avocado taste great all mixed in with the scramble. at 12 bucks the angel’s mess is a tad on the pricey side, but a really decent meal if you are craving some fake meat and cheese up in your breakfast. they also have a much cheaper tofu scramble with ginger soy sauce and fresh spinach if you are in that kind of mood.

vegan chilaquiles: tofu, crisp corn tortilla chips drenched in ranchero salsa atop a bed of black beans and melted soy cheese, topped with guacamole and pico de gallo. can also be a burrito. $8.50

millie’s has a few really appetizing veganizable menu items, so i had a rough time settling on the chilaquiles. (the no huevos rancheros also sounded really tasty.) the chilaquiles ended up being absolutely delicious…huge chunks of soft tofu, black beans and crispy chips slathered in a delicious red sauce. all mixed in with vegan cheese and covered in chunky guacamole. this dish really hit the spot. and it was so much food for $8.50! millie’s has got the mexican food down.

so i know it will be rough for vegans to make it over to millie’s cafe, since it’s located in between flore and flore cafe…but i highly suggest you suck it up and eat at this omnivorous restaurant, because their vegan stuff is worth a try. while the angel’s mess is pretty good, the mexican breakfast entrees are exceptional and much cheaper. either way, you can’t really go wrong. so much stuff can be veganized on the breakfast menu, plus they have vegan burgers, burritos and tacos on the lunch menu…and both menus are served all day.

if millie’s cafe has been around since the 20’s, they must be doing something right. head over and eat some of their vegan stuff. you will like it. oh and plus, they were open on a jesus-y holiday when flore cafe decided to shut. bonus points for that.

millie’s cafe
3524 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323-664-0404
Open 7 days a week
7:30AM to 4:00PM

last week the west side got a little more vegan-friendly when a brand new vegan cafe opened up on wilshire and 11th in santa monica. golden mean is a small restaurant offering a variety of organic teas and coffees, salads, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, pizzas and vegan baked goods. the place has a total hippy vibe that is “sooooo santa monica” in my book, with stuff like bamboo plates and quartz-infused walls. even the name golden mean is either a reference to some philosophy or magical ratio….i dunno….i just want some vegan food.

now, how do i put this nicely? i understand that as vegans, we have the tendency to get pretty excited when we find stuff we can eat. i get that the fact that a new 100% vegan restaurant on the west side is something to get worked up about. but don’t let a whole menu full of vegan options and a case full of vegan desserts distract you from the fact that in the end, the food at golden mean just isn’t that great. sorry, i wanted to like it…it’s just…so….blah.

the works burger: bean and grain veggie patty with lettuce, tomato, pickles and special sauce on burger bun plus avocado, tempeh bacon, and vegan cheese. $12.75

we hit up golden mean over the weekend, and trust me, we were so ready to rave about this place. the menu looked a little pricey, but hey it’s vegan stuff so that’s to be expected. they were still working out the kinks of the computer system when we went in, so it took a while to place our order. we got the works burger which comes with avocado, tempeh bacon and vegan cheese and clocks in at over 13 bucks once you’ve added tax. it comes with either some potato chips or a side salad, so we ordered it with kale.

overall the burger wasn’t disgusting or anything…it was just bland and definitely not worth 13 dollars. i mean, that’s even more expensive than m cafe’s big macro which is huge, also comes with a side, and is probably the best burger in town. the kale side salad was flavored with orange or something and tasted way too sweet, i definitely wasn’t a fan.

we also ordered the portobello mushroom panini which i liked better than the burger, but it still wasn’t worth the price.

portobello panini: roasted portobello, onions, baby arugula and vegan mozzarella on a ciabatta roll. with a mugwort soba side salad. $10.95

i ordered my panini without bell peppers and the chick at the register said they get the paninis pre-made, but she would be able to remove the peppers before heating the sandwich. i was fine with that, but it’s always good to know when you are ordering food that’s been pre-made. the portobellos in the panini tasted great, and the arugula added a fresh and tasty touch. as a side i got the mugwort soba noodles with vegetables which tasted good but were a little on the bland side. overall, this was a pretty decent dish…i just know of much better sandwiches i can get for well under 10 dollars.

while i wasn’t that impressed with our lunch, i can tell you that golden mean definitely blew me away with the dessert. we tried two things, both of which were f-ing incredible.

vegan chocolate cake. $5.50

the vegan chocolate cake was absolutely massive and slathered in the richest and creamiest frosting. it also had little crushed up chunks of cookies and coffee beans all over it. so damn delicious. we also tried the strawberry short cake which was amazing as well. the cake was really spongy and moist, the fruit was fresh and the frosting was decadent. ***** out of 5.

vegan strawberry shortcake. $4.25

so there you have it: hippy vibes, bland expensive food, and really awesome desserts. that’s what i took away from golden mean. definitely check it out though. some vegans have been really positive about the place, while others have been sort of on the fence. i can tell you, with a great restaurant like interim cafe so close by, i don’t know when i will ever find the motivation to try out golden mean again. although i could be tempted by that cake. i guess we’ll see!

here is the menu if you wanna check it out. special thanks to jennshaggy for scanning this and sending it to me.

golden mean menu. click to enlarge.

golden mean vegan cafe
1028 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 393-6500

harrods is what has to be the dopest motherfucking department store ever. located on brompton road in london’s knightsbridge, it’s absolutely massive with over a million square feet of selling space and 330 departments. you can buy everything from groceries, to a flat screen tv, to a car, or even a house at harrods. you can probably adopt kids there as well…who knows. i’ve only been to harrods a few times, and while i love wandering through the enormous space and drooling over things i could never afford to buy, the one thing i have left with every single time is a cup of vegan gelato.

vegan gelato at harrods in london

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if you are a vegan hanging out in london, don’t rush over to neals yard salad bar in covent garden. the vegetarian and vegan-friendly cafe sounds like a total win with loads of vegan baked goods, animal-free entrees and a whole juice bar…but when we went, the service was slow and the food was rather meh.

while the cafe is mostly vegetarian, they do have a few vegan options including a vegan pizza. if you read this blog, you know how much we fucking love pizza, so we had to give that a try.

vegan pizza with corn, tomatoes, olives and garlic mayo.

the menu said the pizza came with corn, tomatoes, olives and a vegan mayo type sauce. i assumed the toppings would be in a similar ratio, but when the pizza arrived it had four slices of tomato, four olives and about FOUR CANS of corn on it. seriously, so much corn.

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i’ve got some good news for y’all los angeles vegans: cafe muse in hollywood is now offering soy cheese! woo! if you’ve never been to cafe muse before, you should definitely check it out. the modest little coffee shop/restaurant serves up an almost entirely vegetarian menu and has loads of vegan offerings. they help you identify the vegan items on the menu by putting a little star * next to all the stuff that contains dairy. well now, vegans can eat most of the starred menu items as well, by substituting vegan soy cheese for normal cheese. that’s right…the pizza, quesadilla, nachos and chili cheese fries are no longer off limits!

i celebrated yesterday by hitting up cafe muse and ordering a vegan grilled cheese sandwich. they use follow your heart for the vegan cheese, and as you can see they don’t have the melting technique quite down yet. while the grilled cheese sandwich was decent and i appreciated the fact it had both mozzarella and cheddar inside it, the fake cheese was just a little clumpy for my taste. i wish cafe muse would start carrying teese from chicago soy dairy, because i’m pretty sure that’s the best vegan cheese that’s readily available here in los angeles. oh well.

not your mama's grilled cheese (vegan-style): made with two types of vegan soy cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. $7.95

despite being called a grilled cheese sandwich, which sounds really decadent, this meal was pretty light and healthy-tasting. there wasn’t much cheese on the sandwich, and the whole thing tasted toasted…not grilled in a butter substitute or anything like that. it came stuffed with little sun dried tomatoes which gave it a slightly sweet and tasty flavor. i was expecting the sandwich to be much more unhealthy, so i got it with a side salad instead of sweet potato fries. all together, it was a pretty good meal….albeit expensive at 8 bucks.

i don’t think i will order this sandwich again, although i definitely want to test drive the vegan cheese on the nachos and pizza. i will let you know how that turns out. in the mean time, if you want a healthy meal that will not disappoint, grab one of cafe muse’s make your own salads. for under ten bucks you can get a f-ing HUGE bowl of salad with any fixins you desire. my favorite combo is the grilled garlic-soy tofu with vegan ranch, although they also offer four varieties of soy chicken as well. you can’t go wrong.

make your own healthy salad with tomatoes, mushroms, onions and added tofu. $9.50

so check out cafe muse if you haven’t already, and support their decision to carry vegan cheese. maybe it will be more melty on the other menu items.

cafe muse
6547 Santa Monica Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90038
323-464-6873

move over kids, there’s a new vegan baker in los angeles and the goods are amazing. vegan bake sale launched just a few weeks ago and specializes in beautiful and tasty cakes and cupcakes, but cheesecakes and cookies are also in the works. alix, the talented baker behind all of this, has been teasing los angeles vegans with her treats for quite awhile on her blog cute and delicious…i was so excited when she announced that she was making them available to the general public.

coincidentally, alix launched vegan bake sale just 5 days before my dad’s birthday. what better way to celebrate than to get him a huge vegan cake…right?!?! mwahahaha.

vegan bake sale double layered chocolate cake. $45

when i contacted vegan bake sale to place an order, alix wrote back and said she could make any flavor i could dream up. that sounded like quite an opportunity, but i still went with basic old double chocolate. i mean, who doesn’t love that, right? when i picked up the cake i was shocked at the size…it was much bigger than i imagined! it was also beautifully decorated with gorgeous piping around the edges. seriously, too pretty to eat. even the smell of it in the car on the way to my folks’ house was so sweet and tempting, i am shocked i made it all the way there without stealing a finger full of frosting.

i think everyone would agree the cake was a huge hit. my non-vegan parents loved it, and so did my husband who usually won’t go near sweet foods. on her blog, alix says her baked goods “aren’t the healthy, crunchy, cardboard vegan desserts you find at health food stores, they’re the decadent, delicious treats that could fool any non-vegan,” and she is absolutely right. the cake itself was sinfully tasty, and so was the rich luscious frosting.

after eating just one slice i went into an epic food coma. i left the cake with my parents and kept getting emails from my mom about how great the leftovers were. total success.

so if you are looking for a vegan birthday cake in los angeles, or a load of vegan cupcakes, definitely hit up vegan bake sale for treats that will impress. i got an amazing vegan birthday cake from real food daily last year, and i can tell you this thing topped even that…which is saying a lot! plus, alix can not only bake “any flavor you can dream up,” she’s also a total frosting artist and your cake is guaranteed to look amazing.

check vegan bake sale’s website, blog, and twitter for more info.

i live in hollywood and my local whole foods is the tiny one located at santa monica and fairfax. because the parking lot is so small, the lines are so long, and the prices are so high, i normally only go to whole foods when i need something crazy for a recipe…or when i’m grabbing a quick bite from the salad bar. i would never consider whole foods a destination to go hang out, or a place to sit and eat lunch. this all changed, however when my friend dragged me all the way to the newish whole foods in venice a few weeks ago.

holy crap! i realized then that not all whole foods are lame and tiny like my local…some are huge and awesome like this new venice store. there was parking, seating, and so much vegan food i couldn’t begin wrap my mind (or mouth) around. it was like a bloody vegan disneyland! pasta, sandwiches, ice cream, mexican food, chocolate and curry…it was all there ready to be eaten at the lovely outdoor tables. we ordered a ton of food for lunch and enjoyed it right there at the store. i can’t wait to go back.

whole foods vegan chicken salad sandwich. $6.99

we started off with a vegan chicken salad sandwich from the sandwich counter which was made with gardein, vegetables, and vegenaise. it was absolutely delicious…the gardein chicken salad was super chunky, thick, and creamy…and the bread roll it came on was amazingly fresh. definitely a good, solid sandwich for 7 bucks. it made me wish gardein chicken was available everywhere, i absolutely love that stuff.

vegan tamale, chocolate and more after the jump.

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UPDATE: just found out the dressings listed in the sweet leaf section of this post contain HONEY. if you order food from sweet leaf, get it with no sauce/dressing!

we vegans have it pretty rough sometimes. it feels like more often than not we find ourselves in places or social situations at meal times where there is almost nothing we can eat, and even then we live in fear that our salad, fries, or bread roll may be contaminated with traces of dairy. lemme assure you, coachella is not one of those places.

coachella is fucking annoying for loads of other reasons, don’t get me wrong. it’s hot as hell, it’s pretentious, it’s expensive and it’s inconvenient….but all those things aside, coachella is definitely VEGAN-FRIENDLY. this year i hear they are even going to be carrying VEGAN CUPCAKES in the vip section made by luscious organic desserts. so be sure to score a wristband if you haven’t already…you need to grab a vegan cupcake before morrissey and paul mccartney eat them all.

i went to coachella last year and took myself on a vegan tour of the festival…here is some of the stuff you can look forward to if you are headed to the desert next week.

sweet leaf organics at coachella

sweet leaf organics is a solar powered kitchen that shows up at music festivals and serves organic vegan food. kick ass. they were at coachella last year near the main stage, and if their website schedule is accurate, they will make an appearance this year as well. i didn’t spot this place until sunday last year, and i was pretty disappointed…my husband and i only got to enjoy one meal at sweet leaf, and it was easily the best food at the festival.

marinated tofu wrap with vegetables and peanut sauce. $9

the menu at sweet leaf is simple, but very appetizing. they have grilled tofu or tempeh wraps and burgers, as well as salads, stir-fry dishes and fresh smoothies. we ordered the marinated tofu wrap and tempeh burger, and were very happy with both.

marinated tempeh burger. $9

they also had vegan items in the vip section, although nothing as awesome as sweet leaf. we found a sushi stand that had vegan vegetable rolls and inari. while it was a total ripoff at 12 bucks, at least it tasted good and didn’t contain animals.

vegan sushi with a side of inari. $12

for a map of sweet leaf and the vegan sushi place, click here. and for a full review of those places, click here.

combination plate: coconut rice with dal and tomato pea curry

if you are more of a dance tent kinda person, don’t worry. there will be vegan food for you too. last year there was an entirely vegan place called bombay station near the gobi serving up a ridiculously good curry combination. anywhere serves 100% vegan food is a winner in my book, so i definitely hope this place returns. oh, and if you like to waste money, there is also a place that sells artichokes for $7.

ridiculously expensive artichoke. $7

for a map to the bombay station and artichoke place, click here. for a full review of these stands, click here.

vegan tofu naanwich. $7

if you want more indian-style food and get sick of the bombay station, there was also another place close by selling a tasty tofu naanwich. i don’t remember the name of this stand, but it had the words “vegan-friendly” posted on signs all over it. for a map to this place click here, for full review click here.

so i think it’s pretty safe to say that vegans won’t go hungry at coachella. you will probably go broke…but definitely not hungry. last year i was there with my husband for 3 days, and between the two of us we didn’t even get to try all the vegan food.

i will keep you posted on this year’s offerings as well. if you are going to attend the festival, follow me on twitter. i will tweet every time i run across vegan food. that is if i can tear myself away from the VEGAN CUPCAKES.