i am loving gardein’s new vegan frozen food line, and finally it’s available in los angeles. i’ve already told you all about the amazing spicy buffalo wings, so today it’s all about chick’n good stuff.

this little meal comes in packs of two and is basically a vegan take on stuffed chicken, complete with marinara sauce and daiya cheese in the middle. i topped mine with even more daiya cheese that i had on hand, and served it up with roasted brussels sprouts and collard greens.

on bite of this thing, and i was SOLD. the crispy bread crumb coating was garlicky and flavorful, and the vegan chicken was moist and perfectly chewy. as soon as i cut into it, rich daiya cheese and marinara sauce oozed out of it all over the place. the sauce was awesome, and i’m sure you already know how amazing daiya is. i’ve never had a vegan frozen product this tasty….seriously!

each stuffed chick’n is definitely enough for a 1 person meal…i even had a bit left over. these things pack so much decadent taste, i couldn’t believe it when i picked up the package and saw they only contain 210 calories each! i know i will be eating these on a regular basis.

oh and it looks like i CAN be eating these on a regular basis, because they are available at ralphs! i’d never seen gardein at a normal supermarket before, so i was pleasantly surprised when i saw their entire frozen line in stock at ralphs in hollywood yesterday. and at just under $4.50 per bag, the price is right as well.

come on, it’s VEGAN CHICKEN stuffed with VEGAN CHEESE….available at the grocery store!!!! i never thought i’d see the day!

When President Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize last week, his first public reaction was a one-word tweet, “Humbled“. While a VegNews award isn’t quite as prestigious we’re also humbled that Operation Pancake, our investigation into Los Angeles area vegan restaurants, would win a “Scandal Breakers of the Year” award from VegNews magazine. The list was broken this morning over on ecorazzi, as follows:

As a quick reminder, for Operation Pancake we tested samples of food from seventeen Los Angeles area restaurants (all but one supposedly entirely vegan) and found that 40% of tested positive for ingredients that were not of vegan origin. We then tracked back the ingredients of many of these dishes to fake meat plants in Taiwan, and uncovered major inconsistencies with food preparation and labeling. It’s possible that many fake meats in supposedly vegan foods are not just non-vegan, but actually contain real meat.

What’s sobering about Operation Pancake, though, is not what we found, but what we didn’t find. It’s likely that all over the world vegans are eating animal products without realizing it, and we hope that the publicity gained by our investigation will help them to “vote with their feet” and only buy vegan foods from reputable sources.

Many thanks to VegNews for recognizing our work, we hope the publicity might persuade a couple more people to buy strictly vegan produce to save a few animals from a degrading life, and agonizing death.

If you read the original posts, they’re well worth reading again, especially the comments – some of which are really insightful. In the meantime, we’ll wait for our Veg News to arrive with the full scoop on November 1st!

Team quarrygirl and our collaborator, Mr Wishbone, gladly accept the award!

gardein classic style buffalo wings.

this fall, gardein is launching a new frozen line all over the united states & canada, so keep an eye out for their products coming to a whole foods near you. if you live on the east coast, you may have already seen this stuff. gardein sent me a sampling of their new line to try out, and i immediately fell in love with their classic style buffalo wings. spicy, tangy, moist and chewy, these bite-sized snacks were everything you could want in a meaty appetizer. they packed a lot of heat, and went down perfectly with cool and creamy vegenaise dip.

being a vegan is super easy with companies like gardein around to create cruelty-free versions of old meaty favorites. stay tuned for more gardein products coming soon to a freezer near you. and if you spot these wings when you are out grocery shopping, trust me, YOU GOTTA TRY ‘EM. i am gonna buy up bags of these wings as soon as i have the chance.

i’m sad to report that one of my (previously) favorite fake meat brands has started being awfully cunty lately. morningstar farms has recently added both MILK AND EGGS to several of their formally vegan products.

one of my favorite foods to be completely ruined by morningstar farms, was the meal starter crumbles. these things were perfect in any recipe that called for ground meat, and until recently they were vegan. then, without warning and without changing the packaging, morningstar farms added both skim milk and egg whites to the ingredients. gross, right? yeah.

morningstar farms has added milk & eggs to thier vegan crumbles!

to make matters even worse, when morningstar farms wasn’t busy de-veganizing stuff, they were discontinuing other wonderful vegan products. like the meal starter steak strips, GONE. i used these strips all the time…in stir frys, in cornish pasties, in burritos, you name it. no more.

morningstar farms steak strips discontinued!

this whole situation is pretty upsetting to me, and i probably won’t be buying much morningstar farms stuff in the future. if the crumbles are trashed, and the steak strips are gone, what else can they really offer me? if you buy morningstar farms products, i highly suggest you triple check the ingredients to make sure they haven’t snuck in any animal discharge.

there is a thread going about this topic over on vegweb, complete with a response from the company that really doesn’t make me feel any better. buyer beware!

oh, and special thanks to commenter Bil for bringing this all to my attention. you rock.

akasha: punjabi mung beans and rice. local greens, tandoori flatbread, tomato chutney.

dineLA restaurant week! it’s all the craze! it’s when fancy-schmancy dining establishments in los angeles offer specially priced 3 course meals that normal people can afford…and it’s happening NOW (october 4-9 and 11-16)! although at first glance, the online menus of participating restaurants show almost no vegan options, don’t let that discourage you…there is plenty for us to eat!

this post comes courtesy of a very awesome quarrygirl.com reader, emily west hollywood, who started calling up dineLA restaurants and sussing out their vegan options. we now have the following list of places that have been contacted, and whether or not they can cater to us herbivores. we will keep updating this list, so tell us in the comments section if you have any more info.

here is what the restaurants had to say when asked if they would accommodate vegans for dineLA:

akasha said “no problem,” but maybe call in advance so they can make a note about dessert. (i can personally vouch for this place…i went to their dineLA week in january for lunch and it was incredible!)
bazaar by jose andres said “yes,” they will give vegans access to a tapas menu with many options. plus, they are an “all olive oil kitchen, no butter!”
bella cucina italiana said “no problem and no need to call ahead.”
bld said “yeah, they will make it happen. just call ahead and let us know you are vegan so we can get ready for you.”
border grill sure thing, “come and tell your server when you arrive.”
buddha’s belly santa monica said “yup, they can make things vegan.”
checkers downtown said “sure, no problem.”
cache restaurant and lounge the chef said that they were willing to veganize, but for the things that would be left out it might not be worth the money.
chaya downtown said “NO, we won’t change anything.” (bitches)
ciudad said “no problem at all, we would be happy to oblige, no need to call ahead.”
craft said “sure! we can adjust our menu for vegans, just call ahead and we will make a note…”
grace restaurant said, “sure. our menu can be modified for vegans. no problem.”
fig seemed to think it would be fine, but call to make sure.
ford’s filling station apologetically said “no, we usually can accommodate vegans but we actually don’t even have a veg dish on the dinela menu.”
ivan kane’s cafe was they checked with the chef and said, “he would be happy to take care of vegans. there are several things he could make.”
il fornaio said, “sure, things could be modified to be made vegan.”
la botte said “no sorry, but there is vegan stuff on the regular menu.” (i doubt this however, because i ate at la botte once and they were COMPLETE DICKS when i tried to order a dish a without cheese. they said the chef wouldn’t allow it. i shan’t return, ever.)
loteria grill hollywood said “no, we can cater to vegetarians but we will not modify the menu for vegans.”
larchmont grill said “no, but there are vegan options on the regular menu.”
le grande orange is a big NO. (pfffft…meanies)
luna park said “no,” but they were very apologetic.
the must wine bar said “yes of course we will adjust our menu, just tell your server as soon as you arrive.”
rush street said they are in, and will replace dessert with a cocktail.
susan feniger’s street said “yes! but please tell us a day in advance so we are ready.”
taste said no.
wolfgang puck bistro said no, and might i add, they were VERY CUNTY on the phone. “i don’t know if you’ve looked at the menu, but every item contains meat and/or dairy…so NO.”
xiv said “yes we would be happy to allow a dineLA vegan menu…just call ahead.” (i highly recommend you take advantage of this offer…i have had the tasting menu at xiv and it was AMAZING!!)

vegan cauliflower tempura at xiv

oooh, and just a side note about xiv: they will be offering their vegan menu after dineLA at 20% off through december 15th! you need to get over there and try it, because the food is absolutely extraordinary…and the discount makes it much more affordable.

so there you have it, your vegan-friendly dineLA options! get out there and eat at some fancy restaurants over the next week, YOU DESERVE IT. let’s support these places for catering to us…PLUS, why should omnivores have all the fun when it comes to cool restaurant discounts?!?!

to avoid hassles, be sure to call ahead for dineLA and make a reservation…and check out this post on LAist.com with tips for making the most of your experience. happy vegan eating!

whole foods has done it again. the prepared food section that was one of the first places in los angeles to get daiya covered pizza, hot gardein products, and basu’s homestlye masala is now wowing us again with another revolutionary product, black garlic.

starting out as normal garlic, black garlic undergoes an intense and complicated fermentation process that makes it darker in color, sweeter to the taste, and stickier to the touch. it’s fruity and tangy, yet mild…filled with complex flavors, minus the annoying stuff that usually comes with garlic like pungent odor. that’s right, you can eat a mouth full of this delicious stuff and not walk away with bad breath. do i have your attention now?

being a longtime garlic fan and huge pizza lover, imagine how excited i was when the folks at whole foods and black garlic invited me to the weho store to taste the new product that they are rolling out this week in their prepared food section on some daiya covered vegan pizzas! i went in with pretty high expectations, all of which were exceeded. the black garlic was incredible!

the first type of pizza i sampled was whole foods’ special seasonal creation, the fall harvest or “deconstructed cabbage roll” pizza. this thing came covered in mozzarella and cheddar daiya, tomato sauce, shredded cabbage, green apple, black garlic and agave nectar. i’m usually not a fan of fruit on pizza at all, but this thing really blew me away. the sweetness was perfectly paired with black garlic’s subtle tangy-ness, and the 2 types of daiya added a load of rich flavor. speaking of daiya, whole foods weho really knows how to work with it on pizza…adding just the right amount for optimum melt without annoying clumpage that comes with too much cheese.

the second pizza i tried was italian-inspired and covered in pesto sauce, mozzarella daiya, tomatoes and black garlic. this is typically the kind of pizza i would order with roasted garlic, but the black garlic gave it a much more complex and rich flavor, without overpowering the pesto.

after trying these two pizzas and tasting some of the black garlic on its own, i’m thinking this stuff has endless possibilities. for garlic lovers, it introduces a whole new world of complex flavors….and for people who haven’t discovered the joys of garlic yet, this stuff isn’t all acrid and intimidating. on top of being delicious, black garlic is extremely healthy as well. it’s loaded up with twice as many antioxidants as raw garlic, and contains a cancer-preventing compound called S-Allycysteine!

black garlic is available in the prepared foods section of whole foods west hollywood this week, and should be rolled out at other socal outlets over the next couple weeks. i highly suggest you get over there and try this stuff asap on a vegan pizza. it’s like nothing i’ve ever tasted. plus, whole foods pizzas are cheap as hell. for about 15 bucks, you get enough vegan pizza to feed about 5 people!

for more info on black garlic, check out their website and follow them on twitter.

whole foods weho
7871 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90046-5344
(323) 848-4200

Following three years of eating out on LA’s vegan restaurant scene we thought it would be good to come up with a “top list” of the establishments we, and the commenters on this esteemed blog, thought were really good. Check out the end for honorable mentions, restaurants that didn’t quite make the list. Want to bump a mention off the list, or add your own? Please comment. Don’t be shy. We had to start somewhere.

Madeleine Bistro

Advice when visiting Madeline Bistro: Sit facing away from the window and forget that you walked past the exotic lingerie store a few doors down, after an excruciatingly long drive from pretty much wherever you live. If you can suspend the belief of where you are and how you got there for long enough, you’ll enjoy some of the most incredible vegan food on the West Coast, and probably in the world.

porcini-crusted tofu benedict at madeleine bistro.

Chef Dave Anderson has spared no expense or time in thinking through and preparing the most minute details of every menu item. From a doughnut that is so light and fluffy it practically levitates, to a veganized carbon-copy emulation of a Big Mag (which I’m told by omnivores tastes way, way better than the real thing), through magical soufflés and German Mac ‘n’ Cheese (complete with Bacon bits!) you are certain to delight in the experience of fine vegan dining with a menu as inventive as it is familiar. Every dish at Madeleine’s has that “HOW DO THEY DO THIS?” question mark hanging over it. Dave Anderson is a culinary genius, and we should all be glad he decided to practice his art on us vegans.

Stuff I Eat

Situated on a quiet street a block from busy Manchester Blvd. on the edge of Inglewood is an absolute gem of a vegan restaurant: Stuff I Eat. With an eclectic menu of options spanning the gamut from soul food through Mexican-inspired and down to earth, honest to goodness, American-style favorites, Stuff I Eat excels in every category. The staff are all so helpful, polite and caring that one feels grateful to be in ‘their’ restaurant. The portions are HUGE, and the quality of every food item, from the way it looks to the way it tastes cannot be overstated.

part of the soul food platter at stuff i eat

Feeling hungry? The $18 “Organic Soul Food Platter” will fill you up, as well as one or two of your guests. The burritos are to die for (how many burritos have fresh, steamed broccoli topping them?). Any place that has a menu item called “Sumthin-Sumthin”, makes its own dressings from scratch every day and serves a $5 taco with so much filling that they throw in an extra tortilla so you can “make two out of one” clearly has an appreciation of food. If you have the same (or even if you don’t), Stuff I Eat will be some of the best Stuff you will EVER Eat.

Vinh Loi Tofu

Kevin Tran, the chef/owner/cashier of Vinh Loi Tofu is probably the King of Los Angeles vegan cuisine. Sitting on his throne behind the counter at Vinh Loi Tofu, he rules his mini-kingdom of obedient, smiling tofu-preparing workers who create some of the most stunning vegan food in town. In his modest Reseda restaurant (about the size of a donut shop!) he manages to squeeze in not only a tofu factory but also a kitchen that prepares no less than 126 vegan specialty menu items, along with several “new inventions” that Kevin has cooked up to try out on us unsuspecting, but very lucky, vegans.

ham sub at vinh loi tofu

With so many menu items it’s really hard to choose favorites (and, to be fair, I try to mix up what I order, but in a lifetime one can only scratch the surface of Kevin’s creativity). Signature dishes we see people ordering time and time again include the Banh Mi subs (of which there are 13 varieties) ranging between $4.50 and and extortionate $6! Kevin’s tofu and fake meats blend perfectly with fresh vegetables in his soups, stir fries, teriyaki noodles and salads. If you’re feeling really adventurous, just ask him for his “special of the day”. You won’t be sorry.

Pure Luck

On our first visit to Pure Luck, we were intrigued to watch a tattooed dude (who we later discovered was Ben, the guy who dreamed up the establishment) wheeling a toilet through a busy restaurant and out of the door. He returned to climb, precariously, above the food area while he installed a WiFi access point suspended from the ceiling by green cables, that’s still there to this day. While this entertainment was going on, my friends and I got quietly drunk on craft beer, and full of potato pals, followed by several plates of fresh salads, rolls with exotic ingredients and burritos. Pure luck doesn’t quite have the atmosphere of a bar, but you can squint your eyes and fake it real easy, with at least 10 beers on tap and an endless supply of comfort food you can’t go wrong.

angélica’s garbanzo salad sandwich with potato pals at pure luck

Must-have dishes are the jackfruit-anything (especially the Todd’s BBQ Sandwich or Torta), Fresh Noodle Salad and the deep fried stuff (Potato Pals, Rosemary Fries, Sweet Potato Fries). The Tofu Pesto Sandwich is also an excellent choice, arriving on a crusty, fresh La Brea Bakery roll. Chow on some great bar food, drink some of LA’s finest beers and smile in the haze of how great it is to be vegan in this day and age. Thanks, Pure Luck, for all the good times.

Oh, and the toilet was abandoned in the parking lot by the dumpster when we left.

Shojin

I recall hanging out as a teenager in the Tokyo district of Akihabara, where bright lights, video arcades and electronics stores are punctuated only by sushi bars and upscale dining. The shopping mall in Little Tokyo (just south of Downtown LA) contains all of the above plus an amazing find if you trudge to the top of the escalator: Shojin Restaurant. to call this place “fine dining” would be an understatement. Hand polished silverware resting on starched tablecloths await your vegan self. Nuvo-Japonaise decor and Frank Sinatra on the speakers round out this most eclectic of dining experiences. Your shy, yet overly-attentive and awkwardly chatty serving staff will do whatever it takes for you to have a great time, as plate upon plate of amazing food spirits itself out of the kitchen to your pristine table.

vegan dragon roll at shojin

Whether you go for the sushi (with seitan, tofu and other faux-fish accoutrements), the pan-fried seitan stir-fry or the incredibly tasty hand-made deserts you will know that such care has been put into preparing your food with prime, organic ingredients that you just can’t go wrong. Order as much stuff as you like — the portions are small, but the taste is big.

Honorable mentions: A Taste Of Life, Native Foods, Veggie Grill, Casa De Tree, Cru, Flore, Cafe Flourish, Rahel’s, and Seed

Check back tomorrow, for our list of the top five vegetarian restaurants that are vegan friendly.

vegans, it’s time to get happy. field roast, the maker of some of the best artisan faux meats around have come out with a new product that is nothing short of amazing: the classic meatloaf…VEGANIZED.

that’s right…the company that brought us the best vegan sausages i’ve ever tasted, lentil loafs, and celebration roasts now has its very own take on the standard american classic. this juicy loaf of luscious plant-based protein goes down well baked with ketchup and served with vegetables and gravy…the same way you would do mom’s old school meatloaf, sans the cruelty.

the meat stands alone whether you decide to cook it up with vegetables, or throw it in a sandwich. having tried both, i can’t say i have a preference. we sauteed some slices of meatloaf, covered it with daiya cheese and shoved it between some la brea bakery bread, and it was better than almost any sandwich i’ve had in LA, even counting the stuff i’ve eaten in restaurants. field roast is really decadent, moist and tasty…unlike the boring and often chewy fake meat you can find in the deli aisle at ralphs. this stuff is really special.

so go get this field roast meatloaf and eat the hell out of it. in los angeles, so far it’s available at erewhon…but maybe if we bug whole foods enough they will stock it as well.

yep, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. the infamous quarrygirl.com vegan soundboard is finally available for download on itunes!!! you will never have to speak again!

special thanks to smooth landon for creating this app, and for brittany from sickoflettuce.com for voicing it.

Just what you were looking for – the app to keep you from having to talk to all those non-vegans! Or maybe you just want to put that pretentious vegan in their place? Regardless, this is the app for you. Smooth Landon partnered with the kind folks at quarrygirl.com and the result is this fun (and free!) app for all your vegan needs.

fuck yeah!

just when i thought it was safe to return to the verdugo bar to get my drink on, without tempting vegan food vying for valuable stomach space, mandoline grill had to show up and ruin it.

you see, verdugo bar has long been a favorite spot of ours, what with arguably the best beer selection in los angeles and a great atmosphere. but for the 2nd and 3rd sunday in august, the culinary geniuses known as hot knives took over the verdugo patio and transformed the place from an dark and cold foodless bar into the ultimate summer hang-out, complete with an all vegan menu, tons of board games, and a stellar music playlist. after two weekends of fun, the hot knives packed up their bags and i figured that for me the verdugo was back to normal—back to being a bar where beer reigned supreme without distraction.

then mandoline grill had to come along and prove me wrong. last sunday the soon-to-be regularly operating vietnamese food truck set up shop on the patio and served a delicious lunch in the heat. while their menu wasn’t entirely vegan, they did have some animal-free options that were really fucking tasty.

vegan lemongrass tofu banh mi. $5

the first was a lemongrass tofu banh mi. i am a pretty big banh mi fan in general anyway, and i can tell you that this was a really good one. the tofu tasted like it had been marinated for a long time, its flavors were intense and went all the way to the middle. the vegetables were fresh, and the french baguette was perfectly crunchy. plus, mandoline grill added a healthy amount of vegenaise to make the sandwich nice and creamy.

vegan cha gio. $3.50

they also offered vegan cha gio, fried spring rolls filled with faux meat. the rolls were pretty hearty and cost $2 each, or 2 for $3.50…definitely a decent price. the cha gio was rich, oily, and really delicious—it tasted like what i remember egg rolls tasting like but without the weird aftertaste. i would definitely order these little suckers again.

i’m pretty sure this was the mandoline grill’s first time serving food to the public, so they seemed a little stressed out and there were a couple delays. however, what they lacked in smoothness, they made up for with absolutely delicious vegan food. another great thing about mandoline grill is that they were pretty knowledgeable about veganism. they stressed to me that even the bread was vegan, and that everything was cooked separately and with different utensils. awesome. i can’t wait until they get there food truck up and running—i know i’ll be one of the first customers in line.

so let’s hope the verdugo continues to be awesome and host patio events that serve vegan food. it’s strange that my favorite bar in town is slowly becoming one of my favorite places to eat as well, but hey i’m not complaining.

for more info, follow @verdugobar and @mandolinegrill on twitter

a taste of life soul food combo

okay, so there’s three events going on this weekend that you should be aware of. choose wisely.

1.) vegan soul food bbq
get your weekend started right with a back-to-school vegan bbq in inglewood sponsored by a taste of life. food will be served from 10am to 3pm, plus there will be live music, kids’ activities, speakers and more. if you don’t have plans today, this would be a good bet. a taste of life serves up the best soul food i’ve ever had, and some of the best vegan food in all of los angeles. for info on this event, check out their flyer or PETA’s website.

2.) rockin’ vegan breakfast
the first thing up tomorrow is a vegan breakfast concert at downtown venue the smell. the headline act is ted leo and the pharmacists, supported by davila 666 and moses campbell. the menu consists of vegan pancakes, tofu tacos, and coffee. show starts at 11:30am, it’s 8 bucks, and it’s all ages. for more info check out the announcement on losanjealous.com.

3.) vegan vietnamese and beer
if you wake up a bit later on sunday mornings, or if you are still feeling hungry after your large helping of rock and vegan pancakes…head on over to the verdugo bar for board games, beer, and (vegan-friendly) bbq. while it may not prove to be the epic 100% animal-free feast that was the hot knives gnosh pit a few weeks ago, the up and coming soon-to-be vietnamese food truck mandoline grill will be serving vegan friendly offerings including cha gio (spring rolls) and lemongrass tofu banh mi.

although the event isn’t entirely vegan, the verdugo is just about our favorite bar in town, so the fact they are offering a patio session with stuff i can eat is enough to get me down there. plus, i spoke with the person in charge at mandoline grill and they knew their stuff: no bone-char sugar in the ingredients, separate utensils, and fancy egg-replacer to boot. vegans, go check out the scene if you have a chance.

vegan food at verdugo bar this sunday

have a great weekend. let me know if you hear of any more vegan events going down. and if you go to either of the shindigs i blogged about here, let me know if you had fun.

UPDATE: the vegan soundboard is now also available as an iphone app! check it out!

hey vegans, this is for you, because you shouldn’t have to strain your voice anymore. we’ve compiled a soundboard of all your favorite key phrases and if you use this correctly, you probably won’t ever need to talk again at all.

special thanks to the wonderful and talented brittany from sickoflettuce.com for providing us with the ultimate vegan voiceover.

UPDATE sunday 4:30pm: HOT KNIVES RAN OUT OF FOOD! the BBQ is over. it was so fucking good, consider yourself lucky if you got to eat there.

los angeles vegans, drop whatever you are doing today and head over the the verdugo bar where hot knives is throwing an all vegan bbq from 2 – 7pm.

on the menu, you’ll find pulled “pork” bbq sandwiches, curried seitan banh mi, seeded cole slaw, hand cut chips, and frozen lambic popsicles.

we went to the verdugo hot knives bbq last weekend, and i can tell you it was the best food i’ve had in a long, long time. for our full review and pictures of every menu item, check out this post.

don’t miss this event today, or you will be sorry.

Curried Seitan Bahn Mi.

Curried Seitan Bahn Mi.

Forty years ago this weekend, The Beatles walked across a pedestrian crossing outside Abbey Road Studios, London and signaled the end of the Swinging Sixties. Their iconic, final Abbey Road album was about bringing things together – after all, it begins with John Lennon’s anthem for togetherness, “Come Together”, and ends with Paul McCartney’s appropriately titled “The End”. Sometimes, the best things in life mean so much more when brought together than enjoyed on their own, just like the final recording sessions of The Beatles.

Take my favorite things: vegan food, awesome music, special beer and good friends. Bring them together, give them to me in abundance and I’ll be as sound as a pound.

I write this post replete from all of the above, following this afternoon’s visit to what is arguably LA’s best bar, The Verdugo in Glassel Park. The Verdugo is usually a late-night haunt for us, it being dark, candle-lit and having an innovative beer menu. Today, though, we were spoiled with not only some amazing beers, but the a visit from Hot Knives, the “out there” vegetarian bloggers, chefs, beer experts and all-around-cool-dudes who had brought along a streamlined, but very effective vegan food menu. They called it the Gnosh Pit, and oh boy, did we GNOSH!

The bad news is that Hot Knives has a very limited engagement with Verdugo – only two days. The good news is that you can catch all this again NEXT Sunday 16th (although the menu items may vary from what we describe here).

Let’s talk about the food. First, they approached the occasion from a tangent, offering five menu items – two entrées, two sides and a dessert. With two entrées, the good news is that you’re going to eat not one, but two signature dishes:

Vegan BBQ Bun.

The “BBQ Bun” was a force to be reckoned with – Oyster mushrooms roasted twice and soaked in sweet vinegar spiked BBQ sauce, served between a soft, seasme-seeded bun.

Curried Seitan Bahn Mi with Seeded Cole Slaw.

The “Bahn Mi” was ready to kick you in the fucking face (time and time again) with fresh green chilies, cilantro, spicy curry seitan (the best I’ve had in a long time) and crusty bread. It was HOT, TASTY, CRUNCHY and so amazing that I ate two and wished I’d taken another home for dinner.

Fresh Chips.

Yeah, and the sides were also out of this world. Taking potato chips and making them special is rather tricky, but the Hot Knives dudes made it happen. The chips were sliced thin, fried hot and fast and served with kim chi dipping sauce. They vaporized from the table in about eight seconds, if that’s any evidence of the their delectability.

The cole slaw (pictured above with the bahn mi) had purple cabbage, green cabbage and some other stuff, all served in a tangy sauce with the perfect combination of crunch and mush. These guys know how to make a coleslaw hater become a coleslaw lover.

Lambic Pop. (That's what she said!)

On to the end, the desert was out of this world. Frankly, Lambic is not to everybody’s taste – it’s like a cross between raspberry daiquiri and a hard beer. The Lambic Pops (ignoring the phallic representation) could have been a meal in and of themselves. What an amazing idea?!

The Hot Knives Dudes making our epic feast

The Hot Knives folks were so nice — after every visit (and there were many) to the food area we were served politely, told to “tell our friends” and given food and a friendly attitude to die for. I’d do this every weekend (or every day) if my work schedule and liver allowed it.

Ah, the food. Well, that’s just one item of convergence we’re talking about here – the next is music. Talking of The Beatles, as we sat down to enjoy our Fresh Chips, George Harrison came over the PA system with his eponymous “For You Blue” from the album recorded a few months before Abbey Road. Yeah, he probably wasn’t singing about the erect, blue Lambic Pops, but the music was great and the pops were cold, so who gives a shit? The Beatles were followed by Dandy Warhols, Velvet Underground and many of my favorite bands in tight rotation.

Ok, we have food and music, let’s talk about beer. In fact, after several Pliny The Elders (strangely the very first post on this site), I’m not going to talk very much about the beer, except to say that with 20+ beers on tap you can find one of LA’s best beer selections at your beck and call. Just show up at Verdudo, read the beer menu and let your designated driver take you home. Enough Said. Remember to check in advance, though, which beers are vegan. Most of the craft brews served here are, but better to be safe than carnivorous.

Outdoor Patio at Verdugo Bar

Food, music, beer, FRIENDS – yeah, what was originally a 45 minute stop over on the way somewhere became a 2+ hour chillin’ session when we ran into the awesome Foodeater of To Live and Eat in LA . We talked about friends, food, beer, and stuff we wouldn’t post in a family oriented blog (I’m serious). Upon leaving, our perspective of what’s important in life was firmly reinforced: Awesome food, great music, special beer and good friends.

For more updates about what’s going on at Verdugo Bar, follow them on twitter…. @verdugobar

basu’s homestyle masala at whole foods, available from TODAY at Santa Monica and Fairfax outlet

One of my earliest memories was helping my grandmother prepare Indian food in her kitchen. I recall the brightly colored spices and the wonderful aroma while the pots bubbled away, and became hooked on the food of that nation at a very young age. Years later, I asked her for the recipe of her potato and pea vindaloo as she gave me a bewildered look and said “Well, there isn’t really a recipe. You take the ingredients, combine and cook them in the way you were shown, and hope for the best!”. You see, my grandmother lived the first 30 years of he life in India, and was taught to cook Indian food by many families in their kitchens and around their stoves.

As an ex-pat Englishman living in Los Angeles, I’ve always missed the taste of real Indian food. West Coast Indian cuisine rarely has the depth of authenticity and complexity of flavors that Indian and British people love so much. I think it’s because there are fewer resident Indian families to share their techniques, and even fewer Indian restaurants of quality. I had even taken to creating my own curry recipe as a facsimile of what I was used to back home.

Imagine, then, my interest when we received an invitation to a tasting at Whole Foods for a new range of vegan Indian home-style food. For sure, Whole Foods is creeping up on the vegan community in SoCal. From their early adoption of Daiya vegan cheese to an entirely new range of vegan Indian food, Whole Foods is rapidly becoming a one-stop-shop not only in the grocery department (like it always has been), but increasingly in the Prepared Foods section. Yeah, you can get a kick-ass vegan pizza and now some amazing vegan Indian food on your way home from work and at reasonable prices!

Indian food is a combination of several things, the most important of which is the base “Masala” (meaning sauce and spices), in which one cooks the vegetables and proteins. Then there’s the carbohydrate portion, usually rice and/or bread. The key to tasty Indian food is in the Masala, which for Whole Foods is provided by Basu’s Home-style, a small family-run business headed by Basu Ghosh and his son Robin. Basu hails from Calcutta in Bengal, one of the regions of India that has the most incredible traditional food. Bengali cuisine is the intersection of aromatic spices and sweet flavors. It’s not uncommon to find raisins and even pineapples in a Bengali dish, all bathed in a glorious masala, served over rice.

I’m delighted to let you know that Basu’s Homestyle has not only brought some amazing masalas to Southern California, but has delivered a kick-ass selection of them to Whole Foods, allowing the wizard chefs of Prepared Foods to create some amazing dishes.

clockwise: basil vindaloo with peas and mushrooms, tofu apple masala, vegan curried beef with basil vindaloo, channa dal, peanut masala with roasted red potatoes.

Our tasting was a smorgasbord of contrasting tastes that came together in a way rarely experienced this side of West Bengal (or East London, take your pick). From the Basil Vindaloo through the Peanut Masala with Roasted Red Potatoes, we were spell-bound with the flavors. Whole Foods even invented a “Vegan Curried Beef with Basil Vindaloo” – Indian flavors paired perfectly with Gardein, raisins and apples using Basu’s masalas.

vegan curried beef with basil vindaloo using gardein beef strips and basu's masala

Also, I’m really impressed with the way Basu’s and the chefs at Whole Foods have taken traditional, family-style masalas and combined them with non-traditional ingredients like tofu, Gardein and apples. Truly an amazing and interesting way to create tasty vegan Indian food.

We were pleased to meet with Basu and Robin during the tasting, and hear their stories about how Basu and his family members from India perfected the masalas in his kitchen at home! They made multiple batches, tested them and modified the formula so that the sauces could be made commercially in large orders yet still have a home-style taste. They then repeated the process to “veganize” the two masalas that had non-vegan ingredients.

robin ghosh (left) and his father basu, owners of Basu's Homestyle

About the best vegan pizza is now available in Whole Foods, and I can 100% assure you that the best Indian food in Los Angeles is now also available at your local Whole Foods for sale by the pound. Fill up that container, I promise you won’t be sorry! Whole Foods told us that the West Hollywood outlet (Santa Monica and Fairfax) is rolling out he program TODAY, and the other stores will get with the program at various stages throughout this week. If in doubt, call ahead.

Oh, and talking of pizza, Basu’s masala and chutneys are available on some specialty vegan pizzas as well. Yeah, a “basil vindaloo sauce with daiya cheese, zucchini, carrot, and fresh basil” pizza is available (think that through — what an amazing and innovative idea!)…

vegan indian pizza: vindaloo basil masala, daiya cheese, zucchini, basil and carrot.

as well as a “channa dal with fresh cucumber, red onion, tamarind chutney” pizza. We’re talking perfect Indian flavors, mixed with stuff we vegans love on top of a delicious pizza.

Basu’s mission statement says it all: “If you could visit our home in India, this is the food you would be served.”, and my grandmother was right: there is no recipe for Indian food. The only good Indian food is prepared by the family, and for the family.

Let’s show Whole Foods and Basu’s how much we love vegan Indian food.