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

it looks like america’s favorite pastime is becoming a little more vegan-friendly, at least in the city of los angeles. now you can enjoy a good old fashion baseball at dodgers stadium with a vegan frank in hand.

now i’m no sports fan, and i will would have never even known the stadium was offering vegan hot dogs…but luckily for you a friend of mine spotted them, tried them out, and even got some snap shots of them for your benefit.

veggie dog. $6.25

dodgers stadium uses lightlife’s smart jumbo dogs, which are completely vegan, as well as bimbo bakeries buns, which are also vegan! while $6.25 is a lot to pay for a simple veggie dog, i guess it’s pretty standard considering the fact that everything is overpriced at sporting events. now you can feel ripped off just like the meat-eaters…it’s only fair.

baseball is way cooler when vegan hot dogs are around!

these vegan hot dogs are available in Reserved level Section 4 at the Wetzel Pretzel stand, so don’t miss them.

one of the concession stands selling veggie dogs! yay!

for more information about vegetarian and vegan options at stadiums all around the country, check out this site called soy happy. it’s great to see so many sports arenas introducing more vegan options. if you do go see a game, you should stock up on vegan food and show support.

special thanks to my friend for making this vegan hot dog discovery. hopefully you will keep this post in mind next time you are watching a baseball game in LA. and remember, veggie dogs taste great with baseball, beer and pretty fireworks.

fireworks at dodgers stadium. just because.

It’s been a rip-roaring week in the no-holds-barred quarrums! From Paul McCartney debates to vigilante undercover investigations of vegan dating sites it’s all there. Here are some highlights:

Vegan Pizza Photos. The world is going nuts for vegan pizza. If we didn’t execute tissue samples on the posters of every picture here, we’d be concerned that some of these amazing pizzas might not be vegan!

vegan teese pizza posted by quarrygirl. check out the forums for pix from other users.

Vegan Thai Food Boycott? The world is also going nuts for vegan Thai food. Read about how little of this cuisine really is vegan, and the paces to frequent as well as avoid.

What did you cook today? Tons of great pictures from nutso vegans that cooked food at home.

Share your stories about perceptions others have about you being vegan. Funny observations from others here.

The undercover vegan dating site. Member jvedman went out on a limb to investigate eligible vegans in Atlanta. Read all about out here.

Finally – if you’re on Twitter, check out this topic as it’s full of cool vegan cats to follow.

Are the forums missing anything that you think people should be talking about? If so, feel free to go in and add a topic. The more the merrier!

Happy weekend!

** NOTE ** These forums are NOT necessarily the views of quarrygirl/aka Ms. Anthrope alone. Several people moderate.

After realizing there are limited vegan-oriented forums anywhere on the Internet where one can engage in frank discussion about the seamier side of vegan life, we stayed up all night and created the quarrums. Feel free to register and join in the discussion. ANYTHING GOES.

quarrygirl.com: a silly vegan blog headquartered in Los Angeles
forums: a place to go on the internet where you can debate issues and share thoughts
quorum: Noun “a gathering of the minimal number of members of an organization to conduct business”
quarrums: the quarrygirl.com forums check them out!

Do enjoy the forums, and let us know what you think. Moderation will be kept to an absolute minimum, and there are no ads or anything anywhere on them. Have at it!

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.

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.

If you’re lucky enough to be a vegan living in Southern California — particularly Los Angeles – your favorite cuisine will, of course, be vegan Thai. From the Westside to the Southland to the Inland Empire there are over 9,500 vegan Thai restaurants, each with a totally diverse menu (except, of course, for everybody’s favorite “Cowboy Burger” and “Garlic Pepper Seitan”, which are faithfully included on every restaurant’s menu). The unique combination of fine dining, surprising menu options and incredibly attentive servers is offset to the negative by long waits (reservations at the Beverly Hills “Taste of Vegan” restaurant usually need to be made days in advance), and the famous “Vegan Tasty” in Alhambra usually has a 4-5 hour wait for a table.

vegan tasty in alhambra

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vegans, rejoice! there is a new cruelty-free product on the block from none other than chicago soy dairy. if you aren’t familiar with them, they are the same folks who created teese, which tied for 1st place in our best vegan cheese for pizza showdown and also covers our favorite pizzas in los angeles. as if making great vegan cheese wasn’t enough, chicago soy dairy has recently rolled out their most convincing product yet…a line of treats called dandies vegan marshmallows. lemme tell ya, the word dandy doesn’t even begin to describe how tasty these sweet, moist, little, gelatin-free puffs are…they are nothing short of exceptional.

vegan rice krispies treats made with dandies from chicago soy dairy!

i tested the dandies out in the standard rice krispies treat recipe from the kelloggs website, and the batch came out absolutely perfect. i haven’t had real rice krispies treats (or marshmallows for that matter!) in AT LEAST ten years, and still these little squares propelled me back in time to a place when eating cereal coated with gelatin was the uninformed yet delicious norm.

dandies vegan marshmallows: $5.29/10 oz bag

i kept the recipe exactly the same as on the kelloggs website, but i substituted dandies for real marshmallows and used earth balance sticks in the place of margarine. i tasted a few of the dandies raw before making the rice krispies treats, and i can assure you that chicago soy dairy has nailed the exact marshmallow flavor AND texture. i ordered my dandies the moment they were available from veganessentials.com, and they were very quickly sold out. they are still currently out of stock, but for more updates you can always follow chicago soy dairy on twitter.

dandies vegan marshmallows melting away!

i prepared the rice krispies treats exactly according to the original recipe…melting the dandies with margarine and mixing them up in a pan with the cereal. the dandies had a thick and gummy texture that was so close to real marshmallows, i could barely believe it! they melted down immediately and became a thick sticky stew that coated the spatula and kelloggs alike.

when i let the cereal/dandies/earth balance mixture cool, it turned into a perfect slab of rice krispies treat that was easy to cut and tasted great. i am so used to eating the vegan brown rice marshmallow treats from trader joe’s, which suck ass compared to the dandies version. i even took a bite of each one side by side, and the dandies treats were so incredible, i don’t think i will ever buy the trader joe’s ones again. the vegan marshmallows were soft, creamy, and chewy…the rice krispies treat was in every way identical to its non-vegetarian counterpart.

just for fun, i also tried roasting a dandie over the fire. it turned out perfectly. crispy edges and gooey insides, just like the real thing. if i were a camping person, i would definitely be loaded up with tons of dandies for campfire smores.

melted dandies vegan marshmallow on top of some dark chocolate. yum.

lastly, i threw the dandies in some hot chocolate to see how they did. they got soft and mushy, again, just like real marshmallows. it was so awesome being able to just drink a mug of cocoa with puffy white marshmallows…a simple pleasure that’s been off limits to me for over a decade.

hot chocolate piled high with vegan dandies marshmallows

so overall, dandies vegan marshmallows are a pretty impressive break through product. the marshmallow taste and texture are hard things to get right, and chicago soy dairy has got them both nailed. a+! i will be adding these to my list of staples to order from vegan essentials.

for more info check dandies out on the web, on myspace, and on twitter.

hey there LA vegan cupcake lovers (i know there is a grip of you out there), i have some really good news. remember when i lamented the closing of leda’s bakeshop in sherman oaks? well, as of recently, the original vegan baker at leda’s, kim garr has started selling her recipes to the public via her online bakeshop, c’est la v!

i know that a lot of vegan hearts (including mine) sank when they learned about the shutting of leda’s. kim garr read my melancholy post and emailed me to tell me that even though she no longer worked at leda’s, she had been improving her vegan recipes with plans to launch her own online bakery. i was so stoked to hear this, and now it looks like she is finally up and running. i haven’t personally tried any of c’est la v’s baked goods…but i thought i should let y’all know what they have to offer. here are just a few of the goodies. check out the full menu here.

c'est la v vegan cupcakes: moist, delicate cakes topped with fluffy, creamy frosting. (chocolate cake with vanilla frosting pictured) $3.25 each

vegan chocolate chip cookies: 12 minis/ $4.75

vegan rugelach: raspberry, strawberry or apricot. 6 pieces/ $5.25

c’est la v offers loads more vegan goodies than the ones pictured above. check them out and place an order if you want to relive the good old days of leda’s bakeshop and try some new/improved stuff as well. they also have lots of mouth-watering things that aren’t even listed on the menu like chocolate peanut butter fudge and plum kuchen cake.

so there you have it. while i haven’t actually tried c’est la v’s baked goods myself, i know they come from the mastermind behind my all-time favorite vegan cupcakes. i guess when one door closes, a new one opens…it was tough saying goodbye to leda’s, but c’est la v! so los angeles vegans, embrace the new vegan baking line from our talented local kim garr.

c’est la v
Kim Garr
Owner / Baker
818.326.4443
kimgarr1@gmail.com
www.cestlavbakeshop.com

also check out kim’s kick ass vegan blog:
www.cestlavegan.com

it’s no secret that we don’t really celebrate xmas. to me it’s just an annoying holiday when the bars and vegan restaurants are closed. however, that doesn’t stop me from taking the day off work and filling up on holiday-themed food. it also doesn’t stop my awesome parents from buying us tons of gifts. 🙂

this year on xmas day, my husband and i attended a slap-up vegan holiday party, meaning we couldn’t have dinner with my parents until the next day. we decided to invite them around to our place on boxing day for an informal vegan celebration. we provided the main course and desserts, they brought us some side dishes and some unexpected gifts. it was awesome.

one dozen vegan twinkies from no whey vegan baking. 6 regular flavored, 6 red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

we went a little over board with dessert, and ordered 12 twinkies from no whey vegan baking. needless to say, there were tons left over and we sent my parents home with a whole container full. everyone loved them, especially my dad who has been dying to try a vegan twinkie for like 6 months. while the normal yellow cake with white frosting filling variety was well received, my new favorite is definitely the red velvet twinkie. the cake is moist and insanely decadent, and the filling isn’t frosting, but instead vegan cream cheese. absolutely delicious.

red velvet cake with a cream cheese filling

for a main dish, we cooked up a standard tofurky. although i prefer the celebration roast, which we made on thanksgiving, the tofurky was only $7.99 at the santa monica co-op. you can’t beat that price.

tofurky!

my parents brought with them some wonderful sides including the quarrygirl recipe for potato salad, and a broccoli salad that my mom veganized. you can see the original broccoli salad recipe here.

vegan broccoli salad with raisins, vegenaise, "bacon" bits and onion.

in addition to food, my parents also brought with them some surprise presents. thanks mom and dad! knowing what fans we are of veganomicon, they brought us isa chandra moskowitz’s other two wildly successful cookbooks: vegan with a vengeance and vegan cupcakes take over the world. yay!

vegan cookbooks! w00t!

they also brought us some shirts in honor of the quarrygirl.com mascot, tofu robot. check out the cool t’s they found online at spicy brown.

tofu robot clothing from spicy brown.

so overall, it was a great feast with some extraordinary vegan twinkies and some vegan gift surprises. a fine, fine holiday indeed.

We British love our curry. For sure, a vindaloo is the British national dish over fish and chips – factually, more brits eat curry on a regular basis than any other cuisine. They say “you never miss what you never had”. Well, I’ve had it and I miss it, yearning frequently for a rainy evening where I can pop out of my local pub into the Bombay Palace restaurant across the road, and order an onion bhaji followed by vegetable vindaloo with pilau rice and a roti. Don’t get me wrong – there are Indian restaurants here in LA, but none of them come remotely close to the taste, texture and experience of a British curry.

So, I set out to emulate the Great British Curry in my own kitchen, and I can tell you that I’ve come pretty close.

Here’s a close-up of what you can expect:

And here it is in a dish ready to be served:

Within an hour of prep time I can make a curry dish that tastes so similar to a curry house back home that I can close my eyes after eating it and hear the patter of rain on the streets of London.

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every time i go to the uk, i try new and wonderful food that i wish i could take back home to los angeles. well guess what? turns out i can!

spicy dumpling noodles (the quarrygirl version): steamed vegetable gyoza, asian vegetables, udon noodles, and miso broth

on a recent trip to london, i felt so out of my element. i was wandering the streets looking for any one of the vegan restaurants i’d so carefully researched online…none of which i was finding. to make matters worse, i was with my ex-vegetarian (now vegan) english husband who was kindly patronizing me as i promised to show him all the “vegan friendly” restaurants i’d bragged about finding in his hometown that he’d failed to notice, because he must have been blind!

2 hours later…no vegan restaurants. he’s late for a meeting…and his stupid american-girl-of-a-wife, who doesn’t even know from which direction the traffic will be crossing, is aimlessly pulling him around the west end looking for a restaurant that understands the difference between vegan (vg) and vegetarian (vo). disaster.

15 minutes left before the lunch window slams shut and my husband has take off, we happen across a little shop called itsu on regent street, and he convinces me to give it a try. completely pwned, i agree, and follow him in and try to make the best of the situation.

and boy am i glad i did!

recipe after the jump…

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I buy most groceries that I can from Ralph’s here in Southern California, and wine is no exception. Once the bastion of exclusive vintners, wine is now a commodity where quantity (of New World wines) and quality have driven down price to a point where a very decent bottle can be bought for well under $10. It’s been that way for a while, actually, but the key here is that I don’t WANT my wine to taste like it cost under $10. I don’t mind it tasting like it cost $20, or even $14 but $2.99 isn’t going to cut it with me.

So, the trick is to find the best loyalty program with the best selection of wine that you can consistently find whenever you run low. I’ve found that Ralph’s has just that. Here’s a story about how I bought 24 bottles of wine worth $141.34 for only $81.22 — a saving of $60.12, or an average of around $5 a bottle. AND IT DOESN’T STOP THERE!

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