hey everyone, time for another field report from vegan scraps! she brings us the lowdown on vegan eats in new orleans, so take notes.

I’m a native New Orleans girl, so I was psyched to be able to head down to visit my family for a few days, although I was a little concerned about finding vegan food. Let’s be honest, “vegan” isn’t a word that is generally associated with Nawlins’, that is until now! I did my researched and couldn’t wait to try Cafe Carmo downtown. They are not a 100% vegan restaurant (in fact New Orleans doesn’t have a total vegan place, but some options) but they make most everything vegan, and even have some vegan dishes listed.

Carmo is a multi-cultural culinary influenced cafe with different unique salads, sandwiches, international dishes, and soups of the day, not to mention some dessert and drinks!  On top of the food being crazy good, they use local organic produce, and are green certified! The staff is helpful and very friendly, gives off that ‘comfort of new orleans vibe’. Ok, enough chit chat let’s get to the good stuff shall we?

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it may be just one state over, but i’ve never been to arizona (airport layovers don’t count!). the grand canyon doesn’t interest me much and i’m not a fan of road trips, but after reading this field report by JL goes vegan about an amazing little vegan restaurant in tucson, i think i need to book a trip. a food field trip! see if you agree with me…

I’ve just returned from a work-related trip to Tucson, Arizona where I visited one of the few (only?) vegan spots in town, Lovin’ Spoonfuls. I left in love.

True confession #1: I have a friend who lives in Tucson. When I suggested meeting at Lovin’ Spoonfuls he suggested otherwise. He, an omnivore, had been and wasn’t impressed with the “it tastes just like ham” sale he felt he experienced. So, on my own, I checked the place out.

Lovin’ Spoonfuls is a cute, storefront restaurant in a shopping plaza. You order at the counter and your food is brought to you.

As I do, I said to the server “I’ve never been here, and probably will not be back again, what should I have?” Turns out, that sort of freaks staff out. With no definitive answer I then said “I don’t want tofu” and she then guided me toward the Santa Fe Platter, which came with a green salad. Since I had a refrigerator in my hotel room, I decided to try an appetizer, the Cashew Mushroom Pate, too.

I placed my order and then ordered a glass of wine. The server said “Wine by the glass is our house wine, in a box.” And you know what I thought? You don’t scare me. I got the wine. When I said that I would sit outside I was told they don’t have a license that allows for alcohol outside. So I sat inside.

First up, the house salad, which came with the entree…

House Salad with Sesame Dijon dressing

Next up, the appetizer…

Cashew Mushroom Pâté $5.75 This award winning paté is a savory blend of mushrooms and cashews, served with toast points.

I could have made a meal out of this appetizer. The pate is flavorful, yet light. I allowed myself only half (and packed up the other half to go).

And then it was time for the entree…

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a couple years ago, we blogged about the surprisingly vegan-friendly food at LA’s very own dodger stadium. now in 2011, we’re happy to report that ball parks across the country are stocking more and more meatless options. today kevin of vegan brew sent us some pix of his vegan visit to a phillies game, and we were just blown away by the amount of options! we’ll show ’em to you in this edition of quick bites.

vegan hot dogs at a phillies game

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hey, everyone! time for another field report. this one comes to us from jessica of Bein’ Green Savin’ Green (check out her awesome blog), and she’s lettin’ us in on some vegan options in delray beach, florida. here we go!

On my visit to Delray Beach, Florida to see my grandma, we struggled to find enough vegan-friendly restaurants and thus ended up frequenting a café called The Green Gourmet. The cute café was nestled in an upscale strip mall and seemed a little out of place next to heavily meat laden Italian restaurants. The primary focus of Green Gourmet is to offer fresh, healthy and delicious organic food. My grandma and I inquired which of the menu options were vegan and the man, who appeared to be the manager, answered that many of their dishes were vegan or could easily be made vegan. We opted to sit outside and enjoy the Florida sunshine. I was a bit surprised that the outside tables were covered in a fancy white tablecloth, but I guess this was reflective of the expensive menu items.

I decided to order a half order of the Organic Veggie Lasagna ($6) along with the Mashed Cauliflower side. My grandma wanted something simpler and chose the Veggie Burger.

The Organic Veggie Lasagna was very good. I had no idea it was possible to make such a delicious dish with just vegetables! Nevertheless, the vegetables were layered in a way that made me not even notice the dish lacked noodles. The vegetables were very well cooked and seasoned and the tomato sauce was sweet enough to contrast the savory spices. Each vegetable was soft but had a slight crispiness to it.

Organic Veggie Lasagna

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if you don’t have a reason to make the drive from LA to san diego anytime soon, you certainly will after reading this post. the beach city is one of our favorite long weekend getaways, and it’s not because of the gorgeous weather or relaxing scenery. nope, we make the 2.5 hour drive for one thing and one thing only: dinner at pokez.

at first glance, the shabby little mexican restaurant doesn’t appear to be anything special–just your typical dive in a college town with scrappy decor and a heavily tattooed waitstaff. one look at the menu though, and you can see that this place is a godsend for herbivores. pokez serves classic style mexican fare, but without all the chicken stock and lard that we’ve come to expect at “good” mexican restaurants. in fact, the menu is highly vegetarian-friendly and all options that can be made vegan are marked with a “v” symbol. not to mention, the food is insanely cheap and the portions are massive. what more do i require?

our first visit to pokez was about a year ago, and to say it was the best mexican meal of our lives would be an understatement. we returned this weekend with uber-high expectations, which i’m happy to say were exceeded…

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hey, folks! time for another field report from lindsay of Cook. Vegan. Lover. lindsay’s previous review caused quite the debate, and i just wanna say that we support her here on QG. check out her latest field report about a restaurant i’ve always wanted to hit up in NYC.

Recently the Hubz and I finally made it to Angelica Kitchen, a restaurant that has been on my “To Try” list for years. We met up with my girlfriend Cate for lunch at noon which was perfect timing because the place filled up quickly and within 20 minutes there was a long waiting list. It took a while or us to make a decision as to what we wanted to get because there are so many really yummy sounding dishes on the menu…

Angelica Cornbread: Rustic, whole grain slice (wheat free) $2

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UPDATE 9/5/11: before dining at the wynn, please check your restaurant’s dress code. i’ve heard some horror stories of nice vegans being turned away for not being fancy enough. boo! just a heads up!

this is great news! a couple of months ago it was announced that gardein’s mascot was teaming up with steve wynn to revamp the menus at the mogul’s las vegas casino. apparently, tal’s been busy because la cave at the wynn is already offering gardein! score! this is a huge step up from when we visited vegas in late 2010, and most of the wynn restaurants only offered salad or boring pasta dishes on their vegan menus.

a QG reader named mark sent us a snap shot of his gardein la cave meal, which he described as “awesome”!

gardein "chicken", celery root puree, lemon caper sauce. $14

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remember that vegan beer dinner we blogged about that’s taking place next month at stone brewing world bistro and gardens? well they’ve announced the dessert course!

cantaloupe napoleon with cucumber granité

fancy, fancy!!! the four course dinner looks so amazing…read more about it here. i can’t wait until stone releases the beer info. stay tuned! get tickets now.

good god, somebody pinch me because this cannot be real. stone, one one of our favorite breweries on earth, is hosting their first ENTIRELY VEGAN BEER PAIRING DINNER next month at their world class restaurant in escondido.

we’ve already raved about stone world bistro and gardens a couple times on this blog. in fact we love the restaurant at their brewery so much, it’s where we spent our five year wedding anniversary. when i heard stone would be holding an entirely vegan dinner with four courses and beer for just $49, i couldn’t believe it.

here’s how stone describes the evening…

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time for another vegan field report! this one comes to us from Geanna who recently visited an all raw/vegan/organic take-out restaurant in canada called gorilla food. for you raw peeps out there, this place looks pretty promising. if it’s good enough for joey potter, it’s good enough for me.

You’ve probably heard of Gorilla Food because they had a recent visit by none other than Mrs. Tom Cruise (that’s Katie Holmes to we mere mortals). She made quite a stir by visiting this raw and vegan cafe located in Gas Town in downtown Vancouver, BC

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hey peeps! time for another nyc field report from jl goes vegan. i’m loving her reports because they’re all so honest…especially this one. enjoy:

Recently on Twitter my friend Noelle, planning a trip to NYC, asked for a restaurant recommendation that was friendly to the omnivore, the vegetarian and the vegan. I suggested Josie’s East, based on my previous dining experiences with my omnivore husband when I was a vegetarian (not vegan), as we both have enjoyed several delicious, “comfort food” dinners there.

Over the weekend Noelle coordinated a blogger meet-up at Josie’s East for brunch. Turns out, only the vegans showed up. We may have been better off dining somewhere else.

There are only a few items on the menu that are completely vegan. I ordered one of them, the Organic Three Grain Vegetable Cheeseburger.

Organic Three Grain Vegetable Cheeseburger (quinoa, bulgur & couscous) natural cheddar or soy American cheese... 14.75

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this just in, folks! ms cupcake has officially opened london’s first all vegan bakery and it looks incredible. our blogger buddy fat gay vegan was there at the scene in brixton and not only did he write an awesome post about the new shop, but he also sent us some exclusive photos for today’s quick bite.

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hey everyone! time for another field report from VeganHeartDoc. this time she hit up loving hut in san francisco. check it out:

On a recent trip to San Francisco, I was staying at the Marriott Marquis, right next to the San Francisco Westfield shopping mall. Right there, in the middle of the food court was Loving Hut, in all its vegan glory.

I’m stunned, but very excited, to see something so clearly labeled as a vegan restaurant in the middle of a food court. Loving Hut is a chain of vegan fast-food restaurants under the supervision of the Supreme Master Ching Hai. Depending on the account that you read, Supreme Master Ching Hai is a loving spiritual leader, and others describe her as a cult leader and attention seeker.

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Well, I’ve been living more or less permanently in Barcelona for 9 months now, and had stopped checking out Happy Cow etc, as new places get passed round by word of mouth quicker than they get published. But one thing I missed out on last summer was ice cream. In a hot climate, that’s not clever. Well, I corrected that recently after a Dia Sin Carne demo. I’d heard about how good Gelaaati was, but for some reason never got round to it. I am glad I did is all I can say (dumb ass Monkey I am for waiting so long).

Nice clean frontage, but no sign of vegan goodies just yet!

The shop is just off Pl Jaume, just minutes walk from Las Ramblas along from Ferran. The shop front is simple enough, and the inside follows the same idea. Ice cream and fruit sorbets, to eat in or go. And a good selection for vegans.

VEGANOS GELAATI!!

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hey everyone! time for another field report by JL goes vegan. this one comes to us all the way from orlando, florida where she visited ethos vegan kitchen. ch-ch-check it:

A few months ago I sent out a tweet, requesting recommendations for a vegan restaurant in Orlando, Florida. The resounding recommendation was Ethos Vegan Kitchen.

It was me—the lone vegan—one vegetarian and three omnivores. Two of the omnivores, my parents, had never dined at a vegan restaurant and, err, were a bit suspicious. I, however, was delighted and couldn’t wait!

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