great news, los angeles vegans! cinnamon in highland park now has DAIYA CHEESE!!!! named one of the top 5 vegetarian restaurants in los angeles, cinnamon has been one of our favorites for a long time. they specialize in light but traditional meatless mexican cuisine, and they are becoming more and more vegan-friendly as the days go by. now that they have added daiya cheese to their arsenal, i know i will be visiting much more frequently.

i know that there are tons of daiya pizza options in town…but cinnamon is one of only two mexican restaurants that offer the stretchy, gooey, realistic miracle product. i stopped by cinnamon this weekend to try out the new daiya, and it was awesome as always. they give you the choice of “cheddar” or “italian” flavor, my favorite being the cheddar.

i had my daiya in a plain quesadilla…which may sound a bit boring, but oh man was it delicious. the tortilla was soft and perfectly grilled, and the cheese was melted and sooooo real tasting. it went down great dunked in cinnamon’s amazing hot sauce and slathered with flesh guacamole. seriously, there is no vegan product on this earth i love more than cheddar daiya.

i can’t wait to get back to cinnamon and try out daiya in even more exciting dishes….i am thinking vegan cheese enchiladas next time. who’s with me? and if you haven’t tried cinnamon yet, you really are missing out. we wouldn’t name it one of the best vegetarian restaurants in LA for no reason, now would we?!

cinnamon vegetarian
5511 N Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90042
(323) 982-9480

i bet you’ve never had a vegan deep dish chicago-style pizza. this one was awesome, made with cheezly and teese from chicago soy dairy. next time i will throw some daiya in as well.

As a globe trotting vegetarian, I recall attending many cheese and wine parties all over the world. I’ve eaten Brie atop the Eiffel Tower, Feigenbergkäse in the caves of the Black Forest, Gouda on a barge in Amsterdam and Formaggio Branzi while listening to the Pope recite Easter mass in The Vatican. For me, a combination of cheese, crackers, fruit and good wine or beer is the epitome of cosmopolitan Hors d’œuvre the world over. As vegans, though, we can’t eat the cheese, and the crackers are usually full of whey, butter and cheese so they are off limits too.

Given the lack of any vegan cheese and wine party invites, we decided to host our own, with ourselves as guests. We visited Whole Foods beforehand to stock up on vegan organic wine, my favorite bottled beer (Chimay) and some organic, vegan crackers, assorted fruits and a smidgen of vegan chocolate, all to be enjoyed with the incredible Dr. Cow vegan cheese.

We’re not talking about Daiya-style melty cheese that you’d put on a pizza or in a toasted sandwich, but a direct replacement for those expensive, tasty and pungent cheeses that go so well on a cracker with a bite of fruit, washed down with fine wine or beer.

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daiya vegan cheese pizza with gardein crumbles

a couple nights ago i got together with some friends and had a good old-fashioned vegan pizza throw down. the los angeles vegan pizza scene has kind of exploded lately, since daiya vegan cheese has become available at purgatory pizza, cruzer, whole foods and zpizza—so i went for quite a while without making pizza at home.

luckily now, daiya vegan shreds are available not just on take out pizza, but for to-go purchase by weight at nearly every whole foods in the los angeles area. no more ordering online and paying outrageous shipping fees—now you can take a stroll to the nearest whole foods and buy as many containers of daiya as you can carry. i suggest you follow my lead, round up some friends, and throw your own pizza party.

we made several pizzas, although some of them were devoured before i could photograph them. in addition to covering the pies with daiya, we also topped them with products from one of our favorite fake meat providers, gardein. if you haven’t had gardein yet, you really need to find out what you are missing. they have the BEST mock chicken product around, as well as mock pulled pork, mock beef, and other mock meats. you can find their stuff at whole foods, trader joes, fresh and easy, and even sometimes at ralphs. for more info, check out their website.

on the pizza pictured above, we used gardein’s meatless crumbles which were insanely delicious. they were soft and flavorful and tasted so much like what i remember ground beef tasting like…but without the weird animal texture. my favorite pizza of the night, however, was the one pictured below: white sauce, sauteed mushrooms, garlic, gardein chik’n strips and daiya vegan cheese. this thing was freaking incredible. the white sauce was filled with herbs, oil & seasoning, and was the perfect compliment to the meaty chik’n strips.

white vegan pizza with daiya cheese and gardein chick'n strips

these chik’n slices are definitely one of my favorite gardein products—i have had omnivores tell me they taste way better than real chicken. they are moist and full of flavor, but not overly dry like gross real meat. seriously, a bite of these mixed up with melted daiya and oily sauce is nothing short of heavenly.

as you can tell, the pizza shindig was a huge success thanks to all the amazing toppings, and also to the excellent pizza chef studiodrome who spent a lot of time in the kitchen making these things.

so what are you waiting for? everything you need to make the pizza of your dreams is available at nearby supermarkets. to think a year ago in los angeles, there were basically no vegan pizza options—and now we can make incredible vegan pizzas AT HOME with cheese and meat that taste like the real thing…it’s pretty damn amazing.

check your local whole foods for daiya vegan cheese, and check gardein’s website for where you can find their products.

oh, and if you feel lazy and want a gardein daiya pizza made for you, head on over to purgatory pizza. i’m pretty sure they are the only place that carries both these products right now. and they make the best pesto pizza with gardein chik’n that i’ve ever had.

unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about this national bacon craze that’s been going on. people are putting bacon in donuts, chocolate, and other places you’d never have imagined. companies are designing purses, wallets and even bandages with bacon designs. bacon seems to be EVERYWHERE, and there is just no escaping it. well guess what, just because bacon is fucking disgusting animal flesh doesn’t mean that vegans can’t get in on the fun. redwood foods lets vegans join the action with a bacon-flavored cheezly. that’s right, one of our favorite vegan cheeses has taken the bacon plunge.

i spotted this cheezly with “added bacon style pieces” when i was at food fight in portland, and i just knew i had to give it a try. i smuggled the block back to LA in my carry-on and cracked into it a few days later. i can’t even tell you how excited i was to try vegan bacon cheese. it sounds so wrong, i knew it had to be right.

when i opened the cheese, it looked like a normal white cheddar block, but with tiny little bits of bacon sprinkled throughout. redwood foods makes a really top notch vegan rasher, so i had pretty high expectations for this. i tried a bite of the cheese raw, and boy it sure tasted bacony! it was a little crumbly, with a strong cheddar flavor combined with a great salty bacon taste. so far, so good.

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one of the things i miss most since becoming vegan is mexican food. even though it’s getting easier to find places that refrain from sneaking chicken stock and lard into just about everything, i’ve still been looking for somewhere to re-create that greasy, cheesy, mexican goodness that i miss from when i was a vegetarian. well guess, what….i found it! mama’s hot tamales cafe, located right at the southern border of macarthur park, is serving up the best vegan mexican food in los angeles, melty vegan cheese and all.

for a while, vegans in the know have raved about mama’s hot tamales’ animal-free options. for ages, the restaurant has been serving up tofu alternatives to tortas and burritos, vegan tamales, tostadas, appetizers and salads. but recently, as i learned in the quarrygirl forums, mama’s started carrying daiya vegan cheese…so now practically any menu item containing dairy can be veganized. OH MY WURD, this is such a breakthrough. things like quesadillas and enchiladas, that have been off limits to vegans forever, are now available at mama’s. and really amazing versions of these foods as well. if you don’t already know how earth-shatteringly good daiya is, you should.

mini vegan quesadilla with daiya cheese, spinach, mushroom and pico de gallo. $4

we hit up mama’s hot tamales cafe over the weekend and went all out with our order. i wanted to try as much cheesy stuff as possible, plus get a tamale of course, because that’s mama’s most famous dish! we started with the mini quesadilla appetizer, and added mushrooms and spinach to it as well. the vegan version came with the choice of cheddar or white daiya cheese, and we went with cheddar.

all i can say about this appetizer is, it’s one of the tastiest, most convincing cheese dishes i’ve had since becoming vegan. the daiya was gooey, melty, and perfectly oily with a real authentic cheddar flavor. it mixed up just great with the spinach leaves and tiny mushrooms, all pressed into a slightly crunchy cooked tortilla. mexican perfection, i’m telling you.

for my main dish, i got something that haunts most vegans’ dreams: cheese enchiladas. i never thought i’d be able to eat a cheese enchilada again, that actually tasted decent, like it was filled with real cheese. well this did.

vegan daiya cheese enchiladas. $7

three soft corn tortillas wrapped around huge clumps of daiya and topped off with even more melted cheese. again, i chose cheddar for this because it seemed more authentic, but if you like daiya white cheese you can get that in your enchiladas as well. these enchiladas were nothing short of wonderful. this may be the best use of daiya i’ve had yet, mama’s got it spot on, just melty enough with just the right amount of cheese. if you hit up mama’s hot tamales, be sure to order these enchiladas no matter what…words can’t describe how much they rocked my world.

at a mere seven bucks, these enchiladas were a steal. not only was the portion size large, but they also came with a huge mound of rice and a spinach salad. not just a dinky side salad, but a full on plate of spinach leaves and vegetables with guacamole dressing. amazing.

my husband ordered the vegan version of the tofu burrito, with a blend of cheddar and white melted daiya on top.

vegan tofu burrito: a large flour tortilla filled with pinto beans, mama’s rice, daiya cheese & tofu. covered in red or green sauce & melted daiya cheese. $8

the thing was absolutely massive and stuffed with beans, rice, and huge chunks of tofu. unlike normal burritos with soft little squares of tofu, the tofu in this one was marinated nicely and cut into large strips. it had so much flavor and really worked as a filling. again, the daiya cheese in and on top of the burrito was absolutely incredible. no complaints about this dish at all.

lastly we shared a black bean and herb tamale, which was a great deal at just $2.50.

black bean and herb tamale, wrapped in a banana leaf. $2.50

the fluffy corn mass came wrapped in a banana leaf and contained a thick mixture of black beans and leafy herbs. the masa dough was so insanely light and fluffy, if you like tamales, you will love the way mama makes them. there were plenty of other vegan options to choose from, and the menu rotates daily. i can’t wait to try some of her other flavors.

in addition to having amazing vegan food and low prices, the staff at mama’s is extremely friendly as well. as we walked in, mama introduced herself and went over the menu with us in a way that showed she really cared. every server that brought something to our table was courteous and engaging. they all seemed like great, genuinely nice people.

mama’s hot tamales cafe isn’t in a great part of town, but they are only open during the day and they have parking, so don’t let the shady factor stop you from going there. once you walk through mama’s doors, you are in a warm, clean, welcoming environment full of smiles and awesome vegan food.

so make plans to go to mama’s hot tamales cafe ASAP. the fact that they have daiya isn’t printed yet on the physical menu, but be sure to ask for it and mama will take care of you. i can’t stress enough that this is the BEST MEXICAN FOOD i’ve had since becoming vegan. don’t miss out on it.

and a special shout out to lucysnowe from the forums for reminding me to check this place out. 🙂

mama’s hot tamales cafe
2124 W 7th St
Los Angeles, CA 90057-4001
(213) 487-7474
open 7 days 11:00am-3:30pm

zpizza with vegan daiya cheese

it’s finally happened. zpizza, a national pizza chain, has decided to get rid of their casein-laden soy cheese and roll out pies covered in daiya, making vegan pizza available to the masses. from LA, to manhattan…from santa clarita to montana, zillions of vegans across the united states will be able to dig into that familiar box of home-delivered goodness. zpizza has started serving vegan pizza at their west hollywood outlet, and over the next several weeks should be selling it in all 68 locations throughout the country.

in case you were wondering, daiya is a vegan cheese that has been taking los angeles (and the rest of the country) by storm. it stretches and melts almost exactly like real cheese, and it doesn’t contain soy. it has even gotten the attention of whole foods, who have started using it on pizzas in their prepared foods section. …and zpizza is a national chain serving up organic and healthy style pizza that tastes like authentic delivery. they have been serving a non-vegan soy cheese as a healthy alternative to regular dairy, but are swiftly replacing it. yes!

since hearing about zpizza’s plan to offer daiya, we have been regularly tracking their status (almost daily if you can believe it!). we didn’t expect it to hit LA so soon, but today we called the west hollywood location and found out they had “the new vegan cheese” in stock. we headed over and skeptically asked to see the new cheese. they brought a large bag from behind the counter of daiya italian shreds, and we were in business. we specified NOT to use any of the old non-vegan soy cheese on our pizza, and they assured us that they would be using the vegan cheese from now on. for safety though, even at the weho zpizza, you should confirm that what you are getting on your pizza is indeed daiya.

make sure you get a receipt that says you are vegan, y'all!

large pizza with daiya cheese, mushroom, tomato, and chopped garlic. $19.48

after eating this for dinner, i can tell you that the marriage of zpizza and daiya is a fucking beautiful thing. zpizza has a 650 degree oven that melts the cheese like none other. the crust and sauce at zpizza have always been a favorite of mine, and the toppings are as fresh as they come. the fact that a national chain is offering vegan pizza this good is absolutely mind-blowing. it’s fast, it’s convenient, it’s consistent, and it’s VEGAN. seriously, i never thought i’d see the day!

after flipping out and doing a happy dance over my vegan pizza, i called the other local zpizza locations to see if they had the goods as well. larchmont village, burbank, woodland hills, and santa clarita are still serving non-vegan soy cheese for now…although most of the locations assured me that they would have the new vegan cheese next week. zpizza claims that all of their locations will be serving a 100% vegan option within the next 6-8 weeks. until then, head over to the weho location and ask them for some vegan pizza. you won’t be sorry.

zpizza
8869 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 360-1414

redwood foods recently purchased by heather mills

i’ve got some vegan news, y’all. heather mills now owns cheezly, and she’s bringing it to america. if you don’t know what cheezly is, it’s an amazing vegan cheese from the UK that did very well in our best vegan cheese challenge. if you don’t know who heather mills is, she used to be married to that pink-colored dude at the top of the page.

i got an email from redwood foods (the company behind cheezly and loads of other vegan goodies from across the pond) today that was just full of great news. check it out:

We’re the importers and distributors for Redwood Foods Cheezly from the UK and I often read your blog, etc. I think it’s probably one of the best there is. Thanks for all the hard work. Anyway, I just wanted to bring you up to date on the latest Cheezly developments. Firstly, Redwood Foods was just purchased by Heather Mills who is a committed vegan and a very dedicated animal rights activist. The original management team is still in place at Redwood and Heather will be a great ambassador for us and veganism in general. Secondly, we expect soon to be offering a new and improved shredded version of Cheezly here in the States. Thirdly, we plan soon to lower our suggested retail price for Cheezly to $5.99 and maybe a little lower. Lastly, we hope that it won’t now be too long before we start marketing other Redwood manufactured items in the US.

Please take a look at these links:
www.redwoodfoods.co.uk/news/
www.heathermills.org

so to recap, the bloody awesome news is: new and improved cheezly shreds are coming to the united states, AND the price of cheezly is being lowered!!! this is like a dream come true. we are really gonna have way too many tasty vegan cheeses to choose from.

so congratulations to redwood foods and heather mills on this new partnership. i think this means i’m gonna get to eat a lot more of this:

CHEEZLY! WOO HOO!

bring us the vegan goods, we are ready. my days of paying thousands of dollars on shipping or filling my luggage from london up with nothing but cheezly may be over.

vegan pizza lovers in los angeles, i have some AMAZING news for you. for the first time ever on the west coast, a local pizzeria is offering daiya as a vegan alternative to cheese on their pizzas. if you aren’t familiar with daiya, it’s a completely revolutionary product that melts AND stretches just like real cheese, i’ve tried it before and was completely blown away by how much it tasted like the real thing. starting today, at cruzer pizza in los feliz, you can order any pie with daiya cheese, and have a the pizza experience that you’ve been missing since turning vegan. you have gotta go try it asap, because i don’t see how dairy-free cheese this good could stay in supply very long.

i hit up cruzer pizza recently to sample their goods with fellow vegan blogger brittany from sick of lettuce. the two of us are known pizza addicts and huge cheese mourners, and both of us were blown away by what cruzer had to offer. in addition to melty-stretchy vegan cheese, cruzer is also serving up meat analogs such as pepperoni, canadian bacon, and sausage.

we tried out the wild mushroom pizza with sausage….

cruzer vegan sausage and mushroom pizza with fresh basil and daiya cheese

the margherita pizza with yellow & red tomatoes…

cruzer vegan margherita pizza with red and yellow tomatoes and daiya cheese

and the hawaiian pizza with bacon, pineapple and olives…

cruzer vegan hawaiian pizza with canadian bacon, pineapple, olives and daiya cheese

all of the pizzas were insanely delicious, and cruzer did a great job with the toppings. the vegetables were fresh, the mock meats were perfectly cooked & seasoned, but of course the real star was the oh-so-melty daiya cheese. it did stuff that i haven’t seen cheese do on a pizza since i was a vegetarian:

it stretched when we pulled the slices apart…

it even melted and fell off the pizza as we picked the slices up, but still managed to stay attached…

seriously, i’m not lying when i say this cheese changes everything. it gives a true pizza experience like i never dreamed possible. and how lucky are we to live so near to the very first place on the west coast to have daiya in stock?! dude! this fucking rules!

i also found out that the reason cruzer even started carrying vegan cheese is because of this outreach program called veg for life, a farm sanctuary campaign, that’s dedicated to getting more vegan options in restaurants. apparently they have been working with cruzer to develop these amazing, daiya covered pizzas, and will soon be adding even more vegan menu items including but not limited to spaghetti and “meat” balls, lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and calzones. i seriously can’t wait to see what they come up with. oh and it gets better…veg for life also convinced cruzer to remove veal from their menu entirely. out with the veal, in with the vegan! if you get your hands on one of the old menus, don’t be alarmed, the veal is no longer available.

i urge you to get over to cruzer and get this pizza the minute you get a chance. vegans everywhere are talking about daiya, and it’s barely available yet—almost no restaurants carry it and it sells out very quickly online. this stuff is in pretty high demand, so you should probably call cruzer before heading over, to make sure they still have daiya in stock. also, please note: cruzer pizza is pick up/take out and delivery- they only have a limited amount of seating for about 3-4 people.

here is a copy of the new vegan menu cruzer is offering, although the bbq chicken is not yet available:

cruzer pizza's vegan menu (click to enlarge_

seriously, let’s get out there and show this place support for offering such a wonderful vegan cheese alternative. they seem pretty open to adding more and more vegan options if this stuff does well, so let’s make sure IT DOES.

Cruzer Pizza
4449 Prospect Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 666-0600

i have been anticipating the release of daiya vegan cheese ever since the product made a splash at the natural products expo back in march. local vegan blogger jennshaggy was lucky enough to go, and she couldn’t stop raving about how wonderful/tasty/stretchy/perfect this new vegan cheese was. imagine how stoked i was to see daiya vegan cheese shreds for sale on pangea at just $5.49 per bag!

grilled cheese sandwich with daiya vegan cheese!

i ordered some up, invited over some friends, and put daiya vegan cheese to the test. i provided the cheddar flavor, fellow blogger vegyogini was kind enough to provide the mozzarella, and vegan blogger foodeater was also on hand to do some, well, foodeatin’! as you can see from the picture of the grilled cheese sandwich above, people are not lying when they say daiya stretches and melts. the cheddar cheese flavor was so FUCKING FANTASTIC…i shit you not, it actually tastes like cheese. did you hear that?!?!?! we have a vegan product that MELTS and STRETCHES and TASTES like actual CHEESE. is this a dream? everyone present agreed that this stuff was insane; we would send it back if we ever got this at a restaurant, it tasted too damn real. that’s all i gotta say. it tasted like cheese. what more description do you want?

pizza with daiya vegan cheese

we also tested out the vegan mozzarella shreds, which were great…but not quite as good as the cheddar. as you can see from the picture above, the daiya got kinda oily and the shape of the little shreds stayed intact. i’m actually beginning to think that the problem with the mozzarella is the way it was shredded. i am convinced this mozz would be damn near perfect if it was shred a little thicker.

the mozzarella still melted though, unlike a lot of vegan cheeses, and the texture was pretty convincing. i am gonna order it again for sure, and maybe make a mozzarella/cheddar grilled cheese combo. for more daiya bloggage, check out vegyogini’s two posts.

i can’t wait for daiya to be readily available. seriously, the vegan world is about to get flipped upside down. for now you can only order the stuff at pangea, but hopefully other places will have it soon as well. my advice is to buy more than one bag, unless you don’t mind paying shipping fees that cost 3x as much as the product. yikes. i suggest you get together with some friends and order a ton of it to save money.

DAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYA. that shit melts.