hey everyone, time for another festival field report. this one by jacquelyn drayton comes to us from stagecoach—you know, the big country music festival that happens every year in indio, CA. check it:

I travel A LOT for work, so a country music festival in the middle of the desert was the last place I thought I would be able to find anything remotely vegan. But like an angel that fell from heaven, Texifornia Tamale Company appeared. Thrilled that I wouldn’t have to dine on a warm apple and smushed vegan protein bar at the bottom of my purse for dinner for a second night in a row I hopped in line!

They had beef (blech) and two vegan options. The “Tamale dog” and vegan chili.

I opted for the tamale dog which is a faux sausage wrapped in a tamale smothered in vegan chili which set me back about 9 dollars. Not to bad for a place where a simple slice of pizza will cost you about the same…

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time to bust out the tissues, because this shit is getting real. on friday we blogged about a rumor on blogging LA that one of our favorite vegan restaurants, pure luck, would soon be closing. well now the writing….er, sign…is on the wall as pure luck has posted an official public notice of application for ownership change.

tweeted by @truelovehealth

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if you are looking for a restaurant in los angeles to celebrate a special occasion with a ton of pals, shojin is your place! the all vegan japanese spot has incredible food and a fancy vibe (despite being located on the top floor of a mall), plus they now serve alcohol. we hit up shojin over the weekend with a few friends to celebrate brittany’s birthday, and it was a blast. the beer was flowing and we got to try a slew of new menu items. party!

spicy rock shiitake tempura: tempura shiitake mushrooms with spicy wasabi mayonnaise. $6.95

because they are the best mushrooms on earth, we started with a few rounds of shojin’s spicy rock shiitake tempura appetizer. deep fried nuggets of goodness topped off with spicy mayo, we were popping this things like candy. seriously, we just kept ordering more rounds of mushrooms for the table because we couldn’t get enough.

maitake mushroom tempura: crispy maitake mushroom tempura served with yuzu citrus pepper sauce. $6.95

we also got an order of the maitake mushroom tempura, which i’d never had before. they tasted great, but they were super heavy in that deep-fried kinda way, so be warned.

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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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the all you can eat vegan buffet at savyon that takes place every sunday is going to raise its prices. that means tomorrow is the last day to get it for just $8.99. vegans apparently eat A LOT, so savyon is upping the price by 2 bucks, but they are also adding dessert to the buffet…so i guess it all evens out.

photo from mrkate.com!

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earlier today we blogged that madeleine bistro will be closing next month…and now sean bonner at blogging los angeles brings us the horrible news that pure luck, another one of our favorite restaurants, may be shuttering as well.

according to sean’s “legit” tip off, the restaurant will be closing in around a month and reopening as a wine bar. NOT COOL. we have had some petty complaints about pure luck in the past…but if the truth be told, they’re one of the best vegan restaurants around. they have amazing jackfruit that doubles as carnitas and pulled-pork, not to mention an amazing selection of craft beer.

PURE LUCK, PLEASE DON’T CLOSE. we love you. 🙁

i know it’s no surprise that celebrities can be super lame and fickle when it comes to animal rights, but this is just ridiculous.

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UPDATE 5/6/11: due to vegans going psycho, madeleine bistro has decided to move their closing day until may 22nd! take advantage, people. they are only open 3 days a week for 2 more weeks. make it count.

well, this is quite distressing. madeleine bistro, our favorite vegan restaurant in all the land, took to their facebook page at 3am to announce their closure. say it ain’t so!

in a note titled “madeleine bistro closing details”, they wrote…

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well, i’ve got some bad news and some good news. the bad news is, stone’s vegan pairing dinner is already SOLD OUT! wow, that was quick. good job, vegans! hopefully the interest will convince stone to hold another one asap. the good news is, there’s gonna be another vegan beer dinner in san diego that very week hosted by the folks at LOVELIKEBEER!

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there’s a new seitan in town, and we are completely smitten. upton’s naturals is a healthy vegan wheat meat that comes to us all the way from chicago in four amazing flavors. i honestly can’t get enough of it…and it’s so healthy that i can eat as much as i want. score!

i met up with the upton’s folks when they were in town a few weeks ago at vegan drinks, and they gave me some samples of their seitan to try. in addition to the stuff that’s already available in stores, they let me sample their food service products, which were absolutely unbelievable.

vegan pastrami and gyro sandwich made with upton's!

the first thing we did was make sandwiches using the food service pastrami-style and gyro deli meats…

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Dear oh dear! Looks like we stumbled upon yet ANOTHER piece of vegan drama. Earlier today we received an email from Amanda Graham that we thought was an honest attempt to inform us about a misunderstanding, or inaccuracy, about the original post accusing Swingers restaurants of being lax in the disclosure of the ingredients in their “vegan” dishes.

Our policy is to immediately remove any posts that accuse us of inaccuracy, investigate the background and then issue an update as soon as possible. As soon as we received the email, we took down this post, and here’s the result of our investigation:

You cannot trust Swingers.

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YES! fucking vegan tofu taquitos.

brand new vegan taquitos at mandoline grill

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looking for an excuse to be gluttonous and charitable at the same time?

the perfect indulgence

look no further than veggie grill on sunset this thursday…

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i can’t even believe it! the LA Vegan Beer Fest is less than 2 months away! advance tickets are on sale—do you have yours yet?! we are talking unlimited craft beer, access to several vegan food vendors and trucks, and live performances by awesome bands. plus the proceeds will be donated to ARME, one of our favorite charities! what’s not to love?

here is the vital info:

LA Vegan Beer Fest 2011 presented by Tony’s Darts Away, The Roxy and Quarrygirl
Saturday June 25th at The Roxy on Sunset
1pm – 5pm
Admission includes unlimited craft beer, vegan bands, food for sale from local vegan businesses and vegan food trucks!
Advance tickets on sale now!
General Admission $40
VIP Admission $50 (includes VIP lounge access and early entry at noon)
Non-Drinking $15
Proceeds from the event will be donated to ARME (Animal Rescue Media Education)
sorry, this event is 21 and over.

We will need some volunteers to work through the fest, help clean up, and then celebrate with us at an on-site after party. All volunteers will get a free LAVBF shirt and commemorative glass. Please email us if you’re interested in helping out!

check back for a list of breweries, food vendors and bands. we’re gonna have most of the same eats that were there last year, plus a few new surprises. were you there last year? it was epic. and this year is gonna be even better, so don’t miss it. we even have non-drinker tickets this year! so, no excuses.