recently i’ve been freelancing in downtown los angeles, and one of the best things about it is my office’s close proximity to mendocino farms.

my vegan trip through india: housemade indian spiced chickpea and spinach patty with tamarind chutney, vegan cucumber mint raita, vegan crispy onions and baby spinach on ciabatta. $9.25

the specialty sandwich shop has three locations around LA and has long been one of our favorite spots in town, as they always offer at least two stellar vegan sandwich options and a plethora of vegan sides ranging from potato salad, vegetables, and greens to hearty soups and chili. i hit up the flower location yesterday armed with just my cell phone camera (sorry!) and tried out one of their spring specials, “my vegan trip through india”…

Read the rest of this entry »

i hate it when this happens. i mean, we have SO many great vegan-friendly eateries in LA. i’m talking about omnivorous restaurants that are willing to bend over backwards to give us plenty of options, restaurants that take the v-word seriously. unfortunately though, every once in a while (as we’ve seen before) a restaurant comes along and throws around the vegan word willy-nilly in order to make a profit, without knowing or caring what it means. i’m sad to say, that i think our previous favorite swingers is in that category.

Read the rest of this entry »

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…

Read the rest of this entry »

happy easter, vegan buddies! we may not eat dairy or believe in jesus but we’re still ALL about the easter treats. what better way to celebrate than with a bake sale for a good cause? head on over to locali today between 10am-3pm and buy some treats to help japan. it’s a win/win!

PLUS, if you time it right, you may be able to get your hands on some of the elusive vegan creme eggs from the fakery bakery…

Read the rest of this entry »

hey everyone, time for a recipe guest post! this one comes to us from the very talented janice whaley who lives in san jose and has achieved the massive undertaking of recording every single smiths songs using only her voice—no instruments. it’s pretty epic, so check out the smiths project when you have a chance, and pre-order the box set. but FIRST, she’s gonna teach us how to make a vegan bibimbop! here goes…

The other day I turned to my boyfriend and said, “ohhhh…. remember bibimbop?” I made it occasionally back in our carnivorous days. We used to frequent a place in San Francisco that made an amazing bibimbop and my version was basically an attempt to re-create what we ate at that restaurant. And now that we’re veg, I had to re-created it the dish again. Because life is no fun without bibimbop.

The fake meat in this dish is a dried soy product similar to TVP called “thit chay” and comes in many shapes and sizes. I go with the one that resembles slices of beef. You can also substitute wheat gluten sausages found in most Asian market in the tofu isle. They are the weird spongy grey-ish brown logs next to the fresh tofu, bamboo, etc (that I avoided for years because, what IS that stuff?!?!?) .

This recipe looks insane, but it’s really not so bad considering most all of this can be made in advance and then reheated when ready to plate. It’s impressive to look at and even more impressive to eat. Each of the side dishes work together to create an amazing flavor combination that is beyond description.

Read the rest of this entry »

jesus would definitely come back from the dead to eat this food—the easter sunday menus at madeleine bistro are looking INSANE.

not just that…but the restaurant is offering discount pricing on their weekly meal service, the bistro box. check it out…

Read the rest of this entry »

now here’s a vegan magazine i can get behind! T.O.F.U. is a small diy operation, and all of their issues are available as pay-what-you-can digital downloads. they’ve released a teaser of their upcoming 5th issue which you can download here, and it’s chock full of tempting recipes, activism and diy tips, reviews, and personal spotlights. oh, and all the pictures are gorgeous and totally vegan!

here’s a brief bit of history on the magazine from ryan, the dude who started it…

Read the rest of this entry »

and who said no good would come of all this? in the wake of vegan photogate, a new website called veganstockphoto.com has risen from the ashes. the official launch is tomorrow, and it’s gonna host pretty much exactly what you’d expect: vegan stock photos.

here's a picture of genuinely vegan waffles by "meet the wikos"

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Read the rest of this entry »

this post is dedicated to natalie portman, who lives in los angeles and recently gave up on veganism because she couldn’t find any vegan cookies.

i have put away truckloads of vegan cookies in my time (believe me!), but now that i’ve discovered ye olde tyme bake shoppe, i can say that i’ve found my favorite.

vegan chocolate chip cookies from ye olde tyme bake shoppe

the small los angeles based operation sells their treats both online and at some restaurants in the san fernando valley. whether you wanna place a mail order or drive to the 818, whatever you need to do to get your hands on these cookies, it’ll be worth it…

Read the rest of this entry »

hey everyone! coachella is officially over, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna shut up about the awesome vegan food that was available to festival goers last weekend. today we bring you our third and final field report from our 2011 coachella correspondent, the sexy vegan. he did a great job eating his way through the indio polo fields, and his food experiences alone have convinced me i need to hit up the fest next year. screw the lineup—i want curry!

Coachella – Day 3: Here it is…the last post of the festival. The post that really doesn’t do you any good, since you won’t be reading it until Coachella is over. But that’s ok…I’ve got
some poorly lit pictures to share with you. Yay!

Dinner happened late, so there was not ample light to get a good shot of my Indian combo plate. I’m not sure if it would’ve really been all that pretty anyway, but it does prove one thing…I’m definitely NOT using non-vegan stock photography.

This was the Indian combo plate from the only Indian stand at the festival. I was a little aprehensive about having Indian food in such an environment, as itt can go wrong in so many ways: in addition to the fact that you’re already sweating, and you don’t want to be burping up curry all day, it can also be too oily or too spicy, and cause multiple, unpleasant trips to the port-a-john tent.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Read the rest of this entry »

the moment we’ve been waiting for has arrived. after an unapologetic response to last week’s uproar, vegnews has finally changed their ways and offered an official apology…

Read the rest of this entry »

you don’t celebrate easter? neither do i, but that’s no reason not to stock up on some amazing treats before the holiday. i know you’ve probably already ordered the chicago soydairy tweets (a vegan version of peeps), but today i’m here to tell you about some local goodies from jam vegan bakery and half baked co. for those of you who live in los angeles.

Read the rest of this entry »

hey everyone! time for a vegan round up of coachella day #2 from the sexy vegan. this food looks amazing, so be sure to check it out if you are in the desert today. i don’t know what i’m more jealous of…the insane vegan cuisine or the bands!

Coachella – Day 2: Ahhh…started Saturday off rested and refreshed. Slept in…slept WAY in..all the way to 7:45! My aging bladder usually wakes me up at 6:15 so this really was a treat.

When lunchtime arrived, we ventured into the food/ferris wheel/giant steel praying mantis area, and weighed our options: Indian? It’s 100 degrees, I’m sweating enough, thank you…maybe when the sun goes down. Raw? I ate healthy yesterday, I’m looking to get down n’ dirty today. Stir fry over pad Thai noodles with egg roll? Now we’re talkin’! How ’bout some garlic fries to go along with that? Sounds like a match made in music festival heaven!

The Stir Fry: This all vegan stand was brought to us by The Egg Roll People. The stir fry was decent. It was served up from a steam table, and while the big hunks of broccoli were a bit over cooked, there’s really no need to hold it against them, since they certainly can’t be expected to stir fry veggies to order. The rice noodles were cooked right, the peanut sauce was tasty, and there were little fried tofu cubes tossed in. This was fairly solid.

The egg roll was, however, was the run-away winner on the plate. Browned and crispy with perfect cabbage that had a nice gingery kick. If you’re trying to sample everything, and your belly space is becoming prime real estate, skip the stir fry and get an order of egg rolls. They are the EGG ROLL PEOPLE after all.

Read the rest of this entry »