hey everyone! the sexy vegan is on the ground at coachella, and he just sent us this awesome vegan field report! if you are in the desert this weekend, take note!

Coachella – Day 1: the first day of coahella is always a tough one…for me anyway. It’s a day of adjustmnet. Departing L.A. at 6 a.m. leaves me somewhat sleep deprived, the amount of direct sunlight my body sees in a week is octupled in one day, and my “trying not to step on sprawled out hipsters” reflex is a bit rusty. Not to mention, my first beer was at noon. Anyway, by dinner time, I needed some serious nutrition! I spotted this sign from like a mile away, and thought they deserved a try, if for no other reason than their advertising was very effective.

They had salads, fresh fruit, and a wrap with a choice of tofu or marinated tempeh. I didn’t feel like balancing a salad on my knee and fiddling with a fork, so I had to go with something hand-held. Alright let me be honest…I just didn’t want a friggin’ salad. Since I always like to see how people handle the tempeh, I went with the tempeh wrap. Enclosed in a soft lavash, were crisp, fresh greens, shredded carrots, and some very well prepared tempeh, tossed with a tasty peanut/ginger sauce.

Tempeh is a tricky thing. It’s got a bitter taste, and kind of an unpleasant texture when it’s fresh out of the package. It needs lots of love. The key is to steam it for at least 30-40 minutes before you do anything else. This softens it up and makes it very welcoming to any marinades you throw at it. This stand nailed it. The tempeh was tender and flavorful, and the whole thing was overall delicious. If you’re at Coachella and want something crisp and healthy, they are to the right of the Outdoor Stage, go eat there.

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.

vegans, rejoice! savyon cafe on pico has officially decided to offer their all you can eat vegan buffet every sunday from 11:30am to 4pm!

every sunday at lunchtime! all you an eat for $8.99!

from what i hear, this buffet is killer…

Read the rest of this entry »

did you guys know that april is “earth month”?! and more importantly, pizza fusion in hollywood is giving away free stuff to celebrate?!

details after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

hiya peeps! time for another edition of quick bites, a series of short reviews sent in by readers. this one covers sage vegan bistro in echo park and comes to us from my buddy patricia (who is also a bad ass massage therapist and yoga instructor). check it out:

on a relaxing night in echo park i was enjoying some beers at my favorite bar, 1642 (on temple). imagine my delight when i returned from the bathroom and my 3 omnivore friends had come up with the plan to have dinner at sage vegan bistro. although i have heard some mixed reviews and experiences about the restaurant i was incredibly curious to try it for myself.

the overwhelming response from the our group was “amazing!!!”

at 830 on a weekday evening the place was busy, but not packed. our food arrived quickly and still hot from the kitchen. the only detail that could have been improved was that our appetizer came at the same time as the food. however, we did not particularly mind. everything was so tasty we ended up dining family style and sharing all the plates.

trio of buffalo croquettes

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 4/18/11: VegNews has finally apologized and changed their policy!

UPDATE 4/15/11: Someone left an unsubstantiated comment claiming the burger image we used earlier was vegetarian. I’ve replaced the photo with another real beef burger, as seen on VegNews.com.

Do you like looking at pictures of meat? How about a juicy beef burger, covered in egg mayonnaise with cow fat dripping off? Perhaps some soft, meaty chunks of chicken breast in chicken stock and cream? What about a pork sausage, oozing in pig fat, fresh from the slaughterhouse? OK, let’s tone it down a little. Perhaps you like to look at egg mayonnaise potato salad, made with eggs from those poor battery hens that are dead basically from the moment they are born. How about creamy mac and cheese made with real cow’s milk, pulled painfully from their sore and tender udders, infused with antibiotics, pain and anguish?

If so, you can find all this in the nation’s premier print and online vegan magazine, VegNews. Surprised? Shocked? Read on…

real meat ribs have bones removed with photoshop to appear vegan

We’ve always been fans of VegNews, since back in the mid-2000s when we’d wait with bated breath for the US Mail to deliver our copy. We’d eagerly flip through, reading all about the latest veg stuff, salivating over the amazing pictures, trying out a vegan recipe, and maybe even discovering a restaurant in our home town through one of their reviews.

it’s sad, then, that the pictures we’ve been drooling over for years are actually of MEAT! Veg News has written tens (possibly hundreds) of articles extolling the virtues of a vegan lifestyle, while purchasing rock-bottom priced stock photos of MEAT, EGGS, DAIRY and other completely non-vegan things. You doubt this? See below:

stock photo of real meat ribs. a doctored photo of this appears on veg news.

We started searching for more examples of Veg News using meat photos next to “drool-worthy vegan recipes,” and the results were disturbing…

Read the rest of this entry »

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…

Read the rest of this entry »

sometimes it’s hard to be a vegan. no, not the “i’m a celebrity and i can’t find vegan cookies so i’m gonna start eating eggs” kind of hard, i’m talking about the “i’m stranded at my 9 to 5 and i’m too busy to take a lunch break” kind of hard. you know how it is—it’s a hellacious week, you’ve got no time to dine out, and you’ve eaten every last bag of pretzels from the office kitchen. enter bling bling dumpling.

the small los angeles based catering company delivers handmade dumplings full of local, organic ingredients straight to your home or office.

Read the rest of this entry »

who doesn’t love vegan cupcakes? who doesn’t love craft beer? well this saturday april 16th you can get a taste of both when we host this month’s vegan drinks celebration with c’est la v bakeshop at the surly goat in west hollywood. (please be sure to rsvp if you’d like to attend!)

midnight chocolate peanut butter cup

kim garr, the mastermind behind LA’s popular c’est la ve bakeshop, was recently a contestant on the food network’s cupcake wars. on saturday night, she’ll be selling the goodies she made on the show, plus all the flavors she would have made had she advanced to further rounds. it’s gonna be a vegan cupcake extravaganza! check out the flavors kim will have on hand for you to try (in addition to the midnight chocolate peanut butter cup pictured above).

click on each cupcake picture for a much more detailed description…

Read the rest of this entry »

When springtime hits LA, I find I want to be outside as much as possible. It’s perfect timing, then, that the vegan-friendly, inaugural colLAboration mobile craft beer garden event would be held today, one of the year’s first truly spring-like days. Warm sun, cool breezes off the Pacific and even cooler beers on tap combined to make the the event truly spectacular for all those who attended.

colLAboration is, er, a collaboration of four of LA’s top beer bar owners: Ryan Sweeney of Verdugo Bar and Surly Goat (which happens to be our local hangout), Brian Lenzo of Blue Palms Brewhouse, Clay Harding of 38° Ale House and Tony Yanow of Tony’s Darts Away and soon-to-be-open Mohawk Bend. Collectively, they bring decades of experience not only of beer, but how to create an atmosphere in which to enjoy it.

If you’ve ever been to any of the above establishments, you’ll know that these guys care about their beer and their bars, sparing no effort to make sure you have the best time possible. They’re also hands-on. I still think that watching Brian Lenzo tap a cask with such grace and expertise is something that should be required watching for all beer lovers!

So, appreciating all of their bars as much as we do, we were beside ourselves with anticipation to see what they could achieve together. And we were not disappointed…

Read the rest of this entry »

good news, vegans! luscious organics desserts, one of our favorite vegan bakeries, is now selling a selection of treats online.

Read the rest of this entry »

just when you thought onion rings couldn’t get any better, the sexy vegan is here to teach you how to make onion rings encrusted with vegan funyuns. sounds crazy, right? well this guy is a genius, so check out his guest blog post and video to learn how to make this insanely brilliant snack. oh, and follow him on twitter!

A ring is a helluva thing. It’s circular form has been recognized throughout this planet’s history as being a symbol of unity, infinity, life, and perfection. And that’s really very nice and all…but If you ask me, a circle can’t truly be perfect unless it’s a circle made out of onion…which then gets coated with a bunch of other, smaller, crushed-up circles, that taste like onions. What the hell am I talking about, you ask? You know those rings of pure joy, that a trader named Joe occasionally bestows upon us, known as “Baked Onion Rings?” Wait, what am I saying? You’re a loyal reader of quarrygirl.com, of course you do. Then you also know that they are both vegan and delicious. Well, they’ll be the coating for these oven baked beauties that I like to call: “Oven Baked Onion Ring Encrusted Oven Baked Onion Rings!” A more perfect circle, I could not imagine.

Read the rest of this entry »

continuing in our hot sauce series, here’s a little ditty by organicville.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE 4/8/11: the fakery bakery is no longer taking orders for vegan creme eggs or peanut butter cups. the response was overwhelming, and she can only make so many. she’s just one woman people, chill out! to the hundreds of you who ordered, enjoy your easter eggz!

to help out animals in japan, the fakery bakery has decided to re-open its doors and sell vegan creme eggs and peanut butter cups, just in time for zombie jesus day.

here are the details…

Read the rest of this entry »

have you been following this savyon cafe stuff?! two weeks ago, the pico restaurant introduced an all vegan sunday lunch buffet.

they debuted with an epic spread, but nobody showed up to eat it. they figured they should cease the buffet due to low attendance, but still decided to give it another go. this time, though, TOO MANY people showed up…and savyon ran out of food! it’s a shame, because apparently their cuisine is like insane, tasty, life-altering shit. check out the yelp reviews about the buffet—they make me feel like WE ALL NEED TO EAT THIS FOOD IN UNLIMITED PORTIONS….

Read the rest of this entry »