how does native foods continually manage to have the coolest facebook contests ever?! a couple months ago, they sent two fans of the restaurant to chicago (the winners found out about the contest from this blog, btw!), and now they’re picking 3 different winners to have a pre-thanksgiving meal for 7 cooked in their very own home by chef tanya herself.

eeeep! could you imagine having your friends over for a dinner cooked by THE chef tanya?! native foods will be picking a winner from southern california, chicago, and portland—so if you live in one of those areas, be sure to enter! here are the details on the contest:

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oh man, i really wish i was eligible to win my own contests! LA’s newest upscale vegan restaurant, seed bistro, is giving away a dinner for 2 at chef eric’s tasting table to one lucky quarrygirl commenter.

the prize includes a six course dinner prepared by chef eric on seed bistro’s opening night—monday, august 29th at 8pm. the value of the dinner is $60 per person, but seed will comp the winners up to $75 per person to include alcohol. that’s a $150 value! epic! please note that gratuity is not included…so if you win, tip and tip well.

the chef’s tasting table is a “sushi bar-esque” raised counter that only has room for 6 guests at any given time, so to occupy 1/3 of it on opening night would be quite an honor!

here’s how to enter…

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with 7 locations and counting, a commitment to house-made ingredients, an impressive bottled craft beer selection, and a rotating menu of ridiculously appetizing specials, it’s no wonder that native foods is our favorite fast-casual vegan restaurant in southern california.

well now it looks like midwesterners can get into the fun, because native foods is expanding to chicago with THREE locations opening up over the next few months…and the first one is scheduled for august 8th! to celebrate this joyous event, native foods is offering up a FREE TRIP TO CHICAGO for you and a friend with FREE FOOD, A FREE HOTEL ROOM, BONUS SPENDING $$$, and LOLLAPALOOZA TICKETS! all you gotta do is…

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hey everyone, i’ve got some pretty exciting news! starting next week (probably on wednesday), mooi in echo park will be offering 4 flavors of raw vegan pizza. the restaurant has featured pizza as a special before, and it was so popular that they decided to add it to the regular menu.

the best part about all this though, is that mooi wants YOU to come up with their newest pizza flavor. all you gotta do is leave a comment with the type of raw vegan pizza you’d like to see at the restaurant. the winner will get a complimentary dinner for two at mooi, as well as their pizza choice added to the menu! neato, huh?

but first, let me tell you about the fantastic pizzas mooi is gonna start carrying next week. i got a sneak peak at these babies and i was completely blown away.

margherita: sweet chunky marinara, olive oil, macadamia mozzarella, fesh basil leaves & sliced tomato.

the margherita was my favorite—simple flavors, but perfectly executed. it came with chunky marinara, oilve oil, macadamia mozzarella, fresh basil, and sliced tomato. i gotta admit, i am a huge fan of cooked pizza, and this thing still won me over big time. the “bread” crust was ridiculously convincing, and the macadamia cheese was TO DIE FOR. i am really beginning to think nut-based cheese is the best tasting vegan cheese there is. i was seriously shocked by how good this pizza was, maybe it’s because i didn’t know quite what to expect.

hawaiian style: BBQ sauce, eggplant bacon, carmelized onions & pineapple.

next up, i tried the hawaiian style pizza with bbq sauce, eggplant bacon, caramelized onions, and pineapple. i am usually not a fan of this pizza flavor, but i quite enjoyed the raw version. the insanely delicious eggplant bacon and onions are what did it for me. that bacon is just ridiculous. this pizza was pretty crunchy with a great texture, and a wonderful combination of salty and sweet flavors.

red pepper and sundried tomato: red pepper and sundried tomato sauce, anise & fennel italian walnut sausage, macadamia cheese & kalamata olives.

there was also a red pepper and sundried tomato pizza, with anise and fennel italian walnut sausage, macadamia cheese, and kalamata olives. honestly, i didn’t even try this one because i hate bell peppers. it sure was pretty though, and i tasted a bit of the walnut sausage, which was excellent.

lemon basil pesto and garlic aioli: lemon basil pesto sauce, garlic aioli, mixed greens (mustard, kale), fresh basil leaves & marinated shiitake mushrooms.

lastly, there was the lemon basil pesto and garlic aioli pizza—a basil garlic sauce topped with mixed greens, basil leaves, and marinated shiitake mushrooms. like the others, this pizza was extremely tasty. nice fresh ingredients with a rich pesto sauce…what’s not to like?!

now that you’ve seen and heard about all these pizzas, you gotta get over to mooi next week and try them. even if raw pizza sounds a bit strange to you, i think these will knock your socks off. i have tried a couple different raw pizzas before, and these are definitely the BEST, and the only ones that come close to resembling “the real thing.” the crust really tastes like crust, the cheese really tastes like cheese, etc. seriously, i fell in love with just one bite.

oh, now about that contest. you wanna make up your own pizza flavor and win a dinner for two at mooi?!?! details after the jump.

CONTEST —> —–> —–>

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UPDATE 05/15/2010: WE HAVE A WINNER!!! hey everyone, the winner of the vegan ice cream contest is “ttt” with a creation called “cracker jack”: salted caramel ice cream with peanuts and/or peanut butter swirl!

mooi is gonna crank out this ice cream in the near future, and it will be on the cafe’s menu when they open. ttt, congratulations! email me for your prize!

runners up included chick-o and the man(go) by LCMom, cop’s breakfast by Liz, standing avoation by Emily, and birthday cake ice cream by Veggywood.

FREE VEGAN ICE CREAM BY MOOI! enter to win! i’ve had a lot of great contests on this blog, but this has got to be my favorite! instead of just winning a 32 oz container of ice cream, you have the chance to create your very own flavor that will appear on the mooi restaurant menu!

orange cream with peppermint fudge ice cream

in case you haven’t heard of mooi, it’s this amazing raw/vegan restaurant that’s about to open up in echo park. their ice cream is already available at naturemart in silverlake, and it’s seriously some of tastiest, most inventive dessert food i’ve ever eaten.

here’s what you need to do to win:

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UPDATE 5/21/10: sadly, coral tree cafe no longer offers the winning vegan panini. 🙁 chef chloe is still taking los angeles by storm though, so check out her website for updates!

Chloe's Mango Masala Panini: spiced chickpea masala, roasted cauliflower curry, tamarind mango chutney.

hey everyone, i’ve got some great news! recently coral tree cafe in brentwood held a contest amongst locals to see who could make the best panini…and while lots of meat-filled sandwiches were entered, it was a vegan panini that won first prize. not just that…but 22 year old chloe coscarelli, the winning chef, actually heard about the contest from my tweet! how awesome, right?!

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hey everyone, today we have a winner for last week’s cupcake giveaway from vegan bake sale! thanks to everyone who participated, you guys all came up with some delicious flavors. we used random.org to generate a random number and choose the winner…and out of 166 commenters, it selected #34.

that means the winner is…nadia! yay! here is nadia’s original comment:

so there you have it! congratulations nadia, you are the proud winner of 1 dozen cruelty-free delicious cupcakes from vegan bake sale. we will email you today and discuss how you can collect your prize.

for those of you who didn’t win, i highly suggest you put in an order of your favorite flavor with vegan bake sale anyway. i can say without a doubt these are the fluffiest, tastiest cupcakes i’ve ever eaten. so don’t miss out, we can all be winners here.

update: we have a winner for the vegan cupcakes! yaya! thanks to vegan bake sale for doing such a wonderful giveaway!

FREE. VEGAN. CUPCAKES. do i have your attention?

that’s right, you have a chance to win a whole box of delicious cruelty-free cupcakes. and these aren’t just any old vegan cupcakes—these are rich, decadent, sinful-tasting cupcakes made by vegan bake sale. alix, the mastermind behind the los angeles-based baking company, has been kind enough to offer quarrygirl.com readers the chance to to win one dozen cupcakes by commenting on this blog post.

this is quite an amazing gift, because i have eaten loads of vegan bake sale cupcakes…and there is nothing vegan-tasting about them. as alix says on her blog, “These aren’t the healthy, crunchy, cardboard vegan desserts you find at health food stores, they’re the decadent, delicious treats that could fool any non-vegan.” And, she’s right. I have fed her desserts to unsuspecting omnivores, who gave them tons of praise without even knowing they were vegan. heh heh heh.

here’s what you need to do for a chance to win some of these lovely cupcakes:
1.) you must comment on this blog post with your favorite cupcake flavor.
2.) you must leave your real, valid email address when you submit your comment. (the public won’t see this, just me…so i can contact you if you win!)
3.) you must be in los angeles.

that’s it. super easy. the winner will be picked at random and announced on the morning of tuesday, september 22. they will receive one dozen free cupcakes from vegan bake sale, hopefully of their dream flavor. if you need some help thinking of your favorite flavor, check out vegan bake sale’s menu.

i’ve tried several of vegan bake sale’s cupcakes, and while i love them all, the one that haunts my dreams the most is pumpkin spice. the creamy spiced frosting atop moist fluffy cake invokes such warm fuzzy feelings of autumn—this one would be my first choice.

vegan bake sale pumpkin spice cupcake

and to those of you who don’t win, please don’t let that stop you from trying out some of vegan bake sale’s cupcakes anyway! they are some of the best vegan cupcakes around, and you won’t be sorry. plus, they are so damn pretty.

for more info, check out:
theveganbakesale.com
@veganbakesale on twitter

now get commenting! THERE ARE CUPCAKES TO BE WON!

WIN A BOX OF CUPCAKES! COMMENT NOW!