• October 10th, 2011quarrygirlEVO kitchen, LA restaurants

    so exciting! los angeles has a new super vegan-friendly restaurant with a huge menu full of specialty pizzas, salads, wraps, inventive appetizers, wine and craft beer. EVO kitchen opened up its doors last week in the old hollywood/weho pizza fusion location, and we’re already huge fans. it focuses on organic, locally sourced ingredients, and is family owned by the same folks who ran the previous restaurant. with the re-branding, the menu still includes our favorite items (what up, beer floats and wraps!) plus it has grown to include even more vegan (and gluten-free if you care about that) options, and the food is even better than before.

    we hit up EVO for a slap up feast this weekend, and sampled as many vegan dishes as we could. we still didn’t get through half of them though—i guess that means another visit is in order! check out what we ate:

    vegan garlic cheese bread with marinara dip. $4.99

    we started off with a slew of appetizers, the first of which was the vegan garlic cheese bread. as with all vegan cheesy items at EVO kitchen, this came with a choice of soy cheese (follow your heart) or daiya. we opted for the soy cheese in this case, and the daiya cheese for other dishes (more on those later!). the cheese bread was phenomenal—crispy and pipin’ hot, dusted with herbs, and served with a pot of tangy marinara.

    mini vegan bbq burgers: portobello mushroom with vegan soy or daiya cheese, roasted red onion and bbq sauce. $6.99

    next up, one of my favorite dishes of the evening: the vegan mini bbq burgers. SLIDERS…

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  • August 31st, 2011quarrygirlpoll, vegan cheese

    what’s the best vegan cheese in america? you tell me. i go back and forth on this quite a bit. daiya was my favorite for awhile, and then the new stretchy teese came out. at first i wasn’t a fan of follow your heart, but hard times pizza completely changed my mind. i can’t decide! what do YOU think? vote below and let us know.

    [poll id=”3″]

    feel free to elaborate on your decision in the comments section!

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  • January 30th, 2011quarrygirlvegan cheese, vegan events

    whew! yesterday was the first annual vegan pizza day, and it was insanely fun. people all over the world were eating loads and having a great time…all in the name of our favorite food: vegan pizza. huge thanks to teese vegan cheese by chicago soydairy for sponsoring this event with us. i know that everyone is already looking forward to next year.

    check out the official vegan pizza day facebook page for a huge pool of mouthwatering fan photos, and be sure to upload your own. here are the pictures that readers sent in to us. if you’d like to have yours posted on the blog, shoot us an email. beware, graphic vegan pizza photos to follow. you’ll wanna be sitting down for this.

    Read the rest of this entry »

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  • January 4th, 2011quarrygirlfollow your heart, LA restaurants

    i really do love follow your heart. the all vegetarian cafe and market has been around since 1970 and offers some of the best food and hardest to find groceries in los angeles. my biggest complaint about follow your heart is that it’s located too far away from my house, so i don’t get to go there enough!

    the cafe can be uncomfortably busy on weekends (i understand why, it’s because the food is so good!), but on weekdays it’s much more pleasant. i checked it out recently on a monday morning at around 11am with my mom, and we had almost the entire place to ourselves…

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  • January 22nd, 2010quarrygirlLA restaurants, pizza fusion

    just a few days ago, we were lamenting that there’s not enough vegan-friendly eat-in pizzerias, where one can relax with a bottle of red wine and a tasty pizza in a comfy dimly-lit environment. well, pizza fusion hollywood has come to the rescue.

    pizza fusion hollywood has been open for a while, but up until yesterday the only vegan cheese they offered was follow your heart. after being spoiled by the countless places to get daiya in LA, i vowed to never eat FYH again…and even wrote an open letter to pizza fusion hollywood begging them to carry daiya. earlier this week, they sent me an email saying they would finally be introducing daiya to their menu (in addition to FYH), and inviting me over for a pizza tasting. of course my reply was, hell yes!

    i hit up pizza fusion hollywood along with brittany from sick of lettuce, to try out their daiya-covered pizzas, and i must say the whole experience was pretty wonderful. when i arrived i was floored by how inviting and cozy the restaurant was. i’d been to pizza fusion in santa monica before, but the hollywood location is much more my style. it’s smaller and more intimate, but with a pretty big bar, and cute tables looking out on sunset blvd. our server was extremely friendly and brought us a drink list with all the vegan options clearly marked.

    we ordered a glass of beer and wine and spent a while poring over the menu, deciding what we could veganize. ahhh, this is so the pizza experience i have been looking for! tap beer, wine, and all the time in the world to just hang out and chill.

    we started out with the flatbread and dip trio appetizer, which is not vegan by default, but can be made animal-free by omitting the artichoke spread and olive tapenade.

    flatbread and dip veganized: served with marinara and olive oil.

    they brought it out with extra marinara sauce and olive oil for dipping, and the whole thing was downright delicious. the portion was huge, but we had no problem polishing off every last triangle. the bread was moist and covered in delicate seasonings, and the sauce was rich and flavorful.

    very vegan: crimini mushrooms, roasted garlic, tomato sauce, and daiya cheese.

    the first pizza we tried was the only one that is vegan by default: the very vegan. it came with mushrooms, garlic, tomato sauce and daiya cheese. i’ve had this pizza before with follow your heart, and i must say this was a huge improvement! they didn’t put too much cheese on the pizza, but rather just the right amount, so it wasn’t overly gooey. mushrooms and garlic are pretty much my two favorite pizza toppings anyway, so this was right up my street.

    vegan bbq chicken pizza: bbq sauce, roasted red onion, fresh garlic, basil, daiya cheese.

    the next pizza we tried was the bbq chicken pizza, with daiya and vegan chicken strips. this thing was awesome, and the faux chicken was soft and chewy. it was pretty light and healthy tasting too, again pizza fusion didn’t overload the thing with cheese and soy meat. sweet and tangy with a kick of garlic, this pizza was perfect.

    farmer's market vegan: roasted artichoke hearts, red onion, zucchini, roasted portobello, tomato sauce, and daiya.

    the last pizza we sampled was a vegan version of the farmer’s market, a pie loaded with roasted vegetables. pizza fusion did not skimp on the toppings one bit; there were huge chunks of everything from portobello mushrooms to zucchini to artichokes. while we chose the white crust option for the first two pizzas, we got this one with multigrain crust. i’m not gonna lie, i like the white crust better, but the multigrain one was pretty good as well.

    just when i thought i was gonna explode, they brought out some brownies and ice cream for us to try as well. the brownie was vegan and gluten free, and while i’m used to more decadent desserts, it was definitely great for a GF item. i’d had a pizza fusion brownie before at the santa monica location, and this one was much better and softer on the inside. the real star of the dessert plate though, was the vegan strawberry ice cream. completely rich and insanely delicious.

    overall, our experience at pizza fusion hollywood was lovely and i can’t wait to return. the food was good, the vibe was chill, the staff was nice, and the beer was on tap. plus the place is really easy to get to, close to my house, and validates parking for up to an hour. for convenience and atmosphere, pizza fusion hollywood has everywhere else in town beat.

    so check this place out when you have a chance. get some vegan pizza and take your pick of either daiya or follow your heart. isn’t it great to have all these options?

    pizza fusion hollywood
    7950 W. Sunset Blvd.
    Suite 104
    Los Angeles, CA 90046
    Phone: 323-375-3390

    Sun–Thur 11am – 10pm
    Fri–Saturday 11am – 11pm

    PS: the pizza fusion in santa monica also carries both daiya and follow your heart. yay!

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  • July 20th, 2009quarrygirlhugo's restaurant, LA restaurants

    hugo’s restaurant is a great little los angeles eatery that caters to both herbivores and omnivores alike. they have 2 locations, one in studio city and one in west hollywood. their menu is extremely vegan-friendly, with so many options i could never possibly try them all. plus they have a cool little easy-to-read legend on the menu that lets you know which stuff is safe to eat. ▼means the item is vegan, while (▼) means the item can be made vegan. simple. how rad would it be if everywhere gave us this much support?!

    vegan breakfast burrito with scrambled tofu, vegan cheese, and breakfast potatoes. $11

    vegan breakfast burrito with scrambled tofu, vegan cheese, and breakfast potatoes. $11

    my most recent meal at hugo’s was a veganized breakfast burrito stuffed tight with tofu, vegan cheese and tomatoes with a heaping side of breakfast potatoes. i was kinda nervous about the vegan cheese, after finding that so many restaurants may lie and mislabel their cheese. fortunately when the waiter brought out the burrito, i instantly recognized the unmelted mass covering my entree.

    hugos-fyh-cu

    that’s right, i confirmed it was follow your heart brand vegan gourmet. even with daiya and teese available, it seems that most restaurants resort to this boring stuff. ok, so it doesn’t melt and it’s not very good….but at least it’s vegan and it’s better than no cheese. i actually quite enjoyed it on the hugo’s breakfast burrito.

    inside the burrito, was some extremely tasty tofu with a texture that can’t be beat. thick firm slabs, but still kind of scrambly…if that makes any sense. i loved it. even with the unmelty follow your heart cheese, this breakfast was on point!

    hugos-burrito-inside

    my only qualm with this meal is that it was a little pricey. $11 for a breakfast burrito and some potatoes is pretty steep…but what the hell, this is a trendy location in weho and the food was damn delicious.

    vegans, go to hugo’s. and if you have to stoop so low as to hang out with omnivores (yugghghghghhghggh!), this would be a great place to take them. just be sure to avoid the french fries. i hear they aren’t vegan. just be sure to grill your waiter about all the extras when you order a vegan-optional dish.

    it seems like every time i go to hugo’s, it’s for breakfast. i need to hit them up for lunch or dinner soon because the menus look amazing. to be continued….

    hugo’s restaurant
    8401 Santa Monica Blvd.
    West Hollywood, CA 90069
    (323) 654-3993

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  • July 7th, 2009quarrygirlLA restaurants, pizza fusion
    very vegan: crimini mushrooms, roasted garlic, tomato sauce and soy cheese. $16.99

    very vegan: crimini mushrooms, roasted garlic, tomato sauce and soy cheese. $16.99

    there’s been a lot of vegan-friendly places popping up around los angeles lately, and one of the most recent is the “organic” and self-proclaimed “eco-friendly” pizza fusion in santa monica. the green pizzeria offers both vegan and gluten-free crust options (although the two are mutually exclusive), along with vegan cheese supplied by follow your heart. while an environmentally-conscious pizza place with clearly marked vegan options is undeniably a major score, i can’t help but wonder what it would have felt like had pizza fusion arrived on the scene a year ago.

    lemme take you back. in july of 2008 we were just coming off the fact that zpizza’s soy cheese was not vegan. the only place to get a huge vegan take-out pie was at damiano mr. pizza pizza on fairfax. although it wasn’t ideal, we lived with damiano for 6 more months until something magical happened—purgatory pizza in boyle heights announced that they would be rolling out their popular nyc style pizzas with vegan cheese. but not just that follow your heart stuff, no, purgatory were first to offer the best vegan cheese available stateside at the time, teese cheese from chicago soy dairy. and it’s on that day—february 1, 2009—that vegan pizza in LA was forever changed. companies started to realize that vegans wanted pizza more than anything, and we didn’t just want this old, un-melted follow your heart crap. the next pizzeria to have satisfactory vegan offerings was lucifer’s pizza in los feliz. they first offered a falsely advertised non-vegan soy cheese, but after coming under some fire, they changed their tune and started serving up huge thin and crispy pies with teese as well.

    then along came daiya…i’m sure you have heard all about it by now. daiya is a stretchy, tasty, melty vegan product that behaves almost exactly like real cheese. i’d go as far as to call it game changing. it hit the blogosphere first, then showed up at the online vegan store pangea available for personal order. just when it was beginning to make a major splash nearing the end of may, one LA pizza place got their hands on daiya and completely raised the bar. cruzer pizza, with locations in los feliz and glendale, started using the new stretchy cheese, along with an arsenal of fake meats and pasta dishes.

    in less than 2 months, vegan pizza in LA went from hard to find to readily available. within a short period of time, purgatory also adopted daiya cheese and even several local whole foods began selling daiya covered pizzas at a very low price. wow. it used to be bloody impossible to get animal-free pizza in los angeles, and then all of a sudden amazing, stretchy, revolutionary vegan cheese was available as close as the nearest whole foods. epic.

    oh, and then came pizza fusion. a chain started in 2006, pizza fusion is an eatery dedicated to being fashionably green. they deliver pizzas in hybrid prius vehicles, boast that all their ingredients are organic, and have token vegan menu items including a pizza covered in follow your heart cheese, as well as a gluten-free brownie.

    pizza-fusion-vegan-cu

    let’s start with the vegan pizza. i can’t even tell you how stoked i would have been about this pie in july of 2008. a decent pizzeria with cruelty-free options was basically unheard of back then. i would have eaten at pizza fusion everyday! but one year later, what with the introduction of vegan new york pizza with teese, and now with this amazing daiya cheese product…i find it kinda difficult to get stoked on a thin crust organic pizza with follow your heart, aka vegan cheese 1.0.

    sorry dudes, pizza fusion is decent, don’t get me wrong. if i were in sanmo i would probably hit up this place frequently, i just feel that LA has much better options now. i’m so stoked that this is a chain serving vegan pizza, but until they step up the quality of the sauce, crust, and vegan cheese…why not just go to your local daiya-serving whole foods location, which is bound to be way cheaper than pizza fusion. oh and on a side note, the staff were also pretty unknowledgeable about the vegan-ness of the food. it took us about 10 minutes of back and forth with the waiter to determine whether or not the crust was vegan…and we found out the gluten-free crust is not, but the normal crust is. gah, it was too much confusion for me to handle!

    although it wasn’t as good as the stuff we get at purgatory, cruzer, or even whole foods, our pizza from pizza fusion was definitely edible…which is more than i can say for the brownie. with a hungry stomach, i ordered the vegan and gluten-free treat that the menu describes as “delicious”. i hate to say it, but i took one bite of pizza fusion’s brownie and didn’t even want to bring it home. marginally tasty, it reminded me of diet food. perhaps i am just too spoiled with so many talented vegan bakers living in los angeles, but this stuff just tasted like a gym snack.

    fresh homemade vegan brownie. $4.99

    fresh homemade vegan brownie. $4.99

    so pizza fusion, is it worth your time? maybe. however my opinion is that it’s too little too late. if they wanted to show up on the los angeles scene with an all vegan, organic, follow your heart cheese option, maybe they should have arrived before i was spoiled with cruzer, purgatory, teese, and daiya.

    to put it as nicely as possible: if i was a new vegan, pizza fusion might impress the fuck out of me. but now, i simply know better.

    you should still go and check pizza fusion out…because, they have vegan stuff, eco-friendly containers, and prius cars. they also have tons of literature boasing about free-range meat. i hate to see places preaching about the environment while at the same time bragging that they ‘humanely’ murder animals. this place could be serving everything in styrofoam containers, and it would be doing a better service to the planet than selling animal flesh. they just don’t get it. ah well.

    so santa monica residents, this is a great place to visit when you can’t make it further east to cruzer, purgatory, or….when whole foods is closed.

    pizza-fusion-ext

    pizza fusion
    2901 Ocean Park Blvd
    Santa Monica, CA 90405-2919
    (310) 581-2901

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  • April 28th, 2009quarrygirlfollow your heart, LA restaurants

    just a quick post to let los angeles vegans know, you can’t order a vegan burger at follow your heart. i know that seems kind of weird…after all, the entire cafe is vegetarian and there are vegan substitutes for almost everything. the patties are vegan, they come with vegenaise, and there are two vegan cheese options…it’s the buns that hold the burgers back because they contain honey.

    follow your heart burger. $8.95 (everything is vegan but the bun)

    follow your heart burger. $8.95 (everything is vegan but the bun)

    i’ve ordered the ‘vegan’ burger at follow your heart several times, never thinking to question the bun until i heard from a friend that they weren’t vegan. i called follow your heart’s cafe yesterday and they confirmed: all the buns contain honey, but you can order any of the burgers on vegan bread. apparently the rolls that come with the soup are also not vegan, even though the menu specifies they are “non-dairy.” usually to me, at vegetarian cafe, i would take non-dairy as meaning it’s vegan…i guess you can never be too sure.

    i wanna point out this isn’t like a huge deal or anything, they aren’t sneaking casein into the vegan cheese or whey into the mock meat; but still, to most of the vegans i know (myself included) honey isn’t something acceptable to eat, so it’s kinda a bummer we can’t get a vegan burger at follow your heart.

    this isn’t gonna stop me though, those burgers are so damn good i will have to try them out on normal bread. here’s to hoping someday follow your heart will carry a bun that is 100% vegan. it never hurts to ask, right?

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  • April 10th, 2009quarrygirlcafe muse, LA restaurants

    i’ve got some good news for y’all los angeles vegans: cafe muse in hollywood is now offering soy cheese! woo! if you’ve never been to cafe muse before, you should definitely check it out. the modest little coffee shop/restaurant serves up an almost entirely vegetarian menu and has loads of vegan offerings. they help you identify the vegan items on the menu by putting a little star * next to all the stuff that contains dairy. well now, vegans can eat most of the starred menu items as well, by substituting vegan soy cheese for normal cheese. that’s right…the pizza, quesadilla, nachos and chili cheese fries are no longer off limits!

    cafe-muse-grilled-cheese

    i celebrated yesterday by hitting up cafe muse and ordering a vegan grilled cheese sandwich. they use follow your heart for the vegan cheese, and as you can see they don’t have the melting technique quite down yet. while the grilled cheese sandwich was decent and i appreciated the fact it had both mozzarella and cheddar inside it, the fake cheese was just a little clumpy for my taste. i wish cafe muse would start carrying teese from chicago soy dairy, because i’m pretty sure that’s the best vegan cheese that’s readily available here in los angeles. oh well.

    not your mama's grilled cheese (vegan-style): made with two types of vegan soy cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. $7.95

    not your mama's grilled cheese (vegan-style): made with two types of vegan soy cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. $7.95

    despite being called a grilled cheese sandwich, which sounds really decadent, this meal was pretty light and healthy-tasting. there wasn’t much cheese on the sandwich, and the whole thing tasted toasted…not grilled in a butter substitute or anything like that. it came stuffed with little sun dried tomatoes which gave it a slightly sweet and tasty flavor. i was expecting the sandwich to be much more unhealthy, so i got it with a side salad instead of sweet potato fries. all together, it was a pretty good meal….albeit expensive at 8 bucks.

    i don’t think i will order this sandwich again, although i definitely want to test drive the vegan cheese on the nachos and pizza. i will let you know how that turns out. in the mean time, if you want a healthy meal that will not disappoint, grab one of cafe muse’s make your own salads. for under ten bucks you can get a f-ing HUGE bowl of salad with any fixins you desire. my favorite combo is the grilled garlic-soy tofu with vegan ranch, although they also offer four varieties of soy chicken as well. you can’t go wrong.

    make your own healthy salad with tomatoes, mushroms, onions and added tofu. $9.50

    make your own healthy salad with tomatoes, mushroms, onions and added tofu. $9.50

    so check out cafe muse if you haven’t already, and support their decision to carry vegan cheese. maybe it will be more melty on the other menu items.

    cafe muse
    6547 Santa Monica Blvd
    Hollywood, CA 90038
    323-464-6873

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  • January 12th, 2009quarrygirlpizza, recipes

    UPDATED 2011: since the time of this post, a new revolutionary vegan cheese called daiya has come along. it melts and stretches like real cheese, and is available at whole foods and ralphs. you can read our review of it here. also, teese has come out with a new and improved version of their product that is vastly superior to the one below. lastly, cheezly is no longer available in the united states. so as it stands today, 2 years later, cheezly is still the best tasting vegan cheese, but daiya and teese are close behind and are pretty easy to find.

    PIZZA!! it’s the one thing i really miss as a vegan. i fantasize about one day in my future, when nondairy cheese is just as convincing as vegan ice cream—when the soy stuff tastes and feels like the real thing. until then, i am constantly looking for the best solution, even if that means ordering several vegan cheeses online and pitting them against each other in the ultimate pizza challenge. …so here it goes!

    sheese, teese, cheezly, and follow your heart. which vegan cheese will prevail?

    sheese, teese, cheezly, and follow your heart. which vegan cheese will prevail?

    we took all the top retail vegan cheeses and they faced off in the ultimate pizza contest. the contenders consisted of all the top competitors: follow your heart, sheese, cheezly and teese. we ordered them all online at veganessentials.com and used them all on a standard, basic, homemade pizza crust.

    let’s start off by defining the rating system. we will determine the absolute best of these cheeses by evaluating them based upon 5 very simple qualifications: taste uncooked, taste cooked, meltyness, value, and availability. the scale is on a 1 – 5 scale, 5 being the best of the best of the best.

    1.) teese
    http://www.teesecheese.com/

    from the ordering website: “Teese is the exciting new vegan cheese made by the Chicago Soydairy, makers of the popular Temptation brand vegan ice cream. Teese is the first dairy-free and casein-free cheese that melts and tastes like a real dairy cheese. Teese is crafted through a proprietary process by certified “Teesemakers” to taste just like artisanal cheese. Teese promises to deliver the taste and melt non-dairy connoisseurs have sought for years”

    teese pizza

    teese pizza

    taste uncooked: the taste raw is definitely sour. cheese-like, but weird, wet and waxy. 3 out of 5

    taste cooked: pretty close to real cheese, i’ll take it! 4 out of 5

    meltyness: teese’s melt factor was insane! we threw this pizza in the oven, and when it came out, the cheese on top was a pinkish SOUP. i have tried a few times subsequently, and it seems that teese cheese always turns into pink mush. i found if you let it cool for about 10 minutes, the pink teese soup turns into a decent edible pizza cheese, thus ultimately warranting a 3 out of 5

    teese melty-ness

    teese melty-ness

    value: teese is $7.49 for 16 oz, that works out to $0.47/oz. 4 out of 5

    availability: not sold in my area, but always available online. 4 out of 5

    2.) sheese
    http://www.buteisland.com/

    from the ordering website: “imported from Scotland, Sheese is a delicious alternative to dairy-based cheese that’s firm in texture and is by far the best eat-straight-from-the-package vegan cheese we’ve ever tried. It can also be used in many recipes, too – it takes a bit longer to melt than other vegan cheeses due to the firmness, but it works extremely well in just about any recipe you use.”

    sheese pizza

    sheese pizza

    taste uncooked: oddly enough, this stuff grated beautifully, but it tasted like ice cream! there wasn’t a sour raw flavor to it, instead something oddly vanilla or cake-like. 3 out of 5

    taste cooked: when cooked, the vanilla taste of sheese was not so prominent. it was still a tad to sugary, but had definite hints of mozzarella. 4 out of 5

    melty-ness: sheese just straight up refuses to melt. you can see, the grated shreds just sit there, after 45 minutes in the oven, totally refusing to budge. 1 out of 5

    sheese melty-ness

    sheese melty-ness

    value: sheese typically costs 8.69 for an 8 oz package—this equates to $1.08/oz. 2 out of 5

    availability: while sheese isn’t available at your typical whole foods, it’s pretty easy to find. grab it online at veganessentials or one of the many vegan specialty internet grocers. 4 out of 5

    3.) follow your heart vegan gourmet
    http://www.imearthkind.com/

    from the ordering website: “Hailed as the best American-made vegan cheese, Vegan Gourmet melts beautifully and has a delicious, authentic cheese flavor. Perfect for topping pizzas, pastas, Mexican dishes, or shredded plain in salads!”

    follow your heart vegan gourmet pizza

    follow your heart vegan gourmet pizza

    taste uncooked: edible but not great. the shreds were wet and waxy and a slight taste of chemicals…WTF. 2 out of 5

    taste cooked: when on homemade pizza, follow your heart still has a strange taste. while not as prominent as when raw, there is a definitely chemical flavor. 3 out of 5.

    meltyness: follow your heart cheese melts sometimes; and in my experience, even after a round in the oven, it needs some microwave love to get it melted. plus, it started falling off the pizza in big clumps. 3 out of 5

    follow your heart melty-ness

    follow your heart melty-ness

    value: vegan gourmet does very well in this category—it seems that follow your heart is basically giving this shit away! a mere $4.69 for a 10 oz package puts it at a shocking $0.47/oz! 4 out of 5

    availability: finally, follow your heart’s reach is just as impressive as its price tag. i find this shit in basically every whole foods, and even some ralphs outlets. i’m in la, so i can’t speak for the rest of the country, but here the availability is 5 out of 5

    4.) cheezly
    http://www.redwoodfoods.es/

    from the ordering website: “Cheezly is simply incredible and must be tasted to be believed. We’ve never used a vegan cheese that melts this well AND tastes so much like real dairy cheese! Ideal for pizzas, quesadillas, pastas, grilled cheese sandwiches- anything you can imagine melting cheese onto or into!”

    cheezly pizza

    cheezly pizza

    taste uncooked: cheezly tasted pretty damn good raw. it was firm, chewy and slightly sour. pretty fucking impressive. 4 out of 5

    taste cooked: the taste of the cheezly on a pizza was absolutely delicious. it was salty, cheesy, milky, and probably the best tasting fake cheese i’ve ever had. 5 out of 5

    meltyness: cheezly’s melt factor was awesome. pretty much like real cheese. 4 out of 5

    cheezly melty-ness

    cheezly melty-ness

    value: when it’s not on sale, cheezly will run you $8.95 for 6.7 oz, that’s $1.34/oz! whoa!! pretty pricey. 1 out of 5

    availability: cheezly is only available for me in los angeles via internet order. still, it’s pretty easy to find online. 4 out of 5

    and now, for the results!

    cheeze-chart

    in the end, teese and cheezly tied for the win with 18 points! follow your heart was right behind with 17 points, and sheese coming in last with 14 points.

    even though teese scored the same number of points, cheezly will always be the winner in my book. cheezly won most of its points on pure taste, but fell behind because it’s 3 times the price of teese. so if you don’t mind paying extra, go with cheezly. in my opinion, it is the best tasting vegan cheese.

    there ya have it. now go eat some vegan pizza! you’re welcome.

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  • January 1st, 2009quarrygirlLA restaurants, pizza, that's amore, types of food

    for us vegans in los angeles, there sure aren’t very many pizza options. a lot of places have a soy cheese option, but that usually contains casein…some places do offer vegan pizza, but the fake cheese never melts quite right. lucky for us, though, a new all-vegetarian and vegan-friendly pizza parlor has opened up just 30 miles away in cerritos, and dude, it is so worth the drive. we headed out to that’s amore over the weekend and had vegan pizza so good, it tasted vegetarian.

    thats-amore-pizza-wine

    that’s amore is a pure vegetarian pizza kitchen with a large menu full of of entrees, pizzas and sandwiches that can ALL be veganized. seriously, it’s a dream come true. if this place were closer to my house, i’d be there several times a week. i know it sounds too good to be true, so check out there menu here:

    thats-amore-menu-1 thats-amore-menu-2

    my husband and i took a detour to that’s amore last weekend, on our way home from long beach, and seriously…the food was not to be believed. although the menu was massive and tempting, we opted for the build-your-own pizza option, and settled on a pie with vegan cheese, tofurky sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes. wow, can you believe that order? vegan cheese, vegetable toppings and tofurky sausage?!?!?! i don’t know anywhere i could get such a vegan feast, other than my own kitchen. almost all the food at that’s amore is vegan, except they do have a normal cheese option. other than that, you can close your eyes and point at random shit on the menu, order it and be fine. i can’t even express how wonderful this is to me. they also clearly state on the menu that “vegan dishes are cooked with exclusive utensils.” there ya have it: no cross-contamination worries.

    our pizza came out of the oven in record time, the thing was bloody huge, and the crust was amazing. definitely the most authentic new york style crust i’ve ever tried since becoming a vegan: thin, chalky and oh so tasty.

    16 inch pizza with vegan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and tofurky sausage.

    16 inch pizza with vegan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and tofurky sausage.

    not to mention, the VEGAN CHEESE! this shit was melty-ist, most wonderful vegan dairy-style concoction i’ve ever tasted. the super-friendly server told us they use follow your heart cheese, but i assure you, it tasted much better than that. in my experience FYH cheese is pretty stubborn when it comes to melting, but that’s amore somehow gets around the problem. maybe it’s their oven, or the way they shred it…either way, this stuff melts and has the texture of real fucking cheese. amazing.

    insanely awesome melting vegan cheese. wowowowowow.

    insanely awesome melting vegan cheese. wowowowowow.

    when you fill up on pizza from that’s amore, ask your sweet and helpful server about the dessert options. we inquired and wound up with an incredible, freshly-made vegan cannoli. de-lish! they should really add this stuff to the menu, it would be a tragedy for sweet-seeking vegans to leave that’s amore, never knowing they have incredible desserts.

    decadent vegan cannoli!

    decadent vegan cannoli!

    that’s amore makes me want to move to the oc, full stop. the food is killer, it’s all meat-free, and everything can be veganized. oh oh oh, and they serve wine and beer, what’s not to like?

    thats-amore-int

    …well…um….ok, if i wanna get nit-picky, the ambience leaves something to be desired. it’s in a strip mall, the lighting is so bright that it’s annoying, and they play a rotation of 8 really corny italian-themed rat pack songs nonstop, turned up to 11. if i lived in cerritos, that’s amore would definitely be the perfect place to get a pizza to-go. i would only eat in because i live about an hour away, and i would rather put up with a less-than-perfect atmosphere than a reheated pizza.

    thats-amore-ext

    overall though, that’s amore is incredible. head out to cerritos as soon as you can, and try everything on the menu. it’s gotta be the best, authentic, new york style vegan pizza i’ve ever had.

    that’s amore
    13349 artesia blvd.
    cerritos, ca 90703
    562-926-2112

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  • September 23rd, 2008quarrygirlfollow your heart, LA restaurants, pizza, products, tomato joe's

    when i was a vegetarian, pizza was my favorite food. at least once a week, i’d treat myself to a piping hot slice (or 10) of cheesy pie. even then i was pretty picky, and finding a truly awesome pizza (in my mind) was rare. as you can imagine, now that i’m a vegan, it’s damn near impossible.

    luckily for me, tomato joe’s has made it possible for me to eat exceptional pizza that can please vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike. all i have to do is pay a visit to my home town, santa clarita. i first heard about tomato joe’s from scvegan.com, and being both a vegan and a pizza lover, i knew i had to check it out. plus, it gave me the perfect excuse to drop by and surprise my parents with a meatless dinner.

    large pizza with vegan mozz, mushrooms, tomatoes and chopped garlic on micro-brew crust. $21.39

    large pizza with vegan mozz, mushrooms, tomatoes and chopped garlic on micro-brew crust. $21.39

    dude, i can’t even tell you how good this pizza was. if i lived in santa clarita, i would be eating this every other day…and now that i found it, i KNOW mom & dad will be getting sick of me pretty quick. i’ve been on the vegan pizza hunt for quite some time. i’ve tried eating out, cooking countless recipes at home, buying it from the store, and it’s never been quite right…until now. tomato joe’s pizza is perfect. they even use follow your heart cheese, which i have never been a great fan of, and it STILL tastes just right. they get it melty and everything!

    i can tell they use only the best ingredients at tomato joe’s—the toppings are fresh, the sauce is delectable, and the crust is off the chain. i can’t speak highly enough of the soft on the inside and crispy on the outside micro-brew option. it is unbelievable. the menu describes it as “hand tossed dough flavored with a locally brewed hefeweizen. puffy edge and thick center.” this crust was so delicious, i think if this pizza were cheeseless and toppingless, it would still be some of the best out there. the menu goes on to specify that the micro-brew crust is entirely vegan and only offered in 16″ (large). i just LOVE it when restaurants know what “vegan” means, and mark items that i can eat clearly on their menu. this is not the small town santa clarita that i remember from when i was growing up! i also love that this scrumptious crust only comes in large…it just forces me to get more pizza. damn. 😉

    best. pizza. ever.

    best. pizza. ever.

    my parents, on the other hand, opted for the garden combo pizza with a thin crust. they assured me that it was absolutely delicious. i still refused to go near it, though, ’cause it was covered in bell peppers (which i hate).

    medium garden combo pizza: vegan mozz, white shrooms, red onions, fresh tomatoes, artichokes, green peppers and black olives. $14.99

    medium garden combo pizza: vegan mozz, white shrooms, red onions, fresh tomatoes, artichokes, green peppers and black olives. $14.99

    one trick i did pull, was to not tell my mom that she was eating vegan cheese. when she said the pizza was wonderful, i let her know that it was dairy-free. she was astonished. if this vegan pizza could fool my southern, meat-eatin’ mama, it must be pretty damn good!

    vegan mozz in all its glory

    vegan mozz in all its glory

    the crust on this one looked yummy as well. my parents loved it, and my dad told me it was just as good as the micro-brew, which he also tried. the menu describes the thin crust as “slightly more crispy dough flavored with garlic and extra virgin olive oil,” and also vegan. mmm mmm mmm.

    so as you can probably tell, tomato joe’s was a great find. i am gonna make it a point to go there as often as possible, and my parents have vowed to switch over from pizza hut. so great to find a vegan-friendly pizza place with genuinely great food.

    so all you vegan LAers, next time you go to magic mountain, YOU NEED TO CHECK THIS PLACE OUT.

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