if you live in los angeles and want to have a completely unique vegan food experience, lemme tell you, it is definitely worth making the hour-plus drive to orange county to visit au lac. located in fountain valley, the humanese restaurant offers an entirely vegan menu, with several raw and cooked selections. all the raw foodies i know have nothing but wonderful things to say about this place, so my husband and i stopped in to check it out a few weeks ago when we were in the area.

we decided to go all out, ordering appetizers off both the raw and cooked menus, plus dessert (which is only available in raw). thankfully, although we ordered several dishes, the some of them were quite small, so we left feeling satisfied but not overly stuffed.

dau hu rang muoi: battered soft tofu seasoned in salt, black pepper, cilantro and jalapeno. $8

for our cooked appetizer, we started with a flash-fried tofu dish called ‘da hu rang muoi,’ which consisted of ultra-soft tofu in a light batter and cooked with salt, pepper, cilantro and jalapeno. this may sound like a typical asian tofu appetizer, but oh my word, it wasn’t! probably the best tofu dish i’ve ever tasted, it was barely coated with batter, completely covered in seasoning, and perfectly soft and moist in the middle.

for our raw appetizer, we went with the chimichurri, which turned out to be two slices of doughy bread with an oil and herb sauce for dipping. i seriously have no clue how they got ‘raw’ bread to taste so fucking good, but this dish was spongy, soft and porous beyond belief. even if you aren’t in to raw food, i’d recommend the chimichurri. not to mention the perfect infusion of fresh herbs and oil…excellent dipping sauce any way you look at it. at $5, it was pretty pricey for two pieces of bread, but i definitely think it was worth it.

chimichurri: dip with garlic bread. $5

for his main course, my husband ordered the ‘bo luc lac’, which was a massive plate of watercress and vegetables tossed in a light vinegar dressing, all topped with several slabs of faux beef. for just ten bucks this thing was absolutely huge, and everything tasted amazing. the soy meat was tender and well seasoned, and all the vegetables tasted extra fresh. i stole several bites of this throughout the meal.

bo luc lac: watercress, soy beef, garic, vinegar dressing, tomato, onion. $10

i went raw on my main dish and ordered jino’s pizza, a small round of raw bread covered in vegetables and a ‘cheese’ sauce. while i ended up liking my pizza in the long run, my enjoyment was overshadowed by the fact it arrived about 20 minutes later than my husband’s main course. in fact, he finished his food before i even started mine! when the pizza finally did arrive, it was delicious, albeit rather small for $12. i guess raw food is just phenomenally expensive any way you look at it, so at least this tasted really good. the crust was soft and squishy, kinda like the chimichurri appetizer, and was covered in just the right amount of herbs and vegetables. the cheese sauce was exceptionally creamy and tangy, and i couldn’t help but wonder what it would taste like on a plate of raw nachos. don’t let the picture fool you, the pizza was very small, maybe 3 or 4 inches across, i’d say the size of a medium pancake.

jinos pizza: roma, sundried tomato, marinara, basil, melted mozzarella. $12

au lac offers a raw dessert menu, and i was told by several people not to leave without trying the donut holes. while i was a bit skeptical of raw donut holes, these suckers definitely converted me. covered in a sugary powder, the round little treats had a distinctively nutty flavor and were filled with a thick rich syrup.

raw donut holes. $7

i actually almost spilled the syrup all over me when biting into the first one, because i didn’t know what to expect! while my husband wasn’t a fan of the donut holes at all, i thought they were wonderful. definitely like nothing i’ve ever eaten before, i highly recommend them.

so overall, our visit to au lac was a great success, leaving us filled to the brim with healthy vegan raw and cooked food. the cuisine there is definitely unusual, as is the decor (think asian-inspired 1980s), so this place may not be for everyone. although if you have an appreciation for raw food or humanese cuisine, or if you are just in for a tasty adventure, au lac will not disappoint.

plus, did i mention they have the coolest parking spots ever? check out the one above…reserved just for me. 🙂

au lac
16563 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
(714) 418-0658
Tue-Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Tue-Sun. 5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

i have been anticipating the release of daiya vegan cheese ever since the product made a splash at the natural products expo back in march. local vegan blogger jennshaggy was lucky enough to go, and she couldn’t stop raving about how wonderful/tasty/stretchy/perfect this new vegan cheese was. imagine how stoked i was to see daiya vegan cheese shreds for sale on pangea at just $5.49 per bag!

grilled cheese sandwich with daiya vegan cheese!

i ordered some up, invited over some friends, and put daiya vegan cheese to the test. i provided the cheddar flavor, fellow blogger vegyogini was kind enough to provide the mozzarella, and vegan blogger foodeater was also on hand to do some, well, foodeatin’! as you can see from the picture of the grilled cheese sandwich above, people are not lying when they say daiya stretches and melts. the cheddar cheese flavor was so FUCKING FANTASTIC…i shit you not, it actually tastes like cheese. did you hear that?!?!?! we have a vegan product that MELTS and STRETCHES and TASTES like actual CHEESE. is this a dream? everyone present agreed that this stuff was insane; we would send it back if we ever got this at a restaurant, it tasted too damn real. that’s all i gotta say. it tasted like cheese. what more description do you want?

pizza with daiya vegan cheese

we also tested out the vegan mozzarella shreds, which were great…but not quite as good as the cheddar. as you can see from the picture above, the daiya got kinda oily and the shape of the little shreds stayed intact. i’m actually beginning to think that the problem with the mozzarella is the way it was shredded. i am convinced this mozz would be damn near perfect if it was shred a little thicker.

the mozzarella still melted though, unlike a lot of vegan cheeses, and the texture was pretty convincing. i am gonna order it again for sure, and maybe make a mozzarella/cheddar grilled cheese combo. for more daiya bloggage, check out vegyogini’s two posts.

i can’t wait for daiya to be readily available. seriously, the vegan world is about to get flipped upside down. for now you can only order the stuff at pangea, but hopefully other places will have it soon as well. my advice is to buy more than one bag, unless you don’t mind paying shipping fees that cost 3x as much as the product. yikes. i suggest you get together with some friends and order a ton of it to save money.

DAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYA. that shit melts.

UPDATE: since the time of this post, Lucifer’s has CHANGED THEIR WAYS. They now offer 100% VEGAN PIZZA made with Teese Cheese! YAY!

Sigh. Our mission for quarrygirl.com was never to serially expose vegan establishments that are mistaken and neglectful, but we just can’t let it slip when somebody repeatedly tells us something is vegan, and it turns out not to be. The latest offender is Lucifer’s Pizza in Silver Lake. Sadly, they are a business that covers up the truth, and blatantly lies in the face of honest questions. Here’s the sad story.

A few weeks ago, vegans on twitter were buzzing about Lucifer’s Pizza offering vegan cheese as an addition to their regular milk-based offerings. Apparently, they were dropping off flyers to homes and businesses proudly proclaiming “VEGAN CHEESE!” as an offering for only $2 more on a large pizza.

As soon as we found out, I called to order a pizza for pick-up, and the person answering the ‘phone confirmed “Oh, yes, we’ve had vegan cheese for a while!”. I asked what brand it was, and for a list of ingredients. After some persuasion the lady (who didn’t know the answers off-hand) got a pack of the cheese and started to list the ingredients, one of the first of which was “casein – a milk protein”. I stopped her right there, and asked if she was sure that was the vegan cheese. She said “Yes, this is what we put on vegan pizzas”. After informing her that cheese was not vegan, she said “oh, I just work here”, and hung up.

Next step was to give Lucifer’s the benefit of the doubt, and so we filled in the contact form on the website saying that the “vegan cheese” was not vegan, and that they should just advertise it as “soy cheese,” or offer a casein-free alternative. A representative from Lucifer’s named Adam replied, as follows:

On Apr 26, 2009, at 4:41 PM, adam@luciferspizza.com wrote:

Hi There,

Thanks for your e-mail. It only came to my attention on thursday
that there was casein in the cheese. We had been told infatically from our
supplier that this was Vegan cheese. I have spoken to them and they realised
they have made a mistake. We will have 100% vegan cheese delivered to our
store tomorrow. Obviously we take this very seriously, My Partner is Vegan
and I fully understand the importance of having a great Vegan option.

Again thanks for the e-mail.
Kind Regards
Adam

I mean, seriously, it appeared to be such a nice and honest response. We had not only an apology but also a resolution – vegan cheese would be arriving “tomorrow”, meaning Monday 27th April. With Adam’s partner being a vegan we had every reason to trust what he said. Although, the response seemed a little too self-effacing and insincere. If I was a vegan, with a partner who ran a pizza parlor with a vegan cheese option I’d probably want to know what brand of vegan cheese he was serving… wouldn’t you?

We responded that it was GREAT news they were going to be offering “100% vegan cheese” and suggested they check out Teese as an option, considering how amazing it is on our favorite pizzas in town.

We decided that Wednesday would be our big night out in Silverlake. We planned to go to a bar first, and then pay Lucifer’s a visit. Before we planned an evening around vegan pizza, we thought we’d call and check one last time. After our initial call was terminated by a frustrated worker: “They told me it’s VEGAN, OK?”, we called back a while later and had the following exchange:

quarrygirl: hi, i’d like to find out what kind of vegan cheese you use.
lucifers: it’s a soy based cheese from the roma supplier, i don’t know the brand, but it’s 100% vegan.
quarrygirl: oh, are you sure? does it have casein in it, because casein is a milk—-
lucifers: —-no, it doesn’t contain casein. we had a cheese that did, but this is a new casein-free cheese from our supplier. it came in today. i just don’t know the brand. but there is no casein.
quarrygirl: thanks, we’ll be in tomorrow for a vegan pizza!
lucifers: see you then

Again, how much more reassuring could they be? Learning about what we vegans can eat is a rocky road, but we’re happy to work with food suppliers to help them get there. The fact he offered the information about casein really set our minds at ease. So, Wednesday night we had a beer at the Silverlake local Ye Rustic Inn before walking to Lucifer’s hungry as hell and looking forward to vegan pizza.

We ordered a large pizza, with vegan cheese, garlic, mushrooms and tomatoes. As the guy taking the order was ringing it up, we engaged in a dialog as follows:

quarrygirl: hey – have a quick question before you make the pizza. Is your cheese completely vegan?
lucifers: yes, it’s a soy-based vegan cheese
quarrygirl: that’s great. Would you mind bringing out the package so we could check it’s vegan?
lucifers: sure thing, hold on.
[brings large box of “soy cheese” from cooler in the back of the kitchen]
quarrygirl: that says “soy cheese” – could you read out the ingredients?
[tips the box toward me, where the ingredients are clearly visible, and starts reading]
lucifers: soy protein, water, casein (a milk protein)….
quarrygirl: hold on a sec, that’s not vegan cheese. Are you sure this is what you put on vegan pizzas?
lucifers: yeah, this is what we put on it
quarrygirl: but that’s not vegan…
[turns to cash register, clearly annoyed]
lucifers: —sorry, guys, goodnight then!

Sorry indeed. And we’re sorry to break it to so many vegans that have been eating milk at Lucifer’s…. they are LIARS, CHEATS and care not about their customers. I have no doubt that they treat all their customers with such disrespect, be they omnivores or vegans.

I could understand how somebody on a cash register, or taking my order over the ‘phone might be confused about what’s vegan, but Adam, who answers the website queries and feigns such vegan understanding should know better. He lied to us twice, his staff lied to us three times more and they have lied to and misled many vegans since they have been serving “vegan” cheese.

Note to Adam’s partner: leave a comment with your email address and we’ll hook you up with a real vegan, not one that lies and doesn’t train his staff properly. If, that is, vegan partner you actually exist and are not just another Lucifer’s lie.

While Lucifer’s Pizza might be in hell, Purgatory Pizza is closer to heaven in every way (stick to them from now on!).

UPDATE: THIS JUST IN:

From: adam@luciferspizza.com
Date: April 30, 2009 10:47:36 AM PDT

Subject: RE: Vegan cheese

Hi,

The cheese arrived, however to my shock and disappointment with my supplier,
it also contained Casein. We have pulled the cheese off the shelf and are
only selling regular pizza until we can get our shipment of the Tease Cheese
you recommended. I have ordered it yesterday so hopefully it will arrive in
the next few days. It’s so frustrating that the suppliers are not on top of
this, and that they are misleading the customers. I feel terrible about this
especially as we have unknowingly served a product that is not 100% vegan.

I will be in touch with you as soon as the cheese arrives. I will have you
come in for a free meal to say thanks for all you help with this.

Kind regards

Adam

Seems genuine enough, but a really genuine move would have been to remove the pizza from the shelf weeks ago when it was first reported, don’t you think Adam? Plus, we called Lucifer’s twice after receiving this email, and they were still selling casein cheese as vegan.

hey everyone, just another quick vegan update from coachella. if you are an adult (or a cool kid with a fake ID) attending the festival today, be sure to get over to the beer garden across from the sahara tent and try some of the vegan pizza from slices…it’s amazing. that’s right, VEGAN NY-STYLE PIZZA at coachella.

vegan pesto pizza at coachella. $6/slice

i would have never thought to go to the sahara beer garden in search of vegan food, but luckily a quarrygirl.com reader named nick read my last post about coachella and told me i needed to try this place. i guess slices has been selling vegan pizza in the beer garden for years…i don’t know how i missed this place. seriously, the pizza was incredible. enormous thin slices you can fold in half with a light and crispy crust, all topped with a flavorful pesto sauce and huge chunks of vegetables.

slices even advertises one of their pizzas as vegan (you don’t have to modify it or anything)…and the vegan stuff goes really fast. when we got our pizza, they were just taking a new pie out of the oven and it was all sold within about 5 minutes.

there are tons of places to get pizza at coachella, but so far this is the only vegan-friendly place i’ve seen. it kind of sucks that it’s in the beer garden, so it’s off limits to people under 21. and the only other decent vegan food at coachella is in the VIP section. what fucking gives? i guess you have to be either old or rich to eat amimal-free at this festival.

sunday coachella goers, have a great time out there today. hope you check out tons of awesome bands and get some vegan pizza. thanks to reader nick for finding this place.

it’s no secret that i’ve been eating at vegan-friendly restaurants all over los angeles for quite some time. however, throughout the last several years of living here as a vegan, for some reason i never bothered to check out fatty’s in eagle rock. the all vegetarian restaurant on colorado boulevard has high prices, gourmet menu items that i can’t pronounce, strange opening hours, and a pretty dairy-heavy menu. for so long i just assumed the place wasn’t for me. BOY WAS I WRONG. i finally had the chance to check out fatty’s a few weeks ago and it rocked my my vegan socks off.

my husband and i ended up at fatty’s on accident. we had an epic double-date dinner planned to attend shojin’s 1 year anniversary party with lex and kristin of vegan-la, which also coincided roughly with when they would be leaving los angeles to embark on backpacking trip around europe. turned out shojin was way too crowded to eat at (i’m talking line-out-the-door savage nightmare), so we headed out to fatty’s eagle rock for of the best vegan meals i’ve had in this town.

fudgey: a two layer chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache, toasted coconut and pecan frosting with a creamy center. $8

just because it was so fucking scrumptious, lemme start by telling you about the fudgey. this was the dessert that lex and kristin ordered and were kind enough to share with us (had this been my cake, nobody else at the table woulda got even a bite of it!), and we all agreed it was delicious. the thing was big enough to feed a boatload of people and it came with layer after layer of sugary goodness. chocolate, coconut, and pecan creaminess made this one of the best sweet things i’ve ever encountered. dense and decadent, this cake could fool ANYONE who is addicted to eggs and milk. nothing about it tasted vegan. fudgey is the perfect name for this ridiculously fudgey dish.

Read the rest of this entry »

if you are a vegan hanging out in london, don’t rush over to neals yard salad bar in covent garden. the vegetarian and vegan-friendly cafe sounds like a total win with loads of vegan baked goods, animal-free entrees and a whole juice bar…but when we went, the service was slow and the food was rather meh.

while the cafe is mostly vegetarian, they do have a few vegan options including a vegan pizza. if you read this blog, you know how much we fucking love pizza, so we had to give that a try.

vegan pizza with corn, tomatoes, olives and garlic mayo.

the menu said the pizza came with corn, tomatoes, olives and a vegan mayo type sauce. i assumed the toppings would be in a similar ratio, but when the pizza arrived it had four slices of tomato, four olives and about FOUR CANS of corn on it. seriously, so much corn.

Read the rest of this entry »

if there is one food on this whole planet i miss from when i was a vegetarian, that food is definitely pizza. a huge slab of dough covered with fresh vegetables and melted mozzarella was my all-time favorite meal and until very recently there was just no vegan substitute. plus, you can’t beat the convenience of picking up one huge plate, enough to feed several people, and ripping into it slice by slice without any utensils.

for ages, the only way to get a vegan pizza in los angeles was to order one with no cheese (boring) or wait hours for a mediocre pizza from damiano’s (blech). however, over the past year three amazing pizza joints within driving distance have started offering pizza with both vegan cheese and vegan meaty toppings. over the weekend we made the thirty minute drive all they way out to santa clarita to test out the new vegan pepperoni at tomato joe’s and i can safely say it was worth the trip.

tomato joe's pizza on micro-brew crust with vegan mozzarella, vegan pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes and fresh garlic. $23.39

i first read about tomato joe’s offering vegan pepperoni on scvegan.com, and couldn’t wait to try it out. i was already a huge fan of tomato joe’s…i mean, their fluffy vegan beer crust is absolutely amazing and they work wonders with follow your heart cheese. the vegan pepperoni was no different…this stuff was insanely delicious. i’m not sure what brand of pepperoni they use, but it has tons of spicy flavor and a pretty decent texture. it’s definitely not quite up there with the artisan field roast meat that purgatory pizza uses, but as far as vegan pepperoni goes it’s definitely the best i’ve ever had.

vegan stuff aside, tomato joe’s really makes damn good pizza by anyone’s standards. the beer crust is some of the best tasting bread i’ve ever tasted, and is a welcome change from the ny-style pizza i am used to eating. it’s just oozing with hefeweizen flavor from the beer brewed right next door, and has a really fluffy texture with slightly crispy edges. plus, the toppings are fresh and the follow your heart cheese is melted just perfectly…i have no clue how they accomplish it.

tomato joe’s is so good it actually kind of pisses me off. they have two vegan crusts, vegan cheese, two vegan meat options (they were out of the second one when we went!), and loads of creative toppings from bird seed to tortilla strips. seriously there must be like 8 vegans in santa clarita and 80 billion vegans in los angeles…can’t tomato joe’s move to LA? it’s not fair that i should have to drive 30 miles for a vegan pizza with beer crust and these spoiled santa clarita people can get it delivered to their house. wtf. the ONLY good vegan pizza in los angeles is at purgatory pizza, which is a crime. we should have at least 20 good pizza places around here. you hear that pizza parlor owners? stop fucking around and start carrying vegan cheese! AGJHGHGHGHGHGHGAHAHGh.

so anyways, the pizza pictured above was absolutely amazing. i would eat it every single day if it wasn’t located so far away. if you haven’t tried tomato joe’s yet, you NEED to drive to santa clarita and check it out. granted, there is nowhere to eat inside because it is a take-out/delivery place…but who is gonna stop you from eating a whole pizza in your car? i’m not.

tomato joe’s
27732 McBean Pkwy
Valencia, CA 91354
(661) 263-8646

yeah, yeah, yeah…if you are a vegan in los angeles who loves pizza, you probably know all about purgatory pizza. the ny-style pizza joint gained vegan fame in february when they added teese cheese from chicago soy dairy to their lineup, making authentic delicious VEGAN PIZZA available to the masses. as if that wasn’t enough, about a week ago they stepped it up a notch and started offering field roast artisan vegan sausage as a topping.

well just when i thought the best vegan pizza in la couldn’t get any better, they went ahead and upped the topping selection. the field roast was amazing enough, but now just one week later, they are offering a delicious option of vegan gardein chicken STARTING TODAY. i was fortunate enough to attend a sampling party and taste three different gardein chicken pizzas, all of which were unique and insanely tasty. purgatory pizza is really making a conscious effort to embrace the los angeles vegan community and accommodate us at every turn. they even veganized their pesto recipe for good. that’s right, purgatatory pizza has omitted the cheese from their pesto permanently…so you can safely order the basil/pine nut concoction from now on.

now for the three pizzas. i must admit, i was a little skeptical at first…i am usually a mushroom and tomato toppings kind of girl and the thought of fake chicken on a pizza didn’t seem that great. but with a little magic in the kitchen, two talented chefs used the gardein chicken to make 3 of the best pizzas i’ve ever had. vegan cook extraordinaire jennshaggy was on hand to prepare and season the chicken, while purgatory’s own chef ricky made the sauces and crust. the first pizza, which was my favorite, was pesto pizza topped with mushrooms, olives and gardein chicken.

vegan purgatory pizza with teese cheese, gardein chicken, pesto, mushrooms and (1/2) olives

the vegan pesto was absolutely perfect. why anyone would need cheese thrown into this delicious blend of basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil is completely beyond me. the pesto was spread lightly all over the pizza, so although it was a bit oily, the pie didn’t taste heavy. the gardein chicken was extremely well prepared, tender and flavorful and not one bit dry. i seriously loved it. not to mention the melty teese cheese. this pizza was so fucking good, really, i swear, it tasted like the real thing.

the next pizza was a standard purgatory pizza with their normal tomato sauce topped with teese cheese, gardein chicken and fresh basil. simple and excellent. while my favorite pizza was the pesto one pictured above, a few of the pizza testers argued that this was the best one and i can totally see where they were coming from. again, the gardein came out very well and tasted great on the pizza…plump little chunks of italian-seasoned soy chicken that were crispy on top and moist in the center.

vegan purgatory pizza with teese cheese, gardein chicken and fresh basil

the third pizza was an amazing concoction from chef ricky himself which came with no sauce…just olive oil and garlic covered with teese cheese, gardein chicken, tomatoes and oregano. this was my husband’s favorite of the three pizzas, and it was definitely unique and like nothing i’ve ever tasted before.

vegan purgatory pizza with olive oil, garlic, teese cheese, gardein chicken, tomatoes and oregano

the olive oil and garlic mixed with the teese and made for a creamy base, so the sauce wasn’t even missed. again, the gardein chicken was excellent was the perfect compliment to the italian-style sauces and toppings. in fact, with all the olive oil, garlic, oregano and tomatoes, this tasted like a pizza version of a pasta dish. everything went so well together, i really suggest you give this exceptional pizza a try…i’ve never had anything quite like it.

so there you have it, get over to purgatory pizza and try the new gardein topping which will be available starting today. extra special thanks to jennshaggy and chef ricky for coming up with the way to make these extremely tasty vegan pizzas. the vegan pizza scene in la just keeps getting better and better.

chef ricky, the master of the pizza

purgatory pizza
1326 east 1st street
los angeles, ca 90033
323 262 5310
open everyday 6pm – 11pm

Gluten intolerance must be a really difficult thing to live with, especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan. Even if you’re an omnivore, so many delicious foods that gluten-tolerant people eat are completely off-bounds if you can’t digest the base ingredient in flour – indeed, the very thing that holds most baked goods together and turns crumbs into something chewy and tastily edible.

As a vegan by choice I know how having minority dietary requirements can be a real problem for eating out, but to be gluten intolerant, and therefore have NO choice but to avoid many foods (or get sick) must be a real bind, to say the least. I was pleased to see on a recent trip to Locali some tiny (a little under 6”) vegan, gluten-free pizzas in the freezer all wrapped up in a bag. Being a pizza fan of the highest order I grabbed a bag of four and headed to the cash register. When the gentleman rang up $25, I assumed it was a mistake, and jokingly said “hey! Don’t want to break the bank!”, to which he replied “Oh, this is a special price. They’re normally $7 each but four are only $25.”. I headed straight back to the freezer with them, and settled for a bag of wasabi peas instead.

I did some research when I got home, and it turns out the pizzas are made by The Sensitive Baker in Culver City, and are sold on their website for the exact same price. I love a challenge to discern the value of something expensive, so I was delighted when, on another trip to Locali, they were selling the pizzas individually. I threw down $14+tax of hard earned cash, and headed home with two frozen pizzas in hand.

sensitive baker vegan and gluten-free pizza

Now, I’m used to eating pizza by the slice with a good crust and hearty toppings – and, as anybody that’s seen my girth lately can tell you, several slices at that. When I got home I unpacked the pizza to expose something that really wasn’t much bigger in diameter than one of those large chocolate-chip cookies they sell at the checkout of Whole Foods, only a whole lot thinner. By thin, I mean the thickness of a couple of stacked quarters.

I’m commenting on the size (or lack thereof!) of the pizzas because I had just spent so much money on two, and wishing I’d bought four to feed two people — clearly, the “four in a bag for $25” deal should be what you’d go for, assuming money is no object. Anyways, I popped the pizzas in the oven per the directions and wolfed one down in about 30 seconds, taking eight bites to do so. I then immediately made myself a boca burger with salsa on top as I was so hungry.

And, after checking the nutrition information I was SHOCKED to learn that each pizza was 450 CALORIES — that’s as much energy as in three bags of potato chips. No, not the healthy “baked” kind, but the good, old-fashioned “Lay’s Classic” that makes one feel bloated after eating. This pizza is a source of concentrated calories of about the same as a three slices of a Pizza Hut 12” pizza, but a whole lot less satisfying.

From the bottom up, this was not an exceptional pizza, and certainly nothing special for the price. The crust was hard and crispy with no soft interior (I’ve been told that can be a side-effect of poorly designed gluten-free dough — after all, I’ve had gluten-free burger buns that are perfectly crispy and soft in all the right places). The sauce was watery – like somebody opened a can of tomato puree, diluted it and brushed it on the ‘crust’. There were about two tablespoons of cashew/tahini “cheese” which tasted decent (only because it was fattening enough to meet the nutritional requirements of 5 people in one day) right on top of the aqueous tomato puree.

So, a pizza that was this unimpressive (I’m a-telling you: a piece of dough with watered-down tomato puree and some Follow Your Heart cheese would be an equal match) begs many, many questions….

So, help me out here. Are you gluten intolerant? Do you know anybody that is? Have you ever made a gluten-free pizza… Or a gluten-free anything? Should a gluten-free pizza be nasty yet cost almost 90 cents a bite? Are gluten-intolerant people so desperate for a pizza that this is actually a god-send and value for money?

If this is the state of the art of gluten-free cooking, and it’s value for money I’d love to know – please leave a comment. If not, there has to be a better way to feed our gluten-free friends (some of whom are vegan: that requires a lot of dedication and courage).

just a quick update, y’all. purgatory pizza, our favorite vegan-friendly pizza joint in downtown los angeles that we’ve raved about several times is now officially offering field roast sausage as a topping…as of tomorrow. we tested the field roast out, and i can tell ya it was the best meat-esque topping i’ve ever tasted, full stop.

field roast sausage makes for the best vegan topping EVER.

the field roast italian sausage toppings will be available starting tomorrow, and i say go and get your fill before they run out and have to order more. rumors suggest that even local whole foods will have to stop carrying this flavor of field roast due to a supplier issue. so don’t waste time or fuck around, order this on a pizza. i’m not kidding…it’s really damn good.

the vegan sausage topping is gonna cost you $1.50 extra for a medium pizza, and 2 bucks extra for a large…a very fair price if you ask me, considering field roast at whole foods is way fucking pricey and purgatory does NOT SKIMP on the amount. i mean seriously, 18 bucks for a large pizza with vegan cheese plus vegan meat toppings?!?!?! nobody in town can beat that…not damiano’s, not tomato joe’s, not that’s amore…nobody.

large purgatory vegan pizza with teese cheese and field roast sausage: $18

so get your ass over to purgatory pizza and order some fine, fine, fine field roast artisan toppings. the seattle company is known to have the best fake meat ever, and i feel so lucky that i can finally find their products in a los angeles restaurant. oh, and let’s not forget the awesome teese cheese, that sets purgatory apart from all the follow your heart peddlers. a big hand all around: purgatory, awesome crust! teese, your cheese tastes great and MELTS! field roast, your sausage is incredible!

purgatory pizza
1326 east 1st street
los angeles, ca 90033
323 262 5310
open everyday 6pm – 11pm

basically any foodie will tell you that THE place to get a pizza in los angeles is pizzeria mozza. the sister restaurant to the upscale italian eatery osteria mozza has been open for years and it is still nearly impossible to get a reservation. mozza’s thin-crusted and crispy italian-style pizzas are so popular that every day before the restaurant even opens, several wannabe customers line up outside, hoping to grab a seat at the bar.

being somewhat obsessed with pizza, of course i’ve always had an interest in trying out mozza. but the thought of fighting with the crowds and dealing with the whole scene for some “highly modified to be made vegan” pizza was a bit of a turn off. plus, i’m just so used to big, take-out, new york style pies. the personal-sized expensive pizzas served at mozza with toppings i can’t pronounce all seemed a little to fancy for my comfort zone. luckily, i was jolted out of my reticence by my vegan friend and fellow pizza fiend who called me one day and exclaimed, “holy shit, dude! we gotta go to mozza! i have been dying to try that place and i just got confirmation their sauce and crust are vegan! what are you doing tomorrow?” we headed over to mozza the next day, lined up outside 15 minutes before they opened, and just managed to get a seat at the bar. what followed was epic pizza.

rapini, cherry tomatoes, olives & chiles $14 (no anchovies or cheese!)

we ordered a couple pizzas and then swapped slices, and my friend definitely chose the better of the two. she got the rapini, cherry tomatoes, anchovies, olives & chiles…sans anchovies and sans cheese. when the bartender heard her modifications, he asked if we were vegans and then assured us our food would be handled with different utensils. excellent.

the pizza tasted delicious without cheese and came with so many fine vegetables, the mozzarella wasn’t missed. the succulent rapini and and tiny tomatoes were perfectly prepared and sitting on top of the most amazing crisp yet tender crust. thin in the middle and bubbly on the edges, the crust was seriously out of this world. baked in an italian-inspired wood-burning oven, it’s miles away from any pizza i’ve ever tried.

tomato, extra virgin olive oil & sicilian oregano $10

the pizza i chose was a bit more boring, but i loved it all the same. oddly enough the pizza you see pictured above came as is, with no modifications. it’s naturally cheeseless and topped with only tomato, extra virgin olive oil and sicilian oregano. the oregano was phenomenal, but i couldn’t help but laugh when the waiter plunked the plate down in front of us and my friend was all, “DUDE! it looks like there’s WEED on your pizza!” and indeed it did. haha, it tasted great though…nothing like marijuana, i swear! the lack of toppings gave me the opportunity to really taste the amazing crust on its own and reaffirmed my feeling that this is the best fucking crust i’ve ever eaten.

while the seating at the bar is kind of tight, it was rather enjoyable. i would definitely go to mozza again and line up for 15 minutes to snag a spot. they only have one beer on tap, but it’s a damn good one: moretti. if i didn’t have to get back to work, i could have definitely thrown back a few pints of this stuff.

insalata mista. $8

we also shared a small salad and while mixed greens tend to be kind of boring, in true mozza fashion this was exceptional. the leaves were perfectly coated with salt, pepper, and a light tangy dressing, making for total salad awesomeness. the bartender also brought us some complimentary long and crunchy bread sticks, the perfect accompaniment to damn good salad and beer.

because the pizzas are pretty big, way more than enough for one person, i ended up with half a pie to bring home with me. when i went to heat up my barren, tomato sauce covered crust that evening i decided to throw on some vegan cheese to see how it tasted. because this pizza crust was so special, i decided to use some of my all-time favorite vegan cheese on top…CHEEZLY. cheezly (winner of the best vegan cheese pizza challenge) is so hard to come by, and it’s expensive as fuck. i order online at veganessentials.com and use it only on special occasions. but hey, what is more special than having a pizza from mozza to reheat?

pizza from pizzeria mozza with melted cheezly!

mozza crust with melted cheezly on top is so amazing, i can’t even describe it to you. since becoming vegan, i’ve never tried anything that tasted so much like real cheese pizza. you are probably looking at 6 bucks worth of pizza in that picture, just for a tiny slice…but man oh man it was worth it. vegans, if you miss pizza, seriously give this a try. go to mozza, get the plain pizza to go, and cover it in cheezly when you get home. just a few seconds in the microwave got the cheese melted all over the crust, and it tasted in-fucking-credible.

thank you mozza and cheezly for returning the joy of pizza to my life.

and i also highly recommend dining in at pizzeria mozza. get there a little bit before they open, or a little bit before they close and you should be able to grab a coveted bar seat. seriously, this place deserves all the hype.

pizzeria mozza
641 n. highland avenue
los angeles, ca 90036

323-297-0101

open everyday
12pm – 12am

if you are a vegan in los angeles, i sure hope you’ve hit up purgatory pizza by now. the already-popular new york-style pizzeria started selling awesome vegan pizzas using teese cheese from chicago soy dairy in february, and now just one month later, they are known throughout town for having the best vegan pizza around. the quality of the crust, sauce and now vegan cheese is above and beyond all competition. as far as i know, they are the only pizza joint in los angeles using teese, which is fairly hard to come by, but by far the best brand in the united states.

imagine my excitement when i learned that in just a few weeks purgatory pizza has been so successful with the vegan cheese that they have also decided to start offering fake meat toppings as well. i was even lucky enough to attend a limited tasting-party to try out the new stuff…oh what a treat! the result: tons of new fake meats atop delicious teese pizzas, ending in a food coma of epic proportions.

vegan toppings of the night included field roast sausage, lightlife pepperoni, lightlife bacon, lightlife ham, and tofurky sausage.

all the pizzas we tried are pictured below. results were varied, but my favorite was by far the field roast sausage. it had a really meaty texture and tasted surprisingly like real pizza sausage that i remember from when i was a little kid…right down to the crispy edges and embedded fennel seeds, this stuff was unreal.

vegan purgatory pizza: field roast sausage and teese cheese.

the pepperoni was decent, but in my opinion it didn’t have the wow factor of the field roast sausage. lightlife products tend to be great for what i want to make at home, but just don’t do it for me when they are offered at restaurants.

vegan purgatory pizza: lightlife pepperoni and teese cheese.

same again with the lightlife bacon…it was tasty, but not something i would splurge on for a pizza topping.

vegan purgatory pizza: lightlife bacon and teese cheese.

purgatory also tried out the tofurky sausage as a pizza topping, which was definitely a worthy field roast opponent. this stuff was really good…but it sliced up into little disks, not globby clumps like the field roast sausage. something about this wasn’t as authentic to me, although i would definitely order it if i saw it on a menu.

vegan purgatory pizza: tofurky sausage and teese cheese.

lastly, was the ham and pineapple which, i won’t lie, i didn’t even taste. pineapple on pizza has never gone down well with me…but the other folks tonight seemed to enjoy it. the ham was the lightlife brand of meat, so i assume it was similar to the pepperoni and bacon.

vegan purgatory pizza: lightlife ham, pineapple and teese cheese.

again, in my mind, the clear winner was the field roast sausage. i honestly usually don’t like fake meat on pizza, but this stuff was so good, i think i’d order it every time.

vegan pizza with teese and field roast sausage! YUM.

sorry, readers. i don’t mean to get your hopes up too early or anything…because for right now the vegan meats aren’t available at purgatory pizza just yet. whatever scored best at tonight’s tasting test will hopefully be available soon though, and i will let you know as soon as it is. i’m hoping they at least go with the field roast sausage because that was my absolute favorite!

until then, you will have to suffer through with just vegetable toppings on the best vegan pizza in los angeles. speaking of which…i brought home some teese pizza with mushrooms, tomatoes and chopped garlic for my husband, who missed out on tonight’s festivities, and the stuff warmed up and melted like a charm. turns out vegan pizza is just as good leftover as normal pizza.

vegan pizza to go! teese, mushrooms, tomato and chopped garlic. YUM.

so whether you eat in or takeaway, purgatory pizza is the place to go for vegan pizza in la. they have the meltiest cheese and a load of vegetable toppings. once they get the fake meats come, they will be UNSTOPPABLE. vegans, if you haven’t been to purgatory pizza yet, you are fucking CRAZY. put it at the top of your list.

purgatory pizza
1326 east 1st street
los angeles, ca 90033
323 262 5310

open everyday 6pm – 11pm

Well, the evening didn’t get off to a good start. Hollywood Blvd. being closed for the Oscars made the commute home absolute hell, yet the evening ended close to heaven — in purgatory approximately, Purgatory Pizza to be exact. Yeah, we’ve started going there once a week because there’s nowhere in LA where you can get real top-shelf pizza with vegan cheese served piping hot at your table by undeniably nice people who seem to really care that you have a great experience — vegan or not.

vegan pizza with teese cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic.

The last couple of times we’ve been to Purgatory Pizza, it’s been mainly a delivery operation. Lots of hustle and bustle, phones ringing and pizzas flying out the door, yet the indoor atmosphere has been relatively quiet. The pizza parlors I know and love are usually rather boisterous in nature with kids running around (pizza slices in hand!), and people coming and going like crazy.

Tonight, Purgatory Pizza was rather quiet as we arrived, yet shortly after we ordered, a family of five came in – two grown-ups and three kids who all seemed determined to enjoy themselves. We thought we heard them order a couple of pizzas with “vegan cheese”, but we were not 100% certain. On the way out, though, we noticed a printout of the (in)famous quarrygirl.com menu on their table, along with shiny, empty pizza plates and three kids who looked pretty replete and full. The BYO bottle of wine kinda indicated to us that we should make contact, so I uncharacteristically asked them if they ordered the vegan cheese, which they confirmed they did!

It transpired that all but one of the family were vegans, and they’d visited Purgatory Pizza purely for its vegan cheese. The fact that the kids had devoured the food while the adults enjoyed themselves with some wine and pizza really showed me how ‘normal’ we vegans can be. It was heartwarming to see a wonderfully nice vegan family having a great time together in a place where they could be comfortable and confident about what they were eating — something only we vegans understand to be a big deal.

You see, the thing about pizza is that it’s one of the most edible foods on the planet – a perfect combination of vital ingredients which (if consumed sensibly!) give a good balance of nutrition, energy and taste. It also travels fairly well, and can support all manner of toppings to vary its appeal. The critical factors are the crust, sauce and toppings — the cheese (vegan or not) is a commodity which is far less important than one might think. A nicely cooked pizza with a “real pizza crust” (as the father of the family described it) cannot be beat.

Go to Purgatory. Let’s make it a vegan hangout like no other. I’m game any time — let us know in the comments when you’ll be there and we’ll be there.

After two weeks traipsing around the UK, we were completely set for a quiet weekend to be spent mostly at home. Until, that is, we read this post on Vegan LA. I mean, come on – one of LA’s most established and respected pizza joints, Purgatory Pizza, suddenly announces that all their pizzas are available with vegan cheese? And not the chemical mass that is follow your heart, but none other than the joint winner of the recent Vegan Cheese Pizza Challenge, Teese from Chicago Soy Dairy.

purgatory pizza covered in teese cheese. the best vegan pizza in los angeles, or anywhere for that matter.

So, after settling onto the couch with our slippers on, we were jolted to action and filled with a mission to check out Purgatory Pizza post haste even though we had a rather low expectation of what we might find, exacerbated by a 40 minute drive through Hollywood to downtown LA, on the purgatorious 101 freeway.

Well, the visit to Purgatory Pizza is one of the most memorable vegan dining events I’ve had in a while, possibly since dining on a 50-year old London bus. We arrived at a brightly lit storefront with convenient alleyway parking adjacent, and strode valiantly inside with vegan heads held up high to be greeted by a very nice lady who seemed extremely pleased that we’d shown up as the first customers of the new vegan menu. Indeed, she told us that she’d only posted on Vegan LA a few hours before and was surprised that people were already asking for the vegan cheese.

She was knowledgeable about the cheese/Teese, explaining that she had spoken with the manufacturer and tried several different vegan cheeses before settling on Teese as she felt it cooked and tasted the best. So, we placed our order of a large Teese pizza with garlic, mushrooms and tomatoes.

It was only when we sat at one of the large, comfortable tables that we realized we were somewhere special. The walls were covered in wonderful avant garde murals saying things like “She is pure and perfect and she colors her hair with magic markers”, there were candles on the tables and some great classic rock deep cuts were playing (The Beatles, Queen, The Doors, Elvis…..). We rocked out, read the murals and drank our wine while we waited for the pizza to arrive, our drinking and rocking only punctuated by a wonderfully sweet and helpful teenage girl popping to the table on a regular basis with plates, napkins and an inquisition “Is everything OK? Do you need anything?”

After about 15 minutes our pizza arrived, and for a split second I thought I was sitting in Ray’s Pizza on 7th Avenue at 53rd St. in Manhattan, one of my favorite pre-vegan pizza joints. I’m telling you – this was no ordinary mass-produced pizza but a real, NY-style hand tossed crust with the perfect ratio of toppings, “cheese” and sauce. The entire 16” pie was completely gone within about 5 minutes as we wolfed down bite after bite of crunchy crust, tangy basil-infused sauce and perfectly melted Teese.

purgatory pizza with melted teese is heaven on earth!

The whole experience is a million miles away from the usual vegan pizza experience, where a vegan restaurant attempts to create a pizza from bread dough, chopped vegetables and cashew cheese (ugh now I think about it). No, this is the real deal. Authentic New York-style pizza cooked and prepared perfectly but substituting soy for dairy. As a vegan, you’re dining on the edge here — as authentic a pizza journey as it gets, but screeching to a halt before any animal cruelty.

Purgatory has a busy delivery and carry-out business (they must have fulfilled 5 or 6 orders in the short time we were there, which was around 6pm — hardly peak time for pizza orders!) yet the eat-in experience is really worth doing. One last positive note, Purgatory doesn’t serve alcohol, but they welcome a BYO-style system, and we fortunately had a bottle of wine in the car. It’s so much better spending $10 at a grocery store on a bottle of reasonable wine than $6 on a glass of franzia “house red” at a restaurant. This just makes Purgatory Pizza even better!

Purgatory has probably always been a special place, but now it’s accessible to LA vegans, and I highly encourage you to check it out. Amazing pizza, BYO beer/wine, easy parking, 5 minute drive off the 101. Rather than Purgatory, I think I might just have found pizza heaven in downtown LA.

Here’s the menu (redacted to protect the innocent):

purgatory pizza menu (click to enlarge)

purgatory pizza
1326 east 1st street
los angeles, ca 90033
323 262 5310

open everyday 6pm – 11pm

For a surreal moment, check out this video of the artist who made the mural:

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.